Taken Horizon Origin, volume 2, Descension

Episode 22 : inventing and evolving

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Entry 0-0-3. After several days with Strife's corpse much has been learned about him. His genome itself is unique compared to mine. Although his physical base is human, his DNA is a mix of an ancient species with quantities of dragon and phoenix genomes, and something I've never seen before. I believe Thorn called it aether essence.

However, these strands, in a word are: false. Something has placed masks on the true genes in Strife and mixed them together with something else to make it appear as if there are multiple strands of different bloodlines inside of him when there is in fact only two. Both from different creatures i am unaware of. Most peculiar.

Entry 0-1-1. It has been over a week now since Strife's body was handed to me and there is always one surprise after the other. Thorn has explained in great detail what he and Strife thought his body was meant to be made of, but it appears he was unaware of the truth himself - the same with Strife. However, his body was most certainly created by sciences and not ordinary procreation. There is a recurring irregularity that keeps dismissing this however when the samples of his body suddenly vaporise for no reason.

Attempt of creating a new life form with cloning technology using Strife's blood failed. According to Pettel it was due to the aether ambient in Strife's bloodstream. This should not of been possible unless he was conceived by creatures that could naturally harness aether already like a kralscell. His body's natural healing factor has returned it to peak condition excluding his heart. Peculiar.

Entry 1-6-3. Four months after Strife was put under my care. I believe I'm closing on the problem. Strife's body is hyper-adaptive to pain and regeneration but incapable of healing his hearts in a short period of time. Energy in heavy quantities, or more precisely aether, is needed to resuscitate his heart, but the heart is beyond saving and in need of a replacement. Thorn vigorously revealed the process of how it was created in messy detail but it is impossible to recreate those conditions without Strife doing the operation himself.

For now i am working on creating a mechanical heart to begin the blood flow and allow Strife's brain to acquire the aether and oxygen required to restart it. Hopefully once Strife returns to the light he will be able to answer mine and comrade Pettel's questions.

Entry 4-2-1. Omega Heart prototype-73 will undergo final test-

Pushing a button the recording paused.  Rubbing my hands through my face i lamented the past year of effort that had gone into trying to revive Strife. There must of been something i missed, a clue to fixing him i missed somewhere.

"Need a break?" A large black bird perched itself atop my computer being careful not to dig its ethereal talons into the monitor. "You'll get there eventually, only been improving so far after all." Thorn attempted to comfort me as his long tail feather raised a steaming stone-slate mug full of black liquid to my face. "Neveah, made coffee. Thought you might want some."

Staring at my reflection in the black screen of the monitor through the opening between my fingers, i could see the heavy bags beneath my cloudy-grey eyes getting even worse. "...tell Order i am thankful for the gesture." Taking the stone mug from Thorn's tail with both hands i blew atop it's hot surface. "I still don't understand. You have managed to make a full recovery in your time here and Strife's body has not aged but it's still in the same state as when it was brought here. There has to be something we are not aware of."

Thorn bowed his avian head down, pointing his backwards curling twin horn's to the roof. "Well... i already told you everything i know. His mind's blank so he's not actively trying to stay dead, it's just that he now lacks a heart that can contain his regrets and snark."

After a brief sip of the steaming liquid i leaned back into my leather black chair made of an apocalyi's skin. "Perhaps... it is something to do with the aether's reaction to the emotion he was feeling before he died." Placing the hot mug down i swapped the computer screen to a wavelength of Strife's aether frequency, the same as Thorn's. "What is Strife's relationship with technology?"