Strixes

Evelyn II

The machine looked like something you might have found on earth, in the late nineteenth century. Big, large, and primitive, something out of Doctor Frankenstein's laboratory.

"This," Toshiro said, patting the black metal. "That is how we will transfer your consciousness into the homunculus body."

"What is it called? The Frankenstein machine?"

Toshiro laughed, but none of the other scientists followed his lead. I was getting dirty looks from them, looks I returned with interest. I had stared down Soviet soldiers, strixes, lycans, and leviathans. These kids in lab coats were about as threatening as a weiner dog. None of them could meet my eyes for long. I might be a decrepit old crone, but I'd be damned if I let these snot-nosed brats glare at me like that. These gnats in this oppressively sterile facility would piss themselves if they came face to face with a titan.

"We don't have a name for it. Perhaps if it works we might come up with one. In the future... Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, we call it the Wave Pattern. It reads the target's brain waves, copies the pattern, and then imprints them on a fresh mind. It will copy everything in your brain and imprint it on the homunculus's brain. You won't lose a single memory."

As Toshiro spoke, the other scientists were loading the homunculus into one of the pods connected to the machine. Toshiro saw me looking at the body and chuckled. "She is beautiful, isn't she? If I was a young man and I saw her walking down the street, I would ask her out on a date. Her's is a body that will serve you well, I promise. Not only is she genetically enhanced, but she also has a slower aging rate than normal humans. If our calculations are correct, she will age roughly half as slow as a baseline human."

Toshiro hit a button and the other pod opened with a pop as the seal air escaped. "Is this going to hurt?"

Toshiro shrugged. "I don't know. You are the first human test subject... But the rats we tested this on experienced spikes in their pain receptors."

The answer was yes, and Toshiro just didn't want to say it. On the other side of the machine, they finished putting in the homunculus girl. The pod was sealed air-tight, ELD lights glowing under the hood. It gave off an eerie look.

"It's time, Evelyn. Please take your spot." Toshiro pointed at the pod.

"If this kills me, you better hope ghosts aren't real," I warned him. "I promise I'll come back to haunt you."

"Scary." He pressed a button and the lid sealed. I was stuck inside a dark coffin, with only the sound of an air recycle unit buzzing. I could have sworn air recycling was for use aboard starships, but I guess it would be useful here. If something went wrong and I had to spend more time in here than was strictly necessary.

There were also speakers built in because Toshiro's voice came with a crack of static: "We will now begin the Imprinting Process. Good luck, Evelyn." His voice cut off with the same crackle of static.

Suddenly the inside of the pod was lit up like a Christmas tree and I could see the silver metal. For a second. Then the lightning came. It might have been in my head, but it felt like I was being bathed in electricity. There wasn't a single part of me that would come out untouched. It felt like I was being eaten alive by lightning.

My vision exploded in a flash of light and all that I could hear was ringing in my ears. Slowly my vision returned to me. I wasn't in the pod anywhere, I was on the metal floor, on my knees. The cold ground was digging into my skin.

Along with my vision, my hearing also returned, the noise getting quieter every second. "-wrong. The settings were too high! Alpha and Beta pods both couldn't withstand the current."

It was a woman's voice but one I didn't recognize.

"Evelyn Lescheres?" Toshiro yelled, iron in his voice. I never knew he could some like someone respectable. "Where is she?"

"Right here, sir! I've got her!"

There was no one around me. Toshiro and the rest of the staff were on the other side of the room, gathering around the other pod. "She's breathing, sir, but she won't wake up."

I was about to tell the little fucking shit off when I looked at the back of my hand. I really looked at it. My skin wasn't as pale as it should be. If anything it looked like I had a tan. My skin wasn't wrinkled and I couldn't see a single liver spot.

I stood up and it was easier than I could have imagined. My body didn't protest against me, my legs didn't shake, and I just stood up like it was easy. Natural and easy. It was far too easy to stand up.

The next thing I notice was my naked body. The black cardigan I had been wearing was gone. My pants, underwear, everything was gone. I was as naked as the day I was born.

I looked up at a long piece of steel and my reflection stared back at me. I gasped: staring back at me wasn't the weathered face of an old crone I had come to expect, but the young face of a teenage girl. She was a dark haired girl with the eyes as brown as chocolate. Her hair was black as the country side night.

I touched my face and the girl followed my movements. I grabbed my hair and she did the same. I touched my chest and so did she. My sagging tits were replaced with a soft, firm lump. That felt real. That felt way too real.

