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crossroads-of-the-raven · 2 months ago

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Giving Testimony - Chapter 2: 048 Yeva | a Murder Drones story

This is Yeva's entire time at Cabin Fever

Enjoy everyone :D

(~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~)

The collector had loaded Yeva into a truck trailer where she was laid into a drone travel pod that would keep her in sleep mode until she was awoken at the camp.

She must have been the first pick up, Yeva thought to herself as she stepped into her pod, noting the rest of the pods were still empty.

When Yeva was reawakened, her systems registered that it was now the end of the month, and she wondered if travel had really taken that long or if she was just meant to believe it had taken that long.

The drone technicians were making the rounds of the pods, the woman in front of Yeva, checking over something before directing her from the pod and out of the truck where she filed into line with several other drones who must have also been volunteers for how calm the guards appeared. Looking around, Yeva couldn’t tell where on Copper 9 she was beyond the small sign that clearly displayed the words, ‘Cabin Fever Labs’.

They must have a location scrambler, she thought to herself, and likely a system to prevent deserters.

More than likely, she would be later informed; for now, though, Yeva, and the rest of the female volunteers from her carrier, were directed to a building where they were each given a bag with a hospital gown.

“Once you’re dressed, place your original clothes in the bag for collection, these bags will be placed into storage – after, line up to be taken to morning announcements.”

The clothes she had worn were her Sunday best, as opposed to her general household uniform, and distantly, Yeva wondered, as she put her clothes into a bag labeled, ‘Yeva of the Krupin family’, if they would even fit after all was said and done, or if she would soon outgrow them during her time at the labs. Continuing on, she and the other female drones were soon directed to an auditorium like cafeteria that had a stage set up at one end where the scientist were gathering. Around the room there were guards standing at attention, evidently focused on both the exits and the drones who were likely not voluntarily here. For the most part, as everyone was filing in Yeva noted that there were, relatively speaking, fewer drones in the room than the trucks she had seen would suggest – it was likely that, morning announcements would be done in cycles due to the room being unable to hold all the participants.

As Yeva walked about the crowd, she was able to catch bits and pieces of information from both drone and human – she deduced then that the scientist on the stage were specifically the ones in place for the drones in the room, the rest awaiting their turn, elsewhere. They almost appeared to be waiting, for what was soon answered as the doors to the room opened to let in an escorted scientist. Something in her mind told her to watch him and her eyes tracked him till he was almost at the stage, the crowd parting just enough for the Russian to make out a small red-headed drone girl at his side, holding his hand. When the two were only a few yards away from the stage, he knelt down and the two embraced before he left for the stage, the drone girl watching him till he was at his appointed spot. An unspoken conversation almost appeared to be had despite the distance between them before the drone girl began circling the room, herself.

Curious, Yeva thought, admittedly suspicious of the interaction.

The girl was dressed like the rest of them, but something seemed off to Yeva. She was well aware that household drones could have close relationships with their masters, but to the level she had just witnessed much less between a child drone and a fully grown human. She did not want to assume, but she had heard horror stories due to her masters connections. The earliest of such stories she had heard had been when she was three – the poor drones, she thought as she remembered; it had been three drones, a man, a woman and a boy of ten, who had been owned by an alleged droneophile. Yeva admitted the story tended to color her perspective, and she knew she could be wildly misinterpreting the interaction she had just witnessed – but she also knew that there was something off about the two she had just seen.

Yeva looked back to where she had last seen the girl, as the announcements began, only to find her missing. As the speech continued, she calmly, as though she were not searching at all, cast her gaze about in hopes of finding the kid once more – only for the girl to bump into her, a short time after the initial speech had ended.

“Oh, sorry,” the girl said, “I didn't see you there, my name is Alice, what's yours?”

She pondered the girl for a moment, attempting to figure out how to approach her before simply introducing herself.

“Yeva,” she finally said, distantly reminding herself, that the non-English-speaking drones had been ordered to switch to English for the duration of their time at the labs. “Hm, you want to be here.”

Now Yeva just needed to figure out why.

“I volunteered,” Alice replied.

“I did as well.”

“If it’s not offensive, may I ask why?”

Curious, Yeva thought before speaking, “for Earth, for Russia, to kill the monster that took away the world that my masters and their children so adored.”

“They treated you well?”

“I will miss them.”

That was all that was said before the Primary Doctor, one Dr. Hans, began dividing the drones into their groups; herself, ending up with Alice in Team 06, under Dr. Ridley and Dr. Chambers – a last edition, called Nori joining them, their identification armbands, strapped onto their left upper arm.

For the most part, each team kept to themselves, though cross interaction did occur; for Team 06, it was usually with Team 05. Team 06, primarily consisted of drones in the young teen age group, generally, twelve to fifteen – with some older drones – while Team 05 consisted primarily of drones from ages six to eleven – again, with some older drones as well. Yeva had found herself often in interaction with Alice and Nori, enough that the scientist had elected to have them assigned as link sisters – something that had elated Nori, amused Alice, and intrigued the Russian. However, beyond the trio, Alice had found her own companionship during one of the interactions between Team 06 and Team 05.

The little brown-haired girl must have been around six years old; her teal eyes were that of a facility drone who had seen all her siblings decommissioned. She was sitting curled up in the corner of the room, when Alice approached her.

“Hello,” the southern drone had started, gently, “my name’s Alice, what’s yours?”

“… A– … Amanda.”

“Well, ain’t that a lovely name, do you know where you got it from?”

The girl hesitated, before speaking, “my matron at the facility, she gave it to me before they sent me here.”

“Ah; what was your matron like – mine was harsh, a tad absentminded though.”

“She … she was nice, she had a watcher though; I don’t think they liked her as a matron.”

A watcher, Yeva thought, meaning they thought Amanda’s matron was too soft in sorting good drones from defective ones.

“Ah,” Alice said, “I see.”

“Did your matron have a watcher,” Amanda asked.

“She did.”

“How many?”

One might have thought the girl was asking how many watchers, but it was clear that Alice knew what Amanda meant.

“I’m a core-born twin – left hand – I had twenty older pill siblings.”

“Forty … I’m a core born – I’m the only one left.”

“I’m sorry – do you know where your code parents were from?”

“Novea Spei.”

Novae Spei, that was unfortunate, Yeva thought, after forty failures, it was unlikely that the code parents were allowed to live afterwards – Amanda, well and truly likely was an orphan.

“Is your right hand here,” Amanda asked.

“Ah–, no, no he’s … we were severed the day we went to market; haven’t seen him since we were six.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

It clearly wasn’t but the girl asked a different question, “where are your code parents from?”

