Max slowly regains consciousness, hearing hushed tones he could barely make out and but felt the voices were familiar before gradually recognizing them the disembodied voices as his parents. "Mom... Dad..." Max mustered, his voice sounding hoarse due to his dry mouth, slowly opening his eyes to see his parents standing a few feet away by the foot of whatever bed he was in. He realized he was in his house's basement where his parents do their research.
“Look he is waking up. How do you feel?” Max's mom asks as he replies, "My head hurts a little bit.”
“Oh it must be because of all the painkillers” Your mom leaves a cup of coffee over a small desk, then she walks towards you and check on both of your eyes with a small flashlight. “Everything seems alright,” she comments.
Max tries standing up while massaging his neck with his right hand, noticing that the left half of his body feels numb. "Don't try to sit up yet son." Max's dad calmly says, Max figuring he must be still recuperating from the surgery. as he then noticed a short padded divider next to his head. He then noticing his parents having matching emotions of excitement and astonishment on their faces.
"You see son..." his father started, his tone indicating bad news. "The regeneration procedure..."
"My body's dead..." Max felt blood leave his face and the hairs on his right arm stood on end.
"No..." His mother answered. "Your father's regeneration procedure was a success. We managed to completely restore it.
"Okay..." Max gulped loudly despite the dryness of his mouth. "So, this is my body?"
"Yes and no..." His mother answered again. "You see honey..." As if she practiced it, Max's mom removed the divider that blocked the left side of the room from view. Max is in shocked as he finds another head identical to him that has just woke up, his mother pulled off the blanket to reveal one body on the bed. Both of Max 's two heads could not could not process this as the right head exclaims, "What the hell?!"
"Language Max..." His mother scolded him. "I know it may be a bit of a shock, but you mustn't let your emotions get the better of you." The Max on the left, as outraged as the right, continued. "You made me one of your science experiments?!" Max is shocked to find his new head talking as he adds, "You made me a freak!" Both of Max's heads struggle a bit with each other to get up before their father holds them down.
"Please calm down," Max's father said to his now two-headed son. "You should not get so excited after such an extensive surgery." The two Maxes look at each other, noticing neither have any sign of scar tissue or stitches as Max's mom grabs her laptop to show her doubled son its contents. "Your father used my research in his regeneration process to restore your body. But it worked a bit too well and your body grew a new head as a result." Max's father's takes over from there as he says, "disposing the new head would be unethical so we agreed to not remove the new head while reattaching your head back. Not to toot my own horn, but the method is rather genius, no?"
"It is dear." Max's mother smiled before looking back to her son, "And since the two of you will have no blemishes from the surgeries, neither you need to concern yourselves over who's the original. You're both our son after all.." She then hands Max two glass flasks with a blue liquid. “What’s that?” Both of Max's heads ask in unison.
“It’s a serum that helps your body heal faster," Max's mom explains. "So drink up, both of you.” Max and his left head look at each other as they both drink the liquid, which tasted like berries. "Why don't you boys rest up. We have more data to go over, but we will be right up stairs." Max's mom states as she and Max's dad head up stairs, with Max lying in bed as both of his heads look at each other.