Her chest and arms were muscled like a maiden's fantasy, but with a distinctly feminine edge. She had some junk in the trunk, but nothing too outrageous. It was nicely curved, along with the rest of her body. I hadn't had curves since I was forty.

"Evelyn?" Toshiro's voice was hardly above a whisper, but I heard it as clearly as if he yelled. There was a trace of awe in his voice. I looked over and saw Toshiro kneeling above a familiar old woman. Her face was one I had grown so used to seeing in the mirror.

The rest of his team turned around and I got to witness the shock as they took me in. I should have probably been embarrassed to be standing in front of this crowd of people naked, but I couldn't care less. I was an old woman and-

... Huh. I guess I wasn't an old woman anymore. I looked at my muscular, hourglass reflection and I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Looking at my new body was like a dream come true. I had shed the skin of that old crone and got back what I wanted more than anything else: my youth. I was eighteen, going on nineteen, not a sixty-year-old bat of a woman.

"Is that really you?"

"It's me alright, Toshiro."

I had done the impossible. I had cheated time and I was young again. Only titans and strixes were supposed to be able to cheat time, yet I had done it without being infected.

Just moments ago, it felt like the world was muted. The colors were dull, the flavors stale, the sound muted, yet now I could hear everything so clearly. The colors of this grey room -the few that it had- were bright and popping out at me. For the first time in years, I wanted to eat something. It had been so long since I was able to taste the flavor of food.

A middle-aged woman eyed me as she adjusted her glasses. Her white lab coat was spotless. "We should get Ms. Evelyn some clothes."

I almost told her it was Mrs. Evelyn. I had been married, even if it was for less than a year, but then I realized that this body had never been married before. This body was fresh and new and ready for a test drive.

"Yes. Yes. Take her to the dressing room and see if we can find her some close that Evelyn likes."

It seemed that they had thought ahead because every article of clothing fit this new body like a glove. The middle-aged woman, who I found out was named Tammy, said I could pick anything I liked. Since I had gotten older, I stopped wearing colors. I preferred grays and blacks, which fit my mood.

I chose a pink tank-top with a black fleurs de lis design that looked cute. Over the tank-top, I picked out a green hoodie. It had been years since I wore a lacy pair of panties, but that's what I picked out this time. It was the kind of thing I would have worn in my crazy college days.

Lately, I had had an urge to wear a skirt, but looking back on my old body, I had refused. It would make me feel pathetic like I couldn't let go of my youth. I had convinced myself that I was going to grow old gracefully. I had friends who couldn't accept the fact that they were old and they dressed like young, trendy, twenty-something-year-olds. That wouldn't be me and I made sure it wasn't.

Now I was that young, youthful girl that I had watched waste away over the years. So I picked a purple skirt with black fleurs de lis designs. French was my native language, I was born and grew up in Lyore province, and my family had come from France. The fleurs de lis had always been a part of my life.

Tammy brought me back to the elevator and brought me all the way up to the Atrium. "What's going to happen to my old body?"

Tammy looked at me over her glasses. "In the short term, we are placing your body into cryo. As for the long term, I suppose that would be up to you. It is your body. Maybe you would like to return to it one day."

I shook my head. I never wanted to go back to that body. It was slowly dying and I had started feeling like a corpse. "No. Never. Donate it to science."

"To science? I suppose that is noble in a way."

"I'm not trying to be noble." I just never wanted to be put back in my old corpse. Life had come back to me and it would be a death sentence if I was to be condemned back to my old life. There was nothing worse than growing old. I'd rather die.

We stopped at a restaurant named Ryan's. Tammy nodded to me. "I'll see you around, Evelyn."

I didn't plan to see her again. I wasn't going to be sticking around if I could help it. I was young and strong again, and there was only one calling in life for me. It wasn't as a laboratory guinea pig.

The restaurant might be called a grill, but it was an upper-scale place with a well-dressed man standing behind a podium. "Do you have a reservation?"

Did I? "I'm here with a Toshiro Nakamura."

"Nakamura... Nakamura... Ah! Here it is. Please, follow me, young lady."

I felt a surge of pleasure at his words. Young lady. How long had it been since I had been called young lady? Too long.

Toshiro was waiting for me in a private booth. He eyed me up and down. "It's like you're a whole different person."

As I sat down opposite him, I felt like a different person. It wasn't just the body or the youth, though that was a big part of it. It went beyond that, I had been a corpse, slowly dying, and now I was alive. It was more than physical, it was mental. I was someone else.

"What can I get for you?" the waiter asked.

