Nezu was seated at the head of the U.A. meeting table with various different teachers, heroes, and H.A. representatives. They were all involved in small discussions amongst themselves while Nezu waited in silence with Aizawa and Detective Tsukauchi to his left and right respectively. They had been waiting in the room for about 10 minutes so far, waiting for Dr. Okimi to arrive with her report.

So far the assembled individuals had all been briefed on the attack at Yaoyorozu Manor, and how nearly all persons involved had been drugged and restrained. It was a distressing and very disturbing event. The fact that Zeus's organization had managed to move nearly 50 para-military personnel through the city and to a highly secure private property owned by one of the wealthiest and most powerful heroes in the country undetected, was one of the most alarming events in the past few years. It spoke to both Zeus's rapidly growing power and the Association's failings in keeping tabs on him and his people. It had been three days since then, and the Association was in chaos trying to discover as much as they could. The woman they had captured was currently in one of the few quirk-suppression rooms at New Tartarus, under constant surveillance and being fed sedatives to keep her unconscious. As no one knew the upper limits of her strength they wanted to play it safe.

"Things are progressing faster than I had anticipated. Should I start putting some of my contingencies into play this early?" wondered Nezu darkly.

"At the very least I'll need him to come out of retirement. I should also work on accelerating Project Rebirth, should the worst come to pass it will be our last chance in the long term for victory." Nezu sighed and took another sip of his tea, as another problem came to mind.

"Why sedatives? why not kill them outright? All For One displayed the ability to use corpses to create Nomu, as he did with Kurogiri. So why only sedatives?" This was the one thing about the attack he didn't understand. Of all the scenarios he had envisioned, of the reasons and results of the attack, the desire to only render them unconscious was the one thing that didn't add up.

"Obviously, he wanted them alive for something, and the leader of the attack said they would all wake up in the same place where they had been put under. Assuming he was telling the truth, it meant that they needed them only unconscious for whatever it is they wanted. Or, he needed them alive for something first before killing them." He took another sip of his tea. He needed more information, but he wasn't likely to get that anytime soon. He did feel like there was something lurking at the edge of his mind though. Some answer or theory that might clear this mystery up, but just wouldn't come to him just yet. It gnawed at his mind and he hated that feeling.

His thoughts were cut short however when the door opened and a familiar figure in a white coat and blue dress shirt came in.

"Ah, Dr. Okimi, it's good that you have arrived. I presume your report is ready?" Asked Nezu, raising his voice so everyone could hear.

"Yes, I'll just need a moment to get everything set up." She replied as she went to the computer connected to the projector and inserted the dongle. It took her another minute or two, but eventually, she stood up, remote in hand, and turned the projector on.

"The attacker's identity has been confirmed to be that of Aria Lin. A half-Japanese, half-European immigrant who moved into the country with her husband about 13 years ago. She would later give birth to a son and seven years ago the entire family vanished into thin air. Authorities suspected a quirk-related homicide and spent a great deal of time trying to tie anyone to the murder. Needless to say, it's now obvious she wasn't in fact murdered but abducted instead. Her quirk was registered as Blood-Conversion, with the power to absorb and assimilate any imbibed blood into her own. Her blood type is also unique to her alone. The following video is as much of the footage we could obtain of the attack. Only the interior cameras were operational, as exterior ones had been disabled. " She said as she played the video compilation detailing as much of the recorded attack as possible.

A few minutes later, with a couple of swears and lots of expressions becoming grim, the video ended. Dr. Okimi let it all sink in for a minute before continuing.

"The details of the attack are highly concerning, but I'm afraid that isn't the worst of it," she said grimly. She pressed a button and an image came on screen of the scarlet-haired woman fully nude on an operating table.

Quite a few people swore, others had the color drain from their faces, and one H.A. representative looked like they might be sick there and then. The image of her body was horrific, thousands of scars ran across her body, from small lines to horrific jagged ones. Her breasts had been completely removed, the horrid scarring suggesting that they had been roughly surgically removed. It was the body of someone who should have died several times over, yet the woman was not only alive but apparently viciously strong.

"How in the fuck is that the body of a still-living human?!" Hissed out Mirko who looked absolutely livid. Which was a bit ironic coming from her, considering she'd been little more than a body at one point herself.

"This is where it gets worse." Said Dr. Okimi and pressed another button.

The next image was a full-body MRI of the woman, and there was dead silence. The image showed everything that was different.

