A few more hours passed until Dross heard something again, that caught his interest. The clinking and clanking stopped, and E.V.0 told the rest surely and slowly with victory resonating within her voice:

"Alright, crew. We are finally set! Everything is now at its correct place; the soul casket got fully integrated and connected; all signals are finally stable. Unimata? Shut down the reprogram, it would now only get in our way for the final push.", she walked over towards Dross' body and looked down to him, "As you are somehow conscious currently, somewhere in an in-between world between life and death, I feel obligated to warn you. In a few moments, everything will go dark for real; you will get pulled out of your miniature world. Please don't panic, or the repercussions could damage your still slightly unstable soul prematurely."

Dross' imaginary self hadn't even the time to give its shiny cockpit nor the blooming planet a final glance before its existence simply stopped happening and ceased to exist.

...

Light. The vision of a pearl-white room was filling Dross' sensors. He was in E.V.0's laboratory turned cell, Dross could tell looking at the disconnected tubes dangling down towards his head. He was not feeling any pain, nor strain or hunger, he felt painfully balanced. So this was how an Eternal must feel all the time. Having no need at all for the needs of their former mortal coil. But then again . . .he might have no needs anymore, but still felt the desire to eat. Strange. Then, two faces were appearing in his vision; the robotic visages of E.V.0 and Unimata were looking down at him, seemingly checking his vital signs - had he still vital signs? - and then gasping up in joy after noticing that he was active again . . .reborn. Yes, he got reborn by the assistance of the god Demiurg . . .or not? His memories from his brief time between the worlds were extremely foggy, but he knew now, that there were powers around, that got long forgotten. The sound of a metal high-five was bringing him back into the here and now. Unimata's excited voice rose, hammering itself into his audio sensors, who immediately levelled the squeaky sound to a tolerable degree:

"E.V.0, E.V.0! Dross has successfully made it! Hey! Can you hear me? Can you? -"

E.V.0's soft robotic tune was interrupting Unimata's excitement. She started caressing slowly his chest, which was made, like most of his body, out of this strange gooish, yet firm material; She bowed down towards his ear whispering lovingly:

"Wakey, wakey, my child. You have slept enough, a few days have already passed here since you died in Demiurg's arms. Your body and soul are now attuned, so can you please try to say a word and move your limbs? Make your parents proud, will ya?"

Dross immediately wanted to comply with the asking of his new mother. But he soon discovered that it was tougher than he had first thought. He tried to formulate commands for his mouth to say, but it didn't react at all. Same deal with his limbs. He had no control over his body; was not able to pilot it. Anger rose in his core, and he screamed out:

"Why won't you work, damn it!?"

Dross felt a sudden urge to hit himself. So not like a vehicle; This eternal body worked just like his former body. Dross felt so embarrassed that he began stuttering:

"I - I didn't mean - might if I start again, mom?"

The situation got ruined for everybody present; he ruined it. They were all working so hard to get his new body into working condition and he just . . .blew it. But the people present didn't care regarding this; they were just happy that Dross actually came back. Unimata was jumping around like a madman before blowing up her body, turning into a living firework, and continue flying at the ceiling. Truly, that was a wondrous ability. Terminus was sitting at the other end of the room and was overseeing the situation silently. A potent aura of happiness was, however, escaping out of every slit of his body. E.V.0 was now grabbing him by his shoulders, assisting him in sitting up to give him a big hug. Her shoulders were trembling; she was incapable of speaking. Dross moved his arms slowly but surely upwards to retort the hug calming her down with a calm tune:

"Please, E.V.0 . . .mother. Please don't cry. I have made it. And that thanks to you all."

"Yes!", she was hugging him tighter, Dross could feel everything through his highly sensitive body, "Yes, son, you have made it. You were so strong. There were complications at all. And you . . .you, you called me mum. I am so happy."

E.V.0 hugged her once more, then let him a bit of room to breath - not that he needed to do so anymore - and encouraged him trying to stand up from the table. With the knowledge from before, that his new body worked completely the same as his old, Dross stood up valiantly . . .only to immediately fall over and get caught by E.V.0. Right . . .straight legs, he forgot. He was expecting his canine bent legs and slipped that way. Who could have suspected that? E.V.0 helped him stand up and walked carefully with him a few steps over to a nearby hanging mirror. There he was, his new bodies reflection. He was now quite an . . . interesting view to look at, to say the least. Sure, he saw his Eternal body once before already, but he didn't really pay attention to the whole deal after learning about 'Changeling's' unique features. Dross didn't think about how he would look like while remaining in his new true form. Sure, it wasn't ugly by a longshot, quite aesthetically pleasing actually, but nothing when compared to Terminus. Was his new looks the reason, why he had nowhere spotted Raja? Was she not present at his revival due to that? E.V.0 felt the concerns of his freshly created son and immediately tried to calm him down:

"I can imagine what you are currently thinking about. I admit that I may have neglected the overall looks with 'Changeling', but I had to make quite a few cuts to assure perfect functionality. And with that, I mean that perfect, that even Terminus will be envious of you."

"Now I am interested. What could that possibly be, mom?"

E.V.0 chuckled: "While being transformed, this body will imitate a functionating stomach. This body allows you to taste and process food as an alternative source of matter.", a highly envious interference echoed through the room, "Moreso, the transformative ability requires you to eat and drink to sustain your special functions. You are unable to starve, however. Dross, you are the very first Eternal, who could get drunk for an instance!"

E.V.0 sounded so genuinely proud of her accomplishments and Dross couldn't help himself but starting to grin in joy. In the mirror, he was able to make out how he looked like now when he was grinning; His eyes were now holographic citrin ovals over a wide detailless holographic grin. His screen-like face was imitating how he would look like. Dross' circular eyes were wandering over to look through the mirror to E.V.0:

"These are truly awesome news, thank you so much mother", he looked over to the firecracker, that was his second mother, "Especially you, Unimata, mother, dear."

The firecracker exploded into a cloud of snow scattering itself everywhere. Hundreds of little Unimata faces were now looking proud back at him. Dross looked around again, still failing to find Raja:

"Can you tell me where my friend is? Where is Raja?

E.V.0 looked down, she felt guilty, but determined:

"Raja said, that she needed a minute to process all this and when I saw her sadness, I told her to stay and wait outside until we have finished preparing the surprise you have announced earlier. As she still doesn't know about your new abilities, we should start ingesting your old body back into you. Shall we?"