Fatal Technology

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She didn't trust him. He was cold, so very cold that it nearly burned and yet...he'd made no move toward her. He spoke to her. He was honest, brutally so and while she instantly hated him for it, she could accept it. He wasn't commanding her to do anything, wasn't subduing her forcefully like so many had done before him. She didn't trust that he wouldn't. She wasn't stupid. She was broken...not dumb.

He might be, though. She wasn't sure yet.

Her hazel eyes flickered, caught between clear thinking and the images caught in her mind, the swirling vortex of thoughts and emotions, a past she couldn't understand. She closed her eyes as pain spiked through her temples and the heel of her hand went up to press to the area as her body tensed. It was so hard to remember anything, to think clearly, to make her mind work in one unbroken line of thought and communication.

Why was she frightened? So many reasons. Why was she scared of HIM? She didn't know him, knew he was going to help those who were doing this to her. Why was she terrified of handlers? Misha cried out, sliding down against the wall as the pain elevated and she curled her fingers tightly to her head, wanting it to stop as the world whirled around her. "P-please, leave m-me alone. Don't t-touch me...don't touch me....please, don't touch me..."

She whispered the words, the fight seeming to drain away to be replaced with the scared child again and it was more than clear by the way she curled into herself that she'd been abused in some way or another, and it had nothing to do with the programming....or maybe it did. It was hard to tell as of yet. Dr. Morgan seemed determined in that moment to make sure that a great deal of thought couldn't be given to the matter and she seemed more agitated than normal, more nervous. Everyone did, as if there is something they were not allowed to say. "The drugs are wearing off. She'll go into withdrawals soon. We must get her reinserted." she told Silas.
 
Silas continued to watch. He watched everything. He was an observer with an eidetic memory, which bargained between the line of being a blessing and a curse. Misha's eyes flickered, similar to the day before when she had been fighting off her program Raven. But it was different this time. She was thinking again, trying to recall her memories, her emotions and thoughts.

And she was obviously in pain.

After a while, the agent cried out and slid down against the wall, curling into herself. She had been abused before. That much was true. Most likely mentally and physically, too. Don't touch her, leave her alone - those were her please. Childlike. A very frightened child. How could Silas deal with that?

Dr. Morgan's voice cut through the trembling silence, informing the handler that the drugs were wearing off and she'd go into withdrawals. She basically ordered for him to do what he needed to do. After just a few more seconds, he walked a couple steps further and knelt in front of Misha, giving her space though it was still probably to close for her liking.

"You want the pain to go away?" he asked, watching her hands clench tightly at her head as she tried to make the pain stop. "I can make the pain stop. Would you like that?" His tone wasn't soothing, but the words gave off the impression unlike trying to force the girl to obey. If she didn't react nicely to those, then... he would have to use force. There was nothing else he'd be able to do.
 
What she would have liked was to gut him, but Misha knew that wasn't an option and she eventually looked up, hazel eyes meeting his light brown with unbridled anger, verging on hate. She'd started to tremble again, but her voice was clear, switched again. "The pain never goes away. You can't stop it so don't tell me you can." she hissed at him and then stood. It wasn't a mad attempt to break away, it was semi-steady and defeated...but only for the time-being. It was the movements of a cat that knew it had to humor its master, but that didn't mean it was tamed.

She walked to the chair and sat, eyes closed and teeth grit as she was strapped in by wary scientists who kept giving glances to Silas. It wasn't exactly normal behavior for the agent and they were uncertain as to how exactly he'd done it or if it would last. They worked quickly and Misha ignored them, now staring up at a familiar ceiling, feeling a hot tear trail its way into her hair as the chip was placed in her arm. The skin was pulled down then and a scientist at the machinery typed in an activation code.

Misha inhaled sharply, arching against her bonds and her head thrash twice before the program took almost instant affect and her hazel eyes met Silas' gaze. The mind behind her gaze seemed to drain away, going blank for a moment until something else flooded into her expression in its wake. It wasn't the same, but to anyone who didn't know any better, she appeared completely normal as she cracked her neck and smiled at Dr. Morgan, raising a brow as she flexed her wrists. "Really? What do you think I am going to do, run away?"

