Meg was taken to a small, square room with no windows and one heavily guarded metal door. A metal chair sat in the middle, slightly reclined, with restraints for the arms, legs, and chest.
Forcefully, the guards pushed Meg into the chair, pulling down on the restraints tightly so her wrists, ankles, and chest were held down. She winced from her soreness of her broken wrist, but bit her tongue to keep silent.
Then, the guards left Margaret, shutting the door so she sat in total darkness. A few hours ago- she would have been more than happy to be seated in a room like this. Now the silence was even to loud and terrifying for her, the darkness swallowing Meg.
She pulled tightly on the restraints, wanting to get out of that room before it drove her insane. Tears pricked her eyes as her whole body shook from anxiety- another panic attack rattling her body. Meg tried to get her powers to work, but all she got was nothing. The serum was doing a good job at temporarily stopping her Metahuman abilities.
Then the door opened.
Two sets of footsteps entered the room as the light turned on- which blinded Meg until her eyes slowly adjusted. As she squinted to see who was in the room with her, fear ripped through Margaret as her panicked breaths quickened.
"Not so happy to see me, are you, Margaret?" Savage asked, arms clasped behind his back. Meg glared at him, not wanting to say anything that he could easily manipulate.
"I'll take that as a no, then.... I'd like you to meet my friend. He's here to help us with the... Process." Meg's tyrant father explained. The redhead's green eyes fell on the man standing next to him, who held a weird device that was oddly terrifying.
"Process?" Meg rose a brow, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You'll see soon enough." Savage said. He turned to the man, "Please take it away."
"This process was specially created for you, Margaret. We will be using your narcolepsy and the Process in order to put you in a permanent blackout." He explained, "You won't remember anything about who you once were."
He attached the device to Meg's head, hooking up patches threaded onto several wires around her head and neck. Savage took out a dagger and grabbed his daughter's arm. Carefully he used the blade to loosen the leather cuff laced with metal that helped Meg's narcolepsy. The material fell to the ground with a thud- leaving the redhead susceptible to sleeping spells and blackouts.
"Go to hell." Margaret growled, pulling on the straps holding her down.
The man pressed down on a button- causing a pain she never thought possible to enter her head and neck. She arched her back, screaming at the top of her lungs. Tears pricked her eyes as the air left her chest cavity, making it hard for her to breathe.
"What is your name?" Savage asked.
"Margaret." The redhead wheezed, trying to fight back whatever the pain was doing to her. The intensity of the pain increased, which caused Meg to let out another screen. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead as she pulled on the restraints to escape the agony that shook her bones.
"No. You're Shadow- remember?" Savage was trying to get Meg's blacked out self to become her permanently, "You and Chronos will work together and do a I say."
Meg looked at Savage, shaking her head furiously, "Why are you doing this? Just kill me, I've done enough dirty work for you."
"I thought you'd like it that I was sparing your life. Unlike your friends. They will be dead eventually." Savage explained. He slowly walked up to Meg, and whacked her hard across the face. Her head is thrown back with the stinging pain, her whole body burning from the Process as a mix of sweat and tears rolled down her face.
"Ray..." Meg shook her head, only causing the machine to turn back on. Her whole body felt like it was being electrocuted, convulsing under the restraints under her arms and legs were sore and raw.
"You need to forget Ray. You need to forget the team." Savage told her.
"No!" Dizziness was overcoming her senses as she fought, twisting her body as the pain turned downright unbearable.
"Ray doesn't love you, Chaos. Ray left you for Kendra. He loves Kendra. Not you. You could have saved your family- with the help of the team. You could have saved Kyle- that stupid brother of yours. Your team could have helped you, but they left you in the dust."
Meg shook her head again, choking through the white hot pain, "No- you're lying! You made me kill them! And the team... the team wouldn't let me down." She spat, "My name is Meg."
"Your name is Shadow and you work for me." Savage commanded, "Forget yourself. Forget Ray. There is nothing you can do- I won."
"No!" Meg shouted, barely able to form coherent words through the agony. Something hit her across the face again- causing stars to fill her already clouded vision. The Metahuman's head lolled to the side, too weak to hold it up herself.
