Mind Games 

Cold... so cold in here... what's going on?... where am I?
So tired... haven't slept... so tired...
Naked... so cold... 
The others... get away? Fred... dead... no... my fault...
Cheek hurts... slap... Diana... there... looking at me... others watching...
Don't look... lights, hum in ears, in my head... can't remember... concentrate...  Can't move, feet stuck to the floor... got to slow down, breathing too fast... what's happening?
Can't... keep eyes open... eyes open... so tired... 
"She's regaining lucidity, Diana," said Jenson, the bio-feedback specialist. He stood at his console, his eyes on his monitors, studying the rotating computer-generated image before him. "Proceeding with preliminary bio-scan."
Diana nodded wordlessly. Her eyes never left the prisoner standing beyond the transparent partition before her. She tilted her head to her left. "Preliminary psycho-feedback report," she said quietly to the deep-mind probe technician, Colin, in charge of interpreting the conversion chamber's brainwave scanners.
"It's much too early, and she's fighting it, but..." Colin paused as his monitor suddenly filled with data taken from the subject's mind. "Her history suggests she's going to be a very difficult subject."
"I'll break her," Diana said quietly, locking eyes with the woman standing on the conversion platform. Time is my ally. "She's going to be my masterpiece."
Juliet Parrish only moaned as she shivered inside the conversion chamber. 

*************** 
Tube... looks like a cylinder... vertical tube... lights flashing...
How long... hours since they got me... so cold... can't move, cover myself... so cold in here... 
"She is almost ready, Diana." Colin turned to look at the silent Diana, who acknowledged him with the slightest of nods. 
She doesn't complain, thought Diana. How interesting, to keep silent in her discomfiture. But she won't be so silent for long.
Diana glanced at Colin's monitor, then her unwavering gaze shifted back to Juliet Parrish. The human had been trying to lunge off the conversion platform, but her legs remained immobile, her feet remaining stuck to the floor. It's no use, my dear Julie. Diana watched as Juliet clenched and unclenched her hands.
"Neurocorb potency factor," queried Diana. Neurocorb was a neuro-suppressant which basically shut down the subject's conscious command of her muscular functions, and it was just one of the drugs Juliet received when she was prepared for the conversion process.
"Neurocorb potency at maximum," Jenson replied, watching his monitors.
"She is ready," announced Colin.
It took more than five hours to break through her initial defenses. But now she is an open book to me. "How are her vital signs?" Diana asked.  
"She is strong enough..." began Jenson.
Good, thought Diana as the technician was speaking.
"... but I must caution you. She's got a congenital heart condition."
Diana read the stream of data on Jenson's monitor. "It's not especially dangerous."
"With what you're about to do, any physiological flaw could become acute," Colin admonished. "You may kill her before you convert her, especially if you augment her memories. Any extreme emotional reaction..."
"I am aware of the risk," Diana interrupted, never shifting her eyes away from Juliet, who trembled and whimpered in obvious discomfort just beyond the transparent window in front of her. "Weaker subjects have survived."
"And even stronger ones have died, Diana," countered Colin. 
"She will be converted." Diana's face was a mask of cold determination. "What is the most promising course of action?"
"She's hidden it well, but we can exploit her fear and loathing of anything abandoned, deserted." Colin paused as his equipment probed deeper into Juliet's mind. "She abhors loneliness, the knowledge of her being abandoned or left behind."
"What is the root of the phobic reactions?" asked Diana, even as she read Colin's monitor. 
"Early trauma..." The details of Juliet's fears filled Colin's screen. "She was being followed; a man chased her and she fled. She hid in a deserted building."
The threat of rape and pursuit? This might be easier than I'd thought. "Begin," commanded Diana, a hint of a smile on her face. "Her memories are an excellent starting point."
"Starting with human conversion, Mode 1," Colin said as he activated the switches to begin the procedure. 
Inside the conversion chamber, Julie felt something surge agonizingly into her head. What... what's happening?... lights, flashing faster... head tingling, starting to hurt... Her breaths came faster, shallower, as she observed the lights around her flash faster and more intensely. Her mouth was dry. She seemed hypnotized by the vertical arrays of lights, and the hum in her ears occupied her head. The sensory barrage devoured her inside the vertical tube that was the conversion chamber.
