A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son

World 53: Part 3

Eventually, Sebastian had to fly out for a fashion show held in the Federation, and their parting was slightly stilted. Fei Chuan had taken a step back when the supervisor tried to drag them both into a hug, and Sebastian was the one who looked away first. 

It wasn't a lover's spat, not really. The "argument" in question hadn't been heated, as it was a topic neither of them preferred to dwell on. At the same time, it was also not a lover's spat because Fei Chuan and Sebastian weren't exactly lovers. Navi and Aris hadn't been either, the arrangement having been more like that of friends with benefits. 

But there was always this little extra to their relationship. 

Fifty centuries ago, Fei Chuan wouldn't trust this man's corpse. These days, Fei Chuan barely remembered how to function without this man at all. The whole mess that happened in the early part of World 52 nearly saw him regress to the days when he was still under [Their] control.

 This whole....codependence thing was dangerous, and Fei Chuan had nearly been sucked right in. 

****** 

Two days later, he received a simple text. 

sebstele: heads up, 2nd & his buddy coming ur way. ETA 4 days. 
                    and until we work this out, don't look at the net 
                    some flies are buzzing around me 

Fei Chuan hesitated in replying, then scolded himself for acting like this. This was getting ridiculous. 

avinyard: ok. 

******

Going into the next day, Fei Chuan received gloating and pitying looks in equal measure. His coworkers alternated between sneering at him when his back was turned and offering him sweets with small sympathetic smiles. One of them even went so far as to say that Fei Chuan got his just desserts for playing hard to get. 

The crowning moment was when the lab assistant tearfully pulled him aside and told him, rather insistently that Sebastian was the one in the wrong. 

Fei Chuan thanked her, and went back to work.

****** 

While most of the people working at the Delant Military Outpost walked around as if they were zombies, work efficiency did experience a small boost on the account of researchers actually focusing on their work now. 

The general ambience of sullen productivity actually offered Fei Chuan the push he needed to figure out the determinant concentration he needed to grow a human-shaped Zerg hybrid with a confidence interval of 35%. Some factors still needed to be fine tuned, while others simply could not be accounted for. 

Now, however, Fei Chuan was faced with a different issue.Reyna was a hybrid. Meaning, she would be made with both Zerg and human DNA. The Zerg DNA was easy enough to trace back to its origins: who other than the Zerg Queen? As for the other half of this puzzle, the records only said that the DNA came from a strong and fertile omega. 

Fei Chuan had tried, once, to ask for a different DNA sample, preferably one from a Beta. This, however, was met with refusal and an updated display screen. 

[Task 53: Complete Project SPOTS (2 yr 153 d 21 hr 17 min) 
Note: project must be completed with specimen sample #000998] 

He'd always suspect that there was a reason Alexander Whiting could so easily subdue the [Villain]. He just hadn't imagined it would be something like this. 

An idea suddenly took root. An uncontrollable hybrid, huh? 

******

The development of an embryo could happen within hours once everything was finalized, and Fei Chuan had bought himself two whole years. It should be more than enough time to get to a confidence interval of at least 95%. 

Footsteps sounded at the door, and Fei Chuan looked up to see a muscular and slightly bulky man elbow his way into the workspace. A gaggle of students trailed in after him. Some of them looked bored, while others were absorbing in every sight like a sponge. A slender boy with artfully tossed hair simply looked ahead at their leader, expectant. 

"Lieutenant Alkan," Fei Chuan greeted. "I was not expecting you." 

The man smiled and awkwardly rubbed the back of the his head. "Well, it was a bit of a last minute thing." 

"I'll have to ask the others to go, however." 

"No, no don't worry about them. I thought the students should get a chance to see what the future might hold in store for them." 

"...and you brought them into the underground lab." Fei Chuan couldn't help it; his voice slipped into the familiar and chilly tones of his past life. "With all due respect, Lieutenant. This is an underground lab."

"Yes?" The man actually looked confused. There's no way, right. Tyrone Alkan was stated to have a mental strength of 2S. Was this simply due to how single-minded he was? "You don't have to worry about it, I just want to show them an active laboratory environment." 

Fei Chuan's voice grew colder. "You all need to leave. Now." At this, he let his eyes fall on the [Protagonist], who went from observing the lieutenant to observing the room with a fascination. He instinctively frowned. 

Alkan, seeing this, drew himself up and let loose a bit of Alpha aggression. "Look here, Arthur. You don't get to look down on my students like this. I've given them full clearance and you need to know who your superiors are." 

Some of the swooning female students were probably muttering unflattering things about him behind his back, but Fei Chuan had plenty of shit to stay here. How could there be such a person as to divulge state secrets to mere academy students?! 

"My work, lieutenant, is very confidential," a bit of incredulity slipped into his voice. "Can you let me know what you're trying to do bringing those children in here?" At Fei Chuan's antagonistic choice of words, several of the students began to bristle. 

With no small amount of contempt, Alkan began, "Mr. Vinyard, you're not exactly doing anything here--" 

"Woah! What's that?" 

Fei Chuan stopped himself smirking through sheer willpower.And that is, of course, when Alkan noticed the fetus floating in a chamber right in the corner of the room, and paled. "Crap." 

"'Crap.'" Fei Chuan agreed mildly. "You will be explaining this to the General. Good day, Mr. Alkan. Get the fuck out of my lab." 

a/n: so, new cover a pass or go?