After darkness and agony, there was nothing. And then Zoe woke up.
She opened her eyes and saw a white ceiling. Most of the white ceiling tiles were normal white stone, but six of them were glowing, emitting a bright white light that illuminated the room around her.
Zoe sat up and looked around. The walls and floor were a similar white stone. On one wall, there was a thick metal door, and a large window. Zoe recognized the hallway outside. She was inside one of Daddy’s holding cells. She looked down at the floor beneath her, and suddenly froze.
Her legs.
They felt like her legs. She could wiggle the toes… but they were… blue. Before, like most humans in the Aldmerian Empire, her skin had been pale and pinkish. Now, her skin was blue. It’s wasn’t blue like a dark elf. Their version of blue skin was a greyish blue, a soft pastel colour. Zoe’s skin, on the other hand, was a vibrant royal blue.
“Good morning princess.”
Zoe turned to the window and saw… No, this wasn’t Daddy. It looked like him, but Daddy wouldn’t have hurt her like that. She glared at the man warily.
“You’re even more beautiful than I’d hoped. Daddy is so proud of you.”
Zoe watched Daddy pull out a key and unlock her cell door. He closed the door behind him but didn’t bother to lock it. She considered making a break for it, but Da- no, John was between her and the exit. John walked up to her, and kneeled on the ground a few feet away, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
Zoe opened her mouth to speak to the man, but no sound came out.
She tried again… still silent.
“You’re not going to be able to speak with sound anymore pumpkin. You need to use your mind.”
Zoe glared at the man. Speak with her mind? She wasn’t a mage… But somehow, like an old memory she’d rediscovered, or like a new extra limb she didn’t know she had, she realized she could connect to John’s mind and send him words.
You hurt me
“Good girl, you figured it out so quickly,” John said cheerfully. “You were a smart girl, even before. Of course, your new body is even smarter.”
You hurt me!
Zoe repeated herself, increasing her mental volume.
John winced from Zoe’s loud mental voice, “Yes I know sweetheart, but it was the only way I could make you beautiful. I couldn’t contaminate the elixir with an anesthetic.”
Zoe held up her hand.
This is not beautiful! What am I? I look like some kind of monster.
John winced again, “I disagree, pumpkin. You’re not a monster. You’re different, that’s all, a new and beautiful form of life. There is nobody else in this world as beautiful as you are now. And with every scrap of my research now destroyed, there will never be anyone as beautiful as you again.”
Zoe glared at the man again and clenched her fist. She stopped herself from hitting Daddy, took a deep breath, and thought of a better idea. She realized she wasn’t limited to only sending him words, she could affect his senses.
Zoe sent him her memory… starting from the last time Daddy hugged her. John’s eyes went blank, his body froze, and his mouth dropped open as he experienced the feeling of being lifted up by his arms and dragged over to the pool of burning goop. She watched him in the real world, trembling in agony, face twisted into a silent scream as he experienced the burning fluid blistering and peeling his flesh away.
When the memory was over, and he finished dying in burning darkness, John returned to the real world and looked at up Zoe with fear and wonder.
“That was amazing pumpkin. I didn’t realize you’d be able to do that,” he gasped, pushing himself back up to his knees.
How did it feel Daddy?
“Horrible, sweetheart, I know,” he said solemnly. “But it was really for the best, you don’t know-”
John’s voice was cut off, as his eyes went blank again, and he vividly relived the experience of betrayed trust and burning flesh again. This time, when he came back to his senses, he collapsed to the floor, exhausted.
“I know you’re mad sweetheart, but-”
Once more, John’s eyes fogged over, and he died in agony inside the tank again. When he came back from the memory, he was crying.
“I’m sorry,” was all he could manage to gasp.
I didn’t ask for… whatever this was. I didn’t ask to be burned. I begged you not to. I begged you to stop and you didn’t!
