The Lost

Gaining trust

The Curator froze, and chuckled inwardly to himself. He had managed to trigger a flashback without meaning to. Nothing he could do but let it run it's course at this point. He was curious to see which memories would be the ones to return to her first.

Annabeth's eyes were wide, and it felt as if her brain were on fire. She was beginning to lose focus on the room around her as she began to get dragged back through her mind and into the past to that fateful day that led her to be where she was now.

It was a day like any other she had experienced since she had come back into the world. It was much like any day in the Labyrinth underground facility. There were things to analyze, people to talk with, and her lover, Robin, whom she had met months prior, and who brought her much happiness. It was the Red Dragons that had ruined it all. While they had been in the mess hall, the warning system had not activated to alert them to the presence of people closing in on the base. Come to find out, they had help in tracking down the Labyrinth's from a former employee who had given them access codes to their security system.

They had been breached from all access points into the facility, and they used a combinations of smoke and concussion grenades as they cleared hallways and rooms. It made it difficult to see who was a friend and who was foe as they tried to make their way to the garages to take cars and vehicles and abandon the facility. She had tried to keep Robin safe. She had told Robin to stay behind the pillar she had been hiding behind and to let her take out the men who were in the hallway.

But that beautiful, stubborn red-head didn't listen, and she fell as soon as she made her position aware to the enemy, taking several hits to the chest. Her brother-in-arms, Aaron, followed suit, and fell to the same onslaught of bullets. Seeing Robin go down had made her snap. in an instant all the light in the world seemed to leave her life. She reached deep within her, and used the rage she was feeling to force entry into project D-3, which overloaded her original circuitry, and caused her pain, but she didn't care.

She was much stronger, much faster, and she even produced an energy shield that surrounded her, to protect her from gunfire. Project D-3 also altered her form. She grew by four inches for the necessary modifications to her abilities, and the output of power. She had accessed her Spatial storage, and with the help of her arsenal, she killed everyone in the hallway in front of her. She didn't care if they had been friend or foe. It was all too quick to tell properly, even with her fast computing skills.

When it was all said and done, and she could think; when she stopped murdering inconsequentially, she had placed Aaron and Robin, along with the gang leader, Azazel, into her spatial storage, where their bodies wouldn't decay until she could give them a proper burial. Once she got the most important documents out of the facility, which had been all members last will and testaments as well as the gangs financial paperwork, she had set the base to self destruct.

In the present, on the floor of Annabeth's room, with her screams splitting through the air, she slowly became aware of her surroundings. She panted from the pain and the contortion her body had been in whilst her memories flooded back into her mind. "Ever....since..." She began to try and complete what she had been saying. "Robin.... No one has shown me... very much... kindness, Curator." she closed her eyes, and focused on her breathing.

The Curator continued to sit in the chair and observed Annabeth. "I feel for you, Anna. For how tragically your life stopped, and then how not kindly it was restarted in that lab. Can you stand?"

She had to continue to focus on her breathing a moment longer before she could respond. She pushed herself up off of the floor and sat in a kneeling position and faced The Curator. "N-not yet." Was her response.

He nodded, and smiled kindly at her. "Well, when you can, I would like to actually run a few quick tests, since you had a flashback right in front of me, i need to collect data, and I can give you a muscle relaxer during this process, to allow you to sleep and to dwell on the memories as they replay as dreams. Unless you want to do something else?" He asked, almost hopeful. He only wanted to obtain the data because of the scientist side of him.

She managed to slow her heart rate, and her breathing returned to normal. "That sounds fine, Curator. Is there a garden in this vast complex?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yes, there is. But I don't think that the Elders will grant you access to that right now."

"Why not?" She asked, confused.

"Well dear, that is because the Garden is on one of the lower levels, below most of the security measures. They fear that you would interfere with the rest of the facility and how things operate. I can, however, take you to the Holo-Deck, and I can show you what the garden looks like. Would that be nice?"

She nodded and looked at The Curator. "Yes. That would be nice." She admitted and smiled at him. She missed being able to see greenery, to be around plants. But She smiled just the same and spoke again. "Let's go run your tests, Curator." She said softly. She was able to give him her trust freely. He had not sought to exploit and use her himself. He was simply helping her to recover, manage life and remain in working order.