I could feel myself wake on something soft and covered what I presumed to be a blanket. A cool hand rested on mine, and my fingers curled around it. I heard a soft chuckle, and then a voice. Was that Matt? "You did so well. I'm sorry I scared you like that. But look! The surgery was a success!" I took a deep breath as I rustled. Something was still taped to my face, but it didn't smell sweet. Was it oxygen? I slowly opened up one eye. Sure enough, Matt was sitting beside me, white coat and all. I could see his eyes were still snake-like, but why wasn't I scared? He smiled softly. "S-Surgery...?" My voice was weak. "Yeah. It was an implant." His calm voice was somehow soothing. "It will make you want to make others pretty. But for now, rest." I nodded, closing my eyes. I could feel his hand stroke my cheek. His words should have frightened me, but they didn't.
"You're pretty like us now."

When I woke up, I was in a different place entirely. I recognized it as the Doctors' Lounge. I looked down and saw myself in a doctor's outfit, from coat to gloves. I looked around and saw both Eight and Solo-ink. They were minding their own buisness, Eight checking stuff on a clipboard and Solo-ink testing her black arm by switching between her normal one and her Inkblot-infected one. I noticed I didn't feel frightened, not even a slight bit. In front of me was a table, with a set of tools, my clothes, and a note. It read, "Meet me in my office once you've woken up, Ashley. Or should I say, Dr. Lux. - Matt". Lux...? Why did he call me that? Regardless, I better do what he said. The back of the note was a map leading to the office from the lounge. It was helpful because the anomalies in the hospital were active. I reached the office, and after knocking, went in.

It was the same well lit room, with the table and red swivel chair at the other end. The cold 15°C temperature didn't bother me. I was keen on speaking with Matt, as even though he did surgery on me, I still remember what happened. "Take a seat." His voice sounded. It sounded much more professional. I sat on a chair in front of the desk. The swivel chair turned around, and Matt was doing his plotting pose again. His eyes were back to normal, and he was completely clean. "So you're here. You must have a lot of questions." I did, but why can't I ask them...? "You must also be wondering why you can remember everything. I may tamper with the body, but I never tamper with the memories of living patients. It's a creed of mine." He spoke. "I may be an  insane doctor stuck in an abandoned hospital in the middle of nowhere like some horror story, but I still have standards." I just nodded in reply. "And you must be wondering how we all got here as well, huh?" "Yeah!" I finally said a word. "Well, it's best I let you know then."

"Maritus... kind of just showed up here. She was already like that when she got here." He spoke. "Eight... She was a test subject in the Deep Sea Metro. Tried to escape it. She did, but the PTSD from the tests was too much for her when she got out. Ended up going mad and found us here. That damn sea cucumber never let up..." He shook his fist and mumbled something. I couldn't hear most of it, but I heard the word "explode". " Anyways, Solo-ink... was a writer. A good one, might I add. Ended up being our first test subject. It went... less than well. She became what you know her as now. Don't know how she got access to Inkblot however, we didn't touch that stuff even with a ten foot pole." He shrugged. "Mask, oh poor guy... He was on a great Turf War team known as the S4. They were the best, those guys. But then one of them, Skull, killed the other two and tried to kill him as well. Mask took the knife from him, stabbed him in the head, and ran away. He ran and ran and ran until he found this place. It trapped him in here, robbing hin of his memories and mental health. I used to watch their matches..." He sounded sad at the end. I could understand, since it'd hurt to see how far your idol has fallen. "And me? That's a story too long for me to tell you." He smirked. "Anyway, your first patient is waiting for you in the operating theatre. Maritus will lead you there."

"Do your best. You're one of us now."