4 4: Changes

Inky's words rang through Adam's mind as the dream faded around them, "We could be great… Only on our own terms…"

There was a truth to them, an appeal Adam couldn't deny. For his whole life, it always felt like something was missing. And now he'd found it and the missing piece had been shoved into his soul by a crazy cult that was trying to control him.

The dreamscape was replaced with the blackness behind his eyelids and Adam admitted something to himself. He didn't like the promise of greatness as much as he liked the promise of it being on his own terms. After a life where it felt like he was just a passenger in his own body, Adam was more than ready to make Fate his bitch.

His eyes blinked open, finding the off-white ceiling of his dorm room above him. He shifted slightly, feeling the familiar covers and sheets on the unfamiliar single bed beneath him. Adam noticed that he was naked which was odd because he could have sworn he had on at least boxers when he went to bed.

Then the entirety of his dream came back to him all at once. The strange visions of places and times that shouldn't exist. The serene dreamscape he found himself in afterward. His conversation with his own Shadow…

It all streamed to the front of his mind and Adam found himself struggling to process. Yet he couldn't dismiss it as just a dream. It was too vivid, too lucid, and too fresh in his mind to be anything but a spiritual experience.

His mind dove back farther into his memories of the night before but only managed to run straight into a hazy wall. Only the dream was clear. What came directly before it was muted and felt more imaginary than the dream did.

Adam vaguely remembered waking up in a strange place. Someplace unfamiliar, dark, and dangerous. He remembered feeling utterly helpless as it felt like something was shoved into his soul. He remembered the chaos in his mind, body, and soul. He remembered shadowed figures and unease.

These foggy recollections felt almost sinister and he was surely an unwilling victim in them. But Adam couldn't figure out what had happened or if it was even real. His memories were incomplete and disconnected and almost ethereal with how they drifted in and out of his mind.

But he knew something must have happened last night. The dream itself was proof enough but he got even more proof when he swung his legs to the side of the bed and moved to stand.

His cock smacked against his thigh as he moved. Now, Adam was not poorly endowed. He was packing a bit more than average and had never felt any insecurity over his manhood. But as he gazed down at the python that now rested between his legs, Adam could only stare in silent shock.

Then his eyes were drawn to the well-muscled tree trunks that his thighs had become. Adam had never been particularly fit…

Then they were drawn to the now-steely washboard of his abs and his chiseled chest and his toned biceps and rippling forearms. Adam had definitely never been absolutely shredded…

Adam stood, marveling at the fluid ease and predatory grace his body seemed to naturally move with now. His muscles rippled and flexed just beneath his skin. His posture was straight and powerful. Everything just clicked and Adam had never felt more right.

Then he looked into the mirror on the back of his door and saw that muscles weren't the only thing about his body that had changed. His skin was so smooth and unblemished that it would have been more at home on a marble statue than a person. It was like he'd been airbrushed to perfection.

He could still recognize his face as his but it was ever-so-slightly different. His features were sharper and more noble. Adam looked like a version of himself that had been born as some kind of prince or demigod.

His cheekbones were high and almost elegant. His jawline was strong and sculpted. His pale green eyes shone with a certain light and energy that was captivating. His black hair was long and messy in a way that managed to look purposeful instead of careless. The white highlights in his hair were pristine and almost iridescent, seeming to take on the color of the light in the room as he shifted.

Then there were the strange tattoos he'd grown overnight. There were two, both identical except for their placement. One was on his neck and the other on his lower abdomen like a wicked tramp stamp.

The design was simple but intricate. It was just the word 'VOX' arranged vertically with a bit of flourish to it. The 'O' in 'VOX' was shaped like a heart and seemed to pulse with pink light in time with Adam's heartbeat. Around the 'VOX' were arcs and squiggles that made the word look like it was encased in concentric hearts.

"'Vox'?" Adam wondered aloud. "What does 'voice' have to do with anything?"

