The same nightmare repeated on loop. She was coming home after hanging out with Lucii. She cut through an alley on the way there, slithering along as she hummed a catchy little ear worm from one of her favorite games, ‘Arkos Fantasia’. She turned another corner when she felt a hand over her mouth, wrapped in a cloth. She didn’t give herself the chance to smell it, and exhaled a stream of fire, burning the cloth and the hand that held it.
She wheeled around to grab at her assailant, but a blade dug into her shoulder, and a haze fell over her. She tried to call out for help, but her voice failed to leave her throat. The world whirled around her as she fell away. She found herself back at the corner, turning it, when a hand clasped her face. She burned it, she turned, falling voiceless. Turning. Falling. Turning.
Falling.
Bleeding.
Miari Selcour awoke wearing nothing but a hospital gown, gasping for air from an oxygen mask that was strapped to her face. She tried to move, but she was bound firmly to an operating table, and her shoulders screamed at the effort. Her stone-gray tail was wrapped tight under a complex series of bindings, and she could only look around with her head and neck, her amber eyes wide behind her short, pale green hair and trying to wake up from this nightmare. Intravenous solutions and catheters trailed from her body. She was helpless, unable to fight back in any way that mattered. But against who?
The room was clean, for the most part. White walls, white tiled floor, it was all so bright it hurt her eyes. It was sterile, like a hospital, but even more featureless than that. Was it a laboratory? Miari whined, groaning as she tried to move her neck enough to get a better look around. She winced, clenching her teeth as she realized something else. Her arms were bandaged, the wounds stitched up beneath. Who the hell would do all of this, just to-
“Do lie down before you hurt yourself.” The driest voice she’d ever heard in her life spoke from a chair to her left before standing up and walking into her view as he removed the oxygen mask from her face. He looked to be in his late twenties, or maybe early thirties. It was hard to tell with how he was dressed, how he carried himself, and those stitched scars across his face. The man looked to be a doctor or scientist, given the long sleeved lab coat he wore, and combined with the thick spectacles he wore, it gave that impression more credence. Messy white hair just barely hung over the rims of his glasses, and it was clear he did the bare minimum to maintain his appearance. The scientist continued to steal glances at her, tapping away on a pretty advanced looking tablet of some kind, like he was observing her. Taking notes.
Miari was stunned for a moment, staring at this scientist looking down at her, before she finally found the words she wanted. “What… what the hell did you do to me?” He stopped his typing, and she noticed the metal arm supporting the tablet.
“Not a thing. Unfortunately, my captor and employer tends to hire either cruel or utterly incompetent lackeys to do his work for him. The whole point of a sleep-enchanted weapon is to subdue the target in one strike, but he decided to… have a bit of fun, severing your spinal column, not to mention the ligaments in your arms. The former of which is still healing, not that you can move.” Miari’s face drained of color at his words. It was hitting her like a truck just how screwed she was. Her breathing became frantic, hyperventilating as a look of concern crossed the scientist’s face.
“... I am not good in situations like this.” Miari barely heard him as he took a moment to fix his glasses, raising his voice to call out through the open door. “Zeina, could you please help the poor girl calm down? You know this is not my forte in the slightest.”
“C-coming, Doctor!” A flowery (if deep) voice responded, followed by the sound of coarse scales pushing against the tiles. The door was breached by an enormous, snake-like woman, towering over the doctor on a thick and powerful tail of sandy-brown scales. She wore teal scrubs that covered her scaly arms and torso, and her long black hair was tied in a bun. She gazed at Miari with grass-green eyes, smiling at her.
“Oh, I’m so glad that you’re finally awake. You’ve been asleep for three whole days. That brute really did a number on you, but your wounds are healing just fine. Better than expected, even! There shouldn’t be any scarring.” She slithered closer to Miari, craning down to her level on the table.
