Part One - Chapter 1

The beginning of Rey's new life

Part One. Rebirth.

The first thing I sensed when I woke up was cleanliness. For the first time in months I was surrounded by clear water, I could hear a filter working nearby. I recognized the sound immediately, it was most likely the same model I had there… at my home.

I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to be clean…

I tried to open my eyes, but my vision was hidden under a tight bandage. An attempt to take it off led to a new discovery: my new pool, while clean, was very small. Plus it had a lid. Just like a coffin.

I couldn’t feel my legs and tail. Even the past pain wasn’t as frightening as the numbness. I wasn’t sure I had legs any longer! I brought my hands to the tank’s lid, preparing to try and set myself free, but the familiar emotionless voice stopped me:

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. The equipment it supporting what little life is left in you.”

It was the same female that took me from my prison. Despite the layer of water and glass between us, I could hear her voice perfectly. So I wasn’t just given the right to mere life, they were going to cure me as well. Nice!

I could’ve remained silent, but I saw no advantage in it. I wanted to know as much as I could about the future that awaited me.

“Where am I?”

It was easier to control my voice now, but it was still rather hoarse. Well, at least I was opening my mouth in clean water! The memories of what I was forced to drink in the past made me sick to my stomach.

“In the Infirmary,” she answered. “After the six months you spent in that cell you were in no condition to work. You’ve already underwent one surgery, two more planned for the future.”

“What surgery?” I was instantly alarmed. I didn’t like this word!

“We have restored your eyes.»

That explained the bandage. Still, I wasn’t too keen on the idea.

“My eyes? There was nothing wrong with them!”

“A mistake caused by the dim lighting you got used to. Once in the normal light, you’d notice how poor your sight became immediately.”

She was replying to me evenly and confidently, as if reading it all out of some document. I was surprised by her honesty. Before this humans rarely bothered with explanations.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because from now on I am your watcher. You are alive for as long as we’re working together. In addition, the information I’m giving you is not restricted. You have the right to know.”

I decided not to question her authority, much less how we were connected. I felt sore, I was weak and nauseated. So I decided to start with simpler issues rather than something that had the potential of turning into a serious conflict.

“What other surgeries do you have planned for me?”

“Serious ones. The bones in your legs and tail have already started to heal, but they’re reconnecting in the wrong way. We’ll have to break and reset them again for a proper recovery.”

“Then why haven’t you done the rest of these surgeries yet?”

I knew it wasn’t out of pity. When did those tailless freaks ever show pity for me?

Once again she replied sincerely, without false sentiments:

“You’re forgetting about your armor. It had already become a problem when we were treating your wounds, but we largely managed to bypass it because of the cracks left on you from previous trauma, but other surgeries are impossible while you’re covered with it. For successful results you must remove it.”

Now that was something I didn’t expect! Of course I could get the scales under my skin easily, although I hadn’t done it for six months. But I’d be completely defenseless then! My armor was the last weapon I had left, the final shelter in which I could hide. And I was supposed to just give it up deliberately?  That was too much…

“No,” I said quietly but firmly. “I can’t.”

At this point she was supposed to get angry. Or leave. Or start ordering me around. That’s how humans act when they don’t get what they want. Especially females!

In other words, I was prepared for anything save for the phrase that was actually uttered:

“Do you want to be needed by someone?”

The lack of emotions in her tone prevented me from taking it for real concern. But I knew these words! An eternity ago, another human told them to me. It wasn’t as cold as she made it sound back then, he was sincere, and I believed him. Because that human was the only real friend I ever had.

She wasn’t trying to earn my trust and I didn’t think she was planning to use my memories against me. She just let me know she knew a lot. I was afraid to imagine the actual knowledge she possessed… she was far more dangerous than Anton in that aspect. He had control over my body; she was trying to get to my soul.

I forced myself to move the scales under my skin; my last line of defense was gone. I wasn’t sure whether I managed to take it off my legs and tail, but I tried. It was pretty hard to tell through that numbness!

“Good,” she said. Judging by her reaction, I succeeded. “As long as we understand each other, there won’t be any further problems.”