"I'm afraid," The doctor said, "that this isn't a joke. The woman's entire internal bodily structure has been completely remolded. Her entire reproductive system has been removed, the liver mutated, two more hearts implanted, significant signs of brain damage and subsequent repair, the two lungs splits into four smaller and more condensed versions, with the entire circulatory system having been altered in various ways. Finally, while this image doesn't show it, all of her bones are now silver colored. We don't yet have the lab report back on that front, but at the very least they are multiple times stronger than regular bone." Said Dr. Okimi pointing at each area with a laser pointer.

"How... How is this possible? Who could do something like this?" asked a thoroughly shaken H.A. executive.

"Chisaki, All for One, and presumedly Zeus now." Said Nezu quietly.

"Fortunately I think we can rule out Zeus for this," said Dr. Okimi.

The room relaxed some at that small bit of good news, but the mood remained dark.

"I think this woman was in line to become a new type of Nomu. All the scarring and modifications are a few years old, so I think Zeus likely dug her out of some lab where she had been put on ice until she could be retrieved and 'completed'. Additionally, a few of the internal changes are in line with changes observed from others experimented on by Chisaki during the war. However, many of the organ-specific changes differ from Chisaki's norm at the time. Likely this is where All for One's servant Doctor Kyudai Garaki came into play, up until he was apprehended." Said Dr. Okimi pressing another button.

The image suddenly had red circles placed over top several organs.

"Clearly the woman bears powers not remotely associated with her original quirk of Blood-Conversion,but it does bear some thematic resemblance. We suspect the removal of the reproductive system, the changes to the brain, and the alteration to the circulatory system were done to aid the mutation of her quirk." She said pointing to each area in question, then switching to the next image of what could be a red blood cell, but it was twisted and warped so badly it bore little resemblance to one anymore.

"Rather than force new quirks into the body, it would appear that Chisaki and Dr. Garaki wanted to instead focus on mutating quirks into new, stronger, variants. I suspect this would have been easier and faster to do than creating brand-new High-End Nomu which could take several months or even a year to fully produce. Not to mention the benefits of having a nomu with advanced intelligence. We've come to this conclusion via careful examination of the woman's quirk factor and blood cells, which showed signs of major cellular damage and mutation, possibly caused by radiation exposure or from another method." Said Dr. Okimi.

Okimi pressed the button again and suddenly a full body picture of the woman appeared, smaller though, and placed to the far left of the image. Going across from there, there were 4 more images; a tiger, a wolf, a snake, and a gecko.

"Just before I set out to come here, we got the DNA exam results back in. The woman has the DNA of a Bengal Tiger, a Mongolian Wolf, a Japanese Pit Viper, and a Tawa Gecko present in her body. How this is possible we aren't sure, but her eyes indicate that the snake and gecko DNA at least was used to alter her vision in some way. We aren't sure if this was done for aesthetic reasons, or if there is some biological advantage it grants her. For the moment at least, we would need to conduct more tests." Said Dr. Okimi, pressing the remote one final time and switching to two side-by-side images of the scar running along the woman's neck and a separate image of the collar that Ochako Uraraka had removed.

"Finally we have this, the collar that was retrieved by investigators was designed to be attached and likely never removed. There are no seams, clasps, hinges, or any other method of opening it. How it was attached to her is unknown, so naturally, we assume a quirk was involved. However its remains do shed light on its purpose, It had a circular battery system running through the entirety of the collar. This battery can hold enough power to fry a normal individual's nervous system several times over and if not kill them, then render them paralyzed permanently. The use of such a powerful system in a collar indicates that it was likely implemented as a means of ensuring her co-operation and obedience. Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that this woman was brought to the attack not only as a fail-safe should anyone not be put under by initial dosage of sedative, but also as a means of assessing her capacity for obedience and unquestioning loyalty. Clearly, this backfired when Uravity destroyed the collar, thereby freeing the woman of Zeus's control. We can assume that after she was freed, she went and slaughtered the remaining soldiers of Zeus. Before apparently exhausting herself and rendering herself unconscious. This concludes my report on the woman Aria Lin." Finished Dr. Okimi. She pressed another button and the slideshow ended, with the dimmed lights coming back up to full brightness shortly after.

There was silence for a bit while the room just digested the sheer amount of information dumped on them. Eventually, however, Nezu broke the silence.

