Then the host of the talk show frowned, a thought suddenly occurring to her.

"Wait a moment." she said, thinking. "If Beverly's DNA fertilized a million different testicle cells, each of which was a precursor to a normal sperm cell, wouldn't each embryo have slightly different genetics, different DNA, from Victor?"

"Yes, indeed." Jennifer agreed, nodding. "Victor's DNA is made up of half of his mother's DNA, and half of his father's. When a new sperm cell is made, it gets a randomized assortment from both these sources, which means that every sperm cell, and every sperm precursor cell, has a unique set of DNA. Combining all these different cells with half of Beverly's DNA resulted in millions and millions of unique embryos, each of which was competing with all the others for space and resources."

"So.. what, they fought each other?" Opal asked.

"Sort of." Jennifer replied. "At first, they simply grew, and those embryos that were able to grow more quickly, either through luck or innate ability, soon began to crowd out their slower siblings."

"Were all of these embryos compatible with each other?" Opal asked, fascinated.

"Most were not." Jennifer answered, shaking her head. "However, just as in our own society, the ones that could work together fared much better than the ones who couldn't. Eventually, after about two weeks, the cooperative groups resolved themselves into two extremely large embryos, one in each testicle, made up of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of different cell lines."

"I seem to remember that we did a show several years back on people who were made up of two or more separate lines of cells. I believe they were called.. chimeras?" Opal asked.

"Yes, that's the proper term for such people, Opal." Jennifer answered, nodding. "The new embryos in each of Victor's testicles were a sort of super-chimera. It was at this point that the struggle between the cooperative and the lone wolf cells truly became a fight. Once the new chimera embryos came into being, began growing, and eventually started differentiating, they began to see every other cell line not involved in the process as outsiders, a threat, and began attacking them. Every cell line that wasn't either Victor's own or a part of the growing embryo was isolated, strangled of resources, and destroyed."

A new video, only a short clip, began to play on the wall screen. It showed Jennifer gently holding Victor's scrotum within her hands. The entire thing was beet red and swollen, each testicle clearly swelled far beyond it's normal size and bulging the skin around them, and Victor winced at even the slightest touch to them. Jennifer turned the inflamed organs this way and that, ignoring Victor's trembling spasms of pain, to give the camera an excellent view of their condition from every angle.

"This process was rather painful for Victor, as you can see. Each of his testicles swelled considerably, becoming inflamed and very tender to the touch." Jennifer said. "It lasted only a week, though, after which the embryos were free to grow and thrive without any interference."

"Amazing. Just amazing." Opal said.

"Isn't is, though?" Jennifer agreed, her enthusiasm evident.

"By this point, virtually all of the cells that remained within Victor's testicles belonged to the growing embryos. As they continued to grow and differentiate, gaining form and strength, they ceased being embryos and became fetuses. Though relatively small, they soon began to show recognizable human features, such as appendages, the arms and legs, as well as a distinct head and spinal cord."

"This was a dangerous time for them." Jennifer said, gravely. "Normally, a tiny human fetus is protected within the abdomen of the woman it is growing in, sheltered deep in the relative safety of her womb. Beverly and Victor's fetuses didn't have that protection. Even a small bump or nudge to Victor's scrotum could have damaged or destroyed them."

"How did you overcome this, and keep them safe?" Opal asked.

"At first, a simple sports cup was enough." Jennifer said. "But soon enough they outgrew it, and we were forced to fabricate a new protective device. It was sort of an extra large cup and jock strap, and wound up looking sort of like a low hanging, single cupped, heavy duty bra for Victor's growing scrotum and his testicular fetuses.

Another short clip played, showing Beverly and Jennifer gently easing Victor's bare, bulging scrotum, now much larger than it had first appeared, into a large, padded, formed-plastic half sphere. They then attached the filled protective cup to a belt strapped around Victor's waist. The straps connecting the cup and belt were long enough that Victor scrotum, within its new protective shell, hung loosely and at roughly the same level it would have naturally. Victor gave a few small, experimental bounces, testing the device's support, then nodded to the women in approval. Both Beverly and Jennifer turned to the camera at this, happy and grinning, each giving a thumbs up.

Just before it ended, the clip jumped to another scene, showing Beverly and Victor, both holding hands, walking down a hospital hallway on their way out of the research center. Beverly was moving easily, her stride smooth and normal, while Victor's was a far more clumsy and slow waddle, due to the large, inconvenient mass hanging between his legs.

