Welcome to Gaia! ::

Thank God for small favours, jumping out of non-moving vans she could handle. She hesitated just a second before closing her eyes and jumping down the sewer with the others. Amelia landed hard, stumbling a few steps before collapsing to her knees. Things were rapidly deteriorating now. “I think Sybil lied.” She managed in a shaking voice between ragged breaths. “Adrian, it hurts.” The last came out more like a plea it make it stop. She couldn't even tell where it hurt, just that she was in pain and it was getting worse by the second.

Amelia nodded numbly, but didn’t say anything. She was scared if she opened her mouth she would start to scream and surely that would bring the machines down on them. She was vaguely aware of the medics around her, one drawing blood, another doing a scan of some kind. Eventually one left, it had only been a couple of minutes but it felt like an eternity, while the other stayed behind. All she could hear was the mantra in her head ‘don’t scream’ over and over again, though she couldn’t remember why it was so important any more.

“The good news is she is clean. We didn’t detect any kind of tracers or trackers. She was injected with a nasty chemical which activated the pain center. Essentially she isn’t in any physical pain, but her brain is telling her she is.” He held up his phone to show Adrian the scan they did. “Lit up like a Christmas tree. I am amazed she isn’t screaming. Bad news is most drugs are designed to cut off the signal before it reaches the brain, which means our options are fairly limited. Normally I would recommend sedation until the drug worked its way out of her system, but I assume that is out of the question. That leaves us with a couple that will make her high. She’ll be awake and able to walk, but will be pretty out of it and won’t have the best self-control. The other option will moderate the pain, hopefully enough so she can function, though she will defiantly still be in a significant amount. It depends on how much you think she can handle for how long, but it might be the best choice for moving quickly and stealthily.”

The medic nodded. Sedation would keep her quiet for sure, but she would be a burden for whoever was carrying her, especially if they ran into machines before they made it back. Walking back he typed several more thing into his phone, which returned him the correct dose. From their kit he pulled out a syringe and a vile, carefully measured the amount and put the vile back. Too much and her heart would stop, too little and it wouldn't work or if it did she would wake up too soon. He knelt down beside her speaking softly, though he wasn't sure if she could even hear him. “We are going to put you to sleep for a little while. You will feel better when you wake up.” He didn't wait for a response or consent. He doubted she was capable and even if she was it was the Directors orders. Grabbing her arm he slipped the needle under her skin. Held up by the second medic, Amelia's body went limp before the first had even removed the needle. He nodded to Adrian. It was done.

Now that they were somewhere safe, relatively speaking, and being mobile was less of concern the medics were able to create a more proper set up, though being at the Hanger would have been better. They set up an IV in her left hand with some fluids and chemical to help counter act the one Sybil had given her. It would still take a few hours, but would shorten the time significantly. After a few hours of taking turns doing periodic scans and blood tests both the medics agreed they could wake her. While one injected the drug that would wake her up the other went to report to Adrian. “The drug has cleared her system and Amelia will be awake in a few minutes if you would like to speak to her.”

“This isn't the Hanger.” She said softly. She knew she was stating the obvious, but she was still drowsy from the sedation making it difficult to think clearly. The medics had told her to stay laying down for a while, but she didn't want to. Not with Adrian standing there looking down on her. Amelia sat up and immediately felt the vertigo kick in. She managed to stay up right, though with a little bit of swaying. Standing was out of the question. “Where are we? Why didn't we go back? What is Zeta Protocol?” She knew they were related somehow, but her drug addled mind couldn't quite put the pieces together.

“I don't understand.” She said slowly and closed her eyes for a minute taking a deep breath. Trying to think was like trying to swimming in mud, slow and a lot of effort. She tried replaying the events in her mind speaking out loud as she did so. “You said Sybil didn't know where it was...that it needed to let us go so it could try to follow us, but obviously we didn't go back. Why would everyone need to go back into hiding?” Amelia briefly rubbed her forehead as if that would help. He told Sybil it was wrong because his father had planned to get caught. That was wrong though or Adrian wouldn't have been so upset at her, blaming her for compromising him. She looked up at him, finally understanding. “Oh God. You were bluffing, everything Sybil said was true. And your father...Adrian I am so sorry.” Driven mad by a machine, stripped of everything that had been him, and it was more or less her fault as far as Adrian knew. It was a wonder he hadn't left her in the basement with Sybil.

There literally could not be a worse person to try to provide any kind of comfort to Adrian. Social interactions weren’t exactly her strong suit and grief made her uncomfortable. Not that she didn’t care or feel bad, but she never knew what to say or do and that was on a good day. Add in being partially out of it from the sedative, the fact that she hadn’t known his father, knew Adrian only a few days and worst of all her own involvement in his father’s fate and there was a compelling argument to be made for not saying anything at all. She could pretend not to notice the obvious signs that he was struggling with what had happened. Perhaps offer to make an attempt at replacing the quartermaster that had gone back into hiding. It was probably the only skill she had that might be semi-useful to him.

Unfortunately for both of them she alone had been in the basement with him and understood the full nature of what Sybil had done. Amelia figured he probably hadn’t shared what had happened with the others, maybe hadn’t even thought about it until he had had to deal with her again. “Look, I am pretty terrible at this kind of thing.” She said softly. They were alone in the room, but it was the living room of a house; hardly the most private area. “It’s..it’s important to remember who he was before Sybil got its hands on him. He was gone long before we got there. We could hold a vigil if you like. You would only have to tell them he is gone. Or you could tell me about him if you want.” It sounded even stupider out loud