RACHEL AND LU.
Rachel's sedation was beginning to wear off, and she was beginning
to feel very depressed. She had had plenty of time to think as she
'rested', and it was obvious to her that Lovrina would finally get her
own way, that no matter how much Rachel screamed and struggled
and protested, she would eventually be turned into a creature of
Shadow, bent to the will of Lovrina and her twisted colleagues. She
felt like bursting into tears, letting her fear and despair out. It was
one small shred of resistance left that would not let her cry. She
might be powerless to avoid or avert the inevitable, but she was not
going to give Lovrina and her cronies the satisfaction of knowing just
how upsetting the prospect was to her.
As if her thoughts had summoned them, Lovrina and her two
uniformed cohorts came around the corner of the corridor and headed
for her cell.
Lovrina as usual unlocked the door, and the peons swiftly came in
and took her arms, She put up a token struggle, but her heart wasn't
in it, and they easily got her out. At that point, Rachel gave in,
hanging her head and going meekly with them. What was the use,
struggling wouldn't stop them doing whatever they wanted to her.
Rachel didn't know that Lovrina had noted the despair in Rachel's
eyes, and had spotted her lack of struggle, and was watching her
with a look of triumph on her face.
She led them down the same corridor as before, down to the
conveyor belt room. Rachel realised it was vaguely familiar because
she had been up and down it at least twice (three times if you
counted her initial trip in from the lab.) As she was taken into the
room with the conveyor belt, two things happened.
Firstly, the two grunts had realised she was not going to fight, and
had loosened their grip so they were barely holding her upper arms
anymore. Secondly, they had stopped because the machine was
being primed for a Pokémon ahead. Lovrina had chosen a bad time:
Rachel was in a queue for the processing machine.
Then Rachel noticed who was about to be processed: a very familiar
blue-and-white Pokémon, ten feet long and very scared. Gorigan
stood at the machine, calibrating the dials while the two peons
holding Lu lifted him up and placed him on the conveyor belt. The
terrified little Lugia shied and tried to pull away, but to no avail.
Rachel's apathy disappeared. They had Lu! She lunged forwards,
breaking Lovrina's grunts grip on her arms completely. She almost
knocked Lovrina over. Lovrina's huge green eyes got huger in
surprise. By the time Lovrina had reacted with a wordless cry, Rachel
was dodging around Gorigan and trying to reach for Lu, who had just
been aided into the tunnel by a shove from the peons who had
brought him. She realised she wasn't going to be able to reach, and
acted without thinking. She jumped, and launched herself towards
Lu, arms outspread to catch hold of him. Unfortunately her trajectory
and velocity served only to carry herself and him into the tunnel.
Hearing Lu's muffled cries of terror, Rachel did the only thing she
could think of. She took the tape off his beak, shoved his head into
her lap, and threw her arms around him, stroking and cuddling him,
hugging him tight like her mum used to hug her when she was woken
by thunderstorms as a child and was scared Zapdos would come and
bolt the house. Rachel was careful to avoid a large, painful looking
scabbed-over injury on his neck. She didn't want to think where he
might have gained such an injury.
"Close your eyes!" she cried to him, wishing she could do the same,
but she could not, as she was watching for the signs that they were
about to come out of the other end. If they fell awkwardly, they could
both be hurt. Rachel tried to soothe Lu, having to force herself to
resist the process that the treacherous cells in her brain were
responding to. She felt anger become strong inside herself, knew
what it meant, and suppressed it. I will NOT get Shadowed in
just two processings! she thought to herself. She felt Lu twitch as
he felt the same anger within himself.
"Lu, resist it! Focus on your family, your friends on the island, things
that make you happy! Fight this! They want to close your heart and
make you fight all the time for them!" She stroked and caressed him
on his back, between the plates, the sensitive place he loved having
rubbed and scratched, hoping to distract him from the noises and
images being used to close their hearts. She felt Lu relax, even as her
own fury continued to grow, and she kept it tightly under control, for
although she felt like lashing out, the nearest target was Lu, and he
had enough problems already. She had to get him out of there!
Looking ahead through the purple haze that was dancing around her
eyes, she could see what she recognised as the end of the tunnel.
"Lu! Get ready to land!" she told him. "When you do, look for the
door and just RUN, and fly, fly for your life as soon as you get out in
the open air! You remember it wasn't far into here, don't you? I'll be
right behind you, but in case something goes wrong and I'm not,
don't turn back for anything, just go and look for help!"
Okay. Lu responded.
Rachel felt Lu tense to land as they spilled out of the other end. As
Rachel had surmised, there were two hefty-looking grunts waiting for
them. As they moved forwards, unsure which of the two they should
grab first, Rachel turned loose the anger that had been building up
inside her throughout the processing.
With a snarl of rage, she used her body as a weapon, slamming it
hard enough into the first peon to knock him over. She heard him cry
out in pain and exulted in it. She threw herself at the second and
they went down in a tangle of arms and legs, her fists and feet
flailing. She saw Lu take off at a stumbling run for the door as
Lovrina and Gorigan turned to find out what the commotion was
about. Lu bolted between them too fast for either to react, their grabs
belated as he shot through the doorway and vanished from sight.
Both Gorigan and Lovrina about-faced and gave chase.
Rachel, in the meantime, was fighting a losing battle. Her earlier
sedation, combined with the disorientaion the processing had caused
her, combined to put her at a disadvantage, and when the first grunt
recovered enough to join his companion in subduing her, it tipped the
balance against her even more. By the time Lovrina and Gorigan
returned, two minutes after their exit and empty-handed, the peons
had her pinned down on the floor, motionless.
Neither Gorigan nor Lovrina looked very happy.
"She had better be worth all the effort and hassle we've been
through, Lovrina!" Gorigan said. "She's just cost Grand Master Greevil
his second XD001!"
"It is so worth the effort, really." Said Lovrina. She crouched down by
Rachel, who bared her teeth and growled at her. Lovrina grabbed a
handful of Rachel's hair and pulled her head up, twisting it painfully
upwards so Gorigan could see her eyes. "Look, Gorigan, her eyes are
almost totally in Shadow now. "I do so believe the process is working
oh so better than even I had anticipated." She pointed towards the
first thug Rachel had attacked. "Did that hurt? It looked oh so painful.
Were you bruised?" The peon nodded. Lovrina looked back at
Gorigan.
"Don't you so see? I do believe my XD002 has just done it's first
Shadow Rush! A few more processings and it will be oh so totally in
Shadow!"
She released Rachel's hair and stood up. "Hold it there a moment, it
is so time for its next dose of stem cells, and, of course, it will so
have to be sedated again. Later, I can give it the final dose of stem
cells, and then as many trips through the processor as is required to
break its will and complete its Shadowing. In fact, I think I so may be
able to make my XD002 so unpurifiable, just like my XD001!"
Lovrina prepared the now-familiar two syringes, administered them,
and then she and Gorigan, refusing to underestimate Rachel again,
took her back to her holding pen.