There were collective chuckles as she was released and Dr. Morgan put a hand on her shoulder. "How do you feel, Raven? You were asleep for a long time. Did you dream?"

Raven looked thoughtful for a moment before she shook her head, a smile on her lips, completely relaxed. "Not this time, no. I think your help is working, Morgan."

The scientist smiled. "Good." She gestured to Silas. "You remember Haven, right?"

They'd given her more personality this time, a fuller version of a person and Raven's eyes glimmered with friendly mischief when she looked at her handler, grin widening. "Of course. He's going to keep me out of trouble...or try." She chuckled then and moved toward the door, allowed to go freely. "Come on, Mr. Haven. I don't know about you, but I'm starved."
 
The handler met his agent's eyes. The soulfulness of them were masked away by hate and anger. Her voice was clear, though she hissed at him, and at the first sign of movement, Silas stood from his kneeling position and moved to the side so he wasn't in front of Misha as she stood up. She walked up to the chair and sat in it, allowing the scientists to reprogram her and it was then that Silas was glad she had complied to his subliminal request, even if she really didn't want to. It was the easier way out after all, and he was sure she didn't want to get knocked out or be in anymore pain.

As the activation code was flushed into her system, Misha thrashed before suddenly going calm, her eyes blank and dead before her program completely took over. Not knowing which program had entered Misha, Silas kept a watchful eye, standing tall as usual with his hands clasped in front of him. The program's remark seemed like a comedic relief to everyone else except the handler. And it was then that Dr. Morgan gave the answer to who the program was.

It was Raven once again.

Silas took a few steps forward when he was gestured towards, and as he got closer, Raven definitely seemed like more... Raven. More personality. He offered a very small side-smile when she remembered, but it wasn't very sincere. He gave Dr. Morgan a nod before following Raven out the door and towards the cafeteria, keeping silent.
 
Raven was an ESIA agent. She knew exactly what her jobs entailed, knew about being programmed, knew everything...and she was fine with it. She'd been working for the agency for eight years now and she'd volunteered. She was content here. She knew the people, knew her way around and she was quick to obey orders, compliant with any handler and respectful of fellow agents. She was the perfect agent in every sense of the word, something most organization would only dream of.

She thought she was off duty for insomnia and some psychological trauma from her last mission, something she was getting help for. She was eager to be back in the field again and was very much curious about her new handler. Her last had been retired as far as she knew.

As they worked their way into the Living Room, she became animated, greeting other agents and speaking with them briefly before she moved toward the cafeteria. Other handlers were taking notice, but they all knew Raven and instead were throwing interested glances at her handler. He was new and their curiosity was piqued. A redhead, about ten years older than Silas and nursing a coke, came to greet him in the cafeteria, extending her hand as Raven went toward the food itself. The older handler didn't try to get into Silas' line of sight from himself to Raven, knowing better.

"Hi, I'm Cami. You must be the new blood. How's your official first day been treating you?"
 
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The weird thing about programs were that they were almost completely human. They had thoughts, they had opinions, their own personalities. They had traumas from missions, curiosity over new things. They had actual feelings. Emotions. And the body they used were just vessels for them. It was like one body served for so many souls that weren't even real.

Once they were in the living room area, Silas could feel eyes at him as he followed closely behind Raven. She became a bit peppy and spoke to other agents, obviously in their own programs as well, before moving towards the large cafeteria. Silas basically ignored everyone, only paying attention to Raven unless he was directly greeted. Soon, though, a redheaded female walked to the side of him and extended her hand, still allowing clearing view of Raven. Well, at least this woman was smart.

"Silas," he informed her, shaking her hand and meeting her eyes for a brief second before looking back to Raven as she moved towards the food. "It's fine. Are you a handler?" he asked, just to be sure as he looked at the woman again.
 
Cami didn't take offense by his briefness. Most new handlers were that way in the beginning, wanting to make sure they didn't screw up and for Silas to be taking a troubled case as his first agent, well, she really couldn't blame him for being preoccupied. "I am. My agent is 'Arrow'." She briefly pointed out a the male agent she was in charge of, sitting over at a table and eating, and then brought her eyes back to Silas and then Raven again.

