A
Ametheliana
The Pumpkin Eater
Aashi was working on finetuning some parts of the machines she had gotten for Uso and was programming them to start up the project she had been assigned with. She had asked Alex to come to the ship to work on them, too, wondering if she would be able to get to understanding the young boy from the beach with no past a little bit better than she had before. She heard him knock at the hatch and walked with thoughtful steps towards the hatch.
She opened it for him, saying, "Hello, again. Alex, is it?"
Shifting his weight between his feet, as if uncomfortable, Alex was standing outside of the hatch that had just been opened for him. "Why did you want to see me here?" He asked.
"What are you doing elsewhere that you can't walk away from, hmmm?" Aashi asked coolly as she welcomed him inside her ship with a sweeping of her arm.
"Err, nothing, I guess." Said Alex. Looking around, he asked, "So what did you need me for?"
"I needed you to see about finagling with some machinery. Come on and look," she said as she led him to where the molecular furnaces were stored. "I borrowed some material the Vekimen dug up and I'm messing around with buildings that we could make. I want you to try to work with the pre-programmed units and see what you make."
"I'm afraid that I don't know much about computers." Alex said, Shaking his head sheepishly. "Maybe this," while saying this he tapped the exposed metal near the base of his neck and continued, "can help."
"Your mecha is a computer, with a few guns. You should use this as a test track for operating that. You need to input data to get something tangible. Try it out," Aashi said, again, sweeping her arm and nodding her head while stepping away from the furnace.
Pressing his hand into a keypad, some unexplainable stimuli triggered the activation of the machines in his body, for a moment, Alex seemed to stumble and then catch himself. Inside his head, however, it was apparent that his misstep was caused by the torrent of information filling his head. His eyes seemed to almost light up.
"Are you okay, there, Alex?" Aashi asked, putting a hand forward behind his back, to catch him if he fell.
"I'm fine. I think." He said, cocking his head to the side in concentration. To anyone watching, it looked like the lights and buttons on the furnace were randomly flashing. Inside the machine, circuitry was activated, and as Alex's imagination raced, a miniature house was beginning to form in the bowels of the machine.
"You're doing it, Alex," Aashi said, delighted. "How does it feel?"
"It feels..." Unable to describe the sensation, Alex just shook his head in disbelief.
"Like what?" Aashi said, putting a hand on his shoulder. She didn't use her empathy, instead, letting the boy find his own words.
"I don't know." Alex said. "Right, somehow?"
"That's because your body has been made to work with them. Your body has been altered and I want to help you unleash your full potential," Aashi said, "of mind and body."
"What do you mean?" Alex asked hesitantly.
Aashi began, "When I touched you on the beach I was made aware of all of the neurocircuitry put into you, to make you more attuned to interfacing. You have a skill at it. Now, have the machine print out what you have made."
As the furnace disgorged the small building, Alex looked at Aashi with a puzzled expression.
"I thought that I could only do this because of the implants."
"Well, I can do it, Ulysses can do it, most everyone can, but you're able to interface differently. Better than us. Take this ship, for example, you may be able to pilot a mecha, but you would also be able to work on this, if I'm correct. You're capable beyond your imagination. I want you to tell me, what does it feel like when you're inside that mecha, but this time, I want to put my hand on you and feel what you feel. Would you want that?"
"I think that would be okay." Said Alex, preparing himself mentally.
Before she touched his arm, she said, "Now, imagine you're somewhere you want to be, somewhere that you know you can go that, no matter what, that isn't dangerous and is perfectly safe for you. Are you imagining that?"
Alex closed his eyes. In his mind's eye, all around him was space. And then an asteroid with some buildings built onto it.
"You're imagining it? Imagine moving along where you are," she said. Then, touching him, felt his calm and said, "Good, good. I want you to breathe in all of your good feelings, let them fill you up, and breathe out, imagining you're exhaling everything you don't desire within you. This will completely clear your mind. Good, breathe in and then let all of your fears and worries go out of you as you breathe out. I can feel," Aashi said, "everything you're feeling. The calm you're feeling and the pressure and weight of what is holding you down leaving your body. Can you?"
