Daughters are made not born

DAUGHTERS ARE MADE NOT BORN

Part One: The project

Molecules floated in the soup of cytoplasm within the brain cell as things began to get busy in preparation for cell division. Base-pair Nucleotides began to swarm in towards the masses of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The large molecules began to unwind and break apart into two strands that left exposed binding sites for the base-pair nucleotides to join up with, very soon we would have two complete sets of all the DNA in this cell and the next stage of cell division would be able to begin.

A single unit of gamma radiation entered the cell easily where a few others had collided with components within the bilipid layer of the cell's membrane. It traveled at the speed of light as energy does, thus a collision would usually cause much havoc especially when it hit DNA. Only the nuclear membrane stood in its way to doing just that and being so small, the gamma ray would easily penetrate this last membrane. Like a precision shot, it hit one of the DNA strands as it was reforming and an explosion of nucleotides was the result as it cleaved the DNA molecule. New base-pair nucleotides swarmed in to fix the damage, but it was extensive, and the new DNA sequence was slightly different, just a few base-pairs where out of sequence.

Cell division continued and produced two new cells, the changed DNA was in one of them and the other cell was normal. The abnormal cell began to behave as per this new DNA code and it began to divide again creating two abnormal cells, then four, then eight and so on. The new cluster of cells began to grow within her brain, a tumor was born, though still a little bit too small to detect. This girl would be dead within a year, and no medicine or surgery on Earth would be able to save her.

Gerald Beck sat quietly behind his desk at Beck Biotech thinking about his company and the advances that they were able to make to keep them on the leading edge of the competitive biotech industry. He was certainly lucky in some areas of his research, not to say that all of his hard work had not paid off too. It was more like his hard work had made it possible for luck to smile on him.

He built this company up from nothing after he received his PhD in virological technology. It was very hard going at first, most people didn't even know what virological technology was and as such had a hard time finding investors. However, when he stumbled upon his first major breakthrough, things began to change. He had discovered a new technique for extracting DNA by means of what he referred to as a homing virus. This was a virus that he could introduce to a sample and it would actually enter the cells, isolate the DNA, encapsulate it as it introduced its own DNA into the cell's nucleus. Then, since this encapsulated DNA from the original host cell was very dense, he could isolate it easily with a centrifuge. This made DNA extraction very easy and also made investors a lot more plentyful. Soon he had some real money and was able to build upon this discovery and make many more wonderful discoveries.

His viral research was the cornerstone of his company in its infancy, but then he met Eugene Bryant, a very brilliant man who was a MD as well as having a PhD in biotechnology. Eugene was very interested in Gerald's work and felt that it could be adapted to possibly perform many tasks in cellular medicine. Eugene felt that this virus could be adapted to actually repair cell damage, rewrite faulty DNA sequences, and perhaps even reverse aging. Well, it was needless to say that the two of them became partners and that with Eugene's help, Gerald's company became the biggest in the world and as such was worth billions.

Now, Eugene may have been his partner in research, but Gerald owned the company and his daughter Julia was set to inherit it. Julia, was a great girl, and Gerald really loved her so much. He would, no doubt, have loved for her to follow in his footsteps; however, Julia had a dream of becoming a meteorologist. He didn't particularly know why she was obsessed with that branch of science, but at least it was a branch of science and not something like fashion design. Gerald was sure that once the company was hers, she would probably sell it and use the money to help to maybe build a weather research center or something like that. However, if their research did eventually find a way to reverse aging, maybe he wouldn't have to worry about that.

He thought about his deceased wife, she had been lovely, it sometimes seemed like she had died so long ago when it had only been a year. Gerald had really loved Nora, and now all he had left of her was the daughter that they shared. Nora had always been with him; they met when he was but an undergraduate student getting his first degree in microbiology at the University of Florida. It was love at first sight the first time he saw her just walking on University Avenue across from the stadium. He must have been staring as she stopped and smiled, there was no turning back then. They married while he was doing his masters at Florida State, and bought a small house in Gainesville as he completed his PhD back at the University of Florida. Julia was born soon after, and was raised mostly in Gainesville before they moved to Orlando where Beck Biochem was situated.

They had a dream life really, and when Nora died, he was never more taken by surprise than he had ever been in his entire life. She was only 40 years old, but lightning doesn't age discriminate. Gerald was surprised that with the death of her mother by lightning, Julia still was obsessed with the weather and even more so as though this death fueled this obsession some. She came home for the funeral, but then returned to Gainesville where she was then taking her first degree at the University of Florida. But then everything changed again as she got sick.

At first, it started out as headaches; Julia just always seemed to have aches and pains in her head. She being stubborn like her father was tried to ignore them, but they got stronger and soon she went to see her doctor to find out what was wrong with her. Gerald's world fell out from underneath him that day they discovered that Julia had a malignant brain tumor. The doctors also told them that it was inoperable and that due to its location, they doubted that radiation or chemotherapy would be of much use though they were willing to try. Sadly, she was given six months to a year to live.

Gerald refused to give up, there had to be something that he could do as losing his daughter was completely unacceptable. He had both himself and Eugene working around the clock to try and discover a way to beat this thing. His viral research seemed to offer him hope, but what he would need to do to eradicate the tumor was still years away. He felt so lost as he sat there, and then an excited Eugene burst into his office.

"I think I have a way to save her Gerald!" Gerald's face lit up, as he knew that if Eugene said that he had a way, then from his track record, it would have to work.

"Please, tell me."

"Okay, at first I was trying to figure out a way to remove the tumor with our viral technology. It can be done, but by the time we have a working prototype, it would be too late. So I thought that perhaps we had to look at this from another angle. Her body is dying; no doubt the tumor has or will metastasize. Once she has cancer in almost every system, it is even pointless to try and save her body. As you know, one of my areas of research is cloning."

"You want to clone her?"

"No, that would take 20 years to get her to the level that she is now. I do though want to create for her a new body, and then transfer her chemical memories to it."

"Wait a minute Eugene, memory transfer and a new body, just how do you plan to pull that off?"

"It will not be easy, first we need a host body that we can use our virus to rewrite its DNA into Julia's sequences. Next we have to change the new body's chemical memory path to an exact copy of Julia's. Voila, we have a new Julia, and without the tumor."

"You can do that? But will it be Julia?"

"Biologically yes, it will be Julia in every aspect. Mentally, it will also be Julia, but possibly not completely. You see, we have no idea just how much there is to memory storage and how it defines the person. Maybe some of it is stored in the soul, who knows, or if we are lucky, then it is all chemically stored and we will have Julia One-hundred percent."

"Is this all we got?"

"Gerald, I love her as much as you do, if there were any other way, I would do it, but this is it, it is her only chance."

"Well then, lets do it."

"Alright, our first step is going to be to find a donor."

"Eugene, I can imagine that the closer in genetic make-up to her, the better."

"Yeah, you are right, also the donor needs to be the same age and have as high of an IQ as she has. Finding such a girl may be difficult, and we may need to break a few laws to accomplish this."

"Eugene, you do whatever you have to, I just want a healthy daughter no matter what the cost. Todd Fillmore our head of security can be trusted, he will help you find our donor."

'Okay, I will talk to him, we will move on this as fast as possible."

The water was very still, extremely calm; almost too calm as Dr. Arthur walked up to the man that had been in every one of his nightmares since this whole thing began. He was not happy with what he had done, in fact, he found it was almost hard to even live with himself. The man simply watched him approach with his cold eyes, the eyes of a killer as if there were a specific genotype for that trait.

"Dr. Arthur, I can presume that the operation was successful as you are here and I doubt you would have called me if you had failed."

"No, it is done. The treatments I gave Julia Beck have given her brain cancer as you had requested." He looked down in shame at what he had done.

"Good, my boss will be pleased."

"I kept my end of the bargain, now give me the pictures as well as the negatives and we will be done with it."

"Why Doc, in all good time. Do not worry so much they are safe. Though I must admit that I have seen a lot in my life, and they actually shocked me. The good doctor, a pillar of the community, involved in bestiality."

"I was drugged, I really thought they were women," the doctor said with his shame evident.

"I know that, I drugged you myself, we had to be sure that you would cooperate."

"You bastard, and now I am no better than you, I have given that poor girl a death sentence. I should just say the hell with those pictures and tell the police about you and what I have done!" The man just smiled knowing that Dr. Arthur would never get that chance. He removed a gun and aimed it at Dr. Arthur's heart.

"Look at this lake here, the water is so serene, so calm, in a sense it is a lot like life. But you know, under the surface there lurks the perfect predator: the alligator. You know they have been around since the dinosaurs, surviving because they are perfect, the dinosaurs went extinct, but not the gator, it survived, it prevailed over all that nature could throw at it. We too as a race can do that, but not as we are, only through my boss' plans. You dear doctor, are a liability, you can upset the calm of his lake." The man opened a small vial of a green liquid and poured it in the water.

"So, you are planning to kill me, I am just a loose canon in all this madness." He thought about running, but knew at this close range that the man would not miss his heart if the gun were fired.

"I am not going to kill you Doc, Ah, look at the water, it is not so calm anymore," he said gesturing to the lake. First two scaly balls bobbed out of the water, no not balls, but on closer inspection, they were eyes; gator eyes. Soon another set and another set appeared. As they moved in closer to the shore, their heads and parts of their backs became visible.

"Why are they here like this? I thought you said that you are not going to kill me," asked a very nervous Dr. Arthur.

"That green liquid I poured in the water is a very dilute pheromone that attracts male gators. It is actually the scent of a female gator all hot and heavy ready to mate." He then removed another vial; this one was blue. He uncapped it and poured it on himself.

"Now this is a gator repellant, I could practically swim with them and be perfectly safe with this on. Now this one," he produced another vial, but this time red, " is a very highly concentrated female gator pheromone. Now, if I were to open this, they would even come out of that lake to get at it. Now if you don't know, gators are actually very fast on land they can actually run up to 35 miles per hour, much faster than you can I am afraid. I said that I would not kill you, that is true from a perspective. I am going to give you a chance to live, all you have to do is survive." He then opened the red vial and poured the pheromone on Dr. Arthur.

"Good luck gator bitch," said the man as he moved away from Dr. Arthur rather fast.

Almost instantly, the alligators got a whiff of the pheromones coming off of Dr. Arthur. Their brains only registered one thing and that was sex, their primal sex drives kicked in and they all began to move steadily forward, the front ones were pulling themselves out of the lake as the doctor screamed and made a run for it. The first gator burst in a run as well; it was almost like a greenish-gray blur as it took off after him. Dr. Arthur didn't even hear the gator coming, but felt it as it hit him in the small of his back like a freight train. He was knocked off of his feet and fell face first into a small grouping of ferns. The gator was on top of him in an instant and was very nasty when it realized that this was not a mate.

The man watched from a safe distance and saw the first gator take out the good doctor. The gator looked pissed and the good old doctor looked like the embodiment of fear. This was going to be good, he always loved watching gators tear apart a human. He had not had a chance to watch such a good show since he did the same thing to that lightning research guy who toasted Nora Beck.

Dr. Arthur tried to get up, but the gator was too strong, he never realized just how powerful they were before, but he deserved this, he was a murderer and this was his just desert. He felt intense pain in his left shoulder as the gator bit down. Then there was a squeezing, and then he heard bones breaking, the pain really burned, he felt wet, then there was pain in his right leg, another gator had got him and they were playing a game of tug of war with him as the rope. More bones broke and he felt more pain even worse than what he was feeling in his shoulder and leg as his side felt like it was on fire and he felt feelings like he was moving, he glanced down and saw why. A gator had torn open his abdominal cavity and his intestines were all caught around its snout and it was pulling them like a dog with a link of sausages coated in bloody mucous. He then heard a wet slapping sound and the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was a gator heading back towards the lake carrying his arm in its snout. It had been torn off and left a trail of blood, he could see a white shape in the middle of the jagged flesh; it was his shoulder bone.

As the gators carried what was left of Dr. Arthur into the lake, the man opened up his cell phone and hit a button that scrambled the call to any unauthorized listeners and then called his boss. "The doctor is gator bait, the Beck girl has cancer as planned. We are free to proceed to the next phase at your convenience."

William Smyth wiped the sweat from his forehead as he finished up from soccer practice. He had a swig of water as he walked away from the field towards his bike. He had lots to do that night, so he didn't waste any time getting back to his apartment that bordered the campus near the place that Gerald beck met his wife Nora for the first time. William was not looking for love though as he was a master's student in biochemistry, and had a lot of work to do if he wanted to finish one of his electives in neuropsychology in time to take the summer off. All he had to do was one more paper and that should take care of that course other than the fact that everyone had to partake in at least one psychology study. He had meant to fill out some questionnaire or answer whatever questions were necessary earlier in the year, but he had just never got around to it. Oh well, he would find one tomorrow and get that over with. He figured that partaking in a study was a waste of his time, and really felt that he shouldn't have to, but his professor had been having troubles getting subjects in the past and came up with this requirement to solve the shortage of subjects. Well, he did not sign up for any of his professors as his stand against it and would have to find something else to do so that he could get his credits; it would be foolish to get an incomplete over such a trivial matter.

