A Whateley Academy Tale

Jade 6-c – Dreams and Awakening

By Babs Yerunkle

 

39: Bitches

November 18, Saturday evening, 5:12 PM

The walk back from the library was routine.  Shroud was out and in full defense mode.  Jann-sensei was using her senses to peer in every direction looking for life, movement, activity, or ambush.  Jade was seemingly absorbed in her thoughts, but as always, a part of her mind and attention was alert – spotting likely danger points, seeking out lines of defense or retreat.

This had become ordinary procedure.  Ever since Halloween, most of the group tried to be in pairs or trios when they had to go anywhere.  Jade and Nikki had upped their paranoia a month earlier, when the Alpha ambushes had occurred.  Fortunately for Jade, she could become her own trio, so the extra precautions were easier on her.

She’d also been acting as her own personal trainer for about six weeks now.  The coaching was beginning to pay off.  Even when her mind was busy with other topics, she retained a fair awareness of her surroundings.  When she was caught by surprise, her reactions were becoming both swift and useful.

That wasn’t as comforting as it might have been.  Aside from Jinn and her other selves, Jade had no powers of her own.  She was utterly human and completely normal.  Despite her training, she embodied the devastating threat potential of a normal strength eleven-year-old girl.

The Halloween attack, on the other hand, had been aimed at Sara.  Sara was so close to invulnerable that one time she hadn’t noticed being staked in the back.  In a different incident, she’d been decapitated and had only noticed later, when she came across the severed head during a cleaning binge.  Sara was setting the standards for the upper end of what “radical regeneration” meant.  Of course, Sara was a demon princess followed by a cult of thousands, with magic abilities that could be so terrifying that they threatened people’s sanity.  It was definitely better to have her as a friend than an enemy.

That hadn’t stopped the attackers.  Perhaps that was why they’d attacked.  Still, if they could come so close to neutralizing Sara (and a good chunk of campus, at the same time), even three of Jade would barely slow them down.

It was easier on Jade – she’d accepted how vulnerable she was.  She’d faced this crisis back when Tansy Walcutt had “killed” her.  Others on campus were having a tougher time.  Some of the bricks and “unbeatable” types were still going through counseling about the disaster.  Some of them had spent years learning how invulnerable they were, only to have their illusions stripped away in one brutal night.

When the attack did come, it was inside the front doors of Poe.  Jade was caught by surprise, both by the location, and by the fact that this threat was verbal.

Shroud had reconfigured into pink-skinned Jinn, and she and Jade came through the hall side-by-side.  That was when they found their path blocked.

“Oh, look, it’s the ghost girl and her stupid little boy-toy.”  The speaker was a slightly chubby black girl by the name of Sharisha Kincaid.

Jade quailed.  She knew it was a bad habit, but Jinn was there, Jinn dealt with this stuff better than she did, and Jinn was a real girl.  So she just cringed, and tried to slip unobtrusively in behind her taller and more confident other self.

“Oh, I think you scared him!”  The sneering sarcasm came from one of the two sophomores standing behind Sharisha.  Jade didn’t know the names of either of the two older girls, but she’d seen them around.

The first sophomore, with close-cropped curly black hair and a rather large nose, added her comments in.  “What’s a boy doing wearing skirts like that?  Are you a pervert or some sort of diaper sissy?”

“What are you talking about?” Jade almost yelled, peeking out from behind her “sister.”  “I’m as much a girl as you are!”

“You sure aren’t a proper lesbian,” the brown-haired sophomore shot back.  “And you’re always hanging around with the T-girls.  Which is such a bad name.  They should all be the T-boys.”

Jade calmed at that.  Guilt by association she could handle.  She was afraid that her secret had come out … again.

“Haven’t you heard?” Sharisha asked, in a mocking tone.  “He’s one of the ‘kimbos’.  All of them are boy-girls, who run around campus pretending to be real women.  Like Toni Chandler and her fairy roommate.  ‘Cept they have a bit too much testosterone.  Maybe they think that’s the only way they’ll be able to get near real girls.  The boy-ho and his fairy are already poaching the sisters on our floor.  Have they gotten up to your floor yet, Julia?”

The black-haired girl seemed to think for a moment.  “You know, I have seen this one bothering us.  She sometimes comes up to pester Mary or Juanita.  Haven’t you seen that, Naomi?”

The brown-haired sophomore nodded.  “Yeah, most of us are getting pretty sick of it.  Sick of little boys who wear diapers and skirts and think it makes them into girls.  Sick of all you boys pretending to be real girls.”

Jade had been read several times for now, and for real, not this false accusation.  It was beginning to lose its shock value.

“Back off girls,” Jinn ordered.  “This sort of talk isn’t what Poe is about.”

The black-haired girl gave Jinn a shove.  Jade was surprised to see her sister momentarily almost knocked aside, before halting in mid-air and returning.

“You back off!  You aren’t even an upperclassman – otherwise why would you be rooming with the freshmen?”

In less than a second, Jinn transformed into Shroud, her healthy skin tones replaced by chalk-white “flesh” in a grim hooded cloak.  Practice had made her transformation swift and flawless.

Shroud reached forward with a skeletally withered hand.  “As much as the outside world discriminates against alternate sexuality, did you ever consider that they discriminate even more against the dead?”

The brown-haired girl seemed to blur, and she was suddenly two feet farther away.  “Don’t touch me!”

“Are you going to get out of our way?”

“Make me, freak!”

“No,” Sharisha decided, maliciously.  “I’ve got a better idea.  Listen to this, pee-weenie: if you’re a real girl, prove it.  Then we’ll get out of your way and we won’t bother you ever again.”

“What?”  Jade was outraged.  “You expect me to drop my panties in the middle of the hallway?  You’re out of your mind!  As if I would, for the likes of you!”

“Whatcha got in mind, Shar?” the brunette, Naomi, asked.

Sharisha chuckled at her own idea.  “Don’t we have a hot tub special coming up next week?  Strictly in the buff, almost all the third floor girls, right?”  She turned to stare at Jade.  “If you’re a real girl, you won’t mind joining us, will you?”

“I—”

“It’s next Tuesday.  We’re sneaking out after curfew.  But I know you won’t show up, ‘cause you know everyone will see you for what you are, boy!”

“It’s third-floor girls only,” Jade protested weakly.

“Oh, no problem,” Sharisha concluded.  “You can be my guest.”

“Not a chance!” Jinn said.  “You’re obviously trying to make a move on my sister.  Look at her!  She’s too young for those games.  She hasn’t even started puberty yet!”

Jade ground her teeth.  That was the problem with being Jinn.  She got so hyped on the fact that she was a real girl, a mature and seventeen-year-old girl, that she sometimes slipped and forgot how sensitive the other her was about being stuck.  Then she realized that maybe this wouldn’t be a problem forever.  The BIT-slicer session was scheduled for Monday.  After that, she really would be a real girl.

The taller sophomore leaned in.  “You’re a freshman, Shar.  And I’m booked, cause I already invited you.  Naomi would have to invite her.  You should do it, Naomi, cause, look, she’s really afraid!  I think I’m starting to believe Shar!  The kid really is a boy in skirts.  That’s just too rich!  Wait till I tell everyone!”

