Earth

2027

Rory switched out her hand mods as she ran away from the clash of gunfire and shouting deeper in the base. Families rushed through the neighborhood in speeding vehicles or ran to their cars, carrying their children and pets. While some soldiers helped with the evacuation, many civilians headed out on their own. After Rory made sure her boys escaped the base safely, she'd have to return to check on the others in the neighborhood before returning to the active combat.

As she neared the house, she tested her hand mods by simply drawing upon a small amount of energy. Already she could tell these were a huge improvement to what she had designed on Earth. Commercial grade would always be better than what she could make. Jace had even brought her the ones designed specifically for her. They were an upgrade on the normal bioengineer mods. After he had started helping her with combat skills back on Lumiea, she'd needed something more than what she had. If only she'd had more time to hone those skills.

A loud explosion rocked the ground beneath her. An older couple who hurried for their car grabbed one another and cried out.

"You'll be okay," Rory yelled. "Just go."

They looked at her, seeing who she was for the first time. For the past few years, they'd said hello to her every time they saw one another. Now they looked confused and fearful as they stared at her, reminding her of the neighbor who shot her, even though they lacked the hate that woman had.

This had finally felt like home. How could she forget that she was an alien here? Even if she returned home to Lumiea, she'd probably feel like an alien there too after being away for so long. She just didn't have room for one more upsetting thing in her life right now, so she moved on past the couple without offering any more reassurances.

As she neared her house, Rory heard Benji howling and barking. Fear spiked in her chest as she burst through the door. "Theo?"

"In here."

Relief flooded her at the sound of Theo's voice. Her body wanted to sink back against the wall, but she jogged to the living room.

"I saw neighbors driving east," she said. "You need to head in that–"

As soon as she entered the living room, she froze. Benji barked from his dog bed while Chip sat on the ground right beside Theo with his ears tucked back. In one hand, Theo held hand mods he'd must have been boxing up and in the other a knife.

Across the room, staring cooly at them, stood Trin.

It was with such clarity that Rory could remember losing her friend to the Replica and being forced to still see her every day. Another loss on top of a loss. The anger was too deep and too strong to actually feel. The tension of it wound through her muscles, coiling them, and lighting her skin aflame with the blaze of unanswered retribution.

"She said you were friends." Theo walked closer to Rory, holding out the knife toward Trin. "I told her to get out or–"

"What are you doing here?" Rory asked her numbly.

Trin eyed her. Even though her friend's same dark brown eyes stared back at her, they looked nothing like the young woman she'd once known. "Vehru told you to make sure Theo made it out okay. I came to help him. You can't be too careful."

Rory stepped forward and away from Theo. "That's so considerate of you." Her voice hardened. "Replica."

"We don't have to–"

Heat flashed from Rory's palms. The force of her thrusters launched her briskly through the air, so she could slam into Trin's body and throw her through the picture window. Glass shattered and spilled across the ground, crunching beneath Trin as she skidded to a stop with Rory on top of her. The glittering shards beneath her darkened with specks of blood.

Wasting no time, Rory jammed her forearm against Trin's collarbone and whipped a shard of glass up to her jugular. "Stay away from Theo and my dogs."

"That was impulsive," Trin said, seeming not to feel any of the wounds the glass must have caused.

Theo rushed for them but Rory raised her voice. "Stay there, Theo. This is between us."

One glance at him was enough to see the utter shock in his eyes and Rory knew he was having trouble reconciling what he saw now with the woman he'd known for ten years. Truth was, she'd always had this in her. It was just easier to reach now that she fully remembered what these people had stolen from her and the rest of her world. All that they wanted to take still.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Rory pressed the glass down until beads of blood bubbled up against the jagged edges. "Why are you really here?"

"You think you can do it?" Tears filled Trin's eyes and she sobbed. "Please, Aeryn. Please. Don't hurt me." Moonlight caught her wet cheeks, just like glass below them.

This was still Trin's body, even if her friend was gone now, and the emotions looked so real. As did the blood dripping from a small piece of glass lodged in the other woman's bicep. Even though Rory knew it wasn't really Trin, the sound of her crying drove a knife of pain through her chest. Rory remembered one day a few months after the Replica had permanently taken over Trin's body. They'd connected eyes after a battle when Nikka had been badly injured. Ordinarily, Trin would have had that silently strong but empathetic look in her eye, one bursting with pain for their friend. Instead it had been replaced with one of disinterest. Even boredom. In that moment, she finally realized that her friend was dead, and it carved out a piece of her heart that would never return. All while the Replica inside Trin's body stared at them through her very own eyes, mocking them all in their grief.