I could feel she wanted to ask something. I suspected I knew what the question was. I’d ask it, too.

What did they do to break my bones so badly yet leave the armor intact?

I knew the answer too well for my liking and I expected her to be interested in it as well. But this female didn’t ask anything, and thus surprised me once again.

“You look like a human,” was all she said.

As if I didn’t know! It wasn’t the first time I took my armor off, I’d seen what my body looked like underneath it. I was so much like them it disgusted me.

“So what happens now?” I asked.

“You’ll undergo a training course and start working with me, just like the others, but we need to bring you back to good health first.”

“What will this 'working' include? Not like I know �" I haven’t been told anything. And I’ve never met any of those… others.”

“You really know nothing at all?”

I didn’t answer, deciding to skip the details. Actually, I knew there were creatures that looked more or less like me and that humans had been using them for a long time, but no-one ever told me what made me different from those creatures. I was also aware of the fact each of those creatures had a human watcher working with them. And apparently that female was to become mine.

“I’ll explain the rules to you a bit later, when you feel better. There’s no need or it now,” she informed me.

“And when is that supposed to happen?”

“In a couple of weeks, but you won’t notice them. You see, you won’t be allowed to wake up for friendly talks every day. You’ll be immersed in an artificial coma from now on. It’ll last the exact amount of time your body needs to recover completely.”

I could feel another human’s presence in the room. This one was scared �" a typical reaction to me, though I didn’t look as frightening without my armor. Especially with all the bandages and medical equipment around me.

I knew I was about to fall asleep, and it took all of my will power not to return the scales to where they belonged. It was unusual to sleep without the protection of my armor �" and uncomfortable.

There was another thing I wanted to know before she left and I dove into my coma.

“Wait!”

The female was about to leave, but stopped when I called her.

“What is it?”

“What am I supposed to call you?”

It was weird to address a human like this �" without curses and insults. But I didn’t want to start a fight with her… yet. I needed her to survive.

She thought about it for a moment, and then she responded:

“Lita. You may call me Lita.”

***

Today I woke up without the bandage over my eyes. I didn’t open them though, concentrating entirely on the feelings inside my body instead. There was no pain! I could feel every muscle perfectly, from the tip of my tail to the spikes on my head. For a moment I even thought that all of the past events I endured had only been a nightmare. I was home, in clean water, surrounded by people who wished me no harm.

The illusion didn’t last. It was ruined by a number of factual anomalies in my fantasy of the past, including the absence of my armor �" I never slept without it even when I was home. I returned the scales to my body immediately and only then opened my eyes.

I was inside a small tank made of clear glass, and it still reminded me of a coffin! I could see medical equipment through its walls, above me there was white ceiling. The room outside my tank had no windows.

I was alone, but I knew that humans were not far away, I could feel them outside, in the corridor. They were getting closer, and soon my fully recovered hearing was able to catch the words they were saying to one another.

“It’s hard to identify his age. We can’t use the time that's passed from the day of his creation, because that would make him a child. Biologically, I’d say, he’s about 25-30 years old. His condition demonstrates that the physical development process is over, but aging hasn’t started yet. Sex? Definitely a male, both internal and external organs are no different from human ones. Most likely he is able to reproduce sexually.”

I could feel myself blushing, though my armor hid it well. I had only just realized that I no longer had those pieces of cloth that once covered me during my months in that filthy cell. And since I had no clothes left, I suppose when I removed my scales the humans had every opportunity to study me. Just great! Well, at least they fixed my legs…

The male voice outside continued talking:

“From the point of view of physical strength, I think he’s no weaker than the Line One beasts, though we've scheduled tests for that. In any case, his armor is perfect, it can save him from most traumatic injuries.” 

The answer came from a female voice �" that was Lita, I had already learned to recognize her:

“That perfect armor didn’t save his legs and tail.”

“You're wrong, it did. The fractures we were dealing with were mostly quite simple, the wrong healing of bones was a larger problem. If a human received such damage, there'd  be nothing left of their legs. We wouldn’t even need to consider amputation, they’d just fall off. So he was lucky!”

