3A/N: Hello! Just a heads up, this story is a sequel/ soft reboot of another story of ours: Falling In Deeper. If you're a new reader, you won't need to read the last story to understand what's going on. But if you would like the full context, feel free to start there!
Chapter One
Lacie
Today was a big day. There was no other reason he would have asked them to compile all of their notes and present them to him in Metropolis. Emily arrived at the lobby at the same time that she did. There was no longer any surprise in the other woman's face as she regarded Lacie. The familiar contempt was there instead, stronger than ever.
"Afternoon," she said and pressed the elevator door. The assistant had already gotten clearance to send them up.
"Afternoon. No Cam today? I figured that he would want to be here for this meeting - it sounds like it's going to be big."
"He had other commitments. I'll update him when I get back home," Emily said through her teeth.
Lacie hid the smirk to herself. She knew that Cam had been distancing himself from the project for some time now. The relief when they had been able to resurrect his little sister had morphed more into dread and horror these past couple of years. He knew that like everything else, her life had come with a tremendous price.
Soon they're going to have to all pay it, she thought to herself when the elevator dinged and they were welcomed to Lex Luthor's private office.
The far wall was made up entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows. At the sound of their arrival, he turned around and gestured to the seats in front of his desk. "Please," he said, the steeliness in his voice giving hint that it was nothing but a corporate formality, "We have much to discuss about Project Metamorphosis."
Emily's eyes flicked over to Lacie with a frown. It was obvious that she wanted to have this meeting alone with Mr. Luthor. Lacie smiled widely, "As you wish, sir," and moved to sit down.
"Go ahead and give me the bullet points of the chips. Take it from the top, if you don't mind." He spun his finger round and moved to sit behind his desk.
Clearing her throat slightly, Emily tucked a stray hair behind her ear. The usual confidence that she carried herself with faltered ever so slightly around Mr. Luthor. "Since I was involved with the project in the beginning, I feel as though I should talk about the beginning. Luthor Technologies entrusted chips to me, with the promise that they could control minds. As a test of this capability, Mr. Cam Lane surgically implanted the chips into Ms. Megan Lane and Ms. Bridgette Paige. In order to see if the chips could make someone do something that goes completely against their nature, we had them attack an office building in the East End on July 22nd, 2018. There were 17 casualties and 146 injuries. These numbers were accomplished even without the powers that we discovered later on.
"The subjects have no recollection of this event as we exerted full control over their bodies. However, we could only maintain the control for approximately 44 minutes before we had to relinquish it. Ms. Lane and Ms. Paige were then apprehended and taken to the high-security C-Wing of Arkham Asylum.
"There we were able to influence their psyche to become gradually more broken, and hints of their powers started to show. Namely, Ms. Lane's technological manipulation and Ms. Paige's ability to create and manipulate electrical currents.
"After three and a half months, we felt as though they had obtained the most development that they would from Arkham and aided in their escape once the opportunity arose. From there, Ms. Paige spent time with both Scarecrow and Riddler as she learned about her powers. We helped influence her to act on some of her darker impulses. Ms. Lane on the other hand was detained by Robin and Batman. She later escaped them however and through blackmail of foul business practices, she was able to stay with Mr. Bruce Wayne." It was minuscule, but there was a tiny twitch at the corner of her mouth when she said this.
She was lying.
Lacie recognized this trait in Emily. She used to do it all the time in high school whenever she manipulated people into thinking or doing whatever it was that she wanted to. Not much has changed, except now she implants chips inside people's heads to get them to follow her bidding, she thought to herself.
"If every CEO gave into blackmail about foul business practices, we wouldn't have any CEOs left," Mr. Luthor commented with a smirk. She scanned his face to see if there were any signs he could tell that Emily was lying. But his face betrayed nothing.
Lacie bit on her bottom lip and shifted in her seat. It wouldn't be right to say anything without proof. Mr. Luthor didn't appreciate being told things solely based on hunches.
"Ms. Lane also further developed her manipulation of technology, however, this often resulted in nosebleeds or fainting episodes. They had multiple run-ins with Rogues until eventually, Ms. Paige resided with Ms. Lane in Wayne Manor. There they attempted to uncover who implanted the chips in their heads. LexCorp was involved in the list of suspects, but nothing fruitful came of the search.
