Testing!

Author's Note: So I first thought of splitting up this chapter then I didn't want to prolong the ending and decided to give you guys a super long chapter since the next one is the last one. So here you go!

I've been staying in a blank white room with a simple bed and a tv for entertainment. Down the hall are the bathroom and showers. Its been two weeks and I haven't seen or heard anything from Willow. She must be busy with some science stuff. It's making me anxious just to sit here and wait for her answer.

I've been well-fed and well-rested. Jade stops by every day and takes me to a room. She asks questions and writes my answer down on a piece of paper. She and several other people watch me perform several exercises after I'm strapped up to wires that monitor my movements, heartbeat, and body temperature.

I have no idea what any of this is for or why it's so important. I'm starting to get tired and fed up of being left in the dark.

The door to my room beeps and opens up. Jade stands in the doorway with a clipboard in her hand and a soft smile on her face. "Willow would like to talk to you now."

I scoff and shove my hands into my pants pockets. "Great, after two weeks of waiting, I'll finally get some answers."

Jade clicks her tongue. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. Science never sleeps and it doesn't make things easy for us scientists."

My eyes roll harder than a bowling ball. "Whatever."

Jade walks me down the hall in silence. She usually has something to rabble on about, but today she's quieter than her exciting counterpart.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to make some small talk with the pyrotechnic since she may be the only other person that's my size.

"How long have you been here?" I ask nonchalantly.

"Seven years? Maybe eight? What year is it?" Jade asks. I can't tell if she's being serious or not.

"Uuuuhh...." The confused look on my face puts a smile on Jade's.

"I'm only joking baby girl, I know what year it is. 2093."

I blink a couple of times. Now I'm confused and have to crunch some number in my own head to figure what the date really is.

"No, it's not."

Jade stops and I almost run into her if I hadn't looked up from my finger counting. We stand in front of a large door, the normal size for a giant, but this one seems bigger than the usual.

"Well, good luck." Jade chirps before walking off.

"W-wait a second, you're not staying?" I ask with some nervousness.

"Science never sleeps, Caesar," Jade answers before turning a corner, leaving me to fend for myself.

My shoulders slouch as I sigh. My eyes wander the halls. Something inside me sparks a level adventure, but it's best not to move. Who knows where I might end up.

The good thing is that I don't have to wait long for the large white door to slide open. It's speed nearly sucks me in too.

"Left alone I see. I've told Jade you are a wanderer." Willow says to lighten the mood. She is in different clothes but has the same lab coat on.

I say nothing except give Willow a glare and the crossed arms of disappointment.

Willow ignores my annoyed looks and plucks me up off the floor and brings me inside her office. It's similar to the woman's office back at home with a few differences like the white walls, no windows, and no fancy decoration covering the bookshelves.

"I understand that you're upset about the two-week wait, but I couldn't leave this finding alone," Willow explains.

I'm still silent. The pettiness is kicking in hard and I have my reasons. Willow said she'd tell me the details the next day. Come the next morning and nothing happens! Willow didn't even show up to tell me "Hey, I'm sorry, but we have to talk about this stuff later. I'm busy dealing with chemicals and science stuff right now." If she said that then I would have been fine with it, but nothing was said.

"I've spoken with other head scientist and they all have agreed to not let any outside calls be made. They're nervous about the call leading back here." Willow starts off with gut-punching news. "I apologize for this, Caesar. I tried everything I could, but they wouldn't let me call or text. I couldn't send a simple email."

The news is not only heartbreaking for me but would also be eye-opening for Samantha. If she heard this kind of information then everything would make sense. The letter. Not getting any calls or texts from Willow.

Now that I'm thinking about my girlfriend, my heart squeezes like a snake squeezes its prey to suffocate them.

"I know how you feel and I truly am sorry for this." Willow with such an amazing amount of empathy touches my heart. Of course, she'd feel empathy towards me because she herself has be through the same situation.

"This isn't the only reason why I need to talk to you today," Willow moves on. I'm sure she wants to keep the talk about her daughter to a minimum. "The chemicals that Ryze has thrown together to make this... semi-working growth altercation, has a one in three chance of leading to fatal testing."

Even more bad news. I'm sure if Samantha heard this, she'd snatch me right back, run home, lock all the doors, and tape me to my bed just in case if I tried anything stupid.

"I don't want to explain to my daughter how you died, Caesar. She'd be so heartbroken that I don't think she'd be able to recover from it."

"How would you know?" I ask out of curiosity.

Willow sighs that heavy 'mother longing for her child to love her again' sigh. "Because I've been getting some glimpses here and there of you two and the look in her eyes are so magical. She's rarely ever had that look."

