Prisoner of the Mind

by Kal Spriggs

  "I will never be safe," Kandergain said, her voice wooden. "I'm a weapon, a weapon she made! I have no safety, only triggers." She lowered her hands, though and Shaden took a step forward.

  "You're like me," Kandergain said. She stared at him, "I remember you, now. You stopped me from killing Janecek."

  Shaden frowned, "I did... but I didn't understand what was going on--"

  "You still don't," Kandergain snapped. "You're in my way."

  She tried to step around him but Shaden moved into her path. "I won't let you hurt her."

  "Don’t worry," Kandergain said. "I'm not going to hurt her… I'm going to kill her. It's the only way to be sure that she won't hurt anyone ever again."

  She closed her eyes and her hair stirred. The lights overhead flickered. Shaden instinctively reached out and he could feel her drawing in strength. "Stop this!" He shouted. "I'm not your enemy!"

  Her eyes snapped open and he could see her pupil's go huge, "You are in my way," Kandergain said. "That means you are my enemy." Before he could respond, he felt a wave of energy surge and she hit him with everything she had.

  ***

  Tommy King gave a muttered curse as the floor trembled and dust rained down from the ceiling. Private Santiago looked up, "Was that an explosion?"

  "No," Tommy said. The floor shuddered again, "Something's going on downstairs." A rush of dust billowed out from the hole in the floor.

  "Any survivors?" Tommy asked as the remaining lights flickered and then dimmed.

  "Negative," Sergeant Romanski straightened up from the corner. "That bitch killed everyone."

  Tommy's gaze went to the corpse near the hole in the floor. The ground trembled again and the body slid into the hole and out of sight. Stay here, he thought, hole up someplace safe, preserve the squad...

  Yet he thought about the men he had already lost. If he didn't stop the bastards who had attacked -- if he ran and hid -- then his men had died for nothing. Shade had lost her entire squad against the rogue psychic. Men and women had died, troops who wore his uniform... could he dishonor their sacrifice and not avenge them?

  "We're going down there," Tommy said. He felt his stomach twist as he saw the expressions on the faces of his squad. "Whatever's going on, we need to stop it. We need to stop them."

  They didn't like it, but they formed up with him, standing at the edge of the pit. He could see an angled section of floor that dropped to the lower level like a ramp. "Let's go." He led the way down into the dark.

  ***

  Shaden strained, barely able to hold off Kandergain's attack. It was like what he had felt from the psychic at the warehouse, only stronger.

  "Stop it!" Shaden shouted, "I'm trying to help!" He threw everything he had at her and she still bore down on him.

  "That's what they said!" Kandergain shouted. "They twisted us, they manipulated us! I'll kill them all!"

  Shaden's feet slid backwards on the concrete floor. He felt his strength rushing away. He had never expected to have to fight her. "Halving is the enemy, not me!"

  "Oh, bravo," a confident said from the doorway. "But do either of you really believe that?" Kandergain and Shaden broke off their efforts and both of them turned. Doctor Halving stood in the doorway.

  "You!" Shaden snarled.

  "Yes," Halving said, "me. The man who created both of you." He cocked his head at the pair of them, "I have to say: I'm impressed with both of your capabilities. You've exceeded my expectations."

  "You tortured me," Shaden snapped, "and you stripped away my memories, everything that made me who I am!"

  "All at ESPSec's orders," Halving said with a shrug. "They were the ones who pushed the project, pushed you and the other subjects so hard. They were the ones who ordered me to dispose of you, Shaden, and the ones who told me to further modify your mind, Kandergain."

  The flames of Shaden's anger guttered at those words, yet he couldn't forget Janecek, "You still sent Janecek to kill me," he snapped.

  "At ESPSec's orders," Halving said and took a step forward. "If it had been up to me, I would have continued your training without their nonsense."

  Shaden saw his gaze go to Kandergain, "Tell him, Kandergain, tell him how your mother manipulated us all."

  Shaden turned in surprise, "Your mother?"

