I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Change

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...My body aches... from the surface of my skin to the marrow of my bones... It feels like every cell of my body was torn apart and put back together...

Mm, I feel warm. A blanket? Nice...

There are indistinct sounds surrounding me. I can't tell what they are. Voices? Yes, they're voices. What are they saying?

Gah, I can't tell... I want to sleep... No, wake up, Michael... Open your eyes...

There's a man standing over me. His face is all blurry. Everything is blurry. I blink a few times. Slightly more in focus now. Ah, the man is my doctor, Manuel. He appears to be saying something, but it sounds like gibberish to me.

My brain is still asleep, that's probably it. Wait, asleep, I'm already asleep- I mean within this reality my brain is- Gah, this is too much. I stop trying to make sense of my thoughts.

"-Osiris!"

Ah, I understood that word. I open my mouth to respond... How do I speak again?

"Can you hear me?"

How do I tell him yes? I can nod, that's what I'll do.

Manuel turns and shouts, "I need one of those Danians in here!"

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"A simple case of parts of the brain waking up faster than others," the controller hisses as he examines me. "A common occurrence. Give him a few more minutes and he'll recover."

"I feel better already, actually," I mutter. I try to sit up, and suddenly the room starts spinning. I lie back down.

"I'm surprised you feel anything at all!" Manuel exclaims. "What the hell kind of medical practice was that?"

"I knew what I was doing," the Danian hisses, "I was not practicing."

"No, by practice I mean- whatever." Manuel rubs his eyes with one hand and groans, "I have no idea what exactly you did to him, nor how it will respond to treatment. For all I know he's allergic to water now."

"That's a little unlikely," I snort.

"I know it is, just, arg!" Manuel looks like he's about to tear his hair out. "I don't know how I feel about any sort of therapy that involves the patient changing species in the process as a step!"

"It's really quite simple," the controller says.

Manuel points at the Danian. "Oh? What happens to the skeletal system?"

"It stays in place," the Danian says with a hint of laughter to his voice. "The skin turns into an exoskeleton, and it and the endoskeleton form a synergistic support system for the body."

"Where do the extra arms come from?" Manuel retorts.

"Muscle mass skin mass, and miscellaneous viscera are reapportioned from nearby tissues to form the extra pair of arms," the Danian replies.

Manuel doesn't look convinced at all. "Nervous system? Digestive system? What happens to gastrointestinal microorganisms? Where does the extra mass even come from?"

The Danian looks like he's actually holding back laughter now. "Unchanged, adjusted to extract nutrition from food more efficiently, modified to handle the changed digestion, and why did you think we were feeding him so much brew? We needed fat mass to turn into other tissues."

I grab Manuel's wrist. "You can stop now. They knew what they were doing."

Manuel is gritting his teeth together. "Ow."

I let go of his wrist and look at my hand. I thought I was holding his wrist loosely! "How did I-?"

"Would you like to remove the blanket and take a look?" the Danian asks.

I flip the blanket off my body. It was a lot easier than I expected. I try to sit up again and fight the dizziness as I look at myself.

I do not look like a skeleton anymore. I'm still skinny as heck, but I don't look like I'm about to keel over at any moment. No bones are protruding from under my skin, not even my ribs.

I feel stronger, though. The same movement that would be just enough for me to grab and lift a glass of water earlier is now enough to hurt a man by grabbing too hard. "Did you make me stronger than I used to be?"

The Danina shakes his head. "You simply haven't adjusted your habits. What used to take all of your strength now only takes a fraction of it. Grabbing the same way as you have been is simply applying more strength than necessary."

I swing my feet off the bed and put them on the floor. That was incredibly easy. I stand up. Also easy- Dizziness. I sit back down.

"So, Your Highness," the controller says as he bows, "shall we repeat this in eight days' time?"

Manuel looks like he's about to protest. The Danian quickly adds, "And you may of course join us and present your own view, Doctor Manuel."

Manuel seems a little taken aback, and he spends enough time recovering that when he's done the Danian is long gone.

"I was told that Overworlders were the ones skilled with healing," he mutters. He turns to me. "I'm going to do a checkup on you now, if you don't mind. I don't know how much the bug actually knows about Human physiology."

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Reflex tests, pulse checks, the terrifying turn-your-head-and-cough... All of those and more have been done, and Manuel finally cleans up.

"I can't find a single physical thing wrong beside malnutrition and a lower blood pressure than I'd like you to have," he says while washing his hands. Then he pulls up a chair and sits across from me. "I did notice something else, though. You recoiled a little every time I was about to check your pulse or anything else that required me to touch you, especially anywhere near your private areas."

"We're done here," I snap, grabbing the blanket and covering myself with it before trying to stand up.

Manuel barely stops himself from grabbing my arm. "This is important. You don't need to talk to me about it, but I strongly urge you to talk to someone. This isn't healthy, and trying to struggle through whatever it is, I'm not going to make any guesses, without help won't help."

"I'll keep that in mind," I grumble as I walk for the door.

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Up next: The Feared One

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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