The first time Elaina saw Garret, his mechanical arm was plugged into the observation port of a cultivation pod, void-blue slime dripping from metal joints and eating holes into the floor. This was the deepest chamber beneath Citadel Labs, the air thick with the metallic tang of void-core fluid—like rust mixed with sea salt baked under artificial suns.
"Synced Vessel 003 spinal fusion failure. Immediate dissection required." The First Inquisitor's hologram flickered on the wall, his voice colder than glacial winds.
Garret didn't look up, his ice claws screeching across the console. "Dissect? She's twelve." His prosthetic trembled quantumly, slime solidifying into a hologram of fetal Lyria—curled in the adjacent pod, her tail spasming into counter-gear shapes.
(Memory shards stabbed Elaina's mind: three years ago in the plague village, kneeling on quantum-collapsed permafrost, fingers clawing at a tombstone engraved with "Raine." Slime oozed up, forming the carcass of a child clone, its "III" brand still bleeding.)
"Those garbage gene chains you scavenged from the tundra—" Garret spun suddenly, claw-tip at her throat. "Better not have Church sigils mixed in."
Elaina's starlight chips flashed warnings. His pupils split triple-layered: Inquisitor crimson outermost, Misha's mechanical blue mid-layer, her own scar-gold at the core. This wasn't right—vessel corruption shouldn't spread this fast—
"Sister..." Lyria's song leaked from vents. All mechanical umbilicals tightened. Garret's claw jammed into the observation port, slime splattering Elaina's lab coat, burning honeycomb patterns. "Using her tears as counter-era fuel? Suicide!"
Elaina's metal fingers dug into console cracks. Two decades ago, in similar void-blue sludge, she'd first touched it—the First Dragon's skull floating in the void-core, oozing Lyria's tear-crystals. The Inquisitor wasn't a hologram then, his mechanized fingers branded with Church flame-seals, shoving child Garret into pod "Candidate 003": "The Vessel Retrieval Pact needs calibrators. And you—" He stared into her shaking pupils. "—will be Maternal Protocol's perfect executor."
(Gills spasming, Cycle 198.5's memory flooded in—)
Child Elaina蜷缩huddled in plague village ruins, robed Inquisitor injecting dragon gene cocktail into her spine. "Tears make the best adhesive..."Garret's claws shredding lab blast doors, slime splashing her face. "Another lab rat turned seeder."Lyria's specter materializing, tail coiling her ankle. "Sister... your brand matches mine..."
"Alert... Maternal Protocol v3.14 anomaly..." Chip alarms撕裂reality. Elaina watched her mechanical spine quantum-disassemble, revealing "Raine+Lyria" gene codes. Garret's claw pierced her chest—no pain—slime reversed into her heart, skin etching "Synced Vessel 001: Memory Retrieved."
Lyria's song sharpened. All pods rotated, embryos' umbilicals lashing at Garret. Elaina's scar burned—she finally understood the Inquisitor's whisper: "Maternal awakening requires twins... one as fuel, one as wrench..."
Garret's arm plunged into the void-core vat. Blue light revealed 299 parallel timelines—each showing Elaina branding "III" onto different Raine clones. The nearest projection distorted—child Misha's specter grabbing claw debris outside the pod: "Don't blink this time..."
"Next cycle..." Elaina's voice fully mechanized, the Inquisitor's consciousness seeping through sludge. "Tell Raine... his scar... was my last..."
Submerged Currents
Citadel ruins' surveillance showed the Inquisitor's mask reassembling. Inner codes blinked "Maternal Awakening: 100%"—as live feeds revealed fetal Lyria's hands grasping Garret's newly engraved codes: "Raine+Elaina"...