“Alright, I’ll prove it!” Jade said, before she could finish thinking it through.  “But I’m sure not going as the guest of any of YOU creeps!  I’ll get Mary or someone else to invite me!”

“Sure you will,” Sharisha purred.  “But if you aren’t there, we’ll know why.  And we’ll tell everyone.”

“And no ghost chaperones,” Naomi commanded.  “None of your Kimbo friends to hide behind.  As if we’d want their shrinky-dicks at our party anyway.”

“And you,” Jinn continued the negotiations, “keep your hands off my sister.  Everyone keeps their hands off her.  No one’s going to take advantage of her until she’s at least old enough to know what her own feelings are.”

The other sophomore nodded sharply.  “Agreed.  Tuesday night, right before curfew.  Be there, or we’ll know why.  And we’ll tell everyone.”

*****

Back up on the third floor, Naomi and Julia congratulated themselves on a good prank.

Julie grinned at the instigator.  “Well, Shar, not bad for a freshman.  ‘Kimbo’ – I’m going to have to remember that one.”

“Are you sure she’s a boy?” Naomi asked.  “She sure didn’t look like one.”

“Who really cares?” Sharisha answered.  “It’ll get Chandler hot under the collar.  That’s all I care about.  She’s always hanging around with the rug-rat.  And you remember when Chandler fought the sasquatch?  That was cause she was defending Tennyo!”

Julie gulped.  “Toni Chandler had to defend Tennyo?  That girl took out Hippie with one punch.  Almost killed her.  Now Hippie’s got this major ‘comrade in arms’ thing going for the girl.  I’m not sure I want to get involved with Tennyo.”

Sharisha waved a hand negligently.  “Don’t sweat it.  Tennyo won’t be involved.  My point is that if Chandler is so uptight that she has to go off on a crusade to rescue Tennyo, how’s she going to react to see people picking on the rug-rat?  It’ll send her over the edge!”

Naomi shrugged.  “I still don’t see what you’ve got against Toni Chandler.  I mean, you’re both black, right?  Isn’t there some sort of ‘sister’ thing going on there?”

“With that sex-changing wanna-be?  Get real!  She makes me sick!”

“Whatever,” Julie decided.  “I’m just looking forward to getting an eyeful of miss young-and-innocent.”

“You really are a pervert, Jool,” her roommate decided.

“I’d have to be, to room with you.  But tell me you aren’t turned on by little girls, just when their tits start growing in.  Gawd, I’ll bet she hasn’t even had her first period yet.”

“I prefer my girls with a bit more bounce,” Naomi said, reaching over to cup her roommate’s boob.

“Uh, guys?”  Sharisha interrupted her older friends before they could get too physical.  “She’s coming because we accused her of being a guy, remember?”

Julie grinned.  “And the ploy worked.  But really – as if.  Kelly’s in her gym class.  Showers with her every day.  Nothing but naked pubes.  Whatever made you think she was a guy?”

“Well…” Sharisha fumbled “she’s in Poe, isn’t she?  And you heard her sister, she doesn’t even have a preference yet, so she isn’t a lesbian.  So she’s got to be a T-girl, right?  And she’s hanging around those other T-girls.”

Naomi shrugged.  “Ayla I can understand.  It swings a dick that’s almost a foot long, I heard.  I think if I saw that, I’d probably lose my lunch.  But the rest of them – face it, they’re all girls.”

Julie spotted Sharisha’s growing scowl.  “She’s right.  Maybe they’re still growing inside or something, but they all bleed, just like the rest of us.  So long as I don’t have to think about what the used to be, who cares?”

Naomi nodded.  “Besides, some of the T-girls are the most radical lesbians.”

Sharisha goggled.  “You don’t mean Hippolyta?”

“No, but,” Naomi leaned close and confidential, “Zoe on the fourth floor.”

Sharisha couldn’t believe it.  “The fixer?  Zenith?  Miss Perfect?”

Naomi nodded, placing a hand over her heart.  “Swear to God.  That’s why she just about pukes at the thought of touching a man.  I heard she even had a teeny bit of a guy-thing left, up till the end of last year.”

Sharisha shook her head in denial.  “Zoe Nesmith, with the body to die for?  With a … thing?  That’s just sick!”

“All in the past.  Believe me, she’s nothing but pure girl, these days.  At least as far as a tongue or a finger can reach.”

Julie swatted her roommate.  “How would you know?”

“I heard.  Question is, are you going to be checking out the li'l bit, the same way?”

“Jade?”  Julie’s eyes seemed to lose their focus.  “Gawd, I wish.  But we promised…”

Naomi shrugged.  “Yeah.  But ghost-girl won’t be there, will she?  Or any of spunky’s other friends.”

“Hmmm…”

*****

How could I let them talk me into this? Jade wondered.  She hated the way the older girls had plucked at her insecurities, playing her like a fiddle.  She was suddenly wondering what might go wrong with the BIT-slicer on Monday.  If she couldn’t become a real girl, she was going to be in a lot of trouble.  More than if she’d just refused the dare.  But she’d probably better get her invite now.  If she told Mary, there would be more chance to plan things out, no matter what happened.

She nervously trudged upstairs.  Mary’s room was directly above hers.  Once she reached the third floor, she tiptoed past the stretch where she thought the two obnoxious girls lived.  The doors were all closed, but there was raucous laughter coming out of one of the rooms.  Jade crept on, heading for room 302.  She knocked lightly on the door.

“Come in?”  The voice was faint.

Jade slipped through the door, closing it behind her.  “Mary?”

“Sorry, she’d not in right now.”  There was a thin girl doing homework at her desk.  She had glossy black hair pulled back in a high ponytail.  “Oh, hi, Jade.  What’s up?”

Jade knew Lily well enough by now.  She roomed with Mary, took classes with Billie, and was sometimes dating Hank.  She was in Jade’s martial arts class.  She was around a lot.  For all that, Jade had never really done anything with the slim girl.  “Uh… do you know when Mary’s going to be back?”

“Not until after Thanksgiving.  Juanita – you know Juanita?”

Jade nodded jerkily.

“Big friend of Mary’s.  Juanita’s great uncle passed away, and she went to the funeral.  I guess they were close.  Mary went along to keep her company.”

“Both of them?”  Jade couldn’t believe it.  “They won’t be back until after Thanksgiving?”  She sank to the floor, her back pressed against the door.

“Hey, what’s the matter?”

Jade was devastated.  What was she going to do?  “But she was just here!  I saw her at the dance.  And now I need an invitation to the hot tub party next Tuesday.”

“What for?  You know those parties are just a big excuse to match girls up with each other.  Aren’t you a little young for that?”

Jade nodded.  “It was … a dare.  A couple of obnoxious girls down the hall from you.  Naomi and … Julia, I think.”

“Yeah, I know ‘em,” Lily muttered.

“They were with Sharisha, this jerk from my floor, and they were saying the most horrible stuff about me, and they dared me to prove I was a real girl…”

“You didn’t fall for it, did you?”

“Umm… yeah?”

Lily sighed again.  “You aren’t really that desperate, are you?  Besides, aren’t you too young for the hot tub?”

Jade tried to blink the tears out of her eyes.  Why couldn’t Lily understand?  “They said they were going to expose me!”

