Chapter 1
The thud of heavy boots bounced off the surrounding brick walls. Splash, as dirty water from a puddle hiding in the dark soaks the pursuer's pants, but still they come. Heaving breaths sucked in the ice cold air as she runs as fast as her tired legs will carry her. She can feel them shaking but her survival instinct keeps the adrenaline flowing. Her heart is pounding so hard she feels she will die from a heart attack. The icy air burns to breath in, everything hurts, everything pounds, but they won't let up. She can almost feel their heavy breath down her neck, but she refuses to look behind her. Pressing forward there is a turn in the alley way. Crouching low she presses her hands on the pavement and swings her legs around as the turn keeps her from interrupting her pace. This gives her a significant gain on her pursuers, but they don't stop. God, why? Why are they so desperate to catch her? The loud deep voices echo off the walls as he gives orders in some language she can't understand. Her feet are sore now, the bottoms raw from running barefoot on the rough hard ground. Despite the sweat pouring down her face her body only seems to grow numb with cold. How long as she been running? Hours? It feels like it. She feels herself slowing. No! She cannot fail now, she had come so far! With that last burst of energy she bursts into the bustling street. Now she can't make her feet stop, they keep going, taking her into the road. Finally she forces herself to stop. Her chest is heaving as she turns her head only to be blinded by the head lights of some truck. Her arms fly up to protect her face and she flinches away from the massive beast. She feels the impact and then black.
Beep, beep, beep. The soft sounds of a hospital monitor pull her from the blissful sleep. Her eyes flutter open to the bright lights, and then a flashback to the truck and her body lurches. Immediately nurses have surrounded her and a liquid is injected into her IV and she begins to relax again. Slowly the room blurs away and she is out again. The next time she is pulled from her rest it is not quite so pleasant. The lights have been turned down and the soft glow of computer screens soothed her until the pain hit. It came in waves starting with her legs. They throbbed and screamed as if someone was holding a flame to them. Moving up, her hips felt like every nerve in them was being pinched. Next came the nausea. Her stomach turned uneasily and her throat gagged. Her spine twisted and ached all the way up her neck. Her head spun and throbbed. Her face burned and felt dry and her arms felt as if the very flesh had been peeled off them. She sat for a moment, trying to comprehend all the pain, dividing it into sections and slowly easing it away as she had been taught. But they all came so fast, each fighting for the highest degree of pain until finally tears began streaming down her face in sheer tension, fighting her body. Then she screamed. People latter described it as the sum of all human suffering. So terrible and full of feeling some fell where they were and curled up. Others tried hiding from the sound. It was so awful the doctors had to put ear plugs in so they could work on her without falling victim to the sound so terrible it had no real description.
Her diagnosis was severe internal bleeding, brain hemorrhaging, one collapsed lung, several severe abrasions, shattered femurs, broke spinal discs, broken jaw, fractured skull, shattered tibia, broken fibula, shattered metacarpals and metatarsals. Also broken humorous, dislocated hip, broken hip, shattered scapulas. The list became so long they simply described her as completely shattered. It was beyond any scientific description why she was still alive. It was simply impossible. Her ribs had punctured her lungs and heart. Everything was collapsing in, at the least she should be in a vegetative state, but no, here she was breathing, screaming and kicking. Things were just beginning to be taken care of, her pain had been dulled to a low throb and the exhausted doctors had finally filed out of her room. Slowly she began to nod off, dreaming of a life in a wheel chair, deformed and broken like some monster. Every night she cried, tears stained her cheeks and the flow never seemed to stop. The concerned doctors would ask if she was in pain, but no one could get a sound out of the broken miracle, or was it a curse? No one would say, but they all pitied her.
"Good morning! How are you feeling today?" The cheery nurse would say each day opening the curtains. The girl simply turned her scared and torn face away from the light, a permanent look of sadness and anger painted there, but who could blame her? The nurse sighed and checked her charts. Same as usual. Medications, a surgery planned for 3 o'clock, more medications. She glanced sadly over her shoulder, only to be startled by the girl staring back. She looked quickly away and briskly moved from the room. This caused only more anger to build up. All they did was pity her. At one point she was strong and healthy, and now she would never be the same. Same as when…? She lost her memory due to the accident. She did not know who she was, her name, why she was there, if she had family, nothing. This only made her feel more lost.
One night she was woken by a strange buzzing feeling. It was just soft, enough to wake her, but slowly it increased until it felt like electricity pulsing through her body. It wasn't exactly unpleasant but it caused her to squirm slightly. Just as she was going to press the help button her body jolted. Snap, crack, crunch. Her bones seemed to move and twist inside her. It still did not hurt but she was scared. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came. Next her airway was cut off. She was choking, gasping for breath while her body still convulsed and twisted. Occasionally her throat would open and she would take quick breaths, but it was like as her body shifted it pitched her throat closed. Eventually it stopped and most of her pain had vanished. Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath, then a tingling feeling started, as if something was crawling all over her skin. She tried pulling from her restraints and casts to itch the feeling away, to brush away whatever it was, but she was stuck. It continued until she thought she would go insane until it all suddenly stopped.
