Fragility of the Mind

Gaultier-Jean Goussand then leaned on the desk, grinning widely. "Allons, ma belle, tout va être reglé.¹" Gabrielle looked at him in disbelief. The last of the paper having turned to black, she sat down on the chair, deflated, and put her head in her hands.

"What was it that you wanted to do, my niece? Why do you need the help of my unit, euh, so desperately?"

"My... my Alpha friends and I will be storming the base of the Masterminds. We need the help of your guards. And even if you can't send any, removing the parasite would've been good enough."

Her uncle's expression lit up in recognition. "Ahhhh, big plans for my little girl. And your enemies, too, no? I heard that you had done a similar thing in America, but if you are doing it again I suppose it hadn't been very effective on the long term?"

"I can't say much about that."

"Well, whatever." Her uncle raised his eyebrows, creasing his forehead even deeper. "How about I send four of my best with you, and give you the shot? It'll work, no?"

Gabrielle was finally nodding in approval. "That would be great."

"D'accord! C'est merveilleux!" Her uncle snapped his fingers, having the guard lean his ear at him. The division's leader whispered something in his ear, and seconds later the guard was out of the office.

"Was that a request for the antagonist?"

"Yes. Trade secret, you see, hmm hmm. Maybe when I come to trust you more, I will tell you? How does that sound, chèrie?"

"Lovely."

(1. Come on, my dear, everything will be alright. (or for a more literal translation, "Let's go, my beautiful, everything will be sorted out.")

The man came in with three syringes, three small bottles, and a couple of wrapped needles on a platter. After him came another guard holding a latex tourniquet. The new guy took no time tightly putting around the tourniquet on her arm.

"So, what is this?" Gabrielle asked, giving a sweeping glance at the shots. Past troubles with questionable substances made it particularly necessary to ask about the unnamed products.

"This is the antagonist," said Jean-Gaultier. With a wave of the hand, he dismissed any objection she might have had. "Oh, don't worry, chère, it's not anything you've ever had inside of you."

The two relatives watched as the man--in his thirties, at the very most--prepared the first shot. First he unwrapped the syringe, then he opened the little bottle and, pulling the plunger, filled it up with a clear liquid. With certain disdain she watched as he placed the thin needle at the orifice.

"Prête?"

"Allez-y," Gabrielle responded with proper French to the probably not multilingual guard, who promptly injected the formula in her bicep muscle.

At first she felt a slight shock from the coolness of the mystery product, but it quickly spread, and she realized that a light freshness remained in its wake, and that this coolness she was experiencing was in fact a regular body temperature. The headache went away almost instantly. And quite interestingly, Gabrielle felt as if something had died inside of her. She was just as mentally exhausted, tired, and stressed. It didn't seem to take care of the side effects.

Once the contents of the syringe were emptied out, the guard set up another one, this time with a brown liquid.

"This looks mysteriously like heroin."

"It is," her uncle said.

Gabrielle had to admit that she didn't particularly resist being injected. Instead, she savored the rush.

"Why'd you need to do that?" she asked after a while.

"You do know, euh, heroin is an opiate?" her uncle explained, "well, the problem with the pathogen's antagonist is that it causes an acute, and extremely strong pain for normal people in the area where it was put a few minutes after insertion."

"Right, right." Gabrielle closed her eyes.

"We were doing you a favor, you see. But it lasts maybe a couple of minutes?" Her uncle checked the clock on the wall, nodding. The last syringe was readied once more. He approached it to the same vein the heroin was injected into, and made a third hole on her arm.

"And this is?"

"This is Naloxone." Gabrielle felt her heart sink.

"WWWWWWWEEEEEEEE!" Nicole screamed as Emir carried her piggyback style as she bang his head with her fists. Emir passed Kataj and TK while trying to wave at them and trying to wave off his sister's attacks.

"I WILL SMITE YOU ONCE WE STOP THIS RIDE." Emir shouted, his voice and heavy footsteps echoed heavily in the hallway.

Alevon follows Emir, hands folded behind his back until he sees Kate and TK. He approaches Kate.
"Hello Kate,"
Alevon pulls his phone out and waves it around a little
"got your message."
He puts it back in his pocket.

Alevon just stood there, staring at Kate.

...divorce?

"kate, what year do you think it is?"