Disclaimer and Notes: see Prologue
The Experiment – HST 17
by Belladonna
~Chapter 2~
“What have you done?” he asked completely stunned, ignoring for the moment that these people knew his name, his real name and wouldn’t he have already sat down on a chair, he probably would have fallen down on the floor. All colour had disappeared from his pale face at this revelation and slowly an even more terrifying realization began to work its way into his thoughts. He did not like what he found there right now, not at all.
“Well, let me try to put it in a way so that you might understand it. I have developed a technique to separate certain DNA-strands from the rest, to duplicate a human being…”
“You mean he’s a bleedin’ clone or what?” the man named Windsworth asked bluntly. He might not be as well versed in modern medical techniques and neither in how much farther modern genetic research or genetic technology had advanced since his days but inside his head several alarm bells were ringing shrilly at the doctor’s explanation.
“If you would let me finish I might be able then to explain that it is much easier than that and maybe more difficult than you can imagine”; Jonas tried again to start explaining, knowing well that Windsworth would not understand him. He definitely had to advance the process in future uses. “Well, first he is not a clone like you might think. He is you.”
“Cut that crap, that is not possible and nothing you tell me will make me believe this”; Windsworth said growling. “That’s bloody insane! What makes you think…”; he wanted to ask another question but the sound of another alarm distracted the good doctor. He stood up and his fingers pushing down some buttons on the interface to cut the alarm. Then Jonas took an injector syringe from the instrument tray, it was filled with a clear blue liquid and put it into the pocket of his coat.
“Wait here, please”; he instructed Windsworth and turned to finally face the other man who was just awakening. The man strained in the bindings having assessed the situation much faster and also what had happened to him. Well, at least as far as was in his knowledge to this moment Contrary to Windsworth the other man was not that confused after waking up and his blue eyes flashed angrily around, scrutinizing every detail of the room he was able to see from his viewpoint. But even he wasn’t able to banish all the fear out of them, despite his nature and so they were darting fearfully from corner to corner, mirroring his terror but also his anger, hate and him clearly being pissed off at his situation. He did not want to be restrained, felt helpless and that was something he never wanted to feel again in his life.
The memory of what had brought him here had hit him with the force of a freight train, wherever this here was and it made him even madder.
Putting his full fury into his voice he demanded loudly to be released immediately, a wish that Jonas wasn’t as willing to fulfil at the moment without any precautions. The doctor stepped towards the table, talking in a soothing voice to the thrashing man while still remaining a safe distance for himself, even with the restraints on the man intact.
“Who the hell are you?” the man hissed towards Jonas and his face changed, revealing his true nature. “Where am I?”
“My name is Jonas, Dr. Jonas”; Jonas introduced himself, now that his suspicions were proved right. He tried to maintain a calm voice what was not that easy for him in spite of the demonically distorted face looking back to him. Oh, he might have seen many demons for his research here at the Initiative but he had never seen that much hatred and fury like in this ones eyes. Still he did his best to regain his inner peace while taking notes on his clipboard, the syringe still hidden inside his pocket. “I will answer all your questions, as soon as you have calmed down.” Inside his mind however he already knew that this would prove impossible.
The man on the table did not think of even calming down an inch. Instead all what Jonas’ words achieved was that he was even more frantically pulling at his restraints so that the doctor truly feared they would give in. Windsworth too had come closer now, still hiding in the shadows so that the thrashing man could not see him. He had been curious at this but now a different feeling spread out inside his stomach and he did not like it. The other man hadn’t seen him, at least not yet for he still was screaming to be released, bucking wildly but the cuffs were still in place though the metal did give away some screeching sounds. And of course Windsworth hadn’t seen him awake yet wearing his true face. Jonas couldn’t see any possibility to get closer to the man to calm him by sedating him again and made himself another mental note to implant the injection device he had invented underneath the subject’s skin the next time.
The moment Windsworth stepped into the light the restraints snapped with a sound that was like a gunshot had been fired. The man on the table was surprised for a moment so that he did calm down for a second to gather his thoughts on what to do next; so far it had been purely his instinct that had driven him. That was also when he saw Windsworth for the first time.
At first he thought him for being another doctor but then he could get a closer look at the other man’s face and he froze. Jonas thanked whatever deity must be above him for this chance and acted quickly, producing the syringe out of his pocked and injecting the other man with its content. It made a small hissing sound when it emptied itself into the other man’s arm and the man fell back onto the table; the sedative instantly working. Jonas removed the broken restraints and replaced them with new ones, that were connected with the table and made of extra strong and molecularly heightened Duranium steel, now snapping close and in place loudly. Why hadn’t he used them in the first place? After securing the now once more out cold man Jonas turned around towards Windsworth whose face again had noticeably lost colour. He now was as pale as a shroud.
