Consciousness returned painfully for Gemini. She had barely opened her eyes when her entire body lurched with nausea. She promptly vomited dark remnants of blood before gasping for breath. She heard alarms and voices and shouts as the blurred room seemed to spin around her. Her heart was pounding in her ears. It seemed to be pumping faster than normal, and the heartbeat indicator behind her head echoed her sentiments.
“Can you hear me?” A softer voice broke through the chaos as a blurred figure loomed over her. “Focus on my voice. Take a slow breath. In, and out.”
She tried her best to calm her breathing despite the heaviness of her chest pushing her to panic. Sure enough, as her breathing calmed, her body began to relax. The pounding in her ears disappeared, but she could still feel a fluttering of heartbeats within her chest.
“There you go,” the nurse’s voice returned.
Gemini squinted, trying to see through her poor vision. The woman was wearing a surgical mask over her nose and mouth and had dark hair, but her features were indistinguishable without her glasses.
“Are you in pain?”
She nodded slowly.
“Where is your pain?”
She tried to move her arm, but the IV taped to the inside of her elbow prevented much movement.
“Your chest?”
“Yes,” she offered breathily. She tried to look down at herself and found she was wrapped in white sheets in a bed. Various wires ran between a large monitor and the inside of her shirt.
“You may have some soreness there right now, but you’ll be all right.”
“Test her memory!”
She flinched instinctively. She recognized that voice.
“Can you tell me your name?” The nurse resumed speaking.
She sucked in a deep breath. “Gemini.”
“Good. Do you remember where you are?”
Her mind tried to recount what had happened before she awoke. She had been captured by ORBIT and detained for days on end. In those days she had been tortured in seemingly every way possible in an effort to break Rovenna’s power loose—while trying to maintain her human weakness. She assumed, by hearing Reynolds’ voice, that her location had not changed.
“Earthrise Station,” she breathed.
“Good,” the nurse glanced over her shoulder when the lieutenant offered a burst of praise under his breath.
Gemini shut her eyes. She wished she could have been somewhere else. In her chest, the flutter of anxiety intensified. Her eyes parted. Something still did not feel right.
She grabbed at her chest with her untethered arm. Beneath the sheets and her shirt, the wires were run to various probes across her chest. There was an incision across the top of one of her breasts that had been sewn shut.
Her eyes lost their focus. The fluttering heartbeats weren’t from her heart racing. Beneath her hand, she could feel two distinct patterns overlapping.
She began to panic.
“Stay calm,” the nurse stepped up to her side and tried to restrain her erratic movements as the heart rate monitor beeped a double pattern. “Breathe slow—in and out.”
Reynolds stepped beside the nurse. “Rovenna?”
Her hand dropped as her breath was released.
The voice inside her head was no longer there.
There was not an empty hole; no void left behind from a collapsed metacrisis. There was simply nothing else in her consciousness but her own.
A feeling of dread washed over her. If Rovenna was no longer in her head, then she no longer existed.
“You killed her.” She spoke through a groan.
Behind the surgical mask, the lieutenant’s lips pulled to a smirk. “Then, Procedure 2A truly was successful.”
Gemini took in a sharp breath. She didn’t know what they had done. Somehow, they kept her own mind and memories intact, but they had given her the body of a Gallifreyan. ORBIT got everything they were wanting: a Time Lord’s power with a malleable—controllable—human mind.
She began to feel faint, and with a weakened gasp, her eyes drooped shut. Everything in the room, including the nurse’s attempts to call her name, blended into the double-pattern of beeps from the heart rate monitor behind her head.
- - -
“Again.”
Gemini threw a punch that was quickly deflected, but she just as quickly recovered by sweeping the operative’s leg out from under her. The operative grabbed her arm as she fell and dragged her to the ground along with her. Gemini adeptly rolled over her, landed on her feet, pinned the woman with her leg, and thrust her fingers toward the operative’s neck.
“Stop,” Reynolds said.
Gemini huffed and stood up, helping her sparring partner back to her feet. She adjusted the fingerless gloves that covered her hands. Her black tank top and pale skin were wet with sweat, and her hair was pulled back in a messy bun. The olive-skinned woman across from her adjusted the straps of her sports bra and breathed out a sigh.
The training room was a medium-sized gymnasium with various weights, punching bags, and foam mats for sparring. Most of the weapons inside were dulled for practice, but it hadn’t taken Gemini long to noticed her partner still had her utility knife strapped to her belt.
“Again.”
Gemini threw a punch that shot over the woman’s shoulder, but she used her position to elbow the operative in neck. The woman ducked and grabbed Gemini around the waist and tried to throw her off balance, but Gemini simply pulled her legs from the floor and used her full weight to pull her partner down. She then grabbed the knife from the woman’s belt and held it against her neck.
“Stop.”
“Can she do that?” The operative ripped her knife out of Gemini’s hands.
Reynolds was preoccupied with the watch on his wrist. “Whatever it takes to disable your opponent.”
The two operatives glanced at each other. Gemini was noticeably weathered, but the woman’s expression had shifted to a dull scowl.
“Are we done yet?” Gemini asked.
“Again.”
Gemini glanced at Reynolds incredulously.
Her partner did not.
She was struck hard across her cheekbone, shouting in surprise. She lashed back with her fists clenched, but her punch was deflected. The woman twisted her arm behind her back and held her until she dropped to her knees. She tried to throw her head back, but her stretched neck was the perfect target for her partner’s knife as the flat of the blade pressed beneath her chin.