“Look, I’ve been here for a while now.  I see you almost every day in the showers.  The girls showers, after we do kung fu practice?  And while you’re even more underdeveloped than me, which is saying something, it’s pretty obvious that you’re a girl.  So what’s the big deal?”

Jade just sniffed, trying to hold back the choke in her throat.  She hated talking about her deformity.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that?”

“I’m faking it, alright!” Jade hissed out.  “I’m got this stupid boy’s body!  I use my telekinesis to – sort of pull and stretch and stuff, so you can’t tell in the showers.”

Lily shook her head, making her pony tail swing back and forth.  “No, no, no.  Even if I believed that, which is pretty far fetched, I’ve seen you touching Mary.  And we both know how she breaks out in hives, practically, whenever she touches a guy.”

Jade blew her nose.  “Mary reacts to the soul, not the body.  I’m a girl – Mary proves that!  But I’m stuck with this stupid boy’s body!”

“Really?  Hank never mentioned any of this.  Although… maybe a couple of things he said do make a little more sense.  But how is this even possible?”

“I guess I have to tell you my whole life story, huh?”

“Might as well,” Lily decided, “after what you’ve told me so far.”

“Well, I’ve been trying different treatments.  You know about exemplars, and the Body Image Template?”

Lily nodded.  “Yeah, I’ve been finding out about all that.”

“Well, they think I’m an exemplar one, which means I’ve got a BIT, but none of the real advantages…”

As she explained, Lily got paler and paler.

“Oh, God,” she exclaimed.  “THIS is what I have to look forward to?”

“What are you talking about?” Jade asked.

“That’s why I’m here in Poe.  Mom was an exemplar, and she did the male-to-female thing long before she married Dad.  Like some of your friends, I guess.  Lucky me, when I was born I got to have both sets of bits, you know?  They cut away the icky male parts.  I don’t know, some sort of surgery.  Only, Mom’s afraid that since I’m now an active exemplar, the … you know, the guy parts … might start growing back.”

Jade’s hands were clutching at her mouth.  “Oh, no!  And you’re a girl!  You’ve got to be, if you’re rooming with Angel.  What are you going to do?”

Lily shrugged, as if trying desperately to look nonchalant.  “Like I told Mom.  They cut it off once.  They can do it again.”

Jade cringed.  It wasn’t that she minded the thought of losing that ugly tag of flesh, it was the thought of someone cutting her in such a sensitive area.  “Wait, let me tell you about this experimental procedure that I’m going to be testing…”  And she began to tell Lily about the experimental BIT-slicer.  “…so if everything works out, I’ll be a real girl by Monday, and I could go to the party on Tuesday and Sharisha couldn’t say a thing!”

Lily shook her head.  “Ooookay.  Sounds like a lot of eggs in one basket to me.  Still, I’m obviously very interested in whether or not this gizmo works.  Who knows when I might need it?”  She thought about it some more.  “Look, I still think this hot tub party is a really bad idea.  I mean, REALLY bad.  Are you still insistent on it?”

“I promised!” Jade almost wailed.

“Like I want to be ogled by a bunch of lesbians,” Lily muttered.  “As if there was all that much to ogle.  Hmph.  Okay, here’s the deal.  I’ll go to the little strip-soak and take you as my guest—”

“Really?”

“—but you have to do me a major favor.  And I don’t mean keeping me informed on the BIT gizmo.  You’re a friend, right?  You’d do that anyway, now that we know each other’s deepest fears, right?”

Jade nodded vigorously.  “What do you want?  Personal servant?  Laundry duty?  Bathroom cleanup?”

“Oh, no.  Lots bigger than that.”  She had a glum expression.  “It’s just that you guys all seem to have some really cool trips.  Like Boston?  And I’m not exactly one of the Kimbettes, so I sort of missed out on all of that.  And I really like hanging with my own buds too, I sure don’t want to give any of that up, but I … I don’t know…” she trailed off.

Jade nodded, understanding perfectly.  She reached for Lily’s hand and softly took it in hers.  “You don’t want to be tied down to our team, but you want to be able to come along, if we have a cool trip or something, right?”

Lily was looking at the floor now.  “Well, it would probably be too much trouble.  I mean, I’m a sophomore and everything, and I’m not even sure if you guys want me…”

Jade hugged her hard.  “I’ll do my best!  I promise!  Of course we want you along!”

“You don’t think I’d be in the way, what with the super-models and all the beautiful girls?”

Jade held her at arm’s length and surveyed the other girl, who was barely three inches taller than her own diminutive four-foot-nine.  “Are you kidding?  You’ll be the cutest one there!”

Lily gave a glum half-smile.  “I guess I could live with cute.”

Jade hugged her again.  “Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!”

“Well, I guess it’s worth it.  So how did I get talked into skinny dipping with lesbians, when neither of us actually wants that?”

40: Preparations

November 18, Saturday evening, 11:32 PM

Jade lay in bed thinking, listening to Billie’s soft snores in the darkness.  At her desk, there were slight movements of book and pen, as Jann did her homework.  Jinn had already left to see if Sara was up for anything.  Jade lay in bed, occasionally linking with Jeanie as the two of them considered things.

Charging Jeanie no longer knocked her unconscious, but it did leave her about as weak as a noodle.  She could really only do it when she was in bed anyway.  She figured it was good practice, and the nearly constant exercise of her powers was building up her strength nicely.  She could conjure three selves, and be so weak that she could barely crawl, or she could even conjure four selves and be unconscious.

Their dorm room had never looked so clean, and she was actually ahead on homework and class reading, even with the second set of classes she took as Jinn.

And her powers – she was now getting just over 110 minutes per charge, and she was able to lift nearly 290 pounds – solidly into the TK-3 category.  She still hadn’t gotten around to filling out the paperwork to notify administration.

She was worried that she’d need more than two hours for the Faction Three meeting this Tuesday.  How was she going to manage that?  She still didn’t know.

The tough part was, who should she be?  Jade herself sometimes avoided conflicts that she knew she could win.  The whole boy-as-girl masquerade sometimes showed up as the weirdest insecurity.  For example, Sharisha – she should have just told her off.  Instead, she let her insecurities talk for her.

And Jinn didn’t have those insecurities.  She might not have a real body, but what she had was all girl.  As Jinn, or worse Shroud, she thought she maybe overcompensated for Jade’s insecurities.

Now she had a chance to be a new person, and to imagine a personality.  She could do it from scratch, too.  Her friends in Poe weren’t going to be showing up at Faction Three meetings, and the people from Faction Three wouldn’t be seeing her friends that often.  She could start with a clean slate, and make herself whoever she wanted to be.

So who did she want to be.

She was pretty happy with herself as Jinn, but there was just one thing.  She really wanted to strut her stuff.  Not like Sara … well, not exactly like Sara.  Not yet, at least.  But Jinn was a girl, and she couldn’t really go out with anyone, or hug, or kiss or do anything girlish.  Maybe as Lazuli she could do some of that.  People wouldn’t be seeing her as a ghoul.  In fact, they might see her as a sexy heroine.  That wouldn’t be too bad.

She had to make sure the other girls in Faction Three got drawn in, rather than being pushed away.  That would take some work, because Jade wasn’t very experienced with this stuff.  She was at best a novice flirt.

