Part 4
"These are my friends Bruce and Diana." Clark said, introducing Anita to them. "You can trust them. They only want to help."
Anita nodded but stuck close Clark. The others hadn't stopped frowning at her since she had first seen them.
"Have to use my bigger lab." the man called Bruce said unhappily. "The other needs to be repaired." he said, looking at her before walking quickly down the hallway.
"He doesn't like me, does he?" Anita asked Clark, clutching his arm.
"You hang any harder onto his arm Honey, and you'll bruise him. That's an accomplishment in itself." the woman called Diana said a small smile on her lips.
Anita let go of Clark and stuck her hands behind her back guiltily "Sorry." she said, looking at the floor and completely missing Clark nodding his thanks to her for helping him avoid that particular question.
"No need to apologize." Clark reassured her, gently guiding her down the hall in the direction where Bruce had disappeared.
"Diana. Clark." a low voice said behind them.
"Jonn." Diana said with a smile. "Nice to see you today."
Anita turned to see a towering man with a plain-looking face with brown hair and brown eyes while wearing a plain black jacket and jeans. He came closer, looking at her with an emotionless face.
"This is Anita." Clark introduced. "Anita, I'd like you to meet Jonn Jonzz. He's another good friend of ours."
"Hello Anita." he said with a tilt of his head.
"I'm sure Bruce would like to know you are here. You could possibly help us out greatly." Diana offered.
"Of course." he said and followed them down the hall.
"Glad you could join me." Bruce said sarcastically as they came in, still tapping away at his computer.
"Hello Bruce." Jonn said as he came into the room.
"Jonn." Bruce said with a less stressed tone of voice, coming forward to shake his hand. "You were just the person I was wishing were here." Bruce quickly filled him in on the past few hours and what he wanted to do while Diana and Clark kept Anita's attention elsewhere other than on their conversation.
"I see how worried you are about this girl." Jonn said, glancing behind him at the others. "I will do as you ask. I too am very curious as to how her mind works. It is like nothing I have come upon before."
"But can you actually penetrate her mind?" Bruce asked.
"Yes I will be able to. It isn't any different from other humans I have encountered." he reassured Bruce but glanced over at the girl before continuing. "It's the presence it gives off that makes me wonder."
"Lets get started then." Bruce said before turning to face the others. "Anita, Jonn and I have a small request of you."
Anita looked at him with a cautious face. "What is it?"
"Please remember that I want to help." Bruce said slowly. "But Jonn has certain... abilities that could help us figure out what is blocking your mind and how to... fix it."
"Are you thinking about a reading?" Clark asked.
"Yes." Jonn answered simply.
"I see no problem why not." Diana agreed. "It's a lot safer than other alternatives."
"But it is your decision Anita." Clark told her. "If you don't want to do it, we can find another way."
"I will do it." she agreed.
Jonn had Anita sit in one of the chairs in the large lab with a back and armrests. The others took a few steps back, wanting to give them space but not wanting to miss what would be revealed.
"Please remember this Anita," Jonn started out. "Don't try to resist me as I enter your mind. It could possibly harm you or me in the process. Do you understand?" Anita nodded and Jonn knelt down in front of her. Even on his knees, he was the same height as her as she sat. He took her hand, his first finger on the underside of her wrist and placed his other hand on her shoulder. "Look into my eyes." he ordered, his eyes now a dark almost glowing red. Anita did as she was told, his face barely 6 inches away. "Don't resist me." he reminded, not blinking as he gently squeezed her shoulder.
Diana gasped as Anita suddenly slumped forward as if in sleep onto his shoulder. Jonn carefully pushed her back against the chair and continued with his mind reading, his eyes slowly turning yellow as he too left this room and entered a completely different world.
Jonn was surprised what he saw as Anita's mind became clearer and clearer. He had appeared in the white observing room where she had first woken up in. It looked exactly as it did now with surprising detail. He turned towards the door and turned the handle. It opened and he stepped past it, hoping to see something that would speak of her mind. It was the same hall the room opened into. He tried the door he had come through but it would not open. He tried the elevators also near the observation room but pressing the calling buttons gave him no response. Frowning and thoroughly puzzled, he tried the door that would lead to the lab they were all currently in and was not so surprised to see it was the lab itself. The big computer Bruce treasured so much was on and buzzing like it usually did. He decided to give it a try and see if it would give up any information.
Pressing a few keys, this time he was surprised it actually worked somewhat. Clicking on a file that read "Anita," he hoped it would give up some semblance of what a human mind should be. But he was sadly disappointed as if only gave a perfect recounting of the past hour she had been awake. He tried to search the computer for anything that could explain something of what was going on but it was all in vain. He sighed and slowly withdrew from her seemingly simple mind. His eyes focused on reality and he felt the deep frown on his physical face.
"What did you find?" Bruce asked, hurrying towards them.
"This." Jonn said, gesturing to the lab around them. "I saw a near perfect replica of the lab, hall, and observing room. I couldn't go beyond it. But for some reason your computer was on in her mind. There was where I found something that pointed towards it being her mind. But all I found was the memory of the past hour." he finished with a negative shake of his head.
The other were shocked at the lack of originality and information her mind had given them.
"That doesn't give much for us to work with." Bruce said, his closed hand tapping his chin.
