Chapter 3: Everything Changes

"Come in, Miss Amy." The voice was not her father's. Amy cautiously opened the door before looking inside.

Her father was seated at his desk, and the two chairs facing him were occupied by a man and a woman, both wearing black suits and sunglasses. A third person – a man – in similar attire was standing to the side of the desk, standing to face her father but his head turning to look at Amy. He nodded at her, and she reluctantly entered the room, leaning against the door as she closed it behind her. A tense half-moment passed before she walked up to the desk, and pulled up a small stool to sit on.

"This is your daughter, professor?" The woman asked in a professional tone, and Johnson gave a small nod. "We will need to verify that." Amy's father said nothing, but glanced up at her. The woman turned to Amy. "You wouldn't mine a quick test, then? Security purposes, you understand?" Amy nodded, and the woman gave a satisfied half-smile before bending over and opening the black briefcase beside her. "This," she said as she removed a small device with what looked like some sort of hollow needle at the end, "is a simple blood scan to see if your DNA matches pre-existing samples in your medical records. Hold out your hand." Amy complied, and the woman used the needle to lightly prick her fingertip. The small drop of blood was quickly drained by the hollow part of the needle. The woman looked at the screen, and arched an eyebrow. "Interesting…" she looked at Amy. "Your father is the one who maintains your medical records, correct?" Amy nodded. "The DNA's a match." She put the needle away, but removed a small bag inside the machine, which now held Amy's blood, to the man next to her. "Check this out."

"Excuse me…" she finally murmured, "Can I ask what's going on?"

The woman looked at Amy again. "What do you know of your father's work, Amy?"

The question surprised Amy a bit. "I know he works here at the lab, and he studies genetics and other things involving natural behavior… I've only been here twice, and he doesn't talk about his work much, so I don't really know much…"

"Has he ever mentioned anything that struck you as… unusual? Anything that sounded strange or out of the ordinary?"

"She doesn't know," Johnson began, but the woman glared at him.

"Don't try to put words in her mouth, Johnson. Now," she turned to Amy again, "anything at all?"

"Well… the only weird thing he ever mentioned was some specimen he discovered in the desert quite a while ago, but all he told me was that it wasn't acting the way he'd hoped… she told me he found it in an abandoned test tube and had tampered with it. That's the only thing I can think of…" Amy trailed off. She was honestly getting a tad nervous, surrounded by all of these people who looked like they'd stepped right out of Men in Black and questioning her.

"Amy. How did you get here?" The man who was sitting suddenly asked.

"I… I ran," Amy answered, taken aback.

"How long did it take you, approximately?"

"About… 20 minutes from the house to here."

"By running? You got here in 20 minutes by running?"

"Yes…" It was barely a suspicious, worried whisper from under her breath.

"And nothing about that seems… unusual to you?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow when Amy slowly shook her head. "Kid, it takes most people an hour to cover that distance on foot."

Amy furrowed her brow. "That… doesn't make any sense. I know I was running, but not as fast as I could…" The man nodded.

"So that's normal for you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Any reason why you think you got here in a third of the time it takes most people?"

"No, sir, I have no idea."

Amy shifted in her seat as the woman returned her attention to Johnson. "You understand that this makes things more difficult for us, Mr. Johnson?" When she was given no reply, the woman sighed and adjusted her glasses. "Professor Johnson, you do understand that what you did was illegal, correct? The ship you obtained that genetic material from was private property, and the DNA itself was illegally obtained and used, not just by you but by the original owner of the ship. As such, we must remove this so-called "specimen" from your custody."

"I understand," Johnson said, and Amy frowned.

"Oh, Dad, I'm sorry… all of your hard work…" Amy started to say, but her father shook his head.

"… Was a failure anyway," he added. "I sought to create a better specimen, a stronger one, one that was less flawed and more capable. I failed horribly. Antisocial, cowardly, weak, awkward… and brings out the worst in people. Just being around… her… something in that DNA, some alien gift I was unable to suppress, made it impossible to ignore her. Just being in the same room made her occupy your thoughts, and you'd find yourself just thinking about her… mostly about how strange, how alien she was. It drove her peers mad, and they targeted her, to make her go away, so they could think about themselves again. But it was only those of her base species – other living species didn't mind her. Even I found myself hating her, going to work as much as possible so that I could just think about anything besides my own creation. I tried… to make a better human being…" he looked up at Amy, who was now frozen to her seat, unable to move, thinking please, no… "And I failed."

"Dad…" Amy whispered as the horrible truth dawned on her, "Dad, please, no…"

"I hereby relinquish the specimen to your custody, agents. Take her away –I can't think straight."

Amy couldn't move. She couldn't will her muscles to do anything, and when the female agent took her arm and started leading her out of the room while the man who had been standing lifted Amy's suitcase, she made no move to resist. There was nothing she could do besides stare at the man she'd thought was her father as the agents led her away, nothing she could feel besides this sudden hollowness inside her stomach, nothing she could think beyond No, this isn't right… I don't understand…

Amy made it all the way to the door before she felt her knees give out, and everything went black.