This might actually be fun.

*****

November 20, Monday Lunch, 11:27 AM

She caught him in the hallway, on the way to lunch.  It was hardly surprising, they’d run into each other here before.  Jade was still cautious, never publicly exposing that she could charge more than one body.  But as with Jann-sensei, she didn’t restrict herself when she was working in secret, and no one could see.

She needed to perform as Lazuli.  She had the body, the practice moving, and she even thought her personality might work out.  There was just one huge problem remaining.  She could only hold a charge for a little less than two hours.  The “Faction Three” meeting would last much longer than that.  So…  Jade finally realized that there was only one answer.

And that was why she was here, being Jamie Bond, the SpySpeck.  Squeezing her entire soul an spirit into a single speck of sand was an oddly tight fit.  It also left her with blurry vision and poor hearing.  She knew her hearing came from telekinetically sensing the vibrations that passed through her “body.”  Her vision was more of a mystery, though it was clear that the larger she was, the better she saw.  Which explained her current fuzzy vision.

But she saw well enough to track one young boy, who walked with a distinctive slump.  It helped that everyone seemed to unconsciously avoid him, leaving a foot or two of space around him at all times.  Jamie the SpySpeck tracked him through the lunch line as he picked up same food and departed, clinging to a support strut in the crystalline dome over the boy’s head.  As he left the cafeteria, she wafted behind him, staying aloft, at least twenty feet up.  As expected, he headed out to the woods just like every other time she saw him leaving lunch.  He didn’t eat the food himself, but settled and began holding his hand out.

She had her location fix.  She knew where he’d be for at least the next ten minutes.  She vanished, before the kitten could arrive.  She did that on purpose.  There was something about that kitten.  There was nothing she could spot with her unusual esper senses – at least, nothing obvious.  But she knew there was something about that kitten.  So she vanished before it could spot her.

Unsupported now, a grain of sand fell to the ground.

*****

Jinn looked as innocuous as possible.  She wore her human-appearing skin, and dressed in her Whateley skirt and blazer.  She walked confidently forward, quickly spotting him just inside the edge of the forest.

As she approached, his head rose and began turning from side to side as if in search of something.

 

“James.” When he jumped in surprise, she realized that she’d been walking silently. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

 

The boy was still looking a bit panicked as he turned to face her, cradling the tortoiseshell cat protectively.

“Hi, cat,” Jinn said, waggling her fingers in the direction of the kitten, which was half-concealed inside James’ jacket.

“Her name is Whiskers,” the boy said, nervously.

“Look, you can calm down.”

He shifted nervously but, as always, he was an inexplicably blank slate to her aura vision.  Even his body had less detail than a normal person – it was like an opaque shell.

“I’m not angry,” she said, “I’m not going to do anything to you, and nothing’s wrong.  Fact is, I’ve come to ask a favor.”

 

James considered that for a moment.  Apparently deciding that there was no point in being coy, he withdrew the small kitten and began to stroke it.  Before her eyes, he seemed to calm further, drawing steady breaths.

“First,” she began, “I’ve kept your secret for a month now.  I haven’t told your secrets to anyone.  I don’t even understand what’s so important about them, but I haven’t mentioned anything about your powers, or your pet either, to anyone.  And I know you’ve kept my secrets, too.  I appreciate that.”

James nodded, but remained sitting on the forest floor, without saying a word.

Jinn forged on valiantly.  “I need you to… do your charging thing.  You know?  Where you suck me up and then blast me into something new.  I need to be able to keep going for at least three hours, preferably a little longer.  I need it tomorrow evening, but if things work out, I might need the ‘charge’ every Tuesday and Thursday.”

He didn’t say anything, but from the look in his eyes, she knew the young-appearing boy was thinking furiously.

“Why?” he finally asked.

Jinn ran her fingers combing back through her hair.  “It’s for Jade.  You know about that.  You ‘saw’ the hormone shots, last time we touched.  Unfortunately, that didn’t work worth a darn.  A side effect of that exemplar condition, we think.  Anyway, this time we have a chance at the real thing.  A machine that could change her body template to be what she needs to become.  Something to finally make her a real, true girl.”

James nodded glumly, then suddenly sat up in shock.  “What did you say?”

Jinn sighed and sat in the air.  She couldn’t sit cross-legged, not in this skirt, but she could fold her legs back under her – sort of a half seiza position.  “Look, if we’re going to do this for real, you’ll need to know a bit more about me.  You’ll probably see it, quick enough, once we connect.”  She sighed again.  “We made up a lot of stories to explain me: ghost-girl, stuff about being the spirit of her dead sister, stuff like that….”

For some reason, James was twitching as if physically struck, as she spoke.

“….but all of that is just cover.  Really, I’m … her.  I’m Jade.  Somehow, my body image template is not properly connected or something.  This is what I’m supposed to look like.  The body – I mean my physical body – it’s just stuck.  I guess you might have something like that, too, so maybe you can sympathize a little.  I’ve done a good job of hiding it.  Most people would be surprised to find out that Jade was actually a boy.  We’ve been trying everything we can think of to transition.  You’ll probably never understand what it’s like, but I’m a girl!”  She waved a hand at her body.  “This is what I’m supposed to look like!  Not some skinny eleven-year-old guy.  Well, I mean, no offense.”

James just goggled at her.

“Oh, don’t act so surprised.  You admitted a month ago that you saw us getting hormone shots.  It’s not like I’m telling you anything you don’t know.  Though if you hadn’t already known, I wouldn’t have dared tell you.  A secret like that – I hope you never have to live with something like that.  If I didn’t have the chance to be Jinn, to escape and live as a real girl some of the time, I don’t know how I’d cope.”

Finally, James pulled himself together enough to ask, “What … what does this have to do me?”

“Well, there’s a machine to help manipulate Jade’s BIT, her body image template.  The price to use it is a ‘favor.’  I need to act as a sort of hostess, every Tuesday and Thursday.  I’m in disguise; no one will know it’s me.  But the meetings are going to last longer than my regular time limit.  I figure that if you charge me up, I’ll be able to make it through the entire meeting, and no one will be the wiser.  Aside from you and me, of course.”

“You felt it last time,” he whispered.  “Don’t you know what it does to me… to touch people?”

“James,” she said with a fierce intensity, “I’ll do almost anything to become the girl I was supposed to be!  You understand me?  I don’t know what I can offer you to make this worth your while.  I know the contact is … disturbingly intimate.  But there must be something you want!  I’ll try to help you.  Well, assuming it isn’t illegal or unethical.”

Seeing that she’d pretty much blown his mind for the time being, she stood and prepared to walk away.

“Please – just tell me you’ll think it over?”

James nodded, shakily.

“I’ll contact you tomorrow, right after dinner, okay?”

Again, a shaky nod.

“James… please consider it.  I need your help.  I don’t know what I can do for you, but I’m willing to work hard.”

She could tell the boy was closing in on himself, and she’d get no further response.  With a bow, she turned and walked away.

She didn’t hear, when, nearly a minute later he whispered to himself.  Or perhaps he spoke to the kitten.

“I thought she was trying to turn into a boy.”

