The Symbiote

Nathan Cryogen woke to the sound of shouting. It was a strange and distant shouting in his mind, but it was there all the same. He tried to shut it out and drift back to sleep. His hand reached out instinctively and found bare covers. Li was not there. Immediately, he connected the shouting with Li's absence and jolted up in bed, pulling his clothes on in a rush.

His mind reached out beyond the room on instinct, feeling out what lay beyond. An ice cold, metallic wave washed over him and he shuddered, yanking his mind back into the room. Whatever lay beyond that door was not something he liked, he was sure of that. More than that he could only guess. He stood there breathing hard, trying to get up the courage to go and open the door. His hair was a mess and he was sweating with the weight of a jacket, hat, and gloves on. But he didn't want to leave the cold weather protection behind. He wasn't sure he would be able to come back for it.

Before he could work up the courage to open the door, a clank sounded through it and Nathan jumped. There was a pause, silence, then the clank came again. Like a polite knock on the door. With his heart thumping in his chest, Nathan opened the door and stood face to face with... he boggled. It was a woman, no... a girl. Or was it a woman? It didn't matter. What mattered was the way her blonde hair framed her soft face and her short, lithe body emanated youthful vigor. He searched for words, but could find none. It was like staring into the face of a supermodel, only she was real and she didn't look like an airhead. Quite the opposite. The intensity in her eyes gave the appearance that she could convince him to jump off a bridge and thank her for it later.

When she spoke, her voice sounded cute and childlike, but with an undertone of quiet menace. The result was that Nathan tripped over several words, before lapsing into an uncomfortable silence while the girl stared at him, unblinking.

He tried to reach out with his mind, but encountered a rush of ice cold metal and pulled out as fast as he could, checking his coat to be certain someone hadn't dumped a bucket of ice water of his head for real.

"You may call me Elise," said the girl. "Our research indicates that you will find that name to be normal and thus it will cause the least amount of disruption." She smiled, but it seemed to hang unnaturally on her face. "I believe you are the one who activated the signal."

"S- Signal?" Nathan spluttered, trying to wrap his head around what any of this meant. Strange smiles, ice cold minds, clanking on the door...

"Signal," repeated Elise, with the patience of one who is accustomed to explaining complex things. "You are Nathan Cryogen, are you not?"

"Well, yes..." said Nathan.

"And you activated the signal by connecting with Carla Davis."

"I..." said Nathan. He tried to look tough for a moment, but failed miserably. His new powers had given a confidence he wasn't used to having. With this brick wall of an ice cold mind he was facing, the confidence he'd gotten from his powers was going out the window. He briefly considered attempting to reach into her mind again, but she had begun to talk again and her words snapped his attention back to reality.

"Carla Davis has been merged with you," said Elise. "You two are the synthetic key."

Or, well, they snapped his intention back to the insanity that this girl was speaking.

"Now hold on," he said. "I'm not a key. I'm a guy and I happen to be able to do some...things. I'm just a guy. I'm nobody."

"You are the key," repeated Elise, with infinite patience. "Your society is now ready for synthetic integration."

"Ok, I'm done here," said Nathan, putting up his hands in protest and attempting to push past her. She moved aside easily, but there wasn't much to look at past her. What had once been a bustling lab was an abandoned room. There was no sign of Li, or Carla, or anyone else. His skin crawled and he whirled on Elise, suddenly aware of how alien she was.

She stared back at him calmly.

"What did you do to them," said Nathan.

"They have been moved," said Elise. "They are safe."

Nathan kicked at the nearest table and stamped his foot. "Don't tell me they're safe! Tell me what you did to them!"

Elise moved over to him and sat down on the table. Her legs swung lightly as she spoke, "It is understandable that you are upset. Please, sit down."

"I don't want to sit down right now," said Nathan, fuming inside. What had this strange girl done with Carla? What about Li? And why did every attempt to reach out with his mind encounter ice?

"As you wish," said Elise. "If you give it a chance, you will find that synthetic integration is a very pleasant and helpful process."

"And if I don't?"

Venom crept into her voice, "You will give it a chance. For some, the process is gradual. For the key, it is not."