Of course, as soon as he spoke, Adam noticed the changes there as well. His voice was deeper, a kind of gravelly rumble that originated deep in his chest. It was a voice of power, charisma, and pure Lust… It was the voice of the Shadow from his dream…

"What… What am I?" Adam asked himself, not expecting an answer.

"So much more than what we once were," Inky's voice answered from the depths of Adam's mind. "What we were always meant to be."

His Shadow's words resonated with something inside Adam that he normally ignored. The grudge and sneaking suspicion that the cards had been stacked against him since birth. The disillusionment and buried resentment at the world. That part of Adam couldn't help but agree with Inky, feeling that this change was a long time coming and more than fitting.

Adam steadfastly ignored that part of him like always, "What was wrong with me before?"

"Nothing," Inky seemed to shrug. "If you consider being depressed and empty 'normal'. You weren't complete, Adam. We weren't complete. I made us more than just you could ever be. Together, we are everything. Together, we are whole."

"This is freaking me out," Adam said, finding that he couldn't outright reject Inky's reasoning.

He had been depressed and empty after all. He had felt like he was only half of a person. Like something essential to his being had been missing… But the idea that he could be 'completed' by some unknown supernatural force was more than a little scary and Adam was nowhere near ready to accept that as fact.

It felt deterministic and fatalistic. As if nothing in his life would have mattered before he had whatever Inky was shoved into his soul. As if he'd been born as Fate's bitch and that should have been the end of it. And that was the worst part…

As much as Adam was scared of whatever Inky really was and what he… it… was doing to him, he was more scared of what would have happened if they'd never merged. Would he have lived an utterly pointless life? A life with a hole in his soul and him never knowing why he felt so empty inside? Was he still just a passenger in his own body, only now taking directions from a copilot instead of just being on autopilot?

"Why don't you find out?" Inky whispered with a silver-tongued voice in the back of Adam's mind. "Give me control and you'll see just how much I'm still holding back for your sake~ Let me in completely, fully accept me, and we'll make Fate our bitch together~"

"Nope," Adam instantly denied his Shadow. "Fuck that. Fuck you. I'm not dealing with this right now."

Inky just chuckled as Adam scrambled to put some clothes on. If he could cover up his newly reforged body, he wouldn't have to think about the implications that came along with those changes. Then he realized that most of his clothes no longer fit and that plan was instantly shot to hell. He groaned, looking to the sky and trying to ignore his Shadow's laughter.

He eventually found a pair of gray sweatpants that still somewhat fit his now larger and more muscular form. They hugged his legs like joggers and the way they featured his bulge was practically pornographic but they would work for now.

"Right," Adam said to himself. "I'm just gonna ignore the mess of last night and the dream and the Stud transformation and the shadowy mystery voice in my soul that I don't know anything about. Food! Yeah, I could use some breakfast. And coffee. Lots of coffee…"

"Dude, you're worried about nothing. I already told you we're on the same side. We're basically the same person at this point," Inky tried to reassure Adam.

"Lalalala~ Not listening to the impossible voice in my head! And if I was, I'd totally call bullshit!" Adam shot back.

"Ha ha," Inky deadpanned. "You're hilarious. How about you use some of that humor to pull some bitches?"

Adam laughed to himself incredulously, "My Shadow wants me to be a man-slut. Can this day get any weirder?"

"Not a slut, a Stud. There's a difference-…" Inky's rebuttal was interrupted by a hesitant, nervous-sounding knock on the door of Adam's room.

"It's still fucked up, dude. You can't just expect me to drop everything and seduce every woman I see because you say I'm some mythical 'Sigma Stud' now," Adam said to his Shadow as he absently went to answer the door.

Inky's reply was lost the moment Adam saw who was on the other side. Ruby Rose had knocked on his door. She was a tiny, adorable vision of nostalgia that made Adam's heart ache at just the sight of her. She was everything Adam had been missing since the beginning of high school.

