It was nighttime in Tazmily when Calliope was taken from her home.

She had met the one who took her away before, but she never expected a betrayal like this. All Calliope saw was the flash of mint-colored fur, the purple eyes, and other catlike aliens, one with sympathetic yet cold yellow eyes. She pleaded silently with the yellow-eyed one, but the leader of them all, the one with purple eyes, snapped at her not to try anything.

Calliope fought. She had to. She probably put her ribbons through a couple of those metal things, but that couldn't kill them, right? All she knew was that if she dared shoot a ribbon at the biological aliens, then she would be killed, and she wanted a chance to live, to stay alive like Elena wanted her to with her dying wish. C couldn't possibly understand that what was planned for her was worse than death.

Last thing she remembered, she was grappling with a brown-eyed alien and she yelled something in a strange language and suddenly all went dark, but she could feel her body seize up and fall to the ground, hitting her head against a table and breaking the glass.

Before she passed out, she apologized to Elena but prayed she would see her again soon.

"Is she awake yet?"

All was foggy for a moment, more like three minutes, and all Calliope could hear was a ringing noise and voices that she couldn't recognize, except for the purple-eyed alien's voice when she said, "I hope you know what trouble she is." Her voice was unkind and unforgiving, the same tone of voice the Commander had had when she met him that one time. It was clear that she was angry, but there was also a calming aura around the alien at her head.

"Did she hurt y-" she began, but the other one cut her off. "I am perfectly fine, Tano, go check on Zachi and let me do my work." This one had a calm, kind yet stern voice at the moment, and Calliope heard the other huff and slowly leave the room. C was fully awake at this point, and the ringing was gone, but she felt a huge headache and her entire body felt cold. Probably because her back was on a cold, metal table.

And she was naked. Just great.

"I know you're awake." C opened her eyes now, and tried to sit up and rub her head but found she couldn't move. She began to panic, struggling, purple eyes meeting the white alien's yellow ones quickly to no avail. She narrowed her golden eyes at Calliope. "You've caused a lot of trouble for us, you know. First you intercept our communication signal, then you get our commander stuck on a semi-hostile planet, and now you just recently damaged at least three Starmen... and you hurt Zachi."

Sharp teeth. That was all that C could think when the alien bared her teeth at her, flattening her curled ears at her. And C had thought her demeanor was calming at first, but this? This was terrifying.

"Now, we get to pay you back." C gulped and looked around, trying to ignore the sight of the scars she had on her chest. This had to be a dream, right? She wasn't just going to be a test subject, a dissection frog for them, right?

Right?

"Don't even bother begging for anything," the white-furred Gieeg said, turning her back to C and grabbing something off a table beside the metal surface. "We have something better than even life planned for you." Calliope watched her carefully, not trustful in the least of her. C spoke, her voice rough from not using it. "What… What are you going to do to me?" she asked, eyes wide in fear.

This had to be the scariest moment in her entire life. Worse than when she watched her mother die in front of her, even. The alien turned back to her with a syringe filled with a clear liquid in her hand. "Oh, so that's what your voice sounds like. I was wondering if you were gonna talk." Calliope scowled at her and bared her fangs. The Gieeg laughed at the fact that she still had a bit of fight left in her.

"Pity you're not one of us," she said, "otherwise… You would probably be a hell of a Cosmic Destroyer, with the powers I heard you had." She sighed. "But now, you're going to become one of our warriors, a Starman." She walked behind the head of the metal surface that Calliope was on, and held C's neck. C wanted to flinch away, the coolness of her hands despite the fur giving her a shock, but she still couldn't move.

The alien frowned. "Feel grateful to us. You won't feel anything anymore, just blankness. Or so our Starmen tell us that's what they're feeling." The door to the room opened, but Calliope couldn't move her head to look. "Oh, you're here. Thank you. She's still awake, but it won't be for long; then you can do whatever you do to make a Starman."

A young male voice spoke next. "Commander Tano said to keep her memories."

"What?" she said, surprised. The male walked closer to Calliope's position. "Anni, you heard me. Tano wants her to keep her memories." This one had yellow eyes and white fur too, but was much… fluffier… than Anni, and thinner. Plus, this one was taller than her by at least four inches. He crossed his arms and looked at C disdainfully, noting her looking him over. "She wouldn't tell me why, but I have an inkling it has to do with her being just a huge pain in the ass."

Anni frowned again. "I hope you're talking about the human, Upsilon. Otherwise-" He shot her a look, as if to say "I was talking about the human." Or was he just one to give everyone that look in general? Anni put up her hands and sighed. "Alright. I get it. Let's just get this over with."

She put a hand on C's neck again, and stuck the needle into her neck and pushed down the plunger. C cried out in pain; this stuff burned! She could feel it going through her veins, and after a moment, everything went dark again.

"C! C, come here!"

"Daddy!"

Eleanor rushed to pick C up from where she was running to a Pigmask Colonel, and C gripped the Colonel's leg. The Colonel looked down at the child, and took his mask off to see her better, revealing dark brown hair and pale skin.

"Safe from Mama, safe from Mama!"

He saw the woman coming closer and stared at her as she hurried to pick the child up and put her on her hip.

"I am so sorry-"

"No, no, it's fine." He smiled at her placatingly, and she stared with her gray eyes into his purple ones. It was him. "I see a lot of people around here that look like me, so it's okay." Eleanor blushed and looked away, remembering things she shouldn't be. "I, um-"

"Mama's red!"

Eleanor grimaced, and shushed her. She noticed the Colonel looking at her carefully, and she looked away before he could meet her eyes again and bring back memories.

"You… look familiar. Where are you from?" he asked her.

Shit. "U-Uh, New Pork! Yeah."