As Alex breathed deeply, something urged him to look up. He saw a blurry figure with a face that he couldn't quite make out looking down at him. The figure spoke in a slightly muted voice that seemed somehow familiar. "Look bud. This is our new home."
There was something that Alex was feeling, a new, more urgent feeling of questioning and wonderment. Aashi felt it, but she felt the comfort in it, she felt the ease of which the memories came and pushed him further along.
Aashi said, "Ask aloud, what am I doing here? See what response you get. Be open to the full extent of the truth, Alex, and you will receive it."
He heard someone else talking. Looking to his left, he saw another figure, also barely beyond recognition.
This figure spoke as well, "Honey, are you sure that this is far enough away? The company is still looking for us."
Aashi felt the presence of another in Alex's memory and almost asked if it were someone close, like a family member, a mother, perhaps, but knew to guide him meant to not ask too much of him. She felt his relaxation in the new presence and his ability to be completely open and prone. She didn't want to disturb him in this state and wanted his own memory to fully expand into the truth of his past.
Time seemed to flash by, and unable to keep up with it, he let himself be dragged along. Soon, a new image appeared before him. He was in a room, by himself, playing some sort of game. It appeared to be related to piloting and spacecraft. As he played, he could hear some murmuring outside the room. "I'm concerned with how much time he spends playing with those games." One voice said, before another responded, "It's not surprising, before we got away from the company, they had manipulated the genes of whatever child you bore so that it would be predisposed to piloting."
Aashi felt the connection to Alex growing stronger, easier, but more complex in nature. She opened him up to her energy flow to an even greater extent and let him feel her warm, often-present calm and serenity which she pulled from.
She felt it was time to ask, "Remember what you're doing, remember where you are in this moment, and remember who is with you. Now, tell me, who is there with you?"
As Aashi's voice brought him back to reality, Alex was shocked by the intensity and detail of what he had felt. Sitting down on a nearby bench, he held his head in his hands. What were these memories? Were they of... his childhood?
Aashi followed him to sit down, touching him again and letting her calm fill him. She felt his confusion, if only mild and not wholly unsettling, and asked, "What is it that you envisioned? You have to open up to me if you want to continue to explore your past. These aren't memories from the Necromancer and they're not memories of being on 188604. These are memories of your childhood and I want you to understand that they may be painful, but they are the reason you are here, now, and the only key to understanding yourself fully."
"I, I don't understand. How can any of this be?" Alex said in confusion. Calming himself down slightly, He explained what he had seen.
"Then, you saw your parents, or what you had for parents, and they were protecting you, from a company that wasn't out to protect you like they were. From an unknown entity, one that is more sinister than tI would like to imagine. Reliving your past with me unlocked some of those memories, but now we will have to live in the present knowing those things. Alex, I am sure you can handle what it is that happened to you. Lay down," she said and as he did, she put a hand on his head. "I am going to be here with you and no matter what, you will not be unsafe, you are protected by me. Any pain you feel I will absorb for you and, remember, you can always pull from my life, my experiences, my joys and my feelings to sustain your own sense of peace while we do this. Now, I want you to relive something for me. Think back," she said, as he closed his eyes, "and go to the time in which you felt less safe, less comforted, when your parents couldn't protect you. Go into your memory and see what is there, and remember that I am here for you."
A few moments after Alex closed his eyes, another image was brought forth by his subconscious. He was back in the same room as before, this time lying down.
"Go into your memories and see what happened to you, see how you felt and what it was that made you this way, the way you are now," Aashi said, hand on Alex's forehead.
As the memory played out, Alex could only watch. It was what he assumed was nighttime, and he was tucked into a bed. He could hear various noises that one would associate with a space station. Things seemed to go on that way for a while, before he heard what sounded like thumps at the door of the small apartment his parents were able to afford.
All of a sudden, a loud bang was heard, and smoke filled the apartment.
Aashi said, "Keep going, feel what has happened to you and heal from it. Don't let the memories overpower your feelings of calm, but push forward with them, feel them."
Too deep in the memories to hear Aashi now, Alex saw what looked like faint beams of light shone through, Alex heard coughing, which he assumed were his parents. Two muffled bangs were heard, followed by footsteps approaching.
