Girlfriend with Testing Device Ch. 25

Warning, this chapter includes the second person, topless waitresses, ironic reveals, resets, rollbacks, coffee, anger, justice, mercy, vengeance, truth, confrontations, further hard decisions, mysterious benefactors, opportunities, and a bright light shining in from the future.

Girlfriend with Testing Device

- A Smutty Fanfiction, of Sorts -

= Part 25 -- Ever Onwards=

By Razmagurk

We arrived at the coffee shop not long after. We'd have gotten there sooner but I'd stopped to swap back a few more people along the way.

It was weirdly cold out as we met up with Emma. Then again, maybe the chill wasn't in the air. I'd be lying, Frank, if I said I wasn't scared. I could see you sitting at the table through the window, your brown fur shining as you petted and stroked your machine.

Can you blame me for being afraid, despite all you'd done? You represented this whole other world of shifting realities that we're all just completely oblivious to. How was I supposed to believe anything was real knowing about the iceberg you sat upon? Were you even what you seemed to be? I tried to take a mental inventory of you, tried to picture how all your features added up: your fur, your tail, your ears, your boobs. Were you more than just some weirdly hot guy? What wasn't I seeing?

Regardless. I knew what you could do. You terrified me.

"Ellen?" asked Emma.

"Huh?"

"Are we going in, or..?"

"Right. Sorry."

I took a deep breath. I had to stop and work up the courage to go any farther. I had to resist the urge to turn and run, to just get as far away from you as I could. Not that that would have stopped you.

You were surprised to see us - to see me. You smiled. You were even more surprised to see the device. You thought I wasn't going to pull it off.

"Everyone," I said, once we'd all taken seats around the table, "this is Frank."

"Oooh, he's cute." hummed Emma.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you all. I've heard so much about you." You had a smile like a tiger before a feast of mice. "I must say, Ellen, I'm impressed."

"Frank is the one who gave me the device," I said, in response to the blank looks on everyone's faces. What little color remained in Elizabeth's drained completely as she realized what that meant. "He's here to take it back."

"What?" gasped Elizabeth. "You can't!" She stood up, slamming her hands down on the table. You didn't even flinch. "We need it!" she pleaded "I... I made so many mistakes that still need fixing. Please! You can't take it from us now!" I was surprised. I thought there was no fight left in her.

"I believe you'll find that I can." your grin turned into a tight-lipped smile. "Ellen signed a contract. She got it for one week, then we get it back. This is the easy way. I don't know how Ellen managed to get the device away from you, Elizabeth, but you should consider yourself lucky that she got to you before we did. You don't want to see the hard way."

It took Elizabeth a moment to process the implied threat. She sat back down.

The waitress arrived with our coffee. She was still shirtless from last night.

"Sorry, what is this all about?" intruded Emma.

"Oh, right, none of you were here for the start of all this, were you?" your grin returned. "Just over a week ago, the company I work for gave Ellen here the E-model of a prototype device capable of obliviously swapping traits between two or more parties so that she could test it out and see how it handled in a real-life use case. She's had quite the adventure since then."

Emma laughed.

"Emma," I said, "I know it's hard to believe, but it's true."

"No no, I totally believe you. I'm just surprised."

"What?"

"The things you were saying yesterday, Ellen? All the weirdness? I looked into it. This matches all of the crazy stuff I've been finding."

"Oh?" you raised an eyebrow. "You've heard of us?"

"Rumors. Stories. Frequently with a cautionary bent." She raised an eyebrow right back. Was she flirting with you or trying to call you out? "The internet is a big place if you know where to look."

Everything went silent as the two of you locked eyes. I was shocked she could be so bold. Didn't she realize what you could do? I could only imagine how your company dealt with rumors and leaks like that. You could do more than just silence a person -- you could make it so that they never existed.

"Well then," You surprised me by laughing. "Sounds like our PR department hasn't been doing their job. I wouldn't buy too seriously into what you read on the internet if I were you. Trust me, as someone who deals with this sort of thing all the time, things are almost never as bad as the reports make them seem. Besides, most stories are cautionary if you know where to look."

"So hold on, if you gave Ellen one of these weird box things," Emma replied, "what does all this have to do with the rest of us? Why are we here?"

