I'll Have His Breath

[Kuzo]

Irajah's work culminated in several places and people, all around the same time. The last two years had gone into the research and processes. The number of bodies, failed experiments behind her was not insignificant. She had been ruthless in her cause, culling those that had not unfolded the way she had hoped, releasing some into the wild, simply to see what they did and allow her to fine tune her techniques. Desmond had been the first success. Now, she hoped, she had two others. [member="Icarn Amonta"].

And Elian.

While Icarn had been a windfall, Elian was more personal. Which made this simply that much more satisfying.

The scanner beeped and she looked up into his face. All the familiar lines. And smiled.

"This says you are fit as a fiddle, Elian," she said warmly. "But tell me, how do you feel?"

She listened carefully to his answer. Not just the words but the tone, his expressions. His memories had been carefully tampered with, removing and replacing with a surgeon's precision. They had already had two instances of rejection, but it had been months now and the imprinting seemed fully cemented. Even Jairus had been unable to find any loose threads left after the work she had done.

[member="Elian Keyes"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

He looked up.

Then down to his hands, opening and closing them, once. Twice. Three times and then Elian smiled up at the Good Doctor. "I feel... happy, Doctor Ven." Was that accurate to say? He mulled on those words a bit, weighed and then nodded softly once.

"Happy, yeah, but also anxious to start."

That lazy grin, it started to show. Subtle. Just at the edge of things as Elian started to get comfortable in the situation... hell.. in his own hide.

"Soon? It feels like I haven't seen the sun in months, Doc, ain't a pleasant thing."

Now the drawl came out as the persona was assumed, as skin was replaced by skin and Keyes started to fit the various roles in his head. There were plenty. Too much maybe and he wasn't sure if he could keep all of them straight.

Except he had in the past, no?

"Still feel sore in the shoulders though. Mister Starvald has a nasty left hook."

 

[Kuzo]

Her smile broadened.

She had been particularly pleased with that detail. A tiny surge of endorphins when he was near her. Bio-hacking, Jairus had called it with a laugh. In a way he was right. She'd merely subverted the subconscious conditioning linked to emotional responses. In it's own way she would have called it crude. But that didn't make it any less effective. After what he'd done to her, it only seemed fitting. A certain irony.

"Mmm that should fade. You did well in that sparring match, Elian," she watched again for those slightly indicators that the conditioning was working well. Another spike in endorphins from praise by herself or Jairus.

The work she had done on him and Icarn was different, utilizing different aspects of her skills and trade. Elian was by and large focused on working with the system as it was, rather than adding to it. She hoped it would be something they could use for Jai's cultists later, but every experiment needed a guinea pig.

"Would you like to take a walk?" She asked, stepping back from the table.

"It's nighttime, but really, Coruscant never sleeps. Stretch your legs and see how you feel?"

Suggestions, but he would agree- feeling as though he were indeed simply of the same mind as she. She had one last test before she set this one out into the galaxy, after all.

[member="Elian Keyes"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Elian positively beamed at the compliment.

"Thank ya! Maybe I will be able to knock him down on the ground at some point." Both of them knew that was a far-fetched prospect, but he wanted to be better. It was the chase internally implemented by Irajah for him to always try and be better. To improve himself no matter what. After all, he would be working out there and they wouldn't be able to keep in touch all the time. He would have to take care of himself as much as possible if this mission was to be a success.

"Absolutely."

There was no doubt or even traces of refusal in his expression as Elian slowly pushed himself off the bed, experimentally touching the floor with his feet. Settling down there and taking a moment to get a good feel of his balance.

Keyes blinked.

A moment of dawning horror and then it was wiped away again, replaced by pleasure of being able to move and be close to Raj. In truth... this was no different than the man he had been before. Compartmentalization pushed to its very extreme. Parts of him still existed, there, deep, locked behind deep-set doors and locks. But the keys had been hidden away from him. Perhaps part of it was internal self-defense. Allowing the man of before to survive, even if it was as a helpless bystander.

Watching through now foreign eyes and not being able to do anything.

