Ray watched the way his mother's hand trembled slightly as she lifted her coffee mug, the subtle wince of pain she tried to hide as she shifted in her wheelchair. Every small, pained movement was a fresh stab of guilt in his own chest. He was a liar, sitting at a table built on lies, paid for with blood and stolen memories.

After the meal, as Alyna began to clear the table, the familiar, comfortable rhythm of their new domestic life settling around them, Ray knew he couldn't wait any longer. He had made a promise. The weight of his secrets was becoming too heavy to bear.

"Wait," he said, his voice low and serious, instantly cutting through the light atmosphere. "I have something to tell you, both of you."

Alyna froze, a plate held mid-air, her eyes wide with a sudden, dawning apprehension. Lina turned her wheelchair from the window, her own expression shifting from quiet contentment to a familiar, weary concern.

Ray looked at Alyna, a silent plea for her support, for her strength, passing between them. She gave a single, almost imperceptible nod.

Then, Ray turned his full attention to his mother. He knelt on the floor before her, taking her frail, cold hands in his own.

Alyna came and knelt beside him, her hands clasped tightly on Ray's arm.

He looked at his mother's frail, trusting face, and for a moment, he wanted to run. To lie. To say anything other than the monstrous truth. But he owed her this. He owed them both this. The confession, the monstrous, impossible truth, was a physical weight in his throat, a story that, once told, could never be taken back.

He took a breath that he didn't need anymore, and began.

"Mom…" he started, his voice a flat, clinical monotone. "The Ray you knew, your son… he's not really here anymore. He was shot in an alleyway twelve days ago. The official cause of death would have been classified as 'multiple gunshot wounds resulting in catastrophic blood loss.'"

Lina's hands, held tight in his, went limp for a second before her grip tightened with a strength he didn't know she possessed. Her eyes, searched his.

Alyna's hand on his back trembled.

"As I was dying," Ray continued, his voice unwavering, "I heard something drop right next to me. It was an injector, or at least something that looked similar… The contents… were not medicinal. They were some kind of super-advanced nanites. They rebuilt me, replaced the damaged tissue and then they replaced the rest." He looked from his mother's terrified face to Alyna's, his own expression a blank mask. "There is no organic matter left. I am composed entirely of these nanites."

He paused, letting the monstrous weight of his words settle in the sunlit room.

"The money for this apartment," he said, his gaze sweeping over their new, clean home, "was earned by killing and… taking assets. The same is true for the food we just ate. My recent jobs, the 'turbo intake,' the 'client work'… they were all fabrications to hide what I was really doing."

He looked back at his mother. "The nanites… they can consume things. Organic or inorganic. Their bodies, their mods… their minds. I now have the memories and skills of at least eight other individuals integrated into my own. Red, Ripjaw, Ethan, Rex, Maceo… they're all just… part of me now."

He finally let go of his mother's hands, the confession complete. He had laid the truth bare, a clinical, brutal dissection of the monster he had become.

As Ray's words fell into the heavy silence, Lina didn't react with shock or overt horror. There were no gasps, no screams. Instead, a deep, profound weariness settled over her features, a lifetime of pain and loss resurfacing. It was a look of tragic, heartbreaking recognition. She had seen this pattern before. She had lived this story before.

When she finally spoke, her voice was heavy with the weight of her entire life. "First my father," she said softly. "A monster on the streets, a kind man at home. Then your father, James… doing things he never told me about, all 'for our own good.' And now you, my son." Her gaze was unwavering, filled with a terrible, loving clarity. "You all become monsters to protect your family, and you think we don't see the blood on your hands."

Ray saw her sorrow, the weariness in her eyes, but in his own desperate need for her to understand, he misinterpreted it as disbelief. He needed to show her. He needed her to see the literal, physical truth.

"No, Mom," he said, his voice cracking with a sudden, raw emotion. "You don't understand. I'm not just acting like a monster. I am one."

He stood up.

