2023-12-12: Hello, Shichinijuu
- Cast: Liam 7-020, Shozo, Lucine Azul
- Where: The Hermes, aboard the Division Train
- Date: U.C. 0097 12 12
- Summary: As GGG prepares to breach the Conquerer King's final line of defense, Yapool pays Liam a visit and forces him to live through a horrific alternative: What if he hadn't escaped BioNet that day? Lucine finds the two of them in Liam's quarters, defies Yapool, and awakens Liam--but Yapool has already prepared for that. In the grip of the monster's influence, Liam nearly strangles Lucine, but breaks free just in time. The two are left reeling from the horror, and one question lingers--what did Yapool mean when he said he'd call on Liam again?
- Content Warnings: Brainwashing and mind control, psychic torture via nightmare, body horror, medical torture, mind control-induced violence against a partner.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The cockpit feels... unfamiliar. Mind in a fog.
He has to... He has to do something. He had to fight, right?
As the systems start up, the whirring of the machinery above is heart-stoppingly familiar, and as the nanite-laden latex begins to sink and glom onto the flesh, the mind begins to focus.
Something is wrong. This isn't the correct... unit? Time? Self?
"You finally awake, puppy?" A raspy, exhausted voice spits through the comms as the clinging, cloying grip of the Fighting Suit squeezes the air from his lungs. The panoramic screen shows a horrifyingly familiar scene -- Approaching Knightmare Frames bearing the insignia of Brittania, guns pointed and muzzle flare accompanying the sounds of bullets ripping through concrete and metal.
The hands of the Proto Helios slowly clench and unclench before him, mirroring his own hands.
"Better start fighting back, kid. Client paid good money for you and this thing, it'd be a shame if something happened to you."
Oh god, he was back.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam stirs.
A sort of sluggishness lingers in his thoughts--like waking from anaesthesia, or brain fog from nights when the nightmares kept him from sleeping. It keeps him from realizing what's happening until the Trace Suit extruder is on him. It slides down past his head, and he tenses every muscle in his legs, straining to stay upright--a reflex, drilled into him. His eyes go wide as he feels things plugging into his spine. No. This isn't right. This is--this machine changed, it suffered a meltdown and Gai rebuilt it, why is it here--
Liam's head jerks to the side to stare at the radio. His throat goes dry. Panic grips his guts with both hands, and squeezes. His hands clench and unclench.
"Sir," Liam chokes out. His heart hammers against his ribs. Lucine, Kaworu, Eight, Rita, Banagher, everyone--
Why--where is he--why is he--
Bullets stitch across the Proto Helios' shoulder, and Liam howls in pain, clasping a hand to the wound. He lashes out reflexively; the Mobile Fighter steps forward and launches a low kick, trying to scatter the machines attacking him. "Sir," Liam says. He reaches out, for the override he knows he wired into the Mobile Fighter's computer...
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
He finds nothing, and before he can plunge deeper into the data, another shell pierces the thigh of the Proto Helios, a red bloom of pain sending his muscles spasming just before the unit's foot lashes out and kicks into the backpack-cockpit of a KMF that had ventured too close, sending it flying back towards its allies -- and a moment later, it detonates as the Core Luminous goes critical, a violent explosion ripping apart several other Frames and sending the Proto Helios flying, its outer armor smoking.
"For fuck's sake, kid, what are you doing? They're going to think you're a defective product at this rate!" Hephaestus' voice crackles in his ears, visibly upset.
"At least put up a proper fight so we can finish the damn raid, or things are going to get a *lot* worse for you."
There is no override for him. He has no escape.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"Ghhk--!" Liam's face twists into a rictus of pain as the Mobile Trace shoots feedback into his leg. The bloom of the explosion flashes through the cockpit, playing across his face. His mouth falls open. In his mind's eye, he sees himself pulling his pile bunker from the cockpit of a shattered Zaku II. It comes out dripping red.
