Epoch of Apokoliptic Genetica

Dinner was solemn and rather uneventful except for the fact that Kane had to agree- Selena's cooking was incredible.

In all of his shared lifetimes, good food was a scarcity on Nomos and even his 2000 years on Earth- he spent them as a shut in, working single mindedly on his projects.

"So what's the issue with my Biomarker?",Kane asked he sat beside Selena while she tinkered on it.

"It's software that needs a reset, I've been trying to fix this since yesterday night, right after you fainted - this hard reset will take a while and as soon as it does your people should be able to detect this immediately ", She set the Platinum Biomarker aside and turned to face him.

"Since we have time, let me ask you something weird I noticed", Selena spoke with a curious gaze.

Kane didn't see a problem with it and nodded.

"I'm surprised you didn't die from your wounds - I just patched you up the best I could but Damn! Your willpower was incredibly strong to recover to this state, though your condition is not that good- I specifically made that stew to test if you could eat it- you did- Can you let me examine your body with my Quantum Soul, for science?", Selena seemed to be very interested in all of this.

" Sure go ahead",Kane shrugged.

He knew his current condition, On Nomos - Psionic Survival Tactics was ingrained into their very core.

They learnt to tap into their innate dormant Psionics and subtly use it to support their Physical Bodies while also learning how to inversely Shield their Soul with Physical Bodies...

Besides he really wanted to know about her Quantum Soul... Because she had not given into the Veil like Jiah and the others.

Infact he was very lucky in the battle with Jiah and the Absolution Cultists, he caught them off guard while they were disorientated by the lights and went for a Psychological crippling blow to Jiah by ripping her eyes out, to exploit the loss of focus or ingrained survival instinct.

If they all had released their corrupted Quantum Souls, the fight would have gone very differently...

Selena suddenly leaned in close and as her icy blue eyes glowed, her Quantum Soul manifested in her hand, A Mechanical Eye with a glowing blue pupil- it was a mechanized type.

As he gazed into the Intricate Mechanical Eye, he felt something tingle slightly but he couldn't tell what exactly it was...

"I... What... how are you healing so fast?!", Selena exclaimed incredulously.

"There is something on with your Psionics, it's - I don't know what to say-Wow...",Selena retracted her Quantum Soul and she her eyes looked at him strangely.

" You are not Kane Solaris, this is the second irrefutable proof... ", She spoke and sighed.

Kane merely smiled at her lightly.

And then he asked," What is your Quantum Soul exactly?"

Selena looked back at him sharply and then spoke,"Do you actually know "more" about the Quantum Soul?"

"I have some theories and just the one experience , I've never seen another human being with a Quantum Soul ", he replied honestly.

" I suppose I'll let it pass for now... We don't actively reveal the name of the Quantum Soul, you only describe it as minimally as possible, remember these 2 simole rules- one! Don't tell everything! Two!- Let them guess! Got it?!", She immediately lectured him like cat who got her tail stepped on.

"... I didn't know, Sorry about that",Kane couldn't help but chuckle about it and Selena began to relax at that.

"Well since you were so generous first, I'll show you my Quantum Soul",Kane replied and then closed his eyes to find that connection...

Except- it was off- dormant- unawakened...

"What the ? Why can't I sense it?", He looked a bit confused as he was unable to manifest his Quantum Soul.

"Well the previous Kane never fully awakened his Quantum Soul", This time she smirked at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

" You know more than you're letting on- don't you", Kane couldn't help but feel some kind of foreboding at her words and braced for the cringe Gravy.

"I do, infact it was the most famous awakening ceremony of all of Astra! Maybe across entirety of the Earth!", She giggled softly much to Kane's dismay.

"You quit midway because you couldn't handle the pain and peed on the spot! Pffft and what's worse you were screaming loudly as it sloshed - it was a very memorable incident, Good of you to provide service for us unwashed masses", As she spoke, She saw Kane facepalm himself and shudder before laughing together with her.