Miari’s eyes widened as she saw who (or rather, what) had slithered into the room. Humans had vampires as their boogeymen, but lamia had something far worse, something that didn’t discriminate, that devoured any race they could choke the life out of. The woman she was looking at was almost certainly one of those; a naga. Twice the size of your usual lamia, much more densely muscled, and a good bit thicker beyond that. Miari swallowed as she stared at the woman and barely squeaked out a plea for her life. “P… Please don’t eat me.”
“Oh. No no no, I’m not going to eat you,” the naga assured her with a jagged smile. “Unless you die, that is. Then after the autopsy and examination, I would probably eat you. But we’re trying reeeally hard so that doesn’t happen this time.” The saturation of Miari’s face was further muted as she tried to stomach those nauseating words.
“Th-… ‘this time’?”
“Y-yeah. The mortality rate of this particular procedure is… pretty high. One-hundred percent, in fact,” Zeina nervously confessed. “B-but we’re pretty sure it will work this time. Partly because the patient is you.”
“‘Patient’? You fuckers kidnapped me! What do you want?! What are you going to do to me?!”
“Inject you with a mutagenic serum of my own design and hope that it doesn’t kill you.” The doctor responded dryly as he sorted through several vials in the corner, pulling them from a refrigerated compartment, cold mist spilling out onto the floor the entire time. “Document the changes to your body, and hopefully give you a thorough physical if all goes as planned. The procedure will also heal any remaining damage to your spinal cord. …If it’s successful.” The man was terrifyingly calm as he went about his business in the background, preparing himself for the procedure already. Miari quickly realized that these were possibly the last moments of her life.
“Y-yeah, well, gee thanks for healing the wounds you inflicted on me!”
“Will you shut up already?” A hard kick shook the operating table, sending a searing pain up Miari’s sides.
“M-Mr. Jasper! Please don’t agitate the patient!” Zeina pleaded as she tried to shield Miari’s body, the immobilized lamia swallowing as she looked past her large body to see how she was steadying the table with those clawed hands of hers.
“Why the hell not? This junk is gonna heal her up anyway. Might be worth cutting her tongue out beforehand.” A tanned sylvan elf sneered from behind Miari. He wore a stained button down shirt and beaten jeans, and his right hand was wrapped in bandages. His short black hair contrasted his bright green eyes as he kneeled down to Miari’s line of sight. “How about it, kiddo, you want me to use your tongue as a guitar string?” Miari opened her mouth to talk back, but the doctor quickly cut her off.
“Mr. Jasper, if you’re going to be an obstacle for this operation, you can remove yourself, and quietly,” the doctor interjected, his eyes falling on the intricate blade at the elf’s hip. “You were given specific instructions not to harm the patient, but not only did you ignore this condition while subduing her, you proceeded to maim a teenage girl for the fun of it anyways. I’ll be sure to note that for your employers.”
“Put a cork in it, Doc. I ain’t leaving until I get my money from your boss, anyway. You got a problem with that? You can put it in your customer complaint.”
“How fortunate. Dr. Aegis will be here shortly, and then you can vacate my lab.”
“That tin can can’t get here fast enough. This place gives me the creeps.” He gave Zeina a sharp kick in her coils as he turned away, but the naga didn’t budge an inch, preventing the table from shaking. The doctor made the slightest movement toward the elf, but Zeina shook her head.
“I’m fine, Doctor, really. Didn’t even feel it,” she assured him. He stood there in silence before giving her a slow nod. The doctor returned to his preparations, double and triple checking his instruments and concoctions until loud footsteps echoed through the hall outside, like suits of armor that had come to life.
A pair of androids arrived, grabbing the attention of the doctor, the elf, and the naga. The larger one had a red and silver frame with golden detailing. “His” face was a blank and solid silver with its only feature being an angled strip of red optical sensors, and his head was crowned by a red helmet with a beak-like visor and three blade-like protrusions that angled backwards. His legs and left arm were thick and oddly conical in design, with sharp golden guards about his knees and left elbow, while his right arm was entirely different. It was a solid silver in color, with a large, shield-like forearm attached by an odd elbow joint. On the shield’s face was a web of yellow nodes that shone with a fluctuating brightness, and adorned with a glowing blue crystal embedded in the center. He stood sure and proud, even if he was only five-and-a-half feet in height.
