Trigger Warning: Body Horror
Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
From that point, a solid arrangement had been made. The group of scientists would bring Vesa over to the underground lab, where she would spend a few hours with the ultimate life-form. During the earlier days in the first month, Elfilis would often visit her in her dreams, showing her their memories of the worlds they previously visited. In turn, she would share as much about the culture of her own country, even mentioning some major historical events that took place in Ioskaria.
When a month passed, Vesa arrived in the underground lab as scheduled. However, she had to have her blood drawn before she entered the break room with Elfilis. She set down a bag the scientists gave her and pulled out a nonfiction book. The ultimate life-form examined the cover and noticed the image of a bird.
"My father also got me this," Vesa explained, "on the weekends, we would go bird watching."
Elfilis tilted their head sideways, the feelers on their head twitching upwards.
"Intriguing."
"You wanna have a look?" Vesa offered, "we can read it together."
Vesa and Elfilis made a brief glance at the security guard outside the door keeping watch on them. Vesa was not deterred as she sat next to the ultimate life-form and placed the book on the table. Over the next few hours, Elfilis would examine the pictures of the species of birds on the pages while reading the text explaining the details of each bird's habitat, diet, migratory routes and how they adapted to their climate. Vesa would turn the pages when the ultimate life-form finished reading a page.
By the time they finished, Vesa closed the book.
"If only I hadn't been intercepted," Elfilis sighed, "I would've seen these birds up close."
Vesa nodded in agreement.
"Miss Krasniki?"
Vesa snapped out of her thoughts and tilted her gaze towards the scientist at the door.
"Yes?"
"It's time to head back," the scientist told her, "we'll be putting ID-F86 back in the capsule now."
Vesa sighed softly and stashed the book into her bag. While the scientists dispatched robots to handle Elfilis, they exchanged glances.
"Please take care," Elfilis spoke into her mind.
Vesa held their gaze for a moment as she followed the scientist out of the lab and up the elevator, back into her guest bedroom for the rest of the day.
Another month passed.
During her current visit, she explained to them the details of her bedtime story "The Elfin Seraph in the Dew Garden", how it happened to be a legend for her home nation Ioskaria, and how much she loved to listen to her father recite the tale as a child.
Listening closely, Elfilis wondered if they should tell her this wasn't the first planet they had seen with humans…or living humans, anyway.
"It's interesting," Elfilis commented with humor in their voice, "that my name is…so similar. Quite the coincidence."
"Yeah, I guess," Vesa nodded in agreement.
As far as Elfilis knew, they were slightly recovering emotionally, becoming less erratic and obsessive over Vesa's safety and not trying to upset her. While they still prioritized her safety, it didn't feel desperate or insecure enough to resemble a mental illness…if they could have something remotely similar. But those last few months haven't been kind to the ultimate life-form. Now in worse shape, they could barely hold their psychic connection with her again. To preserve the energy they still had, they didn't visit her in her dreams as frequently as they used to. Any kind of telepathy became much more strained.
Being subjected to such experiments from the researchers wasn't the only nightmare Elfilis had to endure. No doubt Vesa would've known there have been a lot fewer people than there used to be. Elfilis didn't see all of the experiments, though they did see most of them. One time, the scientists attempted to graft their flesh onto a subject. The ultimate life-form watched as the rest of the poor human's skin started to boil and peel away as their own flesh started to consume him due to a lack of mind behind it. That and many other cruel experiments were performed on other unfortunate humans. Elfilis no longer believed the staff at Lab Discovera were even trying to make a cure at all. If they didn't do something, they feared Vesa would suffer the same fate.
Elfilis will have to coordinate a plan with Vesa as soon as possible. For now, the ultimate life-form carefully examined her. Worry flooded their mind at the sight of their close friend in bad shape. All they could do was save up more power in the event they needed to try something drastic. Come to think of it, it has been so long since they had teleported anywhere. Perhaps if they could teleport to her hometown if they mapped it out. However, the tank keeping them in a rather drugged state up to their feelers meant they wouldn't dare to risk it as is, knowing something can go horribly wrong during the teleportation process as failure could be fatal.
For a moment, Vesa made a brief glance at a CD player.
"Huh," Vesa pondered, "I wonder if this room has any CDs."
Blinking twice, Elfilis scanned their surroundings.
"Well," Elfilis replied, "I suppose there's one way to find out."
Vesa slowly pushed herself to her feet, taking care not to aggravate her already sore muscles. She limped over to the CD player and grabbed a CD case off the shelf. She sat back down next to Elfilis and examined the CD case in her hand.
