"This is an awful mess," Cammy said quietly, covering her face with her hands. She'd expressed this and similar sentiments so many times in the past few hours that she'd lost count. It was awful enough to begin with, being in someone else's body. But now it just seemed entirely hopeless. Her life was over as she knew it. That sent her right past irritation, quickly approaching outright depression. It was a reasonable response to the situation and she didn't know what else to do. She glanced over at Chun-Li, who was at the wheel of the rental car. "Have we come up with any contingency plans in case Rose can't help?"
"Rose won't be able to do anything for you," Vega said.
Cammy gritted her teeth. "Why have you got to be so negative!"
"I don't want to give you hope that isn't there," he said, turning his eyes to the window.
"That's easy for you to say when it isn't your life being threatened!" Her stomach was in knots, and she felt jittery, unable to sit still. She'd never been in a more compromising position. All options seemed to lead to problems-she either remained as she was in Vega's body, and spent the rest of her life slowly turning into him, or she went back to Shadaloo and returned to life as a Doll. She wasn't sure which was worse. Both options led to her becoming a murderer. "Why does this have to be so hopeless," she whispered, clenching her fists.
Vega frowned, looking back over at her. He wasn't sure that anything could be done either. He didn't want this to happen any more than she did. But he couldn't think of a way to prevent it. And would Bison let him near her after what he'd done last time? The idea of her ending up a Doll again was sickening enough, but this time she'd be left under someone else's care. Someone who would never treat her like she should be treated. But he knew how Bison operated, and when a person failed at something, he did not give them a second chance. He wasn't sure how he got so lucky to still be alive after sparing Cammy.
"I'm sure Rose can help," Chun-Li said, shaking her head. "Don't listen to him."
She was driving and couldn't see the look Vega was throwing her way. It was probably for the better. 'Don't listen to him'. Didn't she think if he knew a way to help Cammy that he would go through with it, do everything within his power to assure that she got out of this safely? Hadn't she realized he'd risked so much for her the first time?
"Right," Cammy said, trying to stay calm. Panic and despair could only cloud her thoughts. The ride was long and tense, each lost in their own ideas concerning the complex conditions of the situation. When they finally reached their destination, Cammy thought she'd be sick from anxiety. The only hope she had was Rose, and if she said she couldn't help-
She didn't want to think about it. No sense in being presumptuous. She tried not to keep imagining what would happen, but was failing miserably at it.
As usual, Rose was already at the door waiting for them. "It isn't at all unsettling when you do that," Vega said, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm simply trying to be a polite host," she said, crossing her arms. "Please, come inside." They did, Cammy and Chun-Li getting comfortable without question while Vega stood by the door, unsure of what to do. He didn't like being around Rose, didn't like that she could peek into their minds, know what they were feeling. Cammy and Chun-Li didn't seem to mind at all, and he couldn't understand why.
Cammy was too anxious to wait around for Rose to ask what the problem was, and got right down to the heart of the matter. She explained everything, so nervous about it that she spoke as quick as she could, as if the opportunity for help would disappear if she didn't ask for it fast enough. Rose listened patiently, understanding Cammy's fear over the matter. She knew most of what was coming already-knew that someone was going to have to make a choice to decide the outcome of the issue. Now she had the specifics. As much as it pained her to have to tell Cammy this, she knew it'd do her no good to lie. "There is, unfortunately, little I can do for either of you."
Cammy sighed and tangled her fingers in her hair. Things were getting bleaker by the minute. "What am I supposed to do?" she asked helplessly, shaking her head and turning desperate eyes to Rose. "I can't go back there. You know what he'll do!"
Rose shook her head. "You have escaped that place once before. It is possible you may do so again."
"But I had your help," Cammy said. "Will you-"
"Her help?" Vega cried suddenly, breaking his silence, and pointing at Rose. "You had her help?" He seemed almost offended about something and Cammy couldn't figure out what.
"Calm down," Rose said, holding up a hand. "I can explain."
"Explain what?" Cammy asked, confused about the problem. Rose had saved her from Shadaloo, erased the Doll programming from her mind, and left her at the British Embassy to start a new life. She couldn't remember any of that, and thought maybe that was for the better.
Vega laughed bitterly and shook his head. "I risked my life getting you away from Bison," he said. "He could've killed me, melted my brain and let it leak out of my ears, and she's been telling you it was her all this time?"
