Elena's mind reeled as she watched the original Marcus begin to absorb the collective consciousness back into itself. The process was not violent, not aggressive in any overt way, but it was inexorable. The transformed humans were being drawn back into a state where they were not individual portions of a collective, but rather individual aspects of a single, vastly complex entity.
"What is happening?" Elena cried out, reaching through the remaining connection to the hidden Marcus, the one piece of the fragmented consciousness that still maintained enough separation to communicate directly with her.
"I don't know," the hidden Marcus responded, and for the first time, Elena heard genuine fear in his voice. "This should not be possible. The versions that were created here were supposed to b
