I had hoped I'd never wake up again. And for a while I thought I was getting there. Things became more distant and unreal and it was a relief. But now I felt the fog lifting as I slowly slid toward consciousness. The more I tried to resist, the quicker I became lucid. So I just relaxed back and waited for the wave of pain.

And I waited.

I finally began to entertain the notion that for once, the pain was not going to come. Which is when I expected to be overwhelmed by it. Still nothing.

I finally realized that I must be awake by now. But I felt no pain. In fact I didn't feel anything. Or see or hear anything. No. I heard my heartbeat and blood coursing through my veins. But I couldn't see anything. As I lifted up my arm with considerable difficulty – had I really become that frail? - I felt for my body. I was here. And seemingly full of needles and tubes. What the hell were my tormentors up to now? After what seemed like ages, I heard a stirring outside my....wherever I was... and a lid slowly opened above me. A sea of faces were silhouetted against the blinding light, as I heard one of them say “Welcome. To the REAL world.”

Another elbowed him and he let out a yelp. “Quit with the movie quotes. This is serious!” she said. “I'm Lisa. You're safe now. This is Niko. And Jose."

“We rescued you!” said the younger voice.... Jose?

“No. We just got you out.” Lisa said. “HE rescued you!” and the three faces pulled back to reveal a fourth silhouette leaning over my...wherever I was.

“Jesus Christ!” he muttered quietly... as if to himself. Then he quickly regained his composure, and as I tried to focus my eyes, I saw his warm smile. “Hi. I'm Aaron.... I didn't rescue you. I got you into this mess.”

“R00tkid” I managed to hoarsely whisper. He smiled sadly and nodded.

“And you, it would seem... are the REAL Lady Eve.”

I tired easily and they were very lenient with me, letting me rest after every exhausting conversation. I'm sure none lasted a whole five minutes. Over time I learned that I was in a saline suspension tank which they felt would speed my healing and avoid any jarring sensory stimulation. It felt like being in a big old womb, and I welcomed it. I felt like I had been in there for weeks, but apparently it was only days.

I had a brief conversation with Lisa, who it seems in her 'real' life was some sort of hotshot medical researcher. She expressed some concern over my bloodwork and asked when I was expecting my next period. I laughed bitterly and told her that wasn't going to be an issue. She took a good look at my scars and asked if my captors did that to me. I replied with a feeble smile that I hoped I'd look good on the application papers to adopt, because that was the only way I was going to be a parent now. She went pale and shuddered, and said she'd add hormonal supplements to the other therapeutics they were pumping into me.

I was getting I.V. drips of all sorts of things... nutritional supplements, painkillers, anti-inflammatories and, I was told, some mild psychotropics.

I probably should have been alarmed, but after what I had been through at the hands of my last captors, I felt protected and coddled. I was surprised to find that I was actually feeling a little more human each day. My previous experience began feeling like a terrible nightmare, fading as I progressed toward wakefulness.

I was told that this was the psychotropics. Apparently my new protectors knew as much about assuaging trauma as my previous captors knew about inflicting it. It was probably the drugs, but these people made me feel more than protected. I felt cherished.

I got out of the tank after about 10 days and gingerly rejoined the human race. Lisa loaned me some yoga pants and a cami, and generously donated some brand new underwear. “We can send someone for your old stuff. Just tell us where to get it.”

I explained how my previous captors, beginning to wonder if they had abducted the wrong person, covered their tracks by destroying my home and faking my own death, disguising it as a terrorist suicide bombing. Everyone seemed shocked by this – except R00rkid.

“I will admit I am surprised. But not by their ruthlessness... only that they were clever enough to cover their tracks.”

“I may have said something that gave them the idea” I admitted sheepishly. He smiled sadly and nodded.

“Well. You can't go home. You don't even have a life to go back to. What now?”

“I'm too emotionally exhausted to be vengeful. But these people can't be allowed to go on doing these things. They must be stopped. I'd like to help.”

R00tkid smiled. “Welcome to my world. I know exactly how you feel. And welcome to our team.”

“So how can I help?”

“I'm sure there will be many ways as we get to know you and learn about your skills and talents, but for now, I'd like you to do one major thing.”

“What?”

“For the moment. Could I ask you.... would you permit.... um, I need you to... no I'd LIKE you to...”

“Would you just come out and SAY it?”

“Be Lady Eve?”