Behind the regal-looking android stood a shorter android that resembled an adolescent young woman, with a slim white and sky blue frame. “Her” layered silver hair hung over studious blue eyes and the box-like receivers that acted as her ears, and she had small, finely cut crystals embedded in her forehead and the center ring of her chest, similar to the one in her counterpart’s shield. She was silent, even aloof, but her wandering eyes always seemed to have an intense focus.
“Dr. Aegis, welcome back,” the other doctor bade him. “And Shifu, of course.”
“Dr. Daemos, Nurse Vrak,” the red android addressed him and his naga companion with a deep, sequenced voice. “I know we are all eager to proceed with the next operation, but before that I must ask what became of Subject 128. I regrettably confess that I’ve not had the opportunity to review the report.”
“Considering that the subject is no longer present, the result should be obvious.” While the android had no face to express with, the slightest tilt of his head betrayed his annoyance.
“I didn’t ask for the obvious, Doctor. What effects did the procedure have on his body?” Miari watched as the scientist, Dr. Daemos, sighed as he looked back over the data, scrolling through it as he found the relevant information.
“Upon introducing the enhanced mutagen with theropod DNA to the subject’s body, the spinal column rapidly compacted, causing severe pain and muscle tension, ultimately leading to spinal fracturing and intestinal perforation. Additionally, the reconfiguration of his thoracic vertebrae into hips and the growth of femoral hard and soft tissues caused hemorrhaging in the pelvic wall, resulting in fatal tissue damage and blood loss.” Miari trembled as she listened to the horrid details. “It may have worked, if the subject’s muscles hadn’t broken his own bones and torn themselves apart.”
“I see,” the red android acknowledged. “I suppose there was little more to expect, especially considering 128’s prior injuries. Alas.”
“H-he had a name…” The two doctors turned to the naga, her hands trembling at her sides. “His name was Alon Gris. I… I knew him. From before…” The android slowly approached her and clasped her hand with his.
“Of course, Zeina. My apologies. I’m sure you did everything you could to save him. But I’m afraid we must move on. There is yet another who will soon need your care.” The android turned to Miari and approached her. “Speaking of whom, I demand to know why Miss Selcour is covered in bandages.” Miari shivered at the fact that the android already knew her name.
“Ah, of course. The impeccable Mr. Jasper, upon failing his initial attempt to subdue her, vented his frustrations by severing her spine… not to mention the ligaments in her shoulders.” Honestly, Miari was a touch confused. It almost sounded as though he was on her side, somehow.
“You can shove it, Doc. I’d like to see you do better bringing this freak in.” Miari winced slightly at that all-too-familiar word. “I’m not getting any younger or cheaper,” Jasper sneered. “Just pay my bill, so I can get out of here already.”
“You’ll get out of here now,” Dr. Aegis barked. “I’m not paying you a single chip.”
“You trying to tell a joke, you bloody trashcan?” The elf kicked a rolling table of operating instruments aside, sending them across the floor. The sound caused Miari and Zeina to shudder, but neither doctor so much as flinched at Jasper’s outburst. “I’m not some charitable saint! I did the job, you pay me!” The look in the stoic Shifu’s eyes narrowed to a knife’s edge, but her partner’s posture remained the same, offering no invitation for her intervention.
“Your job was to retrieve her unharmed. You were supposed to restrain her, not butcher her!” the android retorted. “Don’t you understand what it is I need her for? Every drop of blood she lost could reduce the chance of her survival.”
“So what if she bled a little!? What’s it all to you, you faceless freak?” The android remained silent for a time before a distorted hum echoed from him.
“...Indeed, what is it to me?” Verniers and vents snapped open across his body as the red android lunged at Jasper and grabbed him by the face, lifting him up off his feet. “Let’s answer your rhetorical question with another; what is your blood to you? Or your shoulders, your spine?” The elf tried to free himself from the android’s grasp, kicking and pounding at his rigid metal body to no avail. His grip continued to tighten, and Jasper screamed from behind the metal hand that smothered his face.