“That is not me”, he stammered, forgetting for a moment what he truly was and had been shoved under his nose seconds ago wearing the other man’s face, his own – a face he hadn’t seen for a long time but still recognized for his own. Even in its contorted form. “That is not me. You lied to me, this is an animal!”
“I think we should continue our talk over there”, Jonas gestured towards the table again. “I have not finished my explanation to you, Mr. Windsworth.”
Windsworth followed the doctor who put down the syringe onto the instrument tray on his way towards the table and let himself then heavily fall down on a chair. A small voice in the back of his head told him that it indeed was rather odd for the doctor, a man he hadn’t even seen in his whole life before would know his name, his true name and call him that instead of the name he himself had chosen and taken upon. Jonas studied him, the obvious weakness did not come to his liking.
“I did not say that he was you, at least I did not mean it directly”; he began his explanation anew, with Windsworth reluctantly listening while his glance from time to time wandered towards the other man, his double on the table.
“I want a bloody explanation not this scientific crap you told me earlier, is that too much to ask?” Windsworth demanded, but his voice did sound tired and weak.
“I already told you that you are part of an experiment, just like he is…”
“Quit the experiment crap, I never bloody volunteered to do this! You’ve cloned me or what?” Windsworth asked him, clearly defeated after not even having tried to fight and his glance was directed onto nothing particular. He dimly remembered to have read something about this, or at least heard of it, but he had never imagined to experience it with his own body. Of course the prospect of cloning had intrigued him, but always in another context. And what was it that confused him that much, what was it he felt missing?
“Well, not exactly”; Jonas began again and sighed. This was straining his patience and he sure would see for some severe changes concerning certain mental developments for his next experiment. “To put it that way, I have developed or rather more invented a technique that allows me to duplicate a subject. It is not directly like the cloning process rather more like the possibility to create a mirror duplicate. He”; he gestured towards the unconscious man, “is towards a certain point you, your dark half so to speak. Well, the process is far from being perfected, but…”
“My what?!” Windsworth looked directly toward Jonas, trying to bring up the flare of threat usually sparkling inside his eyes but instead they looked rather distant, lethargic.
“He is your dark soul”; Jonas continued, his chest swelled at his work with undisguised excitement and pride which surely would bring him the Nobel price one day for this, the recognition he had longed for so many years. “He is the embodiment of all your dark wishes, desires, aggressions and violence. He is all that which you have hidden deep inside you, buried underneath; your other you.”
“But I don’t understand this”; Windsworth protested weakly. He was absolutely stunned. How could anybody do a thing such unethical as this, he didn’t even bloody volunteer for this, at least he couldn’t remember. Sure he had done horrible things in his past as he had memorized it, but this was even horrifying for him. And his dark soul? He could very well remember to have heard more than a thousand times to not possess one and the last thing he actively remembered anyways was having been in a park, the park behind the University of Sunnydale with the light of the stars and the paleness of the moon before he had woken up on the table here, in restrains.
But he found himself unable to form but the slightest aggressive thought against this doctor, no matter how hard he tried to bring forth anger and the fury that fuelled his existence and that made him even more concerned. What use could someone possibly seek out of this experiment; who would profit from this? Windsworth found his thoughts circling around this one question. And why had he been that weak to not stand up against this man, to rip his throat out and then let him drown in his own blood. Where did all these thoughts come from?
“Well, simply put”; Jonas tried out a different approach and studied the reactions he got from Windsworth for this next revelation exactly. “He is not a clone, just a mirror image of you that is just as the real William Windsworth as you are.”
Windsworth sunk inside himself, broken like a doll which strings had been cut. He still could not realize or digest what he was hearing. No matter what he had done in his past, this was inhumanly. But he could not see any way out of here. What had been done to him and why? Why wasn’t he able to just shrug off these doubts and fight his way out of that lab?
“I have developed a machine, a technique that allows me to separate the darker emotions, those hidden deep inside you from everything else, to bring them forth and then isolate them. To separate this dark personality, the demon from the man to put it out quite bluntly and you are my first success”; Jonas finished his speech; extremely pleased with the results of his experiment so far. Still, in his mind he made himself another note to not only strengthen the darker emotions and traits of a person in the subject but also the other ones to make it more useful, by targeting the higher mental skills for example. Then, leaving Windsworth alone with his thoughts and this new information to digest, Jonas simply stood up and left the laboratory.
go to Chapter 3
back to Chapter 1