As a masked figure stepped through the smoke, Alex was able to make out a heavily distorted voice saying, "We take the kid alive. The boss says that we can use him."
Aashi said, "Move now to where you were taken, I can feel someone is trying to remove you from your feelings. I can sense you are being... extracted, perhaps. I want you to see where you were taken."
Alex woke up on some kind of bunk. An alarm was blaring. A man in green fatigues was screaming at the top of his lungs, "AWRIGHT YA MAGGOTS! GET YOUR UNLUCKY LITTLE ASSES OUT OF BED!" Alex observed ten or twelve other children lining up. Most seemed to be six ears old, like he was at the time.
"Are you being led somewhere, or are somewhere you don't want to be, now? I want you to see where that leads. Who is commanding you. Try to remember names, dates, places. Remember, you're safe right now while you relive your memories."
Following the group of children, Alex was lead to a mess hall of sorts. Served a watery cereal and a strip of bacon, they were then led to a room filled with pods that looked like the torso of a mecha.
"You are somewhere you remember from your recent past, now, aren't you? You are somewhere that you have been before many times, but also remember being... on the Necromancer, perhaps? See where this goes, what it leads to."
Stepping inside the pod, a display not unlike that of a mecha appeared. Soon, Alex had been unknowingly 'tested' in innumerable scenarios.
"Good, good. Now go and remember from your recent past, try to understand more," Aashi prompted, not knowing fully what he was seeing, but feeling it, instead.
This series of events seemed to play out innumerable times, each time faster until all seemed like a blur. Suddenly, everything came to a halt. He and five or six other children were being led somewhere. A door opened to an austere room, a operating theatre. Alex felt himself get onto a table of some sort, laying down facefirst. Something cold was applied to the back of his neck.
Suddenly, his entire world was pain. It felt like hot tendrils were snaking throughout his body. His vision blurred. Soon, his limbs, too, were opened up, and the cold metal that was inserted was a sharp contrast to the burning pain that he felt.
"You're feeling intense pain, Alex, try to find out where that pain is coming from. Try to find out who is causing it," Aashi said to him as he laid down, his body trembling slightly as his eyes darted around behind his eyelids.
Days went by, almost the same as before the surgery, with the addition of some hand to hand combat classes. And then something changed. Something snapped. Alex saw himself get up from his bed, walk out the door, and grab the hand of a guard, flipping him into the ground, and then punching him in the throat.
"You're okay, you should feel safe, I'm here to protect you. Just keep going. Try to look for any words or find out names. Look for clues into your past."
The guard gurgled in pain before falling into an unconsciousness that he would never wake up from. Alex's eyes scanned the hall, looking for threats in just the same manner that he had been conditioned to do for so many years. Grabbing the fallen guards rifle, he stalked through the hallway. Turning the corner, Alex was faced with another two guards. Reacting as quick as his modified body would let him, he bashed one guard across the head with the rifle and knocking him out. Discarding the broken weapon, Alex looked up to see the other guard rushing at him. He dodged to one side, but not fast enough, the guards fist clipping his shoulder. Alex ignored the pain, for it was nothing compared to that which had been inflicted upon him by those very people. Grabbing the guard's wrist, Alex locked the guard into a sleeper hold, only hesitating a moment before twisting the guard's head at a sharp angle, snapping the neck of his opponent.
"You're undergoing some type of adrenaline rush, more than I've ever felt while doing this," Aashi said, more to herself than to Alex, at this point. She pushed a burst of her own adrenaline through to him, giving him the extra energy to keep going. "Remember, try to find words or clues as to where you are."
Following the hallway, Alex saw a sign that read Hangars. This was his way out, he needed to hurry. Running along the hallway, Alex failed to notice a security camera tracking his path. He found himself at the end of a hallway, pushing against a door handle, which failed to open. Instinctively, his right foot swept back, then arched forward in a front kick that broke the bolt. The door swung open and Alex was outside of the building, turning back only to see the door close and the words, "PSYCHOPOMP" on a sign next to it that read, "WAREHOUSE 2" underneath. As the door swung open again, he heard the distorted voices of masked guards approaching. Beginning to run, he could never have known that he was being lead into an ambush. As he ran and looked for some way to get out, a team of two snipers set up, took aim and fired their stun rounds. He never even had a chance. As Alex fell backward and things began to darken, he could only wonder what had happened.