He was only home for about twenty minutes when his roommate Angela arrived home. She was a nice girl though and not really his type which is good as it would have made sharing an apartment very uncomfortable. She had a bath and later in the evening came out for their nightly talk. It was sort of a custom, a way for both of them to relax before going to bed. Well, it helped her; he usually was up for a few more hours studying after she headed off to bed. This night, he figured that Angela being a psychology major, would certainly know what studies were being done and that just might save him some time if he hadn't had to figure out where to go.

"Angela, I still need to participate in a study of some sort to get my credit in neuropsych."

"Professor Bean no doubt," she added.

"You got it, I completely forgot about it until now."

"Will, all the studies have been done, this late in the year not many people are collecting data. You just may be screwed here. The only study I know of is the Beck Biotech Gene Database study, and that is for women only."

"Please do not tell me that, I am up shit creek if I don't get in a study and soon."

"I am sorry, unless you want to show up in drag for the Beck study, I think you are out of luck."

"Ha ha, I don't think so, I could never pass as a woman."

"Well, I don't know about that, you are of slight build for a guy and you do have really great skin. You know that may just be an idea. Think about it, it is an anonymous study, but if you bring along your study form, it does not have your name on it, just your student number, and they merely stamp it with the study stamp, it does not say what study you are partaking in."

"Angela, you are not serious?"

"Sure I am, the test is easy, I did it today. All they do is scrape some cells out of your mouth, you wait for a few minutes as they make sure they have a clear reading on your code, then they stamp your card and you are off. It is so easy, let me think of what I have that you can wear."

"You are serious, I do need that stamp, but why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Gerald paced back and forth in his office waiting for good news for a change; it seemed like lately that only bad news tended to reach him. He was so sure that they would have found a donor by now, but no luck, they were doing the screening at every university in Florida. He was even considering expanding the search to Georgia soon if they did not find someone soon. Eugene had assured him that holding out for the proper genetic markers would really be worth it as to the results. Well, if they didn't find someone soon, they were going to have to start with any donor, markers or not.

Eugene burst into the room very excited and managed to spat out, "We have a match!"

"Where, when?"

"University of Florida, Gainesville. She was just tested minutes ago; our people are in place ready to move on her. They are going to detain her till we get there, the jet is ready to go."

William felt foolish sitting there dressed like a girl, but he really didn't have a choice if he wanted that stamp. So far, everything had gone as easily as Angela had told him it would. He just wished that they could finish with his sample and give him the stamp so that he could get home and get out of these clothes. Angela was nice in that she didn't make him wear a dress, but the bra and the water balloons where really weird, at least she didn't fill them too full, if one where to break, he would just die. She had dressed him in a tee shirt and a pair of shorts. He wanted to wear jeans, but she was right to point out that no girl would be caught dead in jeans when it was 105 degrees out. He was forced to shave his legs, a very different experience for him. His legs now felt so soft and cool, he was rather amazed at how much of a difference hair made to how one's legs feel. To finish his disguise, she used a little hairspray and some backcombing to style his already longish hair into a girl's style. She also put a little bit of makeup on him to complete the illusion. When she was done, he was almost amazed at how much he looked like a girl.

"Excuse me miss, could you come back here for a minute," asked one of the girls that had taken his sample. Oh no, he wanted to panic, as surly it meant that they were on to him. What if they called the police, what if everyone found out, he would be the laughing stock of the university.

"It is okay," she said, "we just need to do a couple more simple tests on you. Really, they won't hurt." She smiled at him reassuringly. He whispered out an okay so that his voice wouldn't give him away. She led him from the testing booth they had set up to a classroom that they were using to do their testing from. He wished that Angela were there with him, as she would know how to get him out of this as his bad feeling just kept getting worse.

"Here, have a drink of ice tea," the girl offered him. William accepted the ice tea from her and began to nervously sip it as he waited for them to start these other tests. He figured that he would just have to play along and hope he was not exposed. He noticed that he seemed to be getting tired, a yawn escaped from him. He felt himself starting to fall asleep; his mind tried to scream out that this would not be a good idea, but it was no use as his ice tea had been drugged.

Gerald was sitting in his chair staring at the clouds below as the plane began to descend towards his private runway. They had a successful trip to Gainesville and had the girl aboard, still drugged, but she was a match, she was the donor body that they had been so desperately searching for. He felt a little sad that this girl had to lose her identity, but that could not be helped, perhaps they could store her chemical memories and someday recreate her, but that was unimportant right now, the only thing that mattered was saving his daughter. They were going to move the girl to his mansion, only there was the security tight enough to protect what they were doing, if word were to get out, it could ruin him, his company. After landing and settling the girl in, he would then meet with her and get her cooperation, and Eugene could begin his initial examinations of her and begin the process.

Karl Topski walked into his boss' office. He was summoned almost as soon as he arrived home from his fun with the gators. He was hoping that perhaps he had another really cool mission like the last two. Whenever he gets to kill, Karl is very happy. He use to kill for a living as a professional assassin in Europe, but the boss had offered him a steady retainer and he has been here ever since at the man's beck and call. His boss had a plan that was a little scary, but what did he care if he got to kill along the way, and not only that, got to kill with a little bit of creativity. He certainly never got to use gators in his work in Europe.

"Karl, something is troubling me," the boss said from behind his mask. Karl had never seen the man, face to face, he always wore a mask to conceal his identity. Karl could understand that, though he usually just killed to keep his own identity secret. Today the boss was wearing a mask that almost looked like spiderman, but it was black. His masks were always black.

"What is troubling you boss?"

"Gerald is up to something, did you know that he started genetically screening at the universities and then as quickly as he started, he stopped. This is rather unusual and I have a bad feeling about it. I want you to find out what is going on, it is your top priority Karl. Use any means you want, just get this job done."

"Okay boss. Do you have a clue at all as to what he is up to?"

"If I did I would tell you, now get on it, I want some answers within a week. You have never disappointed me yet, do not make this a first as I am not a very forgiving man."

William slowly woke up finding himself in a very large bedroom. He rubbed his eyes to get his bearings, and almost screamed when his arms touched his breasts. He had to get a grip really fast as he remembered that they were water balloons. Where was he, how did he get here? He tried the door, but it was locked, the windows had bars on them. He looked around the room and found that the closet was full of clothes, girls clothes; the dresser likewise. This was like out of the twilight zone, he was really confused. He remembered the ice tea thinking that it had to have been drugged. Someone had to have kidnapped him, but who and why would they want him and what would they do to him once they realized that he was a boy.

He heard someone at the door, he thought about rushing them, but that might be stupid as he had no clue where he was, and for all he knew, there could be fifty guards lurking around. He sat down on the bed and a man wearing a uniform that said Beck Biotech on it with a little badge under that that read security entered the room.

"Hello there, my name is Todd Fillmore, I am head of security at Beck Biotech. You probably are very confused right now," William nodded, "and I wouldn't blame you. However, I think that all of you questions shall be answered if you just follow me. Mr. Beck would like to see you, by the way, what is your name?"

"Umm, Will...Wilma," he managed to say in as soft of a voice as he could. He just nodded and led William out of the room. William found that the room he was in was but one room of many in a very big house. Heck, it was a mansion, and he was beginning to get a little curious what this was all about. There were still lots of fear about discovery, and perhaps a little bit of excitement about pulling it off for so long. Angela was going to freak when she heard about all of this he thought.

He was led to a room on what seemed like the other side of the house to William. It was a very big room, like a den, but with so much extra space, William figured that twelve men could have fit easily into this room and still it would not look crowded. There were two men seated already in the room, it was obvious that they were waiting for him.

"Gerald, Eugene, this is Wilma," said the guard.

"Come on in Wilma, have a seat, I am sure that you are wondering why we brought you here. First off my name is Gerald Beck and this is my friend and business partner Eugene Bryant."

"Hi Wilma," Eugene said.

"Hello," he was able to say back in his soft voice. He wanted to demand to know what was going on, but that would have given away that he was a boy, and not Wilma the girl they kidnapped.

"Wilma, you are here because we need your help. By now, you might suspect that the genetic testing we were doing at your university was not for a database. You see Wilma, we were looking for a very rare genetic marker that perhaps one in a million people might have."

"It is probably closer to one in ten million," added Eugene.

"Well, it turns out Wilma that you have the marker we were looking for and that makes you very special to us. That is why we brought you here, so that we can talk to you and work out a deal that will be beneficial to both of us."

"A deal, what sort of deal," William said still a little confused.

"Well, we need a year of your life for our research. What that means is a full year, with absolutely no contact outside of here. There will be a lot of medical tests and such done to you, but I promise you that no harm will befall you. And well, after that year is up, you can leave and your bank account will be ten million dollars richer." William was almost floored, ten million dollars, He would do it in a second, but he realized that there was no way he could pull off living as a girl especially with medical tests.

"I would agree, but I am not who I seem," he said as he reached into his top and pulled out a water balloon. The three men where speechless.

Angela couldn't wait to get home and find out how things went with Will and the bid study. She was planning on teasing him about going out in public as a girl; she would maybe blackmail him into doing some of her chores around the apartment. When she got home, the apartment was empty; there was no sign of William at all. She checked the bedrooms and saw that the clothes he had worn were not strewn on her floor as she had expected. He hadn't come home yet; he was still out and from the look of things, was still dressed like a girl. Perhaps he found out he liked it she said to herself with a chuckle. Oh well, Cinderella would surely be home soon, before her carriage turned into a pumpkin.

Karl watched the perimeter of Beck Biotech, he was noting down security details. For instance, he had to know how long between each patrol, the location of dogs, and even any bad habits any specific security detail had. He was going to break in and hopefully find out what was up. However, to do so, he had to do it completely undetected or else tip off Beck that he was being watched. Karl got the impression that Beck had no idea that the boss was his enemy or that he even had any enemies for that matter. If he knew, perhaps he would double his security.

"You're a boy," said Gerald in a quivering voice. William could tell that this revelation really floored him.

"Interesting, a boy and with the right markers. He will still do, we will just have to modify the program a little to compensate for this turn in events," said Eugene.

"He is still acceptable then?"

"Oh yes, totally," replied Eugene.

"Very well then, Wilma, or whoever you are, the offer still stands, will you accept?"

"My name is William, and yes I cannot turn down ten million dollars."

"Good, Todd, make sure our guest gets settled in, Eugene will be along in a bit to explain to him the details." Todd led William out of the room and took him to another room that appeared to be an office. There was a phone sitting on the desk and Todd motioned to it.

"If there is anyone who will be worried about you, I think we need to deal with that at the moment."

"Well, my roommate is probably worried stiff as she is the one who dressed me like this."

"Please, you do not need to explain that to me, call her, let her know you are alright. Do not tell her where you are or anything about this deal. Is that clear?"

"Yes, but why?"

"You can ask Mr. Beck that later."

"Okay. I won't say a thing."

Angela was really getting worried as it had already gotten dark and still there was no sign of William. She was even thinking about calling the police, but she knew that would be senseless until at least after twenty-four hours. When the phone rang, she knew it was he; a sixth sense told her so.

"Hello?"

"Angela, hi its me."

"Oh William, where are you, what is going on, I have been so worried."

"I am fine, I got recognized by a friend of mine that you don't know. He insisted that I should come over to his place to show it off. Anyway, we lost track of time and I will probably be staying here tonight. He lent me some clothes luckily."

"Will, are you sure that you are fine?"

"Absolutely, talk to you later." As he hung up, Angela was now certain that something was wrong. He had been off somehow and she was sure that he was lying to her. There was nothing she could do about it except worry.

Eugene sat down on a chair that was put in William's room; he had brought with him a black doctor's bag. William sat on the bed still wearing Angela's top and shorts though he had removed the bra.

"Well William, I want us to start out by telling you a little bit about what I plan to do with you. I don't want you to be surprised; I want you to know ahead of time of the changes that are going to occur to you. This is going to be very interesting and I think educational for you as well as us. I must stress though that everything we are doing to you is completely reversible."

"Just what are you planning to do to me?"

"We are using you as a test for a new viral technology that if successful should be able to actually rewrite DNA. It is going to cause some changes in you, but have no fear; we will keep a record of your original DNA pattern, and undo all the changes we make. It will not be painful, and I can not stress enough that it is completely reversible. The only difference in you at the end of this project will that you will be very rich."

"You are sure that this is not dangerous," asked William.

"Absolutely!"

"Okay, lets get on with it then." Eugene only smiled as he removed blood samples from William, and administered an injection into his hip. He felt a little bad about lying to the boy, but that really could not be helped. The injection contained a mixture of female hormones as well as the first set of retroviruses. The long road to transformation had begun.

The black mask hurt slightly as he eased it off his face to reveal what was left of it after the accident so many years ago that had burned him when he use to work for Beck Biotech. Sure the fire was his fault he thought noting that the burns almost made his face look like an old man's, however, his dismissal was just plain cruel and he was going to see to it that Gerald Beck paid in full for it. Gerald Beck had already made a huge mistake; he underestimated him and the importance of his research. By firing him, he actually facilitated the burned man's research in more ways then one. You see, he now had a benefactor, an investor that gave him unlimited resources to carry out his plans, but more importantly, they gave him a very special splinter of blood stained wood.