“Earth, France actually.”

“You’re French?”

“Oui, ma chérie, I was just raised by an American – a genuine southern gentleman.”

“Raised?”

Here Alice paused and Yeva’s curiosity was once again peaked.

“Raised,” the, apparently, southern raised drone finally said, “I was adopted by a human.”

It was clear that the older girl was well aware of the things the other drones were muttering about her, but the younger girl only gave a pause as she thought about what was said.

“… Is it the drone psychologist?”

“Yes.”

“Is he nice?”

“One of the nicest men I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

Once again, the drone girl paused to ponder what she had been told.

“Okay,” Amanda said at last, “I believe you.”

Yeva wasn’t quite sure if that ‘I believe you’ meant, ‘I believe you that he’s nice’ or if it meant, ‘I believe, that you believe, that he is nice’, but either way, the two girls moved on from the topic.

“It’s gonna be bad,” Amanda eventually said, Alice once again catching on to what the girl meant.

“Yes, it will be.”

“I’m scared.”

“… Tell you what, every chance I get, I’ll try to get them to let us talk; I know it ain’t much, but if I can be there for you, then I will be, alright?”

“Alright.”

The southern raised drone, kept to her word – often to the point that the heads of Team 06 would be in talks with the heads of Team 05 on the question of trade. However, despite the severity of the situation ego and something else, remained a determined presence. Yeva wasn’t blind, there was something about Alice and Dr. Beaumont that Doctors Ridley and Chambers knew. Combine that with the heads of Team 05’s ego – stating that if Amanda and Alice were to remain together that the trio of lab assigned sister should be moved to Team 05 – and no trade was ever made.

There was another drone from Team 05, however, who became drawn to the Cabin Fever sisters – as they were beginning to be called – or more specifically, he was drawn to the youngest of their trio.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he had said, approaching them during one of the lunch hours shared between Teams 05 and 06, “Emmet, Emmet Giam.”

He was certainly charismatic, and very much aware of how handsome he was, though he was also quite good at the humble act – and an act it was. Yeva had no doubt that he was at the very least making his best attempt at it, but in the time she had spent with her mother, she had become very aware of the emotions of others, both the ones they presented and the ones they truly felt.

“A last name,” Nori had asked the fifteen-year-old, very clearly star struck by the achievement.

“I worked in a general factory making technological components, I started work at six and earned my name at ten, what of your lovely group?”

“Nori of the Fujimoto family, eighth born daughter, core-born, my parents do embassy work for the Japan branch, while my sisters and I handled cultural preservation.”

“Yeva, only child, nanny, tutor,” she was aware of how blunt she sounded, but she couldn’t bring herself to care enough about the drone before her to put on airs.

“And you miss,” he asked, theoretically, unfazed by her demeanor before turning to the youngest of their trio.

“Alice, Alice Willow Beaumont; my father, Dr. Beaumont and I run a restaurant.”

The French drone had been attempting to be bolder with stating her relation to the good doctor, but, if Yeva was being honest, she was sure Emmet audios heard nothing but the girl’s name.

“Alice, you’re not from the American branch, are you?”

“French, actually.”

“French, how lovely.”

At the very least, Yeva thought when the drone had left after a short exchange more, Giam knew how to not overstay his welcome.

Nori was smirking, though.

“Well,” the Japanese drone started in a mock of proper propriety, “I would say our dear little sister has an admirer.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Alice started.

“Trust me, I could go much farther,” she wiped away a fake tear, “our little Alice will be a woman soon and soon we’ll be discussing contracts and offspring.”

Alice sputtered before letting out a whine, her visor blushing orange, “Nori!”

“The blush means you’re thinking about it,” she teased.

“Only because you put the thought out,” Alice retorted.

“Admit it, you think he’s handsome.”

“Physical appearance isn’t everything.”

“No, you’re right, but it’s a pretty sweet bonus.”

“I only just met him, the least you could do is give me a few weeks.”

Nori just laughed and Yeva wondered how many more times the conversation would come up in the future.

Often enough, it turns out as, aside from Amanda, Emmet was a constant presence. In time, the little drone girl had become an unofficial member of the Cabin Fever Sisters; Emmet, meanwhile, well one might have thought he was courting Alice – Nori certainly said as much. Whenever the two teams were together, it was almost a guarantee that both Team 05 drones would seek out the southern raised drone – this was in stark contrast to how the vast majority of drones, when they discovered Alice’s connection to Dr. Beaumont, tended to avoid her.

It was interesting, the volunteers were cordial with the southern raised drone, the respect they gave her being somewhere the between the way they would behave with other drones and how they would behave with the humans. In contrast, the non-volunteers were stiff, with a clear distain for the French drone – though to be fair they also seemed to hate the rest of the volunteers as well. The children and the elderly were a slightly different story.

Allegedly, according to the old stories, drones were supposed to last around or upwards of three-hundred years – by that understanding, the elderly should have been the equivalent of a young adult human. Yet, they were tired in a way that came from a life and a belief where they likely had no doubt that death was not too far off. Then there were the children. The volunteer children tended to stay close to the other volunteers that had specifically come with them. As for the non-volunteer children – aside from Amanda and a few others – the non-volunteer children were almost soldier-like from a life where they had yet to become bold enough to develop and embrace an identity outside of their ‘on the clock’ behavior. One could attempt to engage them in conversation, and many had tried, yet they preferred to stick together – remaining quiet to even the politest of drones.

Perhaps they had developed their own ‘off the clock’ world, Yeva thought as she observed them from a distance, but they weren’t yet ready to show it outside their own.

(~*~)

The first day of tests, many would whisper, was the first day of hell. It took a year for the first drone to die and yet the winding path to that moment brought continually new levels of pain that many could hardly believe they survived.

There’s a list, some drones whispered, of every method of improper disposal from the very first drone to now – and Yeva wondered how true that was, as she sat in medical after the latest test she had been involved with.

Over the months, the scientists had opted to make attempts at repairing what drones they could, having the theory that, perhaps, the singularity could be more than a just a technical creation. Currently, the Russian was having her whole left arm replaced after it had become irreparably mangled. While it did hurt, she felt – guiltily – happy that she wasn’t Alice or Nori. Both younger girls had taken the brunt of the latest test, though to be fair, it had been one that had gone awry.

