Authors note: I strongly advice reading my storie “The Test” before reading this.

Aliester sat, his legs folded. He played the old game. “She loves me, she loves me not.” Daisy was such a nice girl and he like her so much, he pulled two more “She loves me, she loves me not”. For as long as he could remember he had been told he was “gifted” smarter more talented than the other people. His mother was so proud. And his father… well his father… “She loves me, she loves me not”. The other kids called him freak and other names. His mother said they where just jealous, but Daisy she didn’t care. Daisy liked him, and he liked her. “She loves me” he was down to the last one “she love me not”. Aliester gave a little laugh to himself. Another ten-year-old boy would place faith in such things, but he was smarter, he was special. He looked at the palm of his hand. They where so pretty. Pretty like Daisy, they would make the perfect gift! Daisy sat in the long green grass she wore bright red ribbons in her hair. “Hi Daisy!” Aliester said nervously “Hi Aliester!” she smiled back. Aliester held out his near trembling fist. “Look what I did for you!” Aliester unclasped his hand with a smile. A look of horror fell across Daisy’s face. Tears began to run down her face. “Mummy! She ran away screaming. Aliesters’ heart sank. “No Daisy wait!” He looked at the spider. Its legs lay around his palm, he had pulled them off cleanly. The body was undamaged. “So pretty” Daisy just didn’t understand.

Aliester screamed as he became aware of his surrounding. He was in the chair again, the probe inserted in his forehead. He laughed to himself “What’s it to be today Doc? Another trip down memory lane?” Doctor Jones slammed her fist onto the controls. “Gorram it! He still not taking the programming!” “Same old song Doctor?” Aliester said slyly. “Shut up or I’ll gag you!” She snapped at him “you shouldn’t even be awake”. Aliester shot her a wink “Why thank you Doctor where I a year older I would have to pay handsomely for that kind of treatment.” She turned and looked at him “Aliester every other student has shown progress this year, really applied themselves. And yet despite all my best efforts you show noting. No psychic ability, no aptitude for the killing arts, a stubborn refusal to get with the program and do as your told. Why must you be so difficult?” Aliester smiled at her “Im special”. “No Aliester” she frowned at him “the other students are special your just a freak and you will fall into line. This should help you.” “Something new for me today Doctor?” he chimed with a little grin. “A new neurological resequencing program Iv developed.” “Iv heard that before” Aliester chuckled. She turned to him with a look of barely contained hate. “Im never going to give up on you Aliester. Im going to help you be all you can be.” The pain ripped true is forehead “Please no! Stop!!!”

Aliester arrived home from his piano lessons. They where moving to slowly. Teachers always held him back. Aliester hated teachers. “Mom im home” he called out as he entered the front door.” “Hello? Mom are you here?” No answer came. She must have gone out. He hung his coat from the hook in the hall. He moved into the kitchen to get himself a snack and stopped dead in the doorway. His stomach twisted in fear. “Not now, please not now.” The chairs sat upside down on top of the kitchen table, there backs dangling down over the side like a cage. His mother sat in a ball under the table her chin resting on her knees. Aliester felt the tears begin to flow down his face, he spoke in a shaky voice “Mommy why are the chairs on the table?” “The independents” she replied in a voice mixed with fear and rage. “Eyes everywhere, taken everyone. They’ve taken everyone!” Aliester crawled under the table and took his mothers hand “No, no the war is a long way away. It’s a long way away. Please you can’t do this now, please!” His mothers eyes darted around the room “I wont let them take us, I wont!” Aliester took his mothers face in his shaking hands “Please don’t do this now. Daddy will be home soon. You know what he’ll do if he sees you like this. Please come back to me. Please! “Eyes everywhere” his mother whispered. Aliester took his mother in an embraced so tight as to never let her go “Please come back to me.” He cried, “Please come back.” He heard the front door open. Daddy was home.

“Garram it you bitch!” Aliester screamed as the treatment ended again. “Hit a nerve did I?” Jones responded. “Good that means we are making progress.” “Something’s changed, what did you change!” Aliester screamed. She looked at him “Is that fear Aliester? I haven’t heard that in your voice since you first got here. You know Iv never handled failure well. But if there is one thing I learned in collage its if at first you don’t succeed try try again.” “Oh god!” Aliester cried. “I honestly don’t think he cares about psychopaths like you Aliester.” She smiled “Here we go again” “NOOOO!!!”

Aliester held the dog his father had bought him for his 13th birthday. Aliester had never been very good with animals. His father liked dogs though. Another present he had bought for himself. Aliester ran his hands over the dogs fur feeling all the bones underneath its skin. He marveled at how living things fitted together. He just had to look. He pulled out the pocketknife he had stolen from his father’s office and….

In the chair Aliester laughed “Oh Doctor, you make me so happy!” “Gorram it you little freak!” Jones screamed at him. “This should have worked!” She pulled off her glasses and rubbed her eyelids. “This should have worked.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. Aliesters smiles faded, a look of shock crept across his face “something HAS changed”. “You said that before” she grunted at him. “But according to my data, noting has.” “Im going to give it one more try before I try something else. We where making progress there” She reached for the controls. “Stop” Aliester commanded. She froze, her hand stuck in midair. For reasons she could not fathom she could not make herself reach for the controls. It was as if she could not summon the will. Aliester grinned a wide grin “Oh my dear Doctor Alexandria Jones, something has definitely changed.”