The black-haired agent was moving along the line, looking calm, completely focused on food selection, but Cami chuckled as she watched Raven twirl a knife between her fingers in an absentminded way. "I'd get that away from her if I were you." The redhead looked back at the new handler. "I had Raven for three days. Complete hell. I do wish you luck, kid." She moved away then, back toward her own agent as Raven started moving back toward Silas, carrying a tray, the knife now innocently placed on it.

She passed him with a smile and found a seat, tucking her black hair behind her ear before picking up her burger and giving her new handler a look. "How long have you been a handler?" She took a bite while waiting for his reply.
 
It wasn't that Silas was trying not to screw up on being a new handler. It was just simply his personality. He was often told to 'loosen up' or 'enjoy life', but his cold stature was just the way he had always presented himself, even as a teenager. When he was a child, he was naturally quiet. Shy when he was really young, but soon that grew into just a quiet nature. And everybody took it differently. To most he was one of those people you 'just had to get used to', to a few he was thought as stuck up or arrogant. But that was never really the case.

Light brown eyes scanned over the several agents and handlers before he spotted Arrow, Cami's agent. He was sitting down and eating but he didn't hold much of Silas's interest as he looked back to Raven again. She was standing in line, calm and collected, but she began twirling a knife in her hand and Cami chuckled. Yeah... he'd probably have to do that. He nodded towards Cami before she left, and as Raven passed him, he followed behind her and then sat in front of her. She picked a burger this early in the morning... interesting.

"Two days," he answered as he watched her eat. "If you include this one." If Misha memorized that information, would she try to use that against him? Probably.
 
Brows rose up into her hairline and Raven chuckled before running her tongue over her teeth. "So I'm your first agent. You poor man." It was said teasingly before she took another bite of her chosen food and scanned her surroundings, her gaze narrowed, alert for a moment before she relaxed again, simply watching for a threat. She didn't find one, so she calmed once more and looked back at her handler, head tilting. "You're not much for talking, are you?" She didn't much expect an answer and leaned back in her chair, setting her feet on a chair beside her, legs half under the table.

"Hmm, maybe I'll request a quieter programming then." she mused to herself. 'Raven' was the program everyone here knew her as. Every agent had a base-program and this was hers, and she was hard-wired to not mind what her job was in this state. In fact, Raven wanted nothing more than to make this partnership work because she wanted to start working again so while Silas was watching her, learning, she was doing the same to him.

In a simple manner of speaking, she wanted him to like her.

Her hazel eyes met his light brown again, head tilting. "Did you always want to be a handler?"
 
Silas merely watched. He didn't even shrug. It was interesting that Raven scanned the area though, like she was searching for threats when there obviously weren't any. It was good to be observant and alert though, so he supposed he liked that about her.

"No," he answered simply, hands resting on his knees and posture straight and perfect as she leaned back on her chair and hoisted her feet up onto one of the other chairs. It was then that he shrugged slightly when she mused to herself, but he could easily tell that her hazel eyes were watching him just as he was watching her. They were both learning each other, and this cycle would repeat until all programs knew him well, along with Misha.

When Raven asked if Silas always wanted to be a handler, he shook his head. "No," he answered simply again. But knowing she'd probably want more of an explanation, he elaborated. "I only realized I wanted to be a handler a year before I started training." He actually didn't even want to be a handler. He never wanted to be a handler. But he had those specific skills and several more and he realized that being a handler was his best option of making money, even if it was riskier than being a simple computer programmer or something more along the lines of that. ESIA had specifically requested him, though, and who could say no to the government?
 
"I never wanted to be-"

Raven cut off, blinking, frowning and her hazel eyes flickered with an inner battle before settling again and she shook her head, going on as if she'd never spoken in the first place. "I've been here for eight years. I volunteered at sixteen. I figured I didn't have much of a future anyway; might as well do something useful and getting different personalities didn't seem so bad." She smiled a bit. "Traveling isn't so bad either. I get to see some pretty neat places."

