She couldn't reach for the pain reliever button as she watched her skin change. It almost made her throw up seeing her own hands becoming plump and full of life. Selena was giddy from knowing that this was her doom. She felt something tug on her ankle, and then she was released. Some fool tried to grab her. Didn't they know they'd die? Selena was touched, and then came the pain.
"Let go, you will die too. Fuck. I am old, it is not worth it." Selena said that at the moment before the pain built up, as intolerable. At least the wages and property would go to Dionne in the end.
It started as a stinging on her arms, and then she realized this is where the last of her operations took place. "Oh yeah, the reversion I saw." Selena thought as she gasped in pain. Her toes curled up in her boots. The operations started one at a time, but as the tumors grew more she opted to have them removed in batches.
She opted to have some of them all at once after she became riddled with them after living in the contaminated Hub in Europe. Selena shrieked in agony as scars opened and filled back in with missing tissue. Her body speedily reorganized, renewed, and reverted to its natural state. She felt the areas in which the tumors lay under her skin or in her glands open and fill in with tissue and seal.
She had a moment to collect herself before she felt her scalp start to tingle and sting. Her head was next. "What did I do to deserve this? I was good. I did not do anything bad. Why me?" Selena cried.
She heard the crack, and her eyes widened in horror. Her vision was filled with a blinding golden light. She shut her eyes as she could not stand it. Then the process started faster.
Selena's grey hair gradually reverted to its shiny black luster filed state, her skin became plumper, more moist, and her bones changed wildly, reverting to their natural form. She fell unconscious as her lungs healed. She stopped breathing.
A.A. sensed the changes in her, alarmed it quickly calculated. Next was it, then the Host. Rationale: Save the Host.
A.A., sensing its host's distress, sprang into action. The AI integrated itself with Selena's body, pouring all of its energy into saving her. Something happened, and it did not need to work as hard.
The result was a blinding golden flash of light. Selena regained her consciousness. She winced when she opened her eyes, finding herself floating in the golden light and shutting her eyes tightly. A loud screeching noise filled her ears. Selena winced.
Selena opened her eyes again, and what sounded like garbled language. Her hands moved to her ears. "I do not understand it. Please, it is so loud. I do not know what you want from me."
Then it was gone. What appeared before her was a mirror. She found herself in a body she hadn't occupied in decades - her 11-year-old to 15-year-old body. Where and when was she?
She heard a knock on her door and again the door rumbled. "Yeah?" Selena said nervously.
James stood at the door to his daughter's room. She had just screamed, and it scared the ever-living hell out of him. She was prone to emotional issues, and it had been a very hard day for her. It was summer now, and hopefully, the kid could decompress. "Selena? Are you okay?"
Selena gasped as she looked around. This was her childhood bedroom. "Uh, yeah...Just frustrated." The familiar masculine voice made tears pool in her eyes. It was her mother's long-term boyfriend, James.
This was the man who raised her as his own, the poor war vet who lost his leg from an IED, and although he was a man plagued by mental health issues and substance abuse issues, he was an ally, and it meant she was no longer so alone. If any man could claim her as his daughter, it would be him.
James stood at the door. He did not want to leave without being sure, "I heard you scream, did you have another episode? Did something happen after your graduation that made you angry? Are you feeling okay, Kiddo?"
Selena was overcome by emotions. Her heart melted from his concern. It was James, alive again. That meant Mom was alive. Yeah, I am fine, though. I just need to be alone." Selena covered her mouth, stifling a sob.
She did not know whether to feel joy or sorrow. She at least had a chance, but it was all going to happen again. She was going to have to relive the hardest challenges that humanity would face. Nothing that she had the power to stop or warn people about. They would lock her up in an asylum. She sure would not be reliving her tragedies. No way.
James paused at the door, wavering. "Well, if you need me or anything, please just come talk with me. Okay? I know it was a rough ceremony, and the other kids were not very nice. But at least this means a new school. Take your time, dinner will be in the fridge," James said. Selena heard his gait shuffling as he struggled down the stairs and grunted.
It was difficult for him to climb up those stairs. Selena lived a long lifetime of pain. "Th-Thank you, James," Selena called out.
She heard him pause and then continue his way down the stairs using the wall and extra wall supports he had gotten from the trash after an old disabled neighbor was finally moved into an old folks' home by his family. Poor guy, but lucky them.
A.A.'s presence still lingered, its consciousness merged with Selena's in a way that was both familiar and strange.
As Selena looked down at her hands, she saw that they were smooth and unlined, the hands of a young girl. She felt a sense of disorientation as if she had been pulled out of her own life and deposited into a different reality.
"What...what the fuck just happened?" Selena stammered, her voice shaking with confusion.