"Oh," Aashi spoke as she felt Alex's feelings and emotions completely slip away. She ended the link of empathy and began to shake him around the shoulders. It was hard to get him out of his sleep that way and she instead hugged him after a few moments of trying to no end to shake him awake. With the hug, she established a new empathic link, one that was based on all of her fears and worries, one that was bound to wake him up from the sheer force of concern and crazed emotions. She couldn't wake him up with feelings of care and happiness, she had to wake him up with the nightmares that lurked beneath her own subconscious. She thought of the horrific tentacled monsters that seeped out of the darkness towards her crew and friends, sucking the minds out of them and replacing them with their own as they made their way towards Aashi.
A scream of pain and emotion leapt out of her mouth a moment before Alex's eyes jolted open.
As Aashi screamed, Ulysses Werner was just entering the ship. His head picked up as he heard it and began running to the sound of the shouting. He burst into the room with the furnaces and found Aashi and Alex. He nearly threw Alex aside as he swept Aashi up in his arms. "Aashi... its okay. I'm here now. Shhh..." He looked back over at Alex. "Get going. You both are done for the day." He said calmly as he carried Aashi off to her room, softly cooing to her to try and calm her down.
"Ulysses..." Aashi muttered after he had set her down on the bed and sat next to her. "It was bad, again."
"Shhhh..." Werner cooed. "It's time to rest Aashi. I'm going to stay right here." He said as he laid down on the bed and held her. "Shh..." he said as she allowed herself to be wrapped up in his arms.
Back with the furnaces, Alex was still shuddering from the emotions that had woken him up. Standing on shaky legs, Alex left the ship, guilt wracking him. How could he have let this happen? Was this his fault? Alex was too busy feeling guilty to even begin to process his new memories, only able to focus on the word, "Psychopomp" along with his guilt. After a moment, a new feeling erupted inside of him, one akin to the need for revenge.
Aashi was working on finetuning some parts of the machines she had gotten for Uso and was programming them to start up the project she had been assigned with. She had asked Alex to come to the ship to work on them, too, wondering if she would be able to get to understanding the young boy from the beach with no past a little bit better than she had before. She heard him knock at the hatch and walked with thoughtful steps towards the hatch.
She opened it for him, saying, "Hello, again. Alex, is it?"
Shifting his weight between his feet, as if uncomfortable, Alex was standing outside of the hatch that had just been opened for him. "Why did you want to see me here?" He asked.
"What are you doing elsewhere that you can't walk away from, hmmm?" Aashi asked coolly as she welcomed him inside her ship with a sweeping of her arm.
"Err, nothing, I guess." Said Alex. Looking around, he asked, "So what did you need me for?"
"I needed you to see about finagling with some machinery. Come on and look," she said as she led him to where the molecular furnaces were stored. "I borrowed some material the Vekimen dug up and I'm messing around with buildings that we could make. I want you to try to work with the pre-programmed units and see what you make."
"I'm afraid that I don't know much about computers." Alex said, Shaking his head sheepishly. "Maybe this," while saying this he tapped the exposed metal near the base of his neck and continued, "can help."
"Your mecha is a computer, with a few guns. You should use this as a test track for operating that. You need to input data to get something tangible. Try it out," Aashi said, again, sweeping her arm and nodding her head while stepping away from the furnace.
Pressing his hand into a keypad, some unexplainable stimuli triggered the activation of the machines in his body, for a moment, Alex seemed to stumble and then catch himself. Inside his head, however, it was apparent that his misstep was caused by the torrent of information filling his head. His eyes seemed to almost light up.
"Are you okay, there, Alex?" Aashi asked, putting a hand forward behind his back, to catch him if he fell.
"I'm fine. I think." He said, cocking his head to the side in concentration. To anyone watching, it looked like the lights and buttons on the furnace were randomly flashing. Inside the machine, circuitry was activated, and as Alex's imagination raced, a miniature house was beginning to form in the bowels of the machine.
