The main research chamber glowed in sterile white, the silence broken only by the hum of machines.
10:25 PM.
Tian, Amara, and the others stood in a circle. In the center, two obsidian orbs rested on the containment table. Black, smooth, flawless—yet inside them shimmered tiny motes of starlight, like galaxies trapped in glass.
They had run every scan.
Quantum. Spectral. Magnetic.
Every reading returned the same answer: impossible energy.
"Technology? Magic? Or… something else?" Tian's voice was low, heavy with doubt. The question gnawed at every mind in the room.
Science had no answers.
Dr. Yuki Tanaka finally broke the silence. "Perhaps… what we need isn't more analysis." Her eyes flickered with something between fear and resolve. "Perhaps… a leap of faith."
The group hesitated—but one by one, they placed their hands on the orbs, passing them gently, like sacred relics. Their lips moved in whispered prayers—pleas to gods they didn't believe in, hopes they couldn't voice aloud.
Nothing.
The orbs remained silent.
Frustration simmered. The air grew heavy with doubt.
Then—
Amara grinned. That familiar spark of mischief lit her face.
"Thanks, gods… for the cosmic candy!"
Before anyone could stop her, she popped one of the orbs into her mouth like a sweet.
Laughter erupted—short, nervous, but real. The suffocating tension cracked for the first time that night.
Then the laughter stopped.
Amara's smile faltered. Her tongue tingled. Her pupils dilated, black swallowing the whites of her eyes.
"Amara?" Elena's voice broke.
The orb dissolved. Not swallowed—absorbed. Light surged through Amara's body. She convulsed, collapsing to the floor.
"Vitals steady!" Kai shouted, scanning her. "No damage!"
Yet her eyes…
Her eyes were no longer human. Starlit blackness swirled within them, galaxies orbiting in miniature.
Alarms wailed. Life-support systems activated. The chamber spun into chaos.
Minutes bled into hours.
Two hours of tense waiting, as Amara's body glowed faintly with cosmic energy, her skin lit like constellations beneath the flesh.
Then—she stirred.
Her eyes opened. Flecks of cosmic light danced in her irises, bright, alive, endless.
"I…" Her voice trembled, yet it carried a strange resonance. "I travelled through galaxies. I saw civilizations rise and fall. A thousand lifetimes compressed into moments. The very laws of reality sang to me…"
She sat up, her skin sparking faintly with quantum shimmer.
"I… feel awake."
The room froze in silence.
Elena pressed a trembling hand to her face, tears sliding down her cheek. "She's… changed."
Was it evolution? Ascension? Or something utterly new?
Tian's hand hovered over the second orb.
It pulsed faintly, as if aware of him. As if calling him.
One orb had transformed Amara into… this.
What would happen if he took the other?
Would he share her awakening?
Or unleash something far worse?
The chamber buzzed with fear and wonder. The scientists argued in hushed tones, torn between hope and dread.
But Tian's gaze never left the second orb. His chest tightened with the weight of decision.
As midnight fell, the underground no longer felt like a tomb. It pulsed with possibility.
Amara's awakening had illuminated a path forward.
And Tian stood at the edge of it—his hand trembling between salvation and catastrophe.
Would he take the leap?