Seconds ticked by quickly, but to those in the office they felt like hours as they eyed the door nervously, waiting to see what would happen next. Michael and Richard eyed each other nervously, one hand each on the desk; Michael's other hand gripping a pistol he had gotten from his desk and Richard's hanging by his side and shaking madly as if it had come to life and was trying to break away from him. Not a sound escaped their lips and silence took over the atmosphere of the office.
Wally, the Arbiter and Auto also eyed the door nervously as well, the former and the third standing behind the Elite's back as he kept his plasma rifle aimed at the door; something he had been doing for the last few moments after Vadumee had not returned. His breathing was short and ragged as if he were about to draw his last breaths. In a way, he likely would with Eve now running around inside the base. With her new abilities, she could very easily kill all of them.
"Auto, are you picking anything up," Michael asked the AI, breaking the silence that had been reigning over them for the last few minutes.
"Nothing yet," he replied with a shake of his head. "Vadumee is moving down a corridor nearby but there's nothing else here." He added with a hint of apprehension in his voice.
"Are you sure?" Richard pressed him, his voice now filling with anxiety. "I don't want her getting in!"
"Richard, I can't be sure exactly but I know that Vadumee is-wait!" he suddenly stopped mid-sentence, a tone of surprise in his voice, and all eyes fell on him, anxiously awaiting what he had to report to them. "Oh no!" he breathed, swallowing hard. "He's…he's gone!"
"What d'you mean he's gone!" Michael cried his eyes now wide with fright.
"Compose yourself!" the Arbiter barked at them vociferously. "Fear is the worst thing that can grip you at such a perilous moment! Do not let it overcome you or you will-"
CRASH! With a sound akin to a ship liner creaking in the dockyard, the metallic door, along with part of the wall, burst open, shattering into large chunks as if a sledgehammer has been used to break it down, throwing up a cloud of dust that momentarily blinded those in the room.
"What the Hell!" Michael shouted; having to grab hold of the desk to stop himself from stumbling backwards as he placed a hand over his mouth and eyes to try and block out the dust.
"Call for security now!" Richard ordered vociferously, stumbling and coughing as he went behind the desk to carry out what he had just said, his hand reaching for the security button under the desk…except something beat him to it, and it was not a hand.
Thin but long and slithery in form, dark green/brown in colour and creeping across the desk slowly like a lion sneaking up on prey on the savannah, he froze and his eyes watched as a tentacle seemed to materialise out of the now disappearing dust cloud. Its grotesque and slightly waving end began to drape itself over the edge of the desk, stopping Richard's hand where it was as if it had frozen it in place. The form of a figure stood in what had been the doorway with its arm stretched out in front of it, which explained the tentacle's origins, and all eyes fell on this figure.
Stepping forward, the movement seemed to blow away the remnants of the dust as the figure that was once Eve entered the room, her eyes now full of concentration and malice as they searched her surroundings, falling on the Elite, the human and the AI to her right. Even though they appeared on first glance to have been devoid of any emotion earlier in the story, they just seemed to hold a sense of loss, anguish, even fear within them when the three had seen her last. No more. Now they seemed to have found a sense of anger, fury, even sadist feelings, and all driven by the will of a single being to which she had been submitted to. As they momentarily surveyed her, realisation of something bad struck the three like a hammer hitting them on the heads.
She was no longer Eve, their friend who had guided, protected and saved them many times, and they having done so in return that they once knew. She was truly a creature of the Flood now.
Suddenly, as if awakened by the sight before her, Eve's other arm rose and swung out towards the three, forming into another tentacle that threw them into the office's right wall with such force that it was amazing that they did not go through it; the other tentacle wrapping itself around the desk in the blink of an eye. The breaths of Michael and Richard were caught in their throats as the desk was lifted several feet above the floor and then launched like a firing bullet first into Richard, then Michael; the forces of the blows throwing the two men into the back wall, killing them both and breaking the desk in two (the remains were dumped on the floor as they were no further use to the tentacle by this point).
Eve then looked over to the three as they began to pick themselves up off the floor and moved towards them, her arms quickly changing back into arms from their previous horrific state. The Arbiter looked up to see her approaching and made a grab for his plasma rifle, but Eve, in two large strides, rushed up to him and grabbed him by the throat and held him a few inches above the floor above the terrified Wally and Auto; the strangled breaths of the Elite filling their ears.
"Ev…(gasp)…Evel-lyn!" he gasped, grabbing her arm with his large hands to try and free himself but it was no use; her grip was stronger than he anticipated and she was holding him there like a rag doll. "Le-(cough, gasp) me…G-g-go!"
"Eve, please stop!" Wally pleaded, standing up and she looked at him, her concentrated, un-breaking gaze meeting his loose and terrified eyes. "It's us! It's your friends! Don't let us go!" he pressed on, his voice literally begging her to reconsider.
Auto stepped into view from behind Wally's head. "Eve, c'mon snap out of it!" he urged her. "Fight against Chromsar! Don't let him overtake you and make you his puppet!"
Wally reached out and took her free hand in his, their fingers interlocking with each other as if they were morphing to become one, the feeling of his harsh skin rubbing across her smooth and lovely surface, the look in his eyes desperately pleading with her to come back. C'mon, Eve! Snap out of it! Come back to us as your old self!
For a moment, she eyed him with a confused gaze, blinking several times as if they were initiating this change in her observance of him. The colour of her eyes flickered several times from dark green/brown to blue, making it look as if her old self was fighting to break free of the hold it was in and bring back the old Eve, the one who the three cherished, the one who was their friend and hero. A clash of two personalities was ensuing and as Wally and Auto looked on, momentarily looking up to see the Arbiter's eyes flicker as well as he seemed to be close to unconsciousness, hoping for their friend to return.
"Go … Away!" she snarled at them with a growl as her face's expression changed from confusion to anger, no fury; pure fury like that of an erupting volcano.
Her voice made the two shudder as it sounded like that of a seductive succubus, only with a more devilish tone to it, and she was about to add on how dangerous she could be with such a voice in terms of her actions.
She threw her free arm into Wally and sent him back against the wall with bone crushing force. Then, turning her attention back to the Elite, whose head was now cocked to one side and lying on her hand, she threw the Arbiter against one of the broken halves of the desk. Good riddance! They were weak and went down easier than she thought!
Turning, now being satisfied but still retaining her hard, icy expression she turned and left the office.
"Who needs them," her icy, nerve shuddering voice said in what was barely a whisper as she made her way into the maze of corridors.
She no longer needed them and now that they were out of the way, it was time for her to regroup on the surface with Chromsar. She had him and the Flood to act as her companions and her brethren from now on.
It looked like she really had changed from the Eve we once knew and loved.