"Begin human integration protocol."
The chamber sealed, hydraulic clamps locking her in place. Blue mist filled the air, cold and sterile. At its center floated the Chimera core, suspended in containment fluid pulsing faintly, like a heart without a body.
Mariel stood still.
Heart racing. Muscles tensed.
Her gloved hand hovered near the release terminal. Then she exhaled and pressed her palm against the plate.
Phase One: Blood Interface
A single, hair-thin injector pierced below her clavicle.
Her body flinched.
Pain bloomed instantly a jagged, searing current racing through her chest. Her blood ignited like ice fire.
The Chimera cells flooded into her circulatory system, latching onto red blood cells and rewriting hemoglobin structure. Iron bonds broke and reformed into crystalline transport lattices, designed for more than oxygen.
Every heartbeat felt like a hammer strike.
Her veins glowed. Data pulsed along biophotonic filaments inside her skin.
Sweat poured. She clenched her jaw. Her back arched against the restraints.
Phase Two: Neural Lattice Alignment
The second needle burrowed into the base of her skull. Her eyes snapped wide. Her hands went numb. Muscles locked. Her pupils dilated fully, iris color flickering between hazel and a faint mirrored silver.
Chimera cells didn't overwrite her thoughts.
They didn't need to.
They integrated, line by line, replacing damaged neural nodes with crystallized enhancers. Synaptic bridges were reinforced. Brainwave frequencies adjusted.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. Whether from pain, fear, or focus she didn't know.
She held on.
She stayed aware.
Even as her skin convulsed and her muscles twitched out of sync with her breathing.
Transformation
Her spine pulled tight.
Pressure rolled across her bones like a slow-motion earthquake. Marrow thickened with carbon-strand lattices, strengthening her frame without weight gain.
Her dermis tingled as a hybrid layer of sensory mesh replaced the outer epidermis, responsive to heat, pressure, and vibration. Beneath it, fine threads of bioconductive fiber embedded along nerve channels living circuits.
Her ribs burned, flaring outward before settling again. Not broken reshaped.
Inside her gut, organ function temporarily stalled, then restarted in cleaner rhythms lungs, liver, stomach, all optimized by Chimera scaffold restructuring.
She wasn't mutating.
She was adapting.
Awakening
The injector arms withdrew. The restraints released.
She fell to her knees, gasping. Steam rose from her skin, which shimmered faintly in the low light.
Her reflection in the polished steel wall stared back: familiar… but sharpened.
Her face unchanged, but flushed with faint color beneath the skin bioluminescent currents flowing softly like capillaries of light. Her hair clung to her face, now streaked silver at the roots. Her eyes still hazel, but with a reflective gleam under the cornea.
She lifted her hand.
Still hers.
But different every cell responsive, perfectly in sync. She could feel the air. Hear electricity. Smell her own sweat like a chemical map.
Behind the door, alarms had begun to trigger.
Koji and Toma would be coming. She had only moments before they saw what she'd become.
Mariel rose slowly, every muscle heavy but balanced not weak, just… rebuilt.
The chamber door hissed open.
She stepped into the lab, shoulders squared, breathing steady.
Toma froze in his tracks. Koji lowered his sidearm in disbelief.
Her voice was quiet. Steady. Her own.
"It's done."
"I'm still me."
"And now we have a chance."