The prisoner whimpered and moaned in growing discomfort. Head's aching... throbbing... what's going on... "No," Julie said weakly. "God, help me..."
She never noticed that she could move as she tried to block out the buzzing that assaulted her ears and filled her mind. Her hands flew to cup her ears, and she tried to twist away, but her feet remained fettered to the raised conversion platform, as if they were rooted there. 
What's happening... Julie heard herself whimper, and she was shocked to realize her fear had come to the surface. No! Can't show I'm scared... can't show... afraid...  
"Subject is ready for cycling," reported Colin. "Shall we augment the memory cycles?"
"No," Diana answered quietly. "For now we only need to establish the threat. Begin cycling procedures. Start here," indicating a specific brainwave pattern identified by the conversion chamber's sensors. Her conversion specialists bent at their consoles to comply. 
What...
Julie stiffened as she noticed a new set of lights blink to life. Beacons of yellow flashed on beams buttressed against the walls of the chamber, appearing to her as if they were raining from above her, then traveling across the floor towards her. Her eyes followed the path of the yellow lights. Lights... like a web... caught... no!
"No..." Julie moaned, her eyes suddenly staring straight ahead, directly at Diana. But she saw something else altogether. 
An empty street. Abandoned buildings. Herself. Alone. 
No... can't be. Not possible... Julie's heart started to pound in her ears as she recognized a scene from her past. Can't be... alone...
"No..." 
"She is accepting the memory cycle, Diana," reported Colin.
"Bio-scan?" Diana spoke, her eyes never breaking their gaze towards Juliet, who fidgeted and twitched, betraying her increasing nervousness.
"Heart rate thirty percent increase, respiration up twenty two," Jenson stated.
"Increase the cycling intensity point zero five." 
The naked prisoner convulsed involuntarily, her face contorted in mounting distress, her brain trying to repulse the conversion chamber's sensory barrage. Julie gasped audibly as her mind's eye replayed a long-buried memory, and she flung her head back, screaming in pain and fear at the recognition. 
Home... have to get home... not safe here... 
Julie painfully plunged in and out of a vortex of light and darkness. Although it hurt tremendously, she willed herself to see nothing, to re-bury the memory trying to force its way into her consciousness. Her hands, raised to her ears in an effort to salve the pain in her head, lowered back down to her sides. Julie closed her eyes, her face composed and calm.  
"She is fighting." Colin was reporting what was obvious to Diana. "Subject has rejected the memory cycle."
"For the moment." Diana looked down at her monitor, scanning the brainwave patterns. "Here. She will accept this."
Colin hesitated a moment, then made the appropriate adjustments.
"Good. She was very young when it happened," stated Diana.
"Yes, between five and eight years old."
"This will be to our advantage. Increase the intensity point one four," Diana ordered. 
Julie's tears fell, her fear naked and exposed. She despaired from the impossibility to block out the images forcing their way into her attention.
Sunny day... friends left school before me... I'm all alone... 
Got to get home... do homework...
Street's empty... have to get home...
Julie's face did not mask her confusion. How was it possible? The scene, long-buried by time, again screamed its way to the surface of her consciousness. As she tried to reject what the conversion chamber and the hallucinogens in her system imposed on her mind, waves of pain washed over her, making her shudder. 
"She is still fighting it." Colin sounded a touch surprised.
Diana was silent for a moment. She looked at her monitor, searching the brainwave scanning reports, seeking the key that would lock Juliet inside a hellish waking nightmare. "She is on the brink. Increase cycling intensity three one point zero; amplify, using aural stimulation, the sound of heavy, malicious breathing." 
The scene in Julie's mind's eye lost focus, then sharpened markedly. All her senses came alive, and memories fused with present experience: The empty street; the cracked concrete of the sidewalk; the empty buildings all around her; the warmth of the sun; the smell of wood and plaster and dust. Everything seemed so real. Julie's eyes widened, mesmerized completely as she relived the episode helplessly. She inhaled sharply as she heard, first like a whisper, then gradually, as the seconds passed, louder and louder, the sound of a man breathing heavily, deliberately, somewhere behind her.
Julie wailed, child-like, in the conversion chamber. 
