~ 9 : Morgau ~

The young woman strode with purpose down the hall, the rubber soles of her boots squeaking against the linoleum tiles as she went. She had done her part, now it was his turn. It was time for her session.

She approached the door at the end of the hall and gently knocked.

"Come in." the voice from the other side answered.

She opened the door to the Nephilim's office and stood before the round table where he sat. He didn't acknowledge her presence with so much as a glance, too busy staring off in the distance with a pensive look. "Report." he commanded in his refined masculine voice.

Morgau took a deep breath. "Kurtis Trent is in custody. I left him sedated with Rouzic as commanded."

The Nephilim's eyes shifted to her then, his gaze slicing straight through her. "And the woman? Tell me you didn't let Lara Croft go again."

She cleared her throat. "I do not have her, sir."

He pursed his lips. "I assigned you this case myself, Morgau, because I have great faith in your abilities. There is no one in the Agency who can do what you do." Her heart swelled with pride at his words, but then quickly deflated from what he said next. "So you understand why it is a disappointment to hear of this failure."

"Trent -" she started to protest, but Karel cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"Yes, yes. I know, not all is lost. Dismissed." And with that he turned again away from her. Morgau stared at him a moment longer, swallowing back her nerves. So what if she didn't get Croft? This way Croft would come to them, but that damn Nephilim had to have things his way... Nevermind it, he'd see she was right.

She cleared her throat quietly. "My injections?" she asked timidly.

He looked at her again, eyes squinting near imperceptibly. He pointed to the door. "Go to the lab in an hour. I'll administer them myself."

With a nod she left the room, closing the door behind her softly. Master Karel despised loud noises when he was in a mood like that. When Gunderson had told her where to find him upon returning with the victim, she procrastinated going to see him, not wanting to disturb him while he was... doing whatever it was that he did during these times. Though he had only been the head of the Cabal for three months, everyone seemed to accept the change of power without issue, everyone accepted his quirks as if they'd always known him. But the truth was different. Anyone who might have opposed his leadership had already been killed by Eckhardt, and no one knew this man. Eckhardt's cruelty she knew like the back of her hand, but this creature...

Since she had an hour to kill before heading downstairs, she made her way to the break room for a snack and drink. As she passed an Agency grunt she nodded in comradery but was met with coldness; he averted his gaze and grimaced. She was used to this treatment from the other soldiers. She understood her appearance was off-putting to the others, but did it really warrant that reaction?

The break room it was already inhabited by a handful of workers eating, drinking, and conversing, and when she entered the room went quiet. She felt their eyes on her back as she bought a bag of chips and soda from the vending machines and stood against the wall, knowing she wouldn't be welcomed at the table, regardless if there was an open seat or not. Even if no one would talk to her, she still enjoyed hearing the others talk and laugh and joke with each other. It was easy to smile behind her soda can and pretend she was one of them.

After a moment the workers picked up their conversation where they'd left it. They were discussing the dig; there wasn't much work left to do. As she listened she noticed a crude map, a sort of blueprint of the excavation laying on the table. There were tunnels and corridors marked in two different colors, crisscrossing each other and going every which direction. At the end of one of them was an X-mark. None of it made any sense to her. Despite her being the one to inexpertly decrypt the Sleeper Scrolls, she was left out-of-the-loop. The deciphered Scrolls were themselves shrouded in another code, referring to places and things that made no sense to her, but Karel was instantly familiar with it. So even in this she was cast off, kept separate from the others.

One of the men commented about strange bugs he'd seen in the tunnels, and another called him a liar, and another a coward. They all laughed together in good fun. Morgau frowned. When people insulted her, no one laughed. She started to giggle too, but when the workers at the table heard this, they apparently didn't find the joke funny anymore and stopped to stare at her. No one spoke a word, but their uneasy glances said enough.

Morgau took a deep breath. Calm down, calm down. She chanted to herself like an incantation. She squeezed her eyes shut, but even not being able to see them she still knew they were looking back at her, calling her a freak in their minds. Furious, she moved from the wall and threw her half-empty soda can and bag of chips in the trashcan with more force than was necessary. She stormed from the room and as she crossed the threshold she heard one of the men mumble: "Watch out, she's having another episode." And the stifled laughter of the group chased her all the way to the elevator.

Morgau entered the examination room without knocking. She spotted Luther Rouzic from outside through the glass window separating it from the hallway. He turned to her and gave her a revolting smile – not his fault, she thought, he can't help being ugly – but regardless it sent a chill down her back. He was the only one in the entire building, in the entire Cabal, who was anything resembling warm to her, so she tried not to offend him. She wanted at least one person on her side. She walked up to the table and casually looked at his notes spread out there.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked not unkindly.

