Everything is coming back to me. I see the smile on my face, the face I once had, the hands that held hers.
These are still only memories as I feel the steel plates being shoved into my burnt flesh. It was distant and not even a full day since I was still home, crouched in a corner, screaming like an animal, not caring about the Separatists' allegiance that I had to obey. Now I lay on a metal table, bright lights blurring my eyes, my head pulsing as geonosians pick at my insides and eviscerate my skin. I can feel myself dying, slowly slipping away. I lay weeping on this table as I find out what they're doing, my body is being hollowed out, transferred to a new one, I am not given anesthetics so I can feel all of this.
This is worse than any pain I've felt before, my ribcage is expanded and pulled apart to excavate the rest of my vital organs and prepare them for the other vessel. I- I would kill them all, all of these fools, but my arms are gone, so are my legs, they were blown off in the blast. They cut open the skin on the stump of where my left leg was, and all I felt was stinging and an eerie slithering sensation, they're pulling my veins out, they cut off the tips of them, where they were burnt, and attached lymph nodes to the edges and started building off of those. I'm in so much pain but I cannot scream out anymore, they remove my jaw and cut open my throat, take my vocal chords and attach them to metal nodes being prepared to be inserted into this new body. I feel all of it, I can just make out what they're doing, and I'm somehow still alive.
Metal rods protrude from the fleshy stumps of where my limbs once were. But one of the last things was my brain, they had a peculiar way of placing it on the new body, I was basically decapitated. But, in order for this to have worked, the Count was present, Dooku. He was keeping me alive by using the force as the remainder of my head was transferred to the metallic backing of my shell. I'm melded into place as the top half of me is now complete, I can feel the life coming back into my lungs, I am able to breathe again. Veins were still attached as they gently melded them together with the metal rods acting as placeholders for veins that once were, a blood sack was hung from a rod, to be inserted into my veins and to keep my heart pumping. A respirator was still attached to me, they trimmed away excess flesh, tore me apart like an animal, my blood was everywhere as new blood was injected into me, I heard my own breathing, it was raspy and strained. It was pitiful to hear, just awful.
My organs were encased in bacta for a short time, the more vital ones were first to go into the gut sack. It hung by wires, a durasteel midsection, that's what will hold me together. After my organs were stuffed into the gut sack, it was placed into the durasteel midsection like it was processed and packaged, anew and ready for use once more. They took my mutilated torso, ripped open the chest and resurrected my heart in its crevice of a home, it had a special place in the processed metallic torso. A small housing unit with minuscule tubes leading to other organs, it was gently locked in place and blood was freely flowing once again. All organs were in my new body, the very final step was to connect the new limbs.
There's nothing left for me, even before the accident. She was killed in the battle, my closest friend, the only one I had. I was left alone as I saw her mutilated corpse drift into the sea, being taken away from my arms. I targeted my hate towards the bastard species that did this to her. I ripped them apart with my bare hands, bludgeoned them to death, slaughtered them so violently that you wouldn't have been able to tell that they were once living beings. I hid from the war after that, hating myself for letting that happen.
As the final adjustments were made to my limbs, I felt the metal table lift to a vertical stance. I saw the Count standing nearby, watching his newly created monster rise.
The shackles that were holding me back were unlocked and I was free to move.
It felt odd, standing on these foolish limbs, there were no longer muscles contracting to my movements, just machinery telling my brain to move fake legs. Dooku watched me intently as I stood, towering over him. I looked like a skeleton, my skeleton, it's like my skin was ripped off of my body, the faceplate had resembled my mask, these robotic hands had spindly skeletal like fingers. As I observed myself, the Count looked very pleased with himself.
"Hello once again, General. If only our meeting could have been in a less, grotesque, fashion." When the count said that, I sneered.
"I was told about the accident you endured and sent out a squad to see if you had survived. We have supplied you with a new body, one that will help you with your new objectives for us."
I furrowed an eyebrow behind the faceplate.
Dooku's voice became slightly louder and more addressing towards me, "I will be teaching you in the ways of lightsaber combat, and, you will be appointed as the supreme commander of the Separatist armies.
I growled.
"No. I will not leave my people!"
"General, you agreed to work for us. I am not asking you, I am telling you." The Count's strict voice boomed in the laboratory.
I lowered my head as sign of an unsure compliance with a rage I cannot vent.
"I will comply, but, I want my people to be compensated and given sufficient military aid, strategists, supplies, weapons, and food."
"Of course, general."
I nodded in agreement.
"If you may General, please wait here while I prepare for our departure to Sereno, that is where you will begin your training."
He turned and shut the laboratory doors behind him, a small Geonosian who looked older and more worn than others appeared from a corner of the room. It walked with a cane since it's wings barely worked and bowed in front of Dooku. "How is he, my lord?"
"Grievous has agreed with little defiance, we now have a very strong ally."
They started walking into another room.
Dooku continued speaking, "the cyborg body seems to be functioning perfectly and his vital signs were normal. I just need one final thing."
"And what is that, my lord?"
"I need you to wipe his mind."
Author's Note:
thank you for reading! I have much more to offer, and if you liked it, leave a review and favorite it!
Stay tuned!
-SB