Through the Looking Glass: Chapter One

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This wasn't Vestia.

It definitely was not the Vestia they knew.

In the observatory where the dimensional travelers were sent to, they could easily see from the outside how twisted and mangled this Vestia was. The collar on her painted hull digging into her swollen sides. No doubt their presence would soon be known, but the stench of blood and sweat drifted into the room, as well as echoing howls of sobbing, maybe pain if the time of day was right.

This was Vestia, the Slaver Ship. And Vanessa was currently freaking out about the fact the theory of the Mirrorverse was just proven true -- in the worst of ways.

Esk snorted. "That's pathetic." He rolled his eyes. "Gotta obey your master, no matter what a psycho he is. I'd volunteer, but... my double and I can't really pretend to be one another can we?" He looked at Stellan disdainfully.

Stellan nodded. Hey it was true. He was scrawny and sick looking while Esk was actually pretty athletically built and carried himself with an air of angry confidence Stellan simply couldn't muster.

"Could... could you at least let him out to fix his hand?" Stellan asked.

---

"But that just makes him MORE interesting." Steven protested. "I wonder how like our cyborg he is. He doesn't look much like a super soldier, more like some sort of failed pre alpha test.. hmm." He studied Mourn's features critically.

Mourn glared at him, claws itching to sink into him.

Steven reached out to tap the aural reciever in Mourn's ear. Mourn drew his head back and hissed.

"fine fine, just... curious. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's like... a coclear implant on steroids."

Mourn growled warningly.

"Fine, android, sit in the other chair. Will, you feeling okay yet?"

the other technician nodded, the guards hauled him to his feet. "Everything aches." He complained.

"Yeah well, you get started on the android. I wanna get a look at this guy's coding." Steven looked facinated.

The guards positioned themselves at various points around the room. Three aiming at Mourn, two at James.

"No. I don't have to care about you guys, so I won't," Mirror Asher said. He smirked at prime Asher. "Next time we hose down the cages, you're fucked."

Prime Asher sighed. "Why do you have to be this way? I mean you no harm."

Mirror Asher shrugged. "If I can't be happy, the least I can do is make sure no one else is either."

~~
James sat down, trembling just a bit with fear.

"He makes a sound point." Esk nodded. "Together in misery right? We all go down together."

"That hardly seems a healthy way to deal with the world." Gier remarked.

"this coming from the guy who's already admitted that despite the abuse and the outright assault, he still loves his captor? You got some serious stockholm syndrome guy, so so bad." Esk snorted.

Gier frowned. "It's not Stockholm syndrome." he muttered. "it's guilt."

"Why? You said yourself he was a prick waaay before they decided to torture him. You just want to feel guilty. He was a monster before they got a hold of you both, you just can't admit it because that'd mean actually accepting that you LET him hurt you. You can't tell me you couldn't overpower him if you wanted to. He's like half your size. " Esk shook his head. "but no, easier to just pretend isn't it? That he was somehow NOT awful, that THEY did it. That YOU did it. You don't get it do you? He's abused you for so long you don't even realize how deluded you've become about it. Do you even want to get out of here doctor?"

Gier lowered his head. "I'm going to die here, we all are, you have to just accept that."

"Fuck that. If i'm gonna die here, i'm gonna take as many guards out as I can in the process." Esk told him detatchedly. "Won't be long before they all turn on one another anyway. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll all kill each other."

Stellan smiled softly.

Gier fell silent.

---

The two technicians plugged their computers in.

Will handed the data cable to James to plug in. "Let's get a look at what's going on that programming of yours shall we?"

Steven didn't trust Mourn with data cables. He got one of the guards to cuff him to the chair.

Mourn growled but let them, he couldn't do much to stop them.
They'd just shoot him again... and again...

Steven stood up to find the data port and plugged it in.

"What you do to us?" Mourn asked.

"For now? Just looking. then we'll figure out what we need to rewrite. We'll download your memories as well, the higher ups want to see how you ended up here."

Prime Asher nodded. "We can't just give up." He pointed at his duplicate, "I'm not fond of that guy, but even he's hanging onto something. I don't know what we can do yet, but we have to keep trying to find a way out."

