DT1: Out Of The Dark

by **Chase Delacroix** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:18 am

Monday, September 15 - Morning

The boy was still in a cell. He was a murderer after all. Though they assured him he hadn't been in full control of his actions, they had to be sure his deprogramming would hold.

He remembered his name, that he had survived some sort of accident, and that he was rescued only to end up sold as a slave. Before that was hazy. His eighth birthday was the biggest exception. His dad gave him a bike, and he was happy.

His dad's face was blurry to his mind's eye.

(open as it can be)

by **Chase Delacroix** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 4:08 pm

Monday, September 15 - Afternoon

They had brought him actual clothes so he would feel less like a criminal. While changing, he stopped to look at himself in the polished piece of metal that served as a mirror.

Who had he been before?

Nobody.

Was he worthy of redemption?

Return.

Echoes... just echoes... he destroyed you... I'm free... I'm me...

Illusion.

"Go away!" he shouted, punching the metal mirror.

(still open-ish)

by **Onyx** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 4:44 pm

"Pathetic."

Onyx stands outside his cell. It's unclear of how much of that display she just saw.

"You are not much of an assassin, are you?"

by **Chase Delacroix** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:55 pm

He turned around.

"You..." he said, sounding and looking guilty.

by **Onyx** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:06 pm

"Me," Onyx says.

by **Chase Delacroix** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:11 pm

"I'm... sorry," he said. His accent was far more American than before, but years of speaking almost exclusively Chinese had left a mark.

by **Onyx** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:21 pm

"I do not care for your apologies, sir," Onyx says. "I do not get angry at a gun because someone fires it at me."

"I only came to make certain you were being safely held where you were not a danger to others."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:39 pm

"I don't want to hurt anyone."

by **Onyx** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:45 pm

"You have done a poor job of it so far, sir," Onyx says.

by **Chase Delacroix** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:07 pm

"You honestly think I had a choice?"

by **Onyx** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 9:46 pm

"Everyone has a choice," Onyx says. "The rest is an excuse."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:03 am

He look hurt and ashamed.

"You... you don't know anything," he said.

by **Onyx** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 1:12 am

"Of course not. You are special, correct?" Onyx says. "You are not like the others in Madripoor. The desperate people living in the streets, the slaves wearing collars in the pen, the addicts dying in the alleys. You did not have a choice. Others made you into what you are. Evil people. It was not you."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 1:25 am

"I'm not special God damnit!" he snapped, "Yes, I killed people and no, you shouldn't trust me yet. I don't trust me yet. But there were dozens of kids there just like me. Taken in, promised freedom, and brainwashed... no, hollowed out inside. We weren't slaves, we were puppets!"

by **Onyx** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 1:34 am

"Excuses," Onyx says. "I do not need to hear excuses from a poorly-made weapon."

"Where can I find your masters?"

by **Chase Delacroix** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 1:53 am

"They aren't my masters anymore, thanks in no small part to you. But... I don't know."

by **Onyx** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 1:54 am

"Then you are useless to me," Onyx says.

by **Chase Delacroix** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:00 am

"You're just like them," he sneered.

by **Onyx** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:06 am

"No, sir," Onyx says. "I am much more cruel. They would have killed you. I will let you live."

Onyx turns her back on Chase and begins walking away.

by **Chase Delacroix** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:49 pm

"I thought freeing slaves was what you do."

by **Onyx** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 11:34 pm

"You are not a slave. You are a weapon," Onyx says without turning around. "When you realize the difference, I might be able to help you."

"But that is up to you."

With that, Onyx walks out, closing the door behind her.

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:12 am

Monday, September 15 - Evening

Chase laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She had put his fears about himself into words and he couldn't handle it. He was a weapon, but he wasn't a machine. Even under their zen-like calm, he had will most of the time didn't he? Had he simply chosen to follow along because feeling hurt too much?

He had lied to himself. He did remember training. He did remember occasionally maintaining cover as a service slave between training and assignments. Under orders he couldn't act entirely freely, he was conditioned to obey absolutely... but he remembered. He remembered, too, what friends he had despite such attachments being forbidden.

He breathed out slowly, the temptation to clear his mind of emotion becoming unbearable. The worst part of all was that, as tainted as it was, he missed that inner peace, and probably always would.

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:00 am

Tuesday, September 16 - Morning

He hadn't slept. Every time he drifted off he saw someone killed by his hands. By morning he was in the corner, hugging his knees and sobbing.

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:15 am

Gideon walked up to the kids carrying over a chair.

"Hey Kid," Gideon said as he sat down.

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:26 am

He looked over, wiping his eyes and uselessly trying to not look like he had been crying.

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:31 am

"I'm not going to think less of you for crying, kid," Gideon said, "You're having to deal with a great many things, eh?"

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:46 am

"Yeah..." he sniffed.

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:51 am

"Breaking the chains that held you was the easy part," Gideon said, "Now comes the guilt, eh? The knowing you did horrible things. Being unable to sleep at night because there's so much blood on your hands."

Gideon paused for a moment.

"It takes a lot of strength to rise above it, kid. That you're crying is proof that you aren't who you once were, eh?"

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:57 am

"I don't know if I am strong enough."

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:58 am

"You proved you were strong enough when you took my hand," Gideon said, "Otherwise you would have walked right back into the darkness."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:06 am

A gear clicked in his head.

"You've... done bad things too?"

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:24 am

"I've done my fair share of questionable things," Gideon said cryptically, "I've also known people who did horrible things. Some of those people did things while under the control of others and they've always had the hardest time returning to a normal life, kid.

They were the ones who felt the most guilt because underneath it all they were good people, eh."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:38 am

"But I don't even know who I really am."

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:43 am

"If you want there are ways to find out who you were before you were brainwashed, but the lesson I want you to learn," Gideon said, "Is that you are whoever you want to be, kid."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:53 am

"I don't know what that is either... just... that it isn't a killer."

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:55 am

"Well, there are lots of things that involve not killing people," Gideon said, "You could be a professor like me or you could use the skills you have as one of the X-Men. Just as some examples, eh."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 2:04 am

"X-Men?" he asked, "I was only told to avoid them, though I... do now sort of remember looking up to them once. What exactly are they?"

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 2:09 am

"They are examples for what mutants and other people with powers should be," Gideon said, "Standing between the world and destruction, standing between mutants and the world, and they do it all without killing people."

by **Chase Delacroix** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 2:50 pm

"And they'd give someone like me a chance?"

by **Gideon Rede** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 6:26 pm

"There have been plenty of mutants who have joined the X-Men looking for redemption," Gideon said, "Likely you'd have to prove yourself first and how you'd go about doing that would be between you and Ms. Kinney, kid."

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