I just scoffed, creating bubbles in my tank. Lucky! Ha, I wish they were that lucky! The very memory of having my legs and tail broken made a shiver run down my spine.

“As for his intellectual abilities…” the male began.

“I don’t need that information,” Lita interrupted him. “I have my own sources. I trust them more.”

They entered my room. I didn’t pretend to be asleep because I’d have to take the armor off for that. Why play any games at all? I raised myself on my elbows as much as the narrow tank allowed me, enjoying the ability to move without pain once again. I wanted to have a better look at my watcher.

The human females I’d seen before were all pretty much the same. They were tall, muscular and the difference between them and males was relative. I think they wanted things to be that way.

This one was different. She was the smallest I’d met. I think she’d barely reach my shoulder once we stood side by side. It would be funny to see how she’d play boss then! Besides, she was rather thin, with no overly impressive muscles showing, her elegant body being almost fragile…

But then she talked, and that voice held more power than that of other females’ with more developed physiques.

“Are you awake?” she addressed me. “That’s wonderful, about time. How are you feeling?”

“Nauseated,” I grumbled.

I didn’t want to say that it was nothing compared to my original condition and that I was actually quite grateful to the doctors. Even if they didn’t cure me out of compassion.

“It’ll pass once the residual drugs leave your blood system,” Lita assured me. Then she turned to her companion. “Doctor, would you please leave us for a moment?”

It wasn’t really a question, and the man that came with her knew it. He got out obediently; I didn’t get a chance to study him; not like I wanted to, though. Lita came closer, she took a chair by my tank. In the bright light of lamps I could see that her eyes weren’t actually black, they were gray, and just as cold as her voice. They alone reminded me why I should never keep my guard down around these creatures.

“Can I get out now?” I knocked my claw on the tank’s lid.

“Not yet, but you’re leaving the Infirmary tomorrow. You’ll have your own pool.”

“I think the right to use that pool comes with a hell of a lot of assignments!”

“Naturally. Otherwise we have no use for you to be here.”

That was depressingly true. Still, I’d appreciate her not saying such things aloud, I was perfectly fine  keeping that understanding to myself without constantly being reminded.

“Now listen to me carefully, because the facts I’m going to tell you are the basis of everything,” she said. “The basis of your job and our relations.”

As if I hadn’t been listening before! Wait… did she say relations?

I nodded, showing that I was listening merely to confirm she had not just been talking into empty space.

“Good. You probably know that we’ve been using beasts that look like you before. The scheme is always the same: one beast works with one human. They’re a team. I’ll be your watcher, which makes the two of us a team. You’re different from the others, and I think you know it. So our common work would be something like an experiment.”

My whole life is an experiment to them it seems…

“What kind of work?” I asked.

“Wait, I haven’t finished yet. Physically, you are much stronger than me. Sure, I have weapons, which you are not going to receive, but in most cases such weapons would be useless anyway, and understandably I can’t watch your every step. Remember I told you there were two surgeries planned for you?”

“Yeah...”, I replied. I had a nasty feeling about where this was going. Humans! Expecting that they’d just help someone was too naïve.

“During the first surgery we fixed your bones. During the second one we placed two devices inside your body. They provide me with a fail-safe possibility to… how do I say it politely: terminate your life at any moment I deem necessary. Of course, you’re the State’s property, but that doesn’t take the privilege of killing you away from me.  I want you to know that I'm not going to abuse this power, but you must remember at all times that I have it”

I wasn’t scared, I was angry. So they didn’t expect me to simply be a good boy and obey… they weren’t as dumb as I hoped they’d be.

Copying the lack of emotions in her voice, I repeated my question:

“What is the essence of my future work?”

I thought I saw her smile weakly, though I wasn’t entirely sure �" the layer of water I was in made her face look a bit blurry.

“There is no short way to describe it, you may get different assignments. The most important part for you is to follow your instructions. No arguing with me, no protests. If I want to know your opinion, I’ll ask for it. In other cases, keep it to yourself. Tomorrow I’ll come for you, we’ll start training together. Today you can enjoy your rest some more.”

