Chapter 15: What Remains

Chapter 15: What Remains

Levi felt nothing.

Not the weight of his own body, not the room around him, not even the way the others stared at him.

His heart.

How the hell was he even still alive?

"What am I?"

No one answered.

Edmond and Rufus leaned against the wall, their faces drawn tight, both of them chewing on the weight of it same as him. Maggie sat frozen, hands limp in her lap, eyes stuck somewhere far away.

The silence dragged until Rufus finally cleared his throat, rubbing a hand over his jaw. 

"I'm sorry, kid. I thought maybe our sniffer was wrong. Didn't wanna say nothin' if it weren't true. But you gotta see—this don't change nothin'. You're still you."

"He's right." 

Edmond stepped forward, laying a steady hand on Levi's shoulder.

 "Give it time. Nothing's changed, we just know more now. Right, Maggie?"

She flinched like she'd been slapped out of a dream, her gaze snapping toward Edmond before darting around the room.

"I mean… who is to say?"

 Her voice was hesitant, cautious.

 "All I know is—zis has never been done. Should never be done."

Edmond's jaw tightened, his eyes cutting toward her with a look that said shut the hell up. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Levi shoved his hand off.

"Did your sniffer find anythin' else? Cause if not, I got shit to do."

Edmond and Rufus exchanged a glance.

Maggie might've thought he was just recovering quick, that he was taking the shock better than expected. But they knew better.

This wasn't recovery. This was focus. Cold. Sharp.

Maggie picked the readout back up, eyes scanning the paper fast, lips twitching like she was fighting back something.

Then—

"Sacrebleu!"

Rufus groaned, throwing up his hands. 

"Oh, for hell's sake! What now? You gonna tell us the boy's a damn steambot?!"

Levi flinched.

Maggie quickly shook her head, her face flushing.

 "No, nothing like with ze heart. This… this is magnifique. One of ze latest updates to my sniffer, and yet, I never expected—ah!" 

She slammed the paper down onto the table, gripping it so hard her nails nearly tore the edges.

 "Start makin' sense."

She barely registered Levi's tone, her hands flailing as she paced in a tight circle, muttering half in French, half in furious awe. 

"You don't understand! Your spinal and ocular augmentations—! I 'ave been dying to see zem in action! To study, to analyze!"

 She spun back to him, pointing.

 "And now—zut alors! You are standing 'ere, with them inside you!"

 "Inside me..."

"Yes, yes! This is what I mean!" 

She snatched up the paper again, shoving it in his face like it might mean something to him. 

"Your spine, your eyes, zey are connected—to your brain!"

The air in Levi's chest turned to ice.

His fingers twitched, and the floor felt like it shifted under him. A sharp tremor ran through his muscles. 

"To my brain?" 

His voice was suddenly hoarse, quiet with something ugly creeping in.

Maggie frowned, tilting her head like a bird.

 "Oui, how else would they work?"

Levi's fingers curled into his palms, nails biting deep into his skin. 

'My brain...'

The room suddenly felt smaller, the air thick, pressing against him like a weight. His head felt different. Like something might be crawling inside it.

Edmond noticed. He moved forward, slow and steady.

 "Breathe, kid."

But Maggie—Maggie just waved him off, flipping the paper and slamming a wrench down on the table for emphasis.

 "Pah! Do not be dramatic! Your brain is your own, mon garçon! No rewiring, no 'control'—pfff!—the Church does not work like that. What zey do is enhance, not replace!" 

She tapped her temple, her soot-smudged finger leaving a mark there. 

"Your mind, your thoughts—intact. The augments simply link with zem."

Levi clenched his jaw, swallowing back the panic still lodged in his throat. He still felt sick, but… the way she said it, the way she dismissed his fear like it was ridiculous, it didn't sound like a lie.

He forced his breath through his nose, steadying himself.

 "Then what the hell do they do?"

"Ah! This is ze exciting part!" 

She grabbed her chalk and scribbled fast on the wall behind her, diagrams and symbols flying from her hand like her mind was racing ahead.

"Your eyes—standard enhancement, but with all spectra available—infrared, ultraviolet, night vision, zoom capabilities—pfft, boring, we expect zis." 

She waved it off, like she was tossing a scrap of paper into the wind.

"But your spine—" 

Her eyes practically glowed. 

"Now that is something else."

Levi didn't like the way she said that.

She slapped the paper again. 

"Zis allows you to compress time!"

Levi blinked. 

"What?"

"Not literally, imbécile! Your mind—your processing speed! Your brain can calculate, react, and analyze at speeds zat make the world around you seem slower!"

 "Your thoughts will be racing while everything else crawls! You will see strikes before zey land, predict movements before zey happen! Zis is something only the most elite of the Church's warriors 'ave seen—something zat should not exist inside a street rat like you."

Levi stared at her, the weight of it pressing into his skull. That was—impossible.

And yet…

His hands flexed at his sides. The way the world felt just a little off recently. He'd chalked it up to him recovering, but now…

It was something else.

It'd always been something else.

Maggie was still rambling, flipping the page over, her fingers tracing the connection points between his spine and the rest of his augments.

"And look 'ere—zut!—this is bizarre! Your spine is connected to all your other augmentations, but they are all prototypes—so I do not know what they do! It is as if your body is an incomplete masterpiece, a puzzle missing its finál pieces!"

Levi exhaled slow, his pulse a steady throb in his ears.

"Incomplete."

"Oui! But—how do I say?—not broken. Just… waiting."

A slow whistle cut through the air.

Rufus, arms crossed, smirked from his place against the wall. 

