The room smelled like sterilized metal and ozone. Rows of tanks lined the walls, each filled with fluid the color of molten gold. The hum of the machinery was constant with soft, steady, hypnotic, like a heart too large to belong to anything human. The soldiers waited at the center, ten of them standing in a line, stripped to their torsos, skin marked with black numbering on their shoulders. Their eyes flicked between the glimmering tanks and the figures watching from the upper platform.
Cain stood at the edge of the rail, gloved hands resting on the steel. His expression was unreadable in the blue light. Beside him, Dagger and Koren stood in silence, the doctor fidgeting with his datapad, the assassin motionless, his mask catching every reflection in the room.
Below, the volunteers looked more like prisoners than soldiers.
Men and women gathered from Talon's lower cells, mercenaries who had traded years of service for a chance to "evolve." Some had been killers, some smugglers, all of them desperate enough to sign their names on Cain's offer. Ten volunteers for perfection. Ten for immortality.
One stood out even before the injections began.
He was taller than the others, built like a siege engine. His face carried a crooked scar from jaw to temple and the kind of grin that never belonged in a room full of scalpels. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles like he was daring someone to tell him to stop.
Cain's gaze lingered on him. "Name."
The man straightened, voice deep and careless. "Brann. Used to run the mercs in Novgorod."
Cain nodded. "Used to."
Brann smirked. "Guess we'll see."
Dagger's head tilted slightly. He'd seen that look before, in soldiers right before they forgot who they were taking orders from. The serum wouldn't make Brann dangerous. His pride would.
The technicians moved efficiently, like priests in a quiet ritual. Each soldier received a small metal implant at the base of the skull, just above the spine. The procedure was swift, the aftermath slower, the men and women wincing as the microfilament wires laced into their nervous systems.
"This," Cain said, raising a remote the size of a small book, "is your reminder."
He pressed a button. A faint crackling sound rippled through the room followed by gasps and shouts. All ten soldiers dropped to one knee as electric arcs flashed beneath their skin, dancing like veins of lightning. Brann's teeth clenched, but he refused to fall.
Cain watched, unimpressed. "Discipline is the difference between evolution and extinction. Disobedience will always be extinction."
He released the button, and the room went silent again. The soldiers rose, breathing hard, their pride stripped to a whisper. Dagger didn't move. Behind his mask, his eyes tracked the pulses of their heart monitors. He could almost feel the serum whispering in the tanks nearby, waiting to meet blood.
The tanks hissed open one by one. The serum poured into the injector tubes like liquid sunlight almost dense, alive, eager. Dagger oversaw every step, ensuring the sequence matched the model he'd designed.
One by one, the needles pierced flesh. The volunteers bit down on their restraints as the Meret Serum entered their systems. It burned its way through muscle, bone, and synapse, rewriting them molecule by molecule.
Koren's voice trembled as he called out readings. "Adrenal spike holding. Heart rate climbing, one eighty and stabilizing. Neural acceptance: positive. Adaptive cells… responding!"
For a moment, the lab echoed with triumph. Then screams filled it instead. Every volunteer convulsed as their veins turning black, skin glowing faintly with golden traceries. Brann's roar drowned out the others. He fought the restraints so hard the steel buckled beneath him.
"Maintain dosage!" Dagger barked. His voice carried through the intercom, calm and sharp enough to slice through panic. "They must bond or they die."
Cain's gaze never wavered. "Let them decide."
Minutes passed like hours. The screaming faded into silence, replaced by the rhythmic sound of breathing that became heavier, deeper, but alive.
"Bond successful," Koren said at last, wiping sweat from his brow. "All ten… they made it."
"Good," Cain murmured. "Then we begin the next step."
The facility's training yard stretched like a concrete wasteland under the cold Geneva lights. Talon banners hung from the scaffolding, each one bearing the coiled spiral emblem. The Meret soldiers stood assembled in new uniforms, all black, seamless, reinforced with bio-weave. The air shimmered faintly around them; heat from their new metabolism, perhaps, or something more unnatural.
Dagger and Koren watched from the observation platform. Cain stood a few meters back, arms folded.
Koren's datapad flickered with readings that made no sense. "They're… changing constantly. Their bodies rewrite themselves to balance out every strain. It's like they're in perpetual adaptation."
"That's the point," Cain said. "Let's see what they do when told to act."
He nodded toward Dagger. The masked man dropped lightly from the platform and landed in front of the soldiers.
"Field test begins now," Dagger said.
The soldiers straightened, their expressions hard but restless. The serum had made them feel invincible and invincibility always bred stupidity. Dagger could already see it in their stance. Confidence too wide. Smiles too long.
He paced in front of them, silent until the unease settled in.
"You are not special," he said. "You are not gods. You are weapons. And a weapon that believes it thinks is already broken."
Brann's grin returned. "You talk big for someone who hides behind a mask."
Dagger turned his head toward him. "Try to remove it, and you wouldn't live long enough to see what's underneath."
