Caleb floated.
At first that was the only thing he understood—weightlessness. A slow drift inside a space that felt warm, thick, and strangely peaceful. His awareness came in soft pulses, like lights turning on behind fogged glass. He didn't have limbs he could move, not really, just the faint sense of being curled into himself.
The realization hit him slowly:
A womb.
Which… was definitely one of those lemonade situations. The sour kind. Felt like being a kid again thinking, Huh. This is kinda gross, but without the ability to even make a face about it. His mind worked, his body didn't. Not yet.
Warm liquid pressed around him, dense and steady, cushioning every part of him that existed at this stage. Sounds drifted in—muffled and deep, like hearing the world from underwater. A rhythmic pulse thrummed through the space, a huge heartbeat that wasn't his. Another softer one—his own—answered in its tiny rhythm.
He could feel motion too. Slow shifts. As if the massive body holding him moved through daily life. Pressure waves rolled around him when she walked, creating a gentle sway that lulled him without effort.
Colors bled in through his awareness—not real colors, more impressions. Deep reds. Gold shadows. A far-off sense of towering trees and thick air. The sensation of humidity carried on instinct, not memory. Kashyyyk surrounded him even before he had eyes to see it.
Thoughts drifted across his half-formed consciousness like passing clouds.
Reborn. Wookiee. Force-sensitive. Jedi hopeful.
It all made sense, but none of it mattered while he was this small. Being a literal handful of developing cells wasn't exactly a combat-ready situation.
He tried to move—got nothing. Tried to stretch—also nothing. Limbs existed only as vague outlines, sensations like half-drawn sketches waiting for someone to finish them.
He sighed, or… thought the feeling of one.
Better than death. Better than bleeding out on a mountain somewhere with the taste of smoke in his throat.
Warmth wrapped around him again, steady and soothing, like drifting in a heated pool with the volume turned low on the entire universe.
Sleep tugged at him. Hard.
"Fine," he thought, letting the sensation take him. "Wake me when I'm bigger."
The darkness folded in, soft and complete.
And he slept.
Time drifted by—whatever counted as time when you floated weightless in warm darkness. Caleb didn't bother tracking it. He was warm, comfortable, wrapped in a steady pulse he assumed was a heartbeat. Sleep came easy, fading in and out like tides.
Honestly?
He treated it like a vacation.
A forced one, sure, but he'd probably never get downtime like this again once he had a body and choices.
Weird, but decent R and R.
Days… weeks… months…
He couldn't tell. Everything blended into the same soft dark.
Then his mind lurched.
INITIALIZING SYSTEM
GENERATING…
DOWNLOADING…
ERROR…
REPROCESSING…
ERROR
HOST HAS CHOSEN WORK…
ERROR…
Caleb mentally groaned. Great.
Olana had stiffed him on good perks, and now he was getting saddled with some broke, two-bit, has-been system. Figures.
The instant the thought formed, text slammed across his awareness.
PROCESSING…
Host has selected: TWO BIT WORK SYSTEM
Caleb froze.
"…what?"
The system ignored him.
PROCESSING…
Then real systems — actually good ones — scrolled past. His pulse picked up.
NO PAIN NO GAIN SYSTEM
— complete simple workouts to increase attributes
Match: NEGATIVE
Caleb winced. That was the one he wanted from the start.
Push-ups → stat gains?
Simple, fair, exactly his lane.
CHECK-IN SYSTEM
— travel to notable locations and check in for rewards; each location redeemable once
Match: NEGATIVE
Okay, that one wasn't half bad either.
Travel the galaxy, get bonuses?
Force-sensitive tourist with benefits.
SKILL SCRIPTURE SYSTEM
— earn skill manuals by defeating foes; absorb manuals to learn the skill
Match: NEGATIVE
He would've loved that back in the Corps.
Beat someone → get better?
Perfect motivation.
TREASURE FIELD SYSTEM
— generates hidden loot zones in wilderness regions
Match: NEGATIVE
He could practically hear Mira laughing:
"Congrats, you turned into a Wookiee loot goblin."
A brighter option pulsed.
REDO DEFIER SYSTEM
— revert a full day if outcome is unfavorable
Match: NEGATIVE
That one hit him in the chest.
Being able to redo a day?
He could've changed entire operations with something like that.
Then the last system appeared.
DOPPELGANGER SYSTEM
— second body with shared benefits
MATCH: Calculating…
MATCH: 68%
Caleb's stomach dropped.
Ugh. No, no, pleeease not that.
He'd take the redo system, the manual-learning system, the workout system—hell, even the treasure system—before splitting himself into two people.
The screen flickered.
The text reshaped.
TWO BIT
TWO PERSONS
DETERMINATION: CLOSE ENOUGH. WORKS FOR THIS TWO BIT SYSTEM.
Caleb's mind stalled.
He'd called it a "two-bit system."
And the system had interpreted that as his chosen feature.
His thoughts scrambled to catch up with the disaster unfolding.
The system remained silent, waiting, as if proud of its conclusion.
Dammit, Caleb thought…
He was just about to let it go and focus on the fact that his so-called system had just pissed on him—
When the interface flared again, bright and abrupt, like someone slapped a neon sign across his brain.
SYSTEM CONTINUING…
Host has acquired the following three Doppelganger perks…
ERROR…
A long hum rolled through the dark.
Warm. Mechanical. Annoyingly smug.
Host desires to work for his benefits.
System will not "piss on the host."
And rain down a golden shower of doppelganger perks.
Caleb's mind blanked.
Did the system really just make a golden shower joke?!
He floated there in the warm dark, mortified and weirdly impressed.
The next line appeared, crisp and clinical:
Host may choose ONE of the following:
More may be earned in future via great feats or by defeating strong adversaries.
Shared Bodies Shared System Inventory Shared Consciousness
Caleb's mental jaw dropped. The whole thing felt rigged.
The system had gone from dangling all three perks in front of him to snatching them back and throwing him a cafeteria menu.
A slow, irritated heat simmered under his thoughts.
He really wanted to give this system a piece of his mind—lay into it the way he'd dress down a boot who couldn't clear a room properly.
He barely formed the intention when the system cut him off.
CHOICE CONFIRMED: MIND
MIND = CONSCIOUSNESS
Check DOPPELGANGER SYSTEM SCREEN for more information.
Caleb froze.
He hadn't chosen anything.
Something shifted beside him—felt, not seen. A small twist in the warm fluid around him. A presence forming next to his awareness.
Close.
Aligned.
Not joined, but leaning against his thoughts like someone sharing a blanket.
His instincts sharpened. This wasn't another being.
This was him.
A second him.
A second mind curling awake in the dark, breathing at the same rhythm, as if drawn from the same spark.
Fuck me, Caleb thought.
SYSTEM: AFFIRMATIVE. FUCK YOU.
Caleb's pulse spiked.
Yeah. This system was going to be a handful.
The new presence beside him hummed faintly—same irritation, same disbelief, same voice as his.
A two-bit system with an attitude.
Great.