"They broke into the uninhabited penthouse of Thomas Elliott under suspicions that he was involved in their case, but they were apprehended by guards. Ms. Paige shot Ms. Lane by accident in an attempt to escape. Ms. Lane died from a gunshot wound through the abdomen in under three minutes. Her rapid death was expedited by her uncontrollable laughter. Ms. Paige fled the city while Ms. Lane's body was brought here in an attempt to resuscitate her."
It took a good poker face for Lacie to conceal how she felt about Emily. She had just spoken like these two people were lab rats in an experiment that she had the pleasure of running. No one would ever guess that they had actually been friends with her ever since kindergarten. Emily seemed to sense Lacie's attention, and she glanced over. There was a coolness in her gaze that chilled Lacie to the bone.
Looking forward, she wondered if Emily had ever truly cared about her so-called friends, or if they had always merely been pawns in whatever game she was playing.
"So far by this report, they seem to be the perfect weapons. Were they even aware of the chips being implanted?" Mr. Luthor asked.
"In the beginning, they weren't, sir. Mr. Lane invited them over to his residence where he sedated them, performed the operation in one night, and then sent them on their way. They had no idea that the chips had been implanted and there were no visible signs of it to the untrained eye."
Lacie could barely contain her shiver. The Mr. and Ms. Lane in question were, in fact, brother and sister. How could a big brother ever even think to do something like that to the little sister who he looked after for years... It showed just how good Emily was at making people act against their instincts, chip or no chip.
"Good," Mr. Luthor nodded, then leaned forward to rest his chin on his steepled hands. "There are plenty of threats that we can eradicate if we can just subdue them long enough to implant the chips. However, their potential is greater than just the ability to create mindless soldiers. I believe that you would be best suited to share this next part, Ms. Jennings," he said and looked over to Lacie.
"Yes," Lacie said. "I was brought into the project a year into its run. With the chip, we were able to reactivate Ms. Lane's brain, and through weeks of physical therapy, were able to bring life fully back throughout the rest of her body. It took some time to get her mind and body to fully sync up again, but we were able to do so. We re-introduced her to Gotham City. She got a job at WayneTech, helping them fix the new gadgets and inadvertently giving us updates on their new developments. She also took up vigilantism. Through naturalistic experiments, we were able to develop her powers to the point where she can control any technology that operates on electricity. The range of her powers is good up to 800 feet and counting.
"Ms. Paige's development was less controlled. Once she left Gotham, we let her believe that she was out of our control. She traveled all over the world and received training from some of the best masters there are. It appears she now has full control over her lightning powers, as well as what seems to be super speed and super strength. Since I am unable to personally run diagnostics on her, a lot of our research was purely observational, so we don't know the full extent of her powers. Thankfully we do have concrete data on the chip's capabilities from her. We are able to observe what she is doing from anywhere in the world, as well as exert small influence over her. Throughout the whole time, we were able to keep her ignorant of Ms. Lane's survival, even if there was undeniable evidence right in her face. All the time she had no idea that we were still involved in what she was doing."
"These kinds of results could prove that the chips have the capability of pushing humans to the next stage of evolution. If even death is not final, what else can we push the human body to do? Is there any possibility of the subject taking ownership of the chip?"
Lacie blinked. "I am unsure by what you mean by that, sir."
"I mean is there a possibility of them being able to remove themselves completely from our control, while still being able to keep the benefits of the chips?"
"With this design, the only way that they would be able to escape our control is by having the chips removed from their heads," Emily answered. "However, doing that would be near impossible as the chips have a warning set in place to alarm us when they're being compromised. There's no way we wouldn't be able to stop them."
"That's good. We can't risk losing subjects as valuable as them. Or course, we'll want to change that design should I ever want a chip of my own," he sighed and stood up. He walked over to the window, the lights of Metropolis glittering in his eyes. The whole city was his. While not the mayor, he was still the one who owned more than half of the businesses in town and was in some way in charge of every single resident here.
If you followed up the chain of command, even the average Joe still had some sort of tie to Lex Luthor.
But it wasn't enough. It never would be.
He stood there for a second, mulling over his thoughts. "Bring Ms. Paige back to Gotham. I want to have more controlled observations of her from here on out."
"Understood, sir," Emily eagerly nodded.
"Do you want to have them interact with each other again?" Lacie asked.
