Part 1
Down the Rabbit Hole.
***
[b]
“Is the subject ready?”
“Yes sir... but even thought she was highly inebriated, we lost eight men bringing her in.”
“A trivial matter. Once we have the info we need, it won't matter.”
“Yes sir, beginning the procedure.”
* * *
There was a beep coming from somewhere, rousing her from her sleep.
Neph Seraph grunted as her eyes slowly opened, sunlight pouring in from the nearby window. Rubbing her eyes, she went to sit up before letting out a gasp of pain and collapsing back, her body feeling like she just gone five rounds with Terrence Knight.
Looking down at herself, her brain took a few seconds to take in what she was seeing, she was in a hospital bed; and guessing by the amount of machines hooked up to her, she must have been in a hell of a accident.
Was she hit by a car last night?
Sure she was drunk, but that drunk?
She groped around for her glasses when another fact slowly filtered into her brain.
She was was able to see the room around her perfectly.
How the hell was that possible? Her cruddy eyesight was a side effect from when Dib rushed her growth, resulting in a permanent case of short sightedness. However, but the room around her was crystal clear.
What the fuck was going on?
Her train of thought was distracted by the door opening when a tall balding man entered, adjusting his glasses as he consulted a clipboard and walked over to her.
“Ahhh, Miss Seraph, you are finally awake, you had us all worried there for a while.” He spoke in a calm, soothing voice.
“What the hell happened to me?” she mumbled, her voice sounding softer than she was used to.
He sighed before speaking. “There is no easy way to say this. You were hit by a car two weeks ago You’ve been comatose since. There was extensive damage, and it was touch and go for some time.”
“What? How bad was it?”
He took a deep breath before listing off her injuries. “Let's see, your right arm and six ribs were broken, along with severe internal bleeding from lacerations to your large intestines and a ruptured liver, a mild skull fracture and extensive damage to your right leg... You’re lucky to be alive young lady.”
“Two weeks? What the...why didn't the mediport system get me?” She asked. She knew she had suffered worse in the past and gotten off scot free, thanks to that little bit of tech.
The doctor furrowed his brow as he looked over his glasses. “Miss Seraph, you are aware that such technology is reserved for civil servants, the elderly and heroes, not teenage girls.”
“What?” She screeched as she tried to get up, pain flaring through her body as she looked down at herself, horror filling her as she saw her right leg was missing below the knee. She tried to move and pain flared through her body, crimson starting to stain the bed sheets, darkness filling her vision-
Images swirled in front of her, she was in some sort of tank, voices shouting from a great distance
“She's fighting the lotus effect sir!”
“Increase the dosage then.”
“Sir, we’re not sure if that’s a good idea, it could interfere with the download.”
“Do it!”
“Yes sir”
The voices began to fade. . .
As the room swum back into focus, the first thing she noticed was it was night now. As she tried to sit up, she discovered she could not. Instead of pain keeping her prone, she now saw that job was being done by large straps pinning her to the bed. Collapsing back, she glared at the ceiling and wondered what the hell was going on.
Then she heard voices drift in from outside the room. Straining herself to hear, she could make out the voice of the doctor and someone else who sounded vaguely familiar.
“After such a traumatic experience, it is not unusual for someone to lash out at their surroundings. It is a lot to take in at once.”
The second voice was a woman's that sounded so familiar that it was almost maddening. “I just can't believe that she would do something like that, she's normally such a gentle child.”
“Mrs. Seraph, until we can figure out what caused such a strong reaction, I suggest we keep her here for observation.”
Mrs. Seraph? That didn't sound like either of my aunts out there, Neph thought. Could it of been Laz? No...they called her a child. Her head swam with what ever they pumped into her.
The woman spoke again. “Is...is it okay if I see her, Doctor?”
There was a pause before he answered. “We have sedated and restrained her to stop her from harming herself or any of the orderlies...but a short visit should be okay. I'll be by the door if you need anything, ma'am.”
As the door opened, Neph tried to fight off the drugs as her head slumped back onto the pillow. Footsteps echoed closer, eventually bringing a short woman into her line of sight.
As the woman reached her side, the moonlight shone on her face and Neph felt her heart skip a beat as Tish Feugo looked down at her, the woman’s face a mask of concern.
Reaching over, Tish gently stroked some hair out of her face and smiled. “How ya doing kiddo?” she asked, keeping her voice soft.
Neph tried to reply, but only got out a strangled groan causing Tish's lip to tremble. She was upset? Last Neph knew, Tish would of probably been happy a car had hit her, so why did she look like she was about to cry?
