The observation feed flickered back to real-time. Captain Valerius stood before the screen, his data-slate ready. The forty-eight hours of isolation were over. It was time to calibrate the new instrument.
In the white room, Leo was sitting up. He wasn't curled in a ball or twitching. He sat cross-legged, his hands resting on his knees, his eyes closed. His breathing was slow and deliberate. To the untrained eye, he looked meditative. Peaceful.
Valerius saw the truth. It was a performance. A controlled stillness, like a spring coiled under immense pressure. The fragmentation was still there, simmering beneath the surface, but it was being managed. The subject had indeed reorganized.
"Good morning, O'Connor," Valerius said, his voice crisp through the intercom.
Leo's eyes opened. They were clear, but held a new, unsettling depth. The chaos was not gone; it was contained, weaponized. "Captain."
"Your vitals show marked improvement. Your psychic emissions have stabilized at a new baseline." Valerius studied his slate. "The 'anchor' protocol appears to have been effective."
"It's a tool," Leo replied, his voice neutral. "Like any other."
Valerius allowed a thin smile. The subject was embracing pragmatism. Excellent. "Then let us test its durability. We will begin with a low-level resonance. A simple Class-1 Echo signature. Report what you feel."
A low, mournful sigh filled the white room—the recorded echo of a single, forgotten sorrow.
Leo didn't flinch. He simply nodded. "Class-1. Resonant frequency of isolated grief. Low coherence. It's... background noise." He was analyzing it, not just feeling it. He was using his talent's foundational perception without being overwhelmed by it.
Valerius made a note. "Resistance to low-level psychic pollution has increased by three hundred percent. Remarkable." He changed the frequency. "Now, a Class-2. Aggravated despair."
The sigh became a wail, pressing against the mind, seeking purchase.
Leo's jaw tightened. A muscle twitched under his eye. The soldier-self stirred, wanting to fight the intrusion. The core self held it down. "It's louder," he said, his voice tight but controlled. "But it's still just a signal. Data."
"Data you can now process without disintegration," Valerius murmured, fascinated. He was witnessing the evolution in real-time. The human mind was adapting to its own shattered state, building fortifications out of the rubble.
He decided to press. Not to break, but to measure the new limits. "And now, a taste of what you attracted before. A fraction of the Mimic's resonant signature."
He introduced a sliver of the complex, predatory frequency.
Leo gasped. His body went rigid. The calm facade shattered for an instant, and Valerius saw the raw terror of the child-self flash in his eyes. The hundred voices screamed in unison inside his skull.
But he did not unravel.
He slammed his mental foot down on the anchor.
RUNNING.
The simple, powerful concept cut through the psychic static. He didn't fight the Mimic's frequency; he outran it in his mind, creating a psychic distance. The terror receded, becoming a distant scream.
He slumped forward, panting, sweat beading on his forehead. But he was whole. He had weathered the storm.
Valerius was silent for a long moment, his fingers flying across the slate. "Fascinating. You didn't dispel it. You... evaded it. You used a physical metaphor to achieve a psychic outcome. Your talent is integrating with your survival instinct on a fundamental level."
He looked at Leo with something akin to reverence. "You are no longer just a man with a power, O'Connor. You are becoming the power itself. A self-regulating system."
Leo wiped the sweat from his lip, his gaze meeting Valerius's through the plasteel. "What's the next test, Captain?"
Valerius almost smiled. The subject was not just compliant; he was anticipatory. He was calibrating himself alongside his observer.
"The next test is a field application. A small one. There is a minor Echo destabilizing a water purification substation. A simple target. You will go with a team and clear it, using these new control parameters. We need to see how this new stability holds under field conditions."
Leo gave a single, sharp nod. "Understood."
Inside, his mind was racing, not with fragmented selves, but with a single, focused purpose. A field mission. Outside this room. Outside this wing.
It was the opportunity Kaelen had been preparing him for. The ventilation schematic burned in his memory.
The calibration was complete. Valerius saw a refined weapon, ready for controlled deployment.
Leo saw a key, turning in the first lock of his cage.