"You no longer need to prevent contact between them. But don't influence it into happening either. We'll see what the most natural results are of them crossing paths yet again," He responded and then looked at both of them. A devilish smirk was on his face, one that broadcasted that some sort of evil plan was being concocted in his head.
Lacie knew that what she was doing wasn't good. These were people's lives that they were gambling with here. They were humans, not test subjects. But if the ends justify the means, then so be it. She would play whatever part she had to play, no matter how twisted and underhanded it may be. If there was any way at all that she could use this chance to take down Emily, she would.
"It's time for the next phase in our research, ladies," Lex Luthor announced.
An eager grin spread on Emily's face. "As you command, sir."
This was a girl who through her own manipulation of the underbelly of Gotham, was able to somehow land on Lex Luthor's radar at only sixteen years old. She may be working for him today, but who knew what else she was capable of tomorrow?
"Yes, sir," Lacie agreed and hoped that she wouldn't be too late to stop whatever was coming.
~Bridgette~
I never thought I would return to Gotham. The pain that the city had caused me, and the pain that I inflicted on it was almost too much to bear when I left. I left nearly everything and everyone that I cared about behind just so that I could feel some semblance of human once again. When Megan had died I was broken, shattered. The decision to leave Gotham was made the same night. I didn't say a single word to anyone, didn't leave a note for my dad, and didn't visit Edward one last time even though I had felt like I should. I just left. The corruption of the city had wrapped its cold fingers around my soul. I was never truly able to rid myself of it, but leaving Gotham allowed me to not just grow and hone my powers, but it allowed me to taste heroism, allowed me to save people instead of destroying them. While I can't call myself a hero by any stretch, leaving made me realize I wasn't just capable of bad but I could also be a source of good. I just hope returning doesn't result in me losing some of the wonderful things I gained in the couple of years since I had left the city.
The possibility of the impossible after I fired that bullet never occurred to me, even with all the impossible things that I had discovered exist in the world. News of Megan arrived through the Gotham Gazette that had been published three weeks ago. Title reading 'Red Hood and Female Vigilante Partner Thwart Scarecrow's Plans!' Of course, how could I have determined that the 'Female Vigilante Partner' was Megan? I just did, a picture of her and Red Hood had been splashed across the front page and the familiarity of her struck me like a punch in the gut. A voice inside of my head confirmed that Megan was alive, and this woman in the picture was most certainly her. Once I had come to that realization, the unavoidable urge to return to Gotham was overwhelming and suffocating. An urge that absolutely terrified me.
Megan being alive was simply not something that I had considered, even though in the last six months I had been in Nanda Parbat, home of the mystical Lazarus pit. Being allowed into the inner sanctum of the League had been a feat in itself. Only possible through an acquaintance with Arrow and his friendship with Nyssa al Guhl. She had decided to take me under her wing and sequester me to League headquarters when she had claimed to see a 'spark of greatness' within me. An opportunity that I wasn't going to pass up, especially when Star City had grown old much quicker than I had expected.
My hands shook as I held the paper, staring at the black and white photo. I mourned my best friend, carried the guilt with me through everything I did. Yet, here she was alive and fighting crime in Gotham. How?
Nyssa would have told me if the Lazarus pit was used on Megan. I had come to trust and be trusted by a handful of people over the last few years, but I had only been able to allow myself to be vulnerable enough to talk to a total of two people about what happened. Nyssa was one of those people. She wouldn't keep this knowledge from me. So, how was this possible?
I crumpled the paper in my hands and started to gather the handful of possessions that I had deemed worthy enough to keep as I drifted from place to place. The suffocating need to get to Gotham spurred me into action, even as inside the resolve I had developed, the control I had painstakingly built, began to crack. I didn't want to go back. I wanted to stay in Nanda Parbat and continue the training I had been so fortunate to get the chance to have. Training that should have been impossible without being forced to be bound to the League. I wanted to keep learning and continue focusing my control over my powers. However, what I want and what I need to do are entirely different things at the moment.
Nyssa had been understanding, but unflinchingly honest. I would likely never be able to return. Her father had been reluctant enough to allow me here in the first place but she vowed to teach me anything I wished to know in the future if I wished it.
