24(Track 1: Radioactive- Imagine Dragons)
"What do you expect me to do? The procedure is delicate and I can't just make Tawny well with a snap of my fingers!" I recognized Violet's voice instantly. I'd heard it enough.
I blinked in the sudden bright light that came only from sunlight, "But you could be polite," I said, as my eyes focused on the room. Violet was standing next to a tube-thingy, Lintata was on the opposite side of the tube, Hikato was at the adjacent end frowning, and Lio was standing next to Hikato.
I had never been so happy to see them all. Even if they all wore expressions of shock.
"Uh," Violet gaped, "hi."
Hikato was the least stunned of the three and gave a little wave of his hand, "Hi, Tawny," he sounded as though he'd been inhaling helium or something because his voice was an octave higher than usual, while Lio looked like he was about to be violently ill.
"Sorry to just appear like this," I said, sheepishly. This is an awkward situation, being dead and then not technically being dead. . . By their reactions, I wasn't the only one who'd need therapy, "It takes some effort to get here and I wasn't sure if it'd work or not."
Lio stepped towards me, looking haunted, "B-but," he glanced back at the tube and then at me, "y-you're in there," he pointed at it. His brown eyes were distressed, "If you're in the cryogenic tube, how are you," he gestured helplessly at me with open palms, "here?!"
"Well," I shifted my stance from docile to explanatory, "something about the System made sure that my persona, who I am, got saved into the databases and-"
"And so you survived," Violet interjected, his purple hair glinting in the light from the ceiling but his eyes were brighter with delight, "I knew you were special!" He crowed.
Lintata shot him a look I recognized but didn't understand. Hatred. Huh.
"I'm not the only one in the System," I clarified for the doctor, "Koll's consciousness was also stored."
A frown formed on the doctor's face, "Koll?" He blinked, absorbing the new information, "how did he do that? He's not like you."
"He's got the DNA," I retorted.
"Are there any others stored in the system?" Hikato asked.
Shrugging, I turned to face him, "I'm not sure, I've only seen Koll. I don't know about anyone else, if they are in there they haven't approached us."
He nodded, "So, let me get this straight. You're a projection of your consciousness, just here where we can see you?"
"Yes," I confirmed.
"Can you go throughout the building like that?" Hikato had an idea, I could tell.
"If you have a way I can project myself through the building I don't see why it would be impossible," for all I knew I might be stuck here but I wasn't about to say that.
"Meet us in the meeting room," Hikato said, "where you were before. Do you remember that place?"
I nodded, "I think so. See you there."
I let my consciousness spread through the building, searching through the data I was receiving from the security systems till I found the room. It was sort of like swimming through Jell-o, tough but not impossible to do. I had to gather my thoughts and pushed myself from within the electrical database of the building and back out into the room. That is not as easy as it sounds, it's actually quite hard. My image flickered as a headache formed behind my eyes, steady and uncomfortable but not as bad as when I found out about my history.
"Wow," I put a holographic hand to my holographic head to try to get rid of my nonexistent headache. (Try wrapping one's mind around that for a moment.) Shaking my head, I muttered to myself, "Next time take the elevator and don't show off," when a cough interrupted my little self-lecture.
"This is a secure room," it was the glasses-nerd-bird-guy that I'd seen talking with Hikato when I first woke up, "I take it this is your projection."
"Yeah," I didn't trust him but Hikato seemed to think he was 'safe' to talk around. I was beginning to be suspicious about words like 'safe', 'secure', 'impossible', and others relating to that similar train of thought, "How'd you guess?"
"Well your body's downstairs in a cryo tube and while the doctors here are excellent, I doubt they'd be able to make you flicker like you did upon your arrival to this room," he said, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose where they'd been sliding down.
I blinked. That was a sort of round about way to go about an explanation but I understood it. Sort of.
"Although, I admit, I am curious to finally have a chance to talk to you as I've heard and seen much about you," he continued.