*****

November 20, Monday, after class

Lily spotted several of the Team Kimba girls leaving class in a group.  The core group, Toni, Fey, Billie, Jade and Jinn, all seemed to be walking together, but they oddly subdued considering what that group was normally like.  She moved to join them, thinking that Hank was bound to show up soon enough.

Surprisingly, the girls pulled aside for minute and conferred.  Jade and Jinn seemed to be convincing them of something, then the girls agreed and beckoned her forward.

“You need to be there, too,” Jade said cryptically.

No one else said a word.

Hank joined them, soon enough, but he was also oddly quiet.  He took her hand, which she liked, but aside from a supportive and apologetic smile, he said nothing, which worried her.  Other girls slowly joined – Chou, Ayla, Jamie, and Erin.  As then entered Poe, everyone seemed to be on their way to a funeral or something.

In the cottage’s front hallway, they were met by Zoe Nesmith and Belle Forbes, both of whom wore black armbands, and carried slender white candles.

Lily looked about in confusion as the group around her accepted black armbands, then they all followed the two older girls into the basement.  Everyone donned armbands and accepted a taper, which they ceremoniously lit from Zoe’s candle.  Together, they filed into the exercise room, which had been redecorated as a black-draped memorial alter.

The black draped walls showed pictures of heroes and heroines, all with dates of birth and death.

The door closed behind them, and Zoe, as one of the eldest present, began to speak.

“Today is the Day of Remembrance.  It is the day we remember our dead, the transgendered who have fallen.  The list is longer, of course, but those pictured here were killed because they were transgendered.”

She paused, collecting herself, then continued.  “Each of us has had to go through the shock of learning that we are mutants.  There are some places in this world were being a mutant is a death sentence.  At the very least, it guarantees that a portion of the general public will hate and fear you.

“Those of us in this room bear an additional stigma.  We are transgendered.  Like the truth of our mutation, this is a fact that must often be hidden from our closest friends.  And like the presence of a power mutation, the sudden revelation of the truth can have unpredictable consequences.  Friends may turn to enemies, love may turn to hatred, and people you have trusted for years may suddenly lash out in hatred.

“Another danger is depression.  Three of the people pictured here took their own lives, as their despair became too great for them to deal with.

“Tonight we will try to remember them all, as well as remembering the many non-human transgendered who have been murdered for what they are.”

There was more.  Too much more.  Lily would have preferred not to know, never to know.  As much as she feared what might happen to her, she knew that this group, at least would support her.  And she knew that Hank, at least, wouldn’t hate her.

That made her wonder if she had been as open and accepting of his past as she might be.

She resolved to be better, in the future.

41: What are little girls made of?

November 20, Monday evening, 5:50 PM

Jade could barely contain herself through dinner.  Another hour, and it was possible that all her dreams would come true.

“Whoa,” Toni commented, “usually everyone’s accusing me of bouncing off the walls.”

Jade was eating so fast that she barely bothered to chew her food.

Hank was concerned.  “Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?”

Jade nodded, without slowing her eating.

Fey had her own worries.  “Okay, I admit that my specialty is magic, not technology.  Although to be frank, some of this devisor stuff falls into a unique category of magic all its own.  But STILL, I’m not entirely comfortable about his.  Tell her, Toni.”

Jade glared at the black girl.

“Uh, I think I’ll hand this one back to you, Nikki.”

“Coward.  So tell me – how much do you know about this machine?”

Seeing that Billie was only on her second plate, Jade swallowed and talked.  “I talked to Jello yesterday.  She’s had no ill effects.  Her ‘donor’ – Heartbreaker – is also fine.  They said it feels pretty strange, but there haven’t been any problems so far.  Come on, guys, I’ve got to try this.  You know I do.”

Chou tried, “I distrust the ‘quick fix.’  The realignment exercises may be slow but—”

“Are they working?” Jade interrupted her.

“Well, sometimes these things take time.”

“Come on, Chou.  I’m really grateful that you’ve tried, and I appreciate all your hard work, but it’s another dead end.  So far as I can tell, it isn’t doing a thing.”

Chou hung her head, looking almost as if the failure was her fault.

“Hey, don’t be like that!” Jade said, trying to cheer the Chinese girl up.  “You did a great job!  It’s not your fault.  It’s just… something about me, I guess.”

“Aha!  That’s what I was worried about!” Fey realized.  “You’re building your hopes up too much.  We’ve all seen you, each time you go through one of these attempts.  Beforehand is wonderful, you’re so happy, and we all feel really hopeful for you.  But just like the earlier attempts, this might be a failure too.”

Jade’s grin faded at that.  “Yeah, I know.  But do you think I’m going to stop trying?  Do you think it’s even possible for me to stop trying?”

Toni shook her head at that.  “For anyone else, sure.  Everyone hits a point where they give up.  For you… I’m not so sure.”

*****

Like many projects Thuban funded, this was underground.  They began in the main underground complex, but their guide quickly led them farther in, to tunnels roughly hewn from the underlying bedrock.  At last they arrived at a pair of thick steel doors, enamel-sprayed a pure, glossy blue.  The doors whisked aside with a gust of displaced air, admitting them to the stone chamber behind.

The center of the room was dominated by a complex, rotating stage.  Lights and projectors of all kinds surrounded the stage, focused upon it.  The walls of the room were hidden behind racks of customized electronics, patch panels, and bright computer displays of transient electronic conditions.  Their guide went to join the other two devisors.

“Hey, I know you two!  You’re second-floor freshmen!”  The deviser stepping forward had porcupine-like brown hair that stuck out to both sides.  “I’m Rafael Eagan, also from Poe.  Fourth floor.”  He held out a hand, which Jade numbly shook.

“Great, just great.”  Billie smacked her face into her palm.  “Hope you didn’t plan on keeping anything secret, Jade.”

“Actually,” Rafael said quietly, “this test run is being managed by one of our sponsors, a guy by the name of Thuban.  He’s kept everything hush-hush.  According to his cover story, you, Jade, are just looking to get something of a maturity boost.  So, Jade, provided that you let me help you with the outfitting, no one need be the wiser.”

Billie scowled at him.  “You sound like you’ve got it figured pretty well.”

Rafael grinned and shrugged.  “Folks in Poe keep track of their own.  You guys did make a big splash at the start of the semester, and then again at Halloween.  Word quickly got around that you’re all T-girls.  So what’s the real scoop?  Finishing out a transition?”

Jade was getting tired of telling her secret.  But it seemed like so many people knew now, that she wasn’t sure where to stop.  And this did seem legitimate.  “I haven’t started, actually,” she confessed.  “I’m stuck the same way I was when I was eleven.”

Rafael raised an eyebrow at that.  “Well, we’ll see what we can do.  I hope you understand, this is still very prototype.  I can’t guarantee that it’s completely safe, or that it will actually do what you want.

Billie jumped in on that.  “Yeah, about that.  I have some … differences … let’s call them.  If any of that stuff get transferred, it’s liable to blow up the whole lab.  At the very least.”

