Demicore

Chapter 9

Michael pulled Erik aside, "Of course there is something else going on. She thought she was shooting the guy who hurt her. That gives people extraordinary abilities. If you want to test her, try it when she's feeling normal."

"Good idea. You set that up and bring some tissue." It was obvious Erik's mind was not totally in the present, but then it never really was. He did manage to be with it enough to hold Elizabeth until she dried her tears and gave in immediately when she wanted to finish target practice.

Although she wanted to take a long walk through the range when they were done, they opted to head back to the house. Erik got a call from his medical lab telling him he needed to connect and take a look at the progress of some experiment they were running. When they arrived, Erik asked Katlin to run through some of the basics of one of the martial arts with Elizabeth, but she didn't catch the name of it.

Katlin began to describe to Elizabeth how to stand, feet apart, knees not locked, balance, breathe. Erik logged on to the lab network. It scanned his fingerprint, his voice, and his retina each between another password - each different from the last.

"Is it ok if I call you Mom?"

"What?"

"I just started calling you mom again and never asked if it is alright with you, so I'm asking now if you mind that I am calling you by your parental title." Katlin paused, "If you don't like it, I will use your given name."

"We can stick with Mom for now..." Elizabeth replied hesitantly, "I will let you know if it starts to bother me."

Elizabeth didn't know how to answer at first. Katlin sounded so... clinical was the only word coming to mind, though she knew there was another more appropriate. "Um... yeah, I suppose that's fine."

"You are not convinced yet that all of this is real, are you?"

"Would you be in my shoes? One day I have two beautiful little children, a husband, a mother - then Mom and I are attacked and the next thing I'm aware of my husband looks like he has aged maybe a year, my mother is dead, and two grown women are claiming to be my daughters. That's not even mentioning anything about the hundred and fifty years I'm told has passed in the meantime," she paused and drew another breath. "You might say I'm having a rough time of it."

Katlin paused, a soft smile on her lips, "I know it is hard. I know it will take a long time and massive amounts of proof before this feels anywhere near normal, let alone right and I know beyond that there will still be times when this life is foreign to you. But you will have us no matter what. We have spent a couple of lifetimes making sure that what happened to you and Grandmother will not be able to happen again."

Elizabeth turned back to the kata and breathing exercises at hand. Her thoughts drifted back to the conversation she had not finished with Erik about Andy. They finished the hour they had set aside to study without additional conversation outside of the task at hand. Elizabeth felt restless. Erik wasn't back from the lab, she didn't want to talk to the girls - or really anyone else for that matter - and the world was all out of sync again for her.

She went snooping through the room that she now shared with Erik. The most prominent color was light blue - it had always been her favorite. The gossamer curtains on the four poster bed were shades of blue, the bed softer than she thought possible. The dressers matched the woodwork on the bed and were some blend of oak and cherry - or at least what it looked like to her. The room itself was large. The carpets plush and professionally maintained - there was no way Erik would do that on his own. She took the time to wonder if he had ever slept in there before last night. The adjourning bathroom had a Jacuzzi tub, marble counter tops, and gold and platinum plated faucets and spouts. It wasn't quite big enough to play a ball game in, but it felt that way. All the drawers were filled with things she would have put in there herself and only a very few items that could be used by a man. Nothing that would tell her anything more about the people she was living with.

She was asleep before Erik came home from the medical lab. He stayed in the doorway for a long time watching her chest rise and fall in rhythm with her breathing. Her head was resting on one of the best pillows known to man, long brown hair spilling all over the bed just has he had imagined it a thousand times while standing there hoping the room was completely fit for her. He wanted to curl up next to her and hold her until she woke up, but he was still feeling restless after his trip to the lab so he went to the dojo instead. Blessing once again the fact they had soundproofed the place several times over, he did not hesitate to make sound with each strike as is the tradition.

He saw again the containment sphere. The chemicals inside it. The synthetic flesh. The one red drop. Red. Color. He remembered when he couldn't see color at all, just shades of grey. The long medical process it had taken to give him full color vision was completely worth it, but today he had almost wished he couldn't see it. There must have been something wrong with the synthesis they used, that was the only explanation. It couldn't have been alive. Only God can create life, this was just... tears streaked his face as he steeled his mind to return again to his lab on a daily basis, leaving behind the woman he thought he wouldn't spend another moment away from now that he had her back.

The morning rays crept up and he did not know the hours had passed as there were no windows in the dojo. He allowed his eyes to drift closed, remembering the layout of the room as he went through his motions his mind elsewhere. What had gone wrong? The tissue synthesis was perfect. They had been working on building the machines for years, every component had been checked and rechecked a dozen times after the math had been worked and reworked.

The tissue was just finishing when he got to the lab. It was a beautiful thing. Aside from a life source, it was identical to his own. It lacked only the blood running through it. They drew it fresh just to be absolutely sure. It was still warm when they introduced the two components. Then the entire experiment fell apart.

He struck out like he had wanted to at the lab. A series of martial arts moves that were never really meant to be used together and would have delivered a killing blow to half a dozen opponents had he been sparring with anything more than his own imagination. He paused for a second, then began another series of faster than a normal naked eye could perceive moves. His concentration was not broken when his staff struck another but simply began to spar in earnest with the unknown person who intruded on his solitude. Faster.

Stepped up again, they moved faster yet. The only two people alive who could challenge him like this was his two girls. He allowed his mind to falter for a split second wondering which of them it was and in that lapse she hooked her foot around the back of his knee and shoved the opposite shoulder with her staff and body weight causing him to topple backwards and putting them into a roll. They both came out on their feet and he opened his eyes.

Sonya dropped out of her fighting stance and bowed to her father. He returned the gesture.