Chapter 3: Additional Testing Will Be Required.

-Hayes-

They were in the back of his personal vehicle, being driven home. Normally, he refused to use a personal driver, but today was a special case. The girl demanded his undivided attention.

It was fine with him really. She was interesting.

He was familiar with the process now. The scientists had given him a basic explanation of what had happened to her to get her to where she was now. Biological enhancements, mechanical implants, extensive mental conditioning…the most torturous training program he had ever heard of…and it went on for years. They also explained how to give her commands that overrode her control of her body, giving him the most reliable "employee" known to man. He suppressed a shudder, thinking about how he would feel in her position.

I wonder if the scientists know they've created a time bomb. They abduct her at an early age, tortured her, operated on her against her will, made the perfect slave that just so happens to have a wild talent for killing, and then made her forget it all happened to her. Especially since she seems to be remembering far more than she should. What happens when the barriers that are supposed to keep that information from her completely fail?

The whole time he had been pondering her situation and the vengeful slaughter of all those scientists, Maya had been sitting across from him, staring out of the tinted windows with a palpable hunger. She could've killed him and escaped into the world if she wanted to. He hadn't put any restraints on her to stop her from killing him. Curious.

"When was the last time you saw the world?"

She tore her gaze away from the window and looked at him, surprised. "I don't remember."

"But you don't seem intimidated by it all…" he mused, half to himself.

She didn't really know how to respond. She eyed him skeptically. "Yes…was that a question or a statement?"

Awfully direct for someone trained to be a slave. Interesting. "Sort of both. Why do you not remember?"

Their eyes met. Hers acted as a vice, trapping his within green steel prisms. When she spoke, the steel was in her voice as well. "Those scientists don't want me to remember anything."

His eyes, still trapped inside hers, widened with surprise. He didn't truly know how much she knew about what happened to her, but this was definitely crossing a line. She knew it to, and was gauging his reaction, looking for something. Her eyes had lost the steely edge, and instead had picked up a wild, unstable look he didn't like.

The atmosphere in the car suddenly was charged. The change set his teeth on edge. I still haven't laid down any safeguards for myself. He didn't know what she was looking for, but he had to take a stab at diffusing the situation before it became life-threatening.

"Please relax. I'm not going to send you back to them, get rid of you, or harm you in any way simply because you are aware of what they've done to you." She seemed to relax a little, and the tension that had been building up in her began to recede.

She took a breath. "Ok."

"Do you mind if I keep asking you questions?"

"…no."

"Ok. In general, what do you remember?"

She paused, collecting her thoughts. He watched her fists clench and unclench at whatever she was reliving. Her eyes, normally so sharp and vibrant, dulled and went out of focus as her sight turned inward. Her face was an unguarded reflection of her thoughts, and he watched as it was transformed by fear, anger, and pain. A wave of pity surged within him. He felt an overwhelming desire to comfort this girl that he had unwittingly rescued. He hadn't meant to rescue her, he just needed her special abilities, nothing more. That was before. Now thanks to his curiosity, he was growing attached to her despite himself.

After a moment her eyes refocused and looked into his. "I remember a lot of things. Much of it is of the…of them making me do things. Things I didn't want to do. I remember bit's and pieces…almost never the whole picture. I remember part of when I had woken up too early, but I don't remember exactly what happened. I think I killed them all. I was sitting on a bed with stained sheets in the middle of a red lake. I remember walking down hallways, searching for someone. I remember killing solders, innocents, and animals, all because they told me to. I remember killing them with guns, knives and many other things. My bare hands…red hands…the blood of others trickling down my arms. I remember so much, so many different things, but none of them are complete, and I keep remembering more each day. That's what I remember."

Hayes was a little blown away by all of this. If he smoked, he would've needed a cigarette right about now. He didn't smoke. Nasty habit. He wanted a drink, but couldn't quite remember how to move his arms, so he dropped the idea. According to the file, she was 22. According to his eyes, she was 17. Never in his 43 years of life had a 17 year old ever done this to him.

