Kyle, he's difficult. I closed my mind's eye and opened my physical eyes. Both of us were still floating in that accursed tank. As much as it was sustaining me, it was draining my focus. My charge. Getting propelled up while I'm forced to remain in physical contact with Amanda.
Kyle was floating above us. I blinked, and Amanda opened her Feline green eyes. It was a short, intense moment when we locked eyes. I was hurting Kyle, we were. But that's what we were tasked to do. His broken arm was healing, yes, but his mind was in a state our Jasime could tolerate.
Amanda closed her eyes when Kyle eventually woke up. Everything could have changed, not monitoring Kyle right now, letting my focus squander wouldn't help me out in the slightest. But he was an intense case; his pale skin and ghoulish red-shot eyes hid emotions, and his thoughts were more intense than any patient I had to monitor yet. Even when I could feel Amanda's charge surging through me. It was draining to keep up appearances for Kyle.
Highly suspicious, even if his active mind has not caught on, his subconscious always reminds himself of what's off. They've been wishing for him to experience being a Commissar. It was too ambitious, and we suffered for the sake of it. I rubbed my thumb over the outside of Amanda's hand, and our eyes locked once more. The intensity of her gaze was sometimes overwhelming...
I'm heading back inside, Sire.
I&^/(!/°^?)
As always, her mind was beyond anything I could comprehend. Burning with an intensity that would drain my charge faster than we could replenish. I closed my physical eyes and opened my mind's.
Kyle was already done speaking with the adjutant? I gauged his thoughts.
He wants to head to the Technocrats now? He's too fast on his feet again, to save charge, I narrowed his perception and depopulated. There he was, striding through empty hallways he knew should always be filled to the brim with all matters of officers and troopers marching up and down, attending to various duties.
Again, I was drained from narrowing his perception, his focus. The world could be empty for, except for the two of us, and he would know and experience the sensation of it being full of life. He doesn't remember life any other way, so he can't experience it any other way. Or rather, I can't.
"Hey Kyle, why the hurry? What's the hurry? Didn't you want to talk more with that adjutant?"
"I can't help it, KI. I have my own array of retainers in mind, as far as her qualifications go. There is nothing left to desire, but I'm more of a wolf, and I want my pack."
"You never called me Ki before! And the military definitely wants you to favor their staff for tactical purposes. You're a Commissar now, you can't play favorites."
"I got you, that should amount to much for all they care." I, Kira, blushed? Or would she? The Technocrats birthed way too many sociopaths under their care. Setting up all of those requirements with Deviants was beyond taxing. We both would run dry before Kyle is anywhere near waking up by himself or healing from his injuries. He's a broken asset, but what's broken can be salvaged. It can be recovert.
I slightly nudged at the corners of his mind once more. The military compound, the cityscape stretched tall over him for a split second, so he could register it once more until his mind would fill out the constant blank space with what he was familiar with. The driver comes around, neither he nor Kira hailed him, but he won't notice that. He won't notice anything. Content in my mind, he walks to places. Process whatever pent-up emotion he has, and maybe. Come out the other way just how they want him to.
I closed my mind's eye once more and opened up my physical. Our hands are still intertwined. Were intertwined. I opened mine. Amanda's eyes opened. My arms went beneath her armpits, and I pulled her in for an embrace. Even if the stimulants are supposed to suppress any feelings of fatigue. I was feeling it vividly. With more skin contact, I could go further. Her heartbeat barely increased. Mine did threefold. She would gut me if it weren't for Kyle.
That close to her, I experience the darkness hiding inside her green eyes. Such a bright color concealed such darkness. Her arms wrapped themselves around me, and she held onto me as well. I rested my head on her shoulder and went back inside.
Arriving at our facility, Kyle stood in front of the squad of Techguards, they're personality and vocabulary limited. To words and phrases you would have seen in old Earth's action-packed. Movies. It's stiff, it's weird, but I know it has its own charm. At least to every man's mind I've experienced so far.
"Were you headed, sir?" They're Alpha asked.
