Sudden Changes chapter 14
The NID Base 'A lab'
The 'White Room' as most scientists called it was of course exactly what it was called; a white room, a room that was devoid of any colour except white- if you could call it a colour- blinding, bright white that was enough to hurt the eyes of anyone looking into the room.
In the middle of the said room was one rather hard hospital bed, around the 'bed' was nothing except white padded walls that you would see if you happened to be visiting a mental institution, there was a single door but it was rather hard to spot because it also was padded so that it blended into the not-so-interesting scenery.
There was one other thing in the room besides the 'bed' and that was a large, long mirror that stretched from one side of the wall to the other side; it was a two-way mirror that was used by the scientists to observe their 'test subject' as they experimented on them.
Behind the two-way-mirror was another room that lacked the whiteness of the padded room it was looking into, it was full of computers, tables, chairs, trolleys and cabinets.
The room in question was occupied by several people in white coats; the typical scientist. Two of the scientists were at their computers tapping their fingers on the keyboards, some of them had their heads down looking into microscopes and some were looking out of the window waiting for the new 'test subject' to arrive.
The white-clad scientists turned their attention to the room through the glass as the padded door opened; a gurney rattled its way into the room noisily and they saw that it had a young redheaded boy bound tightly to it with restraints, though it the boy didn't look like he needed to be restrained as he appeared to be completely unconscious- most likely drugged.
The people pushing the gurney left it in the middle of the room, one of the people seemed to be checking the boy over, then he and his companions exited the room.
Some of the scientists in the room checked the temperature of the room which was shown on some of the computers, they looked up a few moments later and the people that had left the padded room previously entered the room again this time bringing what looked like medical equipment, a defibrillator, a portable Electroencephalography machine (or a 'brainwave thing' as some people called it) and other necessities that would be needed for the testing.
They closed the door firmly behind them.
'The White Room'
Doctor Harry Bryce looked at the kid, he was cute- for a freak. He checked to make sure the IV needle was firmly in place within the kid's wrist, the needle was making sure that the drug they were giving the boy got into his bloodstream. He glanced at the boy again and saw that he was conscious but groggy and unfocussed which was the way they wanted the boy to be.
He turned the EEG machine on, stuck the electrode patches onto the boy's upper forehead and the brainwaves were copied onto the computers in the other room.
His objective was to find out what made the boy 'tick', how he could do what he could do and how to use the power that the boy had to their own advantages.
The results of the X-Rays were stuck up on a white board in the other room; it had shown that the boy was just an ordinary boy; his skeleton, his organs were exactly the same as any other boy's. But his superiors wanted him to keep checking and looking for any physical abnormalities…so far there none.
He grabbed a penlight, carefully lifted one of the boy's eyelids and shone the beam directly into his eye; the pupil became a pinprick surrounded by a brilliant-blue iris. He switched the light off and released the eyelid; sighing he walked over to the intercom and said, "Decrease the sedative."
Chris's POV
I shut my eyes tight against the glare of the light around me, Why is my light so bright? I don't remember my bedroom ever being bright enough to make me screw my eyes up, I groan and open my mouth, "Mommy?" I try to shout but surprisingly it came out as a strange sort of, "Ughm?"
I lift my right hand to rub my eyes, or at least I try to, why can't I move my arm? Maybe the other one will move; I try but I can't move either of them for some reason and now I'm starting to get scared, I don't think I'm even in my own bed anymore; the covers, well, there aren't any covers and the bed I'm on kinda reminds me of the time I had to spend a few hours lying in a hospital bed, hospital beds were yucky, hard and cold exactly like this one and the food was kinda bad too.
I shook my head slightly to stop me head-babbling, I always do that; I head-babble and then I babble like mommy does; it's kinda embarrassing when I do but she thinks it's cute so I guess it's okay. And now I'm head-babbling again, I gotta find out where I am.
"Hello?" I try to say, it came out as, "'ello?" oh well, at least I got it sorta right.
"You're awake Mr. Rosenberg?" said a voice; the voice was really close to him. He saying something else but I can't get what he's saying; my mind's all fuzzy and loopy; I wonder why.
I struggle to open my eyes but they won't open, stupid eyes; the light hurts them; maybe I shouldn't open them. I know! I can use magic.
I feel my magic, I grin; it's all squiggly, okay, I gotta be serious. But…should I use magic? I gotta read that man's mind to find out where I am…my mind's all fuzzed up again…but Mommy said it's bad to read people's minds without asking them first.
The man's saying something else…what's he saying?
"….sedated, he can't seem to concentrate; the boy's abilities seemed to be linked to his thoughts……"
I tried to listen harder, but I can't…
"……shouldn't be able to hurt us because he can't concentrate enough to use his powers…."