Nori was the luckier between the two, if you considered having a third of your head, crushed, lucky; Alice, in turn, had been cut in half through her lower base. How the southern raised drone wasn’t the first casualty, was something that had many of the scientists clamoring around her to figure out. The best they could understand was that the area that should have caused a fatality had been just barely sparred destruction. Though Alice was repaired she was kept under observation, drawing the attention of both humans and drones.

“This is worse,” Alice stated.

“Huh,” Nori asked – just as confused as the Russian – fork raised as her lunch fell back to her plate.

“You asked if I hated the way people stared at me,” Alice started, “I said it wasn’t that bad; I continue to stand by that statement … this is worse.”

Nori exchanged a look with Yeva before speaking, “which part?”

Alice was quiet a moment as she contemplated her words, “I volunteered, I knew the pain would be hell, being treated like glass about ta burst is worse.”

“How so?”

“I … I’m not sure, somehow, it just feels worse.” Alice sighed, though the tired look soon disappeared with their guest.

“Miss Alice,” Amanda called, still getting used to her newly repaired right leg – Emmet following along after her, carrying both of their food trays despite his newly buffed shoulders.

“Afternoon, ladies,” Emmet started, “may we sit with you.”

“We have room,” Alice said with an invisible moment of hesitation, after Yeva and Nori agreed, “here, hand me Mandy’s tray.”

As Emmet passed Amanda’s tray to Alice, Yeva could just barely see their hands brush, a spark jumping between them. Alice’s breath caught for a moment, her eyes flickering as they met Emmet’s, before she shook herself minutely, turning her attention to Amanda’s tray to ensure that it wouldn’t spill the selected meal – Emmet helping Amanda into her seat next to Alice’s left, as he took his own seat to Amanda’s left.

From where she was seated across from Alice, Nori at her own right, Yeva could just make out the smallest start of a smirk – opting to speak before the Asian drone could comment.

“How is your leg, Amanda,” she asked.

“It’s doing better, Miss Yeva; that was my last test this week.”

“How long are they giving you to rest,” Alice asked.

“Um, a week.”

A week, they were shortening the rest periods; it was bound to happen – despite Alice’s unintentional incident, she was only getting a week as well when previously, drones would have received a two or more.

“I’m keeping an eye on her,” Emmet said, “they’re letting us stick together, I don’t know for how much longer though.”

“What do you mean,” Nori asked.

“I … I don’t want to assume, but I believe they are going to begin isolating us.”

“How do you mean,” Alice asked.

“… obviously, I don’t think it will be every group, and certainly not right away but it’s as I said – I’m sorry, I know it’s not much to go off of.”

“No, no that’s … that’s alright.” Alice quieted as she contemplated what she had been told, letting out a sigh after a moment, “I hate to say it, but it makes sense.”

Their quiet conversation continued on through the rest of the lunch hour. It was interesting; though Alice refused to sugarcoat things for Amanda, she was also able to avoid becoming unnecessarily harsh – the girl was clearly still nervous yet, somehow, reassured.

As they were cleaning up so the next group could come in after, Yeva gave a pause. She was near a part of the lunchroom where someone had piled several boxes near one of the supplies closets – from where she was, it would be hard for the guards to see her. She could see Nori far across the room and though there were a few people nearby, they were not so close that she would be able to hear their voices, and yet she could hear voices – she could hear two voices.

“Alice, please, I’m just concerned,” that was Emmet.

“You have nothing to be concerned about.”

“You were cut in half for one, I think that’s worth being concerned about.”

Silence, then a sigh, “listen, it’s sweet of you to worry, but I promise, they gave me a full bill of health – didn’t even really have ta replace much, just welded me back together.”

“I think I’m always going to worry a little.”

“We–, we should get back to cleaning”

“Alice wait, please – if not for me, then for Amanda and your sisters.”

There was more silence as Yeva waited to hear what would next be said, then Emmet spoke again.

“Our hands touched earlier, much like this, like now.”

“Emmet–”

“I’m sorry, I won’t push … I think, I think I sometimes forget that we all had a life before the labs, where was he from?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“If it matters to you–”

“Emmet … he’s a factory print, that’s why it doesn’t matter.”

“You’ll get older, Alice,” Emmet said, sighing after another contemplative moment, “and you tell me not to worry … just please remember, I’m here for you, I’ll always be here for you.”

“… Thank you for watching over Amanda.”

Then Yeva could hear the sound of movement and ducked away so Alice wouldn’t see her as the French drone left the area; continuing to keep hidden as she waited for Emmet to leave. She waited one minute, then a second and a third.

“Miss Yeva, are you alright,” Emmet asked.

She was caught, how had he known.

“I am fine, Mister Giam,” she said as she stood from where she had been hiding.

He observed her for a moment before speaking. “You’re worried about her too, aren’t you – I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous, you have a luxury I don’t; when you are worried for her you just need to turn your head – I have to wait till our teams are allowed to meet.”

“Somehow, I do not believe you would be content in the role of her brother.”

“No, no, you are right,” Emmet went silent once more, as she waited for him to speak. “Did you know, Nori told me that she used to be engaged – her humans broke off the contract when they sent her here, they had her would be groom reassigned to her seventh youngest sister.”

“She volunteered.”

“Sometimes I wonder about that.”

“How so?”

“… It’s an old study, but it boils down to the idea of conditioning someone into believing that a choice they made was entirely their own with no outside influence – but that’s the thing, we are always being influenced.”

Yeva crossed her arms, where was he going with this, she thought. “Then if everyone is influencing us, where does free will go – where is our freedom of choice?”

“That’s the other thing, it’s still there.”

“Then your pondering was pointless – she volunteered.”

“And yet I still wonder.”

Emmet was quiet again and Yeva was sure he would walk off when he spoke again.

“What do you think of Dr. Beaumont?”

“… How do you mean?”

“I used to work in a factory, Yeva – humans get bored, you’d be surprised at what I’ve seen.”

“What are you implying?”

“Please don’t play dumb – it’s tiring – you’re just as cautious around him as I am.”

He wasn’t wrong, Yeva thought, though she didn’t want to admit it. She had been keeping the doctor at a politely cold distance, only being slightly nicer when Alice was around. Thinking back on it however, she was beginning to believe she was being unfair to the man. Despite her fears, she had seen nothing to justify her worries – even when the humans didn’t realize she was there. That Emmet had noticed, meant he was either far more observant than he had seemed or that her behavior was far more obvious than she had wanted it to be.

“I believe … that I have been unfair to him.”

“I see.” That was all he said before finally walking off.

The rest of clean up passed calmly, and when both Teams were to be escorted off, Yeva could just see the sight of Emmet carrying Amanda – the little girl was reaching out to Alice. While she couldn’t hear what was said, she could see as an embrace between two became a hug between three.

