Day 23: Sun Room, Evening Shift

[high_prosecutor]

Miles Edgeworth had quietly snuck off to a corner of the cafeteria during lunch, avoiding making conversations. He knew other people would probably lecture him later or accuse him of avoiding them, but that hadn't been true at all. He'd just wanted some time to work quietly by himself for a while

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[prisonerofdeath]

Fox was slightly nervous as he sat down in the sun room to wait for Lyta. The idea of having someone poking around inside his very mind, looking through his memories, was an unpleasant one... but he wanted to know, wanted to remember.

Maybe it was the fact that Big Boss remembered nothing that Fox wanted to remember everything. Or the idea that he might lose ALL of his memories if the Head Doctor had his way.

Fox forced himself to calm down, adjusting the bandanna and getting comfortable on the couch while he waited.

[prisonerofdeath]

"Null," She supplied, turning her head to look off to the side, staring into the darkness that was filling the area.

The bodies were piled thicker on the ground, and all of them had wounds that were obviously inflicted by some sort of large knife, practically paving a road of corpses to the deepest, darkest parts.

[ontheabyss]

"Great."

Lyta sighed. Well, she hadn't expected this to be easy.

"Thanks." She tucked back her sweat-dampened hair and took a deep breath. She didn't have any choice. She started walking once more, heading towards the darkness.

[prisonerofdeath]

There were lights along in the darkness, older florescent lights, illuminating part of a building. There were soldiers and the sounds of a fight

[ontheabyss]

These were memories. Lyta could tell. Were these the ones he wanted? She reached out, touching them, and she felt as though she were struggling through thick water. She felt herself stretching, creaking, threatening to break. She couldn't stay much longer, she couldn't go much further.

In her own body, she was sweating and shaking, though she didn't realize. She grabbed for the memory before her, hoping she was strong enough....

[prisonerofdeath]

"It was four years ago, in Mozambique. There was a child soldier fighting with a group of rebels in the struggle for independence. He killed dozens of government soldiers with just a single knife. He'd throw the enemy off guard with the innocent frankness of a young boy, then he'd prey on them with the cold cruelty of a hunter. He spoke a little german so his enemies called him Frank Jaeger... the Frank Hunter." Big Boss had saved him then... again.

"Frank Jaeger... my name," He hadn't remembered then, they'd erased his memories after each mission, "No, I am the Perfect Soldier, where I exist, there are no other soldiers, so I don't need a name." But he could remember it now, "I am Null, and when you're dead, I can go back to being Null."

Big Boss had defeated him that time, fought him and made him remember, just like he'd beaten him in Mozambique... the Perfect Soldier Project... Frank grabbed that memory and held onto it, opening his eyes and pushing against the pressure in his mind.

[ontheabyss]

Lyta pulled out. It was like whiplash, she retreated so quickly. She was drained and sweating, her hands tightening suddenly in Fox's hair as she gasped for breath.

That had been much, much harder than she had expected. Was she even going to be up for anything tonight? She really didn't know. All she knew was that she was weak, very weak.

"Did...I get it?" she panted, leaning back against the couch and trembling.

[prisonerofdeath]

Fox almost didn't register the question, he was in such shock from the sheer amount of memories he'd regained, and the information in them.

"I... yes... Those were the memories I wanted." Perfect Soldier...

This wasn't the first time he'd been in a mental hospital...

The Cyborg Ninja experiment.. hadn't been the first time he'd been part of an experiment.

"Thanks..." He made no move to get up, especially with Lyta's hands tightly gripping his silvery gray hair.

[ontheabyss]

"Okay." Lyta just nodded, the things she'd seen flitering through her mind, registering. She swallowed hard. Those things, in his mind...

She just leaned down, her hands threading through his hair, and pressed her cheek against his. Was this something they all shared? How many people here had been turned into weapons, into things to destroy? How many of them had been experiments, things?

[prisonerofdeath]

Fox lifted a hand and put it in Lyta's hair, running his fingers through it as she pressed her cheek against his. It was... strange, being held like this...

It reminded him almost of the way he would comfort Naomi. "What... what did you see in there?" He was curious what it had been like for her, inside of his mind.

[ontheabyss]

"Things that were way too familiar," was all Lyta said, letting him reach for her.

"I know what it's like to be... made into a weapon," she went on, not wanting to say much more. She was still shaking, more from exhaustion than anything else. Her head was killing her now. When was dinner?

"I know what it's like," she repeated, sighing heavily.

[prisonerofdeath]

Fox shifted slightly to sit up and put his arms around her, pulling Lyta to rest against him now "That was... that wasn't the only time... I hadn't even remembered that... I thought, in the lab... the Exoskeleton..." He probably wasn't making any sense, he shook his head slightly.

"I've done nothing but kill people my entire life... since I was a child..." Was that why Big Boss had fought so hard to help him? He shook his head.

"He was here... Big Boss... the legendary soldier. The Head Doctor spoke about him last night, how he almost escaped... I'm going to kill him. The Head Doctor. I won't let him keep experimenting on people." There was that cold, calm, confidence in his voice as he held Lyta, holding her with his strong arms, as if he could somehow protect her by holding her like that.

Fox wasn't a particularly emotional or caring person, but he did feel an empathy for others who had been weapons.

[ontheabyss]

Lyta shifted, stretching out alongside him, resting her head against him. When was the last time someone had held her? Really held her? Not since Byron. Another man with a cause, another man who'd been experimented on and used and who had wanted nothing more than to escape his past of killing and destruction and make things right....

For just a little while, her barriers came down. She rested against Fox, clinging to him, letting herself shake.

"I've killed, too," she admitted. "Soldiers, innocent people, entire planets... I didn't want to, but it's what they made me into. They created me. I don't even know if I'm human anymore." She gave a strange, strangled laugh. "I want to kill him, too. I don't want to be an experiment again! I just want to be me!"

[prisonerofdeath]

"The fact that you were created... has nothing to do with who you are. Who you are, and what you are, are too completely different things. A genetic code can't decide your fate." Fox continued to hold her... it wasn't often he held someone like this.

"It's alright... Just relax..." Having someone clinging to him like this, someone who needed him, it was strange, but not so bad. Fox wasn't willing to admit that he missed being important to someone, someone who needed his strength because they didn't have enough of their own.

[ontheabyss]

"No one sees me as Lyta," she said, swallowing hard. "They just see... what I can do, what I did. They didn't trust me anymore, they didn't care about me. They used me and they threw me away." And that was all there was to it. Sheridan, Delenn, the others... She'd risked her life for them all so many times, but as soon as they'd found out what she was...

"And then I found someone who saw me as me. And he died. And I think I went a little bit crazy." That was an understatement. But after everything that had happened... they locked her up! They treated her like an enemy! After everything she'd done...

"And now I'm here."

[prisonerofdeath]

"The name I go by... Fox... it's a title given to me because of my performance on the entrance test to one of the greatest stealth infiltration units in the world. I was the only one ever to achieve a perfect score. Only a few people ever saw me as who I actually was, most of them saw only what I was capable of. They were the only people that mattered." Fox shook his head slightly.

"Even my so-called real name, is only a reflection of what I did. I am, was, and will be, what I was born to be. Frank Jaeger means Shameless Hunter, and that's what I am, but that doesn't mean other people get to use me. It's my choice, to be that way, to fight. You can choose, too." Through his entire speech he was perfectly calm, almost unnervingly so.