"You've done it, Diana," said Colin. "The subject has completely accepted the cycle. What's next?"
"She determines what happens next," answered Diana cryptically. 
Julie! Julie! The stranger's voice was rough, dripping with malevolent intent.
No! Julie looked behind her. Nobody there. She felt the urge to run. She felt movement behind her, and she headed for the nearest empty edifice. Her hands gripped the wooden door jamb, and she swung herself inside the abandoned building. It was dark and dusty. She rushed inside, hiding behind a wall, waiting, her heart pounding in her ears. Then she saw him.
He seemed huge. He peered through the doorway, silhouetted against the sunlight. His face was in shadow, but Julie recognized him as the face of her childhood terrors. His eyes were wild, malicious, and he wore a wolf's grin. Julie! Julie, where are you?
Julie fought the impulse to scream and the sudden urge to urinate. She just crouched, trying to remain still, not wanting to betray her hiding place. She willed her heart to slow, afraid that the man would hear its hard and frenzied beating. Julie just watched, wide-eyed.
The stranger's savage eyes looked to the floor, and the man stepped into the darkness. His face was a mask of evil eagerness. Julie! Julie, you can't hide from me.
What to do... what to do... back door... way out... Julie looked quickly around her, searching for her escape route. She saw it, sunlight and concrete walls beyond an open door, but to her horror the man walked towards it and closed it. He's going to find me... he's going to hurt me.
He kept his eager eyes on the floor. A small sound escaped from Julie's throat, as she realized that he could see her footsteps in the dust of the building.
Julie! Julie, come out! I just want to play with you, little girl. The man laughed. Come on, I just want to play with you, Julie. Come, little girl, play...
He was almost on top of her. She could almost feel his hands on her small frame, when she realized something.
No! Didn't happen! I got away! Door was open! I got help! Didn't happen! 
"No," said Julie weakly, struggling to cling to reality, trying desperately to extricate her mind from the fabrication imposed on it by Diana's machine and the chemicals coursing inside her. "No! It's a lie! You're a lie!" Her brain felt as if it was on fire, but she dug her fingers into her palms, trying desperately to root herself to the real world. 
Damn. She saw through the implant. Diana contained her disappointment, calmly reading her monitor. The conversion chamber's brainwave scanners continued to glean straight from Juliet's mind information about her phobia and all its possible imagined consequences. Computers synthesized this information and created myriad false memories, continuously arming itself for the assault on the human's mind.
"Is she still primed for memory cycling?" Diana asked Colin.
"Yes, but she's slipping a bit." The conversion expert fine-tuned a dial, then looked at his monitor. "Brainwave scan indicates she still sees the current cycle, but doubts its veracity."
"Vital signs," Diana queried, whirling to face Jenson. 
"Cardio-pulmonary functions above normal, Diana."
"But within the acceptable ranges?"
"Yes, but push her too hard, Diana..."
"Go to Conversion Mode 2," said Diana inexorably. She pointed out a specific brainwave pattern on Colin's screen. "Use this Augmentation Sequence." The Visitor commander stared at the woman on the conversion platform beyond the clear window in front of her. You saw the lie and almost believed it, my dear. A bigger lie, perhaps... 
Julie trembled violently, her face wracked in obvious discomfort, as the temperature in the conversion chamber, already uncomfortably cold, suddenly dropped dramatically. A mist of drugs hissed out from somewhere near her feet, enveloping her, ensuring she breathed in the chemicals.
Cold... so cold... killing me... 
Not quite, Julie. Diana's eyes flicked back from the monitor to Juliet, watching as the cold tortured the blonde woman. I have no intention of killing you. Only breaking you, and remaking you... 
What's this... blue light... warm... yes...
Julie's fierce shivers ceased, a warm blue light bathing her form. She looked straight ahead, her eyes seeing nothing but the oddly pulsing blue mist all around her. She moaned as the hallucinations started again. 
Dark... so dark in here... can't see... where am I?
Old place... yes... Julie was relieved to find herself in familiar surroundings, her former apartment before she'd moved in with Denny. Safe... but can't see...
Julie's arms slowly reached forward; she tried to feel her way around, her eyes searching vainly for the light switch. In the darkness only her touch guided her. She walked slowly, trying to navigate her way in the blackness.
What... oh... 
