Max woke up to the far away sound of buzzing and panicked. It took precious minuets of fighting her bounds and trying to catch up with her racing mind before she realized that they were only shaving her head again. The buzz clipper was turned off than and someone went to work bic-ing her head down to bare skin with a hand held razor. A cold chill shot through her body as they applied the conductor jelly and then attached the electrodes to her head. One at each of her temples, two at the base of her skull, and six scattered around the perimeter of her head. She was strapped down to the table by her waist legs and arms and she could sense the presence of another person in the room besides the doctors. Max's body tensed and she began to panic, her eyes wide and filled with fear of what she knew was going to happen.
As the first wave of shocks ran through her body the current made her body jolt. She screamed and heard someone gasp. Max put a name to the voice, Colonel Lydecker. She bit her bottom lip and held back a scream of pain as the second jolt of current ran along her spine. The movie started playing on the screen above her then. It told her she was good and that nothing was physically wrong with her. Positive reinforcement backed up by negative reinforcement. She struggled hard to concentrate on the movie and forget the training that told her pain was a weakness. When there was too much pain and too many questions they were supposed to forget everything but now wasn't one of those times. The movie was important. It told her that the memories she had of the incident had been a simple test for her, a tactic put into play. It was exposed for the lie that it was. The truth was drummed into her head the same way the original memories she had were.
The truth set her mind at ease, the shocks reeking havoc on her nervous stem. Screams escaped her that she didn't even know she'd uttered. Cruel animalistic sounds that were not even in her own voice. They sounded strange even to her own ears. Then there were the cruel murmured sounds of approval coming from Colonel Lydecker. Eventually Max gave in to the pain screaming at the top of her lungs and overpowering the sound of mute laughter. After the long interval of thirty-five individual shock currents she finally passed out. Colonel Lydecker was very proud of Max's pain threshold. Max had handled fifteen more shocks at the same voltage that Zack had been able to handle at her age. He was very proud of her and certain that her previous conditioning towards the situation had been eradicated. Max would feel no more guilt about her involvement with Ashe's death. She'd know the truth, just how hard she had worked to try and save her brothers life.
Zack winched and for once her didn't care who could see the weakness in him. Brin seemed to be the only one who could sleep as Max's agonizing screams filled the air.
"How come we can hear it?" Jondy asked fear in her voice her hands over her ears. They could never hear when the others were tortured.
"Colonel Lydecker must be amplifying it somehow. It must be a test for us." Zack sounded sure of himself, the informed and controlled commander. In reality he had no idea why. He felt horrible knowing there was nothing he could do for his younger sisters.
Jondy broke down and cried again. Krit was at her side talking softly to her.
"Why can't they just leave us alone?" Jondy asked no one inparticular, not expecting any type of answer. Not even completely sure what being left alone was, except in the time she had with Max and sometimes Krit while everyone else was asleep.
Ben tried telling them another story but he couldn't concentrate on constructing the tale over the sound of Max's screaming. Ben finally gave up on telling the story. He signaled to Zack that he was going to go up to the high place and pray to the Blue Lady to help Max. Zack shook his head no and signaled him that it wasn't safe to leave now. If he wanted to pray he should stay here and pray with the others. Ben had all the X-5's except Brin gather around his cot. Holding hands they silently prayed to the Blue Lady to help Max and return her safely to them.
Shortly after they started to pray Max's screams subsided. They all relaxed a little thanking the Blue Lady for her help, but continued to pray for her safe return. About half an hour later two guards carried Max into the barracks on a stretcher and dumped her on to her cot. Once the door slammed shut behind the guards they all jumped out of their own cots which they had fled back to as soon as they had heard movement in the hallway. Jondy had brought their attention to it because she'd always had the best ears besides Max.
Max didn't move from the position they had deposited her in she was as still as death. He body was bruised, wrists, ankles, knees and neck. Her head was shaved bare down to the skin. Her skin gave off the faint smell of something singed or burnt. He body convulsed freely much like the seizure that had taken Jake's life only it was different. Zack tried to wake Max to get her to eat. He struck her numerous times before he gave up on waking her. Max was too far-gone. Jondy was crying again, but this time it was out of pure joy over having Max back safely. Jondy crawled into bed with Max to keep her warm and safe and let her know she was there for her. Zack was glad to have Max back and be sure that they had not given her over to the nomies, but he kept his true feelings to himself. He had to be the one always in control. They were so relieved to have their little sister back that Ben started to tell another story. It was a happy tale that put everyone except himself, Zack and Jondy to sleep. Jondy and Zack kept vigil over Max all night, but Ben had fallen asleep just before he could finish his story.