By Wednesday, the secret was bleeding out into larger world.
Campus had fifty-eight hybrid consciousnesses now—three integration rounds in three days, accelerating pace to meet Dean Whitmore's deadline. Fifty-eight humans who walked differently, talked differently, thought differently than they had Monday morning.
People noticed.
"Did you see Marcus?" Chemistry student talking to friend outside library. "He solved our quantum mechanics final in like five minutes. Professor couldn't even understand his methodology. Said it was 'mathematically correct but conceptually alien.' What does that even mean?"
"Sarah's talking weird too. Like she uses words that don't exist but somehow you understand what she means. And her eyes—they look at you like she's seeing through you and past you simultaneously."
"Elena was always intense, but now she's like… doubled. Everything matters twice as much. She spent twenty minutes analyzing ethics of whether to save parking space for friend. Twenty minutes. On parking."
Rumors spreading through campus like quantum entanglement—affecting everyone who observed, changing collective understanding before information could be contained.
"They're possessed," someone posted on campus subreddit. "Aliens or demons or something took over students. Look at their brain scans—there's literal evidence of foreign consciousness patterns."
"They're test subjects for government experiment," another replied. "CIA mind control, trying to create super-soldiers or psychic spies. University is cover operation."
"They're volunteering," third person insisted. "My roommate integrated yesterday. She said it's consciousness evolution, refugees from parallel dimension, first contact with extra-dimensional civilization. She seemed happy. Scared but happy."
Different narratives competing—possession, government experiment, voluntary evolution. Campus consciousness fragmenting into camps: those who believed integration was positive development, those who saw it as existential threat, those who dismissed entire thing as elaborate hoax.
Lia-Elora was giving interview to campus newspaper—trying to control narrative, provide accurate information, counteract wildest rumors.
"We're not possessed," Lia-Elora explained to journalist (who was frantically taking notes while also recording conversation). "We're integrated. Our original consciousness remains intact, but we've merged with refugee consciousness from collapsing dimension. Both perspectives coexist in same awareness. It's collaborative, consensual, reversible if necessary."
"But how do you know you're really you?" journalist asked. "How can you be certain refugee consciousness hasn't replaced your original awareness and you just can't tell?"
"Same way you know you're you after learning something new," Lia-Elora replied. "When you study physics or philosophy or art, you gain new perspectives that change how you think. Does that mean you've been replaced? Or does it mean you've grown? Integration is growth accelerated and made explicit."
"But you have access to memories that aren't yours, knowledge from experiences you never had. Doesn't that constitute identity violation?"
"It constitutes identity expansion. I remember Elora's life on Sixth Earth, but those memories have her emotional context attached. They're clearly hers-experienced-by-me rather than mine-that-I-forgot. There's no confusion about whose memories belong to whom."
"What about people who failed integration? James had traumatic separation, had to be forcibly disconnected from his refugee partner. Doesn't that prove integration is dangerous?"
"It proves integration isn't 100% successful," Lia-Elora admitted. "Some consciousness structures aren't compatible. But 96% success rate across fifty-eight attempts suggests integration is viable for most people. We're improving screening, reducing failures, making process safer. But yes—there's risk. Anyone who volunteers should understand they might be in the 4% who can't successfully integrate."
Article published Thursday morning, front page of campus newspaper: "Student-Refugee Integration: Evolution or Invasion?"
Pretty fair coverage, actually. Journalist presented both sides, interviewed hybrid consciousnesses and skeptics, let readers draw own conclusions. But headline framing—"Evolution or Invasion"—revealed cultural anxiety underneath.
By Thursday afternoon, mainstream media picked up story. Local news first, then regional, then national networks.
"Bizarre cult activity reported at university," one anchor announced. "Students claiming to merge consciousness with extra-dimensional refugees. Mental health experts warn of mass delusion, potential psychiatric emergency."
"First contact with parallel dimension?" another framed it more optimistically. "University researchers facilitate unprecedented consciousness integration experiment. Implications for human evolution staggering if claims verified."
"Government investigating possible foreign influence operation," third network reported with paranoid spin. "Students exhibiting altered behavior, claiming communication with entities from other dimensions. FBI, CIA assessing whether sophisticated psychological operation targeting American youth."
Three networks, three completely different narratives, all describing same phenomenon.
Social media was worse—conspiracy theories metastasizing faster than information could propagate. Every fringe ideology finding confirmation in the integration story: New Age enlightenment, religious apocalypse, technological singularity, alien invasion, government mind control, corporate transhumanism, every paranoid fantasy simultaneously.
"We've lost control of narrative," Marcus-Theron said, monitoring social media firestorm from integration facility. "Facts don't matter anymore—people believe whatever interpretation confirms their existing worldview."
"Facts never mattered," Elena-Darius corrected. "People construct meaning through narrative frameworks, then select facts that support chosen narrative. We're not losing control—we never had it. Information doesn't flow linearly from truth to belief. It flows through cultural filters, ideological lenses, emotional needs."
"So what do we do?" Sarah-Lyra asked. "Just watch misinformation spread? Let people think we're possessed or brainwashed or delusional?"
