the child stopped struggling ot get away from her captor as the crystals shavings began to fall like snow all over the city. "i hate it here... i want to see the outside world, to breath in fresh air with every breath and to wonder what the color of the ksy is... ever since you attackedo ur peaceful city, the sky has been tainted red with our towns blood, our towns smoke, and the noxious smell of your kind has always become a reminder that we are weak pathetic creatures..." she said, burying her face deeper into cassandras stomach. "what is your name?" she asked with out emotion in her voice, the hosts body now starting to fail her. 

"what do you mean? my name is jordan..." cassandras rib cage spit open and seven tiny chains that were tipped with three pronged claws slid outwards. "because... i need a new host... and you are still alive." jordan realized with terror what a mistake she had just made, and hit her captor as hard as she could, but the corpse would let go. "dont struggle, i told you that i would not hurt you didnt i? and since i am not human, i have no emotions, i have no need to lie to you. trust me..." jordan was scared, her dark brown eyes filling with tears as the crystal shavings continued to fall  all over the city, the only other noises being the occasional sounds of the roaring fires that dant quite died out yet,  the peices of rubble that had managed to get loose and clatter to the ground, and a single bird cawing in the distance over a newly found meal. 

jordan brown snow cap was gentaly removed by one of cassandras chains while the other six proceeded to cradle her while injecting her with an anisthetic that would numb the otherwise horrifying pain of the heart merging with hers. "shh... jordan, i will not harm you..."

both comet and abigail felt the pull that so many of them had felt before. thep ull that meant a merging process was under way on an unwilling victim. both shut their eyes and watched as they visualized the process. they imagined the old heart wither into a dusty sac and collapse under its own weight while the mechanical heart disconnected itself from its previous host. the prongs removing them selves as hatches on the center of the orb opened and retracted the gold, platinum and bronze wiring that helped it operate the body with out interfering with the vital functions. 

they felt the trilling joy of the mechanical heart vilently pulling out ofi ts former home and shunting its way into the new host, they felt the joy, or at least what they considered joy, as the ribs cracked and were pushed out of the way while the gears, wires and prongs settled into place while the brain was rerouted to let the machine control the body while the mind was just a passenger. and then it was over. they knew where the signal was, and knew that the process took a little over an hour to complete before it was on the move again.

the seven chains slithered back through the new hole in jordans chest and sealed it up, replacing whatever gaps there were with metal pads designed to keep everything nice and healed until the process was complete. jordans mind struggled against the new sensations she wasnt used to feeling. cassandra reveled in it all the while, taking half the eye sight, half the hearing, and half the ability to speak. she went so far as to crack the jaw in half and develope a second complete throat. 

"now i can resume my mission to find the other two."