Chapter 3: Chapter 2

I floated at the edge of twilight, across the vast oceans of the void where a kaleidoscope of eldritch hues colored every horizon. I floated by in neither bliss nor misery, just peace and serenity. I moved at speeds faster than the speed of light and I stood completely and utterly still, for an eternity and at the same time for but an instant. I was alive and I was dead.   

I was. 

I simply was. 

And then like a bubble popped and the eden of ignorance rent asunder, being ended. And being began.

The sensation of plummeting in free fall seized me whole and consciousness hit me like freight train, jolting me awake.

Hwahh!

A breath was drawn. My eyes shot open. All the sensations of mortality came rushing back, washing over me like a tidal wave that sent me cast away into a sea of panic and sensory overload for a brief moment.

And a thought preoccupied my entire being as adrenaline coursed through my veins, my heart beating like a war drum in my chest.

I am alive!

I am alive?

I looked down at my hands and was greeted by a distorted image of spindly fingers and noodle arms.

What?

I frowned, confused and moved them about watching their shape subtly wiggle. 

It took me embarrassingly long to realize I was floating in some sort of yellow-green liquid, in some sort of glass tank used for, I'm guessing, resurrection? Cloning? Maybe it was an artificial womb. It was too warm and pleasant to be one of those body freezing services that promise to revive you in the future, not that I would find myself in any of them. I never signed for those. They were complete hoaxes. 

Surprisingly, I was calmer than I expected to be, given that the situation I was in was giving me major Matrix vibes. 

However, I knew this was no time to have an existential crisis. That can wait till I'm out of here and somewhere I can feel safe. I certainly don't feel safe here, in this glorified jar like a specimen on display.

Analyzing my situation, I realized something.

I am pretty sure I died back there, in the courtroom. 

I knew the angle of the glock, Neal's position on my chest, the stability of his aim. And taking a 9mm point blank to the knocker wasn't going to leave enough of my brain intact for my life to be salvaged. Not with the current level of technology.

Which can only mean one thing. 

I have been reincarnated. 

An interesting thought. 

I was aware of the concept from the copious amount of media I had consumed, especially over the past few months as I recovered in the hospital, but I had never believed in such a thing. There simply wasn't enough proof. 

Some part of me still wanted to deny it on principle.

And yet, as I stand, or rather, float here, I can't bring myself to refute its existence.

Reincarnation is real and as much as I value logic and rationality, I know better than to let it cage my mind or blind me from the truth right before my eyes. There was no other explanation for how I survived ...death.

And, I guess experiencing it first hand has a way of changing your mind. 

The only question now is where I am.

Looking around me I could see that I was in a glass tank, floating in some form of embryonic fluid. Rubbing my fingers, I could feel it's texture. Thin, slippery and slimy, like watered down lube. Taking a little bit into my mouth, I could taste a soapy flavor. It was mildly alkaline in nature. At least I don't have to worry about it burning my eyelids out. Another thing I noticed was how I could breathe in it. It was almost miraculous in that manner. 

Just to be sure, I checked my neck as well. No gills.

So the liquid is indeed breathable. 

Not just that, when I breathed it in, the liquid seemed to change and dissipate, expelling itself from the body on its own by some mechanism I couldn't quite make out.

How interesting!

Looking down, I could see a stream of bubbles rise up from a grate below me, which is where I assume the oxygen I breath comes from, before it dissolves into this miracle liquid. Up above me, lay a heavy metal lid, sealed airtight on the tank with a gasket around the rims. 

I see I'm not meant to exit or escape on my own. 

Heh, as if that will stop me. But first I need to find out more about where I am before I plan my escape.  Swimming closer to the glass to get a better view of the outside, I was stopped in my tracks just short of it by the faint reflection I saw in the glass.

I was short. 

I know it shouldn't be the first thing I notice, especially with some of my other, more prominent features, but compared to my previous 6'2 frame, my current form was pitifully petite at some 5'7.  

As if to confirm it even more, my eyes swept over something further down, and I felt a conflicting emotion.

On the one hand, I'm glad I still have a penis. On the other.... let's just say, my height isn't the only thing that has shrunk. 

I sighed. Well, at least I'm still alive. I should be grateful for the small mercies. 

Looking back at my reflection, I could see my face had changed significantly too. Gone was the square, chiseled jawline and masculine, wide shoulders. This new body, this new me, had red eyes and chestnut brown hair framing a face pretty enough to make women jealous. Shota-esque features so defining I could almost hear the Ara-ara's on the horizon. 

I chuckled darkly.

While my face was still acceptable, my body was painfully lacking. Running my hand down my chest, I could feel my ribcage held taut against my skin, my arms nothing but skin and bone. To say this body was emaciated would be an understatement. Did I wake in the middle of whatever growth process this body was supposed to undergo? If so, what else am I missing? 

