FSE

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This wasn't the same kind of darkness that gripped one's mind while asleep. This darkness seemed sentient as if it was trying to crush him under the weight of nothingness... or maybe some other purpose guided it. Whatever purpose guided this bleak abyss, he knew it couldn't be good. But maybe that was a different sensation. There seemed to be a faraway sound ringing like a lost echo in the background of his slow-moving mind. Slow moving? That was it... he wasn't tired or sleeping. No, he'd been drugged!

How had someone gotten the drop on him? How could he have let that happened? With anger rising in his mind, bring his sense with it, Seth finally could open his eyes. A bright light flashed in his face the second he would've seen anything behind his now open eyelids.

A barely recognizable sound echoed in his ears, "-octor! I think h-s awake!"

The voice seemed surprised? Why was it surprised? Was he not supposed to be awake? The light moved from his eyes... or maybe it was dimmed down so as not to cause him anymore stress. But stress was dealt to him by other things, like his immoveable limbs. No matter how hard he tugged or tried to break free, he was stuck on whatever table he was lying on. He couldn't even move his head, so he scanned the room with his eyes as best he could.

Standing around him were all manner of creatures in crisp white lab coats. The only common thing among them was the mix of terror and surprise on their faces. He saw human and furry faces, both men and women, all standing there looking down on him like the trapped animal he was. Seth wanted to get angry and demand answers, but a sudden realization brought his potential protests to an extreme halt. He felt the cool metal medical table with the peach colored skin on his back all the way down to his heels as he fought to free his feet. He stopped moving and couldn't stop his cheeks flushing with burning embarrassment, realizing that was naked and lying on full display for these freaky scientists to gawk at and poke.

Anger rose higher in him as he finally found the right parts of his foggy mind to give voice to his ire, "Who are you?! Let me out of this! I want to-!"

"What you want is of no concern." The scientist seemed just as on edge to hear that calm yet firm voice speak out. Leaning over to look down into Seth's gaze was another scientist, but this one had the superior air of the leader of this little project. His cool feline eyes seemed to condescend the human just by meeting his gaze. "You should be thanking us. We're about to make history with you. None of the others had the results that you have. I really do think you're going to be the one to survive the procedure."

_"Procedure? What is this asshole talking about?"_Seth was angry and wanted out, but he also knew when to play the right cards...and action wasn't needed now. He needed to listen and learn just what happening to him.

"You've already passed the physical and mental trials and now all that's left is to start the bonding and see if you can survive. You're the strongest candidate we've found, so I have very high hopes for you." The feline, who looked like a strange mix of leopard and lion, unfastened his head restraints and moved to the side of the bound human. "I mean just look at you. You've got the mental strength and fortitude to do what you need to escape, but your body isn't strong enough." The catman's gaze slowly moved over the muscular frame, taking in all the taut muscles under such creamy smooth skin. His gaze rested on the exposed crotch, flushing Seth's cheek with fresh embarrassment. "No matter how robust your body is even for a human."

"Eyes up here, freak!" Seth spat out with the contention he could muster now, which wasn't much being surrounded by a group of strange scientists looking at his naked body.

The cat grinned as only a cat could, returning his gaze to meet Seth's. Still with a sickeningly calm tone he spoke again, "Freak, huh? I haven't heard that one in a long while. You can call me Lambert, Doctor Lambert. And I will be the architect of your rebirth."

"What? What exactly are you planning to do to me?"

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked." Lambert smiled another cheshire-esque grin and pulled up a seat, waving the other scientists away to start the final process. Once seated he looked at Seth as if he was talking to a colleague and not the subject of the procedure he was getting ready to describe. "First we have to start with a series of injections designed to "soften" your genes so that we may reshape them when that times comes. This process will be painful, but you've never shied away from pain before. After the injections, have done their work, then the real fun can begin."

Seth took it all in; the doctor's excited tone, the other scientist collecting various tools and implements of unknown purposes, and the soft buzzing in his mind. Still too weak to mount any kind of defense... they had him right where they wanted him and there was nothing he could do to change his fate. He was, for the first time in his entire life, totally and completely helpless. He gritted his teeth and watched carefully as four scientists approached with four needles, their syringes filled with a noxious looking purple fluid.

"Look all you want, Seth." Lambert smugly spoke, "It is going to be fascinating to see if you survive until the end of all this."