It had been so long since he'd seen her and yet there was no way he wouldn't have recognized her. In an instant, Adam burned the sight of her into his brain while he was still trying to catch up with this miracle reunion.

Her eyes were screwed shut, trying to muster up every bit of courage she could and knowing she would fall apart if she saw Adam before she said what she wanted to. Her posture was tense and skittish but determined. Her hands were clenched into tiny, white-knuckled fists at her side. And Adam thought she'd never looked more beautiful than right now.

She was the same pint-sized, gothic, cinnamon roll he'd remembered, just all grown up. Her hair was still cut in the short black bob cut with red tips that Adam loved so much. Her figure had filled out beautifully, making her look oh-so-soft and womanly. Adam felt an odd protective urge rise up from his Shadow and this time, he didn't fight it at all.

She wore a black dress with red highlights, perfectly capturing her natural color palate. A corset over the top of the dress pinched her waist and emphasized a surprisingly large bust for her size. Thin, transparent tights protected the modesty of her lower half, covering what Adam knew to be smooth, milky-white skin. And above it all, Ruby wore her mother's cloak as a cape.

"R-Ruby…?" Adam knew his voice came out soft and vulnerable and he didn't even care.

She was perfect, too good to be true after the night he'd had. He needed something concrete to ground him in reality and all of a sudden, his missing childhood friend, the only woman Adam had ever truly cared about showed up at his door. A bitter part of him wondered if this was just another illusion or maybe some plot by his Shadow to take control of his life.

Then the familiar scent of strawberries, cookies, and milk drifted into his nose and Ruby spoke, "A-A-Adam!"

Her eyes were still screwed shut as if Ruby couldn't bear to look at him after how she'd abandoned him. She felt like she was preparing to pour her heart and soul out here. It was like one of those movies where the girl does some grand romantic gesture at the end to win over the boy, except… this was real and Ruby wasn't some hot movie starlet. She was just a girl who'd messed up with her childhood friend/crush/only person who ever stood by her… No pressure, right?

Ruby shook the silly thoughts out of her head before she made herself lose her nerve and continued, "I-I did it! I got into Hallowed too! You always said you would come here for university… And I wanted to see you again! I-I'm sorry about ghosting you… It's just… things got bad after Mom d-died… Then I got busy figuring out Mom's inheritance and studying to get into HU and Yang said you probably already found a couple of girlfriends and I thought you might hate me now and I didn't want to bother you and… and…"

"I could never hate you, Ruby," Adam said fondly. He could listen to her ramble forever but it looked like she was on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

The smile Adam received from Ruby instantly became one of his most treasured memories. She was brilliant, relieved and so genuinely happy that the sight of her could have driven back the darkness threatening to take over Adam's soul. Then she opened her eyes.

Her eyes went wide and her smile became stiff with shock. Adam could practically see her mind blue-screening. A luminescent blush completely took over her cheeks. Ruby couldn't stop herself from staring at the perfection that her bestfriend had become.

"N-Nipple…!" Ruby squeaked before the rush of blood into her cheeks became too much and she fainted.

Adam caught her as she fell forward, hugging her to his bare chest. Something he only noticed after Ruby fainted. He only managed to find pants that fit earlier. So he was currently standing bare-chested in the doorway to his room, holding a little waif of a girl.

If anyone saw this scene, their minds would immediately go to lewd places, pictures would be taken, and Adam had no doubt he'd be internet famous by dinner. He knew he should have been embarrassed to be shirtless and exposed as a male. But Adam felt no shame.

His Shadow whispered in the ear of his soul, coaxing him away from society's norms, 'What did he have to be ashamed of?'

Adam didn't argue with Inky this time, instead giving Ruby's unconscious body an amused smirk, "I guess there are some good things about this fucked up situation as well. I doubt I would've been able to make her faint like this before. Still… looks like breakfast is gonna be put on hold until she wakes up…"