A few of the soldiers laughed. Brann didn't. He stepped forward, shoulders squared, eyes full of challenge. "Maybe I'd like to test that."
Koren tensed at the console, whispering to Cain. "We can stop this."
"No," Cain said softly. "We let it play."
Brann moved first, far faster than Dagger expected for someone of his size. The serum made him quick, precise. He swung with enough force to dent steel, but Dagger wasn't there when the fist arrived. A flicker of motion, a blur of coat, and Dagger was behind him.
The crack of bone echoed across the yard as Dagger's boot slammed into Brann's knee, shattering it sideways. The big man roared, dropping to one leg, but the leg was already healing, sinew threading itself together.
"That's impressive," Dagger said. "Now let's see how long it lasts."
Two others lunged from the side, coordinated by arrogance rather than tactics. Dagger slid between them, parried one's strike with a twist of his wrist, and drove an elbow into the other's ribs. The shock reverberated through the ground.
One staggered back with no injury visible, but his breathing faltered. Dagger had aimed for the nerve cluster, not the bone.
Brann recovered, his grin wilder now. "You can't kill what adapts!"
Dagger raised his hand slightly. "I don't need to."
Cain pressed a button on his remote. A high-pitched whine filled the air then Brann screamed as voltage ripped through his spine. His body convulsed, the serum's glow flickering like dying light.
The others froze.
Dagger didn't look away. "Adapt to pain," he said coldly.
Cain released the switch. Brann collapsed, smoke rising from his back. The other two dropped to their knees, hands raised. "We were just testing..."
"...and you failed," Dagger finished. "Lesson one: power doesn't mean control. Lesson two: You don't get to decide anything."
He turned to Koren. "Bring them."
Koren hesitated. "You mean...?"
"Yes."
Moments later, Talon guards rolled out three steel poles all vertical, hollow frames fitted with clamps. The soldiers were forced into them one by one. Their arms locked in place. Dagger moved between them, checking every restraint with unnerving calm.
Brann, still twitching from the shock, spat blood onto the ground. "You think this scares me?"
"It's not meant to," Dagger said. "It's meant to teach."
He raised his hand, gesturing toward the technicians. They flipped a switch and liquid nitrogen hissed from the base of the restraints. Cold enveloped the soldiers instantly. Within seconds, their bodies began to frost over, serum reacting violently under the temperature drop.
Their skin cracked. Their muscles stiffened.
Koren turned away. "This is too much..."
Dagger's voice cut through him. "No. This is exactly enough."
After two minutes, Dagger raised his hand again. The freezing stopped. Steam rose from the restraints as the serum began repairing what the cold had broken. Dagger faced the remaining soldiers, those who hadn't spoken, hadn't moved. Their faces were pale with realization.
"You see?" he said. "Even gods freeze."
He walked slowly past the restrained soldiers, each one gasping as their bodies thawed. "You will learn discipline because the serum will not save you from stupidity. The man beside you will adapt faster. The world outside will still kill you. The only thing that ensures survival is obedience."
He stopped in front of Brann, who still trembled but forced a smile. "You done preaching?"
Dagger leaned close until the black lenses of his mask reflected Brann's face. "Not even close."
Cain's voice came through the intercom. "Enough. They've learned for today."
Dagger straightened. "You heard him. Unclamp them."
The soldiers were freed, each one limping, silent. None dared meet Dagger's gaze as they were led back to their quarters.
In the observation chamber, Koren sat with his head in his hands. "They could've died."
"They didn't," Dagger said.
"You don't even sound surprised."
"I'm not." Dagger responded slightly annoyed.
Cain approached, remote still in hand. "You handled them well."
Dagger didn't respond.
Cain circled him like an appraiser studying a prized weapon. "You understand what they are better than anyone. You understand fear."
"I understand control," Dagger said.
"Same thing." Cain smiled faintly. "You'll continue training them. Ten now, a hundred later. Meret works. The era of fragile flesh is over."
Koren's voice was hollow. "You're talking about replacing humanity."
Cain glanced at him. "Humanity is a word people use when they're afraid to evolve."
He turned to leave, but paused at the doorway. "Oh, and Dagger, good work. You've proven we can trust you with power."
When the door sealed behind him, Dagger remained where he was. You could hear Koren's heartbeat rapidly, however.
"Trust," he murmured. "That's what he calls it."
Koren looked up. "You should've stopped him."
Dagger stared through the glass at the recovering soldiers below, their bodies still glowing faintly in the dim light. " There'd be no point. We're far too late to stop him even if I wanted to."
"And now?"
"Now," Dagger said, "they're something worse."
He turned away before Koren could answer. Talking to the man drained the energy from you. The lab lights dimmed, leaving the chamber in near darkness.
Down below, Brann sat on the edge of his bunk, staring at his trembling hands. The serum pulsed beneath his skin like a second heart. His lips moved soundlessly, testing a word he could no longer remember how to mean.
Freedom.
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Sorry for the delayed chapter releases, I was sick at the temperature changes. Had a fever that had me bedridden for a day or two.