Everywhere Ben looked, he could only see the clouds and the sky. The only thing he felt was the wind constantly blowing past him. His whole body was entirely suspended in the air, and every second he could feel himself slowly ascend upward.

He focused on what lay above him. There was nothing except more of the sky.

But then, something came into view.

He could see an island, floating among the clouds. Waterfalls fell seemingly forever down from it, and if he reached he could almost feel the mist on his fingertips. As he rose higher, he saw the trees and grass were a green richer than any green he’d seen before. The entire island was full of life, with birds chirping, frogs croaking, and deer peacefully drinking out of the river.

Ben strained to touch the island, but it was always just out of reach.

Then he blinked, and the island was gone.

Ben laid idly on the ground, staring at the ceiling above him. He blinked repeatedly, his mind fuzzy and dazed. He immediately noticed how bright the room was. Somehow, sunlight was making its way in.

He got himself up on his elbows and turned his head around. A large exit to the outside forest was right there behind him.

How did that get there? This had been a trap room just minutes ago.

Ben brought his hand up to his neck, his breathing suddenly getting shaky. The sensation of drowning, of constantly gasping for air while taking in water, was burnt into his mind. And yet, here he was out of the water. Perfectly dry and breathing air like nothing happened. It was as if he died and was brought back to life.

Did the light revive him? It must have, there was no way he could’ve gotten out of that water otherwise. It would certainly explain the bizarre fever dream. It probably created the exit out to the forest too. After all, what else could have done that?

He searched around the room for the sphere of white light that had been chasing him. He couldn’t find it anywhere. Not on the walls or the ceiling or the floor. It was just… gone, and it hadn’t even left a trace.

He turned his body on its side and looked down into the water, checking to see if it moved there.

What he saw made him stop in bewilderment. He didn't see the light, but he did see the reflection of a woman looking back at him.

He turned his head around to see where this woman was. He was met with nothing but the walls of the cave.

He turned his head back and stared.

It suddenly hit him that his body had been feeling differently, ever since he first woke up. He didn’t think much of it before, but seeing this reflection made every little oddity extremely blatant.

His chest was pushing against the front of his uniform. It felt like it was sticking out. He had his legs clamped together the whole time, nothing in the middle was making it uncomfortable. And his hair was all the way down to the middle of his back.

Did the light do this too? Why? And why was it just letting him leave now? After literally trying to kill himself to avoid it, this felt extremely anticlimactic. He hoped Geisinger could give him some answers.

He looked at his hand and saw it was much smaller than before. He went to touch the skin on his face and felt the same softness he had on Jacqueline so many times before. Not a trace of stubble was left, it was completely smooth.

Lower down, he stared at his chest, to the new… breasts attached to it.

Was this the part where he was supposed to play with them?

He poked one with his index finger instead.

His gaze moved to his crotch, his hands coming down to the top button of his pants.

He closed his eyes and winced. God, he wasn’t really going to look down there was he?

He unbuttoned his pants and pulled them up with his underwear. He brought them back down the second he didn’t see a penis. Nope, he was not going any further than that.

He took his elbows off the ground and let his head fall back. He had only worked for the S.I.D. for a year, but somehow this was not even close to the weirdest thing he’s seen.

But it was certainly the weirdest thing he’s seen happen to himself. What would he tell the others when he got back? Where were the others anyway? Surely they’d notice the giant gaping hole into the cave that suddenly popped up.

Then again, they didn’t know to look here. Looks like he was going to have to find them himself.

Ben stood up on his legs, took a step, then fell down again. He caught himself just before his head hit the ground.

Right, new center of gravity.

Slowly, he steadied himself up and tried again. This time with his arms up to balance himself. On his second try, he almost fell again. The same happened on his third, fourth and fifth attempts too. It took until his seventh attempt when he finally got the hang of it.

That didn’t make walking feel any less weird though. Should his hips be swaying this much?

Ben could only guess where to go next to get back to the entrance of the cave. From where he was at, he probably just needed to walk to his left and he’d see it at some point. As long as he stayed alongside the cave, he’d get there.

He walked out into the forest and felt the sunlight hit his skin. After being cooped up in that dark cave for hours and almost dying, it was enough to make him cry. He forced himself to focus as the tears came to his eyes.

Before he began his walk, he turned around to see the opening he’d just come out of.

It disturbed him how much it looked like a vagina.

***

There were so many narrow, winding paths in the cave that walking alongside it on the outside was much quicker than leaving from the inside. He probably hadn’t even been walking for an hour by the time he saw the entrance come into view.

He did have to go up some steep hills to get here though. Somehow, those weren’t his biggest obstacle.

To his right laid an endless sea of trees and forest. The Woods of Sin expanded far across multiple different regions. Undoubtedly, there was a ton of wildlife running around, jumping tree to tree and eating each other. He wondered what it would be like to join them…

He shook his head. He really needed to find some people, and fast.

He approached the entrance to the cave. The two S.I.D. members standing in front of it stared at him when he got there.

“Isn’t that our uniform?” One of them, Carla asked. “I don’t recognize you. Did you steal it?”

“I…” Ben stopped and grabbed his neck. This was the first time he’d heard his voice in this body. The high, feminine sound coming out of his mouth shocked him. “I- wow that sounds weird.”

They continued to stare at him.

Ben forced out a cough. “Uh… what I meant to say is that… I’m Ben.”

The two workers exchanged a glance before Carla took a few steps closer to him. “You’re Ben?” She glanced down at his chest. “I think you have a little too much on your chest to be Ben.”

Ben had to stop himself from glaring at her.

Carla pulled out her communicator and pointed it at him. She moved it up and down for a few seconds then looked at the screen.

“Would you look at that, you really are Ben.” She said. “I’ll tell the captain we found you.”

“You know he hates it when people call him that.” The man beside her, Donovan said.

“You know, there’s a reason why people like you were shoved into lockers, you fucking nerd.” She dialed 329-6. “Captain’s the same way too, I guess I can’t be too surprised.”

She raised the device to her mouth, awaiting a response.

“Hello?” Geisinger asked.

“I got some good news. We found Ben!”

“Oh, thank god! How is he?”

“Alive, but…” she laughed dryly, “You might need to make some updates. SHE looks a little different than she used to.”