Fragility of the Mind

Ariel blinked and looked around, sighing. One battle was won, but it was time to jump right back in.

She was about to leave when Leana said something to her.

'Hey, Sam doesn't look ok... Can I talk to her?'

Ariel nodded and relaxed for a moment, allowing Leana to regain control. She stepped over to Sam and knelt in front of her.

"Hey, hey Sam?" she whispered.

"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned. She had to leave, but she didn't want to go without making sure Sam was ok.

Leana internally panicked for a moment. She wasn't the best at dealing with crying people.

'Crap crap crap crap crap crap.'

'Just calm down. Talk to her in a soothing voice. Let her know you're there for her.'

Leana took a deep breath and leaned closer.

"Samantha. Look at me." She placed a hand under her chin and lifted her head. "Stay with me. We can find a way to make things work for you. Please, don't worry." She spoke softly and sincerely, hoping Sam would calm down.

"But you don't have to worry, ma belle, it'll be removed if you ask for it."

Gabrielle stared at her uncle with surprise. That was easy. "Next," she said slowly, wondering how much she could get away with, "uncuff my hands." She moved her fingers behind her back for emphasis.

She saw Gaultier-Jean nod at somebody behind her, who then promptly removed the restricting metal. So there was somebody in the room after all. She felt kind of stupid not to have noticed that upon her waking. "What time is it?"

"It's been fifteen minutes since you came in here, Gabrielle," he said without looking at the clock, with particular stress on her name. She sighed in relief.

"How can you remove the... the..."

"I call it Pathogène de Contrôle, and it can simply be removed with an intravenous drug antagonist." Gabrielle widened her eyes, but then sighed at the ease of eliminating it.

"Pathogen?"

Her uncle smiled.

"It's an airborne parasite that feeds on the Alpha gene."

"But then that means that my friends might have it--too!" Gabrielle stood up from her chair and leaned over the desk, gritting her teeth and readying her hand for a swing at him.

Goussand ducked away from her reach and held up his hands. "Euh, girl, you didn't let me finish?" He watched as his niece was forced back into her chair by the aforementioned guard. "It's been modified so it only affects a specific gene. Your friends have nothing to be afraid of, unless they're umbrakinetics." The man grinned widely. "It'd cause too much trouble otherwise, my darling. You definitely can't allow terrorists to have it."

"That explains why every umbrakinetic in France is in your division."

"Except you?" Her uncle coughed suspiciously and took a sip out of a brand new cup of coffee.

"We'll see about that," Gabrielle replied, glancing around in his office. It was small, but it was richly decorated, and had a corny, but respectable, wall of fame to her left. There were windows behind her uncle, and on the right wall. It was a corner room. This guy was indeed their leader.

"You desire to join, hmm?"

"On one condition. Your people must help me."

"It's already been done, ma chère," Gaultier-Jean replied happily. Gabrielle was practically dismayed at how easy everything was. "But I have my conditions as well!" The girl sighed. She was expecting something like that.

"Shoot."

"The book your mother was writing? The one that exposes me and my lovely division?" The man enthusiastically pointed at his niece. "You must take it and burn it here in front of me."

Leana gently held Sam's face in her hands and looked directly at her.

"I know, ok? I know," she said calmly. "But change comes whether we want it or not. I know you're strong enough to deal with it. And you have friends who care about you. It can work. Trust me."

Katja took in a deep breath that almost rang out as a gasp and her eyes widened as Katelyn offered her wrist. She felt her own heartbeat quicken; already she could feel the cravings bleeding into her mind, and like every time since the first time, it was hypnotizing.

Fighting the final wave that would take her, she made eye contact from Katelyn before, cautiously reaching out and taking her wrist. She broke her eye contact before raising the wrist towards her mouth, biting deeply; the final gate opened and a levee of ecstasy took her as she drank.

She weakly sank to her knees as she continued drawing her blood; once she felt Katelyn's pulse beginning to fall dramaticlly, every ounce of her humanity screamed for her to stop, but her will never stopped it--ever. The only sign that Katja was lost to her self would be a gentle stream of tears beginning to fall from her right eye; it was embarassment she felt deep inside.

Leana gave her a small smile.

"Hey, we all are," she said back. "But we have each other's backs. And I just know you'll kick ass." Leana then leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and a wink before standing up and allowing Ariel to take back control of the body.

"See you later, Samantha. I hope Leana was able to help you." Then with a friendly smile she left for the elevator.

Gabrielle's eyes widened as her hands went rigid like they had been turned to stone. "My mother had been working on that for a long time. And I've had it with me for a long time. It's not right."

"Well, darling," her uncle retorted, tilting his head playfully. "It's all right with me!" He extended his arms, palms open up, in a wide stance, and stood up from the leather seat. At that gesture, so did Gabrielle stand up.

"You must have it with you always, no? Alors, ma chèrie, montre-le moi! ¹"

Thoughts raced in Gabrielle's head as she mentally retreated in the pitch blackness of her mind. Her mind was the only place where her head did not hurt from the sun. On one hand, she had the present. Her friends defeating a common enemy in order to get the freedom they longed for, and freeing a populace that didn't even know it was not free. And her uncle who was obviously ready to give her anything if she had just said yes.

But on the other were her values. Ten years ago, at the age of fourteen, she had promised herself she would never lay a damaging hand on her mother's last work. Incomplete work, but reading it had allowed her to understand why things were. And how to change them. By destroying the sole manuscript she would have been destroying a portion of the light in her.

There could be no shadow if there was no light.

"Darling, if you really cared," Gaultier-Jean said, "You would've published it in the name of your dead mother. I wouldn't have done anything to stop you. After all, I didn't kill her, did I?"

There was that, too.

"The manuscript is in my bag," Gabrielle said, closing her eyes and begging for the headache to stop.

"You have not made copies?"

"No."

"And the computer it was written on?"

"The hard drive was wiped clean and the laptop disposed of."

Goussand senior finally reached for a tight, paternal hug. If it hadn't been for the context in which it was given she would've given it back with full force. "That's my niece!" he exclaimed joyfully. Releasing the hug, he went behind his desk, opened a drawer, and tossed her a cigarette lighter.

"Good. Take it, take it out of the bag, and set fire to it, dear."

Gabrielle sighed. She reached for her bag where she had last thrown it. She took out a 300-page manuscript on thinning, off-white paper, and under the surveillance of both her uncle and the guard behind her, she went back in front of the desk and set fire to her morality.

(1. So, my dear, show it to me!)

Ariel stared at the scene before her. Did she even know what was being done to her?

"Kate!" she screamed as she ran forward and tackled her assailant, pinning her to the floor.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" she demanded, digging her nails into the woman's wrists.

Ariel glared at this woman, Katja, but eased her grip and stood up, dusting herself off. She held out a hand for her to take. She glanced towards Katelyn and looked at her inquisitively, wondering who she was talking to.

"Kate?" she called out. "Are you alright?"

Ariel wasn't so sure.

"Then who are you talking to? she asked slowly. "There's no one here save for Katja, you, and I."