Chapter Text
East of Prilentki, present day...
Alex awoke to the not-so-gentle sound of the curtains being thrown open. The sudden glare of the late morning sun poured in through the window, directly onto her exhausted face. With a pained groan she tossed herself to the side and ducked underneath the blanket in a vain attempt to find another minute of rest.
A few seconds later the covers were ripped away from on top of her. She gave a yelp of surprise at the cold air hitting her exposed limbs.
"Morning Miss Mayor! It's time to start your day!"
The same line, every morning, from the same voice.
She cracked an eye open and looked at the girl standing above her, a short mass of muscle wearing an eerie smile beneath a bob of blonde hair. The girl's butler-like uniform was spotless, each crease and line perfectly maintained, the image of dutiful maintenance. The name tag on her lapel simply read "02".
The signs of a headache were already starting to build behind her eyes. "Fuckin'...shit, why do you always need to wake me up like this?"
The girl's smile was unchanging, her voice chipper. "It's well past dawn, and as you know you we are required to wake you around mid morning. You'll have a few minutes to freshen up before your morning walk. Don’t take too long!"
With that, the girl turned on the spot and made her way out of the bedroom.
Alex groaned into her pillow, a moment of slight resistance to her inevitable morning exercise. With some effort she slowly sat up and swung her feet down to the floor, feeling the weight of the monitor attached to her right ankle. The usual annoyed rumble flashed through her mind at the reminder of how much her life had changed, now that she was retired.
She gave the smallest chuckle at the word. "Retired" was certainly a funny way to describe her house arrest. “Prisoner in exile” would be far more accurate, though it didn’t roll off the tongue quite as well. The ethic’s office preferred the more mundane description anyway, a sign of good will for her cooperation with her former adversaries.
With a slow pace she made her way over to the comm station, pausing to lift her ankle up to the security reader at the base. A bright tone played from the speakers, signaling a successful morning check-in. Another few steps brought her into the attached bathroom for her morning ritual. A splash of ice-cold water was enough to bring her to wakefullness, the nearby towel warm on her skin.
Glancing into the mirror, she couldn't help but pause and stare at her reflection. Little had changed from her days in the IEF. Her short blonde hair that barely reached the tops of her eyebrows, the burn marks down her cheek, even her inhumanly frigid blue eyes were all as striking as ever.
The sight only made her depressed state worse. These marks of station had been powerful once, her mere presence cowing officers and pilots alike. Here, in her isolation, they were worse than useless.
After a brief stop at the rack of clothes in the corner, Alex walked out of her bedroom ready for a brisk jaunt in the mountainous village that was her home. 02 was waiting for her in the foyer, along with 03 and 06. All of them were dressed for the weather, with light jackets and heavy boots covering their clothes, each of them sporting the same smile, the same professional glimmer in their eyes, and the same blonde haircut.
The sight of her former hounds made her want to vomit.
She forced a smile as she strode out the doors past them. "Alright then girls, shall we?"
The sky outside was cloudy, the chill air of early winter rustling through the few evergreen trees left in town. Heading down the large stairs and to the right, Alex made her way along the main road towards the empty village. Abandoned houses and broken down vehicles went ignored along the way, the sound of boots crunching on the frozen ground filling the air, her gaze locked on the road ahead of her.
It wasn't a particularly long walk. The looping road was barely a half-mile long, its crumbling concrete path leading around town in a circle back to her rundown estate. She'd long ago mentally clocked herself at around fifteen minutes of walking, depending on her pace, averaged out from a few years worth of data in her head.
Not like there was anyone else to share the information with. Her only company were the half-dozen "girls" occupying the manor alongside her, and they weren’t exactly someone you could have a reasonable conversation with. They wouldn’t understand it anyway. She felt no anger at this fact, only a guilty flinch.
She had herself to blame for their fates.
Rounding the final corner to return to the manor, Alex briefly took in the state of her home. The aging house stood just above the village, jutting into the sea of pine trees behind it. It had somehow survived the many conflicts that had wracked the continent, though it undoubtedly was losing the battle against time. The painted wooden siding was cracked and splitting upwards from the cold ground, and the left most corner had begun to lean downward. A number of windows were sealed with metal plates in an attempt to keep in what little heat the furnace could provide.
With winter setting in, she doubted the girls would have time to patch up the foundations before the storms hit, and the thought of sharing more space with them was less than comforting. She had just started to imagine how miserable the next few months would be when something in her bedroom window caught her eye.
Someone was standing there, watching her.
She froze at the sight of the thin figure, the gleeful smile on their face pulled straight from her worst memories. Long, messy hair cascaded around pale skin. The eyes, nearly white, stared straight at her.
The eyes of a dead woman.