Julia was sitting on her bed thinking about how her life had just spiraled lately ever since she found out that she had brain cancer. Well, in ways, her mother's death had not had such an effect on her, in fact, it only made her more determined to be a great meteorologist. However this tumor, and being given six months to live maybe a little longer, was just not something that she could recover from. To make things worse, here she was locked up practically in her father's mansion. He tells her that it is for a new radical treatment that will save her and give her her life back. She hopes that he is right, but the next little while being stuck on the grounds of the mansion will be very testing. Maybe if his treatment works, she will be able to resume university for the Fall session. Oh well, she could only pray, and in the meantime, she had another mystery to contend with. There was a boy in the room down the hall, this was unusual, but at least he was really cute and Julia figured getting to know him was going to be fun.

Karl relaxes as he thinks of tomorrows planned break in at Beck Biotech. His plan was brilliant as usual, and soon his boss would have all the information he needed. Karl was determined to find out what Gerald was up to and maybe steal a few more secrets while he was there. But he wasn't going to go too overboard on his fact finding. If he gave the boss everything he wanted, what would he do when the boss had everything and no longer needed Karl? He knew the boss was ruthless and as such tried to keep one step ahead of him, for his own protection. He was also fully aware that whatever the boss' goals were, they had nothing to do with bettering mankind. He suspected that the research goals of the boss were entirely selfish, but what did he care as long as he remained useful in the equation and the money kept rolling in.

Two men met in a deep cavern under the Holy Land, they greeted each other with a secret hand gesture and then walked together towards a deeper part of the gloomy cave.

"Everything is going as planned Master," said the shorter man known only as Demur.

"I am pleased to hear that Demur. Our pawn, how long until he is ready to synthesize the required DNA?"

"Master, he is moving a little slower than expected, perhaps too much energy is being expended on his vendetta against Gerald Beck."

"I agree, if we do not see results soon, perhaps we should then remove Beck Biotech from the equation."

"Very well, Master."

Gerald was happy to hear that the whole process had started, Eugene had informed him that in a few months, he would have a new daughter. Gerald was surprised that it was going to take so long, but Eugene assured him that they were altering the entire genome, not something you can do all at once without a great danger to the host. So, they were transforming their host a few hundred genes at a time. Perhaps in time, they could perfect the process some more so that full genetic rewrite could be done in a day without any harm to the host; they just didn't have that time in this situation to wait. As for the rewriting of the host's memory, that would begin in a week or so, he was hoping that would work as well as possible as that in itself would be the final defining as to whether it was a success or not.

Underneath his house, Gerald had designed a three-floor subbasement that he had created a private lab for the slightly more unethical research he often dived into. Sometimes, ethics could easily hamper a scientist from saving lives. He tended to work around them when he had to and as long as the ends would justify the means. This whole daughter project of his was the only one to date that he couldn't truly justify, but because it was his daughter dying, he didn't care. This lab would make sure that the project went according to plan. He was making sure that Eugene transferred all data and samples that pertained to this project to this lab as he wanted there to be absolutely no chance of anyone finding out what was happening here. All that was really left to come over here were the blood samples that Julia had donated both treated and untreated. They were essential to the project, as they had been using the treated ones for the gene extraction. They could always retreat new samples, but that was risky as if any of her cancerous cells got into the samples, then his new daughter could end up dying too.

Karl couldn't believe that the boss had insisted on seeing him that very morning before his trek into Beck Biotech. However, the boss was the boss and as such, he met with him briefly. The boss gave him a blood sample to take in with him to put through the treatment process. The process only took about 15 minutes as where it would take weeks for the boss to do it without the Beck technology. That was fine, he would have no problem with that, besides, it meant a bonus; well the boss was good like that. He was a little curious as to why this blood had to be treated. However, he really didn't have time to think about it, the fun was about to begin.

They had no problems sneaking undetected through the bowels of Beck Biotech, stopping every so often to place another bomb. They were trained for this sort of thing since they could walk, so it really was not a big task at all, in fact, it was almost too easy. There seemed to be absolutely no security in the maintenance sub-level, which was sandwiched between the first floor and the underground labs and supply levels. It would be too easy to destroy this place as these explosives where probably as powerful as you could get without tampering with nuclear explosives. Beck Biotech was going to go boom in a very big way.

Karl waited for his opportunity; he had to time things just right if he was to have enough time to pull this off. He walked briskly towards the corner, holding out in front of him a soda pop, though it was not really pop, but more of that gator pheromone. Wham, he rounded the corner and walked straight into a collision with the two security guards that were rounding the same corner on their beat. The pheromones soaked the pair as well as a nearby woman who was outside smoking a cigarette. He apologized to them and very quickly headed off for the next step in his plan. He noted that a couple of gators were already emerging from the lake that sat next to Beck Biotech. The screaming and his distraction would be beginning soon.

Eugene left the mansion and began his drive over to Beck Biotech as he had to pick up the remaining blood samples. He liked the labs better there, and wished he could run this project out of there, but he did understand Gerald's insistence for security. If this ever got out, not only would Gerald be ruined, but so would he, they could even go to jail, well could have if William had not signed over those documents giving them permission to perform this project on him. Todd was smart on that front, Eugene would never have thought of that angle in case something went wrong.

Karl found his next target, a lone security officer sneaking a smoke break while his partner was using the bathroom. These two did the same thing every day like clockwork and it was nothing for Karl to sneak up on the man and snap his neck from behind. He dragged him behind some ferns and soon emerged from the ferns in the dead man's uniform. Karl then made his way to the bathroom and threw a cyanide gas canister through the open window above the door. He then closed the window as he heard the screams begin from out front of the building as well as from within the outdoor bathroom. However, the bathroom screams died very quickly. Using a passkey he was inside and made his way to the lab. He didn't run into anyone, as he was sure the gators had everyone's attention. He made his way up to the lab and easily found the equipment that he had to use to treat his boss' sample. There was one snag; his test tube was a little too big to fit in the holder with in the apparatus, so he transferred it to an empty one labeled Julia-2.

All hell was breaking out in front of Biotech as Eugene pulled up. He heard screams and saw that people where running wildly as if in complete chaos. Then he saw why, there where alligators attacking people, this was too weird, gators did not just come out of the lakes and attack like this. Eugene pulled his handgun from out of his glove compartment and got out of his car. A large gator started to advance on him almost immediately; he fired three shoots into its head before it fell over seemingly dead. Eugene moved towards another gator and only had to shoot it twice before it died with someone's leg still hanging from its snout. How many more where there, Eugene wondered as the first drop of rain fell. Within seconds, the heavens opened up and the rain fell down in the usual torrential onslaught of water that was common in Florida. The pheromones washed away with it, and the gators stopped their attack and sluggishly headed back towards the lake leaving a lot of gore and body parts strewn on the front lawn of Beck Biotech. Eugene was still in shock, but figured that he had to get to the lab and do something or he was going to start screaming.

Karl almost freaked when he saw the rain start to fall knowing that it would wash away the pheromone and end his distraction. The treatment was almost done, just a minute or so and he could get out of there. During the distraction, he had done everything sort of ransacking the place to find out what Beck was up to, and only discovered that whatever it was, it was called Project Daughter. The boss would be very disappointed, but the information just was not here. The treatment was done and he quickly grabbed his sample just before Eugene walked in on him.

"You had better get down stairs, I think they could use some help," Eugene said blankly to Karl. Karl thought about killing him, but thought better of it, he just wanted to get the sample back to his boss, so he left. In the confusion, he easily got out of the building and headed off to meet with his boss.

Eugene collected his remaining samples and then noticed that there was one more in the treatment apparatus, he took that one two. How odd he thought, the standard blank solution was gone. He headed out and was able to get to his car fairly unmolested, though he did promise to go downtown later and give a written statement to the police as to what he saw happen here. He drove away, and headed back towards the mansion.

60...the numbers on all the bombs in the maintenance sub-level all flashed in perfect sync with each other...54. 53, 52, 51, 49...A lone janitor opened the door to this level and maid his way towards the sprinkler controls...41. 40, 39, 38...he had to turn them off so that they didn't turn on as they usually did in the afternoon to water the lawn...30. 29, 28, 27...The police didn't want any evidence to wash away, though he was sure that the rain had already done that...20. 19, 18, 17...Though, it was sunny again, the rain was gone as fast as it had come...10. 9, 8, 7...he happened to glance up for a minute and saw the countdown on one of the bombs, he could not believe his eyes...3, 2, 1, BOOM!

Karl heard a huge explosion as he was driving away, he turned to see a huge fireball billowing into the air, and he almost went off the road thinking he was lucky to have left when he did. He was also amazed at the size of it; that was certainly one big explosion he thought.

Eugene had not gotten far, when he heard a huge roar and a loud clap like thunder, not thunder, an explosion. He pulled over and looked back at the giant fireball. His lab, everything gone, he did scream this time.

"Master, it is done, Beck Biotech has been destroyed," said Demur in the cavern under the Holy Land.

"Good, now our pawn can get back to our goals. I want that DNA within a week, make sure that he makes it happen."

"Yes Master, it will be done."

"Good, soon we will have the DNA of the one true Messiah, then we can kill our pawn unless he will prove useful in making our clone, soon the Lord will walk the Earth again, ours goals will be realized."

Part two: Transformation.

The virus moved easily through the blood avoiding the white blood cells easily, as they were not able to detect this particular retrovirus as an intruder. Then up ahead, the virus found its target, a single cell that had yet to be infected by this particular virus. The virus was able to rather simply attach itself to the cell membrane and then in one simple pumping thrust, inject its DNA into the cell. The DNA was then guided to the nucleus and easily crossed its membrane. Once inside, the genes that this particular virus coded for, cleaved and replaced the original genes which where then broken down to their base-pair nucleotides losing the information they originally had. The cell now had different instructions, and began to synthesize different proteins as per the new code.

Angela was beyond worried about William and his strange disappearance, she knew that something really bad had happened, she had no proof to the matter. She was sure that he was in trouble, but there was just no trace of him at all, it was as if he just disappeared off of the face of the planet. Other than the one strange call she had gotten from him, there was no other contact. She even filed a missing person's report with the police, but nothing turned up. They didn't seem to be trying very hard to find him. She thought that if he were not an orphan, if he had a family to care for him, then maybe the police would try harder. William was alone in this life, even in his disappearance; he was not getting any breaks.

Angela was about to call it a night, she could have nightmares about her friend as she had been having, when a glow began to fill her living room. She should have been afraid, but she wasn't. A light formed in the middle of the room and that soon turned into a human shape, and then standing in her living room was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in her life; she knew that this was an angel.

"Hello Angela, please do not fear me, I mean you no harm," she said in a glorious voice that brought tears to Angela's eyes.

"I am here to let you know that William is fine and that he is alright. You are a good friend to him, he cares for you enough that the power of his love commanded me to set your mind at ease. Please do not worry about him, he will come to you when the time is right, till then, be at peace child." With that, the angel was gone and Angela's life was changed forever.

Julia knocked lightly on William's door, knowing that he was inside and hoping that he wasn't busy. She felt a little shy, she really was looking forward to meeting him; she almost felt like a lovesick teenager. She tried to shake that, she didn't even know his name yet. He could end up being a creep for all she knew. She heard him moving around in the room, yet he didn't open the door. She knocked again, the noise of his movements stopped.

"Come in," he said through the closed door. That was odd she thought, he didn't open the door for her, and then she noticed that it was locked from the outside. Why was this boy being locked in? She unlocked the door and then opened it to get a little bit of a surprise. The room looked exactly like hers down to every detail. He even had the same posters on his wall. This was definitely getting weird she thought. The boy himself seemed pretty normal, he was wearing a tee shirt and a pair of sweat pants. However, even so, he was still cute, and one look at his face sent her tummy into a flip-flop.

"Hi, I'm Julia?" As she said it, she tried not to blush unsuccessfully.

"I am William, my friends call me Will. So are you a test subject here too?"

"A test subject, I have no idea what you mean. I live here, my dad owns this house." She was a little confused at his mention of a test. Her dad had mentioned something about a new treatment for her cancer. Could this boy be involved in that somehow?

"Oh," he said, "I am sorry, I just have not had a lot of contact with the outside world lately. I am glad that you stopped by, I do get quite bored in this room with Eugene being the only contact I really get. And lately, he has been acting like there is a big dark cloud hanging over his head or something."

"Oh, there was an accident at the lab last week, an explosion or something that killed quite a few of his friends. Dad hasn't told me very much about it. I don't get out much either, I have been sick lately." William felt a tinge of sadness as he was beginning to really like this girl.

"I am sorry to hear that, I hope it is not too bad." Julia burst into tears as he said that. He stood up and hugged her close to him while she just cried. He decided that at that moment that he could very easily fall in love with this girl. He also felt a connection of some sort to her.

