Chapter 10 :: Another Day at the Office We're riding in the car right now on the way to the police station. As we go, I reflect over the day's events. Had I known what would have happened I never would have gone...If only I had remembered all that Quatre and the others had told me. I had been a soldier so I shouldn't have let him do those -things- to me. I had forgotten though, like I had forgotten so many other things and I didn't know how to fight back... It'd taken me a long time to find my workplace. It was another one of those tall highrises, but when I went to the front desk the lady there handed me a keycard and pointed me towards an elevator that only went down. I stared at her for a moment and she sighed. "Listen, I heard you were in an accident, but that's no excuse for being late AND wasting my time. Just use the keycard to operate the elevator, ride to the bottom. You have the only office there. Now go. I have other things to do." With a contemptuous wave of her hand she sent me on my way. I'd done everything as instructed and entered a small, cramped office space at the end of a long hall. I had to pass three security points before then. I was asked if I carried I gun and they searched me just after getting off. Then I went down a flight of stairs they pointed me down. I gave my handprint to a machine, wandered down another hall and had to give another handprint just before entering my office - if you could call it that. A dingy, one-room, no ventilation hole in the ground is what I would have called it. A computer was sitting in the middle of boxes and boxes of files. Thankfully it was turned on and as I sat down it chirped at me. --Incoming message!-- --Heard you were back. Insurance will take care of costs. You better be taking your anti-depressants and remember to take them every six hours. File attached. Decrypt it and save under file 81726.-- Anti-depressants? Duo hadn't mentioned anything like that...must've been from before... I shook my head and opened the attachment. More numbers and letters jumbled together into an unintelligible mess. I sighed and smacked a few keys on the keyboard. As I watched the blurry mess something clicked. 4*91= was repeated seventeen times in one sequence. E is the most frequently used letter in English... I searched the computer files and finally found what I was looking for: a decoder. I inputed the letter 'E', then entered 4*91=. --Correct match.-- Suddenly hundreds of e's showed up on the screen before me. That was how it went all afternoon. Bit by bit I was able to decipher parts of the document which turned out to be a letter from some man named Miliardo to his younger sister Relena. I saved it to the file indicated and smiled. I'd done it. I'd decrypted my first file. --Incoming message!-- --Yui, that took you longer than it was supposed to. What's wrong with you?-- --Reply pending...-- "Um...." I didn't know what to say. I thought they had known I had amnesia from before. Apparently I was wrong. The doctors said they had contacted my workplace though. I blinked and the screen chirped again. --Where's your reply, Yui?-- --Sorry.-- I typed. A moment's pause. --You're...SORRY?-- --Yes.-- --Sorry's not good enough. Lose your edge and you lose everything, Yui. Who the hell else would hire a loser like you anyway? Don't you want to keep your job?-- I couldn't believe what that guy had just said to me. I felt anger rising up, but it was quelled when I reached the last line. ...Yes, I did want to keep my job. I don't think I'd be able to afford living in such a nice place if I didn't. Maybe if I explained the situation to him... --Listen, Yui. I don't care if you got hit by a car and ended up in the hospital for a month. Work is work and you have a month of it to catch up on. Remember you're MINE. No one else gets you but me. Don't forget that. You owe me everything, Yui.-- I didn't understand what he meant at the time, but I found out later...I wish I never had. --What do I owe you?-- I meant it to be an innocent question... --Why you little smart-ass Gundam pilot! If you weren't so damn good at decrypting I'd have canned your ass three years ago! As it is you're lucky I keep you on after all your suicide attempts!-- Suicide? I tried to commit suicide? Was that what everyone was trying to hide from me? Was I really that bad before now? --If you don't start shaping up, Yui, I'll have to teach you how to shape up.-- I didn't like those words...I didn't know how they'd come true. --I'm sorry. I'll get back to work.-- --Sending over files. Decrypt them in one hour and have them saved in file 2991-9. Don't fail.-- --Hai.