"Thank you Dr. Okimi for your very insightful report. This information will be of great help to us as we consider future courses of action. Now, I also believe you have an update for us regarding the condition of my students?" Asked Nezu.

"Yes, the current status for everyone but Ochako Uraraka remains relatively unchanged. As of yesterday they were all released from the hospital and permitted to return to their residences. The sedative used to render them unconscious was non-lethal and they awoke mere hours after being drugged. Ms. Uraraka however remains unconscious following the extensive bone repair I had to put her through. By my best estimates, she should regain consciousness sometime this evening or during the night. Her injuries ranged from a minor concussion to extensive bone fractures running the length of her body. They have since been repaired, but the strain my healing puts on the body can result in extended periods of unconsciousness proportional to the damage being repaired." Said Dr. Okimi looking over some medical documents she had brought with her.

"Excellent news, I will want to be notified the moment Ms. Uraraka regains consciousness, no matter the time," Nezu said.

After Dr. Okimi's agreement to the request, Nezu looked over the assembled individuals before speaking again.

"Zeus has struck the first blow against us. He has demonstrated just how powerful he has become and how far-reaching that power is. However, his lack of deadly force against my students points to three possible reasons. Firstly, he wanted to make this event a message for us, to tell us he has the power to kill some of the best of us with relative ease. To strike fear into us and force us to make mistakes. Secondly, he had an ulterior motive that he wanted to keep us from noticing by sending such a message. Likely a break-in, murder, or other crime meant to be obscured by this. Thirdly, he never intended to send such a message to begin with. Rather his plans went awry when Ms. Uraraka was discovered to be immune to his drug. Now he has not only lost whatever it is he hoped to gain but has also lost approximately 40 mercenary soldiers and his newest weapon in the form of Mrs. Lin." Said Nezu now standing atop his desk, while drinking his tea.

"I have chosen to believe the third option is the most likely, however, the second and first are also highly probable. So for starters, I suggest we investigate crimes and other events to have occurred at roughly the same time as this." Proposed Nezu.

There were several agreements and some small discussions about details, but as the next topic was about to be brought up, the door suddenly opened.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but we have a situation." said the nervous H.A. employee. "The woman currently being held at New Tartarus is awake and the sedatives no longer have any effect. For the moment she has not attempted to break free, but people are growing agitated at the fact that nothing else they have tried since then to sedate her has proved effective."

"Then it sounds like a conversation is in order." Said Nezu brightly.

The entire room too turned to face him.

"I'm sorry Principal Nezu, but I fail to see how talking to her could prove useful. She barely demonstrated the ability to speak in the footage, we couldn't even hear her through the ambient noise. We can only guess at what was said based on Ms. Uraraka's replies to the woman." Said the Hero Association President, Michi Akiyama.

"On the contrary, I think it could be highly illuminating. Especially if Dr. Okimi were to repair the damage to her vocal cords. I will also bring with me, Eraserhead, Cementoss, Ryukyu, and Mirko for protection and containment should she break herself out. I will also bring Detective Tsukauchi with me, for obvious reasons. The rest of you will be able to observe through a live camera feed of the cell as we question her." Said Nezu with the smoothness of someone who had been expecting this from the start.

The President glared at him, she didn't like how Nezu was always a few steps ahead of everyone. He'd only gotten more insufferable during the war when his intellect had been pushed to its limits, making him even smarter than he was previously. If such a thing were possible.

"Fine, we'll observe from here." She bit out.

"Thank you." Said Nezu politely, and with that, his team left the room.


Aria awoke in a dimly lit room. She groaned as the headache became noticeable, and she winced and grimaced at the light, dim though it was. She closed her eyes and shifted her vision, closing off multiple cones and rods inside her eyes and then slowly opening them again. Her eyes now correctly adjusted to the dim light and her pupils now their typical oval shape once more, looked around her surroundings in detail. It was a rather plain room, gray concrete walls, ceilings, and flooring, with a large glass window in front of her; behind that was the large steel door leading out.

Now properly adjusted to her headache she became aware of slight pain in her arm. She tried to look down but it was difficult given she was currently pressed against an upright table of some kind with giant metal clasps holding her entire body in place and encompassing most of her body. She could barely make out the shape of a tube leading from the small portion of the exposed arm with a clear liquid running through it. She frowned, this was all highly unusual, very different from her usual bindings and surroundings. She was also usually left awake, not drugged.

"I must have been causing a lot of trouble if they were desperate enough to drug me." she thought.

