That's right. She could still feel him.
His soul. The thing that made Jin. It was still there. Fading quickly—but there.
Jin was never the drone. Hadn’t he proven that over the past few weeks? The sphere with all its circuitry and parts was nothing more than a vessel. One Jin could change at will.
"His spawn. Do you have it?" Kira asked desperately.
There was her answer. A vessel.
Raider's face showed confusion.
"The bird, Raider. I need the bird."
She just needed a medium to anchor Jin to. Preferably something that already carried his imprint.
Raider shook his head. "It’s not with me. I dropped it when I was fishing Elena out of the pool."
"No," Kira whispered, collapsing in on herself.
She couldn't lose Jin. Not like this.
Her gaze focused slowly on the cryopods. Specifically, the last one. The one that carried the boy that looked exactly like Jin.
Of course. Why didn't she think of that before?
"What?" Raider asked.
Kira shoved her friend out of the way, scrambling toward the pod. She fumbled for the controls, getting it open a second later. Water gushed out, spilling through the grates to the pool below.
Kira set a hand on the boy, her senses delving into him.
There was only one problem with the idea of placing Jin’s soul inside the boy’s body. And that was if the boy already possessed a soul of his own.
It was the biggest reason Kira had never gone this route before. Clones held their own sense of self. They weren't empty containers you could simply fill with whatever you wished. At least not without driving out what was already there.
That was a sin neither Kira nor Jin had wanted to shoulder. It stunk of their old masters. A level they never wanted to descend to.
"No soul," she breathed a second later.
Finally, something that went her way.
"Kira, wait. Are you sure?" Raider's face reflected uncertainty as he looked from her to the boy. "This clone is Tsavitee made. We don't know what it really is or its purpose for being here."
Raider had a point, but Kira found she didn’t care.
"I'm not letting him die here."
Not in this awful place.
Jin needed a vessel. There it was.
"Do what you've got to do. I'll guard your back," Raider told her.
"Thanks." Kira's voice was soft, picking up the two halves of Jin’s sphere before turning back to the boy. "This is going to work. Do you understand, Jin? Otherwise, I'll never let you hear the end of it."
Beads of sweat dotted Kira's forehead as she concentrated, pulling out the drone's essence. Jin's soul with it.
"There you are, my friend. Time for a new chapter in our story."