  "It was part of the mental programming that Colonel Givens put into place. It is also why Kandergain never saw her during training. Kandergain was supposed to recognize her mother on sight. Tied into that was specific mental programming to follow her mother's orders. I modified that last part, I'm afraid, to give Kandergain some free will."

  At least now I know why I recognized my own mother, Shaden thought. He looked down at the limp ESPSec officer. This was the woman pulling the strings. "Why?" Shaden asked, "Why did she do all this?"

  "Because ESPSec is terrified," Halving said. "They know they're losing this war, that psychics are the next step. They've learned that SIGIL's leadership is made up of psychics, so they set a trap for them." He gestured at the walls, "Apparently, this research was the trap. The knowledge, my knowledge, of how to make psychics stronger."

  Shaden looked up, "I've run into SIGIL, they're no better than her... than you." He hadn't missed how Halving had admitted that he had orchestrated the experimentation.

  Halving gave a smirk, "Truly? I would find your lack of understanding comical if not for the danger you represent. We are at war, children. Normals continue to try to wipe us out."

  "We'll win," Colonel Givens gasped from where she lay on the floor. She sat up her face twisted in pain, "We'll strike a blow here against SIGIL that will destroy the psychic threat!"

  Halving cocked his head at her, "Please. You understand even less than these two, don't you?" He shook his head, "You really thing that SIGIL speaks for all of us? Please, tell me, do you even know that SIGIL is an acronym, much less what it stands for?"

  Shaden saw the ESPSec officer's face go blank. When she didn't respond, Halving gave her a cold smile, "I thought not. Be quiet, I'm trying to have an adult conversation, here." Halving waved a hand and Colonel Givens' eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed. "Where was I?"

  "Tell me what you did to me," Shaden snapped. He felt his anger mount. Halving's arrogance, his complete disregard for others brought back all the memories of pain.

  "Or what?" Halving asked. "You'll threaten me? Do you think I should fear you?" He chuckled, "You're trying to show your teeth, puppy, but I've nothing to fear from you."

  Shaden lashed out with his mind, an all-out assault to try to get inside Halving's mind. He threw all of his focus into the attack... and it felt like he had slammed head first into a wall.

  Halving chuckled, "I'm impressed, you're stronger than I expected, but you haven't the training, you don't know the tricks... like this."

  Shaden screamed as he felt Halving slip into his mind, past his mental defenses and into his thoughts and memories. "Someone has taught you something at least," Halving said genially as Shaden writhed on the floor. "Plenty of room for improvement though..."

  Shaden fought back with everything he had, yet he struggled to even form conscious thoughts. Every time he mustered some defense, Halving simply slipped past it and shattered his thoughts again. "Interesting," Halving said, "so you have encountered SIGIL and lived to tell of it. You matched them strength for strength... though I think if they'd had the time and attention they would have defeated you. Let's see who else we have in here..."

  Shaden realized that Halving had delved into his memories, into his experiences since he left the facility. On an instinctual level, he realized that would give Halving information about his friends and the people who had helped him. Moira, Primus, and even his mother.

  "No!" Shaden shouted. He focused on protecting his friends and with a scream of effort he forced Halving out of his mind. Shaden rose, shakily back to his feet. "I won't let you hurt them."

  "You misunderstand me," Halving said, even as he rubbed his temples. "Y
our childish petulance grows irritating. Do you really think that you are the only one who has lost things... who has sacrificed things?" He waved at the facility, "All of this has been an effort to improve the lives of psychics everywhere, to give us the power to win this war!"

  Shaden saw movement in the doorway behind Halving. Coming up behind Doctor Halving was a team of commandos. Shaden saw the lead man's eyes flick down to the unconscious form of Colonel Givens and then back up at Halving. He brought his carbine up, faster than anyone Shaden had ever seen before.

  Halving didn't even turn. A wave of force slammed backwards and sent the men sprawling. "My work has seen constant interruptions," Halving said in a calm tone as he turned around. "Staff Sergeant King... aren't you and your men supposed to be engaging the various other threats here at the facility?"

  One of the commandos scrabbled for his pistol and drew it.