“What am I saying? There isn’t enough room in that head of yours to conceive of empathy,” Dr. Aegis scoffed. “Can you even fathom the decades of scientific research, the hundreds of millions of credits, that have led up to this one moment?” Jasper’s muffled screams grew louder as his blood began to drip from behind the android’s fingers. “If this operation fails from your incompetence, do you think our investors would even bat an eye if I peeled your face from your skull?” Jasper’s eyes dilated in terror before the red android threw him out of the room and against the hallway wall with a deafening slam. The sylvan elf quickly gathered himself and scrambled to his feet as Dr. Aegis approached him while he clutched at his bloody face in horror.
“I want you to remember this very well; our work is more important than your pitiful life could ever amount to in a thousand years. If you ever deviate from my instructions again, I’ll use you to test his next serum. You’ll be erased from every database and no one will ever care about your death or absence, reduced to a squirming mass and fed to the good nurse, and not.” Jasper shrank as Dr. Aegis loomed over him while nodes on each of his fingers sparked and arced with electricity. “You are dismissed.” Jasper sprinted for his life down the hallway, his panting breaths fading into the distance.
Miari, on the other hand, was petrified as she looked between those who remained. “W-Who… who are you people? What are you going… what’s going to happen to me? Am I going to turn into some sort of monster, and…oh gods, oh gods…” She was hyperventilating again already, on the verge of sobbing and having a total breakdown. Kross sighed and put his tablet down, standing next to Miari and placing his hand on top of hers.
“My name is Kross Daemos, and I am a scientist, doctor, and quite coerced captive. If I didn’t go through with this procedure on you… Well, let’s just say some unsavory sorts will have choice and violent words for me. Trust me when I say I would much rather be performing these procedures on primates… or at least death row inmates.”
“Nurse Zeina Vrak,” the naga answered. “Former kindergarten teacher, and uh… current nurse.”
“Dr. Krez Aegis,” the red android answered. “Retired lieutenant colonel of the DPRF’s Special Android Unit, and doctor of six fields. And this is my partner, Shifu.” The quiet android woman merely spared Miari a glance before letting her eyes wander again. The lamia trembled as she understood the abbreviation the android had uttered: the “Devoid Planetary Reclamation Force”, the most technologically advanced military force on Kyril, tasked with the terrible burden of securing the surface of Varrus from the clutches of the Old Demons.
“Y-you’re DPRF?” she repeated with a quivering voice.
“Once upon a time,” Krez acknowledged. “Dr. Daemos and I have a… lengthy history together. His current circumstance was the best I could negotiate for his continued research, given the parties directly interested in our work. Miss Selcour, I must profusely apologize for the way you were treated and the circumstances of your cooperation.”
“C-‘cooperation’? I didn’t-!”
“I very much prefer to recruit willing test subjects,” Krez continued, talking over her. “However it’s not exactly easy for one to scout an attendee of Zoren Grel and convince them to sign a waiver of liability. Suffice it to say, conventional methods of dialogue were guaranteed to fail, and my sense of ethics is sadly secondary to my unwillingness to displease our investors. They’re not the sort who take disappointment kindly.”
“So that’s what you want? To meet some fucking quota?” Miari quickly interjected, determined to be heard.
“No.” The android’s response was dry and sharp. “Though I, too, am at the mercy of our investors, this project is under my direction. This research is to advance the human race for the benefit of all mankind, arens, and androids alike. This operation is the culmination of decades of research in chemical, biological, genetic and prosthetic engineering, and this project cannot continue without the cooperation of a woman of your qualities.”
