When Adam looked down at Vera after he had dropped them into the secret sewer entrance to Koller's workshop, activating Icarus landing, she was already unconscious. Most likely from the pain. Koller had acknowledged Adam's request and when Adam had rushed into the shop to the patient doctor, Koller was more than surprised to see a woman in his arms.
Adam laid Vera in Koller's special chair as he spoke, "There's something in her sending a signal out in her body. I need you to remove it."
"Um," Koller was still surprised and spoke with forced enthusiasm, confusion triumphing his act, "You got it man!" He rushed to Vera's side to hook her up to the gas for the surgery. "Uhh," Koller looked over at Adam who was watching, "Who is she?"
"Someone who has answers I need, Koller," Adam spoke bitterly. He needed the doctor to work, not talk.
Koller nodded as he took the hint. Adam told him how she had pointed at her chest and when the doctor looked at her scar, he then carefully removed her shirt. When the scar fell to be between her breasts, he remained fully professional as he had to remove her bra as well before he attached a scalpel to his right hand.
When Vera woke, she let out a groan of pain first thing. It wasn't the same pain as earlier. Her bones hurt all through her body. She desperately craved Neon. She wanted to drown in it.
Her eyes opened to an unknown ceiling and when she sat up, she felt what seemed like a shower curtain slide off her body, exposing her revealed chest. Vera quickly covered her breasts when she realized she was topless and also regarded the fresh, sore scar on her chest. She was cut open again.
Vera looked around at the cave she was in. She was alone and on a platform with equipment all around her, pictures, scans, and blood. When she weakly stood to step away from the chair she was in, she noticed that there was a pulled out couch to be a bed and a computer desk with several monitors. Writing and posters lined every bit of the walls and when she looked down a hallway, she saw a dead end. The other end being an elevator.
Vera started to panic. Where was she? Last thing she remembered was her interrogation. Now it looked as though she was in a Harvester's den. She saw a heap of dirty clothes piled on the floor and retrieved a long sleeve, red plaid shirt and threw it on, buttoning it up to cover herself. When she almost ran to the elevator, she froze when she heard it descending to her level. She needed to hide. Vera hastily looked around. There was nowhere to run. The other end was just bricks. She slid around the corner towards the computer and hugged herself tight under the desk.
She stayed quiet and listened. The elevator door opened and she heard someone walking along, humming contently to himself. She ran her thumb over her right hand. She never had to use the augments in her right hand until now.
Vera ever so slowly peeked her head out just enough to see a man that was very unique to say the least. He had a long coat on with silver spike studs on the shoulders and a poster safety pinned to his back. His hair was thick and wavy but shaved on the back to show his spinal augmentation on the back of his head to run down his back.
When the man noticed Vera missing, he flinched, "What?! Where-"
Vera had the electric charges already coursing through her right hand when she popped out and grabbed the man's neck. Koller locked up, metal fingers curling to a fist and teeth grit as he was basically tazed. The moment became drastically cut short however as soon as Vera felt someone wrap their arm around her throat and forcefully yank her away from the first man. When she reacted to grab the second with her right hand, she yelped as she felt the back of her knees kicked, forcing her to drop to her knees before both of her hands became restrained behind her back by an impenetrable force.
"Relax," Adam spoke with his unique voice, "It's me. I need you to calm down." When he felt Vera's muscles relax, he cautiously released her and helped her stand again.
Koller caught his breath as he recovered from his attack. Rubbing his neck roughly, he turned to Vera with a surprising wide smile on his face. "Holy shit, that was cool! I didn't realize that's what that aug was! I didn't have the chance to actually look yet!"
Vera took an obvious step back when Koller quickly stepped closer to her. The way his eyes shone as he looked at her was enough to say that he was fascinated. Vera didn't like, but didn't fight, Koller taking her right hand and looking at her fingers. His metal fingers applying pressure every now and then as if he were studying it.
As the doctor had his head down, Vera stared at the top of his head. Vaclav Koller. 27. Self augmented and augmented his whole life. He didn't suffer from the incident 2 years prior. Working with the Dvali-
Vera jerked her hand away from Koller immediately, surprising him. Her left hand quickly shut as she turned Koller's bio off. He was Dvali. And she assaulted him. She didn't think she could feel any more sick with how much she fucked up.
When she looked at Adam, he asked, "What's wrong?"
Vera couldn't find the words to respond. Was Adam Dvali too? Surely he had to know that Koller was. She knew all too well what happened to those on the wrong side of the Dvali and she didn't want to join them.
"Yeah, you look spooked," Koller added in. Still not sure what scared her.
"I-I'm," her eyes found Koller's brown ones, "sorry. I'm so sorry for attacking you."
Koller smiled broadly and dismissed her words, "Ah, don't worry about it. I know my place isn't the most inviting and waking up here could be kinda scary. You were defending yourself. Buuuttt," he dragged out as he pointed to her chest with his right hand, "You did bleed on my shirt. You must have opened the wound."
His shirt, Vera paled even more. Koller acted friendly enough but was it genuine? She looked down and touched her chest through his shirt just to confirm his words. She was bleeding; her fingers wet with red as she pulled her hand back. She managed another look at Adam but with his shielded eyes, she couldn't tell what he was thinking. He was emotionless.
"Are you okay?" Adam asked her.
Vera answered but because she felt as though she needed to, "Y-yeah, I'm fine."
Adam knew she was lying but didn't want to press the matter. Not now at least. "Can you still answer our questions?" he was referring to the interrogation.
