Author's note: Thanks for the reviews!
She didn't quite know what had happened. Her uncle had spoken to her. If she wanted to see what had been done, he would oblige. A word of warning: she wouldn't like it. A second: he advised her not to lose her temper once more. In those few instants, any hopes that Kayo had dared to harbor were dashed. There was a brief flash in her left eye. Once more, he nodded in the direction of the mirror. This time she saw it.
Her left eye, which only a few seconds ago had appeared no different to the right she now saw for what it truly was. The coldness made sense as the illusion vanished and what she was left with was a mixture of cool steel and a dim orange light. She could make out a few mechanical parts turning and shifting. All she could do was stare. Her stomach turned over to the extent that she felt as if she might be about to vomit. No. No. No! This couldn't be real. Frantically, the young woman did all that she could to awaken herself from this waking nightmare. Looking away proved to be an impossible task. All she could do was fix the eye, struggling to comprehend that it was some part of her now.
It was a screen turning on somewhere behind her uncle that finally snapped her out of it. She raised her gaze to the screen only to find herself staring back at the same image. Seeing exactly what she was looking at in a way that generated an illusion of an eternally repeating image. Kayo could only stare at it dumbly. Her brain refused to process what it was being presented with.
Another day she might have broken down and sobbed, pleaded for it all to be taken back. She might have thrown up from the shock. She might yet… Standing there, she didn't know what to think or feel. Everything spun around uselessly in her mind, keeping her paralyzed.
"It's state of the art." Her uncle informed her proudly. "Undetectable. Consider it: this way, we'll always be able to keep an eye on you. Whatever you see, you hear, even your vitals, we can monitor from here."
"You took my eye… To use me as a human camera?!"
She'd snapped. Horror and pain had combined to overrule any control of herself that she might have had. She wanted her vengeance. Kayo wasn't thinking. It was instinct which drove her. It pushed her forwards, determined to inflict some pain on the man who had taken so much from her. Havoc and Fuse made no attempt to stop her or to give chase so that when she did reach her target, they might be able to assist him and pull her off of him. That should probably have run some alarm bells somewhere along the line. In actuality, it scarcely even registered with her. Rage blinded her to everything else around her.
Kayo had seen her uncle's own bionic eye light up for a few seconds as it focused on her. Then, pain.
It was a pain the likes of which she had never experienced before in the most literal sense. It wasn't a headache but neither was it like being punched. Somehow, it felt as if these was something inside of her head, just behind that left eye of hers that was stabbing her with a burning blade. Whilst that in itself would ordinarily have been difficult to bear, it was combined with a feeling of dizziness and nausea so violent that it had sent her crashing to her knees unable to even continue with another step. There was a buzzing accompanied by a loud white noise which seemed inescapable even when she plastered her hands over her ears.
Helpless and dazed, the young woman lay on the floor, clutching at her skull in a frantic attempt to somehow rid herself of whatever it was that was attacking her. She gasped, struggling to do so little as breathe. Was she dying? It felt as if she might easily have been. Despite her best efforts, she was powerless to contain a couple of audible complaints and cries as she rolled around on the ground, desperately trying to escape whatever force had taken hold of her.
Her uncle approached so that he was standing over her. His own cybernetic eye seemed to be burning more brightly as it focused on her. He was responsible for this, there was no doubt in her mind. Then, just like that she was released.
It left her spluttering, gasping. Her arms and legs trembled, refusing to bear her weight for even a few seconds. For a short while, she felt almost entirely certain that she might be about to vomit. Curiously, her uncle didn't push her for any response or recognition. She was given all the time that she needed to recover. Kayo would have liked to bounce back as if it were nothing, to dust herself off and be back on her feet, ready to face her captors and teach them a lesson they'll never forget. In actuality, after 5 minutes, she was just about in a state to rest on her hands and knees.
"Yes, it can be particularly unpleasant the first few times." Her uncle informed her after a while. "So we'll keep it for a minimum today."
"What have you done?" She only just managed to ask, breathless.
"Ensured that I have some way of encouraging you. It's quite simple, do what I say and you'll be rewarded. Refuse, resist or otherwise cause trouble and you'll receive another dose. Understand?"
Kayo closed her eyes. She could feel the coldness now of the steel against her bare flesh, the unnaturalness of having a foreign object there instead of a part of her own body. The pain had vanished almost instantly but the after affects and the shock remained ever present. For the umpteenth and last time, the young woman desperately attempted to awaken herself, convinced that this was all some sort of nightmare. It had to be… When she opened her eyes however, she was still in the same room with the Hood staring at her waiting for a response, Havoc's taunting little smirk as she hung back and Fuse looking disinterestedly towards the door.
