"Hey Eirin, what have you got for me?" Marisa said, walking into Eirins office.
Eirin sighed. "Would it be too much to ask for you to call ahead?"
"Not my style." Marisa said, grinning. "So what have you got?"
Eirin sighed and brought up the relevant files on her wrist-comp. "In the past month I have examined her biology in almost every possible way short of actually dissecting her, I believe we have enough data to start discussing the possibility of treatment."
"Awesome," said Marisa, straddling the chair opposite Eirin, "Can you give me a rundown?"
"Would you prefer the short version or the long version?" Eirin said.
"Short version, I'll ask for clarification if I need it." Marisa said.
Eirin nodded. "Very well. The most prominent presence of Element Zero in her body are relatively large clumps spread throughout her nervous system. These 'nodes' are what we believe the biotic ability stems from. The nervous impulses trigger the nodes, allow the generation of dark energy and the creation of mass effect fields."
"So we just get rid of the nodes then?" Marisa said.
"If it were only the nodes then yes, a relatively simple surgery and a detox would be all it would take." Eirin said, bringing up an eezo heatmap to show Marisa. "However, as it has been noted, the Asari homeworld is very element zero rich, and it shows in her biology. Loose particles are spread through her body and cellular structure. They contribute little, if anything to her biotic ability, but it will prevent her from interacting safely with magic."
"Sounds tricky." Marisa said, looking at the scans with interest.
"'Tricky' does not even begin to describe it." Eirin said. "In fact without magicly assisted procedure, I would have to consider this close to impossible. I'm sorry Marisa, but I have difficulty seeing this work."
"Now don't give up just yet doc." Marisa said. "This might not be as complicated as you think."
Eirin deadpanned. "Marisa you just walked in and looked at a diagram, you can't honestly expect me to believe you already have a solution."
"Well I've been tossing around ideas in my free time anyway," Marisa said dismissively, wearing her signature grin. "I sorta guessed it might be something like this. The nodes were a surprise, but I still have an idea that just might do the trick..."
Eirin did not look impressed. "Marisa, I know you, and I know that smile. That's your 'I'm about to do something reckless and or stupid' smile. Tell me what you are planning or I swear I won't let you within fifty meters of my patient for as long as you live."
Marisa held up her hands defensively, her grin not leaving her face. "Alright alright, calm down, I was gonna tell you anyway…"
Ajū: Good morning, Isika
Ajū: It is morning right?
Isika: Yeah, it's morning, hi Ajū
Isika: whats up?
Ajū: Oh nothing, much, I just needed a break from work, and decided to check on my favourite Alien
Ajū: How about you?
Isika: really tired, all these medical exams are wearing me out
Ajū: I can only Imagine
Isika: They've been doing this for a month, how much more tests can there be?
Ajū: Now be patient
Ajū: you are probably the first living Asari they have ever examined, and they can't use the usual magical tools
Ajū: Not to mention they are going to have to invent an entirely new medical procedure to remove the ezo from your body
Ajū: You should be thanking them for how thorough they are being, not moaning about how long its taking.
. . .
Isika: You're right, sorry
Ajū: of course I am
. . .
Isika: Oh, it's time for my examinations again, got to go
Ajū: alright, we'll talk later
Isika: Bye
Isika closed the text chat app on her datapad, and jumped off her bed to get dressed.
It was nice having a friend to talk to. Eirin tended to be rather stiff, and pretty unapproachable, and Marisa only popped in periodically, as she was busy with the magic course.
Having dressed in some of the clothes that they had provided her, a 'hoodie' and 'jeans'. She walked out of her room, to get some breakfast, a quick bowl of something called cereal, that she had grown to be rather fond of before crossing the hall into the examination room.
Isika had only just sat down on the exam table when the door opened behind her. Only instead of Eirin, Marisa entered the room, The doctor following behind.
"Yo." said Marisa, cheerily, "How you doing today?"
Isika stood up and bowed, something she had seen others do in the presence of people like Eirin and Marisa. "H-hello Miss Marisa!"
"Hey easy there kiddo." marisa said, gently pushing her on the forehead, making her fall back into her seat. "Save it for when you are actually my apprentice."
"If she becomes your apprentice." Eirin said, closing the door behind her. "Don't speak as if it's a certainty, you're only putting ideas in the poor girls head."
Isika flinched a bit at Eirins words. Eirin doesn't really pull any punches when it comes to her chances of becoming a magician.
"Hey, play nice." said Marisa, "no need to dampen her spirits too much. Especially when we have good news."
"If you can call it good news." Muttered Eirin.
"What good news?" Isika said, eagerly.
"We have gathered all the data we can." Eirin said, "We have a comprehensive understanding of your biology, so there will be no further examinations."
"And we can get right into getting rid of those pesky biotics." Marisa said, cheerily.
"Really?!" Isika said, excited.
"Ehem!" said Eirin, drawing attention back to her. "However, the Element zero in your biology is more diffuse than we thought, so removal is going to prove far more difficult than was anticipated."
"Oh." said Isika, her heart sinking slightly.
"But I have a solution." Marisa said.
Isikas heart rose again.
"Possible solution. What have I told you about putting ideas in her head?" Eirin said, scolding Marisa.
"W-what is it?" Isika, said, whose heart had given up in confusion.
