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Author's Note: Here were are, Ch.6. I meant to have this up last week but it got a bit delayed in my head.As I mentioned in the Note from last chapter and in a blog, I decided to use a different picture to represent Bethany now. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on her new look :)Oh and kudos to anyone who knows what those numbers and one letter is at the end but if you do know and figure it out, keep it to yourself please. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and my beta readers for their great help.

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6.

“That’s good Bethany,” said the Doc as I finished my tenth rep with the free weights.

I set down the weights and gave her a friendly smile.

She looked up from making something on her pad, smiling as well.

It was kind of strange meeting the Doc face to face after talking to her for several days. It was even stranger to see how young she was. Or rather how young she appeared to be. The way she looked and the way she spoke were two different things entirely. I couldn’t help but wonder if this pretty blonde twenty-something was actually my Mom’s age or older. I mean it was pretty amazing what surgery could do these days. In a world where people could turn into idolized super beings, superior in every aspect, it was no wonder normal humans would try to compete.

I say try because there was no way they could look as good as Alphas.

As good as us.

I groaned at that thought. Here I had only been an Alpha for a few days and I was already thinking myself better than humans. I swore to myself I wouldn’t let that happen. Sure I knew Alphas were inherently better in every way but I wasn’t going to get a big head over it. I needed to be myself.

I needed to be human.

“Try the five hundred pound one next,” said the Doc giving me a friendly smile.

I moved down the rack of weights, grabbing the one she suggested.

Sure the two of us were becoming a bit friendly with one another but not really friends. I had to keep reminding myself that they weren’t here to make friends with me. The Doc and her silent companions were monitoring, making sure I was everything I could be before releasing me back to the world. If we had been real friends, she would have stopped all this and let me go. She would have also given me her name. She didn’t even flinch when I kept referring to her as Doc meaning she didn’t really care to be my friend. She was being friendly simply because it was her job.

I started to curl it, surprised at my own strength.

So far this morning I had aimed to please.

The Doc was thrilled.

Her companions were thrilled too.

I couldn’t help but sense there was something wrong though, too.

Yesterday while I was doing the written part of my tests, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched. I mean I know they’re watching me but it felt like there were a lot more eyes on me. The test itself was kind of easy. In fact, there were several of them. They ranged from different subjects too. Many of the subjects I had no idea what they were, but for reason as soon as I set out to work on them, I was able to comprehend things rather quickly. When I announced I was done, I thought I heard a bit of surprise in the Doc’s voice.

I was an Alpha; I was supposed to be smart.

So why was she so surprised?

I noticed something today too. It was when I was on the treadmill. A couple of her silent buddies kept giving me these looks. At first, I thought they were perving on me but it was more than that. They kept looking at me and then jotting down furious notes on their pads. I think they thought they were being discreet but spies they were not. What’s more, every time I finished a test and they saw my results, they raised their eyebrows slightly.

It made me wonder if I was doing something wrong.

Thinking about it now just made me more concerned.

“You can stop now Bethany,” said the Doc.

I hadn’t really been paying attention but I think I curled the dumbbell about fifty times.

Fifty times with five hundred pounds.

That was fucking crazy.

Even crazier because I felt I could do more.

I knew Alphas were strong but I never realized they were this strong.

I stopped curling and replaced the weight on the rack. I moved onto the next one only to find that I was at the end.

The Doc was staring at me strangely again.

“Good work, Bethany,” she said, though there was something in the tone of her voice that made me think she didn’t mean it.

I looked around quickly.

All eyes in the room were on me.

I rubbed my hands together.

“What’s next?”

“Next?”

I nodded. “You guys have been testing me for two days now. I’ve been poked, prodded, pinched and scanned. I’ve taken every written test known to man. I’ve run on your treadmills, I’ve benched weights, curled weights. I’ve done dozens of pushups, chin-ups, sit ups and any other up I can think of. You’ve run me through my paces. Are we done now or do you want me to write the great American novel now?”

Ok, so their stares were bothering me.

And I was cranky.

The looks I was getting now were even more annoying. They disappeared quickly. That didn’t stop them from frustrating me more. It was clear that I perplexed them but I was no different than any other Alpha. So what was the big deal?

The Doc spoke after a few moments of silence. “We’d like to give you another physical before we dismiss you.”

Dismiss me?

