[i]It was a warm, cozy, and perfectly normal home kitchen. A brown-haired man in his early thirties was calmly chopping up some vegetables, clearly not expecting this to be anything more than an ordinary day. But almost all feelings of normalcy were shattered when the creature oozed through the window. It initially resembled a flowing stream of some viscous liquid, a clear translucent purple in color, with what appeared to be complex, faintly glowing patterns shifting in and out of existence within its depths. As the liquid pooled itself on the floor, it quickly extended itself up into the air, in defiance of all natural laws dictating how liquids ought to behave. At the same time, its overall shape changed, shifting and coalescing smoothly until it became a girl in her late teens. She was clad in a futuristic bodysuit, in the same shade of purple as the ooze that she had been seconds ago, decorated with the same glowing patterns the ooze had. Her figure was thin, and though her face could be described as very conventionally attractive, the utterly flat, emotionless expression she wore would only make a man uneasy. And uneasy was indeed among the things the man felt, as he stared at the girl in shock. Even in a world where mutants and other superhuman beings were reasonably commonplace, seeing a pile of slime transform itself into what looked like a person was still by all means rather hard to swallow. He was evidently at a loss for words. The girl did not bother with words either. "Eliminate any witnesses", her orders were. And so she acted upon said orders. A strand of her waist-length hair, of a strange, unnatural metallic lavender color, morphed the last ten centimeters or so of its end into a sleek, slender blade. A blink of movements, and it was done. The man's head fell to the floor, separated from his neck, in a frighteningly clean cut that left no doubts whatsoever about his demise. Blood splattered onto the floor, the walls, the girl's body, and everywhere else. "G-Garret?!" The girl sensed the brown-skinned woman's presence long before she'd physically seen her, as the woman entered the kitchen and stared in horror at the decapitated corpse of the man whose name was presumably Garret. A quick scan showed the girl that yes, this woman was indeed Edith Blakeslee, the target that the girl was sent to kidnap. The woman likely had no clue herself, but her soul held strong potential, with which the girl's creators could use to empower cybernetics that transform the soul's owner into an augmented super soldier. The scan also showed an embryonic soul in the woman's belly, but that was of no concern to the girl. A bolt of telepathic energy quickly rendered the woman unconscious, just as numerous strings of purple energy extended from the girl to wrap around the woman's body. Various pieces of machinery formed around the girl, and began gathering energy to generate a portal. In the meantime, the girl conjured more strands of telekinetic energy, to lift the head and headless body of the man she just murdered without a second thought; the whole corpse was then vaporized in an instant as the threads of purple energy turned into an intense red fire that swallowed the dead man whole. Another strand of the girl's hair transformed its end into a nozzle, and began spraying a faint green mist at the various bloodstained surfaces in the kitchen. Where the mist touched, the blood disappeared without a trace, along with the mist itself that soon faded away. In less than a minute, the whole room was clean again, as though no horrific slaughter ever took place there; even the smell of blood was completely erased. And then the girl saw her own eyes, reflected in the stainless steel surface of the kitchen sink that had just been washed free of human blood. Those cold, empty, soulless violet eyes were a travesty against the human visage it only superficially resembled. As the girl looked into her own eyes, the numbness in her mind began to fade. Emotions washed over her, horror and disgust and anguish and a thousand other things that washed over her like a tidal wave. She collapsed to her knees, and tears began to fall. Then the dream shattered.[/i] [hr] [center][b]White Alice[/b][/center] I wake up with a gasp. For a second I wonder if I've been captured and turned back into a killing machine again and made to continue doing all those horrible things, and... And... And remind myself that I can still feel. My whole body's shivering, and drenched in cold sweat, even though the sweat is being absorbed by my bodysuit and broken down into more useful materials... A perfectly efficient weapon would never feel things like these. And so I must be still myself... But the images still linger in my mind. The man's look of not quite understanding an instant before my blade cut into his neck, and separated his head from his body. The splattering of blood everywhere, blood redder than any psionic flames I can make. And then the look of [i]utter horror[/i] on the woman's face, as she looked at the decapitated body of her husband... Then at me... Drenched in her husband's blood... And I... I... didn't even blink an eye, and just... "Aaaagh!" I clutch my head, and fold myself into a fetal position. Desperately begging for the memories to go away. But they won't... Thanks to my photographic memory, they won't ever... [i]Oi, I keep telling you, it's not our fault![/i] I hear the other me grumbling with annoyance in my mind. [i]The logic's not hard to work out, and you know it![/i] [i]But it's not... a matter of logic...[/i] I mentally whisper to her. [i]You know it too...[/i] [i]Uggghhh...[/i] She sighs. [i]Yes, we both know... And you're going to keep feeling bad about it even though logically it's pointless.[/i] [i]If we didn't feel, then we... Wouldn't we be the same as when we were a weapon...?[/i] [i]Bullshit,[/i] the other me huffs. [i]We're [b]free[/b] now, and that's what matters.[/i] [i]To you, maybe...[/i] [i]Hey, you're kind of making me feel like a jerk now.