An hour later, I was on one of Nyssa's private planes headed for Bludhaven. Nyssa had been confused when I said I was headed there when I had stated I was returning to Gotham. I had only been able to give her a small smile and say there was someone I needed to see. She placed a medallion in my hand as I stepped onto the plane saying that I will always be able to find sanctuary and help with the League even if I was unable to return to Nanda Parbat. I would be welcome in any league headquarters scattered throughout the world. My vision had turned blurry but I refused to let any tears fall as I watched Nyssa from the window, her figure becoming smaller and smaller as the aircraft moved further and further away.
Now, I stood in front of apartment 412 of the Shady Spring apartment building in Bludhaven. The gold numbers glittered at me almost menacingly in the hallway's fluorescent lights. When I had buzzed the apartment, the responding voice had been surprised but didn't hesitate to let me into the building. If I had wanted to, I could have completely fried the system altogether, but there were times when things like that were unnecessary.
When the door swung open I was only able to take two steps forward before my bag fell from my hand and the tears that I had been holding in when I left Nyssa started to fall from my eyes. The door closed behind me with a soft click before strong arms immediately wrapped around me, and pulled me close to a strong muscular chest. Just like every other time I had visited Bludhaven the past couple of years whether planned or unplanned, I had been unquestionably welcomed.
He didn't speak for a long time, allowing me to gather my thoughts and bask in the comfort of his presence as we sat tangled together on his wonderfully comfortable couch. "From what you said last time, I got the impression I wouldn't see you for a lot longer." Seems like he was done letting me be silent.
I let my head fall back onto his shoulder, my back pressed to his chest, one of his arms wrapped around my waist while the other traced the line of his t-shirt I wore where it stopped on my bare thigh. "I had that impression too," I twisted my fingers together in my lap as I tried to gather the words I needed to say, "I have to go back to Gotham."
The arm around my waist tightened, "You said-"
"I know what I said, Richard." I bit my lip, feeling bad about cutting him off, "I'm sorry. I just-" I shifted slightly in his lap, "I said that before I found out that Megan was alive."
Richard's breaths seemed to still, even his hand stopped tracing patterns on my thigh. "You didn't know?" His voice came out in a whisper, disbelief coloring his voice.
A band seemed to tighten around my chest, one that had no relation to Richard's arm. I twisted myself in my seat, turning to straddle his thighs so that I could look him in the eye, needing to see his expressions because excuse me? He thought I knew? My voice came out low and dangerous, a tone I had come to perfect, "What do you mean? You know she's alive? And you never told me?"
Richard seemed to be at a loss for words, he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before he responded, "I thought you knew, I figured you just didn't want to talk about it." His blue eyes seemed to turn dark, "You had been so broken after. I didn't think you could come back from it, Bee. I was afraid to leave you alone for too long, convinced that if-" The tortured look in his eyes instantly diffused any anger that I had felt begin to rise. He took a few deep breaths before he continued. "I thought you knew and figured you didn't want to talk about it. I thought that if I said anything about Megan that every piece of progress we made would become null. Just mentioning that night, and the look in your eyes...Bridgette, I couldn't see you like that again."
Part of me wanted to yell at him, but that part was small, almost inconsequential. This man had been the one to help pull me from the almost insurmountable despair that I felt after I fired that gun. The last gun I swore I would allow in my hands. He was the one who followed me after I had stumbled from the bloody scene, despite the horror that filled his eyes. The one who had helped me leave Gotham when I begged him to help me because I had no idea what to do and he was the only person that I could even talk to. Richard had held Jason back when he had murder in his eyes. Forced me to eat when I couldn't even stand the sight of food. Revealed to me that he was Nightwing and then proceeded to teach me some of what he knew. I couldn't bring myself to be mad at him, not when he had done so much for me and continued to welcome me back into his life each time I left to find yet another piece of myself.
Richard had become my rock, my solace. The safe harbor that I returned to each time I felt beat down and I could undoubtedly say that I loved him for it. But that was the one thing that I could never say to him, I can't tell him that I had fallen in love with him while he helped me and encouraged my exploration of who I was. I can't tell him because while he cared deeply for me I know that he could never love me back. That was something he could only feel for his unfailingly good and wonderful exes Starfire and Barbra. I was convinced that at some point I would find he had gotten back with one of them and I would find the door that had always been open to me firmly shut. I could never hold a candle to either of them, and there was no way he could hold me in the same regard that he had for them. While it hurt to know that, I was happy to know that he was even willing to have me in his life at all.