Vera nodded shakily. "Yeah I can."
"Good." Adam said. He then regarded Koller, "let him fix your wound and we'll go."
Vera's face gave away her true emotions now after Adam spoke. She didn't want to be near Koller but the way Adam had regarded the other man showed that he had no problem with the doctor. When Vera looked back at the man who was just a year older than her, he gave her a cheeky smile before motioning her to follow him.
Vera followed the doctor back to the chair she had woken up in and sat hesitantly back down in it. Her hands clutched the armrest as he leaned her back slowly so she was looking up at him over her. When he began unbuttoning her, or actually his, shirt, she quickly grabbed his hand. She was too frightened of what might come.
"I'm sorry," she said again, low enough for him to hear her.
Koller sighed and his smile was gone, "I'm not going to hurt you."
"I didn't …," Vera had to swallow her fear, "know you were Dvali. I was just frightened."
Koller didn't respond at first. Instead, his bloodshot brown eyes were wide as he looked into her blue and golden ones. He finally lifted his hand away from hers and pointed slightly at her eye, "Did that show you things about me?"
"Maybe..?" Vera answered cautiously.
The smile couldn't be held back any longer on Koller's face, "That's crazy sweet! You've got to let me look more into these augs of yours! Who knows what they can do?" He put his hands together in a mock prayer, "Promise you'll come back once Jensen's done with you?"
Vera didn't understand the man but her answer was half a joke, half plea as she spoke, "Just as long as you don't harvest me." She didn't fight him this time as he went back to unbuttoning her top. He moved his shirt enough to get to her wound but to not expose her this time.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Koller responded as he worked with careful hands on her chest, stitching the wound. "Although..," he spoke lowly but kept his eyes on his work, "You shouldn't do so much drugs. They can really fuck with your system. The augments make any reaction to them worse." he laughed slightly, "I can't really say much though."
"That obvious, huh?" Vera spoke lowly, almost sadly.
Koller looked up at her now, "No offense, but have you looked at yourself lately?"
Vera shook her head, "I haven't seen myself since this happened to me."
"Seriously?" Koller said in disbelief. "Well, I mean, you're still really pretty-" He stopped quickly when he realized that he just hit on her and her cheeks became flushed with light color too. When she didn't respond, he returned to his work and was done in no time.
"W-well," Koller said quickly and stood up, still feeling awkward from his comment, "all done!"
Vera sat up carefully and buttoned Koller's shirt back up before standing. As she did, she looked at a group of pictures from recent scans clipped to a board. She would have disregarded them if not for the familiar looking augmentations in the hands of the body and the eye. What made Vera go cold was how much augmentations were in the scanned body.
Jensen could read the horror on her face like an open book and he couldn't help but feel all too familiar with the emotions that ran through her. He took a few steps closer as Koller noticed her reaction too.
Vera forgot about the other two in the room as her fingers, trembling, touched one photo of her torso scan. Her lungs and heart weren't real anymore. Her eyes slid over the limb scans, the ones of her arms and legs, and not only were her hands plated with metal under the skin like she knew, but the augs ran up her entire arms and her legs alike to her spine. Her feet were the same as her hands.
"What did they do to me?" Vera spoke out loud brokenly but to herself. "I'm not even me anymore…." She didn't turn her head when Koller spoke up.
"Hey man," the doctor began, "being augmented isn't that bad. Sure, the world is kinda shitty now but there are still things that can make it great. Being an Aug isn't the end."
Vera blinked her eyes quickly and jerked her head downwards as she felt the tears fall. She didn't mean for them too. They just did. She couldn't help it. She didn't feel human anymore. She didn't know what she was. She quickly pressed her palms to her eyes to stop the crying.
Jensen knew they couldn't say anything right now to help so he changed the subject, "It's time to go."
Vera looked in their direction but not at either one of the men after Adam spoke and nodded her head. When she walked by, Koller spoke again, "I'd still love to look at those augs if that's cool."
"Not helping," Adam quickly said as he took Vera and left out the secret entrance with her. She noted how there really was another exit to Koller's cave but could care less at the moment.
Adam waited for Vera to finish climbing the ladder before walking ahead again. It was daylight now. Adam stopped walking and looked back when she wasn't moving.
"So I'll ask you," she began, not making eye contact. "What's going to happen to me? After I answer your questions? I'm innocent, Adam, I promise. I don't know if you believe me or not but I am and all I want is to go home. I want to see my father and forget everything. Maybe one day I can act like everything is normal again but right now, everything is fucked up."
Adam stared at her for a few heartbeats. "I believe you," he finally said. "I'll make sure you get a temporary passport for the time being." He started to turn to walk away but stopped again. "You had an implant in your heart that was activated like a kill switch. I suspect someone was listening and when you started speaking about your augments, they activated it. There was also one in your head."
Vera now looked up at him as she touched her head lightly where she could feel a small scar. "What am I Adam? Am I a weapon? An experiment? … Am I even human anymore?"
The silence that fell between them was harsh. Adam couldn't give her the answers she needed due to his beliefs and personal experiences. He had had those thoughts plague his mind endlessly when he first became augmented. He too didn't know who he was anymore at one point. It was a new set of depression to see someone else go through what he had but that just made him want to help her more. He had fought away his demons and became who he was because of it. He wanted to be a savior.
"You're human Vera." Adam said, almost as if he was telling himself that too. "Don't you ever doubt that."