Tandy looked at all of the rows of people strapped into these harnesses, being injected with this blue liquid.
Her Light naturally dimmed, as if it was afraid of touching anything in the room and triggering some kind of unforeseen reaction.
"They're so stable, even seeing us, none of them have reacted in any way," she said quietly, almost like she didn't believe her own words.
Tyrone nodded, looking through the chamber slowly for anything that could give them more information.
He eventually stepped toward the nearest console, shadows slipping from his fingers and threading into its interface.
The screen flickered for a moment before it immediately became locked with an encryption. Tyrone moved to another console, and the same thing happened.
Every terminal in the room responded the same way, immediately locking themselves with airtight encryptions under the slightest bit of investigation.
There was absolutely no sloppy mistakes like the underground facility, and that was what unnerved Tyrone the most.
"This is different," he murmured.
Tandy glanced at him, "How?"
"The last place?" Tyrone said, eyes narrowing as his shadows probed deeper into the system, "That was a processing site. Remember the way they treated the subjects, they didn't care about refinement, they were solely focused on output, no matter how brutal it may be,"
He gestured slightly around them, "Compare that to this. This is a true base of operations, completely designed for maximum efficiency and research, without any of the errors we managed to exploit before,"
His jaw tightened.
"So they learned?" She asked.
"They probably didn't invest much in that old base, this is a mobile research station they've been using for quite a while, so there's naturally more resources here," Tyrone explained.
Tandy swallowed as she heard that, her gaze drifting back to the people strapped into the harnesses.
There were men, women. Some looked older and some were barely even adults. All of them awake and all of them were breathing in slow, measured rhythms.
Blue energy pulsed through their veins like a second circulatory system, but it wasn't chaotic anymore. It wasn't tearing them apart.
It was… synchronized.
Tyrone stepped closer to one of the subjects. It was a man in his late twenties, eyes open, staring forward without focus.
"Hey," Tyrone said lowly, snapping his fingers in front of the man's face, but there was no response.
The man didn't even blink. Tandy moved beside him, her voice softer.
"Can you hear us?"
Nothing in response. Not even a flicker of recognition.
"They're conscious," she whispered, "But they're not… here."
"Conditioned," Tyrone said. "Or controlled."
He looked back at the room, "Hm, there's no documents anywhere here either. No logs or process reports. Everything is stored remotely away from here,"
"Secure servers," Tandy said.
"Yeah."
Tyrone exhaled slowly, frustration simmering beneath the surface.
"They knew something like this could be hit. So they made it disposable. Once they crack the code, they could always replicate it on other people. Everything here is expendable, the data gathered is what's important to these guys,"
Tandy's hands curled slightly, "So all we have is this."
"This," Tyrone said, "and whatever we can pull from them."
He turned to her then, expression sharpening slightly.
"Tandy."
She looked at him.
"Can you feel them?"
Her brow furrowed, "You mean like—"
"Your Light," he clarified. "You've connected to people before. Seen and felt things."
Her eyes flickered back to the nearest subject.
"…Yeah," she said slowly. "But it's not something I can just switch on like a scanner."
"I know," Tyrone said. "But if there's anything left in them, anything real, we need it. Surely there's some kind of emotional trigger you can connect to,"
Tandy hesitated as she heard that, but took a deep breath and turned to a lady nearby.
"Okay…" she whispered, more to herself than anythin, "Let's try."
Her hand moved forward slowly, cautiously, until her palm hovered just inches from the woman's chest.
The Light shifted in a soft and precise manner, extending from her fingertips like a thin thread brushing against the woman's skin.
It extended from her fingertips like a thin thread, brushing against the woman's skin.
For a second, there was nothing going on.
Then the reaction hit. The woman's body tensed violently against the restraints. Her eyes snapped into focus.
Not fully aware, but not empty anymore.
Tandy inhaled sharply as the connection formed, and then, she felt a bit of emotions from her, buried under layers of specialized conditioning by her captors.
Tandy herself staggered slightly as this wave of emotion hit her.
The first thing she felt was pure, concentrated fear. Not surface-level panic. Deep, ingrained fear. The kind that settles into bones.
Then she felt a sense of confusion from the woman. A constant, dull disorientation, like waking up in the wrong life.
Finally came the pain. Both physical, from the intense torture these people must've went through to even have the experiments carried out, and the immense emotional pain they're experiencing.
These people also felt like husks to her, part of their identities being erased due to this experimentation.
Tandy's breath hitched as all of these feelings hit her simultaneously.
"Tyrone…" she whispered.
"I'm here," he said immediately, stepping closer and hugging Tandy from behind, allowing her to take deep breaths and re-concentrate.
The Light thread deepened as Tandy pushed further, and suddenly, she saw fragments and images.
Tandy found himself in a hospital room, spotting a child looking very pale and weak on a bed, machines beeping as he was connected to a variety of different things.
Then, she heard a man's voice in her ear, "We can help him."
Another image appeared, various forms of paperwork and contracts, with a signature, and a spark of hope formed within her emotionally, stemming from how this lady felt at the time.
Then, all Tandy could see and sense was cold darkness, before hearing voices talking above her.
"Subject stabilized."
"Begin phase integration."
The fear spiked violently. Tandy gasped, her Light flickering as the emotional weight surged harder.
"They lied…" she choked out. "They all… they all thought—"
The woman's body convulsed slightly as the blue energy pulsed brighter for a second, reacting to the connection.
Tyrone's shadows immediately tightened around Tandy's arm.
"Careful," he said sharply. "Don't push too far."
Tandy nodded quickly, trying to regulate it, but she didn't pull away. Instead, she steadied and focused, pushing a little deeper.
She saw more fragments, more people and various different lives, but all of these victims had similar stories.
Debt, sick family members and promises. Always promises.
"They recruited them," Tandy said, voice trembling but controlled now as she leaned into Tyrone's arms, "Not randomly. They targeted people who had no choice."
Tyrone's expression darkened.
"I figured."
His fists clenched slightly at his sides.
"Can you get anything else?" he asked.
Tandy hesitated.
"…Maybe," she said. "But it's risky. Whatever they did to stabilize them… it's layered. There's something blocking deeper access."
"Like what?"
She frowned slightly, focusing.
"…Conditioning," she said, "Or something worse, it's very mysterious,"
Tyrone's shadows shifted.
"It's okay if you can't, I know that was hard on you," He said, remaining in a hug until Tandy finally calmed down fully and stepped forward.
"Now how do we handle these people, not like we can call the cops, they're already corrupt," Tandy asked.
"I have a cool idea,"