Uncontrollable Destiny (2/6) (V, PG-13, Lisa/Joshua)
PART II: Looming Fate
Joshua was locked up in the Medical Bay for the next twelve hours. Lisa stayed by him, partially out of guilt, partially out of concern. When the room was empty, she managed to gather enough courage to hold his hand in hers, gently caressing the bruised, swollen skin. He didn't wake up, but she was loath to leave his side all the same. Concern was an unfamiliar emotion, but a strong, bitter one all the same.
For the next few days, Lisa was left in the dark as to what her mother's words - her intent to prove to Joshua that Lisa was Fifth Column - meant. Her time away from Joshua was consumed with Tyler as she attempted to maneuver her way into his life and heart, pushing him towards Anna while simultaneously attempting to hold him back. It was confusing and heart-wrenching, and all the conflicting emotions fought and struggled within her - huge waves threatening to breach an already breaking dam.
On the fourth day after Joshua's suicide attempt, three of Anna's guards burst into Lisa's sleeping quarters in the middle of the night. She rose and went with them without a word or comment. She did not fight or struggle, but regardless, they manhandled her through the ship to Joshua's cell. They waited for several seconds before the doors opened seemingly of their own accord.
Joshua was barricaded in one corner of the room, a bright blue and white shield keeping him quarantined in the selected area. He circled his cage anxiously. Anna smiled wickedly as her guards threw Lisa down on the floor. She couldn't look up, couldn't see Joshua's face, knowing that this was all another one of Anna's well-planned tricks - but also aware that for Joshua it was a trick that was all too real.
"Look what I found, Joshua," Anna taunted. "Another piece of Fifth Column scum."
A signal Lisa couldn't detect silently ordered the V's to deliver several sharp kicks to her abdomen, and she groaned, trying to evade the fortified tips of their boots.
"She's not Fifth Column," Joshua protested as Lisa was hauled to her feet, strong arms holding her in place even though she barely struggled. "I would know."
"Human emotions are such tricky things. Empathy, for one, has been one of humanities greatest weaknesses," Anna traced Lisa's jaw with her cold fingers. Lisa turned her head away from her mother, repulsed. The broad-shouldered V's snapped her wrists into silver cuffs designed to keep her immobile, pressing her back against the wall behind her. This time, she thrashed about and fought freely, grinding out threats and protests through clenched teeth.
"Is there a point to this, Anna?" Joshua said, and Lisa noted the intentional use of her name - instead of the more respectful "My Queen". The thought occurred to her that Anna wasn't his queen anymore - because he'd declared that Lisa was - but it was quickly washed away by a torrent of pain as Anna aimed a low-tech V weapon at Lisa's midsection and pulled the trigger. A bolt of Blue Energy slammed into Lisa's chest and she screamed, fighting against the binders pinning her to the wall.
"The point, Joshua," Anna smiled sadistically, "Is that even if Lisa isn't Fifth Column, which I happen to know isn't true, you won't be able to stand there and watch me hurt her. Empathy: humanity's greatest weakness."
Joshua said nothing, and Anna sent another shock in Lisa's direction. Her back arched as her body shuddered in pain. Every breath felt like inhaling fire, and her eyes watered as she squeezed her eyelids shut.
"What do you want?" Joshua almost growled.
"I want to know who your fellow Fifth Column members are?" Anna answered.
"I won't tell you."
Anna swung around, slamming the heel of her fist into Lisa's nose. Bones crunched and blood flowed. "How about now?"
If Anna had been hanging on by a thread after the whole Fifth-Column-Blew-Up-Her-Eggs-Shebang, it appeared that thread was slowly fraying until only a tiny sliver of material was keeping her sanity in line. She pressed the device directly against Lisa's human skin - making it exponentially more painful - but did not pull the trigger.
"Who?" she snarled.
"They're all dead," he answered. "All of them. I'm the only one left"
Anna's head tipped to the side as she studied him. "I don't believe you." Pain seared through Lisa's leg and she cried out.
"It's true." Lisa saw Joshua's jaw clench, but no emotion was betrayed in his eyes.
Anna looked infuriated. "Hurt her until he talks," she barked at the two V's standing sentry at the doors.
Fear tightened around Lisa's chest, a vice grip that threatened to choke the life out of her. Pain blurred together. They broke her legs - for the second time in a very short human month - leaving her dangling by her already raw and bleeding wrists. Then they transitioned into a chemical form of physical torture: using normally inert compounds in high dosages to create painful separations between her human and V skin, causing large, oozing blisters to form on her arms, legs and torso.
An indeterminable amount of time later they un-cuffed her; her battered body fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. In the background she could hear Joshua protesting, begging them to stop. But it slowly faded away as she drifted out of painful awareness and into blissful blackness.
When Lisa finally waded through the fog and woke up, her head was throbbing painfully and one eye - her left - was swollen shut. Joshua knelt beside her, having apparently been released from the blue containment unit.
"Don't try to move," he coached softly. "You could injure yourself."
Lisa wanted to say something akin to 'at this point, not likely', but the only thing she could do was moan quietly.