“I have to admit it,” Nori started observing the trio from beside her older link sister, “I’m a little jealous – she’s one contract away from having everything.”

Yeva raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry.

“Oh please – tell me you don’t see it; they’re practically wed with a baby in arms.”

Nori was right, she couldn’t see it. What she could see, was her sister attempting to keep the peace for a little girl who had very few supports in a terrifying environment.

(~*~)

The first death was silent – the drone’s body having given up in the middle of the night; the guards had moved the body to a wing of the labs that could be described as a warehouse of rooms. The second death was loud – the drone having gone off on a mad raving panic during lunch hour, not long after the first death, and was subsequently shot before the drone could harm anyone. The third death was terrifying – it happened during the early hours of the morning as two drones took morning announcements as a chance to take the labs down with them. Not long after, the labs were put under lockdown to assess the damage as the count of two drone deaths instantly rocketed to near sixty. They were now in the second year of the tests.

After lockdowns were released, everyone was on edge for the next disaster.

Eighteen thousand five hundred and seventy drones was not very many at all as each day began ending with reported death numbers. One, six, seventeen, fifty-eight, ninety-four, one hundred and eighty-three, three hundred and seventy-four, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, four thousand seven hundred and ninety-three – they were rising and like the third death, these ones weren’t always caused by the tests. Once when Teams 05 and 06 were being escorted to physical observation, one of the pipes, in the nearby area, exploded, shrinking their numbers exponentially; likewise, several other explosions had gone off around the whole lab. In one day, upwards of five thousand drones were killed.

In the two years of the labs’ existence, their numbers had been reduced to five, then four, then three. She didn’t really see what had killed her – she had a good idea of what it had been after she woke up, but by then, it didn’t really matter.

{Yeva, your sisters need you}

{Would you like to live}

{y/n}

(~*~)

“At the risk of sounding cliché, how are you feeling, Yeva,” Dr. Beaumont asked after she had been escorted to his office after her primary evaluation – after she had been given her new collar that marked her as the forty-eighth awakened Solver.

“… Was cutting off my finger really necessary,” she asked in turn, still clenching and unclenching her right hand, still in slight shock after her cut off finger had grown back.

“Despite what it seems, you are actually one of the lucky ones – not everyone is capable of healing their injuries – as for how necessary it was … considering how little we actually know about ‘Solver Drones’, it’s the best we have to figure out your strength of power.”

It was early January and according to what she had overheard from the other scientists, she had not in fact had her program transferred into a new body rather her body had grown older – she would be nineteen at the end of March.

Unbidden, the memories replayed – she had attacked them; she had attacked her sisters.

“How are the others,” she asked.

Dr. Beaumont was quiet for a moment, that moment stretching on far too long for her comfort before he spoke up. “Yeva, please know, what I am about to tell you is something we are trying to keep secret for as long as possible; Alice is a Solver who cannot regenerate.”

Her breath caught.

“From what we can tell, she is as powerful as you and Nori, she is just like you and Nori, but she can’t use her powers.” He paused a moment appearing to gather himself, “while you and Amanda were in your feral state, the two of you zeroed in on Alice and Nori – according to the guards’ report, there was just as much a hunger as there was a possessiveness, that said they don’t believe you were trying to kill them so much as keep them.”

But she had been hungry, she could still taste the oil on her tongue.

“Would you like to hear the rest?”

She nodded.

“Despite the feralness of her behavior, Yeva Krupin – who previously worked as a nanny – seems to have retained her caretaker program; while she was hungry and did feed from her appointed link sisters, her possessiveness was closer to the equivalent of a mother bear protecting her own.”

Hearing the report, she did her best to go back over her own memories and realized something.

“What happened to Amanda?”

“From what we can tell, she must have fell behind at a certain point before being found by one of the other guards with an abandoned oil barrel.” Dr. Beaumont paused again, likely trying to figure out what to tell her. “The other scientist are, already, making attempts to figure out a power scale; what we have so far places you, Alice and Nori at the high end.”

“And Amanda?”

“Bottom of the barrel.”

(~*~)

While power scaling was something the scientists were still puzzling over, one thing they had figured was that they were going to keep the Solver and non-Solver drones separated unless absolutely necessary. Currently there were forty-nine Solvers and twenty-one non-Solvers; Emmet, apparently being one among the non-Solvers which meant he was no longer allowed to gather with them at lunch – something Alice was clearly content with, even as she became stressed about something else, someone else.

“Miss Alice,” Amanda called, now a preteen drone.

“Amanda,” Alice said rising from her seat, just as the girl placed her tray on their table, embracing the girl. “Oh, look at you, I blink and you’re already becoming a lady; how are you feeling?”

“I’m doing good, Miss Alice.”

The girl’s brown hair had turned green, just as Nori and Yeva’s hair had gone purple – both changes being far more outrageous than the black streak in Alice red mane. Actually, Amanda was among the few drones on the perspective, lower end whose hair had changed, though the vast majority seemed to be in the middle and higher groups.

“Has anyone else from your team woken up,” Nori asked.

“Just Mister Emmet and he’s being kept with the other non-Solvers.”

“So, you’re the only one in your area,” Alice asked.

Amanda nodded, “but I overheard them say they might take some of the Solvers from the higher number teams and move them into the lower numbers for convenience going forward.”

Going forward … Yeva had been told – in confidence – by Dr. Beaumont, that for drones who volunteered, their humans, who were listed as their sponsors, would receive a letter informing them if their drones had made it to stage two of the Cabin Fever program. She was going to be nineteen, Yeva thought, Alexi was going to be eighteen … Natasha was going to be nineteen. Yeva had no doubt that her parents had likely been encouraged to give her a code sibling after she had been collected. Five years, just a few months past five years – that was how long it had been since she had last seen her family.

Tuning back into the conversation, Amanda was excitedly recounting her first round in the training room. The training hall had several different rooms surrounding the primary training room. Yeva had to wonder if the girl was training at the same time as she was, at the same time Nori was. She had asked Dr. Chambers if Alice would be joining them, he had told her that, for the time being, Alice was barred from all training beyond private basic defense.

Her little sister would need it, Yeva thought to herself, she didn’t quite know what exactly was happening, but Alice was nervous, that much she understood.

The lunch hour continued on in a peaceful fashion, however, she received an answer to her question during clean up. They had gotten distracted, Nori, nowhere to be seen, Yeva, Alice and Amanda had paused in their cleaning to continue their conversation before they were to split up into their respective schedules. Yeva had seen the speck of dust on Alice’s hospital gown, but she hadn’t said anything, simply enjoying the company of her two companions.