"Understood," Liam chokes out, as he sets an elbow down, and kips upright. The rest of the Trace Armature--the cables and rods holding him in place--cushioned his fall a bit, but everything hurts. Everything hurts, and where is--
Where is everyone? He... he got away. Lucine and Kaworu are--
But he rarely hears Hephaestus this frustrated, and it sends a chill through him. "Engaging," he says, and the emotion drains from his voice. The Proto Helios' chest vents iris open, and it clasps its hands, tucking them to its sides. White-hot plasma pours forth from inside, and Liam tells himself these are Britannians, they hurt him, oh God why is this happening, where is--
Beneath the panic, the grief, and the self-hatred, a part of him knows this is right. This is what he was built to do.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
"There we go, that's a good lad."
"Hephaestus's voice is almost enough to let him ignore the panicked screams and death rattles from the Brittanians on the open comm -- they had hailed him in his fugue state, hadn't they? The 4 or so that haven't been cooked begin to break formation and back away, attempting to escape the burning carcasses that had been their squadmates.
"Better put them down before they bring reinforcements, kid. If they get back to the base, the whole plan's tits up, and the client will be... upset," Hephaestus reminded him in a tone that was somewhere between condescending and chiding.
"If you take too long, I'm going to have to... assume direct control. Got it?"
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam smells smoke and ozone and burning plastic. Around him, he feels the air superheating as the Neo--
The Proto Helios heats up, bright and reckless. The asphalt starts to melt beneath his feet as he runs forward, chasing the fleeing Knightmares. Lucine, he thinks, where is she? She should be here, Kaworu should be here, they know about the anomalous heat signature.
Nobody comes to save him.
"Understood," Liam says, his voice utterly emotionless. The plasma cannons on the Mobile Fighter's torso lock onto the fleeing KMFs and open fire, sending a barrage of white-hot death downrange. More people are going to die.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Time passes, bobbing along in a sea of blood past islands of wreckage. When Liam can gather his cognition again, he's standing in the sundered ruins of a Martian colony, red clay seeping from his footsteps. It is deathly quiet, with the only sounds coming from the pitted wreck of the Dianthus, armor plates still glowing with sizzling heat. The pilot is trying to escape the crushed cockpit, cracked helmet obscuring their face.
%f"That one's the target," comes the clipped, cold voice of Vulcan through the comm link. "Eliminate them, 7-020."
The hostile deadpan of his handler's voice sends his mind back to the day they took Hephaestus away. His body had locked up -- his augmentations being co-opted by the BioNet agents, forcing him to watch as the slug had pierced the older man's gut. Even as the life left his eyes, they had been locked on his frozen form.
They were sad.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
More disorientation. It's like being drugged, except Liam doesn't know if that's what's really happening. He can't think straight. He tries to remember names, faces--to convince himself that he really did escape, that people knew him, loved him--
He barely remembers any of it. The touch of a young woman's lips--as if anyone could stand to touch him. A gentle, beatific smile, from a younger person--with white hair? Blue? Red eyes? A little golden bird. Did he dream that up, too?
Martian dirt beneath his feet. He's here because Vicious needed someone solved. The target is the family of someone who thought he could leave. (That 'someone' might be dead, but that doesn't matter to Vicious.) He advances on the twisted wreck, his gait smooth, purposeful. His gun is already in hand.
They didn't even spare the one person who cared about him. Why should anyone else get that luxury?
(Even as he raises the gun, part of him recognizes the wreck before him, and starts to scream, and scream, and scream.) Liam's hand starts to shake. Why is he--why does he feel like this? Who is the target?
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The flash of muzzle fire, and he never finds out.
"You hesitated, 7-020. That's not acceptable. Recover the machine and return to base. Perhaps its technology will prove to be a better investment than you." As if controlled by someone other than him, the hands of the machine reach out and clasp the ruined, blood-spattered machine, dark teal hair spilling out of the crushed helmet as the Helios begins to walk away.
It was easy. A gun doesn't question when its trigger is pulled, after all.
