Glitch IV - Chapter III: Termination

[Dark Silver]

What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion.
-Sephiroth, Final Fantasy VII

[Agent Fisher]

Jack sat at his table, slowly eating the tasteless oatmeal. Turning his head, he reached out to try and tune the radio. It was always the same music.

They had told him that he had come here by a court order, but he didn't really remember it. He didn't even really know how long he had been here. The days seemed to blur together, and the routine never changed.

Jack looked at the oatmeal. This place didn't even seem real, like it was a dream. Like that dream he had had. He could do amazing things, clap his hand and stuff would appear. He had fought and killed in this dream. Jack had fought alongside others, and he thought he cared about them, but it was just a dream, they weren't real.

Looking to his side, he looked at himself in the reflective wall. He looked much the same as when he got here. Everyday, he would do sit ups and push ups, trying to stay fit. He glanced around, not seeing any cameras. He looked at the table, concentrated and clapped his hands, placing them onto the table and nothing. Nothing happened. Nothing ever happened. Jack took the bowl of oatmeal and threw it against the wall. "LET ME OUT OF HERE!" He hollered at the oatmeal covered wall.

[Charon]

Matt blinked slowly, taking deep breaths in and out, just like the doctors had told him to do. His quarters were plain, a white cot for sleeping, a light brown desk for reading, bolted to the floor. Matt had shown progress, much more than the others. He accepted that he was insane. He did need help. As such, he had a desk lamp and they'd even given him a self-help book. "Controlling your Inner Rage". He was already reading it for the third time.

Matt smiled peacefully. Here, there was no stimuli to aggravate him. The part of him that had rebelled foolishly against the greater order all those years ago had been chained, controlled. It would never hurt anyone ever again, so long as Matt kept to his exercises.

Matt took another deep breath in and held it, almost feeling the oxygen being brought into his bloodstream, giving life to his limbs. After a minute, Matt exhaled again, imagining he could watch the harmful carbon-dioxide leave his body, with little bits of the 'rage' that was in him.

"Hello Matthew." The voice came out of the speaker above Matt's head. "Ah, hello doctor. How are you today?" The speaker chuckled. "Oh I am doing quite well today, it is time for your meditations." Matt smiled again, slowly getting to his feet. "Is it? I lose sense of time in here sometimes."

Deep inside of Matt, the rage shook it's chains. "Because they have drugged you, controlled you. Turned you away from your mission." Briefly Matt's vision blurred, literally seeing the freakishly black spiritual 'wolf' that his rage had taken the form of. Imposed within the one good eye of the beast was an image of Derek.

Matt staggered against his bed, holding out his hand to grasp desperately at the wall. Derek, who was Derek... Derek was... Derek was the man he'd killed, yes. An important man of this great new world order. Matt, back when he was foolish, had killed him. Matt took a deep shuddering breath, trying to gain control again.

"Matthew? Are you alright?" The speaker seemed to show some real concern over Matthew's state.

Matt slowly opened his eyes, though his right was a little slower in opening. "I'm fine doctor, the meditations are well timed though. I almost lost control again."

The door to his room opened silently and two guards stood waiting for Matthew, he followed them complacently, still worried about having almost lost control.

Deep inside of Matt, the beast began to tear at it's chains and shake about. It wanted release! It wanted blood! To kill, maim, burn, rape! Eventually the beast subsided again.

[LadyTevar]

Trapped Trapped Trapped Trapped

She never got in the bed, but she didn't know why. The white sheet was wrapped around her protectively, because she had to have protection from ...

That was where it always broke down. Protection from someone. Protection from a man. A man who did bad things to her, in a room she couldn't escape.

She couldn't escape this room. She'd tried. And then men came to stop her and she'd fought and screamed and scratched and kicked and bit and felt something at the back of her mind, the middle of her back, try to move and slice and squeeze and cut ...

But then the men would give her a shot, and she would have to stop fighting and fall asleep ... and that terrified her more.

She dreamed in her sleep. Dreamed horrible dreams of men in black armor riding wolves, and spaceships filled with amorphous black things Nulls, they were called Nulls who could move like lightning and slice through steel with their great claws ...

And in her dreams she fought them and fought them and all the while someone in the back the man that -hurt- her would laugh and order them to kill her but she killed them first and she would run towards him only to find him vanish away again and again....

