It had been a few weeks after the arrival of his most precious item.
"Again!" Ra commanded as he looked at the screen. There monitors showed flashing lights, increased heart rate, and electric stimulation along with images, sounds, and words repeated in the room. He watched the body relax after a few seconds, panting to catch her breath. Eyes still in the void state. "Dammit! We hit a stagnation." He tried not to let this problem undo his calm demeanor. He would unravel the knot holding her back. "None of the other sequences have worked. We're so close on breaking her down. Any response?" He looked over to the doctor beside him. The doctor shook his head. "Try the next sequence." He watched the monitor again. Same response as before. "Try the severe ones."
"But sir!" The doctor was hesitant. The severe sequences could cause damage beyond repair and possible death.
"This is probably nothing to her," Ra stared at the monitor. "Try the severe sequences."
The doctor gave a reluctant nod. He turned up the dial, punched a few buttons, and gulped before he pushed the last button. He flinched as he watched the conditioning which was more like torture. The response was the same but the conditioning method was repeated a few times. They stopped when Selena closed her eyes trying to regain herself.
"That's it," Ra raised up as a smile tugged on his lips. "That's it. Keep up with these sort of conditioning methods. We had a breakthrough. If we get more responses, start the next process of conditioning."
It was another week until they could start the second process of conditioning. The first process was still the same, the second process had new images and clips, new sounds and voices, and lots of subliminal conditioning. On some occasions, they would test how far they had made progress. Metal sliding doors revealed mannequins of different heights but all sporting signature blonde wigs. Her shackles undone for the time being. Selena took all three down with minimal movements. It was slow progress but it was still progress.
During the second month of being captured, Selena started to show signs of regression. The table could no longer hold her. The sleeping fog could no longer keep her asleep. On one of the occasions of conditioning. Selena broke out of her room sounding alarms throughout the secret compound.
Canard sat up in jolt as the alarms blared in his room. He heard people shouting, outside his room. Canard got to the door in a few strides. He crouched down, opening the food tray lid, trying to see outside. He saw people running both directions. He left the door to grab his soap. Canard needed to gain all the insight he could get.
The two boys all bandaged, jolted in their beds as well. They looked to one another, both nodding in agreement not to move. They heard people yelling and running outside the doors.
Ra was looking through footage. "She hasn't gotten very far! Make sure she hasn't touched any electronics! Make sure the tech team is doubling down on surveillance! If there was going to a breach in our systems, it would be now! The rest of you find her and subdue her!" He barked off orders. "Look there! This section! Hurry up! She's already touched an electric panel. Bring me a new sedative! She acclimated to the last one. We need to reformulate it before we can use it again."
The electric panel was open, with wires showing. Some were cut and restrung together. Fog was emitting in the whole corridor. All the doors were open. Soldiers started to show up, trying to make their way into the fog. Selena had crawled into the air duct systems. She closed the vent and didn't place her body on the bottom of the duct. She crawled through the duct a few inches above using the walls. She pressed her arms and feet on there to not make a sound. Her body was used to the temperature inside the air ducts. Thankfully it was cool air coming through. She kept that up until she reached an entirely different corridor.
At the IT department, Sai had been doing his best along with the others to defend against the cyber-attacks. He kept following possible viruses but they end up disappearing. He was following another one. Hoping he wouldn't lose it again. He could hear the curses from his coworkers, getting the same thing too.
He had to stay focus. These cyber attacks were along with what was happening during one of the compounds. There was a lockdown issued. He did hear that people were trying to steal their secrets of helping people. People who want to monetize lifesaving drugs and procedures. Sai couldn't let those secrets get stolen. He kept going through the codes trying to follow the virus and clean up the mess it was making. Some viruses were flickering the lights, others making it rain, some opened and close doors randomly.
Is this what you really want?
He blinked at the code to see the words were something else. He kept typing away reworking the code.
Do you think you're really helping others?
Sai flinched. He looked around to see his coworkers still working away.
Its just you and me.
Sai could see the words change in the codes. It disappeared as he read them. He continued to type.
What happened to the guy who was all about fighting for justice, for freedom, for what's right?
He kept following the virus just to see the words appearing before him.
Kira isn't here to steal your spotlight.
Sai started to mouth the words silently.
Stop moving your lips. Keep focused.
Sai followed the command. He kept typing, making sure no one saw the change in him.
You're a good person. You try to do good things. But have you ever wondered if this place does actually good?
Sai was so close to cornering the virus.
I'll contact you again when you've done your homework. Bye!
The virus disappeared just like before.
"Dammit!" Sai let out.
"What type of virus is this?" One of his coworkers called out. "There are no traces and leads us to dead ends each time. It likes setting off everything like a kid pulling a prank."
The group kept fighting the attacks while keeping up the cyber walls so other viruses could not get in.
