Scene 1: The Aftershock
Crackling lights. The lab stinks of ozone and melted steel. Jakku runs a silent scan over the residue near the tank—his visor flashes static.
Reen scrubs crimson from her palms like it'll soak into her skin if she waits too long.
Maiku stands still—eyes fixed on the glowing symbol.
He whispers: "Lorian..."
The glow dims. Then pulses. Like it heard him.
Matthew (flatly): "That thing's responding."
Jakku (checking readout): "The tank didn't break... it liquefied. The entire bottom plate is molecular slag."
Reen (shaky, pointing at the symbol): "It's not just a message. It's a tether. He's still linked to us."
---
Scene 2: Whispers in the System
The lights pulse again—this time across the entire base. Exactly 2.7 seconds apart.
Momonato's voice echoes through the intercoms—but he never spoke.
"Simulation 12B initiated. Syncing consciousness clusters... Accepting rewrite."
Jakku (typing fast): "That's not me. That's him."
On a looping camera feed—Lorian is seen walking calmly through corridors... two days before the breach.
Matthew: "He's been slipping through since before we knew he was awake."
Then, in the static of the dead comms—
Lorian's voice: "You can still be part of the new beginning."
Gift stares at the speaker. It's off. Completely unplugged.
---
Scene 3: Gift's Confusion
Tension thickens around Gift. She hasn't spoken much. Not since Lorian vanished.
Matthew circles her like a ticking fuse.
Matthew: "What's your connection to it? Why didn't it kill you?"
Gift: "I don't know. I don't feel any different."
Jakku (to Maiku, under breath): "What if it's not about her power... but her choice? What if she let it live—and now it owes her?"
Maiku doesn't answer. He's too busy watching the symbol on the wall... flicker again.
---
Scene 4: Maiku's Vision
Later. Alone. He touches the mark again.
A blinding jolt—then silence.
He's somewhere else.
Strapped to a cold machine, spine wired with silver light. Around him—spires like teeth, endless alien cities breathing in sync.
And then— It turns.
A colossal, featureless entity made of shifting roots and star-matter. No eyes. No face. Just presence.
Voice (calm, ancient): "The Bloom is not a threat. It is a return. A reclamation."
Maiku gasps awake.
His hand is burning.
On it: the same orange mark.
---
Scene 5: Parasite Strategy Emerges
An alert. The facility goes dark. No gunfire. No screams. Just... silence.
Recon drones return with footage.
People are inside. All of them. Sleeping peacefully—faces calm. Parasite strands weaving into them.
Reen (watching in horror): "They're mutating in their sleep. No pain. Just... surrender."
On the walls: "Do not fear the change. Fear staying the same."
Back at base—Momonato suddenly gasps. A shimmer crawls across his skin.
He stares at his own hand, flexing. Stronger. Faster.
Momonato: "...Is this what it feels like?"
---
Final Scene: A Message from Lorian
Later. Alone again, Maiku closes his eyes.
The mark on his hand pulses—once, twice.
Then Lorian's voice echoes in his head.
Lorian (soft, strained): "This thing... it's too big. Too deep. I can't hold it forever."
A pause. Then:
"I need your help, Maiku. Before it finishes what it started... help me remember what it means to be human."
Silence.
Maiku opens his eyes. Looks at his team.
They have no idea what's coming next.
To Be Continued...
Narrator (tone: mysterious, heavy with foreboding and awe):
> There are moments in history when the world doesn't end with fire... but with invitation.
The lab should have been a tomb. Instead, it breathed—hummed with something old stirring beneath the floor.
Jakku scanned for anomalies. Reen scrubbed at guilt like it could be washed away. And Maiku… Maiku stared at the mark left behind—pulsing like a heartbeat buried under centuries of silence.
Lorian had not returned as a man.
He had returned as a message.
Across the base, lights pulsed in precise intervals—2.7 seconds. Like breathing. Like thought. And in those pulses, something spoke.
It knew the language.
It knew their names.
Cameras revealed truths they were never meant to see:
Lorian walking the halls days before the breach. Smiling. Watching.
And then the voice...
> "You can still be part of the new beginning."
No wires. No power. Just voice.
Just presence.
Gift heard it. Felt it. She didn't scream. She didn't run.
Because part of her remembered something no one else did.
And Maiku—
When he touched the mark, it showed him not a warning... but a promise.
Cities that breathed. Machines older than thought. A being made of roots, stars, and silence.
> "The Bloom is not a threat. It is a return."
But a return to what?
Across the facility, change spread like a whisper.
No pain.
No resistance.
Just surrender.
And at the center of it—Momonato's gasp. His skin shimmered. His strength grew. And for a moment... he smiled.
> "Is this what it feels like?"
In the quiet, Lorian's voice reached Maiku once more. Faint. Human. Pleading.
> "Help me remember what it means to be human."
The signal had returned.
But not all who hear it survive it.