The technician waited patiently in a dusty but well lighted room, watching a fetus develop into a teenager in a span of tens of hours. The cloning chamber only has a single circular sealed window, just enough to see inside. But not enough to calm those outside. It has been a while since this chamber was used, and nobody had the guts to even consider using it until now. Due to the setbacks that followed the years, the entire lost city of Drestburg can only feed a few mouths. Before they can feed millions, but now they can barely feed a hundred. The labs and botanical gardens were lost a few years ago alongside the armory and chemical factories. Severely incapacitating their efforts. They were left to fend themselves whereas before they fought to reclaim up to 40 square kilometers worths of underground bunkers and sky reaching spires. Now they were left to less than fifty men and women, and losing more by the minute.

However, now is a very special time of the year. They not only managed to receive an entire train's load of arms, food and men, but also a Spirit pendant. And that of a former colleague indeed, thought lost a few years ago. They no longer had to contend with raising another clone until maturity, but can already make an adult body for the reclaimed friend without the troubles of a failed attempt. The case of an empty mind inhabiting an older body causes various degrees of stress amongst the people due to the person in itself already a man child. However with a spirit pendant, the troubles of developing a personality and overall mental maturity is already in the bin. It's almost like transferring an AI into another system and the AI works fine. Though the complete science of the matter is almost lost to the dust bins of history. The people who knew the technology well are so few infact that the only person with enough knowledge to replicate these machines is fighting dementia at the moment. Although there are other ways to gain the technology and even recreate it, the data is still fine and well but are locked and are out of reach. Where once the secret libraries stood now occupies hundreds upon hundreds of the undead, constantly replaced by unfortunate clones born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only to be bitten before they can see the light of dawn, causing distress upon any survivors that met them.

However, as he started reminiscing about the times when he was just a little kid running about the screaming adults as they went on their work, when the lights went on. Saltires were flashing, signifying a dangerous defect in the system and the development of the body. Only two options left: Let it continue and consider the probability of losing the body or pull the body out and deal with the defect later. 'This machine should never to be trusted, no matter what!' The words of his mentor echoed into his ears as he pulled the lever. The body came in a pinkish cocoon accompanied by screams and grunts of someone trying to get out. With a scalpel he rushed and started to cut the cocoon open, with blood gushing out and a terrified scream! She started struggling and hitting him, though he was only trying to get her out. Suffering a black eye and a broken rib, he had no other choice but to sedate her before chaining her in a bed and gave her a sponge bath.

Checking the systems analysis of the body, he found an odd revelation! 'The body was infertile? abnormal levels of testosterone? photographic memory? lower muscle mass?' The situation was a bit insane and unexpected that when the guard came in to check, he found him with his brows arched downwards to his nose and his mouth opened wide. Agape was the guards mouth as well as he read the results.

" She's gonna be pissed when she wakes up in that body!" The guard exclaimed rapidly as his mouth pulled a confused sneer.

" What are we gonna do? Stab that unfortunate woman till she bleeds in her sleep!" The technician replied panicking.

" Just calm down both of you!" A booming voice echoed behind them.

" We didn't set aside this stock of biomatter for nothing! This is the last body we can make!" it continued as the two turned around to face it.

" But chief, she'll kill us if she gets this body!" The technician quipped.

" Whether we give her a robotic body or an old woman's body, she shouldn't give a damn. It's our last stock, and it's her last chance to even get a walk.

Look I know what she'll be like if she learns of this, but as her brother its my responsibility and I'll be to blame if she finds any difficulty. She gave me a color blind one back then remember? Just think of it this way." He reasoned despite continually overulling their concerns with his voice. Even cutting them off as fast as he could before they could ask.

The technician relents after his fatigue clouded his judgement. Awake for more than three days, his mind is now mush. Slowly he rested his eyes as he pushed himself onto the chair and took a long breath. He knows the chief well, both of them do. They went to hell and back with him, so why should he burden his conscience when he's only following orders. It's the chief's orders!

" Give me the keys and both of you get some rest, It's been a while since I've done this. Go on! the soldiers are guarding and clearing the entire sector as we know it" The chief stated as he walked towards the naked body and stared at the pendant for a moment. At this point the technician and guard went outside to who knows where they'd wish to spend their free time. The chief at the mean time, looked at the data presented by an LCD screen and smirked at the word " Infertile".

" You won't need that cunt anymore, you already had a son. Though your estrus would be fun to watch..." He stopped as he looked at her genitalia which is as black as coal. To say that he can't believe his eyes is an understatement. The very irony of somebody with high libido and an insensitive genitalia seemed like a nun's dream! A very pious nun's dream.

" Who know's where thy phallus doth striketh!" He remembered an old vulgar joke made by an anassuming old man back then, though he still continues to guess where it might strike.

