When Zeta and Isaac wrapped up eating breakfast, Harper touched both their hands and they appeared in Doctor Yorke’s office. Zeta was not sure who was the most startled, herself, Isaac, or Doctor Yorke. It must have been Doctor Yorke because she swatted her monitor aside and it toppled to the floor.

Having been in sitting positions, Zeta and Isaac scrambled to get back on their feet, specifically to dodge the falling monitor. The fastest movement Zeta could muster was pushing her legs off the ground and bouncing backward. Fortunately, there was nothing behind her. Isaac awkwardly rolled in a fetal-like position and managed to avoid the monitor. Harper watched as it clattered before his feet.

Unlike the bright lights in the cafeteria, it was dim in Doctor Yorke’s office and Zeta blinked her eyes a few times to adjust to the new lighting. She looked around to make sure Jericho was no longer with them and attempted to get back on her feet, but a dizzying rush consumed her body. Even when she shut her eyes, she could still feel the world spinning. It was as if someone kicked her to the ground, and with every attempt to get back up, that same person would spin and push her again.

Isaac groaned to the right of her. At least she was not the only one affected.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Doctor Yorke asked.

“I thought you wanted to get rid of them?” Harper said.

“I did, but not with you barging into my office like this.” Doctor Yorke readjusted herself and patted away at the dust that flung off of the monitor. She cleared her throat. “So, we’re going ahead as I planned?”

“Sure,” Harper said. “If you have a good reason. I’m not sure they can keep funding your solo projects.”

“I do have a good reason. I wasn’t able to complete the process.” Doctor Yorke pointed a ragged finger at Zeta. “I had everything planned and it was going smoothly until she interrupted me. You stupid bitch.”

Zeta was already grimacing, but her face turned sour after being called a bitch. If her world was not spinning, then she would have snapped back at the doctor.

The doctor had never called Zeta such obscurities before, nor showed any signs that she disliked Zeta. The incident the day before must have struck a nerve.

“It could have been your fault,” Harper said. “Maybe you creeped him out.”

“Creeped who out?” Isaac said through heavy breaths.

“None of your concern,” Doctor Yorke said.

“Jericho,” Zeta said.

“Who said you could speak?” Doctor Yorke growled.

“When did you start hating me so much?” Zeta said.

Doctor Yorke slid over her desk as items dropped to the floor, and she smacked Zeta across the face. It was less of a smack and more so a punch, and her head turned violently to the right. Her brain rattled and Zeta shut her eyes tightly. She was ready to vomit and thought about doing so on Yorke’s shoes, but restrained herself. Dizziness from Harper’s power and an unjust punch to the face; Zeta wondered how she was thinking coherently. She was not sure how much more she could handle. One more clean hit to the skull and she would surely pass out.

“Does that answer your question?” Yorke asked.

The doctor struck Zeta on the face again, this time driving her heel onto Zeta’s face and smashing it onto the ground. Zeta’s brain shook again and she groaned from the attack. She wondered how many seconds had passed.

Zeta did more than struck a nerve. This was a vehemence.

“Cut it out!” Isaac roared.

With half-opened eyelids, Zeta saw Isaac’s fists glowing an uncharacteristic red.

“Stay out of it, Isaac,” Zeta softly murmured. Her words and body were leaning towards the side of lethargy, and despite her best efforts to keep her eyes open, she closed them again. The glow was unbearable. “Red? What’s red?”

Isaac sighed. Through her eyelids, the red glow in the room went away.

“Yorke.” Harper’s voice roughened. “You wanted to kill her just now. I could see it in your strike. That’s not something we can reverse. Do that again and I’ll cut that tongue of yours, find some parasites myself, and place them down your throat.”

“I apologize,” Doctor Yorke said.

Harper sighed as if he were a parent scolding his child. “Do you have other reasons to send them away? That seriously can’t be the only one. I was hoping to hear their side of things so they could explain themselves, but that happening doesn’t seem likely. I like to see resources be used wisely. They’ve already spent so much money on Ca—“

Doctor Yorke cut in erratically, “Yes! But, this is important. I’m so close to perfecting him but the experiments I had planned are now postponed. We’ll make the money back. Money will be no issue with what we can get with him. I guarantee it.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I can’t say you’re wrong,” Harper said. He clicked his tongue a few times. “I’d still like to see faster results. Well, they would.”

“I understand,” Doctor Yorke said.

“What about you two?” Harper said. “Have anything to say?”

“What do you want to hear?” Isaac said indecisively.

“Your accomplishments.” Harper sighed. “Come on. Have neither of you been in an interview before? Not even a mock one in school? List some strengths or weaknesses. Give me something. Yorke wants to send you away. How do you persuade me to stop that from happening?”

“Sorry,” Zeta said. “I’m dizzy. Please give me a moment.”

Harper sighed, his frustration more apparent. “Is two hits seriously all you can manage?”`

Perhaps, Zeta was exaggerating, but the two strikes were clean, and any other person would have reacted the same, if not worse.

“Two hits still hurt,” Zeta said. “I’m also not used to your power.”

“Understandable,” Harper said. “But, since you can manage conversation, why don’t I help you out a bit? Let’s talk about your on-the-field experience.”

“Sorry?” Zeta’s mind scrambled for when she worked on the field but came up empty. She never left the facility before.

“Oh, okay,” Harper said. “I see.”

