Phase One Conditioning
Genesis offered Kaze Dagon a gift.
A gift she accepted.
It took very little for the Genesis to take away her consciousness.
A single telepathic pulse, and she was gone.
Then, with great care, her body was taken from the Gallic bomber's cockpit.
She passed through layers upon layers of tissue.
A hardened, outer shell.
A softer, nerve-filled tissue.
Finally, she reached the inner tissues of the behemoth.
A womb, capable of sustaining her.
Capable of keeping her in an eternal dream.
Genesis had acquired its subject.
A single human being had been delivered to its womb.
Its task was clear.
The human's mind had to be shaped.
Prepared.
Broken.
Its body altered.
Adapted.
Enhanced.
Kaze woke up to a world unlike any she had seen before.
An empty room, seemingly made of bricks of various shapes.
The room was covered in a strange, purple light.
However, the world around her did not stay as alien and abstract as it was for long.
Soon, the bricks started moving, shifting, changing shape and color.
The walls were closing in on her.
To Kaze's left, a few bricks became thinner and thinner, and formed boards protruding from the walls.
Right in front her, a larger board came out of the walls, forming a very primitive bed.
As she looked around, she recognized what the room had turned into.
The Gallic jail she had spent months of her life in.
Within the dungeons of Planet Nevers.
The walls were clean. The smell was not the same. The light was not right. She did not felt right. And as the sudden rush of memories accosted her mind, her right hand unconsciously moved to touch her left arm.
And instead of a cold, almost real skin like feeling, she felt warmth. She felt the skin against her fingertips, she felt the fingertips against the skin in her arm. The arm that she though forever lost. Her hands now moved to her legs. And it felt real once more. The unnatural cold was gone.
And now a shift of light under the door caught her eye. Her eyes. Both of them. With an uneasy step, afraid this feeling of being whole again was a fleeting dream, she walked towards the door. And instead of being the heavy, chained, shackled and closed door of her memories, it moved without effort.
What was a searing light that blinded her for a moment, cleared out to show the view that hit her full front and to her past.
The same cell. But now as she remembered it. Blood on the walls. Puke mixed with blood and rotting food, the smell of it leaving a metallic taste in her mouth, and a form, her form, chained to the wall. Broken, beaten and scarred in the darkness.
"This is impossible, why now?"
She said, walking towards the prone body. With a soft touch to the face, the body recoiled back, triggering it's defenses. What were an almost dead body, was brought back to life by a consuming strength that stressed it's shackles.
"Kill me. And let me be done. But put your back into it this time."
Hearing her own ragged voice, prideful, yet hopeless, made her heart fail a heartbeat in distress. Kaze Dagon has long left this behind. And yet it chained her everyday. Moving her hand to touch her own swollen cheek, she softly, and scarily, felt a chill as the flesh was cold. Like she was dead already.
"Why?"
Kaze whispered to her chained self, feeling a sudden pain in her body, growing up.
"Why didn't we die?"
With a movement of the head, her chained form caressed her cheek against her hand and looked up, showing her full face for the first time. Bruised, burned, broken nose and swollen lips marked that face. But her eyes, those eyes, were more alive than her own eyes that she saw now everyday in the mirror.
"Why?"
She whispered the question, at the beat of her own pain, building up. Tears started to flow. But they suddenly stoped from her left eye. Her left arm became cold. And her legs, rigid. She was back to her true form, crying, aching in pain, again. While looking at the one that just did not die.
"Why?.."
That rasped, coarse voice replied. In the same tone, in the same pain. And effortlessly, she broke off her own shackles to caress Kaze's face.
"Because they deserve to die each one of our deaths. For every denial that we had of it. For the pain of waking up from her embrace. For the pain of dying all over again. Let them die ten fold. And let them taste the agony of being denied such release."
Those eyes were burning. Those eyes were alive, fueled by a rage that Kaze long had forgotten.
"Who?"
Kaze asked, feeling the cold hand against her face. Like the touch she hasn't felt in a long time.