Is he talking about me? I suddenly don't like him, where's mommy? I don't think the light's so bright anymore, I think I can open my eyes now.
Everything's…….gloopy, like a really bad, old television screen, I haven't got my glasses on, that's why!
Where are they?
I cleared my throat before saying "Where's my glasses?" and it came out a lot clearer than before.
Then I feel two things, thin, slide on both sides of my face and touch my ears and then I could see everything around me a lot better. I had my glasses back on.
I should look around, wow, what a boring room; it's all bright white, it kinda hurts my eyes.
I jump as a man suddenly appeared in front of me, he reaches down towards my face and forces my mouth open; I glare at him, he gives me a look as if he thinks I'm stupid and puts a see-through stick in my mouth, the ones nurses use when they take your temperature, and tells me to keep it under my tongue.
I scowl and I want to spit it out at his face, but I'd better not because he could be a really bad man; so I do what he says.
Then everything around me goes fuzzy again I don't know how much time passes, could be a long time or maybe no time at all.
I don't know how long everything was fuzzy but the stick thingy isn't in my mouth anymore…what're they called again…I should be able to…but my head's real fuzzy…um, oh, Med…Medical…thermo…thermometers. That's it.
Maybe I fell asleep.
I want mommy, where is she?
"I want my mommy, do you know where she is?" I ask the man who is looking at a weird computer with zigzags on the screen.
The man scowls at me so fiercely that I gulp and wonder how bad this man is, is he bad enough to hurt me, hurt me and my mommy.
The man smirks at me and says coolly, "You aren't going to see your MOMMY for a while, freak." The way he says 'mommy' makes me flinch.
"I'm not a freak!" I snap, this man's a real meanie. Then I freeze, "What do you mean? Where's my mommy!?"
Now I'm scared, this man really is bad. Is he a demon? If he's a person I can't hurt him, well, I can but I can't make him go 'kablooey' like I do to bad demons; my mommy says it's bad and I know it is.
My eyes start closing and I try to keep them open, but I keep feeling sleepy and fuzzy; I shake my head make my eyes go wide to stop them closing.
I try to use my magic but then I'm not sure it's a good idea, my mommy taught me a lot about magic and the first thing she told me was to not use it in front of people who don't know about magic.
But I think he does know about magic because he said something about it, I can't remember though, why can't I? I'm always really good a remembering things.
I concentrate on trying to blow the bad man back across the room…I concentrate…I'm still concentrating, why isn't it working?
"Why isn't it working?" I ask barely realizing I'm saying it. But the man does.
"You're trying to use your powers?" he asks coolly. And he looks at me like my aunt Buffy looked at the Tra'ken demon, one that keeps on throwing up nasty and stinky goo, when it was sick on her new shirt. I just called it a 'puke demon'.
I nod slowly and the look he has on his face goes away and now he looks kinda like me when I'm learning a language that I really like.
"Tell me how you use your powers," he ordered and he sounded like he might not be very happy if I say 'no'…still, I shake my head.
"No, my mommy said not to talk to other people about them," I said firmly, I really wasn't going to tell him. "So, I won't." and then I…well, if my arms weren't tied down to the bed I would be crossing them over my chest so that he'd know that I wasn't going to tell him a thing.
The man glowers angrily at me and I gulp feeling afraid, "Your powers don't work because of the sedative I'm giving you; I can do whatever I want to you…and your MOMMY and you can't do a thing about it."
I know he's right.
"Is my mommy like I am now?" I ask and I'm unable to keep my voice from trembling.
He gave me a nasty grin, "I'm giving her more sedative than you, so she's in Lala Land," his voice sounded like he was making fun of me.
I start to feel fuzzy again and I can tell the bad man is still talking to me but I can make out what he's saying, I just feel sleepy.
End Chris POV
Doctor Harry Bryce scowled at the kid as his head lolled to the side obviously unconscious again, "Dammit."
He shook his head angrily and went to the intercom again, "Tell me when he wakes up." The sedative was an unusual one and he didn't like the way this one was working, he couldn't control the levels of consciousness that the boy had; he scowled and stormed to the door, indicated for several of the scientists to follow him and muttered, "Time to pay a visit to the other one."
The SGC
Daniel crashed through the door to the General's office abruptly almost giving the bald man a heart attack, the Texan looked at the rather scruffy-looking archaeologist is bafflement and sighed, "Do I even want to know?"
Probably not, but he needed to.
"The tablet…" he paused, breathing hard and out of breath. "It's not…it wasn't written by aliens, demons wrote it…or, well, maybe not demons but something supernatural."
General Hammond looked confused, "Well, if it was how…how did it end up on an alien planet?"
Daniel blinked, "I-I dunno, but it's what that boy told me."
Confusion seemed to be a big part of the week, the General asked, "What boy?"