The darkened labia aside, he placed the pendant in a perfectly fit hole on the interface which made it light up like a firework before giving new command prompts. And after an hour of progress, the subject started to breathe heavily. Her breathing were forced and getting heavier while he only watched with his palm on his cheek as his elbow rested on his thigh.

She woke up and Gasped!!!

***

" Good evening Cassie! What can we do for you?" A pale, light but pretty woman said as she greeted a little girl just as pale as she is.

" Oh! What's that you have with you?" She continued after the girl revealed a foot long rectangular box.

" J-jjj-jim-mm." The little girl replied as she presented it to her.

" Come in, come in, he's in the study reading something." she said warmly towards the girl as she reminisced of her childhood. Only it wasn't her visiting, it was Jim's father.

The study was very spartan in nature, Plastic chairs were neatly placed near a table. Almost everything from the cabinets, stalls except the table is made of plastic. Only the table was made of steel with very intricate motiffs carved unto it. On the table was a small unidentifiable weapon on a feet long. And on the side was Jim, with a mallet trying to shape something. He was so focused on the weapon that despite the creaking sound of the door behind him, he never seemed to flinch.

" Jim? Cassie's here!" his mother asked him over indirectly.

Jim didn't seem to mind her voice at the moment. Rather he was just as focused as a robot at his toy. She called him over again, but still the same as he put down the hammer and used a miniature ankle grinder.

' Just like his father.' She thought to herself as she walked towards him followed by the little girl. Only after patting him on the back did he stop to look around. Seeing the little near her mother's side made him sneeze as if the ammonia from the last encounter wasn't removed yet. He narrowed his eyes on the box before appearing a bit puzzled as he looked at her.

" Come on! Are you just going to sit there? Greet our guest." She asked the four feet tall boy as he stood and took a neutral stance towards their guest. In his mind however was a different story. He was clearly jeering and complaining " What in the pitch darkness of Hela's arse is it now!".

" Cassie? Do you have anything to say?"

" For Jim." She said in a very adorable manner that completely took her by surprise. She could barely say anything before she got in. ' Is she really like that towards him?' Jim's mother thought as she remembered that its her tenth visit this month. She was usually found with her twin brother in the HQ after he adopted her.

Jim opened the box slowly and methodically like the way he hammered that piece of metal a moment ago. After the wrapping was removed, he found a metallic phallus in front of him. A knee jerk reaction made him throw the thing with abandon. It ended up in her mother's hands as the little girl's face crumpled. She was sad, she thought he'd like it. As a matter of fact she didn't even know what it was.

Her eyes welled up and before she knew it, she ran out sobbing. " Cassie!" the boy's mother cried. This is the first time she ran despite experiencing the same result every time she came for a visit. She actually didn't know what she was doing other than she just wants to do it. She felt some sense of satisfaction seeing his face, but she can't even tell why. For all she knew her heart ached, it broke. She can barely breathe as an incorporeal arrow struck it harshly. And this arrow didn't alleviate anything, she was tumbling in a somersault with her tears falling as she ran out.

" What's up with that girl." Jim remarked with a look of disgust in his face as he returned to finishing that weapon of his.

" I believe its about time I should tell you about these things." Just as she said that he turned his rotating chair a 180 degrees towards her as his face glowed with interest.

" Do tell why that smelly toddler keeps stalking me." He said with such disregard and coldness that she can't even believe this is still the little boy she nursed for six years before she died with a hole in her gut.

She crossed the distance before cuddling him with her chin on top of his head. Oxytocin is still a thing in her dysfunctional body. " My little boy, when will you grow up? It feels like only a day has passed."

"Mom! I'm already ten!" he protested though he barely did anything with her embrace.

" I know you were cuddling pillows before I came back. My little boy, my little boy." Her insistence made him desist. This was going on for nearly four weeks now, and she keeps doing it like it she never did it for the entirety of her life. Remembering what she was supposed to do after a near five minute hug, she looked him straight at the eye as she squatted to match his height.

" Do you really want to know why she keeps bringing random things here like that time she brought mashed potatoes and that time when she brought you a shabby coat?"

" Uh-huh."

" If I remember correctly when I was still in the pendant, you were the first person she met right? That meant that she must've thought of you as I either a brother or even somebody else special."

" Wait! Uncle's like her father now, but why was she still stalking me all the time? Is it cause there's like a memory or something..."

" She's in love, how can you be dense."

" Hahahaha! You've got to be kidding me right? I never read of human a month old human falling in love."

" Who said we were even remotely human?" She retorted with a straight face as her son laughed out loud like there's no tomorrow.

" What! But aren't we descended from clones! I mean like you, dad, uncle Fel, old man Jelder, Sir Menxas. I mean I was your son which meant that I'm more like natural born but isn't our genome very similar to that in the continents and archipelagos?"

