Aberrant: Quantum Identity - Berserker

[SkyLion]

"Bryn, how many times am I going to have to tell you to mind your manners?" the older woman spat, nearing her wits end.

"Ummmmm...I don't know?" replied the impossibly adorable dark haired girl facing her.

"BRYN!"

Why was she always like this? This was the third couple this month who had stormed out in disbelief. And, as usual, her young ward had spent the rest of the day moping.

"But he was pudgy!" the girl whined in defense. "What's wrong with saying he would make a good pillow? It's true! ...and I liked it" she added a bit softer.

Janice sighed.

"Because Bryn, people don't like it when you point out things that embarress them"

"But why? Why should he be embaressed about who he is?"

She was right. Of course she always was, and the man had been incredibly fat. She was a special child in so many ways, and she needed an equally understanding family, one easy going enough to encourage her energetic curiosity and entertain her incessantly probing questions.

"He shouldn't...but that doesn't change the fact that people have hang-ups about themselves. You are going to have to learn at some point how to filter what you say, or you could end up hurting people's feelings."

That got through to her. Her big eyes that seemed to absorb her surroundings dimmed a little with sadness. She didn't want to hurt anyone...but why did people deny the truth that was so obvious? Two sides pulled within her as she struggled to find balance between her inner drives and the odd social customs that people chose to cling to. It's not esy being a Gemini.

"C'mere..." Janice said, opening her arms to comfort the little girl. "It'll be okay." she soothed, as the Bryn flew into her arms and bit her lip in vain trying to hold back the welling tears. "He was too stuffy for you anyways. There is a family out there in the world for everyone. You'll see. And when they find you, they're going to love you for just who you are."

"Really?" Bryn asked, needing just a little more reassurance.

"Yeah. Really. C'mon now, let's get you tucked into bed."

Bryn went to sleep not long after, and though she would not remember whe she awoke, she dreamed of her parents.

[lead]

The dreams were soft and fuzzy, like reality composed out of cotton. She smiled at her mother and was safe in her arms. She so smart, and strong, and loving and pretty and Bryn wanted to be just like her. She smelled of love, floral soap, and sweetly and humanly of sweat.

That was how she spent her nights, safe in her mother's arms where no one would ever get made at her for asking questions, where no one would be mean and loud and say untrue things about her and send her away.

And then everything changed. She was pulled away from her mommy, but she wouldn't let go though. They were pulling her away. She knew she'd never see her family again if they took her, and she held and held until her mom was stretched as thin and ephemeral as a cloud in the sky, or as a dream. Then she popped.

She woke up screaming and thrashing.She was being carried by grey spacesuits into some room. They held her arms and legs against the cold concrete, uncaring of the bruising the pressure and the struggling were causing. Then one of the men in the haz-mat suits pulled out a needle so large it had been seen previously only in nightmares. With surgical precision the needle was stuck into her arm and then freezing quicksilver flooded her veins.

After the injection the men immediately dropped her and ran out of the room, without a back ward glance.

And then she was alone again, in a cement cube, without a clue of where it was.

[SkyLion]

For a long time she just screamed, crumpled on the floor. She screamed and sobbed and cradled searing cold pain as it moved from her arm into the rest of her. For a moment, she lost her mind to the pain and horror and sheer violence of her awakening.

Some time later the screams subsided as her energy waned and her throat bled raw from yelling and coughing. Now she merely whimpered, shaking in the hard corner punctuated by the occasional moan of despair at realizing that she was not waking up from this nightmare. Her head throbbed and the salt of her tears was caked upon her face, her body shivering from the sweat evaporating from her drenched skin.

Finally, mercifully, her body and mind gave way to unconsciousness and this time she did not dream.

[lead]

She woke up to itching. She was lying naked on a flat orange field that felt something like ice and had some thing like infinitesimally small vibration, tangible none the less.

She was covered in large clinging white dust. It coated the entire room and her entire body as well. She was still alone.

Alone. She shivered. Not out of cold. She could barely feel the cold in truth, but she shivered because she was afraid.

[SkyLion]

A long low moan of fear and helplessness escaped her. She felt so weak. Pulling herself to her feet she walked to the corner, trudging through the powder and peed in the corner. Shivering still she went to the single door in the room, and started pounding on it in sheer desperation.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" she finally screamed in rage and frustration. "LET ME OUT GOD LET ME OUT PLEASE!!!!"

Her arms wailed against the unyielding metal until her hands were bruised and bloody, caking in the cloying particulate coating her.