KIRA'S POV
I woke up choking on my own teeth.
Not the old ones. The new ones pushing through my gums like baby teeth, except these were razor-sharp and growing in a second row behind the first. I spat blood—black blood that sizzled on the metal floor—and felt the fresh teeth with my tongue.
Thirty-two human teeth. Plus twenty alien ones. And counting.
I'm losing myself faster now.
I'd been hiding in the abandoned cargo bay for six hours since escaping Captain Cross's trap. Six hours of my body betraying me with new horrors. The tranquilizer should have knocked me out for days, but my alien biology had burned through it in minutes. Long enough for Atlas to arrive and drive Cross's team back with plasma fire. Long enough for me to escape in the chaos.
Long enough to feel blood spreading across my stomach and think I was losing the baby.
But the baby was fine. Better than fine. The wound had healed in seconds, the flesh knitting back together like it had never been torn. My child—our child—was protected by the same alien biology that was destroying me.
Small mercies.
I stood on shaking legs—all four of them now, since walking upright felt wrong—and looked at my reflection in a polished metal container.
The creature staring back wasn't Kira Chen anymore.
My face had elongated, jaw extending to accommodate the extra teeth. My eyes took up half my face, huge and black and capable of seeing in total darkness. My skin shifted colors without conscious thought—right now it matched the gray of the cargo containers perfectly.
I was disappearing. Becoming invisible. Becoming nothing.
No. I'm still here. Still Kira.
To prove it, I tried to remember things. Simple human things. My mother's birthday—March 14th. My favorite food—strawberry ice cream. The song Atlas hummed when he cooked—something old and jazzy I could never name.
But my mother's face was blurry now. Ice cream was just frozen biological matter. And I couldn't remember what music sounded like when it wasn't just vibrations in the air.
I'm forgetting how to be human.
I needed to do something human. Needed to prove to myself I was still me.
I spotted an old computer terminal half-buried under supply tarps. My claws—each one now eight inches long and sharp enough to cut steel—made typing impossible. But I had to try.
I approached the terminal carefully, testing my new body with each step. The cargo bay was massive, filled with containers stacked three stories high. Perfect for practicing.
I jumped. Not a human jump—a leap that carried me twenty feet straight up. My adhesive hands caught the side of a container and held firm. I was stuck to vertical metal like a spider.
Okay. That's... terrifying. But useful.
I climbed higher, testing my grip. The adhesive worked on command—stick, release, stick, release. I could scale walls as easily as walking. When I reached the top container, I looked down at the bay floor thirty feet below.
A human would be scared. Would feel vertigo. Would never consider jumping.
I jumped.
My body twisted mid-air, four arms spread wide for balance. I landed silently on all fours, absorbing the impact with legs that bent at angles human joints couldn't achieve. Not even a stumble.
I'm not human anymore. I'm something better. Faster. Stronger.
The thought should have scared me. Instead, it felt... satisfying. Like Subject Zero's consciousness whispering: This is evolution. This is survival. Embrace it.
NO! I slammed my fist into the floor, leaving a dent. I'm Kira Chen. I'm a scientist. I'm Atlas's fiancée. I'm still HUMAN inside!
To prove it, I crawled to the computer terminal and carefully, painstakingly, used the very tips of my claws to press keys. One letter at a time. Slow. Deliberate. Human.
S-T-I-L-L M-E.
My claws slipped, scratching across the keyboard. I wanted to scream in frustration. Wanted to smash the terminal. Wanted to give up and accept that Kira Chen was dead.
But I forced myself to try again.
S-T-I-L-L K-I-R-A.
D-O-N-T F-O-R-G-E-T.
I stared at the words glowing on the screen. Proof. Evidence. When they found my body—because eventually they would kill me, I wasn't stupid enough to think otherwise—at least they'd know I'd fought to stay human until the end.
The baby needs you to fight longer than that.
My four hands moved to my stomach instinctively. Under the black carapace, I could feel the fetus growing. Changing. Its heartbeat was stronger than yesterday, faster. It was adapting to my alien biology, becoming something humanity had never seen before.
Half-human. Half-alien. All mine.
I have to survive for you. Have to stay myself long enough to give birth. To make sure you're okay.
But how long did I have? Every day brought new changes. New teeth. New abilities. New instincts that screamed to hunt and feed and forget about being human.
A sound made me freeze. Footsteps. Someone was entering the cargo bay.
I pressed against the nearest container, my chameleonic skin automatically matching its color. I became invisible, just another shadow.
"Kira?" Yuki's voice echoed through the bay. "I know you're in here. I can see your heat signature on my scanner."
Yuki. My best friend. The only person besides Atlas who might still see me as human.
She walked deeper into the bay, holding a medical scanner and a backpack. No weapons. No guards. Just her.
"I'm alone," she called out. "Captain Cross doesn't know I'm here. I came to help you."
It's a trap. Has to be a trap. Cross sent her to lure you out.
But what if it wasn't? What if Yuki really wanted to help? What if there was a cure, a way to reverse this, a way to become human again?
I dropped from the ceiling, landing ten feet in front of her. My camouflage faded, revealing my monstrous form in all its horror.
Yuki gasped but didn't run. Her hands shook but she held her ground.
"Kira? Is that... are you still in there?"
I tried to speak. Tried to say her name. What came out was clicking and hissing, my new teeth making human speech impossible.
But I could write. I pointed at the computer terminal, at the words I'd typed.
Yuki ran over and read them. Tears filled her eyes. "Oh, Kira. You're still fighting. You're still you."
I nodded. Tried to smile. Probably looked horrifying.
Yuki opened her backpack with trembling hands. "I've been studying Subject Zero's biology. I think I found something. A compound that might slow the transformation. Maybe even reverse it." She pulled out a syringe filled with glowing blue liquid. "It's experimental. Untested. It could kill you or make things worse. But it's a chance."
A chance to be human again. To hold Atlas without him being terrified. To raise our baby as myself, not as a monster.
I reached for the syringe with one clawed hand.
Yuki pulled it back suddenly, her face changing. Going cold. "But first, you need to do something for me."
My blood went cold. There it is. The trap.
"Captain Cross has leverage over me. She knows about my family on Earth. My little sister." Yuki's voice hardened. "She wants the baby, Kira. Wants to study it. And she'll kill my sister if I don't deliver you to her."
She pulled out a tranquilizer gun from her backpack.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so, so sorry. But I have to choose my sister over you."
She fired.
The dart hit my shoulder. The same drug from before, flooding my system. I staggered, betrayed and horrified. Not Yuki. Anyone but Yuki.
"The cure isn't real," she sobbed. "It's poison. Cross wanted to make sure you couldn't escape again. Please understand. I didn't have a choice."
My legs buckled. Vision blurring. The baby—I had to protect the baby—
I fell hard, all four arms splaying out. Above me, Yuki was calling someone on her comm. "I have her. Cargo Bay Seven. Send the extraction team."
Atlas. I need Atlas.
But Atlas didn't know where I was. Didn't know his best friend had just betrayed us both.
My last conscious thought was a prayer that our baby would survive what came next.
Then darkness swallowed me whole, and I felt cold metal restraints locking around my wrists and ankles, and heard Captain Cross's triumphant voice:
"Excellent work, Dr. Tanaka. Begin the extraction procedure immediately."