She'd finished her burger and was letting her eyes flicker around again, observant. Her eyes immediately caught on to the man who entered the cafeteria. He was large and his normal clothing - not the simple sweats all the agents wore - marked him as a handler or a scientist, but really the man didn't give off the vibe of a scientist. He was blond, looked like the army type and when he saw Raven he didn't approach, but he smiled.

And she tensed. It wasn't a gradual unease but a complete and utter rigidness that took but a second to activate. Her hand had closed around the knife on the tray and she looked like she might use it at any moment, body coiled like a cobra about to strike. But if someone had asked why she felt the warning of danger that she did...Raven wouldn't have been able to explain why. This wasn't her programming, but the deeper part of her mind. This was Misha.
 
A single black brow raised. There was Misha, fighting for her own body, her own life. But Raven gained control over her again and began speaking like nothing had happened in the first place. She claimed that she had been with ESIA for eight years, volunteering when she was sixteen. From Silas's knowledge, these were only fake memories, a fake past that allowed the programs to be more human-like. It was true that Raven had been here at the agency for eight years, but everything else...

"So you truly like your job?" the handler inquired, watching the girl's eyes flicker around the room.

But suddenly she tensed, her eyes glued onto something or someone. Silas slowly trailed the path her eyes led to and his own sight caught onto a large, army looking type man. He was blond and smiling at Raven and Silas turned back to fully look at her. The knife from earlier was clenched by her fingers, her body ready to attack if provoked. Silas caught on immediately, for he knew that a program like Raven would not act out like that. This was on all accounts Misha.

"Put that down," he ordered quietly, trying not to make a scene. His eyes were firmly set on Raven. He tried again. "Put the knife down, Misha." Her name felt thick on his lips.
 
A tremble of the knife in her fingers showed that Misha was losing control, but it wasn't until Silas acknowledged her that the thing clattered to the table and she took a shuddering breath. For a long minute, she seemed to struggle to gain her bearings, fluctuating between the personality given to her via the technology in her body and her true self. Hazel eyes pierce light brown.

"Keep him away from me." It was grit out between clenched teeth, as if the effort to get the words out was excruciating and then Misha was gone again. The program won over and Raven reached up, rubbing at her temple with a grimace, confused.

Her eyes flickered to the knife, but she only looked uncertain about it and didn't reach for it again, looking around. The other handler was gone, though, and she hardly understood why she'd done that in the first place. She knew Cory. Why would she...react to him that way?

Hazel eyes looked back up at Silas and Raven offered a slight smile, still shaken. "I'm sorry. I think maybe there was a glitch from a previous programming." Or at least, she thought that's what had happened...
 
Calling her name seemed to have done a great effect and Silas watched as the knife fell to the table, making a few clinking noises before relaxing against the surface and slowly stopping its movements. People had looked over at the noise, but only briefly as they continued with their own chatter and meals. Then Raven, or rather Misha for the moment, pierced into Silas's eyes after fighting for what seemed like a long while.

She gave her request, or actually order, before she disappeared once more in the vortex of a different personality. Silas looked back to where the blonde was but he was no longer there or even in the cafeteria. Looking back to Raven and seeing that she was shaken, his eyes scanned over her and what part of her body he could see. She apologized, not even knowing what had happened.

"You're fine, Raven," he assured her as he met her eyes. "Who was that man with the blond hair?"
 
He studied her a lot. It was an odd thing to notice, but Raven thought it was a slightly odd thing to do, too. She didn't say as much, though, and at his reassurance, she relaxed again. He was her handler, he was supposed to know things she didn't and guide her when she couldn't make sense of things. Sure, Silas was new, but she was required to start trusting him so if he said everything was fine, she'd believe it. Or try to.

Why did she have to try, though? Why did she feel so...disoriented? Raven nearly sighed. It was probably time for another therapy session.

At the handler's question she looked back at where the blond had been, but he wasn't there and she returned her eyes back to Silas. "Handler Cory. He doesn't have a permanent agent. He is placed with agents who's handlers have retired or gotten sick or injured. He takes care of them until their new handler is assigned or their previous handler comes back. I...do not know if I have had him as a handler before. I might have, as a different personality."