I groaned. “No”

She raised an eyebrow. “I hardly think you’re in a position to argue”

I smirked. “I’ve played your games, jumped through your hoops. I’m done. I WANT to go home now!”

So I raised my voice a bit in the end. I don’t give a damn.

This charade of theirs was over.

I’m going home.

The Doc took a step back. It took me a second to realize I was clenching my fists. I sighed, letting out a deep breath before relaxing. Losing my temper was not the answer. Getting angry wasn’t the answer either. Once she saw I had calmed down some, she took a step forward. She gently put a hand on my shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Then she turned to the others.

“We’re done here. I’ll make the necessary arrangements.”

This time I was surprised. “Seriously?”

She nodded. “There might be a follow up but there’s nothing more we can learn from you here.”

I was so happy I could have kissed her.

I settled for a hug instead.

I was going home.

“You can’t be serious?”

After it was designated that I could actually go home, The Doc raided their meager wardrobe and presented me with an outfit that would fit my new curves. Unfortunately, for me, they really didn’t have much of a choice. Thankfully, they got me a pair of jeans and a shirt. Not so thankfully was the fact that the jeans were so tight they literally felt a part of my skin and the shirt---if you can call it that---was nothing more than a few strips of cloth. Ok it was a little more than that but it showed a lot of cleavage and exposed both my midriff and back.

The only good thing about all this was the fact that I actually got a look at my body.

For the past few days---nearly a week now---I’d been hidden in that V Suit.

Now I got to see the real me.

Oh FYI, fully girl now.

I lost Little Ben the day after my talk with my parents.

I got a chance to see all of Beth when I was stripping out of the V suit earlier. I thought I’d feel different about the whole thing. I thought I’d feel the least bit turned on but there was nothing. Of course, it wasn’t the first naked female body I’d seen. My grandfather used to tell me that nudity was a bit of a taboo when he was growing up. That though girls readily exposed their breasts in public that the lower part of their anatomy was always covered. It was interesting what a few decades did. Not that girls walked around naked or anything but nudity was no longer something to be shunned. It helped that there was no real religion around to enforce the whole “nudity is a sin” mentality that a lot of people back in the day had.

Sure, there was still church. But after the plague and society’s restructuring, religion took a serious backseat to actual progress. We no longer relied on the All Powerful to tell us what to do. It also helped that the Middle East imploded all over themselves. After the plague, great wars broke out there. They literally wiped one another out. The holy cities were leveled, thousands of years of history lost. Our new world decided to leave all of that where it was---in the past.

Religion was now a private matter.

People were now allowed to express themselves however they wanted.

So nudity was no longer something to be afraid of.

Not that I was prepared to adapt such a policy.

“You don’t have anything else?”

I turned to Deena, looking with pleading eyes.

Oh yeah, The Doc’s name was Deena. She said since I was no longer confined to this place that it was all right if she finally gave me her name. Dr. Deena Chambers, MD, PhD, and all that blah blah. Surprisingly I’d been wrong about her age too. She wasn’t some forty year old trying to look twenty. She was actually twenty-two just really smart. She was something of a savant apparently. A kid genius who went through school early enough that she had her MD at age 12. Though she didn’t say so and I didn’t ask, there was possible genetic engineering involved. Though technically illegal, genetics was something that a lot of richer parents did to give their kids an edge.

Especially in an age where Alphas existed.

“I’m sorry about the top, it’s all there was but the pants aren’t so bad.”

It was kind of weird hearing her talk casually to me now. Before she’s been all strict and stern and official. I guess when whoever wasn’t looking; she could finally let her hair down. Literally too. Before her blonde locks were down up in this weird updo some girls liked; now they were dwon and flowing around her shoulders. That alone made her look so much younger. I noticed her glasses were gone too.

All in all, a very pretty girl.

Woman.

And sadly, I wasn’t attracted to her anymore.

I’m not sure what to think about that.

“You think I can have a mirror?”

It was kind of funny but I’d been here a week or so and still no mirror. It might be one of those things you don’t think about but when you don’t see your own reflection every day, it’s kind of weird. Deena gave me a strange look until she realized their error.

“Sorry about that” she said innocently. “We wanted to make sure the full change was through before showing you the final result. In the past, they used to keep a mirror present but they found in some cases, the new Alpha reacted badly to the changes in his or her new body”

She gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze before turning toward the false wall.

She tapped something on her tablet.

A second later, the vid screen there turned to a reflective surface.

I’d seen something similar in my sister’s bedroom.

