In the aftermath of The Catalyst, survival is rarely clean—and trust is always conditional.

Part II follows Mae as the outside world presses against the walls of her carefully controlled sanctuary. Jace, a familiar bionic regular, arrives alongside Marcus, a hardened leader from the northern factions, carrying news of a troubling incident. One of Marcus’s patrolmen was attacked in the woods by a Myconid-class organism. He returned alive—but burned, altered, and carrying signs of something far more dangerous than simple injury.

Mae does what she does best: she studies, tests, and distills. Cranky, unapologetic, and firmly indoors, she agrees to craft a soothing balm using the essence of the creature she dissected—but on her terms. If they want it, they’ll come to her. She’s not risking her life for anyone else’s perimeter mistakes.

But this visit is more than business.

In a rare moment of vulnerability, Mae and Marcus cross a line neither of them expected. A shared kiss—quiet, electric, and grounding—briefly lifts Mae out of the constant weight of isolation, reminding her that even in a broken world, connection can still exist.

Yet answers demand more than chemistry. To truly understand the mutated flora behind the attack, Mae calls out to the Greenskins, the forest-bound inhabitants of the Verdant territory. Her plea reaches the Grove Keeper, an ancient, towering arboreal entity bound to the land itself, commanding tribes scattered throughout the wilds.

Mae confesses. She admits to killing one of their own—the Myconid. She does not excuse it.

Instead, she offers knowledge, compassion, fear, and forgiveness.

The forest listens.

Accepted not as an enemy but as a necessary force of balance, Mae earns the Greenskins’ trust—an alliance as fragile as it is powerful.

This chapter of Mae in The Catalyst explores intimacy, consequence, and the dangerous act of asking forgiveness from a world that no longer owes humanity anything.