A/N: Many, many thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favorited and followed this story. This chapter's a bit shorter, but it's also a very important chapter and probably one of my favorites so far. The next will be longer though, I promise.

Beta-read by Riot Siren.

9:00 PM, December 20th, 2012

Lanshiang, China

"Good news, Dr. Ra – Wong. We're ahead of schedule," the researcher told her, sounding a bit hesitant. She didn't blame him, though; she always looked out-of-place in her surroundings.

Ada wore a wispy, Grecian-style dress, the blue fabric swirling around her bare feet as she entered the lab. The place was cold, clinical and impossibly white. It was as if she were the only source of color in the whole world. She took the clipboard the scientist handed her, but didn't spare a glance at the data. She already knew what she'd see.

"How far ahead of schedule?" Ada asked.

"He's conscious. He can likely hear you."

A perfectly manicured eyebrow arched only slightly to show her interest. Filled with artificial amniotic fluid, as similar to a womb as she'd ever have, she watched her child's eyes recognize her for who she was. Warmth spread through her veins as her heart finally let loose a little of its clenched pain. He was alive and he knew her. The thrill of motherhood sunk its teeth into her and Ada smiled at the fruit of her labor.

The misshapen eyes watched her hand as she laid it against the cool glass. "He's beautiful, Dr. Kellor," she whispered. The blonde-haired man was at her side in an instant, a restrained energy bouncing within him.

"How's the new arm coming?" she added.

"Perfectly, Dr. Wong. It'll be ready by deployment. Several of the detachable prosthetics have already been completed."

It seems unreal, too have come so far in so little time. My sweet, sweet child…

Ada had always thought she would've been a good mother. She'd always wanted a baby, a little life to look up to her.

Mother is God in the eyes of her child.

Yes, Ada had always wanted to be that, too. She'd always wanted to be a god. And in a way, now she was. Her eyes watched the mutated muscles beneath the skin of her newborn ripple and tense, watched as her child rotated his head sluggishly.

Yes, she was the new God.

"What else do we know? I need more details, Benjamin." There were so many questions twisting over themselves in her mind, trying to be the first to claw its way up.

"It was a literal stroke of genius, Ca - Ada," Kellor said, catching himself at the last moment and coming to stand next to her.

"Why are you stuttering, Benjamin?"

"My apologies, ma'am; I'm just excited is all."

They each knew it wouldn't last, but titles could be put aside in the face of their success, their child.
"Combining the G and C viruses and in such a manner; truly brilliant, doctor. He's perfect. His cells reproduce faster than we can even see under a microscope. And, as per your specifications, he's not pathognomonic in any way, shape or form. The viruses will not show up in his cells if he's wounded or if blood tests are performed. He's sterile, essentially. However, as a side effect, he is also incapable of spreading the viruses, unlike typical bio-organic weapons."

"That's good. We wouldn't want it to be communicable. That's asking for an apocalypse we can't control." The possibility sent a shiver down Ada's spine. Even the HAOS project wouldn't be able to keep up with that level of annihilation. We may as well not even bother at that point.

Her steely eyes found his weaker, chocolate brown ones and she was positive there was something else. "What aren't you telling me, Dr. Kellor?"

"I…Dr. Wong…" Benjamin's eyes widened in panic as Carla turned the full brunt of her gaze on him, "It's not something we can fix!" he insisted.

"What's wrong with him?!" she shouted. Fear made her heart spasm. He wouldn't die would he? He couldn't! The very thought threatened her eyes with tears, to make her into a mother weeping for the child that never had a chance to draw his first breath.

I will not allow it, Ada vowed to herself.

"His heart," Benjamin admitted weakly.

Confusion swept across her face. She knew something like this would happen if she left her child in the hands of this imbecile. She fucking knew it.

"What's wrong with his heart, Dr. Kellor? And I promise you, you're going to want to be very clear with me on where the hell you fucked up!"

Ada's voice echoed in the room. Kellor shrank back, then knowing he had no choice, answered her.

"His heart rejected the C-virus. I'm not altogether sure what happened, Dr. Wong. The organ accepted the G-virus, or at least part of it. The C-virus however, was unable to mutate the G- virus. His heart doesn't heal the same way the rest of him does. It is, essentially, the chink in the armor. His one weakness. His—"

Benjamin wasn't expecting the razor-sharp slap. The stinging pain was enough to take him off his feet and send him tumbling to the floor, but she hoped the loss of dignity was even more painful.