Closing my eyes I felt for any problems in my body. I had a stomach. A heart. Lungs. Intestines. Bladder.

There was no pain or indentation in particular. Pressing my bony fingers into my gut one by one, I double checked it. 

Yup, all my vital organs seemed to be in place. No abnormalities in the pulse and breathing either. I'm perfectly healthy. Just severely underweight.

Good. I was almost worried I'd have to wait to make my escape.

I sighed in relief and focused on the final aspect of my body that concerned me. I had almost missed it at first but once I noticed it, it was hard to ignore it. 

Spread out all across my body, patterned in neat orderly lines was some sort of circuitry, glowing neon cyan just beneath my skin. It was faint but noticeable and I felt like I had seen it somewhere before. I just didn't remember where. I got an overwhelming feeling that I knew what this was but it seemed just out of my cognition, like an itch I couldn't scratch. 

I shook my head and ignored the feeling. I had more important matters to focus on.

Looking at this technology, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the future. 

So my first thought was that I was an android, or cyborg, but then that wouldn't explain why I had a ribcage, or a penis or why I was floating in this artificial womb/cloning chamber. And I don't think androids need to breathe either yet I am visibly breathing. 

So that's out of the question. 

Maybe the world had developed to a point where having natural births had fallen out of fashion, or maybe this was a facility that mass produced clones to work as servants or disposable soldiers in some Brave New World type dystopian society. Then perhaps the glowing circuitry was a subdermal implant?

I pressed against it and rubbed the skin over the lines but it didn't feel like there was any implant beneath my skin. 

A tattoo perhaps? Some mildly radioactive tracking mechanism?

No, if it was a tracker, wouldn't it make more sense to make it small and unnoticeable? 

Why let the people you're tagging know they're being watched? 

Nah. People will create coded phrases and communicate via analog means like writing on paper if they really want to say or do something the government doesn't want. It doesn't make any sense. Now that I think about it, this place seems even more shady than before. 

Hm.... I'll worry about it later. I need to focus on getting out of here first.

Turning back to the glass, I scooted closer and cupped my face against it to get a clear view. 

Outside I could see row after row of tanks extending all the way into the distance, each with an emaciated person with brown hair. Some were men, some women all with varying physiques, floating in the same glowing slime but all of them had the same glowing circuits on their skin. 

On the floor, channels had been carved out in a circuitous fashion reminiscent of the same on my skin and pipes snaked all around leading in and out of the tanks, before disappearing into the darkness of the dimly lit lab. 

Something about this felt odd, like I had seen this somewhere before. Like something I had seen in an anime. 

I snorted in amusement.

No. That's absurd. Real people don't get isekai'd. That only happens in anime.

Yet a small part of me whispered. 

If reincarnation is real, why can't isekai be real too?

I shook my head. That's stupid. Illogical.

I rejected the notion entirely.

I should focus on getting out of here rather than indulging in daydreams.

With that I floated back in and began to examine the tank closely fiddling with the setup. My first thought was to remove the heavy metal grate from below and use it to smash the glass, but considering this place and how high tech it is, that will likely trigger an alarm and I'll get caught. 

No. I can't risk that. Definitely not breaking the glass. 

Still, if they clone people in these things they must have a way to get them out and looking the the lid above, all sealed up with that gasket, I'm guessing that's the way out.

Looking back outside at a neighbouring tank, I could see a big turning lever at the top of the lid. That's it!

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I swam up to the lid and examined it closely, fiddling with it till I found a panel the size of my palm on the inside. 

"There we go...come to daddy~" I mumbled as I fidgeted around with it 

Digging into it with my nails, I pried it open and found a little cavity going all the way to the top of the lid. 

Inside the cavity was a valve labeled emergency-something in a language I didn't recognise. It looked vaguely eastern european, but I couldn't pinpoint it's origin. My best guess would be romanian, maybe moldavian. It was connected to a tube that led down into another fitting. I floated back down and traced its path to the grate. 

An emergency drainage valve? 

Not useful at all. The only reason I can reach the lid despite my short height is because of the liquid inside. And if I drain the liquid using something labelled emergency valve, it will likely also trip their alarms.

Yeah, no. 

I made a mental note not to touch that thing. Looking beyond the valve, amidst the gears and locking mechanisms in the lid, I spotted another panel, slightly larger than my palm at the top, locked with a latch. 

Aha!

I reached in with my hand, snaking past the mechanisms and flipped the latch.

With a click the panel came loose, and I pushed it open. It swung with a creak on it's hinges, revealing the outside world. 

Yes! This is the way out. 

Now then, all I need to do is pull that turning lever and I'll be out of here. 

I pushed my arm into the cavity right up to my shoulder and felt around up top till I found the lever. 

"There we go." I grunted, reaching for the lever, as my fingers brushed past it. "Just a little bit more...."  