"You're doing it, Alex," Aashi said, delighted. "How does it feel?"
"It feels..." Unable to describe the sensation, Alex just shook his head in disbelief.
"Like what?" Aashi said, putting a hand on his shoulder. She didn't use her empathy, instead, letting the boy find his own words.
"I don't know." Alex said. "Right, somehow?"
"That's because your body has been made to work with them. Your body has been altered and I want to help you unleash your full potential," Aashi said, "of mind and body."
"What do you mean?" Alex asked hesitantly.
Aashi began, "When I touched you on the beach I was made aware of all of the neurocircuitry put into you, to make you more attuned to interfacing. You have a skill at it. Now, have the machine print out what you have made."
As the furnace disgorged the small building, Alex looked at Aashi with a puzzled expression.
"I thought that I could only do this because of the implants."
"Well, I can do it, Ulysses can do it, most everyone can, but you're able to interface differently. Better than us. Take this ship, for example, you may be able to pilot a mecha, but you would also be able to work on this, if I'm correct. You're capable beyond your imagination. I want you to tell me, what does it feel like when you're inside that mecha, but this time, I want to put my hand on you and feel what you feel. Would you want that?"
"I think that would be okay." Said Alex, preparing himself mentally.
Before she touched his arm, she said, "Now, imagine you're somewhere you want to be, somewhere that you know you can go that, no matter what, that isn't dangerous and is perfectly safe for you. Are you imagining that?"
Alex closed his eyes. In his mind's eye, all around him was space. And then an asteroid with some buildings built onto it.
"You're imagining it? Imagine moving along where you are," she said. Then, touching him, felt his calm and said, "Good, good. I want you to breathe in all of your good feelings, let them fill you up, and breathe out, imagining you're exhaling everything you don't desire within you. This will completely clear your mind. Good, breathe in and then let all of your fears and worries go out of you as you breathe out. I can feel," Aashi said, "everything you're feeling. The calm you're feeling and the pressure and weight of what is holding you down leaving your body. Can you?"
As Alex breathed deeply, something urged him to look up. He saw a blurry figure with a face that he couldn't quite make out looking down at him. The figure spoke in a slightly muted voice that seemed somehow familiar. "Look bud. This is our new home."
There was something that Alex was feeling, a new, more urgent feeling of questioning and wonderment. Aashi felt it, but she felt the comfort in it, she felt the ease of which the memories came and pushed him further along.
Aashi said, "Ask aloud, what am I doing here? See what response you get. Be open to the full extent of the truth, Alex, and you will receive it."
He heard someone else talking. Looking to his left, he saw another figure, also barely beyond recognition.
This figure spoke as well, "Honey, are you sure that this is far enough away? The company is still looking for us."
Aashi felt the presence of another in Alex's memory and almost asked if it were someone close, like a family member, a mother, perhaps, but knew to guide him meant to not ask too much of him. She felt his relaxation in the new presence and his ability to be completely open and prone. She didn't want to disturb him in this state and wanted his own memory to fully expand into the truth of his past.
Time seemed to flash by, and unable to keep up with it, he let himself be dragged along. Soon, a new image appeared before him. He was in a room, by himself, playing some sort of game. It appeared to be related to piloting and spacecraft. As he played, he could hear some murmuring outside the room. "I'm concerned with how much time he spends playing with those games." One voice said, before another responded, "It's not surprising, before we got away from the company, they had manipulated the genes of whatever child you bore so that it would be predisposed to piloting."
Aashi felt the connection to Alex growing stronger, easier, but more complex in nature. She opened him up to her energy flow to an even greater extent and let him feel her warm, often-present calm and serenity which she pulled from.
She felt it was time to ask, "Remember what you're doing, remember where you are in this moment, and remember who is with you. Now, tell me, who is there with you?"
As Aashi's voice brought him back to reality, Alex was shocked by the intensity and detail of what he had felt. Sitting down on a nearby bench, he held his head in his hands. What were these memories? Were they of... his childhood?
