Chapter Text
Grace keeps his head ducked as he walks through the building. The bodyguards, who he still doesn’t know the name of, flank his sides. They’re all much taller than him, and he tries to lean over their shoulder to see where they’re going. The guy behind him (he’s named this one Ringo because of the insane amounts of rings this one has on both his hands) pulls him back to the center by the scruff of his neck. Grace winces at the aggression, but doesn’t make another move to find out anything else.
It’s the first thing he learned after the C.O.I. took him in, just a couple of weeks ago. Just do as you are told, and definitely don’t question anything. If Grace could remember anything, he’d make more of an effort to leave, especially since he’s pretty certain they might be a cult. Unfortunately, it’s not exactly like he’s got a lot of options with the bodyguards constantly hanging around him, even beyond the fact that his memory continuously draws blanks.
On the bright side, cult or not, the people are friendly (sort of) and so far they let him do whatever he wants in the lab, so he’s not complaining. (That’s the one thing that he’s sure about… He was a scientist, or something like that, because how can it be that he doesn’t even remember his name, but he still knows the elements and their properties by heart? His head hurts from thinking too much about it.)
He clears his throat. “Sooo, where exactly are we going?” He tries to go for a cheerful tone. He’s met with the usual silence. Great.
He takes the time to look around instead, interested in the part of the building he had never been in before. Everything looks really expensive. It’s a stark contrast to where he’s been for the past few days. The labs were always dark and kind of cold, with flickering lightbulbs that did nothing good for his ever present headache. It’s weird to think that these two places can exist in the vicinity of one another, let alone in the same building.
They lead him to a large wooden door. The two guys in front (lovingly dubbed John and Paul) open it as Ringo grabs his arm and pushes him through. Grace trips over his feet a few times from the sudden movement, only really managing to get his footing once they stop in front of a long table in the middle of the room.
“Here’s the scientist you asked for, ma’am.” Ringo says gruffly, before letting Grace go and moving to stand at attention behind him. Grace tries to subtly readjust his glasses, which slipped down his nose during his stumble.
A scary looking woman sits at the head of the table. There are a couple more people sitting at the table, with more scattered around the room. All of them looked vaguely disinterested at what was happening in front of them. He has met some of them before, he thinks.
Grace notices that his hands are shaking, and he stuffs them into his coat pockets before anyone else can notice. Maybe he’s just not comfortable in front of large crowds?
“Ah, Grace, it’s good to see you.” The woman speaks. She’s quite soft spoken, to his surprise. She looks familiar. It might be the large scar that runs down the left side of her face.
He tries to find his voice to respond. “Uh, yes, hello. I-I mean, it’s nice to, um, see you too?” He winces at the awkwardness.
“I’m Ava, the current head of the Consolidation. I'm sure I speak for the family when I say that we are glad to see you doing much better.” Her face contorts to something resembling a smile. It feels closer to the look of a predator watching its prey.
“Family?” He fidgets. Something about this room is triggering his fight or flight responses.
She nods. “Yes, we are a family. We take care of our own. I hope you can understand how worried we were when we learned that one of our biologists had gone missing, only to suddenly reappear with no memory of who he used to be.”
That… would make a lot of sense. It certainly explains a lot about his natural inclinations towards science, along with how the C.O.I. has been treating him so far. He had been a little skeptical of how generous they had been, giving him everything he needed from the moment he awoke in their medical facility to when he worked in the labs. They’ve been constantly monitoring his health and not letting him go anywhere without bodyguards. If he had randomly gone missing, it would explain their overprotectiveness.
“We’d like to ask a couple of questions to determine what happened, if you wouldn’t mind.” Ava is still smiling as she gestures towards the empty chair in front of Grace.
He hesitates. Something in his brain was terrified about sitting down, but that was ridiculous. These people seemed to know him, and if what Ava had said was true, he was part of their family. Maybe talking things through can help him figure out what happened, and maybe he’d be able to jog some memory about who he used to be.
He cautiously takes a seat. Ringo steps directly behind the chair, and continues to hover close behind him. The proximity unnerves him.
The sound of someone loudly flipping a notepad jerks his focus back to the table.
“We’ll begin whenever you are ready, Grace.” The older looking gentleman next to Ava says, pulling out a pen from behind his ear. He seems familiar, too. Maybe they had worked together on a project before. The guy seems like a well-established professional within the C.O.I., based on how he carries himself. Grace nods a little shakily.
The guy continues, “My name is Dr. Jack David. I was in charge of your amnesia case, if you can recall.” He grins toothily.
Grace tries to think back. Nothing emerges from before he woke up in the medical facility, and his entire stay there is unfortunately also quite hazy. He clears his throat. “Uh, no. I’m afraid I don’t remember that.”
Dr. David nods and scribbles something down. Grace feels a little guilty, considering how much time the doctor probably put into his case. “I do feel like I know you? If… if that helps.” Dr. David stops scribbling and looks up at Grace. He does a complicated expression on his face before returning to his notebook. It does not make Grace feel better.
