Saved Soldier (AB/DL)

30: Project Reboot

     "It's ready, sir. All we need is the beta testers to give it a run... then, we can start rebooting them all."
"Excellent. We've finally won..."
"Yes sir. They'll have no choice but to surrender."
"Surrender? We're past that point. We'll run them all through this... no matter what."
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          Clay's Pov:
     "You called?" Vicky glares at the man coldly as I shut the door for us to speak privately out in the hallway. I think we both knew what was coming... but we just didn't want to believe it.
     "Of course I did sweetheart." He laughs and squishes Vicky's face before walking forward and motioning for us to follow. Vicky grinds her teeth while we walked behind him. "It seems you've each gotten the subjects ready for the final stage of the project! I must admit I'm impressed. I didn't believe you'd be competent enough for that!" He laughs and opens a door to a room.
I look down to see Vicky, who was much too angry to respond at the moment. "Well... yes. This was a very important project as you said." I smile awkwardly at him.
He just stares at me for a moment. "You're so dumb. Whatever." We step inside the dark room, which, even after he turned on the lights, was dimly lit. "Here it is. The real deal. The thing we've worked on for almost a year." He smiles proudly at himself. "All here at THIS base!! I truly lead the greatest invention yet, huh?"
I simply nod along to his nonsense, but Victoria was not having it. "Can it Nathan. Just tell us what the hell all this is." She glares at him and shook in pure rage.
"Wow, jesh! Can it princess, someone must be on her period." He whispers the last part and laughs. "We chose you two to basically restart those two because you were among the most nurturing soldiers we have. Honestly? Didn't see how with you Vicky, but the others seemed to have hope in you." He smirks and just watches her angry reactions. He seemed to be getting so much pleasure just from that.
We walk closer to the large machine. There were four black chairs that you would expect to see in a doctor's office, one that a patient would lay on to get examined in, and a bunch of tubes over the top. The whole thing was surrounded in glass, and there was a grey control panel on the outside with many labeled and colored buttons and switched.
"Anyyyywayyyy, as you know, this is called the Reboot program! We had you each bring those two back to their original states, those of infants, so that we can use this device to load them with PROPER memories and ideals! We can turn them into mentally whatever we want when they're in that state! New super soldiers, doctors, hell even a dermatologist for what I care. We will sit them in those chairs, and attach the tubes to their heads... we will need one to go through the ear, gross! Right?" He makes many hand gestures as he speaks, and big expressions to show his enthusiasm for the project. "But anyway, the tubes are attached to the control panel, and, with that, we can replace all their adult memories way faster than it would take trying to change their adult minds! The process should be about a day long give or take," he smiles proudly. "And your two little rugrats will be our first testers! How exciting for them to be a part of such a big project!!"
"Forget... all their adult memories...?" I mumble and stare at Nathan, who simply laughs at me.
"That's basically what I said, right stupid? It takes so much effort to get stuff into your big idiot head!!" He groans dramatically.
"So they'll forget us...?" Vicky states at the ground and asks the question I was also wondering.
"Uh- yeah? Why do you look so grim about it? I thought you hated this whole situation." Nathan laughs. "They might remember you as much as they would remember a parent for the first few years of their lives, barely anything in there!" He smiles proudly at his machine and began to poke at the glass.
Vicky and I exchange a look before I let out a soft sigh. "So... this starts?-"
"Tomorrow! We are feeding them well now because they can't eat the whole time they're under the process. Shame, huh? But, there is another thing." His fake smile became a dead serious look. "They need to stay little for 24 hours before the reboot begins. You better keep them that way. Understood?"
"We can't exactly control that-" Vicky starts but was quickly interrupted.
"That was your entire job though!!! If you can't keep them in their baby states for 24 hours before, then it'll fall apart! They'll have a weird mix of memories and be totally warped!!" He laughs. "It would be a shame to basically have two people living under one body..."
"That's exactly my problem with this!" Vicky shouts at him and stormed over. "You are stealing their identities!!! This is basically as bad as murder- no... WORSE!! You're basically killing off the person they were before and replacing it with some mindless minion to do your biding!! This is inhumane!! We've already practically won! Why can't we just accept that and move on?!"
