Normality

Audra could feel the excitement running through her as she opened her eyes. However, instead of seeing the familiar sight of her family's shop, she was met with an empty void of darkness.

She blinked, confused and disoriented. Where was she?

As she tried to regain her bearings, Audra realized that she couldn't move. Her body felt heavy, and she was unable to lift a finger. Panic began to set in, and she tried to scream, but no sound came out. All around her, there was a deafening silence, only broken by a faint buzzing noise.

Her eyes struggled to focus, and her vision blurred until everything became an indistinct haze. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, and her breathing grew rapid and shallow as the panic continued to build.

And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the darkness disappeared.

Her eyes squinted as it was replaced by a blinding white light, and the sound of a thousand noises flooded her ears all at once.

She was now standing on a lakeside. The water shimmered in the sunlight, and she could smell the scent of trees and flowers in the air. A flock of geese swam lazily across the lake, honking loudly and flapping their wings.

Audra turned her head around, confused. Where the heck was she? What was this place?

The location seemed vaguely familiar to her, although not quite. It possessed the grandness of Crater Lake, the atmosphere of Sparks Lake, and a bit of Agate Lake's shape. In a way, it was like someone mashed them all together to form the most picturesque body of water she had ever seen.

"Hello?" she called out, her voice echoing in the stillness.

No one answered her.

It seemed she was alone, surrounded only by the beauty of nature. The sun was warm, the breeze was cool, and the earth beneath her feet felt solid and firm.

This wasn't what she had intended. She should have been in her shop, not in the middle of nowhere.

She tried to take a step forward, only to realize something felt a little different. She couldn't put her finger on it until she looked down and quickly realized why.

"What the…"

Where her bionics should've been, there was nothing but normal, healthy skin. The metallic plating on her arm was instead soft flesh, her prosthetic leg was no longer there, and when she reached to touch the base of her neck, there was no smoothness of metal to greet her fingertips.

She was whole.

The realization hit her like a truck. Her mouth fell open in shock, and she stumbled, nearly falling into the lake.

There had only been one time in her entire life where she didn't have artificial devices propping her up—right when she was born. Even then, it hadn't been for very long.

She wiggled her toes and flexed her fingers. She never had a left arm or a right leg of her own. Those were things she had been born without.

All of her life she had known nothing but the constant presence of her bionics. They were as much a part of her as her blood or her bones, refitted to her constantly as she grew. And now, to suddenly be without them, she felt… weird. Different.

And yet, at the same time, she was free. She felt as if she was finally normal, like she could do anything, go anywhere.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there, staring at her hands and feeling the grass beneath both of her feet, but it felt like hours. She could have stayed there forever, just marveling at what she had lost and what she had found again.

She suddenly heard footsteps approaching. Turning around, she saw that there was a hiking trail of sorts behind her that led into the forest surrounding the lake. Along it came two figures, one tall and the other short. They weren't familiar to her, but upon seeing her, they simply gave her a friendly wave before continuing on their way.

Audra waved back, unsure of what else to do. It was like she wasn't out of place, like she belonged in the world.

For the first time in her life, Audra wasn't an outlier or a freak. She was just another person enjoying a quiet day at a peaceful lake.

She smiled, and tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn't help it. For the first time in forever, she felt like she was truly alive, truly herself.

When she made her way over to the lake to catch a glimpse of her reflection, the feeling only increased. The girl that stared back at her was the one that she had always wanted to see, the one that she had always imagined she could have been.

Long, brown hair that seemed to glow in the soft light of her surroundings flowed down past her shoulders and along her back like a river. Smooth, pale skin covered her body; bright, vibrant amber eyes gazed back at her; and there were no visible signs of scars from past surgeries or implants.

There were no mechanical limbs, no artificial organs, nothing. Just a girl, plain and ordinary.

She was beautiful. Not in the way that people often described celebrities or models, nor in the way that people were usually considered attractive. She was beautiful in a way that only nature could be.

Her hands traced her face and arms, marveling at the softness of her skin. It was almost surreal, as if she was dreaming—

Wait.

In a way… she was.