“How!? How could some… random lamia from Grand Divide help that oh so lofty goal, huh?” She winced as she glared daggers at the android, her ire completely redirected from the doctor and nurse. She couldn’t move, sure, but that didn’t mean she was just going to say ‘yessir mister robutt, experiment on me all you want!’. Embers were escaping her mouth as her hands twitched. Everything about the situation sucked. Everything about what she was going through, the sheer terror she had to swallow down, paled in comparison to the stifling rage that was bubbling up beneath all that fear.
“Miss Selcour, there is nothing ‘random’ about your presence here,” Dr. Aegis told her bluntly. “I’ve been searching for individuals of your specific qualities for many, many years. You, Miari, are a rarity. Have you never questioned your place in Zoren Grel Academy? Have you not found it strange how quickly you recover from common injuries? How seldomly you’ve fallen ill? How thoroughly the burns you suffered seven years ago faded away?” Miari’s face paled as her blood ran ice cold. “Your aptitude for fire magic is strong, yes, but it is far from your most remarkable trait.” Her fear began to resurge as it became more and more apparent that her abduction was not only deliberate, but painfully premeditated.
“H-how..? Why do you-?”
“Miss Selcour, I’ve been following your case file for quite some time. There is little I don’t know in regard to your medical records, or your living situation.”
“But why me?! What do I have to do with any of this? What do you want from me?!” The android remained quiet for a moment before finally responding to her.
“If you manage to survive this procedure (as we all hope you will), I’ll tell you. Eventually.” Krez approached the IV bag next to her table and disconnected it from the cannula in her arm and connected a different line to her. Her eyes followed the drip anxiously as it entered her arm.
“W-what is thhhh…”. Her forked tongue lulled out of her mouth and the muscles in her neck lost all tension. She was completely limp on the table. Was she paralyzed?
“This is a neuromuscular blocker,” Dr. Aegis answered calmly. “I regret to say that due to the nature of this procedure, general anesthesia is not an option for this operation. It would reduce your blood pressure so severely that it would hinder your body’s natural ability to properly heal from the effects of the procedure, if it doesn’t stop your heart outright once your body begins to be stressed. This will mitigate your… discomfort, although it will not eliminate it. To which, I must ask that you… soldier on through it. Dr. Daemos, if you will?”
“Of course.” Kross spoke up from the other side of Miari’s prone form, as Zeina fixed the operating table’s lights down on her, and fastened even more durable restraints around her wrists and tail. But why? Wasn’t she already incapacitated? Why on earth would they need to restrain her at this point? It didn’t matter, of course, as the doctor soon procured a chilled syringe full of a gently glowing blue liquid. He tapped the needle before approaching Miari, but Dr. Aegis calmly raised a hand to stop him.
“I notice a difference in the solution. Did you make a last minute adjustment, Doctor?” the android asked, curious. Kross nodded as he drew closer to Miari, the lamia’s eyes petrified with fear as he began to clean a spot on her other arm. “I noticed during the process with the previous subject that while anomalies from the mutagen were vastly reduced, the ones that were present, well… I’d prefer Alon Gris to be the last name we count as deceased. I increased the portion of tusked salamander material by twenty-five percent. This should account for the pelvic hemorrhaging.” Krez turned his head toward Miari for a long moment, as if trying to reach Kross’s conclusion.
“…Very well,” the android nodded calmly. “Please, proceed.” Miari could only helplessly watch as that faintly glowing substance was injected straight into her veins. For a moment, it was a cool, soothing sensation, a familiar one somehow. As though some part of what was being put into her belonged.
Suddenly, a chill ran down her spine so sharp it stole the breath from her lungs. Then, she felt her body burn. Her skin began to stretch apart, bones shifting and fusing, pinching and pushing around her nerves and muscles from under her scales and skin, and she could feel her organs being rearranged, slowly sucking themselves up into her torso, all the while her body began to heat up with her seething mana.
None of it was dulled. The paralytic was burning out of her system rapidly, or rather the IV was drooping, melting with the heat her body was giving off. Kross winced, shielding his eyes as white hot flames spewed out from her mouth as she screamed. Sirens blared as Zeina jammed a metal gag in Miari’s mouth, tying it to her face so that she couldn’t bite her tongue or burn them with her breath. Miari’s back and tail were in complete and utter agony. The bandages burned off her arms as they pulled violently at the restraints, straining them more with each movement.
