“So, because of Ramanathan’s laws, when they locked you up, without food or water or sunlight or toilets…your powers let you live without any of those things.”
[Pretty much, yep. They did a lot more to me too…I am actually…kind of indestructible.]
“Indestructible.” I said it and then immediately felt bad that I cared more about that than the ‘a lot more’ they did to her.
[Yeah.]
“And you have all this psychic nonsense.”
[Yeah.]
“I have never felt so inadequate about being able to shoot lightning out of my hands before.”
[Like I said, I bet you have more powers than you know. You need to push it a little bit and find out what else you can do. Maybe you’ll find out you have lightning speed or something. Give Karu something to think about when she comes back.]
“Yeah, maybe. How’d you learn all this stuff anyway?”
[It’s…a long story. (And not one I want to tell you.) The extremely short version is, I can read minds and for a brief period, spent some time in proximity to some of the higher-ups of XPCA. (And then I killed them. Giggle.)]
I didn’t reply. I knew she could sense my displeasure with casual murder and left it at that.
“So, I feel like I glossed over this before, but indestructible?”
[Yeah. Ramanathan’s laws aren’t everything. Sometimes someone shoots an Exhuman in the head, and instead of that Exhuman being bulletproof, turns out they just can’t die. Whoops.]
“That’s it? You just can’t die?”
[No, I’ve died loads of times. I just come back. Got this thing where whenever something harms me, a few moments later, I’m just healthy and whole again. Guess it also kept me from aging, since I grew up to an adult and then survived in the damn box for a hundred years with nary a grey hair or wrinkle.]
“That sounds pretty great, actually,” I said, still feeling the aches in my legs.
[I guess. I actually hated it.]
“Why?”
[Well, for one, being ageless and deathless is kind of a scary prospect. Changes your worldview. Like, I guess I could be super crazy and pissed off at being locked in here for a hundred years, but there’s the comforting thought that eventually, if nothing else, this prison will erode away around me, and I’ll just walk out of the rubble.]
“That could be thousands of years.”
[I’ve got time.]
“Jesus. That’s…”
[Changes your worldview, as I said. The other problem is dying kind of sucks. When there were still guards here, they…spent a lot of time…doing that.]
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
[Found out they could stick a knife in my lungs. I’d choke up blood and gurgle and spit and drown in it. And then a few seconds later, spring back to life, and do it again. And again. And again. For days if they felt like it. You know, you can feel your lungs filling with fluid? It gets heavier, it starts shifting inside your body. You feel your lungs move, every time you cough, and you can’t stop coughing…]
“Jesus. I’m so sorry.”
[Plenty of more conventional torture, and just regular shooting me too. I think crushing the head was the worst though. You might think the brain dies when you crush it, and I guess you’d be mostly right. Nobody who’s in that position would be able to tell you otherwise. But having lived through it, the brain is trying to figure out what’s going on, even as it stops working. Worse than pain really, this sensation of your mind being disconnected from itself…trying to think…but you can’t anymore…]
“Holy shit, Saga. I didn’t know, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it up.”
[Argh. (This is why I try to brush you off when you ask about my past, asshole.) My bad, I shouldn’t be dwelling on these things. You go crazy if you focus on that too much.]
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
[Yeah, you didn’t. Let’s just talk about something else.]
“Right.” I swallowed hard. It was hard to get the image out of my head of Saga dying over and over, probably aided by the subtle impressions she tended to give off mentally while talking about something. Of course, me thinking about it would make Saga think about it…”
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“Yeah. So. Jailbreak,” I said, just to get a new thought out there.
[Jailbreak. My favorite topic, easily.]
“I…don’t have a plan. But I do have someone who might be able to help. Another girl, like you, I think, locked up somewhere.”
[There are others at this facility? I never knew that.]
“I don’t know if she’s at this facility or not, but I do think she’s Exhuman. She has a computer with her, and using it, she’s managed to help me get a mass-fab I found operational.”
[What’s a…] I felt Saga brush over my mind. [Nevermind.]
“Man I hate that.”
[Suck it up.]
“Anyway. I don’t know how to operate your big fancy door, but she might be able to. I can’t bring her here obviously, so…might be slow. But we’ll work on it.”
[All I can ask. Sigh. Anyway, it’s getting late, you should probably go. Thanks for hanging out and chatting…you’re much better company than the rats.]
“Oh, I forgot!” I said, and felt her buzz across my mind, seemingly almost subconsciously. “You know, surprises are more fun if they surprise you.”
[I read minds. Surprises are not really my thing.]
“Yeah whatever. Anyway, I’m going to pretend you’re still surprised. Today I brought you…” I dug around in my bag and pulled out a salted piece of fish wrapped carefully in weave I’d made earlier.
[Oh my! How totally surprising and not at all expected!]
“Pretty sure bad girls don’t get dessert,” I said.
[Well, I’m the worst girl there is. Eat it anyway.]
