Within the Amethyst Cave

Abigail cleared her throat nervously, shifting her weight side to side. She wore a cleanly ironed white collared shirt with a dark purple pencil skirt that hit just above the knees. It was a cute work outfit. Gave her courage.

The silver star shaped glasses were… a bit silly… but again- courage. Blair Mayne was a dangerous woman. Even if Abigail was more filled and healthier, Blair had violent tendencies.

Well, she couldn’t procrastinate forever. She knocked firmly.

As to be expected, no sound came from the inside. No footsteps coming towards the door, no sound of keys rattling, and most definitely no sound of the door unlocking.

Abigail knocked louder.

“Blair Mayne, this is an agent of the United States government. Open the door, or physical force will be used.”

Even as her body trembled, her voice was firm and forceful. Sorry, Blair. It’s for a good reason.

After a few hesitant seconds, sounds of walking towards the entrance were heard; Mostly the creaking wooden floors.

Slowly, the door was unlocked.

Left for Abigail to open it herself.

Abigail pulled the door open. In one hand, she already held out her government agent badge. Her brown eyes darted about the apartment, searching for its occupants.

Nobody seemed to be inside, despite the door having unlocked.

“This is Agent Abigail Fierro with the United States Department of Metaphysical Sciences. I need to speak to Blair Mayne concerning a research project, named Ellen.”

Where was she?? Abigail held back a petty frown.

Suddenly, a person moved behind her, and she could feel something cold. Sharp. By her neck. A hand covered with gauze and a simple fingerless glove, fingers tainted with raised skin.

"Don't call her a project," the person said, their voice carrying badly-disguised anger.

No! Abigail squeaked, freezing up. Was that a knife at her throat? Oh no, no, no, no. Maybe she should've listened to Trix and taken someone else with her. Maybe this was a really bad idea…

She had to help Ellen, though. The girl was losing hope, she couldn't just watch. "Is that you, Blair?" Abigail asked. She managed to not sound horrified. Barely. "I- I'm sorry. I need to know who you are before I can talk to you."

"Don't talk to me as if we're buddies, you piece of shit. What do you want from me."

The blade pressed closer to her neck.

She began to tear up. "I want to help Ellen. She- she's depressed. Please. Don't kill me…"

Wren seemed to pause. The blade stopped moving towards Abigail's neck, but it also did not move backwards from its place. It's clear the officer wasn't trusted yet.

"..Depressed? How so? What's wrong? How can you help?"

Okay. Good. She was listening. "She- she's starting to feel less human. I can tell. She got cheered up when she learned to sing, but her only friends are- she won't invite them over. I hear her cry to herself about it. She doesn't want to scare them. I think she's scared. And I can help her because I- I know how she's built. I know how not to kill her. But. She trusts you."

…

"I'd go get Camfee, but he's under heavier surveillance."

Slowly, the knife was put away. Well. Tossed to the ground.

Wren rubbed its face, taking a deep breath. Okay, this… asshole wasn't a danger to her little sist-.. … Ellen. She wasn't a danger to Ellen.

"…The poor thing. Tell me, then. What am I supposed to do here?"

…oops. Abigail didn't think she'd get this far. Um.

"Talk to her more. Try and get information, I… talk to people outside of the DMS. All the help I can do is modifying her. If you can tell me what can help her, I can do it, but I can't do stuff like this. The only reason that I'm even allowed to talk to you is because you're a person of interest for her, and even then I'm risking my job."

And her life, technically.

"You can go find Camfee. I know he knows the most about what… um… actually happened. I know a few people want to help her. I can explain her technological makeup, but nothing about her as a person. You know that."

Wren scoffed. Of course you don't know anything about her as a person, all your organization does is make sure people feel less than. He took a deep, slow breath. Not worth getting worked up other this.

"..Alright. I think I've seen that guy somewhere around my feed, I could probably track his account down. When do you need the information for?"

God, dear Kalei will kill them for collaborating with a DMS agent.

"… And just as a warning, Abigail. If you hurt her, I'll be coming after you and those you love."