But she didn't always fight alone in the dreams. There were friends there, and one friend showed up more often than the others, always there to help her when it was tough and she missed that friend, who was more than a friend and she knew that and wanted to find him if he existed in the waking world ...

But the door was opening, and the men in white were coming in. The same unreasonable terror Trapped, Escape Now! Before they do it again! rose up in her and as the men cautiously drew near, ready to hold her down and do -things- to her she screamed and screamed and screamed as she fought them off.

"THOG! ALBERT!!! HELP MEEEEEE!!!"

[SirNitram]

-Nutritional Content Acceptable.- One of the voices spoke. Albert was constantly aware of them; the other minds that seemed to co-exist with him inside his head. He'd not spoken of them, focusing on taking his meds and trying to shed the feeling he had done impossible things. Yucky! The childlike voice piped up when he ate his ration of oatmeal.

The quartet in his head occasionally did more than just speak, but there was no violence.. No matter how much the dark, angry one near the back demanded it. He was patient, and trying to work out how the hell he'd ever get out of here.

[Rukia]

What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion.

That's the only thing she had said out loud since being dragged to this place. She barely ate, and never moved from her bed. Her long dark hair was uncombed and her eyes were constantly red rimmed from crying. Arora had escaped inside her own head, refusing to take her medication. They saw her as no threat and only forced her medicine when she acted out.

The doctors stood outside the large window and watched the young woman's decent into madness. The first doctor spoke, and kept his eyes on the girl who was drawing.

"She has been like this since she was brought here. Doesn't seem much like an Ascended, does she?" He said in a voice so quiet the other had to lean in close. "We still haven't figured out what she did the only time we ever got even the slightest response out of her was when we had a tech named Ted. She heard the name and almost seemed coherent. But as soon as she looked at him she burst into a fit. Screaming something about vectors and Derek and the master. After that, we lost her completely."

They walked in, and spoke to her like a child. "Arora, your oatmeal is getting cold. You know you need to eat. Would you like me to hand it to you?" The other doctor said giving his partner a look when there was no response. "What are you drawing Rory? Can I see it?"

He reached over and took the paper. On it were several figures standing in front of a black mass. Upon further inspection they realized that the mass had eyes.

"What is this Arora?" His voice was more stern now, "TELL ME!" he yelled and the girl flinched and pressed herself against the wall. Shaking her head violently. The doctor grabbed her against the protest of the first. "I KNOW YOU KNOW! TELL ME NOW!"

Arora looked him dead in the eye and said:

"What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion."

[Dark Silver]

Time passed, the humans contained within their cells went about the usual routines - usual only if you accepted the fact that what they were doing was only what the simulations predicted they'd do considering their personalities prior and then with the new "reality" put into them.

It was years worth of patterns and artificial memories implanted over the course of two months, before they were even brought to the AMSCP facility, everything about those memories were carefully patterned, to be aslifelike as possible. Of course, some problems with the technology on actual humans still exsisted..... A few of the "Ascended" didn't take to the memory implants, their brains hemorrhaging - the subjects bleeding to death while still in the deviced. Others were driven truly insane, their bodies becoming wasted shells as they retreated into their minds to escape what was being done.

Still...this group had taken exceptionally well to it - most likely because they where the Ascended. They were part Digital Beings. It was true - their powers no longer functioned because this was the real world - then again no powers not based on technology functioned here - but They were the Ones.

"I think they are proceeding well with the regimin...the mental implants are holding. We will continue on as they think they have for the past several years..."medical treatment", psychiatric help, and other things. We will reinforce the memories as best we are capable. Subject 0001-Alpha aka Albert and Subject 0023-Baker aka Matthew seem to have taken the greatest so far to their conditioning. Oddly enough, while their Ascended forms are amongst the most powerful - it also lends them to believing they are in fact, mental patients. Subject 0459-Baker aka Rory remains uncommunicative, a side effect of her conditioning it seems - perhaps todays exercise will change some of that."

The man turned to his colleges, smiling the type of smile one would assume a human would, and inclined his head, "shall we?"


------ ------

"It is now 10:00 a.m.," the soft, soprano voice spoke over the room's speaker, "It is time for Communal Activities. Please prepare for escortion. There will be cake."

[Charon]

Matthew had finished his special meditations, to further help, they usually gave Matthew some drugs to get him to relax, to subside the rage even more. That hour before communal activities was always a happy one, one that prepared him to deal with people. He looked forward of playing another game of Chess with Albert, a man he had met... before he came here? No how could that be. No one from Matthew's previous life as a book seller lived here. Matthew struggled with the conflicting memory for only a short time before he decided that the other was the illusion, the dementia that he experienced sometimes.

