The cadence of an AI woman spoke to an unconscious Xander.
[Memory Reconstruction Complete - Integrating User Response to Memory into Mainframe]
Immediately upon hearing the voice, Xander's eyes snapped open. His head rested against the cold floor of his cell room, sprawled on his stomach as if he had been laid across a bed. One would expect that Kaiser, after finishing his duty, would have been called by the camera monitoring staff to check on the unconscious boy he had knocked out. But this seemed to trouble them very little, expecting more to kill a vector than a mere kick against the wall.
Xander looked around the room first, instantly remembering what had happened prior to his slumber. He pushed himself off the ground quickly, glancing around the area in search of his sister.
I couldn't stop him. God…I couldn't…, Xander thought, before seeing Diane's stuffed animal on the floor.
It was resting quietly next to his leg, having been thrown to the side in the scuffle beforehand. It had been there unmoving for some time, enough that whilst Xander was unawake, his legs had become numb to its furry nature touching his legs. He reached down in slow increments to pick up the thing of childhood memory, feeling the still wetted fluff from his sister's tears. It had truly been a good while since she was taken, but enough to make Xander wonder if she would ever be back.
I suppose now I understand how she feels whenever they take me away…it's horrible. Xander thought.
Sense-wise, he felt at a loss, each sensation related to the animal in his clutches making him feel more disconnected. But physically, his body felt heavy, burden and apathy strapping themselves to his back. Whilst feeling the weight the world had thrown upon his shoulders, Xander stood up from the ground. He did so with a wobble, his vector having not fully repaired the damage done to his head. He took a seat on the grooved, steel-polished bed of his, examining the item in his hands with an unusual tenderness he didn't even know he was capable of.
The stuffed animal in question was a wolf, small and soft with a bit of rough edges near its face. Its fur was silver, just like Diane's hair, bearing a quality of waviness when Xander's hand was combed through it. The snouted was pointed, able to compress though needing to be done so with a great deal of effort—Diane never turned that side of the animal to herself, disliking the how much strain it put on her when she tried to squeeze the animal tightly. Also, feeling the one-eyed beaded nature of the animal against her chest felt awkward to the young girl, forcing Xander to recall the first time she complained about the gift. It caused a small, empty smile to manifest on his face.
Even when she hated this thing, she still couldn't bring herself to tell me…That girl doesn't like to speak her mind, now does she?
The pain of this memory stung, but it wasn't enough to bring him to tears. What was to follow, however—felt like it broke the camel's back.
[To the Left]
There it was again—the voice from before. Instantly, Xander jerked his to the left of the room, dropping the stuffed animal onto the bed whilst standing up. His attention was fixed on the door that released a continuous whirring sound throughout the room. Its whirring then came to a sudden halt, keypad tones coming from behind it. After the door slid to the side with a clang! Kaiser and Diane stood in the hallway.
Kaiser's face was uncaring as usual, though he didn't hold Diane by the arm. Even more peculiar was that even though it was a strict rule for guards to always handcuff the children on transport back to their cells, Kaiser took the liberty of not following such a rule. This bewildered Xander to a degree, with how much of a staunch conformist Kaiser seemed to be under the regime. But after looking at his sister, Xander put two and two together for he had chosen not to.
Diane's long silver hair hung over her face, making her look disheveled and ragged, like she had been through a violent assault. Some parts of her locks were frazzled and pointed out, but that didn't stop the hair from covering her eyes. Her arms seemed thinner; the tracksuit-esque prisoner clothing she was made to wear barely fit her anymore. But despite this physical change that made her seem more stick-figure than human, her body still held a bit of musculature that allowed her to stand firm and unmoving.
"Enter your cell, subject #666," Kaiser said, further perplexing Xander, as other times when he had taken him or Diane away, he would normally just toss them back in so the floor would act as a net to catch them.
Something didn't sit well with Xander.
Diane walked into the cell. To even call it an act of motion would be disingenuous to the meaning of the word. The second she arrived near Xander, she stopped moving without hesitation, not moving a muscle more as if waiting for another command.
What…what is happening? Xander questioned, looking up and down at his motionless sister.
On her neck, small metal scales violently clanged and slid over each other, as her vector was desperately trying to transform despite the condition of suppression they were under.
