COVELENT: XenoTrait

The chamber felt different when Felix wasn’t there.Not because of the temperature, but because of the absence of control.

Abel stood alone in the center of the room, his breathing slow but uneven, his body still carrying faint echoes of the earlier test.The starfish trait had left something behind not power, not evolution... but a reminder.A limit.

His hands tightened at his sides.

"...Restricted," he muttered, the word tasting bitter in his mouth."I hate it."

Across the room, dim containment lights flickered over sealed units, "each one holds possibility. Each one holds something more....Something I don’t have." He thought.

His eyes locked onto one of them.

Inside, a small organism shifted. Subtle and predatory. Its movements weren’t defensive it was the starfish.

Abel stepped closer.

He knew what Felix would say... He knew what the result should be. But that didn’t stop the thought burning in his chest.

"What if he was wrong?"

His hand hovered over the container.

Then a memory hit him.

"Darkness. A dimly lit room. Amme, who was bound and struggling."

Her voice shaking and desperate, "Abel...!"

His body wouldn’t move, his vision blurred. "I’m powerless and useless."

He remembered the way her eyes looked at him with fear. Fear that he couldn’t do anything. Fear that he wouldn’t make it. Fear that he would fail her again.

Abel’s jaw clenched hard enough to hurt. "...I was weak back then," he whispered, voice low, shaking with something deeper than anger.

His grip tightened around the container.

"I couldn’t protect Amme..."

Silence.

His breathing sharpened. "But now..." his voice hardened, something desperate creeping in, "...if this works... I’ll be strong enough to protect her."

He opened it.

The smell hit first... sharp and unfamiliar.

He didn’t hesitate.....he bit into it, blood filled his mouth. "It tastes like shit," he forced it down...he vomited in his mouth but swallowed it back.

He took a second bite he chewed it and swallowed while saliva fell to the ground then he swallowed.

It began instantly.

But this time... there was no adaptation it was rejection.

His body froze.

Every muscle locked at once, like his entire system had been seized by something violent and unseen.

"...Hh!" He dropped to his knees, hands slamming against the ground as a shockwave of pain tore through him.

"AAHH!!" he screamed.

His spine arched violently, his back curving unnaturally as his muscles tightened beyond their limits.

His arms jerked erratically, fingers digging into the floor hard enough to leave marks.

Something was wrong.

His veins pulsed dark beneath his skin, erratic and unstable, spreading in jagged patterns instead of flowing naturally.

One arm bulged with sudden density, muscles tightening and swelling while the other lagged behind, trembling violently like it was losing connection.

"...No... no!"

His body began shifting but not smoothly.

"This... this... it’s not like before." he thought as his eyes widened.

His fingers twisted, stretching into claw-like shapes before snapping back with a sickening force.

His shoulders jerked unevenly, one rising higher than the other as if pulled by different instincts.

Fighting for control.

"STOP!!" His voice broke into a raw scream.

His chest heaved violently as his breathing shattered into uneven gasps.

It felt like something inside him was trying to take over while something else was desperately trying to hold it back.

"It’s like my body didn’t know what it was anymore, and it is tearing itself apart trying to decide."

His strength vanished all at once.

His arms gave out beneath him, and he slammed forward onto the floor as violent tremors overtook him. His entire body convulsed, muscles firing uncontrollably as his system rejected what it couldn’t process.

Pain flooded every nerve.

Sharp and endless as much as it was overwhelming.

"AAAHHH—!!"

His vision blurred completely now, shadows swallowing the edges as his mind fractured under the intensity. There was no control left...no thought, no strategy.

Just pain.

His body spasmed again, harder this time, his back arching as something beneath his skin shifted violently, then snapped back into place like it had been forcibly restrained.

His breathing broke.

Violently, the chamber door slid open.

Felix stepped in and stopped.

His eyes took in everything in a single glance.

The open container. The state of Abel’s body.

"...Idiot," he said quietly.

Then he moved.

In an instant, he was at Abel’s side.

Abel barely registered him, his body still writhing, still caught in the violent storm of rejection.

Felix grabbed him firmly, forcing him onto his side, controlling his position to prevent further strain.

"Breathe," Felix said sharply. "Your system is collapsing under incompatibility. If you lose rhythm, it worsens."

"IT...HURTS!!" Abel choked out, his voice raw, broken.

"I know." Felix’s tone didn’t soften, but his grip steadied. "You forced a second integration."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he observed the reaction.

"Your body cannot sustain it."

Another violent tremor ran through Abel, his muscles locking again before slowly releasing.

"Focus," Felix ordered. "Breathe."

Seconds passed. Then more.

Slowly, the chaos began to fade.

The violent shifting beneath Abel’s skin started to settle, dragged back into place as his body fought to restore balance.

His breathing remained uneven, but the worst of the convulsions began to ease.

The rejection was stabilizing.

Minutes later.

Abel lay there, drenched in sweat, his body trembling faintly as the aftermath settled in. Every muscle ached. Every nerve still burned.

But he was alive.

His fingers twitched weakly. "...Why...?" he rasped.

Felix stood over him, expression unreadable. "...You already knew the answer," he said.

Abel clenched his jaw. "...I thought... maybe this time..."

"No." The word cut clean.

"You were told of your limits," Felix continued, his voice calm but firm. "What you attempted was not evolution."

A pause.

"It was self-destruction."

Abel turned his head slightly, frustration flickering in his eyes.

"...So I’m just supposed to accept that?" he muttered.

"Yes... be content with what you have," Felix said. "Strength. Speed. Durability. Accelerated recovery. You are already beyond baseline."

Abel let out a weak, bitter breath. "...Not beyond you."

Felix didn’t respond.

Because he didn’t need to.

"...So this is what you’ve been hiding."

The voice came softly. But it cut through the room.

Rose stood at the entrance. Watching.

Her eyes moved from Abel’s condition, taking in the aftermath, the tension, the truth, before settling on Felix.

There was no fear in her expression.

Felix’s gaze shifted to her immediately.

"You shouldn’t be here."

"And yet," she said, stepping inside, "I keep ending up here."

She moved closer. Closer than before.

"...You’re not like us," she said quietly.

Felix’s eyes narrowed slightly. "...Neither are you."

For a split second, something passed between them.

Rose smiled faintly. "...Took you long enough."

Abel, still on the ground, barely processed the exchange, but something about it stuck.

Felix didn’t deny it. Didn’t confirm it either.

But he didn’t look away.

Far away... beyond the facility.Beyond the controlled environment of the chamber.

A different room watched.

Screens flickered to life.

Multiple feeds. Multiple angles. Every movement. Every moment. Abel’s collapse. Felix’s response. Rose’s presence.

All of it recorded. Observed and analyzed.

A figure stood in the shadows, arms folded behind his back.

"...Subject Abel," he murmured, eyes scanning the data streams. "Unstable... emotionally driven... limited compatibility."

A pause.

"...Non-threat."

He shifted slightly, gaze moving to another screen that had Felix in it.

"...Subject Felix."

The footage slowed.

"...Adaptive. Controlled..."

A faint smile touched his lips. "...Threat."

Another file opened.

A name appeared.

Joel Jones.

"...Additional anomaly detected."

His tone lowered. "...Also classified as threat."

The person exhaled slowly, stepping back as the screens filled with overlapping data.

"So many irregularities..." he said quietly. "...So many threats."

His eyes darkened slightly. "...But all systems can be corrected."

A pause.

His voice dropped. "We will find a way... to eradicate them all."

Silence followed.

A second presence entered the room behind him.

"...Perfect." The voice was calm.

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