"Mmm, I am excited, I haven't breathed fresh-" The smirk got more pronounced. "Well, what goes through for it on Coruscant." He followed her out of the observation room. Excitement was making his steps almost bounce a little bit.

 

[Kuzo]

"Mmm as fresh as it gets, yes," she murmured, giving him space to get up, but watching him.

This was not the first time they had reached this point. The last time he had failed and it had been back to the drawing board. Of course, he remembered none of it. Irajah was very careful of that.

Memories were tricky things, she mused as they headed out of the facility, side by side. There were skills and capacities he'd had that she'd wanted to preserve. It would have been far easier to wipe everything and start from scratch, but this was part of the challenge and interest in the project in truth. See just what she could cut, just what she could snip, and have him function the way she needed him to.

They stepped out onto the walkway- still duracrete this far down, no moving sidewalks here- and began their stroll.

She had asked to 'borrow' one of [member="Jairus Starvald"]'s rejects for this last test. Someone he didn't need, since if it went the way it was supposed to, he wouldn't be getting them back.

"It's late," she murmured, playing to her script. "I hadn't realized how late it had gotten."

Irajah walked on the inside, relaxed and easy. Even knowing that as soon as they passed the mouth of the next alley-

She gasped as the arm went around her throat. The knife at her side. There was no danger here, not in truth. She could stop the man's heart with a thought. But that wasn't the point. She let her eyes go wide, uttering a small, helpless sound as her 'assailant' looked over her shoulder and at Elian.

"Empty yo pockets 'r I gut 'er," he snarled, eyes wild and roiling. High on *something* clearly. Unstable and unpredictable.

Except Irajah knew exactly what he would do. It was Elian she wasn't sure if the conditioning would hold.

[member="Elian Keyes"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

A lot of the difficult with bio-hacking was ensuring that the most important reflexes did not just survive, but remained effective in the split-second that they were important.

It was one thing to tweak and twist a habit that was spread across multiple breaths.

But a reflex? Where it was localized within a single beat of the heart? The amount of work that went into it... difficult. Luckily Irajah Ven had patience and more importantly the expertise to figure it out. Elian froze, hands rising up a fraction to show the thief (high? pupils widened by narcotics) that he wasn't making any undue moves. "Yeh, ya best take it slow, if ya dun want ya girlfriend get a bright, red smile."

The robber grinned bloody teeth as if to show his intent.

"It's okay, I will do as you ask, no need to cause trouble." One hand reached out into his pocket, slowly, surely, but Elian knew there was no wallet in the pocket to grab, the thief? Didn't have that knowledge.

"Don't got meh wallet, but I got a money clip, werk for ya?"

The thief didn't respond, but he did nod and lean in- it was in that split-second, as the knife briefly left the soft flesh of Irajah's neck that Elian acted. Hand touched hand as if to transfer the clip hidden in hand. Except there wasn't a clip. Instead there was a different hand gripping hard into the wrist holding the knife. Making sure that it wouldn't return once the shock wore off.

Then his fist slammed into the nose of the thief.

Blood spurting and Elian yanked Irajah back by her shoulder, immediately following it up with another punch in the thief's throat.

The ruffian collapsed, but by then it was already too late. Instinct took over as his heel slammed down into the thief's face. Once, twice. Unless Irajah stopped him Elian wouldn't stop himself.

 

[Kuzo]

Perfect.

Every action, every move, was exactly what she would have wanted. The last time they reached this point, he had been far too willing to allow her to end up a pincushion in return for the level of aggression he was now showing. Oh, it was an issue unique to them, but it had been a particularly sticky wicket to figure out and she was pleased that she had managed it. It didn't do her any good if he was willing to take care in protecting others and yet still looked at her and saw something disposable, or worse.

That wouldn't do at all.

Standing back a step, she watched as he reduced the man to something less than human. A face just so much meat, no longer even making the burbling sounds it had at the beginning. Irajah didn't stop him, curious, in fact, how far he would go if left unchecked. She didn't care if he killed the man- he had always been expendable once he had washed out of Jairus's program.

