An engineered gene-worm...

As Terra became more conscious of her environment, she began to take note of things. The icy blonde looked as though she was in her mid-thirties, the redhead in her late twenties. The cuffs that held her gave enough to avoid cutting off circulation, but held enough to keep her secured. She couldn't see her hands or feet--they were concealed by the strange shackles.

Her body was in a cross in the middle of some kind of gyroscope. This was clearly an examination room. Some deep horror attempted to surface from Terra's mind, but evaporated as it did. It was like a leviathan rising from the depths of the water, only to find that all but the head and neck of it was missing. There was no memory of this place, just a deeply seated fear.

She saw the redhead talking to the blonde. She couldn't make out the words through the plate glass. It was a muffle, but she could gather a little from it--she thought--the redhead was putting something on, she couldn't tell what, and was asking the blonde some questions or giving her some figures or something. The blonde was as tepid as ever. The redhead finally slipped a mask on, which hugged the shape of her neck, picked something up, and entered the room.

She approached Terra slowly. When she reached her, she turned her in her gyroscope a few times, and inspected her. Terra started to sweat as she opened the small, white titanium case. "Be still. I'll be kind to you. Your memory won't return, they've lesioned and augmented your brain pretty heavily. I'm not as much of a devil as most of my colleagues, so I'll make this as easy as possible." The redhead reached to Terra, caressed her neck, and pulled something significant out of the back of her head. She never saw what.

Reaching into the titanium case, she pulled out a large and threatening looking parasite. It was translucent and bluish-green, with a number of dendritic tendrils. "Keep breathing, very slowly and deeply. You'll need the oxygen."