Stephanie, Taeya, Dean, Jessica and now Bella were making their way back to Stephanie’s apartment. This place had been riddled with listening devices and surveillance cameras courtesy of Hyori the Darknet Fairy, so it was no surprise that Taeya felt uneasy to stay here again. She kept looking around every corner, magnifying every single crack and hole she could find until Stephanie grabbed her waist and sat her down slowly. “Calm down, you’re going to give yourself a migraine if you stare at the walls any harder.” Stephanie joked.

“She could still be listening in on us, how can we really trust that this place is clear just because she’s gone?” Taeya questioned.

“I already have Dean looking into that. He has tech in his suit that lets him scan for bugs, so when he’s finished debugging the room it should be safe.” Stephanie reasoned.

“But they know we’re here, why would we come back to such a vulnerable location?” Taeya asked.

“Given the circumstances, I don’t think Hyde will come for any of us.” Stephanie started.

“You don’t think? Well, that’s not very convincing.” Taeya retorted.

“He needs me to get the fusion fist, he won’t come and target me before I have what he wants.” Stephanie reasoned.
“Yeah you might be safe, but what about us? He’s using Sooyoung to leverage you right now, what if he takes Jessica back? Or takes me?” Taeya questioned.

“That won’t happen,” Dean answered.

“Why?” Taeya asked.

“From what Stephanie told us, it seems that Hyde has almost everything in place that he needs to finally succeed. Changing anything too drastically like taking you which could lead to Stephanie having an unpredictable emotional response could be of too high risk to a man like Hyde. If he tried to take you, it could heavily shake the correct trajectory of his plan and he’s not a man to take unnecessary risks.” Dean explained.
“Hmmm, I guess that makes sense assuming we can just believe he has everything in place...” Taeya sighed unnervingly. “There’s still a chance he could take me… and what about Jessica? You or even Bel… Bella? That name… really doesn't suit her…” Taeya trailed off.

“If Hyde needed Jessica and Bella to stay, he wouldn’t have let either of them be rescued by us. As for Dean…” Stephanie looked over to Dean and hoped he would have his own explanation.

“As for me, well, I’ve been of no use to him for decades. I was just the first robotic body on Earth, I’m no asset to his plans now.” Dean confirmed. Taeya still felt uneasy about staying in the apartment, but at this point in time, it was truly the least of their worries. Dean continued doing a bug sweep throughout the entire building and neighboring buildings to make sure they weren’t being spied on from any other sightlines. This left Stephanie, Taeya, a still unconscious Jessica and a confused Bella in the apartment.

Taeya had gone into Jessica’s room to examine her condition while Stephanie waited in the living room for the report. Taeya walked out and gave a sigh of relief. “She’s going to be fine, well as fine as she can be given her new genome,” Taeya stated.
“That’s good… right?” Stephanie questioned.

“Hmm, good isn’t the word. The best way to describe it would be stable… at least for now. Her DNA has been spliced with both Novian and Cryogen DNA and the only reason why she’s still alive right now is because she was mutated by the irradiated lake water when she was a child.” Taeya started. “Her Novian DNA and her Cryogen DNA are unstable, they’re constantly trying to dominate one another. One minute she could be exciting particles in the air and creating light, another minute she could be slowing particle movement so much that she makes it freezing cold and eventually she could even do both at the same time. It would like the northern lights.” Taeya explained.

“Aurora Borealis… Aurora? That could be a sweet name.” Stephanie whispered to herself.
“What?” Taeya asked.
“Nothing, so she’s unstable and she can be an Ice queen one second then Hell-Sica the next, but as long as she doesn’t use her powers it’s relatively safe right?” Stephanie questioned. “As long as she doesn’t use them she can still live? She’s not in need of any alien tech or anything to keep her alive right?”

“Well, no. if she doesn’t use her powers then yeah, she could live perfectly fine, but it’s not that simple. Emotions directly impact how the body feels, if you feel good, your body will also feel good, but if she gets stressed out, or scared, or angry, she could accelerate her constantly fluctuating genes and burst out as she did at the lab. One second of anger could be catastrophic.” Taeya warned.

“I’ll train her.” Stephanie smiled.

“This isn’t something you can just control, Stephie. Especially, Jessica, she’s not exactly the best at controlling her temper and even if she was, that won’t allow her to control her powers. Like I said, feeling good mentally is good for the body, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be problems. Consider it this way, a person with a weight disorder can still feel mentally sound, but it doesn’t stop the possibility of health issues later on.” Taeya reminded.

“Don’t worry about the details, I’ll go talk to her now.” Stephanie quickly jumped up and dashed over to Jessica’s room before Taeya could reject her plan. “Stephie! You can’t just…” Taeya sighed, she knew that stopping her would be useless, she could only hope that she doesn’t annoy Jessica and let the entire planet explode. “Wait, what about Bella?” Taeya questioned as Stephanie reached Jessica’s door.

“You and Dean can work together and forge a new identity for her.” Stephanie yelled.

“WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE? HYORI? WE DON’T HAVE THE…”

“Good luck Taeya, love you!!” Stephanie said before sliding past the door and into Jessica’s room.

The room was dark, it would have been pitch black if it weren’t for the makeshift heart monitors Dean had set up. A smartwatch was connected to Jessica’s slender wrist which monitored her pulse, that’s the best that they could do with their current resources. Jessica was awake but didn’t move, at a glimpse she could have even been mistaken for dead. Her chest barely rose between each breath, her eyes fixed at a portrait of her and her beloved fiancé. The longer the silence lingered the colder the room seemed to be and Stephanie knew this wasn’t just in her head. She walked her way over to Jessica and held her hand, it was ice cold, maybe even colder than that and stung Stephanie’s skin on contact, but she didn’t let go. Jessica still didn’t move, stayed closed and her eyes still fixed upon the portrait, she couldn’t stop thinking about her, the most important part of her life was… missing. When she was younger she always had Krystal, even though she was the older sister, sometimes it felt like Krystal would actually look after her and ever since she graduated, she had Sooyoung. Sooyoung had been the anchor for Jessica for three or four years now, she had spent week after week with the love of her life and suddenly she was just… gone. Their relationship wasn’t perfect for sure, but if she ever left Jessica knew she would return and they would make amends, but now… now she didn’t even know if Sooyoung still breathed. On top of all of that, she knew she had changed, she knew she had been experimented on by her false uncle. She was no longer the Jessica Jung from San Francisco, she wasn’t just a CEO of Blanc and Eclare, she didn’t know what she was. A freak? An abomination? Both? Who knew, all she knew was her life, her regular life was gone. “Was it this bad…” Jessica asked.

“What do you mean?” Stephanie asked.

“Did it feel like this… did it stab you in the heart over and over knowing you would never see you family again Stephanie?” Jessica asked. “When you realized you were abnormal amongst a foreign community when you realized your life had changed forever, did it feel like blades slowly ripping through your very being?” Jessica asked as a tear froze against her icy skin. Stephanie’s hand was going numb, but she didn’t want to let go, she didn’t Jessica to believe she was alone. “No, it was worse. A pain that words can’t even describe, a torment that a soul can only comprehend when you’re suffering through it.” Stephanie replied.

“When… when does it stop… when does the pain… finally… stop…” Jessica huffed. Steam erupted through her violent breaths and Stephanie’s once numb hand had been heated back to normality, but the heat continued to rise. The air was vibrating around