"You need to forget everything." Her father roared.
Electricity and energy filled Meg once again- her body too weak as it tried to absorb the energy and fight back. Memories came rushing back to her, replaying in her droopy eyes.
With that the two walked in silence, letting the quiet take over instead of their quiet whispers. They stood so close their arms brushed against each other, but Meg was still shaken that the contact seemed to comfort her.
Slowly, Meg's mind wandered from the dream, letting it drift to the back of her mind like all other dreams did. She wiped the last of her tears from her face, and let out a small sigh. Perhaps Ray was right.
"Why are you so nice to me?" Meg asked, looking down at their socked and slippered feet.
"Because I care." Ray replied, reaching over to give the red head's hand a squeeze. Meg felt her cheeks flush red, her gaze quickly shifting down to the floor to hide her blush. What did that mean?
"You're different, you know... from other people." He said, "A good kind of different."
Slowly the scene faded from her memory, with Meg's sobs the only protest. The emptiness of the memory left her in cold pain- in darkness. Another one came into play.
"Stay with me, Palmer!" Meg said frantically, studying Ray carefully to try and figure out how to save him. His face was pale and bluish, frost covering his lips and various parts of his face.
"I'm afraid Dr. Palmer has gone into cardiac arrest." Gideon said. Blood running cold, Margaret felt light headed, her hands shaking as tears pricked her eyes.
"No.. " Immediately Meg started CPR, trying to get his heart working again.
"Wake up Ray! I can't lose you too! I need you! Come on." The red head put her head against his chest, trying to see if his heart was beating. No such luck. Ray was most likely dead.
"He's chances of survival are less than 3,720 to 1." Gideon said- her tone suggesting so sign of empathy what so ever. Meg shook her head, continuing to do chest compressions. Her hands ached and she was so out of breath from crying and doing CPR that she couldn't think straight. She could lose Ray- after everything she'd been through. Meg needed him. She checked for a pulse again, using her fingers to press in the crook of his neck. His skin was freezing to the touch from hypothermia, and he showed no signs of breathing.
A tear fell onto Ray's exo-suit. Maybe she could have accepted that drink.
"Gideon, now's not the time for this!" Meg shouted, failing to keep any sort of composure. Her hands, charged with light, pound down on his chest- causing Ray's body to jerk upwards. Still nothing.
"Raymond Palmer you can't die on me now! Come on, Ray. I need you!" The red head grunted, pounding down once again onto his chest.
Ray suddenly sat up, gasping in a raspy breath, coughing. Meg fell back, exhausted, and relieved.
"Meg, please stop hitting my chest. I don't know why they do that in the movies because it doesn't help that much." He said hoarsely.
"I-I thought you were dead." She said softly, wiping the tears that fell from her eyes quickly. Meg sucked in a few breaths, closing her eyes.
"I think I was there, for a second." He wheezed.
Memories of the like filled Meg's mind before diffusing into nothing but emptiness. Her body was numb as it convulsed, too weak to fight back anymore as the pain intensified.
A bloodcurdling scream exited Meg's hoarse throat in between her agonizing sobs and gasps for breath. Exhaustion filled her entire body- too tired and weak to even breathe properly. Sobs rattled Meg's chest, her body tensed up.
Then, her heart stopped, causing Meg to choke on herself as she fell into a comatose state with the inability to breathe.
But- the pain stopped- all of it. Every piece of it. Meg was left limp and lifeless for a few moments, glad she was dead- that the pain was finally over. But as she was ready to succumb to the good kind of darkness- where it all ended- a rush of energy came hurtling back to her body. No. Meg didn't want to go back.
But she didn't have a say on her thoughts and actions now, did she?
A heavy, tugging sensation sat on her chest, pooling every emotion she ever felt into a melting pot of rage. Meg's mind was cloudy- her eyes glazed over until her dazzling green orbs that were wide open and bloodshot turned dark with shadows.
"What is your name?" A voice hissed into her ear- Lord Savage.
Meg gasped for air, sitting up. Her eyes made contact with her father, a small maniacal smile creeping onto her lips.
"Who, me?" She grinned, "Shadow, boss."