"Ah, you're finally awake," Jason's voice rang. "You missed Jasmine's complete transformation, but I think you'll find the results interesting."

I widened my eyes and looked toward where Jasmine's chair was positioned, and my heart broke entirely at what I saw.

She was still bound to the chair, but she was no longer Jasmine.

Her eyes had become the dull, lifeless white of infected creatures, and she was groaning with the mindless hunger that drove all virus victims. Her beautiful face was now a mask of viral corruption, and when she looked in my direction, there was no recognition, no memory.

"Ha..." I let out a meaningless sound as I opened my lips, staring at the creature that had once been Jasmine. The sound wasn't quite a word, wasn't quite a cry of anguish—it was simply the noise that escaped when the human soul encountered something too devastating to process through normal emotional responses.

It can't be real. This has to be some kind of nightmare, some hallucination brought on by head trauma and exhaustion. Jasmine can't be gone.

Please, let this be a dream. Let me wake up back in our house with everyone safe. Jasmine in the Municipal Office safe. Everyone safe.

But the groaning continued, and the empty white eyes tracked my movement with the mechanical precision of a hunting machine, and I knew with terrible certainty that this was reality. Jasmine was gone forever, transformed into something that would try to kill me without hesitation if given the opportunity.

"Now Jasmine will be with me forever," Jason said with possessive satisfaction as he approached her chair and began removing the barbed wire restraints from around her arms and legs. "She'll never reject me again, never choose someone else over me, never look at me with disappointment or pity."

The infected creature that had been Jasmine moved slightly as the restraints were removed, groaning louder as its primitive nervous system registered the increased freedom of movement. But there was no gratitude in the sound, no recognition of Jason as someone who had cared about her—only the biological drive to hunt and feed that consumed all infected creatures.

"I'll protect her now, keep her by my side, and I'll do a much better job of it than you could in your current pathetic state," Jason continued, running his hand along the infected creature's arm.

"Jason..." I glanced at him, feeling something dark and violent that I'd never experienced before beginning to sprout within my chest like a malignant growth. It was rage beyond anything I'd ever known, hatred so pure and focused that it seemed to burn through my consciousness like acid, leaving behind something harder and more dangerous than the person I'd been before.

The fury was mixing with grief in ways that created emotional combinations I didn't have names for. I wanted to tear Jason apart with my bare hands, to make him suffer in ways that would dwarf anything he'd inflicted on Jasmine and me. But underneath the rage was a bottomless well of sorrow for the future that had been stolen from us, for the woman whose love I'd never have the chance to properly return.

"Now I'll be going to your house," Jason continued with casual indifference to my emotional state, touching the alien stone embedded in his chest with obvious reverence. "Unfortunately, the Starakians want the others you've infected as well—Rachel, Elena, and possibly others. I'll be able to sense them thanks to the stone's connection to their technology."

"Jason..." I clenched my fist on the cold floor as I tried to push myself upright, but immediately discovered that my right wrist was broken, the bones shattered from the enhanced infected's assault. I slipped back to the ground with a grunt of pain, but continued trying to raise my body through pure determination despite the physical impossibility of success.

My body was screaming for rest, for medical attention, for the kind of recovery time that would allow my Dullahan symbiosis to repair the accumulated damage I'd sustained. Every muscle ached, every bone felt cracked or broken, and my head was pounding with the kind of pain that suggested serious concussion or worse.

But I couldn't rest. I couldn't recover. The people I cared about were in immediate danger.

"Tie him securely and guard him carefully," Jason ordered the enhanced infected that had beaten me so thoroughly. "Make sure he can't attempt any more of his little tricks."

The creature lifted me with casual strength and placed me back in the chair where Jasmine had been transformed, securing me with fresh barbed wire that bit into my already lacerated skin. The pain was immediate and sharp, but it felt distant compared to the emotional agony of watching the infected creature that had been Jasmine groaning mindlessly just a few feet away.

Exhaustion was catching up with me from everything I'd endured—the overuse of my abilities, the sustained beating, the psychological trauma of watching someone I loved be destroyed. My body was demanding rest with the kind of insistence that couldn't be ignored much longer.

But tears ran down my eyes anyway, and I could feel my vision blazing red with anger and fury that had nowhere to go. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't I have been stronger, faster, more clever? Why couldn't I have saved her?

Jasmine had trusted me to protect her, and I'd failed completely. She'd followed me into danger because she believed in my capabilities to keep her safe, and instead I'd led her directly to the worst possible fate.

I couldn't bear to look at the infected creature she'd become, couldn't reconcile the groaning predator with the woman who had confessed her love with such courage and vulnerability just hours earlier.

WHY…

WHY??!!!

"I'm going to your house now, Ryan," Jason said, clearly enjoying my helpless rage. "Wait here patiently while I complete my mission. The Starakians seem to want you alive since you're the primary host of Dullahan symbiosis, but the same consideration won't extend to Sydney and the others."

"JASON!!" I shouted his name, tasting pure hatred in my mouth like copper and bile. The syllables felt contaminated by association with the monster he'd become, but I couldn't stop myself from speaking them like a curse.

Jason merely smirked and glanced at the enhanced infected standing guard over me. The creature understood his unspoken command and delivered another devastating punch that sent me spiraling into unconsciousness before I could prepare any kind of defense.

