Dangerous by Default

47. Without you, gorge?

Ami's vision began to blur looking back at Janus in the chair across from her. Hot tears poured down her face, but the looming chill of despair was the only thing Ami could perceive. Everything else had become intangible. If Janus was unable to save her from this mess, no one could. We're trapped.

"Ami, what the hell is going on?" Janus croaked. She was covered in sweat, and from the looks of it had put up a good fight before getting tied up. The sight of her lover in such a defeated state put a lump in Ami's throat and she struggled to reply. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

"Mimi, are you okay? Did they hurt you? I've been looking for you all night, I can't imagine how scared you've been."

Wiping her face on her own shoulders, Ami cleared her throat as best she could. "I'm.. I'm fine, Janus. I knew you would be looking for me.."

Senegalanesis filled the room with his chuckling. He found their agony amusing. Ami watched with wide eyes as Janus had begun to wriggle with anger against her restraints.

"You think this is funny, big boy? Wait until I get my goddamn hands on you motherfu-" Janus shouted as her chair teetered from side to side.

Ami found her once more, but her fear overtook any of strength she had previously mustered. "Janus, no!"

Senegalanesis snarled as he grabbed the back of Janus' chair to stifle her angry fidgeting, "Alright, that's enough little missy."

"D-don't you dare touch her!" Ami begged through escalating sobs.

"Hmm. Well that's just the thing, ain't it? Don't gotta do nothin' to 'er if you just tell us 'bout the biotechnical baby making. Seems pretty simple to me." He said with a devilish grin, speaking over the whirlwind of insults Janus muttered angrily under her breath.

"What the hell is this asshole on about, Mi?"

Before Ami could ground herself, Senegalanesis interrupted her manic thoughts. What he said next would shatter any sliver of rational decision making she possessed.

"Well darlin', hate to say it. But ya givin' me no choice.." Ami watched in a state of shock as the hulking man pulled a pistol from an innocent looking pocket on his utility belt and aimed the barrel directly at Janus' forehead.

Ami felt frozen in time. Of all the ways she had planned on telling Janus about the womb, she never imagined it would be in a life or death situation. One part of her knew that there was more on the line than that, than what she wanted. Who was to know what her captors' planned to do with the womb. What she decided in the next few seconds could have a ripple effect that would span years. She wasn't prepared to see what that dystopic future could look like, with genetically modified babies or cyborg super soldiers. But could she live with the burden of letting Janus, just so she and Mina could hopefully one day get pregnant? There was nothing more important in that moment than keeping the project safe but the longer she stewed on the matter, the more her fear began to seep into every fiber of her psyche.

Senegalanesis finger unlatched the safety of his handgun when Ami began to shriek at the top of her lungs.

"STOP! I'll tell you everything, you fucking monster! Just stop, please!"

Her entire body trembled with a mixture of animalistic fear and desperation. Ami struggled to drag air into her lungs as Sengalanesis called a smug looking Godefrida back into the chamber.

"I knew you would make the right decision in the end."

As Ami started to talk, her connection to reality wavered. She knew that her mouth was moving, that she was reciting a beginners guide to the secret project like she had planned for this the whole time. But, there was a piece of her brain that did not believe that what she experienced was real at all. This is just an inert response to the pain of being tortured earlier. This isn't happening. Janus isn't here. I'm still knocked out. This is just a horrid trick of my subconscious. A coping mechanism. The more she spoke, the more Godefrida and Senegalanesis processed her words, the less she trusted the validity of the moment. Ami couldn't bear to look in Janus' direction the entire length of the shameful moment, as she was certain that the entire world would crumble around if she saw how Janus was feeling in that moment. Better yet, if she looked at Janus the whole nightmare might fully solidify into reality. Then there would be no escaping it. Am I experiencing a complete nervous breakdown? Or is this just what it feels like to fail, in all meanings of the word?

"I was supposed to be the first trial patient, we were going to perform surgery within the next week. Maybe even days."

Ami dropped her gaze to the floor. She had finished. They knew everything. The goo, the armored lab codes, even how to navigate the 5 armed surgical robot. She was done. Nothing in 50 years could have prepared her for the shame she felt. Or for what happened next.

"Well it sounds like we've gotten everything we need. Thanks a bunch, Mimi. You're simply the best."

Looking up dazedly from the damp floor of the room, Ami's eyes met Janus' face. Where she expected to to see tears, maybe even anger, was the snarkiest smile she had ever seen. Falling to the floor, Janus' ropes suddenly gave way as she stood up to stretch her limbs.

"What would we do without you, gorge?"