The Number capital hospital was alive with movement. Krill's private surgical suite was almost crowded with doctors and other staff preparing the suite for use. Surgical nurses, consulting doctors and others clustered around in anticipation sterilization drapes on and ready.

Krill didn't usually like letting civilians into the surgical suite, but this time it had to be done. A surgical assistant stood with both Lord Celex and Conn as the two where scrubbed in foaming lather all the way up to their elbows despite strict instructions to touch nothing unless ordered to do so. All of conn's ribbons had been gathered up rolled, and tied away under his surgical gown leaving only the gravity belt under his clothing. Lord Celex, like many of the other human assistants, had his hair tied back and under a hairnet.

Stepping away from the sinks, the two kept their hands held up and away from their bodies as they were both fitted with gloves and masks, ordered under no circumstances to touch their faces. Another surgical assistant helped to drape them with sterilization shrouds. From there they were ushered into a waiting DECOM unit for one last go before they were finally allowed into the waiting surgical suite.

The view was.... Rather ominous.

A single chair sat at the center of the room, and at the headrest of that chair there was mounted an intimidating metal contraption which glittered in the direct overhead light: a vice for holding the head in place during surgery. Straps lined along the chair lay open and waiting. The overhead floodlights lit the chair like a stage light and glittered over waiting metal.

Overhead eyes looked down from a 360 degree viewing window were students and other interested parties sat nervously waiting for the surgery to begin.

Out in the prep room Adam sat on the edge of a cot nervously playing with his hands.

Sunny stood with him, Kay in her upper set of arms.

They had done their best to explain to him what was going on, but he was just a bit too young to understand. The hospital didn't scare him, but he seemed nervous about soemthing and kept reaching out for Adam who was wearing his own set of scrubs, socks and hospital slippers. Krill was concerned about shock, and was eager to keep him nice and warm for the duration of surgery however long that might take.

"Its ok, I'll be back soon." He was saying , "

Kay looked at him skeptical, sensing soemthing was wrong.

Sunny was as impassive as ever but both Kay and Adam could sense her tension, "You understand I support you in this, but you also must understand that I did not expect it to happen so fast. Krill has hardly had time to prepare and I don't like it."

Adam shook his head, "We don't have a choice. Earth has been invaded and the sooner I get this done the sooner we can help . If I decide not to do this and later learn that it could have been the difference between winning this fight and not winning, than I have to take the chance."

"And what if you die?"

"Celex died, didn't seem to stop him all that much."

Sunny frowned, "You know my mother would be eager to get her hands on your soul, and if she does there is going to be no Celex to help you."

He reached up and took one of her lower hands, "I know. but I have a counter argument. Krill is never NOT prepared. As soon as this whole hair brained idea got into his head, I am sure hes been studying planning, researching and everything else you can't think of. If anyone has to poke around in my head, I would rather it be him."

Sunny sighed but nodded.

"Your vote of confidence is touching."

They both looked over to find krill standing in the doorway with another waiting set of surgical nurses.

"Its time."

Adam took a deep breath and nodded.

Sunny was ushered out of the room, accepting an offer to be brought up to the viewing room. Kay napped quietly against her shoulder, but she had made preparations if he were to grow bored or upset.

Adam looked up at Krill as the nurses entered, "You ready?"

Krill could sense the nerves in his friends voice, "don't worry, I will keep your brain in tact small as it may be."

Adam gave a sort of half smile.

"Please lay down." One of the nurses ordered, and Adam did as told sitting there as monitors were placed , and IVs were inserted.

Krill sat with him while they prepared, "The surgery will be done microlaproscopically . We will go through the sinus cavity and back into the skull to reach the interior of the brain. It will be incredibly risky, but I have no doubt as to my abilities, from there we will use Celex and Conn to connect me to a visual representation of the brain area I am looking for, following their instructions, we will find the fibers and recreate them with the neuron synthesis kit. We will place our own connection and then sever the original, from there we can adjust to fit. You will be awake during the procedure, but the insertion procedure requires only local numbing and the brain is incapable of feeling pain. However, we will paralyze your major muscle groups for the duration of the surgery. We will monitor your breathing to make sure we have not gone to far and paralyzed your diaphragm. You will also be given a mild sedative to stay calm during the procedure."