I shook myself from my thoughts and gave Richard a smile, one entirely genuine even while it felt like my life was falling apart again after I had felt like I had finally picked up the pieces. Megan was alive, I killed her but she was still alive, I need to know how. I can't stay away from Gotham not knowing that. Even then, after all this time, I still didn't know who put this chip in my head. For a time I had almost forgotten about it, the voice, the blackouts entirely absent since I left Gotham city limits. But when I read that article the voice had whispered in my head, the disturbingly familiar coolness brushing across my mind. I couldn't ignore it any longer.
As I looked into Richard's eyes I felt that familiar vulnerability, a feeling that I only felt around him. "Can you come with me?" It would make everything so much easier if he could be by my side. The last person who saw me in Gotham could also be the first one to see me return.
A sigh escaped his mouth and without him even saying anything, I knew he was going to say 'no'. "I need to stay in Bludhaven, for now. There's some unfinished business I need to take care of." Richards returned his arm to its place around my waist pulling me closer to him as his other hand reached up and pushed my still shower damp hair from my face. "I might be able to get away once I take care of it."
No matter how disappointed I felt, I knew it was for the best that he couldn't go, at least not yet. I gave him a wry smile as I reached forward wrapping my arms around his neck and breathing him in as I pressed my forehead to his. "Big Bad?"
He laughed, "Yeah, Big Bad."
"Well, I have something that I want to do before I finally head back to Gotham." I wiggled my hips against him, not being exactly subtle with the suggestive tone in my voice.
"Oh?" I watched as his pupils dilated, knowing exactly what I was implying. I let out a squeal of surprise as he suddenly stood from the couch, keeping me from falling by bracing his hands under my upper thighs. "I think I can agree. You can't leave until we take care of that."
I bit my lip feeling a laugh bubble up in my throat. Leave it to Richard Grayson to make me laugh even under the horrendous circumstances.
Megan
As great as the anonymity that masks provided were there was always one significant downfall: the sweat. As I leaped down from the platform, tumbling to help break my fall, the thing that I was wishing the most was that I could wipe the sweat off my forehead.
"Could really use your help, Berserk," Jason's voice said through the comm in my ear.
"I'm trying my best," I huffed when I heard a thunderous crashing noise.
Looking down at the building far below, I could see a humongous hole in the brick wall and a completely destroyed telehandler among the rubble. Desperately I tried to see if Jason's red hood was somewhere in the destruction. "Red Hood?" Please, no. If there's any God out there, don't take Jason away from me too. "Red Hood, do you copy?"
Thankfully, his voice finally sounded again in my ears. "Yeah, I copy. Almost got crushed underneath some heavy machinery. This new batch of venom is no joke."
My relief was so powerful that I could sing. "You're telling me. I'm almost there, just hang tight."
"Do I have any other option?"
Deciding not to respond, I reached out with my powers. Now that I finally knew where my target was, I knew where to focus my aim. The building was filled with all sorts of technology - it was a warehouse filled to the brim with heavy pallets and machinery, I realized. Jason's presence was a familiar one: armored with WayneTech and other gadgets that he had accumulated over the years. The other more foreboding presence was the one that I was focused on. The device that held Bane's venom was like a wild beast. I had never faced it before. Yet like everything else before it, I would find out how to break it too.
He was about four hundred feet away, well within the range of my powers. I came to a stop right next to a ledge and closed my eyes. Since this isn't technology that I'm used to, it would require more focus.
It was like I was inside the apparatus now, stretching out hundreds of tiny hands wherever they could go, probing for some weakness. While it was by far not the most complex thing that I've encountered, its unfamiliarity made it a labyrinth. In the beginning, things are a mess until suddenly it all comes into crystal clarity- My eyes sprung open.
Found it!
"Cutting off the power now!" I said, shutting it down completely.
The presence that I had just familiarized myself with was instantly lost. Dead. Now it didn't matter how much Venom was left; Bane had no way of injecting it into himself.
Jason let out a victorious whoop. "That's how you do it! He's nothing but a bag of bones now."
"That's what I like to hear," I said with relief. For a moment, I let my powers scan the building again, searching for any devices that were similar to the one that I just disabled. Finding none, I decided that Jason was safe enough for me to join him down there.
"Bane's down. All we need is for someone to come ship him off to Blackgate."
