Arrua woke up to people walking into her cell with unknown machinery. Before she could react, she was grabbed by the scientists and forcefully undressed. She tried to resist them, but she was violently punched multiple times by them. She screamed for Kyle repeatedly, but he was stationed in another part of the vessel at the moment.

She was then restrained to the table where they began to set up the machinery. The scientists injected unknown substances into her veins, causing severe pain in her body. Arrua felt like her insides were on fire. The more she struggled, the more agonizing the main.

"Please! Stop what you’re doing! Everything hurts!" She cried.

The scientists ignored her demands and continued their work. They opened up a compartment revealing a green syringe with an image of a DNA strand marked on it. The syringe was then attached to a robotic arm.

A flat metal ring was placed over Arrua's left eye. The scientists saw absolute terror in the young woman's eyes, but they did not care. Zeta scientists were trained to show no mercy to test subjects, for they were taught that all life that isn't part of the empire is insignificant or is against them deserves pain and suffering.

"KYLE!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!" Arrua screamed.

The robot arm holding the syringe aimed towards her left eye, and it slowly went closer and closer towards her eye. Arrua tried to shut her eyes, but she couldn't; the ring was keeping her left eye open for the syringe.

She was completely helpless, and stopped screaming, seemingly accepting her fate. Her mind was racing and all she wanted was for them to kill her so she could be free from the suffering.

The syringe finally entered her eye. It was an extremely sharp pain and was by far the most painful thing she ever experienced. She really wanted to scream as it went into her eye, but her vocal cords were very sore.

Her brain felt like it was on fire. The insides of her body felt like it was slowly being ripped apart. She was so overwhelmed with both physical and emotional pain to the point that she eventually fell unconscious.

Everything went black for what felt like a few seconds, but when she opened her eyes, she was all alone lying in her bed. Her only covering was a skintight yellow jumpsuit. With black wrist and ankle sleeves attached. But something was very wrong, she felt as if she was in someone else's body.

Arrua already had a thin body structure but noticed that she was much sleeker. As she got out of the bed, she noticed her hands were different too. They were proportionately larger, her fingers were more rectangular, and her fingernails were gone. The skin was now a light-grey color, and felt slightly smooth, while still maintaining soft skin.

She also noticed that her feet were different; they were more rectangular, and so were her heels. She had 3 long rectangular toes which were equal in length, and with no nails, much like her fingers.

Arrua got out of the bed and tried to walk, but she instantly fell to the ground. Her body structure was different now, and she had to relearn how to walk with her new body. She then noticed a roach crawling by. Suddenly, her mouth began to drool, and she snagged the insect, shoved it into her mouth, and ate it. This was very strange because she was always afraid of bugs and had never eaten one before. She theorized that whatever alien species DNA they fused into her body, must have eaten insects as a diet.

Arrua struggled to stand back up, and she staggered to a mirror. Upon glancing at her reflection, she saw that she now looked more…alien. Arrua no longer had eyelashes or eyebrows, and her blue eyes were replaced with proportionately large, light blue eyes with horizontal pupils. When she opened her mouth, she noticed her teeth were triangular and sharp.

She also noticed the inside of her mouth was grey, and her tongue was now purple. Her ears were more sunken into her head, and the only physical human traits left were the hair on her head and nose. She was in absolute shock at what happened to her. She then slammed her fist against the wall and began to tear up.

As if she did not already feel so hopeless, she now has to deal with the fact that the Zeta Empire manipulated her genetic makeup. Suddenly she heard echoing footsteps coming from outside her cell. She began to panic, and she curled up in the corner of the cell, preparing for the worst. Arrua heard the sound of the door slide open, and she heard a familiar voice.

“Arrua, it's me, Kyle,” he said. Arrua tensed up and began to tremble.

“Please don’t come near me! They turned me into a monster! If anything, just shoot me and put me out of my misery. I can’t take it anymore!” said Arrua.

“No…you're not a monster; Chaos Bringer and the people that hurt you are the true monsters.” Kyle said. “There is no need to be afraid because I’m-”

Arrua then grabbed the rifle from his hand and put the barrel on her forehead.

“THEN WHERE YOU WHEN THOSE PEOPLE TORTURED AND EXPERIMENTED ON ME?!” she shouted. Arrua revealed herself and struggled to stand up. “Just look at me! I’m a freak that has to die! Please, if you really care about me, please put me out of my misery!”

Kyle and Arrua fought for control over the rifle, but he was able to get the rifle away from her. He could feel the sadness, hatred, anger, and fear in her large eyes. He always knew that the empire was evil and what they were doing was wrong, but he never knew that they would go this far.

Kyle began to tear up. “Arrua…I am sorry. I’m sorry I was unable to get to you when they did this to you.”

Arrua tried to walk towards him, she nearly fell to the ground, but Kyle caught and hugged her. They both began to cry even harder.

