"It was tougher this time, huh"

Covering his bleeding eye this child walked to you. Smiling he titled his head up looking at you with one opened eye but another has already stopped bleeding.

"Did I do well? Will Mommy be proud of me?"

There weren't any Mommy. Children like him were raised and known to be special.

While returning to the room where the other children were, you may notice that his other eye has already fully recovered. These children had an incredible ability to regenerate. It was scary to imagine what kind of endurance experiments they were going through. But they grew up considering it the norm. His peers also went through these experiments and they loved to brag to each other about how fast their regeneration was or how proud of them Mommy was.

You and some other women were looking after those almost ordinary children without names or parents.

"Does Mommy really exist?"

Subject 096 was always different from other children as if he was more mature for his age (12).

"You look more like a real mommy."

He said it so casually starting at you with those that seemed so conscious. But how can he know the concept of parenthood if he, like others, grew up in this laboratory under the supervision of nannies like you?