It was impossible. Surely, completely, utterly impossible. There was no way that it could be real.

All those thoughts echoed around my head as I stared into the eyes of a person who looked identical to me.

A clone, surely, but it was impossibly similar. Same height, same build, same complexion. Looking the form up and down, I noted a few differences; the lack of glasses, a few missing acne scars on the cheeks, the hair was a little shorter pulled into a ponytail rather than my ragged plaits, not to mention her posture was so much better than my own. It was as if I was looking in a mirror whilst drunk and without the aid of my glasses; recognisably me, but just nicer and easier on the eyes.

"We've been working on project Re-Pro for almost two years now," the head scientist, Jorey, the one who had separated the Doctor and I, spoke, pacing the space in the room between the test subjects and the guests, one of whom was the Doctor, his eyes locked on me as if making sure I was alright. "It's been a long and bumpy road for this, but I hope you all agree the results are a grand success. We've managed to produce perfect clones from one vial of blood!"

I looked past him, attempting to study the Doctor's expression, his face caught in a frown that mimicked mine. All the things he'd seen, and yet he was having the exact same reaction to me. Our eyes locked together, I could tell he thought something was going to go wrong, or he knew something suspicious was surrounding this whole thing, and he was planning an escape route. He cocked his head to the side, gesturing for the door nearest to me and I nodded, knowing that if an emergency arose, I'd have to run as fast as possible to that door; and I hated running.

"What's their purpose?" I heard the Doctor speak up, and it hit me then that he signalled an escape route to me, not because he sensed trouble, but because he was going to cause it; I guess that was one way to find out what this was all about. "Why bother creating such advanced science?"

"I'm sorry I don't think I follow?" the scientist, Jorey, said with a smarmy smile.

"I think he's asking why you feel the need to create such realistic clones, when, one vial of blood, you said? That's not enough to create a being that's going to live out a long and fulfilled life, right? I'm not the best at science, but I do know that there's no way that's possible," I spoke up, my gaze flicking from Jorey to the Doctor, one man looking furious that I'd question his authority, the other looking almost proud.

"I don't think you're in any position to – "

"Yes I am, considering you took my blood and made a copy of me without my consent!" I snapped, my frown turning to a glare.

"Well, if you must know," he began, though after shooting daggers at me with his stare, he turned back to the guests. "This tech has been developed through the increasing crisis of war. You all know the terrible loss of life that comes with battle, so in the anticipation of the next war, we've developed the Reproduction Concept, or Re-Pro for short, so we will never run out of troops. A soldier dies? It doesn't matter, we have a sample of his blood, we just make a new one! Basic memory capability, shortened lifespan, it no longer matters if they fall in battle! We will have access to an infinite army!"

"That's disgusting!" I gasped. "How dare you say that it doesn't matter? Is that what you'd say to the real person's family? That they didn't matter because you cloned them so they could just keep on fighting, version after version of them forced to die in the same horrific way?"

"You!" he snarled, storming over to me. "What is your name?"

"Laura Eleanor-Brian Tyler," I heard a voice say from behind me, and I spun around to see the Re-Pro version of myself had answered him.

"My middle name is May for God's sake!" I said to the clone deadpan, before continuing, "That's how bad you made their memories, it can't even remember it's name,"

As I spoke, I turned back to face Jorey, and he greeted me with a harsh slap to the face. I gasped, stunned, both of my hands going to cup over where he'd hit me. Instantly my mind was filled with horrific memories, flashbacks to hits way worse than that, and I closed my eyes, scrunching my face up in an attempt to hide away.

"Are you done undermining me?" he snarled quietly.

"She might be, but I'm not!" I heard the Doctor speak up, and when I opened my eyes I saw him stood by me.

He reached out, grabbing my hand, and he began to run, pulling me along with him towards the door. One hand still over my cheek, I used it to push my glasses up slightly, the lenses steaming up slightly from my watering eyes.

"Not so fast!" Jorey called to us, stopping us in our tracks. "Look around you at who is in this room. These aren't esteemed scientists, but Military men... all of whom have let us down in the past. Well, not anymore. Each of my Re-Pros are installed with an intense combat regime, and they're going to test them out now... On my command!"

At his words, I watched as the room turned to panic, the situation not helped by the clones who were now running at whoever was nearest, tearing into them violently. The test subjects were the closest, and the poor girls didn't stand a chance. I watched as Kadey, so passively arrogant and beautiful, shot me a terrified look, before being tackled by her own clone. My gaze was then averted to my replica, who ran over to a military general, head-butting him and kicking him until he was down. I flinched, and the Doctor pulled me closer.

It was then I noticed he was pointing something on the controls for the sealed door; a sort of metal stick that was glowing blue and buzzing. He kept prodding it into the wires, fiddling about with the controls, no sense of urgency about him.

"Doctor, you know I trust you, but could you please hurry up with whatever you're doing before we get brutalised?" I asked him tensely, and he shot me worried glance just as the door shot open.

"Come on then!" he called, pulling me through the door which turned out to be a lift. As soon as we were through he began scanning the controls, making the door slam shut once more. I backed into the wall and slid down to the floor, resting my head on my knees, taking a deep breath. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just... bit much, isn't it?" I spoke, not bothering to lift my head.

"He shouldn't have hit you, I'm sorry that happened, and I'm sorry they copied you without asking," he apologised, and I could tell he was worrying I was really upset over it all, which I was. 

"Did... did you see the way my Re-Pro took out that guy?" I asked shakily.

"Like he said, they made them into soldiers," he said calmly, trying to reassure me. He finished with the controls and came to sit next to me so I lifted my head slightly.

"No, no... Doctor I could do that..." I muttered, staring at the wall to avoid eye contact. "Before my parents died they made me go to taekuondo classes and stuff like that, so when I moved down to London I carried on until I got my black belt two years ago. I gave up after that, but on my final grading, I passed because... well, to show off to the graders, I head-butted my opponent... Doctor, the way my Re-Pro fought then was the exact way I was taught how to... I'm sorry,"

The Doctor frowned, watching me speak, until he offered me a caring smile, taking hold of my hand the way he had done earlier.

"Laura, you may have those skills, but I'm sure you'd never use them for that," he pointed out gently. "You heard what he said, they made those things violent to be soldiers. They just manipulated what you gave them for their own good, which is wrong,"

I wanted to say that he was right, but I was even more confused. How did he stick to a moral code? How did he know what right and wrong is, when situations like this happen everyday, situations which question his integrity and everything he stands for? How did he know who was good and who was bad? And, if he hated violence, surely my black belt disgusted him.

"I don't know..." I sighed, closing my eyes, resting my head on the wall behind me. "You're right, I guess, I'd never do what they did, but I could do, so surely I'm just as bad as them? What makes them bad, and if we aren't like them, what makes us good?"

"What makes us good is the choices we make, you'd choose not to do what they did, not to use your skills for bad," the Doctor spoke, though I couldn't meet his eye. 

"What about you then?"

No answer. We sat in silence for a few moments, the Doctor staring at the wall across from us harshly, as if he was looking into himself, whilst I looked at him in wonder, thinking what he could be possibly have done to make him hesitate before answering my question.

Whatever the answer was, surely it wasn't something that would make him a bad person. I trusted him, and he'd saved my life at least twice at that point. If he was truly a bad person, he would have let my die twice over.

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Word count:1690

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