Although talking to Emily that night made her feel better, Alison felt numb. She stayed in she and Spencer's room, and avoided going to training. No one made her, and she assumed that they knew about the situation. Spencer was worried about her, even though she herself was a bit upset as well about the loss of Noel Kahn. Although they didn't get along very well, they weren't exactly enemies.
Her head was flooded with questions, and she kept thinking about watching Noel collapse to the floor. Could there have been a way to save him? What was the A-Team? And what did Dr. Rollins mean by saying she was the supreme? It had been two days and no one answered her questions. But it wasn't like she had ever asked anyone yet.
Spencer didn't try talking to her after the first day, and Alison wondered if Spencer knew that Alison did not want to be talked to. She continued to look out the window on most occasions, and even tried to read one of Spencer's books while she was at training. Whatever Spencer was reading, it gave Alison more of a headache than a way for her to take her mind off the events that had happened.
Spencer noticed the book was very slightly misplaced when she returned for the evening. Alison was sure she had placed it exactly where she had left it, but Spencer noticed the fact it was a fraction of an inch off. She was carrying an apple, some white rice, and bottle of water.
"I see you tried to read Finnegans Wake," Spencer laughed slightly, when she entered the room. "How did you do? I can barely get through it myself."
"Difficult," Alison muttered. Her voice was dry, and there was hardly any saliva in her mouth. "How can you read something like that?"
Spencer shrugged, "It keeps my brain stimulated."
She placed the food items that she was carrying in front of Alison. Alison barely glanced at the food. Spencer sighed, and sat down at the foot of her bed.
"You need to eat," Spencer said, rather gloomily. "It's been three days."
"I'm not hungry," Alison responded, huffing and leaning back on the bed.
"You are. Your brain is just choosing to ignore the fact that you are," Spencer said, opening the container of hot rice. "Now eat this before I force feed it to you."
"No," Alison said, sternly. She didn't want to eat at all.
Spencer sighed loudly, as she spooned up some rice. "And to think I thought training was over for the day."
Within seconds, Spencer was on top of her. She had both her knees pressed to Alison's legs, and had successfully grabbed and pinned both of Alison's arms with one hand. With the other, she was holding a spoonful of rice.
"Get off me!" Alison yelled, struggling against Spencer.
"Not until you eat!" Spencer responded, trying and failing to get rice into her mouth. The rice just ended up falling all over Alison, going down her shirt and falling into her hair.
Because Spencer was only holding down her arms with one of her own, Alison managed to slip her left arm away. She pressed her hand against Spencer in order to get her off, and oh how she flew. Spencer was thrown from the bed at a pretty incredible speed, which was surprising because Alison hadn't even pushed that hard. The spoon went flying from her hand, which spread the remaining rice on the spoon everywhere, and the apple fell off the bed.
Spencer landed near the door and caught herself with her forearms as she landed on her back. Alison stared in shock down at her, Spencer stared back up at her with the same level of shock.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" Spencer asked, getting up off the ground.
"I don't know," Alison said, truthfully. "I didn't even push you that hard."
Suddenly, there was a furious knocking on the door. Spencer turned to the door, and opened it. Standing in the doorway was Aria, looking breathless up at them.
"What happened?" she asked, breathing heavily. "I could hear you from all the way down the hall, what the hell fell over? Did you get Ali to eat?"
Aria's eyes flickered from Spencer to Alison, and back again. Spencer opened her mouth, but no words came out.
"No, we're fine. Go to sleep, Aria. I'll figure it out," Spencer said, shaking her head as she frowned. Alison wondered if she knew what had just happened.
After some more convincing, Aria returned to her room and left Spencer and Alison alone. Spencer closed the door behind them, still in concentration. Alison picked the apple off the ground a took a bite, as she picked the rice out of her hair. The apple had a crisp sweetness in her mouth, and she could feel her stomach growl from the depths of her body. She took another bite, and picked up the bottle of water. Dr. Rollins mentioned she was different, did this have something to do with it?
First, she had somehow managed to replicate Aria's power. It was just barely, and not nearly as strong as Aria's had been. But, it was still there. And now, she had strength like Noel. Maybe not as strong as him, but she had never been able to throw someone across the room like that without putting in more effort than she had.
"Do you know what's going on with me?" Alison asked.
"No, but I can see why Dr. Rollins wanted you," Spencer said, as she climbed into bed. "You're a superweapon. More than any of us."
Everyone was in various levels of sadness of Noel's death, yet not one thing was done to remember him. There was no funeral, and Alison was fairly sure that he didn't even get a proper burial somewhere. She wondered if Noel's birth parents would find out that he had died, if they were still alive after all. Noel never really mentioned his parents ever, other than his dad took him to a lot of baseball games.
