It was already late in the evening by the time Samael had returned to Stella's house. He did not say much and just went into his room. Stella was still up working when he arrived back at the house.
"Angel is Samael back?" Stella asked as she heard a door close in the hallway.
"Yes he is back. He just walked into his room." Angel said as she looked at a display. Stella stood up from her desk and walked over to the door that separated their two rooms. She hesitated at the door before knocking on it.
"Samael? Are you awake?" Stella said as she knocked on the door.
"Yes I am awake. Did you need something?" Samael asked from the other side of the door.
"Can I come in?" Stella asked as she put her hand on the door.
"You can." Samael said.
"Thank you." Stella said as she opened the door to Samael's room. Samael was sitting on his bed with his combat paints and an undershirt on. Stella walked over and sat on the bed next to him.
"Is there something you wanted to talk about?" Samael asked as Stella sat down.
"Well I was wondering why you asked for the day off. You have never asked for one before. So I was curious about why you asked for it off." Stella said as she fidgeted with her hands. She did not know why but at this moment it was extremely hard for her to talk to Samael.
"I was visiting an old friend." Samael said as he looked down at his hands.
"What kind of friend was it?" Stella asked as she looked over at Samael.
"He was a great man that was taken far too soon, and I have never been able to forget the kindness he showed me." Samael said as he balled up his fists.
"I am sorry. It is not easy losing someone that was close to you or someone that was nice." Stella said, trying to comfort Samael.
"Loss is an unavoidable thing. The only thing we can do is keep moving forward." Samael said as he opened his fist.
"I mean that is one way of looking at it. But some of the deepest scars are ones we can't see." Stella said, placing her hand into Samael's hand.
"That is true. His name was Jasper. Major Jasper Simons. He was the commander of the 184th I.D. He was a good man. Jasper also treated everyone the same no matter what you had done or where you came from." Samael said as he looked up from his hands and at the wall.
"Is that the way you became friends with him?" Stella asked as she moved closer to Samael.
"He was friends with everyone. But I did not see it that way till after he had passed away. When you are trained to only follow orders it is hard to get used to people." Samael said.
"What was your training like Samael?" Stella asked as he moved a little closer.
"I was trained to end the war by Onix Core. I was in the Alpha class. We were the first class to ever be trained and raised in such a manner. We started out with three hundred and twenty-two, but after everything only sixteen passed to field operations." Samael said remembering the long nights of training he had to endure.
"They raised you?" Stella asked as she leaned onto him.
"I was a part of Onix Core my whole life. The documents I have seen said I was abandoned on the side of the road. They only took me in because I was at the right age for the program." Samael said as Stella rested her head on his shoulder.
"What age did they need you to be at?" Stella said becoming more comfortable.
"They needed us to be under the age of one so that the first phase could start." Samael said, prompting Stella to sit up immediately.
"Wait. under the age of one? But that breaks so many laws." Stella said, looking at Samael.
"It does. But so does genetic modification and many of the implants I had installed. Thought was given to making the soldier they needed and not about the ethical problems." Samael responded.
"How could they do that to babies?" Stella said, going back to resting her head on Samael's shoulder.
"They could do it because we were not babies for long. The first thing they did was a growth acceleration so we would not be a baby. They needed adult body's for the mutations and implants. They also never planned on waiting for us to grow up just to wait for the adjustment period of the implants." Samael said thinking about the different mutations they have given him.
"What did they do to you?" Stella asked, wondering what he had to go through.
"It starts off with a set of chemical and biological agents that speed up growth. Some things that they did not intend to happen when accelerating growth is that we would heal faster. Not to mention the body's metabolism is constantly in overdrive." Samael said, looking at one of the already healed gunshot wounds.
"So that is why you never seem to get hurt." Stella said, looking at the same bullet wound.
"But they did not stop there. Next was the Bone Solidification mutation. This made the bone extremely dense and at least 4 times stronger. Mix that with the Muscular Density Multiplier that made my muscles stronger by at least 6 times, and now not only do my bones take more to break but now I am stronger than I look." Samael said as he closed his fist of his forearm muscle would flex.
"That explains why you are so strong. I just thought you were in great shape. I mean not that I think you're out of shape now. I mean, I wanted to, what I am trying to say is. I think you look good." Stella said getting more embraced as she talked to the point where she covered her face and whispered the last words.
"Are you ok Stella?" Samael said and tried to look at her but she stopped him from turning towards her.
"Yes I am fine. What else did they do?" Stella said, still keeping her face hidden.
