Relapse.

**PBlade**

"Mr. Stewart, the details of your bluepill life are... curious." Agent Burns was delicate as always, "it is not information easily removed"

"I'm not asking for much, all I want is my old RSI back, the RSI I would have had if I hadn't been awakened in such as..." his voice became a strangled impersonation of the Agents, "...curious manner"

Burns' lip twitched into the most miniscule of movements that PBlade took as a snarl, "It is more of a task than you beleive it to be, Mr. Stewart: Our reports indicate you underwent severe mental trauma prior to your awakening, with some post traumatic mental problems arising after your awakening, the scarring to your cortex may be permanent." He paused, hesistant to admit "...Even we do not posess the technology to recreate the human brain - Primitive as it is" he added.

There was a moment of silence; contemplation time for PBlade, idle process time for the Agent. Finally, PBlade spoke with a quite confidence;

"I can take it"

The Agent made no gesture in respose, "You are sure? The process may be slightly... uncomfortable"

He nodded his confirmation. Burns rose a hand to his ear, mutterring "Subject is positive, initiate image alteration program." he glanced back at PBlade, "As I said, this may be slightly uncomfortable, Mr. Stewart" he looked away again "Initiate"

Searing pain burst through PBlade's body with no build up. He wretched in pain and dropped to his hands and knees, coughing and splutterring nothing but air. A pressure began building in the bridge of his nose, so great that he flung his hands to his face, grasping in a futile attempt to quell the source. He fell forward to the ground, writhing the floor in pain.

The Agent simply touched his ear again "Subject is undergoing severe sensations of pain, is the process working correctly?"

PBlade let out a scream and slumped. The pain left his body and the pressure in his forehead evaporated immediately. Silence.

Burns took a step forward, his hand no leaving his ear, "Life signs are.... present but unstable. Physical appearance remains the same, program failure. The scarring is indeed permanent." He took another step forward.

"That's far enough, we'll be taking our captain from here" the voice rang out from the other side of the warehouse that PBlade had selected for the operation.

Aleixandre, a crewmember, stepped from the shadow of a container, flanked by Direwolf, another crewmember. Behind them emerged another; Psudo - Not a crewmate, but a faction member non the less. He echo'd Aleixandre, "Yeah, I think you'll find that he's the property of the Children of Zion"

Agent Burns stepped back with a shrug, "He came of his own accord, humans. We have done nothing without his express permission" he turned towards the door, "He is your concern now. Goodbye."

----

"He's comatosed, i'm afraid." The medical operative delivered the news grimly, "He has sufferred severe mental trauma from the experience, and we beleive he may have relapsed into the same mental state as after his awakening, a state we thought previously eradicated"

PBlade lay, hovering in midair in the center of the medical construct, surrounded by the 3 operatives and the medical operative, the bright white of the medical construct a direct contradiction to the mood among the operatives.

"We'll keep him jacked in here so that we can monitor him as closely as possible, but there's not much more we can, other than keep him safe. Whatever battle he's fighting in his mind, he has to fight it alone"

The operatives nodded, and were gone from the construct in an instant, leaving PBlade, floating in midair, to do whatever it was he had to do.

Alone.

- Fin.

**oranos**

Pretty cool. Look forward to reading more SMILEY