Log:Zero Net Worth

2020/01/27 	 Dorian Zero Grimm

1

Starguard Security Area

Dorian comes down to the security area to check on Zero, who he received a report about. He heads over to the cell and looks inside, "Zero? I'd like to ask you a few questions."

She sighs. "Anyway- how can I help you?"

Dorian doesn't smile. That's rare for him. Instead, he seems like he's all business today. "I'd like to know the source of the bug tranformations. Who or what is actually doing it?"

"I'm sorry. The Unity is pretty upset that I handed myself over." She says as she returns her attention to the cell & Spirit outside of it.

She takes a deep breath and says, "The only person beyond that that I ever saw was... well it wasn't him. But it was my dead boyfriend. His shade is what brought me 'into the fold'." She explains, seemingly very calm on the outside. But tears are already threatening to burst. At least for a moment. Then like a cloud in the sky they vanish and she almost seems unaware of the change- but its there. Her initial sentences are full of heartache but that fades in perfect placid matter-of-factness.

Dorian takes a moment. "This 'Matron'...there must be a way to contact her? Or find her? You were helping convert people into bugs. You MUST know more than you're telling me. You have to."

"She can hear and see everything I'm saying. Doing. Being. We all can. Or so I thought." Zero replies. "And I didn't know I was turning people into..." She looks down. "Not until after Lien. And that's when I figured it out. That's why I'm here." SHe says, regaining her resolve. "I'm here and ... 'myself' because I'm very convincing. I served a purpose. But the 'bugs'... those are just 'people'. That was their place she said. But I disagreed. I fought back and I stopped 'converting' them..." She furrows her brow together as if fighting against something for a moment before saying, "She wouldn't listen. She wouldn't stop until we could find a way to keep people whole like she promised..." Zero's eyes turn vacant as if she were a million miles away suddenly and she falls quiet.

Dorian nods slowly. "Where can we find her?"

"I'm not sure. I never 'looked' that way before. It never felt right... like it was sacrosanct." Zero says vacantly. Almost like a husk lacking nay vitality as she tries to neutralize the 'Gift' of Unity with her mental abilities.

Dorian narrows his eyes, "If you truly know that this process of conversion is wrong...you should tell us where to find her if you can."

Grimm walks into the security area after getting notified of Zero's capture, getting cleared through security. It took her a while to get here from Bayside after spending the night at Porter's place.

Zero nods. "I know its wrong... I'm just..." She starts to reply before nodding. "It doesn't matter. I'll look..." She swallows hard.

Dorian notices Grimm enter and he gives her a small wave before turning his attention back to Zero.

Grimm waves back and walks over to the Commander. She taps her temple in offering if he wants to discuss things in private.

Dorian nods slowly. "Alright." He didn't look thrilled with the idea, but he relents anyway.

Grimm lowers her hand. "Hey, if you're keen on it, let's not. Any progress with the suspect?" she asks as she steps to his side and a bit behind him, looking into the cell.

Dorian nods again, "She's trying to see if she can get a location through this 'unity' thing."

Grimm nods to Dorian and remains quiet for the moment, studying Zero to see if she can sense the mental connection through her own awareness.

Her eyes are open but they are unseeing- staring into an area just beyond Grimm & Spirit.

Zero frowns but is otherwise motionless as she tries to narrow things down. She whispers in a low, conspiratory tone.

"She's in the city... or near enough..." She reports, but that's easy enough to guess. She tries to dig deeper for more.

Dorian is patient. And very still. More still perhaps than a normal human would be. There's no twitching or fidgeting. He just watches Zero closely. The only motion is him blinking every so often.

She keeps trying to resolve her mind scan throughout.

The basic "hive" link isn't a full-fledged Mind Link, thus isn't nearly as clear. It's more a "mindcloud" as a constant thing than a true deep link. Grimm can tell it is present, but its diffuse nature makes it difficult to trace aside from "all over." She can confirm that Zero has established a more direct individual link out, though it's weak at the moment.

<< Indeed, you have lost your way, Child. Again. -We- are a family, and you would abandon it.>> The Presence chides Zero before there is a pang of lament. <> The lament fades to a cold neutral. It is a mother's burden to do what is best for her children, even if they do not realize it.

The former heroine suddenly blinks and double takes after glancing to one side. Then she looks as if something unpleasant was spotted at the second look prompting a frown.

"Not him. DON'T LOOK At ME!" She shrieks. "DON'T WATCH THEM!"

She starts murmuring to shades and ghosts that even Grimm's mighty vision cannot find evidence of.

Dorian turns to look at Grimm, "Any idea what just happened?"

Grimm looks surprised as Zero loses it. "She's connected to a vast network...I can't really see where all the threads connect. I think this Matron is attacking her through it. I might be able to fight against its influence if I know what's happening, but I'd have to be able to go into her mind..."