That was the last thing I was expecting to hear.

“You want ME.... to be Lady Eve?” He nodded.

“I'd like you to meet my crew. Some people. My associates. Maybe attend some events together. Give interviews together to trusted bloggers?”

“As some sort of distraction? As some kind of decoy or ringer?”

He shook his head. “No ringer.”

“What about the REAL Lady Eve? How will SHE feel about this?”

He smiled guiltily and cast his eyes down to the floor. He fished a thumbdrive out of his pocket and handed it to me. “Ask her yourself.”

“O.K.” R00tkid said sheepishly. “Now you have me. You know my darkest secret. Something no one.... I mean NO ONE else knows.”

“There IS no Lady Eve? - There never WAS??”

“Well. There IS.... she's just.....”

“Virtual.”

He blushed.

“There were a lot of reasons behind it. It started out as an exercise in scaling the uncanny valley.... which is..”

“In my former life I was a programmer and an avid gamer. I get it. But you actually DID it? She was that believable?”

“You be the judge.” he said, taking the flashdrive and plugging it into his dock. Suddenly I was looking at my own reflection.... without all the scars.

“Christ....”

“Yeah.” R00tkid blushed again. “It's no wonder they picked you up as soon as they saw you on the grid.”

“So you knew all along I wasn't real... since there is no Lady Eve.”

“On the contrary. I knew you WERE real. Which is why their little stunt worked and they smoked me out. One of the many points behind the enigmatic, reclusive, stunningly beautiful Lady Eve being virtual is that I could finally have a public partner that I wouldn't endanger. They couldn't use her to get to me because there actually WAS no “her”. I was feeling pretty smug. I made a sim that totally fooled my adversaries – which admittedly is not that hard and nothing to brag about, but which also was believable to my colleagues and associates.... who are very, very hard to fool. None of them still know.”

“But no one got suspicious that they never MET Lady Eve?”

“Not until they helped me rescue you” he smiled.

“So these goons abducting me, supplied you with a real Lady Eve.”

“I had never imagined such a scenario. In fact, when I designed Eve I vetted her against a copious image base to filter out accidental false positives. You never showed up anywhere. And my database isn't just culled from public image bases but from a store of surveillance data you can't imagine. It's like you suddenly appeared out of ….”

“...Out of the ether?” I smiled sadly. He nodded.

“Well, I didn't always look like this. You see, I have a dark secret too.”

I explained everything to R00tkid. And for the first time since I met him, I saw genuine surprise on his face.

“I can't believe it. You're actually a GUY?!?”

“Not anymore” I shook my head sadly. “Thanks to your brutal friends. Once they destroyed my old life, they felt free to do whatever they wanted. And this is what they did.” I said passing my hand up and down my bruised, scarred, but completely female body.

“But why?”

“I think they were confused. They were beginning to doubt that I was really who they wanted to abduct, so they made me into her.”

“I thought I was hardened enough that nothing they did could surprise me. I was wrong. Oh my God. I'm SO sorry.”

“For what? You did nothing. This was all them. Yes, it was a tragic coincidence that I resembled your virtual ...girlfriend”

R00tkid went crimson

“...but what happened to me was all at their hands. Your only involvement was stepping in and saving my life.” I began to tear up.

“But I'm responsible for stealing your life ….your....manhood”

“Nonsense!” I stopped sniffling. Sentiment being washed away by indignation. “Those bastards stole my life. And my.... “

“manhood”

I smiled sadly. “It's not like I was doing much with it anyway. Hell. There's a reason I was walking around town looking, as it turns out, like a dead ringer for Eve. I was never comfortable in my skin for as long as I could remember. When I was 3 I had no clue what gender identity was. While I couldn't conceive of the problem, I still knew there was a problem. Always was. I kept to myself, not wanting to lie to people any more than possible. I let them believe what they wanted, which was that I was an antisocial guy. I just kept to myself. Then one day, I decided life's too short. I have the money and the internet resources, it's time to explore the part of me I kept shut away because I didn't know what to do with it. I began to nurture it and feel the beginnings of a self-respect I never felt. I discovered other transgendered folks online and realized that while not just like everyone else, I was far from alone. I finally got enough self confidence to step out in public as the outer manifestation of the inner person.... and it all hit the fan.”

“So you actually always wanted to be a woman?”

“I actually always felt I had a feminine spirit ...a female soul. And I dared to think one day, somehow, I might bring the body to match the soul. ….But I sure as hell never imagined it would happen this way!”