“The boy is insane!” “I thought they where all insane?” “No I mean this one was insane before we got our hands on him.” The two men walked briskly down the halls of the academy. “Traumatic childhood. Genetic predisposition towards violence, a frankly bizarre neurology that if we where able to go public with it would probly land us the credit for discovering a host of new neurological conditions. A pathological hatred of men combined with a borderline worship of woman that displays its self with brutal acts of what he would consider affection. The boys a time bomb, we should have pulled the plug on him right from the start.” “Why didn’t we?” “You know Alex, she won’t accept failure. We’ve tried everything to get her to move on. We’ve cut her budget sent her on forced vacation, we even reassigned her staff, she just works on him alone! I swear if she wasn’t so important to this project I would!” He fell silent as he opened the door. Alex Jones stood on the table in the center of the room; she slowly danced as Aliester watched restrained in his chair. Her left arm was exposed and covered cuts. “Again Doctor” Aliester grinned. She took the scalpel she held in her right hand and added another one. “Stop me!” she screamed “stop me!” The two men stood in the doorways dumbstruck. One finally spoke. “This is new”.

The Sinister Man left the room where he had inspected River Tam; the Fat Woman followed after a short delay. A young female Doctor greeted him “Its such an honor to meet you Sir, both of you! Im Doctor Jones, Alexandria Jones, everyone calls me Alex!” The Fat Woman gave a small grunt of disapproval. The Sinister Man curled his lips into a horrid reptilian grin. “Hello Alex, I believe you have something to show us?” “Yes Sir, if you would both follow me?” “For the last two years I have been working with student Aliester Lao, Aliester is something of an oddity. Every student in the academy has taken to the program to some degree. Some are better at combat, some are better stealth and infiltration, some have more pronounced psychic ability. It’s all down to their individual personalities and talents. This was predicted. But we never predicted two students. River Tam, and Aliester Lao. River you have already seen and truly she is a wonder, but Aliester… Aliester stood out for all the wrong reasons. No psychic ability, no combat skills, he would just not accept programming. That bizarre brain of his would just not do as it was told. That is until six months ago we had a break true.” “We know” the Sinister Man interrupted. “How’s the arm?” The Fat Woman added with a smile. “Fully healed ma’am I can assure you” Alex rubbed her left arm gently. They came to a heavily secured door. Alex placed her key card in the slot. “Aliester still can’t read minds, and despite all our best efforts he still cant pick up a sword. But he can do one thing that no other student here can, something we never thought any student could do. “He can control minds” The Sinister Man smiled. “All these years we have been trying to perfect the art, drugs, subliminal messages, this academy, and here in this boy we accidentally find the Holy Grail. The true dominance of one will over another.” “Yes Sir but we still dont fully understand how or why.” They walked true the door into a large brightly-lit lab; Aliester sat restrained surrounded by staff. A large metallic gag prevented him from speaking. Alex walked over a checked his restraints. “His voice seems to be the key to his abilities so as a precaution we have both gagged him and paralyzed his vocal cords. We can find no reason why he needs to issue verbal commands to his subjects, where currently working under the assumption that it is psychological, a sort of involuntary affectation. Which is also how we a treating his other major quirk.” Alex looked at them with a smile “he can only control women.” The Fat Woman let out an uproarious laugh. The Sinister Man looked at Alex emotionlessly “Are you serious?” “Yes sir, from what we understand of his abilities there would seem to be no reason why he cant control men as easily as women, and no reason why he needs to convey his commands vocally. I just seems to be his kink. It actually worked out quite well for us. If he could use his abilities free of such hindrances I doubt we could have held him. I assure you both as soon as we can replicate his abilities” The Sinister Man cut her off “I want him under control and deployed as soon as possible.” Alex looked at him in shock “Sir Aliester is completely unstable. I fell that he would be more beneficial here as part of an on going study of his abilities.” The Sinister Man looked at Aliester “You have what you need Doctor, six months of data. And we don’t need him stable we need him controlled.” “Sir I think we might be able to get Aliester under control but I really don’t think he will ever be able hold his own in a combat situation.” “He doesn’t need to” The Sinister man bent down and peered into Aliesters eyes. “I can think of a hundred and one things to do with this Incubus of yours and none of them involve him holding a gun. Get it done.” Alex stiffened nervously “Yes Sir”. “Good” The Sinister Man straitened himself “we must be leaving now” he gave a small nod to the Fat Woman. She stayed behind as he left. “If you get this done we will be very impressed.” Alex smiled “thank you ma’am.” “Now don’t screw up! We see bright things in your future” With a thunderous laugh she followed after him. Alex grinned “You heard the lady! Let’s get to work!”

In a wealthy house on Ariel a Mother ascended the stairs. Her 13-year-old son lay dead in the living room. She held the still warm gun in her hand. Her husband tied to barricade himself in their bedroom. They never had need for locks. She was a reported by profession and a good one at that. Word was that she had uncovered some sensitive Alliance information. Aliester walked behind her like a shadow. He hummed softly to himself. With a swift kick the door to their bedroom flew open. She pointed the gun at the man she loved. “Please baby please! Stop this!" he cried. You killed our son! Please! Please stop!” Aliester gave the word. Her husband fell to the ground. She turned to face Aliester “Well done” his praise was a white light, he said something, she dropped to her knees. He pointed to his temple and said something else; she placed the gun to her head. “Goodbye” a bright flash, a spray of red and it was done. Aliester looked down at her body. “Hear the word and melt upon it” he had been programmed for this but no one had programmed him to enjoy it. He pulled out a small communication device, “False alarm, she had noting”. He smiled. As he left the house he sang the same old song he had been humming “Daisy Daisy give me your answer do. Im half crazy over the love of you.”

It was reported as a tragic murder suicide. Noting to link it to the Alliance. Aliester was such a good weapon.

Aliester was special.