It seemed all brains were of interest to Pixal not just human ones. Zane had been thoroughly scrutinised and cross-referenced with a human subject; in side notes Pixal had pondered how Dr Julien, Zane's creator, would have made an ideal comparison subject, but she had coerced Borg as a similar type. The information they found was fascinating, but not particularly helpful; a mass of symbiotic circuitry and soft tissue, which had surprised them both 'how the hell do they have soft tissue?' Hitch exclaimed. It was a truly alien brain, artificial yet organic and was not at all comparable in design to a humans'. They kept looking through Pixal's extensive research all filed under date only, this was obviously enough for Pixal to know what it contained, so what they were opening was unknown until Hitch shouted Lloyds name in shock.
Within a file, a subject heading; The Quiet One.
It was a small file dated from when the The Quiet One escaped. Pixal must have initiated scans and research on her brain immediately after tending to her wounds. Hitch could only think how driven Pixal was; brains were her obsession!
The notes on her sister Gene covered mutation in the brain stem and she recorded oddities from what would be considered normal sleep cycles. Pixal had been in the process of a continual observation that had been cut short.
The only other entry was simply a title - Nocturnal Lagopthalmos.
'What's that?' Hitch and Lloyd said in unison and a quick dictionary search answered them.
'Her eyes were open...' Lloyd said.
'When she was asleep' Hitch continued.
'Is that relevant?'
'It's definitely weird!' Hitch scratched her head 'lets look at the scans. Pixal mentioned the Brain Stem. Is Gene ill? Does she have a disease? Or is the mutation something that's now triggering her powers?' Her mind was racing as she opened the scan files 'You know Lloyd, I don't even really know what a brain should look like'
'You're kidding?'
'No, I mean why should I? How would I know if what I'm looking at is a tumour, a healthy brain or a flippin' pickled walnut?'
'Well, let me get my highly boring but quite useful book back and we can cross reference from some diagrams'
'So books can be useful then?'
'Books are the boss! Honestly Hitch, don't knock them, give me half a chance and I'll show you some awesome books that will make your brain do backflips!'
Hitch laughed, she was nervous and excited, the closed brain of her sister Gene was being laid bare to her... albeit as a series of scanned slices. Life suddenly felt unreal; to be here in The Temple of Spinjitsu with the Green Ninja himself, getting excited about brains and books, this was the stuff of fantasy and she was living it.
Lloyd left to find the heavy tome on the human brain and Hitch pulled up Gene's scans again. As she considered them, the enormity of what she was looking at dawned on her. This was her sister, laid bare with nowhere to hide, not slices of processed meat. It was the sister that had kept them afloat and safe, securing them a life; even if it had been a bad life and they had been made to do bad things, she and Nat had lived to find the right life. But Gene hadn't managed to achieve that for herself, they didn't even know if she was alive or... Hitch didn't want to think about it. Her sister had sacrificed everything that was good in her to ensure they had survived and Hitch found that she couldn't look at her sisters brain a second longer. She left the room to find a quiet place to hide.
Passing the library where Lloyd was pulling the large book back off a shelf he saw her pass 'Hitch?' Going to the door he looked out, was something wrong? He followed and saw her climb the tree outside and jump over to one of the large rock formations, scrabble further up to sit hunched away from the temple 'Hitch' he called up. She didn't turn. He put the book on the grass and climbed the tree, all the way up to where she sat staring out at the sky. He balanced in the swaying tree-top 'Hitch? I got the book' she nodded slightly in acknowledgement 'can I come over?' She shrugged. Lloyd swayed in the tree-top back and forth, closer to the rock until he could step off to sit beside her quietly. She seemed to be contemplating the view, so Lloyd looked out at the silent sky and then back at her sad face 'you want to talk about it?'
Hitch sighed and gripping her hands into fists, a look of pain crossed her face 'she's my sister... I just... I know what she is and what she's done, but she saved us. Without her, I don't know what would have become of us... and I'm rifling through her inner workings like a closet of dirty clothes'
Lloyd looked at her with care and nodded 'families are complicated; they can buoy you up or knock you down in equal measure. It's a fine balance and when it tips it falls... Do you know about my father?'
'Sure, who doesn't'?
'Well, I don't like to assume... So, I have a very dark history with him, but I will never fully believe he is evil. Ever. Even after I have been proven wrong so many times, I will always believe in his heart, because it originated pure'
'He was changed wasn't he? Poisoned or something?' Hitch asked.