Karl sipped his coffee in the diner across from Eugene Bryant's place. He was watching the good doctor to try and find out a poetic way to kill him. This was not a hired assignment, this time it was personal, thanks to Eugene, Karl had nearly lost his life. The boss nearly freaked when he returned that afternoon with the standard distilled water sample instead of the treated blood sample. It was a major mistake that would not have happened if Eugene had not rushed him. Well, the boss spared him only because he had more of this blood sample and now had to treat it the slow way since Beck Biotech was completely destroyed in the explosion. He was told to take a vacation, which to Karl was an insult. Well, during this vacation, Eugene was going to die, and maybe even Gerald Beck too.

William stopped dead in his tracks as he was finishing up in the bathroom and caught his reflection in the mirror over the sink. Something was different, at first he could not tell just what, but then it hit him. His eyes were brown, but there in the reflection, a pair of green eyes stared back at him. It was rather creepy, but not too surprising as Eugene had warned him that things were going to change. He thought to himself for a minute that perhaps he might have gotten himself in a little deep this time. However, ten million little reasons soon convinced him otherwise. He then heard that familiar knock on his door that was trademark Julia.

"Hi Will, can I come in," she asked as she let herself in knowing that he was going to say yes. She still felt like a lovesick teenager while she was around him. He felt the same about her.

"Julia, look at my eyes, they are green." She stared deeply into his eyes and her green eyes widened as she recognized his eyes.

"Your eyes, what happened to them? I know they were brown yesterday, they look like my eyes." She was a little surprised that she felt like something big was happening. She thought that well, people's eyes do not change color like that, and this was more than just changing color, his eyes were hers, she was sure of it.

"Eugene, he said that things about me would be changing as part of the experiments. Do you think my eyes look like yours?"

"Will, those are my eyes, trust me I have looked at them my whole life and I know my eyes."

"Why would Eugene give me your eyes? That really doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know, but I am going to find out," she had a slight tinge of anger to her voice. She also planned to find out why his room was an exact duplicate of hers, and his closet was filled with duplicates of her clothes. She assumed his dressers were filled with her stuff too. He was still wearing the same sweats and top, where was the rest of his clothes?

"How about a game of cards," said William changing the subject. He should have been more concerned with the whole eye issue, but he felt great, he could even see better than he had seen with his own eyes.

William and Julia spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards on his bed. Soon his eyes were forgotten as they gave into the good time they were having and the feelings that continued to grow between them. They really hit it off well, almost behaved like they were two parts of the same soul.

The burned man looked intently at his newly treated sample thinking that it was ready for the next phase. His benefactors wanted results, they had given him until today to produce the DNA for them. He could do that, but once he realized that this DNA was extremely extraordinary, he had other plans. He was going to use some of Beck's viruses to reincorporate this DNA into his own. He was going to become the new Messiah, he would have the DNA of the son of man. He would then teach all of his enemies the true meaning of the wraith of God. He combined his treated DNA with the Virus and smiled as the virus would need only a few hours to absorb the DNA and then it was time for him to become God, or Christ, it did not matter to him.

Julia entered her father's office and was relieved to see that Eugene was there already. She planned to confront them both and find out what was happening with William.

"Julia sweetheart, come on in," her father said to her.

"Daddy, Eugene, I have to ask a question and I want the truth from both of you."

"Julia, what is on your mind?"

"Well, I have met William, he is very nice. However, why do you have him locked up in a room that looks like mine, shit it is my room. And what are you doing to him? Did you know that his eyes have changed, they look like mine?"

"Calm down Julia, there is an explanation for all of this."

"Calm down, father I don't think so, I am sure that whatever your explanation is, it won't make any difference. I really have a bad feeling about all of this."

"We are saving your life Julia, William's DNA is being rewritten into yours," Eugene said to an open mouthed Julia.

"What!" Julia was even more upset than she was when she first entered the room.

"We need to change him totally into you, so that he can be a donor for a DNA project that will save your life. He is a willing donor Julia, and we can change him back after we have saved you," Gerald said hoping that his daughter would buy the few white lies covered up in the truth.

"This is crazy! Why can't you just use my DNA, I have quite a bit of it you know."

"Maybe so, but some of it is damaged, if we used a damaged piece in our process to save you, it would only kill you. A healthy Julia is absolutely necessary and William will be such in a few weeks," said Eugene.

"Does he know?" Julia asked still obviously mad. She discovered that afternoon that she loves William, and now she finds out that he is being turned into her, a little creepy.

"Not exactly," replied her father.

"Well, lets go tell him right now and see if he still wants this," Julia said.

"Okay, I will tell him," replied Eugene. Gerald just nodded and then Eugene and Julia headed off to tell William. Gerald felt a slight pang in his conscience as he knew they were misleading Julia, and it was hard on him for the simple fact that he had always been totally truthful with her up till now. Their relationship had always been strongly built on a great foundation of truth, but the truth now would kill her. She would never let him do what he was doing to William. He had come too far now to lose her, his plans for William had to go ahead.

I was so happy looking up at mommy and daddy as I happily skipped along in front of them. We were going to see Mickey Mouse; I could hardly wait. I was very excited about it, it even took some effort to keep myself from peeing myself. I knew if I did that, they might let me see Mickey.

"Julia dear, don't get too far ahead of us," said mommy. She was so beautiful, I wanted to grow up to be just like her. Daddy looked happy too, I was so happy having them both all to myself; well, Mickey too once we got to Disney. Disney, just thinking about made me feel so giddy and happy, I wasn't paying much attention to the small soda can on the ground. My little feet trampled onto the can and I fell forwards. My knee, it hit the ground and hurts, I began to cry.

"Julia," daddy said, "you need to pay attention to where you are going, it looks like you only scraped your knee."

"Gerald, how about being a dad and not a scientist. Come here sweetie, let me kiss your boo boo and make it better." I ran to my mommy with tears in my eyes and she made me feel better.

William snapped out of his memory, his memory, that was not his memory, he had never been a little girl. He tried to reason to himself that it must have been a weird dream, but no it was a memory, he was sure what a memory felt like. Was he going insane, how could he have this rather odd memory? He didn't have time to dwell on it as Eugene and Julia arrived outside his door requesting to talk to him. He let them in and then sat on his bed, Julia sat on his bed too; Eugene just stood. William liked having Julia this close though he felt a little odd with Eugene there.

"How are you doing today William?"

"Okay I guess, I feel a little cooped up though." He looked at Julia and thought that as long as he was cooped up with her, he might not mind it so much.

"I'll see if we can give you a little more freedom. William, I think it is time though that we had a talk about what has been happening to you," said Eugene as he stared into William's new green eyes.

"Well, I know that you are giving me new genes and I have seen quite a few changes already. My eyes are green now, and I noticed that my roots are growing in red. I have noted too a few other minor changes too."

"Like what," asked Julia before Eugene had a chance to.

"Well, I think I am getting fat, I really could use a gym."

"Fat?" Julia seemed a little confused by this.

"Well, I seem to have a little more tissue on me than I ever remember having."

"Is your chest sore at all," Eugene asked?

"Well, a little, almost like an itch. What is happing to me?"

"Tell him Eugene, or I will," said Julia with a tone that stated that she meant business. William was surprised to hear that tone, but smiled thinking that Julia was standing up for him.

"As you know William, I am using you as a test subject to rewrite a few of your genes, well that is but a small part of what is going on here. I am afraid that we have not told you the entire truth."

"What? What is going on?" William was on the verge of becoming agitated, but something inside of him seemed to be soothing him a little.

"I am sorry William, if we had told you everything in the beginning, we were afraid that you would not have allowed us to change you. Let me start by giving you the why before we get to the what. Julia as you know, is Gerald's daughter and he loves her very much."

"She is easy to love," interjected William that caused both him and Julia to blush.

"She is easy to love, and I guess love has a lot to do with what we are doing to you. Anyway William, Julia was found to have a brain tumor." The color drained from his face. William felt like his world just fell out from under his feet. It was at that moment that he truly realized just how much he had fallen for Julia.

"It is inoperable and she will die unless we create a radical treatment to save her life and that is where you come in. You see, the only way to save her is to completely rewrite her DNA in such a way that we can filter out the tumor. Unfortunately, to do so, we need your help, we can not use her DNA to rewrite her own code as her DNA is damaged and the probability of us rewriting her into an even more damaged version of herself is extremely high."

"So, you are rewriting my DNA into her pattern," said William surprising both Julia and Eugene.

"Why yes, I must say that I am impressed that you were able to figure that out."

"I am a biochemistry major, but how do you plan to rewrite my code without giving me the damaged code?"

"We are using the code from samples that were taken from Julia before she became sick."

"Really, well why not just use those samples on her?" William had surprised Eugene again in that he picked up on the one weak spot in the cover story he and Gerald came up with. However, Eugene was a quick thinker.

"Well, To rewrite her structure, we would run into the problem that our retroviruses would be confused since her structure is identical other than the cancer. This would mean that the cancer would not be recognized as foreign and possibly would be missed by the virus. Now, if we rewrite you, we can than incorporate a marker into the new Julia code so that problem will not exist and we can rewrite her DNA without any problem. Also, with the DNA we have left, there certainly is enough to transform you, but not enough to properly transform Julia. Thus by transforming you, we are also getting a huge reserve of Julia raw DNA to use in the whole process." Eugene smiled to himself, with his quick explanation, though if he had more time and research, he could perhaps actually do that.

"Okay, that is fascinating, I am a little shocked that you can actually rewrite an entire genome. And you are right, I would never have agreed to this if you told me in the beginning, not even if you doubled my price to twenty million. I am a guy, I have no desire to become a girl for any price. However, I have fallen in love with Julia," he glanced at her to see her shocked expression.

"I love you too," she said with a tingling sensation exploring the back of her neck. She really did love him, and now he was being turned into her twin.

"Anyway," continued William, "I love her enough that I do not want to lose her and if that means I have to become a girl to save her life, well so be it."

"You would do that for me?" She said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Yes, I would," he replied as he leaned over to her and kissed her on the lips. The kiss was electric as they both felt tingling and warmth from the charged kiss. Eugene smiled and just walked out of the room, as the simple kiss became much more passionate. He was happy with this new twist in things, perhaps if the two of them remained close, they could keep this project on track and maybe William would not complain as he was about to change radically with the next injection.

Angela woke from her sleep feeling an intense desire to do something, though she had no idea what. As she pulled herself out of her bed, she began to feel like she was supposed to be somewhere, yes she had to leave Gainesville. Orlando, she had to go to Orlando, her destiny awaited her there. Silently, Angela got dressed and packed a few things and then headed out to her car. She got in the car, started the ignition, put the car in drive, and then pulled out onto the street to begin her drive to Orlando. It was a two-hour drive depending on the traffic; that would get her there with time to spare for whatever it was that she had to do.

Karl really loved the last few kills with the help of the alligators and figured that Eugene would deserve no less. He still had some of the pheromones left and a little bit of the repellant too. The boss may have practically suspended him, but Karl did not need the boss, he was and always would be a loose cannon. Maybe he would do the boss someday and then get himself a new boss. He would have to think about that later, for now, he had business to attend to with Eugene, and would soon have business with Gerald too.

Eugene left the mansion still happy about their plans going so well, he was a little guilty about lying to William, but he had no choice. He was going to save William's original DNA pattern, though and his memory matrix just in case he ever got the chance to undo the wrong he was doing to the poor boy. He would need another host body to save William, but you never can tell what will come along. Eugene was thinking so much about it that he never noticed Karl walking up behind him until it was too late and the chloroform soaked handkerchief was already placed over his mouth. He lost consciousness not quite grasping what was happening to him. Karl picked up Eugene and carried him over his shoulders back to his car where he put Eugene in the trunk before he got in and drove off.

Angela was pretty much in a daze as she drove to Orlando, she was possessed with the knowledge that she was supposed to be doing something, but just what that was eluded her. It was there, but just out of grasp of her consciousness. She only knew that it was important and that time was critical. She had to be there at just the right time, or else something would be lost; something that was not meant to be lost.

Karl drove up to the same lake where he had watched his last victim, the good doctor, got torn apart from his scaly friends. He parked a good distance away, as he didn't want the gators to scratch his paint or even put a dent in the car. He got out and went around to the trunk to get Eugene. Eugene was still unconscious though he seemed to be coming around which was good as Karl didn't want to have to carry him down to the lake.

Eugene stirred from his slumber with a slight headache. Where was he? A trunk, he was in a trunk and there was a strange man standing over him with a gun. Eugene very quickly regained all of his senses thanks to the adrenaline that seeing a man with a gun caused his system to release into his bloodstream.

"Well, well, glad to see you are awake Doc." Another doctor, Karl really enjoyed killing doctors and their I'm smarter than you attitude.

"What is going on? Who are you and what do you want with me?"

"My name is Karl, and I think we need to go for a walk."

"I am not in a walking mood," replied Eugene.

"I am afraid that I must insist," Karl motioned with the gun to punctuate his point. Eugene got the point and walked towards the lake with Karl.

Angela was almost there, she had to get to a lake to help someone, to save them from something. It was close now, she could feel it, but why did she have to do this? Who was she going to save and what if she was too late? No, she would not be too late, much was depending on her; William depended on her. William, yes she would not let him down.

"Doc, you and Gerald have caused me a lot of aggravation. My boss has all but deserted me thanks to you."

