You're Artemis for good now!

It seemed like an instant from your perspective. One moment, you're drifting to sleep, but the next a gentle hand rocked your shoulder to wake you.

"Rise and shine, Artemis," you heard Mona's voice say. She seemed peppier, more excited, than she'd been when talking business. It seemed she was pleased by the result of her work!

You sat up, holding your head. You didn't feel much different... looking at your hands, they were still the same powerful grips of Artemis. Same short haircut, same tall and toned form that you'd enjoyed! "Did it work?" You asked, your voice breathy as you were still waking up.

Mona motioned an arm out to the side, and you turned to look at the suddenly more crowded room! To your immediate right lay Safiya, just as you'd remembered how she looked. Beyond her, the bodies of Angel Five, and... your bodies?

No, no longer yours. Those were Angel Seven and Rider Five's body, you're no longer either! You're Artemis, as per the arrangement.

Mona walked past each bed in turn, starting with Safiya. "As requested. Tex and Angel Five's mind were fully integrated by Aiden, he completed the fusion to 99.9999% accuracy. We're talking about maybe a handful of neurons that aren't paired up with Tex's gel. That fused mind stayed right here, in Safiya." Mona kept walking, stopping next by Angel Five, patting her head. "Took some time to extract the minds of the Geistknight and the vessel separately, but Tracy's in here. She's been mumbling about updating her dating profile, I think she'll do just fine with this new body, hmm? Heh."

Continuing down the line, she pat the heads of Angel Seven and Rider Five, both of whom were bandaged and hooked up to some medical equipment, but their vitals looked stable. "Original Safiya's in Angel Seven, Original Artemis in Rider Five. I absolutely can't wait to talk to these two in particular, I've got a boatload of questions." Mona wandered back over to you, very bouncy on her feet at the success story of her superpowered AI being able to handle such a complex task. "And you... Artemis, the muscle. Minds of Rider Five and Angel Seven were also phase fused, so no more need for those pesky nanites."

You rubbed your head, feeling... perfectly normal, not even realizing you were essentially a newly constructed mind! It didn't feel like two consciousnesses fighting for control or anything, just a perfectly healthy mind in a perfectly healthy--too healthy, perhaps--body. "I'm amazed you could do all that with this machine. Even the Geistknight gem... what happens if I'm dismissed and summoned?"

Mona paused in her tracks, the corners of her lips cracking ever slightly wider. "I did have to swap you into the gem and Angel Seven's mind into the body as a first step before finishing the fusion, but now whatever the trigger is for the gem will only change the body, your fused mind will stay intact."

You stood up, testing your balance as you did, towering over the much shorter Mona in the process. She looked up at you with a broad smile, before glancing at Safiya. "I'll give you the honors of waking that one up. Perhaps a kiss from a fair knight will awaken the princess?"

Chuckling, you moved over to the sleeping Safiya. She looked the same as you remembered, save for wearing the simple undergarments for operation on these weird tech tables. She breathed softly, not yet even aware that she'd become the sole occupant of that form.

Leaning in, you planted a kiss on Safiya's lips, a soft embrace that lingered for some time. When you heard Safiya inhale more deeply through her nose, seeing her chest rise with the first breath of conscious thought, her lips twitched a little and broke to lock to yours. You felt her hand on your cheek, shuddering at the sensation of her touch, your knees quivering in delight. You pulled back and looked down at the beautiful face before you as her eyes fluttered open to see your own.

"I'd love it if you'd wake me up like that every day from now on," she said, her mouth in an open smile as she felt the lingering remnants of the kiss upon her lips.

You nodded and wrapped your arms around her in a strong embrace! It was strange how quickly feelings could shift into overdrive for another person, but in the course of a few days you'd seen things that made you question what you knew about reality and yourself and ended up in a new realm of possibility. You and Safiya, the new Safiya, had new purpose, with your life in the SCPD in the rearview mirror. Mona had already promised to smooth everything out.