Then her brain slowly put the pieces together, and her eyes went wide as she remembered recent events.

"I... I'm not in my room... I was... captured?"

She didn't remember anything after falling unconscious of course, but her body told her it had probably been a few days since then. Without any of Zeus's people to capture and contain her, then the heroes must have captured her and put her in here instead.

Honestly, it wasn't much different from before. Just the binding was different for the most part. Then she heard a hiss and some gas flowed into the chamber. The haze swirled around her and she felt herself starting to droop, then that started to fade as her body built a rapid immunity to the airborne drug, much like it had to the drug still being pumped into her. While a few other similar events occurred she found her mind wandering.

"I wonder what heroes use... Torture? Brainwashing? Hallucinogens? Starvation? Coercion? Surgery? Or something else?" The number of methods she knew about on how to break the mind, body, and spirit of an individual was a long one. She had been put through most of them at least once after all. She passed the time by imagining how the heroes might differ from Zeus, and those before him, in controlling their soldiers. She was especially curious how they might go about breaking her out of her current conditioning and training, so as to make her unilaterally loyal to their side.

"Would I survive such an ordeal? My body's been through so much already, how much more can it take before it just shuts down entirely? I hope I die early into the procedure, that would be a nice change of pace. I hated dying late into the first round of procedures. Maybe I'll even stay dead this time." That hopeful feeling at the end however died mere moments after she had felt it.

Her idle daydreams were interrupted however when she heard a metallic whirring noise. She focused on the door in front of her, which had begun to emit numerous metallic and mechanical noises. Then the door swung open and several people walked in, two figures in matching uniforms set up small chairs behind the glass then positioned themselves on the far ends of the chamber. They weren't particularly interesting save for the small animal person standing on the center chair facing her.

Then a section of the glass swung inward toward her and a woman in a white coat walked into the room. The woman walked right up to Aria and placed a single finger to her throat. Warmth blossomed in her throat and she felt the inside of her throat burn sort of. It was a very unusual feeling but when it faded she discovered that it felt better than it had in months. As if whatever damaged her throat had been healed.

No sooner than had that occurred to her, than she tried to voice her thoughts aloud.

"Out of curiosity what method do you people prefer to use? Torture or drugs? I can't decide which one I dislike more..." she trailed off, starting to daydream again.

The woman merely raised one eyebrow at that.

"I'm not sure I understand, could you elaborate?" said the small animal person.

She snapped her thoughts back into focus and shook her head. Apparently, the variety of sedatives that had been tried on her, had made thinking and focusing more difficult. The woman meanwhile had walked back behind the glass which swung back in-on-itself and reformed into a perfect panel glass.

"Well, torture hurts a lot but I guess I've kind of gotten used to it after a while. Couldn't really feel much of anything after that. Though I guess since that one is a moot point, it would have to be drugs. Drugs are really annoying to work against, especially hallucinogens since I can see some pretty weird stuff. Sometimes times horrible things, and when it's really bad the inhibitors kind of stop working. So I guess it would be drugs. I don't like drugs. Can you skip the drugs?" She asked.

There was silence from them, and she could see them looking at each other with an odd expression on their faces. She vaguely remembered what it was... but with it being difficult to think clearly and focus everything just kinda drifted away from her...

"I'm sorry to disappoint you but we don't practice such things here. But I am curious, what are these inhibitors?" Asked the small animal person again.

"Hmmm...? Oh, well they did stuff to me that makes most emotions and feelings not happen. I can't even remember what happiness, sadness, love, or surprise feel like anymore. Though I can still feel anger, hate, disgust, and pleasure." She said simply.

She blinked, surprised at how easily the answer came from her. "Did they expose me to some gas to make me more compliant?" she thought. That would be a first, and quite frankly the thought was an unwelcome one. She directed her blood to flood her brain and try to dilute whatever the substance was. Her blood felt slow to respond though as if her commands were struggling to make it to her blood and hearts. She felt the blood slowly move to her head and she steadily grew light-headed. It faded a few minutes later and she blinked with a new semblance of clarity and sobriety.

"Miss Lin? Are you all right?" said the animal person.

She focused her attention on him then and was finally able to actually pick out the details of him. His well-fitted suit, the scar running over a single eye, his large paws, and his sharp shoes. He reminded her of a stuffed animal. Though she couldn't remember from when or where. She had the vague idea that she must have been a child at the time, but anything from beyond a few years ago was hazy.

Then she registered what he had said.

