True Fiction

Chapter 1: Awakening

Lights fade, just like storms. So do memories and life. Tears evaporate and emotions dissipate. The night was almost over and the boy in the building laid back down on his bed.

He knew his a name. Ashen. Ashen Tohero. He knew he wasn't human. Or completely human. He was smart, very smart and had an amazing memory. Ashen didn't know what to think of that. He deduced he was a logical being, yet full of bursting emotion. When his head got tired of thinking about himself, Ashen closed his eyes.

BOOM

Information everywhere. Knowledge flooded Ashen's brain as he surfed the vast sea of information before him. Most things were easy to find and access. Certain things were kept behind doors and gates as if protected. Ashen quickly opened his eyes, scared out of his mind.

'What just happened?' He whispered to himself. He didn't dare to close his eyes lest the same thing happened again. He lay silent in fear and confusion.

One hour passed. Two hours. Ashen lost count, when suddenly, the lights turned on.

A woman stepped into the room with her eyes wide open in shock. Ashen stared at her.

"Ashen?" She asked, her voice quivering.

Ashen took a good look at the woman that had stepped into the room. She was in her late 30s and had her black hair tied in a ponytail. He decided to trust the woman. After all, nothing really made any sense.

"Please tell me what's going on," Ashen replied. Despite his intellectual superiority, his tone was confused and pleading. He wanted to know why all these strange things were happening.

The woman rushed over to hug Ashen, taking him by surprise. Tears of joy streamed down her cheeks as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"My sweet baby boy. After ten years you're alive after all." She cried. Ashen returned the hug, not knowing how to react. He was frightened, yet this woman seemed to calm him down. Also, she seemed to be his mother.

"Mom, can you tell me what's going on?" Ashen repeated.

Ashen's Mother dried her eyes as she answered, "Ashen, I want to tell you everything but I'm sorry you will need to wait. As soon as I can get you home, Mummy will explain ok?"

Ashen was comforted by the look in his mother's eyes, so he nodded in agreement. "I'll wait."

"Good boy," she said smiling. She quickly got up and ran out of the room, whispering to herself, 'I still can't believe it.'

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Ashen couldn't tell how long it took, but it felt like an eternity. Unfamiliar faces filled the room to ask him questions he didn't know how to answer. Checks and test were repeated over and over again until many different wires and gadgets were removed from his body. Night and day passed slowly as the workers endlessly adjusted and touched him up. He was finally flesh and blood again, at least he thought so.

His first movements were rigid and stiff, having been in a coma for so long didn't do well for his muscles. Over the course of a few days of training, basic motion became fluid again.

His mother came down to pick him up. Ashen stared in awe at the nature outside the building. How the blue sky was filled with puffy white clouds. The sun shone onto the wet morning grass, where many flowers resided. Ashen sat in silence on the car ride, simply admiring the beauty of nature.

Half an hour later, Ashen's Mother stopped outside a nice house and parked. The house felt vaguely familiar to him yet so far at the same time.

She held him by the hand and led him into the house where she let him sit down on a couch. Beside him was a girl, maybe about 3 years older, with long black hair and a pretty face that resembled his Mother. Ashen wondered if he could do a face recognition thing. He stared at the girl, trying to give his brain some sort of command but it didn't work.

"Hello, Brother." The girl said nervously. Ashen smiled and hugged her. He really couldn't remember any of the people in his life, only vague memories. As such, he could only assume this was his sister.

"I didn't know my sister was so pretty," Ashen remarked honestly. Ashen noticed it turned his sisters face a dark red.

"Ashen darling, this is your older sister Natasha." Ashen's Mother said. He smiled at his Mother, hoping not to spoil the mood with his amnesia.

Try as he might he couldn't recollect anything from his life before. Family, friends, house or anything. He gave up on forcing his brain to remember. "I'm sorry. I can't... can't remember." Ashen said sadly.

"It's ok," Natasha replied comfortingly.

"Ashen dear, you must be dying to know what's going on." Ashen's Mother said.

"Ten years ago I was working on a huge project. It was a new operating system which could surf the internet faster and better than ever before. Besides that, it came complete with all sorts of sensors and recognition functions." Her voice was reminiscent, almost regretful.

"However, one night I brought the prototype home to work on it, where it stayed for a week. During your birthday, however..." Her voice shook with emotion.

"Something happened. I don't remember what I was doing, but I heard a loud scream from my study. I rushed in to see you lying on the floor, motionless and a few children in shock. You were electrocuted by my prototype." Tears spilled out of her soft eyes as she continued the horrifying story.

"I rushed to the hospital where the doctors tried their best to save you. Your body was declared dead, yet your conscious was saved into the prototype that was in your body. I saw hope for my son..." Ashen's Mother burst into tears as she stopped.

"I'm sorry. This is all my fault." She wept sorrowfully.

"Please don't be so hard on yourself mom," Ashen said softly. He was starting to understand different functions that he had encountered.

Ashen's Mother sniffed and continued, "I launched a campaign to build a cyborg with an incredible system, with you as the human component. I wanted to revive my son from the jaws of death. At first, no one believed me, that we could build a working cyborg. I worked on you alone for a year before businesses and companies realised the benefits of my technology inside a human body. Soon, a handful of big companies knocked on my door to negotiate terms for helping me build their perfect cyborg. From them on, I bargained and reasoned so that we could keep the mission incognito and revive you as soon as possible. Ten years later, here we are. You're alive, my Son." Ashen's Mother finished.

Ashen didn't know how to feel. He didn't blame his mother for his 'death'. He owed her his life. His brain Although he didn't know it, his stare made his mother deal uneasy. Those cold, lifeless blue eyes.

"Ashen I'm really sorry.." Ashen's Mother started.

"No mom. Thank you for the life you gave me. I won't forget it. I am happy to be alive and that's all thanks to you." Ashen interrupted.

Ashen fell into a deep silence as he contemplated what he had been told. He felt so lost in how he was even alive. How lucky was he that his consciousness was downloaded into some prototype software? Yet, now here he was, a cyborg boy.

"Mom, there are still so many things I don't know about me. Do you know?" Ashen asked.

Ashen's Mother nodded, "I'll teach you everything."

Ten long years of change and recreation. Now he was finally awake.