“See what?”

“Use your powers,” Harper said. “I give you my permission. This isn’t a trick. For ten minutes I want you to keep your powers going.”

“I disagree—“ Doctor Yorke started to say.

“You can redo the process,” Harper said.

“Yes, but it’s not—“

“Stop talking.”

Zeta waited a few moments before forcing herself into a sitting position. She crossed her legs; for some reason it made her feel more centered, less dizzy. Harper pushed a sofa chair behind Zeta for her to lean upon.

Her eyes remained closed as she tapped into a pocket of energy, then dispersed it around her. She was unsure of what exactly was wanted from her, but she applied her energy onto Harper, Doctor Yorke, and even Isaac. They were all now powerless.

To put it plainly, Zeta was capable of dampening and removing powers altogether, at least when she focused her ability. The effects were only temporary but they were potent when she was allowed to flourish. She had inadvertently used it when she encountered Jericho and Doctor Yorke just yesterday, her energy often flowing in times of stress.

Not much happened the first few minutes Zeta used her powers. She grew anxious wondering why she was told to do such a thing, but eventually, Isaac spoke.

“Huh?” A confused breath of air released from Isaac. “Zeta, do you remember someone named Cade? I’m slowly forming memories about him. He used to be some random guy that refused to cooperate, but now I remember.”

At first, Zeta did not know who Isaac referred to, her mind was focused on utilizing her powers, but memories of the boy passively crossed her mind.

Visions of a curly, orange-haired boy with an addictive personality reappeared in her memory as if he never left. The boy had been so supportive of Isaac and Zeta, yet she had forgotten him. How did she ever forget?

Zeta’s head tilted forward slightly, towards the direction of Doctor Yorke. If her eyes were open, she knew Isaac would have done the same. The doctor’s ability was left unaccounted for. It was the only valid power that could explain their confusion. Isaac’s ability was combative while Harper had an ability that allowed him to move quickly or teleport. This left Doctor Yorke. Her ability must have been the reason they forgot.

“You messed with our memories,” Isaac said. “And you were going to mess with Jericho’s too.”

Doctor Yorke burst into a fit of laughter. She paused to say, “Do you want me to congratulate you?”

More memories formed in Zeta’s mind. The memories were foggy at first, but as she continued to utilize her powers, she started to remember. More and more, she wanted to get rid of all the effects of Doctor Yorke’s powers, to regain her true memories. Harper had instructed Zeta to spend ten minutes using her power, and she wondered how strong Yorke’s power truly was. Despite Zeta putting all her effort into fighting the effects, it continued to fight back.

Zeta played an inference game and tried to figure out Yorke’s abilities.

Proximity was not related to the doctor’s ability. Zeta remembered using her powers countless times, even times when Doctor Yorke was not present. But, even then, Zeta was warned not to spend long durations using her powers on the others since the full capabilities of her powers were not known. It was recommended that she use her powers in short bursts, lasting only seconds, at most half a minute. She never questioned why that was so. She merely assumed her powers were potent enough to cause long-term effects, that they were wary of how much she used them. She was wary of them too.

Zeta concluded that Doctor Yorke’s ability was inside her, not in the metaphorical sense, but physical. She found no other explanation, at least at the time, but something about the inference made her certain. Zeta never thought to utilize her power on herself as it never had an effect, but this time she created a huge bubble of energy and surged it into herself. Her stomach ached as tiny electric shocks sparked on her body. Rushes flooded into her brain shortly after, and she slouched back against the chair. Her body ached, but she fought against it. She needed to get rid of Yorke’s ability, every last bit of it. Nothing should remain. She needed to remember it all.

Zeta’s false and real memories clashed with one another, at first indistinguishable, but as she continued, as she put her body through turmoil, she remembered. It was like she had been building a puzzle set and realizing the pieces she was given were never the correct ones in the first place.

Her stomach turned sour when she remembered Cade’s ability. Her thoughts connected with and she realized what Doctor Yorke had in mind.

Cade was a disease harborer. He was blessed to be immune to any disease but cursed to obtain immunity only after experiencing the brunt effects of whatever sickness he absorbed. With the illnesses he accumulated, he could pass them on to others. He was subject to slight experimentation during his time in the main prison, at first cooperating but soon refused as the tasks he was asked to do escalated. He never went into the specifics of what he did, but the toll it had caused the teen showed physically and mentally. Her heart ached thinking about the cruel experiments they performed on him, most likely still performing.

Then she thought about Jericho and how his ability could be implemented into that torture. She tried to forget the idea. Jericho would never do such a thing, she assured herself, but her memories that followed quickly disproved that.

A cold, heavy heart thumped sheepishly, just like it did on that same night. Although the deaths were not directly her fault, she was still responsible. Tears ran down Zeta’s face as she remembered. Her hands were stained and no matter how much she tried to persuade herself, it would only further cement how guilty she was.

Twenty deaths. Twenty lives once beating, no longer holding a rhythm. She was in Doctor Yorke’s office when she received the news. Yorke’s computer was playing a video and the doctor was yet to be in the office, so she took a look. She thought about her thoughts at that time, how she viewed the event a tragedy, not knowing her involvement.

She could have done something. She could have asked for help and put her life on the line to save those twenty people, but she abided.

“Well, looks like you remember,” Harper said. “Let’s hear what you have to say.”