Darkness swirled in his mind like ink spreading through water. He felt like he was floating—awake but not really there. A quiet hum buzzed through his body, a feeling he couldn't explain.
The Pythea System... integration...
Sothing shifted. The weightlessness around him lessened, replaced by a slow pull.
A blast of cold hit him. The liquid around him drained away in a steady rush. His back was now pressed against cold tal, sending a shock up his spine. His lungs ached, forcing him to take a breath—air rushed in too fast, too sharp, making him cough hard.
He opened his eyes.
Soft blue lights blinked above him, casting a faint glow on the smooth tal walls. The steady beeping of machines filled the quiet space. His skin tingled with leftover energy, every nerve buzzing like an overworked motor.
Where am I?
Orion pushed himself up, his breathing shaky. His arms felt... different. Not lighter, but stronger. His movents were quicker, sharper. His hands shook as he curled his fingers, confused by the strange feeling of his body moving faster than his mind.
mories hit him in scattered pieces. The forest. The bear. The chase. But what happened after? He should be dead.
His pulse spiked.
Sothing wasn't right.
Before he could think, he acted. He yanked the IV lines from his arms, wincing as the retractable needles pulled free. A sharp hiss sounded as the locks released. He pushed himself off the dical bed. His balance wavered, thrown off by how precise every movent was.
Shadows flickered in the corner of his vision.
He wasn't alone.
Varun stood with his arms crossed, his usually unreadable face showing just how tired he was. Dark circles hung under his sharp eyes, which swept over Orion like a scanner, searching for any injuries.
Valeria stood beside him, her normally doting face now extrely icy. Her eyes, usually filled with warmth, were extrely sharp and unreadable. Orion had never seen Valeria make a face like that in front of him.
The silence stretched.
Orion exhaled, flexing his fingers before curling them again. "How long was I out?" he asked, his voice hoarse carrying the weight of confusion and exhaustion.
Varun's hands tightened into fists, his expression unreadable. "Three days," he said, his voice flat but carrying an edge of exhaustion.
The last thing he rember was... the hunt. Then—Varun, a rush of pain, and then—nothing.
"You nearly died," Valeria said, her voice clipped, like she was holding sothing back. Her tension was practically radiating from her posture. "Tell what you rember."
Orion hesitated. There was sothing off about Valeria's tone.
"I rember the system activating when I took my first bite of my hunt," Orion said slowly, choosing his words carefully. His brows furrowed, tension flickering in his eyes. "Then there was this ssage about initialization—" He frowned, shaking his head slightly. "I don't rember much from what happened after."
Varun's jaw twitched. His voice was tight, edged with barely concealed frustration. "Nothing?"
"No," Orion admitted, and that alone unsettled him. He didn't forget things. His mory was too sharp, his mind too well-trained.
Valeria finally spoke.
"How do you feel?" Valeria asked, her icy tone lting into sothing softer, more uncertain. Now, she looked at Orion with a worried expression, her brows drawing together. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and for a mont, she seed to hesitate before speaking again.
"Are you sure you are okay?" The concern in her voice was genuine, but there was sothing else beneath it—sothing Orion couldn't quite place.
Orion t her gaze, his throat tightening. He knew better than to lie to her. "I can feel every muscle in my body responding quicker than before. Stronger. Faster. My reflexes are... off. " he said, his voice low, uncertain. His fingers twitched at his sides, as if to confirm his words, and his brows furrowed with a mix of awe and unease.
Valeria didn't react, but that in itself was a reaction.
Varun, however, did. His gaze bore into Orion. "Did you get any notifications from it? What did it tell you?" he asked, his voice taut with restrained frustration.
Orion's head snapped toward him. "What?" His throat tightened as he heard his own voice tremble slightly.
"Critical Anomaly Identified.... Host Stability Compromised...." he muttered, the words coming from so deep. A shiver ran down his spine. "Neural Surge.... Critical Threshold ...."
Varun scoffed, shaking his head. "No shit." His voice was tinged with sothing bitter. "The system was never supposed to activate until you are eight."
Orion swallowed, his stomach twisting. He t Varun's gaze. "Then why did it activate?" he asked, his voice quieter now, but laced with unease.
His mind raced through possibilities—was it the hunt, sothing in the beast's flesh that triggered it? It tied had also activated when he was about to die in the strange vision he'd seen, the flashes of a future that made no sense? He needed confirmation, an answer that would ground his growing unease.
Valeria tilted her head, her gaze unreadable. "That's what we'd like to know," she said, her voice calm, but with an underlying tension that made Orion's stomach knot.
"Tell the truth, mom." Orion demanded, his voice sharp with frustration. His eyes locked onto Valeria. "Why did this happen?"
Valeria's lips parted, but for the first ti in his life, she hesitated. That single pause sent a chill down his spine.
"No," she admitted finally, her voice quieter now, as if weighing every word. "It was never ant to activate this soon."
Varun let out a sharp breath, running a hand through his hair. "It nearly killed him." His voice was lower now, edged with anger. "And that ans sothing went wrong. The question is—what triggered it?"
A slow, sinking feeling settled in his gut.
Valeria studied him for another long mont, then finally spoke.
"I think," she said, her voice asured, "soone injected you with a latent poison."
Orion's breath caught. Varun went still. The sterile hum of the d bay suddenly felt deafening.
Silence filled the space between them. Orion's pulse thundered in his ears. Poison. This wasn't a malfunction. It wasn't a freak accident. It was deliberate. Which ant soone—sowhere—had planned this. His mind churned through nas, factions, possible motives, but nothing fit.
He was a special candidate, yes, but he wasn't important enough to warrant assassination. Was he? He t Valeria's gaze again, searching for sothing—anything—that might tell him what she wasn't saying. But her expression remained unreadable. And that terrified him more than anything.
Soone had done this to him.
Orion exhaled slowly, his voice asured, sharp. "You already have a suspect."
Valeria's posture didn't shift, but sothing in her eyes flickered.
Orion pressed further. "You think it was the Zey'rans, don't you?"
For the first ti, Valeria's mask cracked. Her breath hitched—so faint it could have been missed, but Orion caught it
"Damn," Varun muttered, shaking his head slightly. "You really don't miss a thing, do you?"
Valeria's lips parted, then closed again, as if weighing her response. Finally, she sighed, rubbing her temple. "I didn't expect you to see through that so quickly." Her voice was quieter now, edged with sothing Orion couldn't quite place.
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