"Clever." Opal said, while nodding her head in approval of her own at the protective device.

"Yes, it worked very well, though we had to swap out to a new, larger cup every few weeks." Jennifer agreed. "So protected, each fetus was able to grow in safety."

"How long did they take to come to term? And just how did you know when they were ready?" Opal asked.

"Well, normally, when a woman's pregnancy is nearly over and she's about to give birth, she is well aware of the fact and usually knows what to expect and how to prepare for it." Jennifer answered. "Victor's pregnancy, on the other hand, was, at that time, utterly unique, and we had to make educated guesses as to when his and Beverly's infants would be ready to face the outside world."

"So, we simply went by body weight." she said. "When each fetus reached about eight and a half pounds, which they did at almost the same time, we decided that the time was right. Interestingly, it took only seven and a half months for them to reach that size. We think that starting with so very many fertilized testicle cells gave them something of a head start. At three weeks, after each embryo had stabilized, they were well ahead of the normal growth curve."

A new short video played, showing Victor, his knees bent slightly, with his by now enormous scrotum being carefully weighed on a scale by Jennifer.

"This next video shows the birth." Jennifer warned. "It's a bit graphic. We had to surgically remove the infants, so there's a bit of blood. It's very interesting to see, but if you're squeamish, you might want to look away."

"Our surgeon, Doctor Yokiko Amari, designed and performed the surgery required to birth the new infants. She's one of the top obstetricians in the country, and, thanks to her, everything went perfectly."

The next video started. Victor was sitting in another exam chair with his legs spread wide, allowing a clear view of the enormous, pendulous mass of his expanded, pregnant scrotum. The bulging sack was hanging from him, stretched tight, into a padded depression below his bottom. His limp penis, looking rather shrunken and sad, was taped to the skin of his abdomen, held up and out of the way, apparently unnecessary.

Doctor Amari was sitting before him, in scrubs and clearly about to operate, holding a small scalpel in one of her gloved hands. Beverly and Jennifer were standing on either side of Victor, each holding one of his hands in theirs, with their free hands resting his shoulder nearest them.

Victor, clearly somewhat stressed by the situation and looking more than a little apprehensive, was strapped down securely to the chair. The only parts of his body that he could move on his own were his hands, which were clenched in nervous anticipation around Beverly's and Jennifer's own, and his head, which was bent forward so he could see the surgeon work.

Doctor Amari, without even the slightest bit of hesitation, carefully opened up the left side of Victor's scrotum. She made a long incision, starting from nearly the top of his sack, which ended more than three quarters of the way down his bulging, strained looking flesh. She used the fingers of her free hand, slipping them inside the incision as she lengthened the cut, to prevent the small blade of her scalpel from coming into contact with the fragile, invaluable contents being protected by the thin layer of Victor's skin.

Victor's chest hitched, inhaling sharply, as his skin was cut into by the woman, and he bit his lip and furrowed his brow in consternation at the sensations he was experiencing. He was clearly uncomfortable, but apparently not in an excessive amount of pain. His eyes and mouth opened wide in surprise though, when, after she finished the incision, Doctor Amari reached her hands inside of his scrotum. Spreading the cut wide, she slowly and gently pulled another large, grayish-fleshed sack out of him. The sack, which actually appeared to be thicker by some measure than the skin of the scrotum which had contained it, looked fibrous and tough, and was connected to Victor by a large, purplish cord of thick, veiny flesh.

The sack was moving slightly within the surgeons hands, it's contents clearly alive and agitated.

Moving with extreme care and precision, Doctor Amari slowly sliced open the second sack, spilling a moderate amount of watery fluid from it into the padded basin as she did so. Ever so gently, she reached into the newly opened sack, as she had Victor's scrotum before it, and extracted its contents.

The newborn was pale, plump, and absolutely perfect. She writhed and shuddered gently in the surgeon's hands, apparently unaccustomed to and unhappy with the feel of the relative cold and dryness of the world outside of her father's body. The veiny cord of flesh, which apparently continued through the thick wall of the second protective sack, ended at the girl's belly.

The newborn made no sounds as she moved, and didn't seem to be breathing on her own.

