Chapter 13: Panic inspiration
Panic set into Luna's mind as she flashed back to her present day. She began struggling against her bonds to free herself, screaming with sheer fright and flashed back to the rest of her memory. Before she had a chance to leave for her mission, she took a glance into some of the nearby glass tanks similar to her own and noticed what he meant by "a pile of slag". The liquid of the tank had been drained out and on the floor of the tank lie a pile of what looked like green goo and fur. She looked around for something to help her identify the creature inside and eventually found a label. She read the label on the tank aloud, "Gummi bear clone experiment number X fifteen-oh-four." She shifted her eyes between the goo and the label until she found a nearby monitor that read, "Failure. Reduction process: one hundred percent." 'Oh, God!' She thought to herself. "That used to be like me?" Her eyes wide with fear to what she could become if she fails.
The image of the melted gummi bear clone continued to haunt her very being, driving her nearly into insanity. She continued to struggle as Eric and I tried to hold her down to keep her from hurting herself. Rose dashed off of the nearby chair and into her bedroom. She quickly came back out with a syringe and stuck it in just underneath her left shoulder. Luna tensed up slightly and suddenly felt relaxed enough to fall asleep. "What was that all about?" I asked extremely confused as to what made her panic so violently. Rose placed her right hand against her chin for a few seconds and finally said, "I don't know. But I know how we can find out." She left in a hurry and came back in a mere twenty minutes lugging a large rectangular machine that resembled one of the computers back at the laboratory and had a round circular ribbon with wires connecting it to the monitor. "Eric, help me with this, it's much heavier than I anticipated." Rose called to him. Eric then got up and moved quickly to assist her with the heaviest part of the device. "You brought your dreamscape probe?" Eric asked with slight surprise and disgust. "What?" Rose shot back at his tone of voice, "You'll never know when it could be useful." "Or sentimental." Eric mumbled under his voice. Rose, obviously understanding what Eric said, lowered her eyebrows and retorted, "I heard that!"
While Luna was still sedated, Rose placed the head band of the dreamscape probe around her head and flipped the switch on the monitor into an upward position. The monitor's screen lit up with a bright blue light and images began appearing as if watching the television that was in my room, only fuzzy and there was no noise at first. Rose reached around the right side of the monitor and turned a few knobs, one clarified the picture and the other adjusted the static coming from the image, making it better to see. She then adjusted a knob on the left side of the monitor and that adjusted the volume of the sound. Soon we could see exactly what she was dreaming about that made her panic. The horrid images that moved across the screen sickened me to my stomach and we finally understood why she was so desperate to acquire me.
The moment the melted pile of slag appeared in front of the screen, I felt like I had to hurl and I made a mad dash for the closest restroom. Rose continued watching, appalled at the crude method used by her husband. "How can you discard a living creature like that Isaac?" She said aloud, mostly to herself. "It's just cruel. She is so afraid of turning into that, she is willing to just take Sunni away and do what he says." Eric sadly stated. "Perhaps there is a way to make her immune to the reduction process. But, to figure it out I have to find out what Isaac's using to reduce them." Rose admitted. "If she was immune to the reduction process, perhaps she would have nothing to fear." Eric caught on to her theory. "There are only two problems, though." Rose added to her original statement. Eric's tone changed to worry mixed with confusion, "And those are?" "I need to take a sample of one of these reduced clones and thus need to locate and infiltrate Isaac's secret lab." Rose informed him. "And the second thing?" Eric asked slightly afraid of what it might be. "If we do collect a sample and he's using an acid based reduction method, which it actually looks like it might be, then there isn't anything I can do to make her immune." Rose finished. Eric was slightly confused and had to ask even though he was mostly afraid of the answer, "Why, what's so different about an acid based reduction method?" "You're kidding me, right?" Rose asked as if it should have been obvious. You work with machinery and can't figure out how an acid based reduction method works?" Eric stopped to think about the way it sounded for a short minute when it hit him. Rose could tell that he may have gotten the message by her hint but needed to know for sure. "That's right. It literally is injecting the subject clone with an acid and just letting it dissolve them alive." Rose answered. Eric found himself speechless to the sickening news he just heard. "Eventually all that is left is..." Rose broke her sentence and turned her gaze back to the screen showing the pile of gelatin. She then solemnly and with great disgust ended her sentence, "...this." Suddenly Eric felt his anger slightly boil up, "And you actually used this method before? I thought cloning was illegal?" "It is." Rose snapped back at him. "There are more things that get reduced other than clones you know. It was developed as a death penalty for some of the worst criminals. There are three reduction methods known. One is by acid injection, which I had just described. The second is by a specific radioactive bar. It's a type of radioactive chemical that breaks down any cell it touches other than rubber. It's even known to disintegrate steel. It was deemed one the cruelest method of reduction as the host's remains are radioactive and dangerous long after the process has been completed. With this method, not even a drop of blood is left eventually. The third and final method is the common reduction of corpses. The host is dropped into a batch of reducer chemicals and bones are then buried. This was the most humane method of reduction as the reduction chemicals then absorb the nutrients from the body and becomes a light blue gel that is now used as a powerful, but expensive, fertilizer." Rose explained. She switched off the dreamscape probe and slid the head band off of Luna's head easily. She then asked Eric, "Do you think you can carry this into my room. I'll place it somewhere later." Eric didn't say anything, but did as he was told. He picked up the machine with ease, lugged it into Rose's room and gently placed it onto her bed. He came out at the same time I walked back from the restroom. I turned my gaze to him, noticing his dismal expression. "What's wrong?" I asked feeling slightly dumb because of the horrid images that we had just witnessed. He looked back at me and solemnly answered, "It's nothing", obviously trying to hide some truly disturbing news from me.
I gave in to temptation and buried by face into his stomach to try and help cheer him up. In my mind I thought, 'Poor Luna. She was just born into this world and now threatened with death by the man who created her.' Eric returned with an embrace feeling sorry for his adversary and sickening hatred for the man responsible for it all. "I won't let anyone hurt you, ever again." Eric quietly said to me. I always felt safe in his embrace, but now I was more worried about my sister clone than my own safety. I had to find a way of convincing her of joining us. But, it may as well prove easer to say than to do.