"My job involves getting a report from any device users. Usually that means just the person we gave the thing to, but sometimes other people get their hands on the thing and we like to try to document their experience as well. It's good data."

"Wait, you mean..." gears were turning over in her brain.

"That's right." You took a sip of your coffee. "Since all four of you have used the prototype at some point, I want to get complete reports from each of you."

"How come I don't remember any of this?"

You and I both turned to look accusingly at Elizabeth.

"Hey, that was self defense." she held up her hands. "She tried to tackle me!"

I scowled.

"Besides," she continued. "I knew she wasn't supposed to have it, she'd obviously stolen it or something. I made her forget all about it, that's all. It wasn't... malicious. You'd have done the same thing if you'd caught up with her first."

"Hold on, hold on," you said, digging a hand into your mewling machine and pulling out a long slick tentacle. "I bet this is a great story. I want this on the record."

"Look, I already told you," Emma slid back in her chair. "I don't remember anything."

"That's fine," you said, offering the tentacle, "I'll roll you back to before your first contact with the prototype. Let's start from there, shall we?"

Emma grabbed the slimy thing curiously. "What is thi-"

Zzzzttttt

She blinked several times as she stared at the thing in her hand, then her eyes traveled up along the length of her arm towards her body. She held out a hand and looked at it back to front.

"Oh wow." she said. "That is so trippy."

"Shall we begin?" you asked. You were trying to hide it but I could hear the excitement in your voice.

"Uh, I guess." she nodded as she looked around, giving each of us a long discerning scan. I wondered what we looked like to her. How did she remember us?

"Tell me about the first time you saw the device."

"Um." she stopped to think, then frowned. "Okay, so, looking back at it all, I'm sure it looks pretty bad. But you gotta understand..."

Emma told her tale: her flirtations at the mall trying to pick up two cute strangers, her orgy at the party, finding the device, all the chaos that followed.

Seeing someone get rolled forward as they told their story was strange. The machine made a tinny little zzzzttttt noise in emulation of the device whenever there was a change, but it was far from the smooth instantaneous process I'd remembered from my own time holding the tentacle. There was a moment each time where Emma would just sort of pause and roll her eyes up before continuing on as though nothing had happened.

When it was over Emma just sat there, one hand clutching her head as she let the weight of what had happened wash over her, listening back in her own mind to the story she had just told. It was a surreal an experience to have said all these things, to remember remembering them, but to not have them be a part of your reality.

"I can't believe it." she said. "This whole time I've been walking around with a fucked-up body without realizing? Oh my god, everything that's happened, I can't believe..."

You scooched the tentacle out of the way and put her cup down in front of her. She took a drink as the last few gears clicked into place.

"Oh my god, Sam!" she screamed, rising up to her feat as she pointed one hand accusingly at Elizabeth. "You bitch! What the hell did you do to her? him? To us!?"

"I... I'm sorry." Elizabeth whimpered. "I was jealous! Sam was this great guy and I'd always had a thing for him and I saw that you had him and I just..." Evan gave her a sad little frown as she tried to collect herself. "Sam was this completely unobtainable figure. No matter how many girls tried no one could land him because he was waiting for this perfect girl. And then you - you, who had nothing that I didn't -- you managed to get your hands on him? Why? Why you and not me? I was so angry, so jealous... I needed - wanted - to tear him down... to make him something I wouldn't be upset to lose."

"So if you couldn't have him, no one could?" Emma spat. "Maybe you should focus on building yourself up rather than trying to break other people down, you bitch!"

"It's okay though," I interrupted. "We swapped him back. Everything's alright now."

"You did." she was shaking. "You did. But that doesn't forgive what she's done."

"No..." said Elizabeth. "You're right. It doesn't."

"You stole her strength! You stole her intellect! Her passion!" Emma rose to her feat and started advancing towards Elizabeth. "You stole her whole fucking life away from her. For fucks sake, you even made her incontinent? Are you a fucking child? Do you have any idea what it's like, in my mind right now? Seeing her scarred like that? Seeing the man I love reduced to an invalid? Worse, knowing that neither of us even realized anything was even the matter?"

I expected Elizabeth to get indignant, to stand up for herself and get angry in kind, but there was only a quiver of tension in her palm, a faint whisp of a fist.