Aashi followed him to sit down, touching him again and letting her calm fill him. She felt his confusion, if only mild and not wholly unsettling, and asked, "What is it that you envisioned? You have to open up to me if you want to continue to explore your past. These aren't memories from the Necromancer and they're not memories of being on 188604. These are memories of your childhood and I want you to understand that they may be painful, but they are the reason you are here, now, and the only key to understanding yourself fully."
"I, I don't understand. How can any of this be?" Alex said in confusion. Calming himself down slightly, He explained what he had seen.
"Then, you saw your parents, or what you had for parents, and they were protecting you, from a company that wasn't out to protect you like they were. From an unknown entity, one that is more sinister than tI would like to imagine. Reliving your past with me unlocked some of those memories, but now we will have to live in the present knowing those things. Alex, I am sure you can handle what it is that happened to you. Lay down," she said and as he did, she put a hand on his head. "I am going to be here with you and no matter what, you will not be unsafe, you are protected by me. Any pain you feel I will absorb for you and, remember, you can always pull from my life, my experiences, my joys and my feelings to sustain your own sense of peace while we do this. Now, I want you to relive something for me. Think back," she said, as he closed his eyes, "and go to the time in which you felt less safe, less comforted, when your parents couldn't protect you. Go into your memory and see what is there, and remember that I am here for you."
A few moments after Alex closed his eyes, another image was brought forth by his subconscious. He was back in the same room as before, this time lying down.
"Go into your memories and see what happened to you, see how you felt and what it was that made you this way, the way you are now," Aashi said, hand on Alex's forehead.
As the memory played out, Alex could only watch. It was what he assumed was nighttime, and he was tucked into a bed. He could hear various noises that one would associate with a space station. Things seemed to go on that way for a while, before he heard what sounded like thumps at the door of the small apartment his parents were able to afford.
All of a sudden, a loud bang was heard, and smoke filled the apartment.
Aashi said, "Keep going, feel what has happened to you and heal from it. Don't let the memories overpower your feelings of calm, but push forward with them, feel them."
Too deep in the memories to hear Aashi now, Alex saw what looked like faint beams of light shone through, Alex heard coughing, which he assumed were his parents. Two muffled bangs were heard, followed by footsteps approaching.
As a masked figure stepped through the smoke, Alex was able to make out a heavily distorted voice saying, "We take the kid alive. The boss says that we can use him."
Aashi said, "Move now to where you were taken, I can feel someone is trying to remove you from your feelings. I can sense you are being... extracted, perhaps. I want you to see where you were taken."
Alex woke up on some kind of bunk. An alarm was blaring. A man in green fatigues was screaming at the top of his lungs, "AWRIGHT YA MAGGOTS! GET YOUR UNLUCKY LITTLE ASSES OUT OF BED!" Alex observed ten or twelve other children lining up. Most seemed to be six ears old, like he was at the time.
"Are you being led somewhere, or are somewhere you don't want to be, now? I want you to see where that leads. Who is commanding you. Try to remember names, dates, places. Remember, you're safe right now while you relive your memories."
Following the group of children, Alex was lead to a mess hall of sorts. Served a watery cereal and a strip of bacon, they were then led to a room filled with pods that looked like the torso of a mecha.
"You are somewhere you remember from your recent past, now, aren't you? You are somewhere that you have been before many times, but also remember being... on the Necromancer, perhaps? See where this goes, what it leads to."
Stepping inside the pod, a display not unlike that of a mecha appeared. Soon, Alex had been unknowingly 'tested' in innumerable scenarios.
"Good, good. Now go and remember from your recent past, try to understand more," Aashi prompted, not knowing fully what he was seeing, but feeling it, instead.
This series of events seemed to play out innumerable times, each time faster until all seemed like a blur. Suddenly, everything came to a halt. He and five or six other children were being led somewhere. A door opened to an austere room, a operating theatre. Alex felt himself get onto a table of some sort, laying down facefirst. Something cold was applied to the back of his neck.
Suddenly, his entire world was pain. It felt like hot tendrils were snaking throughout his body. His vision blurred. Soon, his limbs, too, were opened up, and the cold metal that was inserted was a sharp contrast to the burning pain that he felt.
"You're feeling intense pain, Alex, try to find out where that pain is coming from. Try to find out who is causing it," Aashi said to him as he laid down, his body trembling slightly as his eyes darted around behind his eyelids.