“Can I at least get out of the tank?”

“No. You’re considered too dangerous to walk around without anyone watching you, and I don’t have any time to stay here.”

She was right at calling me dangerous. There was nothing I wanted more than finding Anton and breaking his neck. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to restrain myself if I met him, so it was better to avoid the ones who tortured me for a while.

On the other hand, lying here was no better. My body, now fully healed, was begging for some action, and I couldn’t even turn to my side! And two little bombs hidden in my body stopped me from breaking that bloody tank into pieces!

I was forced to wait.

***

I could hear humans walking around the corridor all the time. They unnerved me and fueled my impatience. Some of them stopped by my room and looked into the half-open door, but no-one dared to approach me. I wondered if they treated the Line One creatures in the same manner…

Finally I sensed Lita outside. It’s hard to explain how I can tell the difference between humans at distance, but I’m almost never wrong. It’s not about hearing or seeing them, and smells have never existed in the world of water I live in, it's just a gift of feeling I posses, and in such situations it’s quite handy.

She entered the room and came close to me. At her arrival the lid started to slide to the side, finally providing me with the freedom to get up and move out of the tank. Due to the armor I didn’t really feel the change in temperature, but breathing became harder �" I got used to being under water.

“Get dressed,” she gave me a pair of clothes made of dense fabric.

It turned out to be a set of pants with a tail hole and a sleeveless shirt. I used to wear something like this before, so now I could say for sure:

“I don’t like this. My tail gets tangled.”

“You’ll get other clothes for training,” was her only reply. I guess it’s naïve to expect anyone to care about my own personal comfort.

She waited, giving me time to put those rags on, which, naturally, became wet in an instant. When I was finished, she turned around and went to the door. I followed her, because that was clearly what she wanted, though the unspoken orders irritated me even more than if she had voiced them.

I guess we created quite a view together: she, a fragile human female in an elegant business suit, and me, a nearly six foot tall monster in some whitish rags. People stopped and stared at us. I can’t say I was particularly flattered by this.

We passed a wide brightly lit hallway of the medical floor and entered the elevator cab, which took us a couple of levels higher. Then there were more hallways, narrow and dark. I felt like I was trapped in a labyrinth. Lita walked forward confidently, and I was trying to commit the path to memory. Not like I’d ever need to know the way back to the Infirmary, but merely having the information made me feel more confident.

Finally we reached a totally different zone: the beasts’ floor. I saw them in the hallway, behind glass walls, in pools. They actually looked like me, but I was closer to humans in my appearance. Some of them ignored me, while others looked at me with curiosity, but it wasn’t an intelligent type of curiosity. More like the kind of interest with which dogs watch a newcomer �" I observed that once.

We came to the last room on that floor and stopped in front of a wall made of translucent plastic. Behind it, I could see something like a winter garden: rows of exotic plants in pots what were lined up by a large pool filled with crystal clear water. The room had a lot of light and generally looked rather cozy.

It reminded me of something that was taken away from me…

Lita somehow managed to guess what I was thinking about:

“We used Dr. Strelov 's plans to design this room. It’s an exact copy of the room you had in the laboratory.”

We entered it together; the air inside was much more humid due to the plants’ influence. I liked that, it was easier for me to breath here.

Lita headed toward a set of shelves by the wall and took some clothes from there. They looked like they were made of rubber.

“This is for your training sessions,”

“Too tight, not my style,” I smirked. “Come on, are you serious? Do you really think I can move freely in that oversized condom?!”

She didn’t even blink.

“It’s not made of latex. The material was specially designed for the Line One beasts, they work in it all the time. You’re not that different from them, so your movements won’t be restricted by it. Now get dressed, we’ve got plans.”

“So no cannonball jump for me?” I nodded at the pool.

“Get. Dressed”.

Great. So she was not only missing emotions, but also a sense of humor. Lucky me!

“Okay, okay!”