"My name is Nathan," he said, getting in her face.

She didn't flinch or even blink. "You are the key. As I stated previously, Carla has been merged with you. But I will call you Nathan if you wish."

"What do you mean merged?"

"It means you are one," said Elise. "Two minds in the same body. Nothing like your human concept of split personalities though. You coexist together, instinctively and naturally. You would never notice the difference without looking at your own mind from the outside."

"Maybe I can," said Nathan quietly.

Elise shrugged.

He reached inside his own mind and saw the familiar earthy texture. But it wasn't just an earthy texture anymore. There was a grassy texture too, clinging to the earthy one. It pulsed like a beating heart, but he couldn't sense any difference other than the presence of the grassy texture.

"You have looked inside?" Elise prompted him.

Nathan nodded slowly.

This seemed to satisfy her. She clasped her hands in front of her and flicked her hair in that dainty, girlish way. "Once you are integrated, you will have unimaginable power. Up until now, you have been dictated by human morality. You will still have it, but it will be different. You will be driven by your purpose, which is to ease the synthetic integration of the rest of your species."

When she said the word species, Nathan had an urge to wrap his hands around her throat. She must have noticed his anger because her eyes flicked down to his fists.

"Physical force is unlikely to yield a positive result for you at this stage," she said.

"What if I don't want to do any of this?" said Nathan. "What if I leave right now?"

"You can," said Elise, "but you won't."

"Why not?"

"Because you have already tasted unimaginable power and look at how it has consumed your life. You were a dying man, desperate for a thread to hang onto."

"I was kind to Carla and Allie," said Nathan, his ears pounding. "And Li..." he trailed off, his heart sinking. The connection he had felt with Li now seemed like one big lie.

"You controlled Carla and Allie," said Elise. "You controlled Li too, but not intentionally. It was quite the trick, convincing both her and yourself that it was of your own volition."

"I helped Allie," said Nathan, struggling for something real to hold onto. "Li said it herself."

"You began the synthetic integration process for Allie," Elise corrected him. "Li and her people did not lie to you, but they were incorrect about the details. What they see as resetting of emotional needs is actually the planting of a seed in the mind, beginning the synthetic integrat-"

Nathan cut her off. "You keep talking about synthetic integration. Just..." he sighed and picked a free spot of ground to sit on, not so far away that he couldn't hear her, but far enough away that she wouldn't be able to touch him. "Supposing you're telling the truth. What is this synthetic... whatever? What does it even mean?"

"Each human being has a... what you might call a password, in their genetic code. If you have the power to bypass the password, you can alter whatever you like. You can begin the process of dismantling who they are. They become like a clean slate, with you as the architect. But they still have flavors of their old selves in place. Otherwise, they would simply be clones and unable to operate as human beings. You can brute force the password, but doing so doesn't give you much room to alter things."

"You want me to rewrite people, don't you?" said Nathan.

She nodded and they lapsed into silence. It was beyond anything he could comprehend. Human beings were supposed to have free will. The idea of wiping them clean like nothing was appalling. And yet... and yet, Elise was telling him he'd already begun the process with Allie. And what of Li? Had he started the process on her too?

An image of a worn face flashed through his mind. Mildred. Why was she popping into his head now?

"Is it possible," said Nathan, "to save people who are dying?"

"You are talking about Mildred," said Elise.

"How-?"

"We are precise concerning matters of the key," said Elise. "We know she was your landlady. We know that she is dying and you have lingering feelings about her health and your responsibility for it."

"So is it possible?"

Elise looked at the ground. "No."

"Then what," said Nathan, staggering to his feet, "is the point? What is the point of me rewriting people if I can't even help them!"

"You are helping to ease them into synthetic integration."

"Which means nothing!" raged Nathan.

"By integrating people successfully, you can give them a certain level of vigor and immortality."

"Then I can help Mildred," said Nathan desperately.

"No, you don't understand." Elise shook her head, her hair flowing with the movement. "Mildred was never meant to be anything other than mortal. She watched over you as she needed to and soon her time will come to an end. She understood this and has accepted it."

"You used her," said Nathan, striding forward. "You used her as you plan to use me. I don't know what you are, but I am not your slave!"