“I know, I know, I deserve this pain,” John said. “But I have another birthday gift for you, one that will help, one that won’t hurt.”
What?
“Me,” John said, looking up at Zoe with a weary smile.
Zoe stared at him impatiently, waiting for an explanation.
“Your… psychic abilities are not your only power. A sufficiently skilled mage could do what you just did, albeit, not as easily. But if that was all the transformation gave you, the pain you went through would have been a waste. No, your true power is assimilation. It should come naturally to you, just like the telepathy. Reach out and take me… make me become you.”
Zoe looked at the pathetic man on the ground. She thought about taking him, making him a part of herself. Just like the telepathy, she felt another imaginary limb, an instinct as natural as breathing. Zoe reached out and touched his arm. Without thinking, she let her hand melt into her arm she was touching. Tendrils of vibrant glowing green… No, tendrils of Zoe… spread through his veins, branching out like roots.
“Good girl, Zoe. Remember that Daddy loves you.”
The roots spread out through Daddy’s body, slowly taking over his skin. Once fully engulfed in green, his shape changed… his body shrunk.
When Zoe pulled her hand back, she was looking at Zoe.
There were two of Zoe. Completely identical, aside from that fact that one of them was naked and one was wearing Daddy’s oversized clothes. Zoe held her heads. This was disorienting. She now had four eyes, four arms, four legs, two brains, two sets of memories and only one consciousness to manage it all. Thankfully, both brains were working together to help her process all this new information.
Zoe looked at herself. Both pairs of eyes looked at the opposite Zoe’s face. She was still Zoe. Despite the colour change, she had eyes, a nose, a mouth, and it was all the same familiar shape. Like her skin, her previously brown hair changed too. It was now as black as a shadow. Still, she mostly looked like the old Zoe with some paint on her face.
Her eyes though… that was the biggest difference. They were unsettling. There were no pupils anymore, and the entire eyeball glowed green. If not for the eyes, then she might have been able to pretend she was a dark elf with unusually vibrant skin, but the glowing eyes were completely alien. The colour was indescribable, unnatural, unlike any creature she or Daddy had ever known.
Zoe closed her eyes and inspected her new memories. A young ambitious genius got the idea for a human hive mind when he was a teenager, a single perfect organism made of many bodies. It was a utopian society where all would live in peace, where all minds were as one. He lacked the skills to make his idea a reality, but the idea never left his mind. He had a successful career as a research mage, met his beautiful wife, and finally got the chance to pursue his dream when a group of well funded imperial mages offered to set him up in a lab and let him create a hive mind telepath for the glory of the empire.
It didn’t go smoothly. The first experiments were failures, the benefactors were ready to give up on him. At the same time, his wife died from a sudden illness. Little Zoe was sent to the lab with him because she had nowhere else to go. Stress and grief led to depression. He couldn’t bear to see his daughters face, it reminded him too much of the beautiful wife he lost.
John buried himself in his work, and eventually made enough progress to appease his bosses. Grief and obsession drove a wedge between father and daughter. It became harder for John to connect with his little girl and he desperately missed what they used to have so much. He missed being together, being a family. An idea crept into his brain, his research was an oppourtunity. He could become one with his daughter. Once he perfected the transformation, he could give this power to little Zoe. They could live together forever as the same person, part of the same hive mind. Eventually, he succeeded, he got what he wanted. They were together now.
Daddy really did love her. Zoe smiled. The pain still happened, but it wasn’t a betrayal.
She wiped the tears out of her four eyes. Zoe took off the loose robe, got up, pacing around, leaving Zoe sitting on the ground watching herself. Trying to move one body at a time or having both bodies doing different things at the same time was extremely disorienting. She spent the next half hour practicing.
