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.