Me, I just used an old mirror that belonged to one of my distant relatives.

Deena stepped away from the wall mirror to allow me to get a full look at myself. I took a step forward and my mouth dropped open.

Gone was the gawky, slight, tall teenage boy.

In his place was a Goddess.

Tall.

Long Black Hair.

Gorgeous Face.

Perfect Curves.

Athletic build.

An Alpha.

An Aphrodite.

Hell a Super Aphrodite.

This was me.

I took another step closer to the mirror, the girl in it reflecting my same movements. When I touched my face, she did as well. When I ran my fingers through that long, straight raven black hair, she did the same. It was kind of freaky. It was even freakier to think that this absolutely gorgeous person was in fact me. Another step closer and I saw that I was still slightly there. There were some similar features like my hair. Her face looked a bit like Mom’ too---that is if my mother had thousands of dollars worth of reconstructive surgery to look super hot. Not that Mom wasn’t beautiful; it’s just that she was just pretty.

There was something else too.

This girl had my eyes.

No, that’s not right. I had my eyes.

I couldn’t help but smile at that.

When I smiled though something else twigged about my new reflection. I’d seen this girl before. It only took me a few seconds to remember where, too.

The dream.

The girl in the mirror was the girl in the dream that Maddie had changed into.

Shit.

“Kind of shocking huh” said Deena as she appeared in the mirror behind.

For the first time, I noticed how short she really was.

Or how tall I was now.

“How tall am I?”

“Seventy four inches”

Shit. Six Foot Two.

I was barely five eight before. Which was kind of tall for a fourteen year old, I think.

Thinking about my age gave me another slight pause. I looked a little closer and smirked. I’d seen my share of fourteen-year-old girls and there was no way in hell that I passed for one anymore. I was about to ask her about it when I remembered what we learned about Alphas. When someone became an Alpha, they became an idolized form. So young, beautiful, strong etc. The girl in the mirror---me---looked about eighteen.

Damn that was going to be hard to get used.

Not that any of this was going to be easy.

This was me now.

This was Beth.

“Hi” I said softly to myself.

I took a step away from the mirror and turned sideways, letting my ego take over a tad bit. I suppose as far as Alphas go, this new me wasn’t so bad. It was a common misconception that all Alphas were alike. When in reality, there were several different kinds. Or to put it more simply, your Alpha life was partially reflected on who you were before. Sure, an overweight guy won’t turn into an overweight Alpha but he’ll have the same tendencies he had prior to it all. Take Maddie’s brother for instance. He was always really big in theater at school. It was no big shock that he became an actress after the change. Just like if you were a computer geek like Joe, you’d still be an adept computer geek as an Alpha as well.

Me, I’m not sure what I was before.

I just existed I suppose.

Looking at the new me, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of impact she’d make on the world.

Who was I now?

I looked like an athlete but so did all the other Alphas.

I was beautiful now too but so were all the other Alphas.

I didn’t feel any smarter but knew I probably was.

In fact, I didn’t really feel any different.

I just looked different.

“You all right?”

I nodded. “Just wondering what kind of person I’m going to be now?”

Deena gave me a look. It was the one she and her colleagues had been giving me the last several days now.
When she spoke, the look was gone replaced by a smile. “You can be whoever you want to be”

I scuffed. “Except Ben”

She laughed. “That might be a little hard now”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little, too. It hurt some too. Ben was gone, never to be seen again. Sure, I was still me but the Ben Me was no more. I’d be Beth for the rest of my life now. I’m not sure how I felt about that actually.

“So, how about we get you discharged?”

Whatever I was feeling about my old self was lost in that instance.

Discharged.

I was going home.

FINALLY.

“Are you ok, honey?”

I nodded, not sure what else to say.

Honestly, I was far from ok but I didn’t want Mom to worry. It was strange enough that I was her son now daughter and my life was going to be completely different now. It was going to be extremely hard now too. When my going home was discussed a few days ago, the idea of me going to The Cube was the biggest thing on everyone’s plate. Sure, ninety-nine percent of the Alphas lived there but there were others who lived with the Jects. I talked with Deena and my mother about it for a few hours, trying to decide what was the best course of action for me.

Deena thought The Cube was.

Mom thought I should try home.

Me, I was on the fence.

Both places held pros and cons but I wanted some time to decide. I also wanted to see if I could give my old life a shot. I guess I just wasn’t ready to give Ben up.