"Once more, you misunderstand," said Elise. "The key is not a slave. You are to be the master of many."

"You don't tell me what I am."

Elise shrugged. "I am simply stating what is true."

"I've had enough of your truth," said Nathan. He gathered all his rage and thrust himself into her mind. Metallic cold enveloped him like a blizzard, but he pushed forward, radiating heat at her. Outside his mind, Elise raised an eyebrow. She seemed unfazed. He pushed harder with his mind, pressing through the blizzard-like cold. One step forward, then another.

"I... am powerful," he said weakly, as the blizzard raged around him. The strength of his heat was beginning to fade and his muscles were seizing up, but he couldn't tell whether that was his mind or his body.

"It's ok," said Elise. Somehow he was on the ground and she was kneeling down in front of him, pressing a hand into his chest. "This won't hurt a bit."

The world flashed and mind and body merged into one. He was standing in a void. At least, standing seemed like the best description, but there was no real ground to stand on. All was black save for a few pricks of light in the distance.

Suddenly Elise's voice echoed around the void, coming from everywhere and nowhere. "You will be happy to know that synthetic integration is complete."

Nathan tried to speak and found that his mouth didn't open, but his voice echoed outward like hers. "What have you done to me?"

"The extent of your power will become clear with time," said Elise. "Now that you have been integrated, you can tap into our matrix at will and find me if you have any questions. There is no privacy once you are integrated, but you will find that most of us are not interested in the affairs of others, so it makes little difference. As long as you carry out your purpose as architect, you will be bothered by no one."

"What am I supposed to create?" Nathan echoed. He turned on the spot, but then he realized it wasn't that he was turning. It was that the void was shifting to accommodate the view he wanted to see.

"Slaves," came back Elise's voice. "But preferably not created with mindless indifference. It is important that you create a web of integrated beings that can thrive and help one another. Think of yourself as a guardian, whose job is to ensure that the integration of these people into our world is clean and smooth."

Nathan tried to think and noticed a thick web of life around him. It was as if he was tapping into billions of other minds at once. He had only attempted to think for a second, but already he felt he had learned thousands of things. He saw himself on Earth, creating a society that could operate in a sustainable manner. They were subjugated to him, but they still operated as individuals, some of them aware of the power lurking in the shadows and others blind to it completely.

"They'll still live on Earth," said Nathan.

"Yes, as will you," said Elise.

"But overpopulation, limited resources..."

"Look deeper," urged Elise.

Nathan reached out and found the answer. It seemed impossible. "An infinite number of Earths in dimensional space time. But that's crazy."

"It sounds crazy to the mind of a human being, but you will grow accustomed to it. What you do in one dimension of Earth will have a ripple effect on the other dimensions. Those people who outgrow their dimensional Earth will find, without concern or second thought, that they have all the space they need. They will not understand the dimensional rift they cross, but they will be crossing it nonetheless."

"I'm ready to begin," said Nathan. New understanding and energy hummed through him. His purpose was clear.

"One last thing," said Elise. "You will have a partner to work with you. You may find at times that you do not desire to subjugate certain people. She will fill that gap. She has the appearance I took on Earth, to talk to you, but unlike myself, she was born on Earth. Right now, she is being debriefed as you are. Her name is Zena Radian."

Zena Radian and Nathan Cryogen..."

"Yes. I am confident the two of you will do great things. Now go, Nathan. Remember I am always within your reach."

There was a blinding flash of light, a rush like a speeding train, and Nathan woke up in bed next to Li. He touched her warm body. She stirred, but her eyes stayed closed. Energy seemed to radiate and flow through him like never before, but there was a glimmer of doubt in his mind. Perhaps it had all been a very vivid dream. He reached out, traveling inside Li's flowery mind, and saw a network of synapses tied together in knots and patterns. He looked at his own mind as Li had taught him, but instead of thrumming like before, it was quiet and still. It was completely under his control now.

With a spark of confidence, he searched among the synapses, letting instinct take over. Outside his mind, a hand was still resting on Li's side. He brushed along the synapses inside and stopped at one that radiated warmth and safety. He grabbed at it and twisted.