She took a few deep breaths, attempting to steady her nerves.
"And what is it that you want?" The young woman managed to ask eventually.
"What else? The Thunderbirds of course."
Tanusha sits on the end of her bed in the darkness. Her head hangs lowly. They need a plan, she knows that much. Her uncle is many things. "Patient" isn't one of them. He'll wait the strict minimum amount of time that it takes to get something. If he deems that things are taking too long, then he will begin to lash out. She doesn't want to be on the receiving end of one of the man's temper tantrums. Not again…
So the young woman just sits there, fiddling with her sheets. The sun has come up for a while now, shining its early morning rays in through the blinds and illuminating her room. It's the sort of thing she'd missed terribly in captivity and had assumed that she would both long for and bask in when she was finally freed. Now though that she's out, they barely even register with her. Instead, she's engulfed by the problem that she faces: how to steal the Thunderbirds? It's a question that's kept her up all night and one which she had been mercifully able to shield herself from since returning to the island though.
Now, as her uncle has so kindly pointed out to her, she's out of time.
She sits there nervously. She knows that her family will be getting up soon. Scott, Jeff and her father probably already will be. Those days in the military have left all three with habits that they'll likely never shake off. Early rising is just one of them. So she listens carefully, keen to ensure that she's not about to get a visitor coming to check on just how she is. For the time being, everything is quiet…
"Uncle." She knows he'll be listening. He always is.
"What is it?" His tone is dry.
"How am I going to do this? I mean… They're not just going to let me fly the Thunderbirds away one at a time and take them to your island."
"Let me worry about the logistics Tanusha. For the time being, all that you have to do is go back to being the good and trustworthy "sister" they all love. That shouldn't be so difficult, should it?"
She doesn't answer. He knows full-well what he's asking her to do. How much the thought of betraying her family hurts her. She hadn't fought him for so many months for nothing. The mere thought makes her sick in the stomach. If she becomes the woman that she was before the Hood took her, it will be an act, nothing more. An evil one, designed only to fool and to trick. She can't do it. She won't.
A thud causes her to jump.
It wasn't that close, coming from somewhere down the corridor. Without thinking, her senses on high alert, she charges out. She spots very quickly the door it had come from: Gordon's. It's open just slightly ajar. Suspicious, usually at this time of the morning, he was still fast asleep. She doesn't hesitate, tearing into the room before skidding to a halt. The young woman anticipates trouble: an attack, invaders, a mech…
Instead, she finds the brother on his hands and knees, half-buried under a pile of dirty laundry. frantically picking up waste paper, empty plastic wrappers and discarded pieces of crumpled clothes. Everything just seems to have been dumped on either the nearest available surface or, failing that, just the floor. The end result is that of a bomb having gone off. All that Kayo can do is stand there and take in the sight. She knows that Gordon isn't the tidiest of people. That brief trip down with Thunderbird 4 had given her just a little bit of insight into that aspect of the second youngest brothers.
"Don't say anything." He request in a hushed tone.
"I wasn't going to but… Whoa." She looks around her surroundings once more. "I thought that Scott jumped down your throat for this sort of thing?"
"He's been a bit distracted recently." Gordon glances over towards the door as if expecting his eldest sibling to be there. "So's Dad and Grandma..."
"Oh..."
She reads through the lines. They've been worrying about her. She's not too surprised but then there's that pang of shame as she's reminded just what she's done and still going to do. She thinks of her family. They will have scoured the Earth searching for her. She knows that. She also knows that they failed. It's not a subject that she wants to dwell on for too long. Instead, she chooses to focus on something else, forcing herself to relax or at least to pretend to.
She leans back against the wall, folding her arms (to the best of her ability on account of her cast) as she takes in her surroundings.
"So what's this all for?"
"Lady P just called! She's coming round this evening!"
"And you think she'd want a tour of your bedroom?" Kayo makes no attempt to conceal her tease.
"Hey, don't stand there if you're not going to say anything helpful!"
She smiles and pushes herself away from the door frame. It's plain for all to see that the usually chilled out and relaxed brother is far more highly strung than he would usually be. She knows intuitively that a certain blonde due to arrive later on today with a very special pink Rolls Royce can have that effect on him. She finds it amusing, if only because she can only struggle to think of two more different people on the planet. She won't question such things though. Whilst Kayo might not actually understand them, she does know that it's a strange force.
It must be quite a strong one too if it's got Gordon cleaning his room.
"I'll tell you what. I'll lend a hand-"
"You've only got the one!"
"Do you want help or not?"
"Thanks, Kayo."
She smiles and begins to lend a hand. With two of them working together they might even be done before Penny leaves. A buzzing in the back of her mind causes her to pause, just for a second:
"Well done..."