Return to Innocence
Prologue - "Stolen Child"

'Come away, O human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.'
~Loreena McKennitt

2173

.

F: /Pandora/Lab3/Nexus/Logs/Audio/388. omni

"Subjects D001 through G129 have failed to take. Scrapping gene samples from H020 through H040 and T014 through T053."

"Samples from H046, H048 and H057 yielded the best results."

"As did samples T071, T104 and T117."

"Based on these genetic strengths, we should have a viable subject within the week."

.

F: /Pandora/Lab3/Nexus/Logs/Audio/461. omni

"Subjects J001 through J007 were stable until about an hour ago. Subjects J008 and J009 are stable enough for further testing."

"Subject J008: Genes from samples H048 and T117 sustainable."

"Subject J009: Genes from samples H048 and T071 sustainable."

.

F: /Pandora/Lab3/Nexus/Logs/Audio/486. omni

"Subject J009 is showing progress. Tank programming has proven successful. Showing higher grasp of combat skills than others in her age group of either species. Will test L3 implant during tomorrow's exercise."

"Sir, her body is still adjusting to the implant. I would advi.."

"We will proceed as scheduled."

.

F: /Pandora/Lab3/Nexus/Logs/Audio/511. omni

"This is ridiculous. The program was supposed to test the genetic viability of the two races, not experiment on a little girl. I'm putting out a turian distress beacon. She's got a higher tolerance for dextro as she is now. It would be best for her to be found by the Hierarchy over the Alliance. I... don't expect to survive the outcome, I don't deserve to. I just hope she can get out of here before it's too late."

.

.

It's cold, and dark, and wet. She opens her eyes slowly and tries to focus. Everything is blurry. She blinks, takes a breath, and.. bubbles? Water. She's in water.

She opens her eyes. She still can't focus. There's a blurry figure in white, almost face-to-face with her. A deep muffled sound. Another white figure comes into view. The sound is still muffled, but lighter.

Her eyes spring open. There's a loud noise all around her. The water, it's moving! The figures in white are more and gathered in front of her. She drops to her knees, exposed to the air that now surrounds her, gagging. A white figure approaches and removes something from her throat. She's gasping now, and shivering. Another figure puts a blanket around her.

It hurts. She feels the back of her neck at the scar where they put it in. L3. That's what they called it. She already moves her body the way the tank showed her. Fighting. She's been fighting bigger things than her. Now they want her to use, biotics? It hurts.

Run. Just run. The guard hasn't noticed his friend yet, the alarms are silent. She looks up at the cameras, one is moving with her. Someone knows. Someone knows and hasn't alerted the guards. Why? She shakes off the feeling of unease that creeps upon her. She needs to get out. Run!

.

.

"Sir! Just picked up a distress signal. It's turian, but.."

"But..."

"We're supposed to be the only team out here."

"Noted. Alert the ground team. They are to proceed with caution. If it's one of ours, it's a rescue and, they'll have some explaining to do. If not, we'll leave nothing left to explain."

"Yes, sir!"