I was thirsty when I woke up. Which really was the height of annoyance considering I was drenched in water and blood.
But I was free!
I made a sound like a giggle. That had to be the first time I had ever giggled, but boy did I giggle. I rose on my feet, enjoying all those new muscles painfully trying to respond to brand new nerve signals. Most of them had never been used before.
It hurt, it made me breathe hard, it was the best feeling ever. I looked above me, at the metallic ceiling with such perfectly flat surface it had to be the most boring ceiling ever. Best ceiling ever!
Then I started examining the room, seeing the rest of its furniture for the first time. There was a chair there, and cupboards, plenty of cupboards, some sort of service lift to bring down meals? That got my attention for a while. I was still attached to an IV drip, which I immediately decided to pull out of my left arm. That forced me to look at my skin and body for a short instant. I was tanned, slightly browner than even that time I hade gone on a trip in Hokkaido for a month. My arm was thinner, but I quickly looked away, I wasn’t interested in that. The lift!
It was way too little to let anything other than two shoeboxes in, and definitely looked like the kind a thing you would find in old hotels, except futuristic and all. There was a button above it, big, red, and, as I was logically concluding that it was a self-destruct feature, I realized I had pressed it already.
“Aw.”
I winced. After all that, dying because my self-control wasn’t fully back yet… what a dumb way to go.
But after a deep and soft rumble, the only thing that happened was a bottle of silver liquid falling from the hatch over the service lift.
Lucky.
I emptied it in one go, looked at the empty bottle for a moment and then continued the exploration of my cell, promising myself to push every red button I could find.
I stopped for a moment. No, that was a bad idea.
Lila’s hand in mine squeezed in approval, and I nodded wildly, proud of myself.
I was still able to think clearly!
I looked at the grate on the ground that had let most of the blood and water filter out, stopped to poke at Benedict’s body, making sure he wasn’t regenerating his head like I was regenerating my wounds, and then turned my attention towards the Stone.
Well, what was left of it.
Most of it had struck the walls all around, exploding into a black ash-like dust that was covering parts of the room, but some had remained in the little metal cup that served as a support above the table. I realized that that cup had most likely saved my life, as it had been the only shield between me and the shrapnel. Still, I quickly concluded that whatever the Stone had contained, Demon King, evil god, or very well executed magic trick, it was well and truly dead.
I remembered one of my earliest conversations with Benedict.
“Did I just save a bazillion lives?” I asked myself out loud.
So, I could be doubly proud.
My gaze fell on the table, and my smile disappeared as quickly as it had come.
I felt something pull at my left hand, and almost fell on the ground.
“Huh?”
It took a few minutes to pull myself together. I peed on the grate, concluded I was mostly female, and went for the single door at the back of the room.
It was a double slide-door coming right out of Star Trek, except instead of paper-thin cardboard it was made out of over 12 centimetres (5 inches) of aluminium steel.
There were no buttons to open it, not even a door handle.
I took one step closer, and it opened on its own with a familiar whoosh.
As I stepped in the corridor, lights on the ceiling turned on.
It was…disappointing. I hoped a big window showing two suns, or a giant tundra, a nice view, anything. But it was a corridor without windows, with a normal wooden door at the end, very out of place, and three doors just like mine in front, and two others to my right. No paintings, no colours. Just metal, metal, metal.
“Urgh.” If L was there, she would not stop complaining about the interior decorator.
Thinking about my sister sobered me slightly, and I examined the other rooms in a hurry. Above each door was a digital screen showing in bold letters SUBJECT then a number. Mine was 247, the ones in front were 246, 245 and 244, and my neighbour was 248.
248.
I stepped through that door, and the lights of the room lit up. It was a LED wall just like mine.
The room was exactly like mine.
I couldn’t see if someone was hanging on the table or not from the entrance.
Silently, I begged for there to be no one.
“Please. He lied. He lied.” I began.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
But to the sound of my voice came one sounding just like it.
“…Elo?”
“…Hello?” I responded. It felt weird, the intonations weren’t the same, but the pitch sounded as if it had been an echo to the stranger’s.
It didn’t sound like my sister at all.
As I came closer, I saw someone hanging on the table.
She was striking. Long brown hair, eyes a violet that should not have been possible and perfect brown skin. She was thin but fit, even though still soft, and balanced curves that would make most models envious.
My type of girl, but weirdly, I felt no attraction at all. I grimaced. I had had some libido issues caused by trust issues in the past, but I had fixed those. I didn’t want to have to go through all of that again as well as a new body and a very well-adjusted mind that wasn’t a complete wreck.
“Who…you?” She asked as I came into view.
“Erm. Daniel. Hi.”
“Danielle?” She added an unnecessary inflection at the end.
“No, like a…call me Nielle I guess. It doesn’t matter. Who are you?”
“I…” She hesitated a long moment. “248.” She decided but grimaced as if she knew she was wrong somehow.
Which she was.
“No, that’s what he called you. Your name. Before he took you?” Seeing her so weak made me very uncomfortable, like something was deeply wrong and I absolutely needed to do something about it. It made my own worries slightly lighter to carry.
“…can’t. Sorry. Where…fucker?”
I gave her such a large grin I could feel my face muscles stretch uncomfortably. “He’s dead. Benedict is dead. His head exploded. Gore everywhere. You want to see?”
She blinked wildly at that, not daring to believe me.
“Am…stuck.”
Oh yeah, of course.
“Bonnie, can you get her out of her straps?”
“…Request precision on command recipient.” Answered the computer.
“See that! She listens to me now!” I told the girl before asking Bonnie again. “Can you get Subject 248 out of her straps please?”
The AI didn’t answer, but the bindings came undone.
