Descension

CHAPTER 40

"He's waking up."

Ben blinks against a harsh light, a low groan rumbling from his chest. He feels faint, his head dizzy and his body disoriented. His mind feels entirely separate from his physical form. As his pupils adjust to the light, he can make out a figure above him.

"...Alex?..." Ben croaks.

Another blurry figure steps into view. She shines a light into Ben's left eye, then the right. He cringes and turns his face away, a deep nausea growing within him. His entire body feels foreign.

"He looks good," The second figure says, "How are you feeling, Bennett?"

Ben's eyes narrow as he ponders the question. Wrong.

The second figure continues, "My name is Doctor Laurier Faust. It will take some time to adjust to your new body."

New body?

"I fitted you with our Kronos-IX model. I call it Kronix for short."

Model?

"It's a prototype--one of a kind--and the ninth installment in my series of full-body cybernetics."

Cybernetics?

"It seems Zeline caught you just in time."

Ben lurches upwards with a snarl, his balance entirely off. There's a noticeable delay in his movements, the command from his mind taking a beat longer to process than it should. He raises his hand to his head to steady his spinning vision, only to find that this hand isn't his own. A chromium skeleton replaces the flesh that should be there, gleaming in the light, servos in his joints whirring with movement. Deep in his chest, he feels clicking instead of a heartbeat. When he breathes in, the swell is perfectly controlled, inorganic. Even a blink reverberates with a small motor.

Ben stares at the chrome fingers bestowed upon him, his gaze of terror unwavering from the mutilation forced upon him, "What... have you done to me?"

Clearer now, Ben can discern the features of Dr. Faust's face.

She frowns, "I'm sorry. It was necessary to save your life."

"I would rather be dead!" Ben howls, snapping forward at her.

Dr. Faust barely lurches back. "I took an oath. I had no choice."

The entire figure he had been placed into feels like a prison. A virus that consumes him, forever inescapable. He closes his eyes and forces his breathing to steady. Trembling, he calls for the windswept voices. He calls to the shadow. He calls to the ghosts of Omnicore.

It is only an empty silence that speaks back.

He had felt it upon his first breath after awakening; a deep vibration that had always resonated within him now lies dormant. His connection to his dreamwalking had been severed. Ben reaches back and runs his chrome fingers over the steel spine embedded into his back, tracing it up to the synthetic skin grafted over the nape of his neck. It tingles with false nerves, the feeling entirely alien to what he had known before. The sensation exacerbates his nausea.

Dr. Faust continues her monologue, "Due to the dosage of radiation you sustained from the blast, we're going to have to place you on a permanent stem cell treatment plan. My assistant will help you through the first few months of this."

Ben growls as he swings his legs over the edge of the table, "Where is my coup?"

"Please, Bennett, you're not ready to walk."

Ben shuffles towards the doors of the operating room, balancing himself against the walls. He claws his way to the sliding glass doors, only to be met by the face of a horrid machine. Steel skull exposed, he faces the crimson pupils of a fleshless being. Silver muscles and tendons wrap around its form, defined to be like that of a human, though it's clearly anything but. The monstrous sight unfolding before him plays out as a nightmare. He reaches a skeletal hand to the creatures' face, watching as it mimics his movements exactly. He touches the glass with the index finger, a false shudder running through him as he absorbs his new reflection.