Evan stood up and interposed himself before the advancing girl. He gave her a cautioning glance. Evan wouldn't hurt a fly, but Emma didn't know that.

"You're right." Elizabeth croaked. "It was a terrible thing. An awful horrible thing, but I've regretted it and hurt because of it and I'm - I'm trying to be better now."

"You think that gets you out of it!?" I'd never seen Emma so furious.

She hesitated in her advance as she considered Evan, then she lunged sideways towards the table and grabbed the device. I stumbled to my feat in surprise.

You deep drink from your cup. You were enjoying this.

Before any of us could react, Emma had taken several steps back and had the device pointed at us. None of us could get to her in the time it would take her to press that button. She swept her aim over each of us until finally she had the thing aimed dead square at Elizabeth.

"I should turn you into a worm for what you've done." She adjusted the dials.

"Emma, please, don't!" said Evan, reaching out an arm. "Think about what you're doing."

"Listen." I said, "I understand. I have just as much hate for Elizabeth as you do - hell, probably a lot more. And you're right, she's scum. She doesn't deserve an ounce of forgiveness. But whatever you're thinking, you don't need to do it. She's not worth it. You can be a bigger person than her."

"Elles..."

"Fuck that." Emma spat. "I want you to suffer, you bitch."

She pressed the button but before she could release it, you flicked a switch on your machine.

I looked down at the coffee before me. I was seated again. We all were. Fresh cups in our hands. Elizabeth's eyes were dry. Emma had her head down on the table, cradled in her arms, her eyes closed. She was snoring gently. A small wet patch of drool had formed on her sleeve.

"What the hell just happened?" asked Elizabeth, first of us to break the confused silence.

"I think that's about enough of that drama, don't you?" you smiled. "You have a bad habit of pissing people off, don't you, Elizabeth?" you laughed. "I can't wait to hear your side of the story. Would you like to go next?"

Elizabeth and Evan looked at each other. Her eyes had gone cold with fright. She shook her head ever so slightly. Evan nodded and smiled, squeezing her hand.

"I'll go." he said, reaching for the tentacle.

"No... wait..." she gripped his hand tighter. "I don't want to lose you."

"I'll still be me, Elizabeth."

"No, you won't. Evan, if you go back to the way you were, you won't love me anymore, you won't care about me. You'll hate me, just like everybody else. I don't know if I can bear that."

"I could never hate you, Elizabeth." His eyes softened. "And I'm sorry I have to do this, I'm sorry I have to hurt you like this. I want to love you forever, but... but this isn't real, baby. We have to fix it. That doesn't mean though that I won't cherish the time we spent together, or that I have to stop caring for you. Be the sort of person I would care about. Be that person I know you can be. You said, earlier, that you never had a chance to earn my love? Here it is."

"I love you, Evan."

"I love you too, Elizabeth."

He held her one last time. They kissed. It was sweet and pure and full of emotion. I felt sick watching it, but I'd put up with it for Evan's sake.

When they were done, he sat down at the machine and grabbed hold of the tentacle.

"Ready?" you asked.

"Where do we begin?"

Zzzzttttt

Evan looked up hesitantly at Elizabeth. His sweet face was crossed with an apologetic frown. Gone was the warmth and love from his eyes. She sobbed.

"Evan?" I asked, hope rising in my voice as I rose to my feet.

"Baby?" a smile broke across his face like a sunrise as he turned to me.

My heart stopped. I hesitated, still not believing it. He stood up and held out his arms. I ran to him and embraced him as tight as I could.

"Evan, I've missed you so much!"

"I know baby, I'm so sorry."

I don't know how long we held each other, tears flowing down my face as my heart overflowed. Neither of us wanted to let go.

"Baby?" he said, finally, half laughing.

"Yeah?" I pulled my head back to look into his shining eyes.

"Have I really been in a girl's body this whole time?" He smiled up at me. His smile, his perfect, radiant smile.

I just laughed and nodded. He laughed too. "It's a long story." I said.

"I bet it is." you said. "I hate to interrupt this little moment, but I am very eager to hear it."

Reluctantly, Evan stepped away. The weight of him pulling away was like the tides flowing out. I felt like I was losing him all over again.

"Wait..." I said. Now it was my turn to choke up.