And the sky became closer, filling her eyes.With a whisper of wind hitting her face and hair, she looked around and saw that she was no longer within the cell that kept the darkness of her heart closed for so long.She was in Manhattan. Central Park District. The Great Hill. Her favorite spot in the whole wide planet. The sky was blue, the sun was dousing her body in warmth and yet a small breeze ran through her, keeping her cool.
Perfection.
A family having a small picnic. An artist painting. People walking. A young man sitting with his back to a tree, reading a paper edition of War and Peace. She walked between these people, and felt contempt. With a smile and her face down, watching her feet taking steps in the grass, it was bliss. But a small, almost whispering klink was caught by her ear, in the myriad of happy sounds that filled the Hill. Kaze raised her head in the direction of the sound, and saw a bright orange hair at the distance, taking a knee to the grass. A chill went through her spine.
Death was here.
She looked at her, putting down a small briefcase. And with precise movements, a small scoped laser rifle was assembled in a matter of seconds. Carefully taking aim, Death set her eyes on the target. Kaze followed the direction to where the barrel was aimed at, and another chill went through her spine. Jordan, her Jordan, was the target. He was sitting on a bench with a woman. A woman Kaze did not recognize. And yet she did. She could feel her perfume from a distance. She could hear their conversation. And it sickened her.
Kaze looked back at Death, who was trailing her shot, and pacing herself for the shot. With a scream, she could alert everyone. With a run, she could stop it. And yet she didn't. She looked at Jordan and the woman kissing..
And with a small tear coming down from her left eye, she kept silent. She didn't move. She waited for Death to do what she always did and couldn't be stopped.
And with a whisper, as Death caressed the trigger finger and let loose a marksman shot, Kaze whispered.
But just as the bullet was about to end yet another life, it stopped. It remained motionless in mid-air, at most an inch away from its target.
Then it began spinning. Rather than make its way to and through Jordan's head, it moved backwards, quickly accelerating. It flew back towards the shooter. Its journey back into the weapon's barrel was accompanied with the same bright muzzle flash that had appeared when it was launched seconds before.
Kaze stood and watched. Only she was not affected. She could see time itself reversing, and doing so faster and faster. The giant skyscrapers made way for sweeping hills and open grasslands devoid of human life.
This was Manhattan long before its settlement by humans.
It was dark. It was night. There were no human-made sources of light, so thousands of stars lit up the sky above Dagon. As she looked towards them, she felt something gently pulling her upwards, towards the many lights. With every passing second, she was pulled farther from the planet, and deeper into space.
She felt her eyelids getting heavier, as if someone was pulling them down. She didn't resist, and shut her eyes.
Until a voice composed of uncountable different voices spoke in her head:
"Look."
And she did. All around her, she saw the blue beings. Nomads, as humanity called them. Dozens surrounded her, seemingly staring at her. As she looked back at them, she felt the creatures' curiosity, nervousness, confusion. In some cases even fear. They had never seen a human before.
Most prevalent however was their feeling of friendship. Unity. While she had just witnessed how cruel and divided humanity can be, these beings were the exact opposite. One united species. Free of war, free of death.
So close to her, yet so far, they were. Their feelings extended to herself. Their thoughts filled her mind. And this.
This was true peace. Like she never felt.
This.
This is what she was looking for.
Unity.
Purpose.
Peace.
Her heart and her mind finally trampled and won over the feelings that accosted her since her youth.
She no longer wanted death. Neither did she feared it.
She was free.
Bowing her head to the graceful beings, she stood up, with a new found resolve, but with a soft smile.
"Thank you."
She stretched her left arm and caressed one of the beings, feeling its feelings, knowing its thoughts, and bathing in what she felt it was true and how it should be.
"Humanity.. should learn from you."
Her eyes looked back, and searched her past. The pain, the need and the sorrow.
Everything that she received from other people was good and bad. But they did not have this. This..
Unity.