"What?"

"I asked if you are all right." he reiterated.

"No, before that, what did you call me?"

"I said your name, your name is Aria Lin correct?" he asked.

She frowned, she knew her name was Aria but Lin? Had that been her surname? She honestly couldn't remember anymore, and that realization struck her deeply. She was never so lucid feeling as she was now, without the collar's and the drug's effects she felt as if some veil had been lifted from her. Until now it never struck her just how much she had actually lost. She had forgotten one of the oldest things in her life, how much else might she have forgotten without realizing it? She could be missing entire pieces of her life and she'd never know. She couldn't feel fear anymore, but it made her uncomfortable at the least. Then she realized that the small animal was still waiting for a reply.

"I... I think it is. I am missing large portions of memory, my surname being one of them, but it does sound familiar." she said slowly.

"I see, would you prefer Aria then?" asked the animal person.

"Yes, Lin just doesn't sound right," she said.

"Aria it is then!" he said cheerfully. "Oh, and I must apologize, my name is Nezu by the way."

She nodded her head.

"Well Aria, I was hoping you'd be willing to answer a few questions for us." Said Nezu

She nodded again. Old habits died hard, and she wasn't quite used to being able to speak so easily yet.

"Well, for starters we would like to know about the raid you were a part of. What was your mission, your role, and things of that nature." He said.

The phrasing made something in her brain click and she shifted into a memorized default response to the question that her conditioning had included.

"My designation is EEN-0, and precursor to the Hounds of Zeus. I am expected to obey my owner, Zeus, and his designated co-owners of me. Including, but not limited to, the Houndmaster and all other Handlers designated by him. My duty is to follow my given orders and die for them if necessary. I am not to be privy to details concerning any operations or activities of my masters, only their orders matter, nor should I ever inquire about them." she said mechanically.

"I see. What does your designation mean and what are the Hounds of Zeus." Asked Nezu.

"EEN stands for Elite-End-Nomu, I am model 0 of that line. The Hounds of Zeus are Zeus's personal servants who are to live and die for him. He is their owner, and we are bound to his service and will." She responded. Her training and conditioning were not as all-encompassing as other Hounds, and so she had no problems in answering their questions, she was after all taught never to lie. For the moment, the Heroes had her captured and whether that would change or not in the future was of little concern to her.

"Interesting, what about you specifically though? What is your relationship precisely with other Elite-End-Nomu and the Hounds of Zeus?" Asked Nezu.

"I alone, am different in this regard, as I was originally selected to become the first of a new type of biological weapon developed by Chisaki and the League of Villains. When it became clear I was unfit to be fully converted into an Elite-End-Nomu, I was instead used as a test subject and experimented on to help in developing methods to create proper Elite-End-Nomu. At some point, I was put into storage, where I remained until Zeus recovered me. My blood has been harvested extensively by him for use in creating his Hounds." She responded immediately.

She saw Nezu look over a man to his left and when the man nodded to him he seemed to grow thoughtful for a few moments. This left her time to think and to observe the others in the room with Nezu. The man to his left was plain looking, nothing of note. The man to his right however had a scarf around his neck and tired-looking eyes with grey hair in places. There were also two women present, one had long white hair and rabbit ears, while the other blond hair, a weird grey claw attached to her head, and multiple gold piercing in her visible ear.

"Gold piercings?" She titled her head in confusion. Seeing those piercings gave her a sudden sense of confusion and unease.

Something was terribly wrong. She swung her head around, trying to see everything, but the horrible feeling was becoming stronger. Then it struck her, she looked down and realized she didn't have her scarf or rings. Her bad feeling exploded into full-on panic. She NEEDED her treasures.

She started to writhe in her restraints, the adrenaline kicked in and her blood started flowing more freely and strongly. She was vaguely aware of the people saying something but her sheer panic was too great for rational thought. Her Instincts were kicking in and they screamed at her to escape her confines and find her treasures. She poured all of her might into breaking the bonds, the blood seeped from her body and started to form around her but was limited by the tight confines of the restraint. Her bestial nature and instincts were meshing with her sole singular desire to recover her treasures. She roared in rage as the restraints held firm, she tried forming more mass but the tight confines made it difficult. Then she felt one of the corners bend a little, and she channeled all her strength into that area.