"It'll be okay, baby." he clutched the tentacle. "Don't blame yourself. We'll get through this."

"Alright Evan, think back. I want you to tell me about the first time you saw the device."

"Uh," he said, wracking his brain. Let's see... it was at the bar, I guess? I remember thinking the bar was crowded for a Thursday..."

Evan told his story. It was one of hope, romance, and optimism, tainted by a suite of oblivious betrayals from those he trusted most. A boy who wanted the girl he loved to be happy, dragged along on an adventure that would change him forever. It was hard to hear, harder still to know I had been there, doing those things to him. I sat and I listened as he was ripped from me, as Elizabeth took him and abused him, how he struggled with the woman he loved suddenly acting so different, the confusion as I confronted him, and all of the pain in his heart as he had to make that final terrible decision.

When it was over, he looked down at the table, his expression a cold and distant facade over a sea of swirling emotions.

"Evan?" Elizabeth probed.

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I'm so sorry. It's my fault you had to take such extreme action, my fault that you felt you had to steal me like you did. I see that now. I should have been more cognizant of your feelings... I should have paid more attention, and spoken to you about things. I never wanted to break your heart. I wish I could rip myself in two and give myself wholly to each of you, but you... you both deserve more than that."

You held up a finger, Frank, as though you were going to interject, as though you were going to offer just that, but you decided against it.

"I love you, Elizabeth," his face melted just slightly as he looked up at her. "I love you more than anything. But I see now what you did. Taking me like that, it was cruel, Elizabeth, so cruel, to Ellen and to myself. We trusted you." He quavered.

"I'm sorry, Evan, I'm so sorry."

"I know. I know you are. This pain, this betrayal, it all feels so fresh to me, but no matter how much it hurts, I can see that you've already begun to heal from it, haven't you? I can see it in you. You've regretted it, hurt from it, learned from it, and as bad as it is, you've already been better because of it." he smiled sadly. "Elizabeth, baby, I want you to know that I forgive you."

"What?" I cried.

"Evan... thank you." fresh tears welled up in Elizabeth's eyes. "To know that you don't hate me. To know that someone - to know that you - can see that. I can't tell you how much that means to me."

"Frank, please." I begged. "I can't take another minute of this. Do for Evan what you did for me. Roll him back to how he was before all this began. Undo all the stupid swaps we made to him. Bring him back to me."

"It's Evan's decision." you said, turning to him.

"Evan?"

"No." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Ellen, but I don't want to go back to that."

"What?" my heart leapt up into my throat.

"If you change me back, 'll be a stranger in my own life. I... I want you to leave me like I was." He looked down at his body. "Isn't it so weird? I know logically that this is a girl's body, but I just can't make my brain recognize it as such." He laughed. "If you're going to roll me back, roll me back to how I was before the party. Can you do that, Frank?"

"But what about all those things Elizabeth did at the strip club?" I cried, "What about all those things I did?"

"Honestly... Ellen, I kind of liked some of the things Elizabeth did at the strip club. And I'm not just saying that because I care for her. This me that I am now? This notion of masculinity that I feel? It won't let me be happy with who I am. All I can feel is disgust knowing that this whole time I've been oblivious to my own femininity, knowing now that I've been weak and soft and that I like girly things..." he sighed. "I don't want to live with that bearing down on me. I want to like who I am. And, well," he gestured down at his jiggling nubile flesh, "the me that I was then would love the me that I am now."

"How can you say that, Evan?" I pleaded, "After everything? After all the trouble we caused, all the bits of you that we stole or gave away, how can you possibly want any of that? Don't you want to be free of all this? I'm sorry, but I just can't look at it and see this as anything but the swaps influencing your decisions."

He gave me a small sad look, then smiled gently. "That's fine. I understand. Frank can roll me back to the way I was originally. I'll tell you the same thing."

He grabbed hold of the tentacle once more and glanced over at you. You shrugged and flipped a switch.

Zzzzttttt

"Evan?"

He looked up, his smile brightening as he saw me.

"I'm sorry baby, but I... I need to think this all over. Just, give me a few minutes okay?"

I nodded.

He sat there for quite some time, looking down occasionally at his body or at one of us. Whatever was going through his head, it was a big decision. When he finally looked ready to speak, his eyes were set and determined.