The two boys saw a faint movement from the ceiling through their hospital curtains. They watched something swing open. A larger shadow started to emerge from it, dropping into their room, like a silent water droplet. The shadow had crouched down for a bit. They didn't move as they were worried it would come for them. They didn't see the shadow had flipped through their medical clipboards. The shadow moved back to stand up. They could make out a person. The two kept silent as the figure looked back and forth between them. The figure moved just enough that their outline was detailed and not just a shadowy figure. The boy with the light green hair had a familiarity feeling as his eyes took in the outline. He stopped right around the head, as the hair line seemed the most familiar. The feeling wasn't sad, wasn't anger, it was nostalgic. Like seeing something he used to have a long time ago.
"Somewhere beyond the sea, somewhere waiting for me," The two heard a soft, sweet voice. The voice of a young woman. A voice sang with such innocence that they almost forgot how menacing the shadow was. "I'm going away soon. I'm hoping you can come with me." The light green haired boy turned to look at his friend then back to the shadow. "They can come too. Do you remember the place I want to go to?"
The brown-haired boy looked over to his friend. He was scared on what was happening. He hoped his friend wouldn't say anything.
"Kingdom," the light green haired breathed out. It was almost inaudible.
"Yes," the figure spoke with cheerfulness but did not show it. "I'll be back when things are ready. I won't forget you. Where are we going to again?"
"Kingdom," he spoke again, this time a little louder. It was loud enough for the other boy to hear. He said it with a strange fondness.
"Stay safe until then," the figure climbed back up into the air duct system, shutting the lid, leaving the two of them in silence.
The brown-haired boy jumped out of his bed, pushing the curtain back, headed over to the other bed, pushed the curtain back, only to see the light green haired boy in a state of wonder and coziness.
"What has gotten into you?" The brown-haired boy grabbed onto him. He kept his voice low so only they could hear. "They could have killed us! Also, what is this Kingdom you're talking about? Where are we going? I thought you were going to sing back to them to be honest."
"Kingdom," the light-green haired boy repeated himself. "That's where we need to go. That will be the safest place to be. We wanted to get out right?" The brown-haired boy nodded. "But we don't know a safe place, I forgot about the Kingdom. I have a good feeling with her. We can trust her."
"I may not get a good feeling from them like you do," the brown-haired boy complied. "But we agreed to leave this place. I will leave with you."
Selena kept crawling away. She needed to get the furthest away from that area. She now knew what those codes meant when she hacked into the system trying to see the people he had taken. There were a few numbers and letters mixed in to hide its meaning, but she knew once she read the papers. Those were death dates. She knew had that death date memorized. As Selena moved away, she had to change parts of her plans. It was something she figured would happen. Ra was smart enough to use paper on some things. Not everything was online.
She moved several corridors down. She dropped out of the air vent. Selena closed the air vent as if she never had used it. She walked past rooms full of electronic equipment. She could tell there were cameras in the hallways.
"How much have you infiltrated?" Her voice rang out but her lips never moved. She kept walking keeping her eyes straight ahead. She could still see the signals in her peripherals. Sixty percent. Not bad. "Expected a little more. Are there areas that need my assistance?" The signals of blinking lights answered. She looked to the next camera that was up ahead. "Let's make it one hundred." Selena felt the stab of a dart hitting into her back. A few more hit into her back. The air around her started to become dense with fog.
She heard the footsteps running towards her. She turned around, swinging her leg in the air, knocking down soldiers coming around her. Selena put up the fight as usual but she was eventually taken down, due to the new sedative concoction. She was taken back to the room in the confined box. When she recovered, it was back to the severe conditioning.
At Orb, Cagalli was looking through files keeping herself updated while the rest of the group were still arguing over opinions. There was still no sign of the new Archangel.
"That wouldn't be the princess's," Andrew was pinching his nose trying to hit a pressure point to relax. "She's not tacky!"
"I'm not saying it was hers but I'm not saying she couldn't have helped in making it or sponsoring it," Athrun rebutted.
"You're not saying a lot of things," Andrew opened his eyes as he moved his hand. "Let's get back to the matter at hand. That Archangel has not moved. We also have ZAFT keeping an eye on it. Earth Alliance hasn't said anything."
"Is the Minerva here just to go after it?" Mu was glancing at the files by Cagalli.
"Seems so," Murrue answered. "Any word further on the intel regarding the location of the secret base?"
"None," Andrew shook his head. "Silence can be a good thing. We can strategize and figure out our supplies. Something big is coming our way so we need to prepare."
Just outside the secret base, Miriallia and Jess were in his mobile suit looking through their latest pictures and videos.
Have you ever felt like you are being watched? 8 asked.
The two looked over to his screen with widened eyes, almost in shock.
No one is watching us. The two calmed down. But I feel like I am being watched.
"You're artificial though," Jess brought up.
Yes, however trying to access the internal software at the compound makes it seem like I am being watched. I am getting codes that seem eerie.
"Eerie?" Miriallia stopped scrolling. "What type of codes? Do you think they have caught on?"
No, no. I have an amazing hacking system however, it feels as if something is giving me small warnings through code not to continue.
Jess and Miriallia looked to each other with similar shock and determination. "Then don't," Jess spoke up first. "Don't hack anymore. We can always find a different way to get our information." He didn't want to jeopardize their position. The footage they have gotten has great information. They need to continue their stance. They could be the key in stopping this from getting any bigger.