A door. Julie's hand found the knob, and she twisted it. Slowly she pulled the door open, reaching out towards the light switch to her small bedroom.
She screamed in surprise and pain as she felt someone shove her onto the hard floor. Julie felt hot breath on her skin, and the unseen man pinned her down. She shrieked in terror.
A rough hand crashed into Julie's face. Shut u[! Shut up or I'll kill you! Another hand ripped her blouse off, exposing her torso 
"No! Please! Don't hurt me!" Julie squirmed, trying to twist away. 
"Diana, be careful. Her cardio-pulmonary readings are becoming highly irregular," implored Jenson.
"I know what I'm doing. Increase intensity by five four point zero." Diana watched impassively as Juliet acted out the imposed illusion in the conversion chamber. Excellent; she is feeling and responding to everything...  
 The man in the darkness slopped an open-mouthed kiss onto Julie, who kept screaming in mounting terror. I said shut up! Shut up or I'll KILL you!! He slapped Julie in the face again.
No! No!
 "No! Don't! Please don't hurt me!" Julie screamed hysterically
Squirm, Julie, squirm! I know you're loving this! His tongue left a moist streak on her chest.
Voice... voice... recognize... 
He laughed as she cried. 
"How is she responding to the augmented sequence?" 
"She accepts it in full, Diana." Jenson read his bio-feedback monitors. "Physical responses have been triggered. She is feeling everything."
"Good."
"But you must be careful, Diana," said Colin. "She is entering a dangerous phase; her cardiac system cannot possibly..."
"I said I know what I'm doing!" Diana's anger was thinly veiled. "I don't intend to kill her, you fool. She must believe that her life is in danger. I must tap her survival instinct."
"I understand as much, Diana," Colin said. "But you cannot convert her if she's dead!"
Diana only continued watching Juliet act out the horrid fantasy in the conversion chamber. 
No... no... please, stop!
Julie shrieked insanely. She was horrified to realize that her body was reacting to her attacker's assault. His fingers continued jabbing and rubbing inside her, while his mouth worked on her breasts. His short curly beard irritated her skin. 
Yes, Julie, yes! You're loving this, aren't you?. He laughed at her.
"No... please... it hurts..."
Voice... I know his voice...
 "BEN!!!" Julie screamed, finally putting a name on the voice. "BEN, stop! PLEASE! STOP! You're hurting me..."
 Who are you kidding? You want this! You've been wanting for this for a very long time!  
Julie heard Ben laugh again as he continued ravishing her. 
"She's made the connection," Colin observed. "We've begun to tap into her emotional centers. We should begin noticing a reduction in her trust index soon."
"Good." Diana looked into Juliet's eyes, satisfied with the human's complete acceptance of the visions produced by the conversion chamber.  
Ben! BEN! Please, STOP!
"Stop, please, stop..." Julie said, writhing as she acted out the fantasy inside the conversion chamber. Her tears fell freely as she felt Ben continue assaulting her. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't stop her own body from reacting to the hallucination Diana and her machine imposed on her mind. 
For long minutes Julie felt Ben drilled into her. "Ben... Ben, please, stop..." she said, moaning as she unsuccessfully tried to stop the swell of her physical responses to the induced nightmare. "No..." Julie shudderedBen's hand groped Julie's pelvic area repeatedly, his rough fingertip finding the scar on her right hip. 
Scar... shot... Visitors shot Ben... shot me... I was there...
Ben! You're dead! It's a trick! A sick lie!
"Ben's dead!" Julie screamed at Diana. "It's a mind game! It's just a sick, stupid mind game!" The blonde woman's eyes were swimming. She gasped as she tried to breathe and slow her pounding heart. "Ben's dead..." The images in her head faded into darkness, replaced only by pain. 
"Diana, her cardio-pulmonary readings are in the critical range," Jenson warned, insistence plain in his reverberating voice. 
"Shut down. She's had enough, for now." You're stubborn, but I WILL break you. Time is on my side, Julie. "See to her removal, and give her a nutrient supplement." 
Julie collapsed atop the conversion platform as the lights around her flickered off. She tried to stop herself from falling, but the thought burned her mind and her every fiber, until unconsciousness devoured her completely. 
