Disclaimer: DA is not owned by me. Enough said.

Family Relations

By Be Boring

Chapter 12: Confusion

Silence filled the dark, gray corridors of Manticore, seeming to echo with memories that were just out of Jondy's reach. The distant sound of stomping feet sometimes came to her, but she wasn't sure if it was really happening somewhere in the building or if she was remembering something. Every time she thought she felt a memory trying to push its way into her consciousness, she brutally forced it away. She couldn't remember why, but it was very important that she never recall her past while she was here. Lydecker had told her his name and the names of the others in her unit to try and force her memories to return, but she managed to keep them all at bay. The only certainty that she had now was that he could never find out what she used to know. Torture tactics were used twice, but if anything it seemed to make her mind regress further, so Lydecker quickly put a stop to that. His new method was trying to be as nice as possible to her so that she wasn't on guard and always trying to prevent her memories from coming back.

The only person that Jondy remembered was Shayna, but even details about her were gone. All that Jondy was left with was the knowledge that they were family and that Shayna was pregnant. Shayna had been taken for tests several times, but she caused such a ruckus when she couldn't see Jondy that the doctors all decided she was better off staying near her sister. Jondy knew they wanted that baby more than anything else, so they were willing to delay the reprogramming until Shayna gave birth. She didn't really know what they meant by reprogramming, but it didn't sound like anything positive. She was just happy to stay near the only person that she remembered who didn't appear to want to hurt her.

Ever since their capture, Shayna became so quiet that Jondy often walked over to her to make sure that she was still breathing. A heavy feeling of misery hung in the air, and neither of them tried to lighten it. Why should they? What did they have to look forward to? Shayna was already dreading the day that she gave birth, for she knew they would take her baby and never let her see it again.

"Even though I haven't given a lot of thought to how my baby is going to be raised, I know that I don't want his or her life to be like mine. Why should my baby have to grow up under the belief that they're good for nothing but fighting? I want my baby to be happy." Shayna seemed to have a great love for saying "my baby," because she said it at least five times every time she talked about her pregnancy. Her child was the most important thing to her now.

Right now Shayna was sleeping soundly again, which she always seemed to do for nearly half the day. Jondy's eyes rested on her thoughtfully. Shayna's stomach had grown so much, so how long had they actually been here? Their room had no windows, so Jondy had lost track of time long ago. Judging by Shayna's swollen belly, however, she would have to say they'd been trapped for about two months. Just the other day she had heard the doctors telling Lydecker that Shayna would give birth in about three months, and Jondy knew somehow that Shayna had been around four months pregnant when they were first captured. Where had the time gone? The days ran into each other until she wasn't sure whether it was night or day. Their food didn't seem to be on any schedule, it came when it came. Shayna often complained about the taste of hers, Manticore seemed to be putting vitamins in it to ensure that her baby was perfectly healthy. They wouldn't want a sick lab rat now, would they? Jondy thought bitterly. She was also receiving drugs, but they were to keep her weak. She was still stronger than the average person, but she would be no match for a skillfully trained fighter.

As Jondy watched Shayna sleep, she heard the door open and the guard waddled in, practically balancing the large tray of food on his even larger stomach. She wasn't fooled though, he could draw his gun and fire a hole straight through an enemy's forehead before they had the chance to blink. She'd never actually seen him do it, but something about his movements convinced her he was capable of it.

He kneeled down and placed Shayna's plate in front of her, but when he turned to Jondy, he simply gestured for her to get up. "The doctors want to fix some of your deficiencies before you're brought back into duty. You can eat once we're there." She nodded and followed him out the door, knowing perfectly well that there were soldiers lurking around every corner waiting to fire on her if she dared to make a wrong move, but how could she? With the drugs they were giving her, how much damage could she really cause before they stopped her?

Each hallway forced new echoes into her head: echoes of children's voices, marching feet, and orders being barked out. Shaking her head viciously made them go away, but she was troubled all the same. Would she really be able to prevent herself from regaining her own memories? The mind was a complicated thing, there was no telling what could trigger her to remember something before she had the sense to force it away. At least the lab she was led to didn't seem to remind her of anything, which led her to believe that she had never been in this section of the building before. She sat down when the guard motioned for her to do so, but she only picked at her food when he set it down in front of her. She couldn't remember if she had anything that would be considered a deficiency, so she wasn't quite sure what they were going to do to her.

