Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

Doctor in the House

"Interesting... so the sound of your name does not induce panic in you any longer," Blake mused, typing something on a tablet.

It was not exactly true. Panic had in fact taken a hold of their entire body, to an extent that Lars could feel Null's presence quiver even inside their mind. Memories of those early days when she had woken up in Riga's mansion, after this very man had practically brought her back from the dead, welled up now, and even though they weren't in physical pain now, the memory of the pain she had felt back then was powerful enough to leave them breathless.

Null, keep it together, Lars said, trying his best to contain the memories and shoving them back into some deeper places within their mind where they couldn't hurt her.

We have to focus. We will find a way out of this. We always do. Right?

She didn't reply.

"I haven't heard from Mister Lawrence in a long time," Blake asked casually without looking up from his tablet. "How is he?"

Null clenched their teeth, as the memory of the pain of being brought back to life was replaced by a different kind of pain now. Lars still didn't quite understand that particular emotion – it disturbed him deeply, and he momentarily faltered in his attempts to suppress the memories.

"Well," Blake continued, "I suppose you being here like this means that... something happened between you two."

"He is dead," she said in a low voice. "I killed him."

The man lowered his tablet and cast them a curious glance.

"Is that so," Blake hummed. "Interesting. So that's what he got for keeping you around."

At his words, Null's presence practically erupted. It was like a wildfire was roaring through their body, a sensation of heat and pain unlike any of her furious outbreaks he had witnessed before. It was terrifying, and it overwhelmed him completely. Null tore at the restraints, and tried to rear, but it only served to have the edges of the metal cuffs at their arms and legs dig against their flesh painfully.

"You fucking bastard," she growled, "You don't know shit about-

"Now, now. Stop it," Blake said, sternly, "You should have noticed by now that it's really of no use. Even if your combat augments were active, you couldn't break these shackles."

He tapped his fingers against the cuffs that held them bound to the surgery table.

"They are sufficient to jam all of your systems, so I've hooked you up to external life support," he explained, casting a glance to the side, where the faint beeping of a machine could be heard.

"You were in a pretty rough shape when they brought you here. They couldn't have known that the EMP would do that to you, although, admittedly, I wouldn't have expected you to be knocked out like that either. That hardware in your brain must have taken over more functions than expected."

Null was about to hurl more profanities at him, but at his words, her jaw snapped shut. Lars could feel panic well up on Null's side of their mind again. Lars didn't remember anything after they had been hit by the EMP, but Null did, so it slowly dawned upon him. They had been brought here to be stripped of their augments.

Blake stepped out of sight again and began to rummage around somewhere close by.

He doesn't know, does he? Lars whispered, in an irrational fear that the man might hear him speak.

I don't think so, she said.

She shifted and turned their head a bit. With their working eye they could see Blake, standing with his back to them, bent over a workbench with what looked like surgical tools. A leaden feeling spread through their body, from their heart all the way through their limbs, and she sank back against the metal table. Their heart beat had stopped accelerating further. Instead, it slowed down to a heavy, painful throbbing that permeated through every bone and pounded within their head.