"It is now 10:00 a.m.," the soft, soprano voice spoke over the room's speaker, "It is time for Communal Activities. Please prepare for escortion. There will be cake."

Matthew grinned as he followed the guards, he always loved when they gave him cake. It was always so moist and delicious.

Deep down in Matt's subconscious a small part of him stirred, brought out by a joke he'd heard a long time ago. 'The cake is a lie.'

Matt mouthed the words subconsciously, his head down so the guards couldn't see it.

[Agent Fisher]

Jack growled softly, following the guards. He didn't want to be here, he wanted to be free. And now, he would see the 'others'. They shared the faces of those he had dreamed of. Perhaps they were the same, perhaps not. Finally he reached the communal area. It was the same as he remembered it, well, as well as he could remember the hazy memory.

The young man sat down at the table, his eyes looking around, hoping to see the 'others'.

[LadyTevar]

It was like there were two people inside her mind. One believed that she had been here for a few years, flickering between lucidity and the frenzy that caused her to be sedated so often. The other lived in the frenzy, in the knowledge that she was a captive and had to escape. The problem was Leah did not know which one was right, or how to tell them apart.

"It is now 10:00 a.m.," the soft, soprano voice spoke over the room's speaker, "It is time for Communal Activities. Please prepare for escortation. There will be cake."

The one remembered other Communal Activities, time spent together with others in the center. There were faces she knew there, faces that shared space with the other, stranger memories.
Thog/Albert would be there. Thog/Al would protect her, save her, hold her, love her.

She shook the thought away. Albert didn't ... he was nice, but they weren't allowed to do -that- here. Albert wouldn't do that... would he? Did she... want him to ...
YES! Go out. Find Thog/Al. He would understand. He would KNOW what was wrong!

Like a wild animal freed briefly from the cage, Leah slipped out of the door that the guards had unlocked and backed away from. She saw them, she saw they were blocking all other exits, but the way to what her memories said was the Communal Activities Chamber. Thog. Albert. They would not keep her from him. She had to find him.

She turned and jogged down the hallway in the correct direction. She wanted to see Albert. She did not want left inside the room. Thog will free us.. and then we'll be safe.

[SirNitram]

Albert was extremely docile as he was moved. The chemicals pumping through his system didn't really quiet the voices any, but they did make him calm and relaxed and everything seem not-quite-real. It was soothing. Something told him to savour the boredom.

When he was moved to the Communal Area, he sat down at the chess board. There was that man that always played chess with him. That was relaxing. Everything, really, was relaxing when he was on his meds. Of course, today, he had been Bad. It had taken alot of careful thought and listening to the calm voice, but he had worked out how to make everyone thought he'd swallowed his pills, and yet, he had not.

The chess game would be very interesting today, as the fog began to lift. The calm voice liked that. It let it speak more clearly.

[Charon]

Matthew stepped into the room, still flanked by guards. He made his way quickly over to the chess table and sat down, ignoring everyone else, just like he always did.

"It's that time again." Matthew smiled. "Think you'll be able to beat me this time?" Matthew was always very defensive in his style, and the two were a decent match, each winning about the same amount.

[LadyTevar]

Leah entered the room in a rush, pausing like a deer at the edge of an open field to take a cautious, jerky look around. Her eyes fixated on the two men at the table.

Once again, the false memories clashed with the new.Ottoman and Thog! No.., that's Matt and Albert. It doesn't matter! They make it safe, they can get us all out of here!

She rushed over to the table, flinging her arms around Albert and trying to climb into his lap like a frightened child. The implanted memories would say Leah just got this way sometimes. The reality ...

"Al.......," she murmurred, holding him as tightly as a long-lost lover. "you're here, you're here...."

[Rukia]

After the incident with Rory, her "new" doctor had been assigned elsewhere. She was left alone for a few hours with her drawings until it was time to go to Communal Activities.

She was been escorted down the hallway clutching her paper and colored pencils to her chest. She knew that she hadn't been here that long. The memories said otherwise the people, doctors and such seemed to think that she had been there for a long time as well. But she knew that this was her first time walking down this hallway. Still her feet guided her in the right direction, a feeling of hope that Ted might be there. That the others would be there. She needed to know that she wasn't as crazy as they were making her out to be.