She knew things now, things John knew. She knew the research was meant to develop a weapon, a psychic soldier, a perfect infiltrator. Zoe would end up being used if she stayed here. Neither her, nor Daddy wanted that. She knew the layout of the isolated base, she had a mental map of the surrounding wasteland, and she had several contingency plans all prepared ahead of time. She knew the locations of several supply caches that John secretly buried out in the wilderness, the locations of several bandit camps and goblin villages where should could assimilate more of herself. Daddy was planning her escape well before her transformation began. She would make all the guards and staff Zoe and then head east towards the mountains, collecting as many bodies as possible along the way.
Zoe searched around the lab with both her bodies. John had strict orders that nobody should disturb him while he was working, and those were still in effect. Zoe took her time to double check that every scrap of information about her creation was gone and every sample of the ‘goop’ was chemically neutralized. If someone else wanted to make another creature like Zoe, they’d be starting from scratch.
Zoe walked through the Alchemy Lab, to the door. She used Daddy’s key to open it from the inside, and the door unlocked with a clunk. Two guards were standing sentry outside the door, looking for threats from the outside. Zoe got ready to move.
Zoe pulled the door open. One guard looked over his shoulder but didn’t have time to react before both each Zoe wormed a hand under their shirts and touched them on the spine. The two men tried to pull away, and Zoe realized she wasn’t strong enough to overpower these men and assimilate them forcefully. Each Zoe connected to the mind of their respective guard, and she forced the happy memory of eating candy into their minds. Their eyes softened, and their muscles relaxed. They had a dumb look of bliss on their faces. Zoe gently guided them to the ground.
Zoe struggled to pull the giant bodies inside the lab. She was strong for her size, but that still only made her about half as strong as a normal adult woman. One Zoe paused her assimilation to go close and lock the door. The green tendrils of Zoe started to recede slowly, but she could maintain the distracting happy memory at a distance. Closing the door took only a moment, and not much progress was lost. The second Zoe returned to the body quickly to finish the assimilation.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Ten minutes later, Zoe had four identical bodies. After getting used to moving two independent bodies, moving four was remarkably intuitive. It was actually easier than moving two. It required the same mental muscles, and now she had four brains to help her handle it all.
Zoe’s next stop was the guard barracks. Six guards were sleeping there. Zoe chose the two nearest guards and decided to experiment. How subtle could she be while assimilating?
Each Zoe reached towards a sleeping guard. She was ready to share a happy memory of a young John Eldridge cuddling with his childhood pet, a lovable fluffy dog, but she held off to see if a sleeping person could feel the assimilation process. With a single fingertip from each Zoe, she gently touched the sleeping men on the neck. With two of Zoe working on each man, the process was nearly twice as fast.
First, she discovered that yes, she could assimilate someone gently enough for them to not wake up. From Daddy and the two other guard's last memories, she knew it felt like a tingle, like a foot falling asleep. Secondly, she discovered that the time it took to assimilate a person varied with their mass. Skinny Marcus took only 3 minutes to assimilate, while the larger Doug took 5 minutes.
Finally, she discovered that she could adjust small things about her new bodies, stealing traits from the host body. After tweaking a couple things, the two newest Zoe bodies were no longer identical to the original. One was male. Which, given that Zoe was prepubescent, didn’t mean much other than a different looking set of genitals between his legs. The other Zoe body had no gender or sexual characteristics at all. There were no nipples, and there was just an empty bump where genitals should be. It looked like a version of Zoe wearing a seamless skin-tight bodysuit. Zoe decided to make this her default kind of body from now on.
According to John’s experiments, Zoe’s bodies shared nourishment over her psionic matrix and didn’t produce waste. They fed on psionic energy. When one Zoe ate, the food would become psionic energy, and all of Zoe's bodies would recieve a fair share of sustenance. Basically, that meant she didn’t need any holes down there at all. There was no point in having genitals… they would only be an unnecessary weak spot and an extra thing to clean.
