All Onyx and Spine Corps members entered Scion Outpost.

  Mixed soldiers stood between large metal walls as mist billowed in.

  An A.I. voice announced, “Spore Sterilization Complete. Unit 1, please proceed.”

  Minutes later, the Ruined Jackals crossed last.

  Once the mist cycled, the voice declared, “K-19 from Unit 5 — Ruined Jackals, do not proceed. Please wait.”

  Noose glanced back as she exited. She scoffed.

  “Seriously?” Karauro huffed.

  “What’d you expect?” Noose chuckled. “You look like you swam in Griever juice.”

  Two Outpost soldiers stepped out with a power-wash hose.

  “Shouldn’t I—” Karauro started.

  The hose hit him—water and disinfectant.

  Meaty bits slapped the walls and slid down in strings.

  “Oi—warning!” he growled.

  Nera watched from a distance, expression blank.

  “He’s always been a messy hunter,” she muttered.

  “And way too comfortable improvising,” Aaron added.

  ---

  A chime clicked in Noose’s earpiece.

  “Liam?” she asked, eyeing the green numbers on her bracelet.

  “Yeah.”

  “Private room. Call.”

  “Follow me.”

  Fey nodded. “I’ll keep monitoring—”

  “Monitor. Don’t hover,” Noose cut in, her gaze sliding toward Karauro arguing with guards. “He’s earned his place.”

  Liam called over his shoulder, “Hey, troublemaker—don’t make Scion hate you more than it already does.”

  Karauro took off his helmet.

  Water hit his face.

  He huffed—hard, like he could blow the stares off him.

  “[K-19, proceed to exit spore sanitization],” the A.I. announced.

  Nera lingered as others moved for the hangar.

  “You make scenes without trying,” she said, tossing him a rag.

  “And I’m still treated like a caged animal,” he shot back.

  Nera’s eyes flicked past him—glares. Graves. Quiet.

  “Something wrong?” she asked.

  “No,” he murmured.

  His eyes landed on her.

  “Aren’t you going to scold me?”

  Nera tilted her head.

  “For what?” she asked calmly.

  “For how everything turned out?”

  They stopped before the hangar.

  She studied him. Long hair swept aside, faint lines under his eyes—plus the scar on his nose.

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  The orange hue had faded like dying embers.

  She noted the changes he’d undergone in just a year.

  “If you’re asking whether I should be disappointed—no,” she replied.

  “Wow. Viper has shed her skin.”

  “You’ve become bolder,” Nera replied with a smirk.

  He leaned in and nudged her shoulder.

  “I had to, to survive threats like you,” he grinned.

  “Really going to stick with that?”

  Karauro cracked his neck.

  “Deadly,” he said, smiling wider.

  “Don’t linger, or rumors will spread,” Aaron said as he exited the hangar with Riven.

  “Understood, Dad,” Karauro replied.

  Aaron scoffed.

  “Mutt sharpened his teeth—an upgrade,” he remarked.

  Aaron’s gaze turned to Nera. “Liam has a task for us. Go talk to him.”

  ---

  Nera leaned against the hangar wall.

  “Freshen up fast. Meet me here in fifteen,” she said, pointing to a nearby building marked Showers.

  Karauro nodded and went on.

  Insufferable, Nera thought as she exhaled—yet her eyes still tracked him until he vanished into the corridor.

  ---

  They entered Liam’s briefing room, the scent of cigar lingering.

  Nera glanced at Karauro before stepping inside.

  “Careful, Viper; your eyes might fall out if you keep staring,” he joked, trailing behind her.

  Noose sat in a chair before Liam’s desk.

  Her expression changed when Karauro entered.

  “Clean look suits you better, Ciro,” Noose said, grinning at him before her gaze shifted to Nera.

  “Deimos lab is operational again. Spore fog will hinder our resupplies before we reach the next Ash-Hive,” Liam said, smoking.

  “Is that it?” Karauro asked.

  “Yeah. In and out—refrain from making art out of them. Your nickname is bad enough,” Liam remarked.

  ---

  The Ruined Jackals and Unit 7 each settled into their own Haulers.

  Noose positioned herself directly beside Karauro.

  He let out a deep breath, slow through his nostrils, like he was forcing the animal back down.

  “Didn’t I tell you not to loom over me?” he asked, slightly agitated.

  “Yes, you did, but I’m not loitering. I’m selecting my seat,” Noose retorted sharply.

  They drove into fog that spread throughout the area—thick enough to swallow the Haulers’ lights and spit them back as pale halos.

  Both teams advanced as Aaron checked for structural vulnerabilities.

  He gestured toward a wall. Fey nodded and fired nodes from a device.

  The metal groaned under pressure, accompanied by a sharp hiss and flying sparks.

  “Ready in five,” Fey communicated through the comms.

  Nera’s gaze locked on Karauro—their spear.

  Metal creased inward as he rushed ahead, and she quickly followed.

  Robed figures split at the abdomen, insect legs protruding—wet, clicking, wrong.

  Without hesitation, boot thrusters boosted her forward, her cyber blade clicking into position.

  She plunged her blade into their insect-like thorax.

  It didn’t scream like a man. It gurgled like a clogged drain.

  Bullets ripped into the remaining figures.

  Karauro’s wire ensnared a centipede-like figure. He yanked it down, and Aaron charged—throwing a punch that staggered the man.

  Nera shot her line to a ceiling beam, kicked off, and guided her blade down onto Karauro’s target—slicing the centipede man in half.

