The Star-Seed Harmonizer sat in Mei's palm, a marble of impossible geometry that seemed to pull the light from the room into its violet-gold core. It didn't just sit there; it pulsed with a low-frequency hum that resonated with the very marrow of her bones, a rhythm that felt ancient and mathematical. Jin watched her from his place on the floor, his new ivory skin glowing faintly in the dark, his breath hitched in his chest. The sacrifice he had made—burning his own bloodline—clung to the air like the smell of a storm.
"Do it, Mei," Seraphina commanded from the doorway, her silver eyes fixed on the flickering shadows of the hallway.
Mei closed her eyes and swallowed the pill. It didn't slide down her throat like common medicine. The moment it touched her tongue, it dissolved into a burst of pure, raw information that felt like drinking liquid lightning. Her world instantly turned into a white void as the "Origin" energy flooded her system, seeking out the broken connections in her spine. It wasn't a sudden, magical cure that instantly restored her; it was a structural, agonizingly realistic reconstruction.
Within the silence of her mind, Mei felt the "Harmonization" process begin at the base of her skull. It felt like thousands of microscopic needles made of light were stitching together the frayed ends of her neural pathways. In the real world, her body arched violently, her back stiffening against the chair as her nervous system was forcefully re-coded. She let out a soundless scream, her jaw locked in a spasm of neurological shock. The pill was bridging the "Neural Gap"—the void that had existed between her high-frequency soul and her paralyzed physical body for a decade.
For the first time in ten years, a signal broke through the dead static of her lower body. It wasn't the sensation of touch or movement initially; it was pain. It was a sharp, electric fire that traveled from her tailbone down to her thighs, a burning heat so intense it felt like her veins were being filled with molten lead. To Mei, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever felt because it meant the void was gone.
Outside the door, the hallway erupted in a blinding flash of white light. An Enforcer flashbang detonated, sending a shockwave through the thin walls of the unit. Seraphina didn't flinch. As the door was kicked open by a pressurized hydraulic boot, she moved with a fluid, terrifying grace. The first Enforcer stepped in, a hulking figure in matte-black riot gear raising a high-voltage stun-baton. Seraphina reached out, her hand moving faster than the man's combat-assistance software could track. She grabbed the head of the baton, and the silver frost on her skin surged forward. The weapon didn't shock her; instead, the silver energy traveled down the baton, freezing the Enforcer's mechanical arm and the air around it instantly. With a sharp, metallic crack, she shattered the frozen limb, her expression as cold as the ice she commanded.
Inside the unit, Mei was sweating through her clothes, her skin flushed a deep, feverish red. The harmonization was reaching her extremities now, a sensory assault that her brain struggled to categorize. She could feel the texture of the thermal blanket against her knees; she could feel the cold, vibrating metal of her wheelchair's frame. It was an overwhelming flood of data. "Wiggle your toes," a voice whispered in her mind—Jin's voice, carried through the residual link of the pill. Mei focused all of her will, ignoring the sound of combat and the wail of sirens. She poured her entire soul into the tip of her right foot. A twitch. It was a fraction of a millimeter, a tiny movement that would have been invisible to anyone else, but to her, it was a tectonic shift in her reality.
Seraphina ducked under a hail of rubber bullets and pulse-rounds in the hallway, her silver eyes flaring with a violent light. She wasn't invincible; a stray round grazed her shoulder, tearing her coat and drawing a line of red blood. The sight of her own blood seemed to break a seal within her. She slammed her palms into the floor, and the moisture in the stagnant slum air condensed instantly. Jagged spikes of ice erupted from the walls, impaling the Seeker-Drones and pinning the remaining Enforcers to the ceiling in a display of lunar authority.
"Finish it..." Seraphina hissed, her glow flickering as the drain on her soul intensified. "The heavy units... they are coming."
Mei took a deep, ragged breath. Her lungs, now fully synchronized with her diaphragm, felt powerful. She reached out and grabbed the edge of her wheelchair, but she didn't use it to pull herself up. She used the floor. Pushing with her hands, she forced her weight onto her heels. Her leg muscles, thin and wasted from years of disuse, began to swell and glow with a soft violet light—the residual power of the Star-Seed. Slowly, painfully, one grueling inch at a time, Mei stood up. Her knees trembled, her muscles screamed in protest of the gravity they hadn't felt in a decade, but she stood. She was no longer just a ghost in the machine; she was a Valkyrie reborn in the flesh.