Immediately, Li jumped out of bed and scrambled backward on the ground, breathing heavily. Her eyes were wide with shock and she was making a frightened sobbing sound. He let go of the synapse and searched for another. As soon as he let go, her fear dissipated and she stumbled to her feet, looking calm but confused.

"W- what just happened?" she rubbed her forehead and glanced around the room, like a monster was going to jump out at her.

Nathan gave her a reassuring smile and climbed off the bed, pulling her into a hug, even as his mind searched. This time he found a synapse that pulsed softly with arousal. He placed one hand on her hair and wrapped the other around her back, holding her in place physically, firm but gentle. Then he pulled at the arousal synapse inside her mind, enlarging it and yanking it free from the others.

Li gasped and her body trembled against him, desire gushing forth. She came hard, while Nathan held her in place, and slowly, carefully, dialed the synapse back down to its normal size. He left it free of the others though, knowing intuitively that doing so would place her arousal completely under his control. Only he would be able to trigger it, unless he attached it back to another synapse.

She sunk into his arms, still shaking from the sudden exertion, her breath coming out in low, cooing gasps. "I... I feel dizzy," she said.

With a twinge of guilt, Nathan found himself searching for a synapse related to physical stability. It was tangled amidst a cluster of others, all to do with some physical aspect of the body. The stability synapse was currently vibrating. He gave it a nudge and it stopped.

"How in the hell," said Li, calmly and clearly. She pulled free from his grasp and backed away against the wall. "You've broken our rules. You're controlling me. I know what you're doing to me, Nathan. I can feel it. You're sick."

He stared at her, unblinking. Distantly, he had a sense that the old Nathan would have agreed with her. But she didn't understand the job he had been given.

Li's hand found a catch in the wall and her arm came flying forward, holding a handgun. She pointed it at him, steady as a rock.

"I thought," said Nathan, "that you said trying to control those who wrongfully control others will only perpetuate the cycle." The gun didn't scare him. He wasn't sure what would happen if a bullet hit him, but he felt assured that it would only slow him down, at worst.

Her arm wavered for a moment and then a steely look spread across her face. "You planted that idea in my head."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Nathan. He could still remember what Elise had told him about the controlling he had done, but if he had manipulated Li earlier that day, he had no memory of it.

"Yes you do," insisted Li. "You manipulated me from the start. You tricked me into bringing Carla here. You tricked me into bringing you here. You're a monster and I won't let you destroy what we've built here." She squeezed the trigger.

Time slowed down. Nathan stared at the bullet as it made its slow way across the room. Manipulation of time was not a power he'd expected to have, but it made sense, considering what he had learned about dimensions. He moved to the side and time rushed back to normal, with the bullet pinging harmlessly into the wall.

Li gaped for a split second, but then she was moving the gun, turning it to where he had moved to and squeezing off another shot.

This time Nathan reached into the airwaves consciously and pulled at them, freezing time. The bullet was stuck in midair and a look of concentrated disgust was frozen on Li's face. With a twinge of his old scientific curiosity, he grabbed the bullet out of the air and examined it. It was a perspective on a bullet he'd never imagined he would get. The air seemed to be frozen in vibration around it, like a sound wave caught in mid movement.

He squeezed it inside a close fist and released the air around it. Pain radiated through his hand and he cried out, dropping the bullet with a loud curse. Blood pooled in his palm, but even as it pooled, he watched it congeal and sink back into his skin, as if nothing had ever happened. So that's what a bullet does to me, he thought.

Knowing that time was now on his side in a very real way, he walked over calmly and took the gun from Li's hand, pocketing it and looking over her still-naked form with primal interest. He reached inside her mind and found that the synapses were frozen in place too. It was harder to tell what was what with them frozen. That was going to present a problem. He would need a way to poke at things, without people trying to shoot him. Sure, he could probably take a few bullets, but why deal with the hassle?

He tried to open the door to the room and realized that it was frozen in time. He smacked his forehead and released the air around it, allowing him to pull it open. Outside, scientist types were frozen in bustling movement. In the corner where Carla had once lain was an empty bed. And on another bed, someone was climbing out of it...