The next morning:

    The group woke up at roughly the same time (around nine AM) in their various hotel rooms. The original Sapphire had been kind enough to temporarily open up the hotel that was attached directly to the theme park to give them a place to stay as she studied the collected data through the night. The groups headed downstairs to the lobby, where their old friend, mascot Sapphire, was waiting. They had helped her reattach her leg the other day, and while they had offered to help her get a proper body, she adamantly refused, stating that she was too used to her current proportions to go around. She wore a chef’s hat on her normal head, and had arranged a delicious looking breakfast for the group, with plenty of pancakes, waffles, eggs of all kinds, bacon, french toast, regular toast, sausage, beans, home fries, hash browns, and anything else that one could conventionally imagine eating for breakfast. “Don’t worry about any of the food transforming you. I cooked it all myself,” Sapphire said, “and when you’re done, we can head over and see how Sapphire Prime is doing.”

    After breakfast, Mascot Sapphire loaded the group up in a little tour cart that barely managed to fit everyone, and drove them back to the courtyard where they had enjoyed the lovely fireworks show the night prior. Standing right in the center was the original Sapphire, dressed in an all white business pantsuit that she probably stole from the Secretary Sapphire’s wardrobe. “Hello friends! I’ve got some great news for you all!”
    “What happened?” Heather asked, the rest of the group filing out of the tour cart.
    “Well, after dealing with the clone issue yesterday, I called the morgue and had them pick up Mr. Alabaster’s body. After that, I called his lawyers and explained the important parts of the situation. He called me this morning and told me that, in his will, Mr. Alabaster left a clause in his will that if he never had any children, he would leave his company to his most trustworthy employee. So, now you’re looking at the new owner of Eternity Cosmetics.” The group cheered for a bit, happy for that their after everything that cruel man had tangentially done to her through clones had came around to reward her properly.
     After an appropriate amount of celebration, Sapphire held up her hand, continuing her story, “So, after that, I went ahead and destroyed a large amount of the clones we had in storage- Now wait,” Sapphire said preemptively, expecting the protests that Susan and Echo were about to say, “I understand that at this point, these clones are as human as you and I. However, the fact of the matter is that a large percentage of those clones were brainwashed and conditioned to the point that they were little more than tools. I did not touch any of the clones that haven’t been released yet.”
    “Wait… Does that mean-“ Veronica was about to ask.
    “Yep. I also destroyed Azure.” The words hung in the air slightly. Even though he had sworn that he was going to destroy them, none of them had enough ill will towards him to actually go through the steps to destroy him themselves. “If I had held him captive, there would always be the chance that he could escape, and if he escaped, it would only be a matter of time before he would try to take back control of the company. That, and the fact that he was an accident caused by the unreturned sexual desires of a cruel man, were enough for me to justify doing it.” As much as the group would refuse to say it aloud, they all silently agreed that it was probably for the best that .

    “Anyway, now on to probably the best news of the day!” Sapphire smiled, producing what looked to be a vial of purple liquid with a spray nozzle attached to it. “I was looking through the data the supercomputer had stored, and I happened to notice a constant difference between the clone’s genetic code and the original’s genetic code in all of the samples and experimental genomes. I realized, that if I could reprogram that part of the Eternity Cells, they should be able to be absorbed by their parent cell. In short order, this should be a way to keep the memories of your clones alive without them dying. So, are you all down to use it?” Sapphire asked the clones of the group.
    The clones looked at one another. They hadn’t thought about it, but they realized that their much shorter lifespan would mean that even if they wished to continue to exist outside of this theme park, they would only disappear shortly afterwards. This opportunity meant that they ultimately wouldn’t exist as themselves, but the unique experiences and memories could live on. Susan was the first to speak up, “I think I’ll use it.”
    Sapphire walked up, spritzing the entirety of Susan’s body with the purple liquid, “Okay, now, just touch your original, and your cells should do the rest.”
    Susan’s clone walked up to her original, who was tearing up a little bit at the thought of losing this interesting version of herself. “Hey,” The clone Susan said, “If this doesn’t work as she said and you don’t gain my memories. Please be nice to Echo. I know your love with her only just started, but we went through a lot yesterday to actually get the courage to ask each other out. Okay?”
    “Of course,” the original Susan said, smiling and walking forward, hugging her clone. As soon as their skin touched, it almost seemed to meld into one another. As more and more of their skin fed into one another, The mass of skin that was Susan began to settle down, reforming into a completely normal looking Susan, the clothes that the Susan clone had been wearing laid on the ground.
    Susan clutched at her head, prompting both Echo and her clone to ask, “Are you okay?”
    “Yeah… It’s just a little bit of a jump when trying to right two sets of memories that occurred at the same time,” Susan quit clutching at her head, walking over to both of the Echos and giving each of them a kiss on their cheeks, “But on the plus side, I remember everything.”