"Oh man- That's one way to fail your Quantum Soul awakening spectacularly...", He shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"Well you could still try to awaken it you know- without the Free Entertainment - You can't cultivate without a Quantum Soul after all", She gave him the most kind smirk he had seen do far.

"Yeah... Hey about when my People come for me, I want you to take sole credit, you saved me and cleaned me up-you found me without memories and in shock"

"And don't mention Veil Daemons or Cultists either, it will make things more... Complicated", He added after a bit of thought.

"Speaking of which- this is the most recent data I recovered from your Biomarker logs- you better keep your story straight if you want to blend in",Selena showed her Datapad with a lot of call logs.

Mostly from calls that the previous Kane had sent...

Kane played the call logs one by one and his expression became stoic as the call logs went on.

"Mom, Please send someone! Anyone - Jiah's gone crazy! They are beating me up! Please..."

"Is this another scam - I don't want to hear it now, Don't call me until you log back at home..."

"Dad, Please listen to me! I am being tortured here- It hurts so much Please!"

"Son, this is the 47th time you made a call like this, in the same year- I am not going to give you cash... Just come home- WITHOUT JIAH"

"Sis.."

"Not hearing it- DON'T CALL ON THIS BIOMARKER!!!

"Bro... Bro"

"Don't drag me into this*SNAP"

"Zed..."

*Zed has declined your call please call again later

.

.

.

"It's a bit sad, to have everyone you care about turned against you - I am not saying you are not at fault but man - hearing these records...", Selena didn't feel comfortable at all with these records.

"It's pathetic ", Kane spoke calmly.

"He was pitiable person who didn't want to face reality and sought to escape it through other means - He squandered his chances and his ending was deserved", He spoke with a bit of coldness in his voice.

"Aren't you being too harsh? It's human to face these issues no?", Selena asked back.im shock.

Shock at his ruthless assessment.

"Too harsh? At a fop with inferiority complex? You tell me- I think I'm being quite generous here... A Fop is a pathetic little shit born as a parasitic disease to his family, You want tantrums, you want to play pranks ? That's for children - Not for 18 Year old like you me, A fop is poison to his family and a burden to this world- I can't see such beings as humans - they are worse than animals and this particular fop was not only manipulated like a bitch but slaughtered like Cattle - I call that Natural Fucking Selection and I can't for the life of me find any sense of Pity for Foppish Dandy that couldn't understand the story of the Boy who cried wolf- so cry me a river but don't expect an Ounce of Sympathy from me for a coward died worse than a dog's death!", He unleashed his rant which sent Selena reeling back.

"Well Damn... You must really hate fops if you think that way"

"I don't hate fops, I despise their very existence"

"Fine Fine- but you know... that you are in the body of a fop though"

"Well... It is what it is*sigh this will not be a comfortable experience but I must deal with it anyway ", Kane massaged his temples as he spoke with a tone of slight fatigue.

"Why don't you go rest, you are still heavily injured and rest should help you, I'll deal with the Biomarker for now, if anything comes up I'll come find you", Her words made sense to Kane who nodded and went back to his assigned room.

As he slept, the haunting and hoarse pleading of the previous Kane echoed in his mind...

How do you destroy important personal relationships to that extent?

He despised the shit out of fops, but his own soul had the same foppy consciousness until he awoke, both the fop and he had the same origin - The Soul!

Yet the same soul could have such vastly different consciousnesses- it perplexed him to no end.

But what made the differences?

He was brought up as a Paragon for millions of Genetic Iterations but in his Natural Birth state- he ended up as a Fop?

...

Could he even call the previous Kane Solaris a fop if he simply went about it with other people's experiences...

No.

He had to see for himself.

He sank deeper into his mind and went back to his mental realm.

The place where the previous consciousness was ripped to shreds.

He came back here to find clues...

There was almost nothing left except tiny fragments.

He touched the brightest yellow fragment.

It was a memory of a child learning to swim and having fun at it- it was pure and the child was clearly hardworking.

The memory ended abruptly, yet Kane fell silent, still he went on to investigate the other fragments.