*************** 
"She's strong." Colin was walking with Diana towards the special holding cells, the ones equipped with observation rooms adjacent to them.
"She will be converted," said Diana quietly. There was no mistaking her absolute determination and confidence. "She is stubborn, but she has her limits."
"She almost believed that last sequence you sent her at the end of the session."
"Yes," said Diana. "She is fighting, but I expected no less from her. We have yet to determine her breaking point. But she will be broken..." The Visitor commander saw Martin walking towards them. "How is the prisoner?"
"She has just regained consciousness."
Six hours. We will need to start from the beginning. "Have the med-techs administered the nutrient supplement?"
"Yes, Diana." Martin joined Diana and Colin and entered the observation room. Diana keyed open the surveillance window into Juliet Parrish's cell.
The human shivered in the cold. She was sitting up, her head between her knees, her arms curled around her legs, rocking gently. She slowly lifted her head, and tears streaked her face, though her eyes were squeezed shut. 
"Does she have to suffer the cold like that?" Martin's voice barely masked his genuine concern for the naked woman on the other side of the observation window. 
"Yes," answered Diana, eyeing her aide with a touch of suspicion. She watched as Juliet stood slowly and unsteadily and started to pace around the small cell, only to stoop after a few steps and crouch, one hand on her heart, the other on the floor as she tried to balance herself.
"I don't understand," admitted Martin, watching the same scene unfold before him.
"The subject has to experience as much physical and psychological suffering as we can administer," Colin explained. "Only she determines the limit of what she can endure." 
"Eventually, if she values her life, she will beg for my intervention," elaborated Diana. A small smile curled her lips as she saw the prisoner resume her curled-up position. "She will implore me to save her from her pain. She will be converted." She looked to Colin. "I want her back in the chamber in four hours. I will be in my lab, continuing my studies of her updated psychological profile."
"Is it wise to resume the therapy this soon?" Colin asked. "She may not yet have fully recovered from the first session."
Diana ignored the question as she left the observation room. Colin and Martin exchanged looks, each trying to read the other's reaction. Gleaning nothing, they both turned their gazes back to the shivering blonde woman in the cell. 
Damn. Damn. Damn.
Julie kept her eyes shut, the subdued lighting in her cell hurting her head. She tried desperately to not think. Why'd they have to get me? She felt the tears trace their way down her cheek. She tasted the warm saltiness on her lips.
Can they have left me? Have they forgotten... She stopped the thought, but then the image, and the physical feeling, of Ben and what he did to her while she was lost in her mind during the conversion session, suddenly filled her awareness. No, no, no! She tried to stifle the sob, but the effort shook her petite form. I can't stop them from coming into my mind! But I've got to fight them. Somehow...
*************** 
"No..." Julie stared straight ahead as she noticed the lights all around her flash faster and brighter. A single shaft of blue light traced its way from somewhere above her, revolving faster and faster, until it blurred in her vision. She moaned as the next hallucination in her mind's eye sharpened in focus. 
"No... not another one..." Julie muttered weakly, filled with the sickening sensation that accompanied every single fantasy Diana sent her. 
She found herself at the UCLA university hospital. The E.R.... no one here...
She meandered the empty halls, trying to find someone, anyone. Alone again...
"Ruth? Dr. Metz?" Julie shook her head fiercely, vainly trying to deny to herself that she couldn't stop her mind from accepting Diana's illusions. No... not again... can't let them come in... She trembled as she tried to close her mind. The effort only made her feel as if her brain had been stung by thousands of hot needles. Her tears fell freely. 
Diana watched the human convulse inside the conversion chamber, then looked down at her monitors. We've been at this for three hours now. We should be starting to breach her defenses, but... The Visitor commander pursed her lips, thinking. "She is hiding something."
"I noticed that too," replied Colin. "Here," indicating a flagged brainwave scan. "It is as if she's not consciously aware of what she is concealing..."
Diana eyed Juliet, silently considering the possibilities. "I wonder if it's something we can exploit..." she asked of the air.
"Possibly," replied Colin. "If we knew what it is she's hiding." 
Julie's mouth was dry; her eyelids felt irresistibly itchy, and she twitched and jerked uncontrollably. She moaned in pain as she threw her head back, her mind swallowing up the fantasy in full. 