The body thief tilted her head back in a laugh. "Your face. You can't kill your friend's body. The human mind is too fragile and primitive to separate the truth from what you can see." She sighed. "Vehru would be mad if she knew I didn't coddle her precious humans." Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "But you caused me pain. I felt it for a moment before I shut it down. You deserve to suffer."

A creeping chill wound down her spine. "You're different."

"I've been in this body a long time. It's inevitable that some of the human psyche would pollute me. If you and your squad would have behaved, I wouldn't have had to spend all this time with you."

Rory blinked. "You hate us." This wasn't the Replica she remembered and she suspected it wasn't the Replica she'd spoken to here on Earth.

"There's no love or hate. I simply don't respect your inefficiency and weakness. I'm ready to move on from you. Do you know how tiring it is to deal with your husband's moods?" She sighed, her throat pressing against the glass Rory still held to her throat. "Jace is so temperamental. For 3,753 days in a row he displayed the same damaging behavior. That long and he could not find a way to improve, or did not simply tire of it as I did? Poor Jace misses his poor wife."

"Stop," Rory said breathlessly.

"His sorrow and bitterness have become very old. Now it'll be poor Jace again because his poor wife found herself another husband."

"I said stop."

"You would be doing me a favor to rid me of this flawed body and the maddening relationships this woman kept. And your son–"

Rory ripped herself back and stabbed the glass deep into Trin's femoral artery, swallowing down her own gasp at her shock over managing to do it.

"Wow." Trin's eyes opened wide, but pain was entirely absent from her face despite the blood spurting from the edges of the glass. "Now, that was interesting."

"We don't have much time, Theo." Rory pushed herself up. "Let's go."

"You're… You're going to let her die?"

"She'll save herself. I'm sure she sent her SOS signal the moment she realized I was actually going to stab her. As long as I let her begin repairing the wound in the next thirty seconds, she can make it." Rory glared at Trin. "I'm sure you're very efficient."

Theo rushed back inside for the dogs and whatever he had packed. Rory stared down at the body thief as the injured woman began to gather supplies from her bag. The only sign of her wound was the shakiness in her hands, the pallor of her skin, and the blood steadily squirting from around the glass. The absence of pain on her features deeply unsettled Rory.

Trin chuckled as she injected medication into her thigh. "Vehru wanted to know how your time on Earth and the recovery of your memories would affect your temperament and your decision-making. She gave me permission to test you. Although, she would not like how far I took it. I could tell by reading your micro-expressions that you would not respond to anything less. I'm very eager to share these findings."

Disgust soured her stomach. "It's fucking horrifying that any version of Vehru can be more deranged than the real Vehru. This is not a game, Replica. Stay away from my family."

"Was there a purpose to this beyond sending a message to Vehru?"

Rory clenched her teeth as she walked to the window, her shoes crunching against the broken glass. She reached inside to pick up Chip.

"Not even Jace could bring himself to hurt Trin's body. I always thought you had a higher level of empathy." Trin carefully removed the glass and stuck her finger into the wound, digging until she seemed to find the perfect spot. "Perhaps it is the heightened empathy that allowed you to override your own emotions to enact what you feel is justice." She tilted her head at the blood still seeping from the wound. "I'm going to cut it close with this wound. The chance of death is not negligible. At least twenty-five percent. Are you sure you don't want to assist me? Vehru will not be happy if I die. You will feel bad about Trin's body for the rest of your life."

Theo walked out wearing a backpack on each arm while holding Benji under one arm and the box of hand mods under the other.

"Let's go," Rory said, taking her bag from him. "We might still be able to avoid Vehru."

"She'll be here in fifteen seconds," Trin said, her eyes drooping. "Any later and I think this body would die, after all."

Rory shook off the woman's voice and turned for the car.

"I'll drive," Theo said, glancing at the gun hanging on her back. "In case you need to do other things..."

They had just made it into the car when a shadow flashed overhead, followed by a thud nearby. Rory watched from the window in the front seat with her gun aimed as Vehru knelt beside her Replica. It would do nothing to harm the Commander but it felt good to do something.

Theo peeled out from the driveway and sped down the road away from the battle still raging outside of the residential district. As they drove away, Rory lifted her hand to the window and stuck her middle finger up at Vehru.

The Commander stared without responding, but her hard glare was more frightening than if the woman had uttered a threat or shown the anger that must have flooded her.

"You seem to have remembered more," Theo said.

Benji jumped at the back window, barking and growling.

Rory wiped her bloodied hands on her pants and held Chip close. "I remember everything."