“What did you just say?” Maria’s face contorted into a frown as she walked up and got nose-to-nose with Lena. “What happened to you?”

Lena started to tear up and quickly backed away after dropping her shirt over her stomach in shame. “It happened after we started testing for our powers. At first my stomach just felt tight, so i thought it might be a side-effect of the Walker Gene and asked General Armando if it was anything to worry about.”

“I should have taken notice when it happened, when I his eyes widened when I told him but he denounced it having anything to do with the experiments and told me to visit the hospital.” She started shivering, and Jessica wrapped her arms around the timid girl.

So I did as I was told and visited the municipal hospital to see if there was anything wrong. After finding nothing, the doctor said it was probably just stomach cramps and sent me back to work, saying I could resume immediately.”

Lena shook her head, tears threatening to spill at any moment. “I should have known better. I returned to the base and reported back to General Armando that my conditions were fine and that I could continue training at any time. He said ok and we resumed experiments on trying to unlock our potential in manipulating the void.”

“I thought it would be alright, that the pain and pressure I was feeling would just subside like the doctor told me. But…” Lena was trembling, but took a deep breath and exhaled to calm herself.

“That was when it started to appear. I noticed it at first when I was taking a shower after training. This hard yet smooth, pitch black substance started to surface from beneath my skin.”

“How was it… or rather, what did you do about it?” Rob asked, and received a slap on the back of his head for his insensitivity.

“You asshole! She’s already having a tough time telling us what’s already happened, don’t ask questi9ons she isn’t emotionally prepared to answer yet.”

Lena gave Rob a sad smile and continued, “Of course it hurt a ton, but I think my pain tolerance has always been on the high side so I ignored it and continued to persevere. Armando invited me to his office one day and sat me down for a talk.”

Lena took another deep breath, “He told me that I was accelling faster than previously thought in regards to our time trials, and asked if my stomach was still in pain. I replied yes and showed him…”

Tears started to pour out of her eyes as her hold on her emotions finally released. “He tried to console me and make me feel normal, but that was all a part of his trap.”

“He gave me tea and…,” she paused, and started shivering again, “the next thing I knew I was naked and strapped to a table being examined.” She broke out into sobs, causing Maria, Alison, and Rob to go silent with dread.

“Lena, we can stop if you want to. There’s no reason to continue if it brings you this much pain.” Jessica gently tried to let her down once more but once more Lena refused.

“They need to hear, they need to know that Armando isn’t someone to be trusted, or even trifled with.Or they may end up like me.”

Lena stood once more, ready to recount her story again. “When I woke up, the General’s face was the first thing I saw. I was reassured for a time until I realized he wasn’t smiling.”

Lena shook her head, “He wasn’t frowning, wasn’t smirking, and had no signs of emotions on his face. That’s when I realized that I was nothing more than a glorified science experiment to him.”

“Pretty sad isn’t it,” Lena looked down at her feet, “As someone who grew up an orphan, I didn’t know parental love throughout my entire life. But after I was drafted, I thought of him and his kindness at giving me another chance at success rather than mediocrity as the kind of love a father has for a child.”

“Ha,” she scoffed, “how wrong I was. I think that’s what hit me the hardest. Finding out he never cared for me- for us in the first place. We are all still his experiments, the difference is that I’m free and he’s still got a grasp on you.”

“Noticing he wasn’t joking I tried to get up and that’s when I found out I was tied down. After looking around the room once more I noticed many machines and scientists huddled around them.”

“What were they doing to you?” Rob questioned, but this time Alison’s curiosity distracted her from punishing the insensitive man again.

“They were trying to detect whether I could become a host or not. They would stick needles into my abdomen all around the core over and over and over again until I was numb with pain…”

This time the cadets visibly shook, with Alison, Maria, and Rob all vividly imagining Lena’s plight. Eventually, it was Rob once more who asked what they all wanted to know: “So how did you escape?”

“After the day’s experiments were over, they unhooked me from the monitoring devices and threw me in a cage, expecting me to be too weak from the day’s trials to actually resist imprisonment.”

A small smile appeared on Lena’s face, one that seemed a little more hopeful this time. “They were wrong. I void-walked to escape the cage and found myself in Armando’s secret office. There I read all the journals of his experiments that I could find until morning came, after which I mustered up all of my strength and teleported to my house in New York, where I then proceeded to collapse in front of a dumpster.”

The smile grew wider, “After waking up from that nightmare is when I met Adrian, but I suppose that’s a story for a different time. About six months later, I noticed people from the lab had been coming to observe me and, I assume, report back to Armando about my whereabouts.”

“I grew scared, and about two months after they first appeared I killed them to try and discourage him from sending any more people… and here we are now.”

Lena finally looked up, ready to finally face her past and previous retinue. “Anyway, that’s not all I wanted to get at.” Lena motioned towards Jessica, who pulled a tablet out of her handbag.