    In short order, the rest of the group began absorbing their clones in a similar manner. Veronica and Spencer did it at the same time, embracing each other after the process. Echo did it after them, Susan commenting, “You know, I’m going to miss being able to wrap my arms around two beautiful girls.
   “Yeah, but I would be afraid of being jealous of myself,” Echo’s original said, merging with her clone and embracing Susan in a very similar manner to how Veronica and Spencer had.
    Lindsay did it after her, commenting after the merge, “Wow, that was a rush. Getting to see myself stop being a bitch twice in two days.”
    “Let’s hope it stays that way,” Susan said, hugging her reformed friend.

    Heather was the last of the group to join back with her clone. “So, before we join back, were there any crazy life lessons you wanted to share in case I don’t get your memories?” The original whispered to her clone.
   “I guess the most important would be to not beat yourself up about some of the stuff you ended up doing. And to trust in your friends some more,” the clone said, “If it wasn’t for them, we might not be standing her now.”
   “Thanks,” Heather said, embracing herself, completing the rejoining.
   “Hey, what about you, Sapphire? Are you going to rejoin with the mascot version of you?” Echo asked.
   Sapphire looked down at the ground, “Well, I offered the choice to her this morning, but she told me that she would rather protect me from the horrors that she saw so that the company could start with a new, mostly clean vision of the past. Since she’s been through more than all of us combined, I thought it appropriate to honor her request.”

   “So, do you have any ideas what you’re going to do with the theme park?” Veronica asked. The group had moved to right inside the front entrance,
   “Well, I already called ahead to all of the news agencies and expected patrons that we were going to have to postpone the park’s opening indefinitely. After you guys leave, I was going to use today to free all of the original workers that Mr. Alabaster put into stasis. After that… I’m not sure. Most of the stuff here is way too dangerous to just let the public use, since it was specifically designed for the clone bodies. And as far as clone research goes, I think it has advanced plenty enough. The world already has enough of a population problem as is, and expanding that to several thousand park patrons would not be the best idea.”
   “Man… That sucks,” Spencer said, “If you could figure out a way to just spread the transformation ability to park guests… then you wouldn’t really have to do much to make this the coolest theme park of all time.”
   “Yep, but I can’t…” Sapphire stop speaking for a bit, the cogs in her mind turning, before continuing, “Well. I’ve held you all captive here probably a bit longer than you all are comfortable. Please, have a great day, and thank you for visiting Eternipark!”

   The group finally walked out of the front entrance of Eternipark, enjoying the fresh air outside the park for the first time in what felt like a month.

   Of course, things don’t go that easily for this group of friends, and it turns out the park was still not done with messing with its prey just yet. Literally not two steps outside of the front entrance, one of the large letters making up the name of Eternipark came loose from it’s position, crashing down to Earth with immense force and slicing off poor Spencer’s left arm, causing him to yell out, not so much it pain, but rather in surprise. Staring down, Spencer realized that, not only was there no blood, but also that he could still feel and move his disconnected arm.
    Sapphire ran out after them, saying, “Oh my God! Are you okay?”
    “Y-yeah… I’m fine,” Spencer said, reaching down for his other arm.
    Sapphire looked him over, “Um… If you guys wouldn’t mind… could you stay over for maybe just a bit longer so I can try and see what happened.” The rest of the group, just as shaken up as Spencer and Sapphire, agreed, following her back into the park.

    In the medical tent, Sapphire turned around from microscope where she was examining a sliver of Spencer’s arm, saying, “Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news, depending on how you look at it.”
   “Just tell it to us straight, Is Spencer going to be okay?” Veronica asked, nervously clutching on her boyfriend’s one good arm.
   “He’s going to beyond okay. You all remember how I said the formula I created was going to allow the Eternity Cells to be absorbed by the parent cells?” The group nodded in the affirmative, “Well… It turns out that my concoction might have been a bit too powerful… As once the cells were absorbed, your regular cells began to appropriate the various parts of the Eternity Cells, making them essentially equivalent cells… Except that they seemed to naturally have fixed the parts that would cause them to die out so quickly.”
   “Wait… Does that mean-“
   “Yep. It means that you all still have the same transformative abilities as when you were clones. Except that you also will live your normal natural life span, maybe even a bit past that if my theory is true. Now, I’ve already figured out the issue in the formula and have watered it down so that the Eternity Cells will change back to normal cells after a certain time period, and I’m already working on a formula to manually transform Eternity Cells back to normal cells, but for all intents and purposes… you all might be stuck this way for a while.”
   Spencer reached down, reattaching his arm (and the sliver Sapphire had removed from it) like it was second nature. “Sapphire… There’s no reason to beat yourself up about this. Because honestly. This is kind of cool.”
   “R-Really?”
   “Of course silly! When we weren’t running for our lives, we actually were having a pretty enjoyable time,” Lindsay said.
   “Oh! Wonderful then! I’ll still work on a cure, but at least I know you all won’t be suffering.”
   “Plus, this actually gives me a pretty good idea,” Heather said, a smile on her face indicating she knew that everyone in that room was going to love her plan.