" Nope, we are not. Though we are clones we are not baseline humans. We are similar to the Khaarkonen, Poulustaja, Sogenmen and even those who we shouldn't speak of. No pure blood Drester is a Homo sapiens sapiens. We're a different species, ever notice why we uniformly think of the world differently from the rest. The reason why sogenmen think only of the entire world as a resource worth protecting and exploiting; the Khaarkonen with their " All threats must be expunged", " Only a Khaarkonen leads a Khaarkonen", Undying sense of duty, skewed sense of honour and major tendency to kill enemies so great that its just fantasy; The Poulustaja's innate tendency to protect, penchant for defensive strategies and universal frugality and antipathy towards those who squander; and even the Kohei's tendency to act like unbeatable mercenaries. Not to mention the various mental and physical augmentations that are inherited from birth, like our heightened vitality, temperance, pain resistance and even our capability to stay calm when death draws near. Is that something that the majority of homo sapiens have?"

"But aren't homo sapiens so varied that determining one generous trait is truly a challenge?"

" It's no longer the same species if the current one holds so many new differences that even at surface level the difference is noticeable. I mean look at you! You're way more muscular than normal humans that its no wonder why Cassie keeps coming back with gifts."

" How did she get in the story?"

" Look the point is, we're not normal. How old do you think she would've been if she was born naturally. With her height of at least four feet she could be at least six or seven right? Now take into account that you were solving puzzles when you were just nine months old. She managed to talk just after she was born and I was there! Now is that normal?" The way she spoke made it seemed that she was a professor instead of a mother. Only his son's usually wandering eye and seemingly constant wiring deep in his thoughts bother her a lot. 'If she's like this, then did it hit him yet.' If her suspicions are right, then his son might end up a bit suicidal. Most Dresters feel like this due to their over sensitive emotions and intelligence. Nearly no Drester is a retard but many spiral into crippling depression. And that's dangerous if left uncured. Suicide rate is 90% in most cases and if only he live in a world where he can't focus elsewhere he might have tied the noose himself. And he's still ten.

" I still don't think so, I guess but I'm just not convinced at the moment." Those were his last words before the ankle grinder cut a chip that fell to his thigh and cut his flesh. Gritting his teeth, he turned it off, placed it nicely on the table, pulled the chip before screaming.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

" See, I told you. Normal humans would've lost a leg in that situation, but you didn't. You handled it perfectly." She said grinning after giving him a band aid.

' How should I deal with this?' This thought stuck on her mind as she sanitized the wound with alcohol and applied the band aid. ' Maybe I should give that asshole brother of mine a visit. This body is truly his fault.'

" Mom! We're at home! Why did you put a band aid?" Her son shot straight into her mind as she was lost in her thoughts. As if by instinct she pulled the band aid carelessly.

"Ouch!"

***

Her heart beats were very pronounced. She could hear her heart pounding heavily like a drum though slowly. She stalked him as he was cleaning his rusty machete and pistol in the open. A very messy open that is, in the middle of some metallic crates, rubble and sandbags, very old sandbags. Peaking slowly from a distance she approached. With gusto she could feel the ground but heard not her every single step.

The distance closed, but he still was oblivious. He was still sharpening that machete with some rough stone. Step by step she proceeded with caution. And every step made her as proud as a peacock. She's getting closer.

Only twelve more steps to approach. Her heart was beyond rising, it was filled of Euphoria which came from nowhere. She can't tell why she was happy but she was smiling. However after the seventh step he said: "Cassie, I know you're behind me. Just tell me what you want already. And this stopped nearly everything, she lost her element of surprise and panic struck as her already pale face went paler.

" Don't you have anything left to do? I don't have all day." He spoke again, only this time he looked at her. And those sleek cheeks, heart piercing eyes and the very image it induces into her was very, near angelic. Perhaps its youth, maybe it's just her mind playing games. But one thing is very clear, she was once more struck by his gaze. Whether it be vain or plain she couldn't do anything other than stand and gaze into his eyes.

" Hey you there?" And just as he said it, she came forward and presented him a very shiny gun. It's a P3000, and she had touch one of these but this one is a treasure. Shiny as if it was made with silver, very light that even a six year old can carry it, and everything was optimized.

She could see tears in his eyes despite his stiff expression. Then broke down into a smile.

Meanwhile at a distance...

" Finally, that's done. " The chief Melkor stated as he looked at his twin.

" Indeed, now can you really tell me why you sent a dildo to my son?"

" What! It's for you not for him! The kid must've mixed it up." He replied defensively as her face shot up in disgust.

" If it's for me, then I still couldn't understand why you would give me something useless."

Melkor looked at her with a funny smile and said: " Irish, your just as closed minded as ever."

Her face went red and curled in disgust : " Ewww! You dirty old bastard!" Her punch might not be painful but it is enough.

" Seriously, we're both thirty. How I can be that old? Hahhahahahhhah!"

" (Sigh) Can you tell me about operation Aftermath now."

" Don't worry, I'll tell you in a jiffy."