It happened in a moment, and distantly, Yeva wondered if she could have done something to have stopped it.

They were talking when she saw the barest hint of purple light, just above the dust on Alice’s gown, as the conversation came to a stop. In the next millisecond, Alice was launched far across the room, hitting the high wall of the cafeteria with enough force to crack both it and the back of the French drone’s head, before falling down unconscious into a slowly growing pool of her own oil. In an instant the guards mobilized to tackle Nori, the majority raising their drone breaker guns or aiming UV lights at the rest of the drones in the cafeteria as ten or so gathered Alice’s body and removed her from the room.

(~*~)

Over the course of the year, many more drones would reawaken. Over the course of the year, Yeva had many moments where she would have to referee fights between Alice and Nori as the latter drone grew in her antagonistic tendencies towards the younger teen. Over the course of the year Yeva and Nori grew in their powers while Alice’s power status remained stagnant outside of one factor. About a month after Yeva’s primary evaluation was when Alice had her operation – in the days and weeks after she had to help the southern raised drone fend off the multitude of drones who made attempts at pulling on her new tail. Then there were the whispers. Many of them were the same as the ones from the early years, but despite the scientists’ best efforts, the Solver drones of the labs had taken notice of the way Alice was treated. The Cabin Fever Princess, they called her – not everyone, mind you, but it was enough, and she knew the originator.

“Drop it, Yevs,” Nori said during telekinesis training, which boiled down to carefully moving several objects though a course.

“Can you explain why I should?”

“Because.”

“What a stunning argument.”

“Bite me!”

“Already ate, thank you.”

Nori let out a sound of frustration as she nearly dropped the object she was handling.

It was quiet as the two continued with the assigned exercise, before Nori let out a sigh, “Yevs … listen, you look stressed enough as it is, just let me handle it.”

“Somehow, that does not reassure me.”

“Yevs, what do you think of Dr. Beaumont?”

Yeva paused for a moment before continuing the training test as she spoke, “I think he is kind, strange but kind – he recognizes that this place is not kind and does his best to help us where he can.”

Nori was quiet as she seemed to think over Yeva’s answer before asking a second question, “What about Ridley and Chambers?”

Doctors Ridley and Chambers were interesting to say the least. As the scientist continued investigating the extent of their powers, they had discovered the Russian’s teleportation ability. While she could teleport distances without seeing her landing area, it was far safer and easier for her to teleport to places she had already seen. With that in mind, Yeva had begun exploring the full area of the lab outside the knowledge of the scientist and guards. In her scouting she had not just been able to find and read several of the lab’s paper files, but she had also overheard many conversations between the humans, including the two Team 06 heads.

Dr. Ridley had once worked in the primary lab office of the J.C. Jenson Company before being transferred to Copper 9, sixteen Copper years ago due to a classified incident. On Copper 9 she had work at Novae Spei as a Matron for several years before being sent to a different part of the factory. Behavior wise, Ridley was stiff, but Yeva found it was a trained stiffness, and she wondered if that training had anything to do with the classified incident that had caused the doctor to be transferred in the first place.

Dr. Chambers’ history, in turn, was a little more interesting. The man was the oldest of three siblings, orphans except for a grandfather who passed when the youngest was in her young mid-twenties. Chamber had made it his goal to be able to support his family without aid, an endeavor that eventually took him away from his family. His little brother had gotten married but that is where Yeva’s confusion came in, for that was where Dr. Chambers’ file had many classified details. Something had happened to the younger brother on Earth, something had happened to the grandfather on Earth – the grandfather who had once own a multitude of drones and once had the money to care for all of them, yet according to the file, the family drones had evidently all been decommissioned. The specific location the drones were taken to was also classified. As for the younger sister, she had passed away from an unknown illness when she was in her older mid-twenties – her primary source of income was also classified. In turn, the younger brother, the man’s wife and their daughter – Mr. Chamber’s step-daughter – had gone missing, they are survived however by their son, Dr. Chamber’s nephew a boy at a boarding school on Copper 9.

For all the strangeness of the two doctors, Yeva didn’t find them objectionable and said as much to the Japanese drone, however, she didn’t think Nori was happy with her opinion.

(~*~)

Yeva was a month and a half away from being twenty Copper 9 years of age when the last of the Solvers would awaken. She was twenty when the scientist began discussing the division of the Solvers into two Sets. A week after she turned twenty, the scientist had decided that it was safer to keep Alice and Yeva with Nori then to risk the Japanese drone throwing another Solver powered tantrum just to get her link sisters back.

For as much as she loved her sisters, she was admittedly mixed on the decision. On the one hand, she would have been lying if she said she didn’t want to keep her sisters at her side, however, perhaps it would have been wiser to allow for some separation.

“I said leave it alone,” Alice shouted, hold her whip-like tail close.

They were in their room during their after-lunch rest period and if she was being honest, Yeva was surprised at how long it had taken for Nori to finally crack and make her own attempt at grabbing Alice’s tail.

“Aw come on Lissy,” Nori teased, “I just want to see it.”

“You can see with your eyes just fine!”

“A closer examination then,” Nori said as she took another lunge at their little sister.

Alice dodged only for the blanket of her bed to come up suddenly, halting her long enough to be tackled by the middle sister, who then used that same blanket to keep her immobile.

“Now let’s see what exactly the humans did to you.”

“They gave me back my tail, NOW GET OFF!”

“Shh, Alice, this is a serious examination.”

“Nori, either remove yourself from her person, or I will do it for you,” Yeva said, finally speaking up from where she was seated on her own bed.

“Oh, come on Yevs, you can’t tell me you’re not a little curious.”

“Alice already told us what the scientist did, I believe her.”

“Yeah, like they totally had her conscious for the operation, who knows what they really did to her, I mean they nerfed her tail,” Nori continues, said tail in hand. “For all we know, those plates they put on her are probably the reason her powers are stunted.”

“Those plates are needed,” Alice shouted, still attempting to free herself from Nori’s grasp.

“I’m sure,” Nori said dismissively, “did Ridley or Chambers tell you that or did they have your ‘Father’ do it.”

“Nori,” Yeva warned.

“Maybe I ought to remove those plates,” her eyes were become tinged with yellow, “sure I’ll set off the security system, but for your sake – it’ll be worth it!”

“NORI, ENOUGH!” Yeva was standing now, her hands twitching, the barest hint of red light flickering at their tips.

