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When Moira approached Reyes about an experiment to improve his performance on the battlefield, he accepted.
He didn't know why. It wasn't like he had an issue with how he fought- he was already pretty strong after doing the whole Super Soldier thing. But Moira was very persistent with her requests (and by that, he meant that she refused to leave him alone until he agreed), and eventually, he found himself sitting in Moira's lab, watching her "prepare."
She asked him endless amounts of questions, some of which Reyes couldn't figure out the importance of. Birthday? Blood type? Height? Weight? Favorite food? Mother's maiden name? (Obviously, she didn't actually ask those last two, but surely you get the general idea.) "What is all this for? I thought you were just gonna give me steroids or something." That was a joke-- mostly. The truth was, this wasn't at all what Reyes was expecting.
"Hush. This is essential information." Moira retorted. Somehow, Reyes doubted that was true. "Be calm; I am almost ready to begin."
Almost was quite the overstatement. It felt like forever until Moira actually started doing anything-- she spent most of her time examining every inch of him as if she were designing clothes for him. Finally, she brought out some kind of tank. Maybe it was just Reyes worrying, but he could have sworn it was his head's size. It was filled to the brim with some kind of black liquid that made Reyes's face scrunch in disgust just looking at it. "What the hell is that?" Moira didn't answer.
The scientist attached a tube to the top of the tank with a syringe at the end. Before he could protest, she stuck it in his arm, causing him to gasp in surprise. He was having very strong second thoughts about all this, especially now that he was beginning to wonder what exactly was in that tank... and what it would do when it went in him. "Just relax," Moira told him as if she had seen the slowly building nervousness in his face. It didn't help at all.
Moira flicked a switch on the tank, though by this point, Reyes had tightly shut his eyes. The machine let out a low hum, pushing the liquid through the tube and into the syringe. For a moment, as it entered his system, Reyes felt fine... but then everything hit him like a truck.
He suddenly felt a sense of vertigo, even though he hadn't at all moved. The entire room seemed to spin, and Reyes had to take deep breaths to prevent himself from passing out. His stomach was doing flips inside of him-- was this supposed to be happening? He wasn't able to think well enough to come up with an answer. He hummed the same note as the machine in an attempt to keep himself grounded. It wasn't until long after the noise stopped that Reyes realized Moira was calling his name. His eyes opened tentatively to see the scientist standing before him, staring directly at him.
"Commander Reyes. How do you feel now?"
"How do I feel?" How did he not feel? He was lightheaded, his head hurt, he was nauseous -- and angry. Why was he so furious, and at who? No, this was wrong. Surely, something had gone wrong.
But Reyes didn't tell her any of that. He didn't trust her enough. He had no idea what she would do with that information, and he didn't want to.
"I feel... empty." Not exactly the truth, yet not a complete lie.
Moira's smile was far too genuine as she clasped her hands in front of her. "Good." Reyes had never seen her this confident before, even when he watched her other experiments succeed. "That means it's working."