“Stop.” Reynolds crossed his arms. “That was awfully sloppy, Gemini.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Gemini shot back to her feet as soon as she was released, clenching her fists. “Are we done yet?” She asked again.
“No.” His steel blue eyes pierced into hers. “Again.”
Gemini started by ducking and diving into her partner’s stomach. She pulled the knife from her belt, thrust her elbow into the woman’s chin, and curled her foot around her ankle to knock her off-balance. She rolled as the woman fell and broke from her grasp. She then dove at Reynolds with the knife outstretched.
He seamlessly thrust out his hand to knock away its trajectory and grasp her forearm. He pulled her forward by the arm and kneed her in the stomach, taking his other hand and wrapping it around the back of her neck to push her face into the foam floor mat.
“This is your problem,” he spoke calmly, still holding her arm and neck as the rest of her body was bent around his knee uncomfortably. “When you’re angry, it’s incredibly easy to overpower you.”
She grunted through clenched teeth. The floor mat smelled like old rubber.
He released her neck first, but he kept a firm grasp on her hand until she was coaxed into dropping the knife.
“This is why you’re still in training two years later.” Reynolds glanced at the knife in his fingers before turning back to her. “You have got to get your emotions out of this. Adkins learned this lesson a long time ago,” he glanced at the woman behind her, “and she’s about to be promoted to officer. I had hoped you would join her, but you’re still not ready.”
She scowled and wiped her face with the back of her hand, forgetting that her cheekbone had been bruised until the pain reminded her.
He stepped closer to her, his thin face hovering inches from hers. “And you had better not try something like that again,” he sneered.
“Watch me.” Her eyes narrowed.
Before she had a chance to react, Reynolds had swiped the knife across her chest between the straps of her tank top.
Gemini choked, backing away as she clutched her chest. Her expression hung with as much hatred as there was shock.
“You’ll heal.” He held her knife between his fingers as he approached Adkins, and she took it hesitantly. “I’ll see you in the armory.” He gave a glance back at the Time Lord. “Gemini is free to go,” he dismissed her before leaving the training room.
Gemini scowled as she looked down at her chest. The single, shallow cut still seeped blood down into her tank top, just above the almost imperceptible scar on her breast from almost two years prior. Like the scar, the cut would heal faster due to her Gallifreyan blood, but that didn’t stop her from feeling the pain now—along with a twinge of regret from acting out in such a way. Every time she tried to stand her ground, it always ended the same.
She turned her head toward her sparring partner, but Victoria Adkins avoided eye contact and briskly left the room.
She returned her hand to her chest and slowly followed suit.
- - -
Gemini stood on her toes to hang the blaster back onto the shelf, her hips resting against the edge of the table that stood below. Her face lacked any particular emotion, though the slight tremble of her hands could not be quelled.
As she stepped back, she felt Reynolds’ hand clasp her shoulder. “You performed well today,” he said smoothly. “I’ll be honest; I was half expecting you to cave before you could shoot.”
“I appreciate the support,” she offered dully, sliding her eyes toward him.
“I did say I was being honest.” He drew closer to her ear, “I didn’t think you had it in you to kill.”
Gemini sighed uncomfortably and crossed her arms across her navy-blue uniform. “Am I done?”
“Well,” he stepped back, fingering his chin, “I was hoping you would come back to my quarters.”
A pang of worry shot through her form. “For what?” Her brows furrowed.
“We’ve been working much more closely these last few months,” he leaned on the table to inch closer to her. “I feel as though I should extend an invitation to get to know you even more closely.”
The sinking feeling in her stomach only deepened. “No, not—no, thank you.” She struggled to find an appropriate answer with his cold blue eyes glaring at her.
His lips tugged as he averted his gaze nonchalantly. “Well, all right. Perhaps another time.”
She stayed still as he straightened up and brushed a hand across her back. He kept it there as he turned her toward the nearby corner.
“By the way, your armor has arrived,” he said, leaning close to her as their eyes scanned the suit of maroon and golden metal hung on a stand. “Rovenna had hidden it in an abandoned building in nineteenth century Baltimore. Thanks to her, this is probably the last suit of Gallifreyan armor in existence.” His lips curled to a smile as he squeezed her shoulders tighter. “Imagine the fear you will strike into our enemies when they see a Time Lord in full regalia on our side.”
She swallowed, her furrowed brows more than showing her discontent with the idea.
He turned to her and sneered. “As long as you continue to obey, we will be unstoppable.”
She held her breath as he patted her back and left the room. The moment the door closed, she released a heavy sigh and drooped forward.
It wasn’t enough that she had been ordered to kill on their recent mission; wildly fighting against her own conscience while knowing well she would face severe consequences if she refused her orders. But now, Reynolds’ attitude toward her was rapidly changing.
He was beginning to stand closer to her and touch her, separating her from the others and giving her much more attention. Sometimes it was a heavy-handed grab to make his point clear, while other times it was a simple caress or a gentle nudge to hint at his desires.
She scowled. She didn’t like any of it.
She turned away from the armor and glanced across the room. Her eyes landed upon a bin for spare parts in front of a secured cabinet holding various explosive materials.
Perhaps it was time to work on an escape route.
Chapter Notes