Eirin sighed, and activated a wall screen with her wrist-comp, showing a silhouette of Isikas body, with a simplified image of her nervous system imposed on it.
"As you may or may not know, the highest concentrations of eezo are tied in with your nervous system, and is what allows your kind to use biotics. However," and here Erin imposed a heatmap over the silhouette, mostly in low green, but with some yellow around her stomach, chest and head, with red dots over various points in the nervous system and brain, "our examinations have shown a low presence of Eezo throughout your body, especially concentrated around your head and torso. This kind of dispersion would make its total removal practically impossible by any mundane means."
But before Isikas hopes were totally dashed, Marisa cut in. "But we are not completely limited to mundane means. Eirin if you please."
Eirin sighed, and changed the graphic, this time a simple one, showing a small blue ball, labelled 'Element Zero'.
Marisa then started explaining. "Now first before I explain my method, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of what Eezo and magic do to each other. I'll try to keep it simple." another ball appeared, this one labeled 'Magic' and was yellow. "Now as is already been established, they don't like each other. Mass effect fields disrupt and mess up magic," a lighter blue field extended from the blue ball, and where it touched the yellow one it went wobbly and starts disintegrating, before returning to normal after the field receded. "And magic destabilizes dark energy and damages Eezo, sometimes with explosive results." A yellow field extended out of the magic ball, damaging the blue ball in a similar manner than before. "It's these kind of indirect interactions that cause contamination sickness in both magicians and biotics, and why you can't learn magic. You following so far kid?"
After Isika tentatively nodded, Marisa continued. "Good, because this is where it starts getting interesting. Because if we apply juuust the the right amount of magic, exactly over the center of low activity Eezo…" The two circles moved to the center of the screen completely overlapping, before they both disintegrated completely, "... it results in perfect, mutual annihilation, almost completely clean." The graphic then switched back to the heatmap. "And this is preeetty much what we are gonna do to you."
"Wait, what?" Isika said, alarmed.
Eirin sighed. "While Marisas plan is certifiably insane, it is not without merits, allow me to explain." The diagram zoomed into one of the fingers, and then kept zooming, until the heat map was comprised of green dots, as opposed to the general green area it was before. "What Marisa proposes, is that we pinpoint each individual particle of Element Zero, and superimpose a nanoscopic magical singularity over each." on the diagram the green dots glow, then vanish one at a time across the screen, until none were left. It then zoomed back out, to the whole body view, this time the finger being completely blue. "While certainly a slow process, and one that will require a great deal of precision, we could completely remove all Element zero from your body using this method."
"You mean, for real?" Isika said excitement in her voice, "And I could learn magic then?"
"Hold your horses there." Marisa said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "As much as I hate to be the buzzkill, there are a few more things about the procedure we gotta talk about first."
"Like what?" said Isika, getting a feeling she wasn't going to like this.
"Like the potential risks and complications." said Eirin, proving Isika right. "These Eezo particles are practically omnipresent. Skin, muscle, tissue, organs, it's everywhere. And while we can prevent the damage caused by the reaction, we cannot prevent the damage caused by their sudden absence. On top of the painstakingly slow process of removing the eezo, we will have to be constantly dealing with tissue damage, skin deterioration, internal hemorrhaging, replenishing blood cells, nerve damage, not to mention when we reach the internal organs like the stomach, lungs and brain. We will be fighting a constant battle against your body just to keep you alive. And that's not even mentioning the extraordinary amount of pain the procedure will cause. And if there was even the slightest slip up with the magic levels… I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you, this procedure could very well kill you, and it will be a very painful way to die. And even if the operation is a success, even though magic will no longer react badly with you, there will be no guarantee that you will be capable of performing it afterwards."
"...Oh." said Isika, her voice small.
"Which is why you gotta make a choice." Marisa said. Kneeling down to Isikas level, hand still on her shoulder.
"Huh?"
Eirin sighed again. "Normally I would not even bring up such a procedure to you, however, with your desire to learn magic, and the improbability of finding a safer alternative. Marisa convinced me to at least leave the decision to you."
"Just so you know kiddo," Marisa said, her face unusually serious. "Even if you don't want to go through with this, it won't mean you have to go back. Biotic or not, If you want to still be in the Alliance, we can register you as a citizen and drop you into the foster system. So don't feel pressured to go through with this unless you really want to be a magician."
Isika looked at Marisa, surprised at the offer. She wondered how much Marisa knew about her, as she hadn't told anyone she was homeless yet.
"On top of that," Eirin added, "While I do not entirely approve, if you should decide to go through with it, I will do everything in my power to ensure the operation is a success. You have my word."
Isika sat there in her own thoughts for a moment. She could simply become an Alliance citizen, to back out of this potentially lethal procedure. But…
"I… I want to do it." Isika said, he voice quivering slightly.
"Are you sure? no shame in backing out." Marisa said, but she was grinning.
"I'll do it." Isika said, this time with a bit more conviction.
"I don't know, I'm not feeling it from you yet…" said Marisa.
"I'll do it! I want to become a Magician!" Isika said, almost shouting.
"That's the Spirit!" Marisa said, clapping Isika on her back, and laughing.
Eirin sighed and shook her head. "Very well, I shall begin to make preparations, I only hope we don't regret it...
Chapter notes:
And once more Eirin gets the last word.
Nothing really to say here, but enjoy!