"Stop, now, Vega," Rose demanded.
"No, I'm the one that risked everything to save her, so that she could have a normal life, and you lied about it!"
"I find that hard to believe," Chun-Li muttered. When it came down to it, it did seem highly unlikely. After all, someone was lying here-either Rose or Vega, and she had reason to trust the former much, much more than the latter.
"It was better this way," Rose said gently, understanding his frustrations. But they couldn't get anywhere if he wouldn't let her speak. "Please, calm down, and I'm sure you'll agree with my reasoning."
"I'm perfectly aware of your reasoning," Vega said, a cynical laugh chasing the words out of his mouth. "I'm the 'bad' guy. Therefore, I am unable to do 'good' things. It's easier to hate me when I've done nothing good."
"You have much to answer for," Rose said, a little more sternly. "Don't be self-righteous for the few good things you've done."
"I want to know what's going on," Cammy put in finally, still quite confused. Her eyes shifted from her own body, held tense and rigid by Vega's anger, to Rose's more matronly and placid facade. "Please? This is my life we're talking about. I want to know how it started."
"You want to know how it started?" Vega asked, laughing again. It was bizarre and unheard of coming from Cammy. Slightly deranged, clearly belonging to someone a little off-kilter, and Chun-Li winced. It was just like Bison had said. "It started in a petri dish in Thailand. How's that for a start?"
"Stop it," Cammy whispered, plainly hurt. She crossed her arms tightly, eyes finding the ground much easier to look at than any of their faces, especially her own. She felt someone touch her shoulder, and a sideways glance told her it was Chun-Li. She did feel admittedly strange trying to comfort what appeared to be Vega, but she told herself underneath it was her friend, and she was upset.
But the real Vega would have none of it. "Don't touch me!" Vega shouted, grabbing Chun-Li by the wrist and pulling her away.
Chun-Li wrenched her arm from his, and cried, "What is wrong with you?"
"Enough," Rose said with an air of finality. Vega took a step back against his will, struggling against Rose, but to no avail. He knew from his time dealing with Bison that it was impossible to break their telekinetic holds. "If you aren't willing to remain calm, I'll be forced into taking more extreme measures in order to ensure your cooperation."
He glared at her, but remained silent. She let him go.
"Cammy." The person in question looked up when she was spoken to. Blue eyes displayed a mixture of confusion and sorrow as she listened to her friend speak. "It is true that I haven't told you the truth. I did not save you from Shadaloo." This did strike both Cammy and Chun-Li as surprising. Of all people in the world, they hadn't expected Rose to be the one to tell a lie. But Cammy noticed Vega's mind wasn't at all surprised.
It always seems to rain at the worst possible times and it's been hell getting her this far, but it's worth it. I'm drenched, she is too, but still completely unaware that anything has changed, that her entire life is going to be turned around if this all goes well and Rose better not be doing anything to wrong her...
She's already waiting for me, and I should've known that she'd know. But even then, she still looks surprised, and I feel accomplished for achieving that much. "Why are you here?" she asks as I approach, eyes on the person-yes, person, she's a person-in my arms. I shift her weight slightly, carrying her is starting to tire me out. But it's worth it. She'll be better soon. It's worth it.
Cammy rubbed her eyes, trying to dispel the memory and focus on Rose's words. "You were a Doll, not born, but made by Bison."
"Attention," Enero intones. Bison's on the floor, snap to rigid stance, like this is actually a real military or something. It's ridiculous, but they're his rules.
"Today," he says once we're all at attention. There is someone new with him and I stare and I can't stop myself. "You are receiving a new addition to your ranks. You can call her Killer Bee."
I'm glaring at him, because he knows what he did. I never gave him permission. 'Just a routine blood test' and suddenly your genes are being toyed with. At least Decapre, as revolting as she was, never shows her face. But this one-I would have to see this one. He'd make sure of it, to force me to do my best for her because with a face like that how can I do anything less?
Cammy squeezed her eyes shut, held a hand to her head. Why was she remembering all of this? It felt like too much at once, and she tried to focus on Rose's voice, to ground herself in the present. "But you began to...'malfunction', as he considered it. You were approaching self-awareness."
"What was that, Killer Bee?" he demands, and I feel like a child who has been caught in the middle of a misdeed, except this parent killed for infractions so severe.
