Pain. It was present. It existed. But not here. Not where she was. She was nowhere. Struggling to maintain her body and mind inside the void for as long as she could, Wraith was sharpening her control and focus of her abilities. Preparing herself for a possible escape of this confinement, a large electronic buzz fills the room, distracting Wraith. She comes back, tumbling to the floor. The voice speaks, "You're doing well. With these abilities, wait a minute... Wraith!"
Wraith was on the floor, shaking and in pain. Her hand was twitching as if it had a mind of its own. Her breathing became an immense struggle, as she was holding herself not to inhale for even a second. "Wraith! Its alright, breathe!", said the voice, but to no avail. She was in a state of panic.
"AAAAAAAUUUGHHHH!", she screamed as her eyes grew brighter. She took hold of her arm while on her knees. Still mourning in pain, she kept going in and out of the void at a rapid state. She was out of control. Visions bombarded her mind at an incredible speed. All she could see were flashing lights around her. "What the hell!?", the guard said while taking his radio out. "This is cell 7G, I got something wrong with the prisoner! She's acting up, and it's serious!" Security was informed and immediately sent a handful of troops to replace the guards who were nearby Wraith's cell shuffling to the elevator. While this takes place, the director hears of the situation and starts increasing his pace down a different path, even though the guards arrive first. Before the elevator doors open, the guards prepare their gear, loading their weapons.
They go through the hallway and through the blast doors were Wraith's cell is. "Where is she?!", one of them commands. The main guard in charge of her cell responds, "I lost her! She's gone ghost!" The leader nods, and turns to his team, "Go infrared." One of them nervously looks at him back, and says, "...R-right. Going infrared." The portion of their helmets where their eyes should be turned red as a horizontal line across it. They quickly move by each wall besides the door, while focusing their aim at it. The leader slowly reaches his hand with a ID card at the door. He places it in front of the key pad, and a small electronic beep is heard among everyone. At that moment, the atmosphere changed. No one really was prepared to face whatever was waiting for them in the quiet white room.
The leader grabs a frag, "Flash, going off!". He throws it inside the slide of the door, and after a second, a loud and bright explosion goes off, temporarilly disorienting whoever would be inside. The team makes 2 rows of 3 towards the door and start making their move in formation. First two guards check the room and corners and stand at the end, the two at the first corners and the others at the entrance. However, something goes wrong. "Clear", says the leader inside the room. The guard at the entrance does so as well. "The hell? Then where is sh-oughh!" A faint purple line ricochets off the walls at a speed unable to predict. Every guard is sent off flying, shouts in pain, and stays in the floor motionless. In between all of the chaos, a shaking Wraith appears on the floor. The voice's calls for her name were useless, as she was not even self-aware. Agonizing in the pain created by her mind, the light in her eyes get brighter until they give away. Breathing heavily, the light fades and she stops moving. She just lays there, as the backup team arrives at the scene.
"Wraith..."
"Wraith... wake up..."
"Wraith", she jumps from the call of her voice. She catches her breath, just to lose it again. "W-why... why can't I move...!?" "Wraith calm down! Hey! It's me. You're tied up." Wraith looks down and sees she is covered by a white sheet. On top of that she is covered by chains, all attached to an electronic lock. She can barely bend her knees, as she tries to get up. "W-what?... But... I-I, the gas!" "There's no gas!", says the voice. "Everything's fine! ... surpisingly..." Wraith slides towards a wall to rest her back and catch her breath again. "But...!", accomodating herself, she loses composure and slides off the wall to the left, hitting her head on the floor. She tries to curl up, as tears start to slide. "Your're alright." says the voice in a low tone. The voice gives sometime for Wraith to process everything, as she slowly takes time to calm down. "Wraith... listen. We don't have much time." Wraith wipes her tears with her shoulders, "W-what, happened?" "Wraith... you have to bear with me ok?" "...Ok, I. I am ok now."
"Ok. Wraith. You... you died Wraith."
One moment of silence is held
"I... I, died...?" "Yes. But Wraith, you've come back. You're alive you're ok that's all that matters..." Wraith, trying to get up says, "But... then you..." "Yes," the voice says. "I stayed. You. Your, body is... It was darkness for a second or two. Then, out of nowhere I am with you again. But before. Before everything, before we tried to escape, remember?" "I was... in the void...", "Yes. You were working on your abilites. But when you came back... you were panicking." Wraith shakes her head, "... I can't... remember." "You lost control. They tried to stop you, and..." "I was in the floor...", Wraith said with widened eyes. "Yes."
