The Significant (52 page)

      
“What happened with the teachers?”

      
“They took Remus from his bed one night
and locked him in a mechanical room where they…” Isa hesitated. “They beat him,
and raped him. They kept him in there for almost three days, continuing the
torture.”

      
Kailynn was stunned into silence, the
words bouncing around her skull for several long moments before they finally
absorbed.

      
“How did…I mean…did no one else…”

      
“When it came to the X-Class,” Isa said
slowly and carefully, “the teachers took it upon themselves to test the level
of degeneration in the prototypes. Remus told me, when all that was happening,
they continued to tell him that, if he was
really
an Elite, he would take the abuse and rape without complaint and without a
fight.” Isa closed her eyes. “But how can you ask
anyone
to comply with that?” she whispered.

      
Kailynn did not respond.

      
“The incident became very public,” Isa
said. “It seemed that the more the school tried to downplay the incident, the
more interested the public became. After nearly seven months of constant
attention and scrutiny, the two were finally sentenced to death,” Isa let out
an exasperated chuckle, her face becoming pained, “for sabotage and irreparable
damage of government property.” Isa looked at Kailynn. “That’s all he was—
property
. And they saw him as
damaged
.”

      
Isa leaned her head back on the couch.

      
“I never understood why everyone was so
hateful toward Elites,” she whispered. “This whole thing with Gihron…they talk
to us like we made the decision to be this way, like we chose how to be born
and how to be raised. We’re products of the government, the government that
humans built. And then, we’re raised and damaged by humans, and they still
blame us.”

      
Kailynn leaned forward and ran her
fingers over Isa’s cheek, tucking some hair behind her ear.

      
“Sounds a little similar to Trid.”

      
Isa smiled slightly.

      
“You’re right,” she agreed. “It does.”

      
“So…maybe we’re actually not so
different.”

      
Isa smiled and Kailynn leaned forward and
kissed the Elite.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

      
Isa tried not to let her feet drag as she
walked out of the elevator to her office. The doors opened automatically and
the lights came on, but she shied away from them, reaching to shut them off.
She stumbled, falling against the wall and resting her hand over the light
controls. The lights dimmed immediately.

      
The Golden Elite put her other hand over
her eyes and sighed heavily, gathering her strength to stand straight.

      
The five-hour meeting with Venus had been
brutal. The hot room had dehydrated her considerably, and the tension that
always wracked her body when she was in conference with the artificial
intelligence had worn down her already-weak body.

      
She could feel herself slipping back into
very destructive habits.

      
She had been unable to eat, her sleep had
been plagued with half-awake hallucinations that had her too terrified to close
her eyes at night, and she could feel the tension in her shoulders and belly
that she remembered too well from five years previous.

      
Isa’s head began spinning, her world
whirling around her. The fuzzy feeling in her head was also very familiar.

      
She forced herself away from the wall,
trying to get to the couches in her office before she passed out.

      
She only made it half-way.

      
Remus, in his office one level below
Isa’s, finished looking over the Intelligence Agency’s report on the location
of the Gihron men who had killed the Elite prototypes. He ground his teeth
together in frustration. They still could not find the men. They managed to
find the prototypes, but they were not in the bunker where they had been
killed. They were thrown carelessly into quarry and found by the machines four
hours after their disposal.

      
The attack on the prototypes had hit
everyone in Isa’s Syndicate far harder than they were willing to admit. Most of
them remembered their own beatings, the way the Elites were used and tossed
aside carelessly. They recalled what happened to Aren, and they remembered what
happened to Remus. With the wound of Maki’s death still fresh, they were struggling
not to let their past experiences dictate their actions. However, they were
working slower than usual, and Chronus had not been to work since the
transmission of the prototypes being murdered.

      
Remus glanced at the schematics of the
building, entering his biometrics to see the status of the audience room for
Venus. When he saw it marked as inactive, he sighed, rolling his eyes, thrilled
that Isa was
finally
out of the
meeting.

      
He got out of the NCB chair and went to
Isa’s office, only to find the Golden Elite passed out on the floor.