Xander turned his attention to Kaiser, who still hadn't closed the door yet. The guard stared at the display with a distinct look that he had never seen on the man's face before. It wasn't fear, nor disgust, not even cold or uncaring. It screamed the moniker of resigned wonder, almost like he was wondering if the deed done to Diane was necessary.
Xander only mouthed a single phrase to the man: "What did you do?"
Reading Xander's lips, he responded, "You're asking the wrong person. I don't know what he did…but it wasn't normal."
Kaiser pressed a few buttons on the keypad, and then the door slid shut.
After turning back to his sister, with the silent whirs of the room taking hold once again, Xander heard faint mumbles coming from beside him. Though she seemed to be in a state of motionlessness, trapped inside her own mind, Diane's mouth was moving and spouting a few sentences Xander could make out.
"Implementation of procedure: satisfactory. Ceriumium intake threshold: 75%, Voltic Coolant intake threshold: 100%," she muttered, like reading an unseen interface that Xander couldn't see.
But instantly, he knew what she was saying. When the inhibition of their vectors was removed—even for a few minutes—digitized scaffolding for a data network and processing normally appeared in their eyesight. This is one of the few things that would let a vector know if their powers could be used or not. But how was she reading these things, despite having her vector suppressed? She continued reading the status of each of these components, completely monotone and soulless, like a devil had taken her spirit.
"Diane?" Xander asked, positioning himself in front of his sister.
"No errors in wired network expanse. All neural and wired networks fully operational."
Xander had nothing to say. It was like she didn't even register his words or existence before her. He took her by the shoulders, moving her hair from her face just as she seemed to finish up the recitation of her protocol.
"Pain Threshold: Acceptable. Specialist Recommendation: Rest required."
Upon putting the words and sight of his sister's face together, Xander could only stumble back from her. Whilst her face had changed little, one glaring difference was visible upon her tired, exhausted yet emotionless disposition. One of her irises changed from its regular blue nature like Xander, his mother and father shared. Her left eye was velvet crimson red.
Wires travelled from the left side of her neck and face up to this eye. The reason her Ceriumium threshold wasn't at one hundred was that her body was actively diverting it there. But what reason would it have? Was trying to fix some mistakes missed by Falco? But if so, then the statement of "No errors" would be false. These thoughts and more coursed through Xander's mind space, leaving the boy absolutely lost when it came to helping her—let alone understanding her.
Diane's motionless state ended. With a Bionic and inhuman jank in her turn, she first looked toward the metallic bed, then moved accordingly in its direction. Still, to this point, she had said nothing or registered Xander's presence in the room, either oblivious or too consumed by infrastructure reading. She arrived at the bed, her arms moving by themselves, gently swiping the one-eyed stuffed animal on the structure off to the ground. Never once in her life had she ever disregarded the token from her brother, leaving Xander to blankly watch the animal fall to the ground, utterly speechless.
What have they done to you? Xander could only think.
However, after feeling the soft, furry nature of the animal against her hand, Diane mechanically turned her head to view what she had hit. Her gaze stayed locked on the plush item, craning her head at points, as if trying to analyze the trinket to no end. She stood there for what felt like hours, unable to follow her processing directive and go to sleep. But as she seemed almost ready to turn her gaze away, she blinked her eyes twice, and a sudden spurt of emotion took hold of her face.
Static clouded the vision on her left side, causing her to clutch her hands to that side. With a quick twitch and snap of the metal scales on her neck, everything went deathly silent. Xander quickly moved to her side upon seeing what was happening, as Diane was slowly about to fall. He gently caught her in his arms just as the girl regained her bearings.
"Where…where am I?" Diane croaked, her tone returning to its innocent, high-pitched nature, signaling to Xander a change in her coding.
"Xander, what happened?"
She pulled herself up from her brother's arm, Xander still unable to say a word in lue of understanding what had just happened.
"Hey? Why are you crying?"
When Diane pointed this out to Xander, he immediately used his hand to feel his eyes, a watery substance slowly dribbling down his cheek. He had been so lost in what was happening that he had not even realized what was occurring in his own state of mind.
Was that a glitch, or something? Xander thought, wiping his eyes before responding to Diane.
"It's nothing, Diane. I guess I was…just beginning to understand how you feel when they take me away," he responded.
Diane then accidentally stepped on her stuffed animal. She felt the toy beneath her foot, quickly taking a step back forward and turning to see it lying on the ground.