Shortly after the guard left, a tall, lean man in a white coat walked in. Jondy's first thought was that he looked like a vampire of some sort, but an older one. He had to be in his forties, with his sleek black hair starting to gray around the edges and his sharp brown eyes that could hardly be distinguished from black beginning to show crow's feet at their sides. His cheekbones were extraordinarily high, and his face was so narrow that his chin nearly ended in a perfect point. He smiled a rather toothy grin at her and seated himself across the desk from her. "You must be X5-210?"

"So I've been told," Jondy grumbled in reply. He already made her uncomfortable, so she didn't want him thinking he could take his time with her. The faster they were done, the better.

He nodded as though her attitude came as no surprise to him. "You've been sent here to be cured of your seizures and heat cycles. Wouldn't that be nice?"

She shrugged. "I don't remember them, so I don't know if they were debilitating problems. How could I possibly know if it would be nicer without them?"

His eyes sparked with a little anger at her tone of voice, but it faded away quickly. "210, I am Dr. Martsloff, and I am one of the best doctors in this country. I think you can take my word for it that you'll be happier without your inconvenient problems, and I know for certain that they are, in fact, very debilitating. If you could remember what they were like, then you'd be thanking me for taking the time to see you right now."

"Because I'm sure you're so busy with Manticore letting you loose to share your X5 experience in all sorts of places, right?" she asked snidely, wishing he would just give her an injection or something, say everything was cured, and be done with it all.

Dr. Martsloff suddenly smiled in a very friendly manner, but it didn't spread to his eyes. "My dear, I think I might ask to be the one in charge of your reprogramming, for then I would be able to use all my 'X5 experience' on you." The expression on his face gave her the feeling that his words didn't bode well for her. She remained silent as he turned around and opened a tiny refrigerator behind his desk and pulled out a couple syringes. "I'll have to give these to you an hour apart, otherwise you could have some nasty side effects. As it is, you aren't going to enjoy this process very much.

Jondy stiffened as he approached her with one of the needles. "This will cure your seizures, but in the process you will more than likely go through several of them, perhaps even a grand mal seizure. You will be moved to a padded room where you will not stand a chance of hurting yourself or damaging anything, but even that doesn't prevent most of my patients from coming back out with some serious bruises. Follow me."

She followed him silently, wishing she was capable of telepathy just so he could see how much she hated him. At least Lydecker seemed to care in his own sick way, but to this man she was nothing more than a guinea pig for him to test his intelligence on. It wasn't the most wonderful feeling in the world. She started feeling even worse when she was led to a small square room that couldn't have been more than six feet long on the sides. The padding on the walls and even the floor made it appear even tinier, and the bland whiteness made her think that she was being led through a mental ward. Dr. Martsloff didn't give her too much time to think about it though, as soon as she was in the room he turned around and she felt the prick of the needle on her arm. Wearily, she looked down in time to see him empty the contents of the syringe directly into her bloodstream before removing the needle and leaving the room, locking the door behind himself.

How fast is this supposed to start? she wondered nervously. The mix of drugs in her body was altogether tiring, and she lowered herself to the floor to remove what felt like dead weight from her legs. As it turned out, it didn't take long at all for the new drug to kick in. Within fifteen minutes, her body was starting to shudder until she could no longer keep a good grip on her own knees and she ended up curling over onto her side.

The room suddenly changed in front of her eyes, its walls transforming from their thick white padding to a fancy golden-flowered wallpaper. She glanced around in shock, unsure if this was just a hallucination or if it had actually happened. She found herself staring at a small bedroom with an even tinier connected bathroom just to her left. Lifting herself onto her feet nervously, she took a look around and realized she was standing at the foot of one of five twin beds. They were so tightly crammed together that she knew she wouldn't be able to walk between any of them without turning sideways. The beds all sat on the only carpeted area of the room, the rest was all linoleum. How could I be back here? she thought in disbelief. How could she possibly be back in the Casteau mansion? Where was everyone? It was very rare that she was ever alone here.

"Jason? Mindy?" she called softly. Where were they? She moved slowly to the door and peered out into the hallway. Was it longer than usual, or was she imagining things? Who was standing at the end of the hall? He was moving towards her slowly, pausing slightly at Kyle's door.

"Shayna's in here," he said quietly. "Zack is being kept downstairs in the main office. Brin, Tinga, Zane, Krit, Syl, Blake, Max, and Kiera are waiting in the living room. They sent me up here to check on you."

What? "Ben, is that you?"

For some reason, he sat down Indian-style in the middle of the hallway. "Lydecker is in the kitchen preparing for guests. Dr. Martsloff was helping him, but the Blue Lady doesn't like him so she sent him away to be with the nomlies."

