What am I?

Breathing heavily, we came to a stop outside another laboratory. We had been escaping through the hallways for what felt like forever. The winding white hallways between us and what we were running from. Just as we tried to catch a breath there was a screech that cried out behind us. The buzz of wings could be heard around the last corner. She pointed at a door beside us and I pushed it open quickly. We ducked inside the room and she flicked off the lights as I hurried the door shut behind us. I didn't want to know what was actually out there. Neither of us did.

We sat in silence for a few moments as the creatures passed by. The loud bangs as its claws echoes along the walls and the chittering of the creature sent chills down my spine. The wall behind me dented in from the force of the abomination as it ran by. As I stared into the metal surface of the doorway, hoping it wouldn't collapse like the door before, I caught a glimpse of my reflection. Something I would swear I had seen a million times if I didn't know it was something I'd never done before. The intent stare of those emerald green eyes that looked back on my shoulder length hair and lean figure with a slight hourglass curve told me this was definitely the first time. Lost in my observations I almost didn't hear her as she started talking.

"So here's the basics…" She said in a whisper, "My name is Lily, and your name is Origin. You're a Phaser and I'm an Undying."

I didn't have to say it, "The hell are those?" was written on my face, but the name Origin was deeply familiar to me. I knew that one. That, at least, felt right. Almost as if it was on the tip of my tongue, but never brought to the surface before. Finally, I would know what was going on here.

"I'll start with me, it's a bit easier to understand that way. We're both experiments, products of a company called GenTech." Lily went on to explain. The uneasiness that these words came out with panged on my heart. It sank deep into my core as new and more profound questions raised in the place of every answer.

"In my case, they abducted me and made me become Undying so that I could continue my research. Gentech is selfish about its… Assets." She pointed at her feet, already healed from the glass earlier. The creature no longer had the scent of her blood to follow. "Age tends to limit how much research a single genius can do, but for an Undying..." She paused in thought for a moment, "I've lost count of the centuries." The bitterness on her face told the story better than her words.

"I didn't get a choice in the matter, and I suppose that extends to you as well." As she was speaking, staring off into the distance, I didn't miss the pain that crossed her face for a moment. I heard the words hang in the air, she choked on them. "I'm sorry."

I forced a smile, trying to cheer her up. What's done is done, after all. It doesn't seem so bad since we've survived so far. "So, what am I, exactly?" I said, trying to sound positive about the situation.

"The result of my research." she said as she brushed a few loose strands of my blonde hair behind my ear. It was only now that I realized how similar we looked. It wasn't that we could be twins, but aside from her slightly older appearance and my green eyes we were alike. Perhaps almost like mother and daughter.

"And that means…" Something so vague didn't feel like an answer. Maybe to an expert that had studied this for several dozens of years it made sense, but I wasn't even born yesterday!

"Everything about you is better, by far. The difference between us is the difference between a man and his god. You can even, well the two of you can…" Her voice trailed off, as if she was unwilling to say everything. The look in her eyes told a story of someone unsure of what she should do. For so many years, I might have been her secret. I wonder, is it strange for her telling someone now?

"Can what?" I tried to mimic her expression from before, the one with those determined eyes. It seemed to work.

"You can slip through time, among other things." The sentence felt like it had come straight from the science fiction section. I knew about people who wrote about time travel, but that wasn't something that people do.

"Seriously?" Even I could feel the shock on my face. Every new expression I used left me with a strange feeling of wonder the first time I used it.

"Do I look like I'm joking? You already 'Phased' once to save me. I know a temporal distortion when I see one! I created them!"

"Is that what that was? No kidding, huh? Cool."

"I know right? We don't have time for that right now though, we need to find the boy." Neither of us dared to raise our voice right now, knowing the situation we were in. This was the first I had heard of our objective though. Not wandering aimlessly through hallways sounded like a good idea. From what I could tell of all the identical windowless white and silver panels, we were definitely underground and this laboratory must be massive. Whatever they were doing here, it was large scale. Hearing that we were looking for a boy in this maze of endless danger sounded a little silly. Shouldn't we instead be looking for an exit?

"Boy?"

"Phasers come in pairs. Right now, I think we really need to find Coda, for your sake." she said as she walked toward the door.

I stood still. "Lots of questions still." Honestly, I was a little hesitant to go back out there. Here was safe, and out there was nothing good, as far as I was concerned.

"We don't have time. Your lives are entangled on a quantum level, every molecule you're made of is paired with his. When something happens to one of you… It's not very convenient for me if that happens now." Her expression turned grim. She had no chance against those creatures if we ever ran into them alone.

"Can't I just pause time or something to look for him?" I had tried to recall how it felt before. I could only get to the edge, but I couldn't break the barrier that I had easily walked through before. I tried to get a hint, maybe she knew why I couldn't.

"I'm not sure it works like that, but if you figure it out, I'm all for it." She said with an awkward smile, obviously she wished I could do that too. "A time slip is... Well, it's not like you're suddenly the master of time. Shall we get going?"

"Sure. One more question. This Coda guy, what is he like?" Judging from everything I had seen so far, which isn't much; bugs were bad and people were good. I've only met one person until now, and that has worked out pretty well. Maybe it could work twice.

"Oh, I think you'll get along quite nicely." The smirk on her face was a little worrying.