Adam gave a weak smile, "I get happy pills."

"Yes, you get happy pills."

"Your blood pressure is slightly elevated."

"I think that's related to the potential risky of dying." Adam commented wryly as the nurses unlocked the breaks on the hospital bed.

Krill gave a grim little smile too.

Adam was rolled forward and through the hospital and into a waiting decom chamber. Rolling into the surgical suite he was nearly blinded and lifted a hand to cover his eyes.

Conn flipped him a rude gesture, "Bitch." Adam heard in his mind

He gave a small smile.

"Don't listen to him, you look sexy in hospital slippers." He was a bit surprised to hear Celex's voice, even more creeped out to hear him use the word sexy, and he grimaced lightly making the Maker laugh behind his mask.

One of the doctors stepped forward from the crowd, "Hello Adam, my name is doctor Misha Chyernev and I will be the anesthesiologist for you surgery."

Adam nodded once, "A pleasure"

"We will start by administering Xenasin, to calm you first, and then the paralytic, so just take a deep breath, and try to relax."

"Ah yes, relaxing."

Still he leaned his head back waiting for the drug to take effect

And boy did it work quickly, it wasn't long until Adam found himself floating in a sort of haze. It wasn't that he wasn't aware of what was going on, or that he couldn't understand it. He just didn't care. He was actually quite comfortable.

"Alright Adam, how are you feeling."

"Good." He mumbled

"Alright, let us know if you feel any pain or discomfort alright."

He gave a nod.

"Administer first dose."

It wasn't long after that Adam realized he couldn't move his arms or turn his head. It was a disconcerting experience and might have bothered him at any other time, but right ow he didn't seem to mind . His head rolled gently to the side.

One of the nurses stopped his head from flopping forward.

"Alright ready to move him on three."

The doctors stood around him in a large circle, and one of them held his neck gently in place as he was transferred over to the chair. His mechanical leg had been removed, and the calf of his good leg was strapped down. His thighs were strapped together and then belted into place followed by his hips chest and his arms.

He thought that should definitely bother him more than it did, but he was actually rather comfortable.

Even more so when a nice nurse came around with a warm blanket, which she placed around him and tied into place.

A nap sounded sort of nice but when he closed hi eyes someone snapped their fingers loudly.

"Sorry Adam, we can't let you sleep."

He opened his eyes and would have been annoyed but couldn't bring himself to feel anything.

Krill had returned all in his surgical kit. Conn and Celex were seated to the side

"Alright everyone." Krill began, "Welcome to our first experimental Anumectomy as the surgical staff has jokingly coined it. Today we will start by immobilizing the head by boring a series of holes into the skull and placing pins. This will help us hold the brain in place during the surgery.

Adam felt like he shouldn't like the sound of that.

Even less when he heard a drill start up somewhere.

But.

It just didn't seem all that important.

His head vibrated gently as the drill made contact, and the noise was rather grim, but he didn't feel anything, so it wasn't all bad.

He felt his body vibrate a little more as the vice was screwed into place using his skull as an anchor, GE was moved so he was tilting gently back though his eyes were shaded by the contraption. Head held in a steel vice, it was now krill's urn to take over the surgery. They inserted through the nasal cavity by way of two delicate incisions. From there two unbelievably small surgical robots were inserted into the incision, and controlled gently by krill as he made his way through the tissue and into the brain.

"Conn Celex, your turn."

Krill let go of the controls for a time as the two invaded his mind, one of them anchored him to the real world watching the monitor and projecting it to one of krill's hemispheres while Conn projected his slow dive into the human's brain.

Krill followed along carefully matching the impressions in Conn's mind with Krill's own knowledge. Celex kept him in reality while he did.