“As I said, we WILL escape this ship together. I may only be 16 years old, but I learned the basics of flying starships at the academy. We’ll steal a shuttle and take refuge somewhere to survive.” Kyle explained.

“You're 16? I am 14 years old.” she said.

“As for your situation, the Zeta Empire most likely didn’t just alter your DNA for fun; they often do this to volunteer soldiers to give them some kind of advantage on the battlefield. I hate saying this, but you're going to have to get comfortable in this new body and try to learn what new abilities you're capable of. It may take time, but once you figure out all of your abilities, it may be a big help in our escape. Can you do that for me?” he asked.

Arrua looked right into his eyes. She no longer had fear in her eyes and felt a determination to her own survival.

“I’m gonna do the best I can.” she replied.

As Kyle backed away, she briefly lost balance, but reached out to a nearby wall and got a hold of herself.

“Are you gonna be okay?” said Kyle.

She laughed. “Well, you know what they say; practice makes it permanent!” Arrua said.

Within the next several weeks, she experimented with what her body was now capable of. For starters, she realized she was much more intelligent than she was before. Arrua had a relatively high IQ, but she never did well academically and was especially awful at math and science.

But now, she finds herself rambling to herself about things she didn’t even understand, like medical and scientific topics. Just by glancing at the room around her, she was instantly able to determine the dimensions of the room she was in were 7.3 meters squared.

Arrua practiced walking constantly, but it was by far the biggest struggle she had to overcome with her new body. She eventually was able to stand and walk on her own. She finally got used to it, but still felt humiliated that she had to learn how to walk all over again.

As for the guards who occasionally walked in and tried to beat her up, she started to fight back against them. She hardly stood a chance against them for a very long time, as the guards were much older than her which gave them a physical strength advantage. However, she slowly started analyzing the way they fight and began to notice blind spots in their movement. She still got wrecked every time they came into her cell but was able to get up and keep fighting until they eventually left. Little did they know, she was gradually becoming a better fighter.

One day, while she had her hand against the wall, she felt the palm of her hand quickly stick to the wall. She then wanted it to unstick, and then her hand was no longer sticky. She then examined the palms of her hands.

“Amazing! There are microscopic retractable suction cups located directly under the epidermis around my palms and fingers. They appear to be linked to my brain, which response to the thought of them coming in or out. What’s more, is that these same suction cups are also located at the entire bottom of my feet! In theory, this will allow me to climb walls!” She exclaimed.

The young woman then placed her hands on the wall and at the thought of the suction cups coming out on her hands, she instantly felt them sticking to the wall. She then pictured in her mind the suction cups at her feet, and she then felt them sticking too.

With caution, she slowly climbed up the wall, then the ceiling. As she crawled around, she started to really enjoy it. Then she had the idea of leaping from one wall to another. On her first attempt, she crashed into the other wall and fell to the ground.

“Damn, that really hurt!” she said to herself. But she knew she had to keep trying if she wanted to escape from this hellhole. She attempted to jump to the other wall over and over but kept failing. After every failed attempt she would yell in frustration or even curse. She calculated in her head that she spent at least 2 hours trying to jump from wall to wall. However, after a long struggle, she eventually did it, and she quietly cheered.

Despite feeling ashamed and traumatized by what she has been through, she felt happy about something for the first time. But just to make sure she was confident of doing it right again, she tested it, and made her way across the cell, rapidly jumping from wall to wall. Arrua was always athletic and enjoyed jogging, but these new legs packed quite a punch; they allowed her to move with far greater agility.

The next ability she discovered was her enhanced flexibility. She was able to do multiple cartwheels and somersaults, as well as curl her body up to fit inside a small amount of space under her bed. The best thing about it was how easily she could do it, and it didn’t hurt at all.

The final ability she learned about was being able to not only camouflage and blend into her surroundings flawlessly within seconds, but her skin could also adopt the jumpsuit she was wearing to make them camouflage as well.

When Kyle snuck in to check on her, she reported all of her progress. Kyle then gave her a double holster belt with two small plasma submachine guns.

“Weapons? I…never killed anyone before. I don’t know if I can do this. I’m no soldier.” Arrua said.

“Well, you now have no choice, because if you don’t shoot them, they will kill you. The Zeta Empire is ruthless, and I will admit, I never killed a person in my life, but soon that will change. I secretly stole a prototype device that can transfer a high-tech suit of armor. It has not been activated before, so I was able to assign my fingerprint onto the command button.” he said.

“So it scans your finger when you want to use it and teleports the armor directly onto you?” Arrua asked.

“How did you figure that out? Oh, it must be your enhanced intelligence and knowledge, doesn't it?” said Kyle. Arrua smiled and nodded.

She was then given a device that would guide her from her prison cell to the docking bay where the fighters and shuttles were located. They then discussed an in-depth plan for their escape.

“Alright, when that alarm goes off when those guards come in and think I escaped, that’ll be our queue!” said Arrua.