Emryn had grown to hate liars. They crawled everywhere like rats pretending to be mice. Sometimes she thinks if she had the ability to kill them all she would. Afterall, it was thanks to them she was here again. Inside a dark cell, chained like an animal, alone in a lab.
The cold concrete floor made her numb to the point of relaxation. She scowled at the thought of being so mundane. A rusted weapon was a useless one. And she wanted to lashed out, to use her strength to tear through the bars and hunt down all the doctors and scientists inside the facility. The desire had even seeped into her dreams. Everytime she slept she was blessed by the images of the ones who wronged her.
Harver. Adnan. Dr. Palai. Elias. Alex. Simone. Dr. Willow.
Zaiden.
Everyone. All their corpses decorated her nights. Their blood on her hands. Their bones beneath her feet.
Then she’d wake up crying. Oh how quickly her world had shattered. Now she could do nothing to fix it. She was nothing more than a puppet waiting to be controlled.
“Emryn.” She didn’t want to look up, though it would be easy for him to make her, and everytime she hoped he wouldn’t.
Zaiden would come to see her almost every night. Sometimes he sat by the bars and said nothing, other times he’d tell her about how Braun was doing, and on occasion he’d tell her about Seth. Some days he’d even tell her old stories about Malcolm. Those days hurt her more than most. But days like today he tried to get her to speak. He had loosened the restraints of the Mind Syfer in the hopes to get her to cooperate. She could speak if she wanted, move if she wanted, sleep if she wanted. All the things even an abandoned pet could do by itself.
Zaiden watched her closely. She wasn’t sure how well he could peer into the dark chamber but her vision remained clear. Every tremor in his breath, every shake of his hands, and every false hope on his tongue. She could read it all. As if he had become one of the very stories he told.
“Emryn, please,” he whispered. “Say something. Scream at me if you must but I need to know if you’re still in there.” His teeth clamped shut. “I need to know how much I broke.”
Emryn leaned back, her head pressed against the hard rough wall. He needed to pick a side. And she needed to see it. She refused to speak to him until he did. This constant back and forth hurt too much.
Zaiden’s a good person, Malcolm had said. But could she really trust him?
Zaiden sighed and stood tall. Gone was the pleading boy and the perfect soldier calmly took his place. It scared her how quickly he could switch between the two.
“They’re going to perform the operation to fix your implants.” Emryn’s stomach dropped. She could already feel the pain. The salice crystalizing to her skin. Molding against her. “It’ll be easier for everyone if you don't fight it.” As if she had a choice.
“Commander Amin,” a guard called from down the hall. Zaiden’s eyes finally fell off her. He approached the guard with a hint of apprehension.
With three fingers to his brow the man saluted Zaiden. Back straight and shoulders wide. “Your father requests your presence in the viewbox.”
Emryn watched as Zaiden’s jaw tensed. It made her curious what this viewbox was. Maybe he’d get a front row seat and see first hand what life was like for her those years in the labs.
Zaiden followed the guard out and Emryn was left alone with her thoughts once again. She hoped Seth had managed to escape. He’d done it before. There was no reason he couldn’t do it now. It wasn’t like he needed her.
She curled her legs to her chest. It would be better if she was the only one who had to get hurt. She couldn’t bear losing anyone else.
-//---//\\---\\-
White coats clouded her vision. She didn’t know when she’d drifted off but that slip of control allowed three doctors to enter her cell. Emryn sprang up. A hand reached for her and she punched the doctor's jaw. She fell to the floor almost instantly. Blood already streaming down her lip.
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“I thought she was detained!”
“Call the commander!”
The two remaining doctors stepped back, frantically digging through their pockets. Weary glances adorned their faces. She heard the click of a radio followed by frantic requests for backup. The doctors at her feet scrambled away when she stepped forward. She may not be able to use her power but that did not mean she was without strength.
Heavy boots raced down the hall and to her cell. Guns were in the air, all pointed at her. Emryn turned her chin up and smiled.
“Stand down!” They had the nerve to order her. “This is your only warning.”
Emryn cocked her head to the side with an up turn of her lips. They could warn her all they liked but she knew they wouldn’t kill her.
“That’s enough.” Emryn tightened her fist at the loud commanding voice. Adnan had finally decided to pay her a visit.