“Stay still, the doctors said that during your little outburst, you managed to tear out some of your stitches.” She said, sitting on the side of the bed, resting a hand on her shoulder. “I can't stay for long, but I'll be back tomorrow with your father, okay sweetie?”
Neph tried to make another noise as Tish stood up and kissed her brow. “See you then.”
Watching the shorter woman, confusion raging in her head. The way Tish acted...it was almost as if she was her daughter...but Tish would never see her like that...would she?
The sedatives the doctor was talking about must have started to kick in as she started to black out, her last thoughts were of the way Tish had looked at her...and how it felt...
* * *
The director strode into the room, slowly panning his eyes over his underlings, the mass of computers, before finally resting upon the tank where his prize floated, a smirk coming to his face.
Hanging in the fluid, wires and tubes hooked up to her was Nephilim blade.
That bitch had ruined several of his projects...had him blacklisted from Crey...forced him on the run...but now, now he would get his revenge on her.
The perfect revenge, he would trap her in a dream world, biased off her own fantasy and desires. A world from which she would never awaken. Then, when she had fully accepted it, he would shatter her world like a snowglobe, destroying her mind and leaving her as a drooling vegetable.
A cruel grin pulled at his lips, she had all but destroyed his world, so he would break hers.
* * *[/b]
Sunlight woke her up again, getting a string of mild profanity from her as she tried to raise a hand to cover her face, only to be stopped by the damn restraints, causing another bout of swearing.
“Nephilim Angelica Seraph! Where on earth did you learn such language?” A voice scolded her.
Turning her head she saw Tish giving her a disapproving look. A large plushy of a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane in her arms.
“Why do you care?” she croaked in reply, her throat feeling parched... how long had they drugged her?
“Because I'm your mother and I don't want my little girl getting so foul mouthed, that's why. Imagine if your father heard that?”
Neph froze, Tish had just said mother... Tish would never say that, why would she?
“Neph...are you okay?” The woman claiming to be her mother placed the plushy on her lap and lent over to rest her hand on her arm, the pain in her head building again-
“Sir, I'm not sure about this scenario, she seems to have trouble accepting it.”
“Impossible, it's biased of her own mind, if there is any rejection it is because one of you have made an error! If I have to come down here one more time to fix one of your mistakes, you are FIRED! Do you hear me?”
There was the sound of someone storming off.
“Man... what a dick.”
the voice faded away...
“Neph? Neph dear, are you okay?”
She came back to arms wrapped around her, comforting her, a hand stroking her head like a scared little child...
Part of her wanted to scream out that this was wrong. That this is not how things were meant to be...but a much smaller, much more scared part was afraid of losing this.
Her mind in turmoil, she did the only thing that made sense and cried.
* * *
She lost track of time for a bit after that, she listened to what they told her...it sounded stupid, it sounded fake...it had to be!
According to them she was sixteen years old, born naturally to Seraph and Tish 3 years after they got married and had two adopted sisters, but recently she had been having trouble with school.
Her parents suspected bullying, So they sent her to a psychiatrist. Then one day, after a particularly intense session, she apparently just walked across the street without paying attention where she was going and BAM! Here she was, minus a leg.
It all just seemed so crazy to her. But any time she tried to voice it, her parents and the doctors all told her she was still recovering from a traumatic event, that she was confused. But it was true...it had to be...she could remember it all so vividly...
After another week of drifting in and out, the doctors decided to bring her psychiatrist in to talk to her, maybe then she could get somewhere.
Soon it was the day her shrink was scheduled to visit. When the door opened, it was almost all Neph could do not to laugh as the director of Project Blades, Dib Membrain walked in. He gave her a smile and pulled up a chair next to her bed, note pad on his lap. “Ah Neph, it is good to see you again...I was upset to hear what happened...and after we were making such progress.” His voice was calm, level, almost sincere...it was bullshit.
She started to laugh. “Oh...and what progress did we make, Dib?” She almost spat the name.
Adjusting his glasses, he flipped through the notebook. “Would it help if I went over our notes from previous sessions?”
“Whatever.”
Clearing his throat, he started. “During our first session, you told me of how you found yourself day dreaming that you were in a world like this one, but different. This is probably due to the stress of your everyday life.”
“And how was that, Doctor?”