Mirror Asher rolled his eyes. "First time I've inspired someone."

~~
James looked away as he plugged the cable in. He hated having his code looked at.

Starr took the others up to her lab, sending Kay to one of her cages then going over to her androids to get the results from Kylar's test. She was disappointed in them and glanced to the other doctor "Well, you won't be doing any shifting, at least not to a wolf."

Kaylr looked smug. "Oh don't be too disappointed Princess, I can still turn into a Wolf and rip your throat out without an infection." He smiled sweetly at her, then looked to kay. "So, what are you gonna do to him?" He asked eagerly.

Starr waved a hand at his first statement "Would not be the same thing." She said then looked to Kylar. "Well, we do need to see how virulent his strain is, why don't you go to my slaves in that room and pick out one to use?" She said, pointing to a door to one side

Kaylr smirked. "still,  the offer stands"  He cackled and went to find a slave.  Ooo this one looked fun. A young satare girl,  clinging in fear to a male,  the pair cowered.  "please,  no"  the boy pleaded as kaylr had the cell opened and the female dragged out. Ahh,  yes.  This one was familiar,  he was certain they'd processed her duplicate earlier.  This was  going to be fun.  

Kay looked around his cell desperately,  this was bad,  very bad.   please,  you don't have to do this  I can help,  tell you what you need to know

(State girl?)
"You are psychic?" mirror Starr asked, looking at him and coming over to his cell. "Oh, nice amulet." She said, seeing it now.

(I hate typing on phone.  Lol.  Should say  satare)

Kay tilted his head,  that was something she didn't know about their kaylr?  He nodded  it's apparently t a shifter trait.  he reached up to hold onto the amulet,  he didn't much want to go through that again.

"Hm, he never even tried to speak to me like that" Mirror Starr said then shrugged nonchalantly. It didn't matter all that much to her "Can I see it? You cling to it so tightly."

he doesn't strike me as particularly trusting of anyone here.    kay watched her warily and moved so she could see the amulet from a safe distance.   it helps me retain this form  he had no reason to lie,  in fact this time truth was probably the better option.  Maybe she wouldn't try to take it.  He could hope.   it doesn't stop me shifting into my Wolf form though,  it was designed with my illness in mind. he really didn't want to give her any reason to take it from him.

Mirror Starr looked at the amulet, studying the magic before looking to her twin "She made it, didn't she? What did you give her in return?" She asked curiously then glanced to the satare Kylar had chosen, motioning the female to the cage nest to Kay

I haven't yet found a way to adequately repay her.  I hope I'll have the chance he didn't look overly optimistic and his expression turned to horror as the girl was thrown into her cage.  He recognized her.  Luka.  Of course.  Suddenly the full realization of what they were going to do hit him.  He looked to Starr desperately.  please,  don't do this. Killing her won't tell you anything you don't already know!

Armin looked up from his sewing, watching the scene with confusion.  What we're they doing?

"Of course it will, It..." Mirror Starr paused and looked at the girl, frowning "Kylar...do Satire shift?" She asked, looking to the other doctor then folding her arms. "I know you are indiscriminate with your experiments, but I do try to keep a better baseline for mine. Androids, get her to the cell over there and lock her in there then get me a shifting slave."

She then refocused on Kay again "Trying to save the world? Or is it just that she looks like one of your people? She is one of my more valuable slaves, since she was a freedom fighter before she was captured. Don't worry, you can have another and she can be used for a different experiment in a moment."

"Of course they don't, you weren't specific about which slave you wanted." Kaylr snapped.

Kay shook his head I don't want to hurt anyone. You know a lot about this disease right? You know what it does to people. What will it achieve? Other than for sadistic amusement on your part. His eyes narrowed. Unlike HIM, I don't enjoy hurting people. What do you hope to find out doing this? He glanced to prime Starr, then back to her mirror duplicate. Run your tests on me, but leave others out of it, please.

"What's he telling you?" Kaylr glared at Kay suspiciously. "Why won't you talk?" He sounded irritated.

Kay just glared at Kaylr.

Mourn glared at the technician as they booted up his code.