"Lisa, how did they find out?" He swore while carefully inspecting the swelling around her eyes. She winced at the slightest pressure of his fingers and tried to turn her head away. "Doesn't matter how," she whimpered.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, "But you have to stop trying to move. Your external skin is badly damaged, possibly irreparable-"
"Joshua," Lisa croaked, "Would you stop being a Medic for just…" She was interrupted by a fierce coughing fit. Blood collected around her lips.
"Your may have punctured a lung," he informed her. Grimacing, Joshua looked as if he wished he could take back that last statement. "Again, I apologize, I'm afraid I'm not helping very much."
Lisa's vision was blurry, but she could clearly make out the fear evident in the crease of Joshua's eyebrows and the downward pull of his lips. Even his clinical terms and the lack of emotion in his diagnosis told her that she was in pretty bad shape. The realization that Anna was willing to gamble her life on the off-chance that Joshua would break in hopes of saving her struck Lisa full force. Knowing her mother, she was certain that Anna would be happy to sit by and watch her offspring die if it meant achieving a larger goal: turning Joshua and allowing him to help her wreak havoc on the members of Fifth Column.
"Won't stop," Lisa managed to slip the words through trembling lips. "'till you break or I'm dead."
"I could give her a list of incorrect names," Joshua suggested, though even the way he said it told Lisa he held little hope of the ruse actually working. "It might convince her to heal you."
"She'd find out and just start over." Lisa pointed out. Her breathing was becoming more and more labored and she knew Joshua noticed. Being a trained medic, Lisa assumed that he couldn't not notice.
"Lisa, without medical attention…" He let the statement trail away unfinished, but Lisa could complete his train of thought in her head. Without medical attention, in a few hours, she would either bleed out or suffocate. Either way, she was dead.
"I know." She felt hot and cold all at once. Tiny bumps prickled her skin, and sweat dripped from her forehead. Alright, maybe the timeline was actually a lot less than a few hours. "But you can't tell her."
"It doesn't matter. She knows you're Fifth Column anyway. Even if I give in, you're as still as good as dead, and the Resistance is without its most promising advantage in years."
"Anonymity?" Lisa queried.
She thought she caught a hint of a smile, something so real and human and genuine that it made the tightness in her chest feel even tighter. "You," he answered.
Numbly, she stretched out her hand towards him, not caring about tissue damage or bone fractures, but simply needing some contact, some comfort. Joshua took careful hold of her arm and slowly lowered it back against her side, but he kept his hands against her skin, carefully skimming his fingertips across the back of her hand, steering clear of the larger cuts and bruises.
"I wish…" He sounded defeated, nothing like the strong, brave Joshua she knew. Lisa heard him sigh. "I wish I could do something."
Lisa didn't have the strength to answer. She didn't even have the strength to keep her one eye open any longer. It slid shut, and she felt herself falling into darkness once again.
She was pulled back into consciousness by the sound of Joshua shouting, and the heavy thumps of something - possibly his fists - banging against the strong walls of the containment cell. Her pain-muddled mind couldn't process what he was saying, but it did register the sound of the cell door opening, and the artificially soothing tones of her mother's voice speaking to Joshua.
And then Lisa felt the Bliss. Swimming, floating around her. White light, glowing and peaceful. As always, it looked - but did not touch. She kept her eyes closed, kept herself in the darkness.
Anna's voice filled the room, that calming, peaceful monotone that once assured Lisa that all was well, that all would always be well.
"You are not alone.
You will never be alone.
No pain.
No heartache.
No human emotion.
Just peace,
My peace."
Lisa awoke in the Medical Quarters, completely healed. No residual bruises, no headache. No pain when she breathed. No pain at all.
"You're awake."
Lisa turned at the sound of the familiar voice. A trio of Visitor's entered the medical room, Anna followed by Marcus and
another V whose face Lisa couldn't see.
"You've done well, daughter," Anna looked far more than pleased, she looked exuberant, and it only took Lisa a few more seconds to realize why. When she did, it felt as if some part of her spirit shriveled up and died. The third V - Joshua - stepped around Marcus and began checking Lisa's vital signs on various holograms.
"She's stable, all external wounds have healed, but there is still a great deal of internal damage. I wouldn't allow her to stand, walk or perform any remotely exerting tasks for another few hours until that's had time to heal." Joshua pressed a cool hand to her forehead and glanced over at Anna. "Her external and internal temperatures are stabilizing as well."
"Good. Your team has done an excellent job." Anna offered a dispassionate wave as a means of dismissal. After responding with a silent nod, Joshua ducked out of the room. "And you, Lisa, have preformed admirably. Tyler has been asking about you, but I told him that you were indisposed for the day. He wants to see you tomorrow; he mentioned something about a 'Ferris Wheel' and some strange concoction called 'cotton candy'."
"I am relieved to know that this task is over." Even though 'relieved' didn't cover the half of it, Lisa forced herself to seem as unemotional as her mother.
With an eerie, unnerving expression on her normally impartial face, Anna gave Lisa two quick pats on her shoulder before she left to attend to what Lisa could only assume were considered more important affairs.