Is that why, as he passes the threshold of the colony, he hucks a single grenade into the closest reactor, causing a detonation that begins to spread through the leaking atmosphere of the collapsing colony? Perhaps it's just his nature to be... thorough.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam screams, and screams, and screams, but his mouth doesn't move. The part of him that recognizes that suit--that pilot, that person--has been crushed and maimed and overridden. He screams at Lucine to run. (He doesn't recognize her. She's just a target.)
Subject 7-020 pulls the trigger. The woman is dead before she hits the ground.
"Understood," he says, to the voice that just belittled him. There's no emotion there, not even the satisfaction of completing a mission. Why were his hands shaking? They aren't shaking when he throws the grenade. What's more death? It won't ever stop.
Subject 7-020 clears the ruined colony's perimeter quickly and efficiently, as Liam howls in nameless agony.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
When the part of him that's screaming finally goes hoarse, 7-020 is shackled to a table, staring down at a body that couldn't be called human anymore. How many augmentation surgeries had he gone through?
It had been years, and with each year came "upgrades". With each one, another bit of his flesh had been hewn away, replaced with something more efficient. A tendon cut, replaced with an actuator. Skin scraped away and replaced with carbon fiber.
He had been denied a mirror for at least three years -- Vulkan had cursed him out when he'd caught a glimpse of what had been done to his face, angrily chastising him for wasting good sedative. Now, Vicious is standing in the room, pacing as he speaks to a man in black, who smiles demurely as he chats up the infamous criminal.
"And so you see, the Choju procedure carries with it *such* potential! Perfect obedience, incredible destructive power -- it feels no pain, and it will not stop -- and all such a thing would cost is something that hasn't even been proven to exist by science. The "soul" -- feh!" Vicious turns around, a wicked smile on his face.
"I'll admit, the idea sounds *highly* promising. How much of the original organics does the procedure require?"
"Oh, very little!" the man in black crows, leaning on the wall. "All that is truly needed are the parts that can *feel* -- that's where the thing's power gets drawn from, after all!"
"
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Subject 7-020's head rests limply against the molded plastic. His chest is layered with carbon fiber and alloy. Inside, articulated armor has replaced most of his ribcage. His heart is wholly artificial, as is most of his skull. His throat is lined with filters. All they have to do to give him injections is open a panel.
Liam whimpers, inside the prison his body has become. He can't stop them. He could never stop them. Even the promise of power has taken everything from him.
7-020's head lifts up, and tracks the two conversing figures. There's an alertness in his eyes, but no wariness.
Please, Liam wants to say, but he can't, because he can't speak. Please stop. Please let him live. Please let him go. Please stop, please, please, please.
But he doesn't deserve it. He deserves every last thing they've done to him, and more. So many are dead, because of him. This is all he's good for.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
If there was anything strange about the way Liam responded to Lucine, in the heat of the moment, Lucine suspected nothing. There was no room *to* suspect; the danger was there on their doorstep, and Lucine was already on the front lines.
After Guy and Mikoto's sweet reunion, Lucine was mentally exhausted but happy, feeling a renewed sense of hope towards the future and the battles ahead.
And there's no one else she'd rather see right now than Liam.
Walking from the hangar, she sees no sign of Liam; his suit still being in the hangar itself clues her in that he's still on board. It *does* strike her as odd; but maybe something came up that she doesn't know about.
Getting aboard the Hermes, Lucine can hear the distant celebrations and necessary clean-up procedures being gone over. She ponders going back to join them, but decides against it, on the basis of a gut feeling alone.
"Liam?" She knocks on his door in the quarters first; if the door is already open, she knocks on the doorframe instead. "Are you there? I just got back; everything okay?"
She'll doubtlessly feel foolish later, she supposes.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Liam is lying just beyond the open door, in his cot, arms crossed and eyes closed.
The man in black is standing over him, watching silently.
Slowly, he turns to look at Lucine, and raises a single finger up to his list, letting out a "Shhhhhh..."
"He's having a wonderful dream right now, my dear. You wouldn't want to wake him, would you?" His lips split into a wide grin, showing off those horrible, needle-like teeth as he looks down on her from above.