"The human mind usually takes knowledge and images from their world around them and it shapes a world inside to its own likeness. But there was no difference from what you see now." Jonn said gravely. "It's like she has had no life before today."
By now, Anita had carefully sat up in her chair and slowly become aware of her surroundings. She looked up at Jonn with hope in her eyes. "Did you find anything?" she asked.
Jonn closed his eyes and shook his head. "I am sorry to say that I did not." Anita tried not to let her disappointment show but Clark jumped in to try to cheer her up.
"We have other ways we can reach your mind. We aren't giving up just yet." Clark promised, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
They heard Bruce sigh irritably and rub his forehead hard for a moment before turning back to face them. "I have another way we could possibly understand this. This computer isn't as good as the one recently destroyed but a brain scanis the next best thing."
"As long as it is safe." Clark said.
"It is." Bruce sighed. "I've used it myself and I'm fine."
With his back turned, he missed the concerned look between Diana and Clark. Anita, who didn't really know what was happening, knew that look meant trouble.
"Are you ready for this?" Bruce asked, not completely caring if she was or not.
After looking at Clark for a bit of courage, Anita was on the table a few minutes later with some odd hat thing on her head and something strapped to her arm. After a few more taps and clicks, Bruce and his computer were ready.
"Alright... Anita. For this to work, I need you to follow my instructions." Bruce said slowly. "Can you do that?"
"Yes." she said quietly.
"Good." he said, starting the scan. "Don't be afraid." he added as second thought.
For the next hour, Anita lay completely still on the table inside a tube-like thing. Completely going through her body systems, muscles, and bones for anything different from before... they weren't disappointed.
By now Bruce had removed his tie and rolled up his sleeves with his hair a mess. Diana was just as confused as he was, no longer wearing her shoes as she paced between Anita and the computer. Clark was the only one with a semblance of order, standing beside where Anita lay but was still confused.
"How is it possible for her to be so much more different?" Bruce asked no one in particular. "That... change from before shouldn't have done something this drastic!"
"What about her DNA?" Diana asked him.
Pulling up the files from earlier for a comparison, it was very different. The double Helix it should have been or the triple Helix it had seemed to be changing into was in the past. Her DNA was a literal column of genetics and information. If there were any Nanites still working, they were nowhere to be found.
"Is that..." Diana shook her head and looked at Clark to see if he saw what she did.
"Its like mine." Clark said in awe.
"This is impossible." Bruce grumbled, rubbing his eyes.
"Try a brain scan. Maybe there will be something to explain this." Clark urged.
A couple of hurried clicks and taps, Bruce spoke to Anita. "Still with us?"
"Yes." she said softly, feeling anxious that they were so angry sounding.
"Will you please think of something happy." Bruce stated rather than asked.
"Happy." Anita repeated, her mind scrambling through the void for something along the lines of happy.
"Anita?" Bruce asked.
"I don't... have anything." she said quietly, wondering if this was normal.
"You don't?" she heard Diana say.
"No..." Anita whispered, concluding it wasn't normal.
There was silence outside her tube before Bruce said, "Can you think of something... sad? Or even scary?"
The nothingness in her mind was replaced with a few very vague memories but of ones that physically made her hurt. The flash of a black silhouette with a flash on a malicious smile leaning menacingly over her, the burning in her arm, the pain... oh the pain.
"Anita? Anita!" Clark said, breaking though the wall of bad.
"Stop her Clark. Her heart is racing and I don't want to risk losing this lab too!" Bruce hissed.
Anita trying to force herself to calm down, her body violently shake. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." she apologized over and over, trying to refocus her mind on anything other than the bad black memory. But it was a much stronger memory for her than anything she knew. Her lungs seemed to be half of what was normal, making it hard for her to breathe. Squeezing her eyes shut, she felt a tear slip out.
"Calm down Honey." she heard Diana say kindly, laying a comforting hand on her ankle. "Everything is fine." she promised, slowly helping Anita come back to the present.
"I'm sorry." she whispered, her shaking only in her hands now.
"Its fine Anita. You did as he asked and that is good enough." Clark said, his voice nearer to her now.
"It was more than enough actually." Bruce said, pointing to the part of her brain where memories were stored. "Look at all the memory clusters. They look like they were drained into... well that." he said, gesturing to the picture of healthy looking clusters and then raisin-like clusters. "This was not a normal memory loss. This was more like a memory editing."
"Who would do something like that?" Diana asked in disgust. "What would that even accomplish?"
"It's the ideal way for mind-control." Jonn said quietly.
"Exactly." Bruce muttered, staring intently at the screen. "I saw this somewhere but... I can't remember what from."
"I have one question." Clark interjected. "With new DNA like that, what do you think its going to mean for Anita in the future?"
Bruce shrugged. "That's beyond me at the moment. Just about anything is possible right now."
"Not very helpful but okay." Clark said with a sigh.
What Bruce suggested they do was simple, keep Anita here for now until they decided what would be better. Clark would stay here with her for a few days and Diana would come help. Bruce would come by sometimes to check up, unable to come by more often with his big company to run. Jonn promised he could and would be here to help if they needed it.
Saying goodbye to Diana and Bruce, Clark looked at the skeptical Anita with a big grin. "I think there is someone here you should meet."