[ABANDONED] Another Series of Oneshots

The Memory Machine (The Machine)

Avon woke up alone in her room, with only a vague recollection of the night before. Did they sedate her again? At least she wasn't tied to the bed again, so it couldn't have been that bad. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. Looking around, she thought that the bright white room seemed a little hazy. Avon shook her head to try to clear it, but the haziness persisted. There wasn't much to see anyway; the only furniture that was left after the knife incident was the bed.

The rattle of the doorknob caught Avon's attention, and three Helpers let themselves in. Her heart sank. One Helper was bad enough, but three? This had to be serious. Avon tried to look past them into the hall, but one of them moved to block the view.

"Is, uh, something wrong?" Avon asked, swallowing her rising anxiety. She was met with stony silence as one of the Helpers approached her and took her arm. She stood, having long decided that cooperating won't get her sedated or earn her anymore bruises (if only Raius hadn't tried to escape with her, then maybe it would have worked) and walked with the Helper into the hall. A familiar wheelchair greeted her. She sighed and bet it was the one with the squeaky wheel. Nevertheless, she sat in it and let the Helper tighten the restraints around her wrists, ankles, and chest.

Behind her, the second Helper slipped a blindfold over her eyes.

"Hey...!" Avon jerked her head, but that didn't stop the Helper from tying the knot as sure as the hangman tied the noose. This was new, and anything new in this building had to be bad.

"It's standard protocol for where we're going," one of them explained. A Helper's voice sounded a lot like the next one's, and Avon couldn't tell the difference between them. "So you won't be able to retrace the path if you tried to escape."

"Makes sense. Where are we going?"

"We can't tell you that. Standard protocol."

That set off all the warning bells, but there was nothing Avon could do. She tried to break the restraints before, but both the leather and the metal ones were too tough for her. She could only sit patiently in the chair as the three Helpers wheeled her away. It occurred to her the third Helper must have been there in case she tried to resist. She tried to not let the squeaky wheel dig into her brain, but couldn't help grimacing.

After what felt like ages, Avon heard a door open and was wheeled into a room. She felt a couple of Helpers loosening the restraints, and a hand grabbed hers and helped her to her feet. She was led to another chair and was sat down. Restraints were tightened again, and the blindfold was pulled off of her head.

Avon was in a room filled with machinery and Mechanics tending to them in their gray outfits, a stark contrast to the blue of the Helpers. A table with a pair of headphones stood in front of her, as did the three Helpers. She glanced to the side and saw a glimpse of a metal brace that could have been tightened around her head, probably to keep it from moving.

"Where... where am I? What's going to happen?" Avon asked, hoping her worry was clear.

"This is the Memory Machine room," the middle one said. "This is where subjects go when their memories are too much for them and need to be erased."

"WHAT?"

The Helper to the left smacked the middle one on the back of the head. "There's a reason why the subjects aren't supposed to know," he hissed and gestured to Avon. "Now J26 is going to panic and make our jobs much harder."

And panic Avon did. She pulled against the restraints and screamed: No, No, Don't do this, I don't want you to do this, Please.

Two of the Helpers tried to calm her down, while the third called the Caretaker to tell him to hurry. Try as they could, there was no calming Avon. She screamed at them when they tried to touch her, and even considered trying to bite their hands. But she remembered the threat of a muzzle, and didn't bite. Tears streamed down her face.