Success! Sorta?

Kazumi wasn’t entirely sure what happened next, she was thrust forward… Up… Inside Zavi’s back… And while everything was dark… She had a moment to wonder why she hadn’t listened to that scientist who had been explaining things a moment ago… But immediately after, utter terror entered her mind, it was a sensation unlike any other she’d felt before… It was like turning around in the shower and seeing a giant cockroach with terrifying mandibles racing towards one’s feet, it was like bungee jumping, hearing an odd sound, and looking back up to see the bungle cable retracting back without one… It was utter and complete fear… And it nearly managed to crowd out every other thought in Kazumi’s head. The only thing that kept her sane in that moment was wanting to help Zavi… Wanting to save the person who was the source of all that fear… So she pushed back against it, muddled through the utter and total terror that was emanating from Zavi’s mind… Kazumi wasn’t entirely clear how their minds were connected like so, probably something else she hadn’t paid attention to, but she could feel it deep down that she could reach Zavi and help her… Sensations were entering her mind too, she was on a table, naked except for the bare minimum, convulsing and struggling… Bright lights were in her eyes, tiny, squishy, pink little monsters were crowding around her, yelling at her… The thing that hit her hardest was the smell, it was like a million dump trucks had unloaded their garbage into an already full sewage plant… Didn’t they know how to clean themselves? They were speaking, but they didn’t have to do it that loud… And why couldn’t they turn down those lights a bit, it reminded Kazumi of the stereotypical scene of aliens experimenting on a subject.:. Zavi’s fear seemed to react to that thought, somehow intensifying even greater… But before that could push Kazumi away… Kazumi’s mind touched Zavi’s… And something very odd happened… Kazumi was still herself… She could feel that, and access all her memories… But she was also someone other than herself… Kazavi, one could say… An entity who was both Zavi and Kazumi… A melding of their goals, ideals, and world views… Almost immediately, Zavi became startlingly aware of the situation… She calmed significantly upon realizing none of the humans surrounding her wanted to hurt her… And that they wouldn’t even touch her given her past reactions to it… She understood the reason for their terrible scent… The scent was fear… The humans in the room were absolutely terrified that Zavi would get free and massacre them… So soon enough, as she took some deep breaths, a calming technique Kazavi knew of… She eventually cleared her mind enough to remain calm… Anod spoke simply…

“Th-The cake is a lie…”

Zavi muttered, she hadn’t understood the reference when they told her the safe phrase… But now that she did thanks to Kazumi having played portal, she thought it was inane… The scientists all froze, and if Zavi hadn’t realized that horrid scent was fear, she would have assumed the humans soiled themselves… But all the same, someone turned the key and pressed the button that released Zavi the moment she said the phrase… The scientists stumbled back and away, still afraid of Zavi, but Zavi calmly stood massaging her arms for a moment where the restraints had held her, and then moving to cover her snout with a hand… She glanced towards the one person in the room who wasn’t terrified of her… And spoke, though it wasn’t Zavi’s normal inflection that sounded off… As much as Zavi wanted to believe she was in control, neither Kazumi nor Zavi were handling the situation directly, Kazavi asked softly.

“M-Mind taking this to another room…? I understand you have some questions for us… But the scent of fear is so overwhelming it’s starting to give us a headache…”

Kazavi requested to the human-like figure. The same “human” who had thrown the switch to Phasebind Kazumi inside Zavi, and the same person who had just released Kazavi from her restraints… The woman smiled, nodded, and beckoned Kazavi into a back room. Kazavi followed simply… Much to the surprise of all the scientists in the room who had been almost sure this was a fool’s errand… The next room over was a staging room where they had kept Zavi before the experiment, Kazavi remembered they kept her in a cage over night that was inside a semi cargo container, and had only released her into the room in the morning, where she had found food, her normal breakfast, but hadn’t touched it because even that felt scary in such an unfamiliar place… Kazavi walked over to the slightly raised platform where the food was and used the fork, which was perfect for Zavi, but oversized for a human… To spear a chunk of ham and move it to her mouth to much on and swallow, Kazavi thought nothing of it… But Kazumi almost wanted to wretch… Zavi was a pure carnivore… She couldn’t eat grains or otherwise, so no sandwiches, vegetables, or otherwise. And aside from that, the chunks of meat she was eating were raw and bloody… Not to mention still full of bone and cartilage, which Zavi’s jaw’s crunched through easily…

“I understand you have some questions for us?”