Kane touched another memory fragment, and felt the deep self loathing and anguish of a young man, peeling into his own flesh with his nails after which the memory stopped abruptly.

Kane's expression had turned solemn...

He touched another memory fragment, the memory of an addictive Mind focus pill and the highs and lows of addiction played out for the young man , as a sickening female laughter could be heard from the side, the memory coming to an abrupt end.

He touched another memory full of rage, frustration and the teenager inside had a very short temper, screaming wildly at his detractors after which the Memory ended.

Another Memory fragment showed him the vigorous passion the young teenager had for alchemy.

Another Memory showed the unending envy and Jealousy the young man had against others, deeply engraved.

Another Memory fragment showed the resignation and descent into maddening obsession of the young man for a particular girl.

The final memory fragment was filled... With immense pain and regret of the young man, that he gave up on himself and everyone else including Jiah, and then the only sentence preserved at the moment of the consciousness's destruction.

" I don't to die, I am sorry"

It was a cowardly way to go out...

But he could also see and understand a frightened and helpless young man.

In truth, he saw the horrifying pattern of humanity, to find happiness and passion, later to sink into one's own demons and finally crash and burn, just to die a painful death filled with so many regrets.

He didn't need to know more to understand about the previous Kane, he more or less understood the previous Kane's grim end from start to end by inferring with other information.

Now that he understood more, a question bugged him, who was at fault for letting the Previous Kane end up this way?

Was it Nature? But the same soul was a Paragon for multiple rebirths!

Was it Nurture?the Previous Kane was born a Noble in this godforsaken era to very loving family...

What was it exactly?

He was confused.

So confused that he woke up and found Selena sitting by her desk and he straight up asked her," What turns a young man into a fop- is that he is always was meant to be a fop or was it his upbringing and environment? Why is that the same fop shares the same origin as a Brave Warrior? What is it that decides whether the young man get's to be a fop or a Brave Warrior?! I'm confused..."

"Oh... Hahaha, Man stop it, too many questions... Listen- what you really want to know is how a single person can be capable of becoming two completely different individuals- you want to know the truth? It's the person who decides, the person who makes the choice, you can talk about various factors, about nature vs nurture but in the end it all ends with the young man making his choice and standing by it... And you should never underestimate a person's potential to change themselves- Humans literally adapted to this Hell world because they wanted to survive- to live..."

"...",Kane fell silent at that.

"You given me a lot to think about- Thank you", Even as a Paragon, these were incredibly humbling words, he understood the deep meaning behind them, anyone was fallible.

Anyone could make mistakes or think they've made the right decisions like himself but would break once everything falls apart- They all fall into this self loathing cycle of incompetence and despair filled ignorance.

He too had almost fallen into this same trap...

Just because he was a Paragon, it didn't mean he was perfect, he had made mistakes but he was going to learn from these mistakes.

Unlike the poor fop, who sank into a vicious cycle of repetitive mistakes and self indulgence.

Yes, the same soul was capable of manifesting such great opposing consciousnesses... It was a testament to the freedom bestowed upon the human mind.

Freedom and yet one must never stop holding themselves accountable, face the consequences and use the Ultimate Superpower, Learn from the Experience.

Kane left the room and went back to sleep, this time he entered his mental realm where millions of Genetic Iterations stood in the hall stoic, containing experiences of lifetimes.

Yet he could sense the flaw of near perfectness in them, in himself.

He had to open his mind to possibilities that once seemed impossible, but now must be accepted, he had to hold himself in higher standards and be accountable for his decisions.

He grabbed the remnant fragments of the Previous Kane and manifested a statue to be added permanently to the repository hall along with other Genetic Iterations.

" Go in peace, You worthy of learning from and your experience is just as precious - your life wasn't in vain, it is of help to me- as a warning and a reminder- Thank you", As he spoke these words, he felt a slight shift in his own Existence but he couldn't exactly tell what it was, probably wasn't bad.

He then drifted off to a new dream - a dream about a child learning to swim and enjoying every single second of it, laughing and playing without a care in the world.