Days went by, almost the same as before the surgery, with the addition of some hand to hand combat classes. And then something changed. Something snapped. Alex saw himself get up from his bed, walk out the door, and grab the hand of a guard, flipping him into the ground, and then punching him in the throat.
"You're okay, you should feel safe, I'm here to protect you. Just keep going. Try to look for any words or find out names. Look for clues into your past."
The guard gurgled in pain before falling into an unconsciousness that he would never wake up from. Alex's eyes scanned the hall, looking for threats in just the same manner that he had been conditioned to do for so many years. Grabbing the fallen guards rifle, he stalked through the hallway. Turning the corner, Alex was faced with another two guards. Reacting as quick as his modified body would let him, he bashed one guard across the head with the rifle and knocking him out. Discarding the broken weapon, Alex looked up to see the other guard rushing at him. He dodged to one side, but not fast enough, the guards fist clipping his shoulder. Alex ignored the pain, for it was nothing compared to that which had been inflicted upon him by those very people. Grabbing the guard's wrist, Alex locked the guard into a sleeper hold, only hesitating a moment before twisting the guard's head at a sharp angle, snapping the neck of his opponent.
"You're undergoing some type of adrenaline rush, more than I've ever felt while doing this," Aashi said, more to herself than to Alex, at this point. She pushed a burst of her own adrenaline through to him, giving him the extra energy to keep going. "Remember, try to find words or clues as to where you are."
Following the hallway, Alex saw a sign that read Hangars. This was his way out, he needed to hurry. Running along the hallway, Alex failed to notice a security camera tracking his path. He found himself at the end of a hallway, pushing against a door handle, which failed to open. Instinctively, his right foot swept back, then arched forward in a front kick that broke the bolt. The door swung open and Alex was outside of the building, turning back only to see the door close and the words, "PSYCHOPOMP" on a sign next to it that read, "WAREHOUSE 2" underneath. As the door swung open again, he heard the distorted voices of masked guards approaching. Beginning to run, he could never have known that he was being lead into an ambush. As he ran and looked for some way to get out, a team of two snipers set up, took aim and fired their stun rounds. He never even had a chance. As Alex fell backward and things began to darken, he could only wonder what had happened.
"Oh," Aashi spoke as she felt Alex's feelings and emotions completely slip away. She ended the link of empathy and began to shake him around the shoulders. It was hard to get him out of his sleep that way and she instead hugged him after a few moments of trying to no end to shake him awake. With the hug, she established a new empathic link, one that was based on all of her fears and worries, one that was bound to wake him up from the sheer force of concern and crazed emotions. She couldn't wake him up with feelings of care and happiness, she had to wake him up with the nightmares that lurked beneath her own subconscious. She thought of the horrific tentacled monsters that seeped out of the darkness towards her crew and friends, sucking the minds out of them and replacing them with their own as they made their way towards Aashi.
A scream of pain and emotion leapt out of her mouth a moment before Alex's eyes jolted open.
As Aashi screamed, Ulysses Werner was just entering the ship. His head picked up as he heard it and began running to the sound of the shouting. He burst into the room with the furnaces and found Aashi and Alex. He nearly threw Alex aside as he swept Aashi up in his arms. "Aashi... its okay. I'm here now. Shhh..." He looked back over at Alex. "Get going. You both are done for the day." He said calmly as he carried Aashi off to her room, softly cooing to her to try and calm her down.
"Ulysses..." Aashi muttered after he had set her down on the bed and sat next to her. "It was bad, again."
"Shhhh..." Werner cooed. "It's time to rest Aashi. I'm going to stay right here." He said as he laid down on the bed and held her. "Shh..." he said as she allowed herself to be wrapped up in his arms.
Back with the furnaces, Alex was still shuddering from the emotions that had woken him up. Standing on shaky legs, Alex left the ship, guilt wracking him. How could he have let this happen? Was this his fault? Alex was too busy feeling guilty to even begin to process his new memories, only able to focus on the word, "Psychopomp" along with his guilt. After a moment, a new feeling erupted inside of him, one akin to the need for revenge.