This state was remedied when the good surgeon, holding the newly birthed infant girl carefully, gave her a gentle slap on her baby bottom, causing her to gasp at the air in shocked surprise, then let out her first sound, the same first sound almost every healthy baby makes upon their arrive into the world: a wail of outrage.

Victor had arched his back, his expression of surprise deepening into complete disbelief, at the extraordinary and apparently quite powerful sensations passing through him. Having his new daughter extracted from his body and handled by Doctor Amari, while still attached to him through her umbilical cord, was obviously far more intense than he had expected. His expression turned from disbelieving to shocked though, when the woman smartly patted the infant's bottom to jar her into breathing. The blood drained from his face, his eyes went blank, and he jerked hard against his restraints, in apparent agony, as the girl started to wail and writhe.

When Doctor Amari handed the newborn off to a ready nurse, who held the child as the surgeon cut her umbilical cord, Victor went into a full body spasm. His fit lasted for nearly a minute, his movements spastic and uncontrolled, after the baby girl, who had been his completely ordinary left testicle just a few months earlier, had been snipped free from his body.

The baby was removed by the nurse, out of frame but apparently not out of the room, judging by how Beverly's and Jennifer's eyes kept track of it, as Victor was allowed a few minutes to recover. The video then skipped forward, to show Doctor Amari cutting into the right side of Victor's now much reduced scrotum. She extracted the second internal sack, and then cut free the second beautiful baby girl.

Victor was, by this point, shivering, sobbing, and crying continuously. As Doctor Amari prepared to clip the second newborn free of her umbilical cord and her father, he began begging, over and over, the same word: "No no no no nononooo!" He spasmed again when his pleas were ignored, and the final cut delivered. His whole body twisted up on itself, every muscle locking up in rigid agony, then fell limp, unconsciousness sweeping him mercifully away from the pain.

The last scene of the clip showed Beverly and Jennifer, each holding a swaddled and sleeping newborn, with glowing smiles, ecstatically happy. Victor, still bound to his birthing chair, lay unconscious between them, with his large, empty, and now unnecessary scrotum covered by a towel. The surgeon, Doctor Amari, stood behind Victor, her hands resting on the shoulders of the two beaming women, looking tired, proud, and satisfied.

"My goodness.." Opal said, into the quiet that surrounded the set after the video ended. "That was simply amazing! I can hardly believe what I just saw. That such beautiful babies could come from so unlikely a source."

"Yes, it was truly incredible to behold, Opal." Jennifer agreed, nodding to her host.

"If you think you can hardly believe it, then imagine how I felt, witnessing it firsthand." Beverly said, her eyes damp but shining. "A few months previously, I had all but given up hope. Then, to see my girls come into the world, flawless and perfect! It's been a dream come true. Even re-watching this clip, which I've probably seen a dozen times already, makes my heart flutter and my whole body tremble with giddy happiness."

Jennifer reached her arm around Beverly, giving the woman a one armed hug. It was gratefully and eagerly returned.

"How long ago was the birth?" Opal asked. "And how have the children been doing?"

"Well, rather than tell you, it might be easier to just show you. Both you and the audience, Opal." Jennifer said, as Beverly wiped at the dampness in her eyes.

"Yes, I think you're right." Opal agreed. "Studio audience! Silence, if you would, please, as our final guests come out."

Beverly shifted on the couch, turning towards the entrance to the set. She peered down and smiled at someone the audience couldn't see, beckoning with her hand.

"Come on. It's time." she said, pitching her voice a little higher than normal. "Come on out to the stage with Mommy, Auntie Jennifer, and Daddy."

Beverly stayed that way for several seconds, looking off set, as nothing happened.

"Umm..?" Opal asked, as the silence stretched on and the nothing continued to happen.

Beverly sighed, which turned into a light laugh, and rolled her eyes.

"Of course, they choose NOW to be shy." she said.

"We usually can't keep up with them; they love running over and introducing themselves to new people." Jennifer confided to Opal.

"Come on, don't be scared." Beverly said, smiling and beckoning again. "Everyone wants to meet you, so come out!"

Two heads, one above the other, poked out from behind the entrance, just far enough so that one eye each could peek out at the silent, waiting audience. Seeing everyone looking expectantly at them was apparently too much, because they immediately jerked back behind the edge of the set, hiding from view.

"Oh, come on!" Beverly said, starting to laugh again. "There's nothing to be frightened of! Come on out, you two."