    Two weeks later, on the local news:

    “Hey y’all. It’s me, star reporter Scarlett  with Channel 17. I’m here right outside of Eternipark, the newest summer attraction that has people from all over the world coming out to check out its new unique interactive experience. Here to give an exclusive interview, I have the folks who managed to snag an early test run,” The reporter ran her hair through her bright red hair, sitting opposite her were the gang, all sitting on some rather uncomfortable stools, “So Heather, would you care to explain how the process works for those watching at home?” Scarlett extended the microphone out to Heather.
    “I’d love to Scarlett.” The camera footage cut to a line past the front entrance, the lines funneled into two lines approaching to of the large metal pods that used to be housed underground in the storage facility, the footage showed Scarlett standing in one of these lines. “After checking in with your ticket and signing the necessary waivers, you’re led through the transformation pods. The way these pods work is they first double your biomass to ensure that there is enough genetic material to work with,” the footage showed Scarlett getting into one of the pods, the pod filling up with green liquid, her mass seemingly melting, and then splitting in half and doubling so that there were two blobs of Scarlett roughly equal to her original size. “Then, the rebonding agent is introduced, what this does is infuse the mass with Eternity Cells, which are a specialized cell that allows for your body to become indestructible in the sense that it can be chopped up, removed, or added to in a variety of unnatural and transformative ways,” The footage showed the water in the tub turned purple, as the two masses of Scarlett joined together, reforming in her clothes as a single Scarlett once more. As she stepped out of the pod, her clothes were completely dry once more.

   “Very interesting. Now, are these transformations permanent?”
   “Sadly, no. The eternity cells only hold the transformative property for a very small time frame, typically 24 hours, after which time they will revert the body back to its base state before dying off. In addition, if anyone leaves the park, they have to go through the special decontamination exits, that similarly remove the transformative property.”
    “So you’re saying you can only get this exclusive experience at Eternipark?”
   “That is correct.”

   “Wonderful, I only have two questions left. Is it true that, the park had to postpone its launch by two weeks because of an accident involving you all?”
   “Sadly, yes. But thankfully, the accident wasn’t caused by us, and the park was more than generous, granting us unlimited free access for the rest of our lives.”
   “Now, for my last question. How has your experiences with Eternipark changed your lives?”

    The multitude of changes that had occurred since that fateful day more than two weeks ago flashed through Heather’s mind. Spencer and Veronica had finally enough trust in one another to settle down and rent and apartment together, having moved in literally the day before this interview. Echo and Susan had been going steady since they finally admitted their love for each other in the park, and their relationship was still going strong (it helped that they had started using their detachability and transformative powers in the bedroom to spice things up). Lindsay had actually started acting nicer, implementing her nicer attitude in all aspects of her life, and even helping usher in some changes in her Sorority to help stop hazing rituals. And Heather couldn’t complain much either, as she was finally able to quit her job at Target to start working for Eternity Cosmetics after her brilliant idea on how to properly reopen Eternipark. Speaking of Sapphire, she had been an important part of helping the group adjust to their changes. Despite her best efforts, her decontamination formula ended up not working on their cells, leaving them with the ability to keep their transformation powers outside of the park. To compensate, Sapphire offered to help them pay off their loans and even give them a cut of the parks earnings, which was much appreciated by the indebted college kids. She was planning to announce a new summer line of make-up to help accentuate the looks of transformed individuals later in the summer, and a pretty good looking line for normal people as well. She also was making plans to help start phasing out the clone workforce of the park, but not to largely start spreading the secret of the Eternity Cell just yet, fearing the world was still far too dangerous for such power just yet.

    However, in the end, Heather thought it best to just be safe and say, “It’s definitely changed our lives for the better.”
   “That’s wonderful. Well, I’m Scarlett, and I hope to see you today at Eternitpark!…

   …And… That’s a wrap!”

    THE END.
    THANKS FOR READING!