Kazavi asked between bites, casually watching the woman whom she had followed into the room. That woman was the only one who didn’t smell of fear, and Kazavi wondered why… Even Kazumi had smelled somewhat of fear from Zavi’s memories, but this one almost smelled of practically nothing… No… Bandages..? Why bandages?

“As you know, Kazumi was not provided the phrase required to release you from your bonds, this was done to ensure that the phasebound internal subject was not simply taking control of Zavi’s body, and instead that she was calming Zavi down and allowing her to make her own decisions… Yet, not only do you speak similar to Kazumi now, but you refer to yourself as ‘us’… Is this to mean that I’m speaking to both Kazumi and Zavi simultaneously? Are you sharing control?”

The woman asked, straight to business… Kazumi respected that, and part of Kazumi found it attractive, but she wasn’t about to act on that.

“You could say it is more akin to a third entity being created between us… Zavi still has her distinct mind, personality, and thoughts, Kazumi as well… But the one speaking to you right now… Is someone in between… Kazumi has coined the name Kazavi for us… We possess the understandings and memories of both Zavi and Kazumi…”

Kazavi explained, and the woman’s eyes widened.

“A tribunal consensus, then? Fascinating… So I see you are eating now, is there a reason why Zavi didn’t want to eat earlier, but you do now?”

The woman asked, gesturing to her as Kazavi swallowed a chicken whole… Plucked, of course, but yet again raw.

“We are hungry. And though Kazumi assured us it was provided specifically for this purpose, Zavi was thrown into an unfamiliar room with odd smells, and an all too familiar meal, it’s like presenting a pure white handkerchief to someone covered in mud, they don’t want to touch it lest they soil the illusion. Interestingly, Kazumi has her reservations about eating such things, if Kazumi herself was in control and had to eat this, she’d be trying to regurgitate it instead… But she understands we need sustenance or we’ll collapse from malnutrition shortly.”

Kazavi explained, finishing most of her meal and looking to the woman whilst resting her hands on her hips, a very un-zavi-like pose… If anything, Zavi usually defaulted to very animalistic stances, low to the ground and with her hood flared, here, Kazavi appeared entirely relaxed.

“Very interesting… Well if you want to separate-“

The woman started to ask, and immediately Kazavi’s hood flared and she hissed at just the thought… For Zavi and Kazumi to be separated would mean she would be unmade, and for who knows how long until they are allowed to rejoin?

“Understoood… Kazumi eventually has to come out, you know? And given you just told me that you can do things Kazumi wouldn’t do herself, it wouldn’t be odd for me to assume that you are now keeping Kazumi in there against her will… But for now let’s move onto the next question… I’ve noticed your diction is very, wide… You’re using words Zavi would never know, and words that Kazumi wouldn’t normally use… Do you have an enhanced intelligence or something due to being the product of melding between two minds?”

The woman asked, her look had become hard when Kazavi reacted badly to the thought of separation… For the moment, Kazumi didn’t mind remaining melded, and Zavi was having the time of her life, talking to someone without being in the verge of a heart attack, to Kazavi’s desire to remain merged was overall very, very high.

“Forgive us for that, to Zavi, she has always found English unwieldy and confusing, now that we know a great many words thanks to Kazumi, as well as how to use them, we are simply happy to use any and all available words we can…”

Kazavi clarified, blushing slightly as she realized she was talking almost like one of those eggheads that had been yapping at Kazumi before.

“So you can view Kazumi’s memories? If you have her understanding of the language, how much of her past or abilities do you have access to?”

The woman asked, raising her eyebrows in interest.

“It’s not so simple… Yet it is. The “Kazavi” between Zavi and Kazumi can’t just access everything all of us know at once, I believe the overlapping of those memories in time between Zavi and Kazumi would confuse us, but Kazumi can willingly provide any information she desires for us to use. We don’t just know how to disassemble and reassemble a motor like we are right now, just as we barely know how to climb up these walls, as Zavi knows, but either of them can provide that info to do so if they decide we need it.”

Kazavi offered, it wasnt so much as she had all their memories, but more like snippets, and both Zavi and Kazumi were acting as RAM at the moment to filter and provide what they all might need.

“Very interesting, makes me wonder what kind of individual I’d be speaking to right now if someone other than Kazumi was phasebound to you…”

The woman hummed, and Kazavi shrugged.

“You wouldn’t be speaking to this version of us, so we can’t say…”

The interview went on a while longer, asking about every aspect of the melding, and given the way the woman wasn’t at all writing any of it down, Kazavi could only assume the room they were in was closely monitored to begin with… After what felt like an hour, the woman left Kazavi to her own devices and Kazavi was allowed some time to relax before they decided what to do next…