“I'm still sorry I got you involved in all this.”

“Yeah. Well, what's done is done. Again, I don't blame you in any way. You were as much a victim of unexpected circumstance as I was.”

“But you're the one they tortured. You're they one they scarred.”

“Physically, yes. But I'm hopeful someday I can do something about the cosmetics. Mentally, I'm surprised at how it seems like something that happened to someone else. I expected to be much more traumatized by what I'd been through. But while I recall it all vividly, it's... an intellectual... dispassionate memory. There's no visceral emotion attached. I find that really odd. But not unwelcome.”

“Um. That may have been us.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You were in that tank for quite a few days. And while we set your bones and worked hard to heal your physical abuse, we also tackled the psychological abuse. We pumped you up with a lot of drugs”

“Oh, really?”

“Well, the DOD has some very covert research on antipsychotic drug regimes for troops repeatedly sent into the field. The aim is to erase symptoms of PTSD so they can send refreshed troops back into battle. It's pretty brutal, repairing the psyche just so you can send it back to be assaulted again. But we siphoned some of their research, and as a one-time salve for a brutal trauma, it worked far better than we had dared hope. You were near-catatonic when we found you.”

“I remember. The only option I could find was to detach into myself.”

“Right. So we had to treat all that mental scar tissue and heal the underlying trauma.”

“May I ask what you pumped me up with?”

R00tkid blushed again. “It sounds very ...Walter Bishop... he was the..”

“I'm familiar with 'Fringe'” I smiled, sensing what was coming.

Well, it was a mixture of sedatives, psychotropics, and a hefty dose of MDMA.

“Roofies, acid and E?”

“I wouldn't put it THAT way.... but in essence, yeah.” He smiled sheepishly.

“So much for my body as a temple” I smirked. “But I can't argue with the results. Thanks.” I leaned over and gave him a tight hug. Which made him very tense.

“OK. What's that all about? Are you freaked that I just thanked you for using me as a lab experiment? Or that I used to live as a boy?”

“I don't know. Maybe all of it. It's a lot to process.”

“We both have a lot to process. Would you have rescued me if you knew?”

He didn't hesitate. “Of course! I got you into this mess. I had to get you out.”

“OK. So what's the problem? You asked me to pretend to be Lady Eve. Since I have no life to go back to, I can do far more than pretend. If you'd like, I can join you in your quest to take down these bastards. After all, it really is my quest too now. No pretending about that.”

He looked at me incredulously. “You'd do that?”

“Where else am I going to go? I no longer exist in the 'real' world. But are you ready to retire your original Eve?”

He fingered the thumbdrive. “Well, she doesn't have to retire. We could tweak the algorithm to give her your scars.”

“Or you could help me get rid of mine.” I smiled.

“This will be easier for now” he smiled holding up the thumbdrive. “But we will work on the other part” he stopped and turned to me “Um... one other thing.... people think you're my....”

“Girlfriend. I get it. OK. THAT we can pretend.”

He let a relieved grin out and resumed walking away.

“So you think I'm hot?”

He turned to stare at me, blushing.

“I mean you could have made your Eve look like anything, but she looks exactly like me. So you think I'm hot.” I smiled. He went crimson.

“You know you're kinda cute too. When you blush.” Which he did. Again. Deeply. Then quickly scurried away.

“Shit. It WAS her! That sonofabitch. We had him by the balls and you let him get away.” Bill Lynch was addressing the troops at an all hands meeting at the compound.

The image of R00tkid and Lady 3V3 giving a live interview via Skype to Sky News filled the far wall of the briefing room.. They were going on about “shadowy pseudogovernmental forces” wrecking havoc with legitimate governments and organizations across the globe, leaking evidence of financial tampering, rogue 'revolutions' that were staged shadow coups, and showing surveillance footage of Eve's rendition and heavily edited scenes from her detention.

Lynch could tell by the scars, that this was indeed the prisoner they lost. He was apoplectic that their pawn had become his enemy's Joan of Arc, rallying the feuding factions of the other side against them. He berated his minions mercilessly, completely ignoring the fact that they strictly followed his flawed orders.

They took it unflinchingly, as trained. There was no risk of dissent here. This was his pack, and he was the undisputed alpha dog. They had to regain the upper hand, and he would make sure his people didn't rest until they did.