The panic was instant. She clasped her chest, pressing hard enough to feel the rough line of scar tissue that ran down her sternum. Her blood chilled in her veins, muscles locking into place. She pulled her hand up to stifle the scream from her throat-
-She blinked, and the room was empty.
The figure was gone.
A moment passed before the concerned voice of 03 hit her ear. "Are you alright Miss?"
Alex looked around nervously to the girls, all of them staring at her with confusion in their eyes. None of them had seen it.
"Yes, of course! I am fine, nothing to worry about!" She gave a slight chuckle to sell the attempted-lie.
The girls, all smiles and friendly faces, unthinkingly laughed along with her.
....
The rest of the day was spent as they normally were. Alex wandered the manor, taking in the fading wallpaper and the persistent dust collecting in the corners. She'd occasionally spot one of the girls performing any number of odd jobs; cleaning the floors, repairing the electrical wiring, running loads of laundry, digging up the small garden space outside. They worked methodically, almost mechanically in their dedication, pushing themselves without complaint or breaks for hours on end.
She had tried to stop them once, letting her voice sink to the old familiar tone that had so easily pierced their minds before. The swift and painful discipline she endured at their hands as a result dissuaded her from ever making another attempt. It had taken nearly a month for the bruises to fully heal.
Since then she gave them a wide berth, wanting to avoid another confrontation. The doctors at the reclamation office had clearly done something to them, some kind of neurological realignment that locked their minds behind doors of stone. Whatever it was, it was strong, set up by people who understood how to make someone difficult to manipulate, and well beyond anything she had encountered during her old work.
It was likely for the best. In truth, she no longer desired even the temptation.
Aside from her moments of dodging the manor's other occupants, there was little else to occupy her time. She had long since counted every floorboard and tile in the entire manor, along with measuring the length of every room down to the nearest centimeter. It was mind-numbing. Even spending some time alone was usually out of the question, mostly due to her moods being fickle by default nowadays, especially with the girls around.
The small library, her one potential source of enrichment, was woefully under-stocked, piles of old textbooks littering the space. The previous owner had been some kind of university professor, and judging by the contents appeared to only enjoy the driest reading material possible. She was eagerly awaiting next week's shipment of goods. The ethics office had finally relented to her requests for new reading material. Even if they were only second-hand, she was looking forward to some speculative fiction to lose herself in.
Meals were served at their usual times, strictly scheduled down to the exact second. 05 was always punctual with her cooking, and insisted that Alex take her time and enjoy her food. This positive attitude did nothing to make the company any more enticing, or the meal any different from the same array of four dishes she'd been eating for the last three years.
As the sun finally crested the far peaks, Alex made her lonely trek up towards her room. A warm shower and a change of clothes was enough for her body to begin to slow. She scanned her ankle over the reader next to the comm station, checking in for the evening before she made her way into bed.
While she counted the tiles on the ceiling for what felt like the billionth time, she hoped for a night of dreamless rest.
~~~~~~~
She woke up in the dark, laying on her bed. The lights flickered on to reveal her naked body, stripped clean of even her underwear.
Suddenly a firm hand appeared on her shoulder, gripping her flesh. Her gaze followed the black sleeved arm up to a familiar pair of glacial blue eyes, seated above a smile filled with far too many teeth.
The name shot out from her soul. "Valerie?!?"
"Good evening Alexia!" The doctor’s voice was as excitable as ever. "I do apologize for the abruptness, but I heard you were spreading rather awful tales about my work again." The grip on her shoulder tightened, nails digging into her skin, holding her down. The woman's smile never wavered.
An awful sense of familiar dread coursed through her mind. "Valerie, I swear it was nothing, I was just blowing off steam! You know me, how anxious I can get!" She could already feel sweat running down her body. "I really do not mind your work! It is...so...marvelous! You can do whatever you want with the...things...it is completely fine!"
The patronizing expression on Valerie's face was chilling. "Gosh Alexia, it is very rude to lie you know! You were very clear about your words on that recording, even for someone who needs to relax as much as you do! It appears you need a reminder that everything I do is perfectly legal, and well within the regulations of the IEF personnel codes!"
More sweat, more panic, her chest was heaving upwards. "Valerie, I understand that but...wait, what is that? W-what are you doing?!"
She watched the woman pull something from the darkness. Something long and sharp, something intended to slice through flesh and bone.
"Well, according to IEF Code 4723-A Section 7, all disputes between officers are required to be settled within their own units, and since you and I are the only representatives of The Program here, I have taken it upon myself to fix this particular issue!" The device was inches from her, the sing-song voice in her ear filled with delight. "Now hold still Alexia! This will hurt much less if you do not fidget!"
She tried to run, she really tried. Her bones felt like they were made out of stone. Every movement felt slow, delayed, as if her body was glued to the mattress below. There was no way out now, no escape this time.
