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"Impossible," he whispered. "After all this time?"

Davis frowned. "What? Do you know me? Do you know what's happening to me?"

K ell's hand fell from the door controls. Scientific fascination replaced the panic in his expression.

"I knew the M'Suun continued their work after I left," he said. "But I never thought..." His eyes remained fixed on Davis's face, studying him like a specimen. "Which facility are you from?"

Davis advanced another step, anger building beneath his ribs. "What am I? What did you do to me?"

"Oh, I didn't do anything to you," K ell said, shaking his head. "You're not my creation." A laugh escaped him. "You're something I never thought I'd live to see. My gods, you're proof that the experiment worked."

"What experiment?" he demanded, hand dropping to his sidearm.

K ell's eyes narrowed, scientific curiosity overriding fear. "How long have you been changing? What triggered it?"

"What fucking experiment?" Davis reached the bottom of the ramp. "Start talking, or I start shooting. What. The fuck. Am. I?"

* * *

Mira paced the corridor, her boots clanking against metal grates with each step. It had been five minutes since the shuttle's last communication. The silence scraped her nerves raw. Her mouth dried to dust as sweat slicked her palms.

Spot circled her feet, optical sensors fixed on the sealed airlock outside the shuttlebay, and chirped at her. She smiled, the sound was definitely a question.

"They'll be back soon," she told him.

The shuttle had found K ell. Ryke's brief transmission confirmed that much. Then there had been nothing. No updates on Davis's condition. No word on whether the geneticist could help. Nothing. She was so talking with Ryke about communication when they got back.

They had to have found K ell. But what if he couldn't help? Would Davis keep changing until nothing remained of the man she'd come to -

The airlock hissed. Massive doors slid apart, hydraulics groaning. She froze mid-stride, anticipation rolling through her.

Ryke emerged first, assault rifle ready, ice-blue eyes sweeping the bay. Behind him came an older Latharian male with silver-streaked dark hair. He looked around like he was trying to see everything at once, and he was as twitchy as fuck.

K ell. It had to be.

Covak followed, his massive frame making the scientist look small, then Jesh, the metal of her shoulder-mounted guns glinting dully in the overhead lights. Rann brought up the rear, his face unreadable as always.

No Davis. Shit. Where was Davis?

Her stomach dropped, but then Davis stepped through the airlock.

Relief hit first, followed by concern. Her eyes narrowed as she swept an assessing glance over him.

His jaw was clenched tight with strain. He spotted her across the bay, and something possessive flashed in his expression, raw and primal.

Heat climbed her spine in response, a reaction she couldn't stop despite knowing better.

She started to walk toward them, but then K ell halted mid-step as he noticed her. His expression shifted from fear to fascination in a second.

"A female?" K ell said, eyes jumping between her and Jesh. "These are human females?"

Warning signals fired in Mira's brain. K ell darted past Ryke before anyone could react, and then he loomed over her. His gaze examined her like something under glass, scientific interest overriding social awareness.

"Extraordinary," he muttered, leaning closer. A chemical smell clung to him disinfectant and something sharper. Something she didn't like, something that made her nose wrinkle. "I haven't seen a live female since..."

He reached for her face, and she stepped back, yanking her head back before he could touch her.

"What the fuck?"

Then Davis was at her side, his movements faster than she could track. One moment he'd been walking through the airlock, the next, he'd grabbed K ell's wrist mid-air. His fingers closed around the older Latharian's arm in a brutal hold, making the scientist yelp.

"Touch her," Davis snarled, his voice deeper than normal, "and lose the hand."

The docking bay went silent. She stared up at Davis, knowing she should be scared at the utter fury in his expression. But she wasn't. Instead, a sense of safety and security filled her. He wouldn't let anything happen to her.

K ell glanced around, noting Ryke's warning look and Covak's growing aggression. The Vorrtan's skin was already flushed red as his battle form surfaced, and he looked away quickly. Then the scientist's gaze shifted to Jesh, who barked a hard laugh.

"Try it, doc," she said. "I will break bits off you."

The scientist cleared his throat, trying to extricate himself from Davis's grip.

"My apologies," he said, lowering his gaze. "It's been decades. I'm afraid I've quite forgotten my manners."

Davis released him slowly, positioning himself between her and the older Latharian. A living barrier of muscle and barely controlled violence.

"We should move to the medbay," Covak suggested, hard eyes fixed on K ell.

"Agreed," Ryke said, motioning the scientist toward the corridor with his weapon. "Let's continue this conversation somewhere more appropriate."

As they headed for the medbay, Spot scuttled up to join them, circling protectively around Mira's legs. K ell noticed the robot, stopping mid-stride with disbelief.

"Is that... Oh my, is that a drakeen core? Without a pilot?" The scientist stared as Spot chirped from behind her legs.

"A project," Ryke said, his voice like a whip. "And none of your business."

"Fascinating," K ell murmured, twisting to look over his shoulder as he was all but marched down the corridor toward the medbay. "It appears to have bonded with you. This shouldn't be possible without neural integration training."

