Yearning for Freedom

She had been a girl, once. Her name had been Allegra Sauvagess. Her life had not been easy, surgery after surgery, genetic therapy and cybernetic enhancement. An embarrassment to her father, for far more than the deficiencies in her health. Her father had been a staunch member of the Humanitas, and the fact that Allegra had been engaged to an orc woman had not gone well with him. She wanted to miss him, or to fear his rage, as she had once done, but she could not. Thoughts of him, or of her murdered fiance, just caused tiny flickers of what should have been emotion, shadowy whispers of things she used to feel.

Allegra had slipped into the shadows and became Cortana, as a way to escape from her controlling father. She had been good at it. Too good. She had attracted the eyes of a dragon. Kath'wyn had taken her, and broken her. Flayed her and mutilated her until she had dies on the operating table, and then he stole even peaceful rest from her. His dark rituals had bound her soul to this husk that had once been her body, now more machine than flesh.

Her foot steps echoed in the alley. It was cold and wet, but neither could bother her even with the heavy coat open, her arms and belly exposed to the biting wind and vaguely acidic rain. Her skin was long since gone, replaced by a synthetic replica resistant to such hazards. Her eyes could piece the gloom, transmitting the video feed back to the mainframe built around the tank she submersed herself in when she was supposed to sleep, as if slumber would break this horrid half life she found herself in. Processing the run of melancholy thoughts, the processor implanted into her brain flooded her with flashes of memories, of her loved ones, her friends. Of Prime.

Her augmented eyes scanned up. She doubted anyone else would see the ghostly figure gracefully roaming the roof line above her. Infected with HMHVV by Kath'wyn in one of his experiments, Prime had lost just as much to the dragon as Cortana had, and it was Prime who dragged Cortana back from the brink when she threw herself into the most dangerous actions in an attempt to kill herself indirectly. When her self destructive urges were at their worst, Prime was the light that guided her way back, the only spark that ignited real emotion in her any more. Her love for Prime had been powerful before, a best friend, almost a sister. Now, she would do anything for her.

"Managing to keep up with okay me down there?" Prime's voice held a hint of mirth as she  softly spoke over their private comm channel. She'd always been a bit of a smart mouth in life, damned if she was going to let her circumstance take that away too, even if Cortana was the only one privy to it most nights. "Shout out if you need me to slow down for you."

She slipped from one shadow to the next, leaving nothing but a hint of laughter as she regarded her team mate from up above. In the past Cortana would have roamed the rooftops, specialising in long distance recon but since Prime had 'changed' they were better able to split the tasks. During her career she'd never been into Augs. It wasn't that she didn't agree with them, more they were damned exensive, well for anything she's consider worthy enough to permently attach to her body. In those days most of her nuyen went into finding out what happened to her family. That journey has been a long, often fraught one but in the end she'd found her answers and been doomed in the process. They say never make a deal with a Dragon, and hell, were those bastards were right.

The only good thing about the whole mess was Cortana. After everything that happened, the botched job, her old team, her parents and the experiementation... well,,, who knows what she may have done if Cotana had not been there. Prime lived for her friend now, held onto the hope that somehow, some way they'd find a way for her to escape the clutches of the dragon and be restored.

Until then, that meant they had to play by its rules and get the job done. "ETA to target?"