The mind is a wonderful toy. A tale of a woman with no past and every future.

[Yoshida]

The senior Hacker showed no emotion when the Professor looked at him. He knew it was his task to deal with this minor outburst. He remained at his armchair patiently waiting for everyone to clear out.

"Who... are you?" The frightened woman asks, barely able to see the man sitting off to the side. "Are... you going to... to take them? Take my memories?"

The Hacker stood up and moved to a small table near a window.

"My name is Goro Yoshida. Since I mainly operate out of Leiden, perhaps you have heard of me." He didn't reply to her second question and instead poured some Liberty Ale into the glass.

"Yo.. yoshi..da... y.. yeah... I.. Iv'e heard.. of you... just.. not much." She tugs at the restraints a bit though finds herself securely bound.

Yoshida ignored Siren's efforts and instead enjoyed his ale while looking out of the window. He was a man who enjoyed serenity and simple things, afterall. After a while, Siren falls silent, her pain seemed to slowly be disapating though the nanites still fought to remove the wires that had been forcibly incerted in her neck. When he finished his drink, he returned his attention back to the room. He approached Siren, studying her with his eyes. One of his hands was on his pocket and the other one still holding the glass.

"In June 819 A.S., a Hogosha syndicate needed a man with the skills that only the best of the Lane Hackers possess. I was sent there. Do you know what had happened to my memories? They were all removed. This is not personal, Siren."

"Did.... you willingly allow this?" she asks with pain in her voice.

"It was the logical thing to do. I possess intel that many important people want to have. I protected myself as well as the organization that I work for. Siren, I did not allow my emotions to control my decisions.
"My emotions didn't... control my decision... I.. I made this decision on my own!"
"I am referring to your irrational wish to keep your memories. It won't be long before the Agency comes to retrieve their precious investment. And you currently possess important information."
"I.. I've managed to evade them for four years now... if.. Ghm.. if they come for me, I'll kill them." She tries to extend the blade in her wrist to make her point though for whatever reason, it refuses to do so. At the same time, a display indicates to Yoshida that she'd just tried to activate her left hidden wrist blade.

"Of course you will. But they are the ones that have made you like this. If they corner you, they will know how to counter your.. abilities. Siren, we are here to help you, but we need your cooperation for this."
"You realise... I'll be branded a traitor to my people... if they ever find out about this... don't you? The.. the PLR will.. Moka.. he'll have me killed if.. if he ever finds out."

Yoshida approached Siren and stood right outside the shield. "Noone will find out. Mr Bower is good at his work." He took a moment to ponder and continued. "If you wish to keep some of your memories, your involvement with PLR will have to end."

"Wha... end? you mean... betray the PLR?" She seemed to be angered by this notion, though for some reason, her eyes give way to something more.

"The Agency will come to retrieve you, Siren. And the Rogues are not the type of people that can adequately protect you. They are unreliable and possess moderate to low intelligence."
"Then who would you suggest? The hackers?" She inquires through gritted teeth.

Yoshida pointed with his hand still holding the glass towards her. "You are a human, Siren. I believe that you wish to make those who turned you like this to pay. I believe that you do not wish other innocent women to become like you. Am I wrong?"

Closing her eyes, she hesitates before continueing. "I exist because the LSF built me... If I could do something about this, I would, and no, I would wreck a thousand starbases before I allow something like this to happen to another innocent person." She tugs at the restraints hard this time, though the resulting electrical surge nearly incapacitates her.

Yoshida ignored her desperate efforts. "We showed you here that you were not constructed by the Agency. That you were a perfectly normal woman who was misled and eventually signed up in LSF's program. You were never an android, Siren."

Moaning weakly in pain, Siren is unable to speak for the time being.

"You were an orphan. Liberty mistreated you from the very first years of your life. Moved you from an orphanage to another, never making friends or lasting relationships." He emptied his hands and moved to a nearby computer. A minute later he finished and a holo-screen appeared in front of Siren. "This is the only picture that we could find, hacked from the long-deleted data of an orphanage in Houston. This girl... was you."

Siren's eyes seem to stare unbelievably at the picture, completely lost for words.

Yoshida was impatient. "Do you realize what you are now?"

"How... is this possible? I... All I've ever known is... that I'm a machine. I... Oh god... oh god oh god oh god.... I.. I could have died... I.. so.. many times.... Oh god?!"
She starts panicing now, almost as if in a sort of mental frenzy.

---

"There are those who lack ambition. Who lack ability. But if you possess both then it is your role to reign over this world."

Ageira Dossier _•_ Hanáchi Syndicate _•_ Cultism _•_ Ascension _•_ Theosis