Layla walked into the mostly empty room, dirty blond hair in a fishtail braid, clothed in a stylish periwinkle blouse and neat black slacks. She strode confidently as always. Flashing a bright smile, she waved at Alesha and said, "Hey Alesha! It's been a bit, hasn't it? You doing okay?"
Dumbfounded, Alesha couldn't respond as her sister strode forward and started unfastening the restraints. What was going on? Why was Layla here, walking freely, and how was she so calm? Had her sister already been brainwashed by the Alliance? Was this some sort of interrogation tactic?
[Probably,] the System said. [Though, I can't tell. For some reason, my access to her mind is hazy. All I can get is that she's worried about you.]
Well, at least that's something, Alesha thought, grateful that the System had deigned to help her out again. This was far preferable to its earlier, mocking silence.
"There," Layla said as she unfastened the last of Alesha's restraints. "Now you can move around." Without giving her a chance to do so, however, Layla seized her in a hug. "Where did you disappear to?? We were all so worried, Alesha!!"
Tears came to Alesha's eyes. She knew this was only CT-VR, and that her sister was probably brainwashed. In the worst case scenario, this could even be someone else disguised as her sister; she desperately hoped that wasn't the case. "You- you're really okay?" Alesha managed to ask. "What about everyone else? Mom, Dad, Dennis? Are they alright?"
Layla's grip on Alesha tightened and she shook. "No, they aren't. Mom and Dad, they- they mutated because of that weird plague! Dennis was fine for some reason but I'm only okay because I thought to seal myself in my Exfoliation Chamber before it got to me."
Alesha didn't want to believe it. Her mom and dad… were dead? Or maybe not dead, per se, but mutated? Into what? "Did… you see what they mutated into?" She dreaded the answer.
Layla released her and backed away, wiping tears from her eyes. "No. As soon as they started to change, I ran to my room and locked myself away. I only heard later, from the nice Alliance people, that it had been a kind of Mutation Plague."
"So that's what they're calling it?" Alesha muttered.
"Yeah. Were you calling it something else?"
Speaking before thinking, Alesha responded, "Mhm. I was calling it a Chaos Zombie Outbreak. Not that I really had anyone to tell it to before."
"Oh? Why call it that?" Her sister asked. "It definitely fits, though, the mutations were chaotic and were transmitted via biting…"
It was then that Alesha realized her mistake. Crap, she thought. Even if this is my sister, how could I let that slip? She's brainwashed right now and probably here to get me to spill what I know. And "chaos" is probably a keyword of some kind.
[Yeah, you're probably right,] the System chided unhelpfully. [That was thoughtless of you. Luckily, we've got a way out of this rather awkward interrogation available now, and I'll just go ahead and accept it for ya.]
Wait, what?! What do you mean, a way out, and what do you mean accept it for me? You don't have the ability to take over my body forcefully do you?!
[No, no, no, don't worry about that!] The System said cheerfully, as the room around her -- including her sister -- began to dissolve into pink, green and red squares of light. [I can only do that through the quest penalties, and you haven't failed any quests with that penalty yet. I'm talking about something entirely different.]
[Don't worry, I think you'll have lots~ of fun with this!]
Of course, that only made Alesha worry more.
----
In the real world, a control center
A dozen or so employees in military uniforms sat at computers, monitoring the situation. Everything was going well -- the suspect seemed to be unaware of the fact that she was in a virtual space, and she was responding to the sister's appearance. .
Alred Remington, a fairly important researcher in the Celestial Guard, monitored the interrogation as he stood. He held his clipboard with one hand and fiddled with a pen in the other. He jotted down some notes and drew lines connecting important pieces of information, reflecting deeply even as he listened to the proceedings in the virtual room.
As soon as the situation on Elantris had been handed to the Celestial Guard, Alred had eagerly volunteered to be dispatched to the planet, intensely curious about the developing war. He'd heard rumors within the force that the situation here was somehow connected to the incident in which his wife had died five years ago. For that reason, had to confirm the facts for himself. Of course, he'd been paid hush money regarding his wife's death at the time, so no one he worked with even knew that he'd been married before. All they knew was that the mystical powers involved in py-Tiv-01-65-10-3's destruction were somehow connected to Elantris. His personal grudge against the Chaos Dragons (whose rebellion had destroyed not just the planet py-Tiv-01-65-10-3 but the whole solar system belonging to star py-Tiv-01-65-10, "Fross") was entirely that: personal.
His contemplation regarding the Chaos Dragons was interrupted when the whole room suddenly burst into chaos. "What? What's happened?" He snapped.
Looking at the monitor that showed the interior of the virtual room, he saw that the suspect was missing. "What?!"
Following behind several others, he ran to the CT-VR machine which Alesha Williams, the suspect, had been hooked up to. She wasn't there either?! "Find the suspect!" He yelled, furious. "She can't have gotten far!"
He doubted his own statement, however. This woman had gone missing the day before what she had dubbed the "Chaos Zombie Outbreak" had occurred; missing without a trace left behind her. Then, a bit over a week later, she had reappeared just as suddenly, seemingly from thin air. As a researcher focused on understanding and subjugating the powers of the gods, Alred knew.
They wouldn't be able to find her.
Not until she reappeared of her own will.