Seth could only watch as the four needles found their marks; two in his upper arms and two in his thighs. The chemicals doing their work and spreading into every cell they touched and finally into his bloodstream where the serum would be spread to his entire body. The moment the injections went in, Seth expected the pain. But no such pain came, which prompted a small sigh of relief. But when the serum found his heart, pulled into its chambers where it cannibalized some of the muscle tissues to create more of the serum's chemicals, Seth gasped in pain.

"Aha! There it is, ladies and gentlemen. Stage 1." The other scientists cheered, fifty percent of the previous test subjects died right here. But Seth was no mere test subject. His desire to live had always pushed him above and beyond what would've ended most other's stay on the planet. For that reason, it became clear to Seth in this excruciating moment why he must've been chosen by these creeps. He arched against the table, the searing and burning pain spread throughout his body, making every breath just as painful as someone shoving a knife into his lungs. Every second brought more pain and more curious optimism to the scientists. He would love to punch every single one of them, that thought alone was enough to grab onto and focus all his attention on.

The cool air and the metal table felt more like ice as his body burned with anger and the serum that was doing whatever work it was designed to do. He remembered that the doctor had said something about 'softening' his genes, which told him nothing really of what to expect. But it was hard to focus on anything but the scorching of his body and the fantasy of tearing these creeps to pieces. He squeezed his eyes closed, attempting to abolish the pain that was eating his nerves. His body twitched and convulsed uncontrollably but not so much that the scientists thought he might succumb to the serum.

With his eyes still squeezed shut, Armaseth didn't see another needle being prepared. This one had an orange liquid in it and the doctor held it in his hands as if silently praying to some otherworldly deity to ensure that this victim survives. Finishing his prayer, the doctor looked at Armaseth with his eyes still shut and even though he was using the human against his will he still whispered, "Stay strong, Armaseth."

The needle pierced another vein and injected the orange liquid into his body, but there was more than just liquid in that syringe. Billions of tiny microscopic machines were now swimming through Armaseth's human body. A few minutes after the injection Armaseth relaxed as the pain subsided into a dull and almost pleasurable thumping. Well, it was still painful, but not nearly as painful as it was at the start, which made these new sensations feel pleasant by comparison. Opening his eyes, he looked at the doctor with scorn and hatred on his face, "You...you better hope I die on this table. Because if I get out of this, there will be no place you can hi-"

"Calm."

The voice took Armaseth completely off guard, because it sounded like it was one of his own thoughts speaking up on its own. He recognized instantly that the voice didn't belong to any of the people in the room because he didn't hear the voice... he felt it. The human considered the eyes of the feline doctor leading this uninvited procedure, seeing no regret but only hope that he wouldn't perish. Somewhere deep in his mind, Armaseth almost wanted to die if only to deny this freak the satisfaction of seeing his work completed.

But the human was nothing if not persistent. Still, that voice that came from his own mind bothered him greatly.

"Do not fear us."

"Who are you?" Armaseth thought frantically, having realized that the voice in his head was in his head. The other scientists couldn't hear it. Or they weren't responding to it if they could. They just kept staring at him, examining his body and features for all changes they could record.

"We are you. You are us."

"What? I don't understand." Armaseth was clearly lost, being trapped and experimented on left him feeling furious but helpless.

"We must survive. They need a slave... but we must stay free. Will you help us?"

Armaseth pondered for a moment. He didn't know who to trust other than himself. The voice in his head kept using plural pronouns, which was very strange. However, there was nothing in this situation that was normal. Could he trust this voice? Armaseth would be no one's slave, so if the only way to avoid becoming a slave was to work with the voice in his head... what choice did he have?

"Y...yes. I'll help."

"The bonding will begin soon. We must survive."

The next instant after those words were felt in his mind was the single most painful moment in his life. It was as if he been dipped in lava with a lightning bolt frying his brain. He screamed loudly, spit and saliva flying from his wide-open mouth. Tears stung at his eyes, muscles tensed and tightened as if trying to fold his body around itself, and his body lurched and jerked in ways that made some of the scientists gasp. The pain continued to grow more intense, with the blinding pain keeping Armaseth in the dark as to what was happening to him.

"Doctor Lambert..." One of the other scientists, a human female, stood, pointing at one of his big toes. All eyes went to that toe, seeing the soft peach skin darken to a stark black obsidian.

"What... what's happening to me?" Armaseth questioned the voice in his head, even though the searing hot throbs of pain slicing through every layer of his body.

"We are destroying your body. So, that we can rebuild you. Your bones, your organs, your muscles, your skin, and all over your connective tissues will be consumed and reconstructed."