"No, how did you get there?" She asked, quickly scooping it up and embracing the animal, "You could have at least taken it up while I was gone, Xander."
She remembers nothing that happened just now, Xander thought.
"Diane…?" Xander asked, getting ready to question her.
But as he tried to find the courage to speak his mind, he hesitated, and no sound escaped his mouth.
"Yes, Xander?"
Pressed for a response, he said, "You're okay, right? They didn't hurt you too badly, did they?"
"No, not really. But I think I was asleep most of it."
You were asleep because they broke you…
Just as Xander was about to continue speaking, a loud, male-read announcement came over an unseen speaker.
"All subjects, it is time for a sleep period. Lights will be out in 3 minutes."
"I hate it when they do that. It gets so dark and cold in here," Diane said softly, holding her stuffed animal up to her mouth.
Though Xander continued to stare at his sister with some level of perplexity, he moved to hug and assured her of their circumstances.
"It's fine; we have each other. That's all that matters," he told her, shaky in tone. "You and I need the rest, anyway."
"Can you—?"
"Yes, Diane, I'll hold you; you don't need to ask."
In the last minutes before the lights would go out, the two crawled onto the lower of the two beds in the cell. Xander placed himself so that his back was against the freezing wall, whilst Diane could place hers against his chest. It was the only way the two of them could reasonably keep themselves warm within their captivity, Xander taking most of the harshness so his sister could have a little more comfort.
As the two waited for the lights to dim, Xander hugged her close to himself, while Diane clutched her stuffed animal as tightly as possible to her chest. Soon after, the lights blacked out. The two were left within the darkness, alone with their thoughts. Diane went to sleep rather quickly, but Xander couldn't, thinking back to all he saw from his sister—was that even still her? He had never seen such a switch or break in someone like that, and he was powerless to help, only good enough to be a bystander.
Unable to do anything, and not wanting to frighten his sister, he didn't even bring himself to ask or question her, feeling more useless than a fish on land. He left with nothing else but these thoughts of futility and helplessness. Xander tightened his grip on Diane and silently cried.
Please. God. Don't take my sister as well.
*******
==================================================================
[AUTHORIZATION - PROJECT SENTIENCE - SECTOR: NEVADA PROVINCE 4]
[VECTOR CODEXIUS - CLASSIFIED ENTRY #666]
==================================================================
SUBJECT: DIANE FARWAKER
AGE: 14
CODENAME: UNDETERMINED (Field test not conducted) (System recommendation - CODESWITCH)
ASSIGNED SPECIALIST: Dr. Falco (Last specialist terminated due to uninformed changes; correction is needed)
MENTALITY/TEMPERAMENT:
Shy, timid, yet under the right conditions can be jovial and immature—before entry I only talked with one person, though had some friends in school.
Prefers Extraversion—Under right conditions, happy and excitable, but prefers time alone with cellmate #665 if he is present.
Emotional awareness is abnormally high (System Note–Rare breed, only two others share this characteristic)
Relations with Cellmate - Sister of Cellmate #665
VECTOR RANK: F-ranked (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
VECTOR TYPE: Pure Short Range
VECTOR ABILITY: Able to create two pulse-based assault rifles with interchangeable modes of semi-auto and full auto. The more damage incurred, the stronger bullets become.
SPECIALIST'S NOTES:
Before the updated system could be implemented, a mistake in the old microchip needed to be fixed. It seems Dr. Garrison was fond of the girl and gave her some—special—enhancements that he believed would allow her to grow strong faster. His conclusion was flawed and only seemed to hamper her growth. But after the removal of the said mistake, an unusual event took place. I've only seen such an event happen to two of Garrison's other subjects, subjects #445 and her cellmate and #001–[REDACTED]. As [REDACTED] is no longer at this facility and subject #445 and co. deemed as unstable, I believed the issue needed to be rectified immediately. But now, the girl seems to be left in a limbo-like state—though responsive—highly responsive to commands. Something, however, irked me. The colour change in her eye was the least of my concern but…what seemed most pressing was the complete emotional inversion of the subject. It was too similar to [REDACTED] in her last days here. That girl…she was different. This girl shares this peculiarity. Both have something amiss in their codes. And I tried to fix it. I don't think either can be fixed.
Vector Evolution: Highly Likely
==================================================================
END OF ENTRY - ACCESS CODE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: VNP4-666