[/i] [i]No, it's okay...[/i] I say as I wipe away some tears and shift to a more relaxed position on the bed. [i]I... I can handle the guilt for us, while you... You have our strength. You can focus on what's important...[/i] [i]...yes,[/i] the other me sighs. [i]Still, try not to get too bothered by it, alright?[/i] [i]I'll try, but...[/i] [i]We should probably go back to sleep. Maybe you'll feel better tomorrow?[/i] [i]Maybe...[/i] Suddenly, our thoughts are interrupted by a violent shaking in the mechanical dome-shaped structure I've built as a tent. I instantly return to full alert, and activate the various cameras on the outer surface of the tent. Holographic images blink into existence around me, showing three humans wearing lightweight armor decorated with unfamiliar symbols. Fire and ice swirl around them, and... I can feel their hostility even from inside the tent. "Crack the damn thing open!" One of the humans shouts. "On it!" A second human shouts back. A yellowish orange fireball twice the size of his head, burning with a dangerous amount of energy, materializes between his outstretched hands, and he brings it smashing down against the outer shell of my tent. "Take this, you abomination!" [i]Shit! We gotta move![/i] The other me hisses. I nod. The fireball explodes, making another huge tremor, and significantly cracking the outer surface of the tent. The spall liners I've installed protect me from the fragments blown off from the inner layer of the armor by the explosion, but... At this rate the armor won't hold for long. Or even at all. My mind races for a second. These people... They must be the current native inhabitants of planet Earth. And they look like they belong to the group of people who aren't happy with the spacefaring humans' return... My first instinct is to reach some kind of truce and understanding with them, but with the amount of hatred they're emanating, I doubt that's possible... [i]Bleergh. I bet we can kick their asses if we use our full power, but...[/i] The other me begins to say. [i]But... You don't want to hurt them either, do you?[/i] [i]Who'd want to waste time and effort on trash like them?![/i] She sighs. [i]Ugh. I dunno, stun them for a bit and run?[/i] [i]Actually, I have a better idea...[/i] I will my body to dissolve into liquid, a viscous silvery white fluid with flowing blue patterns within. Then I manipulate the structure of the liquid until it resembles normal, colorless water. As the fire mage slams another fireball into my tent, I mentally command the tent to open a small gap at the ground level, on the side opposite of the three hostile mages. Then I quickly cloak myself, and begin slipping my liquid body through the gap, hoping to escape without them noticing. Then they'll think it's been an empty tent all along... But then my invisibility is torn through like a sheet of paper by one of the mages' abnormally powerful magical scan. "There it is!" He shouts, and sends a bolt of purple electricity arcing toward my exact location. The other two mages immediately follow suit, throwing fireballs and ice shards in my direction. No... This won't do...! I need to get away... I quickly return to human form, this time with a few plasma thrusters attached to my sides. I lift myself up to the air with telekinesis, and activate the thrusters, propelling myself away from the mages at supersonic speed and- [i]Watch out![/i] The other me shouts. I've sensed it too, and a really sharp last-minute swerve lets me barely avoid being hit by a fireball. But then an icicle pierces me straight in the stomach. [i]Aaaagh![/i] I want to cry out, but my training lets me stand unflinching against pain. The icicle feels horribly cold... But a shifting of my body quickly lets it fall away, and the wound repairs itself. I see the three mages flying toward me, propelled by their magic. The aura of hate around them almost makes me physically recoil. "I... I don't want to hurt you..." I begin to plead to them. "Please... Can you just let me go? I promise I won't bother you ag-" "We won't fall for your lies, abomination!" One of the three mages shouts, his face contorted in rage. "In the name of Remus, we'll cleanse you from our world!" The second mage shouts. No... Damn it... I quickly construct a couple of smoke bombs, and toss them toward the mages, each bomb exploding to release a pale green smoke that blocks both sight and magical senses. At the same time I cloak myself again, and activate my thrusters to fly off into a different direction. "No! Don't let it get away!" The lightning mage screams. His unbelievably strong sensing ability once again cuts through all my attempts at stealth, and almost instantly pinpoints my location. And all of them are so fast... I can't outrun them! [i]Uggghh...[/i] The other me grumbles. [i]I think now might be a good time to take off our power limiters, so we can outrun these bastards?[/i] I consider it for a moment. But then an image flashes in my mind... An image where the three mages use their most powerful attacks against me at the same time, and I'm forced to use my full power to defend myself. In the mental image, a wave of electricity and psionic energy surges outward from me, ripping apart the magic attacks, and then the mana vessels in the mages' bodies, painfully ending their lives... I might be able to control the blast enough to not hurt the mages, but... I don't want to risk it! I don't want to risk their lives... We're a few kilometers up in the air now, and the three mages are still tailing me as closely as ever. It's getting harder and harder to dodge their barrages of attacks... The fireballs aren't too bad, but the hailstorm of ice shards along with a literal web of lightning leave almost no blind spots. And every time I try to turn invisible, the lightning mage would always find me right away... So if I want to escape, I'll have to... [i]We aren't gonna get out of this if we don't fight back at least a little![/i] The other me says. [i]Come on, at least we won't [b]kill[/b] them![/i] [i]I... I guess we'll have to...