Christine had quite a lot to think about. She wasn't even sure what was real anymore. She had so many conflicting memories now. She had memories of both being a single mother and being married to Jaden. And she seemed to be regaining memories of being married to Daniel. But this was way too confusing and it made her head ache. A swim in the pool allowed her to cool her head some and allowed her to process this situation more. Jason said that the cuffs allowed people to fuse together and divide themselves. That made Christine very curious about how they worked.
After toweling off, she found Jaden in the living room. Niel was also there, glowering with disapproval at his stepfather. Or was he his half-brother? She tried not to dwell on it. She cleared her throat and asked, "Jaden?"
Jaden turned to look at Christine. He was momentarily distracted by how sexy she looked in her one-piece swimsuit. Sure, she had a bit of a mom body from having at least two kids, but she hadn't let herself go as much as Daniel did. The only real mars were the crow's feet around her eyes. Jaden turned his focus away from his wife's body and asked, "Yes?"
"I've got a few more questions about those cuffs," said Christine, "Like how can you take them off without separating?"
"Well, if you pop off both cuffs at the same time, the fused person won't split," said Jaden. He demonstrated by removing the cuffs, but remaining whole.
"And there's no limit to how much someone can fuse?" she asked.
"Well, I suppose not, except for the age addition," said Jaden.
"Age addition?" asked Christine.
"The age of the fused person is always the sum of the people who are fusing together," said Jaden, "So it's only really practical for kids and teens to merge."
Christine nodded. She was 38 years old and she didn't really to add more to that. "But what about what Daniel did?" she asked, "How was he able to split in two?"
"Well, it's mostly because he's a lot older than Jason was," said Jaden, "But apparently all he did was put both cuffs and took one off to split."
"Oh, you mean like this?" asked Chrstine as she put the cuffs on.
"Wait! You don't want to do that!" yelped Niel.
"Well, if you're going to be splitting yourself, I should be allowed to indulge as well," said Christine before snapping off one cuff.
Christine's body rippled before her features completely blurred as if she had turned liquid. Then she seemed to shrink before she started to fission down the middle. The two halves rippled further away from each other as they each grew a new arm and leg. The split figures eventually became whole before they both solidified.
Where there was a 38-year-old woman were now a pair of 19-year-old teenage girls. They both resembled younger, fitter versions of Christine, but they weren't completely identical twins. The main differences between them were their swimsuits and hair. Crystal, who seemed to embody Christine's domestic and reserved side, was wearing a one-piece suit not unlike what Christine was wearing and had her hair in a bun. Tina, who was the embodiment Christine's inner party girl and fun-seeker, was wearing a much more revealing bikini and wearing her hair loose.
"Oh yeah, finally free," cheered Tina, flexing, "Man, I never knew how repressed I really was."
"Uh, maybe this was a bad idea," said Crystal nervously, "Maybe we should fuse back together."
"Go back to being a boring old mom? As if," said Tina, "I've been pent up for too long. It's time to have some fun." She gave a suggestive wink at Niel who blushed quite a bit at the attention. Crystal was also giving him a favorable look, even if she had reservations about the situation.
Jaden made a soft groan. This was starting to get out of hand. He was starting to think he needed to call somebody. He should probably call Richard for advise, though he probably wouldn't know how to deal with these girls. Maybe Dawn would be a wiser choice.