His body shifted with a sound like grinding metal and wet, tearing fabric. The air in the room grew heavy, charged with a low, humming energy as his mass increased, his very presence seeming to suck the light and warmth from the sunlit apartment. The floorboards groaned under his new weight. His nanites reconfigured with a soft, unsettling sound, like a million tiny insects stirring beneath his skin. His frame grew, thickened, his clothes dissolving and reforming into plates of thick, black combat armor. His lower face and neck disappeared, replaced by a seamless mantle of matte-black carbon fiber. His jaw widened, and his mouth filled with multiple, interlocking rows of serrated, needle-sharp teeth, like a deep-sea predator.

He had become Ripjaw.

The monstrous, hulking figure of the snap he had killed in West Line now stood in their small, sunlit living room, a terrifying, silent testament to his confession.

Alyna gasped and physically recoiled, scrambling backward on her knees, her hand flying to her mouth, a strangled sob escaping her lips. Her fear was a raw, visceral thing, a stark contrast to Lina's weary acceptance.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But Lina… Lina did not scream. She did not flinch. She closed her eyes for a long, painful moment, a single tear tracing a path through the deep lines on her face. When she opened them again, the fear was gone, replaced by a love so fierce and so profound it seemed to hold the monster itself at bay. She simply looked up at this terrifying creature, at this impossible monster that was her son.

"Oh, Ray," she whispered to the monster before her. "You foolish, beautiful boy. What have you done to yourself?"

Ray was speechless, but only for a moment. His gaze dropped to his black gauntlets.

Lina wheeled herself forward, grabbing his hands, her touch trembling but determined. He looked aside, unable to meet her searching eyes.

"Ray?" his mother whispered.

He didn't answer. His throat felt tight, the room suddenly too small. Alyna moved close, placing a gentle hand on his matte black mantle, her warmth an anchor in the storm.

Ray took a step back, every instinct screaming at him to run, to disappear. Even with his dulled emotions, this was too much. His knees buckled and he sank heavily to the floor.

Alyna wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him fast, as if to keep him from slipping away. His mother cupped his face, her palms trembling.

"Look at me, Ray," she pleaded.

He tried to resist, but the pain in her voice pulled him in. His eyes trembled as he finally lifted them to meet hers.

"Listen to me, Ray—no matter what happens, you will always be my son."

"But—" Ray began, voice breaking, but Lina cut him off with a sharp, fragile "No." She leaned forward, eyes clenched tight to keep the tears from spilling over. Ray flinched at the intensity of her love and her pain.

"It's okay, Ray," Alyna whispered, holding him tighter. His form shimmered, nanites shifting, until he was Ray again—at least on the outside.

The hardest step had been taken. For a few minutes, he knelt before his mother, Alyna's hand in his, Alyna still holding Lina's other hand in a small circle of comfort and pain.

"I…" Lina tried to speak, but her words caught. "You said Ray is dead?"

"Yes," he answered quietly, his hand clenching unconsciously. "At first I thought it was just my body being replaced—nanites, prosthetics. Julia ran some tests, and it turned out I'm not human. She scanned me, and the image was all white, like my body was filled with something solid. I thought maybe the nanites were just blocking the scan, but soon it became clear—there's nothing organic left. I'm all nanites now." He lifted his hand and tapped the middle of his forehead. "I was shot twice in the head with a sniper rifle. I didn't die—no blood, no brains, nothing. Just a hole that patched itself up. I'm not Ray anymore. I'm… a simulacrum."

Alyna's voice was small: "Maybe your brain is somewhere else in your body?"

He shook his head. "No, Alyna. There's nothing left. I'm not organic."

Lina's hands shook as she drew a shuddering breath. She bowed her head, murmuring a prayer under her breath.

"It doesn't matter, Ray. We still love you," Alyna said, her voice fierce through the tears.

Ray glanced at the ceiling, feeling the weight of countless memories—his and not his—pressing down on him. He looked at Alyna, who was crying openly now, grief and love mixing on her cheeks. He saw her attachment to the ghost in him, and knew it was time to say it.

