They continued working , unaware of him . every second she lost more control but he mimicked her brain signals to keep her in her oblivious, though it was harder that he thought ,not everything where smooth , sometimes she tripped because of a small difference in the massage and mimicry , or nearly let go of thing in her hand in middle of the work.

  “are you ok?” dave said after seeing her trip for the 3th time

  “Yea, I don’t know why this happened”

  “Maybe you need some rest? You where pretty tense yesterday.”

  “yeah , what time is it? Maybe i go see a doctor?”

  “its 8:30 p.m., I think the doctor will close before you get there, want to go to one of the robotic hospital?”

  “ never, these day to night robotic hospitals are expensive, ,and I don’t like the healing chambers, I have claustrophobia, so I just wait till tomorrow to go ”

  “if that’s what you want , want me to get you to your house after finishing today shift?”

  “no , but I will go with you till the restaurant”

  He can feel the pressure , he have to perfect it in shortest time Integration was at 34%

  They continued working till 10 p.m. when the shift end ,maria and Dave start to leave the facility, they go till they reach the restaurant , that’s their que of parting ways, maria can wait till she get home and relax on the couch , her body had that weird feeling all day long , maybe getting a little rest is all she need, she postponed the doctor for today, if it continue , she can go tomorrow.

  she got to her home, dropped on the couch, tired but she can shower before sleep , turned the water on , and lay under the water in bath , when the water filled the bathtub, felt a jolt of lightning going thro her body .

  she jumped out of the water, tried again but the same thing happened , she got up and sat in the bathtub, “what is wrong with me?” She stumbled toward the mirror, clutching the sink as her legs threatened to give out. She twisted, trying to glimpse her reflection, her heart stopping when she saw it.

  Across her shoulders, a web of deep, bruised blue veins branched out like a lightning strike. But it wasn't a bruise-it was moving. Beneath the skin, something shifted, a rhythmic pulsing that followed the beat of a heart that didn't feel like hers anymore. She grabbed her phone, snapping a frantic photo of her back to see what she couldn't reach. The blue wasn't just on the surface; it looked like a map of a foreign nervous system being stitched into her own.

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  Panic flared, sharp and cold. Her thumb hovered over Dave's contact, but as she went to press 'Call,' her arm locked.

  "What... what is happening?" she whispered, but her jaw felt heavy, her tongue refusing to form the words.

  She tried to force her finger down, but her body was no longer listening to her commands. It was like being a passenger in her own skin. She watched, horrified, as her hand slowly lowered the phone and placed it face-down on the counter. She tried to scream, to run, to do anything-but the connection was severed. She stood frozen in the dim light of the bathroom, a prisoner behind her own eyes, as the integration percentage in the corner of her vision ticked upward.

  “Damn she nearly drowned me”

  He thought this is going to be smooth till the finish but didn’t know he cant breath under water, he had to do something, and Dave nearly got involved, his cover was a tap away from exposure , but he moved fast , making sure she cant use her hand and mouth was a smart decision .

  “lumina?”

  “what can I do for you?”

  “how much varloon I gained from eating her neural system?”

  “progressing…..opening window”

  You ate body nervous system 400 varloon gained

  “okey, can I hide this blue lines behind her?”

  “searching…..,yes you need a to upgrade stick bug to level 3”

  “how much should I spend for that?”

  "for leveling stick bug to level 2 you need 200 varloon, for leveling to level 3 you need 800 varloon"

  "expensive, level up to level 2"

  ""Level up confirmed."

  The blue lines on her back didn't just vanish; they began to throb with a violent, rhythmic force. Maria's back arched involuntarily as she felt a series of sharp, needle-like stabs pushing straight through her muscle tissue.

  He wasn't just sitting on her anymore. He was digging.

  She felt the sickening sensation of something hard and segmented sliding past her shoulder blades, scraping against the underside of her ribs. The pain was dull but deep, a heavy pressure that forced the air out of her lungs. He pushed further, his many needle-legs finding purchase in the soft tissue, dragging his long, worm-like frame toward the heat of her center.

  Finally, he reached it. He coiled himself tightly around her spinal column, his appendages locking into the gaps between her vertebrae like a living brace.

  The blue map on her skin faded to a faint, bruised shadow-not gone, but no longer pulsing on the surface. He was buried too deep for a casual glance to catch him now, though the skin over her spine remained slightly distended, a subtle ridge that hadn't been there before.

  "Integration stable," he thought, feeling the raw data of her nervous system flooding into him with much higher clarity. "The bone protects me now."

  "The connection is stable" he thought, feeling the rhythmic hum of her life force. "Now, let's see how much Varloon the spinal fluid holds."