Julie walked slowly down the hospital's deserted halls, listening for any sound that would indicate she wasn't alone. She only heard her breathing and her heart in her ears. Suddenly she heard the soft pop of a light switch, and the brightly-lit hospital hall fell dark. Julie almost jumped in surprise, her heart surging.
"Who... who's there?" Julie looked all around her. Nothing but darkness, and silence.
The metallic click of a switchblade echoed in the dark hall. Julie turned her head in the direction of the sound, then ran in the opposite direction. She heard heavy breaths and advancing footfalls behind her as she fled. 
"No!" Julie slipped and fell on the slippery hospital floor. She tried to get up, but a heavy figure pinned her down, immobilizing her. She felt hot breath on her neck. 
Don't move or I'll slice you open! Julie felt the cold metal of the knife below her jaw. I'll kill you! The man moved the knife downwards, and Julie whimpered quietly, trying to keep still.
The knife sliced through Julie's lab coat, then through her blouse. Julie twitched and whimpered. The man's hand closed around Julie's throat, but he did not squeeze. I told you to shut up! He pulled Julie's torn clothing off her.
His knife sliced through Julie's slacks. His breaths came heavy and hard, and he grunted as he ripped off her tattered trousers. Julie squirmed as she felt his hand between her thighs. He rubbed her through her underwear, and she tried to keep still.
Please, no... no... don't hurt me, please... 
"Bio-rhythms are getting irregular," Jenson reported.
Diana ignored the bio-feedback technician. She kept her eyes on Juliet as she leaned forwards, toward a microphone pickup.
"Julie? Julie, this is Diana."  
Julie heard the Visitor's voice; it was seduction itself.
"Julie, let me help you. He's hurting you, Julie."
"Diana? No..." 
You're hurting me...
"Yes... yes, Diana, he's hurting me..."
"Julie, listen to me. Julie, let me help you. I can help you, Julie."
"Yes..." Julie sobbed. "Hurting me..." 
 "He's hurting you, Julie. He's going to rape you. Let me help you Julie."
"NO!!" Julie screamed. 
 "Julie! Let me help you! You're all alone, and only I can help you, Julie!"
The blonde woman squeezed her eyes shut, making her tears run down her cheeks. She felt the sting of pain on her neck, and she felt the man bucking on top of her. Alone... no help... all alone... they left me...
"NO!!" Julie's eyes popped open, looking right at Diana. "You're lying... lying..."
"Then who is there to help you, Julie?"
"No..." 
"Her cardio-pulmonary readings are in the perilous ranges again," alerted Jenson. 
"You've done it, Diana," Colin exclaimed. "You've broken through her defenses. This is what she's been hiding from us." The deep mind-probe technician indicated a new stream of brainwave scan reports.
"I thought as much," said Diana quietly. "Continue the present cycle, up to her physical climax, then shut down." A small smile drifted across Diana's smooth simulated face. "Update her psychological profile and send it to my quarters." She looked up at Juliet, who was screaming and writhing in pain, deep in the imposed hallucination. "We finally have the key to break her and convert her."
"As you wish, Diana," Colin replied deferentially as Diana turned and left the conversion laboratory. He adjusted several dials and punched in specific keystrokes, making Juliet wail pathetically. 
*************** 
Donovan... Diana read the screen thoughtfully. Interesting. She can be turned, but it's going to be tricky... Diana reached for her comlink.
"Colin."
"Yes, Diana?" came the reply.
"I have to consult you, on Parrish's conversion."
"As you wish, Diana. When?"
"Tomorrow. I want to synthesize several memory plants with your assistance. The computers cannot synthesize what I have in mind; the subject hid the projected outcomes from herself too well." 
"Understood. I'll meet you at the chamber in the morning then, Commander."
"Very well, Colin." Diana thumbed the communicator off, then switched her visual monitor to Juliet's cell. The human was curled up in a fetal position. 
Donovan... how very interesting indeed... 
*************** 
"NO!!!"
Julie screamed as she awoke from the nightmare. "Not again..." she said weakly, trembling and shivering both from fear and the coldness in her cell. She moved her hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks, then hugged herself tightly and once more shut her eyes tightly closed. 