But my fingers were slippery and my arm didn't quite reach all the way to it. And my limbs were beginning to hurt.

I sighed, letting bubbles pop into the liquid as I sank back down, tired. 

This new body really has zero stamina huh? Not only that, the already weak muscles felt atrophied, unused to well, being used. Which is not surprising, I suppose. All this body has done os float around in a tank for all it's life, can't expect it to be on par with a professional athlete. Just the fact that I can move around at all is a miracle in and of itself since I don't know just how long this body has experienced such a sedentary life.

Still, I began to massage my arms and legs to get the blood flowing. If I am to escape, I'll need to at least be able to walk straight. 

A few minutes later, I was ready to try again. Only this time, smarter. 

Since my arm can't reach the lever, I had another plan. A plan that involved the tube I had found earlier.

First, I checked the emergency drainage valve and made sure to lock extra tight, just in case, so that when the tube is removed it doesn't just trip the alarms. 

Then, I grabbed the tube extending out from it. It was attached to the lid with a thin aluminium catcher and easily came off with a couple of jerks. Pulling out the tube from the contraption below, I could see that it was about 5 feet or so in length. 

Yeah, this should do. 

Folding the tube in half I bit into the middle, creasing the rubber till it held a V shape. 

Next, I extended it out of the hole in the lid, and carefully hooked it around the lever up there, shimmying it around till both ends were back in my hands and the bend in the tube was wrapped around the lever. 

Grabbing the two ends with both hands, I dragged them in through the hole and back into the tank as I hooked my foot into the panel opening on the inside.

It's do or die now. 

Leaning back into the tank, I wrapped the two ends of the tubed around my hands and pulled hard, using my feet to push against the lid. 

Once. Twice. Thrice. I pulled and pulled, till-

Clack!

The gears in the lid began turning and with one final hiss, it came loose. 

Yes! Yes! 

Fuck yeah!

I cheered inside as the tube slipped and I fell down into the liquid again. 

But I didn't mind. The lid was open. 

I did it! Whoo!

I mean of course I did it. If octopi can escape their tanks, so can I!

Grabbing the tube floating by my side in one hand, I swam back up to the edge of the lid and slammed my palm into it, pushing against it. 

Little by little, the lid came free from the airtight gasket, until finally, it lifted up just enough to let a finger through.

Immediately, before it could slam down again, I shoved the tube in the gap, and held it open. 

Finally, breathing a sigh of relief, I dug into the opening with my fingers, pushing the lid open even more as I began to slowly climb out, the slippery liquid aiding in my escape.

I'm free bitches! I. AM. FRE-

Suddenly the tip tapping of boots reached my ears, just as I was halfway through. 

My eyes followed the sound to see a short woman with brown hair and red eyes wearing a sterile, white uniform, walking along the rows of tanks, coming towards me. Almost as if on cue, she looked up too.  

Our eyes met and we both displayed the same emotion.

Panic.

Yup. My life is a big fucking joke, isn't it?

"Um...hi?" I smiled, trying to put up a friendly face but that didn't help my case at all as she immediately turned around to make a run for it, shouting something into her earpiece. 

Wait, she has an earpiece- fuck!

She's alerting them!

No! Nonononon-

"Stop! Wait! Don't go, I can explain!" I raised a hand and tried to stall her but she was on the run.

Panic set in my heart and my stomch dropped. 

Shit. 

Shit! 

Not again!

I refuse to die again. I refuse! 

I refuse I-

Suddenly, the markings under skin lit up, flaring with an explosion of blue and my mind went blank. A wave of power coursed through me, electrifying my whole being.

An incantation echoed out in my mind like a thundering roar and I mouthed it unconsciously, losing control over my own body.

"Logic Path/Open - Black Barrel"

My raised arm squirmed, the flesh and bone ground against each other as my arm restructed itself into something between a sword sheath and the barrel of a gun, sending a jolt of excruciating pain through me.

I froze in place from the agony, unable to move, unable to cry, unable even think before-

Shlick!

FWOOM!

A squelching sound echoed out followed by a shrill subsonic whimper, as something shot out of my arm at a speed I couldn't even perceive.

In the distance, the woman who had been running suddenly stumbled and slumped to the floor with a thud.

At the same time I slipped out of the tank, and fell face first onto the floor, dizzy and sore, as the pain from my arm subsided, leaving me a confused and dazed.

I tried standing up but barely got to my knees as my stomach churned and I dry heaved onto the floor.

I looked back at the faint form of the woman in the distance lying dead on the floor and gasped for breath.

I could feel my body shiver as a cold numbness spread through it.

Small particles of light wafted off of my arm as the barrel-sheath...thing flickered away, and it returned back to its original state, all the while I watched it with mute awe.

"What the hell just happened?"

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