  Shaden watched with horror as Halving crushed the man's head. "Stop fighting me," Halving snarled, "It gives me no pleasure to kill you like ants."

  Shaden hit him with everything he had. He pushed hard kinetically and tried to ignite the air around Halving at the same time. Yet even as he started to release the energy, Halving hit him again mentally and broke his focus. Another of the commandos brought up his gun and this time Halving ripped the man's arms off, even as he turned back to face Shaden. "You pathetic idiot... do you really think I would do so much research into empowering psychics and I wouldn't give myself the benefits of that knowledge?"

  Behind him, the squad leader rose to his feet, pistols raised, but Halving made a slight motion with his hand and a wave of kinetic force slammed him into the wall. "I'm smarter than you, more powerful than you," Halving said. "This is a fight you cannot possibly win."

  Daggers of ice drove into Shaden's brain. "I will learn your secrets, learn every ability you have learned," Halving said. His voice amplified inside Shaden's brain until the sound of it washed everything else away. "When I have taken everything from you, I will remake you into my loyal servant, a replacement for Janecek, I think. Oh, you should see what an innocent he was until I made him to suit my purposes..."

  "Stop it!" Kandergain shouted. Her voice was the only thing Shaden could feel besides pain and Halving's mental presence. He locked onto her voice and to his surprise, his mind slipped into some kind of meld with hers. It was like an odd sort of mirror, with the same doubts, the same fears and now that he thought to look, the same underlying structure. On a level deeper than thought, he realized: I am not alone.

  With that realization, he felt his mind and hers synchronize.

  Like a portcullis slamming down, Halving's attacks cut off, locked behind the joined strength of Shaden's and Kandergain's minds.

  "Very good," Halving said. Behind him another commando started to rise but the man gave out a scream as blood erupted from his eyes, ears, and nose. Even as the commando fell limp to the ground, Halving stepped closer. "You two together, that's something I didn't foresee."

  We must strike, Kandergain thought.

  We need to know what he did to us, Shaden thought back. If they attacked, they would have to kill him, there was no other way to stop him. "Tell us what you did to us!" The words came from both their mouths.

  "Neither of you can understand," Halving said. "Since I can't fight you as you are... Seven Five Gamma Three Two." Shaden recognized the command phrase and he felt something buried deep within his mind stir to life, like a sleeping leviathan awoken from the deeps.

  Shaden let out a shriek as his mind filled with fire. He dropped to his hands and knees as his brain started to attack itself. His memories, his thoughts, everything that made him who he was started to tear apart, burning away. The color of the sky at sunset, the smell of fresh pizza, the sound of a child's laughter... all of it vanishing forever.

  He could hear Kandergain shriek next to him. He knew that this would unmake him yet again, reduce him to a pawn with no past, a puppet for Halving to manipulate anew.

  No, he thought, I won't let this happen.

  Despite the pain and agony, he reached out with his mind and connected to Kandergain again. He felt his mind connect with her, felt the agony she endured... yet as they connected, the pain withdrew. Slowly, working together, they pushed the pain and darkness back.

  "Interesting," Halving said. "This mind link you two developed countered my precautions... but can you fight my mental programming and me at the same time?"

  His mind struck theirs and Shaden could feel everything begin to fracture. If Halving had wanted to, he could have killed them both, but he wanted them alive. I won't let that happen, he thought and he felt Kandergain mirror that thought.

  "We'll die rather than serve you," Shaden gasped.

  Behind Halving, the lone surviving commando crawled towards his weapon.

  Halving leaned over them, "I won't let that happen," he said. "You will serve me, my most powerful weapons... don't worry, though, I'll remake far better than before. You'll enjoy the improvements, trust me."

  A shot rang out and Halving staggered as blood blossomed on his chest. His eyes went wide in shock and he turned, wrenching the pistol out of the commando's hands hard enough that Shaden heard bones snap. "You insignificant little worm, I'll--"

  Shaden and Kandergain didn't hesitate. As one they reached out and squeezed.

