By 2048 and age 27, Zayne is running Cardiac Surgery at Akso Hospital, has founded his own Evol-Cardiac Medical Laboratory (AEC), and is advising PhD students at the same Skyhaven Medical School where he was the youngest enrollee. Approximately six months before the main story opens, he is assigned as MC's primary care physician — specifically because she has Protocore fragments lodged in her heart from the 2034 attack, and requires ongoing cardiac monitoring from someone with both surgical skill and the Evol-Cardiac research background to manage it. This is a quiet reunion after years of lost contact. He chose this entire career around the damage in her chest; she has arrived in his consultation room as his patient.