'Yes. A bite'
'He had no control over his fall'
'No'
'My sister did. But she fell anyway. To save us'
'Hitch. I'm sorry. It's a terrible thing to come to terms with, you maybe never will'
She looked at Lloyd 'Can I still care about her?'
'You're speaking to the Master of caring for the wrong people, so who am I to say?'
'Hitch tilted her head 'who else do you care for that you shouldn't?'
Lloyd was silent, a slight confusion came upon him 'I... I don't know, no one, just my old dad I suppose! He's enough for the rest of time' he laughed softly 'but Gene is your sister and she made choices to keep you and Nat safe, but she was only a child Hitch, how could she have known where the road would lead?'
'I wish that it wasn't this way' Hitch said.
'I know. I understand, really I do. Nothing can change what has happened but in those scans a part of her has been left for us which perhaps only good can come from and in some way she will amend what she has done?
'That's a good way to look at it' Hitch agreed
'Perhaps we should go back. You have many things to thank Gene for and hopefully this will be one'
...
They continued their research and went around in circles, asking questions and answering only some.
'The issue is power!' Hitch said 'I mean, it's not the only issue but it's the main one I'd say' Everyone was now involved and had convened in the Control Room.
'What do you mean?' Cole asked.
'Power is draining from them. Literally flooding away to nowhere. If we could guarantee them a power source then we can at least defrost them and then maybe Zane could help, tell us what to do!'
'Well I got one-point-twenty-one jiga-watts ready and waiting!' said Jay, his curls crackling with static electricity.
'We want to power them dude, not fry her!' Kai said.
Nat continued 'but we can't hear them. If their thoughts are a by-product of artificial intelligence and they have shut down then we may not be able to hear them for that reason alone... but we don't know... and there is something there, something intangible and... so alien!'
'Hold on, Hold on...' Cole stopped them 'It sounds like you have answers... yet don't'
'Bingo' Hitch said dryly.
Cole closed his eyes in thought. There really was only one other person in the world that might be able to help them.
...
A few hours later Misako arrived back at the Temple with Borg. He had been distraught when he had first heard the news and at Coles request had come immediately, retiring to sit alone with Pixal and Zane in the lab.
Nat was taken aback when he had arrived. The person that was helped out of the copter did not match the voice she had heard approach. Borg was a formidable yet underwhelming person, a type the sisters had never encountered. A slow and quiet manner preceded loud, fast thoughts, decisive and sharp. The quiet softly spoken man's inner voice talked and worried, calculated and questioned, racing through every thought like word association, reacting to each as soon as it formed.
'That's him?' she whispered to Cole.
'You seem shocked?' Cole had asked.
'It's... just. He's not what I expected'
'Geniuses rarely are I guess' he replied and had taken the handles of Borg's weightless chair to take him into the temple.
While alone in the frozen lab, Borg's thoughts settled and withdrew to a place where she could barely hear his quiet reflection. When he emerged, ready to fight, his overriding thought was daughter and it drove all others. Borg had levelled his firm gaze at both her and Hitch 'please come with me'.
Now alone with Borg in the Control Room, Nat was again overwhelmed by his mental presence and a new type of feeling struck her, part awe, part fear; he was a juggernaut that would not stop to save his daughter. Both she and Nat sat uncomfortable, unsure how to proceed.
'Show me everything' Borg said.
So they did. They explained their powers and the development of their sisters' power, where they thought she had none. They recounted how Zane must have known something had happened to Pixal and secretly left the mission and how they had found Misako in a sort of 5thdimension, describing the phenomena that appeared, both as she returned and at the Heart. Then Hitch showed him Pixal's research.
'Now this, I know all about' he said 'and you can see I have been an unwilling subject, but willing to do anything for my daughter' and he smiled slightly.
'This research may be of interest' Hitch said and directed Borg to The Quiet One's file.
He looked at the title and pursed his lips 'no stone unturned' he muttered and said with dry humour 'she's a chip off the old block... Right, now lets take a look'
While Hitch knew this to be necessary, she felt a strange protectiveness come over her as Borg delved into her sisters file. She supressed an urge to quit the file and bit her tongue from protesting at Borg's easy inquisitiveness, only to realise that she had similar traits and vowed to be less nosy in the future.
While the sisters sat and waited, he pawed over the scans in a way she did not know was possible, silent and precise until he turned to look at them both over the rim of his glasses 'I would like to scan your brains'
Hitch and Nat looked at each other 'uh... ok' Nat replied.