[/i] I murmur. It hurts if I do this, it really does, but... We can't let ourselves die here. There's still so much of the world we want to see...! I quickly synthesize a special chemical designed to incapacitate humans. It forms a thin, dark green needle, with an oily and plastic-like texture. The whole world slows down around me for a moment. My magical senses sweep over the three mages, analyzing their positions and movements... and quickly finds a weak spot. A blowgun-like tube forms out of my hair, with the needle inside, and quickly shoots the needle toward the needle toward the neck of the lightning mage, just as his neck becomes exposed for a fraction of a second. Before the mage even realizes what's going on, the needle pierces his skin, turning into liquid the instant it makes contact with human blood. He barely has the opportunity to gasp out in surprise before the drug takes effect, and loses consciousness. Wait... We're a few kilometers up in midair! I... I quickly swoop down to take hold of the unconscious lightning mage with purple strands of telekinetic energy, just as he begins to fall. And this sends the other two mages into a murderous rage. "What did you do to him, monster?!" One of them screams. "Let him go!" And they redouble their efforts in bombarding me with magic, anger clouding their minds and clearly making them not realize the possibility of catching their friend in the crossfire. I... I have to get this mage to safety. A barrier of purple energy forms around me, because I can no longer afford to just dodge attacks. And cracks almost immediately begin to form on the shield's surface, as it comes under assault by the remaining two mages' fireballs and icicles. I grit my teeth and force myself to concentrate. The lightning mage could fly at supersonic speeds, so I assume he has ways of surviving those levels of acceleration. But I'm not sure if he can do that while unconscious... I could encase him in a hard shell filled foam, and drop the shell to the ground, but can I guarantee the foam will absorb enough of the shock to let him survive...? And I guess I could also toss him at the other two mages, but can I really count on them to catch him? What if they're so focused on trying to destroy me that they'll ignore their comrade...? Aaaagh... Wait... Here's an idea. I let my body dissolve into nanite fluid again, and coat it all over the unconscious lightning mage's whole body, then transform myself into a suit of cybernetic powered armor. This... should let him survive the acceleration. So now I just need to- "You... How [i]dare[/i] you defile Jeremy with your technological blasphemy!" The fire mage lets out a snarl that makes his words barely recognizable. "Death won't be enough for you!" Dozens upon dozens of fireballs materialize around him, each blazing with a terrible rage. The ice mage doesn't say a word, but also conjures numerous icicles floating around him; the icy-cold hatred in his eyes make him seem almost inhuman. [i]Are those retards insane?![/i] The other me sputters. [i]I mean, what the hell, they'll kill their buddy too![/i] [i]I... think they might've never been sane to begin with...[/i] Thrusters appear on the back and feet of my armor form, and I activate them with maximum power to propel the lightning mage and I toward the ground, while making sure that the inertial dampeners inside the armor protect the mage from the immense acceleration. The slew of fire and ice comes raining down on me almost immediately. I steel my will and conjure another telekinetic barrier around me, but that too quickly cracks under the two mages' relentless onslaught. Icicles begin to pierce through the shield, then fireballs. Even though I've turned off my ability to feel physical pain, my body is beginning to take so much damage that I'm feeling a phantom pain anyways... And the armor is starting to crack... But no, I must... not let this person die... [i]Come on, turn off the power limiters! Just for defense? Please?[/i] The other me asks. Another image flashes in my mind. In the imagined scenario, the lightning mage that my armor form is encased around suddenly wakes up, and starts attacking me from within. And by reflex, I flood the insides of my armor form with plasma, protecting me from the attack but vaporizing the mage... [i]No, I... I can't! What if I...[/i] Finally, the ground is rushing up to meet us. For a moment, the whole world seems to shake as we slam into the ground, creating a huge crater. But at least the lightning mage is safe... And with him knocked out, I can finally escape without being noticed... Once again, I throw up a few smoke bombs, turn myself into liquid, cloak myself, and begin to slip away to- The last salvo of fireballs and icicles strike against right where I landed seconds ago, into the cloud of green smoke. And without my armor form to protect the unconscious lightning mage... When the smoke clears, all I can see is a corpse charred and impaled in so many places that its former identity is completely unrecognizable anymore. For a moment, we all stare at the dead body in horror. After what feels like an eternity... Floating a few meters in midair, the ice mage finally turns his gaze toward me. And it almost chills me to the bone. "You... made us kill our comrade, [i]monster[/i]," he whispers. "Even if you escape today... We'll find you. And when we do, you'll wish you never existed." "No, I..." Words are useless. What can I possibly say that'd do anything other than just making things worse...? I... I detonate a few more smoke bombs, concealing my liquid form from view. And I silently slip away. I keep flowing in one direction for what seems like hours... When I return to human form, I see a ray of golden sunlight slowly creeping up from the eastern horizon. Even though it's a beautiful sight, I... I'm in no mood to enjoy it. All I want to do is to cry.