"Just waiting on Master Karel." She touched a paper with a fingertip. Kurtis Heissturm, it read at the top, but the rest was written in a shorthand not legible with a glance. "He's supposed to meet me here to administer my injections."

"Ah," Rouzic said, shuffling the papers away from her eyes. "Yes. Those. I'd offer to do it myself, but it seems the Master prefers keeping you to himself..."

It was with great difficulty she kept an impassive face, for inside she was twisting with disgust at that man's words. When she'd learned of Eckhardt's demise at the hands of that Croft woman, she thought she'd finally be free. But as she had been slowly learning through the actions and words of everyone around her, she was just as shackled to the Cabal as ever before; only her new jailer wore a kinder mask than the old, but both held no regard for her life beyond what she could do for them.

"I wish you would instead," she said quietly, "That man scares me."

The tall and gaunt man let out a grotesque, barking laugh. "Indeed, we all must do things we'd rather not in these trying times. You think I wouldn't rather be in my archives, working on my trophies, reading my books? But since the death of the other Cabal scientists, I am the only one left suitable for this task... In fact," he continued, creaky voice rising in arrogance, "I may have always been the only one suitable, for I am the only one who bore witness to Master Eckhardt's work when he performed them on you. I am uniquely suited to carrying on the program."

Rouzic seemed to come back to himself then, realizing who he was talking to, and leered at her with suspicion. Then a medical assistant new to the Cabal – Jozef,she recalled his name – entered the laboratory in a white lab coat and green scrubs underneath. He was young, though still older than her, with a boyish face that made him appear even younger, big sad eyes like a puppy dog, and a curly mop of brown hair on his head. Though he appeared warm and kind on the outside, his complete lack of compassion and empathy made him unsuitable for traditional medical settings. Morgau thought he was cute, but he ignored her entirely, having neither spoken a single word to her nor looked at her once.

"The subject's been prepped. Do you have the notes ready?" Jozef asked, stuffing his hands in his coat pockets.

"Yes. Shall we get started?" The two men nodded to each other, then looking to her, Rouzic motioned towards the door. "If you don't mind waiting outside... I need to bring the patient inside and begin the work."

She nodded, exited, and went to lean against the wall out in the hallway. After a few moments Rouzic and the medical assistant came out and went into a room a couple doors down the hallway, then reappeared from the room with a gurney between them. Eyeing her suspiciously, Rouzic latched the heavy metal door shut and pushed the gurney down the hall as Jozef pulled ahead. A man was strapped to it, unconscious, a white sheet covering his body to his neck. As they passed by, Morgau could see the needle mark in his neck, the one she had given him.

No one had told her he was Lux Veritatis. She found that out on her own, when he used his powers on her at the hotel room and attacked her with his special weapon. Her psychic powers were basic, the majority of her power came from her enhancements. Eckhardt had once promised to get her her own special Lux Veritatis weapon but had been unable to accomplish that before dying. But she doubted there were many she'd even be capable of controlling; she had tried using the Chirugai but it was too unruly and wouldn't follow her commands. The second time she confronted Kurtis she was prepared for what he could do, so she planned ahead and blind-sided him in her attack, putting up a psychic shield to dampen his energy. That battle had truly been one between equals. Eventually, she was able to subdue him.

But seeing him on that gurney, one of her kind, without her anger blinding her... something stirred in her. Her severe countenance softened as she took in his stricken pallor, his dark lashes painting his cheeks, rendered weak and defenseless.

Pain was all she registered. Pain in her chest, pain in her abdomen. Pain in her head – a headache that seemed to split her brain in two. Pain in her fingers, her legs, her toes, that branched out and devoured every inch of her. Everything felt wrong, her eyelids were too heavy, so impossible to keep open for longer than a minute, yet being unable to rest. Because all she felt was pain.

And fury.

It consumed her from within. If this pain didn't kill her, the anger would. She wanted nothing more than to break from the shackles binding her and rip the throat of the person responsible.

Something sharp pricked her neck, though she had no visible reaction to it. So used to constant discomfort as she was, something minor like that was barely acknowledged. It sent a rush of adrenaline through her bloodstream and her eyes shot open. She panted like a wild dog.

She needed to move. She sat up, finding the bindings had been loosened. As she looked around her – where was she? - she noticed him. The man who had taken her. Was he responsible?

The man, wicked and intense, with his gray hair tied back in a ponytail, rubbed his gloved hands together in front of him. Yes, it was the same man as before, and he didn't seem surprised to see her like this. It was then she noticed her own state. She was naked, but stronger than the instinct to cover herself was her curiosity, for strapped to her torso was an odd type of corset. It came just up to underneath her small breasts and extended the length of her stomach, stopping above her pubic mound. It was metal, with clasps and wires and tubing wrapping around it, encasing her. She dug the tips of her fingers under the seams and tugged, and the sensation was like someone was pulling on her guts. The man chuckled then, drawing her attention. His voice was coarse and reminded her of gravel.