She hoped they didn't throw out his body, or just burn him up and store him on a shelf. He deserved to be on a grassy hill, where he had a good view of the stars at night.
After a few more days, Alison was finally coaxed by Spencer from their bedroom and down to meals and training. Alison felt dead inside, though on the outside she looked the same. She didn't talk to anyone really, and kept glancing at Noel's old table in hopes he would be laughing among them. But, he wasn't. And no one at the table was laughing either. Toby sat rather motionless, staring at his eggs.
Alison only looked up from her own food, when Emily sat down. She sat in her usual spot next to Hanna. They made eye contact, and Emily gave her the slightest sympathetic smile. Alison could see it in her eyes, they radiated comfort for a moment and then it disappeared. Alison admired her eyes, they had a way of showing Emily's emotions. Emily looked rather under the weather too. There were visible, dark bags under her eyes, and she looked like she had lost weight. Maybe it was just because Alison hadn't seen her in a few days, but her face seemed bonier and paler. She fidgeted in her chair, and quickly tapped on the table with one of her fingers. It was unusual behavior, for someone calm and collected like Emily.
That was the only interaction that she and Emily had over the course of the day. They had open gym after lunch, where all of the 17-18 year olds were given a workout routine and stayed in the weight room. Emily snapped at Hanna for putting her weights away, causing a few people to turn their heads. Hanna, who knew Emily was being ridiculous, yelled back. They yelled at each other for a few seconds, before Emily grit her teeth and stalked off to the treadmills far away from her.
"Has something been off about her?" Spencer asked Hanna, who looked close to tears.
Hanna stared after Emily, who was now picking up the pace on the treadmill. She shrugged, and looked back at Spencer. "I guess. She doesn't sleep much, but lately she hasn't been sleeping at all. Maybe the whole Noel thing has been taking a bigger toll on her than I thought."
There was a loud bang, and the four of them snapped their heads over to where Emily was running. Emily was in a heap on the ground, laying on her stomach. From the looks of it, she had fallen off the treadmill and wasn't making an effort to get up.
"Oh my god! Emily!" Hanna yelled, as she broke away from them and ran up to Emily. The other three hurried behind her, and stopped in front of where Emily laid.
She was twitching and shaking rather violently, and Alison was shocked at the sight. The treadmill was still going, and Aria moved to turn it off. More people in the weight room began walking over, drawn by the commotion. Even the training supervisor had come over to see.
"What's going on?!" Hanna asked, panicking as she touched Emily's shaking shoulder.
"I think she's having a seizure," Spencer said. "Help me turn her on her side."
"What the fuck is going on?" Ryan asked, who was the training supervisor. He was bald, but made up for the lack of head on his head by having a full blown beard.
"What do we do?" asked Aria.
"Hang on, I'll call for help. Hanna, back away from Emily," Ryan said, running towards the pager by the exit.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow anyone in to see Emily right now," Dr. Kingston said, blocking himself between Hanna, Alison, and the door to Emily's hospital room. It was the same one Alison had been in when she first arrived.
"Why not?!" Hanna asked, clearly frustrated. "I just want to see if my best friend is okay."
"I can assure you that she'll be alright within the next week or so," he replied calmly. "She had a seizure while on that treadmill and scraped herself up."
"So how come we can't see her then, if that's the only thing wrong with her?" Alison protested, crossing her arms.
Wren sighed, "She's experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms. We tested her, and she's been hyped up on some form of opiate."
"Emily's been doing drugs?! But h-?" Hanna began to ask in disbelief.
"Let me finish," Dr. Kingston interrupted. "The seizure was caused by the beginning of the withdrawal. From what we've investigated so far, it looks like Dr. Rollins had been injecting her with this drug every day. It was only when he had passed, and she had run out of the supply that the withdrawal started."
"So, Emily's been knowingly doing drugs," Hanna concluded.
"Not exactly, we're not sure if she knew," Dr. Kingston said. There was a muffled scream from inside the room, which would've been a lot louder had the walls not been rather soundproof. Alison and Hanna exchanged bewildered looks. "As I said, she's going through a rather critical point of her withdrawal. The first two days is the worst, where her body is adjusting to not relying on feeling numb. I think that you two should leave, I'll inform you on when she'll be accepting visitors."
"But I want to see-"
"No buts, Miss Marin. It's for your own safety after all," Dr. Wren said, sympathetically.
That next day, Lorenzo was staring at Alison, with his muscular arms crossed tightly across his chest. Alison eyed him frequently, her eyes flickering from him to Aria, who stood in front of her. Aria looked nervous, standing about ten feet away from her. They were in the large training room that they usually had group sparring sessions in. He wanted to test her ability to absorb Aria's power, since word got out that she somehow was developing Noel's super strength too.
"Concentrate," Lorenzo said, his eyes not leaving Alison's. "You can do it."
