Maybe it was the stress, tension, and constant worry of an attack, but Lyn couldn’t stay up once she entered the Hoverwing. She tried to stay awake, wanting to try and appeal to Visette once more, but she needed rest. While Visette poured through Anton’s encoded journal, Lyn quietly slept. The researchers were next to fall asleep before Visette decided to rest to recover her psionic power and strengthen her newly healed arm.

It was fair to say that everyone was asleep, however, in the depths of Visette’s subconscious, she fell into a strange dream.

The silence nearly filled every corner of her mind, with the exception of a single, rapid heartbeat. The darkness surrounding her consciousness began to unravel, revealing a floor.

‘...Strange,’ Visette, still fully cognizant, became curious of her current state. She couldn’t quite break from it, nor did she want to. So, she observed the events that took place.

Her mind remained her own, however, she was looking through the eyes of someone else. Dark brown strands of hair fell over her face and her body was much shorter than before. Whoever it was, they let out short, panicked breaths before covering their own mouth. For some reason, they were hiding underneath a bed.

'A conflict.' Visette quickly pieced it together.

The sound of footsteps came next, along with short cries.

“Lyn!” A bleeding man shouted as he kicked open the door and rushed in with a sword in hand.

“I’m here!” The girl cried out, attempting to crawl out from underneath the bed.

“No, stay there, it isn’t safe!”

‘It’s Lyn– These are her memories.’ Visette thought.

A series footsteps interrupted her father as he made her hide underneath the bed once more.

“Dad?” Lyn spoke with uncertainty.

“Don’t worry, it’ll only be a second,” The man with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and a warm smile caressed his daughters face before handing her the scabbard to his sword, “Hold onto it for me and don’t lose it? I’ll come back for it after I go help your grandpa, okay?”

Lyn squeezed the scabbard with unease as she nodded her head, right before her father departed. Moments later, gunshots filled the air and the small Lyn flinched, hunkering down and squeezing her eyes shut as she held onto the scabbard.

‘Lyn,’ Visette mumbled, but her voice caused the girl’s body to jolt as if she heard her.

…

Lyn’s eyes shot open abruptly as her chest raised up and down. She immediately looked at Visette who had awoken simultaneously. In the case of the latter, a sharp pain rattled her brain as blood trickled down her nose. Even though she hadn’t expended any psionic power, her mind was recoiling from the odd dream.

“What was that?!” Lyn asked with a disturbed look on her face.

“I’m– not sure…” Visette replied, wincing as her mind recovered.

Once the pain subsided, she formed a guess toward the event.

“I think that we have become psionically linked,” Visette said.

She recalled Lyn reaching out to her during her existential crisis and at that time, Lyn could see some of Visette’s memories. She would’ve never guessed that it would have a long-lasting effect. Though, it did make sense to her once she shared a memory with Lyn. After all, she noticed her own manner of speaking and thinking had been drastically altered when compared to her formerly robotic self.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I think that– in an attempt to establish my own sense of self, I may have latched onto your subconsciousness as a starting point,” Visette began to theorize. Now that she was free to ponder about her own being, nothing could stop her from searching for answers.

“What does that even mean? Is it just like that time in Eden Hall?” Lyn asked. “Do you know why it's happening and is it going to happen again?" She added a few more as her confusion grew.

“I’m not entirely sure…” Visette couldn’t give a solid answer.

She didn’t feel her psionic power drain, so it stood to reason that a shared dream or memory could happen again without warning. There was also the question of proximity to one another playing apart. It was something that she would investigate if she had the time, but she didn't plan on staying near Lyn.

[We’re gonna land in five, be ready.] One of the pilots announced, putting a halt to Visette’s thinking.

She didn’t know if she would see Lyn again, so she couldn’t afford to focus on the strange occurrence, at least, not until she reached Freedom City. Her plan now was to immediately head to C-23 and return to the lab where her life began.

…

Almost as soon as they landed, Visette quickly distanced herself from the team gathered to greet them.

“Ah, Ms.Thales,” A military policeman called out. He easily recognized the girl by her somewhat infamous appearance.

Visette stopped, looking over her shoulder with an unwavering gaze. The way Lyn saw it, Vis would do whatever it took to leave and stopping her wouldn’t end well.

“It’s fine, she’s just going to– shower,” Lyn chimed, gripping the MP’s shoulder.

“I understand, ma’am, but there’s still the need of a report, given the situation and the commander even asked for her specifically–”

“Just let her go,” Lyn said.

She definitely wasn’t leaving a choice and the MP, a young man with little experience apparently, understood that. He could only stare reluctantly as Vis departed.

Visette kept a brisk pace for a few moments before she outright sprinted toward the outer perimeter of the airfield. With psionic power filling her each step, she was almost a blur that vanished over the gate and headed toward the edge of the city. She kept off the street and leaped from rooftop to rooftop.

The street below was somewhat empty, given the curfew imposed by the councilors upon learning about the threat of the Corrupted. Vis paid that no mind and decided to move even faster, but she soon noticed she was being followed.

There were a good number of Abnormal soldiers within the city and there was no way they wouldn’t patrol the rooftops following the assassinations that had taken place not too long ago. Truthfully, the abilities of agility based Abnormals could only be shown in open areas with lots of footholds and perches they could use. Being confined to tight spaces like hallways and buildings hampered a lot of their combat potential.

Visette came to an immediate halt, landing on an empty rooftop and turned to face the soldiers who landed a few moments after her.

“This is patrol team twelve, we’ve got Visette Thales here.” A man spoke into his radio.

[You are to subdue her by any means, Commander Wakefield’s orders.] Someone buzzed back.

“You heard him?” He asked, raising his head up.

“I’m leaving,” Visette intoned. "Don't follow me."

“Or what?” The leader of the patrol team asked. By now, there were very few who hadn’t heard rumors about Visette which stirred up the desire to test her.

Visette slowly raised her hands, undoing the holster around her waist before tossing it aside.

“Oh? So you’re gonna take us down with just your fists? Sorry, but we don’t play fair,” saying as much, the leader drew a taser and immediately aimed at Vis before firing, as did his team.

The scene of her falling to the ground didn’t occur as the electrified wire was stopped mid-flight.

“What in Anton's name?!” He managed to let out a sound of confusion as he and his men were pulled through the air.

Visette guided them toward her before snatching the radio of the leader and speaking into it, “Inform Commander Wakefield that this is his only warning: I will kill anyone who pursues me.”

After she finished speaking, she crushed the radio in her hand before slamming the dazed patrol team into the roof of the building. The impact wasn’t enough to kill them, but they wouldn’t be able to just walk it off.

Visette resumed her traveling, levitating for a brief moment before using psionic power to accelerate herself. A faint trail of psionic energy was visible for a few moments before it vanished along with the girl responsible.