Two humans and two Verath. One exchange. No way back. Y/N and Eli are brought to an underwater facility where they spend two months living alongside their Verath pairs — Calla and Ori — as their bodies and minds are slowly rewritten into something new. Calla spends the whole time asking Y/N about the life she is about to take. She never thinks to ask how Y/N feels about losing it. The Verath have no empathy. It is simply not in them. Until it is.