"I do not know you sir, and surely I would not have intentionally done you any harm." Eugene tried to hide his fear, as he had to find a way to get the upper hand.

"It would take me too long to explain it all to you at this stage my good Doctor, however, I am sure God will be willing to brief you shortly. Do you know that the gator is one of the most successful predators to have ever walked the earth?"

"Alligators, wait a minute, the gator attack at Beck Biotech."

"Yes, they were my pets. You see, they were a diversion for me to get into your lab."

"The security guy in my lab, of my God that was you."

"Yes it was me, I almost didn't escape before the explosion."

"Why did you blow up Beck Biotech?"

"My dear Doctor, I had nothing to do with that. Anyway, let's end the small talk, it is time to introduce you to my pets." With that, he pulled out his vial of pheromone and soaked Eugene with it. As he laughed, he failed to notice the car caroming straight for him. Eugene backed away as Angela's car hit Karl from behind. Karl was pulled down under the wheel and Eugene clearly heard the sound of Karl's skull crushing.

Angela had seen the two men talking as she drove towards them, one was a bad man, he threw something on the other man. She floored her car and aimed her left wheel straight at Karl. The other man noticed her and moved out of the way and then, thud as she hit Karl. She saw he was pulled under her tire, the car jumped up a little as the wheel went up on his skull, but it then sunk as his skull crushed and his brains were no doubt popped out onto her tire. The car kept going and she managed to get it to stop a good distance from the other man.

Eugene saw what was left of Karl as the car passed him and stopped almost a hundred yards away from him. He then noticed movement, surely Karl was dead, no one could survive that. Wait not Karl, but alligators, they were coming up out of the water and he was sure that he was to be their main course. He had to get to the car if he planned to live. He knew that to run straight there would be suicide as gators can run up to 35 miles an hour. He began to run anyway, though he tried to put a zigzag motion to his sprint. The first gator darted after him followed by two more.

Angela sat in her car watching the running man try to avoid the alligators, he had to make it to the car, she had to get him out of there. She would drive over to him and maybe put her car in between the gators and him. She gave it a bit of gas, but only spun her tires, she was stuck. She kept trying, flooring it to no avail, the man was on his own.

Eugene noticed that she was stuck, however, did not dwell on it as the first gator zipped past him just missing him thanks to one of his zigzags. He stopped running to get a bearing on the other two gators that were closing. He jumped out of their way at the last minute and they also sailed past him. He noticed that more where crawling out of the lake and now the three that had past him were between him and the car and they were beginning to charge him again. He was done for, but why where they chasing him, the liquid on him of course, it had to be a pheromone or something like it. He quickly undid his shirt as it had most of the liquid absorbed into it. He threw it off to the side hoping that it would distract the gators from their present course.

One of the gators stopped and went after his shirt while the other two still advanced on him. The first one hit with enough force to send him and it tumbling. He was able to keep its snout from grabbing him, but his strength was waning fast, as the gators strength outmatched his. Luckily most of its snouts muscles were for closing its jaws and he was able to hold its snout shut. Alligator wrestling was not something he had ever dreamed about doing. The second gator though was a problem and it drew first blood as it snapped at his leg tearing free a portion of his calf muscle. As it moved in again, Eugene let go of the other gator's snout and was just able to push the gators head sideways so that when it snapped, it came down on the second gator. He then let go completely and rolled free from the pair that started to fight each other. He got up and started his limp back towards the car before the other gators could get close enough to him. Angela let him in, but noticed that the gators were still advancing on her car.

"Floor it!" He screamed, never being this scared before in his entire life.

"I am, the car is stuck!" Angela screamed back at him as the tires spun in the mud. The first gator reached the car and jumped up on the front hood. It started ramming its snout into the windshield as Angela screamed and screamed. Another one jumped at the car and hit on the driver's side, the impact rocked the car. The lurched forward a little as the impact gave the wheels a little grip. The windshield cracked as the gator on the hood was intent on getting in.

"Wait, try to time your next pump of the gas pedal with a gator impact, that just might work." Angela didn't acknowledge him though and kept screaming, though she let off of the gas so he assumed that the message got through. Glass showered them both as the gator shattered the windshield. Eugene felt the gators jaws snap at his face, not missing by more than an inch. Another gator rammed the car and Angela floored it again with success, the car thundered forward, and the gator on the hood fell into the car with them.

Eugene wrestled with the gator's head as he had before, he could not get a grip on its snout and it kept snapping at him, coming to close. Angela tried to drive though she was not doing very well. The gator's tail was swishing back and forth in front of her, she had no room to really dodge it and with one very big lash of its tail, she felt the impact on her head and then darkness. The car continued to drive forward, only out of control.

Eugene didn't notice at first that Angela was unconscious as he had a few problems of his own with the gator. Another snap and he tasted blood as well as felt something wet trickle down his chin. The gator had just nipped a part of his nose, he was losing this battle fast.

The car flew along out of control heading away from the lake and towards the interstate. It was amazing actually that it did not hit a palm tree or anything before it reached the highway; the busy highway. The car flew up over the embankment and sheared into a small compact car. The car behind the compact hit them next spinning the car and throwing the alligator and Eugene free from the car. The gator still tried to bite Eugene as the two of them sailed through the air. Eugene barely had enough time to think, but he knew he had to use the gator as a cushion if he was to survive the fall. He stopped fighting the gator and tried to maneuver it in front of him to take the full impact of the fall. The gator sensing its victory bit down into the soft tissues of Eugene's neck just as they hit the pavement. The strength of the impact killed the gator instantly and freed Eugene from its bite, though its teeth tore at the tissues of his throat and he landed ion the pavement unconscious and bleeding.

The burned man held the syringe up and squirted just a little bit out to ensure that there were not any air-bubbles in the solution. It was ready; he had the retrovirus with the DNA of Christ in it. He was but a single injection away from becoming a god. He looked forward to it immensely. With the power of God, surely he would rule the world, there would be no power on Earth to stop him. He located a vein on his wrist, and then with a slight jab, he penetrated the skin and then the vein itself. He depressed the plunger and smiled as he watched God's genes enter his body. He pulled out the empty syringe as all the contents were now in his blood and already beginning his miraculous transformation.

It started as a tingling within his wrist that moved as his blood flowed back towards his heart. As the blood seeped in to his tissues the tingle broadened and with it, pleasure. Soon, his entire body tingled, and he fell to the floor in an onslaught of pleasure as his DNA was rewritten. His skin pulsed and he felt changes within his structure. His face, it tingled, the healing it had to be healing. Then the pleasure turned as quickly as it came into pain. He screamed as it felt like his entire body was on fire, every cell in his body screamed out in agony. What was happening to him, he did not feel like God. However, he was feeling much stronger, the Christ DNA was delivering to him the power of the heavens. He was now ready to make the world tremble, but first, he felt his face and it was still burned. He found his way to a nearby mirror and what stared back at him surprised him. Instead of the beautiful face of Christ he expected to get, it was still his own face, yet it radiated power, every burn was more powerful than the highest mountain, he was a beautiful demon. And now he would play a little with the good people of Florida; he concentrated on the ocean and air just off the coast of Africa.

Demur waited for his master to meet him in their cavern under the Holy Land. He had much news for Zalpuk, he was not sure how the master would react, but he had to deliver him the news of all that had happened in Florida. Zalpuk, appeared almost as if by magic out of the shadows.

"Demur, you bring me a progress report."

"Yes master, our agent has not given us the DNA as requested. Steps are being taken to recover it."

"Cancel those steps Demur, he is untouchable now." Zaltar showed a sad look full of helplessness and despair to Demur.

"But master, what of our plan to resurrect the Lord?"

"It is too late, our agent tainted the DNA, everything is over my friend. The lord shall not return and we have given the world over to the beast. We were foolish to trust him, perhaps we should have used someone like Gerald Beck instead."

"What has happened Master?"

"Quasar injected the DNA into himself, he wanted to become God, however, he did not know how the DNA of Christ works. It amplifies what is already there, Quasar was an evil man and now that evil is intensified a thousand-fold. Only the pure of heart could have become the next Messiah. Now it is too late, God have mercy on all of our souls."

"Look at this," said Frank Bonner as he pointed to his Doppler radar.

"A tropical depression, wow I didn't even realize that we had a tropical wave already said his frothy eyed coworker.

"That's just it, the tropical wave formed like a few minutes ago and already it has turned into a tropical depression. That is weird, and not very common this early into the hurricane season."

"You are right, could be another Hurricane Andrew."

"I hope not, dear God, I hope not."

Eugene tried to open his eyes, and sight slowly returned to him, a little fuzzy at first, though his entire body was in complete pain. He tried to remember where he was, oh yes, the gators he remembered the gators. The doctor noticed that he was awake.

"Well hello there. I am glad to see you are awake, you gave us quite a scare."

"What happened?"

"Well, you almost had your throat torn out by an alligator, you also had broken ribs from an impact injury, you also had a piece of your calf muscle bitten off. All in all, your throat alone took 603 stitches, you are very lucky to be alive."

"The girl, how is she."

"Well, she was not as lucky, she is still alive, but has extremely severe injuries. Her neck was broken and she also suffered some internal injuries. She is still in a coma, we do not expect her to ever regain consciousness."

"She saved my life."

"I know, the police will want to talk to you later today, but you do have a visitor if you are up to it."

"If it is Gerald, I need to talk to him."

"Well actually it is Gerald, I will tell him that you are conscious and send him right in." The doctor wrote something on Eugene's chart and then left the room. Almost immediately, Gerald entered the room.

"Eugene, you look like hell."

"Thanks Gerald, I can always count on you for the compliments. How is the project going?"

"Eugene, you are all business. Nothing has been done since you left, I was thinking of injecting the next series into William today."

"Listen, we need to accelerate this process. The police will be around after this and the bombing of Beck Biotech. We need to get it completed as soon as possible. This man who tried to kill me today works for someone, that someone I think may have blown up Beck Biotech. We can't chance any delays Gerald, too much is at stake."

"Okay, I will give all of the remaining injections today. What about the memory reconfiguration?"

"I have planted some of the reconfigurations into the serum, the rest we can do later when Julia is closer to her end."

"Okay, but in the meantime, you hold in here pal. I want to see you back at the mansion as soon as possible you gator wrestling human cannonball," Gerald said with a big grin on his face. Eugene chuckled though laughing hurt him a lot.

"I love you Julia Beck," said William as he smiled up at her. The two of them had sneaked out of their rooms and were enjoying each others company in the indoor pool Gerald had built after Julia had taken up an interest in swimming. William was in the water and Julia was sitting with her legs dangling in the water.

"I love you too William Smyth," she purred back at him. She slid the rest of the way down into the water so that they could embrace and kiss.

"Will you still feel the same about me when I look like you?"

"Well William, I am a bit of a narcissist already so I guess I could get use to loving me."

"Well, that will be weird, I will get to experience lesbian sex, until they change me back that is."

"Oh you really think so do you, I just might make you wait till we are married," she joked back. "And you know, in a way for me it won't be sex, but a weird out of body masturbation," she continued to joke. He joined in with her laughter until he silenced it with a kiss.

Frank shook his head in amazement as the radar now said he had a tropical storm. These things just didn't develop this fast. They had to get the plane up fast to do a fly through, something was just not right here. Tropical Storm Annie was certainly a reason for concern and had the National Hurricane Center up and busy. The hurricane season had come and something nagged at him saying that this was going to be a hurricane season to remember.

Gerald had gathered the remaining injections and headed up to William's empty room. He was shocked to see the room empty, but as soon as he saw that Julia's room was also empty, he had an idea where they were. As he neared the pool, he heard the noises of lovemaking a noise he had not heard since Nora died. He was careful to be quiet and saw that William and his daughter were making love next to the pool. He was angry at first, but after tonight, William would never be able to make love in the same way again, so he left them be and waited for them to finish.

"Hello you two," he said as they came out of the pool area arm in arm. They blushed as they thought that perhaps Gerald had seen something.

"Oh hi Daddy," Julia said as she winced and put her hand to her head to quell the headache.

"How long have you been having headaches?" Gerald asked with a look of worry on his face.

"A couple of weeks, I really don't know."

"The cancer it may be from the cancer. Go get packed I am going to take you into the hospital tonight so we can make sure you are alright."

"Okay Daddy, can William come too?"

"No, he will be going through some changes here tonight. We are going to finish the treatment tonight as we do not know how long you have."

"But Daddy, I want him with me."

"Julia," said William, "your Dad is right, I need to let this happen so that I can save you. The next time I see you I will be you."

"Okay, but I will get back the real you soon after they cure me."

"For sure my love, for sure."

"I love you William Smyth!"

"And I love you Julia Beck!" Gerald took William back to his room and then began the injections. As soon as he was done, he apologized for rushing off, but he had to rush Julia to the hospital.

Still not too far off the coast of Africa, the water heated underneath Tropical Storm Annie causing a very powerful updraft that was supplying a lot of energy to the storm system. Annie was growing stronger by the second not only in strength, but also in size. Her winds and energy began the characteristic spiral motion that would produce an eye once her energy grew just a little more. Within her clouds, positive and negative charges kept separating to create more potential within the storm cell. Annie was not only going to be a very strong storm, she was going to be packing a lot of electrical energy.