I reacted in time as I saw the girl fall over like I did.
I caught her in my arms, and…I stopped thinking. The feeling of her flesh on mine, of warmth. It wasn’t sexual, it was just…someone. Physical contact, the first dose of oxytocin in an eternity. I closed my eyes as I hugged her close and sighed in pure pleasure.
She didn’t say anything.
We just started crying.
“Feels great, right?” I asked after a while.
I felt…I felt her nod. Oh the feeling of another human being. A real one, even if looking a bit weird, it was the best feeling in the world. Really this time, nothing would ever come close.
She sobbed in my arms and I in hers.
“Let me see. I want to see.” She asked then, sounding much clearer than before.
Stopping the hug was atrocious, but she clenched her right hand in my left, and the feeling of both little and similar sized hand in mine was such bliss that it didn’t matter. As she stood next to me, I realized we were the same size. I also had long hair just like her but mine was pitch black.
I brought her in front of my room, not without stumbling a few times, and we stood in front of Benedict’s corpse for long, long minutes.
“He’s dead.” She finally said.
“Yes.”
“He’s really dead.”
“Yes.”
“Shit. I wanted to kill him myself.”
“Tell me about it.”
“…My brother!” She exclaimed.
“What?”
“He said my brother was here. Is there someone else here?” She asked me in panic.
That weirded me out, but I was too high on happy hormones to work my brain to examine the feeling.
“I don’t know, there are other doors. I’m also looking for my sister. What’s your brother’s name?”
“…I…I can’t…”
“Ok, ok, let’s just look for him. Did he come before or after you?”
“Before.”
So we went out and looked at the rooms in front, but those three were empty. We entered the last room too, just to be sure as I didn’t expect anyone to be inside, but contrary to my beliefs the subject 249 chamber had an occupant.
A large man, black, heavily muscled, stark-naked and unconscious was strapped on the evilest of tables.
“Is that your brother?” I questioned.
“No. No, I don’t know him.”
“Bonnie, why is he not awake?”
“…Request precision on command recipient.”
“Why is Subject 249 not awake?” I corrected myself.
“Currently experiencing induced coma in the wait of Subject 248’s final phase.”
“So…He’s not been experimented on?”
“Estimated phase 1 start minus three hours and four minutes.”
“Can…can you wake him up?”
“Wait.” Said the other girl. “He could be angry. Dangerous. He could think we are Benedict.”
“We can’t let him stay on the table.” I said with no hesitation.
The girl looked puzzled for a few seconds, but then nodded vehemently. “No. That can’t happen.”
“Bonnie, wake Subject 249 up please?”
“Compound 4 has stopped already, Subject 249’s will wake up in approximatively seventeen hours.”
“Oh. Well. Can you let Subject 249 out of his straps at least?”
A few seconds later, me and my new friend were ready to catch him as he fell. As I saw him stumble out of the table, his full height became apparent. He was almost two heads taller than us. I realized I had completely overestimated how heavy he was going to be and winced in advance at the three of us crashing on the ground. But no, Benedict’s unending operations on me truly improved my muscle density, because even though I couldn’t have done it without the other girl his mass was perfectly manageable.
Hugging him didn’t feel nearly as good though, it was just dead weight and I sighed in unfulfilled anticipation.
We dropped him gently to the grate on the ground.
“We’ll come back in seventeen hours then. Bonnie can you…can you set up an alarm?” Was she going to feel insulted? Asking that to a genuine future AI seemed a bit…
“Alarm set in seven hours.”
“Seventeen Bonnie, seventeen.”
“Alarm set in seventeen hours.”
“He’s hot.” Said the girl, ogling the man on the ground.
I chuckled. “You sound just like my…” I paused.
Horror gripped my throat.
I slowly raised my eyes to her.
“…L?” I tried.
That wasn’t possible, my sister was fat, a geek. Her personality redeemed her lack of body control, but you would never have heard me say that to her in person. Then I remembered where we were, what had happened to me.
She looked at me with a confused expression.
“L…L…no. I’m Gaëlle, no one calls me L except my brother. Wait. How do you know my name? Who…”
“I…I…” But I couldn’t say anything. My sister. My little sister by two minutes.
“No, no no no, he was lying.” I begged no one.
Slowly, realization grew into my sister’s eyes as well.
“Danielle. Daniel. Shitface?”
I answered automatically. “You can call me whatever you want, I’ll always love you sis, even if you’re just a cunt running on two legs.”
We stared at each other.
“Oh no. Daniel. Oh what has he done to you? You’re…you’re a girl!”
“I know. You don’t exactly look like yourself either.”
She started crying. “Why? Why us? It’s just a trick, right? He’s not dead, you’re not Daniel.”
“He’s dead L. I swear he’s dead. It’s me. I’m so sorry. At least you look good, you’re not…” I stopped myself. That was a horrible thing to say.
“You piece of shit.” She sobbed quietly before raising her head. “I’m not a monster?”
“No you’re not, you look like a model. Am I a monster?”
“No you…you look…Shit. Fuck. Probably the best-looking girl I’ve seen. Not counting Scarlet and Beckinsale. But the best in real life.”
“I beat Emmie?”
She scoffed. “I would say equal. You’ve got less boobs, but more exotic. You’re standing like a man though… Is this really happening? It’s not just a bad dream?”
“Can’t help you with that. I’m asking myself the same thing.”
L’s eyes focused. Now that I knew it was her, the expression was unmissable. It was the same look she had when I had beaten her at Mortal Kombat twenty years ago, and that she had trained for ten days to then beat me to a pulp. I had never won a match against her ever again.
“I need a mirror.” She said. “We need a mirror.”
I agreed.
“Bonnie?” I began.