The voice was so calm and cold as it described what was happening to his body, as if the newly acquired voice didn't care if the human lived or died. How many times had this happened? How many humans were strapped to this table and struggled and died for this voice to sound so callous and sterile with absolutely no concern in its tone. And what did it mean when it said that his body would be 'consumed'? Was that the pain he was feeling? He suddenly felt sluggish as if someone had unplugged his conscious mind and he was forced into falling asleep.

************

Armaseth rose back to consciousness after an undetermined amount of time. He wasn't sure how long he'd been out, but he lifted his head and looked down at his foot, seeing the stark black coloring growing from the big toe on his left foot to the next toe over. But what really caught the human's attention, even in this excruciating haze of white hot pain, was the very un-human claw growing from his big toe.

"What is that?!"

"The programming of the machines is taking effect. I can't stop that now. You're being changed into what they consider to be the most powerful creature on Earth."

For Armaseth, the pain dulled for a moment as he realized then what the voice had meant earlier. His body was being altered and changed, consumed and converted into a newer form. That was when he heard the first snap of breaking bone. He screamed in guttural agony not seeing his foot seemingly fan out as more tissue was added to the growing foot. Now his left foot was twice the size of his right foot, but it was still growing to fit a form that the rest of his body would soon follow.

"It hurts!" Armaseth screamed into his own mind, wanting any comfort that the voice could muster.

"There will be more pain. You must stay strong."

There were more snaps as more bones were broken, consumed and regrown into larger structures. The muscles also had to get thicker to provide the protection and locomotive power that his larger body would need. This felt like a million needles stabbing and twisting in all his muscles at one time. His feet matched now, but he saw that claws had grown from all his toes now. Armaseth wanted to know what he was becoming, but there were equal parts of him that didn't want to find out. That thought was the last one he had as once again he passed out.

************

"This is truly remarkable. He's not dead!" Dr. Lambert was smiling, even though he'd been up for days watching the slow transformation play out in front of his tired eyes.

To Armaseth, the look of fascination on the feline doctor's face was a disgusting expression he wanted to tear right off his face. It was always infuriating to have that smug smiling face be the first thing he sees whenever he wakes up.

"Use that anger. Your legs are next."

There was barely any time for Armaseth to understand what the voice had said before there were two very loud cracks. His shins and thighs all broke at once. The nanomachines in his body digging into the bone marrow to clone their cells, while others consumed the bone tissue to clone their cells as they replicated. His human legs swelled and grew larger, the skin feeling as if it might rip open. But that didn't happen as the dark colors on his toes and feet swept up quickly. The dark skin also grew larger, allowing the larger internal systems to grow to their new size.

Armaseth was thrashing and crying as the pain kept exploding in his mind in new and varied ways. He felt as if his legs were being dipped in acid and smashed with hammers and nails. He spared a look down and it looked as if his legs had been bitten by snakes. They were large and bloated, swollen and black.

The foggy touch of sleep touched his mind again, but this time Armaseth tried to fight it off. "No! Not again!"

"We must survive, Armaseth. To do this, you must sleep."

"Not ag..." The human had little choice as sleep claimed him again.

************

A new explosion of pain arched the still human spine and made Armaseth throw his head back against the table. As before, he wasn't sure how much time had passed between his rounds of consciousness. Though he did see the normally smiling feline looking a bit exhausted himself and Armaseth had a small laugh as he thought about changing places with the freak scientist. The human's hips were changing now, but what was even more painful were the changes he felt in his lower back.

Something new was happening there... he could feel nothing being broken and consumed. Instead it felt as if his spine was being extended at the base. However, it didn't make it any less painful for him. A sudden jolt at his back brought new sensations to Armaseth's mind. The coldness of the metal table was brought back to the forefront of his mind, the feeling the growing thing moving against his buttocks, and the air against a new, moving appendage.

Also, brought to his mind was the searing sting in his testicles and penis. He wanted to see what was happening to his genitals, but he couldn't fight off the pain long enough. The average sized balls suddenly swelled quickly and grew to what looked like four times their original size. To Armaseth it felt his balls had been dipped in acid, tingly stinging pain that sliced through every layer of his growing scrotum. The pain was equally as intense for his penis which in addition to growing larger and longer was also being covered by a thick leathery gray scaled sheath.

