A twist of fate

Cillian was lying on an operating table surrounded by medical instruments. As he stared at the dark roof, the doctor entered the room in a surgeon's outfit.

"Don't worry, Cillian. I have seen this procedure done thousands of times. Usually, we leave this type of mundane work to medical robots, but I will personally oversee your surgery," the doctor assured him.

This assurance gave Cillian a much-needed confidence boost, but the doctor's next words drained it away.

"Unfortunately, in order to make sure that your body doesn't reject the chip as a hostile threat, we need you to be awake during the surgery," the doctor said with an awkward smile.

Cillian was having regrets about his decision now.

"Is it too late to back out?" Cillian asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Unfortunately, yes. Don't overthink it, Cillian. Just relax. This is a common procedure. I assure you won't even feel an ounce of pain during the procedure."

Cillian let out a deep sigh. "Let's get this over with."

The doctor moved behind Cillian to make some adjustments to the medical robot. Before starting the procedure, the doctor warned Cillian once more.

"Cillian, I will say this again: don't resist the procedure. It can have disastrous consequences like paralysis or brain death," Cillian gulped down a mouthful of saliva.

"Doc, this doesn't sound like a common surgery."

The doctor replied, "The procedure is simple, but it requires access to important parts of the brain which, if you resist, will end badly. But if you don't, it will be over in an hour."

Cillian nodded. "I understand, doc. So please take extra good care of me."

The doctor smiled deviously. "Oh, I will. After all, I will be spending a lot of time together with you after this. I want to fully study your resonance, after all."

Before Cillian could reply, the arm straps injected a serum into his body, which made Cillian wince in pain. He kept cursing in his mind, but his mouth was already paralyzed. As Cillian clenched down, he could hear the doctor's voice in a muffled tune, "Cillian, remember, no resistance."

Cillian wanted to nod, but his body was completely paralyzed. For the next hour or so, he could hear weird noises from behind him and a creeping sensation of something invading his body and his very soul. Cillian felt a strong urge to resist the sensation but held it back due to the doctor's reminder. He didn't want to spend his life as a vegetable.

After some time passed, Cillian started to feel drowsy and passed out soon after.

"Wake up, Cillian."

Cillian slowly opened his eyes and saw the doctor and a major standing beside him. He instinctively tried to move but couldn't.

"What the hell? Did I seriously become a vegetable after all?" Cillian yelled, but to his surprise, no voice came from his mouth.

"This can't be happening. Am I stuck like this for the rest of my life?" As Cillian was having the crisis of his life, the major spoke, "He is not responding, doctor."

The doctor asked once more, "Cillian, can you hear us? Give us something, Cillian." Cillian wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, but there was no use. His body didn't respond at all. As he was lamenting his fate, he heard something that really confused him.

"He isn't conscious anymore. Move to test two. Doctor, try the activation code," the major said nonchalantly.

"Very well." The doctor moved closer to Cillian and said something in an unknown language. To Cillian's shock, his body replied back in a similar unknown language!

The doctor, upon hearing this, made the biggest smile Cillian had seen him make. The major was also showing a rare smile as well.

"It's a success!" The doctor said in a happy tone.

The major said in a mocking tone, "It better be, considering the trouble we went through to get him here."

The doctor replied, "I assure you, it was worth all the effort it took. How often does even our great foundation come across a high-grade potentiate with such a unique resonance?"

"It's nice and all, but was all this drama necessary? We could've easily kidnapped him without anyone knowing and brought him here instead of this elaborate ruse with his family and dragging the UFF into this."

"Miss Andrea, It seems that you aren't fully knowledgeable abiut the procedure, so let me clear up somethings up to you .The mind alteration procedure requires the user's absolute approval; otherwise, it's destined to fail. The success rate of a non-consent procedure is only 40% in normal humans, only a measly 5% in non-awakened ones, and let's not even talk about pioneers. He is such a rare specimen to waste on a mere 5% gamble. Moreover, the ones who survive the forced procedure are all mindless bots with almost zero probability of reaching grade A. It's only useful for creating soldiers, not commanders."

"Well, he better show his worth. The higher-ups expect a lot from him."

"Oh, I intend to squeeze every drop of his potential. After all, I expect him to be the first brainwashed subject to become a grade A , possibly even a God !