And if he killed him.... would he stop once he was dead? She needed to know how deep the instinct ran.

For science.

[member="Elian Keyes"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

There had always been anger within him.

Even when they met in a different life, that anger had been there. The fury, the *rage* just underneath the skin and trying to force itself out at every time. Compartmentalization had helped him back then. Let him function normally while shoving down all of it into a name he tapped rarely and dangerously. Elian had never been a good man.

He had simply been using his skills on the good side back then.

But it would have only taken a different homeworld to have a different career. With no external force telling him to stop and with no internal guidance (horror behind his eyes, but not capable of intervening) Elian continued.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, *crunch* until eventually the bone broke apart and there was nothing in there resembling human anymore.

Only one heel smashed against stone did Elian stop.

Blood on his face, beads of sweat, eyes wide and pupils dilated.... glancing towards Irajah. "Did I do good, Doctor?"

 

[Kuzo]

"You did well, Elian," she said quietly, only then reaching out to draw him carefully away from the scene.

She could not say that he had done good. On the surface, the word choice, the tone, sounded as though she were simply gently correcting his grammar. In truth it was because she knew better than to call what she had done to him.... or what he would do in the future built off of these things, good.

No, there was nothing good about what he had done.

But that didn't mean it wasn't exactly what she wanted.

"Let's get inside. I'll make some calls while you get cleaned up," she said softly, hooking her arm into his.

"Thank you Elian," she said, her tone low and intense. Reinforcing. "You protected me. I'll never forget that."

Just as she had never forgotten the time that he hadn't.

[member="Elian Keyes"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

In that moment Elian was just humming to himself.

He was tired.

His hands shook just a bit, sweat trickling down, blood splattered across his neck, face and hands. His eyes were still a bit wide- as if they saw everything and nothing at the very same time. But there was a smile now, softly tugging at the compliment and the hum turned more thoughtful at that. "You are a good person, Doctor Ven, you deserve to be protected. I am just sorry I didn't see it coming, were you scared?"

They walked and Elian enjoyed her company.

What a nice person, good person. Always there to help and heal people that needed it most. The fact that sometimes her experiments were a bit explicit? Well, sometimes you needed to break a few eggs, no?

"I killed that man." Elian suddenly said as they slipped back into the corridor that would lead to the lab. "Does that make me bad?"

Not just killed... destroyed, until any semblance of humanity had left that wreck.

 

[Kuzo]

"I am not a good person, Elian," Irajah said quietly as they walked. Her tone was even and steady.

"Just as you are not a bad one."

Her arm tucked into his, she squeezed lightly. Once upon a time, they had liked each other. Once upon a time she had called him friend. But too much time had passed since then. Despite that, she took her responsibility to him, to what she had made him into, seriously.

"Sentient creatures are always a combination of both. No one is purely one or the other. It sets up blinders, to put someone up on the pedestal of 'good' or to sink someone into the morass of 'bad'. It means that when someone does something not within those categories it is jarring, or comes as a surprise."

A lesson Irajah herself had learned the hard way.

"Judge people on how they treat those they profess to care about," she continued quietly. "Even that may not make them 'good' or 'bad'. But judge to yourself 'is this person good for me.' I was not afraid, because I had faith in you. And you did not let me down. Thank you."

[member="Elian Keyes"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Elian mused on that.

It felt right, correct and for a moment Elian didn't feel a complete sense of wrongness. It made sense, of course. The man who had come before Elian had always thrived in the greys and grays. A world of grayscale where the light was stained and the black had flicks of snow in it. Everything was complicated and everyone was flawed, that man had understood that better than most.

So this truth that Irajah spelled out for him settled down neatly.

Because every fiber of his being agreed with it.

"You are good to me, Doctor." Elian pointed out as the elevator started working and swept them down towards her private labs. "That makes you good. That is all I know."

The feeling of wrongness swept in and then crashed against large wavebreakers. They didn't find anything to claw against, to hold onto. The walls were brushed clean, neat and perfect.

It would take more than that.

So much more.