Kaelen woke to pain.
Not the sharp pain of a wound. The deep pain of something changing inside him. His left arm throbbed. His implant burned. The echo was restless.
“Something is wrong.”
He sat up. Zara was already awake.
“You were screaming.”
“I don't remember.”
“You never remember.”
He looked at his left hand. The cybernetic fingers were twitching. Blue light bled through the seams.
“The remnant did something. Before it died. It changed me.”
“Changed you how?”
“I don't know.”
---
Elara ran scans.
Kaelen sat in her clinic, wires attached to his head. The screens showed his neural activity—spiking in patterns she didn't recognize.
“Your implant is evolving,” she said. “The remnant's consciousness is gone, but its code remains. It's rewriting your neural pathways.”
“Into wha
