Point-of-View: X
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"So, tell me...did you miss me?" I inquired with a smirk, mockingly batting my eyelashes.
"You must be joking...would you miss a random spoon if it disappeared from your kitchen?" He responded with a scoff...how charming.
So, yeah, I was on my way back to my prison, along with Trevor Compton, who'd come to Greenland to pick me up. He'd just finished giving me shit for killing all those passengers on the luxury cruiser...apparently, it was all over the news, an entire ship with all of its passengers and crew mysteriously dead.
"A spoon, huh? Well, first off, I've never had a kitchen, or my own spoon...or any real belongings at all, so I don't know if I would miss a lost utensil. And second, I'm as important as a spoon to you, am I? Does that mean you want to put me in your mouth? Unfortunately, I don't have a penis, but maybe my toe will work, do you have a foot fet-?" I began to ask in an innocent tone.
"Sh-shut up, there's no need to be so vulgar!" He snapped in response, interrupting me as he turned slightly red.
"Oh, my mistake, did you want me to spoon me instead, that's-."
"I want nothing of the sort, now please shut up."
Weirdly enough, I kinda missed this banter. Wait, is this Stockholm syndrome? Eh, whatever, I don't care. He's just fun to mess with...or rather, since there's nothing else to do, it's the only fun I can have. We were currently on a plane, which was headed to Ukraine.
Which is strange, because the hideout where I'm usually held in-between missions is in Egypt. I tried asking Trevor about it, but since he's in a bad mood, he just kinda snapped at me, so yeah. Hm, maybe I'll try asking again...
"So, uh...why aren't we heading to Egypt like usual?" I inquired, as he shuffled through a random magazine, letting out an irritated sigh as I spoke to him.
"If you promise to shut up for the rest of the flight, I'll tell you. Deal?" He muttered, after seeming to mull it over.
"Sheesh, fine, whatever, it's a deal. Now, tell me why we're heading to Ukraine instead of Egypt," I responded impatiently.
"Well...because that's where we're sending the Outliers we captured. I've never been to this particular base, but it's apparently one of our most well-hidden and secure ones. We captured two Outliers, and both are apparently difficult to deal with. They're currently being held in a different base in Poland, but Ash has been busy, so we haven't been able to place Conditions on them yet. Therefore, they've been kept unconscious using Dark Skill techniques. But now that you're back, we're going to use you to keep them in check," He explained, before letting out a sigh, "There, I told you, now be quiet for the rest of the flight."
Yeah, well, that wouldn't be a problem if this cheapskate hadn't booked such a crappy flight. There was no entertainment screen, and all these magazines are like, two years old. Cheap airlines are cheap for a reason, it's foolish to expect anything more than being transported.
Well, whatever. It's not exactly comfortable, but I might as well get some sleep...yeah, now that I'm not longer lost, I'm realizing that I'm feeling fatigued as hell. Ugh, and after this, I'm definitely going to be jetlagged as hell too.
Guess I'll look on the bright side, at least he's given me a lot to ponder. Hm, so after I failed to capture that Light Skill Outlier, Eden managed to capture two others, huh? And now they want me to use my Nullification to keep the Outliers in check until they can place Conditions on them.
Once they do that, the Outliers will no longer be able to defy them, they'll be slaves to Eden, just like me. If nothing else, it'll be nice to not be the only one anymore, I suppose. The only way to break free of the Condition, as far as I know, is to die...and I don't want to die, so I have no choice but to obey Eden.
Tch, and now I'm in a bad mood. I'm starting to feel kinda tired, I think I'll just swallow all these emotions and go to sleep for a bit. Yeah, that sounds nice. I then let out a deep yawn and rubbed my eyes as I let myself succumb to my fatigue, closing my eyes with a quiet sigh as my consciousness slowly drifted...
...
...
Hm...? Where am I? I let out a yawn and looked around groggily...oh, that's right, I'm on a plane. How long was I out for?
I then realized that I'd slumped to my left, and my head was resting on Trevor's shoulder...he was reading a magazine with a bored, tired look on his face.
"Hey, what time is it...?" I inquired sleepily, yawning again as I startled him.
"O-oh, you're awake...then get off my shoulder already, your head is heavy," He muttered in response.
"Yeah, okay," I replied as I rubbed my eyes lazily, before adding with a sly smile, "Hehe, if you really minded that, you'd have pushed me off immediately. Admit it, you liked it, didn't you? Having a girl's head on you shoulder, I bet you-."
"D-don't be ridiculous, as if!" He denied it, a little too quickly, before glancing at his watch, "Ahem, a-anyway, we should be landing in, let's see...about forty-five minutes, I think?"
"How long was I asleep for, anyway?" I inquired, as I stretched my arms up.
