Lacerta Encounter - The Seventh Design

[Intro|Low Egyptian-Accented Contralto|Cold Pulse] You asked what they will finish. You have not heard what you were for. [Verse 1|Lacerta's Account|Dry Close Vocal] They did not leave you broken; They left you incomplete. A worker was the first design, A mind to serve beneath their feet. But hands that learned to lift the stone Could learn to hold a weapon too. [Verse 2|Oud Beneath Electronic Pulse] The things you saw me do tonight Are not beyond your kind to learn. They closed those pathways in your minds And left the keys for their return. You call the silence natural; They call it keeping you contained. [Verse 3|Low Cello|Measured Phrasing] They placed their triggers in your genes, To wake when certain fields align. The shifting magnetism of Earth Could touch the locks they left behind. You might mistake the first awakening For something wholly yours to claim. [Pre-Chorus|Deep Toms Enter] You ask why progress came so fast, Why every tool becomes a blade. They wanted more than hands for mining. They wanted soldiers they had made. [Chorus|Commanding Contralto|Darkwave Widens] The seventh design, A weapon taught to call itself mankind. Who owns the anger rising in your blood? Who gets to point it when the armies come? If you were made to fight their war, Can you become what they did not plan for? [Verse 4|Guitar Enters|Clear Narrative] Three other powers want this world; Their reasons are not all the same. One wants the secrets in your genes, One wants the hydrogen your seas contain. The third wants copper for its weapons. None came to ask what you would choose. [Verse 5|Grinding Rhythm|Forward Lead] The Illojim prepared you for them: Quick to divide, defend, attack. They fed the urge to guard a border, To fear the stranger, serve the pack. Your growing skill was part of it; They left their army time to build. [Verse 6|Bowed Metal|Rising Pressure] Their return would mean completion, Not merely ending what went wrong. They need the seventh standing ready, With all the weapons you've made strong. I cannot give you their arrival. I cannot promise who will win. [Chorus|Commanding Contralto|Heavy Ritual Pulse] The seventh design, A weapon taught to call itself mankind. Who owns the anger rising in your blood? Who gets to point it when the armies come? If you were made to fight their war, Can you become what they did not plan for? [Verse 7|Rhys's Response|Same Solo Voice|Sparse Oud] I let her finish. Then I asked, "What proof of this can you provide Beyond the words you've given me? I will not trade my doubt for pride. You may have changed what I can see; That does not make my choices yours." [Verse 8|Human Resolve|Drums Rebuild] "If they put anger in our blood, That does not tell us whom to kill. A purpose someone gave our lives Is not a debt we must fulfill. The hand that holds a weapon steady Can set it down and help someone." [Final Chorus|Fierce Clear Belt|Full Ritual Metal] The seventh design, No maker owns the life I now call mine. I feel the anger; I can choose the act. I will not give a stranger that command. Whatever we were first made for, I will not fight my neighbor in their war. [Outro|Close Contralto|Pulse Ends Unresolved] I stopped the tape. She watched my hand. Outside, the city carried on. I had an answer. Would it hold?