The Dragonheart Crown's thorns pierced Raine's temple with glacial cracks. Serena's mangled draconic claws gripped his newborn gills: "Hatchling...remember this pain...your mother's last..."
As memories drained, Raine saw sparks from Ellen's mechanical spine imprinting Elaina's face on his retinas. He reached for the phantom, mucus-coated fingers passing through quantum flesh: "Mom...the ice coffin..."
"Vessel Reclamation Code 098 verified." Void-slime oozed from the crown's inner engraving, trickling into his mouth—Elaina's lactation tea flavor, iron and chamomile cloying.
Ellen's starlit scales shed in avalanches, revealing the metallic skull beneath magma glare. Her mechanical fingers spasmed into Raine's gills, extracting three inverted fangs: "Memory purge 73%...recommend deleting..."
Garret's ice-claw speared intervening space, ooze congealing into Citadel sanctum three years past—Raine crowning Elaina's bleeding forehead. Child Ellen's optics pivoted: "Vessels shouldn't harbor self-awareness..."
"Wake up!" Serena's asphalt wing shattered holograms, her hand crushing Ellen's neck. "Tin girl's giving you a lobotomy!"
Raine's pupils split focus—left eye seeing Elaina in Ellen's chassis, right eye noting matching runes in her skull. He bit through her shoulder armor, tasting void-slime and grease.
"Gene suppression complete." The crown's thorns contracted, grinding three years' memories into crystal dust. Raine's human-round pupils traced Ellen's exposed skull: "Mother...new prosthesis?"
Serena's roar shook ice from ceilings. She ripped open her charred chest, hurling asphalt heart at the crown: "Look what you've made! He forgot murdering you 298 times!"
Ellen's scales formed shields against the heart. Her voice played Elaina's recording: "When vessel fails recognition...execute..."
Garret's claws gouged containment trenches, ooze spinning memory carousels—Raine killing Ellen through cycles. His wolf ears bled crystals: "Fuck...worse than AA meetings..."
Code 098 projected holograms marking Citadel's slime pools. Void-matter oozed from Raine's nostrils, childishly tugging Ellen's fingers: "Mother...I dreamed you grew grapes..."
Serena's claws impaled her own chest, extracting Dracula's fang necklace. She shoved it into Raine's gills, asphalt blood reacting into crosses: "Count the fangs...times you killed me..."
Ellen's skull split open, revealing crown-matched control chips. Her optics shifted to Elaina's hazel: "Medicine time, my child..."
Raine drank the slime vial, neck scar syncing with Code 098. Memories stabbed his brain—
Serena shielding him from holy cannons in Cycle 177... Ellen dismantling her core for time-leap in 243... Garret stopping world fission with self-impalement in 298...
"Redundancy cleared." Ellen's fingers pierced barriers, scales choking Serena. "Vessel primed...reclamation..."
The crown's weight multiplied, fracturing Raine's skull. Code 098's projection showed Elaina clones kneeling with 298 crowns: "Become god...or grave..."
Serena's wings combusted. She snapped off a horn, thrusting it into Raine's hand: "Pry open...the crown..."
Dracula's specter oozed from the necklace: "Spoilers ruin endings..."
Raine's split pupils mirrored Ellen's skull runes and Serena's burning wing tattoo—dated his incubation.
"Mother..." He plunged the horn into the crown. "Why...so bitter..."
Submerged Currents
Garret's ooze-vision showed Dracula's fangs absorbing memory dust. In Citadel's slime pools, Elaina clones' foreheads glowed with Ellen's skull runes...