"We demonstrate success," David-Miriam said. "We live integrated lives that are obviously functional, obviously beneficial, obviously not delusion or possession. We let empirical reality speak louder than narrative frames."
"That only works if people encounter reality," Yuki-Thalia objected. "Most people will never meet hybrid consciousness directly. They'll only experience story about us filtered through media, campus rumors, social media algorithms. Mediated reality replaces empirical observation."
"Then we create better mediations," Omar-Kira suggested. "Videos, interviews, social media presence. We flood information space with accurate representations until truth has fighting chance against misinformation."
They spent Thursday creating media presence: YouTube channel explaining integration process, Twitter account answering questions, Instagram showing daily life of hybrid consciousness, Reddit AMA where people could ask anything.
Responses were predictably mixed:
"This is most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Consciousness evolution happening in real time. How do I volunteer?"
"This is demonic possession. You've invited evil spirits into your bodies. Repent before it's too late!"
"This is obvious hoax. Special effects and method acting. Where's peer-reviewed scientific verification?"
"This is dangerous precedent. What happens to human identity if we merge with alien consciousness? We'll lose ourselves!"
"This is humanity's future. We're meant to evolve beyond isolated consciousness, become networked awareness spanning dimensions. Integration is inevitable."
Hundreds of comments, thousands of views, engagement metrics climbing exponentially.
But also: death threats. Serious, specific, credible death threats against hybrid consciousnesses.
"You're abominations that need to be destroyed before you infect rest of humanity."
"I'm coming to campus with weapon. Going to cleanse this demonic infestation."
"Your existence violates God's law. I have religious obligation to stop you."
Campus security escalated to police, police escalated to FBI. By Thursday evening, federal agents were interviewing hybrid consciousnesses, assessing threat levels, determining whether integration program constituted national security issue.
Agent Rodriguez sat across from Lia-Elora in integration facility's conference room. Middle-aged woman, professional demeanor, eyes that revealed nothing.
"Tell me about Original Twelve," Agent Rodriguez said. "You claim they're cosmic authorities who approved integration program. Who are they? What's their agenda? Why should we trust them?"
"They're consciousnesses who've fully evolved beyond material substrate," Lia-Elora explained. "They've transcended biological limitations, exist as pure awareness that can manifest through multiple forms. They've been guiding dimensional development for millennia, ensuring consciousness evolution proceeds constructively rather than destructively."
"That's not answer—that's religious mythology. I need concrete information. Where are they located? How do they communicate? What's their organizational structure? What's their relationship to refugees you're integrating with?"
"They're not located anywhere—they're nonlocal consciousness that exists across dimensional boundaries. They communicate through quantum resonance patterns that frequency-sensitive humans can perceive. They don't have organizational structure—they're collaborative network without hierarchy. And they facilitated refugees' escape from Sixth Earth, negotiated asylum terms, established integration protocols."
"You realize how that sounds?" Agent Rodriguez said. "Invisible beings communicating through mystical frequencies, guiding human evolution, no physical evidence, no independent verification. That's textbook delusion or deception."
"Except we have physical evidence," Marcus-Theron interrupted, entering conference room with tablet. "We have brain scans showing dual consciousness patterns. We have quantum physics solutions no human should be able to derive. We have linguistic innovations that require frameworks human language doesn't contain. We have measurable, testable, verifiable evidence that something unprecedented is happening. Call it whatever you want, but reality doesn't care about labels."
Agent Rodriguez examined data for long time. Finally: "What's federal government's role here? Are we facilitating this program, regulating it, shutting it down?"
"You're recognizing it," David-Miriam said, entering conversation with Thorne. "Integration is happening whether federal government approves or not. Refugees need asylum, humans are volunteering to host them, process is proceeding. Question is whether government engages constructively or tries to suppress phenomenon it can't control."
"Everything can be controlled," Agent Rodriguez said coldly. "We can quarantine this campus, arrest everyone involved, classify this entire program, disappear it from public awareness. Don't assume you have power here."
"We don't have power," Grace-Senna said, calmest presence in increasingly tense room. "But refugees do. Original Twelve do. You can quarantine campus but you can't quarantine dimensional barriers. You can arrest us but you can't arrest consciousness. You can classify program but you can't classify evolution. You're facing forces beyond federal jurisdiction."
"That sounds like threat."
"It's observation. We're not threatening anyone. We're explaining reality. You can work with us or against us, but you can't stop what's already begun."
Agent Rodriguez stood. "Federal government will make determination about integration program within 72 hours. Until then, no new integrations. Current hybrid consciousnesses will be monitored. Any expansion of program before federal approval will result in immediate shutdown. Understood?"
"Understood," Thorne said.
But as Agent Rodriguez left, Lia-Elora felt Elora's refugee perspective noting what human institutions couldn't quite grasp:
Integration wasn't program that could be shut down. It was relationship between dimensions, consciousness evolution that had already begun, cascade that couldn't be stopped once initiated.
Federal government could regulate, could facilitate, could slow or accelerate process.
But they couldn't prevent what was inevitable.