“At first, you where just a simple hero like the rest of your family. But as you started to feel you were no longer in control of the world around you, this fantasy started to reflect that. You demonised me as some sort of evil scientist that created you as a weapon to use against your family, Possibly a manifestation of your fear that I might change you and the stigmata that all psychiatrist find a way to blame the parent for how the child turned out.”
She blinked as he kept going. “You also turned your mother into a cold, distant figure that didn't seem to give a care for you. We pinned this down to the fact your mother was the one pushing for these sessions, which you were originally rather against.”
He turned another page and kept going. “You also mentioned that in this dream world, you were a cyborg. I believe this is your subconscious mind trying to emulate your older sisters, both of them are cyborgs from what your father told me.”
Neph tired to speak, but her mind was coming up blank. Everything the bastard said had a ring of truth... but if he was right, then... “What...what about Lights Retribution?” she croaked out.
He flipped back and forth before he found what he was looking for. “Ah yes, the scruffy hero that accepts you for who you are, regardless of what you do. Based of a character from a book you read a lot as a child.”
“This...this isn't right, I remember all that shit, It's real to me!” She snapped at him.
“You suffered a near death experience. That combined with the blow to your head. it is very easy for your mind to confuse what is real and what is not Neph, Such an experience can be so traumatic that your mind escaped to this dream to protect itself from the harsh reality of what happened. But with help and time, we can figure out fact from fiction...if you are willing to let me.”
She looked down at herself...was he right? Was all this a dream?
And is that such a bad thing? A voice whispered in the back of her mind. It may not be real...but you have a family, they love you! You are no longer an outcast!
N... ph!
Blinking, she looked around, something flickering in the corner of her eye as the voice echoed off in the distance. Turning to Dib, she took a deep breath. “What...what if I can't be fixed...what if I'm stuck with one foot in each world?”
“In such a case, we may have to resort to more drastic measures like medication... but I would like to stress that I consider such things as a method of last resort, I don't prescribe such things lightly.”
“I...I need some time to think about it...okay?” She felt weak for saying it...but what he was saying...god she wished she had something with her to tell her what was real and what was fake.
Standing up, Dib nodded. “I am generally around the facility if you need me, all you have to do is ask one of the nurses and I'll be around as fast as I can.” He patted her head, for a second making her skin crawl. “We'll work this out together, okay?”
She mumbled a reply as he left, her eyes growing heavy as sleep claimed her again.
* * *
Down the Rabbit Hole.
***
[b]
“Is the subject ready?”
“Yes sir... but even thought she was highly inebriated, we lost eight men bringing her in.”
“A trivial matter. Once we have the info we need, it won't matter.”
“Yes sir, beginning the procedure.”
* * *
There was a beep coming from somewhere, rousing her from her sleep.
Neph Seraph grunted as her eyes slowly opened, sunlight pouring in from the nearby window. Rubbing her eyes, she went to sit up before letting out a gasp of pain and collapsing back, her body feeling like she just gone five rounds with Terrence Knight.
Looking down at herself, her brain took a few seconds to take in what she was seeing, she was in a hospital bed; and guessing by the amount of machines hooked up to her, she must have been in a hell of a accident.
Was she hit by a car last night?
Sure she was drunk, but that drunk?
She groped around for her glasses when another fact slowly filtered into her brain.
She was was able to see the room around her perfectly.
How the hell was that possible? Her cruddy eyesight was a side effect from when Dib rushed her growth, resulting in a permanent case of short sightedness. However, but the room around her was crystal clear.
What the fuck was going on?
Her train of thought was distracted by the door opening when a tall balding man entered, adjusting his glasses as he consulted a clipboard and walked over to her.
“Ahhh, Miss Seraph, you are finally awake, you had us all worried there for a while.” He spoke in a calm, soothing voice.
“What the hell happened to me?” she mumbled, her voice sounding softer than she was used to.
He sighed before speaking. “There is no easy way to say this. You were hit by a car two weeks ago You’ve been comatose since. There was extensive damage, and it was touch and go for some time.”
“What? How bad was it?”
He took a deep breath before listing off her injuries. “Let's see, your right arm and six ribs were broken, along with severe internal bleeding from lacerations to your large intestines and a ruptured liver, a mild skull fracture and extensive damage to your right leg... You’re lucky to be alive young lady.”
“Two weeks? What the...why didn't the mediport system get me?” She asked. She knew she had suffered worse in the past and gotten off scot free, thanks to that little bit of tech.
The doctor furrowed his brow as he looked over his glasses. “Miss Seraph, you are aware that such technology is reserved for civil servants, the elderly and heroes, not teenage girls.”