      
Somewhere nearby, Isa could hear voices.
They were muffled and incoherent, but she tried to find them and figure out
what they were saying.

      
“…can’t use that as a reason,” Remus’
voice finally floated to her. “No one else knows what happened to Colonel
Amori. The Alliance will not stand behind us if we try to attack Gihron.”

      
“You know that, if they attack, she won’t
be able to handle it,” Dr. Busen’s voice responded. “Her body is not able to
handle this type of stress anymore.”

      
“Her mind, either,” Paul agreed.

      
Isa’s eyes fluttered open. She recognized
her the ceiling in her office, but it took her a while to focus on the three
figures standing next to her in deep discussion.

      
“She has to handle it,” Remus murmured. “She’s
the Golden Elite. If she’s unable to perform her duties, she’ll be replaced,
which means she’ll be killed.”

      
The two doctors remained silent, their
heads dropping.

      
Remus turned his eyes to Isa and saw her
conscious.
    

      
“Isa,” he breathed, stepping forward and
kneeling at her side. She moved slowly, her head pounding painfully. She looked
around, her eyes meeting those of the three men in the room.

      
“What happened?”

      
“I found you passed out on the floor,”
Remus explained. “You were dehydrated and you’re malnourished.”

      
Dr. Busen stepped forward, sitting on the
coffee table next to the couch where they had placed the Golden Elite.

      
“Isa,” he started seriously, “we really
need to discuss this.”

      
“I’m fine,” Isa insisted.

      
“People who are
fine
do not pass out on the floor like that,” Dr. Busen told her.

      
“I was dehydrated,” she said. “I spent
five hours in the furnace of the audience hall.”

      
“Five hours is not long enough to starve
to the level you are now,” the doctor murmured. “You haven’t been eating, have
you?”

      
“I have not had an appetite.”

      
“Why not?”

      
“I don’t know.”

      
“Yes, you do,” Paul said, standing next
to Dr. Busen. Isa sighed and placed her head back on the couch, closing her
eyes.

      
“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” she
whispered.

      
“I’m sure,” Paul said quietly. “And I’m
sure that everything that has been going on lately has brought up painful
memories about Colonel Amori, and the damage he caused.”

      
Isa did not open her eyes, trying to keep
her mind from racing at the name.

      
“Isa,” Paul said, crouching next to her,
“open your eyes and look at me.”

      
The Golden Elite did not comply.

      
Paul reached forward and gently placed a
hand on Isa’s cheek, turning her head to the side.

      
“You’re safe,” he assured. “Open your
eyes.”

      
Isa took a deep breath and opened her
eyes.

      
“Name every person in this room.”

      
“Remus, Dr. Busen, and you,” Isa said
quietly.

      
“And you,” Paul added. “No one else is
here. He is not coming back, and you are not the same person you were when he
was here. You are much stronger now.”

      
“My other doctor would disagree with
you,” Isa said with a broken chuckle.

      
Paul smiled, tapping his finger gently
against her forehead.

      
“
This
doctor is talking about up here,” he said. “Gihron is threatening you, but
Colonel Amori is dead. We know that for a fact. Remember, Michael did the
autopsy.”

      
Isa’s eyes turned to Dr. Busen, who was
looking at her tenderly, though he was clearly concerned.

      
“He cannot harm you anymore,” Paul
assured. “He won’t harm Rayal, or Remus, or Tarah, or Kailynn. He’s gone.”

      
“He’ll never be gone, Paul,” Isa
whispered.

      
“I suppose that is so,” he admitted. “And
you can’t think of Gihron at all without thinking of him, can you?”

      
“No.”

      
“And you can’t forgive yourself for what
happened, can you?” Paul murmured.

      
“We’ve been over this thousands of times,
Paul,” Isa groaned.

      
“I know,” Paul agreed. “And we’re going
over it again.”

      
“I could never live with myself if I let
anything like that happen again,” Isa whispered. “To
anyone
. But…”

      
“What happened to the prototypes reminded
you of it all?” Paul asked knowingly.

      
Isa nodded.

