Location: The Bunker
Julia was in the cafeteria, eating cloned beef and a salad, It was around noon. The sound of conversation was tuned out as background the gene trooper brought her back, both Allen and various figures from the R&D department questioned her rigorously for every detail she could remember, as well as the R&D department giving her a psychological check as well as a brain scan.
It was deemed that she was in fact sane, and her testimony was actual worth while evidence that could be used in future decision making.
Julia was… happy? She guessed that her eyes were not lying to her. She was however still afraid of that Shade Lord, It had been in every dream she has had since getting back to the Bunker.
It had acted strangely in line with how the Shade Lord had actually acted. It felt almost too accurate to be a dream.
The dreams would usually include the Shade Lord holding her in the palm of its hand, telling it a story, or telling her how he wished she would come back. How he just wanted what was best for her, and to please tell him where she was. Whenever Julia awoke from one of those dreams, she felt an icy cold throughout her body that subsided quickly.
After it happened four times in a row in two nights, she decided to file a report to Allen about a possible security risk. The feeling of cold was reminiscent of how it felt when the Shade Lord had invaded her mind for her language.
She had consumed another few chunks of steak when a middle aged man in a lab coat walked into the cafeteria. The man scanned the cafeteria for something, before finally settling his eyes on Julia.
The man strode towards the table Julia was seated at, the talking at the table died down as he approached.
"Julia right?" The man said professionally in a midwestern accent.
"Yes, what do you need?" Julia asked, talking over the cafeteria's background noise.
"If you would, I would like to take this to a more private area" The man said.
Julia got up, and followed the man out of the cafeteria, the sliding door closing behind them. The silence at the table where Julia sat was broken as the personnel there went back to tier conversation.
"Soooo…. What did you want to see me for?" Julia asked the middle aged man as they walked down a hallway.
"We will go over that once we have reached our destination. There I will tell you all you need to know.." The man summarized in a professional tone.
"Okay… I suppose"
The two continued walking down the long hall until they reached an elevator, which they took down to a few floors below.
Julia and the man walked down another hall before the man took her into a room on the right.
The room was very clean, and it gave off the smell of having been sanitized recently. There was a chair in the corner and a bed in the center of the room, it had various bits of machinery hooked up to it. On another end there was a desk with a computer on it, along with various bits of paper strewn about on it.
The middle aged scientist took a data pad off of the wall, and turned to Julia, beckoning her to sit on the bed.
Julia did so, and the young scientist took a seat at the bench in the corner.
"First, introductions… My name is Doctor Howard T Schmidt, I already know who you are Julia. I am a neuroscientist, and I have been tasked with monitoring for possible extra sensory interference ever since it was confirmed that the bugs indeed had such abilities. The report you had filed, as well as the Shade Lord's reported extra sensory potential lead me to being assigned to monitor your brain activity in your sleep."
"Ah… I guess that makes sense, is there anyway to block him… if ya know.. He is breaking into my dreams? Cause I really don't want that stubborn prick in my head."
"As of right now No, though that may change in the future, we have no real ways of preventing the entity identifying itself as the Shade Lord from invading your dreams." Howard explained.
"Has there been any other occurrence of this or am I the only one?" Julia asked.
"So far you are the only one, we did a check on the gene trooper sent to collect you, and the results from our scans of him showed no evidence of any extra sensory messages. This leads us to believe that you have been 'bugged'.
"Bugged?"
"It is where a psyker leaves a little… 'beacon' in your mind, making it easier to both find and breach."
"Wait, does he know where I am?!" Julia asked, anxiety apparent in her voice.
"Probably not, Jackson described it like a finder app, you just search for that specific person, and you will be able to find their minds, unless they are very far out of reach. However, it tells you nothing of their surroundings, only of their mind." Howard explained.
"That's… reassuring" Julia said.
"Now I wanted to go over what you saw in your dreams, what exactly is the Shade Lord saying to you"
"Various questions, usually amounting to, 'whats your favorite game', 'where are you?' 'I think I'll rename you Jewel', or 'you do know we are family, right?'. I just ignore him, and after awhile, he just pouts and goes away.