She was obviously going to eliminate any sign of informal communication with me. Big deal.

The stretchy material turned out to be rather soft, it didn’t constrain my movements, including the swinging of my poor tail. I wasn’t going to admit it though. Out of  pure vengeance I didn’t even put the top part of that uniform on. Lita didn’t comment on that.

“Follow me,” was all the reaction I got when I was finished.

A spacious elevator took us to a lower level where we found something that looked like a stadium. Some of the Line One beasts were already there with their watchers. Nobody paid us any attention.

“Can you see the running track?” Lita asked.

I nodded, knowing what she’d demand in advance. I didn’t like it. But yep, she proved me right a moment later when she ordered:

“Three circles at your maximum speed. And on your legs only.”

I cringed, but didn’t argue: I didn’t dare to do it yet, so I just went towards the track gloomily. If she had truly known a lot about me, she couldn’t have skipped the fact that I hate running.

First of all, running isn’t easy when you have a tail like mine. It’s too long and too heavy. It clings to everything it meets on its way, gets tangled in my feet, so I have to keep it in the air all the time. And doing that is much easier when I get down on all fours, but she forbade that! In addition, running always tired me quickly, I lose my breath too fast. Three circles in open air were more complicated for me than one hundred circles in a pool. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given a choice between the two… or for that matter, any choice at all.

In that moment I decided that Lita wasn’t that much better than Anton. But at least she didn’t enjoy hitting me!

Other creatures �" it was funny to think of them that way, since we were so similar �" were busy with equally exhausting training. Some were doing push-ups, others were raising themselves on high bars, certain beasts were even allowed to play ball. It appeared they were entertained by the process rather than tortured by it because they didn’t have to go beyond their natural abilities. I was the only one who had to struggle.

I hadn’t done such exercise for many months, I nearly forgot how to do them, so these three circles turned out to be quite a challenge. Staying in that blasted cell for so long was bringing its results. My newly healed body was aching once again and my lungs were burning pretty bad. I reached the finish line out of pure stubbornness and collapsed there as I tried to catch my breath.

Lita came to me, but she didn’t lean closer or try to help.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

“Not too bad. I… I can get up.”

“There’s a shower by the door where the beasts get water once they need it. You can use it too.”

 I didn’t bother with the answer, I just dragged my exhausted body there. Cool streaks of water brought certain relief; they eased the tension in my burning muscles. A Line One beast was using the shower just a couple of steps away from me. He looked at me indifferently and turned away. He wasn’t pretending, he really didn’t care who I was.

Funny… I’d always wanted to meet them. I expected myself to feel a certain connection between us. And now this meeting had finally happened… the connection between us was no greater than connection between me and a goldfish.

In a minute I fully recovered, which I relayed to Lita when she approached me.

“Three more?” I asked without even trying to look enthusiastic.

“No need, you’ve warmed up. We’ve got only one week for training and tests, then we’ll start going on missions. So we can’t waste that much time on simple physical exercise.”

I didn’t point out that those exercises were not exactly what you'd call “simple.”

We left the stadium and came to the hall next to it. It was a small room with gray walls and a gray ceiling. Lita stayed by the door and gestured me to move to the other side of the room. I walked there sullenly. Whatever they had prepared for me wasn’t going to be good, so why bother with optimism?

A glass wall came out of the floor, separating me from my watcher. I didn’t try to break it, didn’t even move. I knew I could do it, by the way. I just didn’t want to. The only power I had left was the power of tranquility. So I remained standing by the wall, though my part of the room began to fill with water quickly.

Lita was waiting for my questions, but they never came. I was playing stubborn. So she spoke first:

“It’s not really a training session this time, more like a test. Since you’re going to be working now, we must know your key characteristics. That includes your reaction to various conditions. To put it simple, we must know what we can expect from you and what we can entrust you with. As soon as you feel that you can’t take it any longer or that your health is threatened, you must tell me immediately. I’ll be here all the time. It’s not about hurting you or breaking you, so we’ll stop it at your first request.”