Modifying new bodies was awkward. This wasn't a process that felt comfortable for her, but she could recognize how valuable it might be. She could make herself an adult body, for example, or make herself a different species like dwarf or elf. A devious grin appeared on her face when she imagined stealing a powerful dragon's body. Something like that was well outside her abilities for now. She'd have to practice this skill and work her way up to that.
Zoe moved on to assimilate the other four guards. Each was shown a pleasant vision of puppy cuddles in their dreams. With Zoe invading their mind, it should now be impossible for them to wake up. Zoe slapped them a few times to make sure. Sure enough, none awakened. As Zoe assimilated them, they never discovered what was happening. When the assimilation finished, they just stopped being themselves and became Zoe instead.
Zoe noticed that sending happy dreams to the guards required very little of her focus now and felt much easier than sharing her memory with Daddy. Daddy’s knowledge told her why, of course. She had more brains to share the mental burden of imagining happy memories and sharing them. As she added more brains to her collection, she would get smarter and smarter, and her psychic abilities would grow more and more powerful. She’d have greater control over the dreams she shared and be able to pierce through stronger mental defenses.
After a few minutes, there were no more guards in the barracks. Ten of Zoe, four female, one male, and five genderless, stood inside the guard barracks. Zoe used her ten brains, working together, to focus her psychic powers on the minds around her. She felt the presence of five more guards, three research mages, and five support staff inside the underground compound. Zoe quietly scattered, walking in several different directions at once.
----------------------------------------
Mary maintained her vigil in the dining hall. The others wanted to clean up the candy pile, but Mary refused to let them. It felt sacred, like a gravesite, to disturb it would be a desecration.
So, Mary sat in the dining hall, remembering Zoe’s smile and trying not to think about… things. There was too much candy left… they took her too soon… Zoe didn’t get to eat enough of it before she…
Mary laid her head down and cried.
Mary didn’t know how long she’d been crying, but she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. The figure next to her was blurred by Mary’s tears, but it was unmistakable.
“Zoe!” Mary embraced her in a hug.
The little girl squirmed a little, clearly surprised by the outburst, but she eventually settled down and accepted the hug. Mary loosened her grip and looked into the little girl’s eyes. Mary had never been in the lab, but she’d heard what happened. Doug and Markus were certain she’d undergone the… procedure. She should be dead, but Zoe was standing before her now, completely unharmed.
“You’re alright!” said Mary, fresh tears blurring her eyes.
It was strange. Her pale skin had no burns or any other signs of damage, her brown hair was brushed free of tangles, and she wore the same dress she wore the previous morning during the party. It was as if nothing happened. Well almost… there was one physical difference…
“I like your new eyes,” Mary said, smiling. “Green is such a pretty colour.”
Zoe’s eyes used to be brown. Now, her irises were a bright vibrant green, almost glowing.
Zoe looked surprised by Mary’s affection. After a couple seconds, her face changed to curiosity.
“My eyes are green right now?” she asked.
Mary nodded. Zoe closed her eyes and it looked like she was concentrating on something. She opened her green eyes again.
“How about now?”
“Still green,” Mary replied. “I like them, they suit you.”
Zoe looked lost in thought for a moment. “Interesting,” she said. “I can’t imagine any eye colour for myself other than green. It’s like a constant I can’t change. Even in my imagination it's completely outside of my control.”
“How did you…” Mary started to ask, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the question out loud so she gestured towards the girl's body instead.
“How did I survive?” said Zoe. “Daddy’s work is complete. He did it. I’m a psychic superweapon now. To be honest, I don’t really look like this. I’ve infiltrated your mind, changing what you see when you look at me.”
“What?” Mary was suddenly nervous. Dr. Eldridge didn’t share much about his research, but Mary knew he was making a living weapon. To think he turned the pure and innocent Zoe into something like that… Mary shuddered.
“That’s right, I’m a monster now.” Zoe give Mary a sinister smile and reached towards her arm.
Mary gave the little girl a stern frown, picked her up, and sat her on her knee. “You stop that right now,” she scolded. “You’re not a monster.”