I also said whiskey, but in Aquroya, you had to be twenty to drink. I was physically nineteen, so I wasn't old enough. Even if I was, I think I'm going to dive up drinking. This new body was a temple and I wasn't going to poison it. "Iced blueberry juice," I said instead.

"And you, sir?"

"Iced tea."

"Excellent. I will be back with your drinks so. The menu is on the tables."

Neither of us paid the menu any mind. As soon as the waiter was gone, Toshiro said: "Juice? I thought you drank brandy with every meal."

"Times have changed."

"What a difference an hour can make."

Had it been an hour since I changed bodies?

"Now, we must decide what you will do with this new life you've been given. But before that, I must warn you. You will be seeing a lot more of us, in the future."

I frowned. "I don't follow."

"Division Three needs these results to present to Sword High Command. As such, you will be monitored. You're wearing our investment, after all."

That made sense. Toshiro didn't give me this new life out of the goodness of his heart. This was a project that Sword had invested billions of credits and god knows how many resources. I wasn't just a person or a hunter anymore. I was an investment.

"I can live with that. As long as Division Three and the rest of Sword isn't too overbearing."

Toshiro smiled. "We will try to keep our involvement to the bare minimum."

I suppose that was all I could ask for.

"Now, let us discuss your future." He pulled out a linker and slide it across the table. When I clicked it on, a digital ID had my new face on it appeared on the holoscreen, next to the name Evelyn Lescheres. According to the ID, I was nineteen years old, born in June of 2694. My parents were killed in a leviathan attack when I was just six years old, so I was transferred to the Sword-run orphanage. I attended The Hades Institute in Pluto for the remainder of my schooling. My scores were the same as they were when I truly attended.

Everything was plausible. Sword did take in orphans when they had nowhere to go, and they did attend the schooling course of their local institute. Everything checked out. The records seemed genuine, if I wasn't sure I was me, I would have bought them.

My new ID was attached to a new bank account, and all the assets of my old accounts had been transferred. I had no doubt the property I owned in Mayfield and my apartment in Neptune were also in my name. Sword was good in that regard.

I slide the linker onto my wrist. It fit perfectly. I turned the holoscreen off and activated the Augmented Reality function.

"If you wish to attend university, you may. You're smart enough, Evelyn and you have the GPA to get in on a full scholarship. You have a new life. A whole new life ahead of you, for you to do anything with."

Toshiro was truly interested in giving me another life. If he wanted to do that, he should have given this body to someone else. "I know, but there's only one thing I can do."

Toshiro sighed. "Why must you hold yourself back like this? You've dedicated your whole life to Sword and stopping the monsters. Isn't one life enough? You have a chance to escape the violence and the bloodshed."

I flicked the screen off and put the phone into my pocket. "I'm sorry, Toshiro, I know you want me to pick something else... But I can't. I have to stop the monsters. There is no other way forwards for me. I'm so grateful for what you've done, Toshiro. You've given me my life back. You've given me a second chance, but there's only one way forwards for me. I'm sorry."

Toshiro sighed. A long and unbroken sigh. "No. I'm the one who's sorry. I had hoped that you would pick a safer career path, but I knew you never would. I got my hopes up for nothing. So I hope you don't mind that I've taken the liberty of assembling you a new hunting me."

"A hunting team? You know I work alone."

"Not anymore you don't, I'm afraid. Sword agrees with me. They want you to put your considerable talent towards the next generation. Sword has assembled a team for you to lead. All of them are very young, recent graduates of the three-year program, from Poseidon Institute in Neptune. You will lead Trident Team as the forth member."

Recent graduates? "I don't want to babysit-"

Toshiro held up his hand. "Relax, Evelyn. Each of them graduated at the top of their class at a different institute. These are the best of the best. Samantha Jackson, the oldest, is twenty-five. The youngest, other than yourself is Glen Weber, twenty-one."

"Babies," I repeated.

Toshiro chuckled. "Maybe to someone as old as yourself."

Great. I was going to lead a team. I hadn't been a part of a team since I was new out of the institute. Over fifty years ago.

"I don't like it. I'm not a fucking team player and you know that."

"You don't have to like it, Evelyn. You just have to accept it."

"If they don't meet my standards, I'm sending them back," I warned. I wouldn't be saddled with useless hunters.

"They graduated best of our their class for a reason. I promise they will meet your standard. But before that, we will have to get you to combat rated."

"I'm a silver," I said automatically.

"You were," Toshiro agreed. "However, you have a new, genetically enhanced body. I'm sure you'll have a higher rating now."

***

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