Reality quickly caught up with her and crushed the facade. All of this was a dream—a fantasy constructed by a machine. None of this was real. Not the lake, the forest, her own body.

Nothing.

The sudden thought brought her happiness crashing down in an instant, and the tears that she had shed in joy now turned to sorrow. They streamed down her cheeks and fell into the water, causing ripples on the otherwise still surface.

Back when they had used the VR machines at school, their avatars were locked to be exactly the same as their physical bodies. It was supposed to be done so that the students could have a 'more authentic experience' and to keep them from getting distracted or going off task.

Perhaps that rule had been for the best. Now that she had a taste of that freedom, of what could have been, it was like a wound had been torn open in her heart.

Why couldn't she have had this life?

She knew that it was selfish to think like that. There were plenty of people that had been born with far more severe problems than her. People who would never get to experience this kind of freedom, or who would be lucky to even live a full life at all.

She shouldn't complain. She shouldn't be ungrateful; she had gotten more chances than most.

Yet, it still hurt.

"Damn it… Why?!" Audra shouted, slamming her fist against the ground. The action sent jolts of pain shooting up her arm, and she cried out in surprise and pain.

Ah, right. The pod's sensory feedback was probably at 100 percent, and she could actually feel with that hand now.

"Oww…" she groaned, rubbing it. She had been so used to being able to hit things with that arm without feeling anything that the sensation had caught her completely off guard.

She sighed, shaking her head. "Alright, calm down, you can't just sit around here all day. You gotta figure out how to get to the antique shop."

She tried pulling up the menu to change the scenario and fix things, but while some of the options were available, the option to change the current scenario seemed to be locked.

It was odd. The interface didn't have any indications that something was wrong, and the pod hadn't displayed any error messages or warnings before entering the dive. Perhaps it was a limitation of the system, and that once you were in a scenario you couldn't change it?

Whatever the case, there didn't seem to be a way to go back outside of just exiting the entire simulation itself. That was fine though. She had only come here to test the machine anyways. There was no point in getting caught up in something that didn't matter in the long run.

Admittedly though, she was bummed. She had planned for this test to make her feel better, not renew her identity crisis.

She pulled up the menu again and selected the 'Exit Scenario' option after a moment of hesitation.

It took a few moments, but soon she felt the sensation of being sucked downwards followed by a disorientating flash of white light.

***

When her vision returned, she found herself waking up from inside of the capsule. A series of loud beeps sounded from somewhere behind her as the machine began powering down. The lid hissed as it opened, and a wave of cold air washed over her face.

She took a moment to catch her breath and let her eyes adjust back to the waking world. Then, once she had gotten her bearings, she unplugged herself and sat up slowly.

She shivered, rubbing her arms. Everything was 'normal' again for her, although that word felt a little wrong. It was what she was used to, certainly, but after seeing how things could have been, it felt like she had just been handed back a pair of shackles.

Audra shook her head, pushing those thoughts aside. She might try to test it again later, but for now, she needed to talk to Zephyr about what had happened.

She stood up and climbed out of the pod feeling a bit wobbly. The transition from virtual to reality had always left her feeling a little unsteady on her feet, and it seemed like this time had been no exception.

As her eyes adjusted to the bright lights of the workshop, she noticed that Zephyr was leaning nearby against the wall and sipping a cup of tea.

"Welcome back," he said casually. "I saw you decided to give the capsule a test run. How was it?"

"Uh… It worked fine, I guess? There might be an issue with the custom scenarios, but other than that I think it's okay."

He just sighed and took another sip from his mug.

"In that case, I'll probably have to look over the system myself to see what's wrong. I can't send something with issues to my customers."

There was a moment of silence as he looked her over.

"You alright?"

"Y-yes, I think so."

The answer seemed satisfactory enough for him.

"In that case, lunch is ready, so let's go. We can talk more while we eat."

Zephyr didn't press her further, and they simply headed to the kitchen together where a simple meal of sandwiches was waiting for them.

Her mind briefly wandered back to the virtual world and to the way her body had felt there. However, it wasn't something that she wanted to think about right now, especially with Zephyr present.

She forced herself to focus on eating instead. There would be plenty of time to dwell on her feelings later.