Log:Zero Encouragement

2020/01/29 	 Zero Hunter Grimm

1

Grimm spent a lot of time trying to sever, or at least mute, the connection with the hive network. Her attempts to heal Zero were for naught if the hive mother was still attacking her mind. Eventually, there's some...progress. Not too much is fixed yet, but new assaults are halted for the moment. Overexerted, Grimm does one last thing. A tweak. She doesn't have the strength to continue the psychic surgery, but she plants a suggestion. A mental simulacrum to help keep Zero together, hopefully, and do some of the work while she rests and nurses her bloodied nose...

As such her costume has been removed (replaced with a jumpsuit reserved for inmates), the bed linens and anything else that might be used to harm her. Luckily for Grimm Zero only begins stirring after her work is done (until Grimm can rest). Whatever meds she was given must be wearing off- at least 2 hours ahead of schedule no less.

Her eyes begin fluttering and her fingers twitching softly as consciousness returns to her.

"Oh, sweetie. What've you gotten yourself into," Hunter's calm, worried voice asks as she starts to stir. Zero could swear she could feel her hair being stroked comfortingly. When she opens her eyes, Hunter appears to be sitting at the edge of her cot, stroking her. He's dressed casually, the way she's used to seeing him after work.

Of course, his presence is confusing to her too- so her mind makes the simplest leap in logic.

"I was having the worst dream..." She says, realizing how it felt in her 'dream' to loose Hunter/William. "I thought you were dead and... and... I did something. Something stupid to get you back." She replies as she wills her tired and sluggish body to move so she can wrap her arms around him. Instead she finds herself restrained at the wrists and ankles.

"Oh no..." She says, looking to Hunter for answers and then for comfort. "Please... don't..." She says, yanking against her restraints as anyone would do finding themselves in such a situation.

"It's okay. You're okay. You were being manipulated and were trying to hurt yourself," Hunter says, taking his hand away when she says don't.

She sucks in air sharply, grateful for the sensation as it was taken from her by the Unity, a fact she had begun to grow resentful of in the end.

That prompts her to 'listen' to her own mentalscape. She finds things much quieter than before. She lets the waterworks flow, but this time the tears alternate between deep sorrow & regret and the deep, spiritual appreciation she is beginning to feel now that she is free to feel the entire scope of her humanity.

Seeing her reach out, Hunter takes her hand in both of his gently. "I'm sorry. It wasn't a dream," he confirms. His hand feels real. The same temperature as hers.

"That person lied to you. Twisted your memory of me and used it to manipulate you. It's not your fault." As she cries, he reaches to wipe her tears away with a gentle swipe of his thumb. She feels the brush on her cheek, but the tears are untouched after his thumb passes.

"I was just so... hurt without you. Everyone always leaves me and I jsut wanted..." She begins saying, closing her eyes as her hands are taken in his. "...I just didn't want to be alone anymore or for you to fade into my memories." She takes a deep breath again.

Her eyes open and she looks to Hunter pleadingly before she starts ahving a hard time speaking and breathing. "But they didn't." She manages to pant out between sobbing spells. "They didn't."

"And now I really am the monster I was made to be." She erupts in near hysterics over this fact.

"I'm sorry I left you alone." Hunter cups her cheek gently. "You don't need me to feel whole. It's okay to be sad still. It's normal."

He says gently, "You were just being used as a tool. Don't let it. And don't let it use your grief or me to make you harm yourself or others." He smiles at her gently. "You can still fix this if you want. I know you're not a monster." He remains steady, calm, and encouraging, just trying to be supportive.

His smile melts her as it always has done.

"I don't want to hurt anyone." She says quietly. "Not ever again..." Her eyes widen at what he says next. "Really? I can?" She asks with surprise, not seeing any way she can fix this but his shade not thinking she's a monster certainly is encouraging.

"The person I fell in love with was special, unique, and individual. I think you're better that way," Hunter ponders warmly. Her starts to stroke her hair as he gazes down upon her.

"It wasn't what you actually wanted. It just made you think that. And it tried to hurt you. It used me to get you to join, and it used me to hurt you when you realized the truth. You don't want that." Really, Hunter is just part of Zero's subconscious coming through to tell her what she already knows deep down.

"I know you don't want to." Hunter smiles faintly. "You still thought I could be redeemed after all I did. And I did it willingly. No influence. That was me. This? This wasn't you. You can help. Even if it's just telling what you know and staying away from this thing that hurt you."

Zero smiles genuinely for what may be the first time since Hunter passed and closes her eyes, remembering their time together fondly, noting times when he's stroked her hair like this before as they lounged about. She's speechless for a long while as he strokes her hair before looking up at him again and saying, "I love you. So much I jsut don't know what to do..."

Luckily he (or she since it really is her subconscious mind providing theraputic analysis) gives her just the right suggestion.

She shakes her head, trying to ignore that part of her which used to keep her company as small child and a teen (physiologically speaking). A voice in her head she thought long since silenced.

Hunter just stays with her. "Thanks for saying that, Beautiful. I never believed it myself." He gently touches her cheek and smiles. "I know you'll do alright. Just don't hurt yourself," he says as he leans down to kiss her forehead.

He straightens up, still smiling, but a bit sad. "I'll be here for as long as you need, but you know others won't be able to see of hear me."

She reaches up to cup his hand to steal just another moment with him. She doesn't want them to be apart again but she's feeling all sorts of things now that the connection to the Unity has been quelled. Love. Remorse. Sorrow. In fact, she's more than a bit angry at being used like that- turned inside out and back in on a new, twisted axis.

That was precisely why she got out from Psiband- or was freed by her handler, a woman she was forced to flee from for years after her 're-education'. She has to atone for disregarding her sacrifice too.

"I'll never let you go... not again, Hunter." She says, using his real name and letting go of the past as she wanted it to be.

"I know you will, Beautiful. You're going to kick some ass," Hunter's simulacrum smiles encouragingly to her. His hand caresses her cheek, then slides down her arm to take her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. "I've got you."

A security guard walks past Zero's cell on patrol, glancing her way to see her alone in her cell, fingers curled around nothing.