"The Controllant can control humans."
I froze up hearing those words. "Control humans…?"
Kyra nodded slowly. "It's a 'chip that you can program to work a certain way. Then, when it's planted inside someone, the commands programmed into the Controllant apply to that person…"
"You're telling me that's what's inside Garren right now…?"
She hesitated to respond. Her eyes began to swell with tears. "Y-Yes…"
There was a sensation of cold and hot beginning to grow inside of me. It was a mixture of emotions that weren't meant to be combined. The fuse on my heart had been lit.
"Did you know about this? Did you know that the Controllant was inside Garren all this time…?"
"No… I didn't know. I'm just as shocked as you are, Klyson…"
My face was heating up. "But all this time, you knew what the Controllant was. You knew what it could be used for. And the General never told you who he was planning to use it on?"
"The General told me it was going to be used on the Sin of Discrimination."
I was taken aback. "The Sin of Discrimination…? He wants to control the Sin of Discrimination…?"
"I think so." Kyra wiped her eyes. "I think it's why we're doing Operation Zenith."
"But then why… Why is the Controllant inside Garren?!?" I shouted. It grabbed Cynthia's attention, who was sat against the back wall in pain.
"What's going on?" She called out.
I replied, being as straightforward as possible. "You remember that piece of tech we stole from New Zina? It's used to control people. Me and Kyra just found it inside Garren."
"What?" Cynthia forced herself up, and made her way over to get a glimpse herself. When I showed her the open wound and the microchip inside, she gasped.
"Is that really what it does…?"
"Ask Kyra," I told her. "She's always known about its capabilities."
"But I didn't know it'd be used on someone like Garren!" She claimed. "I was only ever told that it was meant for the Sin of Discrimination. The General wanted it to take control of the Sin of Discrimination."
Cynthia was as unsettled as I was. "So why would it be inside someone like Garren…?"
"I don't know…"
I looked down at him, who was withheld under our palms. I watched as his brutalized body shook with pain while he cried sobs into the bloodstained cushions of the bed. From the moment Garren asked us for help during the flare-up, I knew something was wrong. The way he expressed that he couldn't control himself, while still talking with full awareness, unsettled me deeply. But now, those loose ends were beginning to tie themselves together. The events, the moments, they all began coming back to me in that instant.
There was the first encounter, when Garren was in Chamber X. Before the test had even begun, he already looked uncomfortable, like something was bothering him. By the end of the test, he was suffering to an itch, eventually passing out on the ground.
Then there was Henry's house. The moment we'd engaged combat with Russo, Garren once again began to suffer to his itch, eventually passing out from it in the end.
At the apartment, on Russo's floor, finding ourselves in a hopeless situation, he fell victim once more to the itch on his skin.
There was a pattern occurring.
Then today, Garren repeatedly made the claims that the memories in his head were repeating. He knew he had lost control of it, of himself.
"They're using him…" I said, softspoken but mad. "A.X.A.'s been controlling Garren ever since we met him."
The other two had no reply. There was no disputing this fact. The microchip in Garren's neck was certain proof. A flash of anger suddenly took over me, and in the instant, I reached into the wound and ripped the Controllant out.
"What are you doing?!" Kyra asked, alarmed. To our surprise, there was no physical or vocal response from Garren. He seemed to be already knocked-out, unconscious.
"Why…?" I held the bloody Controllant in my hand, staring at it, trying to understand. "How many more times do I have to ask the question 'why'?"
"Why what?" Cynthia asked.
"Why put something like this in someone like Garren? For someone like the Sin of Discrimination, the General could have a reason I could care less about in controlling them. But Garren, why?" I laid my hand softly on his back, feeling his slowing heartbeat. I couldn't even begin to count the number of scratches and slashes that littered his skin. "This is a boy who's already been through so much. It's not something hard to decipher either. You can see the suffering right on his body. Yet, he was chosen to be victim to this damned thing."
I clenched the Controllant in my hand. Its sharp, metal edges nearly dug into my skin. "This, clearly, has not been used to better Garren's situation in any way. Clearly, this thing, has been causing even more suffering to Garren."
"Kly…"
"Why?" I asked again, directed to both Kyra and Cynthia. "Why him? Why did they have to do this to him? Why try controlling someone who barely has control over themself?"
Kyra drew pity. "I wish I could tell you. I really wish I could."
"You can." I looked back at her with intent in my eyes. "You already had the privilege to know what the Controllant was, which means you should have the privilege to know why it was in Garren."
"What are you asking of me?"
For Garren's sake, I made my statement stern. "Talk to General Michael and ask what the fuck this is about."
She nodded in reply. "I will. I'm just as eager to know why they chose to use it on him."
Cynthia suddenly noticed Garren's body slumping deeper into the mattress. "We need to get him medical treatment immediately!" She said, suddenly drawing attention back to Garren's wounds. We realized we'd been wasting time dwelling. We immediately got up and began carrying him to the emergency service in the building.
Luckily, we were just on time, and they were able to start surgery in rehabilitating Garren's broken body.