"Alyna…" Ray said. She didn't meet his eyes. "I still love you. I have those memories—of you, and Ray."

She tried to smile through her tears. "Of us."

Ray shook his head. "You need to let go. The Ray you loved… he died."

Alyna trembled, and then her grief erupted into a righteous fury. "Don't you dare tell me who I love!" she snapped, her voice laced with hurt and anger. "You think you're just a ghost? A copy? I'm the one who sat with you, who held your hand, who talked to you! I see the man, not the machine! Your identity isn't just about what you're made of; it's about what you do, who you love. And you love us! That's Ray! Don't you dare try to erase that just because you're scared!"

Her words hung in the air, a fierce defense of their connection, of him.

He slowly rose, glancing at his mother—at Lina, blue eyes filled with heartbreak and strength. "I'm sorry for the lies, for all the deception. I just wanted to keep alive this little paradise—this family he wished for."

He turned to the door, but Alyna's hand caught his. Then Lina's hand, too—soft, shaking, unwilling to let go.

"Don't worry. I'll keep paying for this apartment. And I promise I'll earn the money to cure you… Mom." The word caught, bitter in his mouth. "I promise."

"Ray, don't leave," Lina whispered, voice breaking.

He looked at Alyna, his expression raw, desperate. "I can't stay. I am a walking, talking, unpredictable weapon. The only way to keep you safe... is to be gone."

He pulled his hands free and moved towards the door.

Lina's voice, suddenly firm despite its weakness, stopped him in his tracks. "Ray, please. Don't do this." He turned, and saw not just a frail, sick woman, but the matriarch of his broken family, her eyes blazing with a fierce, protective love. "Don't make the same mistake your father did. He chose to walk into danger alone because he thought he was protecting us, and it left a hole in this family that has never healed. Don't create another one."

She wheeled herself closer, her gaze unwavering. "This family, Ray, however broken it is… this is your anchor. Don't cut the rope."

Ray stood at the precipice, torn between his logical fear and their illogical love.

"Goodbye," he said, his voice thick with an emotion he couldn't name, and not turning around, he walked out.

The door hissed open before him, and then, with a final, silent thud, it closed, leaving him alone in the hallway.

The apartment door hissed open, and Alyna rushed out, her sapphire eyes red-rimmed as she searched the dim, humming hallway. But there was no one there. He was gone. She stood for a long moment, staring at nothing, her fists clenched at her sides. Then, with a shuddering breath, she wiped the tears from her face and retreated back inside, the door closing with a soft, final click.

Ray was already in the parking lot behind the building, the cool morning air a welcome shock to his system. He glanced up at the window he had just jumped from, a dark square in a wall of indifferent concrete, then turned and started to walk.

He turned off his interface, severing his connection to the digital world. Hours passed like a blur. He just walked, with no destination, a ghost moving through the city's veins. He passed under the lurid glow of neon signs, their colors painting his face in shifting, artificial hues. He moved through crowds of shouting, laughing people, past the hiss of street-side food vendors, the buzz of cargo drones, the endless river of traffic.

He thought of everything he had said, of the brutal, clinical way he had delivered the monstrous truth.

Maybe I should have taken it slower, he thought, the words a hollow echo in his mind. But the thought passed. In the end, the result would have been the same. To try for any other ending would have been a lie. A lie to himself, to Alyna, to… Lina.

He turned down a narrow, reeking alleyway when he heard a crash from above. Glass and metal rained down, shattering on the grimy pavement just behind him.

He spun around. His optics focused as he activated his KRYPTLINE-X.

A man had dropped from the second floor. He was covered in deep cuts and blood—no, not cuts. Sutures. Hasty, brutal stitches that had ruptured, dripping blood onto the filthy ground. His arms and legs were a chaotic mess of mismatched, poor-quality mods. From the mangled wreck of his cybernetic arms, long blades, still covered in slick, wet gore, protruded like the limbs of some hellish mantis. His eyes, wide and unblinking, glowed with a blood-red light.

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