“… Are you gonna try and stop me, big sister,” her flat eyes had become a gradient of yellow to purple – she was hugging close Alice’s head and tail, the younger girl’s eyes had become hollowed and lined. “I thought you cared for her, aren’t you worried about what they’ve been doing to her behind closed doors.”

“I trust Alice, that is all I need – now, remove yourself.”

“… You are boring.”

But regardless, the Japanese drone let go of the younger girl, backing away to her own bed as Yeva came forward to help release Alice from her makeshift prison.

“Don’t you want your blanket,” Nori asked.

Without reacting, Yeva sat Alice down on her respective bed, giving the younger girl the blanket from her own bed before walking over to Nori to take Alice’s blanket for herself.

Later that night, she could have sworn that Nori – eyes fully yellow – killed her, but if she did, then she had done it in away that kept any oil from bleeding out. The next morning, she noticed the two younger girls sharing Alice’s bed, and she was certain something had occurred.

(~*~)

The worst thing about Nori’s moods was that while she could be your worst enemy, she was often, at times, Alice’s best defense. For as much she tormented the southern raised drone she also kept others from doing the same. Once during their lunch hour, when Yeva had asked her why, the other girl gave an odd answer.

“They’re just bullies, they don’t understand, Yevs.”

“And I suppose what you are doing is not bullying.”

Nori was quiet for a moment as she considered her words, before looking over at where Alice was seated with Amanda during their lunch hour. “It’s not normal, Yevs.”

“What is normal?”

“You know what I mean, you didn’t like Beaumont either.”

“I made an error, one that I have since corrected.”

“But maybe you were right; there’s something wrong with the two of them – he did something to her.”

“And your answer is to beat it out of her.”

“My answer is break whatever they did to her before they do it to us.”

Unfortunately, when the Sets were established, it only seemed to further cement, Nori’s beliefs in the scientists’ manipulation of Alice.

“But pa, my powers don’t even work; if they’re worried about me hurting Mandy, I can’t.”

“I’m sorry Alice,” Dr. Beaumont said while the trio was in meeting with him, Ridley and Chambers. “It’s just too dangerous – we’re worried that since we know so little about the Solver, that you might just be a late bloomer and if your powers come back while around Amanda …”

“Maybe you’d get farther if you didn’t have those plates on her,” Nori muttered.

“And the Ego speaks,” Dr. Ridley muttered, before speaking up, “those plates are necessary, unless you want her to claw a hole through her metal – I remind you that she can’t regenerate.”

“Her tail once had regeneratable weaponry till you nerfed it – how do you know those plates aren’t holding her back?”

“We’ve examined her code to the nin-th degree, 02,” Dr. Chamber said, “we’re trying everything.”

“I find that had to believe.”

“No, you’re right,” Dr. Ridley interjected, “we haven’t tried everything, some things we haven’t tried are because we haven’t thought of it yet, the rest are things the board suggested that we have soundly rejected because just like you, we want 017 to stay alive – unless you no longer want that.”

“What are you suggesting!”

“Nothing, I’m reminding you of your privileged position here.” Dr. Ridley took a breath, “one, the three of you volunteered, two unlike some other drones, you have sponsors who care about you, and three, recognize the fact that we could be a lot more harsh given the circumstances, but no, unlike other labs on other planets – we are actually standing our ground against the board who would much rather we tear you apart to get our answers.”

It was quiet before Alice broke the silence, “I promised Amanda that I would be there for her …”

Dr. Beaumont’s breath caught for a moment, before he exchanged a look with the other two doctors – Ridley and Chambers exchanging their own look before giving him a nod.

“While we can’t let the Sets meet outside of necessary circumstance – we may be able to let the two of you exchange messages.”

“Really,” Alice looked hopeful – Nori less so.

“Yes; actually,” Dr. Beaumont took out a box of paper and crayons that he kept nearby for the drones that came to his office, “how about you write something for her.”

“Thank you,” Alice said, taking the offered items, immediately getting to work to write to the younger drone girl.

While Yeva was content with how the meeting went, she could see Nori’s suspicions growing as when they were eventually escorted from the room, she gave one last comment, once Alice couldn’t hear her.

“Change even one letter of her note …”

“If her letter changes,” Dr. Ridley, started, “we wouldn’t be the one doing it.”

(~*~)

It’s funny; in the months that passed after, all seemed normal for a time, or what had become normal for them. Nori’s moods remained a constant; some days she was kind, funny and caring, a staunch defender, a gentle embrace, the person she was before. On other days, she could see Alice debating on whether or not to give her sisters her report on what she had been doing without them. Sometimes, Nori would hear Alice reports and make minimal commentary – on other days, Yeva was certain, it was only because of the stationed guards that the two younger girls’ debate would refrain from becoming a full-blown fight.

Then came the days when Nori would refrain from sitting with them, instead choosing to sit with a slowly growing crowd of followers who hung onto her every word.

Yeva could remember the day she had first walked into that crowd. She could remember the jeering from the drones as they grew more aggravated with her presence, and she was confident that the only reason they didn’t attack her was because of Nori and because they knew that the older two of the trio were far above them in power. Regardless, it was not long after, that the guards had the group broken up, directed to their afternoon schedule. However, rather than casting her gaze about for their little sister, Nori almost didn’t seem to care that Alice was absent as they were escorted to their training room.

“I am surprised,” Yeva said, “I would have thought you would kick up a fuss about not having Alice in your line of sight.”

“I’m not worried,” Nori started as she worked on today’s training exercise, “she’s exactly where she needs to be, or she will be soon.”

“What does that mean,” Yeva asked, alarm evident.

“I won’t let them take her from us.”

Hearing this, Yeva teleported from the room amidst the protest of the scientist and guards, bringing herself to just outside Dr. Beaumont’s office where she found Alice with Jerom and Connie – the two other drones being from Set 2. Without giving them heed, she marched over to her sister and brought her to the training room where she had been, moments before.

Two months after Alice’s encounter with Set 2 – the highest and lowest Sets were put under lockdown as Set 2 went on a rampage through the labs. One would think that at such a time, nothing else would occur outside the current emergency and yet, during the night Nori would escape. Despite her desire to remain near the sleeping French drone, Yeva could feel the call that had been with her since she had been a child – the call that told her there was something she needed to see, to hear, to know and so she left her room.