Her eyes wandered down the hall to the third room that was normally filled with children. "Who is in there?" she asked, pointing at the door.

Ben turned to follow the direction she was pointing. "I don't know, none of us has been able to unlock it. I think she's waiting for you."

"How do you know it's a 'she'?"

"The Blue Lady told me. She is very sad right now."

"The 'she' in there or the Blue Lady?"

"Both" was the simple answer she received. He looked so serene sitting in the hall like he was, but he didn't even notice the door of the third children's room open. One slender, delicate hand reached out of the doorway, holding a simple shotgun pointed uselessly at the other wall. A single gunshot rang out, but Jondy hadn't seen the trigger pulled. The gun fell from the hand, the sound of its landing muffled by the soft carpeting in the hallway. Ben raised a finger and pointed at Jondy. "Stop shaking now, you can't go in there."

Jondy just stared at him, confused by the urgency in his voice. Finally she followed his finger and gasped as she stared down at her own chest. Blood was practically spurting from a gunshot wound in the very center of her sternum, flooding down her front and pooling on the floor beneath her. "The Casteau's are going to be so mad," came a soft voice from behind her. She turned to see Jason standing behind her, staring at the blood as though it was hypnotic. "That will stain."

Cassie stepped out of the tiny bathroom and rushed forward with a towel in her hands. "I'll clean it," she said monotonously, her eyes gazing blankly into space as she reached Jondy and started pressing the towel against the wound on her chest. Jondy turned and looked helplessly back at Ben, who appeared to have moved several yards backward in the hall although he was still sitting in the exact same position. Why did he look so somber?

"Jondy, you have to stop shaking now. You can't go in to see her, but you need to stop shaking now." Jondy nodded helplessly, not sure how else she was supposed to respond to him. Suddenly, the Casteau mansion slipped away from in front of her eyes and changed back into the white padding that she had first been introduced to. She sat bolt upright, running her hands over her chest frantically to check for the wound that she still could see so clearly in her mind's eye. When her fingers found nothing but perfectly unharmed skin, she breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back against the soft wall. What had that dream been about? And most importantly, who were those people? She had recognized them all in the dream and had easily known who they all were, but now the only things she was left with were names and the knowledge of who three people were: Ben, Jason, and Cassie. The other names had all sounded familiar, but she couldn't bring any faces to mind. She could now vividly remember the Casteau mansion and the fact that she'd been unhappy there.

The door opened before she could even try to place the names she remembered with faces, and Dr. Martsloff stepped in with a broad smile on his face. "Lydecker has been nearly clueless as to how he could break your spirit, which you have in stockpiles, I can tell. However, this next shot you'll be receiving gives us a window of opportunity to make you realize how much you should rely on us to keep you from being a victim to a very complicated body that you could never understand. Of course, we'll be deliberately placing you in this uncontrollable situation, but it will make you understand just how much you need us. We can make you so much better than the flawed being you were before. That's not to say you weren't a remarkable piece of science, but you can still be improved. You'll thank us when we've made you as perfect as you could be."

Jondy warily leaned away from him as he approached. "What do you mean by 'uncontrollable situation'. What is that shot going to do to me?"

"It's going to cure your heat cycles, but in much the same way that this last shot cured your seizures. Shortly after I leave, you will be receiving a visitor who will remain with you until the effects of the shot have worn off and you are fully cured. He will ensure that you are taken care of and will be more open to suggestions later when we finally have the opportunity to begin your reprogramming." With that said, he grabbed her arm and drained the fluid from the syringe into it. She glared up at him with the only defiance she had left, then flopped back against the wall in frustration. Who was the visitor they were sending in? As if he had heard her thoughts, Dr. Martsloff stated, "He will be here in a couple minutes. I suppose you'll be pretty happy to see him once he gets here."

Before he could shut the door, Jondy called out, "Do I know him?"

The doctor shrugged, but the smile never left his face. "Not that I'm aware of, but you'll get to know him pretty well."

Wait, what was that he said about this drug curing me the same way the other one did? For the second time in five minutes, she sat straight up so quickly that her vision blurred for a moment. Did Lydecker plan to let some strange X5 take advantage of her while she was in an induced heat? She scrambled to her feet desperately and rushed to the door, feeling so helpless as wild bursts of warmth started rippling through her. The drugs she was given daily would make her too weak to defend herself against another X5. She was hardly stronger than the average human.