Am I dumb or am I blind, because I don't think I've ever seen that look in her eyes. "What kind of look?"

Willow lets a short air-filled laugh. "In your words 'This is going to sound cheesy, but love'. Something she's been missing for a while. True, compassionate, love."

Wow, I really am dumb.

"How do you think she'd feel if you... passed while in my care?" That is a serious u-turn right there.

I shake my head at the fact that I could possibly die. "I have faith that it won't happen. You guys are smart and I think you'll be able to figure something out."

"It'll come with a serious sacrifice. Time, money, and among other things. Jade will continue running tests on your body and heart. Keeping you in shape for this is important as of right now."

I bite my lip. The only thing I'm worried about is the time I'll be missing with Samantha.

"It's best not to think about her while here," I guess the look on my face more readable than normal. "Keep your mind busy."

I scoff at that. These next few months are going to be a mental hell I've never faced before.

The days continue to stack up into weeks then into months. Willow has stopped by every once in a while to check up on me and my test results. Sometimes, she comes by to clear her head and other times she comes to have a simple conversation.

I know she misses her daughter. We both do for similar reasons and for different reasons. I think the reason why she stops to talk to me so often is that we can relate to each other. We don't connect dots out in the open but it doesn't mean we aren't connecting them with invisible ink.

I've been doing what Willow has told me do. Keeping my mind off of Samantha by focusing on these damn tests and today is going to be the most annoying test run.

It's a heart monitoring test. In this test I have to run for a curtain amount of time while someone monitors the beats per minutes my heart gives. Luckily Jade is watching this round.

She sits on the opposite side of the glass and speaks into the microphone.

"March 16th. This is Jade Panez running another heart on test subject 117," Jade can feel a dark glare on her when I hear her say test subject. "She clearly isn't happy with me calling her test subject, but Caesar is a big grump anyway."

"Damn right," I grumble under my breath.

Jade pushes a series of buttons and the treadmill hums to life. She gives me a thumbs up and I give one right back. She flips a switch and the treadmill starts up.

First, it's a slow walk then drifts in a medium-paced jog. I'll keep this pace for the next thirty to forty minutes. Jade will announce the times and my heart rate as the test goes on. Or that's how it's supposed to go.

Instead, the test interrupted by Jade's lab partner who looks beyond tired.

He comes up to the woman and whispers something into her that catches her so off guard that she shuts down the treadmill, shoves the clipboard into his arms and exits the room. I almost eat tread, but I catch myself.

I glare up at the glass with some anger and also curiosity. Jade just up and left the testing room. Why?

The wires hooked up to my arm and chest easily come off and I make my exit so I can figure out what is going on around here.

The white-walled halls are much more intense when there is no one around to help you figure out where you're going. It feels like a haunted hospital to some extent. With the empty halls and cold air gushing out the vents sure does make this place feel unwelcoming.

Heavy footsteps come rushing down the white halls. The loud drumming pins me to the wall just to make sure I don't get stepped on. The two scientists look like they've never ran in their lives. It would be funny to watch if they weren't so big.

My first thought is to follow them, but there is no way I can keep up with them. So I continue to travel at my own pace. Trying my best to remember where the main lab was in this huge place.

"Are you lost?" A gentle male voice booms over my head.

The thunderous sound makes me jump like a cat who's been scared to death by the vacuum.

That gets a chuckle of the man. "Sorry about that miss."

It takes me a second or two to recognize the man asking me if I need help or not. He's Jade's lab assistant. The one who put the woman's flaming human machine out. He seems overworked and underpaid.

"Yeah, I would," I say with a small smile. "And while you're at it, could you tell me why all the nerds are running around?"

"Sure," The man kneels down and reaches his hands out for me to climb onto. "And don't worry, I have experience caring tinies."

That's a relief I wasn't really looking for. What really surprises me though is that he's not asking where I came from or if I belong to anyone. He simply goes with it.

With the help of my large human taxi, I get to my destination in no time. Plus, I would have gotten lost if it weren't for him as well.

It seems like I'm back at the beginning when I first came here except the room that only had a few people in the room now has people pouring into the door to try and get a closer look at something.

The man gently pushes his way through the crowd. Fellow workers give him nasty looks or glares. One man even turns around and jams a finger in his face. He looks like a real dork with his large glasses and bucked teeth. He quickly shuts his mouth when the man carrying me shows me off. Bucktoothed boy moves out of the way and we continue to make our way to the front.

Some serious excitement is buzzing around when we reach the front of the testing chamber where everyone is trying to peer into the glass to get a look at whatever it is.

In front of the glass sits a man in a large white rob being tested to if he can move all of his joints properly by Willow and two other scientists, one of them being Ryze who looks as thrilled as ever while taking notes.