"I do not wish to remain alone anymore. I am lonely. I submit a request for a bunkmate."
I can feel Bison's eyes on me, he isn't an idiot and won't fool himself for a second in believing anyone other than myself has influenced her thinking, has told her what it is to be lonely or to want for something. "Killer Bee, you do not understand loneliness."
"I feel..."
"You do not."
"I feel despair here."
He seizes me by the throat with one swift movement and my feet aren't touching the ground anymore and shit, this is it, I'm going to die, I can see it, his eyes getting white, that crackle of purple around his fingers and I don't even have the mind to beg-
"Permission to request that you desist in this punishment? Commander Vega is my friend, sir, and I can not ascertain the nature of his infraction," Killer Bee intones at the sight.
"Denied." She's just making it worse. The pain is brief but intense and there's another as I hit the ground. I gasp for breath, senses clouding, and I hear him say, "You have no friends, Killer Bee. You do not need them. Perhaps it is time for some re-education." I utter a pathetic cry and glimpse the beginnings of sadness in her eyes for the first time ever as she looks down at me, curled up on the floor, a mess. I can fix it. If he doesn't kill me for this, we can finish what we started.
"You were given one final test to prove your worth to him. But when you failed to kill your target, Bison ordered you to be destroyed."
"You are the reason for this mess. You are expected to clean it up." I can't look him in the eye as I accept his orders. Her target gave to her in a ten minute exchange what I couldn't do in six months. Now she has to die for it. I salute Bison, and as I leave, he adds, "Do not come back a failure." My stomach is in knots, and can I really bring myself to kill her?
"But your would-be assassin disregarded those orders. When you returned to Shadaloo, it was to earn your freedom."
It seems like suicide to help her do this, but maybe he won't find out and oh, I can't pretend to be that stupid. She just wants to be free, and surely someone so beautiful deserves that much? "I'll show you where it is," I say finally and I lead her to the psycho drive and I can't believe I'm doing this.
She can use this thing because she's a copy of him, but the way she screams when she activates it, I can't take it. It suddenly stops, she practically falls out of the psycho drive, she's whispering again and again, "Free, free, you're all free." But for how long? There's an explosion, somewhere close, the ground shakes. We can't stay here, but where do we go?
"Knowing Bison's death would not be permanent, he knew you wouldn't be safe for long. In his desperation, brought you to me."
"I can't keep her from him. But you..." I couldn't finish the sentence, couldn't stand to admit that I was putting my trust in her.
"She'll be safe, now."
Cammy shook her head one more time, hoping to stop the memories from continuing their march to the forefront of Vega's mind. Could someone she abhorred so much really be the reason she was still alive today? The very reason she had escaped a life that she'd thought he willingly created for her? "This is..." she started, but had no words to finish the sentence.
"Very surprising," Chun-Li finished, glancing at Vega. She thought he would be the last person on the planet to risk his neck for anyone else.
"Why did you lie to me, Rose?" Cammy asked, a little disappointed. But surely if Rose did it, there was a reason. She was the sort who always tried to see the good in people. Why would Vega be an exception? Why would she try to tarnish his image for her? Any more than he had already done himself, at least.
"To protect you," Rose replied.
"Bullshit," Vega said.
"I could not risk her becoming curious about you," she explained, shaking her head at his outburst. "I could not take the chance that she would try to find you herself. Where do you think that search would take her?"
"Right back to Bison," Chun-Li concluded with a nod.
"So I erased what little memory she had of you after she gained consciousness. I told her that I saved her from that life. I did not want to see her harmed any more than you," Rose explained.
He could see her reasoning, but didn't want to. It wasn't fair to him that Cammy began her new life without knowing who helped create it. He hated that when finally they met again, she recognized his association with Shadaloo and immediately regarded him as an enemy. But she never knew until now that he'd been the entire reason she'd ever gotten free to begin with.
"Well, what a beautiful story." All eyes turned around to find the source of the dreadfully familiar voice.
Cammy jumped up immediately at the sight of the man seated on the couch, leaning against the armrest and watching them all with an amused smile. "Why are you here?" she asked. She knew he had a lot of dirty tricks, but this was the one she hated the most.
