Astrid woke up with aterrible headache. She groaned in pain as she shifted her position, and lookedaround, trying to recognise the new situation. She was closed in some new sortof confinement: the walls, the floor and the ceiling were all lined with metal,massive pins holding everything together. In front of her there was a thick andheavy door built of the same material with just a tiny rectangular windowthrough which a faint ray of light was able to enter, illuminating some of thespace inside. 

The woman was nowbarefoot, and her school uniform had been substituted with a simplesingle-piece white clothing. There was a ribbon in the middle which kepteverything together.

Did they change my clothes?!Fucking perverts! At least I am notshackled… They must be sure I can’t break through these walls… Or they acceptedI would be able to break the shackles anyway… 

She stood up andtried to peek through the small window. She could see a corridor and similarcells on the other side. She heard steps as the guards were heading in herdirection, and retracted to the back of her cell in order not to attract anyattention. She just wanted to be left alone now.

The steps’ loudnessreached its highest point, and began to subside again, soon ceasing fully.

She looked out of thewindow again, and concluded that no one was around, not in her narrow field ofview at least. 

She decided to giveit a try, and hit the door as hard as she could with her shoulder. The metaldid not bend in the slightest. She tried again, this time a kick. Her bare hillhit the surface, but still no damage was inflicted. That’s about it forescaping. At least it didn’t hurt… 

“Pathetic!” Thefamiliar voice commented. 

This time Astrid remainedcalm. She had a feeling her inner self would appear sooner or later, to try andstir up her mind. “What do you want?” she asked, without turning around.

“I brought you agift.”

A gift? “I don’t want anything to do with you. You know theonly thing I would like is for you to stop killing people.”

“Oh, come on, don’tbe like that!”

Astrid sighed,finally turning around. She was visibly tired and wasted after having beenthrough so much. The pain in her head only increased as the gazes of two womenmet.

Astrid’s inner selfsmiled friendly. She was now wearing regular, although male clothing.

Astrid recognised itas belonging to one of the bank robbers. She winced, and  took the smallparcel from her twin’s hands with an inert movement.  She began untyingthe ribbon.

“What is thissupposed to mean?!” she shouted indignantly, upon seeing what the content was.“I knew you were a cruel crazy psycho, but are you stupid on top?”

Inside the box therewas a tiny uniformed man. He was sitting in the corner, curled up into a ball.

“Relax. Wait till Itell you who this guy is,” the black eyed woman raised her hands in a calming gesture. “He is the man who locked you up in this place. He wanted toconduct experiments on you.”

Astrid looked at theman not knowing what to say. Wasn’t he just doing his job? I don’t haveanything to prove my true intentions after all… Although experimenting onhumans… Am I even human to begin with?

“Astrid, I have adeal for you. I will get you out of here in no time, if you swallow him downnow.” Astrid’s inner self interjected her thoughts.

“P-please, A-astrid,don’t eat me. I believe you now. I know what the truth is. Believe me, we hadno clue that this other woman existed. She looks exactly like you. We couldn’t havejust trusted you on your words alone, but now I know, I can get you out of hereif you let me live! I-I promise!”

Astrid smiled at theman. “Of course I am not gonna eat you, silly! I am glad that we can finallysort all of this out.” Tears of joy and relief started filling her eyes. Shecompletely forgot about her doppelganger’s presence. 

She did not even hearthe noise in the corridor. The door flung open, and a group of soldiersappeared.

“Oh, I am glad youare here!” Astrid exclaimed upon noticing them. “You see I have proof-”

A massive torrent ofbullets cut her speech in half. Dozens of lead fragments hit her skin, makingher lose her footing and fall onto her bottom. Somehow the projectiles wereunable to penetrate her body. Was her inner self protecting her?

With horror she feltthe body of the tiny man in her hand explode as one of the bullets hit himdirectly. His blood splashed onto her face and her white cloth, some of it evengot into her eye. Horrified, she brought her shaking gore stained palm closerto her face. 

A turmoil of manycontradictory feelings erupted in her mind as she was struggling to comprehendwhat had just happened.

They… They killedtheir own man?

The fact that theydecided to annihilate her without any thought she would have tolerated. Afterall, in a way she was responsible for all of this, but one of their own… Theperson who played a key role in the success of her capture, and the only personwho held a key for them to find the truth?

Her entire beliefsystem had collapsed completely. Every single argument she was trying to useagainst her inner self had lost its meaning now. Could it be that the humanswere really unable to execute justice by themselves? That the establishedsystems were not working?

Rage began tooverpower her. All of this might not have happened if they had notinterfered from the very beginning! If I had the chance to handle it myself, Imight have been able to stop my inner self! Even if I had not succeeded, stillless people would have had to die!

Astrid’s blood waspractically boiling now.

Her inner self hadalready managed to subdue the soldiers without any problems, and was nowgathering them from the ground.

Without saying a word,Astrid picked up a random man, and brought him close to her face.

“Why…” she asked,tears filling her eyes. “Why did you start shooting when everything was justabout to be solved? Why did you kill your own commander?”

The man in her palmgroaned, and winced in pain.

“Answer me!” Shesqueezed hard. “You see this? This is the blood of a fucking innocent man!” Sheshowed him her gore stained palm. “One of your bullets fucking annihilatedhim!”

Astrid felt tinythings in her palm pop and break as her fist quenched even harder. She realisedthat she had killed the soldier, and dropped him on the floor absentmindedly.

“Congratulations, youfinally did it!” Astrid’s doppelganger grinned. “What a waste, though, you aresupposed to enjoy it!” she complained, her pockets full of wriggling tiny men, whosedeaths were sure going to be slower than that of their comrade.

It was then thatAstrid realised their clothes were still intact. Her doppelganger must havedecided to make them invincible this time.

My first kill… Ireally did kill a person… “I just squeezed too hard…” She sat down on the floor,hiding her head between her knees. Is that an excuse? There are no excusesfor commiting a murder. I am turning into her. “I don’t knowwhat’s right or wrong anymore… How much longer do I have to suffer? Please, letme out of this nightmare…” 

“Come on, get up,”Astrid’s inner self extended her hand towards the heartbroken woman, and helpedher to stand back up.

Astrid followed themovements apathetically. She had no will to continue opposing her fate, or tocontemplate the morality of things.

In no way did shereact to the affectionate hug and the delicate touch of the palm caressing herhead. She just wanted to sustain her current state of absentmindedness forever.She barely noticed as her body began to shrink, nor did she particularly care.

Astrid’s visionbecame obstructed as her body, deprived of its size, was put into an emptypocket of her omnipotent doppelganger. This could have meant a number ofthings, either good or bad, not that she spent any time pondering it.

Even steps of herinner self soon put her to sleep, and she did not wake up even when thegiantess picked up her pace, and started running towards her hideout.