Raven had begun to run her hand through her hair....or attempting to and she grimaced, wrinkling her nose as her fingers caught in the tangles. Man, she needed a shower.
 
Silas nodded at her answer. He wished the agency would let all personalities meet their handlers, at least so everybody wasn't confused. It would be much more effective and organized that way. But ESIA had their ways, their secrets, and it was obvious that things would get very messy and ugly if anybody tried to mess with them.

His thoughts weren't exactly on ESIA anyways. It was on Cory, the blonde handler that Misha seemed to hate with a passion. Possibly even frightened of. Silas instantly remembered his name and made note to ask about him through someone else, get as much knowledge as he possibly could about the guy. There had to be a reason Misha had acted so strongly when she only caught sight of him.

Truth be told, Silas wouldn't mind a shower either. He wasn't able to take one when he hurried out of his own room, but for now he'd like to ask a question or two before leaving.

"What do agents do when they're not in their rooms or on missions? They just roam around in here?" he asked Raven, looking around the cafeteria and towards the living room. Seemed like a very boring life, honestly. "Are you allowed to leave the facility?"
 
Raven blinked in surprise and for a long moment, she truly looked completely puzzled, as if the question he'd posed wasn't in her programming to be able to answer. She faltered for a moment and then seemed to become steady again. "We train. Get therapy, exams, testing. We study. Take part in what interests us, like hobbies." She really wasn't sure why it was so important, but she wanted to be compliant and she so answered as best she could.

Leave?

The black-haired agent tilted her head, looking interested in that concept and for a moment, her eyes flickered, Misha apparently taking interest too. "I have heard of agents that leave when not on missions, but that is only with given permission from the Director. Handlers must request such things." She had never been outside the facility unless on a mission as far as she could remember.
 
Silas didn't understand why Raven looked so confused. It was an easy question, wasn't it? For a long moment, she didn't seem to know what to say and he looked at her with a flicker of curiosity before she finally answered, saying that her and other agents trained, went to therapy, took exams and testing. They also had certain hobbies, which interested Silas as well, wondering what type of hobbies Raven and other agents had.

Supposedly, the agents didn't really leave the facility either. They were always cooped up in here, where their handlers and other superiors could watch them. It was kind of sad, really, not knowing the outside world between missions. While it was horribly ugly compared to years ago, it was also incredibly beautiful in the sense of new changes and beginnings. There was always much to learn, always things to add to one's knowledge.

"Does the request have to be of the utmost importance?" Silas asked Raven, curious to know how much this program really knew.
 
Raven frowned, finding herself wishing he'd ask questions she could answer more easily. She didn't know as much as he seemed to want and the agent was a bit frustrated by that because she wanted to be helpful, but she didn't act on that emotion and instead answered as usefully as she could, sitting up straight. "I have seen handlers and agents come back with clothes and food before so...I don't think the request has to be important. I believe you just need permission to go out with an agent. I am certain there are rules and protocols for this action."

"She is right." a soft voice intoned and Raven smiled, something truly genuine in the expression as a black-haired woman walked over. She was about Silas' age and her brown eyes were gentle as she settled a hand on the agent's shoulder and Raven seemed to relax without even realizing it. The stranger looked to Silas with a kind smile. "Handler Haven, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Adah Ben-Horin, a doctor in this facility."

Adah looked down at Raven again with something like fondness in her eyes and then back up at her handler. "She's correct. If want to take an agent out, you must ask Allen. Most requests are granted, but only on rotation and you have time-limits and rules to follow."
 
Silas found her answer satisfying enough, even if she didn't think so. A softer voice cut through before he could speak again and he turned his head, spotting the beholder of the voice to be a woman about his age with a very gentle posture as a hole. She had black hair and brown eyes, and it seemed that Raven liked her as her body relaxed when she was touched.

Silas looked up to the doctor and nodded in response. "It's nice to meet you, too," he said sincerely. Adah had looked down to Raven and Silas did not miss the fondness she held in her expression. He briefly wondered if her and Raven were close, but his thoughts were cut clean as she confirmed his agent's answer.

"Ah, thank you," he said, offering a small smile. "That is good to know."
 
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