Genes

As the wind brushed Neaf's face, his hair behaving erratically on his forehead, he looked outside and observed how everything was so different. The towering buildings and the unfamiliar surroundings made him wonder about the nature of this parallel world. A world where robots could reproduce... kids?

Where had the original owner of this body gone? If Neaf's soul had taken over this body, where was the original owner's soul? Had they died? If not, where was their soul?

He could feel Alisa's eyes burning holes on the side of his face, but he did his best to ignore it. They were taking him to the hospital, and he could see how his parents, or rather the parents of this body's original owner, were going crazy seeing their son behaving like a lost case. Neaf believed he was behaving like one, for sure.

If he was inside this body, why was the body's name also Neaf? Moreover, this body looked older than him. As far as he remembered, Alfred had mentioned the age as 19 years old, while Neaf's age in his past life, or should he say his original life, was 17 years old.

Many thoughts raced through his head. The first shock was clearly the sight of cars flying, some normal, some flying, but he didn't see anyone who looked like Alfred, a red metal. Everyone looked just like him and Alisa.

Axtral had made everything more complex, that piece of trash. The information he had given had pushed Neaf to a whole new level of anxiety about the entire situation.

And now, the doctor's situation was hanging over his head, feeling high on random delusional thoughts that he might reply and get over, knowing they would not work in reality.

Life couldn't be so easy on him, right? Taking a second chance here wasn't making any difference; he was in a worse situation than he had been before.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine, Neaf. I am here with you," Alisa said, putting her hand on Neaf's, trying to calm her son's anxiety, which was clearly visible from the way he was all messed up and lost in thought.

She could understand that it might be hard for him, waking up one day and not remembering anything about anyone, not even himself. And it seemed like he didn't want to talk much, which was understandable too.

Neaf snapped his head in her direction, feeling strange. Damn, nobody had ever treated him this way in his whole life. It just made him feel more guilty, thinking about what if the original body's person had died, and that might have broken the hearts of the parents of this body.

He could see how they might be dramatic, but they looked genuinely concerned about him. This didn't hit home for him because he had never felt anything like this before.

His grandparents were too old, and they did try their best, but of course, he was responsible for their well-being too, and that's why he never bothered to care about anything else, not even the bullies; he just tended to hide.

Now, if he thought about this again, did anybody even find his body? How would his grandparents be reacting, or did his parents even come to the funeral?

He winced internally at the thought that he might be inside this body, with the same name as this person, but clearly, his parents were so different. Of course, he might have looked foolish in his life, but he knew parents should be like Alisa and Alfred. Here, he even had self-doubt about his parents attending his funeral.

This pinched his heart as he pushed all the thoughts back. Why bother when for 17 years he had lived like that, and now he was here in this 19-year-old body? Thinking about his own parents who cared nothing was just useless.

"As if you're not useless enough," a voice in his head screamed, ruining his mood.

"Yes, your mom is right. I know you're my son, and your brain, you never use it. Maybe it's stopped working," Alfred focused on the road as he added the words after his wife.

"Me not having a brain? Or is it you who doesn't have any looks, or maybe a brain too," Neaf bit his tongue, not wanting to be sassy for sure. His sassiness had already cost him his life before, and even now he was going to the hospital, so why make it worse?

He had this main problem for sure. No matter what happened, his tongue worked wonders at the worst timing. Maybe that's why he had lost his life, or else Steve could have left him after a beating like he always did.

He clenched his fist. He despised Steve the most, maybe not more than how he hated himself, but it was no less too.

"Oh, please Alfred, your mechanical brain can't understand my son's brain. He has the brain in the right spot, you old man," Alisa sneered as she glared toward her husband, who always had the wrong timing in cracking jokes. He just didn't know when to crack them. She could see he was trying to lighten up the situation. He was way too tense, but he would not show it. They had been married for 25 years. She knew her husband way better than she knew herself.

"I don't have wrinkles at least. See, having a brain ages you, but that's not happening with my son. He may not have a mechanical brain like me, but he has my genes, so it's all different," the car halted as Neaf scrunched his nose, hearing about having robot genes in him. It wasn't him; it was this body. But robots have genes? How was that even happening?

You know, it's just the more information he gets, the more complex it becomes.

"You're calling me old," Alisa raised her eyebrows, watching how her husband had the guts to even say something like this to her. If the situation weren't like this, she would be teaching him a good lesson.

"Here we are," Alfred announced as he came out of the car, opening the door for his wife and Neaf, escaping the lecture he would be getting for his wild words.

Calling his wife wrinkly was a good way to book a ticket to hell, wasn't it?

"Calm down,"