I'm not surprised at what there is to look at. Actually I'm still trying to figure what I'm supposed to be looking at. The scene just leaves me very confused. It looks like a man who is getting his yearly check up with the doctor.

"Is this what people are so excited about?" I asked with an odd look on my face.

"Well, yes, he's the first human test subject to actually grow correctly from a size altering serum." The man explains. He then awkwardly adds, "and lived."

My jaw becomes unhinged as I look on. He looks like a normal man with hasn't gone through any type of testing. I suppose that is what you are supposed to look like when trying to perfect a serum that can change one's size.

"That's amazing!" I say breathlessly. Eighty years ago size altering was only possible with movie magic and CGI, but now it's real.

Willow turns back to the doctors. She seems to be explaining something to them before walking out of the room. Once she steps out a horde of scientists swarm her and ask questions about the test subject. She says nothing and pushes through the many people.

"H-... Excuse me, but can you follow her." I ask.

The man is already one step ahead of me and pushes through the crowd himself.

"Willow! Willow Gains!" The man calls out.

Willow doesn't seem to hear the man. The roaring questions must be swallowing up his voice and Willow exits out of the room.

The man stumbles and trips his way out of the crowd of people, still trying to keep up with the head scientist. He does catch up to Willow.

"Doctor Gains, I-"

"I am not taking any questions right now Mikel," Willow says, shutting the man down.

Mikel doesn't give up though. "But someone else would like to talk to you."

Willow pauses and turns around. "Of course, You'd be running around just to figure out what is going on."

I scratch the back of my neck while looking away with a sheepish look on my face. "Well... I kind of got kidnapped so I'd like to know what is going on."

Willow crosses her arms as an irritated look forms on her face. "You wanted to come in the first place so I wouldn't call it kidnapping." She holds out a hand for Mikel to hand me over. He quickly complies. I'm sure he doesn't want to get caught up in whatever it is we are doing.

Willow thanks the young man before walking off.

"We've had our first successful test with size altering. We will run one more test before you go through it." Willow says as she turns a few corners and drops me off at my living quarters. "For now, stay in your room and get some rest. Jade will come and get you when we are ready."

"Okay," I reply.

I can't believe it! This is actually happening! I can't wait to see the look on Samantha's face when I get back. She'll probably pass out or freak out. Oh, man I can't wait to hold her in my arms or watch a movie with her on the couch as we snuggle.

My mind continues to race which makes the rest of the day seem like a drag, but that doesn't slow down my excitement and sleep seems to be more of a workout than usual. My body does fall into exhaustion and I pass out.

I'm thankful for burn out, though, because today is the day. The day my whole life will change and if everything goes right then it will be for the better.

I stare at my reflection in the mirror, looking at the clothes on my body. In a few minutes, these things won't fit me ever again.

A heavy sigh fills the air as I look back on the memories I made while being this size. Some bad, others good, and a hand full that are just weird. I know there is one thing I will miss dearly and that's being showered in such large affections by my girlfriend. Just thinking about all the kisses, hugs, and snuggles Samantha has given me over the span of two months puts a dopy smile on my face. I'll be sure to keep these memories for as long as I can.

The door beeps open. The pyrotechnic and two large feet behind her stand by, waiting for me to join them. I'm excited to see Jade and her assistant. That means it's time to be tested. In a good way.

Jade can see my eager look from a mile away. "Don't get too excited. We haven't started yet."

She's right, but I can still be pumped about it. This is a huge moment for me, no pun intended.

"Come, there is much we need to do before the final test," Jade says as she turns on her heel to return to her assistant.

I walk briskly out of the room with a confident smile on my face like I'm ready to face the world. Another thing I'm happy about is the fact that I will never be stuck in this room ever again and I will not be missing it.

Mikel takes us down the hall and takes some extra turns before entering a blank room with two silver tables. One has several different syringes and the other the size of a giant. I guess it wouldn't make sense if it were my size since I would be growing and accidentally crushed the table.

"Will Willow be joining us today?" I ask.

Jade giggles as if my question was a joke. "Of course, when has she ever not joined us for a test?"

"Will anyone else be joining us?" I'm comfortable enough around a small crowd of people, but being stared down through a window by a large number of people won't sit well with me.

Luckily Jade says that top scientists will be joining in today to see the testing procedure and the results they've found. Oh, man I totally hope to put on a show for a bunch of nerds and geeks that are older than sliced bread. How exciting.

It's sarcasm. I'd rather die than put on a show for a bunch of weird people I don't know.

Jade gives Mikel the command to set us down on the table and that she'll start prepping me for testing. Mikel does as he's told and lowers us onto the table.