"I have business inside. It was promised to me that your engineer finished his work with my signature weapon, and I can't wait to see it for myself."
"Be on your way, sir, whatever strikes your fancy. "Over."
"Over and out." Kyle's eyes twitched, and for a moment his mind wailed against my intrusion, but it quickly died down. Too many stimulants… I can't tell if I slipped up or if I'm too exhausted.
"You're quite talkative with the Techguards."
"Of course, everybody should take their time talking to their Battle buddies."
"Aren't there pre-generated responses? They don't have the processing power like the virtual simulated intelligences."
"In a matter of fact, they don't, you have to consider this. Their mind sinked, yes. But that's for their perception in combat. In regard for communication, it would strain the network too much. If you pay close attention, like any person. They have their characteristics and charm. But you'll only notice if you pay close enough attention."
"Curious, I've never noticed that."
"Now you know."
Kira and Kyle headed together into the building. Kyle was leading the way for the most part. Gauging his mind, he only knows the place to where we Meldiers reside or some of the manufacturing parts. He doesn't know about the vastness of our facility, which stretches way beneath the city like the subcity that hollows out the mountain for the most part.
"Wouldn't you mind leading the way, Kira? I don't know where to head from here."
"Sure thing, just this way." I knew the way to any point of the facility. It was inscribed into my mind like the entire architecture of the city and some vocational sites. Confidently, I made Kira stroll through the building, righting the wrong way Kyles led them deep into the complex. It was well over half an hour they spent walking until they reached the more cautious experimental areas.
The Engineer Dexter, here and there, was looking at Kyle confidently. "This is a marvel of Technology, Commissar. This function is as much as a Shotgun, Plasma Rifle for close-range combat, high destructive power, and long-range engagements if you focus the power." I forgot to let Kyle process the layout in the room. I clouded his mind for the time being and let him take in the design. It was warm, really warm. Despite the coolant beneath the surface and the machinery was making each inhale painful for the non-augmented.
All of the machines were undergoing calculations that I can't hope to comprehend, but they are aesthetic for this scene. He looked at Dexter and could see her for what she was. An attractive engineer with really subtle augmentation. Mostly internal for efficiency's sake. I allowed Kyle to focus once more, and Dexter walked over to the display. "I know you would love to test the weapon as soon as possible, but I would like to introduce the technical side of things, Commissar. I know, as a fellow engineer, you can't help but to gush over the details like I do, so let's start with that!"
She handed the contraption over to Kyle, and his mind began to race. It suddenly began to flourish with more activity and an overwhelming amount at that! More than I experienced so far! It was flooding, it was flooding through me, eclipsing everything, I became him, and he became I.
"It's funny, isn't it, such a weapon wouldn't work realistically," I said, checking the coolant and energy storage. "Multiple batteries, a Gas storage, everything aligned like that wouldn't work." Dexter and Kira looked baffled at me. The stock of that Plasma Shotgun collided with Kira's stomach, and I aimed it at Dexter. She disappeared in a flash of light. Kira tried to react after I gut-checked her. Her hand reached out to me. I seized it and dragged it past me.
The hilt of her knife shone at me, I grabbed it. Before she could turn around and meet me, I kicked her leg away. I dropped the still-overheating plasma shotgun and reached out to grab her again. She didn't fell for the same trick twice.
Unfiltered terror shone in her eyes. She took a step back, and I closed in with a half step. The blade came in a low arc, droplets of blood flew through the air. Kira staggered back in unsure small steps, trying to find the wound on her arm and chest area.
I closed in again, she didn't manage to block any of the slashes and jabs I threw her way. Unsure on her feet, I grabbed her and threw her over my shoulder. The knife got stuck along the way.
On the floor, in the pool of her own blood, she looked up at me with an unreadable expression. "You chose poorly with Kira, even if I barely know her, I know her enough that such a future would never come to pass."
Her hands tried to reach towards me, opening and closing. I stomped on the knife, and the world shattered beneath us.