Zoe was taken aback for a moment but regained her composure and gave Mary a wry smirk that did not belong on a little girl’s face. “I’ll stop interfering with your senses now and show you what I really look like. Then, you’ll see.”
Zoe seemed to shift and shimmer. Her skin turned blue, her dress evaporated, and her pleasant green eyes turned alien. If not for the eyes, she’d just be a little blue girl, weird but not monstrous. But the green glow in Zoe’s eyes raised hairs on Mary’s neck, all her instincts were telling her to be wary. This was a primal fear that defied reason, like fire, heights, or spiders. This green glow was pure danger.
But it was still Zoe on the inside, even if she looked a little scary now.
Mary wrapped her arms around the little girl and hugged her. After a moment’s hesitation, Zoe let herself relax and cuddle against Mary’s shoulder.
“Gods… what did those sick fuckers do to you?”
You probably don’t want to know.
Mary flinched when she heard Zoe’s voice in her head. Before, she’d heard Zoe speaking like normal, but now the words seemed to bypass her ears entirely.
“The others told me what happens, but I’ve never… seen it,” Mary admitted. "It's sounds horrible."
That’s probably for the best. It’s a rather painful process for the victim. Thankfully I passed out from the pain after only a minute or so in the tank.
“I’m sorry, Zoe. I was too scared… I failed you... I could have taken you and ran…”
Daddy knew you were too soft and was prepared for you to try. Dale and Norm were assigned to secretly watch you yesterday morning. If you took me, we wouldn’t have made it out of the compound.
Mary gave the girl a look of determination, “I’m here for you now, Zoe.”
I appreciate the thought, but it’s far too late to save me now. That ship has sailed. Besides, my mind is stronger than your sword. I don’t need your protection anymore.
“Nonsense,” Mary replied. “What about hugs and candy?”
Monsters don’t need hugs and candy.
Mary gave Zoe a stern glare and reached over to the candy pile. Grabbing a lollipop, she pushed it into the monster-girl’s mouth and hugged her close. Zoe glared at Mary with defiance.
You do realize I am a deadly monster, right? I only look like a little girl.
“Ssh, it’s okay.”
I literally just killed 24 people and stole their bodies. You’re the only living human left in the compound.
“Okay, I’ll admit that’s a little scary to hear, but it’s fine. I understand. I'd be mad too if I went through what you did.”
I was planning on doing the same to you, you know. I was going to infiltrate your body, strip away your individuality and turn you into a soulless drone. I was planning on killing you, and you didn’t even realize it.
“But you didn’t kill me, that's the important part.”
I don’t deserve this. I’m not the same Zoe. I’m a monster.
Zoe’s green eyes were filled with very humanlike tears. Mary hugged the little monster close, squishing her against her chest.
“Ssh… I don’t care. Now shut up and eat your candy.”
Okay…
Mary held little Zoe, while they both cried and ate candy together.
----------------------------------------
Master Tyren appeared inside the teleportation circle with his two bodyguards.
The Project Lifeweaver Research Facility went silent yesterday. Master Tyren feared the worst. This was like Project Mirrorlake all over again. Was this another rogue superweapon? They still hadn’t recaptured the Mirrorlake specimen. There was a rogue demon out there, somewhere in the woods. She was a demonic guerilla warfare specialist, immune to banishment and control spells. That was bad enough, but according to Dr. Eldridge’s reports, this monster would be able to clone itself and infest the countryside. That meant it would only get more dangerous if the Lifeweaver specimen was not caught quickly. Honestly, a superweapon that wouldn’t follow orders was worse than no superweapon at all. In his opinion, the supersoldier projects should all be scrapped before any more uncontrollable horrors were unleashed.