Daniel sighed, "I had another dream, just like the one with Tara, but we were in a library."
"Figures, only you would dream of a library," quipped Jack, who had just walked through the door before dismissing the two befuddled-looking SFs.
Daniel groaned, "Jack! This is serious."
"Isn't it always," but Jack nodded and sobered, turning to his CO. "Daniel thinks his rock was written by a demon or whatever."
Rock?! Daniel shook his head slightly, "It was…that kid told me, I'm pretty sure he's one of Willow's friends from High school; I mean he looked about sixteen. Anyway, he told me it wasn't written by my enemy; the Goa'uld, it was made by demon…the language is demonic not Goa'uld."
The General shook his head, "Are you sure that's possible, Dr Jackson?" How on earth could a demon language end up on an alien planet?
Daniel looked faintly exasperated, "Well, given the fact that my newly-found son is a witch and that we're talking about a Hellmouth I think it's safe to say 'yes'."
He continued, "Willow's friends need to translate it, for all we know it could be important…what if it could help us get Willow and Chris back?"
General Hammond shook his bald head, "I don't see how it could." Daniel seemed to be grasping at straws trying to find them, he knew a desperate man when he saw one and the archaeologist was definitely one of them.
"It's got to be!" exclaimed Daniel with certainty. "The only reason why Tara and that guy have visited before has been because of Chris and Willow."
"So, we get the Scooby gang to translate this and-
"We get them both back," finished Daniel nodding. "But they don't trust us, we have to get them to trust us; if we don't Chris and Willow might not…they might not make it."
Jack put a hand on his best friend's shoulder, "We'll get them back, Danny." That was a promise he'd keep if it killed him, he'd failed to save Sha're; Daniel still hadn't quite got over her death even after five years and Jack was going to make sure he didn't have to go through losing his son and Willow whom the archaeologist was starting to become attached.
Strange as it was, the fact that Daniel hadn't seen Willow since five years ago and that he hadn't even met his son almost didn't seem to make their capture any easier than if he'd been there all along; then again, this was Daniel, the guy continually wore his heart on his sleeve for everyone who wasn't a Goa'uld, so it really shouldn't be a big surprise.
General Hammond nodded, "Right, I'll get in touch with the Scooby gang, see if we can get them to cooperate with us."
Daniel and Jack nodded, then the younger of the two friends started, "Oh! Uh, that boy in my dream told me that the, um, Scoobies have got…well, they're missing something important and that I should set them straight."
"About Chris and Willow?" asked Jack.
Daniel nodded, "Well, yeah. I mean it's probably the only thing they've been thinking about."
"Ya know, besides 'who gets to kill off the NID'," offered Jack looking a little smug.
Daniel and the General both agreed on that, neither of them were quite sure which group would inflict the most pain on Kinsey and the NID, they hoped they'd find out soon enough.
"What could they be getting wrong?" asked Daniel curiously.
Jack shook his head, "Dunno, the location of where Chris and Willow are?"
Daniel gulped as a sudden, horrible thought entered his mind, "What if they think we're involved with the NID, what if they think WE'VE got them?"
General Hammond and Jack O'Neill said nothing, the looks on their unusually pale faces said enough.
On the Plane
Dawn's head sunk further down to her chest sleepily, and then snapped back up; she shook her head slightly and looked around the plane. She had gotten the window seat, had this flight been under better circumstances she would have insisted on getting the window seat because…well, it was just cool.
Every time, when she and Buffy were little kids, they'd got on a plane she and her sister had always fought over which one of them would get the window seat. Their parents usually settled their arguments by suggesting that one of them would take the window seat TO wherever they were going and the other would get the seat on the way back.
Dawn smirked, 'course then they would fight over who got the window seat first; in the end their parents had made them both 'flip on it' heads one got their way and one didn't, simple.
She looked out the window vaguely, not really seeing the view; she was too preoccupied with her anxiety over whether or not they'd succeed in getting Willow and their little Scooby kid back from those asses.
Nibbling her lip slightly she looked at her family, the five of them hadn't ALL been able to get seats together, the seats that she, Buffy and Xander had been given were in the same row whilst Giles and a reluctant Anya had got the seats in front of them.
Xander, the poor guy, had to distract his fiancé from thinking, and therefore talking, about how much she 'wanted to have sex' with him. Dawn was pretty sure that the Air Hostesses hadn't seen or heard people stranger than them, she hoped so anyway; what were the odds of a demon boarding their plane?
"Xander? Why can we just have sex?" asked Anya uncomfortably louder than anyone talking about that subject in a public place should be.
Xander's cheeks reddened, "Aun, people here." He shifted uncomfortably as his fiancé stared down at him from where she was looking over her seat.
"So?" huffed the ex-demon. "I'm pretty sure most of these people know what sex is."
