FROM RACHEL TO XD002
Lovrina spoke directly to Rachel first.
"Move back against the wall." Rachel acted as if she hadn't heard. It
so happened that she didn't mind that Lovrina suspected she might
rush the door. She had no intention yet of trying escape, if
this man came up trumps it would be easier his way, but she didn't
want Lovrina to suspect something because she had become
compliant. Lovrina repeated her command, and then again, which is
when Rachel did move to obey. Lovrina opened the doors to admit
the peons, who took her arms and dragged her out. Belatedly Rachel
realised that Lovrina had come to process her again. She struggled,
and resolved to fight the machine's influence, for if she didn't come
out of this with some of her own will intact, her chance of escape
could be gone. It was no good if the man opened her pen if she had
no will or wit enough to leave.
Lovrina watched her struggles with a look of what was almost pity on
her face.
"My poor XD002, it'll be so okay soon, once we're finished there will
be no conflict in your mind, and you can so stop struggling and
fighting against us and begin fighting for us. By tonight, or tomorrow
at the latest, your processing should be oh so complete and all the
mental confusion will be so gone." Rachel's response was so strongly
worded that one of the grunts holding her actually blushed.
"Come now, so don't be like that." Lovrina replied. She spoke to the
peons.
"Let's go. Once she's been processed she'll have another dose of
cells, but let's so hope less sedative will be needed." She turned and
they followed her, bringing Rachel with them.
When they got to the processing room, Lovrina made a point of
checking the settings of the machine. Picking up a clipboard from by
the machine, she checked it, reading out a set of numbers from it,
and checking the gauges and dials, occasionally making a few
alterations to the settings and checking them through once again
once she had finished.
"Okay, we are so ready." she announced. "Process XD002 again!"
Rachel was once again pushed onto the conveyor belt, and held until
she was half inside the machine. In her desperation she almost
managed to scramble out this time, but a peon saw her clinging to
the edge and unpicked her fingers and gave her a shove into the
tunnel. Down she fell and she cried out, closing her eyes and trying to
stop up her ears. Unknowingly like Julie before her, she found this
had a limited success, the process building upon the work that had
already been done, and Rachel wept as she felt not just a rise in her
anger, but a lack of concern for things that had previously mattered
to her sweep over her body. She thought she could almost feel the
door to her heart being slowly closed up until there was just a small
sliver left open. She resisted, visualising a door in a heart being
slowly wedged open, and oddly enough it seemed to help, and she
focused on it. Now if only she could visualise it opening wider and
wider and opening completely….
She was interrupted in her thoughts as she fell head-first out of the
mechanism and into a net held by the two waiting peons. They
wasted no time in wrapping her in it as she struggled and fought.
Lovrina came around to see her.
"Oh so don't struggle XD002, soon everything will be okay." She said.
Rachel, to her surprise, found herself calming down and obeying
Lovrina's request. Even Lovrina was surprised.
"Oh that is so reassuring. I so thought there was a problem with
obedience in humans but maybe that will so sort itself out as the
processing continues. I so look forward to seeing what the effects of a
full Purification are on you. Maybe we can use you to help get that
bird girl. Greevil won't be so displeased at losing the little Lugia if he
can have her returned. Perhaps you might be our way to find her, our
bird-dog, or our bait." Rachel felt anger, but not as much as she
thought she would. Like everything else, Julie didn't seem to matter
so much to her now. One small part of her that did still care wept at
what she had become. Lovrina noticed the tears trickling down her
cheeks and knelt beside her, using one small hand to gently wipe the
tears away.
"Don't cry, my XD002. Your final processing or two should settle this
inner turmoil. I will so arrange for two more processings tonight for
you. By the morning, your mind will be focused, and you will so truly
belong to me-and to Cipher."
She ordered her peons to cautiously release Rachel from the net, and
helped her to her feet. She lifted Rachel's arm to give her an
injection, and she flinched away from the needle. Lovrina sighed and
instructed the peons to hold her still as she administered the jab.
"It was oh so too optimistic to hope you'd allow me to do this without
restraint. It was oh so premature. This last dose of stem cells will so
help. After your next trip through the processor you should be oh so
more compliant, and after the final one, so totally bent to my will."
She prepared another syringe.
"This should so be the last necessary dose of sedative, but I have
so reduced the amount for you. Such a strong dose is no longer so
necessary." She stretched out Rachel's winged arm again and looked
at it.
"I see some of the stem cells that did not lodge in your brain have
found elsewhere in your body to occupy. I so wonder if we can use
this to teach you some Pokémon skills? Even if not, it still means your
eyes are no longer the only indicator of how the processing is
progressing."
Rachel blinked, not knowing what Lovrina meant. Then she looked at
her wing and arm, then down at her legs in mild shock.
Her skin had gone a strange lilac colour.
