Phoebe and Sophia LeDuc Prologue

Phoebe walked slowly down the dimly lit corridor that led to the waiting room. The white, sterile walls gave her some sort of comfort, reminding her of her days at the hospital, listening to well-intentioned but delusional people tell her that life was worth living. They were wrong. They were all wrong.  Phoebe tried not to glance down at her scars, knowing that this would awaken Sophia.  She was unsuccessful. Looking down, she could trace the scars going up and down

"This doctor person needs to see ME, Sophia, not you ... leave me be! "

Phoebe felt her extremities numbing already. This could be bad.

"You shouldn't be trusted with yourself" came the reply from the back of her head.

"I'm fine" was Phoebe's response. "I don't need you anymore."

The anger behind Sophia's thoughts was palpable now. "You don't really believe that. You would be long dead and forgotten without me. I have kept you safe, kept you alive. "

Phoebe had no response to this; Sophia was right.

"Alright, breathe" Phoebe said to herself, "You're in control, not her."

Slowly, she regained feeling in her fingers and toes. Unfortunately, her brief outburst had attracted attention of passersby.  A frog-man-thing was staring at her. Approximately a foot taller than she was, he was fairly intimidating. Phoebe couldn't really read his emotions, which disturbed her.

"What is it? Do you find me entertaining, frog man?" she asked accusingly.

"My name is Daws," he answered, then proceeded to walk away.

Phoebe felt a brief twinge of regret as he walked away, but it quickly faded away. She entered the waiting room and glanced around.  Two nondescript security guards stood by the door, presumably to keep order among Dr. Ollivander's visitors. In one corner sat a girl, not more than 12 or 13 years of age. In the center of the room sat what appeared to be a giant mummy.  Phoebe sat herself down between the girl and the guards.

"Hello there," said the girl quietly. "Who are you?"

"I'm ... well, sometimes I'm Sophia. Right now I'm Phoebe. It's complicated"

"I'm Lily all the time"

Phoebe smiled at this. She felt an odd mixture of jealousy and pity for Lily. Innocence. Trust. Things Phoebe had never and would never be able to enjoy. Surely, some day Lily would be disappointed, and the illusion she lived under would shatter. Still, some part of Phoebe wished that she could still believe that there was some point to life's cruelty.
The door to Ollivander's  office swung open and hit the wall next to it with a loud thud.
A voice intoned: "Phoebe LeDuc. Doctor Ollivander will see you now."
Phoebe looked around, hoping to say goodbye to Lily, but the girl was gone. Phoebe hoped she wasn't seeing things now.

Walking into the doctor's office, Phoebe noticed how different Doctor Ollivander was from all of the other doctors who she had been treated by. For one, he wore a black lab coat instead of the usual white lab coat that seemed to be a prerequisite for anyone in the medical profession. Also, he had an ear piece and what looked like a green, rectangular monocle. Phoebe assumed that these were transmitting data to somewhere, although she could not begin to guess at the recipient.  Perhaps  they were only for his own benefit, so he could better diagnose and treat his patients. He did, however, wear the trademark "I care about your well-being" smile that Phoebe remembered from her years at the hospital. The look made her shudder.

"So, Phoebe LeDuc. LeDuc is French, correct?" the Doctor started conversationally.

"I never really learned anything about my family. Except that addictions seem to be genetic."

"I'm terribly sorry for what you've gone through in the past. This entire endeavor is to get all of Para's victims some closure. Is there anything, anything at all you would like to discuss while you're here?"

"Yes, there is. Why are you going after Para? What have you got to gain from all this? You obviously haven't suffered too much by her hand. You seem sane enough, and you don't have any scars like mine."

At this point, the Doctor started to exhibit some signs of being nervous. His pupil dilated a bit and his hand went to his watch and started toying with it absentmindedly. His face, however, seemed as calm as ever as he answered. "What Para has or has not done to me is of little consequence.  The apprehension and execution, or should I say the trial, of a being guilty of crimes against life itself is reward enough. And all of her experiments, that is to say, you and the others onboard this ship, know her better than anyone else, so it is simply logical that you aid in her capture. And of course, it would be foolish of me to assume that you, and of course Sophia as well, would like revenge. Why don't you tell me a bit about your friend Sophia?"

"I don't know if I would consider her a friend … exactly. She's saved my life more than a few times … and I'm grateful for that … but it's difficult sometimes to keep her from taking over … I'd really rather not talk about it."

"That's fine, Phoebe. You may go. May I suggest though, that you go to one of the gyms; try to get that frustration out?"

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As Phoebe was walking to the gym, she heard laughter coming from a doorway a little ways behind her. Curious, she walked over to the doorway and peeked in. She saw some guards sitting around a round table and drinking. Suddenly Phoebe was a little girl again, watching her father and his friends drink and drink until violence broke out. She would run to her room and make as little noise as possible, pretending to not exist until the morning came.  Determined to escape, Phoebe ran as fast as she could until she found the gym. The gymnasium was a large, cavernous room filled with all sorts of different weapons, as well as weights, treadmills, and other exercise machines. Almost instinctively, Phoebe found a pistol and started shooting targets. In her brief weeks of freedom after her time at the hospital, she swore to herself she would never again be the subject of abuse, so she bought a pistol and learned to use it. Two weeks later, she was abducted by Para. Irony. Though she was still rattled, shooting helped calm her down.  It gave Phoebe a sense of control, something she rarely felt.

Due to concerns about the mental wellbeing of Para's past experiments, the subjects were forbidden to fight each other in the gym, but they could spar with the ship's staff, who were there for that purpose. Against her better judgment, Phoebe decided to spar one of the guards. The guard was more a walking wall of meant than a man, being at least six and a half feet tall and half as wide. Despite Phoebe's best efforts to avoid his fists, the first blow that connected sent her sprawling. The pain was enough to force her to let Sophie take control. The pain ceased instantly. Sophia lunged at the man, intent on causing him pain. The man, not anticipating the charge, was surprised when Sophia fist collided with his nose, breaking it. Unfortunately, this simply angered the man. Though clearly outmatched, Sophia would not give in, no matter how many times she was beaten by the man. Phoebe heard guards cluster around them and finally tranquilize Sophia so as to keep her from killing herself and Phoebe.

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Phoebe awoke with a taste of blood in her mouth, and noticed with some annoyance that she had lost her upper right central incisor. More alarmingly, she was fairly certain one or more of her ribs were broken. She was, once again, in what seemed to be a hospital room, with Dr. Ollivander standing above her, wearing an expression of concern.  Now, Phoebe was certain, she would not be allowed to continue her stay on the ship. He was going to have her leave, or have her executed. She tried to formulate an apology, trying to explain that she had not had control of herself, but the Doctor cut her off.

"Come now Phoebe, you should know better than to allow yourself to lose control like that. Now, the guards are sworn to confidentiality and no permanent harm was done, so you can count yourself lucky. But what would happen if you had done that to another one of Para's experiments? You could have died."

He picked up and observed a medical clipboard.

"As is, you've lost a tooth, and you've broken two ribs, possibly a mild concussion as well. Nothing that can't be fixed, but the fact remains that you need to be more careful."
His reproachful tone irritated Phoebe, but she responded quietly: "It wasn't my fault … I wasn't … in control. The room, the guards ... they made me remember ... things." Phoebe started to cry. "Things ... I don't want to remember."

With a sympathetic look, Dr. Ollivander nodded, and then exited the room. Phoebe could feel Sophia's presence, angry, in the back of her brain, like a cancer. Determined to ignore Sophia, Phoebe realized all at once how exhausted she was, and the angry thoughts of her past and her present slowly left her as she welcomed sleep.