A Hard Lesson, Part 2

Posted on Thu May 20th, 2021 @ 5:18pm by Administrator Myz Phoenyx & Level 1 Hikaru Yoshida
Edited on on Thu May 20th, 2021 @ 6:31pm

Mission: Echoes of the Past
Location: HYDRA Facility, Unknown Pacific Island
Timeline: 10 Years Ago

Eva Gideon watched as HYDRA scientists experimented on the strange little bug that she had found on the beach a few nights earlier. Their processes weren’t unfamiliar to her, as she had once been where the bug was now, and not as long ago as one might imagine. Terrified, alone. But HYDRA had fixed that.

They had surgically removed the soldier’s good arm in order to observe the man’s odd regenerative process from the beginning, and compare it to the rate of the ones that had been incinerated in the explosion. Any open wounds simply cinched shut to keep him from bleeding out, then his body started re-knitting itself back together.

It wasn’t a quick process, though being able to regrow a limb in roughly a day’s span, or repair damaged organs within hours, wasn’t unimpressive. With the type of injuries that he had suffered, however, they suspected that it would take no less than a week to recover. Nothing like other mutants that she had run into, but then, most of them were different somehow.

The icy telepath sought out the man’s mind, as they kept him conscious most of the time, measuring the pain that the process produced. It wasn’t as painful as it could have been, but it wasn’t pleasant for the weakened soldier. You are alone now. None of your friends have survived. I thought that perhaps you should know.

Hikaru Yoshida moaned weakly as the voice inside his head woke him from the abyss. He opened his eyes but all he could see was a blinding light shining in his face. He turned his head to one side in a futile attempt to hide from the light and her voice. He tried to speak but his dry lips didn’t move. He then thought words, wondering if the female voice would hear them.

I will kill you for this. Despite the pain and suffering he was enduring, his defiance radiated supremely well with his natural stubbornness.

So defiant, but your struggles and threats are pointless, Eva’s voice said, watching passively as they trimmed more of his arms and legs off, keeping them shortened to stop any possible escape attempts, even though he was strapped down. There was no fear in her, no malice behind the woman’s words, nor even a sliver of any real pity, as she continued, This will go a lot easier on you if you stop fighting it.

He bared his teeth as she spoke inside his head, the pain from their mutilations almost blinding. He knew at that moment that she was a true psychopath. Reasoning with her wouldn’t work if she were devoid of empathy. If he managed to survive this horrible agony, he promised himself that he would make them all pay slowly for this. I’ll never stop fighting!

The woman in white walked over to the table and motioned the doctors away. “That’s enough for now,” she ordered, her voice sounding outside of his head for the first time. She settled down on one of the rolling stools as they nodded and left, and the Ice Queen got closer to him, right next to him, tantalizingly close, knowing that he could do nothing to her.

I used to be just like you, little bug. We will fix that for you, though. You will be a good little soldier, or you will be dead. Just like all that came before you. Just like all of your friends, she told him, though there was no emotional inflection. She wasn’t even sadistic, there was just… nothing.

Hikaru’s mind flashed to remembering the blast that wiped out his entire team. Men with which he had shared the hells and horrors of war for many years. They were the closest he knew to actual family. And now they were all gone in an instant. Her casual disregard for human life pissed him off. Such a creature should be destroyed. She went against everything a sentient being should be. “You’re… a servant. You… have a leash. Tell me who they are.”

Such emotion. Anger, hatred. Such things cause instability, the questioning of orders, Eva said, watching him as he thought of ways of killing her, as he agonized over the loss of his combat buddies. She had no such connections, no such loyalties to the men under her command. And you’re in no position to be making demands, little bug. Trust me, your suffering will end more swiftly if you accept your fate.

He closed his eyes as he willed himself to regain control and to fight the pain he felt throughout his body. “Pain is my body telling me that I’m still alive. As long as I’m alive, I will fight you.” Indeed, hatred was more than enough reason to fight against her. He would bide his time until the right opportunity to destroy her, whenever that would come.

I can’t give you what you want, the Ice Queen said, sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest, her icy blue gaze still on him. I feel nothing. Not fear, not sorrow. No love, or hatred. No anger, she explained, glancing over to the team of scientists that were pouring over the results of the tests so far. I was stripped of such weaknesses when I was a child. We will strip you of those weaknesses as well. In the light, the woman didn’t look very old at all. Perhaps not even old enough to drink.

Hikaru swallowed hard as the pain coursed through his entire body still. He gave her a piercing gaze in an effort to see if she really was this person in front of him. He resigned after a few moments and let his head fall back onto the cold steel platform. “Then you must be destroyed. There is no reason you should exist.”

There’s no reason for any of us to exist, little bug. We just do, Eva answered, that emotionless tone still firmly in place, her icy demeanor unbothered by his weak and insignificant threats and posturing. God is dead, you are trapped, and nothing is right with the world. You would be wise to learn those simple things, and learn them quickly.

He fought against the restraints once again with renewed anger and fury, lashing out as if he would break free if only it took more struggling. “I have a few simple things to teach you too, bitch!”

As Hikaru’s vain struggles increased, alarms started going off on the equipment that he was hooked to. Eva’s crystalline blue eyes glanced at the flashing monitors dispassionately. Your strength and conviction are impressive, but ultimately futile, she said, then stood and walked away as the team of doctors rushed back in to see to their new project. I would tell you to rest well, but that is unlikely.

He could only scream again in response to the overwhelming torture he was enduring at their hands. All his efforts against the restraints were indeed for naught as every nerve was alive and telling him to stop the horror going on with his body. He felt shattered, as if his mind were separating from his body.

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TBC
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