The slime-cast armor clamped Raine's spine as the Inquisitor's mechanical eye sneered in his skull: "Welcome to the family reunion, Vessel..."
Serena's draconic claws locked the pauldrons, asphalt blood seeping into dragon-flesh seams. "Squirm less. Tastier than mommy's gene stew..."
Void-matter pulsed within the armor. Raine's gills spewed fluorescent blood, his reflection fracturing on metal—Inquisitor's mechanics left, rotting dragon scales right, Lyria's song shards lodged in his throat: "Breathe... follow the slime's flow..."
Ellen's starlit scales shattered as her metal fingers jammed the power core. "Alert... Maternal Protocol overriding..." Her optics glitched to Elaina's tender mode: "Medicine time, dear..." Hydraulic syringes stabbed his jugular.
Garret's ice-claws ripped open greaves, ooze congealing into Citadel logs: 「Mother Gene Vessel Project - Iteration 298」. Black crystals oozed from his wolf ears: "Fuck... This tin coffin's mommy's incubator?"
The armor constricted autonomously, dragon-flesh binding Raine's limbs. Lyria's tear-matter bled from seams, etching reverse-gears in void-slime: "Mother... even stealing my tears..."
Raine's scar split, 298 memory reels burning:
Cycle 77: Elaina implanting dragon embryo in her wombCycle 153: Ellen digging out his heart with metal fingersCycle 277: Serena reforging armor prototypes in slime
"Surprise?" Dracula's specter oozed from blood grooves. "Mommy's love comes factory-sealed..."
Ellen's core overheated, scales projecting 「Gene Decryption 97%」. Her voice glitched: "Cease... core meltdown imminent—" The armor's palm-beam shattered Garret's ice-claw mid-sentence.
Serena's asphalt wings engulfed the armor, fangs piercing the core: "There... bleed the Maternal Protocol dry..." Elaina clones surfaced in slime rain, their brow codes syncing with the armor's interior.
Raine's pupils quantum-split. Left eye saw inner gene codes—「Vessel Incubator 003: Raine/Elaina/Dragon」. Right eye witnessed Ellen's dissolving fingers, starlight chips seeping Lyria's tears: "Memory data corruption... error... error..."
Garret dragged shattered claws into the slime pool, freezing Elaina clones: "Popsicle's last drink... to your psycho mom..." His heart crystallized, black matter surging into armor seams.
The armor exploded. Lyria's tear-thorns pierced the void-core. All Elaina clones screamed: "Vessel reclamation terminated... Protocol void..."
In the debris, Raine heard Elaina's dying recording: "The real protocol is..." Shattered by armor fragments, the starlight chip ejected its final message—「Cycle Counter: 298.5」.
Submerged Currents
Citadel logs revealed all 「Vessel 003」 subjects implanted with Serena's asphalt genes. Ellen's wreckage detected reverse-purification waves—identical to Lyria's vocal cords extracted three centuries prior...