"Would you mind talking to him next time? It would be useful for better understanding how this Shade Lord thinks, if this is psionic messaging"
"Sure…" Julia said, though, she really did not relish the thought of having to talk with that thing again, it wasn't like he was going to pay any heed to what she had to say, and will likely keep going on and on about how she should just accept that she was void, and there for his child or some stupid shit like that. Yea, she was REALLY, not looking forward to it.
Location: Black Site 492
Jackson was running down the halls, the two regulars easily keeping pace. Jackson was expecting just to find research data, not a still living test subject, Gamma-01 at that! His name was actually Elijah, Jackson was quite fond of him, always so eager to learn. Though he was a grown man now, Elijah had been inducted into the psionics program since age 11.
Beyond just being a fast and eager learner, as well as easy to work with, Elijah also happened to be one of the most powerful Psykers any Black Site he knew of ever produced. This is due to him usually always being first in line for any new genetic modification for psychic abilities that became available.
Jackson wasn't blind to the fact that literal children being tested on was less than… ethical… to say the least. But he reasoned that if he didn't do it, some more brutal individuals would, there would always be some scientists that would be willing to throw ethics away. He really did not want any person taking his place like that, especially when working with children.
They were coming up to a door labeled 'Subject Containment Zone'. This was new, they must have added it shortly after he was reassigned to other facilities. Jackson wondered why they put stasis pods in the site, it wasn't exactly a facility fit for restarting civilization, and if there were stasis pods… why were there only one of them?
The sliding metal door opened revealing a rather small room. On the wall opposite to them, was a stasis pod with a 24 year old man in it. Jackson walked up to the pod, and placed a gloved hand on it. It was really him, last time he had seen Elijah was when he was 16.
"Look how you have grown" Jackson said under his breath.
The two regulars that stood behind him just looked at the pod, their helmets concealing any facial expression either of them may have been having.
"Sir, should we let him out?" One of the regulars asked as Jackson was standing there for a strangely long period of time. They understood that this was a bit of an emotional moment… but they couldn't really afford to be dilly dallying, not when there was still the possibility of hostile bugs in the area.
Jackson remained silent for a few seconds more, as if he hadn't heard the regular. Finally he took his hand off the glass, and took out the device he had brought with him. After a few button presses, a hiss could be heard as the stasis pod depressurized.
Suddenly Elija opened his eyes, and the pod door was sent flying, crashing into the room's door frame. Luckily, Jackson had moved out of the way, and the door missed the regulars.
"OK YOU LITTLE FUCKS, BRING IT" A now awake, and apparently angry Elijah yelled in a distorted voice. The space around his fists is greatly distorted.
The regulars moved to raise their gauss rifles, but they were suddenly lifted into the air, arms held tight against their torso. Jackson felt himself being lifted into the air, a force around his neck began choking him.
Elijah brought Jackson down to eye level.
" How does it feel to be powerless with no one to help you? HUH!" Elijah yelled.
"Elija gag stop ugh it's me Jackson "
Elijah's eyes widened, and Jackson along with the regulars were suddenly dropped to the floor. Jackson was on his hands and knees, coughing as he recovered from Eljiah's outburst.
Jackson was suddenly lifted into a tight hug by Elijah, who was beginning to cry.
"I-I, never thought sniff you would come back" Elijah said in a shaky voice, the distortion was gone.
"T-they… they did horrible things when y-you left, I-I'm all that's left"
Jackson was in a state of shock. Who the fuck was his replacement? What did they do to make the formally sweet kid that was Elijah react like that? Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to truamatize people with psychic powers?
Jackson hugged Elijah as close as he could.
"Elijah, what happened to the others?"
"G-gone, a-all of them, t-they didn't make it. Rebecca, Maxwell, Jordan… all sob gone"
Jackson did his best to comfort him, this news was very troubling, but the regulars were correct, the sooner they got out of her, the sooner they were safe.
"Okay Elijah, let's get out of here, and get you somewhere safe… there are… rather unfriendly groups around this area, we can't afford to stay"
"Alright… Jack, let's… sniff let's go" Elijah said, collecting himself.
The group of four began making their way towards 492's entrance, leaving that place of misery behind.