Chapter Text
JAMES BOND 007+
BOOK 1: fr0m flesh to
all0y
7
Chapter 1— “Rebirth”
James was looking through the clear scope of a peculiarly designed sniper rifle. As he zoomed in on his target, he followed the target from right to left. The target was a man wearing a tuxedo, and he was in a white room.
However, he was shocked to learn that he was merely a spectator rather than an agent in this mission, as he realized he was looking at himself.
…what?
He could faintly hear someone whispering faintly in his earpiece; as he managed to make out who was speaking further, he realized there were multiple voices on the other end.
“His persona is intact.”
“Then why the bloody hell is he struggling?”
“He appears to be severely traumatized.”
“Because of the surgery?”
“It’s hard to say… Despite that his memory data’s a mess, it seems like it’s because of what happened to him.”
James’s breathing became heavy and the scope began to tremble as his hands shook. He struggled to keep focused on his doppleganger in the center of the scope as the doppleganger walked toward the center of the white room.
“Is his consciousness going to survive the uploading process?”
“He’s almost at 100%…”
“Come on, James… hang on there for just a little longer…”
As his doppleganger stood right in the center of his sights, every cell of James’s mortal body was in agonizing pain; his body urging him to put a bullet in his doppleganger. His finger was itching to pull the trigger.
“Just a little longer…”
He started to realize he was afraid to pull the trigger.
Then another, more familiar, soothing female voice whispered in his ear. “James.”
As he looked at his doppleganger, who wasn’t moving out of his sight, the voice said, “Try to relax. You have to survive. If you won’t do it for yourself… do it for me.”
He finally started to uncurl his finger from the trigger, feeling as if a burden was lifted from him.
And just as he did, the doppleganger pulled out a handgun and shot him in the forehead, causing blood to ooze over his eyes and obscure his vision. But despite that he was struggling to stay on his feet and he had dropped the sniper rifle, the clear circular sight of his rifle stayed with him, along with the glow of the room the doppelganger was in.
And just like that, he was gone.
James then experienced a brief glimpse of a memory of James being restrained to a metallic chair in a blinding white room, as several mechanical devices built into the chair tore his mortal body apart.
Then a brief glimpse of a beautiful woman’s face, smiling down at him.
Who was she?
“Goodbye, James.”
Then he woke up.
… … … … …
James opened his new eyes, and looked around. He was restrained to a metallic chair in a blinding white room.
Like the one in the horrifying memory he experienced.
He looked at his body. To his horror, his body was made of some sort of metal.
James screamed, only to find his scream was digital and demonic-sounding.
“Dear God!” yelled a man with curly black hair standing nearby, who was wearing black-rimmed spectacles and a white lab coat.
“Looks like he’s awake,” said the voice of an elderly man over the intercom that was coming from a dark window above them.
“No shit!” yelled the man with the curly hair.
“What… what the bloody hell’s happening to me?” said James.
“Uh… right,” said the curly-haired man shakily as he pushed his spectacles back into place. “James, you’re in an MI6 hospital… Well, actually it’s more like a black site… for research and development of advanced transhuman technology.”
Still overwhelmed by his predicament, James wasn’t sure what to say.
“Can you remember anything, James?”
James remained silent, and shut his eyes for a moment.
“Do you remember who you are?”
“…I’m James Bond.”
“That’s good. Do you remember working for MI6?”
“…yes,” said James.
“Do you remember anything about your mission at the Casino Royale? In Montenegro?”
“…no,” said James.
“Damn,” said the curly-haired man, “his memories are scrambled. There’s no way we’ll be able to figure out where Vesper and her contact are before they get away with the money.”
“Vesper?”
“Vesper?” said the curly-haired man. “Do you remember her, James?”
“Vesper…” James was starting to see the face of the beautiful woman again. His new body started to tremble violently in its restraints.
“His conch shell’s vitals are showing signs of activity according to our monitors. It looks like he’s about to enter sleep mode again due to his trauma...”
“What do we do about the money?” said the elderly male voice over the intercoms.
“Hang on… actually I’ve got an idea. Give me a minute, I’m going to have R put together a sim. Maybe we can help him recover his memories.”
“How long will it take?”
“Putting the sim together should take a few minutes… as for having James go through the sim, a few hours. Probably three at most.”
“All right, Q. Make it happen.”
The curly-haired man nodded and made a slight nervous smile for a moment at a shadowy figure in the dark window looking over the room he and James were in, then looked back at James, and said, “All right, Bond, this next part is going to feel a little weird, but nowhere near as weird as what you’ve gone through for the last three days… Hang in there.”
And at some point while Bond was fading in and out of consciousness, he suddenly felt the world evaporate around him.
… … … … …
When James woke again, he found himself lying down on a chair, only this one was foldable and made of fabric instead of metal. He was staring up at the sun. He was on a beach somewhere, wearing swimming trunks.
Getting up, looked at his body and held up his arms so he could look at them. He seemed to be his normal self again. In fact, he looked like he was in better shape than ever before.
He touched his face briefly; his skin was definitely made of human tissue and not metal. He then went to the shore and looked at his reflection in the clear turquoise waters.
He then saw the figure of a beautiful nude woman in the water’s reflection, standing over him.
James looked up. It was her.