“What?” She screeched as she tried to get up, pain flaring through her body as she looked down at herself, horror filling her as she saw her right leg was missing below the knee. She tried to move and pain flared through her body, crimson starting to stain the bed sheets, darkness filling her vision-
Images swirled in front of her, she was in some sort of tank, voices shouting from a great distance
“She's fighting the lotus effect sir!”
“Increase the dosage then.”
“Sir, we’re not sure if that’s a good idea, it could interfere with the download.”
“Do it!”
“Yes sir”
The voices began to fade. . .
As the room swum back into focus, the first thing she noticed was it was night now. As she tried to sit up, she discovered she could not. Instead of pain keeping her prone, she now saw that job was being done by large straps pinning her to the bed. Collapsing back, she glared at the ceiling and wondered what the hell was going on.
Then she heard voices drift in from outside the room. Straining herself to hear, she could make out the voice of the doctor and someone else who sounded vaguely familiar.
“After such a traumatic experience, it is not unusual for someone to lash out at their surroundings. It is a lot to take in at once.”
The second voice was a woman's that sounded so familiar that it was almost maddening. “I just can't believe that she would do something like that, she's normally such a gentle child.”
“Mrs. Seraph, until we can figure out what caused such a strong reaction, I suggest we keep her here for observation.”
Mrs. Seraph? That didn't sound like either of my aunts out there, Neph thought. Could it of been Laz? No...they called her a child. Her head swam with what ever they pumped into her.
The woman spoke again. “Is...is it okay if I see her, Doctor?”
There was a pause before he answered. “We have sedated and restrained her to stop her from harming herself or any of the orderlies...but a short visit should be okay. I'll be by the door if you need anything, ma'am.”
As the door opened, Neph tried to fight off the drugs as her head slumped back onto the pillow. Footsteps echoed closer, eventually bringing a short woman into her line of sight.
As the woman reached her side, the moonlight shone on her face and Neph felt her heart skip a beat as Tish Feugo looked down at her, the woman’s face a mask of concern.
Reaching over, Tish gently stroked some hair out of her face and smiled. “How ya doing kiddo?” she asked, keeping her voice soft.
Neph tried to reply, but only got out a strangled groan causing Tish's lip to tremble. She was upset? Last Neph knew, Tish would of probably been happy a car had hit her, so why did she look like she was about to cry?
“Stay still, the doctors said that during your little outburst, you managed to tear out some of your stitches.” She said, sitting on the side of the bed, resting a hand on her shoulder. “I can't stay for long, but I'll be back tomorrow with your father, okay sweetie?”
Neph tried to make another noise as Tish stood up and kissed her brow. “See you then.”
Watching the shorter woman, confusion raging in her head. The way Tish acted...it was almost as if she was her daughter...but Tish would never see her like that...would she?
The sedatives the doctor was talking about must have started to kick in as she started to black out, her last thoughts were of the way Tish had looked at her...and how it felt...
* * *
The director strode into the room, slowly panning his eyes over his underlings, the mass of computers, before finally resting upon the tank where his prize floated, a smirk coming to his face.
Hanging in the fluid, wires and tubes hooked up to her was Nephilim blade.
That bitch had ruined several of his projects...had him blacklisted from Crey...forced him on the run...but now, now he would get his revenge on her.
The perfect revenge, he would trap her in a dream world, biased off her own fantasy and desires. A world from which she would never awaken. Then, when she had fully accepted it, he would shatter her world like a snowglobe, destroying her mind and leaving her as a drooling vegetable.
A cruel grin pulled at his lips, she had all but destroyed his world, so he would break hers.
* * *[/b]
Sunlight woke her up again, getting a string of mild profanity from her as she tried to raise a hand to cover her face, only to be stopped by the damn restraints, causing another bout of swearing.
“Nephilim Angelica Seraph! Where on earth did you learn such language?” A voice scolded her.
Turning her head she saw Tish giving her a disapproving look. A large plushy of a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane in her arms.
“Why do you care?” she croaked in reply, her throat feeling parched... how long had they drugged her?
“Because I'm your mother and I don't want my little girl getting so foul mouthed, that's why. Imagine if your father heard that?”
Neph froze, Tish had just said mother... Tish would never say that, why would she?
“Neph...are you okay?” The woman claiming to be her mother placed the plushy on her lap and lent over to rest her hand on her arm, the pain in her head building again-
“Sir, I'm not sure about this scenario, she seems to have trouble accepting it.”
