The Many Regrets of a Cyborg Werewolf

Replaced - XXXVII

Angela walked the halls of the subterranean lab, the clack of her heels echoing in the nearly deserted facility. Only a skeleton crew still worked, most hands relocated to other facilities to try and regain the lost ground on the project. One thousand golems destroyed, the sample essence lost, and the main distribution hub completely wiped out. A vexing setback. Now Angela was being forced to take a more hands-on approach, and that would start with addressing the project's lead. She continued down the nearly empty facility to the room she was growing increasingly tired of visiting. Without consideration she entered the room, once again finding Alabaster on the operating gurney. He had bandages across his chest and arms, a neck brace, and a body brace. Angela sighed as she crossed her arms, taking in the pitiable sight. This seemed to catch Mercury's attention, and he glanced down at her, unable to move his head.

"Look at you," she shook her head. She picked up the clipboard with his diagnosis, flipping through the pages as he watched silently. Angela shrugged, "some broken bones, minor internal bleeding, and a sprained neck. Not bad for having a forklift dropped on you."

"I'll be fine once the medication kicks in," Mercury groaned. "The painkillers in particular are taking their time."

"Ah yes, the medication," Angela nodded. "Drugs to heal you faster, take away your pain, absolve you of all consequences. How convenient."

"I know I failed," Mercury said, but Angela held up a hand.

"When was your last brain scan?" She asked.

"They ran the routine when I returned," he said, "to make sure I didn't have a head injury."

"And?" Angela crossed her arms.

"It was fine," he replied. "No abnormalities."

"Really?" She asked again, nodding, "so you're completely fine up here?" Angela pointed to her own head, and Mercury looked at her with confusion.

"Yes," he replied.

"And what about yesterday?" She continued her questions, "you submit to regular brain scans that measure your activity, correct?"

"Correct."

"And no aberrations? No damage, no nothing?"

"Correct." He said.

"Strange," Angela said, "because to be entirely honest I don't believe it. That you don't have brain damage, that is. I mean, it doesn't make sense, because why else would anyone in their right mind spoil not just their first chance, not even their second, but they're third chance?"

"I don't understand," he admitted.

"Clearly you don't," Angela sighed. She crossed her arms, her gaze drifting away before she glanced back at him. "But perhaps it's time you did."

"What do you mean?" Mercury asked, and Angela moved to the side of his gurney. She moved his bed to the upright position before helping Mercury up, despite his confused look.

"You can walk?" She asked.

"I believe so," he nodded. He was unsteady, and the brace on his torso was awkward, but his legs were fine. Angela nodded, leading him out of the room and back up the hallway towards the elevator. Mercury followed, careful of his injuries, but paused when Angela stepped into the lift that took her to and from her office.

"Well?" She asked, waiting for him to join her.

"I don't understand," he uttered, stepping into the elevator. "Why take me up this way?"

"We're not going up," she said, and pressed two buttons simultaneously. The elevator doors closed, but rather than ascend to her office they instead started to go down. The trip was short, but confused Mercury all the same, and as the doors parted he stepped out into unfamiliar territory.

"I don't understand," he said as he looked down the hallway, "why was I not made aware of this lower level?"

"You'll see," Angela said as she stepped out. Mercury hurried to catch up to her brisk pace. They passed multiple rooms filled with equipment. Some he recognized, some he'd never seen before, but the room at the end was the most intriguing. It had the largest set of doors, and Angela pushed them open with ease, and inside were multiple large tubes of various sizes. Some were about as small as a computer, some over three meters tall. They were all dark, though Mercury could see some kind of liquid inside, and took a closer look to try and make out what floated within.

"I really shouldn't be mad at you," Angela sighed as she approached one tube in particular, "it's my fault for choosing Geoffrey Alabaster in the first place. He was brilliant, but his hatred of his own mortality made him too eager." The tube she stood next to was different. It lay horizontal, with more machinery hooked up to it. Mercury still didn't understand.

"I will admit," he nodded, "when you cured me of my illness and gave me this renewed vigor I was... intoxicated by it. I spent the essential years of my life a prisoner in my own flesh, and I so badly wanted to run free. I acted rashly, yes, but I did so in pursuit of our shared goal."

"I know," Angela said, "and you may not believe me, but I was in my own way sympathetic to your plight. I know what it's like to feel trapped within yourself, wanting nothing more than to live freely as you truly are... but I've also come to realize freedom is its own curse. It is a false promise, a lie that we tell ourselves because the reality is too brutal to accept."

"And what reality is that?" Mercury asked.

"That we are all slaves to a higher power," she explained. "The natural order demands that there be a predator and prey, but it also demands the world be in constant flux. There is no apex hunter that holds the crown unopposed, and humanity has worn it for far too long."

"What do you mean?" Mercury asked, "isn't the plan... isn't it all for humanity's benefit? A new order? That's what you told me."

"That's what I told Alabaster," Angela said, running her hands along the tube's glass casing, "and one could say I told no lie. Humanity, as a whole, will find stability and regime it has never truly known. On the grander scale, yes, a new order is coming." She locked eyes with Mercury, her own a shimmering amber colour he had never noticed. "But it doesn't need you."

"No..." Mercury said, backing away towards the wall of tubes, "that's not... you need me! You need my knowledge, my expertise! The Compiler only works on me!"

"I need Geoffrey Alabaster," Angela smiled softly, "I need his knowledge, his expertise, and yes, the Compiler only works on him. Luckily..." Angela flipped a switch next to the tube, and a light came on within it, revealing the contents inside. Mercury stepped towards the tube, and saw that within it lay a person. Old, wrinkled skin, a breathing tube in the mouth, yet unmistakable. It was himself.

"Not only do I have the real Alabaster whenever I need him," Angela continued as she walked to the wall of large tubes, flipping another switch, "I have spares." Mercury turned just as the tubes lit up, and within each one was himself. Yet they were not the aging Alabaster behind him, but each was an exact duplicate of the youthful Mercury, all suspended in the vats, all identical to one another.

"It's... no!" Mercury stumbled back, falling against the tube that held his original body. He felt his knees buckle as he slid to the ground. "This isn't real! This isn't real!"

"It's very real," Angela said calmly as she knelt next to him. "There's no way to reverse the aging process in humans, nor a cure for multiple sclerosis. You as an apt man of science really should've known."

"You... cloned me?" He uttered as he turned towards her face, "but I... I have memories! I have emotions, my past, everything I was, I remember it all!"

"Memories can be copied," Angela shrugged, "brain patterns can be mapped, moved, implanted. We live in the digital age now. Who knows, in thirty years we may be able to fit an entire human brain on a disk. Imagine that?" Mercury held his head, unable to accept it, unable to believe it.

"Not possible..." he uttered, beginning to weep, "it's not possible! I'm me! I'm not a clone! It's not possible!"

"'Not possible?'" Angela tilted her head quizzically, "but Doctor Alabaster, we've already done it multiple times." She leaned towards him, her lips next to his ear as she lowered her voice to whisper the last words he would ever hear: "You're not even the first... and you most definitely won't be the last."