"I had an inkling that you might seek her help. So I've taken it upon myself to see you back home, personally." Bison was frustratingly insightful, and it made her feel even more trapped to know he could anticipate her next course of action so accurately. Was it because he programmed her to think like he would? Were her actions really still her own? She wondered how long he'd been waiting for them to get to Italy, for them to find their way to Rose so he could pop in and ruin all hope she had of remaining normal.
"That's a prison," Cammy said.
"At first, maybe. But I think with a little convincing you'll grow to find it accommodating enough."
"Don't think for a second you'll get away with this," Chun-Li said.
"What will you do? Storm Shadaloo yourself? For one girl? You wouldn't make it three steps before you were shot dead."
Cammy gritted her teeth in frustration, then turned frantically to Rose. "What do we do?"
But she looked passive. "I'm afraid there is little we can do."
"No, there has to be a way out of this!"
"Not for you, Killer Bee."
"Don't call me that," she said in as threatening a voice as she could, curling her hands into fists at her sides. She thought about trying to fight him. But she knew she didn't stand a chance.
"You'll get used to it again, soon enough." He turned his eyes to Vega. "And we won't have any problems this time, will we?"
Vega didn't respond, staring at the floor. Once again, he'd failed to protect the thing in his life he cared most about. Cammy cried out in frustration at his silent agreement. "Don't let him do this to me, Vega."
He clenched his jaw, staying quiet as Bison took her by the wrists. She writhed away from him, wrenching herself from his strong grasp. "Don't touch me, pig!" she shouted, assuming an offensive stance. Bison merely smirked, more amused than threatened. Chun-Li rushed to her friend's aid, but was easily deterred by Bison who seized her by the collar and shoved her to the ground. Cammy tried to fight against him, but he caught her fist before it even made contact with its target. Her arm was wrenched painfully behind her back. "Rose?" Cammy whimpered.
"It's the only way you can become yourself again, Cammy," she responded. Bison was the only one who could reverse the process, as much as Cammy hated to hear it.
"But I won't be myself!" Cammy shouted back, terrified as Bison's grip tightened. Chun-Li rushed the man again, and his eyes grew white, telekinetic force shoving her back.
"I won't let you do this!" Chun-Li cried.
"Vega, help me!" Cammy pleaded desperately to the only other person in the room not trying already. Maybe it was futile, but if he'd helped her once before, surely he'd do it again? "Please! I know you don't want this to happen!" Vega's eyes shifted from the image of himself, terrified and desperate, to the powerful and threatening form of his leader. He couldn't disobey his orders again. Bison had overlooked his failure once, but he wasn't at all likely to extend such generosity a second time. "Please!" Cammy all but begged, jerking against Bison's grip. But Vega was at a loss. They were all trapped, and Bison knew it.
Bison laughed derisively, and shook his head. "A good dog knows better than to cross its master twice." Vega narrowed his eyes at the remark, but said nothing. He didn't want to chance a smart remark being used not against himself, but Cammy this time.
"Stop!" Cammy shouted just as something began to tickle the back of her neck. There was a sudden jolt, and she fell limp without another sound.
"What did you do to her?" Chun-Li cried, taking a step towards him. The purple crackling at the tips of his free fingers warded her off. She felt weak and useless, unable to defend her friend. He wrapped one arm around Cammy's waist, throwing her over his shoulder.
"I'm going to fix her," Bison answered with a malicious smile. He turned his eyes to Vega, and nodded to the door.
Vega followed him out of Rose's home, unsure of what else to do. He threw a glance over his shoulder, and saw Chun-Li staring him down. She was furious, fists clenched at her sides, teeth gritted, and utterly helpless. "This isn't over," she said.
"Who said it was?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. She continued to watch as he left after Bison. Chun-Li let out an enraged cry as she bolted after them, but when she finally caught up, they'd disappeared completely. She spun in a tight circle, searching for them. Bison's abilities had limitation, and she knew he had to be nearby.
"I won't stop until she's back!" she screamed, knowing they had to be close enough to hear her. "Don't think for a second that I'll ever give up on her!" Tears of frustration welled up in her eyes. Soft footsteps behind her caught her attention, and she sighed. "What do we do now, Rose? How do we get her out of Shadaloo?"
"We can't." Simple and to the point, and for once, Chun-Li wished it wasn't. She covered her face with her hands, and sobbed quietly, aching for her doomed friend.