That was new. They used to beat me without asking my opinion, let alone caring for my health. Now they were going to do the same thing, but politely? Great! But still… she sounded like she was sincere about it and that she was sorry…

Nonsense! I was imagining things. Lita was a human, they don’t know what sorry is.

I could feel the water around me starting to cool down. No, not just cool down �" it was freezing! So they decided to check what temperatures I could endure. I felt like it was my turn to shock them.

I couldn’t say the cold temperature didn’t bother me at all, because I sure didn’t enjoy it. At the same time, it didn't seriously harm me either. I wasn’t trying to move to keep myself warm, although humans probably expected this. I just stood in one place instead, looking right into Lita’s emotionless eyes. I wanted to somehow make her show a weak side and lose her cool. But this female was just as stubborn as I was. Even if my little demonstration of stamina impressed her, she didn’t show it.

The water finally froze down. I stood in the middle of a large block of ice.

“How long are you able to survive like this?” I could barely hear her through the ice, and I saw only her silhouette.

Answering also wasn’t exactly easy, but I managed.

“Almost as long as in water.”

“Are you weakened by ice?”

“Nope.”

“Can you break it?”

I moved my tail carefully, and a web of cracks immediately started to spread on the ice.

“Enough,” Lita’s order has just saved the giant ice cube from complete destruction. “You’ll break the glass with it, and we don’t need that. We'll move to the next test.”

The ice started to melt, I could feel the warmth coming from all sides. I got the impression of being inside an oven. Did they know that such a sharp contrast of temperatures was the greatest challenge they could create? The sudden heat after being stuck in ice resulted in vertigo, but I managed to hide it by holding on to the ground with my tail to keep my balance.

The test with the hot water wasn’t as easy as the one with the ice. I had to call it quits when little white bubbles began boiling around me. My desire to impress them was still weaker than my self-preservation instinct. A couple more minutes and I’d end up in a fish soup!

There were other tests, not connected to temperatures. They let piranhas into the water with me to check how strong my armor was. Well, at least they permitted me to kill the little creeps, so that one was even fun.

Then they swapped fresh water for salt water. I wasn’t happy, because the salt in it was artificial, unlike actual sea water, and the tiny crystals scratched the sensitive gills on my neck.

They made the flow stronger, creating a vortex by my side, and filled the water with electricity. I tolerated it all in silence. I wanted to know my limit too, but it was obviously further than the limit of their equipment’s abilities, so I rarely had to ask them to stop. Lita stood in front of me at all times during the tests, she didn’t even move. I knew that it was rather hard and uncomfortable for a human and I wasn’t sure why she was doing this, but I had enough things to keep me busy. I honestly wasn’t left with much time to think of her.

When the tests were over, the water went down the drain and the glass wall slowly slid back into the floor. Hours had passed since I first walked here, and I got used to being in water, so returning into open air was difficult. At first I just lied on the floor, adapting to the change of pressure and temperature. Lita waited for me to recover in silence.

I really hoped they’d give me some rest. The last few experiments along with the previous running test drained most on my energy. All I wanted at the moment was to get into the recessed niche in my pool, hidden away from the rest of the world, and fall asleep.

When I was able to stand again, Lita walked away quickly. I reluctantly dragged myself after her, pissed off at humans in general and that damn female in particular.

“Now you can rest, I won’t bother you till tomorrow,” she said when we were taking an elevator ride back. “You’ll find some food beside your pool, you’ll be fed twice a day. Today the first meal was changed for the nutritious liquid injection in the Infirmary.”

“What’ll happen tomorrow?”

“A short training session and new tests. Different from the ones you took today. As I told you, we have too little time to waste it on repeating something.”

I saw no sense in asking her for details. I’d find that out eventually, whether I wanted to or not.

She walked me to my room, but didn’t step inside. I could hear the lock click behind my back. They provided me with relative freedom, but didn’t pretend they trusted me.

Fair enough. I never promised to be their lapdog!

Author's Note

I hope it entertains you ;)

Reviews

[D.S. Dirck]

A great read. I was thoroughly entertained.

[Kira Stern]

Glad to hear that :)