"On it," I said and called the police. My suit came equipped with a communications link to the GCPD, so that way it was easier to relay information. In less than a minute, there was a squad car heading our way.
I let out a long breath.
"What are you breathing heavily for? You're not the one who had to fight a powered-up supervillain."
"Yeah, well when you guys went crashing out of that high-rise, I had to run to find where you had ended up."
"Oh well, my apologies. Next time I'm about to have my head crushed by Bane's bare hands, I'll make sure that I stay where you can see me."
"That's all that I ask for! A little consideration."
I started to head down towards him when I could feel a cool presence slither its way into the back of my consciousness. Come see me once you're finished, Lacie's voice said in my head.
My throat went tight and whatever sense of pride that I might have felt from a mission accomplished left me. I hadn't told her that I was helping Jason tonight. As I continued down to the broken warehouse, it felt as though each step was heavier than the last. Momentarily shutting off the link between me and Jason, I asked, "Can I at least take a shower first?"
You can come to me of your own volition, or I can make you. Your choice.
Which of course, meant that I didn't really have a choice. My life had been something that I had lost control of a long, long time ago.
"Fine. See you soon," I said, then reestablished my link with Jason.
"-hear what I said?" his voice was instantly playing in my ear.
"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?"
"I asked if you wanted to get drinks to celebrate a job well done."
"I'd love to, but I've got an early morning tomorrow. Lucius has some things that he wants me to look over for him."
"Ah, yes. Your day job."
"Hey, it's what keeps a roof over my head."
"Mm, I think that apartment of yours has more to do with Bruce's generosity than you working for him. But I get it. I think I can see you now, I'll go ahead and meet you halfway."
Sure enough, I was able to see his figure making his way toward me. His days as Robin were long behind him, so the clothes that he wore were much more muted. A worn brown leather jacket over an armored black jumpsuit with a red bat symbol across the chest. A wide array of weapons and tools hung around his waist in a belt and his WE Hi-Capa 5.2 K in a holster to his right thigh. The signature red of his red hood reflected the light of the full moon. It took me a couple of seconds to notice that he was limping. He didn't sound like he was hurt when he was talking to me earlier. I frowned, wishing this meant that he would take it easy the next couple of nights, but knowing that is never the case with him.
We finally met in the middle and instantly his hands were grasping my shoulders. "Are you okay? You didn't get hurt by any of the debris, did you?" I couldn't see his eyes through his helmet, but I knew that they were analyzing every square inch of my body.
"I'm fine. I was well out of the way of any danger," I pushed his hands away. He would have me completely removed from the action if he could. Like Oracle pulling the strings from her Clock Tower. My powers didn't have that far of a reach yet though. "What about you? You didn't tell me that you got hurt."
"Oh, didn't I? It must have slipped my mind," he lied. He sure as hell expected me to always keep him updated on any sort of injury that might happen to me, so I knew that he couldn't forget his. "Let's go ahead and get you home then, shall we?"
We changed back into our civilian clothes in a hideout close by. He locked away his gear like he was done for the night, but I knew that he would probably find some reason or another to don the hood again tonight. It's part of the struggle of trying to protect a city like Gotham: there's always more to do. This place is diseased, and we're like pathetic little doctors, chipping away only one minuscule tumor at a time.
I knew why I was still here. I didn't have a choice. But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why Jason stayed.
We rode back to my place on Jason's bike. My arms were wrapped tightly around him as we wove in and out through the late-night traffic. The cool night wind blowing through my hair was a welcomed relief. For a moment, I contemplated resting my cheek against his back and watching the towering tops of the skyscrapers fly past me. But I decided against it.
Jason insisted on escorting me all the way to the top floor where my apartment was. Despite having lived here for almost two years now, I still felt as though I didn't belong. While my alter ego Liza McCloud came from affluence, in real life I had never been more than upper-middle class. Every single unit in this complex cost more money than my parents had ever made their entire lives. But this level of wealth was part of the territory when one worked with Bruce Wayne.
"Are you sure that you're okay?" Jason asked once we reached my door.
"Promise," I said, unlocking my front door. I never told him about Lacie and the meetings that I had with her. I never told anyone about them. Jason was who I was the closest to, but I still kept most of myself from him.
"Okay then...I'll see you soon, I guess. I'll make sure to stop by before I head out of town."