So I decided on going home.

The closer we got to our destination, however, the more I was regretting such a decision.

“You think this was right?”

“Going home you mean?”

I nodded. “I know this is what you wanted and I think it’s what I want too but I’m just not sure how everyone is going to react.”

Everyone being our neighbors, my friends, even some of my family.

Everyone also meant Maddie.

“Honey, in the end no one but you can make this decision. That’s why Deena and I discussed it with you at such length. If you feel you can’t handle it at home then we’ll get you a place in The Cube.”

By me, she meant me.

Mom and Dad were staying home.

I guess that didn’t surprise me in the least. I just couldn’t help but wonder who was going to take care of the squirt while they were working.

“I know Mom and I’m sorry I’m causing such a mess of things.”

Mom reached over from the “driver’s” seat and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

“Ben…th, you’re not a burden. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her messing up my name.

I decided to think about it as the car sped ever closer to home. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much time to do so as our street came into viewing. Cursing, I never realized how close The Q was to our Zone. I’d only been to Zone 2 a few times and only to the building that Mom worked in. It just never really occurred to me that The Q would be located there too and that it was only about a ten-minute ride from there to our actual house.

I was that close to home this whole time.

Mind-boggling.

We pulled into the garage a minute later. I watched as Mom went through the routine to shut the car down then opened the door. I took a deep breath before stepping out of the vehicle. Thankfully, it was the middle of the day so my sister was still at school. Dad was at work too so Mom and I got the house all to ourselves. When she led the way through the garage door into the kitchen, I couldn’t help but realize that nothing had changed.

Nothing except me.

“You want something to eat, honey?”

I shook my head as my Mom gave me a sympathetic smile.

Without thinking, she walked over and gave me a tight hug.

“Everything is going to be ok. I promise.”

I nodded. “I think I’m gonna go up to my room and crash for a bit. Want to check some of my mail and things.”

I’m sure I had a lot of it too.

I literally disappeared off the face of the planet over the last week or so. It didn’t help that my Bio had been off since then. Deena only got the permission to have it reactivated this morning. Sadly, I hadn’t been allowed to access it until a few minutes ago. As soon as I did, there were several beeping messages and other nonsense. I ignored them at the time but now, the flashing indication in my left eye was starting to annoy me.

I started for the stairs when Mom stopped me for a moment.

“Later, we need to talk about some things.”

I nodded.

I had a pretty good idea what.

Going to my room felt kind of strange.

I felt strange, too.

Like an Outsider.

I stopped in the doorway, staring at what had been my Mecca for all fourteen years of my life. I sighed as I realized how minimalistic I’d been. I had my bed and my desk but like I said before, there was little of anything else. Unlike my friends, I wasn’t one of those kids who liked to plaster the walls with moving posters or set their walls to constantly change colors every few days. I like my blue walls; I liked the little non-moving prints. I liked having this place just the way it was. Now however it felt kind of bland. Sure my taste hasn’t changed but it just felt like something was missing.

Yeah, me.

I walked in and dropped on the bed. I lay there for a few before deciding to tackle the mail.

Most of it was junk, spam.

There was a frantic message from Mom, must have been around the time I collapsed on my date. Then several from kids from school, all spanning over the course of a few days. I had a couple from my teachers too. All of those were pretty standard. It was the ones from my friends that seemed to draw my attention or friend as in singular. All the friend messages were from Joe. At first, he sounded a bit annoyed that I wasn’t replying then he became a bit concerned until finally it was like I was dead or something.

I think the more concerned ones came when the Bio was deactivated.

The frantic nature of his voice showed in those.

I had about a hundred message in all.

But not the one I wanted.

Damn Maddie.

After going through the mess, I thought about beeping her. Then thought against it. I knew what she thought about Alphas, I knew how she was going to react. I’ll catch her later at school. Maybe I can try to talk some sense into her before she turns me into a complete pariah.

My yawning broke my thoughts.

Crap tired already.

I rolled over, fluffing a pillow before trying to get some sleep. I don’t remember drifting off but I must of because the next thing I knew, there was a pip in my ear. I tried to ignore it but when you did that the noise only got louder. Sighing, I sat up and tapped below my ear.

“This better be important,” I groaned.

At first, there was nothing. Then I heard it.

Faint then growing louder.

Until…

44414e474552

It was repeated over and over again.

That same string of numbers and one letter.

What the hell?

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF