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You were walking down a hallway, one you weren’t familiar with. It was all marble floors and gilded arches, lavish in the way that made the old anger bubble at your core. It screamed of old money, and lots of it. Your footsteps were surprisingly silent though as you made your way to… wherever it was that you were going. For a moment you had the feeling that this was wrong somehow, but it was swept away as a ringing bell echoed through the halls from a speaker hidden in the corners. You felt your heart jump in your chest and speed up as you looked up to one of the speakers sharply, hands clenching in what had to be stress as you turned and quickly started heading in a new direction.
You were confident in your navigation of what had to be a giant mansion, winding down various hallways and heading steadily downwards until the walls turned to stone and the lighting became more fluorescent. It was plain that this part of the estate was not meant for guests, and judging by the fact it was on a rich person's property it could only mean bad things. The thought of which made something inside you twist with horror and anger, though you couldn’t pinpoint why and trying to decipher it only increased the fog in your head. Regardless of the “why” of where you were going, you were certainly getting there in a hurry as you confidently rounded a last bend and came upon a tucked away room that had a simple placard next to the door that read ‘Testing Room Alpha’. Three words that filled you with more dread than you’ve felt in years.
You wanted desperately to resist, but your body strode confidently to the door and opened it without hesitation. The room it revealed was what had to be a small cleaning area with a few sinks and a shower in the small curtained off corner, as well as a window that took up the entire opposing wall that looked into a nightmarishly familiar sterile white room. But you didn’t stare at those things long enough to get more than an impression of them before your gaze landed on a woman in a white lab coat. She was obviously tense, her hands holding a clipboard and a pencil hovering over a page without actually writing anything. Her face was the worst of it though, pinched and pale as she stared sightlessly into the middle distance.
You stood to attention and after a half second pause politely cleared your throat to announce your presence, causing the woman to jump in shock and clutch the clipboard to her chest, though as soon as she noticed who it was she visibly relaxed and let out a sigh before hurrying up to you.
“She’s going to be here any minute! I wasn't even told she was being released today!! She called on her way in and told me to get you prepared for another training session, but I have to tell you I've never heard her so… angry before.” Her face became even more drawn and she pressed her lips together in worry, dropping her tone to a hush. “I don’t think she's in control of herself.”
You took a second to absorb that, and although you didn't show it physically you could feel your heart drop with terror, palms slicking with sweat and your chest constricting. But you only gave a solemn nod, heading towards the nearest sink and grabbing a small pair of scissors before looking in the mirror and-
Echo!! You were Echo! But younger, much younger than… what you thought he should be. You didn't know how you knew he was supposed to be older, but you felt it deeply in your bones that it was true. That wasn’t the only thing that was different either, the bags under his eyes were much deeper and his cheeks more sunken than you could remember ever seeing them. His hair, normally brushing his ears, was shaved close to his head and both his eyes looked extremely tired. And there was something else about his eyes that threw you off as well, something about how he was able to look himself directly in the mirror with such clear gold eyes that made that ‘off’ feeling itch. But what really drew your eye was the thread binding his lips together, you knew from the scars that this was what must have happened, but actually seeing it was something else. It made you feel hollowed out as you watched you, but also Echo, brought the scissors up and skillfully cut the knot off and slid it out with the nauseating but somehow familiar and not feeling of the thread slipping through the holes in your lips.
After cleaning your hands you moved towards the… dear gods you were going in there willingly? Why weren't you- Echo- FIghting back?! You should be resisting, kicking and screaming and biting and- you should never enter a white room with a single chair that had god damn strap and actual table full of what could only be described as torture tools!!! You should have been resisting, every fiber of your being screamed that you shouldn't be walking casually towards the chair! But you weren’t in control of this body, and despite the fact that it was shaking subtly with terror, heart beating so hard that it felt as if it was trying to escape your chest, it sat itself down in the chair and looked up at the, nurse? As she came to stand over you. With practiced ease she strapped you in, not meeting your eyes as she locked the buckles and took a few steps back, looking at her clipboard once more as if it had the answers she was looking for to get rid of her fears.
You tried desperately to make the body move even despite the futility of trying to escape now after being locked down to the chair, but it resolutely stayed out of your control and sat still as a corpse, fear thrumming through it, as the agonizing long minutes dragged by. Eventually, after what felt like hours, you see the nurse startle and grab her phone out of pocket, glancing at the screen before quickly hurrying out the door you had entered the torture room though. It's another minute or two of dead silence before the door opened again, the nurse holding the door open as-
Holy shit, that's the fucking Council Woman Doll. As fucking Doll entered the room. Her face was ageless as always, though without the paint that normally adorned it, but her chest was wrapped in gauze and that put her at least seven or so years before… whatever time should be. Her hollow eyes were narrowed in anger, and body without its normal fancy dress as she stalked into the room and directly to the torture tools table, a place you would really rather her not be, as the nurse hurried along behind. No one spoke though as the council woman examined the tools, picking up a long and thick mallet from a special hook on the side of the table before turning to you and walking over to you with her customary elegance.
Every part of your body tensed as she neared, old memories and old sensations that felt conflicting combined to throw both you and Echos body into a state of frozen terror, stomach twisted and chest feeling like it had iron bars constricting your breathing to nothing but a wheeze. Not that you were even breathing as she wound back with the mallet and swung it directly into your shin. A strangled scream burst out of your lips, hands clenching around the arm rests as your body spasmed in pain. The pain was excruciating, your stomach roiling with the feeling of fractured bone as Doll casually walked back to the table. She wasn't normally like this, some part of you knew this was odd, her silence and the barely contained rage that seemed to tremble in the air were unique and you could guess why.
That wound on her chest, you’d heard about it before. It was from Negative's championship fight, the one that won him the seat on the council. It was a rule that you had to win a fight against a reigning council member in order to be allowed on the board, and it just so happened to be Dolls' turn to fight the finalist of that year's championship games. The fight… hadn’t turned out well for her though, Negative managing to sneak in a winning blow against her that shattered her chest just below the collarbone. Negative had been distraught, it wasn’t a death match and the fact he had caused such a serious injury got to the soft hearted man. Doll was rendered unconscious after the blow and had been rushed to the hospital to see what could be done. But due to her unique form and Negatives’ flair, it had rendered the injury inoperable. The only thing they could do was keep the infection out until she naturally healed over as much as she could.
This must have been shortly after, you remember the nurse saying something about her being released today, but why was she here? And more importantly why was Echo-
The thought was cut short sharply as a knife was driven into your hand, a scream echoing around the room for a moment before you bit it off. Swallowing another cry as she pulled the knife out, you finally focus back on what was happening around you to see her examining the knife, dripping now with your- Echos- blood.
“Echo dear, you know how important all this is, don't you.” You nodded, but she didn’t actually care to acknowledge your response. She never did. “You’re helping out this nation by taking on this pain. And even though we have to keep this out of the public eye, I know you understand that this is a necessary if… ugly side of ensuring the peace is kept. After all, you have to break a few eggs for an omelet. Or a few political dissidents to make a happy society.” She clenched her fist, eyes momentarily narrowing before she looked at the nurse and handed the blade to her, nodding to the table, “Scalpel.” And the nurse scurried to grab it for her, looking sick herself but not daring to say anything. As was her way.
“Now, I know we’ve done a lot of things to expand your training, but there is something new I want to try today.” Taking the scalpel Doll turned back to where you were strapped down, the cold porcelain stillness of her face sending icicles up your spine and she approached, blade in hand. “So to start out this session, i want to see how you react to a loss of one of your senses, alright Echo dear?”
She didn't wait for an answer. She never did. And before you can do more than suck in a breath of horror she reared back her hand, the scalpel in her clench fist and fury in the shape of her hollow eyes, a sight that would be burned into your mind forever as she brought the blade down directly into your eye and-
Strings screamed into wakefulness, jumping away from imaginary demons and nearly falling off the bed in his haste to escape Dolls knife. Only for it slowly register that he was in his bedroom in the house Motor rented for them. He was safe and… not alone. Quickly he looked around and located Echo, who he remembered had stayed over for the night after a stressful day working with Ravish and had fallen asleep cuddling with him after a movie, and looked to be curled up and shaking on the other side of the bed, face covered. And it's in that moment that the significance of that… dream starts to dawn on him. Echos' flair, combined with his own susceptibility when it comes to mind altering flairs, must have made it so that they shared a nightmare by accident. But… he moves closer, slowly reaching out and laying a hand on Echos arm, causing the man to jump slightly before looking up with teary eyes. Teary mismatched eyes.
It was then that it finally clicked what was so wrong when you looked in that mirror as Echos, both of his eyes had been whole and undamaged. Unlike now, where it looked like the right had been severely damaged at some point. Some point that Strings had a sinking feeling he now knew the date of.
Because, even as he wrapped his arms gently around the now fully crying man, clumsily signing apologies and jumbled pleas to not tell anyone, you knew that wasn't just any nightmare. Nothing made from just the mind could be so vivid. No.
It was a memory.