"You better," I said and opened my door. For a moment we stood there, staring at each other. This is how most of our nights ended like there was some unfinished business that neither of us quite knew how to broach. But as this uncertainty hovered between us, I could feel Lacie's cold presence looming in the back of my mind, impatiently waiting for me to see her. Finally, I coughed. "Well...have a good night."
"You too," he said with an awkward grin, then turned around and headed off. I watched his retreating figure and felt that familiar emptiness inside of me.
I stepped inside my apartment, feeling as incomplete as I always did. Reaching out with my powers, I could sense Jason's cellphone in his back pocket. I took a deep breath and waited until I could feel its signal move down the elevator, out of the lobby, and sped away, until it was out of my range. Once I knew that he was far gone, I turned around and headed back outside.
I had a motorcycle of my own, Jason thought that it was ridiculous that I couldn't drive myself anywhere if I should need to. But Lacie's hideout was within walking distance, and the chilly air was welcomed against my sweaty skin. You should be more careful than walking the streets at night, she chided me.
"And what's the worst that could happen?" I rolled my eyes. "We both know that murder doesn't really affect me."
She was silent for the rest of my walk.
Soon I found myself completely naked, sitting on the examination table of Lacie's laboratory. The glaring brightness of the fluorescents above me seemed to grow stronger with every visit. As usual, Lacie was unbothered as she ran the diagnostics on the chip in my head. She made a small sound of approval as she glimpsed over the wall of numbers on her screen. Even my powers couldn't tell me what any of them meant.
"It looks like the chip is operating as usual despite your surprise mission tonight," she said, writing some stuff down on her clipboard.
"Does it ever not?" I said with annoyance.
"While the software will continue to operate no matter what, you still should take care not to damage the hardware," she scolded me.
I cringed at her words. The hardware that she so clinically spoke about was my body, but you wouldn't ever hear her refer to it in such affectionate terms.
Despite my reassurances otherwise, she still proceeded to conduct a physical examination to make sure that I was unharmed. My increased heart rate and oxygen depletion from earlier were apparently causing concern. I could feel the sterile coldness of her fingers as they traced over my bare skin. She was so close that I could smell the sweetness of her perfume.
I could just reach out and kill her right now if I wanted to. And I wanted to. She had taken everything from me. If she had just stayed out of my head, to begin with, I probably would be happier. Life may not have been perfect, but it probably wouldn't have been the endless hell that is now. But as she stepped around behind me, I knew that killing her most likely wouldn't make anything in my life better.
Her fingers traced over the scar on my back and lingered for a second. This was where my ex-best friend shot and killed me.
It was funny how something so annihilating can heal over into puckered hard white skin: matching scars on my stomach and my back. The only thing that hurt about it now was the memory attached to it.
She pulled away, walking over to her small hand washing station. "I don't see any cause for concern. Next time though, wait for my approval before you go off as a vigilante. These missions are supposed to be purely for data, not for whatever personal reason you attach to them."
"Because God forbid that I help out a friend, right?" I asked. Rather than responding though, she turned on the faucet...full force.
The sound of the water was deafening, but before I could point it out, Lacie was stalking back over towards me, leaning in my ear and whispering, "There isn't much time for me to tell you this. Big things are happening soon. I think that I know a way that I can get you free."
Free? I shrunk away from where I could feel her breath hot against my neck. While I had always figured it was possible that Lacie was just one head of this monstrous Hydra that had ruined my life, I had also assumed that she called all the shots. Who was it that she would get me free from?
"I-"
"There's no time to think. Are you in or are you out?"
"I'm in," I said before I even realized that I wanted to say it.
She smiled at me then, eyes glittering in the fluorescents. "Good. I need you to remember a name: Sebastian Mallory." Not giving me the chance to say anything else, she walked over to turn the sink off. Grabbing a paper towel for her completely dry hands, "I'll let you know when I need you again."
I sat there, blinking at her in shock, but she provided no further information. "O-okay then," I said and grabbed my clothes. After getting dressed, I gave her one last curious glance, before heading out.
Free...is she really going to help me be free again? It had been so long since I had any sort of freedom, that I'd forgotten what it feels like to have my body be my own. Freedom...
As I headed out into the night, despite all common sense and past experience warning me otherwise, I found myself starting to feel something that I haven't felt in a long time.
Hope.