chapter 14: Awakening
Chapter 14: Awakening
Kaito's dreams had become more vivid, more intrusive — a collision of memory and prophecy.
He saw the world from a thousand angles, flickering between moments. In one dream, he stood atop a crumbling spire, lightning arcing across a violet sky as the ground split beneath him. In another, he stared down at his hands, pulsing with Riftlight, burning the shape of stars into the earth.
But the worst dream — the one that returned night after night — was the one where he stood in the same ruined facility they had just fled… but this time, he was the one behind the door.
Watching.
Waiting to be unleashed.
---
Kaito woke in a cold sweat, the memory of the dream still echoing in his mind. He stumbled to the wash station in his quarters, splashing water on his face, but even that couldn't wash away the feeling of being… hollowed out.
He looked into the mirror.
And saw something looking back that wasn't entirely him.
For the briefest moment, his reflection blinked out of sync.
---
The base was unusually quiet that morning. Aya had ordered lockdown protocols across the lower levels. Patrols doubled. The Specters hadn't been sighted again, but everyone knew the calm was temporary.
Mira met him in the tech corridor, her usual sarcastic spark dulled.
"They're worried," she said without needing to clarify who.
"I didn't ask for this," Kaito replied, voice raw.
She looked at him, expression unreadable. "Doesn't change what you are now."
That hurt more than he expected.
Dr. Shiro called them both to the Riftborne's inner lab — a place few outsiders had seen. The walls here weren't made of steel, but of Riftgrown lattice — a living weave of metal and pulse-fiber. Machines hummed with a low, biological sound, like a heartbeat.
Kaito stood on the central platform while Shiro adjusted scanners orbiting him.
"The Shadowseed has entered Phase III," the doctor said, sounding both thrilled and terrified. "This wasn't supposed to happen for years, if at all."
"What does that mean?" Kaito asked.
Shiro hesitated. "It means it's no longer just bonded to you. It's adapting you. Changing your biology at the quantum level. You're becoming something... new."
"Is that good or bad?"
"Neither," Shiro said. "It depends who reaches you first."
The lights dimmed. A soft pulse echoed from the seed on Kaito's chest — and suddenly, he felt everything. Every Rift current in the air. Every magnetic anomaly in the room. The soft electrical pulse of Mira's body just standing nearby.
He stumbled back, clutching his head.
"Kaito!" Mira grabbed his arm — but her touch sent a shock through him, not painful, but revealing. He saw her memories — flashes of her childhood, the destruction of her city, her joining the Riftborn.
And she saw him.
They both staggered away.
"Okay," Mira gasped, eyes wide. "That's new."
Shiro was speechless.
The seed glowed brighter. Symbols appeared in the air — Rift-script — ancient and alien.
"Kaito," Shiro said, voice low, "you just accessed the Construct Layer. That's not just Rift energy. That's... language. Thought. Intelligence."
"It's trying to talk to me?"
"It's learning from you," Shiro corrected. "And possibly, rewriting you in the process."
Kaito backed away from the platform. His head spun. His hands trembled. "I don't want this. I never asked to become a weapon."
Aya's voice came from behind. "None of us did."
She stepped forward, flanked by Jax and two other senior operatives.
"We need to accelerate your combat integration," she said. "The creature you saw in Zone 42 — we've confirmed its designation: Prototype Wraith-Class Zero. We think it's bonded to a corrupted version of a Shadowseed — one designed for destruction, not balance."
"You mean... like an evil version of what I have?"
Aya nodded. "And it's hunting you."
---
Later that day, they took Kaito to the Crucible.
It was a Rift-forged arena, buried deep beneath the city. Walls formed and reformed on command, and atmospheric conditions could be simulated in real time. This was where the Riftborn trained their deadliest agents — and now, it was where Kaito would learn to survive.
Mira stood across from him, two training blades in hand. She tossed one to him.
"Lesson one," she said. "If you're going to wield power like that, you better learn how to fight like your life depends on it. Because it does."
They circled each other. Mira moved with grace, her strikes fast and purposeful. Kaito parried awkwardly at first, his reflexes half a step too slow.
But then he listened.
To the Shadowseed.
Time seemed to stretch.
He saw her trajectory before she moved, felt her balance shift.
He ducked, spun, and countered — his blade humming with a faint echo of energy. Mira grinned.
"There you go. You're getting it."
They fought for what felt like hours. Kaito was exhausted, but sharper, faster, more aware.
Finally, Aya called it off.
"Good," she said. "Tomorrow, we put you against the real thing."
Kaito raised a brow. "What's the real thing?"
She didn't smile. "A Specter drone. Controlled remotely. Armed. Smart."
He swallowed hard.
---
That night, Kaito stood on the outer balcony of the base, staring at the sky. Or what remained of it.
The stars were faint behind layers of pollution and broken skyglass.
"Do you feel it?" a voice asked.
He turned. It was Mira.
"The change. Inside you."
Kaito nodded. "It's like... I'm still me. But not only me. There's something else. Watching. Whispering."
Mira didn't look scared. She looked understanding.
"I felt it too, once," she said. "Not like you, but close. When they enhanced my interface. It almost broke me. But you — you're not breaking."
"I'm afraid I will," Kaito admitted.
"You might," she said. "But if you do, we'll be here to pull you back."
He looked at her then — really looked — and saw someone who wasn't just a fighter. She was a survivor, like him. Maybe more.
Their hands brushed.
And in that moment, the Shadowseed pulsed.
Not in warning.
But in recognition.
Connection.
---
Elsewhere, in a dark chamber of AegisCorp, the Man in Black knelt before something that wasn't human. Its form pulsed with the same violet energy as the Shadowseed — but corrupted, jagged, broken.
The Wraith-Class Prototype stepped forward, its mirrored eyes staring down at the kneeling man.
"He awakens," the Man in Black said. "Faster than expected."
The Wraith did not speak with words, but the air itself responded with meaning.
Then the Convergence draws near. Prepare the Vessel. Let the other Seeds burn. Only he remains.
---
Back beneath the ruins, Kaito lay in his bunk, sleep finally taking him. But in his dreams, he saw something different.
Not a nightmare.
A vision.
A city remade by Riftlight.
A war between shadows and stars.
And at the center...
Himself.
But not alone.
The seed pulsed at his chest.
And somewhere, out in the dark, the Prototype opened its eyes.
---
[End of Chapter 14]