Rafael took the warning seriously.  “I’ll be careful.  First, both of you need to strip.  We’ll apply contact electrodes.  We have modesty garments for you.  Due to the electrical potential, those must be made of an insulating material.  Sorry if it’s hard to put on.”  He gestured Jade forward.  “Miss Sinclair, since I’m openly gay, the other staff members have accepted that I’ll help you prepare.  To be truthful Knick-knack couldn’t be bothered, and Kew will be helping Miss Wilson.  So, if you’ll follow me to the second changing room…”

*****

Billie was long past second thoughts.  She was working on twentieth or thirtieth thoughts.  As she stepped out of her underwear, the short deviser girl approached her with a cart filled with what looked like masking tape dispensers.

“What’s that?”

“You’re one of those girls who took down the ninjas, on, like day one, aren’t you?  That was so cool!  I’m Kew, by the way.  I’ve got kind of a group of my own.  They call us the Spy Kids, but I think M-I-five-oh was a better name.  It just didn’t stick.”

As she spoke, she began to run strips of masking tape down Billie’s naked flanks.

“Anyway, these are electrode strips.  We pick up signals off what we’re calling meridian lines.  They aren’t exactly the acupuncture meridians, but pretty close in several places.  Okay, let me get the ear clips – uh, I guess I’ll attach to the tip.”

Billie got annoyed whenever anyone paid too much attention to her ears, which tended to stick out a bit.

“Our last step will be the finger and toe clips – those tend to pop off easiest.  But we need to get the chest sensors.”  She reached forward with a small paintbrush, tipped with something that looked like liquid metal.  “This may be a bit chilly.”  She reached toward Billie’s right nipple.

“HOLD ON!  What the HELL do you think you’re doing?”

“The tip of the breast is a natural energy pathway.  It’s essential for getting a good signal.  Just hold still, the conductive paint is a bit chilly, but it hardens quickly.”

Billie clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as the devisor girl painted first one nipple and then the other.

Paint hardening, my ass!  Billie fumed to herself.  If she says one word about anything else hardening, I swear I’m going to deck her!

But it was nearly impossible not to react, as the soft brush applied the metallic solution.  The solution solidified, freezing the evidence of her arousal in shiny silver.

“Now, we have four pairs of labial clips,” the girl began.  “Frankly, I’d rather let you apply them yourself, but most girls aren’t limber enough.”

“Grrr!  Gimme those!”  Billie snatched them out of the other girl’s hands.  “I’ll do it!  No way am I letting someone else… you know!”

“Whew.  Thanks.  That’s the part I like least.  And then this last probe you insert yourself.  It’s just like a tampon.”

Jade, Billie promised herself, if you survive this damned experiment, I am going to kill you!

*****

At that moment, Jade was realizing roughly the same thing.  Billie is going to kill me!

“Keep those legs spread,” Rafael was saying.  “These scrotal clips will become labial inducers, when the process succeeds.  I’ve got to get them placed just right.”

“You’d better not be enjoying this,” she warned.

“What, feeling up underage boys?  Well, it is kind of a kick.  The idea that we’re trying to turn you into a girl puts a damper on it, though.  Okay, step into these rubber pants.”

Jade looked suspiciously at something that resembled a sensor-studded bikini bottom, except made out of black rubber.

“It has to be an insulator,” Rafael explained.  “Also, as your body begins to change, it needs to stretch to accommodate wider hips.  Rubber was the best choice.  Good, pull them up snug.  Now spread your legs.”

As Jade complied, Rafael fumbled with the exterior of the pants attaching a cylindrical contraption the size of a small flashlight directly under her, between her legs.

“What’s that?”

“Just a minute, let me engage the spring…”

“Whoa!”  Jade felt the contact of cold metal between her legs, just an inch or so forward from her rectum.

Raphael clarified, as he attached a thick coaxial cable to the assembly.  “In order to properly form your womb, we need to direct the signal from the closest point possible.  It will be a touch uncomfortable, but this probe will be resting just against your cervix, once you have one, that is.  That’s what the spring and gearing is for – to move the probe into place as your body accommodates.  Don’t worry, it’s lubed up pretty well.”

As Jade contemplated the meaning of that sentence, her knees went weak from glee.

“Okay, once I snap the bra into place, we’re done.”

Another strip of black rubber; this one wrapped around her chest.  Jade realized that it was constructed like a push-up bra.  It was open on the top.  It was also about at least an A cup, which meant that it didn’t quite reach her completely flat chest.

“Don’t worry about that air gap.  You’ll see some arcing of the fields, until you make contact with the inner surface of the sensor mesh there.  And, of course, the rubber will stretch to accommodate you, as you continue to grow.”

By the time Jade was “dressed”, Billie had already taken her place on the rotating stage, and was having sensors clipped onto her fingers and toes.  Billie’s attendant chattered non-stop.  “…so this is only possible because of the new ‘Variable Interface’ technology we got.  We’re able to interconnect devices in ways that were previously impossible.  Even relatively unrelated devices.  The data bandwidth is phenomenal!”

“Hey, Eagan!” Billie snapped, “get over here!  This is important.”

Two silvery robots came forward to finish connecting Jade up.  They directed her to stand on the stage, her back to Billie.  The stage had a small panel that would serve as a backrest for both her and Billie, as well as a connection point for her sensor probes.  Jade heard snatches of the conversation her roommate was having.

“—blood is not merely lethal, it’s explosive!  I mean, super un-fucking-believably explosive.  Exotic matter type explosive, you got me?”

“Right,” he agreed.  “None of this should affect you at all – we’re just doing a ‘read’ on you.  And I’ll filter for the blood, and filter for patterns that diverge too strongly from the baseline norm that we’re beginning to establish.”

“Good, ‘cause they tell me I have a couple of organs that you won’t find anywhere else.”

*****

At last, all preparations were complete.  Jade watched as padded brackets were snapped shut over her arms and legs to hold her in place, as the platform rotated.  For the first time, she heard surprisingly deep voice of the third devisor, Knick-knack.

“Initiating rotation,” the older boy called out, flipping a switch.

The platform slowly began to spin.  Jade was up against the center, but that didn’t help as much as she’d like.  She knew that Billie wouldn’t be bothered at least.  Her roommate just ignored unpleasant things like gravity and rotation, moving and behaving as if those pesky physical forces weren’t actually present.

“Excitation current on.”

Jade felt a pinch of current.  It marched down her sides and in her fingertips.  It touched her in intimate locations.

“Gather template data and lock!”

Something new was happening now, only it wasn’t happening to her.  There was a blue glow forming.  It licked out like flames, or some sort of St. Elmo’s fire.  Gradually, it took on more definition, forming a cocoon, but it was only on one side of the stage, pinned in place by a large lighting projector.  As the stage spun, Jade passed into and through the ghostly object.

“Established and firm,” Raphael reported.

“Increasing resolution,” the girl, Kew, called out.

It was hard to see the energy cocoon.  It remained stationary, while Jade came spinning through it.  But abruptly, it began to take on the shape of a tall girl.  Jade thought she recognized Billie’s unique hair, as she swung around through the stationary blue image.

“Lock in!”  Knick-knack shouted.  Then, “Sensitize recipient!”

Now tiny sparks bit at her again, making her twitch and jerk as the pattern of stings traced up and down her sides, her neck, and her legs.