With a horrible noise of ripping and popping metal, she tore a hand free. From there she freed herself in short order. She collapsed onto the floor and was vaguely aware that some kind of gas was permeating the room, red and powdery. It stuck to her, then she heard a crackle of electricity, and then pain shot through her. She convulsed as the electricity coursed all around her, but unlike the collar, it couldn't penetrate into her enough to shut her down as the collar could. Then she was on fire, the powder finally combusting and the pain triplicated. Still, it didn't even begin to compare to the pain she had experienced over the time she had been held captive. She formed a true body of blood over top herself and the pain lessened, and when she opened her eyes she saw the world anew. Her bestial instincts and nature gave her the clarity and focus only a true apex predator could experience. She gave a high-pitched howling roar and charged through the glass.

Only to slam into a solid concrete wall that came from nowhere. Then there were walls to her sides squeezing her so tightly she could barely move. She growled and flexed against them, the walls bent, cracked, then broke. She lifted one massive clawed limb and tore the concrete wall in front of her into pieces. Only to be hit by a giant scaly monster that pinned her to the far wall. Then there was a flash of white and something smashed into the face so hard it actually broke her nose. She screamed in pain and her tail burst from her and stabbed at the scaly thing in front of her. She felt the spiked tip penetrate deeply and the grip lessened. She then wrapped her tail around the creature's throat and threw it aside, though it was so large that it filled most of the space by itself. Then she batted the white creature that broke her nose deep into the nearby wall, but not before it hit her the left leg and she felt her actual thigh bone almost snap under the impact. Impressive considering her true body was covered in a mass of fur, muscle, and silver bone, though it wasn't at full size or strength yet, the tight confines of the room prevented that.

She rushed forward expanding in size as she did and burst through the far wall, ignoring everyone else and breaking down the door in the process. She felt something tug against her and her body slow down but whatever it was, it vanished a few moments later. Then she sniffed the air, her smelling now enhanced several times over caught a faint whiff of her own scent and she barreled down the hall, barely fitting in the large hallway and leaving major damage to the building in her wake. She smashed through mechanical robots and other people, shrugging off all of the withering fire that was thrown at her. More massive concrete walls erupted at random intervals and her progress was slowed down considerably. Yet, she ignored everything and just barreled through it all as best she could. Eventually, though, she turned a corner and after batting a few people aside went deeper into the complex's office suite. The walls stopped appearing and the slowly strengthening lethargy vanished immediately. She didn't know how long she had barreled through the building, everything was just a blur to her.

She was closing in now on an innocuous door in a smaller side hallway, so she shrunk a little. With the reabsorption of her false body, her frenzy and instincts lessened in intensity. She stopped in front of the door and ripped the door out of the wall and began to shrink so she could fit. Before long she was normal-sized and bleeding from her broken nose, she corrected her nose's position and then forced the blood flow to stop. She could not afford to taint her treasures with her foul blood. The blood on her skin, she re-absorbed into herself and continued inside.

She looked around in a panic-induced rage and started ripping boxes and apart. Then she remembered to smell again and then she focused her attention on the far wall. She forced the frenzy down, calming herself with the knowledge her treasures were near. She walked up to it and began carefully opening the boxes, using the minimum amount of force possible to break them open. The larger boxes were useless though, and she felt her panic and desperation start to increase. She starting to hyperventilate and her eyes darted around the room. Then she noticed a series of racks mounted deeper in the room behind a metal gate with multiple small metal boxes lining the racks. She went up to the gate and pulled them open, breaking the lock and causing an electric alarm to start beeping. She destroyed the noisemaker with her tail then started looking at the labeled containers. The smell was strongest from here, and it took her a bit, but she eventually removed a container labeled "Recent Acquisitions".

She carefully pried open the top and looked inside, there was nothing in it, save her grey-pattered cashmere blood-stained scarf and the double-ring necklace. She drew them out and carefully looked them over for damage. When she was satisfied they were undamaged her panic broke and a profound sense of relief washed over her. Her legs lost their strength and she sank to the floor and clutching them to her chest. Then, for the first time in years, she gave let out a whining noise like a wounded dog as tears overwhelmed her. She rocked back and forth and just cried for what felt like hours. Eventually, she lay down on her side and like a cat, curled around her treasures. Her spine and body contorting like one and she even purred a little, but too low for anyone but those with enhanced hearing to hear.

She had never experienced so much emotional and physical shock in such a short amount of time and she just wanted to sleep with the two most important things in her life back in her hands. Dimly, she was aware that the inhibitors hadn't blocked out the emotions.