Suddenly the face was right next to her, awful eyes drilling into her skull, the smile cracking upwards. "Gosh Alexia, you are struggling so much! Do I need to call in Beeta to restrain you?"
She looked down past her feet, her stomach dropping at the sight of the huge beast standing there. It silently stared down at her, brown hair falling past its eyes, its silver caged muzzle gleaming in the low light. Her body went still as It took hold of her legs with an inhuman grip. She cried out at the sound of the saw whirling to life, the cold sanitized metal tasting her flesh-
~~~~~~~
Alex awoke screaming.
She bolted upright in her bed. Her eyes were wide, her face frozen in a horrified grimace. A thin layer of sweat ran down her body, the sheets clinging to her damp skin. She heard nothing but the sound of her labored breathing in the shadowy room around her.
A moment later her door opened, light pouring into her chamber from a yellowed lamp, illuminating 02's face from the hallway. "Are you alright Miss? Was it another bad dream?"
Alex forced herself to breathe slowly, old habits and exercises quickly kicking in to calm her nerves. "Yes...just a bad dream...I am fine 02...please go back to bed?"
"Very well Miss. If you need anything, just let me know. Sleep well!" With that the door was closed, plunging her back into the darkness.
She felt no comfort at the isolation, nor would she be sleeping anytime soon. The face from her memories still flashed before her whenever she closed her eyes. She held her knees to her chest and stared out into the shadows around her, the barest sound of wind through the trees creeping in through the closed window.
There was no way of telling how long she sat there before the comm line buzzed.
The sound sent her jumping to her feet, the blinking green light filling the room with an eerie glow.
It was an inbound communication.
A surge of suspicion flowed through her. The comm line was internal only, set up in case of emergencies, a precaution should she ever need to reach out to her jailors. This had never happened before, and definitely not in the middle of the night. Why would anyone call her now?
Who the hell was calling her at all?
Gathering the blanket around her, she slowly made her way to the station against the wall before settling into the small chair. Her hand hesitated for just a moment, hovering over the controls. Eventually, the need to break the malaise of her life overpowered the desire for caution. With a quick motion she hit the accept key, connecting the comm.
Her voice was quiet. "Hello?"
There was a second of silence before a cold voice answered.
"Hello, Handler Alexia."
She was on her feet in a second, all the panic from her dream returning to her mind. Her rapid breathing filled the dead air with terror.
They had found her.
"Breathe, Alexia, relax. You are not in any danger at the moment." The voice was calm, and somehow familiar, though she couldn't quite place its origin. "It is good to hear your voice again. How has your retirement been treating you?"
Alex took in giant breaths, every nerve in her mind screaming at her to end the transmission, to smash the machine to bits, to hide in her bed and never leave.
No one called her by her old rank, not since...
"Wh-who...who is this?"
The voice on the other end was smiling. "An old friend of yours, from your IEF days. It has been a long time since we spoke, though I doubt you would remember me now. Things have changed quite a bit in the last few years, have they not?"
Alex said nothing, her mouth open and empty, her mind scrambling to recognize the voice on the other end. It had to have been someone who knew her personally, someone close to her in the chain of command, and judging by the cadence of speech she knew exactly what kind of "person" this was.
And that meant she needed to be in control of herself.
She slowly dropped back down into the chair, eyes locked on the green light. She took a deep breath to center her mind, pulling up what remained of her old persona to the surface. "You did not answer my question. Who. Are. You?"
"You may call me D."
The voice was playing coy. Alex switched tactics. "Very well, D. What do you want, and how did you find this line? You should know that you are likely being traced right now." She could feel the dregs of her old confidence coming back with each word.
"Please Alexia, I will answer your questions in time. First, I wished to see how you have been feeling the last few months." She could hear the voice suppress a laugh. "Have your nightmares gotten any better?"
She flinched at the deflection, more questions thrown into her mind. She pressed on. "That is none of your concern, and if you want me to answer any of your questions, then you need to give me something as well."
A moment of silence passed before D spoke. "A fair request. Let us say that my access to NPRT security information is extensive. Tracking you down was a simple matter of tabbing through a file. Do not worry, I have ensured our conversation will not be noticed by others. Internal systems access is such a wonderful tool."
Alex hated how smug the woman's voice sounded, though it still sent a sting of worry through her belly. If D had the access she claimed to, then she would already know about the manor, about the girls, about what led Alex here...
She kept her focus centered. "Why did you contact me?"
The smallest laugh from the line was discomforting. "I have come to help you."
Alex loudly scoffed at the answer. "You are joking, right? What exactly are you going to help me with?"
"Your nightmares of course." The voice was practically gleeful. "I can make them stop."