  “Butcher!” shouted one of the insect men.

  “What if I’m not the right guy?” Karauro yelled.

  An insect figure swung its long body at Nera and Aaron. They fired their rifles at it.

  Karauro’s halo eyes gleamed as a wet snap echoed—tendrils sprouted from his back.

  The suit’s inner seams flexed like they were breathing with him.

  He anchored one tendril to the ground and propelled forward, using the other to slice through the insect man.

  “Ciro, go for it,” Noose instructed through her comms.

  A presence slid along the inside of his skull—smooth, amused.

  Aren’t we lucky.

  Karauro’s jaw tightened behind the mask.

  “You sure about that?” he replied.

  “I’m never certain,” Noose answered. “Too many to clear—it’s an order!”

  “Fine. Send me your target. I need a spark,” he scoffed.

  Noose charged and drop-kicked another robed man toward Karauro.

  He grabbed the man and delivered a headbutt.

  The robed figure’s limbs twisted as his face ripped open, revealing snapping mandibles.

  Karauro discarded his helmet, tensing as a low growl escaped him. Bones cracked while flesh tore beneath his suit.

  Nera noticed his body twitching—too fast, too hungry.

  He became taller and bulkier, his face covered by a skull mask—black hair swirling like smoke.

  Noose aimed for the leg of the robed figure and fired, shredding their knees.

  Karauro’s beast eyes flicked to Noose’s muzzle flash before he plunged his tendrils into the robed man’s elongated form and tore it apart.

  She kept using this tactic alongside him as though it was trained—shoot low, keep his focus forward, never on her.

  ---

  Robed bodies littered the floor, insect legs twitching.

  Noose stood by Karauro, still in a fumed beast state.

  Her gaze shifted to the doors locked from outside.

  Not human, nor Grievers—Spore Makers.

  “Ensure your helmets are sealed. We’re going to dispose of these things,” she announced firmly.

  Nera walked past the fumed beast that had been Karauro just moments before.

  Its head jerked up—nostrils flaring—like whatever was behind the door had called his stomach by name.

  Not scent. Not sound.

  A pull.

  Noose realized several other concealed rooms, unlike the spore makers.

  “Are they keeping their experiments here?” she bit her lip.

  Without warning, Karauro charged at the door.

  His eyes blazed brighter as a snout formed onto the skull mask.

  “Shit,” Noose shouted.

  She mounted the dampener chamber to her rifle and aimed.

  Noose paused noticing the beast standing there arms and claws hunkered into the ground.

  Noose fired a round, only to be swatted by its tendril.

  Nera snatched one of Onyx soldiers rifle, with Fey readying her aim onto it as well.

  "Fire!" Noose shouted.

  Dampener rounds erupted from all sides.

  Tendrils lashed as the beast opened its jaws, clamping down.

  "LET GO! We MUST EVOLVE!" the serpent hissed in Karauro's mind.

  "Shut up, you're not getting your way this time, jerk!" his voice retorted.

  Nera observed as the beast slammed its head against the concrete.

  "Stubborn as ever," Nera smirked, readying her rifle. An Onyx took it and handed her another.

  She aimed and pulled the trigger, alongside Noose and Fey.

  Rounds struck the soft ichor flesh.

  The beast finally roared and slumped to its knees.

  He gasped as vines unlatched thorns from his skin, retracting back into his spine.

  Skull mask dissolved into ash. Bones twisted back into place.

  Noose signaled Onyx members to lower their weapons.

  Until the warped door the beast had tried to pry off tore opened.

  Onyx soldiers pointed their rifles towards the darkened room. Something wet, snapped out of it.

  Appendages reaching for Karauro, Noose dashed forward, lifting her guard.

  Sparks flew off her gauntlet, her rifle aimed towards the darkened room.

  Multiple limbs jutted from its twisted form, blocking the Onyx soldiers' progress.

  It attempted to target for Karauro once again, Noose wrapped her arms around him who was still disorientated.

  It tried to target Karauro again as Noose held him tight, still disoriented.

  "Noose...What are...you—" His voice rasped.

  "Quiet," she hissed.

  Something struck above him. Wet.

  Blood splattered onto his knee.

  Noose grunted, holding her shoulder, barbed tentacle retracted, splicing her wound further.

  "ThIS HaPpeEs WheN YoU StaLL" The voice grumbled in his head.

  Karauro's eye's flared brightly.

  His arm briefly morphed into a claw of ichor and contorted through spaces, cutting into a vibrant pulse.

  It shrieked and flailed before collapsing in on itself.

  Nera slid onto the ground and helped Noose brace herself off the ground.

  Karauro had wiped his mouth already devoured the core from his arm retracting claws.

  Nera caught his halo eyes brightening for a second and dimmed.

  "She needs a medic," He said calmly and walked over to them.

  Nera's hand almost flinched, she clenched her jaw and didn't allow that to slip, not in front of him.

  He lowered himself to hoist her up.

  "Don't do that next time," He said firmly.

  "And...miss the look on that face?" Noose chuckled with a slight grunt.

  His eyes flicked to her.

  "Was he always this gloomy?" Noose asked.

  "Only when he feels guilty for stuff that isn't in his control," Nera shot Karauro a glare.

  "We have to get that treated ASAP," Aaron's voice trailed across from them.

  Nera walked on ahead.

  "We'll need to talk about how to deal with that hunger of yours," she said, giving a quick glance at them both.