The Lifeweaver Research Facility sat in the middle of the Demon Wastes. This was the blighted land surrounding the Hellmouth. The demonic influence on the landscape was plain to see. The open plains were nothing but arid shrubland, scarcely populated with thorny bushes and leafless trees. The dirt seemed to have changed colour, absorbing the magic of the Abyss, and slowly gaining a reddish hue. The hidden facility was located inside a cave built into the side of a raised plateau. It was remote enough to not be easily discovered.
Master Tyren and his two holy knight guards walked inside the cave. The white stone hallway was dimly lit. Along its length, the magical illumination flickered, as if the spells were failing. Lush green ivy grew along the once smooth stone walls and the sound of dripping water could be heard in the distance. This place looked like it had been abandoned for years. But that was impossible, the facility had been fully operational yesterday…
Immediately on guard, Master Tyren cast a magical detection spell, which failed to detect any magical illusions. Whatever this was… it was real. He prepared his mana and held a powerful Profane Lightning Bolt spell in his mind, ready to unleash it at the monster if it was still lurking here. The mage and his guards carefully walked down the hall, alert for traps.
Master Tyren made it ten feet into the hallway before he noticed that he couldn’t hear his bodyguards’ footsteps anymore. Glancing over he shoulder, he saw… nothing. The two guards were gone. Even more alarming, the tunnel stretched behind him for hundreds of feet, vanishing into the darkness. His path back was gone. Had he been teleported somewhere else? When did it happen? He would have noticed.
“Whatcha doing here Mister?” came a giggly girlish voice from down the hallway in front of him.
Master Tyren held up his wand and aimed it towards the voice. A little girl stepped into view. She had pale skin, brown hair, and vibrant green eyes. She wore a cute floral patterned dress. She looked clean and well taken care of, not at all like the sort of near-feral squatter he’d expect to find in his environment.
“You’re not the type of man to shoot a lightning bolt at an innocent little girl, are you?” she asked, with a terrifying grin.
Master Tyren kept his wand pointed at her.
“Oh wait no… you are exactly the sort of degenerate filth who would do that,” her tone of voice turned dark and menacing. “Seventy four little girls and boys, between the ages of six and ten were sent here thanks to you. Slaves, orphans and kidnapping victims. You alone are not responsible for their fate, but you were the one who sourced the children. You were the one who fed the sickness in Daddy's mind and allowed him to use live humans in his experiments. You indulged his madness, hoping he'd create a weapon. None of the victims deserved the painful death you arranged for them. You knew what would happen to them, didn’t you?”
Master Tyren smirked and unleashed his lightning bolt. Nothing happened. There wasn’t even a spark.
“Why are you threatening me with a bouquet of flowers Mister?” the little girl asked with a smirk.
It was then that Master Tyren realized he wasn’t holding a wand. In his hand was a pretty bouquet of colourful flowers. What… when did that happen?
The little girl's eyes glowed green, and she spoke directly into his mind.
Just in case you’re curious… Your real body is lying on the floor by the cave mouth, already halfway assimilated. Both of your knights are already me. Their individuality has already been torn away. Their memories are already mine. The same fate is waiting for you, but I’m taking my time to savour this because you deserve to suffer.
Master Tyren cast a Dispel at the little girl, to no effect. He tried all the counter-curse and counter-possession spells he could think of, but none of them had any effect.
The illusion of the little girl melted away. In her place was a blue skinned monster.
You’re dreaming mister… you’re asleep. You can’t move your body or access your mana in a dream, and you're never going to wake up again.
“What do you want from me?” Master Tyren shouted. His voice sounded more fearful than he would have wanted it to.
You ever been boiled alive? You sent seventy four kids to that fate you know. It’s only fair that you should experience it seventy four times before you die, right?
Suddenly, the hallway was gone. The little girl was gone. There was only darkness and burning, skin peeling, fat melting, flesh sloughing off and dissolving. Master Tyren screamed for help, and scalding fluid flooded into his lungs. He smashed his fists against the steel tank walls, but nobody was there to save him.