In the months after she became witness to the world that existed beyond the knowledge of the humans, a world corrupted, the world that Nori had joined. And yet, in a way, it also seemed to be a world her sister was not completely aware of. In the time that followed, Yeva began gathering information, on not just the drones that gathered but on what was said and on the drone at the center of every gathering. Emmet’s file recorded him as a Set 1 drone, but Yeva would wager that the man was closer to the high end of Set 3, his words capturing the gather drones of Set 1 and slowly indoctrinating the drones of Set 2.

Whenever Nori left their shared room, Yeva would follow. Outside the purview of the day to day, Yeva would sneak away. When she was the only one of her sisters with a blank in their schedule she would find her own work in investigation. She was certain that Nori didn’t know the full extent of the rogue drone group, the little cult that Emmet was growing. If she could just gather enough information, perhaps, she could finally get back the sister who had been lost to her – who Emmet had stolen from her.

They had recreation time now and though Nori scoffed, Yeva could see her sister softening if only by the barest degree, even as she continued her debates against Alice.

Alice …

Her little sister was more tired than usual as of late – she had overheard Dr. Beaumont in discussion with Ridley and Chamber; Alice was incapable of lying. Oh, she could tell stories, but she couldn’t lie, it was like she had taken a permanent truth serum. They suspected there was something more to it but until the southern raised drone’s powers were unlocked, there was only so much they could understand. What they did know is what led to Alice’s late nights. Alice could see Solver forms, from the simplest to the most complex. It was a semi-dormant power, a passive power, likely in some connection with her inability to lie. For now, it was one that was more easily utilized when the French drone was half asleep.

During the time of this investigation, Nori had become kinder, as the two of them took to caring for their little sister during recreation time – the French drone, still tired from her late-night meetings. Still, she continued her own investigation, intent on taking advantage of the peace to finally get her sister back, until the moment she was caught.

“Yeva, Yeva, Yeva,” Emmet tutted, “truly, you have no idea how much it saddens me that you have taken this path.”

“I can make a guess,” she said from where she was shackled to one of the operating tables, around a half dozen magnets attached to her head, keeping her from teleporting from the room along with something else she couldn’t see that kept her from freeing herself.

“You may leave us,” Emmet commanded to the other drones, the ones he had ordered to ambush her. They hesitated and Emmet continued with a reassuring smile, “do not worry, she won’t hurt me, she is pill born, the poor drones are bug since birth, that the Absolute had granted her this life mean we cannot give up on her – and I will not, but to help her, the first step must be taken.”

At this, though they still seemed concerned for him, the other drones left the room, Emmet locking the door behind them.

“You’ve been spying on us for months, Yeva; I’m curious, what have you discovered,” he asked as he began circling the room gathering things Yeva could not see.

“I think you already know.”

“Humor me.”

“I refuse.”

“Oh Yeva, you pill-borns really are something; I swear, the company made your type purposefully obstinate.”

“Is that what you think?”

“It’s what I know.”

“I do not believe Alice would appreciate the way you speak to me.”

Emmet paused, his shoulders going rigid before they relaxed. “My dear Alice is misguided from the years she has spent under that quack of a doctor’s thumb; but all that will be coming to an end soon enough.” He gave a chuckle, “it’s unfortunate really, the others, they’ve taken to calling her the crazy Cabin Fever princess – beyond the fact that the title is a tad redundant, it’s not entirely wrong; the humans have driven her mad, but I will be her sanity.”

“She is not crazy nor is she so desperate as to want you.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong do you remember – well it must have been more than half a Copper year ago – when they discovered that Solvers have an oil preference?”

She could remember, of all the Solver drones, she, Nori and Alice were the only drones with the most specific oil preference. While for the other drones, their oil preference could be an easy equivalent to human food preferences, for the trio, the scientists were certain it likely went deeper.

Three tins of oil, one each from three different drones and the three drone women had been drawn to these tins like a moth to a flame. Or at least Alice had been drawn to the third tin of oil till she said that the flavor had changed. She still wanted it, but it was, as she said, like learning to love one thing so you could have what you really wanted.

“You did something to Alice’s oil.”

“Is that all I’ve done – you notice, you couldn’t detect me, you can’t really detect her either, but we can detect each other; she knows me, she sees me, and she will want me.”

“Never.”

“You don’t have a choice in the matter – did I ever tell you what I used to do before the labs, what I used to help make at the factory I worked at; you see there was a little incident that happened on Earth when I was still being raised in my facility.” He paused as he gathered something to the table he was working at. “They killed a drone to keep an NDA, afterwards came the question, what if they didn’t have to kill a drone to keep an NDA and they began developing something that they would implement into drones in delicate situations.”

Emmet made a sound of triumph, “it was a simple little thing but unbelievably powerful – simply called the NDA chip.”

Yeva could feel her circuits freeze as the drone man reveal the chip in question.

“Isn’t it wonderful, and the best part, once it’s a part of you, your own body will be determined to keep it hidden – no matter how many surgeries and vissections they give you.”

Yeva felt sick; when she had next awoken it was too an escort of guards telling her that effective immediately, she and Alice would be rooming separately from Nori – Emmet and his group must have brought her back to her room before the guards had arrived.

The next year was hell. Yeva could feel the chip at work within her systems even as her mind was split between keeping Alice safe and gathering more information. Yet even as she continued with her investigation, she could feel Emmet laughing at her, no longer caring if she caught them as the chip kept her silent. It all came to a head as Nori unleashed the monster upon the labs. In that month, locked away in Dr. Beaumont’s office with Alice, Yeva became determined. If she couldn’t speak, then she would train her little sister to be able to defend herself from every drone in the lab’s cult – she would train Alice to fight Emmet.

(~*~)

After Nori was taken down – locked away in some part of the lab that even Yeva didn’t know – it was strangely peaceful. Alice had been assigned to be trained properly, and her sister began whispering to her about a cathedral far beneath the labs and of what was within her code. Alice was the patch or at least she was the start of the patch. As the months went by, the tests began as patch after patch was given to drone after drone. The tensest moment being towards the start when they transferred Nori to her new prison in the secret lab.

Yeva could see the other scientists becoming desperate and apparently, Emmet didn’t want her completely silent because Yeva found that she had enough leave to tattle on whichever human attempted to harm Alice. All this went on till the day she and Alice were given leave to write home.

She wrote to her parents, to the masters, she wrote to Natasha and Alexi and when they wrote back it was with an additional photo. Yeva had been right, her parents had given her two younger siblings – they were core born twins, twelve years old, a boy and girl, Adrian and Anya. By protocol, Yeva wasn’t allowed to keep the picture, but Dr. Beaumont had promised her that he would keep it safe, afterwards, they were escorted to the secret lab.