Darkness crashed over me like a tidal wave, and I felt myself falling through layers of consciousness toward something that might have been death or might have been dreams.

But when I opened my eyes, I found myself in a space that was neither the technical operations room nor any location I recognized from the physical world. Everything around me was suffused with bright white light that seemed to emanate from no particular source, creating an environment that felt both infinite and enclosed.

Standing before me in this impossible space was the White Lady, looking exactly as she had during our previous encounters when she'd revealed the truth about Dullahan symbiosis and my enhanced abilities.

"You're in quite a poor state, Ryan," she said.

"What do you want?" I asked, not in any mood to entertain mysterious visitors or cryptic conversations about cosmic responsibilities. Every second I spent in this strange space was time that Jason had to reach my house and carry out whatever horrible plans the aliens had devised for the girls.

I needed to wake up, to find some way to break free from my restraints, to race back to our house before it was too late to prevent another catastrophe like what had happened to Jasmine.

"Your presence has been discovered by the Starakians," she said.

"I already figured that out," I replied with bitter sarcasm. The alien intelligence's awareness of my existence had been obvious from the coordinated attacks we'd been facing, and Jason's transformation into a hybrid creature proved that they had specific plans for dealing with enhanced humans.

But knowing I'd been discovered didn't change anything about my immediate priorities or my desperate need to protect the people who mattered to me.

"The Starakians will send more agents to capture you eventually, using methods similar to how they've corrupted that boy to serve their purposes," she continued, her expression growing more serious.

"Starakians?" I looked at her hearing again that word.

"The race that spread the infected virus throughout your world," she explained simply. "They're a sophisticated species with technology and biological capabilities far beyond what your people have encountered."

"Just who are you, really?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. She'd claimed to be connected to Dullahan symbiosis, but her knowledge of alien species and interstellar conflicts suggested origins much more complex than I'd imagined.

There was a long pause as she seemed to consider how much truth she was willing to reveal. Finally, she spoke with the kind of resignation tone.

"I am the previous host of Dullahan symbiosis," she said, "and..."

The white light around us began to shift and fade, revealing details of her appearance that had been hidden during our previous encounters. What emerged from the concealing radiance was a woman of breathtaking beauty that was genuinely otherworldly rather than simply supernatural.

Her skin possessed a luminous quality that seemed to generate its own soft glow, while her hair was pure white and fell in cascades that defied normal physics. But most striking were her eyes—dark green depths that held knowledge and sadness accumulated along marks the same colour around her eyes like some makeup—and the graceful horns that protruded from the sides of her head like a crown of living bone.

"I'm also a Starakian," she finished.

I stared at her transformed appearance, trying to process the implications of what she'd just revealed. She was a member of the same alien race that had invaded Earth, spread the virus that created infected creatures, and was now systematically hunting enhanced humans like myself.

"What does that mean?" I asked, confusion mixing with the lingering anger that had been consuming me since Jasmine's transformation. "You said you were the previous host of Dullahan—how is that possible if you're from the race that's trying to destroy us?"

"I was indeed a Dullahan host," she confirmed with a nod that made her horns catch the ethereal light in fascinating patterns. "The symbiotic race was originally our enemy, but we recognized the potential within their biological enhancements. Some of us were chosen to serve as hosts for captured symbiotic organisms, using their power as weapons in our own conflicts."

She paused, her dark green eyes growing distant. "I was selected for Dullahan symbiosis and served as a host-warrior for centuries before the circumstances that led to our current situation."

"Is that why I can see you?" I asked. "Because I'm the new Dullahan host and we share some kind of psychic link?"

She nodded with a smile that was both beautiful and infinitely sad. "The symbiotic bond creates connections that transcend normal physical limitations. Your Dullahan organisms carry genetic memories from my own symbiosis, allowing communication across space and time."

"Whatever," I said, closing my eyes and trying to force myself back to consciousness. These revelations were interesting, but they weren't helping me deal with the immediate crisis that threatened everyone I cared about.

I didn't have time to waste on philosophical discussions about alien conflicts that had been going on for centuries. Jason was probably already approaching our house with his infected followers, and every minute I remained trapped in this strange meeting space was time he had to carry out his mission.

"If you act recklessly in your current condition, you're going to die, Ryan," the White Lady said with genuine concern. "Your body is too damaged, your abilities too strained. Attempting to fight in your present state will only result in your death and the failure of your mission to protect others."

"I don't fucking care!" I shouted before I could control myself, my composure finally breaking under the weight of grief and helpless rage that had been building since I'd seen what happened to Jasmine.

I gritted my teeth, trying to suppress the overwhelming emotions that threatened to consume what remained of my rational thinking. But the image of Jasmine's infected face kept flashing through my mind, her empty white eyes and mindless groaning serving as constant reminders of my failure to protect someone who had trusted me completely.

Fuck this…

Jasmine…

She was gone forever, transformed into a creature that would never again smile at me.

I wouldn't let anything happen to Sydney, Rachel, Elena, or the others. I couldn't fail them the way I'd failed Jasmine, no matter what the cost to myself.

"I see," the White Lady said quietly. "Then I suppose you're ready to receive the next power of Dullahan.

I looked at her in surprise.

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