The aftermath of the battle left more questions than answers. As dawn crept through the broken skyline, painting the ruins in pale gold, a strange silence settled over the city. Not the silence of peace, but of evolution.
Kairos stood alone on the rooftop of the Providence mobile base. Below, engineers and field agents scurried about, collecting data from the skirmish with the EVOs. The CORE SHARD hovered silently beside him, its light dimmed but still active.
Inside him, the nanites continued to hum with purpose.
Stage Two: Stabilized. Neural Sync: 100%. Latency: Zero.
He had changed, again. More subtle this time. His senses expanded—he could feel the fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field, detect minor shifts in gravitational pull, even sense distortions in quantum energy. And in the center of it all, the CORE SHARD had become more than a tool. It was now an extension of his will.
The silent evolution had begun.
"Kairos."
He turned to find Ben—still in her altered female form—standing at the rooftop's edge, arms crossed, eyes soft with a mixture of curiosity and tension.
"You didn't sleep," she said.
"I don't need to anymore."
She approached slowly. "Providence doesn't know what to do with you. Neither do I."
"I'm not surprised."
Ben studied him carefully. "I know what it's like to carry power no one else understands. But this... this is different. You're different."
Kairos didn't respond at first. His gaze drifted toward the horizon, where the sun was rising over fractured towers. Finally, he said, "I'm what happens when evolution skips steps. I'm the future that was supposed to be impossible."
Ben stepped beside him. "You never talk about your past. Before you showed up."
"There's a reason for that."
"Let me guess—because it would change everything?"
"No," Kairos said. "Because it already has."
A long silence passed between them.
Then Ben reached out, her fingers brushing against his hand. The touch was soft. Hesitant. "I don't know what this change did to me. I feel... like I'm not just different on the outside. The Omnitrix isn't reacting the same way. It's like... it recognizes me as someone else now."
Kairos turned toward her, eyes sharp but not cold. "Because it does. Your DNA was rewritten to a form that shouldn't exist. Not by the Omnitrix, but by proximity to me."
Ben blinked. "Wait—you did this to me?"
"Not on purpose. Your molecular pattern resonated with my nanites. It forced a harmonization. You adapted—permanently."
She took a step back, breath catching. "So this isn't temporary."
"No. But it's not a curse. It's evolution, just like me."
Ben looked away, hands clenching. "You should've told me."
"I don't tell anyone about my past," Kairos said. "But you're part of my present now."
That quiet confession hit deeper than he intended.
Before she could reply, alarms blared across the base.
"EVO breach! Sector 9 perimeter!"
Six's voice crackled over the comms. "All units, engage defensive positions!"
Kairos didn't wait. He activated the CORE SHARD, which unfolded like a mechanical flower and launched into the air. He followed, leaping from the rooftop with Ben at his side, the wind tearing past them as they descended.
Below, new EVOs emerged—not random mutations, but coordinated. Intelligent. Their bodies bore signs of artificial shaping, as if someone had learned to guide the nanites.
Kairos landed hard, nanites flaring outward in a shockwave. "These aren't ferals. They're engineered."
Ben transformed mid-air, landing in her Jetray form. "You think Van Kleiss is behind this?"
"Maybe. Or something worse."
As they fought, Kairos noticed the nanites within the enemy reacting to his CORE SHARD—imitating its patterns. Learning from it.
He called out to Ben, "We need to isolate the lead EVO. They're connected!"
She nodded and dove forward, lasers cutting a path as Kairos pushed through the chaos. He reached the lead EVO—a towering, crystalline beast with a humanoid core—and unleashed his nanites in a focused stream.
The CORE SHARD snapped into attack mode, encasing the enemy in a black prism. Kairos stepped forward, placing his hand on the surface.
Inside the prism, the EVO's eyes glowed—and then shifted, blinking with awareness.
It spoke.
"You are not the only evolution."
Kairos froze.
Ben landed beside him, shocked. "It talked."
He stared into the prison, his voice cold. "Who made you?"
The creature smiled. "You did."
The prism shattered.
Kairos was thrown back, nanites screaming in panic. The battle had just begun.
And somewhere in the depths of the Earth, more were awakening.
To be continued in Chapter 5: Code of the Forgotten