Rinoa let out a soft moan as the electrical currents seared through her body. The pain was as agonizing as ever, but she could no longer work up the strength to scream.
"Have these samples taken to the analysis station in D-section," the doctor's voice said as the current abated. Rinoa attempted to open her eyes and see what he was referring to, but she could make out only a dark, indistinct blur.
"Yes, doctor." A pair of footsteps retreated away from her, and a door opened and closed, leaving her alone with the doctor once again. She could hear the click of his footsteps approaching her, and the tapping of his pen on a data recorder.
"It's interesting, isn't it?" he said. "When one sense becomes unavailable, the others become even more potent. Normally, it takes months for the body to accustom itself to this new way of functioning, but yours can adapt in a matter of moments. Your eyesight should return within an hour or two, by the way."
"How can you do this?" Rinoa croaked. "How can you do this to someone, and not feel all the pain that you cause?"
"Oh, I do apologize for the discomfort you must endure," he said. "Be certain that we are taking every possible precaution to ensure that you suffer no permanent injury."
"You could," Rinoa haltingly observed, "not do these things...in the first place."
"That would make it very difficult for us to gain the data we need," said the doctor. "I assure you, we have already explored every alternative that technology will allow." He began to walk away. "I can explain to you what it is we are doing, if you like."
"Just...stop it."
"At the moment, we're attempting to determine how your body reacts to various handicaps. So far, the data indicates that, within days of the injury, you will have adapted to the extent that you will barely be able to notice the loss. However, during that time, your mind is operating at a level of activity which is completely unheard of, save perhaps in a subject in the process of summoning a Guardian Force." He tapped something into his terminal. "The activity occurs entirely on the subconscious level. We're currently analyzing the data to collected to determine whether this activity produces any lasting psychological impact."
Rinoa attempted to speak again, but it came out only as a cough. After a moment spent gasping for air, she tried again.
"Why?" she uttered.
"Can't you guess?" The voice had an almost disappointed tone to it. "You know what you are. There is so much we don't understand about the nature of the Sorceress, and that ignorance has caused us no small amount of trouble. Your discomfort will give us the knowledge we need to protect our people from others like you."
"It's wrong," she insisted. "If you'd do such terrible things to people...you're the ones people should be protected from."
"Oh, really?" He now spoke with an ironic lilt. "The Sorceress, over the years, have killed millions, destroyed entire nations, and I merit fear for the treatment I accord to one individual? What a selfish notion."
Rinoa tried to shake her head, but new waves of pain shot through her even as she tried. "That's just...just an excuse."
"Hardly. Once we understand the powers of the Sorceress, we will be able to devise means to counter them. I do not simply inflict this treatment upon you without cause or reason."
She couldn't build up the strength to reply.
Again, there was the tapping on his terminal. "Already, we have learned a great deal. It seems that becoming a Sorceress has considerably altered your physiology from that of a normal, non-magical individual. Technically, the case could be made that you aren't even human."
Rinoa coughed, a bit unsure herself what she had intended the outburst to be. "Neither are you," she whispered.
He laughed. It was harsh, mirthless utterance that made her want to cringe, but for how weak she felt. "That, my dear, is a matter of ethics, and ethics are a matter for priests and philosophers, folk who concern themselves with matters so intangible. I, on the other hand, am a scientist, and concern myself with more quantifiable assessments."
"You're a monster," she pressed, despite the throbbing pain in her throat which compounded every time she spoke. "You'll torture innocent people just to help your own goals."
"And where is this innocent person of whom you speak?" The doctor's voice was becoming harsher, as if her words had angered him. "Surely you can see the irony of what you say. How many Galbadians have died, my dear, so that you might further your own goals? How many lives have you destroyed as part of your grand crusade?"
"T—That was different," Rinoa squeaked, caught off-guard by the relative fierceness of his accusation. "They were invaders. I was —"
"Invaders? Timber had been occupied a decade before you even heard of the place. There was no war there, save the one you started. And the soldiers whom you killed with your own hands were causing harm to no one. You were the aggressor, not them. You cannot claim immunity because their deaths took place in a conflict you started."
"You burned the city!" she shouted; though the words came out as more of a muted squeal. "People died then! And so many others lost their homes!"
"And how many Galbadians had you killed by that point?" he retorted. "Think back. You and those SeeD mercenaries whom you hired to assist you; what did you want a team of combat specialists for, I wonder?"
Her outburst had once again drained her, and she was unable to speak. She could not immediately devise a reply in any case.
"And after that, what happened?" he asked. "As Galbadian labor rebuilt the city, your Forest Owls planted bombs, killed dozens more of our people. Do their deaths mean nothing?" He stepped toward her again. "You are a self-righteous terrorist, and a danger to all."
She could see him standing before him, an indistinct blob of white against the darkened background. She forced herself to raise her head, focusing on where he guessed his eyes to be. "You are evil," she said, making her voice to as forceful as she could manage under the circumstances. "And I will stop you."
"Well then," the doctor replied. "I suppose that the feeling is mutual."
He walked away. She heard the door open and close, and she was left alone. Only as she let her body go limp against the restraints that held her to the wall did she realize how tense she had become, or how much her whole body was aching. It was these feelings that were foremost in her mind as what light she could make out faded from her vision, and she slipped into a limbo between the conscious world and the next.