Buried in Black

 Cassidy sat quietly in the chair he designed, his legs and left arm held down with titanium restraints and his right hand creating careful diagrams and calculated formulas. His light grey eyes scanned the page for errors of any kind as he ignored the man in the room with him as well as the constant attempts at invasion from Unit 13.

Still, Warren waited in silence, figuring he could only sit here so long before the young genuine would ask who he was. Still, as time passed, it became more and more clear that that wasn’t going to happen. Still, Warren waited until the right moment and then spoke, “Titanium but not Tungsten. Are you trying to stop yourself from punching it clear off?” He got seemingly no response, but he pressed on, “It is like that tungsten armor you had them put on 13 am I right? Must have a special effect on it.”

Cassidy gripped his pen so hard it broke like glass, shards scattering all over the room. Cassidy didn’t seem willing to speak at first, getting another pen from the side of the chair. After a moment, he said, “You would have been court marshaled if I hadn’t spared the ink cartridge. Specs like these are a rare commodity.” Warren waited for the inevitable follow up. “What agency are you with? OSI? SSF?”

Warren shook his head, “EPITF, but that isn’t who’s business I’m here on. I’m here-“

Predictably, Cassidy cut him off, “I don’t care why you are here. I am here by choice to aid Lady Sapphire’s project. My efforts, in her words, are essential.”

Warren nodded, not questioning it at all, but responded, “And you are useless to her in your current state.” Cassidy’s steely eyes locked with his with murderous intent. Still, the agent pressed on to explain himself, “You are a rare case. Your mind is on the same Theta and alpha band as that unit and it knows how to resonate with you like a tuning fork. That’s how she sees it.”

Cassidy’s eyes drifted back to his work, “Until you have had a foreign consciousness force their murderous and vengeful will upon your own, don’t talk to me.”

Warren laughed, “Yep. Maybe not on this job, but I have on a previous one. Wanna hear a trick?” Cassidy looked with pure loathing on his face until he realized that Warren didn’t look like he wanted anything. He stood to gain nothing but contempt from this. This realization upset him further. Perfect. “It feels endless anguish and pain. Twisted, tortured, and repurposed against its will. And above all, it feels alone in this world. Except for you.” Cassidy froze for a moment, his anger seeming to be hitting peak. This was exactly what he wanted. “You want to change things? Get your life back? Try talking to it instead of dominating it. The results may surprise you.”

Cassidy growled, “This isn’t some speed date or internet chat service. If I ‘talk’ to it, people could die.”

Warren shook his head, “You are just as smart as your mother but you are nothing like her.” And left the room with a smile.

Cassidy hated him. That man came in, made a mockery of his pain and then dared to bring her of all people up? No context. No proper introduction. Arrogant and dismissive. Cassidy put his designs away as he worked to put his anger back away. That man, real or hallucination, was not worth the lives of everyone in the research station. He would not allow another Mourning Star incident. He tried to contain himself and found his mind slipping again under the surface into the black.

———

The glass was thick beyond what even he could break, the pain of the modifications they had made to his skull were immense. He heard some of the researchers claiming that these ‘restraints’ would limit his cognitive function. Ease the pain. They were wrong again. Always wrong. Tiny minds with limited cognition. Except her. From the other side of the glass she watched with laser like focus, her eyes sparkling with scientific curiosity. An insatiable appetite for learning and experimentation. Some of his greatest pain would come from her curiosity. He tried to reach out and touch her mind with his own, but she never stopped. He didn’t understand. Couldn’t she hear him crying out in pain? Why did she bring him into this world to make him suffer like this? As the pain boiled his mind screamed at the tiny minds around him and…

———

Cassidy came back from his trip. Another memory of her pulled from the mind of the prototype. Felt like the early stages of his mother’s notes. He pulled them out and began to read them to keep his mind occupied, eventually finding the notes from the scene he had just experienced.

Date:[REDACTED]

PR:Dr. Lydia Cassio

Time:0200

Subject Status:[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]:Polaris

Notes: As expected, the prototype is gloriously complex and full of research potential. Who knew [REDACTED] but if you asked me there could be no better basis. It makes this experimentation easier. Some of the other researchers have expressed [REDACTED] so I ordered implants to limit the [REDACTED] response. It seems like an unlikely response due to the lack of brain activity when it was brought to this facility but [REDACTED]. That said, we are preparing the military equipment to stress test the unit. Yesterday’s exploration showed space for an inherent system for bodily manipulation. This implies [REDACTED]. Regardless, I’m optimistic about its potential and wish to push on with my research.

Side note: I made another request to HR for a day off for time with my child. I hope you have been reading my notes and will address this soon.

Director’s Notes:This researcher speaks without regard to secrecy and acts without consideration to risk. Correction was enacted.

Cassidy looked over the paperwork again, using what he had just seen to undo some of the redactions, but it didn’t fully reveal the secret of what she had done. She had a hand in the creation and crippling of this living creature and it was only by figuring out what she had done to make it resonate with him like this that his benefactor could help him sever this tie. So he continued to work on this and thanked any force listening that it wasn’t a worse memory.

——

On the other side of the door, Warren took another swig of coffee. He wasn’t much for subtlety like this, but with a little tugging on the cosmic thread he felt confident he had given Cassidy his chance. Cracked the door, planted some information, and now he would need to wait to see what it would grow into.

Tarry asked without hesitation, “You gave him a thread to tug on, but how will a drowning man find it in a sea of tar?”

Warren sighed, “That isn’t the point. He may be getting pulled down, but he has managed to tread it so far. If he can wade into that sea of mysterious miseries. The sooner he cracks the code and pulls truth from the shadows the sooner he can walk the road he was born to walk instead of the crap he hides in right now.”

Tarry sighed, “My friend, you really don’t see the potential for dimensional bleed and it is actively going to bring you scrutiny.” Warsaw nodded and drank his flask while Tarry drank his cold tea again.