Triptych

Chapter 10

Good Morning. Your writer finally knows what's going on with this story let's applaud her🙈😂😂

Mac

Mac doesn’t see Lana again for another two weeks. Two weeks of getting dolled up for press conferences and fan meetings that keep her and Orion busy enough to not continuously worry about the other girl. As expected, Orion thought Mac had presented herself too strongly too early. Probably scaring the poor cyborg away. But Lana seeks her out eventually through the deep web, and Mac doesn’t try too hard to hide her smug smile as she leads Lana into the lab.

“I’m glad you contacted me again. Orion here was convinced I scared you away” She says unabashedly. “But I’m not scary right Lana?” She turns back to Lana with a pout. Lana turns red and turns away with a mumbled “no”, making her even smugger.

“Don’t tease her” Orion reprimands with a glare. Bitter obviously. “How are you today Lana?” He asks with a completely different tone.

“Alright I guess. But I want some actual explanation for what you’re doing here. And what the plan is regarding- well me.” She tells them with practiced determination. “No more conspiracy theories.”

Mac giggles. Lana turns to her with a glare. “You think this is funny? This is my entire life. Do you have any idea how many years of upgrades and surgeries have gone into me to make me what I am today? To prepare me for this upgrade so I can work to the best of my potential? And now I learn that there might be something wrong with me and I may ruin the big moment I’ve been looking forward to my whole life. That there might be something wrong with me.”

“I know” Mac acknowledges solemnly, staring at the feverish anger on Lana’s face. “Believe me I do. But first of all, there is nothing wrong with you. Ok? And right now you’re still plugged into FOCUS surveillance web and I’ll need to disable your inhibitors to figure this out. Right now it’s blander than cabbage soup.”

Lana takes a step back, shrinking into herself. “I barely know you though. You think I’ll just let you roam around in my subconscious?”

“Its not gonna be my first time.” Mac shrugs, ignoring Orion’s withering look. “And besides, you let dozens of doctors and techs take a turn. How’s this any different?”

The words are out before she can think them through. Orion is outright glaring at her and Lana, Lana looks devastated. Her wide eyes stare at her in anguish and disbelief as searches for something to say.

“I’m so sorry” Orion interjects. “Mac didn’t mean it like that.”

“What did she mean?”

Orion fumbles for words as he lays a hesitant hand on Lana’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s never easy to get used to it, no matter how many times you go through it.”

“It isn’t” Lana gripes out. “Especially without inhibitors.”

Mac bites her lip guiltily. “I’m sorry. I should’ve have phrased it better. But I do need you to trust me if this is to work.”

Lana finally nods, looking resigned. She turns to Orion, “So um – are you both disconnected from FOCUS too? And they can’t tell?”

“Well, as far as FOCUS is concerned, we are.” Orion leads her to the examination room. “Mac is the one who figured out the whole thing.”

“It’s pretty simple actually.” Mac interjects with faux shyness. “Think of the criteria inhibitors use to stop certain thoughts and ideas from registering in our brains. Same principle.”

“Can you- will you do the same thing for me?”  Lana asks hesitantly.

“Of course. That’s the first step. Once we’re free from FOCUS’s prying eyes we can get to fixing you.” Mac cringes at herself “Or fixing whatever those dumbasses messed up”   She gives her best placating smile, Lana doesn’t return it. “Let’s get started then.”

Traversing Lana’s mind is like trying to ace the final level of a video game quest, and Mac’s excitement is rivalled only by her anxiety as she remembers that she’s accessing an actual person this time. She’s thankful to Orion who distracts Lana with small talk as she works. She can sense Lana’s hesitant stare on her as the two talk and she tries not to bristle. Lana seems quiet shy at first but once you get her talking, she’s an open book. Her nervousness bleeds through her words as Orion slowly prods her about her history with FOCUS.

“I’ve been under their care as long as I can remember.” She affirms what they already know. “Um- I guess they saw my test scores and saw the potential. After that, it wasn’t much of a choice but to be the best.” She shrugs non-committedly. “My father was really excited that I was scouted for the elite schools even.”

“But you ended up graduating from the public school.” Orion supplies.

“Yeah” Lana looks almost ashamed. “I was scared of not living up to their standards. I- I didn’t have all of this back then” She raises her arms to point at herself. “And sometimes I think I’m not much without it ya know? Aaah I don’t know why I’m telling you this” She ends with a soft laugh.

“Maybe because your inhibitors are being deactivated” Orion supplies with a friendly smile.

“Yeah” Lana’s eyes light up in relief as she brushes her hair away from her face. “Yeah that must be it.”

Mac doesn’t tell her she hasn’t even touched her inhibitors yet. She’s actually piggybacking her feed to download what data she can about the update from the FOCUS servers before she has to shut the connection down for good. She knows why Lana’s being too loose lipped with practical strangers though. It reminds her of when she first met Orion, after they came to their little agreement and became each other’s confidants. It makes her smile as she watches Lana laugh heartily at something Orion says.

“It’s a pretty cool lab you’ve put together though. Even more impressive that it hasn’t been discovered yet.” Lana says then, sounding impressed.

“Why thank you” Mac interjects, turning her chair back around. She enjoys Lana blush slightly when their gazes meet. “We both have pretty decent cover stories so it all checks out if someone wants to snoop around.”

“Oh. Um- cool” Is all she says, shrinking into herself. Orion looks between them in confusion.

Mac decides to show some mercy. “So I wanna deactivate your inhibitors a little before I put you under, just so you can sense the difference.” At Lana’s nod, she presses a few keys on her keyboard and Lana’s sudden gasp tells her it’s done.

Lana stands up slowly, looking around the room in wonder. Orion rushes to brace her as she almost pulls some wires connected to her body for examination but she just laughs softly, her eyes glittering. “Everything looks so – like it’s so much more. Is it always been this colorful in here?”

“Um hmm. That’s what it feels without having all your senses subdued with AI and hardware.” Mac tells her giddily. “Take it easy I can already see your thoughts whirring around”

Lana laughs again, looking carefree and completely different from the shy girl from a while ago. “But this is amazing. I feel like- like I’ve been asleep all this time and now I see everything, There are so many ideas going through my head right now that I- I can’t”

Mac takes more than a second to register the smile frozen on Lana’s face before she falls face first where she stands. Completely unconscious.