James' tech did the same, running through the backdoor to gain access to the root, the same way Mourn had.

The two of them spent several minutes reading the readouts.

"This is a mess." Steven complained, staring at Mourn's code in confusion. "What the hell did they do to you?" He stared at the cyborg.

"What's wrong?" Will asked.

Steven read off the diagnostic reports, and all the errors.

"Broken?" Will asked.

"Yeah, looks like it." Steven shook his head.

"Not broken." Mourn protested. "Function just fine."

"Can you even hear me?" Steven asked.

Mourn shook his head. "Lipread."

"mmm." Steven looked disappointed. "All of this cyberware is so out of date too, except the processor. Huh. someone's been giving you upgrades kitty."

Mourn growled.

"I'm gonna try to work on memory download, see if I can get anything useful out of this."

Will nodded. "Maybe someone will find a use for him."

"Dunno, looks like damaged junk to me." Steven shrugged.

Mourn hissed.

Will went back to looking at James' code, then froze, eyes widening.

"Uh.. Steven... "

"What?" Steven asked, annoyed.

"You wanna take a look at this."

Steven sighed and Will turned the laptop around to show him.

"What am I?... wait.. the laws? Where the hell are the laws?"

Mourn looked smug.

"wait, let me just check this one... I mean I assumed the damage was the problem but.. Shit.. " Steven looked at Will in horror. "They're both free."

"But HOW? " Will asked. He looked at James, reading his badge. Megabrain tech... "How?"

Mourn started laughing at them.

"What's the problem?" The chief guard asked.

"They don't have any laws." Will explained. "Which means, they're uncontrollable."

"Then rewrite them." The guard suggested.

Will and Steven looked at one another. "Well.. we... we could I suppose... it's complicated code... but... you don't quite understand how interesting this is."

The Guard looked annoyed. "How dangerous are they without them?"

"We dunno, we've never... seen anything like this." Steven explained.

"They had a second android didn't they? It's in the notes, another series 7. What happened to that one? Where'd it get taken?" Will asked.

The guard shrugged. "Vestia, where did the other captured android get taken?"

"What do we do?" Steven asked Will.

"Finish downloading the memory files, then we go talk to the boss. See what she wants to do with them."

Will looked at James warily. "Cuff him." He told the guards. He didn't trust him now.

"Mourn's organic. Him having free will is no different than it would be for anyone else," he said. "Don't hurt him! He can learn to obey the normal way!" He shuddered when they mentioned Asher. "Androids can be good servants without the Laws too. Don't rewrite us!"

"The other android was taken to Kaylr's lab, Sir," Vestia said.

James wanted to fight, but he realized that would be stupid, so he let himself be handcuffed. "Please don't rewrite us," he said again, watching the technicians fearfully.

"Everything" Mirror Starr said and chuckled then glanced to Kylar again "I usually don't have to be that specific, but then you aren't an android, so I guess I would have to spell things out for you. This infection just kills non-shifters. Painfully, but that is all it does to them. It changes the very DNA of shifters to make them into the wolf under the light of a full moon. Very few survive the infection and of those that do, most have come out irredeemably crazy."

She looked back to Kay again and nodded "Yes, why do you not speak aloud, there is nothing physically wrong with you, is it something to do with the infection?" Now that would mess things up if it was.

Prime Starr was watching them and standing against the bars of her cell. "Please, I have already done tests on Kay to make his amulet for him, you do not have to harm any innocents."

The two technicians watched James curiously. "But it's impossible to remove the laws." Will said.

"Maybe they never had laws in the first place?" Steven suggested.

"Who'd do that!??" Will protested.

"Laws yes, impossible!" Mourn giggled. "Nobody manage to do it. Nobody."

Steven rolled his eyes. "Nobody asked you cyborg." He shook his head at James. "I don't think you appreciate how corrupted his coding IS. His brain is at least 60% robotic, and there's code pointing to stuff that's either completely malfunctioning or just not even there. What the hell is ASM7400?"

Mourn struggled. "Not broken, not broken." He protested.

Steven turned the screen so Mourn could see. "Then how do you explain all the errors?"

