Val crashed in through the back door.

“Lass? That you?”

On the bed, there was Bread, looking bewildered as always. Or was it shock? His expressions were so hard to read without any skin on him.

“Tada!” She pulled out the veil for him to see. While she was running over, she tweaked the presets a little so that it was quicker on the implementation. The facial features were perfect. It was exactly what she’d been looking for. “A new face for a new member of our team!”

“Whoa!” Bread exclaimed. It was the excited reaction she’d been looking for.

“Lass?” Coach barged in from the other side. He ran over and snatched the veil from her hands. It softly molded around his fingers, drooping down as if it couldn’t withstand the gravity. “Nano-Fibrogen?! Val, tell me right now where you got this from!”

She rolled her eye. “I got it fair and square.” If she stole it before it arrived at Greg’s, then it clearly wasn’t Greg’s.

“How?”

She shrugged. “I’m just smart.”

“This isn’t a matter of smart—”

“Just drop it! Please.”

Coach shook his head. “All actions have a price. That’s the one thing you should’ve learned as someone who’s lived down under.”

It was always these lectures. Why was he breathing down her back? Why couldn’t Coach just trust her for once? She finally had what she’d wanted. She was finally given another chance to redeem her wrongdoings of the past, but things always got in her way—Coach, Greg, money…

It always came back to the money.

The rich could wipe their asses with sheets of gold while people like her were struggling to get by. They kidnapped druggies and commoners like choosing produce from a local food market—experimented on them, tortured them, sold them off while she could barely manage to save a single kid. If she’d had that kind of money, Beady wouldn’t have been…

She choked back the tears.

As she watched Bread curiously staring at the veil, she could feel that invigorating feeling she’d felt before come surging back. She still had this. She could still turn everything around.

Bread reached out and touched the edges of the veil; it slid across his fingers, sticking ever so slightly. The substance looked viscous like the grease on her pizza she’d had yesterday.

“Stop!” Coach slapped his hands away. “You’ll get to use it soon enough. Don’t touch it now.” He turned his attention back to her. “Dinner’s on the table. At least get some food. We can talk about all this later.”

She waved off his offer. “Gotta go. Still got things to do.” She grabbed her gym bag and started packing a different set of tools from the desk.

“Go where? You just got back.”

“We’re running low on funds. You know that.”

“You fallin’ back into your old ways, lass? Let me help—”

“No, stay with Bread. You’re the only one who can fix him.”

“What am I now? Just some stay-at-home repairman?” He shook his head. “I thought you quit bein’ a thief.”

“Well, it’s not like there’s a better way.” She guided Bread to the bed. “C’mon! Let’s try the new stuff out first.”

“C’mon, my ass.” Coach motioned to Bread. “Lie down.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Bread giddily slid up the mattress.

Coach carried over the gelatinous material and placed it carefully on top of the boy’s face. It slid down his forehead and neck. The liquidy substance started to mold around the edges of his artificial bone structure, crawling down his eyes and nose, digging deep into the crevices…

Bread suddenly started to choke. He made gurgling sounds as if the material was clogging his throat.

“Coach! He’s—”

“He’s fine. That’s just how it happens.”

And within seconds, it was over. Bread sat up on the bed, somewhat bewildered but still breathing and alive.

“Wow…” The kid looked just like him. At least how she’d envisioned him to look after all these years. “Bead—I mean, Bread. You look great!”

Bread jumped out of bed and made his way over to the small bedside mirror. He looked up and met her gaze—

“Do you want me to be your brother?”

“What?” The sudden comment startled her.

“I look like Beady, right?”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“If it makes you happy—”

“No!” She took a deep breath. This wasn’t the time for this. “No, you’re Bread. You’re not Beady.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, Bea—Bread.” God, why was she struggling so much? It was just a face! She knew what she’d done when she was setting up the presets, but confusing the two was a different matter entirely. She was just curious; she just wanted to test it out. It shouldn’t have led to this. “I’m sorry, Bread. You can change the presets if you want. That’s just—”

“It’s okay. I like it!” He turned to Coach who’d been staring out the window all this time. “Can I go outside now?”

“You finally done yappin’ away?” Coach steered the kid back to bed all while grunting obnoxiously. He always did that when he was annoyed. “Lie down. If you wanna go outside, we need to replace the core too.”

He pulled out the cable that was connected to Bread’s chest and connected it back to another port on the boy’s neck. Then he swiftly dislodged the original core like he was defusing a bomb—it crackled and sparked dangerously—and replaced the empty chest cavity with the new silvery counterpart he’d already taken out of her bag. With a few more twists and bangs, the procedure seemed to have finished. The chest covering over Bread’s freshly installed core radiated fluorescent green.

But as soon as Coach stood back to admire his work, the lights to the room suddenly dimmed.

“Coach?” she called out.

It started to flicker.

“Coach, what the hell’s happening?” A bright spark came from the ceiling. It was immediately followed by the sound of shattering glass.

The room went completely dark. The only light source was from the window. The glow of the moon faintly beamed through.

“Bread?” Val called out.

“I’m okay!” Bread’s chest flashed a few times as if in response.

Coach coughed a little. “I’m fine too. So glad ya asked.” There was a click and a snap before the room was illuminated again. Coach had somehow gotten the emergency lights running.

“What the hell was that?” she asked.

“Not sure. The lad’s been shocking me left and right, lately. First time he’s completely blown out the bulbs though.” He muttered under his breath, “Maybe it’s the cables?”

“I’m sorry…” Bread muttered under his breath.

“This isn’t the first time?” she asked. With that much power, Bread could easily blow out some electronic security system all by himself if he could control it. A thought momentarily ran through her mind—

He could be a thief.

“It’s been happening at least once a day.” Coach carefully removed the cable from Bread’s neck. It was charred to the wire. “Says he can taste things.”

“I can!” the boy cried. “I tasted iron! Well, I think it was iron.”

He tasted iron? What did that even mean? “Do we have to fix it? Like, is it a big issue?”

“Don’t think so. Look at him.” He pointed at Bread bouncing around on the bed. “Seems fine to me.”

“Huh.” Bread was so hyper. Was it because of the new core or was he just like this? Well, maybe he was just happier now.

“You’re free now,” Coach called out to him. “Go out; do whatever you want. Don’t bother me anymore.”

Bread gasped. “Really?”

“But!” He pointed towards the window. “You probably won’t get that far anyway, but don’t ever go to that tall building over there.”

“Why?”

“Just don’t. No questions asked.”

Val followed Coach’s fingers to a building in the far distance, and she realized immediately what this was about.

The tall building in the center of Novus Lokris—Simular Inc.’s main office. It was the crown jewel of the city. An elaborately detailed, tastefully embellished masterpiece. Even compared to the other skyscrapers around it, it was degrees more advanced.

The infrastructure stretched wider than most, farther to the skies than any other. Even amongst other architectures of the world, it was considered a modern engineering marvel, swirling in directions that made it reminiscent of wind more than concrete. There was no true direction, no motive to the design itself except for an almost personified, outstretched yearning to reach for the stars. But her eyes always seemed to fall back to Bread. That boundless energy and those beady, brown eyes…

She had to admit, he was beautiful. In every sense of the word.