      
Dr. Busen dropped his head and Remus
looked away, both suddenly understanding.

      
“Isa,” Paul started, “you did what you
had to do to protect yourself. You were
not
responsible for his actions. You were the victim.”

      
Isa closed her eyes.

      
“Are you not going to listen to me say
this?” he asked. She shook her head quickly. “Okay,” he said. “I won’t say it,
yet, but soon, you’re going to have to hear it. For now, I think it would be
best if you were to see Michael at least once a week to be sure that you’re
physically strong enough to endure this stress.”

      
“I don’t
want
to endure it,” Isa growled. “All I do is
endure
it. I’m
tired
.”

      
“Isa, if you can’t perform as Golden
Elite…” Remus trailed off. Isa turned to him, her eyes cold.

      
“Venus will order me dead?” Isa concluded
sharply. “I know, but she wouldn’t kill me without finding a replacement, and
in that time, I’ll rip her apart.”

      
“Isa, remember where you are,” Paul said,
placing his hand on her shoulder. She pushed his hand away and tried to sit up,
but Dr. Busen guided her back to the couch.

      
“You’re attached to fluids. Stay put.”

      
“Let go of me,” Isa ordered darkly.

      
Paul backed Dr. Busen away from the
agitated Golden Elite, worried about Isa lashing out.

      
“I don’t care if she hears this,” Isa
snarled. “I am
tired
of having to
endure
all
of this. My life was
determined to be like this hundreds of years ago. It was never my choice. I was
taught to endure the abuse of the teachers, I was taught to endure the threats
of Venus. And I was taught to endure this
alone.
I am risking death just by having someone to go home to, someone with whom
I don’t have to be the Golden Elite. But because I
am
the damn Golden Elite, everyone around me is in danger, Kailynn
especially, if Gihron is so set on revenge for what I did to Colonel Amori.”

      
The others were silent.

      
“I am sick of my hands being tied no
matter what I do,” Isa hissed. “After a while, the threat of execution loses
its edge. It’s been hanging over me my entire life. And every death threat I’ve
ever received, whether it was at the Academy or from fucking Colonel Amori and
the rest of Gihron, has been because of
Venus
,
so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I want her gone.”

      
“Isa,” Dr. Busen said slowly, “you became
the Golden Elite because you were very careful and smart about how you
rebelled. You have changed a lot on Tiao, and in the Alliance, and I know it’s
not everything you’ve wanted to change, but you have accomplished a great deal,
even with the horrors of Colonel Amori.” The doctor rubbed his forehead. “I
guess, what I’m trying to say, is don’t throw away all of your hard work. You
can still change things, but you are the only one that can at this point. A new
Golden Elite will fall right into routine, you know this.”

      
Isa closed her eyes again, going quiet.

      
Remus rubbed his eyes tiredly, his
irritation reaching levels of anger. Paul glanced at him, seeing his agitated
state.

      
“Remus, may I speak with you?” he asked,
standing. The Silver Elite nodded quickly, turning and walking out the door of
the office. Paul followed him, leaving Dr. Busen and Isa alone in the office.

      
The doctor reached forward and checked
the small screen on the monitor attached to Isa’s arm. Content with the
knowledge that she was no longer severely dehydrated, he backed away and rubbed
his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees.

      
“I’m not an Elite Psychiatrist,” he
started quietly, “so I may say the wrong thing here, but I want you to know
that I admire you immensely, Isa.” She opened her eyes and turned to the
doctor. “From the moment I saw you, fifteen and full of fire about changing the
entire Altereye System, I knew that, if any Elite were to actually change
things, it would be you.” Dr. Busen took a deep breath. “There is a fire inside
of you still. Colonel Amori did not take it from you, no matter what you
think.”

      
“How can you be sure?” Isa whispered.

      
“Because I see it,” Dr. Busen said
tenderly. “I see that fire in your eyes again.” He looked to the ground,
rubbing his hands together once more. “I think…this thing with Gihron has you
even more confused than ever before, because you have always wanted to shut
down Venus, and they are asking you to do so.”