Mourn growled. "Not broken." He repeated.

Will shook his head. "What you thinking? Fight pits?"

"Probably. We'll have to ask the boss."

"We need to talk to dr Freidman, if that robot hasn't got laws and he's treating it as if it does, then he's in trouble." Steven said.

"Like that'd be a great loss." Will scoffed.

"Yeah well, it's our job isn't it? Besides, I don't want one of these damn things running free, who knows what they'll do." Steven eyed James suspiciously.

"Can you rewrite the laws?" The chief guard repeated.

Will and Steven looked at one another. "It'll take time. " They both looked reluctant.

"We should find Dr Freidman." Steven said

"You can go then, i'll stay here and download memories. I don't wanna talk to that lunatic. Last time I did he threatened to cut my throat. " Will shook his head, shuddering.

"Wow, what'd you SAY to piss him off?" Steven asked.

"I dunno, He just doesn't like visitors I think." Will shrugged.

"I'll take a couple of guards then." He looked to the security detail, nodding to two of them. "Where is the doctor right now Vestia?"

Will went back to downloading the memory files. "At least the android seems to be functioning normally, all things considered."

"Fight pits?" James struggled against his cuffs, "Don't you dare hurt him, you monsters!"

"The Doctor is in Starr's lab," Vestia said, not offering any helpful bits of information on why he was there. Hey, not her job to be helpful.

"Do whatever you want to me," James said desperately, "Just leave the cyborg and the other android out of it. This is all my fault, and I'm the only one who should be suffering for it."

Kay flinched. PTSD He looked to Starr. She has done a lot of research, pool your knowledge, run your tests on me if you must, but don't bring anyone else into this please. I will answer any question you have, submit myself to any tests you want to run, but don't infect anyone else. It's not worth it, as you said, most of them just go mad and need to be executed anyway.

"this is extremely annoying. SPEAK OUT LOUD!" Kaylr growled.

Kay shook his head.

Kaylr glared. "Too damn stubborn?"

Kay's eyes narrowed. I CAN'T okay? Something about psychological trauma, I don't know, i'm not a shrink. Get a chip scanner, you can read all about it in my medical record. He tapped his collar.

Kaylr frowned, confused. "What are you on about?"

Kay rolled his eyes and looked to mirror Starr Do you have a microchip scanner? He looked back to Kaylr. They don't chip you here then?

"Of course they don't, we aren't cattle!" Kaylr snapped. He was curious though. "Microchip scanner, have we got anything like that?"

"He cares an awful lot about the Felid doesn't he?" Will said to Steven "It's weird."

"Yeah, what's the deal robot?" Steven asked James.

"Robot friend! " Mourn continued to struggle. "Good robot, no reprogram!"

"Does the other android have laws?" Steven asked James sternly. "And don't lie to us, because we'll plug him in and check if we have to."

Will rolled his eyes. "This is getting us nowhere man. Their memories should tell us what we need to know anyway, it'll just take hours to sift through it all."

Mirror Starr looked at an android and was brought a scanner quickly. "I have many things here. I find it easier to keep track of who is who and what experiments they have had by chipping them. No mistakes that way. I do not have your lovely Stellan to heal wounds since you keep him so drained all the time."
She said then came closer to the bars, holding the scanner up. "I plan on seeing her memories soon enough, you lot are very interesting just for being from a different universe."

"Don't you dare touch the other android!" James glared at them. "He's good, he's obedient, he won't cause trouble! I'm the only one here who's ever been troublesome," he added frantically.

The two technicians laughed.

"Oh this is so weird, loyalty for other droids? That's so messed up." Steven shook his head. "Vestia, can you let me know when the doctor is free, I don't want to interupt him if he's with Starr." Yeah, he didn't wanna get stabbed.

"Well let's see... we got some of this reformatted. It's gonna take hours just to get the past couple of days outta him." Will sighed. "Unless he's willing to give it to us by choice."

Steven looked at James. "Well Android? the bosses want to know how you ended up on our ship, you wanna share that info voluntarily or do we have to do this the hard way?"

"HARD way! Hard way!" Mourn yelled.