Separated By a Wall

Sacrifices

"What do you mean you're my human mother? You don't look anything like I remember." Ivana walks towards me, heels clacking against the tiles. "I made you who you are." she whispers. She's so close I can smell her perfume. I was well aware that she was whispering but her voice blasted into my ears especially loud due to our proximity. Refraining from clapping my hands over my ears, I took a step back.

"Explain." I grit through my teeth.

"You took a bullet for the high rank," she jerks her chin towards Ryker. "And remained unconscious for quite some time. I was already working for Omega Inc. I was in my twenties sorting through files in the basement. I could see your mark when you landed on the ground and took you in expecting a promotion. What I got was far greater than that. I got to experiment on an Anoch child.

We blocked your memories from the experiments and replaced them with memories of me since I would be your host. After three years, we had a breakthrough. We could turn Anoch's impenetrable skin into human skin. We covered your markings and programmed your CareBot to keep you from discovering it. Your scar would've stayed there whether you were Anoch or human but we figured it was more evidence to convince you that you were human. We froze your eye color to keep it from changing. You looked like the perfect human. But some of your abilities couldn't be removed.

Your increased strength allowed you to carry the Anoch over the wall and your stamina allowed you to outrun a hover truck. We managed to suppress it as much as possible but you still exceeded maximum human standards so we altered both sides. In the process of experimenting on you we discovered your... distaste for glass and altered that society in a way that we wouldn't be exposed to glass. We discovered your sense of hearing and made humans exchange their names for numbers. We built a city of glass because of you and we made sure the CareBots were able to teleport so you would have no use for strength or speed."

Ivana told the story with such vigor and pride. She told it as if it were her life's work and perhaps it was. Everything I disliked about the city and our experiences was because of me. Glass was because of me. The humans may not have known about our weakness to glass if it weren't for me. Ryker wouldn't have glass in his leg keeping him down. The dead look on the humans faces was because of me. The reason we lacked originality was because we used numbers instead of our names. That was because of me.

"You were the perfect human to integrate into a human society. You were almost too perfect. It's common knowledge that once you near the end of a project you begin to get reckless. We released you into society alone in your house and your CareBot. We hoped your memories would be enough proof that you were human and standing in your house would fill in any blank spots. But when you woke up, you started screaming and shaking in pain.

We brought you back to the labs and tried again to alter your memories. We decided you needed someone to watch over you. We took Caitlin from her house and altered her memories so that it seemed that the both of you had been close since you were younger. She was unknowingly made to watch you. When we released you again, Caitlin kept you calm. You didn't scream anymore but you had a tendency to stare at the wall from your window. You were drawn to home and there was nothing we could do about it. Caitlin grew an interest towards the herbs of Anoch and at some point, without notifying the lab, Caitlin's CareBot was replaced with a fake one that wouldn't give us her location or transmit her instructions.

That's when she infected your mind with the idea of crossing over. We managed to find Caitlin and told her that if you were to work for Omega Inc. we would allow her to cross the wall. She made sure you got a job working under me." Ivana took a few steps closer to me and raised her cold hands to my face. "You have no idea how satisfying it was to see an Anoch under my command. You don't know how proud of how far you had come from your time as an Anoch to your time as a perfect human. Caitlin snapped your CareBot which is why we weren't aware of who Spectrala was. But I had the arising suspicion. You came late to work."