Minder: Secrets of Mind

Chapter 29

"She is not making this easy."

"Well, Adam, she also doesn't have a reason to now that she knows she won't be there long. You raised her always to be ready to move. She put that behind her for a few years, and we are ripping it from her."

Aja's holo image rocks a little as the train takes a hard turn at the fastest possible speed. Only a few hours from Crescent City, slowing down even for a turn was likely to be an action that could not be recovered from if discovered by UHR patrols or sensors. Adam stands in the last safe house he will have to call home, where he feels lonely despite a part of his family right next to him. His suit is being repaired by a slow-functioning droid he has let fall into a state of disrepair, knowing that time is running out. Its beeps and randomly malfunctioning torch cuts away at dings in his armor gathered over time, for he will need his suit as close to fully functional as possible over the next few hours.

Behind him, she lays in peace within a Mind Bank Pod, the viewing pane fully expanded so Aja could see inside from the call. Around her, the humming lights of the smaller pods containing the Echoes with her friends sleeping away alongside her. Inside one pod, a collection of energy steadily takes form but is still uncontained.

"Is it the dog?" Aja asks, seeing Adam grip at his head as if it was pounding like heavy waves.

"No. She is strong...stronger than anything I've ever felt before. It is like holding together a meteor after it has already smashed into the Earth. I'm proud of her, even if it is causing me one tough time."

As he recovers, Aja can't help but chuckle, seeing how even in pain, he can be proud of his daughter. She never thought he could get this far when they first met, but he had come a long way. Each and every step in giving him the ability to see himself as something more than a captive was difficult in and of itself, but...she never thought this was possible.

"She owes it to you. I owe it to you; you know that, right?" He confesses.

"Owe what? I left you both on a wild chase for someone I could feel was dead, even if they were alive at some point."

"And we made it just fine because you helped us be strong enough. By making the impossible of our lives possible, she gets that from you."

The two smile at each other for a moment, letting love travel across the holo call. They had learned to express love without even talking in the years of their youth together, for at one point, she was the apprentice to his torturer, and he was the experiment she was meant to inherit.

"So he asked her finally...."

"Yes, he's had the opportunity the whole time. But he has always wanted to give her space and let her breathe. Let her live a normal life." Adam concedes.

"I wish we could have let her do that. But a girl like her takes after me, as you always say, so she would have needed the uniqueness of the love she now has. Otherwise, no other person would do."

"That is true, my love, though, like you, she will bring more than enough uniqueness herself for the both of them," Adam notes.

The two look upon her pod, considering all the dangers she was about to be awoken to. She was prepared to defend herself with hand-to-hand combat skills and weapon usage and had substantial knowledge of identifying the threats she was likely to face. But was she prepared for what would be her real weapon? The power she would have was immense; Adam could sense it growing every day and constantly informed Aja. It was a power that Adam could try to train her to control, but even he had to learn on his own and didn't rely heavily upon his Minder abilities.

Just assisting her in the Mind Space was something he gained skill in by Aja providing him with the knowledge to do so through the Okeke Mind Bank terminals and training logs for Seekers. Adam couldn't help but feel like he never reached his full potential, and had he, he would have been able to protect his family, keeping it whole and sturdy against its most harmful fractures. He'd seen footage of Minders less powerful than him doing incredible things, even hunted five of his own when under the thumb of Aja's father. In those moments where he thought himself overwhelmed, he found power he didn't know he had, crushing them to protect those he loved or survive his mission.