I wake with a start.
Or at least I think I woke.
The world around me is nothingness. Absolute. Endless. I gasp or I think I do and I realize, impossibly, that air fills my lungs. My chest expands and contracts without effort, without pain.
I move a hand to my ribs. Smooth. Unbroken. No aching, no burning, no reminder of the battles that had shredded my body moments, hours, or days ago. My left arm, however… it's still gone. The stub tingles, a dull, ever-present ache, like a ghost limb reminding me of my mortality.
I look down. Naked. Completely naked. My mind jolts. Cold panic shoots through me.
"Where…? What…?" My voice is weak, foreign even to myself. I spin, desperate to see something, anything.
Darkness. Endless darkness. Black as obsidian, thick as ink. My stomach twists. I try to make sense of it. No landmarks. No stars. No surface. No air bubbles. I'm somewhere… deep.
Water? Is this… water?
I flail my arms, testing, and the liquid around me responds with resistance, fluid but real. My lungs don't burn, my head doesn't ache. I can breathe. I am breathing.
"This… this can't be real." My mind races. Every rational thought I have screams at me that this is impossible. I was on the surface, in the storm, in the wreckage, alive only because… because of what? The heart? The transfusion?
I curl into a ball, hugging my knees, trying to ground myself. My thoughts spiral.
*Am I dead? Am I dreaming? Did I drown? Did I finally lose my mind in that creature's core?*
And then… a vibration. A ripple. Something massive moves through the darkness. Not near me… far. And yet I feel it. Through the water. Through my bones. A presence so immense that I can feel the pressure of its body displacing the very water around it, as if the ocean itself bends to accommodate it.
My breath catches. My heart races. My left hand trembles uncontrollably, reaching forward though I have nothing to reach for.
And then it appears.
From the infinite black, a shape emerges. Massive. Towering. Scales glinting faintly in the nonexistent light. Eyes glowing crimson, impossibly red, cutting through the darkness like twin suns. The sheer presence of it bends the water currents, ripples washing over me without touching me.
I don't have to think. I know. I know.
"Zadrakos."
The word slips out before my mind can catch it. Before my tongue can hesitate. I don't know why I know it. I don't know how I know it. But it is the only thing my mouth could say, the only name my soul could recognize.
The monster Zadrakos tilts its massive head. The crimson gaze locks onto me. And then… I hear it. Not through my ears. Not through sound.
We are one now.
The voice isn't a voice. It isn't air passing through vocal cords. It is a presence, a vibration, a pressure in my mind that bends my thoughts, twists them, commands them. It is deep. Ancient. Heavy. Older than oceans, older than continents. And yet, inescapably aware of me, of Gabriel Grayne.
My stomach turns. My chest tightens. "What… what do you mean? One… one? How…?"
We are bound, Gabriel of the Grayne Family. Bound by blood, by life, by essence. You live, and I live. You breathe, and I pulse. We are not two. We are the same.
I stagger back, thrashing instinctively through the water. I do not even know how it knows my name.
We are one
I stagger again. My mind screams against it.
No! That's impossible! I'm me! I'm Gabriel Grayne! I'm not a monster! I'm not… you!
Hush. There is no 'you' any longer. Only we. Only the flow between. Our power you fear, you can wield. Our strength you deny yourself, it is yours to command.
I clench my teeth. My heart, my very blood, hums in resonance with the entity. The water around me vibrates faintly, responding. My hands shake. My legs kick. My mind screams against the reality, against the sensation of something ancient and vast sliding into every nerve, every artery.
"Why me? Why are you inside me? I… I didn't ask for this!" My voice echoes in the nothingness, though it is swallowed instantly.
You were chosen, though not by design. The heart you claimed, the essence you consumed, it has no master but you now. They will awaken, and threats approach that you cannot face as a man alone. You are more, Gabriel of the Grayne Family. You must be more.
I feel bile rise in my throat. I grip my left arm stump, the only reminder of my mortality, my human fragility.
I can't… I can't do this. I can't be… like you.
You have no choice.
I scream in my mind. I thrash. I try to separate myself from it.
No! Stay away! I'm not a weapon! I'm not…
You are what must be. What is required. And yet, you are still… human. Do not mistake this for cruelty, nor for desire to harm. You are my vessel, my reflection, my continuation. Together, we are more than flesh, more than blood. We are… inevitability.
I can't process it. My chest feels tight, like the water itself presses in, trying to squeeze words from me.
I look into the crimson eyes. They burn, like molten iron. Hot. Penetrating. Infinite. And yet… something flickers in them. Familiarity? Recognition?
"Talk to me! Explain! I… I don't understand any of this!" My voice cracks. My vision swims. My mind flails.
Patience, Gabriel of the Grayne Family. Questions will be answered. In time, the currents will calm. In time, your hand will grasp what you must. But now… you must prepare. We will speak more, soon. Much remains, and yet the abyss calls.
I stare, and the darkness presses closer. I try to keep focus, to see through the black, to see Zadrakos. But the colossal presence begins to fade. Not retreating… simply dissolving into the void, leaving me alone.
I float. Alone. Naked. Trembling. Heart racing. But I am still breathing. Still alive.
We will talk more, Gabriel of the Grayne Family.
The words echo, imprint themselves in my skull. I try to answer, to reach back, to speak… but the sound dies in my throat. The water around me closes in like a curtain. Darkness swallows everything.
For a long moment, there is nothing.
Then I wake.
My body lies on cold metal. The storm has passed. The ocean is calm. The wreckage of Valkeria's fleet floats quietly around me. My lungs heave as I inhale the crisp, salty air. My left arm stump aches faintly.
The memory of the darkness, of Zadrakos's voice, burns in my mind. Not just a memory… a warning. A bond. A truth.
I shiver. The wind hits my skin. Reality tastes sharper than it ever did before. I am alone, yet I am not.
And somewhere inside, I hear it again, faintly, almost imperceptibly.
We are one now.
The weight of it settles. Heavy. Inescapable. I touch my chest, and feel the rhythm of a heartbeat that is not just mine.
Power. Ancient. Vast. And impatient.
I am Gabriel Grayne.
But I am also… something else.
That I do not know.