"Damn. Kid, you don't just got augments—you got a goddamn miracle stitched in ya. Makin' me jealous."

 Maggie was watching Levi with wonder, like she wasn't sure if he was about to reveal some groundbreaking secret. His stillness, the way he just sat there, unblinking, it quickly dimmed her excitement.

"You do not seem... pleased?" 

Levi finally met her gaze. The sharpness in his eyes made her flinch before she could stop herself. His voice, when it came, was quiet. Cold.

"What needs to be done to make me complete?"

For just a second, when their eyes just met, Maggie swore he was about to attack. She steeled herself, taking a deliberate breath to steady her nerves.

"I can not say for certain. I 'ave not had a proper look. But from what I can see, zis was done on purpose."

That got Edmond's attention. His arms crossed, his brow darkening. 

"What do you mean, on purpose?"

"I mean zis is no mistake, not a failure. Your augments were designed to function together, but zey were left... incomplete. Like ze last steps were deliberately skipped."

Levi's jaw tensed. "Why?"

"If I 'ad to guess? The stitcher who did zis wanted to see if you could survive first."

Levi's fingers twitched, but he didn't speak.

"Your heart—" she hesitated, choosing her words carefully, "—it is a machine now, oui? But even ze best Pneuma Core, even ze finest Vaporguard engineering, cannot simply replace a living organ without risk. They must 'ave been concerned about the strain."

Levi swallowed hard, his shoulders rigid.

"If zey tried to connect all the augments at once, it might 'ave overloaded your body. Perhaps... zey were planning to link them one by one. Slowly. To let your heart adjust."

A heavy silence settled over the room.

Levi clenched his teeth, staring at the floor, his breath steady. The thought made sense, but it didn't sit right. The idea that they were careful, that they had plans beyond just breaking him apart and stitching him back together—he hated it. Hated knowing they thought that far ahead.

Hated knowing they still had control over him.

Rufus was getting twitchy. Too much talking, none of it his—made his skin crawl. He shifted where he stood, eyes drifting, looking for something to latch onto.

That's when he saw it. Edmond's hand.

'He's shakin' again.'

Not much—just enough for Rufus to catch it.

Edmond saw him looking and, quick as a whip, clenched his fist. The tremor stopped as he cleared his throat, steadying himself. 

"Can you connect them?"

"Moi? You insult me. Zis is—how you say?"

 She paused, searching for the words.

 "Child's play. But it is also madness. No offense, but he is a Waster, oui? If I touch 'is tech, I become a part of zis—for life."

That was Rufus's cue. He grinned, stepping forward, his voice smooth as fresh oil. 

"We'll let you keep a full diagnostic. How's that?"

Maggie froze.

A sniffer could tell you what augments a person had—but a diagnostic? That was a whole different beast. A diagnostic wasn't just a rundown of what was there; it laid everything bare. How the augments worked, how they linked to the body, their strengths, their vulnerabilities. It was the kind of knowledge only the Church was supposed to have.

Her eyes lit up, wide and hungry, snapping to Levi like a drowning woman who'd just seen a rope.

"Is zis true?"

 Her voice was hushed now, almost reverent.

 "Once you agree, you cannot take zis back."

Levi knew what a diagnostic meant—how valuable it was.

But why should he care?

'Most of this body ain't even mine.'

His fingers flexed, testing the weight of his own skin and steel. He exhaled slow, steady.

"If you can help, take whatever you want."

Maggie shot up like a firecracker, eyes blazing.

 "Deal!" 

Before Levi could so much as blink, she was already pacing, muttering rapid-fire French under her breath, hands gesturing wildly as ideas spilled from her head. Then, just as quick, she whirled on him, hands on his shoulders.

"But first—your arm and chest. I can not stand looking at zem like this!"

"What?"

Maggie didn't answer, at least not directly. Instead, she pivoted, shoving both Edmond and Rufus toward the exit like they were sacks of scrap metal. 

"Out! Out, out, out! I cannot work with you lot breathing over my shoulder like anxious old hens!"

"What the hell—?" 

Rufus started, but Maggie wasn't listening.

With a swift kick, she slammed her heel against a switch on the wall. A loud clunk echoed through the shop as the massive vault-like door hissed open, gears grinding as the heavy bolts retracted.

Edmond braced himself against the doorframe, brows drawn. 

"What're you planning?"

Maggie, still shoving, barely glanced his way. 

"I am designing ze plating for his arm and chest, évidemment! I cannot let a masterpiece remain half-finished! It is… offensive."

Levi blinked. He hadn't expected that.

"But—" 

Rufus tried again, only to have Maggie spin so fast her hand damn near smacked him.

"Ah! But wait!"

 Her eyes went wide, something sparking behind them. She tapped her temple, then turned to Edmond and Rufus with a grin so smug it should've been illegal.

"If you want him to stop looking like a Waster, just finishing ze augments is not enough. He lacks ze mark of the Church! All augments—all—have a sanctified imprint from ze Church itself, yes?"

Edmond and Rufus exchanged a look.

"Exactement!" 

Maggie pointed at them both before giving one last mighty shove, forcing them past the threshold. 

"So! While I work, you two figure zat out!"

And with that, she kicked a lever beside the door, sending the heavy steel slamming shut in their faces with a resounding boom.

The moment they were gone, she turned slow, eyes locking onto Levi like a predator finally free to pounce.

The grin that spread across her face was nothing short of manic.

"Now..." 

She almost purred, stepping forward, eyes glowing with something just shy of madness.

 "Tell me, mon petit Waster—do you 'ave any ideas for ze design? Since we are already breaking ze law, I can add some fun modifications..."

Her fingers twitched.

Levi just stared.