I can't stop them... More tears fell. The final moments of the last nightmare invaded her consciousness, and Julie shook her head fiercely, trying to stop herself from thinking. Her head throbbed at the effort.
Julie looked up at the cell's ceiling, but closed her eyes again, dizziness and nausea viciously assaulting her. The discomfort seemed to get worse as time went by, though she no longer had any idea how long she'd been in Diana's custody. Been here forever... days... weeks... they've abandoned me... left me here... She shuddered at that last thought, vaguely trying to discover why she'd almost believed that. She shook her head again, slowly, as if the motion caused her great pain. Help me... 
Memories of the most recent sessions in the conversion chamber unwillingly filled her mind's eye. Again, she vividly felt the fear, the pain, the humiliation and shame, and all the physical sensations of the horrific fantasies Diana somehow made her experience in her mind. The implanted false memories made her anatomy ache, as if she had actually been physically assaulted. 
She gasped as she recalled that last session she'd endured, when someone, a man masked by the darkness but still vaguely familiar, rescued her from her attacker. They were at the old resistance headquarters, the abandoned sewer plant, and her rescuer killed her attacker. She felt relief when she thought it was over, and he, the unseen he, had helped her. Then she heard his laughter, that mocking chuckle, and the promises that went unfulfilled: "I'll help you, Julie. I'll never leave you. I'll never hurt you..."
"Lies..." 
*************** 
We've been at her for two and a half weeks now. And she still hasn't broken... Diana's patience was wearing a bit thin. She watched Juliet Parrish wail and cry, twitching and convulsing, inside the conversion chamber. But perhaps tonight...
"She's starting to fade, Diana," warned Jenson. "We cannot possibly sustain the treatment for much longer."
Diana ignored the bio-technician, gazing at the monitors before her before turning towards Colin. "Perhaps some patience, Diana, would be prudent," said the conversion expert. They both watched as Juliet reached another humiliating climax, resulting from the conversion chamber's torturous stimulation. 
"Patience has gotten us nowhere," Diana replied tersely. "Give me maximum. She will be turned!"
"She could die!" Colin warned. "She is at her limit!"
"So be it," Diana said chillingly. "Maximum. And use the memory plant I synthesized this morning." The time for subtlety has ended, Julie.
The conversion technicians obeyed. 
"No... no..." Julie moaned and was bathed in pulsating blue and yellow lights inside the conversion chamber. Her eyes were closed as she focused all her mental energies into blocking out the latest hallucination, but her head throbbed, feeling as if it would split open.
So tired... so tired... home... want to go home...
Without warning, Julie felt crackles of energy hit her face and penetrate her skin, seemingly into her mind. She screamed. Her eyes popped open, and she saw coruscating red beams aimed at her face. She tried to move and twist away from the red beams, but her body did not respond to her desperate mental commands. Instead, she twitched violently and kept on screaming, feeling agony in every fiber of her being.
Hurts... hurts so much... Julie's brain burned at the thought. She couldn't stop the all-consuming pain. Her eyes saw only the wild flashes of light, her skin felt only a complete scorching sensation, and her ears heard only her wild screams.
"Julie..." Diana's voice was alluring and insistent. "Let me stop the pain, Julie."
Pain... stop the pain...
"Let me help you." 
Yes...
"NO!!" Julie cried, without thinking. The pain only increased with her refusal. 
Stubborn bitch. Diana twisted the dial controlling the cycling intensity herself, her eyes never breaking their hold on Juliet. You WILL be broken... 
"Then run, Julie!" Diana's voice was angry, burning into Juliet's mind. 

 Run...
"Run for your life! Run faster, Julie, run faster!" 
Julie ran down the hall of the Los Angeles Medical Center. Her right hand held a Visitor sidearm. She stopped, crouching and whirling around to try to stop her pursuer. Her volley missed, sending sparks flying from the wall where the bolt hit. But he returned fire, and she was trapped by shots that barely missed her. 
"You're not going to get me!" Her head spun around, turning to look at the door that led to escape. She saw the door close with a loud thud. They left me. Left all alone... She turned, trying to find her target, when someone grabbed her weapon.
JULIE!
YOU! Julie froze in complete shock as she saw the face of Mike Donovan.
Julie, it's okay. I'll never leave you. I'm here to help you. Donovan moved to embrace Julie, and she melted in his arms.
