The Trial of Dreams and Memories (TMM 2)

Vulnerability

The warden didn't say anything, waiting instead for her prisoner to fall unconscious.

"If she finds out it's really there, I have no doubt she'll try and claw it out of her own neck," she finally sighed, both her and Pollie's phones beeping at their sides.

"Should we have it taken out?" the guard asked.

"It's obviously proven to be useful," Sheridan answered. The warden walked over to her daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I don't want you anywhere near her, do you understand? Your father may have overreacted, but he has a point. There are better ways to achieve what you want that don't involve consorting with violent criminals."

Yvette was escorted out of the room by a pair of guards.

"She wasn't always a violent criminal!" she called out from the doorway. "What happened to saving the hero who once saved us, huh?"

Without answering her daughter, Sheridan continued the discussion.

"I think it bothers her so much because she's finally realizing what her purpose was. Team Rocket planned to use her from the start and they still do. Now that we have her in our custody, there are parallels between the supposed freedom she had then and the imprisonment she is facing now. If the whole of her—her personality, skills, and now almost-mutant body—was going to be weaponized, then who is she, really?"

"The fallen angel. Struck with sudden abilities she couldn't understand that somehow split her soul," Pollie replied, looking at the monstrous figure lying on the floor. "Her descent from heaven was a secret one, and no one knew that she had fallen until she hit the ground."

"That's why I struggle between treating her with empathy and kindness and treating her like a monstrous criminal," Sheridan sighed. "The actions of her former self probably saved our lives in some way, and she was the one who made the ultimate sacrifice to save the Battle Subway. This Morai is not the Champion...she's not even the Morai that existed before. She's an entirely new entity, with faint memories of her life but no connection to them. I don't think she can be entirely returned to the way she was, and I don't even think she wants to. What are we to do with her then?"

"You can't win all of them, my friend." The Morai that lived in the Nightmare side of the Outlands pressed Past Morai's own staff against her neck, pinning her to the ground.

"It's my job to try," Past Morai choked. Nightmare Morai was right, and with one final blow she sent her opponent spiraling into unconsciousness. While Morai slept, nightmares were now free to take hold of her mind. This time, Past Morai had failed in protecting her from them. 

Morai found herself sitting in one of the cathedral rooms. A crowd of guards and Aether Employees had gathered around her. Gasps, whispers and yells spread through them like wildfire, and they seemed as tall as trees as they hovered over her. Confused, the prisoner finally looked down. Her hands were stained with red, and a taste she recognized filled her mouth. Her apparent victim was lying on the floor, and when she saw them Morai turned an even deathlier shade of pale than she already was.

The unmoving body of Yvette was lying on the ground, her face forever frozen into one of terror. The prisoner immediately jumped up.

"No...no, I didn't do that!" she pleaded, wiping the blood from her face with her sleeve. "We were all just there! Pollie can say so! Pollie?"

The guard Morai was referring to parted the crowd, Sheridan following behind her. When the warden saw her daughter lying on the ground, she made a face chilling enough to scar a mind for decades.