CHAPTER 34: CHAPTER 34: DISGUISE

Jace leaned back on the couch, eyeing the alien girl carefully. "Well, doesn’t matter how she got here right now. What matters is if we can disguise her looks."

Zin’s voice hummed in his head. [Yes. Her race has camouflage abilities, though... not perfect.]

The girl, Serai, looked at Jace directly, waiting. She had already caught the gist of Zin’s words.

Her body began to shift. Her skin vibrated, then pixelated like an old screen flickering into life. Smooth blue lines faded into warmer tones.

The glow dimmed until her skin resembled a soft caramel shade, settling into a natural Caucasian look.

Her head reshaped slightly, streaks of white forming to imitate hair.

In a matter of seconds, she looked human. Almost.

From the elbows down, her arms betrayed the illusion. Her hands and forearms glowed faintly, the same blue light breaking through her disguise.

Zin confirmed what they were seeing. [The camouflage holds, but it has limits. She’ll need contact with water regularly to maintain it. Without it, the disguise may flicker or fail.]

Jace couldn’t deny it, she looked striking. Human enough to blend in on the streets, but still otherworldly in the way her eyes carried that strange depth. He cleared his throat, pushing the thought away.

Eva, standing beside him, had the stronger reaction. Her arms crossed tightly, her brows furrowed.

She stared at Serai with a mix of disbelief and frustration, as though this sudden transformation only raised more questions.

"You’re kidding me," Eva muttered under her breath. Her gaze moved between Serai’s false skin, the glowing hands, and Jace’s face. "She can just... do that?"

Jace glanced at Eva. "Apparently."

Eva’s lips pressed thin. She didn’t say more, but the tension in her posture made her feelings obvious.

Serai, unaware of Eva’s reaction, tilted her head slightly, as if waiting for Jace’s judgment.

Jace gave her a small nod. "Not bad. You could pass for human if you keep those arms covered."

Serai smiled faintly, a hint of relief flashing across her now-human features.

Zin filled the silence. [Practical enough for now. But don’t forget, this isn’t permanent. She’s still alien under the skin.]

Jace exhaled, leaning back against the couch. "Yeah. But at least it buys us some time."

She had gone quiet after the barrage of questions, her wide eyes fixed on him as though still trying to process everything.

Her lips parted, then closed again, and he could tell she wanted to say more but couldn’t find the words.

Jace exhaled through his nose and turned slightly. "Zin," he said, voice low. "Teach her."

[Clarify.]

"Languages. English, at least. She can’t keep staring at me like I’m speaking another planet’s code." He gestured toward her with a small wave of his hand. "If she’s going to stay here, she needs to understand."

[Already began.]

Jace raised a brow. "Already?"

[Correct. While you spoke, I layered translation pathways into her neural rhythm. Her race has elevated cognitive channels. They can process multiple threads of input at once. Learning languages is... expedited.]

Jace blinked at her, then back at the air where Zin’s voice filled the room. "So she can multitask on a level we can’t even touch?"

[Yes. While she answers your questions, she simultaneously stores syntax and grammar patterns. Spoken fluency will follow with repetition. Reading and writing will take longer but remain feasible.]

Jace rubbed the back of his neck, letting that sink in.

He shifted his gaze to her again, noticing the way she seemed to focus on his mouth when he spoke.

Her lips moved faintly, echoing his words, testing them in silence.

"She’s already trying," he muttered.

Eva leaned back against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching the scene unfold.

A few minutes ago, the alien in their kitchen had looked like something straight out of a nightmare.

Now she stood there as if she were a normal girl pulled out of a college dorm, same, of course if you looked past her dirty jumpsuit.

Jace, without hesitation, was already talking about teaching her more.

Eva let out a quiet laugh, though there was no humor in it. "You realize how insane this all looks, right? One second she’s a damn alien, the next she’s a human girl. Now you’re talking English lessons like we’re in some after-school program."

Her eyes lingered on Serai, on how easily she wore the disguise.

It unsettled her more than the alien form had. If one of them could pass this perfectly as human, then who was to say there weren’t others out there already blending in? The thought planted a knot in her chest.

She forced herself to stay composed, but her mind kept circling back to the same question, if Serai could hide her identity this well, then what else was lurking in plain sight?

Eva forced herself to stay composed, but her mind kept circling back to the same question: if Serai could hide her identity this well, then what else was lurking in plain sight?

Serai’s gaze flicked between them, her lips still moving as she echoed Jace’s words in silence. She hesitated, then finally whispered, broken but clear, "Hu...man."

Jace raised a brow. "She’s already picking it up."

[As stated, her mind is designed for this. With repetition, fluency will come quickly.]

Eva pushed off the doorframe, walking closer, though her arms stayed crossed. "Great. So now we’ve got a shapeshifting alien who can pass for human and will be fluent in English in, what, a week? That’s not terrifying at all."

Jace shot her a look. "She’s not dangerous."

"You don’t know that," Eva fired back. Her eyes stayed locked on Serai, wary and sharp. "What if she’s lying? What if she’s just pretending to be helpless until she gets what she wants? You ever think about that?"

Serai tilted her head at Eva, confusion in her expression. She clearly didn’t understand every word, but the tension wasn’t lost on her. She shrank slightly, pulling her disguised arms close to her chest.

[She does not appear hostile,] Zin said evenly. [Her pulse has spiked. Elevated stress response. She perceives Eva as a threat.]

"Good," Eva muttered. "Maybe she should."

"Eva," Jace’s tone dropped lower, a warning edge in it.

Eva finally looked at him. "Don’t act like I’m crazy for asking the obvious questions. If she can look human, then there’s no telling how many more of her are out there. How many already hiding, waiting. And you, you’re just fine with it because she hugged you once."

Jace clenched his jaw but didn’t rise to it. Instead, he turned toward Serai. "We’ll figure it out. Just... keep the disguise up. We’ll handle the rest."

Serai nodded slowly, her lips forming the single word she had practiced moments before. "Hu...man."

The sound of it, rough and unsteady, hung in the room.

Eva shook her head, the knot in her chest pulling tighter.