E.V.0 walked away from Dross towards a nearby workbench full of junk. She rummaged a bit in the pile while cursing her lack of order. Dross was about to follow her, as he finally heard a muffled 'Gotcha!' from the Eternal submerged under spare pieces. She pulled a small chip-sized box out of the pile and returned to Dross' side sitting down on a small chair. He could feel, that E.V.0 was slightly embarrassed, admitting, what she was doing:

"You know, Dross . . . we might have forgotten to secure your genetic code from your body, while you still were alive, so I saw myself forced to loot your fresh . . .corpse. Boy, this sounds even worse when talking it out loud. I - I just wanted to spare you a traumatising encounter with yourself and decided that way, to take everything from you, that could have been of any worth to you. Remind me to give it all back to you before you eventually leave."

E.V.0 was now grabbing his left arm and placed it on her lap, caressing the metalwork gently and lovingly:

"Your special ability. It works like that: You have to eject one of the eight possible discs you can see here on your gauntlet. Fill it up with the genetic pattern of your target. Then inject the disc again and let the protocol run its analysis on it. If it is enough to sustain a complete transformation, a coloured symbol should appear on the side, that is facing towards you. There are a few restrictions I was sadly unable to buff out as of today, but I can maybe upgrade you in a few decades on them. Your natural recharging battery that is your soul casket, allows you for a single transformation per day if you don't ingest additional matter. More otherwise. You cant currently change your size into beings that are way taller or smaller than you, but anything between one and three meters should be possible. There are no further restrictions, but please try only to inject DNS from humanoid specimen. I am pretty sure that 'Changeling' would be able to handle feral transformations as well, but I was unable to test that out, due to the lack of other life in my prison. So if you really wanna add a feral beast to your collection, then only under my supervision. I don't know how your new body will handle such a drastic change in its body structure. So, please. For our sake."

Dross was gathering all this information and was saving them in his now mechanical cranium. Sure, he felt a bit humiliated regarding the fact that E.V.0 searched through his late body, but he was pretty glad that she did that at the same time. All his crucial belongings were still accessible; especially his manuscript. Dross grabbed now the offered disc containing his old body and placed it into the free space on his left arm, which looked a bit like a fingerless, greyish gauntlet. With his holographic eyes shimmering in anticipation Dross looked up to E.V.0:

"I'm ready. We should get now Raja back in; I would love to show her this new ability of mine first-hand, to see what she thinks about it. I hope she likes it . . .I hope she stays."

E.V.0 heard out the dread in Dross' voice and knowingly laid her hand on his shoulder:

"Raja didn't seem like that kind of woman. I am sure she would never leave her lov -"

"We are not lovers . . .only friends."

"Right - friend, just because he changed a bit. You are worrying too much, son. Come, let's get her."

With a quick and friendly command, E.V.0 signed Unimata to transform back into her real form and get them Raja; the Eternal vanished behind Dross' back, to give his frame the last check-up. Unmata left the cell only to turn on her foot again and walk straight back in with Raja closely behind her. Upon seeing her, Dross, after assuring, that E.V.0 was finished, jumped up and walked over to Raja:

"Look! They did it, Raja! I got brought back! I can continue living like that . . . I can finally get to know you for real without a timer ticking for either of us. Isn't this great?"

"That is great, Dross, truly great. And I am so happy for you. But . . .Look, you are now an Eternal, and I am only a mortal-"

E.V.0 had enough. She stepped in viciously waving her friend in front of Raja:

"Young lady! You won't pull this card now, will you? It is enough, that I lost all my comrades a few weeks after I turned myself into the first-ever Eternal. They were scared of me, and I was scared of me. And besides, Raja, we still have a huge surprise for you. Take it away, my son. Show her why I called this baby 'Changeling'."

A glow of interest burned in Raja's eyes, and they widened in excitement upon hearing that; she was now very curious and stayed right next to E.V.0. They were now both looking interested at Dross, and Unimata sat down in Terminus lap to watch as well. With all eyes now pointed at Dross, he thought about changing his body, before realising that he didn't know the How. With a defeated smile, he finally asked E.V.0:

"How exactly do I kickstart this ability? What do I have to do?"

"My bad for not explaining. Simply turn the regulator on your wrist to the desired slot and press down the button."

Dross immediately found the regulator and turned the switch until the panther symbol on the injected disk glowed up. He softly pressed down the button, awaiting now the worst. And at least regarding the soundscape, he didn't get disappointed. His entire body suddenly started cracking and screeching silently and then louder and louder. The first station of Dross' transformation was the adjustment in his overall silhouette. He started growing, his plan legs cracked themself into the digitigrade legs, he was born with the first time. Out of the material, a boney tail appeared growing longer and longer. The strange metal, his body consisted out of, followed the process of change without aching up and that fluently. The skeleton of a tall grown feline got formed before his spectator's very eyes. The suspiciously soft screen, that he considered his face, was able to change its silhouette as well and formed his snout. Then, when the process got finished, the strange metal took its turn. It started changing its composition, forming layer for layer his body; bones, muscles, flesh, and finally the skin. For a brief moment, he was just standing there, and the transition stopped in motion. Then all at once, his black fur rapidly grew, nearly shot itself out of his body. For its outside viewers, it was a sudden 'pop' and Dross was fully covered in fluffy hair, his now puffy tail was wagging excitedly. Dross felt now, that the program made a few final adjustments, like adding the scar on his snout or clip his right ear. Then the program told him, that the transformation got finished, and he was now the individual known as Dross Hegraven. He raised both his arms in victory, inspecting his fur happily. He then noticed a tiny detail when looking over with his reformed citrin shining eyes into Raja's and E.V.0's faces. Dross stood still, barely able to move and started talking slow and uncertain:

"The Transformation of 'Changeling' does include clothing . . .right, E.V.0? Please tell me that I am the only one imagin-" 

Raja and E.V.0 decided to turn away; the first was trying to hide her face now full of colour. Terminus instinctively covered Unimata's face, just for her to change into thousands of eyes trying to get a better view. E.V.0 answered Dross' question seemingly embarrassed by herself:

"I forgot . . . ok? It is not like that I didn't need any clothes since my rebirth, which was over 5000 years ago. Please go to the workbench back in the far left. I stored your belongings there."

Dross followed her order stante pede, snatched his outfit, he last saw his former self wearing, and changed into it. He audibly sighed after noticing his smell. The deceased smell of his former self. These clothes needed a wash, and that direly. But beggars can't be choosers. Dross buttoned up his west and holstered the camera satchel. Then he walked back to the girls to the spot, where he left them, they turned back towards him, and Dross started talking awkwardly:

"Surprise, Raja! I am now a shapeshifting Eternal, and that means I was able to keep my real body and that even after my resurrection. And as we all saw quite clearly with everything included . . . heh - Oh! That is special. I am even able to still taste and eat while in a transformative form. Isn't that great?", Dross now focussed E.V.0 with a most poisonous look, "As for the 'show'. I would have handled it otherwise if I knew about that. I am sorry for that embarrassing situation. But really, Raja, nothing has cha-"

Raja looked past his awkwardness and walked towards the once fuzzy again Dross. She hugged him deep and long silencing his stuttering:

"I'm glad that this is the case. I feared from the bottom of my heart, that you getting reborn as a demigod would cause you to lose your ties to the mortals around you. But I was foolish, to even consider such a thing; you are still my beloved Dross. And besides: Even without your ability, I would have thought the exact same.", Raja looked him now directly into his eyes, "And now for your surprise, my enlightened watcher. Terminus wants to tell you something."