Chapter 14: Gift or Curse?
Treasa Firestar awoke on a metal table, in a white, paper gown. She looked around her, the walls and floors were stainless steel, and the ceiling was square steel grid work, with bright fluorescent lighting mounted underneath. Her head was foggy, and next to her was a tray of blood laden instruments. She tried to focus, but she couldn't. She tried to sit up, and found herself restrained. She tried to cry out, but her throat was so dry she choked herself with the effort. She settled back on the steel table and decided to try and clear her disorganized thoughts. Then the door opened and in walked two men.
One wore a white robe and a set of keys, the other wore imperial armor, and had a gun trained on her. She leveled her gaze on the one in the white and waited, she could feel her throat was still in no condition to talk, so she waited. He came over and unlocked her restraints. She sat up and pulled her arms in front of her and rubbed her sore wrists, and pulled her legs up in front of her. She felt a brief flash of fear because no one was talking and she felt odd. Her body ran cold as sudden flashes of the last mission she was on returned to her. The one in white turned his head and looked at her, then turned and walked to the far side of the room. Treasa looked at the guard and slid to the edge of the table and he raised his gun and took aim. She quickly raised her hands in innocence, and the doctor came back and handed her a white jump suit. Then they both turned and left.
Treasa was regaining her mind's control while she slipped out of the paper gown and into the jumpsuit. As she slid the shirt on she took notice of the scar that now ran under her ribs. She remembered that she was injured after the last mission, maybe it was worse then she thought. The jumpsuit had the Phyre Knight insignia on the left breast and said "Phyre Knight Medical" and she relaxed a little. Then the door opened again and in walked Bill Stonewall. "Treasa, good to see you up and moving again, we thought we were going to lose you. How are you feeling?" He asked, and she shrugged, responding in a hoarse whisper. "Something isn't right, what happened?" She said running a weak hand over her new scars. Bill looked down slightly and then returned his gaze to her eyes. "If your up to it we will move to my office and talk?" He asked and she nodded. She tried to get up, but still couldn't quite stand on her own. Bill reached out to steady her, and thought about how difficult the next hour would be for her to deal with. Well he did it once with the Senator, he could do it again for Treasa.
She sat down in his office and he got her some water. She sipped tentatively as the water eased the tension in her throat. She took in the stark office with it's military manuals, strategy guides, and history books on the Empire. The desk was a black onyx, and Bill sat behind his clean desk and looked thoughtfully at Treasa. She took in his well angled, clean shaven face, not sharp, but defined, his salt and pepper gray hair, neatly cut, just about an inch off his scalp. He was tall with an average weight and all well toned muscle. He was attractive in a rough kind of way. His hard hazel eyes spoke volumes with a single word from his thin lips. However she knew by the look in his eyes that his news was going to be bad. Whatever it was, she could take it, or at least she was pretty sure she could take it.
"Treasa, you died over five days ago. The mission for the Senator was a failure due to a mole. We lost half your team. You, Darkstar, and Toad were killed and Kinks defected to the Iron Claw." He was speaking slowly to let things sink in. She was looking intently at Bill, trying to figure out why she was sitting in his office, drinking water, if she was dead. The dead don't tend to sit up very well, or sip water for that matter. "You have been rebuilt from the inside out. You still retain your mind and your soul but much of your internal organs have been replaced. The next step with this reconstruction process is to wipe out your mind of the traumatic incident that caused death, I canceled this procedure for you and Darkstar. Toad was wiped completely clean, much of his physical brain was damaged in the crash. He is currently being reprogrammed, he'll be back to normal soon, if he survives his physical trauma. Darkstar will not be told about the enhancements made to put her legs back together again, it would further damage her image of herself. You however are not only aware of your rebuilding, but have your memories. If we wiped out your mind all your training and the memories that make you who you are would be gone. We could easily reprogram fighting techniques but the edge that you have would be lost forever." Treasa was completely calm about everything. She still has a chance to make things right, she could care less whether her pancreas was intact, she didn't know what it was for anyway.