Dorian nods. "Taht's up to you. I'm giving you authorization to do so, if you think it's safe to try."

"Can't go back..." Zero says as he she begins to rock. She murmurs some more incoherantly before she sits a little straighter as if soemthing jsut occurred ot her. "I'll jsut die first... easy." She says before soemthing else catches her attention. She shivers before covering her head as if something might strike her.

She screams as she remembers things she'd long since repressed, even from before her Joining.

Grimm looks to Zero. "I'm not sure it is, but it's worth a try."

Amidst the array of pained voices in Zero's awareness, one remains strong. While no longer pained, it is displeased. Disappointed. <>

"Can't go back..." Zero says as he she begins to rock. She murmurs some more incoherantly before she sits a little straighter as if soemthing jsut occurred ot her. "I'll jsut die first... easy." She says before soemthing else catches her attention. She shivers before covering her head as if something might strike her.

She screams as she remembers things she'd long since repressed, even from before her Joining.

Her murmuring stops suddenly, and she looks up with tears streaking down her face. She nods in agreement. "I always knew..." She whispers back to the Presence.

Grimm senses...Zero is seeing all the things she repressed & that the Unity repressed. So Psiband handlers playing their 'games' where she was used to plan assassinations and whatnot as a child. Then the physical aspects of 'keeping the weapon calibrated'. Then later lesser things. Her regrets. Her pains. Then of course Mechanica & Hunter- them finding out what she is and shunning her, The fact that tehy did leave her behind. Her fears of being dragged back into Psiband custody.

That kind of thing. The fact that she really is nothing at all but something designed to cause hurt and dispair wherever she goes.

And a lot of the incident where she lost her original set of powers where tehy faced that Cthulu thing with Dialydd and others.

"Whoa...that's...a lot," Grimm says as she takes a step back with one foot, then steadies herself again to focus, trying to counter the illusions in her mind.

Dorian keeps an eye on Grimm, just in case she starts to say...lash out in his direction due to mental tampering by this 'Mother'.

A cold shiver runs down her spine and a goosebumps rise over her exposed skin.

"The Mother is merciful..." She begins repeating over and over again in a creepy, raspy voice as she closes her eyes.

Grimm grits her teeth as she focuses. "It's fighting back." She looks to Dorian. "If I start acting weird, knock me out."

Dorian nods and smiles slightly, "Already thought about that. But thanks for the permission."

Grimm grins. "I figured you'd be prepared, but I figured I'd make sure you wouldn't feel bad." She tries focusing on the bond to Zero, looking for a way to sever it so no future assaults can occur.

Instead what she says is, "The Mother is merciful." Then she pulls her head back and slams it into the hardened surface with all the force she can muster. With her training that's a good deal.

Grimm returns her attention to Zero. "Zero...it's using the connection you established against you. Stop looking for her. Cut your mind off from hers."

Zero bounces her head off the protective glass with such force she stuns herself, falling backwards limply and smacking the back of her head on the cell floor.

Dorian looks to Grimm, "Was the connection broken? Or do I need to restrain her?"

"I think you'd better restrain her before she kills herself," Gabrielle warns. "I need more time with her to try and fix this."

Dorian nods and opens the cell...and his form naturally turns to his energy state...and he reaches out to wrap Zero up in bands of light.

Zero doesn't look like she's doing any fighting back. She's conscious but barely.

Dorian steps back outside the cell afterward, but remains in his energy state while he maintains the power. "Go ahead."

Dorian closes the cell door as well, to make sure. "Do we need to get that mage friend of yours here to heal her?"

Grimm wipes at her brow. "Hopefully this will work. Zero, close your mind from the Matron."

"END THIS FARCE OF A LIFE!" She says as her adrenaline spikes. "DO IT OR I WILL!" She begins struggling against her restraints.

"Always the weapon never the body..." She begins repeating, peppering in her new catchphrase liberally along the way, "The Mother is merciful... she demands a body. Always the Weapon! Never the body!" She begins saying it in more of a sing-song way with each refrain.

Her grip on sanity is fracturing.

Grimm stares at Zero as a bit of blood trickles down from her nose. Channeling so much power at once is fracturing, metaphysically speaking. "It'll get better," Grimm promises. She's not sure if she believes that. She tries to hold Zero together, but it's a constant fight with the Matron's control, leaving Grimm to remain locked in a battle to keep her influence at bay.

"She laughs! SHE LAUGHS!" She exclaims. "This life IS pain. It IS suffering and I cannot find my way out!" She laughs and laughs until she cries. And cries.

Grimm spends time trying to untangle the connections if she can. At the very least, she hopes new crazy can't spread.