"What's your name?"

"Eleanor. And this is C."

The conversation went on like that for a few more minutes, and eventually, they left before he could get more suspicious. C remembered looking into his purple eyes and feeling hers ache like she was tired, but she didn't feel tired at all.

She fell asleep in her mother's arms, feeling safe like she hadn't felt it in years, but she didn't know why she felt that way…

Calliope screamed in pain, feeling as though her body was being ripped in two.

It seemed as though the human wasn't staying under through the procedure. Anni cursed; usually this went by smoothly. She saw the blood on her hands, the deep red, but it didn't bother her as much as the incessant screaming did. And she couldn't use PSI to knock her out like Zachi had, she didn't have that ability, but she did have more anesthesia. Anni growled in frustration as she put the third dose of anesthesia into her body through a syringe. "Come on," she muttered.

She had never dealt with a patient that couldn't stay under before, but goddamn it, she was going to do as Tano had ordered. Anni was bristled, golden eyes narrowed, ears flattened, but Upsilon seemed even worse. He had this look in his eyes that seemed piteous, and she knocked him with her elbow. "Don't think about it. Just do it," she told him, and after a moment his piteous expression disappeared into dullness.

Now the human was sobbing instead of screaming, but at least that meant the anesthesia was working, if only a little bit. "Hand me the-" He was already on it. Anni stared for half a second, but went back to work. She had no need to tell him anything vocally, it seemed. She just focused on the steps, and that was all she had to do. Don't think, don't feel, don't do anything benefitting a hostile race except for something like this. Those were the rules she had learned, and the ones she would live by until she died.

Anni had almost gone through the entire bottle of anesthesia by now. Finally, the human was quiet, but now came the fun part-transferring the data from the brain to the empty Starman husk. Upsilon would take care of that part, so Anni left the room to wash her hands and tell Tano that it had been a success.

That was all.

Calliope woke up not feeling anything.

She tried to move her arms, and couldn't. Was she still bound? No, she was standing up, but she couldn't move her head. She could only look with her eyes, and even then the room was dark. Usually this wouldn't bother her, but this time, she felt scared. And alone.

The door to the room opened, and C couldn't even flinch from the sudden light. The only light came in from the doorway, and there was a silhouette of a Gieeg in the entrance. It came closer, and she recognized it as the one she had seen when she had been... She suddenly felt cold. Upsilon was his name, right?

She spoke, but it sounded odd to her, like she couldn't control her tone. "It's you," she said, and he replied, "Yeah, it's me." She meant to make it sound hostile, but she couldn't do that, for some reason. He bent down and pressed something on her side, and she saw a red line go across his face; an interface popped up in her vision. "It would make my job easier if you didn't remember anything, so let's try it out. What's your name?"

"Cal-ee-ope." That was wrong, that wasn't how her name was pronounced! "Cal-i-oh-pee," she tried again, slowly. He sighed. "I'd hoped I did it wrong, but I guess not. You're lucky, you're one of the few who even know your name besides your identification." He sighed, and looked away. There was something sad about his demeanor.

"Can you call me Cece?" she asked. He turned his head back to her, confused. "What?" Upsilon asked, flattening his ears and narrowing his eyes. "Nothing," Calliope said. "No, I mean-why? Why give me that other name if you want me to call you something else? That-That makes no sense." She felt frustrated. Didn't these aliens know how nicknames worked? She didn't have the energy to argue.

"Alright, I'll just set up your languages and base PSI and see where we go to from there..." he mumbled to himself, and stood up straight. She was only a few inches shorter than him, in this... shell... thing... but he didn't seem to be put off by it. In fact, he was acting like this was a normal thing. But he also seemed irritated by something. He began to tap on the interface, and she could see his sharp-ended fingers like claws against where her eyes would be. It was like a pane of glass; she could see everything and he could see everything. "God, you Starmen have so many settings, no wonder we only make a couple for special occasions..." he muttered.

Calliope was confused. She... she felt normal, why was he calling her a Starman? Other than her limbs not being able to move, she was fine! ...Right?

But then, why did she have red lines and a robotic interface in her eyes?

"Can you show me?"

"Show you what?" he asked gruffly.

"What I look like." Calliope made a mechanical sighing noise. He frowned and said, "I don't carry a mirror around with me. Neither does anyone else around here. But I'd be happy to show you the other Starmen that you look like, once I'm done." Calliope made an affirming noise and stayed still - ha ha, funny, she couldn't move her limbs - while he continued to work, mumbling to himself in an odd language.

She couldn't understand him at first, but then he tapped another time and she could hear him clearly. "...binary, there's no need for that one anymore..." He grimaced. "...You already have our language pre-programmed..." Calliope heard and felt herself make a whirring noise, but had no control over it. "Oh," he said, looking at her curiously. He swished his tail, and exited that menu to go to - she couldn't understand that one's language. "What does that one say?" she asked, like a kid just learning to read. She felt stupid.

"Don't worry about it. Anyways, you have to be one of the strangest cases I've programmed, you woke up entirely on your own. That's... probably because of your... Damn it, I knew Tano was crazy when she told me she wanted you to have your memories, but it certainly does make my job easier programming your PSI. And it's... harder at the same time, because you talk so much."

Calliope shut up, even though he was talking more than she was at this point.

He pressed a few more buttons, and she could feel a charge go through her, like she had blood in her veins again. If she had veins in this body, that was. He stepped away, cautiously, like he thought she was going to hurt him. She didn't even know how she would; if she couldn't move her arms, how could she cast her ribbons? Her gaze met his for a second, and he scoffed. "I give you the chance, and you don't immediately attack me? You're something, you know that?"

C made a loud whirring noise in annoyance. He sighed.

"You have a long way to go."