“I spoil you, you know that?” I carefully unwrapped the fish and gave it a good sniff. The briny smell filled my–and Saga’s–senses and almost slightly stung. I could feel Saga’s high already.
I was no expert cook, but I’d picked the best fish I’d cooked to bring to her. It was still fresh, seasoned with some herbs Wynn had pointed out to me, crushed and crusted on the surface with salt, which we’d been able to synthesize in the mass-fab. It was probably cooked well-done, like the other ones I’d cooked it with, but it had both a slight sheen and a little browning on the surface which I thought looked really artsy and professional-like.
Tempted as I was to torture Saga a little bit, I was hungry and so jumped right in. I broke off a piece using my fingers, and it flaked into layers easily, the skin brittle and grey, the flesh spongy and white. I popped the piece into my mouth and savored it as the rush of flavors hit me.
Salt was the overwhelming taste, but not so overwhelming as to be unpleasant. Between being crusted on the outside, and the slight natural brininess of the fish flesh, it was a strong flavor, but by concentrating I could easily pick out the complementing spice of the herbs, the savoriness of the meat. I could practically feel Saga quivering.
I prefered terrestrial animals to fish in almost all aspects except the texture. How a fish crumbled, how the meat was layered, each muscle separate but sliding past each other with a thin layer of fat separating them, with a softer, squishier consistency. And then the skin. I’d made sure to cook the skin as hot as I could get it so that it’d crisp up, and crispy this was. The play of the different pieces rolling around in my mouth, disintegrating each in their own way, it made Saga shudder and sigh.
And that was just one small piece I’d torn off.
When we were done, any residual angst of her many deaths, incomplete escape plans, or notions of good or evil seemed far, far away. She and I both lay utterly relaxed and complete, caught in each other’s senses and feeling nothing but the sense of good food, and the excitement and satisfaction of the other. It was a long time before I could move again, but I gradually found the motivation to shuffle to my feet.
[Fuck that was good,] Saga more moaned than spoke into my head. Her words made me tingle a lot more than usual, and I realized I was still feeding off her emotional energy.
“Yeah. That was.”
[Come back more.]
“Yeah.” I lurched towards the exit and she almost giggled at me. “Maybe I should sober up before trying to drive home,” I said, eliciting another sensation of a laugh from her. She was basically stoned and made for a very easy audience.
[I swear to drunk, officer. I’m not God. Giggle.]
“I’ll see you around Saga. Good talk today.”
[Good talk yourself, Athan. Miss me lots, ‘kay? (And bring me more food.)]
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
As much as I wanted to just fall over and feel relaxed and happy, I still had most of an hour walk in front of me and it was well after dark. Stepping outside the ops building, I shuddered and realized just how cold it was, with the wind whipping around. Any thoughts of warmth and comfort left me quickly as I carefully stepped over the rocky road on the path home, my thoughts instead drifting to the next steps I should be taking to progress on survival and getting my friends out of their cells.
I had made it almost all the way home and could barely make out the shape in the distance I knew was The Bunker, the horizon being the only thing visible outside of the circle of light my lightning cast.
It felt like everything was just sort of waiting on AEGIS to process the data she’d recovered and see if she could free either herself or Saga. I personally hoped AEGIS would be the first one out, as with her help, Saga would be easy. On the other hand, if Saga were out first, I’d have to keep a leash on her so she wouldn’t go off on a rampage against humanity, and that’d make focusing on AEGIS more difficult.
But whatever my hopes, if I had a way to spring either one, I’d do it immediately. My stomach turned when I thought about how much Saga had suffered, and wondered if AEGIS had met the same, but was spared by her amnesia.
I walked in the door and was greeted by AEGIS warmly. “Athan! You’re home late. Things go okay with Saga?”
“More or less. She says she’s willing to work with us if we get her free, which is about all I think I could ask for.”
AEGIS nodded. “You can tell me all about it tomorrow, but you should already be in bed mister. It’s late, and I don’t want you getting hurt because you’re too tired to take care of yourself.”
“Yes mom,” I intoned. She stuck a tongue out at me.
“I’m just glad you’re safe,” she said. “I’ve been reading a lot about Exhumans, and I’m not sure associating with Saga is a safe idea, or even a good one.” I was about to interject when she cut me off. “I’m not saying she’s necessarily a bad person, but like you, some Exhumans can be very dangerous even when they don’t intend to be. Especially the ones that muck around with your mind…Code Xavier, XPCA calls them.”
“You’ve got XPCA files on there?”
“Loads of them. And some of them are very, very interesting. But as I said, we can talk more tomorrow. Good night, Athan.”
“Night AEGIS.” I changed, lay in bed, and clapped twice, making the lights go out and bringing a cheeky smile to AEGIS’ lips. She loved the damn thing, and I loved that about her.
But what was on my mind and what kept me awake for quite a while after I’d closed my eyes was hearing, and to an extent feeling Saga’s sensations as she described her many horrific deaths. Even as I finally passed into sleep, it was a troubled, uncomfortable sleep, far from restful.