"Please, help me..." Julie sobbed into Mike's chest. It felt so good to be in his arms. She felt completely safe. She felt his arms tighten around her, and his hands moved to cup her head carefully.
Julie, I'm here to help you. Mike looked into Julie's eyes, and Julie returned the gaze. Then she gasped.
His eyes turned dark and sinister. Julie recognized the feared eagerness and hunger in their depths, and his mouth twisted in a wolfish grin. He pulled on her hair, and she had no choice but to fling her head back.
I'll never hurt you, Donovan said as he grabbed Julie's arm and twisted it behind her, effectively immobilizing her. Julie felt his hot breath on her neck, his free hand tearing off her white gown. She screamed in protest.
"NO! PLEASE!" His hand connected with her face, and she was shoved down onto the floor, knocking the breath out of her. His dark eyes bored into her and roved hungrily all over her.
I'll never leave you, Julie, Donovan repeated, lowering himself onto the ground, undoing his trousers as he did so. I'll never hurt you, I'll never leave you. 
A tear burned its way down Julie's cheek. She'd been crying for hours, but strangely she was aware of this single tear tracing its way down her face.
Never leave me... never hurt me...
Lies... 
 "Give me your hand, Julie! Let me help you out of there!" Diana's voice filled Julie's mind, soothing her, taking away the pain. 
Help me... 
Julie's left arm rose slowly, reaching out in front of her. "Yes, momma, momma!" Her right arm inexorably reached out to her side, her hand blindly searching. "Yes, Diana, yes, help me..." 
Donovan grunted like an animal as he continued assaulting Julie. He never noticed that her right hand found his weapon on the floor where he had put it.  
"Julie. What do you want, Julie?" Diana's voice called irresistibly to Juliet.
"He's... he's hurting me..." Juliet felt another single warm tear on her moist cheek. Her heart hurt tremendously. "I... I want him... to stop." Her right hand joined with her left, then she let her right arm drop to her side. 
"You can stop him, Julie. Stop him. Stop him from hurting you." 
Hurting me... 
"Tell me, Julie. Tell me what you want."
"To be yours..." Julie gasped, her chest heaving as she struggled to breathe. "To be yours..." 
Julie saw Donovan's perverse eyes widen as he realized she had his gun in her left hand, aiming at his chest. He moved to take it from her grasp, but her finger tightened on the trigger... 
"Please! Just stop it, please, stop it..." pleaded Juliet. Her left hand extended out to Diana, who was standing in front of her, just beyond her reach.
The Visitor woman watched Juliet's finger pull the imaginary trigger. The human screamed and sobbed. Diana signaled her technicians to switch the conversion chamber off. Instantly, the lights that flashed wildly around Juliet winked off, and the exhausted prisoner collapsed onto the conversion platform. Diana reached out, running her hand through Juliet's blonde locks, and she felt the human submit meekly. I have won.
Suddenly, the door to the conversion laboratory hissed open, and Diana raised a simulated eyebrow in shock as she saw who had rushed inside. Mike Donovan!  
Donovan was armed with a laser rifle, and he loosed a blast at Jenson, killing him instantly. He next fired at Diana, but the wily Visitor Commander avoided the shot as she had already leaped off the raised conversion platform by the time the laser bolt hit the transparent partition between the conversion chamber and the control laboratory. The remaining conversion technicians scattered to safety.
Diana watched motionlessly as Donovan made his way to the glass screen, smashing through it with the butt of the rifle. She heard Juliet's gasp as she saw Mike. Donovan then trained the weapon at Diana... 
Juliet saw the flash of light. She knew someone had been shot. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Her eyes traveled to where Donovan was, and she watched as he fell backwards, his green eyes wide open. She saw the pain in those eyes. She froze, uncertain of what to think or feel, then pain and exhaustion ate her alive, unconsciousness finally turning everything to blackest black. 
Diana stood up, eyeing Captain Jake as he stood at the doorway into the conversion chamber. Captain Jake slowly lowered his sidearm and walked towards the inert form whose chest smoked and smelled of burnt meat. He poked at Donovan's body with the toe of his boot. "He's dead," he muttered, self-satisfaction evident in his deep and reverberating voice.
Diana smiled.