"I- I don't have a strict time limit, but… soon. When she learned to sing, it was the happiest I've heard her. She spent days singing "Daisy Bell" over and over because she found the video of HAL singing it. She- she thought if he- it could sing, she could to." Abigail had listened to it for two days straight, playing on the security cameras. She didn't tell Ellen that she'd downloaded some extra audio packs for the girl to use. She'd thought she found them herself.

Abigail took a deep breath, thankful that the knife was gone. "People don't care about Camfee much, but they also… t-they don't care about Ellen. My supervisor s-said to see if… i-if uh. How long she would last. Without assistance. So I need to be very secretive."

Wren's expression softened with sadness and concern.

"My sweet girl… She didn't deserve any of this," it whispered, not caring much about the agent in its house. If she said anything, her head would be put at risk, anyway. "I see. I'll grab as much information, together with my own, and make sure to give it to you as soon as I can."

…

Abigail took a deep breath in and out. She couldn't let Blair see her this way. Abigail is better than that.

"Ellen Turing is fourteen years old. She lived with her parents. Camfee Turing went to college nearby. They were urbexxing when the incident occured. Ellen likes singing, the outdoors, and spending time with her brother. She wanted to take dance classes if she got good enough grades."

"Ellen is a person to me."

"She better be, Fierro. Don't think that by sympathizing with me you'll get on my good side."

Wren stared into her face, their hair covering their right eye as usual. "Is that all?"

Abigail shook her head.

"No. I need to tell you something important. If you try to separate the flesh from the technological components, she will be as good as dead. And if you try to break her, she will… spark. Electrocute. She was badly damaged from what Camfee tried to do to her, but I repaired most of it. But what he tried to do cannot be reattempted. Ellen is a sweet girl, but she is stuck in a monolith of wires and electricity. Remember that."

"I fucking know that, asshole. I've been there. I've-"

He cut himself off, walking closer to Abigail.

"… Camfee tried to do what to her?"

Oh. Oh, right, that…. ouch. "Ellen doesn't remember, but he. Um. Before the DMS really started keeping a close eye on her, we were just surveillancing. He stayed in that room almost 24/7 for a month."

They had hours of footage of him crying when he thought Ellen was asleep. He didn't know Ellen never slept yet.

"After a while, she started begging him to make the pain stop. I've seen her loud like that, but never quiet like now. Anyway, he didn't know how to help, so he tried to put her out of her misery."

Abigail's hands drifted down to brush back and forth against her thighs. This was a terrible story. "He went home and got a baseball bat, then asked her to trust him before turning her power off. When he swung, he knocked off a good chunk of her memory boards, but… it was a metal bat. Electrocuted him. DMS took him into custody for Ellen's protection, and we installed more cameras than just the one in her room."

Wren went quiet, its face unreadable. He simply nodded.

"I see. I will make sure to not hurt her."

… Further.

"Are we done, Fierro?"

Yes. Please. Abigail needed to run off and cry. "Yes! You can, um, maybe try to talk to her later tonight? I talk to her as much as I can at work, but they've been… noting… my kindness."

"I bet they have. Probably keep eyes on everyone, those fuckers."

Focus, Wren.

"… Anyway. Is there any place I could contact you? Or- Actually, let me guess. Tumblr?"

She flushed. "….yeah…… Trixxie made me get a tumblr, and the DMS doesn't check it. I'll, uh. Here."

Abigail pulled out her phone, which had a very sweet lockscreen of a woman with mismatched eyes and a bright smile. She quickly swiped away from that and opened tumblr, showing Blair her blog.

Wren followed suit, taking their phone out of their back pocket. The lockscreen had a young boy and themselves, dressed up in halloween costumes.

It opened Tumblr and wrote down the blog name, following it.

"Alright. I'll get back to you once I have what you need."

He nodded, pointing towards the door. "Exit is that way, I'm sure you can find it yourself."

"Goodbye, Blair," Abigail said. She turned and made her way quickly out the door, heart hammering.

Abigail was far, but unfortunately close enough to hear something breaking inside the house.