011 - Ashina

Everything felt stiff and suffocating inside the lab with its harsh white light and sterile. The floors were spotless, polished to the point of blindness, and the sheer reflectiveness made my temples ache badly. There was so much high-end equipment that blinked silently, each with a purpose I could identify but couldn't care less at that moment.

It should have thrilled me to see so much advanced devices. The place was state-of-the-art lab dream for any researcher, but instead my skin crawled with every step I took in the place. There was nothing but a cold and heartless reminder that I was at my wits end and I needed help from people who went by moral conducts that I didn’t believe in.

And so all I could feel was dread and disgust as Maya was wheeled in and everyone snapped into a blur of motion.

It was like watching a hive spring to life.

They had already alarmingly prepared for Maya with the little time I’d informed her, and soon were moving her into a vertical stasis capsule, fitted with monitors and translucent tubing that reminded me more of a casket than a recovery pod. They transferred Maya into it and attached electrodes to her temples, sensors to her chest, and intravenous lines into her veins.

I stood frozen, fists clenched at my sides, every swallow scraping my dry throat. My jaw ached from tension I hadn’t realized I was holding.

Maya was miraculously still unconscious, her body was limp as her vitals began appearing on the screens that lined the walls. Charts. Spikes. Enzyme reactions. Blood toxicity rates. Everything that they needed to check to come up with a conclusion ran across the screens so fast that I couldn’t process anything, even worse, thanks to the exhaustion clawing at my mind.

Dr. Veyra moved around with her practiced precision as she issued orders and cross-checked gene sequences with her lab attendees, moving in and out to go to a more private lab and out.

My legs buckled slightly, forcing me to sit down before I collapsed as sweat prickled down the back of my neck despite the air conditioning blasting through every inch of this place.

One of the assistants approached me at some point and offered me a protein bar and a bottle of water. And I almost scoffed.

The thought that I’d be able to eat anything at this point made me laugh.

“You should eat,” Veyra said from where she was, without looking in my direction.

I shook my head, opening my mouth to decline because the thought made my stomach turn. But my body was trembling, and I was going to be able to hold on to anything without it falling.

I hadn’t eaten in two days, and every bit of my strength had gone to keeping Maya alive.

Heaving a heavy sigh, I took the bar from him reluctantly, biting off a piece. It tasted like ash and cardboard but I forced myself to keep eating.

Hours passed like that. Machines were humming, the lab attendees muttering to each other as they walked in and out, and I was doing tests after tests as I paced back and forth, clenching my fists. It felt like waiting outside an operating room, praying the surgery would go well, but knowing there was no surgeon who could guarantee a miracle.

Then, finally, Dr. Veyra emerged to where I was seated with a clipboard in her hand.

I shot to my feet instantly, rushing to her. “What did you find?”

She raised her hand calmly as if any of that would ease the tension that was flowing through me. “We ran a preliminary gene analysis. Something about the bite isn’t normal.”

I huffed angrily and narrowed my eyes at her. She’s got to be kidding me? That’s what she found out? “No shit. I already know that. That’s why I brought her here so you can find more than that, Doctor.”

“Then let me do my job and finish talking,” Veyra said coolly. “We’re not enemies, Dr. Kai. I’m trying to help.”

I exhaled loudly and backed off as much as I could so I could calm myself down.

Dr. Veyra glanced at her clipboard. “We’ve sequenced the venom left in her blood. But it doesn’t match anything we’ve seen before. And we’ve seen... a lot. I need more context. What exactly happened? Who bit her?”

I grimaced at the lack of information I had on that. “She was drunk. She mumbled something about sleeping with some guy who liked to bite. That’s all I got out of her.”

Dr.  Veyra looked up with her brows creased, and shook her head, a disapproving gaze in her eyes. “That’s not enough. We can’t work blind.”

“That’s all I have,” I snapped. “And in case you missed it, she’s not exactly able to answer your questions right now.”

Dr. Veyra sighed. “Again, we are not enemies, Dr. Kai. We need to understand the origin to be able to ascertain exactly what is going on here. From the various tests we’ve done, we believe the alcohol in her system could have clashed with the werewolf venom, sped up the mutation, and caused the instability. But that’s just a theory. I need details to be sure about what exactly is up.”

I frowned. “What do you mean ‘sped up’?”

Veyra turned the clipboard toward me, tapping on a scan. “Normally, a werewolf bite on a human causes gradual deterioration, if the transformation even occurs. Most die before it completes. But Maya’s system is... adapting. Rapidly. And that’s not normal. Either her body’s fighting it in a new way, or more likely the venom itself was altered.”

My heart dropped instantly. "Engineered? As in...intentionally altered?”

She nodded. “We believe it’s possible. There’s nothing typical about the wolf bite she received.”

I cursed under my breath, dragging at the ends of my hair. I was losing my wits every minute I didn’t have concrete answers about what was going on. This was becoming crazier.

First, a werewolf bite. No,w the possibility that the bite was engineered. Why would someone alter wolf genes and bite Maya? Did that mean she wasn’t the only one? A sharp sting brought me back to the present, realizing I had pulled my hair harder than necessary.

“That’s why we need to know more,” Veyra said. “Do you know the bar she was at?”

“No,” I muttered, my throat tightening. “She told me she was going to work.”

“Is there a way to trace it? Credit card trail?”

“Maya’s obsessed with using cash. She wouldn’t have left one.”

Dr. Veyra heaved a slow breath, and there was a flicker of something unreadable in her gaze. “There might be a way to find out. But you’re not going to like it.”

I stiffened instantly. “No. Absolutely not. She’s already in enough pain. I am not letting you put her through any more.”

“We need answers.”

“I don’t care. Find another way.”

“Like you just said, there is no other way.”

I shook my head, stepping back with my heart hammering.

“She’s already drowning in agony,” Veyra said quietly. “A little more might get us what we need. Don’t you want to know who did this to her?”

I closed my eyes, and my jaw trembled. I turned my head slightly towards the capsule as my eyes locked on Maya’s pale, pain-ridden face.

How the hell was I supposed to agree to more?