"You cannot ever remove that. This 'corselet' is keeping you alive. If you don't want to die, you'll do as I command. Do I make myself clear?"

She nodded obediently. When he spoke to her, the pain stopped! Nothing hurt when she looked at him. She even almost felt good. She would do whatever it took to keep this feeling.

"Good." he continued. "From now on you'll work in the Agency, under my direction. You remember your training, I presume?"

She nodded again. She had forgotten about it, forgotten even her own name while she was trapped there, but it was all coming back to her now. Her name, her father, the Lux Veritatis, the experiments...

The experiments! Suddenly she was furious again, her fists and jaw clenched, and she wanted to lash out. But the mere thought of it was impossible. She was abruptly submerged in agony and cried out, holding her skull between her small hands and falling back onto the table. As she screamed and wept, her body contorted and the evil man came toward her with a demonic smile.

"You cannot go against me, child. I am your master now. Rise, and follow me."

The torment left her then, replaced once more with relief. She removed her hands clutching her hair and sat up. She followed him, feet dragging.

During the fight Kurtis had done something to her. At one point he had placed both his hands on either side of her face and spoke an invocation in a hushed tone, in Latin she suspected, but his large hands covering her ears and her own struggling against him muffled the words. At the time she thought little of it, assumed he was summoning some attack. But ever since he'd done that, something changed in her. The tightness that normally constricted her chest, the barrier that prevented her from thinking of subverting her Masters had vanished. She found she was able to freely imagine running away without any pain hindering her, without her emotions being suppressed. Whatever he had done... she was like before she had been captured by Eckhardt. Slowly but surely, she was gaining her personality back, and she had to be careful to hide that from the others.

Her heart had the impression of being torn in two as she watched Rouzic and Jozef roll that man into the lab room. Shutting the door behind him, Jozef turned and drew the blinds down the window and blocked her view.

She turned to leave, but when she got to the elevator the doors opened and Karel stood there, expression stolid. She started, placing a hand to her wildly beating heart. The way he looked at her unnerved her, as if he knew everything she'd been thinking. "Master Karel! You startled me; you're here earlier than expected."

"Yes, I finished sooner than I anticipated." Finished what, Morgau had no idea. The man – no, creature – was a mystery, and no one dared question him. "Come." he said as he passed by her. She followed behind him, and they made their way back to the lab rooms. He stopped at the door between the lab Rouzic was in and the room Kurtis had been kept in, and opened it. They stepped in.

It was an exam room like the others, with a bare gurney in the middle and glass-door cabinets against the walls hugging a metal table for note-taking. In the cabinets were vials and beakers, and Karel went to one and using a key he produced from inside his jacket, unlocked it and withdrew a vial and syringe. Sticking the needle through the top, he filled it with the clearish fluid. "Have a seat."

Morgau sat atop the gurney and took off her jacket and shirt, leaving her in her bra. The Nephilim took her arm and stuck the needle in without so much as feeling for a vein. She knew he could probably see them without resorting to the traditional methods, as pale as her skin was and inhuman as his vision was. After he withdrew the needle he inspected the corselet strapped to her torso; checked the wires, the filaments. Then he went to the glass case and removed another vial and fresh needle, and injected this one through an input in her metal casing. Warmth spread through her belly and extremities, bringing feeling back to her numb fingers and toes. She felt renewed again and her heart rate increased slightly.

"Master," she began lightly in her soft, feminine voice, "I'm sorry I have let you down."

"Are you?" he asked categorically. The warmth in her belly now turned to fear. Was it her imagination, or ever since she returned with Trent he looked at her differently? Did he suspect something?

"I thought... they would be together, but they had separated. I found Trent first, and Gunderson forbade me from using weapons -"

"Yes, I know what Gunderson told you; they were my orders. You did the right thing. Now we've the chance to see if that dotard Eckhardt was really onto something. You've been very useful. And I know what you were thinking..." her chest constricted, but she let nothing show. "...It was very clever of you. Now you have a second chance. When Lara Croft comes here to find him – which I have no doubt she knows our location by now – you'll capture her and bring her to me. Without the Lux Veritatis protecting her, it should be an easy enough task for you."

She nodded, kept her voice even. "I understand."

Just then a muffled groan pierced the air, coming from the adjacent room, followed by another and another. Karel left the room without a word and as Morgau redressed herself, the cries increased until she felt she was being tormented all over again. Pressing her hands to her ears she rushed out of the room and ran away from the haunting memories.

She couldn't do this anymore.

A/N: Music - "Opus 17" & "Opus 23" by Dustin O'Halloran