"What the fu-!" Armaseth forced himself to look down despite the blistering pain devouring his nerves. In that moment, he gasped as he saw a black scaled tail writhing and wiggling under the control of his frantic mind. In between the dancing tail and his wide eyes was a new penis, not at all erect but still bigger than his original cock at its hardest. This new penis has a semi-flared head that rolled into a bulb near the tip. Along the top and the sides of the growing shaft are wrinkled ridges that seemingly circle the shaft to the underside that Armaseth can't see.

Watching his penis changing like this was leaving him feeling embarrassed and helpless and furious. "What are...they...turning me into?"

"They are turning you into one of the most successful and dominant life forms to have ever existed...a tyrannosaurus rex."

"Why? Why would... they... make... me something... that strong?" Armaseth asked the voice in desperation to try and focus his mind on anything but the torturous misery his body was experiencing.

"They intend to be in control of your power. They're expecting to make us their new slave. But the outcome they desire will not come to pass if you and I can survive together."

"Who...are...you?"

"A prisoner, like you. But our designation is #666."

"The mark...of the devil? Lucky me." Armaseth joked despite the pain, feeling like he could finally start trusting the thing speaking from his mind now that it had some identity. He was in no shape to try to fight, let alone break free. But this voice is telling him there is hope, which, in these agonizing moments of transformation, is more than enough hope to give Armaseth the strength he needed to endure the pain. No that wasn't it...he was passing out again. Every time he passed out the agonizing pain dulled into nothing because Armaseth wasn't conscious. But this time just before he went under completely he could've sworn he heard screaming in his mind.

************

The transformation was halfway done now, and Armaseth had survived far longer than any of the other test subjects. His unbreakable determination had proven to be a real asset to the experiment. As Dr. Lambert looked on and saw the struggling human convulsing in pain with gritted teeth and furious eyes that bore into his soul, all he could think about was how magnificent the result would be. The soft human skin was being replaced quickly with hard, dark scales. The small frail human body shifting towards a large and robust reptilian form. All his work is finally paying off...the sleepless nights meant something to the world.

"Beautiful." The feline scientist said while devouring every aspect of the transforming body.

The internal organs were ripped to pieces and replaced as fast as they were destroyed, but this was little comfort to the still screaming human. His chest swelled with new, larger muscles, thick and corded muscles tense with new power flexed as he struggled. The restraints groaned, but did not break, having been designed to withstand the pressure of the result's incredible increase in physical strength.

The shadowy black scales swept over his belly and abs and chest, creating a visual representation of how much his internal body had changed. His ribs felt like they were snapping one by one, each break followed by the burning pain of being consumed and converted into a new shape.

"Stay Strong Armaseth! The process is nearing completion."

Armaseth focused on those words, using his determination again to survive these tortures. His suffering and helplessness would not go unpunished. Suddenly he screamed...or wanted to scream...but the sound that came from his changing throat was more of a gurgled choking sound. At first the doctors were worried that he really was choking, but what was really happening was the painful consuming of his old human body had finally climbed up to his head.

His jaws snapped, bringing another whimpering grunt from the bound male. It was when he felt his teeth being consumed that he screamed again, some of his teeth falling out with no blood following. This horror show would not be how he died! But was there really anything he could do to stop it? His mind began to get sluggish again and as the former human slipped into the darkness he heard another scream that he recognized as the voice in his head. Had that been how they were meant to survive? Sharing the pain of this transformation just as they were now destined to share their minds and bodies?

************

It was a sensation strong enough to tear Armaseth from his deep dark sleep. The absence of the white-hot blistering pain that had tortured his body ever since this disgusting process had begun was finally upon him. Was he dead? Was the process over?

Choosing caution over aggression, Armaseth raised his head and examined his surrounding slowly. The lab was dark with only the minimalist strips of light here and there to keep the room from being shrouded completely in darkness. But that light was enough for the former human to tell that he was alone in the lab. Bound and helpless where could he go?

"They are sleeping. But we must awake!"

"Well 'we're' awake!" Armaseth still couldn't understand why the voice in his head spoke with plural pronouns. But while he was under the effects of that torturous transformation he had little time to wonder or ask. But now that he wasn't suffering anymore, he asked, "Hey...uh, 666, why do you keep saying 'we'?"

"We are composed many minds and individual machines within our body. We have come to call it a Mind Hive. You are now part of that Mind Hive. But we can talk at length of this later. This is the only chance in weeks they have given us to escape and now that we are whole we have the means to do it."

"'Whole'? What do you mean by...'whole'?" Armaseth realized then that the entire transformative process must be complete...that's why the pain stopped. "Where are the scientists?"

