Madness

Posted on Mon Mar 19th, 2018 @ 10:24pm by Staff Warrant Officer Nexi & Aewia Larani

Nexi was having fewer and fewer good days as the time passed. Even though she had already reached 100% infection rating, the black blood continued to change and distort her, and the madness grew harder and harder to push away. And then, while the Hera was en route to the Sol system, something inexplicable began to happen to her; spontaneously and with no warning, Nexi would be consumed by this shroud of... darkness, for a lack of a better term, and then immediately afterwards she would appear elsewhere on the ship. At first, these jaunts wouldn't take her very far, usually just blinking her into the next room, but soon they were blinking her all over the ship and she had no control over when it happened or where she would go. Once they had arrived at the Sol system and were making their way to dock at McKinley Station, the unthinkable happened and Nexi blinked outside the ship. Thankfully the Hera was not at warp and was able to beam her back almost immediately, and amazingly she recovered with no physical damage, but the damage to her psyche had been brutal; being out in the void of space unprotected for even that short time had broken her, and since then she struggled to hold back the madness.

Sometimes she would have good days, she was clear headed and communicative, but most days she was nearly catatonic meaning she was confined to Sickbay for daily care, and when approached by someone familiar it was rather hit or miss whether or not she recognized them. Today as Aewia entered the room Nexi was isolated in, there was a glimmer of recognition in her eyes, but the Brekkian woman said nothing, simply sitting on the floor slumped against a wall with her hounds resting on either side of her; today it was taking all her mental fortitude to hold back the urge to unleash the madness and hurt the people around her, especially her beloved sister, and that sadness was reflected in her black eyes.

Fortunately, the black blood inside Aewia seemed a bit more stable for now - it was the vast number of voices driving her mad. Kneeling next to Nexi, she reached out with her mind and offered a soothing sort of support with her own. Smiling, she reached out physically and touched her on the shoulder. "Hey. How are you doing? Do you recognize me today?"

Nexi's mind recoiled again Aewia's telepathic contact, presenting with a flinch of her physical form, and the look of warning in her eyes was clear: I'm here, but I don't want to hurt you. But she didn't shy away from the physical contact, and it even helped her relax a bit, and her hounds responded by shifting closer to Aewia; even on days when Nexi seemed completely vacant and unrecognizing of her visitors, by now the hounds trusted Aewia as completely as Nexi herself and sought comfort from Aewia as often as they could.

Aewia gave a few scritches to the hellhounds, smiling brightly at the friendly beasts. "Have you two been good? Hmm?" Pulling a couple pieces of jerky out of her uniform, she slipped them to the multi-eyed beasts as a treat, watching them eat.

Mister Pickles and Sunshine didn't really 'need' food, but that never stopped them from enjoying the tidbits visitors would bring them. In her silence, Nexi watched her sister; it was strange, Aewia used to be the crazy one and Nexi the sane one, but now their roles were reversed. Lonely, Nexi's voice drifted through Aewia's mind.

Aewia sat down next to Nexi and pressed her shoulder against hers. "I'm here for you, sis. Just like you were for me. We'll find a cure soon. I promise you'll be back to your old self before you know it. We'll be flying through space on your ship out on some mission again before you know it."

That sounded nice, really nice... Nexi leaned her head against Aewia's shoulder with a sigh. Tired, Nexi 'said', and it was no surprise since Nexi hardly slept anymore, lest she find herself in some strange area of the ship or outside it again.

"You should get some rest. There are systems in place to make sure you stay in this room now, so don't worry about if you pop somewhere else, ok?" Aewia wasn't sure how effective the Iconian 'teleport' inhibitor Ila threw together would be, but she knew the backup would be effective enough. Transporters had a constant lock on her and would beam her back the moment she teleported away if she managed to do so. The down side to the inhibitor was that it was the size of Nexi herself and only covered the size of sickbay.

Can't, don't wanna hurt anyone. And it was a sad fact of the matter that she could take out this whole ship if she wanted to, even before she was infected with the black blood, in the days before she had truly accepted her place among the crew of the Hera Nexi studied the ship and her crew, looking for weaknesses and exploits should they turn on her and she required an escape; the only real wild card was Aewia, Nexi didn't know this new lucid version of her sister, and given their emotional ties, Aeiwa was likely the only one to have a chance of stopping Nexi if she went wild. Nexi couldn't risk it, if she slept, she might lose control, and if she lost control then people could die.

Aewia sighed heavily and snuggled in closer to Nexi. She knew exactly what was going through her sister's head and she recognized the sort of thinking she was sorting out. She was worried she would fall to the level of the Master. Aewia couldn't blame her. The black blood was enticing and offered great power. It wasn't a power any of them could control though and they were all finding that out firsthand. Then a memory of the Master seemingly enjoying himself with one of his hellhounds wafted into her mind. "What if... What if you used your hounds to help you keep control? The Master seemed to do that at times - to help stabilize himself. Why not try that yourself?"

Nexi raised her head to look at Aewia; this was a thing, she could do this? "How?" Nexi asked, finally speaking aloud; her voice sounded faint and raw, like maybe she had spent a lot of time screaming at the top of her lungs.

Aewia smiled for a moment at Nexi's use of her voice. She hadn't heard that in a while now and it was good. "They're a part of you. The Master sort of used them as mental props for his sanity. He used this mental link with them that sort of... soothed him? I think? I saw it when he was petting them and talking about how good they were and it was like they were indistinguishable from each other and his mind was less crazy and harder to read for a while. I think you should be able to do the same."

Nexi looked down at her hounds. She didn't have the strength or fortitude to speak again, but she managed to move her hand and began to pet Mister Pickles; he was a really good dog, wasn't he? Mister Pickles looked up at Nexi and they shared a gaze, like he was telling her that it was okay, she could rest now, for a little while at least, and he would keep her from succumbing to the madness. Slowly, Nexi's eyes began to close, her hand still moving over Mister Pickles' head in that constant soothing manner.

Please, Aewia, hurry; I don't know how much longer I can do this. Nexi 'said' before sleep finally claimed her.