*****

Raphael studied the waveforms that represented the body image templates of both subjects.  The technology was still quite crude; there was no way to identify individual characteristics or features.  But they could do blanket waveform mathematics, using baseline data gleaned from all the tests to date.  He studied the two screens, Tennyo on the left and Generator on the right.

“An odd pair,” Knick-knack rumbled.  “Based on these patterns, I wouldn’t even class Tennyo as human.”

“Can we get enough template data for our purposes?” Kew wondered.

“Maybe.  I’ll have to seriously filter the inputs.  Try masking based on the envelope derived from Heartbreaker.”

On the left screen, the displayed wave patterns became much simpler.

“We’ve got problems in the pattern from ‘Generator’ as well,” Raphael observed.  “The signal is filled with noise.  How is that possible?”

Knick-knack studied it.  “Another one that’s hardly human.”  Then he laughed.  “Wait, I get it.  Here, watch this.”

 

He fiddled with the controls for a second.  Suddenly, the signal broke into two, an upper and a lower signal, superimposed over each other.

 

Rafael considered the signals, musing aloud, “Could this be…?  But she didn’t say she was an avatar.”

 

Knick-knack shook his head, “The Signal is too clear, too definite.  I cleaned up the waveform we pulled during Trial Three and it was nothing like this, although…” He trailed off as if he had a flicker of inspiration.

 

Kew peered at the monitors as she finished her own preparations,  “Huh!  Now the signals look almost too normal.  Well, the lower one, at least.  That’s in the exact normal energy range, too.  The upper signal – what’s that?  It’s way out of band for a normal body image template.”

“We’ll have to ignore it,” Raphael decided.  “We don’t have to power to alter it, anyway.  Now without running a direct tap from the reactor.  Look at the power lock on that.”

“Right,” Knick-knack rumbled.  “Calibrate for the normal range signal, ignore the high band.  Let’s do this.”

*****

Jade felt something in the air change.

“Prepare for superimposition!” the older deviser called.

A strobe began to flash.  It flashed once, each time her back was exactly to it.  It flashed again when she faced directly into it.  She realized that there were actually two different strobes.  It was as if one was a pull, somehow, and the other a push.  It was like a huge energy pump.  The platform spun.  Each time Billie faced the bank of projectors, the energy guns blasted her with a pull.  Then the platform turned.  When Jade reached the same position, the guns blasted with a push.  And suspended intangibly, immobile in space was the intangible blue image of Tennyo’s body.

“Initiate transfer sequence!”

The platform spun, faster and faster.  On the backside, a strobe now began operating, sucking something from Jade.  Her essence, her body.  On the front side, another strobe flashed, driving new life into her.  With every turn there was an out, in, and the sensations came faster and closer together.

An electric blue corona now surrounded her entire body.  In her dizziness and nausea, she could barely concentrate, but she suddenly noticed something happening inside the open cups of her bra.  An electric storm was taking place.  Hundreds of tiny lightning bolts formed a firestorm.  Her silver plated nipple was in the center, and the bolts arced to the inner surface of the hollow cup.  Jade felt the energy traveling like sharp jabs, straight through each breast.

A moment later, she felt a similar jab penetrating in between her legs.  The pain was excruciating.  The energy flowed into her, blossoming in a searing, burning orb in the center of her hips.

Now the energy was pulling at her from every appendage of her body – arms, legs, fingers, toes, ears, even her eyes.  The energy clawed at her everywhere.

*****

Kew watched from the control stage.  She lowered the tracking goggles over her head.  The telescopic eyepieces were filtered to admit only strobe frequencies so that she could study the change.  A flip of a switch and she saw only the donor.  Everything seemed fine there.  In fact, the donor looked almost bored.  The switch flipped to the other position.  The recipient was writhing in the typical change-induction agony.  That was normal.  What wasn’t normal was that the recipient wasn’t showing much change.  In fact, Kew decided that she wasn’t changing at all.

“No traction,” she reported.  “No alteration of the recipient’s physiognomy.”

“We’re filtering the donor too heavily,” Knick-knack decided.  “Release the stage three filters.”

“Hold it!” Raphael said.  “Her body chemistry is listed as ‘exotic-extreme.’  She told me she has explosive blood – some sort exotic matter, she said.  It’s bad enough to not only blow up the recipient, but to blow up the entire lab, taking us with it.”

Knick-knack just grinned.  “That’s stage two.  Besides, we’re devisers!  We’re supposed to live on the edge.  Release the stage three filters.”

Raphael hesitated, but Kew nodded.  Reluctantly, he snapped of a sequence of switches.

*****

If Jade’s throat hadn’t locked up on her, she would have screamed.  The energy jabbing into her increased by a factor of ten, clawing at her insides, stretching and pulling at every inch of her skin.

*****

“Nothing.” Kew said.  “No visible changes at all.”

“Are you sure?” Knick-knack demanded.  “That should be impossible!”

“I’m sure.”

“Release the stage two filters.”

“If we do that,” Raphael protested, “she won’t even have her own face!  She’ll be a complete duplicate of the donor.”

“Do it!  Ask yourself, if she had a choice, would she chose this in preference to no results at all.”

Reluctantly, Raphael had to nod.  He’d gotten a fair understanding of Jade’s feelings.  “Releasing stage two filters.”

*****

Now the lightning flickered like fire over her face, burning into her eyes, ripping her ears away from her skull.  Despite the agony, Jade could feel it.  She was taller, stronger, female!

*****

“No reaction,” Kew reported in astonishment.

Knick-knack smiled, as if contemplating the last battle with a worthy foe.  “Release all filters.  Transmit the entire signal, unaltered.”

Again, Raphael had to protest.  “The exotic matter, the extra organs, that will be transmitting everything!  We’re even going to get some personality overlay, as the brain structures are re-aligned.  And if we lose control of the exotic matter component, even for a nanosecond, we’ll all be killed in the explosion!”

Knick-knack never even looked away from his board.  “Perfect.  This is where the rubber meets the road, my friends.  Ask yourselves – are you devisers?  Or are you just tinkerers, playing around with shiny toys.  Decide!  If you’re ready for the challenge, DO IT!”

With a shaking hand, Raphael turned off the last of the filters.  “Full transfer initiated,” he whispered.

*****

She felt herself burning alive.  From somewhere, she heard a voice talking to her, commanding her: “You like her a lot don’t you?  Think about her.  I want to hear you talk like her.  How much can you be like her if you try?”

She tried.  She would be exactly like Billie.  Her… twin?  Her older sister?  Neither was quite right, though she reached for both.

The pain was so intense that she was beyond screaming.  She wanted to scream – anything to release the horrible pain and instability.  The world spun and fire rushed through her body and penetrated into her soul.  She had an image of her brother’s face, Thadeus.  He was trying to talk to her, and shaking his head, but she couldn’t hear, as the world was overwhelmed in a blinding flare of pain and fire.

Then, there was a face in the fire.  So close she could touch it.  For the first time ever, the face noticed her.  Abruptly, the outside world vanished.  The pain and fire were still out there, but inside, she was far away from all of that.

“You are not the one!” The face seemed angry at first.  “I already have her!  I am her, and no one will take us from each other!”

*****

“I’m getting a flare-up!” Kew shouted.  “It’s from the donor!  What the hell is going on?”

Knick-knack grinned.  “Increase power!”