Now was the time to drop the bomb on Treasa. Bill felt guilty for what he was about to do to her, she had suffered far to much for her age. The Phyre Knights needed the Senator back and this would be the only way to do it. He turned the lights down and hit a button sitting on his desk. A hologram popped up in the center of his desk. Treasa's heart, at least what she thought was her heart, skipped a beat. Her body went cold and she became lightheaded. Before her was a ghostly holophoto of Alexander Justyn Darkstrom, her Alex. Her eyes were wide and she couldn't breath. "Alex..." she whispered as her eyes filled with tears she hadn't shed for many years. Bill's heart went out to her because she was about to become the saviour of the Phyre Knight party, and of A.J. Darkstrom. "Treasa, this is the Senator." Bill said and Treasa slipped out of her chair, her body numb with shock. He switched the picture to one with his armor, and no helmet. His deep blue eyes were striking and his stance was so familiar. She could have kicked herself for all the times her body was telling her something was up with this mystery man and she ignored it. She had him back but didn't know it, and now she lost him again.
Anger and vengeance started it's way through her blood and she rose up from the floor on sheer will power alone. Her eyes started to glow as her anger built to boiling. This was what Bill was counting on. "Treasa, we need you to get him back. But please bear in mind, he is not the A.J. you remember, we locked away all his memories a long time ago. He only knows you as Treasa Firestar the trained killer, not the lost lover. He has little flashes where he remembers things, but they are so broken he dismisses them. He thinks your some fantasy in the back of his lonely mind, so he loads himself down with work so he doesn't think about it."
Treasa understood, it may not have been fair, but she understood. She was happy to know he was alive and well, and this whole time they were always fighting for the same cause at the same time. She always felt connected to him, even though she didn't know how. He knew the work she had done for his cause, and she hoped he was proud. Tears edged on breaking as her glassy eyes moved from the holophoto to William Stonewall. She could see through the wardog like glass, his guilt at playing this card was quite obvious to her. So she played back. "You know I'll tear this city down to retrieve the Senator, with out playing the A.J. card, but now that you've played it, your gonna owe me." She paused as she blinked the tears back into her eyes, no more would fall this day. She felt the cold, calculating killer creep back into her soul. She straightened her back in her chair, picked her head up slowly, and turned her frigid gaze on Bill and almost felt him shudder. "Sir, your toying with the emotions that make me who I am. You will give me 10 minutes with my A.J. after I rescue him to have my closure. A.J., not the Senator, with his memories intact. Then I turn my back and continue to serve the Phyre Knights until the empire is free. When the Empire is free, the Senator gets his memories back to do as he pleases. It is part of freedom, the right to remember. These are things I ask of you, of the Phyre Knights. I have died for you once already, and I will die as many times as necessary to rescue A.J., the least you could do is let me say goodbye to him."
Bill knew this was going to happen also. Her conviction to her new life was what surprised him. Most people rebuilt were bitter at being freaks, she didn't even weigh that into account. She only wanted to say goodbye, and he'd be able to arrange this without trying. "Treasa, you'll have all the time you need, from the time A.J. is in your custody. We are almost positive that they are slowly dismantling his mind, digging at his secrets. Our mole says that they've opened his mind locks and they are trying to torture him for information now that he has access to his emotions. They hope he is weak and will beak under interrogation." Bill took a sip of water and stared at A.J. 's holophoto and shook his head. "They don't know A.J. very well. Unleashing his memories and emotions is probably the worst thing they could have done. It was the only thing keeping his Psionics in check." He was still staring into space as he spoke.
However he had caught Treasa's interest. "Sir?" She questioned and leveled her stare on William Stonewall, and he snapped his attention back to reality. "Treasa, all of our rebuilts suffer a side effect of the process. We expand the useage of the mind to compensate for all the new cybernetics. This process also leads to the appearance of Psionics in all most all of the subjects. However, if we lock away the memories and emotions, it's like the safety on a weapon, it can't be fired. A.J. has developed telekinesis, he can move and manipulate things with his mind. You have developed pyronics, manipulation of fire. That's why you were in the room, alone, with nothing near you. You kept lighting things on fire while you were unconscious." Treasa laughed shortly, it was truly dark laugh, one that brought a surge of chills racing down William's spine. This was a truly dangerous person, and he was glad she was on his side.
"Let's get moving, if they even bruise him, I'll hang each one by their own skin, after I remove it from their still breathing bodies." Her eyes flashed gold and faded. She felt power brimming inside her and knew that this was going to be good. "I will bring A.J. back, and I will bring death to the Iron Claw. By this time next week the Empire will belong to the Phyre Knights for the rebuilding. This I promise you." Bill smiled at her, that was exactly what he was hoping for. As Treasa rose from her chair, like so much predator waiting to strike, Bill stood with her and repressed another shudder.
"Treasa... just make sure there is some Empire left to rebuild." He said to her with the smallest hint of a smile, and she spun on her heel and left.