Nearly inaudible footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door, and Jondy knew her "visitor" was coming. A silent pause filled the air as he stopped just outside the door and waited for nearly another minute. Jondy could have sworn that she heard him sniff the air, which made her stomach curl up nervously. He wanted to make sure that she was ready for him when he entered the room. From the sound of it, the X5 was the only one in the hallway, there was too much silence for anyone else to be standing out there. I don't need to be strong if I can catch him by surprise. Even a normal person could kill an X5 if pressure is applied correctly. If I can hit him in the nose just the right way, I might be able to kill him. The thoughts were coming without giving her a chance to realize that her training was slowly coming back to her. It was almost like second nature to her.

Finally, the click of the door let her know that he was opening it. Her entire body tensed up as the door swung open and a very tall young man stepped in. Dr. Martsloff was right, he didn't seem familiar at all. Dark hair fell down in curls in front of his eyes, almost hiding the striking blue that nearly glowed from them. He was so tall that the top of her head only came up to his collarbone. How in the world am I supposed to stop him? she thought in a panic. A slight smile flitted across his face, but it only made her stomach drop lower. It occurred to her that it would be a waste to kill him, he was just an innocent in all of this. He was only following orders. But how could she be expected to get away from him?

Before he could reach behind himself to shut the door, she rushed forward and leapt straight into his arms, throwing him off balance and getting his mind as far from the door as possible in the only way she could think of. The moment his arms went around her and his lips pressed roughly onto hers, she knew she would have to end this quickly. She simply didn't have the willpower to fight him right now, and if she didn't do something to put a stop to it now, she never would. His fingers tore at her clothes so urgently that she started to doubt herself. Not only was she positive that she wasn't strong enough to get rid of him, but she also didn't really want to. She waited until he backed into the wall, still completely focused on her, then grabbed his hair and slammed his head so hard into the wall that he probably never knew what happened. He slumped to the floor and his head rolled to the side in such a way that she knew he wouldn't be getting up for a while. That had really just been a lucky move, it was the location of the blow rather than the force with which he had hit the wall that had knocked him out. She certainly wasn't strong enough to have knocked him unconscious in that manner out of sheer force.

Jondy didn't even listen for guards, she just dashed into the hall and started looking for a place to hide. She was sure it wouldn't be long before a guard would come by to check on them and keep watch over the door. Actually, she couldn't believe one hadn't come along with the X5 to make sure nothing went wrong. It really wasn't like Manticore to slip up like that.

If she hadn't been distracted by the hallway, she would have noticed the obviously broken leg that was at the far end, but she was more focused on the door that was only around five feet from it. She stood there in numb shock, not quite believing what she was seeing. The entire hallway was set up the same as her hallway back in the Casteau mansion. The door she had just exited from was in the same position as her old door, and the three remaining doors were positioned in the exact same way as the other two children's bedrooms and the linen closet. The first door on her right would have been Kyle's, a few feet further on the left side was the linen closet, and at the far end of the hall on the right was the door Ben had warned her against in the dream.

Her stomach clenched up nervously as she approached the door. Why did it scare her so much? It was just a damn dream, what am I freaking out about? she thought angrily. Finally, she reached out and grabbed the doorknob. Surprisingly, it turned easily and the door swung open. She stepped through the doorway and stared at the other side of the room, where a teenage girl was sitting on a dirty cot. She wasn't much older than Jondy, and she would have been stunningly beautiful with her long, sand-colored hair and brilliantly green eyes, but she was so thin and pale that Jondy couldn't believe she was still alive. She closely resembled a person with anorexia.

"Who are you?" she asked softly after a short pause.

The girl smiled gently and shook her head. "I don't remember my name anymore. I don't even know what my barcode is. Can you read barcodes?"

Jondy shrugged. "I think so, but I'm not sure. Let me see."

She approached and the girl turned around on the cot to lift up her long hair and expose the barcode underneath. She had to stare at it for a second, then she smiled. "Yes, I see it now. I think I know how to read that, let me think for a moment." After almost a minute, she smiled again. "You're an X5 like me. You're 331065661766. Hey, haven't I seen that number before?"

The girl just shrugged and smiled back at her. "Do you know my name?"

Jondy could only stare at her. That barcode was definitely familiar, but should she really try to remember it? Why not? I can forget it again later, but it will help her if I can let her know who she is. Suddenly, the gunshot sounded in her head again and she saw that hand from her dream drop the gun again. She stared down at the girl's hands and was vaguely surprised to realize that they were identical to the one in her dream. That was when a name popped out of her mouth before she could hold it back or even think about it. "Eva?"

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Author's Note: Like always, please review!