-- It took me three hours to decrypt those two files...maybe that was why he was mad. I had failed... He came down to my office just as I finished saving the files and stormed in. He was a tall man, well built, wearing a dark blue shirt over black pants. A nametag swung around his neck on a chain: Debrose. His dark hair framed equally black eyes, eyes filled with rage. "I told you ONE HOUR!" he shouted, slamming the door. "I-It took me longer than expected, sir," I managed to stammer out. His expression softened slightly as he looked at me. I grew hopeful, then he sneered, destroying any ray of light in that room. "You know...you're lucky you have this company. You're lucky I decided to hire you. Everyone else thinks you're a has-been, all washed up, a loser, a misfit. They all think you're worthless and I'm beginning to see why. You can't do crap." I lowered my eyes to my desk, my Japanese nature kicking it. Some people say we're a timid race...maybe that's true. I wanted to shout at him back, but something told me I'd regret it if I did. I wanted to jump up and tell him to try and decode two files after losing your memory, but something told me I'd regret that too. So I sat there, staring at my desk, trying my best not to anger him further. "Yui..." he growled. "You better have a damn good reason as to why you're not doing your usual work. If not, I'll just throw you out on the street and let the dogs feed on you. You're a dead man anyway. Just think of all the people you killed. All the people you murdered during the war. You're no war hero, you're a massacarist. Worse than that, you lost your soul to that damned machine you fought in. What did you call it? Wing? How affectionate. Well, it ain't worth shit here. You lost your soul to that machine and you're nothing more than a puppet, a dead man walking to me. If you outlive your usefulness I'll see to it that you never get another job in this city or the next." The entire time he spoke, my hands were clenching into tight fists. I didn't have to take this! It wasn't fair! At that time though I thought he would overpower me because he was physically larger. I thought that I didn't know how to fight and that it would be my disadvantage to go against him. Damn my faulty memory... "Now work and earn your worth." The door slammed and I waited until he was out of earshot to throw the pencil holder at the door, shattering it on impact. All day people had snickered at me behind my back. They'd all heard about the outburst Debrose had thrown at me. They'd all heard about my reaction. Debrose had told them all about it. As I walked from the coffee room to the elevator someone shouted, "Hey, Pansy! Wanna fight or are ya gonna stare at your desk again?" I growled and hurled my coffee mug at them before fleeing into the elevator. Someone yelled after me, but I didn't hear it. I didn't want to hear it. The sneers were too much. I was going to go home...I couldn't handle it. I gathered up my things and headed out to the parking garage. It was there that it happened. A rough hand on my shoulder turned my around and I was forced up against a wall. A door opened and I was thrown through it, hitting my head on the floor. I guess that was merciful of him... I tried yelling for help, but the gag he put in my mouth stopped that immediately. I tried to run once, but he hit me so hard it sent me reeling. I heard a car outside and tried to catch the driver's attention through the crack in the door, but he hit me again, slamming my head into the concrete. I tried fighting back (even landed one punch), but he beat me until I became submissive then laughed. "Guess you're happy those pills of yours dull all this, eh? You won't remember any of this later..." He didn't know...I didn't take the pills anymore. "Yeah...you're real happy, aren't you..." The next three hours were the longest, most hellish hours of my life. I've never felt so violated...to think that this will be one of my first memories starting out again. Fate is a cruel and unfair mistress. When I look back at what happened today...I wonder if it had happened before. It seems as if it has - then why did I let it? Maybe it was those pills...he said it dulled everything. He said I'd forget... After he left I sat there for a long time, in shock and horror. I wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. I wanted to scream, but my throat was so raw from the gag it was hard to even breath. Everything hurt... After a while my mind collected itself and I pulled my clothes back on, running from that place. I ran all the way home and changed my clothes, bandaged my wounds, and put ice on the bruises. He'd used a knife on me once during those long hours...but he carefully put them in places where either my jacket or my shirt would conceal them. As I sat there wondering what to do, one name came into mind. Grabbing my jacket, I ran out the door and headed to the one place where I knew I'd be helped. I ran to where I felt safe. "Hello and welcome to the Mechanical Generation Garage! My name is Duo..."