“Could you tell us anything you know about yourself?”
Grace knows it's futile, but he tries to think back again. Nothing. It’s kind of driving him crazy.
“My name is… Grace? I only know that because one of the nurses told me, though. And also because everyone keeps calling me Grace. I’m, um…” Dang, he doesn’t even know how old he is. That’s so weird. Definitely really frustrating. “I’m guessing I used to be a biologist here? Based on what was said earlier…”
“Mhm, anything else?” Dr. David has not stopped scribbling.
Grace deflates. “Not really.”
That doesn’t seem to bother Dr. David. He continues writing. Another person, sitting next to Dr. David, jumps in with a question. “Do you remember anything from before you woke up in the medical facility?” Grace shakes his head. Gosh, these questions are causing his headache to worsen. It’s like his brain is actively trying to kill him. He resists the urge to put his face down on the table. That would probably be very rude.
“Do you remember anything to do with your research regarding astrophage or taumeoba?”
Grace pauses. He vaguely remembers the sort of work he might have done before. His time in the lab has slowly reintroduced him to what he might have been working on, but he certainly isn’t feeling like an expert on either topic.
“Sort of? I was working on synthesizing something, I think? I know that astrophage has a large amount of energy that it stores in its system, and that taumeoba is able to integrate itself into the human system pretty seamlessly. I’m… not really sure what I had been doing with that, though.”
The person frowns. They look to Dr. David, who has finished writing in his notepad and looks back up to Grace. “That’s perfectly fine. I’ll just throw out a final question for now, then. Do any of the following names mean anything to you: Colt, Court, Stratt, Carl or Rocky?”
Familiar, familiar, familiar. All of those names meant something to him before; he’s sure of that. But no matter how hard he tries, they all keep coming up empty. He shakes his head no again, and brings a hand down his face.
“I’m sorry,” he mutters. “I can’t remember anything. Even my time in the medical facility is a little foggy.”
Dr. David exhales, before closing his notepad. “That is perfectly okay, Grace. I’m going to schedule a weekly meeting with you so we can try various ways to jog your memory. I’m sure we can make some progress in getting you back to how you were.” He smiles the same smile as before, showcasing all of his teeth.
Grace returns a shaky smile. As unnerving as Dr. David is, he looks forward to it. He contemplates asking Dr. David about the names that were brought up. They had to be important people if they were asking him about them, right? He recites them in his brain. Colt, Court, Stratt, Carl, Rocky. Something weighs heavy on his chest when he thinks about them. Who could they possibly be to him?
Before Grace can get any word out, the older scientist excuses himself and his team of scientists, citing something about doing more tests and analysis. He promptly strolls out of the room, a group of other people trailing behind him as they quietly mutter to each other and occasionally throw a glance at Grace.
Ava doesn’t wait for them to leave before turning back to Grace. She gestures towards another people sitting at the table. “Grace, this is Simon. You will be joining his specialized team-”
“What?” Simon interrupts, his voice deep and cutting.
Ava ignores him and continues talking. “-that will carry out the plan of eliminating the president.”
“What?!” Grace is the one that interrupts this time. “We’re- we’re taking out the president? I-I don’t think I can do any of that. Also, it’s like, really illegal, right?”
Simon slams his hands down on the table as he stands up. “Are you seriously putting him into my team? I’ve waited years for my own squad! This fucking amnesiac is absolutely useless to me! It’s not like he can even shoot a gun!”
Grace would be insulted if he didn’t also agree with everything that was being said. “A gun?! I- yeah, I agree, I don’t- I don’t think I can do that.”
Ava was calm in the face of all the commotion (and something about that was just so, so familiar). “Grace won’t be doing any field work. He will be helping perfect the poison that you, Simon, will dose the president with.”
Simon scoffs and crosses his arms. He doesn’t sit. “What the fuck? Since when was poison the plan?”
“It was always the plan. You tend to jump headfirst into fights without methodically thinking things through, and the assassination of the president is not the time to be reckless. I’m hoping having a strategist like Grace might be able to help with that. That’s why he’s in your team.”
Grace decides now might be the best time to speak up. “I don’t think I should be involved in this. I mean, that’s murder! And also, I never agreed to make any poison?”
Ava levels him with a gaze that makes him stop talking. “Your memory loss has made you forget. You have agreed before, and this isn’t something I am interested in rehashing.” She turns to Simon. “The same goes for you. There is no room for argument. You have three months to prepare before the plan is in motion. Make sure you get everyone on your team ready.” She glances a little too pointedly at Grace.
Simon huffs in annoyance, before making a circling hand gesture just above his head. “Fine. Everyone move out.”
A small group of people break away from the back of the room and make their way to the exit. Simon steps away from the table and starts walking away as well.
Grace remains seated, wide-eyed and a little horrified at what he had signed himself up to do.
“Oi, scientist,” Simon stopped behind Grace’s seat. He gestures towards Ringo the bodyguard to move aside. “You coming or what?”