Alison sighed, and closed her eyes again. She took a deep breath, and tried to concentrate. She had been trying to concentrate for the past ten minutes. No one really knew how Alison was able to replicate their abilities, if she needed the person nearby or what. It didn't make sense for Aria to be there with her, since Noel was dead when she sent Spencer flying across their room.
"It's not doing anything," Alison sighed, opening her eyes. "I can't do it."
Lorenzo frowned, and looked at Aria. He walked away from them without saying a word, and Alison and Aria exchanged uneasy glances. Lorenzo was definitely the more snappy of the trainers. No one really knew how to stay on his good side.
He came back with the same vest that Alison had worn when Aria was being trained. He tossed it at Ali, who caught it in her arms.
"Put that back on," he said, and turned to Aria. "You're going to have to hit Alison again."
Aria looked even more uneasy, and Alison remembered how much she disliked using her own ability on other people. Regardless, Alison slipped on the vet and velcroed it tightly to her sides. It fit snuggly, and Alison took a deep breath to prepare for Aria's powerful bolts of electricity.
"Go ahead," Lorenzo said, rather softly. He returned to staring at Alison, who did her best to not look back at him.
Aria sighed, but obeyed. As she raised her hands in the all too familiar position, Alison closed her eyes to brace for the bright and blinding light. It was so bright it hurt her eyes, like looking at the sun. She heard the sound of the electricity come from Aria's hand, and she felt the same hot feeling all throughout her body.
She didn't fall this time, and only opened her eyes when Aria had stopped. Her heartbeat was thumping loudly in her ears, as Aria asked if she was okay. Alison nodded, and turned to Lorenzo.
"Again," he said casually, rubbing his stubble with his calloused fingers. "I want to see if it increases the effect."
Alison turned back to Aria and nodded. She closed her eyes again, as Aria issued another long stream of electricity her way. Once that was over, she look off the vest.
"Try it," Lorenzo commanded.
Alison raised her hands in a similar manner to Aria's. She took a deep breath, and thought about the electricity she could feel throughout her body. She took a step forward, and a hot sensation erupted in her hands. A small purple stream of electricity came from her hand. It was short, only lasting a second and went out about a foot. It was more than what happened last time, and nothing compared to what Aria could produce.
"That's amazing," Aria said, awestruck that someone had been to recreate her own ability.
"I think I see what's going on here," Lorenzo said. "You can recreate their powers by absorbing their abilities. Somehow, your body is able to mimic it and I guess, if you absorb enough you'll have that ability as well."
"So, if Aria hits me with her lightning enough times I'll be able to do the same?" Alison asked.
"Sounds about right," Lorenzo nodded. "In what ways did you come into contact with Noel Kahn?"
Alison thought, he had kissed her after all. But did that count? She tried to think of other ways she had been in physical contact with Noel, but all she could think of was when he kissed her. Just as she was about to admit that she and Noel kissed, she remembered one other time that had come into physical contact with Noel.
"The day he was murdered, I rolled into a pool of his blood trying to get out of the restraints," Alison admitted. "I don't know if that had anything to do with it."
"Maybe," Lorenzo thought. "How long were you laying in it?"
"A few minutes," Alison replied. "Do you really think that I can absorb everyone's powers?"
Lorenzo shrugged, "Maybe not everyone's, but we're definitely onto something. I can see why Dr. Rollins wanted you."
Later that night, Alison held the black card tentatively in her hand, running her fingers over the edges. It was the same card the Noel had gotten from Caleb, and she had taken from Noel. It was kind of a weird situation in which she had gotten the card, which involved going into the boy's dorms and looting Noel's stuff before they took it away. She knew it didn't matter much now that he was dead, but she didn't want them to find the card and know that he had been using it without permission. Plus, the card could still be put to good use.
Deciding to go through with it, Alison held the card up to the door handle. There was a short beep, and the sound of a lock unlocking. Alison grabbed the handle and opened it, revealing a mostly dark room. The only light was from the emergency lights overhead, which give off a soft white glow.
Alison closed the door silently behind her, and pattered over to the hospital bed on the other side of the room. As her eyes adjusted, she could make out a body in the bed. She looked closer, and saw arms bound tightly to the bed with leather restraints at the wrists and elbows. Two hands would tightly ball into fists, and release every few seconds rather quickly. Alison's eyes travelled up the person in the bed.
A mouth restraint was wrapped around her mouth, and fastened tightly around her head. Alison gaped at her, and noticed she was wide awake.
"Emily?" she gasped.
Emily looked awful. Her eyes were looking around widely, and she was sweating profusely. She was breathing heavily through her nose, and began to fight her restraints. It was nose use as she continued to try to struggle out of them.