“Read this.” Jessica held out the tablet towards Alison, who took it after some consideration.

“What is it?” She fiddled around with it until the screen lit up and the profile of a solitary man appeared on the screen. “Thats-!”

“Your captain, Leo Jones. I’m sorry to tell you, but that man is too dangerous for you all, please reconsider your friendship after reading these research articles.”

———

“Why would you say something like that?” Alison wasn’t upset, but rather concerned for her former leader. Lena had clearly been dealing with PTSD from her time in the military and who’s to say it hadn’t affected other portions of her mental faculties?

“Lena, I know it’s been hard for you since you were kicked out of the military but if we could just talk this out with you I’m sure we could-”

“Because it’s true! He's a wolf in sheep's clothing, broken beyond all repair! You have no idea what kind of atrocities your beloved leader is truly capable of.” Alison’s face heated up at the word ‘beloved,’ but returned to normal after hearing the rest of Lena’s accusation.

“Ok, let’s start then.” Alison put on a brave smile as she unwittingly opened the document that would permanently change her perceptoin of Leo Jones.

———

Excerpt from the Christmas Disaster Post-Battle Report of Leo Jones

I can remember the disaster very vividly, and though a week has passed already I am still able to recall with utmost certainty the events of that night.

Waking up from the visceral sound of explosions, screaming, and a sickening squelch, I left my chambers in confusion.

Entering the hall, what awaited me was the sight of a war zone. The bodies of many of my clones, my former brothers lay against the wall of the eerily dark hallway, clutching at their necks, which accentuated the fact that most of them were missing their heads.

As I headed even further down the hall, each body I passed claimed another piece of my sanity. Finally, I came across the silhouette of my Mom and Dad. As I walked up to them, I was met by a cold glare from my father.

"This is all your fault!" He screamed at me while clutching his wife to his chest. His white lab coat was stained in blood and a strange black liquid.

"If only you didn't come along with your 'revolutionary powers'. She would still be alive God damn it! Those monstrosities are your fault!"

The body of one of my brothers lay still on the floor, his stomach gouged out and two still hearts in each of his red stained hands.

"Dad, what do you-"

"Shut up! I'm not your father and you were never a son of mine! Oh Sherry, my lovely Sherry!"

My heart was breaking as I stepped back. The man had never really 'loved' me, I came to realize. These scientists had taken advantage of my feelings to get me to cooperate. I was lost in thought until I heard a thumping in the hallway behind me.

I turned in time to see my bald brother come out of a doorway on the opposite end of the corridor.

"Brother!" I started walking toward him. "You're alright!" I got about ten feet from him when he let out a piercing howl.

"Brother!? What's wrong with you!?" I couldn't comprehend- no, it was better to say I chose not to comprehend. I chose to ignore the harm that Doctor Walker's serum was doing to my brothers, telling myself that if they could gain the powers I held, the world would be a better place.

How naive I was.

My clone scratched at his face, and started hobbling towards me. I flinched and held my head in my hands.

"No, I don't want this!" I shouted. "I just want it to be yesterday again!" I saw my clone's disturbing transformation.

His face was changing shape, his skull was becoming longer, and two bumps formed in his temples. The skin around his neck paled as his teeth got longer and sharper until his skin burst, not sturdy enough to withstand the changes occurring underneath.

His pitch black skull gleamed in the dim light of the hall, and whatever he had become reached out for me.

I curled up into a ball and waited for the end to come, but it never did.

"Are you going to sit there with your head up your ass forever, or are you going to help me?"

I looked up in time to see my brother's arms and legs separate from his torso and fall to the ground.

Dantae stood above me, the girl looked beautiful as she wiped his clone's blood from her face.

"My God, you're helpless. Here," she held her hand out and I took it, at which point I could feel a confused look coming across my face.

I once again found myself at a loss for words as I watched the girl's mesmerizing transformation into a sword. I felt its grip, the blade bringing a feeling of familiarity to me which I had never felt before.

"It's so beautiful." I muttered, unaware that Dantae was listening in on me.

'Morning Glory.' He heard the girl's voice say. I looked around but only saw the grieving face of Christian Armando.

'Is your brain just for show or can it actually work?' The cold voice came from the sword itself! I widened my eyes, astonished, and tried to form a sentence but to no avail.

I heard something scuttling behind me and waved the sword in a perfect arc, cutting off the tail of a serpentine creature.

That's the moment where I was born. My brain accelerated and it felt like I was unburdened for the first time that night.

My head hurt, and I watched as the rest of the creature dove into the mouth of Sherry. Christian let go with a start and I watched in horror as her deceased body started spasming until a black cloud enveloped the entire area, swallowing Christian, Dantae, and I.

'Slash in front!' Dantae screamed and I severed the head of my former mother.

Christian screamed and I looked at him, catching my reflection in a piece of shattered glass lying by his side. Thinking back to last week, the last thing I wanted to remember from that night was the crooked grin that was etched into my face.