He blinked. Again. And again. She was still watching his every move. The tension had returned, charging the air in the all-of-a-sudden too small space they sat in.

"You don't believe me." Her tone had that unhealthy edge to it.

He didn't like where this was going. His brain found his tongue just in time to say, "No, no I believe y-"

-stop-

His eyes popped open with shock. His heart hammered in his chest, pumping life-giving blood through arteries and veins still thankfully intact.

The girl was frozen, practically on top of him, the outstretched fingers of her right hand almost touching his carotid artery. Her movements had been so fast they were blurred, almost inhuman. If he had been a fraction of a second slower, he would be in a bloody pool on the floor, dying.

She wasn't balanced though, and she fell foreword into him, burying her face into his chest. Numbly he wrapped his arms around her trembling form, his body taking charge until his brain could catch up.

"Now you believe me." Her voice was choked and muffled his suit.

All he could manage at that point was, "Yes, I do." He held her tighter, feeling that he had just somehow gotten far more than he'd bargained for.

A moment frozen in time: stretched out so that it lasts for hours, for days, becomes timeless. This is how they spent that moment. This is one of those moments that truly changes people from the inside out. This heart to heart understanding that's so rare, most people only experience it a handful of times in their lives, if they're lucky.

This should've changed him. Should've made him a better, kinder, more righteous person. Someone who see what happened to this girl and understand that it is entirely unnecessary and evil, and should be put to an end.

It didn't. He wasn't that type of person. He still cared, but within his own limitations.

Slowly, he eased her up off of him, and placed her gently on the seat next to him. Her eyes were red and swollen, but her face was dry. Somehow he had missed her hand moving to wipe the tears off her face. She's faster than before. She could've killed me if she had wanted to. Time to put in some boundaries…

-You will never attempt to kill me or injure me or harm any enterprise or endeavor of mine unless expressly ordered to do so by myself, and myself only-

-You will take orders from me, and only me. You will not perform any action that would or could possibly be detrimental to me-

He smiled, a quirk in his thoughts sparking the expression.

-And your personal opinion of me is entirely your own to make. Love me or hate me, it's up to you, and what you do on your spare time is entirely up to you within these limitations-

At this statement, she stopped glaring at him. Her expression, previously twisted in wordless rage from the previous orders, now was…understanding. She saw the compromise he was giving her, the level of control balanced out by more freedom than she could've imagined.

The smile on his face widened, touching his eyes.

"Regardless of your intended purpose, you are still a person, and should be treated as such. I expect you do things that you will not like, and certainly things that are unethical, amoral, and most likely, against your will. The least I can give you is some basic human rights." he said.

She nodded, then resumed looking out the window. She didn't move back to the other side of the car.

"She would've stopped even if the command wasn't given. She wouldn't kill the only human being who's shown her a shred of compassion in 10 years."

"Oh? What about the priest who slipped her a knife when she woke up prematurely?"

"Another test. Lab rats are expendable. I wanted to know how she would respond under extreme stress before the system was fully operational, and before any mental conditioning."

"But the damage we caused her-"

"Was unfortunate yes. However, she is a prototype, meant to be tested so the others after her can be improved. The mental barriers shouldn't allow her to access that memory anyways."

"She's never been the same after that. We pushed her too far with that one. Her brain seems to have…rewired itself in such a way that the barriers aren't holding. Things are slipping through, and she's remembering things that would've resulted in termination in any previous model."

"Remember, she is a prototype. Also, she was the only one to survive the process."

"You had others?"

"Their minds didn't survive. Hers was the only one strong enough."

"How many 'others' were there exactly?"

"One hundred and three. We've modified our training techniques to up the survival rate."

"I should hope so. IMRAM does not have unlimited resources that we can throw into research and development. Let us hope the next group will come through the regimen without catastrophic damage."

"We're expecting them to. Meanwhile, we are still collecting vast amounts of data off of Maya."

"Continue to observe her then. Keep me updated on her progress."

"Of course."

"God be with you, Mr. Gibson."

"And you, Father."