“My son told me he had you handled.” He stepped forward. “And yet here you are.” Emryn matched his icy glare. She wanted so badly to bring him torment and transfer all her gilt and pain to him. “I’m going to give you some advice, 636,” he started. “The easier you make this the less we’ll have to use the pretty device on your pale neck.”
“Try it,” she warned. “I bet I can kill you before Zaiden could even utter a word.”
Adnan smiled, wicked and cruel. He freely paced the room. “Perhaps you’re right. But you’ll never get to him before he gets to O’Connor.”
Emryn couldn’t stop the visible wave of worry from passing through her body. And he didn’t miss it either. “That’s right,” he laughed. “You actually care for the boy. Best not to put him in any danger now. You don't want him to get hurt, do you?”
Teeth clamped down on the inside of her cheek and blood filled her mouth. Seth hadn’t escaped. In her heart she knew but hadn’t wanted to trust it. If she resisted there was no telling what they would do to him. And until she got him out, she would never be able to fight back.
“I’ll take your silence as understanding.” The Supreme Commander turned to his guards. “Escort her to Dr. Palai.”
Rough hands took hold of her arms, unchained her from the wall, and guided her down the hall. The cell door slammed shut behind her. Emryn casted her gaze to the area beside her cage. Broken bars twisted at odd angles. Stone debris and glass coated the floor of what once was another cell. It looked as though a creature the size of a wolf-spider rampaged through it, destroying everything in its path, or as if a bomb had been set off. The sight always gave her a glimmer of hope. As if it was proof escape was possible.
The large double set of doors were pushed open and Emryn was dragged through the remote compound. These laboratories were smaller than the ones she grew up in, which now lay in crumbles of dust and destruction, if she were given the opportunity to observe the layout she might be able to find out where they were keeping Seth.
They entered another white room, a color she was starting to hate, with a high ceiling. The walls consisted of large square metal panels apart from one section made of glass. It sat a good few meters above the floor she stood on, which gave whoever was on the other side a birds eye view of what happened in the white room. If she focused hard enough she could make out a few silhouettes shifting on the other side. The viewbox, she thought.
Emryn turned away to get a better glimpse of the room. In the center was a table similar to the one doctors performed numerous operations with her on. She remembered the cool touch of steel and the gritted hold of straps around her skin. This table also had a slight indentation in the outline of a person. She knew if she were to lay down it would be a perfect fit. To the right of the operation table was a cart full of tools she wished she didn’t recognize. Implants that replicated the ones already in her flesh were rested on top and on full display for her and the audience inside the viewbox. A collection of scalpels, bolts, and pliers sat adjacent to them. Already Emryn could feel their haunting touches.
But the worst was yet to come. Needle-like claws and spider-like arms, Emryn stared at the machine closest to Dr. Palai, who looked at her waiting with trembling hands. She knew this one too well. It was a device designed to hold her muscle and tissue open, giving the doctors better access to the points of surgery while making her scream out with pain as the implants were switched.
A mic on the wall buzzed before Zaiden’s voice filtered through. “Lay on the center table but move no further.” Emryn felt the Mind Syfer tic against her neck as he body moved without her permission. She could not read anything else behind his voice. Everytime he used it she hoped for one hint he didn’t want to. But with her dulled senses, she heard none.
Cold steel kissed her back, the thin shirt she wore doing nothing to warm her, and hands moved quickly to strap her in. The leather bit at her skin but she couldn’t move away. Her heart began to race. It pushed against her chest and pulsed through her ears. She knew what happened next.
Needles stabbed into her arms. She did not scream. Blades cut around the hardened salice lodged in her flesh. She did not scream. Metal tongs spread the skin, then the layers of muscle. She did not scream. Blood dripped down her arms, pooling at her waist. She did scream. The bolts in her arms twisted. She did not scream. Gloved hand took hold of the thin layers of salice in her arm and pulled. Slow and steady. Her body tried to cling on to the plates molded to her flesh. Emryn saw the fibers reaching out for them and they were pulled. The tissue was tarred and repaired simultaneously. She bit her trembling lip. Dr. Palai gave the implant one last strong tug. It ripped from her arm.
Emryn screamed.