"You incompetent failure!" Carla accused, her voice hard and harsh and loud. There was sound of limbs thrashing in liquid, and Carla quickly returned to the tank, her voice suddenly calm, caring and collected. "My poor baby. Shhhh. It's alright. He's just a fool that makes me sick. Don't worry." Her words soothed the abomination, now fully awake and agitated in his glass prison.

"Send me all the data you have on his cardiovascular injections," she said, calmer now. "I will fix this myself."

Kellor pulled himself up off the floor and sighed. "Dr. Wong, with all due respect, you can't."

Her skirts flared at she wheeled on him, her eyes filled with fire and hate. "And why is that?"

"Because we've already tried. I had the entire team in here for nearly two days straight, rerunning every possible genetic sequence to figure out where we went wrong. It's not us, Dr. Wong. It's Mother Nature. The heart rejected the virus, there's nothing else we can do. But it's not even a real weakness. The rest of him regenerates so fast that his heart is in no danger of ever being damaged."

Carla turned away from him, looking back at her now imperfect creation.

"There is…one other thing, Dr. Wong."

"Of course there is." Ada felt tired all of a sudden, and realized she sounded it.

"The heart rejected the C-virus," Kellor said. "The C-virus didn't reject it." The implications of such a statement widened her eyes when she turned to look back at her colleague, now standing farther away than usual.

"You don't mean…"

"I do. The C-virus is constantly pushing to finish the mutation. And as we know, mutation is…incredibly painful."

Ada finished his thought, wiping the stray tears that came to her eyes. "Once he's removed from the tank, he'll be in constant pain. But the pain will make him strong. He'll be better because of it. If he's filled with rage, if he's filled with hate from the pain, he'll be so much more." She didn't know if she said it for her baby's benefit, or for hers.

Forcing any remnants of feelings from her face, Ada turned to Benjamin. "Have the last arm finished as quickly as possible. He gets deployed in four days."

"Yes ma'am. But, have you thought of what to name him? The man he was isn't…there anymore. He needs a new name."

Ada smiled darkly and stared up at the beautiful face of her child. "We'll call him Ustanak."

Benjamin said nothing as he watched Ada leave. It was a strange to see such emotion on her artificial features. He had never felt such revulsion as he did when he looked upon her face to find her sadness pouring out of her eyes in salty rivers.

How disgusting.

His face still stung and his rage was boiling. How dare she, when he'd done everything to make this a reality? He'd handled the tests, he'd cleaned up all the messes, he sat with that thing for nights on end, telling himself that it was all worthwhile, that Carla knew what she was doing.

That everything would be okay.

He glared at the glass tube, knowing that nothing would ever again be okay once this monster was unleashed. Benjamin would become a bio-terrorist, a criminal of the worst kind to much of the world. He'd be reviled, hated and chased across the planet for daring to become involved in the darker aspects of science.

Kellor shook his head, sitting himself down in a nearby chair with his head in his hands, the very picture of a man with the weight of the world on his back. He had been reviled before, he'd been hated before. That was nothing new. But the chance of losing his freedom?

He was reminded of when Carla stole him from Simmons all those years ago. Of what Simmons had ordered him to do what he did to that poor, Birkin girl.

Benjamin shook his head to dispel the memory.

Carla had saved him from Simmons' treachery, but "Dr. Ada Wong" wasn't exactly a stranger to it herself. Oh yes, he knew the truth about Carla. He'd been there when she came out of that chrysalis. Still, he had seen no better plan at the time, no safer place. She'd kept him out of prison, only to hand him this project. It was as sure a prison sentence as what he'd done in the bowels of that building to the Birkin girl.

Kellor stood up, went to the tank's control console and set the tank to purge. If the creature was being deployed, it was time he learned to walk, after all.

He walked towards the glass tank, crinkling his nose as the warped features of his project.

"Do you know what she called you? Do you know your name is Ustanak?" Benjamin asked, watching the creature's lumbering head form a crude nod of acknowledgement. "It means 'revolution.' Couldn't be more fitting, could it?" Benjamin said, staring down at his own weathered hands. "You're going to change the world." The pale green fluid swirled at the Ustanak's movements. His hand reached out, as if he were reaching for his salvation.

Benjamin never thought he'd feel his heart break in such a way. The hopelessness of such a small gesture struck him hot and vicious like a lightning bolt. This thing was as much a prisoner as he was.

His cage is just less gilded than mine.

"You are not hers." He fought to keep his voice from shaking as the sirens blared, and the fluid began to bubble and quake as it drained. The whir of the pumps caused every other sound to evaporate.

"You are mine, more so than you will ever know."

A/N: I hope you guys are still liking the story, and like always, I can always use more music suggestions. I'd also really love to hear if you guys have any theories about what's going on from what you learned in this chapter.