I was sure he'd heard some things, "Oh?" it was a halfhearted question. I had a feeling I was about to get interrogated.
"Did you really kill O'cana?"
Naturally, that would be the first thing on his mind, "No idea," I said, "she's unconscious- or was when I was alive- because I collapsed her trachea. I don't know if she survived that."
"She did," Hikato's voice said from behind me as he entered in on one of those hover-do-hickeys. He stepped off the hover thing with more grace than I had even with lessons, "and she's here with us in another cryo tube. Ancela Nastasi sent you both over. The question we'd all like to know is: why?"
Drat.
I shrugged again, trying to act nonchalant. That was information I didn't want to reveal, not yet at least. And dear 'dad' hadn't seen fit to let them know. Apparently he didn't trust them and after what I'd been through I was also getting really careful about whom I did and didn't trust, "He wanted to help better your opinion of him, a show of good faith if you will," I said. Which was partly true.
"But you were dead before he sent you, how would you know that?" the glasses-nerd-bird-guy asked.
"I'm sorry," I turned to him, fed up, "what's your name again?"
"I'm Diekman," he replied, before returning to the original subject, "I repeat my question, how do you know that?"
I rolled my eyes, "My body may be dead but my consciousness isn't, obviously. I overheard."
Hikato looked interested at that. That probably wasn't my best lie and no doubt he had an idea, "Could you overhear more of what is going on in Vigilant? We have agreed to peace with Ancela but we haven't received word from him y-"
A new AI entered the room, "You have a message from Ancela Nastasi, sir," she said. She turned to me, her holographic eyes narrowing when she saw me, "And a breach in the safety protocols, sir."
The AI snatched for my arm and gripped it as I stepped back in surprise. Apparently I was in her domain and now the program that ran her was attacking the virus. Me. Pain, unlike any I'd ever experiences before, stabbed into each of the pixels that made me appear and I crumpled beneath the Artificial Intelligence's firewalls. The pain felt excruciating, I was literally being torn apart, pixel by pixel, kilobyte by kilobyte, and fast too.
"Withhold all protective protocols!" Ancela snapped.
"Negative, you have a breach in the safety protocols," the AI repeated. Another wave of firewalls latched onto the data that was me and I felt myself flickering as I was attacked from within the system. To the others, it probably looked as though I was on my knees but mentally I was screaming from shock. They couldn't hear me, the AI was blocking out my communication abilities. All they could see was the AI holding me.
Lio stepped forward, "STOP IT!" He shouted, irrationally punching at the AI but his hand only went through the light. Poor Lio, he was out of his league here. As was I. I had completely overlooked the safety and security protocols, just projecting myself through the system. And I was paying for it. I had no firewalls, nothing to protect myself against this attack.
"Security Code 2219, allow the virus to remain," Diekman ordered firmly as the AI closed in for the kill.
Instantly, the pain ended and the AI stepped back, where it had bent down over me.
I gathered my thoughts and found that my holographic image was stretched out on the floor. That had been close. Too close. The part that was 'me' hurt like nothing else. I forced the holographic image upright from where it lay flat in a hurt position, but I couldn't get rid of the pained expression, "Forgot about that," My voice sounded broken, like a bad connection over a phone line.
Lio's concerned face was near my holographic one, "Are you alright?" There was real torture behind his eyes and he still looked like he had eaten something bad.
"Been better," I said, managing a smile as the pain receded, "been worse too."
Diekman frowned, "I wondered why the security system didn't respond when you'd first shown up. Apparently they didn't register you at first. That's probably because of the hardware we have put into you."
Great, why hadn't I thought of that myself?
"Sir," The AI ignored me and the entire mini-drama happening near her, looking completely calm although she'd almost killed what was left of 'me', and focused on Hikato, "Ancela Nastasi is waiting for a response to his message."