“... Shit,” Kross muttered to himself. “Zeina, we need to apply more restraints. Dr. Aegis, if you’d be so kind as to tighten the belts on her tail-”. At that, Miari pulled a coil out of the first part of her restraint, swinging wildly at the android.
“There’s no point,” Krez said as he took a calm step back away from an errant swipe. “Both of you, stand back.” Miari’s muffled screams grew even louder as the bones in her tail began to rapidly fuse and compact, rearranging and pinching her nerves before healing and beginning the torturous cycle again. Her tail thrashed as it slowly shrank into the rest of her lower body, compacting her organs as they, too, lost mass and were forced further up into her abdomen. She howled and moaned in anguish as the bones around her waist fused and flattened, growing wider as they reconfigured into a proper set of hips.
As if everything Miari had felt thus far had merely been preparing her for the worst, four points on her body began to push out from beneath her skin, beneath her scales, as freshly forming bone stretched outwards from her waist and her shoulders. Zeina had to back away as the bar in her mouth turned molten and fell away from her face in droplets of liquid steel and burning leather. The operating room was rapidly turning into an oven. “Incredible…” Krez remarked in amazement. “Shifu, Kross, Zeina. I think you’ve done all that you can. Please evacuate the room. I’ll handle the rest.” Kross and Zeina glanced at each other before turning tail. Shifu, however, remained, watching Krez as he beheld Miari’s metamorphosis until Zeina swiftly returned and hoisted Shifu off of her feet. The little android angrily beat her fists against the naga’s unyielding form as she was removed from the room.
The nodes across Krez’s shield-like right arm began to glow brightly, projecting sigils and diagrams across the walls of the room. Mana arced out from the crystal in the center of his arm as he cast a complex barrier, containing Miari and the table she was strapped to in a large box. “Come on, Miari… prove to me that I was right to invest so much in you. Show me how resilient you are. Survive.”
Fire raged within the magical field that contained Miari, burning away her gown and what leather was used to strap her down. She pushed and pulled against the chains attached to the table, until the table itself began to bend and buckle. She wrested herself free from her bindings and fell to the floor, writhing in agony as a second set of hands and arms slowly, torturously emerged from her back.
She wanted to die. She wanted the horrid pain to finally end, even if it meant the end of her life. She began to tear at her neck and face in a desperate attempt to kill herself and escape this suffering, but Krez swiftly intervened, his right arm aglow with mana. He quickly stepped through the barrier of his own making and lifted Miari up by her neck, her torn flesh already mending itself. She screamed and cried for mercy, to be saved from the pain, scraping and clawing against the android’s grasp to no effect. He held her against the barrier, and to her horror the wall began to pull her against it, restraining her arms spread-eagle with magical bands. No matter how she struggled, the wall refused to give or loosen.
Miari sobbed and howled in utter agony as Krez circled a glowing finger around her lips, forcing her mouth open with a spell. She couldn’t even bite down on her own tongue. She roared at him, his body awash with her searing flames, but still he stood, unscathed, undeterred.
“I’m sorry, Miss Selcour,” he said over her hysterical cries. “But I’ve spent far too much time and resources to allow you to commit suicide. What’s more, my body was built to withstand things greater than you could scarcely imagine.”
Miari’s tears evaporated from her face as she screamed. She cried in agony as her back and shoulders burned, her new arms and fingers growing painfully longer. To her dismay, her pinky fingers began to split away from the rest of her new hands, but that was nothing compared to the pain she felt in her groin. She looked down, hyperventilating in excruciating horror as her lower body was completely unrecognizable to her now. Her tail was now only a third of its original length, and her new hips sported a pair of vestigial feet and toes. She could see them grow, forcing their way out of the sides of her hips, pulling at her bones and sinew until her body and mind snapped.