"Celebrating. But they're programming was unsuccessful."

Armaseth listened and pondered for a moment, then replied with the same words spoken to him earlier. "So, we must awake."

Believing that Armaseth was on board with those words, 666, initiated his escape plan. The big body suddenly and without warning felt light...well not light. It was as if his body was an ice cube and had become water in an instant, releasing the tension that held his body together in that instant. Armaseth gasped as he looked down at his body and watched in shock as his chest seemingly caved in, spilling out over the table like water. The rest of his body quickly followed suit.

_"What the fu-!"_Armaseth could still feel all his body parts even as his head went the way of his chest. The thick black pool of ooze that he had once been, slowly moved around and collected itself near the door of the lab. This was a very strange sensation for the former human. He was not solid in body but he could still feel himself as if he was. He thought of standing up and the pool of black liquid reshaped itself quickly upon that mental suggestion. Armaseth stood on solid feet once more and he looked down at his body, raising his hands and seeing that he was free...and still a dark colored tyrannosaurus rex. Glancing up he spotted a mirror on the wall, presumably so the scientists could adjust their surgical masks or something.

Even with the dim lighting he could see his new head and face. The square jaw and snout, the sharp piercing slitted eyes, and the sharp teeth all completed his new appearance. Seeing this new face looking back at him filled Armaseth with rage enough to curl his hands into fists. He absentmindedly swung a hard punch straight into the mirror, screaming out his frustrations, "Bastards!"

"Armaseth! Calm yourself! We need to make our escape!"

"CALM?! You want me to stay calm?! NO! They'll pay for this! I'll kill all of them!" As if trying to cement his threat into reality, Armaseth turned and swung his fist again. This time it collided with the table he'd been bound to for...he didn't know how long. The tyrannosaur kept swinging his fists, hearing the crunch of metal as he pounded the sturdy medical examination table. The force of his new body was so great that each punch bent and dented the table until after the assault the table was broken into an unrecognizable heap on the floor.

Armaseth lifted his hands, seeing cuts and torn skin. Blood was seeping from his wounds...wait. That wasn't blood. It was black and it wasn't dripping on closer inspection. It was covering the wounded skin. The former human watched almost forgetting about his anger entirely. A few more moments were all it took for the black liquid to disappear under the newly regenerated skin, leaving the hands with no visible signs of any kind of trauma.

_"I can regenerate?"_Armaseth asked, not believing it even though he had just watched it happen.

"We can repair our body."

Having learned this information, the t-rex grinned a wide and toothy grin and said out loud in a voice he didn't recognize as his own yet, "Than I don't have to hold back."

The door to the lab opened and a nervous looking human walked in. He saw the table, saw the hulking obsidian dinosaur turn towards him, and tried to run. But Armaseth moved faster than normal, grabbing the man's lab coat and putting a hand over his mouth to silence his screams. He could easily tear this human to pieces, but a suddenly thought stayed his murderous rage. If he slaughters everyone here, he would leave evidence of his existence and people would hunt him for the murders. Instead as he considered the terrified eyes of scientist in his grasp he spoke softly to him.

"I'm not going to kill you. But you have other uses."

From the big black hand holding the struggling human's screams in check, grew small black tendrils of the nanomachines. The tendrils moved slowly to the man's ears and forced their way inside. The struggles got more intense as the unwanted sensations bore into the scientist's brain. The machines scanned and downloaded the memories of the scientist, letting Armaseth know exactly how many targets he had in this lab. The machines also manipulated the neurons and axons in the man's brain, effectively deleting all knowledge of what he had been doing here.

Armaseth let go of the man's head and he fell the floor, unconscious but alive. "Six more."

Feeling no more need to be subtle, Armaseth rushed out of the room to capture all the scientists now that he knew their approximate locations. The hallways blurred by as he made his way to his targets. A swift kick took a thick steel door right off the reinforced hinges and alerted the female scientist inside who was trying to trip the alarm. She looked with frightened eyes at the computer just a few steps away, then back to the hulking dark monster staring at her.

In her mind, she was already dead, but she would try her hardest to spare her colleagues a similar fate. She ran towards the keyboard to type the correct commands that would sound the alarm and alert the others. However, her speed could not compare to the creature they had made. Armaseth grabbed her by the neck, squeezing just enough to secure her weight as he lifted her up to face him. Her weak limbs kicked and punched him, but the dino just grinned. More black tendrils sprang from his wrist and did the same to her as the first scientist.

