Two Days Later

Kennex Apartment

"You could have used another day in the hospital," John commented in a concerned voice as he led Juliana into his newly expanded apartment. "Medicine and counseling would do wonders…"

Juliana scoffed, "A counselor telling me I need to make weekly appointments with a sexbot for stress relief is not something I need to hear twice," she growled as she led Reggie into the apartment. "Reggie, why don't you go check out your new room and figure out what kind of clothes you'd like to have?"

John frowned, "The counselor referred you to a sexbot?" he asked softly. "Why did it do that?"

"Attributing my snappy personality to hormones," Juliana replied gruffly. "I do not need or want that."

John sighed, "As easy as it would be to turn to that profession for good money, I'm emotionally used up in that regard thanks to the InSyndicate," Juliana spoke bitterly. "How does one look for work here?"

"You should take time," John replied as Reggie hurried off to his new room. "Adjusting's hard."

Seemingly irritated, Juliana moved off to her new room, "I don't want to impose on you for a long time," her voice carried across the apartment in an anxious tone. "It's bad enough I'm borrowing clothes."

There was a heavy silence followed by a loud CRASH, "Mommy!" Reggie yelled. "MOMMY!"

John hurried across the apartment and swore when he saw when Juliana on the floor near her bed trembling anxiously as if she had just thrown up, "I'm going through withdrawals," Julia mumbled, seeing that John was there. "InSyndicate dosed us before every van ride and the drugs can't be detected through simplistic blood testing. I took a double dose because I wouldn't allow them to dose Reggie."

"A double dose of what?" John asked in a concerned voice. "Should I be calling for Rescue?"

Juliana sighed, "Metorae combined with some sort of sedative that was supposed to keep us occupied and quiet during the van ride," she spoke in a trembling voice, frowning and grabbing her chest. "Ow."

John's eyes widened in fear, "What the actual crap is Metorae?" he asked worriedly.

"I didn't take it, it was force-fed to me before we all were jammed in the van," Julia replied weakly.

Swearing under his breath, John moved over to the video-phone as fast as his synthetic leg would allow, quickly putting in a call to emergency services, "It makes the arthritis worse," Juliana spoke, suddenly trailing off as she sank against against the wall with her eyes closed. "The room's spinning."

Reggie watched wide-eyed as John hurried back to his mother's side and knelt down on his good leg, "It's a drug that puts stress on bodily organs and makes it impossible to release feelings of anxiety," Juliana said in a weakening voice, keeping her eyes closed. "Withdrawals could bring on…"

Suddenly, Juliana turned her head and began to vomit violently on the floor several times and suddenly spat out something that looked like a computer part surrounded by spikes, "It's finally out," she breathed in an exhausted voice. "I've been trying to puke it up for days with little success."

John eyed the item suspiciously, "It's a submission chip," Juliana spoke in a weak voice, exhaling sharply.

Not trusting that the thing wouldn't try to hurt him, John quickly retrieved a container and sealed the object up, "I'll call the police to come get this," he said, eyeing the object worriedly. "You okay?"

Juliana closed her eyes and let out a shaky sigh, "Just give me a minute," she spoke shakily.

Container in hand, John nodded and silently left the room to contact the police about what happened.

SuperSears

Deeply uncomfortable being in a public place after being isolated by InSyndicate so long, Juliana silently looked through the women's clothes for something that wasn't overly colorful, too tight, too low cut, and had sleeves that would hide her thin arms from view. John had lent her some clothes to wear home from the hospital because hers were simply too see through from overuse and he had thrown them out.

Dorian had surprisingly been invited along and was helping Reggie pick out clothes while John hung around Juliana. When he had contacted his precinct about the submission chip, Maldonaldo had insisted he take Juliana and Reggie somewhere away from the apartment and that she would send Dorian too, but there had been no further explanation. John had dropped the container off at the precinct on the way and had asked why he was doing this, but Maldonaldo simply promised to contact him later on.

John watched as a female sales-bot approached Juliana, "Are you in need of assistance, dear?" the bot asked in its typical friendly way as she put a hand on Juliana's shoulder. "You have very pretty hair…"

Juliana suddenly froze and went very quiet, staring off into space as the sales bot guided her through the racks of clothes, taking shirts, pants, and jackets off random racks, "Excuse me," John said to the bot.

The bot turned and looked at John, who was watching Juliana, "Take your hands off of her now," he said in a stern voice, quickly realizing that Juliana had gone non-responsive at the sales bot's touch.

Intimidated by John's look, the bot removed her hands and dumped the clothes in Juliana's arms before stalking off, "Jules," John spoke, frowning when Juliana began to shake and cry softly. "Juliana?"

"I…I should try these on," Juliana finally spoke shakily. "I don't know if these will fit."

John eyed the clothes and eyed Juliana's slender frame, "I think they will," he replied in a reassuring voice as he took the clothes. "Let's go find Dorian and Reggie, pay for this stuff, and go eat."

"John, please go find Reggie and Dorian," Juliana spoke quietly. "I…I just need a minute."

The sight of Dorian and Reggie coming towards them with a pile of colorful boys' clothes caused John to look away for one moment to acknowledge them. When he looked back at Juliana, she was gone.

"Where's Mommy, Uncle John?" Reggie asked in a confused voice. "Did she get some clothes too?"