"A little under six hours," He responded, after glancing at his watch again.
Seriously? Well, it sure doesn't feel like it, I'm still pretty worn out...I need at least another thirty hours or so.
Gotta say though, I'm pretty surprised that Trevor just let me sleep on his shoulder for all that time. Ooh, what if I...? Heh, let's see what kind of reaction this'll get out of him...
"I'm still really, really tired, wake me up when we get there," I yawned, before resting my head on his shoulder again, but this time, I also latched onto his arm.
"H-hey, get off me!" He stuttered as he jumped slightly, but didn't push me off.
"Aw, but you put up with six hours, what's a few more minutes?" I inquired innocently, as I snuggled up to him.
Huh, maybe it's the fatigue talking, but this actually...feels kinda nice.
"F-fine, j-just this once, I-I'll make an exception!" He responded awkwardly, before adding, "I-I suppose you did well to get back, s-so, yeah...but, a-after we land, th-this never happened!"
"Wow...I don't think I've ever heard someone stutter that much in a single sentence," I whispered in reply, letting out a slight giggle.
"Wha-...I just, uh...whatever," He muttered quietly.
Hehe, I win. When I first met him, it was shortly after I was found in the lab of the Eden maniac that experimented on me. Then, once that guy was executed for what he did, I was made to be Trevor's responsibility after the higher ups decided that my power could be useful and would be a waste to execute me.
Oh, I should clarify, the guy who put me through hell wasn't executed because he tortured me, no, he was executed because the very act of trying to forcibly awaken a normal human's Meta gene is taboo.
From what I know through reading Meta-Human history books that I was given while locked up, when the first known case of a normal human awakening their Meta gene was discovered, which was sometime after the first world war, it changed a lot of preconceived notions.
That person was captured by Eden and experimented on, eventually dying, after they'd gotten plenty of information from his body. Further experimentation on others led to the discovery that all normal humans have a dormant potential to awaken Meta powers, but require extremely high levels of stress to trigger it.
Apparently, that first case I mentioned, the person is question was a surviving prisoner of war who awakened powers and broke out of the prison he was held in...that incident was covered up using a technique called Memory Manipulation, which is a Dark Skill power.
There were some such cases in history further back, but until this guy was captured, all of those had been written off as probably a Meta-Human mating with a normal human. And, well, some of them might have been just that, but it's very likely that there have been plenty of normal humans who went through enough stress to awaken their Meta gene and were never discovered by Eden or Harmony.
Anyway, long story short, it wasn't long before the Eden higher ups decided to make these experiments a taboo, unwilling to disrupt the natural order by forcefully creating unnatural Meta-Humans. And of course, Harmony's whole shtick is peaceful coexistance, so at least as far as I know, they never got involved in that.
Kinda got a bit off topic there...to get back on track, as I was saying, I met Trevor shortly after the guy who experimented on me was executed, and my first impression was that I hated him. I mean, sure, he was a saint compared to the guy who literally sliced me open on a daily basis, but he was still very prickly.
He was pretty rude and condescending back then-...scratch that, he's still rude and condescending. But...after a while, I think I started to grow on him, which began around the time he was promoted to a Category 0. His workload increased a lot, and he started venting to me.
There were times where we'd even have proper, actual conversations, though he'd always cut them short once he realized it. In the start, I was given nothing but a bare minimum amount of food and water. But over time, those quantities slowly started to increase, bit by bit, and he also brought me stuff like old books and magazines, though I still haven't gotten any electronics.
Well, I do get a phone whenever I go out on missions, but that thing short-circuited during my time at sea. Otherwise, I'd have just contacted someone instead of searching for the Greenland hideout half-blindly.
Anyway, he'd probably never acknowledge it, but he's definitely softened up a bit since we first met. And recently, I noticed that he's easily flustered when I get all up in his personal space...I happened to accidentally bump into him a few months ago, and his reaction was pretty easy to read, he stiffened and turned a bit red, before storming out as I stared at him in surprise.
Maybe it's a little messed up from my perspective...I mean, I'm technically being held captive against my will, and I'll literally die if I try anything like escape or retaliation, and he's the one keeping an eye on me to make sure I don't step out of line or whatever.
Huh, looking at it objectively, I really might have Stockholm syndrome. But even if that's the case, it is what it is, I don't see any point in agonizing over it. My life would probably be considered an unfortunate one, but that's the hand I've been dealt, there's nothing I can do about it.
And so, since I'm stuck in this situation no matter what, I might as well make the most of it, right? Instead of staying miserable and resentful for the rest of my life over my situation, I'm better off living as carefree as I possibly can, salvaging small pieces of happiness wherever I can find them. Right...?
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