Chapter 10: The Things We're Made Of
Kael stared at the chip in his hand. It pulsed faintly in the moonlight like it was breathing.
Codex Interface Port Detected. Would you like to initiate neural simulation?
Warning: Memory grafting may cause psychological instability.
He didn't hesitate.
"Do it."
The moment the chip clicked into the Codex, his body jerked. He gasped as the world around him peeled away like burned film. His skin crawled. His teeth felt too big for his mouth. The gravefield vanished.
And then, he wasn't himself anymore.
He was standing in a high-tech lab, pristine white walls streaked with condensation. Medical lights buzzed. Tubes ran like arteries through the ceiling. The Codex chimed.
Simulation Environment: PROJECT WOMB – DEEP ARCHIVE 017.
Across the room stood a man hunched over a terminal—thin, graying, pacing like a caged wolf.
Dr. Rhane.
He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. Unshaven, eyes wild behind thick glasses, he muttered as his hands typed at blinding speed.
Kael tried to move. Couldn't. He was locked in place—observer only.
"I told them this wasn't about dinosaurs," Rhane whispered, pacing. "This was about resurrection. Reinvention. Breaking the curse of death."
He turned toward the massive cylinder at the center of the lab. Inside floated a fetus—part human, part something else. Wires were embedded in its spine. Faint ridges ran down its back. It twitched as it slept.
"My precious Kael…" Rhane whispered.
Kael—the real one—froze.
"No… no, no, no."
Rhane continued: "You were never supposed to be just another weapon. You're a beacon. My answer to everything Henry Wu started but couldn't finish. They buried Wu's legacy beneath lawsuits and monsters. But I saw the truth."
He slammed a syringe into his own arm—bio-coding serum. Eyes dilated.
"I merged with my Codex. You'll be born with yours. A living archive. You will never be alone. You will remember everything. Even if I'm gone."
Kael's knees buckled. He wasn't just created.
He was named before he was born.
The scene shimmered—glitched.
Now Rhane stood in front of a massive wall screen showing Kael as a child—a surveillance clip. He was five. Playing with a wooden dinosaur in a small Manila park.
Two figures nearby.
His "parents." Laughing. But Rhane's voice cut in:
"They were assets. Both of them. Assigned. Obedient. The boy never suspected. The Codex would activate at fifteen. Earlier if triggered by trauma."
Kael felt his stomach twist. "What the hell is this…"
The screen flickered again.
Codex Subfile: ORIGIN CLASSIFICATION – ALPHA-XEN.
Genome Composition: 31% Human. 24% Giganotosaurus. 19% Tyrannosaurus. 9% Cuttlefish. 7% Mosasaur. 4% Velociraptor. 3% Dolphin. 3% Titanosaurus.
Kael choked on air.
That was him. That was what he was made of.
Another memory loaded.
Rhane now sat in the dark, facing a hologram of a much older man—Dr. Henry Wu, digitized.
"You were right about nature's cruelty," Rhane whispered. "But you were wrong about control. We can't control them. We must become them."
Wu's static-laced face flickered. "This is obsession, Rhane."
"It's destiny."
Rhane pointed toward a diagram—The Echo Protocol. A branching system of neural interfaces, hybrid evolution stages, and behavioral modules.
"Let them laugh. Let them call me mad. But when Kael awakens, when the world hears his roar… they'll understand."
Kael screamed. The simulation twisted violently. He was falling—through memories—his own and Rhane's interwoven. Each second scraped his mind raw.
He saw himself at ten, staring into the sea. Felt XENOVORAX watching even then.
He saw his mother crying in secret, holding a blood sample.
He saw Rhane, older now, disheveled, hiding in a lab in Davao, being hunted by his own government.
"Let them come," Rhane muttered in one of the last memories. "Kael will rise. I made him strong enough to survive even me."
The simulation fractured.
A final screen loaded.
PROJECT WOMB – CONTINGENCY NOTE
If Kael Sorrén achieves Stage 3 Integration before Codex full rejection, awaken secondary subjects under Continent Directive Omega.
Key Sites:
Philippine Trench
Mariana Ghost Zone
Kyushu Ridge
Fractured Atlas Core (Location: Unknown)
Initiate Ark Protocol only if JIRUUN fails to neutralize target.
Author: Dr. Rhane
Codex Lock: Broken
Transmission Ends.
Kael's eyes snapped open.
He was back in the graveyard. But now, the night felt colder.
His hands were shaking.
He vomited bile into the dirt and stared at the bones.
Codex Sync: 92%
Stage 3 Evolution Now Possible.
"You see?" XENOVORAX said, quiet now. "You were never free. Not even once."
Kael fell to his knees.
"I'm not… real."
"No. You're more than real. You're intentional."
He breathed slowly. One thought rising from the despair:
If they made me to be a weapon…
…then I'll choose what I destroy.
Elsewhere.
A figure sat alone in a ruinous control room. Screens glowed around them. The Codex interface was unlike Kael's—more ancient. More… alive.
They inserted a chip.
Watched Kael's recorded awakening.
And smiled.
"Echo Host activated. Rhane's ghost finally got what he wanted."
A second voice—more machine than human—spoke in reply:
Shall we awaken the others?
"Yes," the figure said. "It's time the other creations meet their brother."
On one of the screens, JIRUUN's silhouette passed beneath the deep.
And the countdown began.