Nathan states at her for a moment before scoffing. "This is just a battle sweetheart. If we want peace for forever... if we want to make our superiors proud, then we gotta do this... there will be no war if everyone is programmed under the same commander with the same ideals... even their parental skills will be programmed, their children will grow up and follow those principles..." he stated at her. "Don't you see? This is for everyone's sake. That country- no... those... THINGS are DISGUSTING, VILE, and DANGEROUS."
Vicky took a few steps back as his expressions and movements became more aggressive and frustrated.
"This is the only way of fixing them!! Can't you see?!"
"That's where you're wrong!!" She spat. "Jono has been so sweet and gentle- even before this whole reboot I could tell he wouldn't want to hurt a fly!"
"Same goes with Brodie." I step next to Vicky and grab her shoulder to reassure her. "He was super aggressive before all this, don't get me wrong, but, now? He's so gentle and sensitive, he's loving, little or not." I glare at Nathan, who glares back at both of us.
"Who's to say he won't just become aggressive again?! He could snap at any moment and try and escape... AGAIN. Don't think I didn't hear about his attempts to before!" He snarls and crosses his arms. "You both agreed to the conditions of this project..." He gasps and smirks again, walking close to us and poking Vicky. "Don't tell me you've gotten attached, have you?"
     She froze up a bit and gulped, not sure how to respond at that moment. "Well..." I start. "Of course we have. We've gotten to know these people for who they really are. They aren't just soldiers, there is so much more to them, they-"
     "Of course not sir." Vicky glares down at him. "You know I don't get attached, so don't start assuming I have now."
     "Excellent. Well then, bring them here tomorrow- maybe around 4? Just so they don't eat too much." Nathan giggles and waves at us. "Bye-Bye~!! You can go get them and leave dinner now~!"
     I grab onto Vicky's arm and lead her out of the room. Her whole face looked dull and angry. I sigh and take us back to the dining room, seeing Jono chat away with the men and Brodie sitting and nodding... they each had totally different personalities at the moment. Crap... they definitely were not little. I let go off Vicky's arm, leaving her to just stand and stare, which quieted down some of the other men.
     I lift Brodie up and smile awkwardly. "Hey Bud! Did you have a good lunch? You full?"
     Brodie nods. "Yeah. The dudes were just asking us about fighting on the other side and- MMF!" I shove a pacifier into his mouth.
     "That's so exciting baby! I'm sure you had such a great time with all your new friends!" I coo at him to try and get him to feel small.
     He takes out the pacifier and shook his head. "Relax- everyone in here is chill they don't need to see us all small..." he groans as I push the pacifier back in his mouth.
     "Vicky...? You okay?" Jono gets up and walked over to the woman. He wraps his arms around her and pushes her head into his neck. "What's wrong? What happened at that meeting?" He whispers and kisses her cheek. Vicky just pushes him away.
     "You done eating?"
     "Uh-y-yeah?" He smiles at her reassuringly but also nervously.
     "Good." She lifts him up and leaves the room without another word. I sigh and hug Brodie close.
    "It was nice seeing you all, but we better get back to work. Bye for now." I wave and leave the room. Brodie was now squirming in my arms as I carried us to our private room. "What?"
     "No..." he whines and reaches back for the room.
     "Sorry Bud, but we don't have a choice in this situation..." I kiss his forehead and bring him into the room, setting him on the bed. He was half in little space and half out.
     "But... why we?" He stretches out and grabs onto a pillow, hugging it close.
      "Because um... that man said he'd kick my butt if I ate more food, and I didn't want you to see me get hurt." I laugh before I suddenly felt arms wrap around me from behind. Brodie stood on his tiptoes and shook his head. "Tell me what's wrong, Clay. I won't get mad, I just want to know what's troubling you and how I can fix it." He brushes his fingers through my hair before guiding me to the bed, sitting and pulling me down with him.
     I bite my lip and felt hot watery tears come to my eyes as I shook my head. My throat began to clog up as I held in the pain. "I-I can't say..."
     "What did that big fat idiot Pruski say?" He growls and glares at the door. "I'll go beat the snot out of that meanie if he did anything to hurt you."
     "N-no! It's nothing like that!" I shake my head and quickly reassure. "It's just- I umm... I need you to be little for an entire day is all... I-I know it's a lot to ask but I can't say what happened."
     Brodie looks up at me for a moment before hugging my tightly and burying his head and my chest.
     "Okay..." he looks up at me and puts the pacifier back in his mouth. "I trust you Clay."
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Heart been broke so many times IiIiIi don't know what to believe. 😓✋