"Oh?" Vesa blurted, "is this the latest album from Neichel?"
Elfilis tilted their head sideways, giving her a puzzled look.
"What is a Neichel?"
"Well," Vesa clarified with a soft chuckle, "some of my classmates are huge fans of that singer. I remember a few of the boys at school had such a huge crush on her."
Elfilis hummed curiously. Vesa opened the CD case and pulled out the disk. She examined the text on the disk reading "Neichel Single: Welcome to the New World!".
"This must be the latest single," Vesa commented, "maybe you'd like to give this a listen?"
"I wouldn't mind," Elfilis nodded.
The ultimate life-form noted the scientists stopped monitoring their meetings as often. They haven't learned much from the specimen's interactions with Vesa, even if the security guard kept a close eye on them. Smiling, Vesa popped the disk into the CD player and turned it on. Vibrations in a soothing pattern began to echo from the CD player's speakers. Elfilis let out a curious little chitter. Vesa smiled and softly closed her eyes, her head seeming to rock side to side in sync with the beat. Elfilis watched for a moment before they imitated her movements. Immediately, the lyrics started echoing from the CD player.
These lyrics left something to be desired within the ultimate life-form's mind. They had come to terms that this "strange new world" hadn't been good for them. Their tail, on the other hand, started swaying in sync to the beat. As Vesa to the rhythm, she and Elfilis each placed a hand on the floor…close to one another, but not touching. She opened her eyes and made a brief glance at their swaying tail. All Elfilis could do was zone out, even for a while.
When the song came to an end, Vesa checked the CD case. No other songs were listed on the back. She turned off the CD player and placed the disk back into its case.
"So, what do you think?" she asked.
"I didn't dislike the music," Elfilis admitted, "though the lyrics were…well, they felt antithetical to our current situation."
"I understand how you feel," Vesa agreed.
Without warning, the scientists stepped back into the room.
"All right, we need to take Specimen ID-F86 back into its capsule. We have arranged a new treatment for you that we'll be administering soon."
Vesa and Elfilis exchanged glances.
"How soon?" Vesa paused.
"We'll be administering the new treatment next week," the scientist told her.
Unbeknownst to the researchers, Elfilis's tail bristled upon hearing those words. Having seen what became of the other subjects, their concern for her grew rapidly—far beyond comprehension. Vesa locked eyes onto Elfilis as she stood to her feet. The other scientists used the remote control to have the robots grab Elfilis by the wrist and move them out of the room. Vesa retrieved her crutches and followed Dr. Baldwin out of the break room. The scientists dragged the alien back into the capsule, the glass cylindrical container sealing closed. Elfilis let out a soft growl as they gently rubbed at their wrist.
Vesa was about to continue following Dr. Baldwin, but then her eyes locked onto another test subject lying on the operating table. She grimaced as the scientists were in the middle of removing his organs. One of the scientists carried a cylindrical container holding a fluid which appeared to be the same coloration as Elfilis. She shuddered when she noticed the fluid seemed to be writhing inside the tube.
The scientists didn't seem to flinch as they injected the alien fluid into each organ. Vesa grimaced as she saw his body seem to rapidly dehydrate and turn into a mummified corpse before her eyes. After it started to move, the scientist panicked and stabbed the being in the head with a scalpel.
"T-Test 46 has resulted in another one of the failures attempting to move off the table," the scientist reported, "we are unsure if…Specimen ID-F86 is responsible for this behavior or if this is an automatic reaction."
Fear took a firm hold on Vesa as she stepped back from the area. Making a brief glance at Elfilis, she noticed they let out a soft cry and lowered their feelers. Whimpering, she rushed to the door. She followed the scientists down the hall and stepped into the elevator. She sighed and leaned her back on the wall as the doors closed and the elevator started to ascend.
"Sorry you had to witness that, Miss Krasniki," Dr. Baldwin sighed.
Vesa didn't respond as she placed her hand on her burning forehead.
"Our experiments with Specimen ID-F86's DNA have not been as fruitful as we hoped," the tall scientist continued, "I'm sure that by now you realize that this isn't really about finding a cure, correct? However, we've been looking into it and we do think we have a new avenue to test such a thing. We're going to modify your DNA. Hopefully, this will render your DNA compatible with that of Specimen ID-F86, possibly allowing us to advance to the next stage of human evolution."
"W-What?" her eyes widened.