The doors opened and she looked around. Leah was crawling up in Al's lap. Matt was across the chess table from them and Jack sat alone at another table. No Ted. Yet. She let out the tiniest of sighs and made her way over to the table her mind told her that she always sat at. She manically placed all her pencils in color order and sat her paper down. Then she began drawing Leah and Al as their characters, in the position they sat in now.

[SirNitram]

Leah was allowed into Albert's lap, his position adjusting to let it happen. He saw no harm. In the quiet back of his mind, one of the voices was overjoyed. It was near 'Le-dra' again. It made no sense, but what did?

An arm slipped around Leah, as the other reached to move the first peice. "You might be surprised today, Matt." He murmured.

This felt.. Wrong, though. The lack of the potent medication bludgeoning his brain let the wrongness sink in.

[Shark Bait]

“8:00 am Oatmeal and Adderol breakfast of the gods,â€

[Charon]

Matt narrowed his eyes dangerously as the woman curled up in Al's lap. This was new, unwanted, dangerous. The game would be ruined, all the woman's fault. She's connected to Darek. Matt took a slow steadying breath.

"Well that seems different, I doubt you'll be able to focus on the game with her in your lap..." Matt was not pleased, this was something that was not expected, it was therefore a danger. But for now, Matt would simply try to play his game.

[LadyTevar]

A Game! that was the secret.
"It's all games," Leah murmured, her inner voice and outer voice merging momentarily, then shuddering in Albert's arms as the false memories fought with the new ones. It wasn't a game, she was real, this was real, she was simply in need of help.

No. Gotta warn them. We have to get out of here.
No, we're supposed to be here! It's Communal Activities. Now, what was this man's name?

"Hello Ottoman...."

[SirNitram]

Strangeness. So much strangeness. Albert waved his free hand absently. "Play." He simply said, watching Matt's reaction. "If you are wanting an excuse to bail out..."

The moves began. He was doing better.

[Charon]

Matt seemed to completely ignore the woman, maybe he assumed she was talking to someone else, maybe he didn't hear her. He did respond to Al though, smiling. "Bail out? Since when have I bailed out?" Matt brought his pawns out in a defensive grid, it was a standard move he did, though slow to set up it was very good at breaking offensives.

"Hmm, looks like I should stop going easy on you Al. You're doing a lot better." Matt let his pawn defensive break, beginning to sacrifice them to begin his offensive. That was new to, Matt rarely went on the offensive, he was never so keen on the sacrifice of his troops to achieve a goal.

[LadyTevar]

"Bail out? Since when have I bailed out?"

Old memories floated to the surface, fighting with the new implanted ones. Memories of a argument, of a fight, of Ottoman/Matt leaving in anger, just when they needed him....

"The MotherBrain," Leah said, looking up from the chessboard to Matt. "You weren't there. You left because of Yuffie."

[SirNitram]

Albert paused, his hand holding one of the peices. There was a frown. "...Don't be silly." He said simply, as something itched at his brain. Then the move was completed.

[Agent Fisher]

Jack watched the trio as they sat at the chess table. He remembered that he usually just sat by himself. No one seemed to like him, or want to spend time with him. Shaking his head, Jack stood and walked over to the chess table and did something odd, compared to his usual routine.

He cleared his throat and looked at the others. "This is all wrong, we don't belong here." He said, his eyes shifting to the chess board and looking at the pawns. "We're just pawns." He said.

[Charon]

"The MotherBrain," Leah said, looking up from the chessboard to Matt. "You weren't there. You left because of Yuffie."

The knight that Matthew had just sacrificed two pawns to get went flying across the room and smashed into the far wall as Matthew hit it with the back of his hand.

Matthew took a slow, deep breath. "Leandra. I'd suggest you don't mention her again... Only... Warning..." Matthew could feel it, the rage, growing, taking control. He should get out of here now but, something felt so right about the rage. It was glorious to finally cut loose a little.

[LadyTevar]

Leah had turned to agree with Jack, but was interrupted by Matt's violent outburst and warning. She looked from one man to the other, back and forth as her memories warred with each other.

Jack never talks to anyone. He never leaves his seat.
Matt gets violent. He doesn't have control. Be careful what you say.
But Jack is a friend, we've talked and laughed and...
Matt called me by Name.

"Why are you getting angry, Matt? You loved Yuffie...." Leandra said quietly, sadly.