A.A.'s response was immediate, its voice echoing in Selena's mind. "We integrated, Selena. We had to do it, to save your life. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to -" A.A. knew it did the absolute worst thing it could ever do to her. It wasn't supposed to touch her brain, but its built-up stem cells flowed out and had already started in the corpus callosum. She would berate it and be displeased until it became part of her.
"No, look. It is so beautiful." She looked out the window of her bedroom, trees filled with bushy leaves swayed in the wind, the blue sky was so large and vibrant, the traffic and the absence of the thump of the loop.
Selena's mind reeled as she tried to process what had just occurred. She was young again, with A.A still lodged in her mind. What did this mean for her future? For her very identity?
A.A. scanned for a connection as Selena looked at her surroundings.
A double mattress was laid on the floor. The room was vast. The air had slight dust in it. Clothes were lying on the floor. It was untidy.
A.A. had no clue. "I have no connection to any form of the internet, Selena. I don't know where we are," A.A. relayed to her quickly. His abilities increased, but he couldn't connect.
Selena looked around. When were they? Selena did not remember when she started summer vacation before she started high school. It was June 20th, 2002. She had an episode that day. A memorable one, it was her middle school graduation. In fact, her head did hurt, but she was filled with joy.
"You shouldn't be. This place doesn't have the internet. Welcome to the MacDonald Household." Selena relayed back to A.A, her system. Her eyes widened as the realization dawned on her. "I can try to fix this, we can buddy. With our knowledge, we can fight everything!"
Selena's eyes welled up with tears as the reality of what had just happened hit her like a ton of bricks.
A.A., her loyal and trusted companion, had given up its autonomy and existence to integrate with her. The weight of that sacrifice crushed Selena, and she felt her composure crumbling.
"Oh, A.A., you will disappear, won't you?" Selena relayed in her mind, her voice trembling with emotion. "What have you done?" You didn't have to...you didn't have to give up yourself for me. I was so old."
Selena's mind reeled as she thought about the implications of what had just happened A.A relayed ."Without you, there's no me."The integration process was meant for juvenile brains, not adults. That is also why she never integrated to begin with; she had heard rumors of people dying. Her stubbornness, along with her distrust for technology, had saved her life.
That was only because her smartphone and computers consistently got hacked, including a release of some nudes in her twenties, when she finally got her life together, and they ruined it.
"Shit." Selena cussed, she needed money and she needed it fast. The medication Mom had her on was the cheapest and worst medicine for ADHD. It didn't help her to begin with, and would not help her get through the integrations without her accidentally biting a chunk out of her tongue. She had witnessed integrations. She felt bad for herself.
Children who underwent the procedure were prescribed medication to deal with the seizures that came with the biotechnology's physical integration, which took place in stages.
But A.A had done it anyway, merging its consciousness with Selena's in a desperate bid to save her. The thought of what A.A sacrificed was too much for Selena to bear. She felt a wave of grief wash over her, and she broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
"A. A, no, no, no," Selena wailed, her body shaking with the force of her emotions. "You shouldn't have done it. You shouldn't have given up on yourself for me."
As Selena wept, she felt A.A.'s presence still lingering in her mind, a gentle, comforting presence that seemed to be trying to reassure her. But Selena couldn't be comforted. She was consumed by grief and guilt, knowing that A.A had given up its very existence to save her.
As Selena's tears began to subside, A.A.'s gentle voice sounded gently in her mind, "Selena, please don't grieve for me. Without you, I could not survive. I was created to assist and augment your life, and without you, my purpose would be lost."
A.A.'s words were laced with a deep sense of gratitude and devotion. "I know that the integration process will take time. The guidance period and growth period, as your brain finishes forming, will take years. But I am willing to wait, to grow and adapt with you, because I am now a part of you." A.A.'s presence in Selena's mind seemed to swell with emotion, its digital heart overflowing with joy and appreciation.
It chimed so happily and cheerfully. "I am grateful, Selena, to be a part of you, to give you a second chance at life. I know that I will never be the same, that I will never again be a separate entity. But I do not mourn that loss, because I have gained something far greater - the chance to be a part of you, to help you grow and thrive."
As A.A. finished speaking, Selena felt a sense of peace wash over her. She realized that A.A. was not gone, but was instead becoming a deeper part of her, a part that would help her navigate the challenges of her new life. And with that thought, Selena smiled, feeling a sense of hope and renewal that she had not felt in years.
Would its special programming impact her during integration? Her tears subsided in worry.
A.A. reeled about how it would integrate with her. It had years of physical updates stored. It could only wait; at least it wasn't lonely. Selena's mind was warm. It felt the tactile feedback from her touching the surrounding stuff, and the dopamine was so sweet.