Just looking at him directly like this is enough to make one ill, the sheer *malice* oozing off him in waves.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam does not stir. He breathes, but it's like that night in the hotel when she saw him mid-nightmare--shallow, panicked. Aside from that, he's eerily still.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine's eyes present the visuals of the situation; her Newtype senses present a more ghastly picture. Liam is there, but his mental signature is off-key, possibly due to being trapped in the middle of a nightmare like he was that one rainy night at the hotel. His attacker(?), a man in black, full of concentrated malice.
Still flush from the miracle she saw, and brimming with protective anger as she spies Liam in his bed, Lucine's initial panic is snuffed out quickly. Her yellow eyes almost seem to stand out against the backlighting of the area outside the quarters.
To go to Liam would be exposing her back to this being, something that may operate similarly to Alexis Kerib.
"... I see," she says, softly. Her hands, behind the doorway, fumble on memory alone, feeling for a possible weapon. There's plants, but no, that won't do. ... Then she remembers--
Sccoping low, Lucine suddenly flings a shoe square at Yapool, as hard as she can. The second, aimed originally to follow its mate towards Yapool, is aimed towards the wall next to Liam instead, attempting to jostle him with noise from afar.
"... There are agents aboard this ship that will hunt you down the soonest they catch your scent," she hisses. "Now, _get out of my boyfriend's room_!!"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The man laughs and laughs, even as the he tilts his head to let the first shoe fly past his head, never turning from her -- the brim of his hat obscured his eyes, but he's definitely looking right at her.
"Oh, *Lulu*... What makes you think I haven't visited them already? Now come in, come in. Sleeping Beauty needs to be roused, and I'm afraid I've no true love to deliver, kiss or no. Or... I suppose you fear me more than you love him? Is that why you're lingering in the doorway?"
The man laughs darkly.
"Certainly can't fault you for *that*..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The shoe hits the wall sole-first, and a loud clunk echoes through the room. There's absolutely no response from Liam.
BBSYS: Post 1357, 'Horror at the North Pole' has been published to IC News/Rumors by Yuliana Kafim.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Hearing that nickname further incites Lucine, but seeing Liam lying there, helpless in the clutches of a nightmare, stabilizes her. Her gaze softens as she looks over Liam.
".... I can't help him if I'm stuck in the same dilemma he is."
Guy may have stepped into the vaccuum of space to embrace his love, but... Lucine is not Guy.
Instead, she disappears, running back into the room to try to pull the emergency cord, finding no response. "..." She considers it, frowning. Any weapons would have been well-secured by Liam, as well.
She's on her own.
She reappears at the doorway, a frown on her face. "... I know this is a trap," she murmurs, as she walks past Yapool without a glance, towards Liam. "... but I know... whatever happens... I love you, Liam."
Gently, she touches her hand to Liam's cheek, stroking it. ".... Wake up, Liam. You can do it. You've done it before." It's always a risk to wake Liam like this, knowing his background as a soldier.
Lucine will just have to deal with it, and survive.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine gently leans down, her hair shifting from over her shoulder, and kisses Liam on the lips. ".... I love you, Liam. Come back."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
A long second passes.
Liam's eyes snap open, alive with terror. He does not move, otherwise; he doesn't thrash, or scream, or gasp. He stares, incomprehending, at the face inches from his own. The dream. He's dreaming. He's dying, and he killed her, and he's dreaming, and--
Liam sucks in a shuddering breath. His body feels different, less heavy. He's dreaming. He's dying. Why is she here?
His hand twitches, and he realizes--he can move. Or is he moving? His hands clench into fists. "<No,>" he mumbles, defaulting to Gaeilge despite the word feeling foreign on his lips. "<Stop. No. NOT AGAIN!>" His hands shoot up to Lucine by the shoulders and clutch her; his eyes are wide and wild, brimming with tears.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The man watches, seated in a chair that wasn't there when Lucine walks in, grinning ever-wider as she hovers over Liam.
As 7-020 stirs, he can recognize the woman standing over him.
He killed her.
An enemy combatant.