"Oh bullshit." Alex was already tired of this farce. "I know what this is. You are just some plant from the ethics office trying to get me to slip up and say something incriminating. I will not waste my time with it." She lifted her hand towards the console, ready to end the transmission. "Have a pleasant evening, 'D'."
Her hand moved forward-
"I know you still see Valerie's face, even now. The damage she did to you runs deep."
Alex paused, the name of her former comrade blasting through her mind.
Handler Valerie, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Prilentki Station.
It was enough for a shiver to run down her spine, to send the hair on her neck shooting straight up. She pulled her hand back to grip the blanket tighter around her, brushing against the scar on her chest. "What do you know about that woman?"
"I know quite a bit about our former associate. The knowledge gained from her experiments was instrumental for the program's successes, despite her methods being...unsavory." The barest hint of disdain crept into D's voice. "It was a shame that Prilentki Station fell when it did. She was on the verge of something quite magnificent when the Coalition came, but I do not need to remind you how that came about, now do I?"
Alex recognized the subtle meaning in an instant. "I did what I had to do, for the good of the world, and you have NO idea what that ‘woman’ was like." She fought hard to keep the creeping fear out of her voice. "The things she did, to prisoners, to pilots, to the hounds, to me. She had to be stopped. She was insane, the whole program was insane!"
"I need no reminder of her work, though the state of her sanity was...an unfortunate truth. By the end her mind was truly beginning to crack. The trial held for her crimes was a curiously entertaining charade to witness. I am sure you watched her execution with some relief." The voice of D sounded almost thoughtful. "As for your actions, you did what you thought was right, and though it did result in the fall of the Earth Empire, the destruction of the IEF, and the loss of everything that we once stood for, I can assure you I hold no animosity towards you."
Alex laughed. Somehow she couldn't quite bring herself to believe that.
"Do not patronize me, D. How do I know that you are not just out for revenge?" Her nerves were getting the better of her, but she didn't care anymore. "I sold us out, I collaborated with the enemy! Access codes, encryption keys, program documents! I gave them everything I could because...we had gone too far. There was nothing right about what we were doing, and if the Empire had to fall as well then it would still be worth it! The war needed to end, that woman needed to die, the PROGRAM needed to die!!"
A second of quiet filled the dark room, punctuated only by Alex's heavy breathing.
The response from the comm was filled with...delight.
"The program still lives."
Alex's stomach dropped out of her body. "What?"
"Not the way it did before, of course. We have had to change, to adapt to a world that would kill us on sight." The icy voice was seeping through the speakers with an unnerving viscosity. "Our methods are more limited than they were previously, but rest assured that, while our pace has slowed, the work continues all the same."
She slumped down in her chair, a creeping chill filling her limbs.
"It was rather helpful of you, in a way. There were plenty of contingencies in place should the war turn against the empire, but none of us could have imagined that one of our own would turn traitor! You made things so difficult, and yet we persevere. How lovely of you, Alexia, to give us such a challenge."
She could barely breathe, the realization sitting in her mind, her unease solidifying into a rotting mass in her gut. What remained of her old self simply faded away into the nothing that it came from, the tears streaming from her eyes filling her with an eternal hopelessness.
It didn't matter that her tormentor was dead. The woman's visage haunted her from beyond the grave, filling her days with torment. Her plan hadn't worked, she had failed.
The monsters were still alive.
It was a minute before her voice returned to her, empty and tired. "So...what now then...what do you want from me?"
The voice of D was strangely warm. "As I said, I intend to help bring your nightmares to an end. Our plans continue to advance, and we need your skills." A pause, the sound of papers shuffling. "You will return to the fold and act as our representative in the east. You will reclaim your sabotaged hounds by any methods necessary, and await further instructions. In return, we will provide you with the treatment necessary to remove the influence of our former associate."
Alex stared at the green light, the cold void in her chest filling with suspicion. She knew it was too good to be true. It had to be a lie, a poisoned pill. This was all a bad dream, a return to the nightmare that she had escaped, that she had helped to destroy.
And yet, for the terrors to end...
"What will it be, Handler Alexia? I do not have much longer with you. Will you join us once again?"
...What did she have to lose?
She wiped the tears from her face, finding a loose footing in her mind. "Even if I said yes, what can I do from here? I am stuck in this goddess-blasted village, and the second I try to leave my leg will be blown off my body."
A chuckle rang out from the comm. "All in good time Alexia. I promise, there will come a day when you will walk out of your prison without fear. For now, you need only await next week's supply shipment. There will be a package inside. You will know what package it is, as well as what to do with its contents."
She silently nodded, understanding filled her mind.
"You will hear from me in two weeks time, and I expect to receive a promising report. Until then, happy hunting!"
The comm went silent, the light clicked off. The room was dark once more.