"They modified both my lungs and heart. Make my cells less likely to break apart and reattach easier. I also have complete control of my nervous system." Samael said, making Stella uncover her face.
"Wait. What?" Stella said as she looked at Samael forgetting that her face was still red.
"Yes the High Pressure Heart, Divided Lungs, and Nervous System Overclock are the mutations that changed my heart and lungs as well as let me control my nervous system." Samael said as he took a deep breath.
"Ok that explains your ability to just ignore getting shot and punched. But what did they do to your heart and lungs?" Stella asked, putting her head back onto his shoulder.
"Let me show you." Samael said as he laid back and moved Stella's head so she had an ear on his chest. She listened to the sound of his breathing and heart but nothing seemed different.
"I don't hear anything wrong." Stella said as she listened.
"Listen now." Samael said as he started to take shallow breaths. Stella listened and started to hear two heart beats. One right after the other, she also noticed that his chest had stopped moving when he started taking the shallow breaths.
"That is incredible. I never would have known. I am sorry you have to go through all of that Samael." Stella said as she put her hand on his chest and listened as his heart started to go back to normal.
"It is ok, they made me who I am today." Samael said as he looked at the ceiling.
"That is true. Was that all they did?" Stella asked as she moved more onto the bed.
"No, the last mutation of that phase will be the Organ retrofit. It is a grand term used to describe all the augments that happened to the non-mission critical organs." Samael said as he put a blanket over Stella.
"Thanks. You said that phase. How many phases are there?" Stella asked as she wrapped herself in the blanket.
"Eight in total but they are broken into two groups of five and three that run at the same time. A medical phase and its corresponding tactical phase. The phases are Growth, Mutation, Hardening, Enhancement, and Stabilization for medicine. Tactical phases are Main Body, Combat, and Test Operations." Samael said as he looked back at the ceiling.
"So if all of that was done in the mutation phase what did they do in the hardening phase?" Stella asked as she moved her body closer to Samael's.
"The hardening phase is the last of the mutations. Consisting of Muscular Bonding, Ocular Protection, Ocular Calibration, Pupil reconstruction, Blood thickening, Liver Mutagen, and Cerebral Clustering." Samael said as he closed his eyes.
"What do all of them do?" Stella asked as she moved so she was directly next to him and her head was now resting on his arm.
"Muscular bonding strengthens the tendons making them extremely hard to rip them. The blood thickening is what it sounds like. It makes my blood thicker and capable of carrying more nutrition as well as making my blood clot faster." Samael said as he turned his head to see the armor on the table.
"So that is why you got hurt but did not bleed everywhere. You are lucky that I have thin blood so if I get a cut I tend to bleed a lot." Stella said, struggling to stay awake.
"The ocular protection and calibration gave me a second and see through eyelids, so I don't have to blink if I don't want to. Pupil reconstruction added a thin layer over my eye that I can use to better control the light entering my eye. Think of it like constant and adjustable sunglasses. It is also the reason why my true eye color is so hard to see." Samael said as he opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling.
"What did the last two do?" Stella said as she turned onto her side so she was facing Samael.
"The liver mutagen increases the and expands the functions of the liver making it more efficient at breaking down chemicals and detoxifying the body. Cerebral clustering, it multiplied the density of my brain. It makes everything my brain can do better and faster." Samael said he looked around the room.
Angel sitting on the desk next to his damaged armor. She had remained out of sight till now. She also had a big smile on her face as if she had done something good.
"What are you smiling for?" Samael thought as Stella fell asleep.
"Nothing, didn't I do good? I let you two have a nice conversation and did not interrupt once." Angel said as she hopped off the table.
"You did a good job Angel. Thanks for not interrupting." Samael thought as Angel sat on the bed next to him.
"But are you positive it is a good idea sharing all of this information with her? I mean I like her too but this is dangerous information." Angel said as she leaned over Samael, so their faces were next to each other.
"It is if there was any proof that the government did anything. I have already looked and Onix Core never existed. It was a black operation and they left nothing to be found except the last soldiers left standing." Samael thought as Angel's hair fell onto his face.
"I mean you're not wrong, but can I still get a reward for being a good girl?" Angel said as she used a finger to play with her hair.
"What do you want?" Samael thought as he closed his eyes.
"Nothing much I just want to sleep next to you like little sister Stella." Angel said as she moved as she was also laying next to Samael.
"Get some rest you two." Samael said as Angel also fell asleep.