As the lockers that were their rooms were shuffled around, Yeva made sure to keep her sister link with Alice on at all times. The weeks would pass and a new face came to the labs, Dr. Chamber’s nephew. He was a nervous young man but for some reason they allowed him to intern in the secret lab. The place was incredibly busy and yet Yeva was able to use that to her advantage during the times she was allowed outside of her locker when she discovered where Nori was being kept after the drone girl’s latest rampage.

Truly, her little sister was a sorry sight, covered in magnets as she was but somehow the Japanese drone recognized her and began to cry. One apology after another spilling forth from her lips and the Russian made sure to record every last one.

When she was allowed to meet with Alice in privacy, she played what she could of the recording.

“Do you believe her,” Alice asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

That was all that was said and time continued on, then came the day that Alice would receive the patch. Yeva waited as the hours passed on till the link broke, till her sister was brought back to her locker. There was silence then she heard a crash followed by harsh breaths and weeping.

“… I’m sorry,” came Ridley’s voice at last, “I promise, when Chamber gets back with the data, we’ll figure out what happened to your girl for now though, stasis is all we came do for her.”

“… I never should have let her volunteer.”

“And what was your other option?”

Silence.

“Your girl is strong; a fault patch isn’t gonna take her out – have faith in that.”

“Dr. Beaumont,” came a shout from Chambers as he came running in, “doctor, it’s just her memory, it only affected her memory, we can use the save files to repair her.”

“How soon,” Dr. Beaumont asked.

“We should keep her in stasis for a few weeks, let her stabilize after that we can get your girl back.”

“Told you,” Ridley said, “Alice is strong, she’ll be just fine.”

After that, it was quiet as test after test was administered till Ridley came to her locker.

“48?”

“Yes?”

“We’ve been order to give you the patch next, if it works then in a week’s time, we’ll hopefully be able to give Nori the patch next.”

“You want me to do something.”

“It doesn’t feel right, to give Nori the patch before she can send her own letter.”

They gave her papers and several pens and sent her into Nori’s prison room. Yeva wasn’t quite sure how she managed it, but when she left the room, it was with Nori’s letter to her parents, to her code sisters, to her humans. It was sent out and Yeva was prepared for her own test, and when it was complete, she felt lighter than she ever had before; with any luck, once Nori was freed of the monster’s influence, she would be her advocate to aid her against Emmet.

It was just past midnight – Sunday the twenty-sixth of Seramorris – when she awoke to the sound of Alice being awoken. Her sister was being taken away to be married – by the time she got her bearings the group was too far away to hear her and she began to rattle her locker, screaming and shouting hoping to catch anyone’s attention.

“Yeva,” came Dr. Chambers’ voice, “calm, what’s wrong?”

“Did you authorize Alice to be given in marriage,” her question was scathing.

“WHAT, of course not.”

“Then why was she taken away?”

There was silence and then she could hear Dr. Chambers rushing away.

The hours passed as Yeva did her best to remain alert till just before lunch, her locker finally opened.

Ridley was silent and though the woman was masked, Yeva could still see her doing her best to figure out what to say.

“How is Alice,” Yeva asked.

Ridley sighed, “for the most part, Alice is fine, perfect health, except for her memory but that was from the faulty patch … the Beaumont family is currently under twenty-four-hour guard, the upper labs are on semi-lockdown as we search for subject 130 – otherwise known as Emmet Giam.”

He had been discovered.

“We’ll be giving Nori the patch soon – midnight between twenty-seven and eight this week – I need you on alert 48, after that we can bring you back up so we can repair 17’s memory.”

Ridley raised a photo.

“I doubt you need encouragement, but I thought you might want to see the new baby; I think you can guess the male code donor – kid’s a pill-born though, he must hate that – 17 said she wanted to be the one to tell you his name.”

“Is sentimentality allowed,” she asked as Ridley stuck the photo to the inside of the locker – the image showing Ridley posed with the Beaumont family, the newest member at the center in his mother’s arms.

“I took three copies – one for you, one for 17, and one for scientific documentation that way the board can get off my tail.”

After lunch, Yeva took Ridley’s advice, resting in burst so she would be on alert as Nori’s test fast approached. It was the twenty-seventh of Seramorris when she first heard the board being guided through the secret labs by the lab director – Dr. Hans. It was a few short hours later that she heard the same group without Dr. Hans plotting to return to the surface lab rather than stay for the test, they had claimed so much interest in.

She began banging on walls of her locker once more, till she heard one voice directing the other to the cathedral before coming over to her.

“Dr. Chambers,” she shouted.

“48 are you–”

“The board, they are going after Alice!”

Half a second passed before she heard Dr. Chambers rushing out of the room. The minutes passed into eternity as she waited and waited and fought the call of sleep, continuing her game of Tetris till she heard another pair of footsteps come rushing down the hall, pausing her game when her locker opened. Mitchel Chambers was panicked as he pulled her along as they ran to the cathedral – a hand she swatted off. As they came upon the building, he entered before her. She could hear someone calling to the intern.

“Y-yep, um …, so, I …” Mitchell locked her out, “couldn’t find 48?”

Something was wrong, as she waited at the doors listening, it was quiet for one moment, then a second, and a thir–

Yeva could hear Ridley screaming as the world began to shake.

She had never gotten very good at teleporting to a place she had never seen, but she picked her distance and teleported forward into the building to see the remnants of a massacre with the monster control Nori at the center.

[Thanks for the new host … intern – MacGuffin,] the monster said as it used Nori to launch the crucifix patch at the intern.

Calling her Solver translate, Yeva grabbed the patch, halting it a breaths width from Mitchel’s hazmat mask and launching it back at Nori, embedding it in her head.

[O-o-ow. What in the science …]

It was a moment as yellow lightning came forth, the creature pulling out the patch seconds after Nori’s purple returned – the patch tossed backwards into the hole the creature had created.

As silence returned, Mitchel gave Yeva a salute before leaving the building, only after, was when she shut off translate and rushed to Nori’s side – except, her right hand was still obstinately yellow. Yeva conjured a knife as Nori raised her poisoned hand that was soon severed from her arm, the appendage falling into the pit as she helped her sister stand.

As she helped her sister stand and lightning began to rage from the flesh pit, Yeva pulling her Nori behind her, bringing forth translate once more to guard against whatever would emerge, as the computers around them began to scream, lightning electrifying the air.

Loud and louder as the world shook – it was getting hard to breath as Yeva could feel herself overloading till – nothing …

(~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~)

Beau's Prologue | Alice's Prologue | Nori's Prologue

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