"Is this how you're supposed to get through a withdrawal?" Alison asked, examining Emily.
She reached behind Emily's head, and fumbled with the fastenings that held the mouth restraint in place. She tried for a few moments, but it was no use. Finally, she gave up and looked back at Emily. Emily was staring up at her, frowning slightly. She had stopped trying to fight her restraints, which Alison was glad she had done. She was getting a bit scared at Emily's tireless effort to break free.
She didn't even know why she was there in the first place, or why she didn't want until a few more days when she and the rest of them would be able to visit her. Something compelled her to see Emily then and now. Maybe it was because she had felt partly guilty that Emily was in that situation.
"I'm so sorry for everything," Alison said. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
Emily didn't respond, it wasn't like she could. Alison saw she was shaking slightly, her hands especially.
"Thank you for talking to me that night when Noel died, it meant a lot," Alison said. "I guess me coming now was my way of showing my gratitude, by showing I'm here for you too."
Emily talking to her as she had was rather moving for Alison. No one had ever talked to her that way, or made it seem like they were there for her. Although, Emily said they weren't friends, what she did had gone a long way for Alison, who back in her hometown didn't feel like anyone truly cared.
So in her own way, she now felt compelled to watch Emily and make sure she was okay. Like a life debt sort of thing, and Alison felt the need to make sure that nothing bad happened to Emily. She hated her at the beginning, but as time went on she realized Emily wasn't so bad. Her heart seemed to be in the right place, and she seemed like a good enough person from what Alison saw.
She hoped that Emily felt the same way about her, that maybe she wasn't that bad of a person either.
Dr. Kingston was administering the various serums and vitamins to the members of the association. Everyday he still injected Alison with the same serum that Dr. Rollins once did, in fact it was the same formula that he had come up with. Alison was unsure at first, but Wren had persuaded her that it was completely legitimate and safe. The only thing he had seemed to have been falsely administering was whatever was in the syringes he would shoot up Emily with.
The night after Alison had visited Emily, Dr. Kingson mentioned what had been going on while filling her syringe.
"I'm sure you're pretty confused with what's been going on lately," he sighed, his eyes not tearing away from the needle.
Alison shook her head, "I have no idea what any of it meant. Of what he said at least."
"Well, what did he tell you?" Dr. Kingston asked, opening an alcohol wipe.
"He said I was different, that I was the supreme. I guess I am special, since I'm the only who can absorb other people's powers," Alison said, thinking aloud.
"You're right, you are special. Do you remember what our organization's acronym stands for?" he asked.
"The National Advanced Super Weaponry," Alison responded.
"And here you are, able to recreate other's abilities," Wren said, sticking the needle in Alison's arm and injecting the blue serum.
"I'm a super weapon?" Alison asked.
"More so than before," he nodded. "Do you know how valuable you are? How many people want you for their own? To be used for their own benefit?"
Alison shook her head.
"Too many," Wren said in response.
Alison looked down at Wren's hands, as he removed the plastic gloves from them and threw them out. Alison noticed something she hadn't paid much attention to before. Wren had burnt hands, extremely burnt. But, Dr. Rollins also had had burnt hands too.
"Your hands are the same as his," Alison spoke aloud.
Wren didn't look phased, but he did look up at her. "I do," he responded.
"Why?" Alison asked, knowing it couldn't have been coincidental.
Dr. Kingston sighed, "That's how they do torture at the A-Team."
"You're one of them?!" Alison asked, outraged.
"Not exactly," Wren frowned. "Let me explain before you jump to conclusions
"I'm similar to you Alison, I have powers like you and everyone else at this organization. I can selectively read minds, which is nice because I get to pick and choose what I want to know. NASW didn't exist when the government figured out I could to these things, so I led a normal life until I was eighteen. It was then that word got out that I had a weird way of knowing what people were thinking, and it reached the ears of an underground organization devoted to testing those with capabilities.
"I was taken from my family by the A-Team when I was eighteen, and placed in an underground facility with one other person, Dr. Rollins. He had a weird ability to see other forms of light besides visible light. At first, it seemed okay, but then they began interrogating us. On things that we had no clue about, and when we didn't, we'd get burned."
"I don't see how this pertains-"
"Let me finish," Wren interrupted. "They figured out a way to drain the capability from various people. Dr. Rollins was one of the first, and he soo became corrupted by them. I, on the other hand was able to get out without them taking away my unique capability. It was torture, and I lost my family. He lost his family too, and all I have to remember for my time there is severely burned hands and bad penmanship due to the fact I can barely move my fingers."
"So why'd you come here?" Alison asked.
"Why not? Why not help those like me, and prevent them from having to face the same path," Wren said. "Believe me, especially with what's going on with you, I won't let the A-Team hurt anyone here."
"Why should I believe you?"
"Why not take a chance?"
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