  Kinetic force crushed every bone in Halving's body. Blood and liquefied organs sprayed out in a broad fan... and his lifeless body slid to the floor.

  ***

  Epilogue

  John Mira died in Project Archon. His memories, his thoughts, his dreams… they all died with him, all but one: me. I am not John Mira, though I inhabit his body. I am a new beginning, and only he and God know where this will end… and neither of them are sharing.

  --Memoirs of Shaden Mira

  I’ve been asked by my handler if I am proud of my final product. I told her honestly that this was not a final product, this was only the beginning. Project Archon is only the prototype stage, these living weapons are but the first start of something greater, the next stage in human evolution. I will be at the forefront of that guided evolution, it will be my shaping hand that directs the next stages of humanity.

  --Dr. Jonathan Halving, Project Archon Notes.

  Staff Sergeant Tommy King sat, back against the wall, cradling his arm. He had no doubt that the bastard had broken it. Just as he had no doubt that he could have shot the two psychics as they staggered out after the fight.

  I should have, he thought... yet he couldn't. They had killed Halving, who had killed the rest of his squad. They'd saved his life, too. When Halving had pulled the gun from his hands, Tommy had known that he was a dead man.

  But the boy and girl had saved him. Even though he had known the pair of them were experiments, even though he had turned a blind eye to whatever horrible things his government did to them here, they had still acted to save his life. They had walked away and left him, when they could have tried to finish him off.

  He looked at the unconscious form of Colonel Givens. The ESPSec officer was either unconscious or asleep, he didn't know which. Some part of him felt tempted to just leave her, to go in search of other survivors, or maybe just to desert and start his life over.

  Yet this was his assignment. This was his duty... and just as his duty had sent him down into this special hell, it kept her by her side. When all else failed, duty remained.

  ***

  Shaden sat back in the seat as Angel drove. Just as promised, she had met him at the park. She had showed little surprise when he showed up with Kandergain. She simply told them to get in the back seat and drove away.

  He should have felt triumphant, victorious. Instead he just felt exhausted. He had faced Doctor Halving and he had brought some justice for himself and all those who had died in the madman’s experiments… but he didn’t feel as if he had accomplished anything. He hadn’t rid the world of ESPSec, he hadn’t learned the full extent of what Halv
ing did to him. He still didn’t know who he was. Halving was dead and with him any chance of regaining who he had once been.

  I will define myself by my actions, he thought to himself. I saved at least one person today… that’s something anyway. He looked over at Kandergain, who stared out the windows. On impulse he reached out his hand and put it on her shoulder, "It's over," he said, "we're free now."

  She didn't look at him, "This isn't over, this is only the beginning... you told me that."

  "I told you that?" Shaden asked in surprise.

  "When we first met," she said, "in the tunnels under the facility." She turned to look at him, "You gave me a memory of something that hasn't happened yet. You said that it would all begin when we killed Jonathan Halving."

  Shaden felt coldness creep into him. "What memory?" He asked.

  "About the Balor… about the end of humanity," Kandergain said with quiet certainty.

  ***

  Colonel Alicia Givens stepped out into the painfully bright sunlight with her chin up and her back straight. Her acute awareness of the armed escort put a lead weight in her stomach. The reports she'd heard in the hour since she'd returned to consciousness made it more likely that they were to prevent her escape than protect her from harm.

  She'd be damned if she'd let anyone see fear on her face. Her back straightened the slightest bit more as she saw who awaited her. Brigadier General Xin Chou stood at the center of a small army of security, couriers and senior officers.

  Colonel Given's gaze flicked to a long row of bodies laid out on the grass in front of the shattered command center. She saw someone had a hose at work inside the building, as a stream of bloody water drained out of the upper windows.

  Her escort pushed through the outer ranks of the General's bodyguards. They went through the second ring of guards only after the guards displayed their badges and her own confiscated papers. Alicia felt the skin on the back of her neck crawl as they approached the General himself. She matched eyes briefly with the 'tame' ESPSec psychic that stood at his shoulder. The pale woman looked away first.