Trinity

Ride Along

Spider's screams penetrated her cell. The sound echoed in her brain and she paced the room to try and calm down. When it finally stopped she didn't feel relief. Did it stop because they decided they were done torturing him? Did they manage to break him and get what they wanted? Well she actually doubted that, but the thought was still there.

Eventually she sat down on the platform in the center of the room and took a breath out of the Atmos Adaptation System. With some difficulty, she was still restrained by those outrageous neon orange cuffs. Her head fell back in exasperation and she closed her eyes.

How in the world is this my life?

None of the Recombinants (not avatars, as she was informed) said anything to her after she asked if they were good. She could only assume the answer was no. They were in fact, not good.

And while that wasn't her problem, it bothered her.

Yes, red eyes, she knows. But why did they all act like that? It wasn't just fear, hell she wasn't even sure if that was fear at all. Not like she was great with reading people's emotions anyways.

But their tails and ears were expressive in an almost childlike way. They had to be recently decanted, they were still stumbling around in bodies they didn't know or understand. It should surprise her that the RDA didn't give them a chance to acclimate to their new environment but it didn't. Humans could be very intelligent, or they could be very fucking stupid. She lumped most of the RDA's plans and actions into the latter category.

Disbelief, unease, shock, and relief. That's what she saw in their ears and tails, every, single, one of them. The Colonel on the other hand, didn't know what to do with that. He went through so many emotions she was impressed. How he managed that and didn't have some kind of mental break was a testament to his strength, or his spite. Leaning on spite.

Looked like she was going to be here for a while and to be honest? She was bored. Obviously she preferred boredom over the stress of Spider's screams but she was still bored. The only thing she had left was a knife they somehow missed. They even took her song chord.

That they would take her weapons, was a given. Made sense. They didn't look hard enough, but it made sense. But the song chord? What was she going to do? Strangle a human with it? It'd be easier to just break their neck. Her spiteful personality was itching to cause some mayhem and she might have had it only been her at risk. Unfortunately, Spider was here so she reined it in.

Ardmore was glued to the screen of the Paragon's cell, staring into those red eyes. If they didn't get anything from the kid, they definitely weren't getting anything from her. She may not remember her training but Ardmore is very aware of what she went through. It would take a lot more than that machine to break her, no. They'd need to use a different approach. Perhaps the personal one was the correct answer.

Colonel Quaritch entered the room with Wainfleet and informed her the kid agreed to 'come along for the ride.' The General nodded in acceptance, but she didn't look away from the screen.

"Sending all of you out this early was a mistake. I was under the impression the Recombinants were given suitable time to adjust. We'll keep ears open for Sully, your orders are to accustom yourselves to your new bodies. Learn what you can do. Marines in Na'vi bodies are a potent mix but only if you can use them." The Colonel motioned to Wainfleet and his Lieutenant left the room to tell the others of the new mission.

"Any reports we found state that she died about six years before the RDA's expulsion from Pandora," her eyes darted to Quaritch's towering form as he stared at the exact same screen.

"She did, died in my arms." His voice was flat. He might have been a clone, but he had those memories and the emotions tied to them. She could forgive the lack of rank respect shown right now. Weird times. Man's dead wife was apparently alive this entire time, with no memories. Well, the man who's memories he had.

"And yet... Here she is, alive. Appears to be similar to you, that's not a native body."

"No, she looks just like her Avatar." Minus the undercut and scars that is. But otherwise, she looked the exact same and he was struggling with that.

Ardmore hummed and drank some of the coffee abandoned in her hand for many minutes. Her head tilted to the soldier who delivered a report and he departed.

"DNA results, it's a match." She tossed the papers onto the console, she already knew that. If anything was obvious, it was that woman being their supposedly dead Paragon. "In any case, she's around twenty. Which means she was in this body, alive before the RDA expulsion. I'd wager 5-6 years."

The Colonel attempted to not react to that information. If his body language gave him away, Ardmore didn't make mention of it. The entire time he thought she was gone, she was being raised by the Omaticaya. Augustine had to know and she kept it from him.

"Take her with you, see if you can't trigger some memories. Your team was her team, if anyone can pull memories out of her, it's Deja Blu. Try to get her on our side if you can, though with her obstinance I hesitate to actually order that." He accepted the orders but she stopped him before he left.

"She's not your wife, Colonel. She's RDA property, my property, and I want my Paragon back."

=-=

Ten jolted when the door opened, breaking the silence they locked her into. She had been dissociating for a very long time. Lightheaded she took a few breaths out of the AA2. Colonel Quaritch entered the room and she glared at him.

"Where is Spider?" Unsurprising that she was more concerned with the kid than herself.

"Kid's fine, he's tough. He was in a machine that can see into your mind. It's... painful when you resist. But he's coming with us, riding along, so to speak." Red eyes narrowed. "The kid was surprised to see you there, what were you doing out in the forest?"

"Could ask you the same thing." Her deadpanned response pulled at him. There's no way she turned out the exact same as she used to be. "I was on patrol, saw the Kestrels drop off what I assumed were jarhead Avatars. Went to look, we know how that turned out."

She lifted her wrists at the cuffs and then set them back down into her lap.

"So, what's the plan? Gonna use me to get to my dad?"

"Your what?"

Oh. Well.... Shit . Apparently they didn't know and her ceaseless ability to respond, or answer, or talk with some kind of sarcasm just told them.

"My dad." Might as well go ahead and double down. Lo'ak would be proud. The Colonel's tail thrashed behind him angrily and his ears pressed flat against his head. "Not by blood if that manages to somehow piss you off less."

Lo'ak would be less proud.

"Jake Sully, is your father?" Her head shook yes slowly, was that not established at this point?

"Adopted me when the RDA left." Sully would know what she was, he may not know who she was. The RDA classified any documents and files related to her after she died. But he would know what those red eyes meant, and he chose to raise her as his own. He couldn't tell if he was thankful or pissed off about it.

"The offer to ride along with us extends to you." That caught her off-guard.

"Why?" Her eyes may have been locked onto his, but she was still watching his ears and tail. She assumed this was her life now, bright lights and white walls.

"Why not? Unless you wanna stay here in quarantine hell. But one look at you after a couple hours in here and you look ready to rip something apart. As long as it's not me or my men, I don't care."

Bastard, he was speaking her language. Looked like he didn't have any trouble reading her at all. Interesting, Kiri was the only one who could do that before.

"I'm listening." That pulled a smirk out of the Colonel and he took a sip of Co2 before continuing.

"Nothing more to say, come with us and ride along. Or... stay... here ." His striking yellow eyes glanced around the room before settling back on her. If she was anything like she was back then, this room would drive her insane.

"Well, when do we leave?"