As the gel-like purple liquid filled the chamber, Izumi did her best to stand still, although the itching sensation caused by the orb was severely irritating. The feeling of the liquid covering her face was disconcerting, and she had to force herself to breathe in despite knowing she was wearing a mask.
The tank now filled to the brim, Izumi waited for the next stage.
The man turns to the technicians.
"Flip the switch."
The technician in the white coat nods, flipping one final switch on the console.
A pink liquid starts flowing through the IV, reaching Izumi's body and quickly entering her bloodstream.
__
The tingling becomes worse. Much worse. Her vision starts to waver as a searing pain erupts through her muscles and bones.
The light above her seems to amplify downwards, bathing her in the light, her muscles feeling like they are wrenching out of her skin, starting to expand slightly. The pain was horrifying.
__
Outside the tube, the Technician nods. "So far so good. Her body is changing at stable levels.." Quickly turning and barking at an assistant "Keep an eye on that Cardimine flow, do NOT let it accelerate into her body."
Turning to yet another one. "Make sure the Artifacts resonate correctly.. We don't want her body to be complete but without a mind."
Before she'd entered the chamber, Izumi had managed to utterly convince herself that she would be fine. The high failure rate had been almost an afterthought to her, so inspired had she been by the ceremony of choosing and being chosen.
She wasn't quite so convinced now. All she could do was flail around in the thick, murky gel and hope that it would all be over soon. The whole world seemed to consist only of purple liquid and intense pain; the spirit's gentle touch was all but lost in the kaleidoscope of agony currently wired into her nervous system.
Ten minutes pass of the wretched pain, her skin slowly growing thicker, giving her an added weight, and her body shape becoming deformed, and very much bigger.
She can feel through the pain a heavy pressure against her heart, almost feeling like it would burst out of her chest any second.
After a few precious minutes of agonizing terror passes, she feels herself slowly loosing consciousness. Falling unconscious. But as her vision turns to black, it slowly turns to blue instead.
She finds herself in a spanning field, her body completely normal, a large cloud above her having some sort of presence.
"Your mind.. You wish this of yourself.. To become ours.. To exist of light.."
A mild sound booming down on her.
"Yes," said Izumi, although her voice came out as a mere whisper. "I want this." She reached up to the cloud, to the presence within it, her right arm outstretched towards the blue. "I want this," she repeated huskily. The cloud was right.
"Acceptance.. Rare key.. Yours mind remains correct.. You shall become.."
The cloud slowly parts, revealing a blue aurora floating in the Air, a vision of a mental projection.
__
Outside, the technicians still are running around the lab, making sure everything is going alright.
"Her heart is under pressure, this is the most dangerous of times people, make sure her veins remain intact."
Whirling around and regulating the cardimine flow, slowing it down a little.
"DNA matching seems to be fitting, so good so far.."
Still blissfully unconscious, far from the horrors that currently made up her waking world, Izumi continued to reach up to the vision within the cloud, a smile breaking out on her face. Everything was going to be all right. The voice had just told her so. Everything was going to be all right. The voice had told her so, and Izumi trusted the voice more than anything.
The light and cloud seem to move a little further away up into the sky.
"Release of body.. You shall become.. Gift of ours granted.. Come to us.."
The cloud fades completely. The light fades completely. Izumi is left alone on the planes, a wind passing over her before things fade completely to black. She begins to have some minor awareness outside her body, but for the most part she seems relatively out of it. The only free thing right now is her thoughts.
__
The Nomad vessel outside seems to fade in color slightly, one of the men quickly turns and reports this.
"Good.. The spirit has accepted her, and has given up its vessel. Interesting.. The spirit did not reside within it, but controlled it.. Prepare the ship and the girl."
The nomad shell slowly moves into a exterior tube, linked with the tube network inside, to be used later
Her body starts to warp in some strange directions, looking slightly menacing at this point.
"Her vessels didn't rupture.. She is a lucky one.. She may just make it.
As the light faded, Izumi was content to let her consciousness float in the void, still elated. Whatever had just happened had clearly been very good; why else would she feel so happy? Dimly, she had a nagging feeling that perhaps things weren't so clear-cut and rosy after all, that she had somewhere else to be, somewhere filled with great change and even greater pain, but she impatiently shoved those thoughts aside. It was obvious that the void was what mattered. Thoughts of some bizzare, painful world didn't matter one jot in this place.
Her body stops its slow changes, remaining floating in the murky liquid motionless. The power cell at the top of the device pulses once.. Twice.. Before slowly going dark.
"Its finished.. Stage three. Bring contact."
The liquid slowly starts draining from the chamber, the bottom opening up to a slant, her body falling, the slick from the liquid pushing her a few feet down into another chamber.
Inside of the chamber, is the floating Nomad vessel. A special pressurized area, there it stays. Hovering very close to the ground.
Izumi can feel her consciousness return to her body, opening her eyes to the majestic vessel, seeming to be calling out to her. A simple touch.. A simple touch.. a thought lingering in her mind.