"You will need to remove your clothes," Jade says casually.

I stare at her for a second then look up at Mikel, the only boy in the room. He quickly gets the idea and turns around, allowing me to strip in peace. Jade stops me just shy of taking my bra off though.

"You can leave those on dear,"

I secretly release a sigh of relief. Knowing I won't have to strip all the way down the bare bone makes things easier.

"Here, drink this," Jad shoves a small bottle of water into my hand. "It will help you relax." The woman explains. "Now lay down and Willow will be here shortly."

I do as I'm told and lay down on the cold metal table. I stare blankly up at the lights while thoughts swim around in my head. The few things I can think are what I should do first when I'm big. It's no surprise but I want to take my girlfriend out on a date. A real and proper date.

My eyes grow tired of staring and blink then everything becomes a blurry swirl like watching a blender blend batter together. I shake my head a little hoping it'd get rid of the swirling mess. It only makes things worse.

Everything moves at a crawling pace. I try to force myself to sit up, but my back feels like it's glued to the table. Sounds are low and dull in my ears when I hear a door open off in the distance. Is it the distance or am I imagining things?

Willow's voice touches my ears, but I can't make out what she is saying. She and one other person are just outside of the corner of my eyes. I blink again in hopes of getting rid of this odd sickness, but when I do, my eyes stay closed and I'm knocked out cold.

When I wake up again, it feels like my body has been filled with ice water. Everything is so damn cold! Even the slightest twitch makes things feel like I've had a large bucket of half-melted ice dumped on me.

The room is empty and the light is too bright for my eyes. Everything is a blur or at least I think it is. Everything is white so I can't tell.

The only thing that is covering my body is a hospital robe. I feel so bare-skinned and exposed.

I groan out of annoyance and anger. How the hell am I supposed to get out of bed if I can't even move without it feeling like the Antarctic?!

It's a pain in the ass, but I force myself to sit up anyway. Every muscle feels stretched or contracted. Each one has either been pulled away from each other or pushed together. It's an odd mix of tightness and relaxation. It's uncomfortable in a way. Like I'm shrinking in on myself and being pulled out to grow.

I throw my legs over the side of the table and stand up. When my toes touch the floor everything goes numb.

I gasp and fall to the floor, trying to grab the table to keep myself balanced but it's no use. My body doesn't feel like my body at all. There is something unnatural about it.

Then a voice over a comm comes overhead and gives me a serious heart attack.

"Already taking steps, I see." It's Willow, of course.

I glance around the room, but there is nothing that can indicate where Willow is watching me.

"There is no need to worry, it's only me." Oh, that's reassuring.

"Where am I?"

Willow comes on over the comm again. "We've moved you to another room. This is just for observation purposes and you seem to be doing well so far. How do you feel?"

I stand up again and my head begins to spin like it's on a swivel. "Well, my head is spinning like crazy and I'm guessing that's the side effects of the serum."

"It's normal to feel dizzy or lightheaded when there is a foreign chemical in your body," Willow responds. "For now, you're clear to leave the room once Mikel and Jade come to get you. I'll meet up with you shortly after I'm done filling out this paperwork."

To be honest, I don't know how I should feel right now. I'm too dizzy to get all excited and a blizzard feels like its forming in my stomach. Maybe I'm just super hungry or low on energy or something like that.

Now is not the time to think about that though because the moment of truth is waiting for me when the white door to the holding room slides open, I quickly straighten myself up to make myself as tall as possible.

Mikel steps through and I immediately know that the serum worked.

An extreme swell of emotions fills my body so much that tears leak out of my eyes and roll down my cheeks.

"Would you look at that. Little miss grump is a big softy." A tiny voice barely reaches my ears. It's Jade.

I wipe my tears away. "I'm a mess, that's what I am."

Mikel holds out his hands for me to see the tiny pyrotechnic. Her size compared to mine now is baffling and terrifying at the same time. My, gods was I really that small?

"You look great, love," Jade says with a wide smile.

"Thanks," I say as I let out a light chuckle. "Gods, is it normal to cry this much?"

The door slides open again and Willow steps in. She looks shorter then what I pictured but that doesn't matter right now.

Willow smiles softly. "Seems like everything has-"

I grab the woman's hand and pull her into a gentle hug, tucking my face into the woman's shoulder. "Thank you," I whisper through quivering lips. "Thank you so much."

It takes willow a second to realize what has happened before returning the hug. The woman wraps her arms around me and strokes my hair.

This is real! This is actually happening! I'm normal! I can finally let go of all the stress and fear of fighting to stay alive. I won't have to worry about anything anymore!

I can finally be happy!