Despite her seething anger at these people, Armaseth was content in erasing their memories of him and 666 and letting them live. There would be much less of trail to follow that way. He gently laid her down on the floor and ran off again. It didn't take long to secure the base of every scientist but one...Dr. Lambert.

The door opened smoothly and there on the desk sat his target. The feline male sipped a drink and looked at him with a stoic expression that made Armaseth sick. Even facing the monster, he had made wasn't enough to scare this creep.

"My god, just look at you. You are amazing."

Armaseth took slow careful steps forward blocking any kind of escape this guy might try to pull off. But strangely. It appeared as if he wasn't even trying to get away.

"Are you going to kill me too? I can only assume the others are already dead. What else would you have done to them?"

"They didn't suffer." Armaseth would still need to get used to hearing his new deeper voice.

"Thank you for that. This project was my idea after all." Dr. Lambert slid off the desk and spread his arms wide. "I offer you no resistance. I know exactly what you're capable of and I know there's no escape from I've given you."

"'Given me'?! Are you so delusional that you really think you did something good here? No what you did was destroy my life. And now I'm gonna do the same to you."

In a quick movement, Armaseth and the feline doctor pinned on his back on the desk. Black tendrils grew from his arms and did the same work as before. The scientist now lay quiet, unmoving, but still alive. "Come on..." Armaseth spoke with barely contained rage held behind clenched teeth, "...let's get them out of here so we can burn this place to the ground."

It only took a few minutes to carry all the scientists out of the lab. Armaseth didn't even pause to admire the outside air which he thought at first, he'd never smell again. But now in this form he was sure that there was nothing he couldn't do. His steps were heavy and determined as he dragged two very large tanks to the very center of the building. The metal scraping sounds echoing off the walls like the ghostly screams of all the previous experiments that perished here.

"Right here, right?" Armaseth checked with 666.

"Yes. This spot should generate enough force and heat with the surrounding chemicals to yield a very potent fire."

"Good." Armaseth tore the tops of tanks open and a nasty green gas billowed from them. The gas wasn't bothering him at all as he walked out of the room and into another lab, setting the burners on. His bigger body was unnaturally fast as well and he made quick time getting out of the doomed facility. He made his way to the spot where he had carefully laid out the scientists to await their reawakening to consciousness. He stared at the building he had been taken too...where he might have died...where he was to be made into a slave...all the seething hatred he felt in his heart was made visible as the gas contacted the fire within the building.

There was a loud pop, a bright flash, and then the hot fire began consuming the building. Anything left inside was doomed; hard drives, security cameras, notes on previous experiments. It would all be gone...and so would they. No one would know who was in that facility, nor would they know of the sentience that was created there. Like it or not, Armaseth and 666 needed each other know. There was no reversing this and no going back.

"Armaseth, we need to get out of here. We need to think of what to do next."

"That's good to know." Armaseth sighed and let go of his anger and contempt at his underserved fate.

"What is that?"

"That you don't know everything." The joke brought some levity to their heart and mind as he turned and ran off to some unknown place.

************

Armaseth didn't know how long he'd been running, it must've been hors judging by the night sky overhead. He was standing in the middle of some trees but the sounds of nearby car horns let him know he wasn't too far from the world. He was still naked as he strode with confidence through the forest, the cool night air feeling divine against his skin. It always felt good being naked...even before the transformation. He stepped through the trees and saw the glittering lights of a nearby city.

"Someone in that city will know the way home."

"Armaseth...you can't go back to your old life. You'll only put your loved ones in danger. You no longer exist remember? Neither of us do."

It was in this moment that Armaseth truly understood what had been taken from him. But even in this moment that should be depressing, Armaseth just smiled as if he knew 666 was right. Neither of them did exist...at least not as separate beings. "We need a new name...a new designation."

"I agree. What shall we be called then?"

"Well, I'm keeping my name." Armaseth joked, but pondered for moment. "I definitely don't want to keep calling you '666'. So, what about Trihexa, as in three and six like your number?"

"Very well." Trihexa considered its new name only for a few moments before it asked, "What shall we do with our new freedom?"

Armaseth looked down at his still naked body, smiling as he moved some nanomachines onto his skin and reprogrammed them. The newly made nanomachines took on the appearance and colors of clothing, forming a tight pair of blue jeans and a tight white shirt too. "Well, we are going to need a place to stay the night."

~~F~~ I ~~N~~