Disclaimer: I do not own DX:HR - Eidos Montreal/Square Enix does.

A/N1: the story is, obviously, based on the opening sequence from the Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Oh the opening, why you have to be so beautiful?!

A/N2: I personally didn't play the game myself, although I'm familiar with it's content as I watched OMFGcata's (Jesse Cox) 'let's play'.

I'm not just the me, you see, another me was born

By your-biohazardous-friend

"(…) I have loved another love

In another place like this

I've been held and felt so safe

Oh yes, I've kissed another kiss"

/"The other me" - Jim Sturgess (Heartless OST)/

The augmentation procedures were the ones of the most complex and painful surgeries of all time. Of course the major key points were preformed under full and very powerful anaesthetic. Mostly there was no rush – a patient was alive and stable as he could possibly be.

Mostly…

The surgeons tried to seize the whole mess and hurry with an operation. The operating table looked gruesome as if taken from installations like "Saw 19" or "Dead Space 13". The blood was literally dripping to the floor.

CT probe shows the bullet caused serve hematoma. We need to repair that artery. The surgeons, naturally, divided in two, if not more, teams – the ones responsible of keeping the patient alive, patching him up. The others – to remove what the first team salvaged and replace it with augmentations.

My God. How thick was the glass?

Clink, clink – the glass shards and bullets were tinkling quietly as doctors were removing them from the victim's body and placing them in special container – already half-way full.

Even though he was undergoing an operation Adam was aware of his surroundings, floating in dream like state, thanks to a special kind of sedative used only during augmentation procedures. Thanks to that anaesthesia patients didn't feel pain but were aware of it's existence so the staff could calibrate basic perception to the augs.

But there were also side effects of such tempering with cognition: the patient would often 'crash'. It was like with motion sickness, really: eyes registered the movement yet body didn't. Fearing of possible poisoning, a brain sent signals to cause vomiting. However, Augmentation procedures were more straining to the brain so it's reaction was more violent than simple emptying a stomach from it's content…

The rhythmical beeping turned into monotone sound. The EKG line was flat. Defibrillator was whizzing when recharged. The drips were exchanged.

People who underwent the procedure and 'crashed' during them believed that, just as it's with death, the whole life flashed before their eyes. Megan arches her head, exposing her long, creamy white neck. Her breath is ecstatic.

Come on, Adam. Stay with us. The doctor from 'salvaging' team pressed on.

Yeah… he's no good to me like this. The other doctor admitted, irritation radiating from his voice, his both hands were in a hollow hole made in Adam's chest Prepare for insertion of E-R-C-C-One graft.

There was a phone-call; the red-coloured device was hanging at the back of the room. Assistant nurse picked it up then called leading doctor. In a flash his face changed from irritation to excitement. As nurse hung up the receiver, the leading doctor shared the news that changed the mood at operating table completely. With two sentences Sarif turned medical staff into bunch of people thrilled like children at a toy shop. The boss gave them green light to equip the security chief with whatever they pleased. CASIE mods, Typhoon prototypes…

Doctors steadied Adam's head, plucked out his eyeballs, cut his temples with an angle grinder. The blood gushed out from the cuts, the air smelled of burnt flesh and bones. Steady… steady… Soon the doctors were quarrelling over the patient on what to 'exchange' next, there was so many ideas! He doesn't need that… Some concern voice said at the background as the team decided to equip Adam with 'badass sunglasses'. To smooth the 'revolt' the staff had to play 'rock, paper and scissors' to come to understanding. That looked grotesque, but wasn't the whole procedure grotesque to begin with? Where is that cyber arm prosthesis!?

Some parts of the operation, like limb-to-body, nerve connecting or advanced calibrating procedures, had to be undertake with fully aware patient.

Usually at times like these, a third party – such as family or friends, would be present at operating room to aid the team and the patient. They would mostly try to calm the person down, forcing him or her to focus on the task at hand – which usually was to move particular part of the body, guess shapes or answer simple questions. The more complex part of the surgery, the further away said comforter would be located, still, regardless of length parting such person from the patient, the contribution in the process was priceless.

Adam Jensen, however, had no-one to aid him in that pain. He had no family, while his ex-girlfriend – Megan Reed - was announced dead.

The first thing he felt once he was woken up on the operating table was a smell of blood, burned flesh and antiseptic. However, a feeling of confusion, which came with the realization of being alive, was replaced with pain nano-seconds later, overwhelming him completely.

Adam wanted to get away from the operating table, as his fight-or-flight response kicked in. Yet life supporting machines and surgery equipment pinned his body to the stainless steel surface under him. A cybernetic arm above him was whizzing angrily as it was connecting his flesh with synthetics and wires of his new limb. Ex-cop gritted his teeth, feeling as his tooth enamel crack under the force of his jaw. He did feel everything – painful nudging of probes, literally melting his flesh, bones and blood vessels into one with artificial tissue.

Go back to that small memory he had just a while ago or maybe that was an eternity ago? And hold onto it like a drowning man clutched at a straw.

I love you. The voice is loud and clear, clearer than muffled commands of doctors and mechanic noises Jensen was hearing. He turns around to the source of the voice. Megan is standing before him as naked as at the day she was born. The noises of the operating room are subduing gradually, being replaced by the distinguish silence of their bedroom. Blinding surgery lamps dim into setting sun.

Megan approaches him silently, taking soundless steps on a soft carpet.

Haven't you lost enough people today? The solider arched his back, howling in agony suddenly brought back to reality. Adam would do anything to make the pain go away! Go back, just… go…

She trails her slender fingers down his arm turning the pain of newly set, artificial shoulder joint into tingling pleasure. The doctor entwines her fingers with his and rests her head on his chest, holes drilled recently in that area which were bleeding and painfully aching just a while ago, are just a bitter memory.

"I'm sorry" she whispers. Her kisses are sweet, lacking of iron-like taste of blood he had on his tongue. Adam wonders for what she is apologizing for? For leaving? Or maybe for something more? Some crimes he didn't catch her red handed?

We're seconds away. The doctor announced and looked up toward a person sitting behind the glassy screens above the operating room - it was Sarif himself who was monitoring this part of the procedures like an artist waiting for his appetencies to finish toughest work so he could add finishing touches and the signature. Adam's boss leaned forward and pressed the button.

His body can take it. He announced, with his trademark surfer's timbre. As if in response Adam's hand moved, clutching his palm into a fist.

Miraculous a paramedic said in amazement, still mesmerized with how fluid, despite being not fully calibrated, the movement of the hand was – almost as real.

I think we got him, doc. another paramedic admitted as he checked responses of Adam's new set of eyes. Yet even thought they seemed to work perfectly, they were lifeless, man made – like surveillance cameras.

Give him the infolink. A doctor said and extended his arm, waiting, from above magnifying glass hung above side of the patient's opened skull.

Fine. Another doctor replied with a sigh. Get me that telecom package. The small device travelled from one set of hands to another to finally land in the doctor's hands – he resumed his work.

Of course Adam's body could take all of it - even much more if they take doctor Reed's research into account.

But did David Sarif take Adam Jensen's mind into an account?