“Impossible, it's biased of her own mind, if there is any rejection it is because one of you have made an error! If I have to come down here one more time to fix one of your mistakes, you are FIRED! Do you hear me?”
There was the sound of someone storming off.
“Man... what a dick.”
the voice faded away...
“Neph? Neph dear, are you okay?”
She came back to arms wrapped around her, comforting her, a hand stroking her head like a scared little child...
Part of her wanted to scream out that this was wrong. That this is not how things were meant to be...but a much smaller, much more scared part was afraid of losing this.
Her mind in turmoil, she did the only thing that made sense and cried.
* * *
She lost track of time for a bit after that, she listened to what they told her...it sounded stupid, it sounded fake...it had to be!
According to them she was sixteen years old, born naturally to Seraph and Tish 3 years after they got married and had two adopted sisters, but recently she had been having trouble with school.
Her parents suspected bullying, So they sent her to a psychiatrist. Then one day, after a particularly intense session, she apparently just walked across the street without paying attention where she was going and BAM! Here she was, minus a leg.
It all just seemed so crazy to her. But any time she tried to voice it, her parents and the doctors all told her she was still recovering from a traumatic event, that she was confused. But it was true...it had to be...she could remember it all so vividly...
After another week of drifting in and out, the doctors decided to bring her psychiatrist in to talk to her, maybe then she could get somewhere.
Soon it was the day her shrink was scheduled to visit. When the door opened, it was almost all Neph could do not to laugh as the director of Project Blades, Dib Membrain walked in. He gave her a smile and pulled up a chair next to her bed, note pad on his lap. “Ah Neph, it is good to see you again...I was upset to hear what happened...and after we were making such progress.” His voice was calm, level, almost sincere...it was bullshit.
She started to laugh. “Oh...and what progress did we make, Dib?” She almost spat the name.
Adjusting his glasses, he flipped through the notebook. “Would it help if I went over our notes from previous sessions?”
“Whatever.”
Clearing his throat, he started. “During our first session, you told me of how you found yourself day dreaming that you were in a world like this one, but different. This is probably due to the stress of your everyday life.”
“And how was that, Doctor?”
“At first, you where just a simple hero like the rest of your family. But as you started to feel you were no longer in control of the world around you, this fantasy started to reflect that. You demonised me as some sort of evil scientist that created you as a weapon to use against your family, Possibly a manifestation of your fear that I might change you and the stigmata that all psychiatrist find a way to blame the parent for how the child turned out.”
She blinked as he kept going. “You also turned your mother into a cold, distant figure that didn't seem to give a care for you. We pinned this down to the fact your mother was the one pushing for these sessions, which you were originally rather against.”
He turned another page and kept going. “You also mentioned that in this dream world, you were a cyborg. I believe this is your subconscious mind trying to emulate your older sisters, both of them are cyborgs from what your father told me.”
Neph tired to speak, but her mind was coming up blank. Everything the bastard said had a ring of truth... but if he was right, then... “What...what about Lights Retribution?” she croaked out.
He flipped back and forth before he found what he was looking for. “Ah yes, the scruffy hero that accepts you for who you are, regardless of what you do. Based of a character from a book you read a lot as a child.”
“This...this isn't right, I remember all that shit, It's real to me!” She snapped at him.
“You suffered a near death experience. That combined with the blow to your head. it is very easy for your mind to confuse what is real and what is not Neph, Such an experience can be so traumatic that your mind escaped to this dream to protect itself from the harsh reality of what happened. But with help and time, we can figure out fact from fiction...if you are willing to let me.”
She looked down at herself...was he right? Was all this a dream?
And is that such a bad thing? A voice whispered in the back of her mind. It may not be real...but you have a family, they love you! You are no longer an outcast!
N... ph!
Blinking, she looked around, something flickering in the corner of her eye as the voice echoed off in the distance. Turning to Dib, she took a deep breath. “What...what if I can't be fixed...what if I'm stuck with one foot in each world?”
“In such a case, we may have to resort to more drastic measures like medication... but I would like to stress that I consider such things as a method of last resort, I don't prescribe such things lightly.”
“I...I need some time to think about it...okay?” She felt weak for saying it...but what he was saying...god she wished she had something with her to tell her what was real and what was fake.
Standing up, Dib nodded. “I am generally around the facility if you need me, all you have to do is ask one of the nurses and I'll be around as fast as I can.” He patted her head, for a second making her skin crawl. “We'll work this out together, okay?”
She mumbled a reply as he left, her eyes growing heavy as sleep claimed her again.
* * *