An unexpected Development

Several minutes later, Alesha had finally calmed, and she quietly ate her breakfast. Beebee tried unsuccessfully to start a conversation a few times.

Feeling numb, Alesha thought about the Cursed Ruby Earring. Were its effects bad enough to justify carving off her own ear? The idea was somewhat tempting. She resented how Flynn had treated her, and the fact that he'd given her two "gifts" she couldn't get rid of was infuriating. Why the hell had he pretended to be such a nice guy?? It would have been so much easier to cope with what he'd done had he just behaved like the scum he was. Instead, he'd pretended to be nice to get close to her, then saddled her with a cursed earring and one hell of a traumatic memory. 

She clenched her fists, teeth instinctively transforming into bite mode as she growled. It would feel so good to bite that stupid half-vampire and tear him into shreds for what he'd done!

Beebee trembled as she watched Alesha's face darken. Once Alesha had started eating, the smell of the meat had driven her away (ever since becoming an herbivore, raw meat smelled worse than ever), so Beebee was a few meters from the dragonesque human. Now, she was glad for the distance. Why was Alesha suddenly so angry?? Beebee's whole body quivered as Alesha's murderous aura intensified. 

"A- Alesha?" Beebee asked, voice squeaking with fear. 

As if snapping out of a trance, Alesha's eyes cleared and she focused on the salmon-colored rodent. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Y-you just got really scary there, you ok?" 

Alesha looked down at her hands -- which had morphed into claws. That was happening far too easily these days, she realized. Sighing, Alesha returned her hands and teeth to normal, then replied, "Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about some bad memories."

Beebee stood up and padded over. Before she reached her, however, Alesha slumped forward limply, falling to the hard ground in a heap.

"Alesha!!" Beebee squealed, running forward. What had happened?! Had the meat been rotten after all, was she sick?!

Feeling sluggish all of a sudden, Beebee tripped over a stone and rolled a few times before coming to a stop near Alesha. Huh? What just happened?

Her vision spun and she closed her eyes, dizzy. Just… for just a moment, and then…

----

Alesha's head felt fuzzy. A painfully bright light seeped through her eyelids and a gentle breeze tickled her exposed collarbone. She shifted slightly in a groggy attempt to relieve the discomfort of sitting in such a hard metal chair. Wait. A hard metal chair? Her eyes snapped open and she attempted to stand. 

She found herself securely fastened to the chair by some sort of soft fabric at her wrists, above her elbows, around her neck, waist, thighs and ankles. Though soft, the material was exceptionally strong. It seemed to resist proportionally to the pressure she put upon it -- if she didn't struggle, it didn't restrict her, and felt so soft that it almost seemed not to be there at all. But when she strained, it clenched back on her, feeling almost like living tissue. The sensation was unpleasant, so she stopped resisting.

One thing she didn't notice at first, but did while trying to escape the chair, was that despite the chair being largely uncomfortable due to the material, it was modified to accommodate her wings and tail. She couldn't see the back of the chair, of course, but seeing as she wasn't sitting on her tail or pushed up against her wings there had to be holes in the right places. 

She twitched her tail in curiosity, wondering if it was unbound. She discovered that it was bound too, just against the floor. While trying to flex her wings, she found that they had been restricted as well, bound up in some sort of net, one per wing, that kept them closed and fastened to what was probably the back of her chair. 

Hey Rogork, Alesha asked mentally. What happened while I was out? How did I get knocked out in the first place, actually, and how'd I end up here?

[I'm not sure,] the System admitted. [Normally, I'm able to perceive more than you are, or even remain awake while you are not, but whatever happened was able to suppress my consciousness as well.]

Alesha was surprised. Whoever or whatever had done this could affect the System?? And the System was admitting to it so freely? 

Before she could contemplate further, a tall man in a familiar, sleek gray military uniform walked into the room. His burly muscles pushed the limits of the uniform's material, and his eyes were covered by what people from ancient Earth would have said looked like a blend between sunglasses and diving goggles.

Alesha looked at him, a feeling of dread growing in her stomach.

The man clasped his hands behind his back and stood fully erect. He recited, "Alesha Jane Williams, 22, until recently 2nd in your class at Faxton University of Chemistry. Very close with your siblings. Judged to have been unaffected by the mutagenic flames in the preliminary attack on Faxton. However, your behavior changed distinctly after the event. Furthermore, you disappeared without a trace and then reappeared after the destruction of your family's hometown. We know everything, Alesha, so you'd best not try anything funny."

So it had been the Human Alliance that brought her here. But how had they suppressed the System? If they really knew everything, would they flaunt it like that? There was probably some other purpose here.

[Agreed.]

"I can see that you don't believe me. Very well, then, let me prove it to you."

His words made her a bit nervous. What did they know? And to learn what they didn't, what would they do? Since she was no longer human, did she retain any "human rights" to protect her against interrogation?

The man swiped the air in front of him, summoning a display screen that faced Alesha in her chair. It began playing security footage. 

What she saw on it made her heart jump to her throat and her eyes widen. It was her, hurrying as quickly as she could down a sidewalk to Mrs. Green's Groceries. The viewpoint switched several times as she made her way through the store, bought several packages of raw meat, and left. It showed her heading to a secluded, foliage-rich area of a park. 

Then, the timestamp in the upper left corner jumped several hours, and it showed her leaving the secluded area while carrying the bloody remnants of the packaging. Blood had crusted around her mouth and there were many drops of it on her shirt as well.

"This was what really got us interested. Physiologically, nothing had changed about you when you caught fire in Faxton. But had it driven you insane? We, the Alliance, became concerned for your health."

Bull, she thought. There's no way any of this is for my benefit. If it was, I wouldn't be confined to a chair in a room that seems suspiciously like an interrogation chamber.

[Host is correct. This man's thoughts are dominated with trying to get the truth out of you.]

A shocked look involuntarily crossed Alesha's face, if only for a moment. What? The System could read other people's minds now?