"Melek, my angel. Today we will begin a new experiment." The voice was ominous as always, a deep bass with hidden promises and intentions.
A meta teenager of under five feet tall and bony to begin with sat on a cot facing him, face expressionless. In fact, over that cherubim face was a blank white porcelain mask that could not come off. Stunted by science it was impossible to tell that she was even female unless one checked. Bones were prominent beneath her ready muscles, but they lay unused and compliant. Her dark wings protruded from her shoulder blades. They were carefully manicured and wrapped in sleeves to prevent flight, had she even the musculature built up to use them, which she did not.
Buzzing like flies about her, the nurses checked her vitals. Everything was normal, as expected. The scientist heading her program looked at the charts and nodded to a secretarial assistant. "Bathe her and then bring her to the chamber. Everything is ready."
A little while later, freshly scrubbed and sanitized, dry except for damp hair and wings, the young teen was lead through the halls toward "the chamber."
During transfer, sirens went off. The hallway shook, the lights went off hard then flickered back on. Transfer officers stopped her and listened. An explosion had rocked the compound but it seemed far off.
Everyone else looked around cautiously and awaited instructions. No intercom resounded, just the noise. A nurse hurried to a corner with a phone in a work station. He punched in a code and repeated, "Hello? Hello?" But he shook his head. "It's dead." He hung up the phone and conferred with the jailors. "We'll take her to the chamber and proceed as planned."
Melek's deadpan masked face registered nothing, not even comprehension. She knew nothing of expression, though she often saw it on others. She knew faces quite well; she could identify anyone down to minute detail. She had only to wait for an opportunity to use her powers to wear someone else's face. But a collar that every meta in the compound wore neutralized her powers.
In the momentary confusion, the head nurse began an attack, but with the manacles and chains of the little girl. She fought with everything she had, admittedly weak but unexpected. She swung her arms with fists and kicked when brought down. She overpowered one nurse and was pincer attacked by two jailors when suddenly a nearby explosion rocked the walls, knocking the scientist-faced teen bouncing off the wall and onto the floor. She stayed on the ground, her face slowly returning to its natural blank white mask. She tugged experimentally at her power inhibiting collar. It did not work... it was the first time she had used her power outside of the lab. It was the first time she had chosen to use it.
From around the corner several figures appeared. Chest heaving, Melek, wearing the empty mask again, watched curiously. They were unusual, dressed in street clothes and marred by soot, all unheard in this sterile environment. Among them were metas like her, dressed in drab jumpsuits. Urgent voices preceded them. "There's another. Grab him." An angel pointed directly at Melek.
"There's an exit over this way!" Melek looked around her. There was indeed a locked and barred door from one wall to the outside. It also had a key code bank that required a password. The girl looked at it impassively, not imagining a way it could be breached.
It did not take the intruders long to decide it would be their best bet. "Get on it!"
In the ensuing skirmish, jailors and nurses were disarmed and unconscious before Melek was attended to. A large feral hybrid picked her up as if she weighed nothing and carried her to the door. Flustered and hiding it well, she tensed but held still in his arms. Maybe they would remove her manacles, or break them. She was just as ready to flee this group as the other one though, given that they were scarier than the guards. For that matter, maybe it would be safer to stay.
The door to the outside loomed as they approached. Light brighter than the halogen lighting of the laboratory streamed in from outside. Time seemed to slow and nearly stop the closer they came. Sounds disappeared. Dust motes danced in the light beyond time and space.
Was she afraid of the outside?
Deposited on the ground outside the fence, they attended to her manacles and the now useless collar. She was so entranced by the vibrant green of a tree and the smell of its pollen, she sneezed. Always memory of the outside had seemed hazy with time and colorless. But now, everything was new to her. It scared her. It was great.
She almost missed what they said. The small group of rescuers assembled was hardened and massive compared to the test subjects who were stunted, limbs nearly shapeless from lack of use, just like her. They were given a choice. "Come with one of us or risk recapture. It's up to you." Some chose vengeance, the path of the feral's people. Others reasoned that maybe some humans were worth a chance. They went with a Shadow meta.
Melek was given the choice too. She remembered little from her life before. The scientists were either warm or cold in their treatment of patients, but most were not cruel. She could not understand this vengeance some thought they deserved. She did not necessarily believe that they could be reasoned with, however. She had never witnessed the daily battle of a scientist torn between science and conscience. So she did not know that some humans were gentle and kind.
What did she want?
It is the second choice I will ever make, she thought.
"What is sanctuary?" the masked girl asked a rescuer and fellow angel, Saila. "Can I find the person who created me if I go there?"
She did not know what she wanted. She needed information. Perhaps Sanctuary would provide it. So for now at least, she chose the Middle Path to freedom. On the surface it seemed like the easy way out, but who knew what she would find, and how she would react.