She stood beside the hospital bead, her eyes staring blankly at the mess of casts and restraints. She stretched and rolled her new shoulders and cracked her neck, getting use to the new body. What had happened? Where had she learned to pick locks like that? She slowly brought her hand to her face and examined the smooth tan skin, the delicate fingers and clear smooth nails. Slowly she ran her other hand up her arm and along her flawless shoulder. Leaning into the mirror she examined her new eyes. They were amazing! The inner circle around her pupil was a light blue fading quickly to an emerald green and ending with a dark orange. The colors were so vibrate so…inhuman. The next think she noticed were small delicate designs etched into her skin below and around her eyes. Suddenly she felt very unsecure; she wrapped her arms tightly around her shoulders and turned away from the mirror. What happened? Why was she like this? Was she even human? When she bowed her head, strands of hair fell into her eyes and she gasped again. It was long, almost too mid back and cut evenly all around. The color though is what got her. What use to the platinum blonde was now a dark red, with different shades highlighting it. Not only had her body fixed itself, she had become a totally different person. After a quick look over her new elegant and very female body she decided she couldn't stay. What would the doctors do? She would become some science experiment. She had to leave. Slowly a claustrophobic feeling seeped all around her. She felt trapped and closed it. Her head snapped around, looking for exits and openings. The feeling increased until she bolted for the door. Bursting into the empty dark hall she inhaled deeply taking in the new open space.
What happened next, she didn't really understand. A person she didn't know seemed to take over. Her legs carried her smoothly and silently across the cool hospital tiles. From an on lookers position it would almost look like a dance. How subconsciously she noticed the security cameras and slid out of their view, ducking and rolling below windows and sliding past sleeping guards, she made it look like an art. Finally she slide from the main doors and stepped into the freezing air. She flinched away from the heavy traffic, even at this time of day and slipped into the shadows. Darting vigilante eyes took in even the slightest details, oddly heightened hearing caught the softest sound of mice in the ally, to the person talking angrily on the phone beside an open window. It was all too much for her; the influx of senses filled her to the point of breaking. The lights, the fast moving cars, the noises, the people, they all were rushing by her. Finally she collapsed to the ground covering her eyes and hiding her eyes. It was too much, two people were living inside her, each fighting for control, her senses showered her with new information and the icy air hurt! In a moment of insanity she screamed. She kept screaming until her throat hurt, and then taking a deep breath she opened her eyes. But when she opened them, she was alone. The cars were gone, the people, the noises, everything except for the soft whisper of wind. Puzzled, she searched desperately where they could have gone, until she noticed the faintest outline of them. They looked like faded ghosts, their sounds a soft whisper. As they walked by she could feel them brush by, she could see it all, but now she could focus better. Had she gone to another dimension? Or had they? What did she do? She calmed a moment and thought of what she had done. This other persons mind could comprehend so much more, pondering many different points at once, examining everything until everything centered on one moment: the deep breath. Focusing on this she realized this had to be what caused her to fade from reality, a tactic this new body used to control these heightened senses.
Standing there, our innocent girl, thrust into a world she had nothing to do with, realized something. This other person inside her, she knew so much more, could do so much more, and had a mission. Whoever it was, they would live a much more fulfilled life then she ever could. Closing her eyes she sunk to the ground and let a single tear slide down her face. Whoever she was before the accident, she died, and now, this new girl, she needed to be allowed to live. When she thought this, she felt a happy stirring inside her, and push for control of the body. Inhaling deeply the broken miracle slipped away, giving way to whoever demanded claim over this body she saved.
She thought she was alone, thought no one was watching, no one saw her escape, but this was simply an illusion. Sinking back into the shadows of the ally way and man pressed a button on the communicator.
"The human has given in, we have her now." His low deep voice whispered into the ear piece. There was a short pause and a reply was given.
"Good, take her down." The musky voice of another male responded, but it was younger, but held much more authority. Slowly the guard melted away and followed the girl in her shadow, she never even noticed.
Above, floating around in earth's orbit was a large strange looking ship. The fleshy outer reflected the inside as well. Sitting in a large room on a throne was a creature dressed in a black leather uniform with a long cloak behind it. The blue and red floor was covered in a soft mist, hiding his heavy matching boots. His hair was long and silky white. It hung, hiding his face, but a toothy grin could not be missed on the green transparent skin. A deep chuckle rumbled within his chest as he tilted his head up slowly reveling bright yellow cat like eyes and a black star burst tattoo around his right eye. His sharp white teeth were fully revealed as his lips pulled back in a half snarl half smile. Alone he sat, the low tuned sound filling the dim room.
"Darling," He whispered to the silence "I'm back."