Safiya sat up, testing her own movements and walking, again feeling as normal as you did with her form cleared of any extra presence. Two fused minds, two new bodies.

"We should really test that Geistknight thing just to make sure it works, now that you're awake," Mona said before you and Safiya could get too distracted by the new reality. "How does it work? It's important data for my research on the gem."

Blinking, Safiya turned to you. "Oh, right. I suppose let's see... Geistknight, I dismiss thee."

Your body immediately shrank in height and gained that mom-bod again, fortunately the undergarments you'd been wearing managed to keep up! Safiya giggled again as she saw the ponytailed brunette with the wide hips and a bit of a pudgy stomach appear before her, but she leaned in for another kiss to your slightly altered lips. "Lucky me," Safiya said, "I can get both muscle and squish whenever, huh?"

Mona clapped her hands together. "Perfect! And then the reverse, just to complete the circuit. What would that be? Something like... Geistknight, I summon thee?"

Responding immediately to those words, you popped back into your athletic form, but still felt no different in your mind. "Amazing... it really does seem to work, I'm fully conscious in both forms."

Mona's lips curled up tightly in a cheshire-cat grin at the outcome. "Fascinating. One more success in the books."

The next to awaken was Tracy. Still an insatiable talker, she couldn't help but continue to compliment all the incredible work on her new Angel Five body. She couldn't help but keep patting her stomach, thrilled by her new look that would make her ex supremely jealous!

But everyone seemed most interested to see the response from the remaining Angel and Rider in the room. They didn't wake for a while, until adjustments were made to their IV contents to bring them back to the realm of consciousness. You expected shock at their predicaments, horror to overtake their expressions, screaming and yelling and expletives to be returned to normal!

That's not what you were shown. While they had been at first confused by the result, they both looked to you and Safiya and... laughed. It started with a snicker, but soon they were laughing so hard they nearly exacerbated their injuries!

You frowned, crossing your arms. "What's so funny? I don't get the joke."

"Oh my, you wouldn't," Angel Seven's body said, looking at her former self. "I'd watched your simple-minded selves go at it all yesterday, remember? I saw it all, you really don't know what you've gotten into. Sure, I'll miss my amazing ass and that long hair, and a lack of magic will take some adjustment, but you've just set me free. I've never seen anyone so eager to waltz into their prison cells before!"

Confused, you and Safiya looked at one another. You felt pretty free at the moment, not seeing any shackles or handcuffs to burden you.

"I actually think I've got the better end of the deal," Rider Five's body said, glancing down at himself. "I think I'll have a lot of fun with the ladies like this. We're going to have a great time, huh 'Angel'?"

"Naturally, 'Rider'."

Safiya shook her head. "Wait, c'mon, that doesn't make sense! Sure, they look nice, but... magic! Superpowers!"

"And an eternity of servitude to whosoever has claim over your talisman." Angel Seven turned to look at you. "Or summons you. You two may no longer age in your new forms, but your wills are bound to those who know how to take control. All they need to do is point you in the right direction."

"Oh, how interesting," Mona said in a sing-song voice, as you turned to look at her. "It seems I was the last to use the summoning phrase properly. And if I'm recalling what Emilia once told me when we were younger..." She pulled a pair of gold-rimmed glasses from her jacket pocket, wiggling them in the air. "A very pretty talisman."

Your eyes widened, as did Safiya's, when you realized what had just happened. The injured Rider and Angel pair began to laugh once again when they heard Mona's words.

She'd played you.

"Let's call it... insurance," Mona said, as she slipped the glasses over her own eyes to amuse herself. "To ensure you do the job I want you to do. I'm not strict about the how, just the when. You can go about it in any way you choose, but I will have those nanites. And then after that... we'll see. If you do too good of a job, I might just have to make some permanent positions for you at Yabusa Robotics. Maybe for work, maybe for fun. But let's just say that I love getting new toys."