Witness Protection
With all eyes on him after the case, he was given an option: Either go home without protections, or enter into a new version of the Witness Protection Program, designed to make participants disappear from the public eye for good. Not only would he get a new identity, they’d be giving him a completely different body as well, modifying him until the man he used to be was only a distant memory. He could walk right past the men he put away and they wouldn’t even notice. And as attached as he was to his own life, James valued his safety more. Hesitantly, he agreed, and when their van came to pick him up in the middle of the night, he did as they said and didn’t bring so much as a change of clothes to remind anyone of his past life.
30 minutes later, he was in the station being briefed on his new life. James looked down at his body apprehensively as he waited for the agent to finish getting his new files together. It was a strange feeling, knowing this might be the last time he saw his body the way it was now. He wondered nervously just how far they’d be willing to go to conceal his identity. They had been intentionally vague before he agreed to stop any information from possibly leaking out, but now his head was swimming in options. They’d move him across the country probably, that was a given, but what else? He tried to wrap his head around the word unidentifiable they had used so much - would they change his hair? give him a nose job or colored contacts or something? Somehow nothing he could imagine now sounded especially extreme given his situation.
James quickly shelved his thoughts as a tired looking man in his mid-40s walked into the room, carrying the folder that held his fate. The man pulled out a chair, checking a note in the folder before starting. “Alright, Mr… Ericson, apologies for the delay but i think we’re ready to get started. Hell of a situation you got yourself into, huh? Most people that come through my office only qualify for partial adjustments: New documents, a move a few towns over, basic stuff, really. You however, are our first complete replacement in a long time.”
James let those words hang over him for a second before responding. “So… What exactly does that entail?”
The agent sighed. “In situations like these, it’s usually best if you just take a look yourself. Personal details are on the front page, but if it means anything, i’ve never seen them go this far before. Must be one hell of a case, i feel for you.” He handed the folder over the table, watching as James began reading the new bio they had worked out for him.
Name: Avery Diaz. The first name was a bit odd, but James rolled it around in his mind, trying to link the unfamiliar sound to his new self before moving on.
Age: 24. A few years younger than he was now, but slightly vainly, he figured he could still pull it off. He always did look a bit young for his age.
Height: 5’5”. The first detail that gave him pause. He wasn’t exactly a giant, but there was no way he’d pass for that short, not unless some major changes happened first. Ideas raced through his mind, trying to explain the numbers he saw. Maybe it was a typo? he moved on.
The next line hit him like a rock. Suddenly, it all clicked. The agent’s apprehension, the name, the height: None of them made sense for the changes he was anticipating, but with a sinking pit forming in his stomach, James realized that he had grossly underestimated how far they would go to hide him. He read the line one more time.
Gender: Female.
James looked up at the agent. “This can’t be right. How is this even possible? Please, I want out of the program. I’ll take my chances on my own-”
“-I’m afraid it’s too far for that.” He interrupted. “The man you helped put away is very powerful, and we’ve received intel that the identity we’d previously prepared for you has already been leaked to his network. If you walk out of this office today, I can guarantee you won’t make it very far on your own. This body was a last resort, but it’s different enough to not raise any suspicion and it’s strictly off the books so you’ll never be traced back to your old self. I’m sorry, but for your best interest I need you to say yes on this.
James’s heart sank as he leafed through more details in the folder. Occupation, hobbies, work history, even a sketch of his new face. They were going to turn him into a woman, but if the alternative was to fend for himself, he knew the choice he had to make.
“…Ok. I’ll do it. Where do we go from here?”
Three weeks later, Avery Diaz stepped foot into her new apartment and new life for the first time. Sitting down by what looked like a makeup table, she gave herself a look over in the mirror as she adjusted her bra for what seemed like the thousandth time. Funnily enough, they had neglected to mention just how big her new breasts were going to be when they had prepped her for her new body. They had given the new woman a crash course in femininity: Basic hygiene, makeup, the mannerisms and styles a young woman was expected to know, but it hadn’t truly set in until just now. Steeling her nerves, she looked got up for a tour of her new home. It had already been set up for her but seeing the level of detail was shocking. Clothes, decorations, accounts, even staged photos, all belonging to a girl that hadn’t existed more than a few weeks ago. All belonging to her. She had memorized the facts they had set up for her life, but somehow it hadn’t seemed real until she walked through that threshold. He wasn’t pretending to be a girl, he was a girl. All the thing he saw around him, the backstory he had painstakingly memorized, for all intents and purposes, it was more real than his actual past was now. James Smith was no more, disappeared after a highly public trial and never to be seen again. No one would ever connect him to the young girl that had just moved into an apartment halfway across the country.
Avery sighed as she checked her new schedule. she had the weekend to get used to her new body before she started the temp job that had been set up for her. It wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it made sense, she was starting her career again from the bottom, after all. At least she had her looks, she thought, admiring her reflection.
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