A set of the beings squirmed, feeling her past. She raised her hands in an apologetic way, but instead of keeping her at distance, they came to her.
They came to her, to help her. Giving her their feelings.
Making her feel complete, like she has never felt before.
Keeping pain and death away, for they never recognized it.
And that was bliss.
Humanity should learn from them, should yearn for them.
And with that, a resolution came to mind.
With a soft bow to one of the beings, she said.
"I am yours. Truly yours, for i have never been at peace like this before. You have shown me.. everything that it is. And how the universe should be, in order to exist."
She touched the being and gave way for them to feel her mind. Her soul.
The mind was now ready, but the physical form was not. Now came the weaving, the spinning of strands. Genesis would travel through the code that defined Kaze Dagon. Remove imperfections. Strengthen her strengths, remove her weaknesses.
Metal that man had incorporated into her anatomy was removed. New limbs were grown, stronger and sturdier than they were before.
Planets completed their trek around the stars that gave them light.
Alliances were forged, others broken.
New life was born to the world, while other lives were taken.
Her eyes stirred and opened up, staring the ceiling.
Her mind was trying to realign the thoughts and dreams she had. Confusion and yet clarity were mixed in a jumble of thoughts, trying to define what she felt, what she was and what she would do.
Her head moved to the left, and saw it was a sparse room. Nothing out of the ordinary, but extremely clean.
Surveying the whole room, she felt she was alone. And at peace. Something she hadn't truly felt in ages.
Raising her left hand to her face to rub her face and comb her hair, she felt warmth.
An alien feeling coming from that hand.
In surprise, she clasped her left arm with her right hand to see if it was still a dream. It was not.
Her arm, that hand were warm. Like the rest of her body. Something truly different.
She raised herself from the bed, and sat. She could feel the cold with her toes.
More shock, more surprise than she had ever felt.
"Impossible."
She muttered.
The only door in the room opened and an old man, clad in white medical robes, spoke with a smile.
"Nothing is impossible, my dear."
His accent was clearly bretonian, and her bionic eye triggered the recording function. A survival instinct. Something that was base to her.
And she recoiled in shock once again. Her right eye was still a machine connected to her brain.
"What.. happened?"
Kaze's voice sounded raw. Dry. The man walked to the nearby coffee table and filled one of the glasses with water that came in a non-descript bottle.
The man walked over to Kaze and handed her the glass of water. Thirsty as she was, she downed the contents of the glass in one big gulp.
In the meantime, the man had walked over to the other side of the room. He opened a large sliding door, almost as wide as the room's other walls. As old as he looked, it seemed to take the man very little effort, despite the door's sturdy and heavy appearance.
Kaze could now look into the hallway behind the door. What would grab anyone's attention, however, was the view she could see through a large hallway window.
Right in front of her was the gigantic husk of a Nomad Guardian, held in place by an equally massive metal construction. She could see the creature's skin move around as if it were liquid. Looking straight through the behemoth, she could see a large asteroid, shrouded in a dark blue nebula. A complex, but clearly human-made structure was built all around it.
Looking back at Kaze, the man finally answered.
"You were brought here. To us."
The man's face displayed an eerie smile.
"Your host also made a few adjustments."
"He believed that you would like them. That you would like to be back to how you once were."
After returning to Kaze's side, he reached out to take back the - now empty - glass.
"In due time, you will get used to your new self."
With a push from both arms, she tried to get up. Wobbly. Unsteady. And she fell to the ground.
"Argh."
Kaze spouted, feeling the sting of the cold floor on her hips.
The old man walked towards her, with concern displayed on his face. Kaze quickly raised a hand to not interfere.
"I can do this. I have to."
Pushing with all her might, and commanding her legs to actually move as she wanted, she strained herself to get to an upright position, right in front of the old man, who now displayed an interrogating look.
"I.. Don't have the time........... It's the body that will have to get used to me."
A drop of sweat from the effort traveled her face from the brow to her jaw line.