Vesa resisted the urge to blurt out that was similar to what Elfilis offered her…sort of. Dr. Baldwin took off his glasses, seemingly in thought about what she saw. It was odd—she hadn't remembered the scientist ever talking to her face-to-face, before this point.
"The whole thing is a government operation. When is the last time you have known the government to do anything for the good of the people and not their own pockets? We did hope to have a treatment of some kind by the end of the whole thing, if only as a way to say 'hey we did it'. Really, it would've only been for good publicity. But, if you all were to die, then all it would be is a tragedy…one that would be forgotten in a week or maybe a month if we're particularly unlucky," he replied coldly.
Vesa stiffened as she hugged her arms to her chest.
"You aren't even the first group of test subjects," he grinned, giving a cruel and slightly unhinged expression in his eye, "we did more tests off site on the homeless and prisoners. Unfortunately, you're only able to do that for so long until people notice, so we needed to move into the public eye with tests a bit. I'm sure you already know why I'm comfortable telling you all of this. Honestly, I'm just excited we have almost done it."
Vesa narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. The elevator stopped at its destination and the doors slid open.
"Come along," Dr. Baldwin beckoned.
Vesa sighed and grabbed her crutches, following the scientists out of the elevator. They made their way to the exam room.
"Here," Dr. Baldwin said, "this is just a regular examination. I'll be doing your exams from now on alongside Doctor Reed. Doctor Michal was too concerned about our standard of care, and was 'relieved of duty' so to speak."
Vesa lowered her head and climbed onto the exam table. The exam proceeded as normal. Dr. Reed and Dr. Baldwin went on to place her under a CT scan, and the results came back surprisingly normal. Once the exams were completed, Dr. Reed gave the crutches back to Vesa.
"Thanks," was all Vesa could say.
Vesa stepped out of the exam room and followed Dr. Reed back to the oblong room, making her way back to her guest bedroom, the door shutting behind her. Alone, Vesa set down her crutches. Resting her back on the bed, her mind drifted as she thought of Elfilis. The ultimate life-form responded and gave her a mental image of themselves floating in the chemically enhanced water in the tank, which would've been like a lethal acid to a human. The thought of dying in seconds by just touching this kind of water made her shudder. Her mental image returned to Elfilis, noticing as they blushed.
"I wonder if," Vesa said to herself, "if I'll ever see my family again."
In an ideal world, Vesa wished she could help Elfilis earn their freedom. Part of her wanted to introduce the ultimate life-form to her parents and her siblings.
"I hope so. I will do everything in my power to ensure that you can. Although lately, my power has been…limited. I suppose there might be something we can do. I need biomatter to increase my own power. Unfortunately, the restriction of that is that it needs to be living. Things like plants and small animals would work, even insects would be helpful. If you could sneak such things to me during our time together, then we may be able to escape. I didn't want to mention doing something like this, but unfortunately our time seems to be growing shorter by the day…"
"How so?" Vesa asked.
"I'm capable of a lot if I have more energy," Elfilis explained, "before I was captured, I could've cracked the planet like an egg. Now, I can barely stand. With more energy, I could become powerful enough to help us escape. It likely wouldn't be much power, but hopefully it'll at least be enough to leave the building. After that, I'd be able to rapidly assimilate wildlife like trees and grass, and that would be enough to let me escape. As for your family, we would likely need to hide them away. Or we could just…leave…leave this planet and go to my original destination…i-if you would want to, that is."
Vesa took a moment to process what Elfilis told her through their telepathy. Part of her wanted to remain on her planet, but then she silently reminded herself that if she went through with this escape plan, Redgarica's government might put a bounty on her and send agents to kill her. Worse, Redgarica could send agents to kill her family. Her mind went to that one terrible action thriller that was somehow popular in Redgarica. That particular movie, she remembered, painted Ioskaria in such a negative light, rife with negative stereotypes of her people.
"We could come back one day, when I regain my strength. The only reason I lost last time was because I was underestimating them and was taken by surprise. They wouldn't be able to stop me."
"Maybe one day," Vesa added, "everyone could take you seriously, right?"
"I doubt they would do anything else," Elfilis answered, "I'm capable of a lot of things. Many of them are unpleasant if I wish. Although, I'm not particularly violent by nature. I'm trained to use a weapon of my own making, and have extensive magical knowledge. I doubt anyone on the planet would be capable of stopping me. There aren't many people capable of stopping me…period. Not even my father is strong enough to do so, although he isn't exactly the strongest person."
Taking a deep breath, Vesa sat up.
"Then let's hope this works."
For now, she trudged into the bathroom to take her scheduled medication.
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