Elle6778 - Dark Angel Fanfiction

REMEMBER - CHAPTER 5

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Chapter 1

COMPLETE

Alec leaned against the wall in the bathroom, deep in thought. He had finished his shower long ago but the water was still running.

He did not think too much of it at that time, but he realised something now that he had time to cast his mind back to it. When he had woken up in the motel, he had felt disoriented until he had his shower. Then his mind had seemed to clear, even though he could not remember what happened. The same thing had just happened as he had stood under the shower earlier.

He had been about to turn the water off and return to the living room when he heard faint sounds of movement in there. At that time, he had paused and listened; alarmed as he could not think of any reason why someone should be in his living room at this time of the night. He had never brought any of the women he slept with back to his apartment. It had always been their place. It was safer that way.

Then he had heard her call him. His face had paled when he recognized her voice. Celia. Something had tugged at his memory. Something about not letting her physically close to him. He had searched his mind in an attempt to grasp that elusive memory, came up with nothing concrete.

These lapses of memory are getting out of hand, he thought, worried. He hoped that it was not permanent.

The last thing he remembered was Crash. He had been sitting at the table with Sketchy, Original Cindy and Max when he noticed Celia coming towards them. The next thing he knew, he was under the shower. He couldn’t even begin to guess what had happened between Crash and the bathroom.

I need to get out, he thought anxiously, flicking his eyes to the door.

He did not have to look around the small bathroom to know that there were no windows, hence no escape route apart from the door which led into the living room; straight into Celia’s clutches. Fear had risen in him when it registered that he was trapped. So he had done the next best thing.

He had kept the water running in the hope that Celia would think that he was still in the shower. Picking up his rumpled jeans which was tossed carelessly into the corner of the bathroom, he had extracted his mobile phone and dialled a familiar number.

He had called Max.

Max moved with a catlike silence she descended from the roof over Alec’s apartment, careful to ensure that her approach remained undetected. Celia. Alec sounded as if he was afraid of Celia. As she made her way there, Max had tried to make sense of Alec’s words, with not much luck.

So that meant that she had to be extra cautious. This meant that she was approaching the target zone from the narrow ledge running along the side of Alec’s apartment building. She clung precariously to the wall as she literally inched sideways towards Alec’s window, her back tight against the brick wall.

Max stood immobile as she finally arrived at Alec’s living room window. Holding her breath, she darted a surreptitious glance into the living room before flattening herself back against the wall.

She saw Celia leaning on her side against the wall beside the bathroom door. She was saying something to Alec through the door. Max concentrated on making out the words she uttered. The sound of Celia’s voice was not particularly clear through the glass, but Max could hear her.

“Come on Alec. You know you want to come out. You can’t stay in there forever,” Celia said, sounding for all as if she was trying to coax a small child out of a closet.

A muffled sound filtered through the bathroom door. Max tried, but she could not hear it. It must be Alec, she thought. She felt a flood of relief wash over her. He was still in the bathroom, so she guessed that he was relatively alright.

“You won’t remember any of this tomorrow anyway,” Max heard Celia reply to whatever it was that Alec said. The tone the red-head used made Max’s skin crawl in apprehension. What the hell was she? Did she make Alec forget? How? The string of questions ran through Max’s mind.

Another muffled sound.

“Ah well, seeing that all this would be non-existent to you tomorrow anyway, I suppose I could tell you…” Max heard her say with laugh.

Max's eyes pricked up at Celia's words. Curious, Max listened intently as the other woman continued, “You won’t remember; I’ve made sure of that. I was the psy-ops unit deployed to aid with your reindoctrination. After your failed mission…”

What appeared to be muffled protest came through the door at Celia’s word. Questions were again running through Max’s mind. Psy-ops? Alec failed a mission? Max was guessing that Alec was denying the failure of the mission, whatever it was.

“No, you wouldn’t remember unless there was some sort of trigger. That was part of the reindoctrination. Hmm… actually, you did remember something when we were in Crash just now. Interesting…” Celia answered thoughtfully.

Max almost jumped as she heard a loud thump on the bathroom door. Alec was getting pissed off. She did not blame him; she would feel the same way too, if she was told that her memory had been wiped clean as part of Manticore’s reindoctrination.

Max heard Celia chuckle at Alec’s reaction. She shuddered involuntarily. This woman is insane!

“Now, now, Alec… That’s not a nice thing to say, seeing that I am the one who have you trapped in there. But since you want to know, I’ll tell you. They designed me for brain-manipulation and infiltration. I obtain the data Manticore desires and make the subjects forget they had ever met me,” Celia said proudly. Max could almost imagine her tossing her hair as she said that. Max rolled her eyes, clamping down on her urge to snort.

A muffled question came through the door. Max listened intently.