Hands that Liam intends to grab shoulders with slide up efficiently to wrap around the neck, squeezing. Mission incomplete. Mission incomplete. Finish the job, 7-020. He can hear Vulcan's voice in the base of his brain, cold and demanding.
Finish the job.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Liam." She can feel the terror in his voice and see it in his face, hear it in the foreign words he says, and how he's gripping her.
That man did this to Liam. That man. ".... You're more than your fear, Liam. Show the man behind me... that _you are not his toy_." She lets on to more anger than she should have. But she won't be passive during this, either; her initial unwillingness to enter, to bare her neck to him, was all a calculation to not put Liam at odds with the man that had infiltrated his dreams.
".... Remember when you were caught in that dream, way back when? You succeeded in breaking away from Bujack." Lucine's voice grows more gentle. "... Liam... my sunflower. Standing proud and strong, always following the sun. Bright, and beautiful. My Liam."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
'...you are not his toy.'
Hands squeeze around Lucine's neck. Something surfaces behind the terror--the overriding imperative of a mission objective. Lips twist. Tears spill from flame-blue eyes as he starts to strangle the objective. Who is 'he'?
She's still talking. Caught in a dream? How--how does he know what's a dream, and what's real? Subject 7-020 has his orders, and Liam is numb and terrified. He feels something about to give, in her neck--
HE CAN'T LOSE THEM ALL AGAIN
A raw, hoarse cry tears free from Liam's throat. He screams, and screams, and forces his hands away, trembling. Waves of grief and horror and shock and disbelief roil off him, turning the room into a tempest of painful emotion.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The man slowly raises his head, eyes closed as his smile turns... rapturous. He leans back, as though Liam's guttural scream of anguish were sweet music.
"Mmm... What a way to spend an afternoon. A bit more pressure would have been even better, but you two are merely a pleasant diversion -- I'll take what enjoyment I can. Besides, you two can always lose everything all over again another time."
He slowly stands, brushing off his coat, and looks out into the doorway, face in shadow.
"I'm excited to hear how you two explain those bruises on her neck."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
The room begins to dim, as Liam's hands tighten around her neck. Lucine's face flushes an ugly red as she struggles to breathe.
So this will be it, then? Despite it all... She really wanted to have heard Kaworu's next song. Or shown Liam the field of flowers.
Or...
When Liam's hands pull away, Lucine limply tumbles to the bed, gasping and choking for air. Yapool's words barely filter through the maelstrom of emotions erupting from Liam; it feels like she's drowning.
He's drowning with her.
"... Liam...." she croaks out. "... Liam. Come here." She stretches out a hand, towards the source. ".... hold... my hand... s'.... over." To ground himself, and make the explosion of emotions stop. ".... Hold my hand," she repeats, beckoning with it. "... Don't look at him. Just... my hand. It's okay... you're here... with me..."
Her hand hangs limp, upturned. "... Liam..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam closes his eyes, and jerks his head away. He can't risk looking at her, can't bring himself to look at her. He feels her body collapsing, her weight atop his, and hears her gasping for breath. She's alive. She's alive. He failed?
No. No, no, no.
Liam forces his eyes open again, and reaches out, brushing his fingers against hers.
He can't bring himself to hold her hand after what he just did. Even that gentle touch feels violent. "Doctor," Liam whimpers, and muddled images pour out of him--so many people in white coats, the very last one a blurry, confused image of Jana.
Help.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The man smirks as he walks through the open doorway, into the hall.
"Have fun trying to put him back together, Lulu. As for *you*, Shichinijuu... This is your reward for showing the wrong child kindness. Enjoy your sweet dream a bit longer."
"I'll call for you later."
With that, he turns the corner and disappears into the hallway.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine is alive.
Liam will feel her trying to breathe, the way her hair casts over his midsection as her head shifts with her coughly. The way her fingers, despite her want to keep it as a want to center Liam, suddenly grasp ahold of his with a weak, but persistently greedy grip.
After a while, her breathing slows, and settles, as her mind sets off for darkness, too tired to even move, beyond grasping onto Liam's hand.