"They, think you are out of control... Crazy. So, they placed here in this, isolation room." Wraith stays silent as she slowly recollects the things that happened in that room. She closes her eyes in a sad expression. "Then... what is this...?" The voice takes a moment to respond. "If you were to think about it... you're abilities... They manipulate time and space, right? Could it be...?" Wraith rests her back on the wall and takes a look at the electronic lock.
"You're in a seperate reality. There's no other way." "But that means...", Wraith slowly increases her breathing. "He's coming. We have to move." "Right," says Wraith while trying to get up. "Wraith, another thing...", asks the voice. "Yeah...?" Wraith says. "I remember. I... remember the enlist station. The station where you enlisted for the I.M.C. Wraith, if I just knew where it was... we could find ourselves there, I'm sure..." Wraith slides up the wall by pushing against it. She manages to stand up, but only with the wall's help. "How do we get out?". They look around, but obviously with no success. A door can't even be seen. All they see is white walls. 'My, powers...', Wraith thinks for a second. "My uniform... Hey, when they put me on this, thing. Did I they kept my uniform?" "Y-yeah," the voice responds, "you still have it." Wraith begins to explain, but quickly is interrupted by the voice, "That's a good idea. Let's do it then." Baffled, Wraith says," I... didn't even told you..." "Wraith, remember I AM your mind now?", says the voice. "...Right... still getting, used to it. Ok then..." Wraith closes her eyes, "here goes nothing." She goes into the void for a couple of seconds.
The cover and the chains stay behind as they fall to the ground loudly. She then comes back, with her special uniform still on. "Great. No that's one problem solved. How should we deal with him?" The voice quickly responds, "I have an idea." "I do too."
The director of the science department quickly makes his way towards his department, were Research and Development and Experimentation takes place. One segment is for the main research. The rest were cells for his subjects. In one of them, Wraith was being held, or that was what thought. He approaches two doors at the end of a hallway filled by cells in both sides. He enters a pin and enters a dark room, with only one light illuminating a door with multiple locks. He approaches it, sets a pin and enters an ID card. All the locks open at once, but the door is not open yet. A shaped-like grenade was thrown inside the cell and immediately spreads a blue gas filling the cell at a rapid rate. He patiently awaits until the gas dissipates until he makes his move. He creeps in as the gas moves through him out the door. He looks around and sees a body covered in a sheet with chains on the floor. He slowly approaches it until he hears something behind him. Something moves inside his pocket. He quickly turns, but by then, it was too late.
Wraith goes out of the void, still holding her breath, closes the cell, swipes the ID card and begins to run while catching her breath. She could not believe it. Free, at last. "Don't celebrate to early. Stay focus." "Yeah, you're right," Wraith says while opening the second doors. "Actually... I'm glad you're ok." Wraith smiles and says "Thanks... I've, been alone for so long. It's kinda weird, but better than anything having you here. Believe me... if there was a way to get you-" "I know," the voice says. "I know... But I am with you now. And probably forever. I already accepted my fate-," "Hey!" A man stretches his arm from his cell and grabs Wraith by the shoulder. Suddenly others approach their cells on the walls of the hallway to look. "Hey! What's the rush? Are you escaping? 'Cuz, it would be great if you lend us a hand." Wraith, confused, asks, "W-who are you? All of you?" "Wraith, we have no time!", the voice says. "We are soilders. From the militia" another woman says.
"We were captured and sent here with this, madman. And now all of us, are just waiting to be dissected in his crazy tests of his." Wraith looked around her. So many people, just waiting to die. If they are soilders, they must have been fighting against them. Fighting against what they believe. Wraith just stood there, thinking. "Wraith, you need to go-" "Hey, umm lady," the man approaches her again. "Don't mean to be rude, but. Are you, gonna let us out soon... or, oh? H-hey?! Where are you going?! Now that's rude!" Wraith ran across the hallway to reach a monitor besides the exit door. She inputed a command and swiped her ID card to confirm. All of the cells opened one by one at a slow rate. The people slowly got out of their cells. They could not believe they were outside of their confinement, after so long. Suddenly, it was way to crowded. "F-freedom!" Everyone cheered and began approaching Wraith with gestures of joy and appreciation. Unknown feelings overwhelemed her, but she knew they belonged to her. The same man approaches Wraith amongst the crowd and says, "Hey! It's me, again. Sorry I, misunderstood you! I guess, I WAS rude, huh?"
"You're fine," Wraith says with a small smile. "Hey, so uh... what's, your name again?" "It's Wraith." "Wraith! Cool name," the man sympathetically says raising his hands. "I'm Elliot. And this is my buddy Pathfinder." A robot approaches colliding with the crowd. "I'm excited to meet you, friend! I am Pathfinder. Recon Specialist, at your service!" Wraith could not help but chuckle.
"Nice to meet you too."