Fic: Slow Dying Flower
How do we know the dancer from the dance? - William Butler Yeats
Lindy's movements were like a dance. No, they were a dance. It was simultaneously beautiful and terrible to watch.
"She's better than me," murmured Natasha.
James glanced over but her expression was unreadable.
"She has help," Reed answered. "Watch." James, Jessica, and Carol leaned to look at his computer screens; Natasha listened, but kept watching the girl. As the Lindy in the screen moved she lit up. "See there? The nanotech responds to everything she's doing."
James frowned at all the lights. "All of these... ?"
Reed nodded. "Yes. They're everywhere."
"How is she activating them?" asked Carol. There was a pattern to her movements but it wasn't corresponding exactly to the lights.
"It's symbiosis."
"The nanites are alive?"
Reed smirked. "Not precisely symbiosis. Or not precisely alive." He turned back to his screens, his eyes lit up with the idea of it. "They are active if she is active. I'd like to watch her sleep to see how active they are when she's unconscious."
James' frown deepened. "I don't know if I'm comfortable with that."
"We need to know as much as we can about this technology."
"But she's not technology. She's a girl."
Carol placed a hand on his arm and addressed Reed. "Could you monitor her sleeping remotely?"
At their expressions Reed decided not to argue. "I'll see what I can do."
As they watched Lindy fought an invisible opponent.
"Why can't she fly?" The others turned, startled. Jessica had been silent to this point. Reed had almost forgotten she was there. "What? Dani can fly."
"True." Reed typed into the touch screen and studied it. "Hm."
"What?" asked Carol.
"See this? It's suppressing that ability."
"What?" asked James.
Reed was about to launch into a technical explanation of his theory but Jess interrupted.
"Why? Why don't they want her to be able to fly?" James glanced over. Jess doesn't hide emotions well; she was taking this personally.
"They didn't want her to be able to fly away," said Natasha, still watching Lindy.
Jessica's eyes hardened. She turned on Reed. "Can you fix it? Turn it off? Get it out of her?"
"I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"Why." More a demand than a question.
"Look, the nanites are fused with her. I need to study this but my instinct is that taking them out will harm her more than help her. And see here -- " He touched the screen. "And here -- and here -- and--"
"Yes, yes, what? What is there and there and there?"
"Dormant nanites."
"What?"
"There might be a trigger that would take her over completely."
"What?" Jessica was pale.
"And you can't remove that either," guessed James.
"I might activate if I tried. Or I might activate something else -- It could kill her."
"What would the trigger be?"
"Based on this," He touch the screen again. "Probably auditory. A code word."
"Do you think she knows?"
Reed shrugged. "I wouldn't tell her."
"We may never know." Carol crossed her arms in thought.
"What if it accidentally activates?" asked Jessica.
"It wouldn't be something that would come up in every day conversation..."
Lindy continued to dance as the silence grew.
"What do we do?" Jess whispered.
Carol put an arm around her friend. "We wait. We let Reed study it and we wait."
Jess looked to James. He nodded.
"She's started over," said Natasha, still quiet and still watching.
Reed looked up. "Should I stop her?"
"No." Before anyone knew what she was doing, she'd left the observation room and joined Lindy.
Lindy stopped at her entrance, her body poised to attack. They watched each other a moment as the others held their breath. Then as one they resumed the dance. It was, if anything, more frightening. And still beautiful. Reed recorded the differences for further study.
They paused, back to back. Lindy took a step away, the next in the routine, but Natasha spun and whispered something in her ear. Instantly the girl froze in place. First position. Reed's screens lit up. Jessica was horrified.
As Natasha pulled back and brushed Lindy's hair away from her eyes, one tear slipped down her cheek. She took a breath and spoke another word, also too quiet for the others to hear. Lindy blinked and fell forward. Natasha caught her but the girl flinched and pushed away. Carol, James and Jessica ran down to the room, leaving Reed to his computers.
Both Carol and Jessica went to help Lindy, but she shied from Jess as she had from Natasha. Once Carol had Lindy in hand, Natasha turned to leave. James followed.
"Nat..." He grabbed her arm to stop her. "Natalia. It wasn't you. You didn't do this to her."
She was still. Nodded once in acknowledgment. Then pulled away and left quickly.
"Is she okay?" Jessica asked quietly from behind.
"No."
"Are you okay?"
He turned to meet her eyes. "No."
"Yeah. Me neither."
Carol interrupted threatening silence and nodded toward Lindy, waiting at the door.
"I'm taking her home. Are either of you coming?"
Neither answered.
"Well, you know where I live."