*****

Jade had no idea what was going on.  Not knowing how to respond, she just submitted herself and her needs.

“Ah, I see now.  The companion.  I never had need of such.  Go away.”

Jade wouldn’t leave.

“Hmph.  I see some tinge of loyalty.  You have no idea what you’re dealing with, do you?”

Jade was unable to speak, but she could shake her head.  Honestly, she didn’t have any clue about what was going on.  It felt like she was talking to Billie … sort of.  Maybe Billie in one of her mega-grouchy moods.  And more than a little, it felt like she was talking to Sara.  Sara when she exposed her darkest aspects.

“Would you show ME the same loyalty you show HER?  We’re the same, you know.  She may not realize it yet, but we are.”

No, it only felt like Sara.  It was Billie.  She knew that for sure.  She would know that forever.  She tried to understand what was being asked.  Loyalty?  To Billie?  The question was absurd.  Of course.  If only Billie could help her…

But that wasn’t true loyalty, was it?  That was a conditional loyalty.  She was being asked for pure loyalty.  No conditions, no strings.  Even if she never changed, and never could change.  She thought about Billie, and all she had learned of her roommate, all that she owed to her.  All the love she had for her.  It certainly wasn’t sexual.  As stunning as Billie could be in that department, Jade felt only envy, not desire.  And, despite crawling in with Billie when she had nightmares, it wasn’t a mother-child thing.  Not quite.  But if Billie could have only been her sister, her big sister…

Yes, that was a relationship she would grab and hold onto forever.  Loyalty to her big sister forever, no matter what.  And if the scary face was part of Big Sis?  Well, sisters can be like that.  She might never understand everything her older sister did or was.  But she would love her forever, all the same.  Even the scary face.  If it was Billie, she loved the scary face, too.

“You don’t know…  you can’t know…”  But the face seemed taken aback, under the strength of her loyalty.

Jade wouldn’t budge in her feelings.

“Do you have the slightest idea of what I am, and what I demand of you?”

The tone reminded Jade of long discussions with Sara.  Sara had discussed her mark.  “My mark of ownership,” she’d called it.

At one time, Jade had offered to take that and more.  Her price had been a female body.  Her payment would have been her body, her children, and her soul.

Sara had refused, and it had led to a small fight between them.  She wondered if this would feel anything like that.  This time, the scary face had offered no payment at all.  And although Jade’s soul hadn’t been mentioned as part of the bargain, she wondered if it might come to that anyway.  What was she giving?  Her soul?  Her life?  Everything?

But that wasn’t the issue.  The question was, who was asking.  The scary face was doing the talking, but it was Billie.  She felt, and she suddenly saw how they were the same.  It didn’t matter what the face wanted.  This was Billie.

Jade smiled, and accepted completely.

Abruptly, the face smirked.  “I see.  Then I accept, too.”

*****

Things were happening too fast at the control stage.

“We have a lock!” Raphael announced in shock.  “Total match, total merge, 100% identity!”

“Power surge in the transfer link!” Kew shouted.  “It’s enough – whoa! – enough to vaporize the cables!”

“Isolate the Modular Component Harness,” Knick-knack ordered.  “That’s the only piece we can’t duplicate!”

With a burst of sparks, an entire bank of electronics along the wall exploded.

The rotating stage gave a creaking groan, then began to spin down.

Miraculously, as the devisers jumped up to unstrap the two subjects, they saw that neither girl was harmed.  On the negative side, though, neither girl had been changed, either.

Billie slapped Kew’s hands away from the rubber bandeau around her chest.  “I can dress myself!  And I’ll do it in private, thank you very much.”

Jade looked in disappointment at her flat chest.  “I felt… I thought…”

“I’m sorry,” Rafael said.  “It failed.  It completely failed.”

“FAILED?”  Knick-knack roared in amusement.  “Hardly!  Look at this place!”  He gestured around at the smoking wreckage.  “We did something great here!”  In a quieter voice he admitted, “I’m not entirely sure what, but it was big, I’m sure of that.  And look!”  He help up a piece of something from the wreckage.  “The Modular Component Harness is completely intact!”

“That’s a relief,” Raphael admitted, speaking to Billie and Jade.  “That’s the only way we’re able to handle the bandwidth required.  The harness is incredible.  If we’d lost that…”

“As it is,” Knick-knack said, “everything else can be replaced.  What do you think?  Two days?”

“I’m sorry,” Jade began.

“Two days!”  Knick-knack insisted.  “I’ll need you both back then.  And this time, we’ll get it right!”

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

“Well,” he explained, “we’ll need to run the power tap from the reactor, first.  Our mistake was in trying to alter the normal-energy signal.  Clearly, her body image template has been shifted to the high energy band.  We’ll need to punch through the energy barrier, but it should work.  What do you say, everyone?  Same time, Wednesday?”

Jade looked toward Billie in growing hope.

“What?  You expect me to go through this— this— perversion again?”  She saw Jade’s face and scowled even harder.  “I want you to know that I wouldn’t do this for ANYone else!”

Jade suddenly recognized the scary face in Billie, and smiled wide.  “Thank you, oneesan!”

*****

It was nearly lights-out, when the girls settled in.  Billie had been extravagant, as always, when describing the fiasco.  “Next time, just give me the pelvic exam, instead!”

“Gladly,” Sara purred.

Billie scowled at the demon princess.  “You know what I meant!”

Nikki was thoughtful.  “I’m surprised you’re not more upset, Jade.”

The smallest girl smiled.  “They’re going to try to get it right, on Wednesday.  Besides,” she bounced over to Billie, hugging her arm tightly, “I know my oneesan will be with me.”

“Hey!  Leggo!”

“Oneesan?” Toni asked.

“It means ‘sister,’” Jade informed them.

“Literally,” Sara expanded, “it’s the title used for ‘honored elder sister’.  Appropriate, perhaps.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but you two seem a little closer, somehow.”

“You sense it too?” Nikki asked, quietly.

Sara just nodded.

“Hey, it’s almost lights-out,” Jade told them, needlessly.  “See you later tonight, right Sara?”

“Sure.”

The youngest girl bounced into her room, to dress for the night and prepare her other selves.

In her absence, the other girls were left looking at each other.

“So,” Chou asked into the sudden silence, “what really happened down in the lab?”

“I’m not sure,” Billie admitted.  “The machine, or something, felt like it was really getting to me.  I honestly thought it was working.  For just a bit, it was like I could really feel her, you know?  Not telepathic, but maybe deeper in some way.  I thought we were connecting.  I guess,” she looked down “I guess the whole ‘oneesan’ makes a little sense.  After feeling so close to her, even if it was just for a moment, I feel, I don’t know, some sort of relationship.”

Sara and Nikki shared a thoughtful glance.

The quiet was abruptly broken.

“Oneesan!  ONEESAN!”

Everyone thundered into room 202.  There was Jade, facing the cloaked white figure of Shroud.  As Shroud pulled back her hood, everyone suddenly understood.  Shroud’s skin was still chalk-white, her hair was still coal-black, but there was no mistaking that face, that figure, or the distinctive spiky hair.

The pale white duplicate of Tennyo stared at them, and said in Billie’s voice, “I think I know what they did wrong.”

 

  since 7/09/06