Joshua returned to check on her sometime after the High Commander left, fussing with the circular nodes on her temples, her collarbone and on her shoulders. Lisa watched him carefully, terrified of what she might discover. There was only one logical reason she could think of that he would be back working with Anna, and just the thought alone was terrible. If Anna had turned him the same way she had turned Ryan (Lisa hadn't actually seen Ryan yet, but her mother must have had a large measure of success with him if she was willing to try the same thing with Joshua) then he could easily out her as a member of Fifth Column.
Her head spun with this revelation. If that was the case, then why was she here now? Why hadn't she been left to die in a holding cell like any other turncoat?
Except…Joshua already believed that Anna knew Lisa was Fifth Column. It was possible, therefore, that he hadn't told his High Commander under some misguided assumption that Anna already possessed that little morsel of intelligence. If that was the case, he likely believed that Lisa had either never been Fifth Column, or that Anna had turned her the same way she had turned him.
It was a perplexing puzzle, but since at the moment it appeared that the bizarre scenario was actually what had happened, Lisa wasn't about to pursue it.
"The painkillers I gave you earlier will be wearing off very soon, so I'm going to sedate you," Joshua informed her blankly. "Repairing the last of the internal damage is going to cause some discomfort, and it will be easier for both of us if you're unconscious."
"Alright," Lisa didn't think she had much of a choice, she just hoped that when she woke again, it wouldn't be in a dark cell.
"Just…attempt to relax," Joshua coached her. He pressed the tip of an injection module to her upper shoulder. Lisa bit her lip at the sharp sting but attempted to follow his advice and calm down.
Those few hours of mostly peaceful drug-induced rest ended up being the only time Lisa was fully at ease during her short stay in the Medical Center. Joshua was gone when she opened her eyes again, replaced by a secondary team that essentially told her to get dressed and get out of their way.
Lisa was happy to oblige, though she hesitated before putting on her clothes. She would have much preferred to dress in some of her human-style garments, rather than her Peace Ambassador's uniform, especially since she knew about the nifty little eavesdropping device sewn onto the jacket's breast pocket.
Instead of heading straight for the shuttles, Lisa fled to her quarters to change into something that wasn't bugged and would help her blend in with the rest of the humans.
It was early evening by the time she set foot on earth, tightening her jacket around her shoulders to shield her body from the cool breeze whipping through the trees and down the boulevard. Lisa hailed a cab - if hanging out with Tyler had taught her one thing, it was the surefire way to gain the attention of the yellow vehicle's driver - and gave the cabby the Evan's address.
Due to the fact that Tyler's bike was absent from the driveway, she was forced to assume that he wasn't home - a fact Lisa was grateful for, since she wasn't exactly looking forward to explaining her unexpected presence to her boyfriend.
Erica answered the door only a few seconds after Lisa first raised her fist to knock. "Lisa!" she seemed surprised, but not unpleasantly so. "Come inside."
Mrs. Evans ushered her into the kitchen, pouring her a strong, steaming cup of tea before even asking her if she wanted anything. "Are you alright? Tyler says he hasn't seen you for a few days."
"I've…been preoccupied," she stirred the hot liquid with a silver spoon. "With Joshua."
"How's he holding up?" Erica asked, immediately concerned. "I've been talking to Jack and Hobbes, but Ryan's AWOL and they've been concerned."
"I know where Ryan is," Lisa cut in. "Anna has him."
Erica swore. "Do you know where? It's doubtful that we could mount a rescue, but we could at least try."
Lisa looked down at the floor. She knew what needed to be said, but she really, really didn't want to say it. Erica reached over to cover her hand gently. "Lisa? What's wrong, honey?"
"Anna…" Lisa licked her lips. "She turned them. Both of them. Bliss - it's strong. It's really strong. I didn't think she could do it, but she did…somehow."
"Lisa…" Erica was using that voice again, that motherly tone, so like Anna and yet so unlike Anna. Anna's voice held overconfidence and arrogance, infinite knowledge and serene superiority. Erica spoke with a desire to help, a gentle plea for more knowledge; so that even though everything wasn't alright, Lisa knew that she cared enough to do everything in her power to help fix it. "I need you to slow down. Are you in danger? Does Anna know you are Fifth Column? Did Joshua or Ryan tell her?"
Lisa shook her head and explained the logic behind Joshua's silence. (As for Ryan, he had never known which side she had chosen, so there was no worry of him turning her in.)
"You're safe," Erica concluded.
"For now," Lisa supplied.
Silence reigned for a long moment.
"Do I want to know how she broke Joshua?" Erica asked finally, almost hesitantly.
Again, Lisa's eyes found the floor.
"Lisa?"
"She used me. That's how she broke him. She used his friendship with me."
"Oh, Lisa…" Without any further preamble, Erica moved around the kitchen's center island and took the now-trembling girl in her arms, giving her a tender, motherly hug. "I'm so sorry. Did she hurt you?"
Lisa couldn't bring herself to speak, but Erica seemed to understand what the answer was all the same.
Part III