Author's Note: I cleaned up the chapter's dialogue formating a little. Hopefully, it is easier to read now.

Chapter One: Change for the Better

My life really didn't start until I met her. As cheesy as it may sound, my life really did start when I met her. Rachel was a new student at school, and I was instantly enamored. There was just one tiny problem: she was gay. Yeah, Yeah; I know, oldest story in the book: a guy wants the only thing he cannot have. That was far from the end of my problems, bud. This infatuation grew into a sort of longing as time passed. The first time I spoke to her I didn't know what to expect. War raged in my mind. Would she flat ignore me? I thought. Would she take pity on me? I grimaced at that thought. I had a deep-seated hatred for pity. None of my fears seemed valid in the end because we turned out to have a common interest in the show Kim Possible. From there, I could at least content myself with friendship. At least, that's what I told myself as I headed home a few weeks into the new school year.

The longing only grew stronger as my home situation grew worse. At the time, I had a neurological condition called Cerebral Palsy that affected my motor skills and balance. Unfortunately, the disability also had a negative effect on my family life. Mom pushed me beyond my capability with painful stretching, pointless therapy, and minimally effective orthopedic surgeries that did more harm than good. While Mom sought her dream house and worked herself to death in order to achieve that dream, sacrificing time with family on menial chores that would have been met if she and my father were not always working to satiate their own desires, the house upkeep was left completely to me and never done quite to my mother's expectations. It became a dreaded cycle, and I was actually happy when men in black suits captured me and put me in the back of a van with my walker.

I don't remember much about the facility, but I do remember waking up as a guy I assume was a doctor injected my arm with something. Normally, needles scared the living Hell out of me, but I was too sedated to do more than grin at him stupidly before going back under the fog of unconsciousness. When I woke up for good, I wasn't immediately aware of what was done to me. As I did normally, I went to grab my legs and swing them over the side of the bed, so I could stand. I was shocked when my legs moved to hang over the edge of the bed under their own power! I must be dreaming! I thought as tears welled up in my eyes and slid down my cheeks. I'm cured! My mind yelled in excitement as I jumped out of the bed and started to run for the first time in my life without any assistance equipment and quickly fell on my face.

"What?" I mumbled in shock as I pushed myself back to my feet to find a familiar face looking at me. Rachel was blushing madly for some reason as she looked at me. "What's up with you?" I asked in confusion with a grin. "You look like Kim when she's wrestling with Shego."

Rachel seemed shocked for a moment at my observation. Then, she shook her head. "Take a look in the mirror…" Rachel said as she gestured to a bathroom over in the corner and trailed off.

I nodded, still too high on the fact that I was no longer disabled to notice that she didn't call me Daniel. I also became aware of something else. My natural, jerky gate I was used to no longer existed. It was now replaced by a fluid movement of my hips as weight shifted from foot to foot with each step. That's definitely odd. I thought as tried to picture what my new walk looked like. The image that popped in my head made me laugh. Am I seriously walking like a girl?!

When I got to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I studied the beauty that stared back in disbelief. My black crewcut was now a silky expanse of raven locks that stretched to the bottom of my neck. My eyes were the same dark brown, almost black color; but my face was decidedly feminine. That little detail made me reach up to touch my face. When I saw a hand touch the mirror girl's cheek, my eyes widened. I looked down and had to back my face up because two unexpected additions almost crashed into my face. I smirked as I thought of some unsavory things. Then, the veil of disbelief fell away as I realized what I was thinking. My face contorted in disgust, and I screamed.

Rachel ran in the bathroom and gently held me. "Hey, who's supposed to be holding whom?" I asked as I tried to joke and distract myself from the situation.

Rachel gave a small laugh at the joke if only to help me feel better. "What do you need?" She asked.

I shook myself out of my daze and sighed, "I need to get out of here and find my parents." I growled with a steel expression.

Rachel looked at me quizzically. "Why do you never talk about them?"

I shivered. "It's not a subject I like to talk about." I said with a sigh. "My Mom pushed me to breaking with painful stretching, useless therapy which had limited results like teaching me how to type with one hand, and surgeries that put me out for months at a time with no overall improvement to my abilities with the exception of one surgery to improve use of my right arm. My Dad is not a person I want to be: a drunk pushover at the mercy of my mother." I said with a sighed and then noticed my current state. "Can you…get out so I can change?" I asked as I looked away from her and felt my face heat up.

She nodded. "I'll be right outside…"

"Call me Lucy." I said when I figured out why she stopped. With a smile at the name choice, Rachel slipped out of the room.

I disrobed out of the paper gown, dressed in generic fatigues that were in the closet, and walked out of the bathroom. As I tossed Rachel a set, my mind started rolling through possible situations.

"Most likely, we were taken by a black-budget organization." I said as I began to pace as I entered "War Mode" as I came to call it at later times. "The extent of experimentation is unknown besides repairing my body and changing it on a genetic level to that of a woman." I thought aloud.

Rachel sighed and spoke. "Like Umbrella, they will probably cover up our disappearances by fabricating a story."

I nodded in agreement. "Death by explosion is the easiest to make because it gives the option of saying the bodies were destroyed in the blast."

I chuckled as I looked at the window to the left of the room. When I walked over to it and looked down; I saw we were on the tenth floor of a hospital complex, it was dark, and there were only a few lamps directly below our room. For some reason, the sight brought a smile to my face. The idea shocked a part of me because before the changes, I couldn't look down from the loft of my parents' house without getting dizzy.

"Come on. We're gonna jump!" I didn't give Rachel time to think or argue as I picked her up and ran for the window.

When the glass broke around me, my muscles tensed. My face took on a momentary look of horror as gravity took us. Landing on the ground, I was slightly jarred by the impact but nothing more. Enhanced G-Force coping… I thought with a grin as I realized Rachel had a death grip on me.

"You can let go, now." I said with a laugh.

Unknown to us, a surveillance team watched Rachel and me escape.

"Patients Zero and One have been released, sir."

The leader spoke to an unknown person on the other side with a hint of fear in his voice. "Good. Watch them for now, but do not interfere, I wish for them to discover their gifts on their own." The man nodded in surprise at his superior's words. "Continue your surveillance, but under no circumstances is the subjects' contact with their old lives permitted. If Patient One or Zero come in contact with relatives, eliminate the families. Weapons are no good to us if we cannot use them, and the virus is designed to only activate when the subjects are the most intimate with each other. Encouraging closeness with tragedy is open for use if the need arises."

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