"Ms. Suthers."
"Hi, sir."
General Michael and Kyra were seated in one of his offices at his desk, facing one another.
"This must be pretty important to have asked for an appointment on the day-of, and not the day before."
"I'm sorry, sir. I know it was a sudden request, but it's to ease my concerns moving forward in Operation Zenith."
"So?" The General leaned forward. "What then? What do you need to speak to me about?"
Kyra placed her hand on the table, showing the Controllant that had been taken out of Garren's nape.
"What was this doing inside of Garren?"
The General looked at it for a moment. He didn't respond at first, so Kyra continued.
"You told me before the operation in New Zina that the Controllant was going to be used to control the Sin of Discrimination. So why was it inside Garren's neck?"
"How did you get that out?" General Michael answered with a question of his own.
"He had a severe flare-up while not wearing the scratch-proof jumpsuit. He nearly scratched himself to death, sir. His wounds revealed the Controllant inside."
The General sighed. "No use working around the truth, then."
Kyra shook her head. "Please tell me the truth on why the Controllant was there."
"For the exact reason the Controllant would be inside any one else. To control them."
His straightforwardness unsettled Kyra. Although she approached the topic with concern, the General responded without remorse.
"But you said you were going to use it on the Sin of Discrimination. Didn't you want to take control of the Sin of Discriminataion once we took them in? Why would you waste it on Garren?"
"It wasn't a waste, Kyra. It was a test, a trial you could say. And by using him like that, we gathered lots of useful information pertaining to the Controllant before we end up using it on the Sin of Discrimination."
"But we only retrieved one. Are you saying you're going to re-use this one?" Kyra gripped the Controllant in her hand.
"You're naive to think the strongest country in the world would have to re-use equipment. We have thousands of Controllants, Kyra. We manufactured replicas of the original in bulks, and copied the original code into all the others. That one from Garren is just another one of the replicas, designed specifically to control him."
There it was. General Michael himself confirmed it. Garren had been under A.X.A.'s control in intervals during our time knowing him. Kyra didn't know how to react, but she knew she couldn't lose her cool in front of the General.
"Why?" She thought about Garren's innocence. "Why use it on him, though? Of all people, why Garren?"
"Because he was the best-suited candidate for one of our trial categories, which was to test how the Controllant could manipulate memories to translate into an individual's actions."
"You knew about his memories?"
"Yes. He made them very clear when he first joined the military. He emphasized how the thoughts of his parents influenced the itch, and the need to scratch using his nails. Knowing his Fractal to be based on the fatality of his nails, me and Uriel thought the highest potential of his Fractal could only be brought out when in that itchy state of his. So we programmed the Controllant accordingly, influencing fluctuations of those itch-inducing memories to come up whenever his mind was confronted with a fight-or-flight state."
Kyra nodded along, pretending to be oblivious to the horror she was listening to. It was making sense to her by now. The pattern that had been occurring in Garren's flare-ups all this time was that they only occurred when he found himself in stressful situations. The test in Chamber X, the confrontation with Russo, and the mirage on that apartment's fourth floor, were all moments deemed stressful enough to Garren, hence, why he had his flare-ups in those instances.
"So you're saying that with this Controllant, Garren's mind was forced to replay those memories in his head whenever he met a certain level of stress, just so he could become itchy and his Fractal would be considered stronger?"
General Michael nodded, impressed she'd caught-on so quick with the little he'd said. "Exactly. And with the fluctuations we've picked-up on from his Controllant ever since you four embarked into Operation Zenith, we can tell that our trials have been successful. So, thank you, Kyra."
"For what…?"
"For leading him into enough stressful situations to ignite those memories. I know it wasn't intentional to you, but to us, your division's actions have gone exactly according to the research we were looking for."
Kyra couldn't believe what she was hearing. Although Garren was the primary victim in this case, even she felt like she'd been manipulated all along.
"So did you bring me and the others into Operation Zenith just so we could test Garren out for you? Is that what it was?"
The General noticed Kyra's growing agitation. "Ms. Suthers, you know what it means to be a part of A.X.A. You understand that everything we do is for the bigger picture of Melysia. Garren and his sacrifice has brought unfathomable knowledge to an item that can put us even higher up on the scale against the world. It shouldn't be taken personally."
Kyra gritted her teeth behind her lips. She breathed heavily through her nose. "Yes, sir."
"Good. Is that all you wanted to ask about?"
Kyra lifted her face for one last question. "Are you done using the Controllant on Garren?"
General Michael eyed the microchip in her hands. "We've gotten substantial information from the few days alone he's been equipped with it. And seeing as it's already been removed, I see no reason to put it back. Your friend is done his trial."
Kyra stood up. She took the Controllant with her, dropping it on the General's carpet, and crunching it below her feet.
"The data was already recorded, Kyra. There was no use in a remark like that."
"I know." She walked out of the office.