John silently took the clothes from Dorian, giving Dorian a look, "Mommy went for a walk to go see what food is available," he lied. "You and I are going to pay for the clothes and then go get some food."

While Reggie followed John to the counter to pay for the clothes, Dorian took off back into the mall because he could use his scanning technology to locate Juliana even if she had left the building.

Memory Restoration – the Recollectionist in Koln District can restore displaced memories.

Ripping the page from the advertisement book, Juliana stepped out of the communication booth and slipped the page into the pocket of the pants she had borrowed from John. She couldn't remember why she had disliked the touch of female bots, but she wanted to know because of the incident in the store.

Swallowing hard, Juliana reached up and pulled the scrunchie off of her hair, as she had only kept her hair as long as her butt because InSyndicate had insisted upon it. The sales bot's comment about her pretty hair had made her feel disgusting and tainted, but she couldn't remember why that was.

Quickly spotting a stylist, Juliana walked over to the small, exquisitely decorated shop and looked at the style holos on the walls to see what she wanted, "Can I help you?" a male stylist asked suspiciously.

"I hate my hair," Juliana replied, gazing at the stylist. "My brother, Detective Kennex, suggested I…"

The stylist nodded, seeing the family resemblance immediately because the detective had been in every so often for a trim and had mentioned his missing sister just for something to talk about, going so far as to even share a holophoto of her, "I would rather have it at my shoulders and simply less troublesome."

"I will charge it to Detective Kennex's account," the stylist said reassuringly. "Please, come sit down."

Juliana nodded and made herself comfortable in one of the chairs, letting out a sigh of relief as she was eased backward into a sink. The water and shampooing felt like bliss and before Juliana knew it, the stylist had sat her up and was gently ruffling her washed hair with a towel so it could be cut.

"I will make you look as beautiful as your soul is," the stylus promised as he began to quickly cut.

As the haircut progressed, Juliana suddenly saw Dorian come into the shop, "John bought the clothes and has taken Reggie to eat," Dorian said in a calm, confused voice. "You didn't mention this."

"I need to be rid of it, Dorian," Juliana replied quietly. "I hate it and I can't remember why I hate it."

Dorian watched silently, as he had seen Juliana seek information about memory recollection and was concerned that she might seek out the Recollectionist for help as John had once done for himself. Soon enough, the haircut was done and Juliana's hair was now curly, clean, and shoulder length.

"Thank you," Juliana replied as she set the apron aside and got up. "See you."

The stylist nodded and Juliana left the shop with Dorian, "Is John still entertaining Reggie?" she asked.

Dorian gave Juliana a look, "Recollectionists are dangerous," he spoke softly. "I saw you get…"

Juliana scoffed, but before she could reply, two figures clad in black emerged and grabbed Juliana, pinning her against the wall, "You gave the diaries to the police and you regurgitated your submission chip," one of the voices said darkly. "Did Jefra not break you enough that you would dare defy?!"

Dorian quickly got his gun out and moved over to the two figures, "Release her," he hissed, aiming.

One of the figures placed a hand over the gun, causing it to suddenly die, "Your weapon is ineffective," it said in a cold voice, glaring at Dorian as an alarm suddenly sounded. "You are as defiant as…"

Two shots were suddenly fired, causing the figures to explode all over Juliana and Dorian while the alarm continued to sound. Dorian turned to see John standing downwind with his weapon out while Maldonaldo and several MX's stood behind him with Reggie and several shopping bags in tow.

"Rudy analyzed the chip and found that an alert had been sent out due to the deactivation," Maldonaldo explained to Dorian as John holstered his weapon. "These droids are executors."

Dorian's eyes widened and deeply shaken, Juliana slumped against the wall to the floor and struggled to control her breathing simply because she knew that those droids had been sent to kill her over surrendering the logs and puking up the chip. Her mother's cruel laugh and taunting about how she and her crippled brother would never amount to anything filled Juliana's ears, drowning out worried voices.

"…This mall is being evacuated due to an incident involving the InSyndicate. Please proceed to…"

John knelt down on his good leg and gently began patting Juliana's face while the MX cops moved away to help evacuate the mall, "Come on, Jules," he said in an anxious voice. "Wake up for me already…"

Unaware that she had passed out, Juliana slowly opened her eyes, "Crap," she whispered anxiously.

"Do you need medics?" John asked in a worried voice, knowing that she was in shock.

Juliana shook her head and slowly got to her feet, frowning when she saw Maldonaldo with Reggie, "Is Reggie okay?" she asked in a concerned voice as she slowly walked over to them. "Reggie."

John sighed and looked at Dorian as Reggie hugged his mother, "Detective Kennex, a word," Maldonaldo said in a quiet voice as she walked over to him. "Dorian, take Juliana and Reggie outside, please."

Once Dorian had removed, Juliana and Reggie, Maldonaldo offered John a stylus, "This is the person who ordered those executor droids here and ordered Juliana's capture seven years ago. We analyzed all of Juliana's logs…"

Detective Kennex took the stylus and frowned when he saw a photo of his mother, a woman who had cut off all contact and vanished after his father had died, labelled Jefra Kennex: Master of Assassination and Criminal Liaison for InSyndicate North America and International Director of Trafficking.

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