Slowly, one small form eased out from behind the entrance, looking around warily. When nothing untoward happened, she moved a bit to the side, and her sister, who looked nearly identical, stepped into view as well. They were wearing matching outfits; cute little dresses, shoes and hair bows, and each held a hand of the other.

At their mother's continued encouragement, they walked over to their parents, Jennifer, and Opal. As they neared their father's chair, he smiled warmly at them, opened his arms, and beckoned to them as well. The passed him by though, with hardly a glance, which caused his smile to falter somewhat, and hopped up, one each, into the arms and laps of Beverly and Jennifer.

"They're.. what, three, four years old?" Opal asked, a little breathlessly.

"A little over four years old." Beverly confirmed, snuggling her daughter down into her lap happily. "They'll be starting kindergarten this next year."

"Their coloring! It's like nothing I've seen before.." Opal continued, trailing off, her amazement obvious.

"They're gorgeous." she finished, her mouth open.

"It's a result of the great variety of the cells in their body, we think." Jennifer said, stroking the hair of the girl she held. "Basically, they're the average of every possible skin, eye, and hair color combinations that was possible, taking into consideration their parent's heritage. Given that both Beverly and Victor are of predominantly European extraction, it's no surprise that their skin turned out as pale as it did."

"The hair is another matter entirely. Their scalp is made up of many different cell lines, several thousand at least, and possibly quite a bit more, often varying even within the same hair follicle. They grow hairs of almost every color found naturally in humans. Normally, this would probably average out to a medium to light golden brown color of hair, possibly with a bit of a reddish tinge and the odd highlight here and there, but, most unusually, they appear to be going grey astoundingly early."

"So, is it the grey hairs mixing in with the others that makes their hair look almost blueish?" Opal asked, fascinated.

"Yes. It depends on the lighting a great deal, too. In some light their hair looks almost like a pale purple, and in still others, more of a mousy grey-brown. But, if they continue going grey at the rate they have been so far, by the time they're in their early teens they'll probably be snow white."

"Incredible.." Opal replied. "Have they shown any signs of early hair loss too?"

"No, not at all." Jennifer replied, smoothing the hair of the girl she was holding, then giving it a light kiss. "They're simply losing their hair color really, really early. We haven't been able to figure out why just yet."

"And last, but certainly not least, their eyes!" Opal exclaimed. "They're the most beautiful shade of violet that I've ever seen."

"Again, that's the result of having irises with a thousand different cell lines, all with a slightly different idea about what color they should be expressing. Apparently blue, green, brown, and grey, along with the red of the hemoglobin in the blood cells flowing through the tiny veins in their eyes, all add up to a purple-violet color."

"So, what are their names?"

"Lily." answered Beverly, hugging the girl sitting on her lap.

"And Violet, of course." said Jennifer, smiling and giving the second girl a hug of her own.

"Our two beautiful flowers." they finished together.

"Well. Hello, Lilly. Hello, Violet." Opal said, looking the each of the children in turn and smiling benignly. "My name is Opal Winters, but you can just call me Opal."

Lilly, who had been looking up at her mother's face during most of the conversation, looked over at Opal when she heard her name mentioned and stared at the older woman for a moment, then buried her face in her mother's shoulder. Violet, who seemed to be slightly more brave than her sister, gave a hesitant little wave of her fingers to the talk show host, then followed her sister's example, hiding her face from view against Jennifer.

"Ha, I can't believe how shy they're being." Beverly said, stroking her daughter's back and chuckling slightly. "It must be being in front of such a large crowd."

"Oh, it's simply darling." Opal gushed, her eyes sparkling.

"So, they're healthy?" she asked.

"Oh, yes." Jennifer said, confidently. "Even more than healthy, perhaps. They've never been sick a day in their lives, and they've shown absolutely no signs of any abnormalities, aside from the early greying of their hair, either in body or mind."

"Wonderful." Opal enthused. "Do you have any idea about why that might be?"

"Again, we think it is because of the multitude of different cells lines of which their bodies are made up." Jennifer said. "Even if some lines might be more susceptible to a certain kind of disease, or more prone to manifesting a certain kind of physical or mental disability, there are even more that are not. Our girls are living proof of the power and strength that can be found in diversity."

"If I might, I have a few more questions about their birth." Opal said, after the round of enthusiastic applause that had greeted Jennifer's statement faded away.