Chapter 2: Family reunion
Two days later
The recaptured X5's spent two days in holding cells in the basement of Manticore's Seattle facility, in which they were allowed partial contact with one another due to the steel bars the separated the individual cells. Nine of the ten cells were occupied by an '09er' escapee. The north side had from left to right; Krit, Syl, Zane, Tinga and Jondy. The south side had from left to right; Zack, Cora, Max, and Faith. All of the captives had regained their strength, and ha made several thwarted attempts to escape. After a day and a half, they grudgingly accepted the fact that they were not getting out this time, and had just been sulking around for the last twelve hours, all felling lost and dejected. When the steel doors to the basement hall opened, they immediately snapped to attention, and they watched as the man who had made the childhood a living hell strode in, accompanied by four TAC leaders.
"Welcome home, children. Eleven years is far to long to be away and I can assure you all that you have all been deeply missed ." Lydecker announced, and received growls and obscene hand gestures from all of his 'kids'.
"Just quit with the small talk and start the torture session, sadist." Zane spat angrily at the man who had ended Eva's life all those years ago.
"I know that you kids hate me and will try to do anything and everything within your powers to break away and escape again, but that is never going to happen." Lydecker said matter of factly. "You will all be reindoctrinated and then brought back into the fold as loyal, unwavering soldiers."
"You'll never be able to brainwash us into fighting for you. We all know the truth and you can't take that away from us." Jondy quipped and the others nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Funny." Lydecker noted aloud. "That's exactly what Brin said, and well, you'll have to see for yourselves."
Lydecer turned to one of the TAc leaders.
"Finlay, go and retrieve X5-734 from the training yards and bring her here. the TAC leader nodded and left. Lydecker turned back to his 'kids' and began pacing the room, regarding each of them individually.
"In time, you will all realize your purpose in life, the reason you were created." Lydecker stated.
"Shut up, Lydecker. Reindoctrination or not, I will never fight for you or Manticore ever again." Max shouted.
"What ever you do to us, no matter how much you hurt and torture us, we will keep fighting back and we will not be broken." Syl said
"In just a short while you all see just how wrong you all are." Lydecker responded promply.
After a few moments of silence, the TAC leader called Finlay returned with Brin following in his wake.
"Ah just in time to show just how powerful at persuasion our PSYOP's unit can be." Lydecker announced and turned towards Brin. All the prisoner X5's turned to look at their sister. Lydecker grinned at their sudden wave of attentiveness.
"State your designation." Lydecker ordered Brin, and the X5's looked at her, praying she wouldn't respond.
Brin snapped to attention and answered. "X5-734, Sir!"
"What is your name soldier?"
"I have no given name, with the occasional exception of mission aliases." Brin replied quickly.
"Very good." Lydecker told her "You may return to the training yard."
Brin nodded and left the hall without some much as a quick glance to any of her siblings.
"You see, one of the strongest minds to have escaped Manticore is once again a loyal and obedient soldier." Lydecker said smirking, then left the room with the four TAC leaders following.
As soon as Lydecker was gone, Syl started to cry and Krit stuck his arms through the bars and wrapped her in a consoling hug. Jondy started kicking the door in an attempt to break it down. Max tried to bend the steel to no avail. Cora, Zane, and Faith sat down on their cots, while Tinga and Zack remained standing.
"What do we do now." Jondy asked blankly, after she had stooped attacking the door, to anyone who was listening.
"I don't know." Zack said, speaking for the first time since they had been there. "I'm really sorry for getting you all caught."
"It's not your fault Zack." Max said. "If I had gone to Canada with you, none of this would have happened."
"But if you had come with me, Logan would be dead right now." Zack reasoned, despite his great dislike of the man.
"What difference does it make? I'll never see him again." Max said sadly.
"Max, you will see him again. No matter what they do to us, I promise that I will get you all out of here."
"Not to counter you, but it doesn't seem likely." Cora said, "I mean, the first time we got out, we had the element of surprise, now they would just be expecting us to try, if not encouraging it, so they can stop us from getting away and break our hopes."
As Cora finished speaking, the doors to the hallway opened and about fifteen soldiers entered. Each was wearing a gas mask and several were brandishing strange guns. Faith recognized them immediately.
"Well isn't this just swell. They think that we are enough of a threat that they have to gas us, before transport. What's the mater boys, tasers not getting the job done anymore?" She mocked.
The head soldier gave a hand gesture and the gun-toting men began to pump foggy gas into the room. The x5's tried holding their breaths, and were successful until the soldiers pulled out taser wands and shocked them into drawing in air. Within moments all of the X5's were sprawled on the cold concrete floor, unconscious. The soldiers picked up the limp forms and prepped them for transport to Psy Ops.
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