Krill didn't know how long it took them to get there. Could have been hours or days for all he knew but his focus was so strong that time itself seemed only a distant concept. Others rotated in and out of the room during that time until.

He saw it.

A small thread.

And a single gentle bundle of neurons.

"Architect...." Krill muttered. "I have it."

There was a gentle muttering around the room.

Someone spoke gently to Adam as Krill examined the fibers, and prepared to stimulate similar growth in a different area. Krill postulated that the bundle's connection in the brain stem was important for dampening anima power, but if he were to make less connections, or connect somewhere else he culd essentially keep the construct alive but let the anima roam free."

His hands moved steadily as he worked, prodding and twisting with minute movements of his wrists and the filaments within the pods of his hands . The movements he made were so small and precise they were basically at the microscopic level.

Using neuron stimulation he was able to make a new attachment and then.

"Doctor, something's wrong."

Krill lifted his head, aware of the sudden drop in heart rate.

He glanced over at the monitor puzzled .

"He's not responding." The nurse said breathlessly, "Adam, Adam can you hear me."

But Adam didn't move to speak.

He simply sat there yes half glazed over like a cold lump. There was no expression in his eyes, and though they responded to light cues, something about them was wrong. But what had he done? He had added soemthing, not taken it away. In the gallery above a hundred or so observers watched in horror and fear.

One most of all.

Sunny held one hand to the glass her body between kay and the scene below.

Krill racked his brain hard for a long moment then, the realization came, "I just strengthened the attachment to the anima. The anima will be more trapped than it was before with two tethers so its not surprising this happened."

There was a pause around the room,

""there is only one thing to do now."

The room was dead silent. Onlookers waited for his word, for his move.

"We must sever the connection." Krill said softly

Katie stood beside him acting as his surgical assistant. She had not taken no for an answer when it came to being there for her friend, "Prepare the paddles." Krill ordered

They crowded inward waiting on the edge of poise as Krill moved the two microbats in towards the connection.

He paused only once before making the first cut. A series of fibers broke apart.

The room around them shook.

Krill froze in shock and concern as the light overhead began to flicker, Adam''s eyelids twitched.

"The hell was that."

The surgery paused for a moment as they went to find out what had happened, but no one else seemed to have felt a thing.

After waiting and determining that the suite was going to stay in one place, Krill began again. Several more fibers broke apart.

The room rattled again, causing a trey of tools to bounce down onto the floor. It was only through Krill's extreme control that he did not lose hold of the controls.

"Shit." He muttered

Below them Adam's eyes were twitching rapidly.

Something was glowing.

"Shit what is going on."

One of the nurses yelped in shock, "His eye!"

The group of doctors hurried forward prying open both eyelids. His human eye was relatively fine though it spun back and forth rapidly. The mechanical eye, was.... Well it was seizing, the appriture opened and closed rapidly, twitching like it was about to short circuit. Light poured from the iris.

"Someone get that damn thing out."

They did, and when they did the nurse almost dropped it because of how hot it was. She threw it down on the table in shock and surprise.

The interior of Adam's eyes socket was livid and red.

"Shit." Krill muttered

"All at once, just finish this all at once." Katie said

Krill nodded in agreement, reaching ack to the controls. The room was calm again, and he positioned his last cut.

Krill took a deep breath and cut.

The entire room rocked violently.

Surgical treys fell over onto the floor, krill would have been knocked over if h wasn't floating and even so Katie was on her back in a heap with the other doctors. The lights overhead flickered and rattled. Screaming could be heard coming from somewhere down the hall as the rattling continued. This went on for some minutes as lights burst overhead shedding sparks.

They were plunged momentarily into blackness.

And all went silent.

It took only a few seconds before the backup generator whirred on, and what remaining lights flickered into place. The heart monitor rebooted, and when it did the room was filled with a single clear, ringing tone.

Asystole

Adam's heart had stopped beating.