Duo deliberately avoided the fact that Shelby's feet were about a dozen centimeters from the floor and started to yell.

"NO! No don't tell me! I don't have to know! We're happy now. We don't need this to ruin it!"

No Duo. She said mentally. It made him flinch, but she had to force him to accept the truth.

"Most of my life is a lie." she switched to talking. "I live that way so I can keep on living. But a life with you built on a lie would be hell on us both."

She moved toward him but stopped when he pulled back in revulsion. She could almost hear the cracking in her heart. This has to be done she said to herself. Being right didn't make her feel any better. Summoning all her reserves of strength she proceeded to tell him what she'd never told anyone else.

"I'm what you would call a brain augment, although I prefer the term psionic. You may remember how I told you I was caught stealing a locket when I was eleven. Well my caseworker had heard of this new program that seemed to have great success rehabilitating troubled youths. 'OZ something' she called it."

Duo could only nod. He'd heard of such recruiting tactics, and knew Oz had used them.

"Of course I never made it to the program. A rival of Treize Kushrenada, a man named Tolin Caruthers was culling a few 'select' candidates for his own program. He planned on using us to gain power in the Romefeller foundation. To be a 'select candidate' you needed three things. You had to have no family, preferably a troublemaker. That way you were disposable. You had to be young. Assuming a young mind was more malleable. And finally, you had to have shown some sort of natural paranormal ability.

I only met three other test subjects. Tav was a street kid who had visions. He became a metazone addict to escape his visions. Cyber, whose real name was Robert lived with a gang, he had a hacking ability that was precognitive in nature. Anna displayed empathic abilities when she was a toddler. Foster families kept sending her back to of the orphanage she lived in because she freaked them out. And I…"

"And you 'miraculously' survived a car crash that should have killed you along with the rest of your family." Duo said quietly. He didn't know what to think. In some ways, he could understand. It was like a distorted reflection of his childhood. Part of the reason he was chosen to pilot a gundam was because he was a clever street kid. His quick mind and body were ideal for training purposes, his lack of family meant no one would care if he died during his missions.

It was the whole brain augment part he couldn't wrap his mind around. It was like finding out his lover was a vampire, or werewolf, or an alien from another galaxy. Christ, he'd seen dozens of horror/action vids about mad augments escaping and terrorizing the population until the hero killed them and saved the day. His mind became swamped with doubts. Is she dangerous? She doesn't seem insane yet. How can this be true? Could she be lying?

"I understand this is difficult for you." She said quietly "Perhaps this will help you to understand."

Just as he was about to say "what will?" he felt his mind moving through something. A lot of somethings. He kind of felt like a bumble bee in a vast field of flowers that stretched as far as the eye could see. And then, he was a bee in a field being guided by an unseen force to a particular flower.

Nice imagery said the unseen force which he knew to be Shelby.

What is this? He asked wondering what she was doing to him.

You're in my mind. The bee/flower imagery you sense is your mind coming up with a tangible relation to what you experiencing. All these flowers are my memories and thoughts. I've taken you here so I may show you what I've never shown anyone else. I'm going to show you how I came to be as I am.

He felt the Shelby/Duo bee descend to a flower and was enveloped by her memories. He was in her body, experiencing things as she remembered experiencing them. He/she knew she was in a very sterile looking white cell. Even the clothes she was wearing were white.

She was leaning against the toilet in the cell shaking. She was shaking because she'd been throwing up for hours. She continued to gag long after her stomach was empty of its contents. Fucking treatments always did this to her. First the needles that injected liquid fire into her veins at least I'd learned to stop crying like a baby when that happened. Then there was the…what'd they call it…oh yeah…catalyst. Fucking catalyst made you puke 'til you fainted from it.

Thinking the tremors were finally over she raised herself up to the sink to rinse her mouth out and wash up. The part of him/her that was Duo was shocked by what looked back in the mirror. He was Shelby as an eleven year old girl, but the only thing that resembled her was the hazel/green eyes. All the glorious red hair he was so fond of was shaved off. In its place was a silver device on the side of her head.

Before he could ask what it was, her memories supplied the knowledge. He/she knew it to be a restraining device embedded into her skull behind her ear. It would give little shocks if she didn't behave, or could give her a fatal shock should she try to escape.

She was tired. So tired of being poked, and prodded. So tired of never ending tests. So tired of being afraid and in pain all the time. She was so close to giving up. No she thought I'm never going to give up. I WILL get out and I WILL live my life my way!

Hello? Is somebody there? Came a voice from nowhere. It sounded like a girl's.

Shelby whipped around looking for the speaker. Her cell was empty. What the hell was that?

Hello? It's me, I'm Anna, can you hear me? Came the voice again.

Yeah, I can hear you. Where are you? How can I hear you? She wasn't sure if she should speak aloud as well. She decided against it just incase someone was watching.

You're right not to speak because they do watch us was Anna's thought.

Is this what they've been doing to us? Teaching us to read minds? Scared as she was she kind of felt it was cool that she was able to do something under the scientists' noses with out them knowing.

Kind of, Anna's tone was uncertain they call it 'augmentation'. I've been hearing their thoughts for a while now. You're the first one who's ever spoke to me. Well unless you count that man that holds up those stupid cards and 'wills' me to guess them right.

 I do those tests. Hey, do they try to make you move things that are too heavy also?

From that moment on Shelby and Anna became true friends. The Shelby/Duo bee flitted over a few more flowers showing Duo that they supported one another through the two years they were captive. A few more flowers showed him similar introductions to Tav, a moody nineteen year old and Cyber a brilliant fifteen year old. One of the first things they realized was the difference in their abilities. All of them were telepathic, but they all had secondary capabilities that were just a little bit different to each other. Anna was psychic and could discern a multitude of different outcomes for any action. However she couldn't move anything with her mind heavier than a coffee cup. Selby had no precognitive skills at all, but could lift two grown men and the table they sat on.

The group of friends agreed that if they hid their progress it might earn them a fatal shock to the brain. They decided it would be better to tone down their progress to make it seem slower than it actually was. Eventually, with Anna's psychic ability, they would find their opportunity to escape.