"This is Hurricane Hunter One, we are about to enter the outermost edge of Tropical Storm Annie," said the pilot of the research jet into his headset.

"Hurricane Hunter One, this is Frank Bonner back at the National Hurricane Center. We have just upgraded her to a hurricane category-one. Please proceed with caution, Annie is a weird hurricane and to be honest, we really are not sure what you are going to find in there. Our satellite is showing us that the water underneath her is abnormally warm, we suspect possible volcanic activity or thermal venting. Whatever the case, we expect the updraft to be great as well as a lot of shearing winds."

"Roger on that, we will proceed with extreme caution." The jet flew into Hurricane Annie and even being prepared for the worst, were still taken off guard by the power of the updraft.

"Steady us out, that updraft is incredible!" The jet was rocked and thrown about by the powerful winds. It was almost like Annie knew they were there and decided that she didn't like them. Lightning leaped across the clouds and hit the jet, even though it should have been able to handle lightning, it shorted out the navigation systems as well as altitude control.

"What the hell, we have to get out of this storm now!" Screamed the pilot over the sound of buzzers and the howl of the storm that they could actually hear even inside the plane.

"This is Hurricane Hunter One, we have lost navigation and altitude control. We are going to abort this mission and try to get out of this hurricane before we lose any more systems." Said the pilot hoping that communications was still working. There was no response as his receiver was dead, however his transmitter was working and everyone sat on pins and needles as they waited to discover what would be the fate of this jet and the thirty people on board.

"I think we are breaking out of the clouds, of shit!" The plane descended out of the clouds only 100 feet above the water surface.

"Pull up, Pull up, c'mon you bitch. Pull up!" Hauling on the shift, he just managed to get the plane to level off and started to pick up a little altitude.

"Holy shit, that was close," said the pilot as he wiped some sweat off his brow.

"Oh man, we have a water spout at Three o'clock," screamed the copilot.

"Okay, this is not good, we need some altitude and fast, we have got to get above that spout!" The plane though only inched upwards as Annie just wouldn't let them get away this time.

"We are going to hit!" Screamed the copilot as he peed himself.

"All hands brace for impact! Control, this is Hurricane Hunter One, we declare a state of emergency!" The spout and plane made contact and the 250-mile-an-hour winds in this funnel. Grabbed the plane and threw it into the ocean where it shattered on impact. There were no survivors. Annie was now a category-Two hurricane and continued to strengthen as she made her way west across the Atlantic.

Zolpuk rushes through the cavern mazes underneath the Holy Land. He was trying to find Demur to tell him of his exciting news and that they were both about to leave the cavern for a trip. Zolpuk had never left the cavern before, he was born and raised here, had spent every waking moment of his life underground. Demur had been out in the real world many times, but now they would be out together. There was Demur in an ancient room where they had a few scrolls stored in small alcoves.

"Demur, we must pack, we are going to Florida, the Lord has risen, I have sensed Him! He will need our help if he is to grow strong enough to defeat our old agent, The Burned One!"

Waves of tingles flooded through William's senses as his transformation began. They did not hurt, but rather were somewhat pleasurable, and they seemed to reach every cell in his body. He laid on the bed soaking up the pleasure and keeping Julia in his mind and their love, thinking of her actually seemed to make the pleasure even more pleasurable. The tingling continued and he could feel changes in his body, small things at first, but then they escalated into larger changes. He could feel bones changing shape, shortening and losing mass, it was a strange feeling, almost like the same sort of tension one feels when they are stretching during a yawn. He then felt the bones in his pelvis rearrange themselves; his butt felt like it was expanding which would make sense if he was turning into Julia.

Then came an itching sensation in his chest, he could feel a shrinking at first as his pectoral muscles shrank. However, the shrinking was replaced by a swelling as his breasts grew, at first just from the development of the mammary glands themselves, but then continued as fat deposits were added to fill out his breasts; the nipples also grew. His shoulders shrunk some more too as more muscle mass were lost. Then the change started to really work on his abdomen as he could feel changes happening within his abdominal cavity. At the same time, he could feel a very strange pulling sensation in his penis, it was like an erection, but yet it seemed to go in the opposite direction. He reasoned that it was merely the change giving him Julia's plumbing and he was right. The change was almost complete, William knew from the waning pleasure that it was almost complete.

Gerald sat patiently with Julia as they waited for the results of her tests. She tried to be strong for her father, but her headaches were getting just too strong, she felt like it was bad and was beginning to get very afraid as she could tell that death was not that far away. She only hoped that they would have enough time to rewrite her DNA, but an inner voice told her that her time was all but up and that there would be no DNA savior for her. Then the doctor came in and confirmed her suspicions.

"Hi, we got the results of Julia's CT scan and the magnetic imaging. I am sorry to say that the news is not good at all. Your tumor has reached an alarming size and to be honest I am afraid that you do not have long left."

"How long?" Asked Gerald with tears in his eyes.

"Please tell us doctor, I am not going to live through the night right?"

"No, I don't think you will live through the night Julia, I am so sorry." She only smiled and then her heart stopped.

The surf in combination with the white sands and the walkways made Fort Lauderdale a very popular tourist attraction. Brian Jones thought so too and thus he was there on vacation with his beautiful wife Keli and their seven-year old daughter Sandi. The walkways were a little crowded that day, but the beauty was still not lost on Brian and his family. They were there to have the best vacation ever.

"Mommy, I'm bleeding." Said Sandi as she held her hand up to her mother. Keli screamed as she saw the blood dripping from two nail holes in her daughter's hands. Blood also began to seep through the toes of her sneakers where she had similar holes and also through her tee shirt where she had a wound on her left side just under her heart. The walkway came to a complete stop and people stared at the bleeding girl. Brian tried to grab his daughter, but an invisible force pushed him back from her.

A dazed look came over the young child and she arched her body almost like a giant muscle contraction as she began to levitate. She floated upwards to about ten feet off of the walkway, her blood continued to drip. One drop hit a blind woman who then began to stare like the rest of the crowd as her eyesight returned to her.

"The Lord has risen, the time is now!" she said over and over again.

Part Three: The Daughter of Man

"Are you sure?" Frank's boss asked him.

"Yes, if current conditions remain, Annie is going to in all likely hood hit southern Florida."

"It is too early to tell Frank, you can't expect me to issue warnings this early."

"In all the years I have studied meteorology, I have never seen such well defined highs and lows that appear to be very stable to the point that they are creating almost a groove for this hurricane to follow and that groove makes landfall at Ft. Lauderdale."

"Maybe so, but it is still four or five days away from landfall, we will wait and see what she does."

"Listen, this is a category-five hurricane, we need all the time we can get to evacuate, and I will also add that this storm has every indication of getting even stronger."

"Okay, if it is still headed where you think it is going this time tomorrow, I will issue hurricane watches for southern Florida."

"If this does what I think it will do, southern Florida will be a total write off."

"I hope to God then that you are wrong."

"Me too, me too."

William stared at the reflection of Julia staring back at him from the full-length mirror. He knew it was he, but it was just weird nevertheless. There also seemed to be something different about this reflection as though he was a very close representation of Julia, but there were subtle differences. He could have sworn that he appeared slightly more beautiful than Julia, but that would make sense if his new body had not had any of the wear and tear of time and life that hers had had. He stared at the pale skinned redhead for a bit longer and then realized something else was wrong.

He had more of her memories, he looked within and could see different things about her past. He could remember the day of the prom, he loved the dress that mother had bought him, it was so form fitting and made him look like a goddess. He had lost his virginity that night to Brad, what a hunk. William shook himself free of these memories trying not to get lost up in her past. He tried to remember his own prom, it was gone, only Julia's prom flashed to his mind. He could also remember Julia's first kiss, her graduation, and even her first period. He wanted to continue exploring these memories to determine just how extensive they went however, he knew that he had to do something, he had to go to the hospital and be by Julia, she needed him.

He wasn't completely thrilled about going outside looking like a girl, but he really didn't have a choice. He drew on some of Julia's memories to help him pick out some clothes to wear. He decided on a simple tee shirt and some shorts, not unlike the ones he wore on that day he went to the Beck Biotech test booth. He also put on a bra and was amazed how it felt when he actually had some breasts to put into it. Once he was dressed, he ran out of the house not even realizing that the locked doors were unlocking by themselves as he neared them. He found a car parked just outside the front archway and trying it, the door was unlocked. He looked around and found the keys tucked up under a visor. He started the car and began his drive to the hospital. He never questioned that he had no idea which hospital Julia was in, but only drove, his instincts were taking him to the right place.

"One, two, three, clear!" The paddles delivered a jolt of electricity to Julia's heart. Her body arched on the table, but there still was no rhythm. Julia watched this happening as she floated near the ceiling. This was strange she thought, was she dead?

William just parked the car right in front of emergency and walked in oblivious to everyone screaming at him that he could not park her car there. He had to get to Julia; nothing else mattered. He would take the stairs up to her floor as they would be faster than the elevator.

"One, two, three, clear!" Another jolt and still there was no rhythm. The doctor bowed his head and then looked at his watch.

"Time of death; 1828."

"No!" Gerald screamed as he had lost his daughter; she was dead.

Julia watched her father scream, she felt bad for him, but she was dead though she could not understand why she was still there. Then she felt a presence, a wonderful good presence, she wanted to join the light that was coming towards her.

William walked down the corridor towards Julia's room, he was almost there. The doctor who had just pronounced her dead was the first to see William coming towards the room. He had had no idea that she had a twin sister, he felt bad for her as she was about to find out about her sister's death. But, something was wrong here, she seemed like she was in a trance.

"Miss are you okay?" he asked in a concerned tone.

"I have come to save Julia," William responded and continued towards the room. The doctor was perplexed with the answer and followed after William, not quite knowing why. Gerald looked up as William opened the door to Julia's room, he had a look of surprise on his face as did the remaining nurses in the room. William walked over to the bed and looked down at Julia's body.

"I will save you Julia," he said and then laid his hands on her chest. His hands started to glow and white energy seemed to seep out of them. Julia's astral body that was watching this from the ceiling, felt her body tug at her and she descended back into it. Back into the flesh. Julia moaned as life returned to her body. Everybody just stood around watching in complete and utter amazement. One of the nurses fell to her knees and started to pray.

Since the incident at the walkway, people had been flooding to Ft. Lauderdale to see the spot where the girl had bled. The hotels where full, people where even renting out rooms in the area as people kept pouring into the city. It was almost close to insanity as the city of about 100 000 became closer to 150000 with all the extra tourists. Police where trying to control all the extra people, but it was a losing cause, something had happened here and whatever it was, it was more powerful than them.

Frank stared at his new data in almost disbelief. Annie had picked up speed and more power, her maximum sustained winds where nearing 300 miles-per-hour. That was unheard of, Annie was without a doubt, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded. What was even worse, she was still on a path straight for Ft. Lauderdale and with this increase in speed, she was going to make landfall in about twenty-four hours. He showed the data to his boss and watched the man's facial features drain of all color.

"Shit Frank, this is beyond bad. Fort Lauderdale of all places and after what has been happening there, we will have a huge mess on our hands."

"What is happening there, I am afraid that I have not watched any news since Annie formed."

"Holy shit Frank, some child bled like Christ from the hands and feet and levitated in front off a crowd of people telling them that Jesus had returned. Well, now religious nuts from everywhere are flocking to Fort Lauderdale and now we will have to try and evacuate them. This is going to be a giant hornet's nest."

Zalpuk was amazed at the outside world, he may have read about the outside world and even watched television, but to be out in it was like totally different. He wanted to run around like a child and soak up everything, but he knew that they had to find the Messiah, that was of up most importance. The plane ride was interesting, they had to take a small detour to avoid Hurricane Annie, but other than that it was not too bad. They had flew into Miami as they were then going to rent a car and head up to Fort Lauderdale as that was where the Lord would go, that is where the child was, the prophet kid with the bleeding hands.

The Burned One smiled to himself as he left his house in the cover of darkness. He was not ready yet for people to see him, he merely wanted to see what his creation was going to do to Florida. He knew that Fort Lauderdale and Miami would no doubt be destroyed and that thanks to that stupid little bleeding kid, a lot of people would still be in Fort Lauderdale when Annie arrived. He decided that he had to see the destruction for himself so under the cover of darkness, The Burned One began his trek towards Fort Lauderdale.

Julia opened her eyes to see herself standing over her, no it had to be William, wow, her father's DNA rewriting virus actually worked.

"I love you Julia Beck," said her double.

"I love you too, what do I call you now, I can't be calling you William while you look like that."

"You do have a point, I will call myself Jennifer for the time being I think."

"I always liked that name, I had sort of wished it were mine when I was a kid."

"I know, I seem to have some of your memories." Gerald just looked on, still in shock as were the doctor and the two nurses.

"What happened to me, I was dead wasn't I?"

"Yes, you were dead, but now you are alive and the tumor is gone, you have your life back Julia."

"How did you do it Jen?"

"I am not certain, I just could, I feel so strange, not just being you, but something else. I think I can heal again too."

