"Permanently."The word landed heavier than the collapsed compound behind us."What does that actually mean," I asked, forcing my voice steady despite the exhaustion still dragging at every limb. "Permanently how.""She's still analyzing," Marcus said, reading further down the message. "But she says early indicators suggest your body has begun producing the resistance marker naturally now, rather than simply carrying it as a fixed trait from birth. It's replicating, spreading, integrating into new cells as they form.""That sounds like an infection," Isolde said, alarm sharpening her voice."Or it sounds like evolution," Chloe said quietly, still sitting a short distance away. "Forced, violent, unwanted, but evolution nonetheless.""I don't want to evolve into something Cornelius designed," I said, my voice cracking despite my effort to hold it steady. "I want to be exactly who I was before he ever touched me."Lucien's
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