The Commander and The Girl

Chapter 49

My head spins as I look into Raven's eyes. Her eyes fill with rage, anger, regret. I want to reach out to her, but I know better than to trust my feelings.

"Raven who was your first love?" I ask feeling my mind strain at the thought.
She leans her head back gnarling her teeth.

"You know who it was." She hisses, her arms shaking in the restraints.

"Answer the question." Indra steps up, her hand wavering over her weapon. I keep my hand outstretched, ready to grab a needle should Raven act out.

"Finn." Her eyes lock onto mine. Her face doesn't betray her, and neither do her eyes.
I grab my dagger from my boot and cut at the restraints.

"She's telling the truth." I admit looking to Kane.

He steps out from the curtain, holding the reaper stick in his hand.
"He's out. So will this really work?" He stares at Raven in disbelief.

She lays there, not wanting to move. I motion for Emori who's come back with Raven's brace. It was in a pile of items all those under ALIE's control discarded. Shirts, books, letters, random things that seemed to hold some emotional pull on the drugged pasts.

Raven sits up grabbing her bad leg. She straps the brace on, her face a mask of pain.
"What was it like?" Emori blurts out sitting next to Raven.

"It was pure happiness. A bliss. But I knew something was missing. No one believed me when I said I couldn't remember someone." She pauses looking up at the ceiling.
"She took away Finn. All my memories of him. That bitch took him away." She cries angry tears, gripping onto the cloth beneath her.

"That bitch took away almost everyone's memories." 
I turn my head almost forgetting anyone else is in the room.
Murphy stares at Raven, feeling no shame at his comment. Past him are Monty and Harper, both too scared to say a word.

"John make yourself useful and get Octavia in here." Kane orders. He walks to Raven's side, calmly grabbing her shoulder.
Murphy saunters our the door as Kane lowers his voice.

"Raven is there any other way to get rid of the pill." He looks to Monty and Harper.

If this is the only possible solution it will take us a week to get at least half of the population. And if ALIE is like any software and updates, we may not even get through 1/4.

Raven looks around the room , her eyes searching for something to focus on. She bites her cheek.

"No. I tried to defy her. I tried not to listen, but the pain got worse." She whispers.

"So that's it. There's really no way to stop her." Monty stands up, punching the wall beside him before clutching his fist in pain.

"If it's technology can't it be turned off?" Octavia stands near the door with Murphy at her tail. She's clearly been there long enough to hear the conversation.

"No, it works on multiple interfaces. There's no real, solid technology holding them all together besides ALIE, and she can jump from person to person." I explain, dropping the tools I used into disinfectant.

"Not really." Raven interjects.
"In the city of light it connects everyone in one place. We can interact with each other in that world. It never leaves."

Kane brushes his fingers through his hair. I can tell he doesn't like the plan. It's all off of hypotheses, none of it we can prove. For all we know the world was fake, created by Raven's own mind.

"If we can attach the same A.I into a computer we could try and fry the whole system."  Raven goes on trying to gain all of our attention. Long gone are her tears, now she seems determined to kill her captor.

"Would you be able to do it?" Indra asks, daring her to lie.

Raven smirks softly looking at me.
"You know I can."
My heart warms as I reach for a hug. Raven's back, and soon everyone else will be as well.