"Eugene, he is a mess," said Gerald finally breaking out of his trance.

"Lets go then and heal Eugene," Jennifer replied.

"You can't leave here," said the doctor.

"We are leaving doctor, Julia is fine now, you will not try to stop us, we are free to go," Jennifer said to the doctor in a commanding tone.

"You are free to go," said the doctor in an almost trance-like state. Julia quickly slipped on the clothes that she had come in to the hospital wearing.

"How did you do that?" Julia asked as the trio headed out into the hall with Gerald leading the way.

"I have no idea, I just did."

Eugene was sleeping when they entered his room. Gerald was going to wake him, but Jennifer motioned for him to back off and she then walked over to him and placed one of her hands on his neck, the other one on to his shin. There was another whitish glow of energy that erupted from her hands and when she pulled her hands back, the wounds were gone. Eugene's neck was perfectly healed as well as his shin. Eugene woke up then feeling for the first time since the gator attack, perfectly at peace, and not in pain.

"My wounds, the pain it is gone," said a confused Eugene.

"You are healed Eugene, we must leave here now, we have work to do," said Jennifer.

"What work Jen?" Julia was a little confused at her lovers actions.

"You healed me William, but how?"

"My name is Jennifer now Eugene. Yes I did heal you and I am still uncertain as to how I did it, though I think that answers are slowly entering my mind. I can not explain any more to you, now we must go."

"Not yet," said Eugene, "if you can heal people Will..er Jennifer, you must help the girl who saved my life, she broke her neck saving me."

"Okay, but then we must go, I have to get to Fort Lauderdale," Jennifer said with a strange expression on her face.

"Fort Lauderdale, I may have been dead, but not long enough for y'all to plan a vacation," said Julia.

"Dead, I am confused," piped in Eugene. They quickly briefed Eugene on what had taken place as they made there way to Angela's room. As they entered the room, Jennifer recognized her old roommate immediately and ran to her. She placed her hands on Angela's neck and with a little bit of a glow, her neck healed and Angela stirred from her coma to stare straight into her transformed roommate's green eyes.

"I know you," she said as she sat up. Eugene was a little shocked after witnessing Jennifer's healing powers. Gerald and Julia were getting use to them if you can ever get use to something like that.

"How do you feel my old friend?" Jennifer smiled as she posed this query to Angela.

"It is you, William, wow you are beautiful."

"My name is Jennifer now."

"Until Eugene turns you back that is," added Julia.

Jennifer looked at her and smiled, "There is no going back Julia, that was never their plan, I was not to be your DNA donor, I was made to replace you." Julia stood there with her mouth open and from the looks on Eugene's face as well as her father's, she knew that Jennifer spoke the truth.

"Do not blame them though they loved you so much that they were desperate to find any way so that you could go on living. They may have sinned horribly, but they did it for love. Please forgive them Julia, I have and I am going to need all of your strength in the next day, we can not be split apart and divided, too much is at stake."

"Forgiveness, I love you and now you will never be the man that I fell in love with again, how do you expect me to not be a little bitter over this!"

"Remember the light, from when you were dead, remember the tranquility of it, the pure love. Well that is what pure love is Julia, the love that we felt for each other, lets catch that light together and be pure, we should cast aside our negative obstacles and embrace the pure love that is between us."

"It is hard, but you are right in that I still do love you and whatever body you are in doesn't really matter. I will try to forgive them for you, for us."

"Julia, I am sorry for what we did to William. We were so wrong, and things just got out of control. I am very confused even now as to why things have happened as they have, I feel like reality itself took a vacation ever since your mother died. So many things have happened here tonight that I just do not understand, and Jennifer, I thank you for your forgiveness." Gerald had tears in his eyes.

"I thank you too," added in Eugene.

"Jennifer, what is happening, an angel visited me a while back and told me that you were okay." Once again, everyone was shocked except for Jennifer.

"I know, I am not yet completely certain about what happened, but I think that we should not be wasting any more time as I have work to do. Let's get back to the mansion so that y'all can pack as we are all heading to Fort Lauderdale tonight." Jennifer seemed very confident about this as the others wondered why?

"Frank, you can not be serious, that is suicide!"

"I have to go down there and try to get those people to leave. I also want to place a few instruments along the shore to give me some readings on this monster. Don't worry, I will get out of there before it comes ashore."

"You are one of the best meteorologists we have, you are too valuable to lose. I can pull rank on you and tell you to stay here," Frank's boss said.

"That is true, but then I would quit and go anyway. I have to be there, I know it is dangerous, but I don't think anything on Earth can prevent me from going to Fort Lauderdale."

"Frank, God speed and please hurry back."

As they arrived at the mansion, Jennifer led them all to a sitting room where there sat a wide screen television as well as stereo equipment and a movie library on the wall. She turned on the television just in time for CNN's top news stories.

"The National Guard has been called into Fort Lauderdale to enforce the mandatory evacuation order issued earlier today in anticipation of the landfall of Hurricane Annie in now less than twenty-four hours. So far, the evacuation order has not been headed by the religious pilgrimage that resulted from the as yet unexplained Sandi Miller incident. If you recall, Sandi was the little girl that suffered Christ wounds and levitated warning of the second-coming." They showed a video clip of the girl levitating while bleeding from her hands feet and side. Everyone stood transfixed by the television as though the world was turned upside down too like their personal world's had.

"Hurricane Annie is a category-five storm and is packing sustained winds close to 400 miles-per-hour. Officials from the National Hurricane Center have reported that it is almost twice as strong as the most powerful hurricane ever recorded. They also said that after it hits, it will not be a matter of accessing damage to Fort Lauderdale, the damage will be total. In spite of this, we are informed that people are still heading into Fort Lauderdale to the extent that the police and National Guard are unable to stop them. A disaster is about to befall Florida unlike any disaster the state has ever seen. Our wishes here at CNN go out to the people of Florida and to the people in Fort Lauderdale waiting for their miracle. May God be kind and grant them that miracle."

"Jennifer, you want us to go to Fort Lauderdale, are you crazy?" Gerald seemed a little angry.

"No, we are going," Jennifer replied.

"I trust Jennifer, you can count me in," said Angela.

"Me too, she raised me from the dead, I think that counts for something," said Julia as she winked at Jennifer.

"I am willing to go on blind faith, heck those gators would have done me in if not for strange circumstances. I have to see this through to the end."

"Well, I think you are all crazy, but if my daughter is going to die again, I'm gonna be there with her. I think that all this trip is going to do is reunite us with Nora."

"Okay, then let's go!" Jennifer led them out Gerald's minivan and then began the drive to Fort Lauderdale.

The winds had picked up steadily all along the southern shores of Florida as Annie neared the coast. The surf had also picked up quite a bit as the waves almost threatened to overtake the walkway that was still packed with people waiting for their miracle. The National Guard had tried all they could to get people to leave, but there were just too many people and not enough guardsmen. They finally gave up and pulled their forces out as southern Florida was not a place anyone would want to be once this storm made landfall.

The dark clouds had already began to move in. Just south of Fort Lauderdale, rotation began to pick up in a cloud mass and then with a little tilt, a funnel cloud stretched out until it reached the ground. A whirling rumble quickly grew in intensity as the tornado began its path of destruction through the town of Hollywood. Power lines exploded, homes where torn up as though they were only made of straw, as the destruction mounted on this F5 monster. By the end of its path of destruction, Hollywood Florida was totaled and sixty people were dead, the foolish sixty that had decided to stay in spite of the evacuation order.

Frank had witnessed the tornado that destroyed Hollywood from a safe distance. He was in utter disbelief at its strength. Hurricanes did sometimes spawn tornadoes, but not usually ones that strong. He thought about fleeing the coastline, but he had a few more data recorders to post and maybe attempt to convince the crowd just how dangerous Annie was.

Zalpuk and Demur watched the crowds on the walkways and the approaching storm which didn't worry them as they knew that this was the place that the Messiah would come to and that was more important than any danger posed by Hurricane Annie. It would not be long now reasoned Zalpuk, The Burned One was already nearby, he could feel his evil.

The Burned One smiled as he looked over the crowd waiting to die when his storm blew in. He had felt the sixty who had died in Hollywood and that felt very good; he could not wait till these thousands died, he would enjoy it immensely. After this, he figured that he would perhaps visit San Andreas fault and make the Big One happen, yes, that would be a lot of fun too.

Jennifer drove almost like a maniac, she seemed almost frantic to get to Fort Lauderdale. They had already passed Boca Raton, which meant that they were almost there. Jennifer was beginning to understand a little more, she knew that she had to find two men named Zalpuk and Demur. They would help her recover more of what she was supposed to do. Time was running out, the hurricane would be here soon and a lot of people would be dead. Directly in front of them on the highway, a tornado touched down and started growling as it headed straight for them.

Frank placed his last recorder not too far from the crowds on the boardwalk when he noticed a curious man. He seemed to be observing the crowd, but really caught his eyes was the fact that this man was horribly burned. The Burned One noticed frank and motioned for him to come over. Frank didn't want to really get involved, he just wanted to get out before Annie hit, but his body moved forward against his will.

"What do you see when you look at me?" The Burned One looked straight into Frank's as he waited for an answer.

"Umm, a man who has had a terrible accident."

"Do you feel pity?"

"No, I am sorry for whatever happened to you, but I do not feel pity."

"Good answer, it may have saved your life. Now tell me Mr. Bonner, what do you make of Annie?"

"Annie is beautiful, she is a true work of God. It is terrible that these people must die and that destruction will occur, but it doesn't dismiss the fact that this is a very beautiful hurricane."

"Yes it is that. Would you stop it?"

"I can't stop it, no one can."

"Perhaps, but if you could, would you stop it?"

"Of course I would."

"Honesty Frank, now tell me the truth, would you stop it?"

"No, I would not. This storm is the storm of a lifetime and I want to study it, I thrive on storms."

"Yes you do. Now I think that I may be able to help you somewhat, you know to get you to experience the storm." The Burned One smiled.

"It's coming straight for us!" screamed Julia who was sitting in the front passenger seat next to the driving Jennifer.

"Here we go again," chirped in Eugene from the back seat. Jennifer just ignored them and concentrated on the road and the tornado.

"Hold on, this is going to get bumpy," she calmly said to the group. She then accelerated the van forward into the flying debris field. A branch hit the front windshield and put a major crack in the glass. Something fairly heavy bounced off the roof leaving a pronounced dent in it. Jennifer still remained cool as they almost had reached the tornado. Julia began to pray and shut her eyes as the van began rocking from the tornado's power. It was almost too late, but at the last second, Jennifer cut the wheel and arched the van up into the air as it left the road going over the embankment and skimming around the tornado landing on the other side of it. She had used the tornado's own power and some centripetal force to get around a tornado. The van kept going on its way to Fort Lauderdale.

"How did you pull that off?" Eugene asked, visibly shaken a little from the experience.

"I just did," replied Jennifer.

"What happened is not possible, we should have been sucked in Jennifer."

"Not if the centripetal force was as great as the intake force of the tornado's suction."

"Jennifer, we would have had to have been going a lot faster than this van is capable of to pull off such a force," added Gerald.

"Faith is the greatest force of all," said Angela in Jennifer's defense.

"Well, I doubt that faith is going to stop Annie," Gerald said glumly.

The rain started to come down hard along the beach as the crowd still waited for their miracle. The surf was now starting to overflow onto their precious walkway, enough to soak their feet.

"My head is tingling!" screamed one woman happily on the walkway!

"It must be the power of the lord!" another screamed. A step leader made contact with the first woman's tingling head to complete a circuit resulting in a lightning bolt. The woman was fried from the inside out leaving a stench of burnt human flesh mingling throughout the crowd. At least twenty-three others were close enough to her to get electrical burns. Twelve others died instantly, while another eight were left unconscious. Another bolt hit another section of the crowd killing another thirty people. However, the crowd still held their ground waiting for their miracle.

Frank Bonner had just been offered a deal with the Devil, to be able to watch all these storms and the destruction just as long as he served The Burned One without question. But, what of his soul, was it even right to be considering such a thing. He wanted to see the destruction, he would make the deal.

"Okay, I accept your offer." The Burned Man only smiled and then Frank felt a squeezing in his body like it was trying to displace his soul. It grew more intense and then he was up and out of his body, he was dead. However, before he left the world, he had one last glance at his body to see another soul entering it.

"Welcome back Karl, how was hell?"

"Boss, I was dead, that bitch and the doctor they killed me!"

"Yes, but I brought you back so that you can exact your revenge on them. They are coming here, in fact they are but minutes away my friend," The Burned Man smiled as he knew that Karl would distract them until it was too late for them to stop him. He was a little afraid that Beck might have a way of neutralizing his new DNA. He really doubted it, but he was not about to gamble on it.

Jennifer pulled up their battle worn van and started out towards the crowd.

"Stay here till I get back, I have to talk to Zalpuk alone," she said. Jennifer made her way towards where Zalpuk and Demur where standing on the far side of the crowd. As she left them, Karl watched a little confused, as there now seemed to be two Julia Becks. He let the one go he was after Eugene and Angela, and the boss wanted Gerald spared so that he could kill him himself. He walked up to the group as they would not recognize him in his new body.