Mira ignored him, studying Davis's profile as they walked. His jaw seemed sharper, and were his cheekbones more defined?

The medbay's clinical white lights hit her as they entered, triggering unwelcome memories of Rettnor's clinic. She moved closer to Davis without thinking, his heat steadying her against the sterile environment.

"The equipment here is... adequate," K ell said, examining the scanners critically.

Ryke's mouth twitched. "Sorry that our humble mercenary vessel doesn't meet your exacting standards."

"It will suffice," K ell conceded, shifting to professional mode.

"Let's get to it," Davis said, his patience visibly thinning. "You know what's happening to me. Start explaining, or I start shooting."

K ell pointed to the examination table. "I'll need to perform a full scan first. Remove your shirt."

Davis stalked across the small space, pulling his shirt off as he walked.

Her breath caught. She'd seen him naked before, but this was like looking at a different man.

His body had changed, his muscles more defined, and his frame larger than before.

The scar from the energy weapon had faded to a silver line across his chest.

Heat pooled low in her belly, desire mixing uncomfortably with worry as K ell circled Davis. The Latharian looked at him with detached scientific interest.

"Remarkable integration," K ell murmured, fingers hovering just above Davis's skin. "Much more complete than I would have thought possible."

Davis's face was blank, but anger burned in his eyes. K ell was oblivious, muttering to himself while taking blood samples and running scans.

"You are a third-generation genetic carrier," he said, looking up from the scans. "This is unprecedented."

Confusion filled the room. She leaned forward, trying to understand the genetic readouts swirling in blue light.

"What does that mean?" Ryke demanded, arms folded over his massive chest.

K ell tapped the display, enlarging a genetic code sequence so they could see it. "His DNA matches directly with Subject L-47. She was one of only four subjects who disappeared when the facility was exposed."

Davis went utterly still, a muscle pulsing in the corner of his jaw.

"Her name was Jenny," he growled, fists clenched. "Not 'Subject L-47.' She was my grandmother, not your lab rat."

Oh shit. His grandmother the one who came back from deep space pregnant.

"Fascinating," K ell murmured. "So the lineage continued outside the laboratory."

"Explain," Ryke ordered, stepping closer. "In terms that we can all understand."

K ell swiped through more data, showing them different DNA patterns. "The genetic modifications must have gone dormant in your grandmother's DNA and were passed down through generations. We theorized it was possible, but a stable integration was something that we never achieved in the lab."

"The M'Suun weapons," Mira said, frowning as she read through the charts. "They're triggering these dormant genes?"

"That! Exactly!" K ell nodded as he turned to point at her, approval flashing across his face.

"It was an unexpected side effect rather than an intentional design.

The radiation signature is similar to the one we used in the initial activation trials.

Due to genetic drift, it's close enough to have activated what was your name again? " he asked.

"Davis," he ground out, hands braced on either side of him on the examination bed.

"My twin brother," he said suddenly, looking up. "Would he have the same modifications?"

K ell looked at him sharply. "You have a litaan ? A twin? Identical?"

Davis nodded, his shoulders tight with tension.

"Then yes," the scientist said, "he would carry identical modifications and would undergo the same transformation if exposed to the same energy signature."

She blinked in surprise. Davis had a twin? He'd never mentioned him before. She stepped closer, placing her hand on Davis's arm. Tremors ran through his muscles, and his skin burned beneath her palm, fever-hot and getting hotter.

"So this is from his grandmother? You assholes felt you could just snatch these people and experiment on them?" she demanded. "Without their consent?"

K ell shrugged. "It was standard procedure. The subjects were uncharted species, and the research was deemed necessary."

"They were people ," she snapped, disgust filling her voice. The same disgust was mirrored on the faces of all the Reapers in the room. "Not 'subjects.' With lives and families."

From the corner of her eye, she caught Davis watching her, something like pride in his expression.

K ell shifted uncomfortably. "The past cannot be undone. But perhaps I can help now."

"What happens now?" she asked, focusing on the present. "Can you stop the changes? Reverse them?"

The Latharian hesitated, looking at Davis. "Stop them? Why would we want to? This is the most successful integration in history."

Davis went dangerously still at this response, the muscles in his back tense like a predator ready to strike.

Ryke stepped forward.

"You will help us control these changes," he told K ell, leaving no room for argument. It was the kind of voice that said the other option was a long walk out of a short airlock. In deep space.

K ell suddenly seemed to realize his position, surrounded by mercenaries in a ship far from help. "Of course. Though controlling rather than stopping may be our only option now."

He frowned. "I will need supplies from my lab on Taarian Prime. I have equipment, certain compounds, and medication to help stabilize his condition there."

She glanced across at Davis, then slid her hand into his larger one.

His fingers tightened around hers, the pressure just shy of painful.

A soft chirp at her feet made her look down.

Spot was positioned protectively at her feet.

If even a war machine like Spot could change its purpose, finding new meaning beyond its original design, then Davis could too.

They had answers now, but they'd only uncovered deeper questions about Davis's future, his mysterious twin brother, and what awaited them on Taarian Prime.

For now, all she could do was hold on.