The woman from his dreams, Vesper, smiled and embraced him, and gently pressed her lips against his. At first James was reluctant, but he soon started to kiss her back, and wrap his arms around her as they stood together waist-deep in the water.
“It’s good to see you again, James,” she said. “Do you remember me?”
“I’m starting to,” said James as he continued to kiss her.
… … … … …
As James lay with Vesper on the beach, he said to her, “I don’t understand what’s happening to me… I mean, it’s nice and all, but—”
“This isn’t your first time making love to a woman, is it James?” Vesper said.
“Cheeky,” James said, and smirked briefly. “No, that’s not what I mean… Besides, you know I’m too good at it.”
Vesper looked down for a moment before she said to him, “After you started to remember me, R was able to recover some of your memories.”
“What?” said James.
“Your body was torn apart, James. You were likely tortured to death. You would’ve died if I hadn’t brought you back to MI6 for emergency lifesaving augmentation surgery.”
James looked at her in disbelief.
“Thankfully I managed to get you in just in time. And you survived your surgery. You lucked out in many more ways than one. Thankfully, I was one of MI6’s scientists, otherwise I wouldn’t have had clearance to get you access to a surgical procedure adequate enough to save you. Of course, if you were conscious, it would’ve been much easier given how infamous you are in the service… Once M got word of your arrival, he approved you for the 00 program.”
“The 00 program?”
“An MI6 black project, designed to create transhuman weapons of mass destruction. Whereas its predecessor—the single-0 program—merely involved standard military augmentations involving the death of the subjects’ human bodies, the double-0 program involved the death of the subjects’ human minds as well. The project was initially very risky, and volunteers were short for this reason, so we used dying criminals to participate in the clinical trials. Eventually, after we made significant progress, we were ready to move onto dying agents. Out of the countless agents that didn’t survive the process, you were one of the few that did. You were the seventh.”
“You’re saying my surgery was a success? Then that means…” James let go of Vesper for a moment, and looked at the beach around him. “I’m still in that chair.”
“Try to relax, James…”
“This beach isn’t real, it can’t be. And neither are you. What are you?”
Vesper said, “Like the beach, I’m part of a simulation, based off of your memories, expectations, and experiences.” Reaching out with her arms, she said, “All of this? It’s inside your mind. Your consciousness is now digital, uploaded to your NCI.”
“Digital?” said James with a frown, looking around the beach. “What’s an NCI?”
“Neural Computer Interface. A supercomputer chip built into the skull of your cybernetic endoskeleton and connected to the wires that make up its artificial nervous system. It’s what connects your consciousness to your new body. It can also be extended to help you interact with various electronic devices in the world.”
James looked at Vesper in disbelief as she said, “I’m not really Vesper Lynd. I’m actually part of a software program known as ‘R’, meant to monitor the neural computer interfaces of 00 agents.”
“Then that means…” James paused to looked up and down at Vesper briefly as she smiled back at him. “You’re not human.”
She smiled. “Don’t look at me like that. The sex was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? Besides, you’re not far from an artificial intelligence yourself at this point. Transhumans can only augment themselves so much before they become posthuman.”
James said, “Well my mind still feels bloody human enough. I didn’t sign up for this.”
“You may not have, but if it weren’t for me, you’d be dead,” said Vesper’s simulation. “Also, you still have a mission to finish.”
“Then take me out of this damn simulation and put me in the field already!”
“It’s not that simple. You’re still traumatized enough that parts of your consciousness are out of sync with your new body. You need to undergo training to use your body. MI6 thought this particular virtual reality simulation inside your mind would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone.”
“Parts of your memory were also corrupted by the trauma you suffered on your mission when you were tortured to death. You’re experiencing amnesia of your mission at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. MI6’s analysts believes that there might be clues to Vesper’s whereabouts buried somewhere in your memories. Right now, it’s our only lead to finding her.”
“Vesper? The real Vesper’s alive?” said James. He briefly had a terrifying split-second vision of his being back in the chair again. He saw a man with gelled black hair, sweaty skin, and heterochromic eyes staring down at him furiously while torturing him. Over his screams, he could also hear Vesper’s.
James shook his head to help him snap out of it.
“Our best bet is to recreate your memories, but in order to do that you’re going to have to confront the trauma that’s bothering you the most.”
James looked at his reflection in the water as the artificial Vesper approached him. “Vesper’s life may depend on what’s inside your head, Bond. MI6 needs what she has.”
“And what is it they need so bad? It’s clearly not her.”
“If you manage to fix your memories… you’ll remember.”
James looked at Vesper’s reflection, and sighed. “All right. I’ll get what MI6 wants,” he said before adding, “Not like I have another way off this bloody island anyway.”
Vesper said, “Good. We’ll start with the perfect way to train you to use your new abilities, a way which also happens to be a key part of your memories that we were easily able to recreate without the input of your memories themselves.”
“And what part would that be?”
“The Casino Royale in Montenegro.”
“Casino Royale?” said James. “I didn’t realize MI6 considered playing cards to be a key aspect of their trade.”
Vesper smiled. “If you remembered, James, you’d know that this royale doesn’t just take place in a casino, but it also takes place on a warzone. It’s a battle royale.”
And the beach started to evaporate around him, James said as his body started to evaporate too, “This is gonna take some getting used to…”