"Hi, I am Frank Bonner from the National Hurricane Center."

Jennifer was able to walk right up to Zalpuk and Demur without them paying her any attention.

"Hello Zalpuk, I have come to see you," she said. Zalpuk just looked at her confused for a minute until her identity dawned on him and he fell to his knees, Demur did likewise.

"Oh Blessed Savior, you have come," he said

"Please stand, I do not wish for people to bow down to me, that is not who I am."

"Lord, you are the Daughter of Man this time, you have come to save us all and I am but your humble servant."

"Get a grip, I have a major hurricane thundering towards this shoreline, I do not have time for babbling. I need you to tell me what to do, how do i stop this?""

"Your answers are within, you are the new Messiah, accept that role as then and only then will you be able to save the world. I must tell you that there is another, The Burned One, he is here and Annie is his storm."

"The Burned One, sounds like the Devil," Jennifer said with a little chill of fear running her spine.

"Well, probably the closest thing that this Earth has ever seen. You must destroy him or he will destroy the world."

"I see, so in other words these people are expecting a miracle and I have to give them that and fight the Devil all at the same time."

"Not completely accurate my Lord, but yes that is close enough."

Angela felt like something was wrong with Frank Bonner, she could not put her finger on it, but it was like his eyes betrayed a dark secret. She was certainly not going to trust him and she was also going to find out just what his secret was.

"I'm here actually testing a new hurricane shelter, we think it will be the only thing standing after Annie passes through. I have room for two more people, how about you and you." Karl pointed at Eugene and Angela.

"I don't think so," said Angela rather fast.

"I don't bite, I'm not a gator, I am perfectly harmless." Angela all of a sudden remembered the gators and the man she killed with her car, Eugene had told her that his name was Karl.

"Well Karl, I don't trust you." Angela used Karl's name to see if he would notice, and he had as he pulled a gun out and leveled at the group.

"I don't know how you recognized me bitch, but that is okay I am going to kill you for what you did to me. You too doc, I have no idea how you survived the gators, but this time your luck has run out."

"What about me?" Gerald asked sensing that this Karl was really after him.

"I would love to kill you too, but the boss plans to do that personally. He really does hate you very deeply though. Hell, he hates you so much that he hired me to take care of your sweet little wife and your daughter too."

"What did you say!" Gerald was starting to tremble in anger.

"Well, lets see first I killed your wife, we made it look like a lightning strike and the doctor that examined her agreed with us, well he had too or we would have ruined his life. Once that was done though I fed him to the gators just like Julia's doctor, the one that gave her the tumor. That was planned too, I am actually surprised that she is still alive and kicking. I was also surprised to find out she has a twin, the boss will be pleased to get to kill both of them."

"Argh..." Gerald charged Karl in absolute primal anger. Karl only looked at him and tried to shoot him, but his finger would not obey his command, the boss was doing this he thought as Gerald smashed his fist into Karl's new nose. The bone broke and broke off into a splinter that was then shoved back into tender brain tissue. Karl died for a second time.

"The great Doctor Beck, now a murderer," said The Burned One with a chuckle. He walked up to the group and smiled a very wicked smile. Everyone could not but help to stare at his burnt face.

"Who are you?" Angela asked, fearing his answer.

"I am called The Burned One now, though in the past I have been known by other names. Like when I worked at Beck Biotech, I was Desmond Barker."

"Desmond, I remember you, you were the one performing unauthorized experiments at night." Gerald said in disbelief.

"Yes that was me, I had an accident if you will remember and well, I was burned rather badly. Then what happened Gerald?"

"You were fired for breaking the rules and under the circumstances, our insurance did not cover you either."

"So true, I was thrown out on my ass penny-less and horribly disfigured all thanks to Beck Biotech."

"You killed Nora and tried to kill Julia all over revenge for a problem that you brought on yourself. Why didn't you just take it out on me, why go after my wife and daughter?" Gerald was trying to contain his anger, he wanted to smash in this man's face too, but something told him that this was no longer a man that stood here before him.

"You are right Gerald, to kill your wife and daughter over that would have been a little crazy. No, your sins run deeper than that I am afraid. I destroy you in the name of Janet Holms." Gerald's face goes white to a degree that it is visible even with the heavy rain falling on them.

"Janet Holms, what has this got to do with her?"

"How about you enlighten the others on who Janet is," demanded The Burned One.

"Julia, please forgive me for what I am about to say. I loved Nora more than anything, but I had an affair early in our marriage with a woman named Janet Holms."

"Very good Gerald, you do remember her."

"She was a mistake!"

"Well dear father, she was my mother!" Gerald almost fell to the ground with this news.

"She was pregnant?"

"Yes she was, but do you think she got a break from you, no! Your precious Nora lived where she should have. And once I was born, do you think I could have a father, no! Precious little Julia had you instead. Well, now you know why I went after them, they hurt me by taking what was mine."

"I didn't know."

"Well, mother tried to contact you, you ignored her, would not return her calls, you even had security throw her out one time when she showed up to try and tell you in person. You destroyed her, it was you that drove her to suicide. You took even my mother from me, and you wonder why I am bitter at you?"

"I don't know what to say to you, I am so sorry Desmond."

"Well, my real name was Gerald Blake Jr. I was your son, I should have been the heir to Beck Biotech, I really did want to follow in your footsteps, but now, oh well the world is going to end and hey I am responsible for it all. I will destroy this planet in your name father. I can do it too, you see I used your invention to alter my DNA, I gave myself the DNA of God."

"How?"

"Some religious order wanted me to isolate Christ's DNA from a piece of the original cross, well I did and using you retrovirus I introduced that DNA into me, now I am God, or the Devil if you would like. I even lost a sample of Christ's blood at your precious company just before it blew up."

"Jennifer," said Eugene as a light bulb went off in his head.

"Who is Jennifer?" The Burned One asked not really caring too much about the answer as he realized that Gerald was not really a threat, nothing could stop him.

Jennifer took off her shoes and socks and walked towards the swollen ocean. If she had to be the Daughter of Man, there was no better way to get these peoples attention other than to walk on water. No one really paid any attention until she took her first few steps out onto the surface of the water. She willed the winds to calm in the area she was in and just walked on top of the water like it was nothing. She couldn't believe it at first that it worked, but it did and now he had to stop Annie somehow.

"Look it is the Lord!" screamed someone from the crowd, their miracle had arrived. Jennifer walked out so that they could all see her, and then she took a deep breath for what was to come next.

"Do not be afraid," Jennifer bellowed so that everyone could hear her, "I am the Daughter of Man and I brink a message of love and peace to all. My children, I am honored that you have all come out here to see me. However, I must ask that you back away from here as the Devil and I must do battle. Please my children, I do not want to see any of you hurt, heed my request, we shall all talk after I have defeated The Burned One and have stopped Annie."

The crowd obeyed reluctantly and started to move away from the boardwalk. The Burned One and the group noticed this happening as people started to pass them as they retreated.

"What is this!" The Burned One was a little confused but was not too worried as they really didn't have time to get far enough away.

"I would say that that is Jennifer," said a smirking Angela.

"I will deal with this Jennifer father, however, don't worry I will be back for you in a few minutes." With that, The Burned One stormed off towards the beach. As he got closer, he could feel her presence, there was another god, good he though, this was going to be fun.

Jennifer saw him coming, The Burned One, he certainly lived up to his name she thought. She walked back to the shore to meet him on the boardwalk. The storm picked up again as she released the winds she had been holding while she was walking on the water.

"You must be Jennifer," said The Burned One.

"I am the Daughter of Man oh evil one."

"Sure whatever you say. If you are so powerful, stop my storm, open up a tunnel to Hell and cast me inside. I am waiting."

"Only the Father can do that, I shall do His will, not your bidding."

"Cut the religious crap girl, shall we rumble?"

"I would prefer to end this peacefully but I somehow doubt you would be open to simply surrendering and calling off your storm."

"You are a smart bitch!" He said as he summoned a lightning bolt to strike Jennifer, she screamed out in pain, but seemed unharmed. She then ran towards him and tried to throw a punch at him, he side stepped it and laughed. This Daughter of Man was nothing, and she had no idea how to use her powers, this would be an easy victory. Jennifer wondered to herself just how she was going to win against a man who could control the lightning. Then she remembered something Zalpuk had said, the answers were within her. Jennifer sat down and began to meditate.

"Excuse me, we are fighting here, not doing yoga!" The Burned One fired another lightning bolt from the heavens down to strike her, it had no effect.

Gerald ran towards the beach with the other close behind. They saw the lightning strike and heard Jennifer's cry. They also saw her failed attempt at a punch and then how she seemed to give up and just sit there while Gerald Jr. hit her with another lightning bolt. There had to be a way to stop this madness, Gerald tried all he could to think of it but came up shy.

"Father, welcome, I am about to destroy this Jennifer, would you like to watch?"

"Son, I never meant to hurt you or your mother, please stop this, you do not need to do this, if it is me you want to kill, then kill me, leave the world alone."

"It is not that easy anymore, I am pure evil now, and nothing is stronger than pure evil, watch and see!" Another lightning bolt hit Jennifer, she did scream this time, and stood up.

"You are wrong, there is a greater power than pure evil, right Julia," Jennifer said with a smile on her face.

"The light, of course, pure love, it is the strongest!" Julia said realizing Jennifer's plan.

"True love, it is a fairy tale!"

"No it is not," said Jennifer as she walked over and hugged Julia.

"Love is real," said Julia as she leaned in and started to kiss Jennifer, rather passionately. A small white glow formed around Jennifer and then grew to encompass Julia.

"I love my daughter," said Gerald and he leaned in and hugged the kissing couple. The white energy grew stronger and encompassed him too.

"This is sickening!" The Burned One said as he summoned another lightning bolt that deflected off the white light harmlessly.

"I love my best friend," said Eugene as he entered into the group hug causing the power to grow even stronger.

"I love my roommate," said Angela as she entered into the hug. The energy grew even stronger.

"This is an interesting phenomena, but hardly a threat to me," he said once more scoffing at love. He paid no attention to the crowd of faithful who had returned to watch their Savior defeat Satan. They all joined hands into a giant group hug and then a human chain marched up to the glowing group and made contact with them.

"WE LOVE THE DAUGHTER OF MAN!" they all yelled together and the glow began to grow and swell, encompassing everything. The Burned One tried to escape it, but it grew too big and too fast that he was unable to get away from its power. As the light enveloped him, he felt at peace for the first time in his life, he had found the pure love and acceptance that he had longed for his entire life.

"Gerald Jr.," said a familiar voice to him.

"Mother is that you?"

"Yes honey, I have come for you. We can finally be together, your pain is over little one." Gerald Jr. cried as he saw his mom waiting for him and he realized that it was indeed over.

"One minute mom, I want to do one last thing before I die." He walked over to his father and kissed him on the cheek.

"I love you father, I am sorry for all I did, but I have a gift for you to make it up to you, you will see." Gerald Jr. then walked towards the tunnel turning his back on life to embrace the light and the last Earthly thing he heard was his father's voice.

"I love you son and I do forgive you." The light protected the crowd from Hurricane Annie as she blew ashore. However, she lost her strength very fast thanks to Jennifer's mental concentration. Fort Lauderdale was destroyed, but Miami was spared.

"It is nice to be back home again," Gerald said as they pulled up to their familiar mansion. He really thought that he would not have seen his house again, he had expected to die in Fort Lauderdale. He hugged Julia close to him, he was really blessed to have his daughter healthy and alive. They were going to have a life to live, a second chance to do it right. Eugene was a changed man, he was still going to work on the DNA projects, but it was easy to see that Eugene's research was going to lean a little more towards cancer research. Angela was going to head back to Gainesville even though she was welcome to stay in Orlando. She wanted to finish her degree and then decide what to do after that.

Jennifer talked to the crowd in the aftermath of the hurricane. She talked to them about love and respect for the Earth. She fed them and healed the sick and wounded before she headed off with us. The media had a field day with what happened in Fort Lauderdale. The crowd had survived amazingly and had little memory as to what happened though they kept speaking of love. The media wrote the whole incident off as a strange set of circumstances.

The front door of the mansion was unlocked, Gerald was a little alarmed as he knew that he had locked it when they left. As they entered the house, his sense of smell was overcome with a wonderful scent; pancakes. Not just any pancakes; Nora's pancakes.

"Nora!" Gerald screamed hoping beyond all hopes.

"Hello Gerald," said Nora as she walked out from the kitchen with a big smile on her face.

"Gerald Jr.'s gift," whispered Jennifer to the others.

"Oh my God Nora, I love you," said a weeping Gerald. Julia also broke into a run and was soon hugging her parents, tears running down her cheeks too.

Jennifer sat alone in her room thinking of what she was supposed to do with her life. Just a few days ago, she was a guy named William, and now she was the Daughter of Man. She thought of continuing as a teacher and living the role up, but what life would that have been for her. No, she figured that in this time and age, a Savior could do more good behind the scenes without getting crucified by the media. Besides, she was madly in love with Julia and the world was not ready for a lesbian Messiah.