Celia answered, “Ah, that. A mistake on my part to let you into the shower. I suspect that you can think clearly now because you washed off the residues of the serum I produced from my skin. The serum which made you malleable to my suggestions. It only affects you when you breath in the fumes, so when you washed it off, your mind is clear again. In small doses, I can only influence the thoughts you make a few minutes before or after you are exposed to the serum. Prolonged contact, however, would achieve much more than that. I could even manipulate your long term memory. To make you think that whatever I say is reality. Pretty sophisticated, don't you think?”

Celia stopped as Alec said something to her through the bathroom door. She laughed again and said, “You did not have any objection to me when we had sex a couple of days ago. You enjoyed it too, I am sure.”

Max flinched as she heard Alec’s voice this time as he shouted at the top of his lungs, “You sick bitch!”

Understanding dawned on Max. So that was what happened. Celia had practically forced him into having sex with her, or rather, drugged him. Max’s face twisted in disgust. She could not believe that Celia did that. How low could she sink, the slut!

Apparently growing tired of all the explanations, Celia finally said, “I think that’s enough of talking,” Max could hear her voice harden as she asked in a dangerously low voice, “Are you coming out or do I have to come in to get you myself?”

At Celia’s words, Max realized that time was running out. She needed to think of something fast before Celia could sink her claws into Alec again.

Celia cursed as the bathroom door refused to give way under her kick. She cursed again, this time at Manticore for failing to splice her genes such that she had as much strength as the regular X-series. She was much stronger than the Ordinaries, but it was not enough.

Pressing her head to the locked door, she tried again, “Alec…” she purred, “Make it easy on yourself. You know you have to come out sometime.”

She heard him snort through the door, followed by sarcastic, “Why, you can’t manipulate the door into opening? Hey, if you want me, you have to come get me yourself. I don’t like being forced. And I don’t particularly want to aid you in raping me.”

“Such brave words, 494. That’s what you used to tell me before. You don’t remember that either, did you,” Celia said with a smile. She shook her head in pity. 494 knew he had no chance against her and yet he had to make it hard on himself. Celia knew that the minute he walked out of that door, he would be hers again. For a while at least, until she managed to convince him to remain with her. She realised that it would take time. Total mind manipulation always did. But Celia was patient. She would take all the time she needed to make him hers.

There was a pause before she heard Alec drawl in a mocking tone, “Hey, now that you mentioned it, I remember something. Weren’t you the psy-ops unit who got punished for insubordination. 119, right? Not to mention you never did make it out into fieldwork because your manipulation skills were not quite up to scratch? HUH?” She could hear him chuckle through the door.

Celia felt her face redden. He had no right to say that. It was entirely his fault that she was punished. Clenching her hands into fists, she forced out through gritted teeth, “Shut up, 494. I was willing to sacrifice everything for you.”

She heard a bark of laughter from the other side of the door, and then he said, “Remind me what exactly you did for me, 119. Because much as I would like to thank you for your sacrifices, my mind could not find the relevant memory slots in my head. Thanks to you.”

Celia thought back to the first time they met. 494 had been brought back from a mission he had failed and was sent for reindoctrination. When the standard methods failed to bend him to their will, Manticore had brought her in to assist. 494 had become the focus of her life then. She had spend every waking hour of those months with him, slowly manipulating his mind, making him forget the failed mission and his despicably weak feelings for his targets. Celia’s lips curled in disgust as she recalled his obsession with the target’s daughter.

Slowly, Celia had realised that her preoccupation with 494 went beyond the professional capacity. She had tried to approach him openly about it. Whenever she had broached the subject without trying to manipulate him, he had shied away from her. He had mocked her with his rejection. And that made her more determined to achieve her ultimate goal - 494.

She had no choice. It was not as if she had any control over what she felt towards him; her feelings were so strong. So she had made him forget that she was his psy-ops operator. She made him forget that he despised her. Bending him to her will once he was physically close to her was not too hard; he was lonely, weak and had no contact with any other apart from herself for months. That was when they slept together. And then she had made him forget they had sex.

Everything had worked out fine until that bitch Renfro got involved. Celia could still remember the day Renfro had come in while she was working on 494. Renfro had wanted to pull 494 out of reindoctrination. The stern faced woman with face caked with obscene amount of cosmetics had told 494 that he had a new mission.

Celia had protested. She had argued that he was not ready. But all she had achieved in doing then was to put herself in Punishment for insubordination. Punishment had lasted one week. However, for Celia, that was a major disgrace. Psy-ops units were rarely punished.

The humiliation of being sent to Punishment had still been fresh in her mind when she found out that 494’s new mission was to copulate with 452. HER 494 had been sent to copulate with a filthy ’09-er. Celia’s face twisted in anger as she recalled the day she went to 494’s cell only to find that he had been escorted to 452’s cell.

Shaking away the unwanted memories, Celia scanned the room, trying to find something which she could use to force the door to the bathroom open. She smiled as she spotted an old metal chair. That will do, she thought.

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