"Do we ever!" laughed a guy sitting behind Dawn's row.
Xander glanced over his shoulder sheepishly and tried to work out if he should glare at the man or not, he decided to try to distract Anya again instead.
Dawn snickered as the ex-demon gave Xander a 'so there' look and proceeded to say, "See!"
Xander gave Anya a helpless look, cheeks burning and glared at Dawn who giggled in amusement.
She looked over to her older sister to see if she was getting as much fun out of Xander's predicament as she was, but she saw that Buffy was tearing up her paper napkin into tiny pieces looking worried and Dawn's glee quickly evaporated before anxiety mingled with guilt worked its way into her thoughts and soul.
Now wasn't the time for funnies, they had to be serious; had to think of ways to get Willow and their kiddie back without too many people, minus the NID, dying. Buffy was no doubt thinking about every scenario of what could happen and what could go wrong; since her therapy classes she had purposefully tried, and succeeded, to improve her skills as a leader and strategist.
More importantly, she had learned to be a team-player and to listen to everyone else's views and suggestions instead of just wanting to do everything her way. She'd grown up more in the last five years than most middle-aged people did in a lifetime.
And that was great, for her, for them and for the rest of the world.
"Anya, for the last time, no," Xander almost-wailed to his so-to-be wife.
Dawn lips quirked upwards, but she suppressed it and decided to do what her sister was doing; they needed everything to go right. She didn't want to think about what would happen if Chris or Willow died; she knew that if it was Chris Willow would go nuts and even Xander wouldn't be able to bring her back this time.
Buffy would alternate between trying to save Willow and trying to help her kill the NID, of course Dawn knew that they'd all react in the same way too.
Giles wouldn't, he'd just outright slaughter the bastards.
Dawn, of course, would help.
Faintly, she heard Giles sigh as Xander and Anya continued their 'conversation'.
NID Base 'White Room no. 02'
Doctor Harry Bryce and the scientists that he'd selected to follow him looked at the young redheaded woman who was strapped to a gurney which was identical to the one that her son was currently lying on; he ordered one of the scientists to lower her sedative, consciously repeating his earlier actions, and waited for her to wake up.
Willow opened her eyes and squinted against the brightness of the room, Was she at a circus or something?
The room she was in slowly swam into focus, she looked around and tried to sit up but realized that she was restrained, "Huh?"
She struggled against the restraints uselessly and resisted the urge to teleport, she didn't even know where she was or where she'd be teleporting to. She didn't want to end up in the Arizona desert which, judging by her past luck with magic, could very well happen.
"Hello, Willow," said a calm, cold voice.
Her head snapped towards the sound and her head swam, for a few moments everything she saw was a blur; she shook her head to try to clear it.
"I was hoping you would wake up," said the voice again, it was male; that much she could tell. "I'm sure that I'm going to have more luck with you than I did with your son, he wasn't terribly forthcoming and he was a tad rude."
Son? Chris.
Trying to concentrate, she blinked hard a few times to focus her vision, "Chris?"
Doctor Bryce smirked, "Yes, it's nice to see that you're, at least, intelligible; your son wasn't quite…with it."
Willow glared at the ceiling, "Where is he?" if the man had hurt him she'd-
"In a separate room," he stated shortly. "Now, let's get straight to the point; I want to know how you and your son can do what you can do."
She immediately knew what he was talking about; she blinked dubiously, what? Not torture? Or maybe that would come AFTER she told him exactly where he could shove his point; Willow sniggered starting to feel drowsy again as she just got a mental-image of the man with a stake up his ass.
Doctor Bryce scowled, "What is so funny, Miss Rosenberg?"
Willow suddenly stopped snickering and glared at the man hatefully as she fought to fully control herself instead of letting the sedative make her into a giggling dork, "If you don't tell me…where my boy is…I'll kill you…and then I'll level this place."
The Doctor looked worried, and then he smirked, "I may not know how you and that boy possess this power but I know it requires a certain level concentration; this drug takes away most of it which is why you're feeling so unclear in your head."
The redheaded witch forced herself to think around the thick fog that was invading her mind, the man was right without her concentration she couldn't control her magic; she could use it, yes, but only if she wanted to level pretty much everything around the room she was in; and then there was Chris.
She didn't even know where she was, for all she knew they were in a city or town; she'd wipe out everything and everyone if she used her magic with no concentration.
Willow's concentration faded for several minutes after this, and then she fought back into full consciousness; whatever this drug was it wasn't the type of sedative she knew about.
"Back, are we?" mocked Doctor Bryce, he was holding a scalpel in his right hand. "Right, well, I need my answers and if you aren't willing to give them to me then I'll just have to make you."
"Go to hell," she ground out; she hoped to god the bastard didn't threaten Chris; she didn't think she'd have the heart to repeat what she'd just said.