"Oh, right," Hikato nodded, "Well, I will go to my office and reply to him there. Diekman, tell Tawny what we plan to do to bring her back," he told the balding guy.
"OK," Diekman nodded. That was surprising. He had a higher authority with the tech than Hikato and didn't respond with honorifics to orders. So either he was of equal standing or he was above Hikato. But I doubted it was the latter, he wouldn't have taken orders from Hikato. But why was he so informal? Most people would have been much more respectful to say the least. Interesting. . .
"Come on," Diekman said to me and Lio. Lintata and Violet had been left down with the cry tube, "I'll tell you what's happened since you were killed."
What a bizarre way to start a conversation.
Vigilant
Ancela's New Office
"Well," Ancela sat down at the desk that had formerly been his daughter's, "this is nice. What do you think?" He asked Mal.
Mallagon shrugged, glancing around the room. Last time he'd seen the room, he'd been watching Tawny cry over Koll's dead body. The image of Tawny's blood dripping down her limp arm to the floor of the infirmary flashed in front of his eyes momentarily, making him somewhat distracted, "Great," He mumbled.
Ancela didn't like the response or Mallagon's reaction so he walked over and stood directly in front of the younger man, facing him eye to eye. The two were similar in height but Mallagon was an inch or two taller, "When I speak," he said voice calm and cool, "I want you to be paying attention. I can't afford to have someone I can't depend on as my second in command. You are lucky that I didn't turn you in to the Council, that I am using O'cana as the scapegoat this time. But if I have to force you to do what I want you to do, I will ensure that you end up like Tawny's other lover. Do you got that?"
Anger filled Mal at Ancela's words, smoldering behind his dark eyes with raw hatred. He'd worked beneath Ancela before and the abuse had nearly driven him mad. But Tawny would have taken it. She'd already beaten O'cana at her own game when by rights she should have lost completely. Yes, she'd died but she'd won the game by holding on longer than O'cana had thought possible and then nearly killed her. Had Ancela not shot her, Tawny could have saved the ASA.
Ancela was Mal's O'cana and there was no way he would let Ancela win the psychological battle that was between them. His hands, originally clenched at his sides, relaxed as confidence replaced the anger. It was a subtle act but one that Ancela didn't miss.
"Yes," he replied, voice controlled and even, "I got that."
Ancela's eyes narrowed. With Mal angry, the older man could have controlled him. But Mal was thinking rationally, which meant that he wouldn't be as predictable.
"Good," Ancela said, sensing the shift in Mal's emotions with a flicker of worry that didn't show. He'd had too much practice hiding his emotions. He turned and walked back towards his desk, "and you'll refer to me as Director or sir when you talk to me now, understand?"
"Yes, sir," Mal said, voice sticky with false politeness.
Ancela sat down and decided to nip any minor problems in the bud, "Every time you disobey my orders or show any sign of disrespect- be it in your tone or expression- I'll punish one of the Chosen for your behavior. Is that understood?"
The fury came rushing back but Mal quelled it quickly. Ancela wanted him angry, he knew that. But it didn't make it easier for him to avoid the emotion. Not for the last time, he wondered how Tawny had been able to stand living under O'cana's thumb.
"Yes, Director," his tone had the right blend of submission, subservience, and a tiny hint of frustration.
A smile stretched across Ancela's face, "Good. Now, your duties will be to me and me alone. You will tell me what goes on in the ranks of your soldiers, you are now the acting commander of the Armed Forces. But any loss will be upon you. I will allow you to oversee the downfall of O'cana's reputation and put more resources at your disposal as I see fit."
That was nice, Mal thought. Yet what price was he going to have to pay for this liberty?
"But betray me and I'll put a bullet where that will make it impossible to save you," he snarled.
"Yes, Director," Mal repeated.
Knight vs. King. The chess game was about to become much more difficult than Mal had expected.
Author's Note: Sorry it's been a while since I updated, lots of stuff going on.
Thoughts?
Thanks again for reading!
Ink