Confirming of Identity

Damn it.

My chance to cheat the system had been cheated from me. Now, not only am I disabled, I'm on their watch list, I can't prove myself to get off of it, and will probably never be off their watch list whether they find out the truth or not. I'll never end up being able to search for Cleo.

Blood ran down my chin. I collapsed onto the cushions coughing out fleshy bits. Elissa hurried over and fed me the potion. My limbs were shaking and my eyes blurring. Thank god for health potions. I would be dead without them.

"180."

Is he seriously reading the scanner right now? After he just screwed my chances of ever finding Cleo? Does he know I could die without my forever partner?

"Losing muscle mass, organ failure." He stared at the scanner, his excitement rocketing. "220! Wow! Huge level leap! 250! More organ failure. The liver is already aumph-"

I iced his mouth shut and chugged the diluted potion. I closed my eyes and calmed my breath. Harold was humming in the background.

I had to calm down or I would pass out. I had to focus on the good things. Cleo was drafted, it wasn't their fault he's MIA. The body displacement wasn't their fault. The mix-ups in paperwork were the work of an anti-group. It's okay, it happens all the time. Their distrust towards my 'impossible records' is because they are ignorant of my world. His excitement towards the scans is because he's just a science-obsessed idiot. Probably. The other doctors are just idiots. At least they brought higher-ups eventually. I knew coming here that there may be a chance I wouldn't even be able to find Cleo. I can overcome my disability, it doesn't mean I'm useless. Not finding Cleo doesn't mean 100% that I'll die; There are ways to fight deterioration. The others' failure means my story can't be corroborated, but that doesn't mean they all died. Probably.

Elissa hesitated. I had pulled in my energy, but many of my organs had already melted. I couldn't move because my muscles were slosh. I couldn't feel anything anymore, but my eyes were probably gone as well. My thoughts were coming in bits and pieces. I was slowly coming back together, though. My last strand of sanity was protecting my brain so I could control my energy. Otherwise, I'd liquefy.

Elissa pulled out an injector. It looked like a tube of lipstick. She bit her lip and touched the end to my arm. Harold made a rushed muffled sound. Elissa pressed her thumb to the fingerprint sensor. A needle popped out and injected something into me.

…

Harold was spraying a C potion, or cin for short, onto his frost-bitten lips. Elissa waited for him to finish with a cold expression. She looked evil. Anyone who didn't know her might shrink back from this 'demon queen'. Harold didn't even seem to notice.

"What do you think?"

Harold's wrinkled face looked like a grandfather getting a gift from his favorite grandchild on Christmas. He checked his lips and tongue a few times before speaking, "Crosser Specialist Harold Covington, the time is 79:35:62. The crosser's rate of decay was the fastest I've ever seen. It should be as he said, a high level of magic with unimaginable control! Gunnerson is at 248. Compared to him, this child's level far outweighs that! Though I only saw it raise to 260 we can assume he was telling the truth when he said it was over 300. I've never seen a crosser be able to hold their energy in at that level of decay! He must have protected his brain! How impressive! Imagine what he could do on the field!"

Elissa nodded, "He got passed the barrier."

Harold giggled. His eyes glowed. He touched his lips again, "Isn't that amazing? The barrier is said to be able to stop any magic at or below 260. Honestly, when they upgraded it to withstand Gunner I thought they were going overboard. Who knew?"

Elissa glanced at the baby-faced teenager laying on the couch. Through the blood, you could see his pink cheeks, petal-like lips, and fluttering eyelashes.

This body originally belonged to a 100 leveled normal boy. He was found with mana sickness and brought to the facility. He spent the remainder of his days locked on facility grounds. His family was only told he had the talent to become awakened and are conscripted by the government. The crosser was to take up his identity. After an adjustment period, the crosser may choose to have short, supervised visits with the original's family and friends. Most crossers only met with them for the sake of formality. They didn't create relationships with them.

This is how most of the bodies for crossers are chosen. Those with mana sickness can't be healed. Instead, they slowly lose their mind. Their bodies continue to collect mana. Once it gets to a certain point the mana in the body explodes.

"So we only know for sure that he is above Gunner's level."

"No! Well, technically we can't confirm it," he scratched his head, "but not even Gunner would have such fine control or quick decay rates. The only way to explain this would be if his level is much higher. I'll have to do the math, but so far his words seem true."

"They've never sent anyone with a rank 5 control. They've been holding out on us." Her eyes narrowed.

Harold nodded, "We thought 3 was the highest. However, it's too much to say they've been holding out. According to our studies, the control rank can only rise when the magic is at a certain level. A level 90 could never have rank 3 control. We haven't always had the science to safely cross a level 300 crosser. We still don't."

"There was Nathan Bandier."

Harold shook his head, "He was an abnormality. He may have been over 300, but that's just a guess because we couldn't measure magic then like we can now. All the other crossers that succeeded were around 100.

"The success rate was 8% on the first batch, 34% on the second, and 37% on the third. The jump from first to second is widely spread as Nathan Bandier's work. That's not necessarily true. It's also because crossers sent back who succeeded and who failed. We do not have access to those records. At the time we did not have an agreement to share all information. That was before the creation of the anti-faction. Now we keep things transparent to reduce any chances of betrayal or spies. Many of us suspect that the true reason for this jump in success wasn't just from adjusting the bodies to match the energy levels on our end, but also because they started choosing lower leveled crossers." After he finished explaining he clapped his hands, "We haven't been able to confirm this theory, but this crosser's existence backs this theory! This is a huge breakthrough!"

"Why didn't you just ask?"

Harold shook his head. "Those idiots above are only interested in soldiers for crossers. They never send over anyone who would know such a thing. The first crossers were nearly a hundred years ago. Who would even remember? They would need to send over a specialist. Those idiots aren't even willing to do that. They don't think the crossers could help us 'superior humans' increase our success rates. If we could just increase the capacity of the human body like to that of an awakener-" Harold continued rambling.

Elissa looked away from him and glanced again at the boy. She'd shot him with a healing sedative. It was meant for crazed crossers. His body had healed now, but he would waste away and die in this body. She shook her head and muttered under her breath, "Poor kid."

"In short, this is a VVVIP! We must protect this crosser at all costs! This boy…" He paused. "Or girl may be able to answer- Huh? Why is he-no, she- sleeping?"

Elissa shook her head. The boy would never have a chance to be treated as such. "He is the sole survivor of his batch during an anti-faction attack. How do you think he will be treated? VVVIP?" she shook her head, "No words out of his mouth can be trusted."

Harold faltered. After a moment he said, "I can still do my experiments, though, right?"