I13DT - The girl who lived.

[Samantha McManus]

Some days later, Samantha checks in with the front desk of the hospital, dressed more casually than when she found Becky but still not really projecting 'goddess' to anyone. Mustn't distress the hospital staff after all. She makes her way up to Becky's room.

[Narrator]

"You didn't forget about me afterall." Becky says when Sam enters the room, putting down the book she's been reading. She looks much better already.

[Samantha McManus]

"Of course not. I just wanted to give you some time to recuperate."

[Narrator]

"I prayed a little, but you didn't answer. Not that you did before, I just thought maybe... Sorry, I don't... Everybody keeps telling me that I just do it because that woman told me to, but... she never did, I don't think."

[Samantha McManus]

"There are ways to find out, but I didn't want to trouble you with them so soon after your ordeal."

[Narrator]

"I'm... not sure I understand." she apologizes.

[Samantha McManus]

"I can look to see how she tampered with your mind."

[Narrator]

"Does it involve needles? I don't like needles..."

[Samantha McManus]

"It needn't be physical, any more than it had to be when she did it to you."

"I'll warn you though, learning what she did may prove distressing to you."

[Narrator]

She swallows the lump in her throat and nods. "Okay..."

[Samantha McManus]

"Nobody likes to learn that this can be done to them, let alone that it has been done, or to what extent. If you want to know what's real and what's not though, I can help."

[Narrator]

"I suppose I should know..."

[Samantha McManus]

"Alright. I need you to relax, then."

Becky feels the distinct impression of feathers brushing past her as Samantha starts to probe her mind.

[Narrator]

Becky has no mental defenses to speak of, unsurprisingly. In fact, it seems almost easier than normal, as if her mind is actively welcoming Sam. That might have something to do with the fact that a lot of her surface thoughts revolve around the way she sees Sam, which is essentially like a goddess who, even though she didn't take her to the afterlife like she'd hoped, still came to safe her life. It looks like for the time being she has convinced herself that this is as good a reason as any to stay alive. She also feels no little amount of shame, partially towards her family and the hospital staff and partially towards Sam for accidentally going against her wishes.

[Samantha McManus]

Descending into Becky's mind, she begins searching for what she hopes are relatively fresh memories of her meeting with Melpomene, as she presumes at least some manipulation of that memory occurred.

[Narrator]

Her memory of the meeting actually seems free of any direct manipulation. She met with a brunette woman who looks nothing like Mel, though a lot of what she said sounds at the very least inspired by her. Now when the topic moved to assisted suicide and helping her call upon Sam to take her to the afterlife there is quite a bit of influence, though it's not as widespread as Sam might have expected. There's mostly some nudging and suggestive ideas planted to make them seem like her own. The only reason Sam even notices is because she's specifically looking for it.

[Samantha McManus]

She sends the flock to follow down the implanted ideas, trying to determine the nature of them.

[Narrator]

Becky had clearly been suicidal before she met 'Mel', partially out of depression and partially because she lives in Mutant Town and has had to deal with a lot of social pressure due to that recently. Mel exacerbated those feelings and tied them to her religious beliefs, which at the very least didn't originate from this particular memory or meeting.

[Samantha McManus]

Carefully, she starts to try to unwind the implanted ideas, segregate them from what they've been tied into so they can be safely removed.

[Narrator]

It's not easy. Most of it comes away well enough but at the core of it it's entwined with her own suicidal ideations and untampered memories just from the conversation. It'll certainly take the edge off Mel's insidious manipulation though.

[Samantha McManus]

After much work, she removes the last of what she's found. For the sake of thoroughness, she sends the flock out to survey what they can.

[Narrator]

There's still the question of Becky's religious beliefs, which either stem from a different meeting or are genuine. But as far as the meeting in the coffee shop is concerned there is very little that Mel did and Sam got most of it.

[Samantha McManus]

With a bit of niggling doubt, she does follow the skein of Becky's religious beliefs for a bit.

[Narrator]

There's certainly a bit of Mel's influence, but it might just be from where she tied it to Becky's depression as a 'way out'. That certainly prompted an increase of how intense she felt about it but that developed naturally.

[Samantha McManus]

She tries to gently smooth over the points where the two used to interact, being careful not to upset things too much.

[Narrator]

That works well enough, especially since the connection suffered some severe cracks already from Sam saving her life and her death clearly not being what the Morrigan wanted.

[Samantha McManus]

Satisfied for now, she begins to withdraw from Becky's mind.

[Narrator]

Becky is looking at her somewhat confused. "Have you started yet?"

[Samantha McManus]

"...just finished, actually. I'll take that to mean it wasn't too distressing to you."

[Narrator]

"I just... kind of remembered my talk with Melpomene and it felt a little strange because what she said suddenly stopped making sense as I was thinking about it and..." she trails off, color draining from her face a little bit as the events that followed the talk catch up to her and suddenly appear in a very different light. "I... she... why did I let her do that to me!?" she whimpers.

[Samantha McManus]

"Because she put things in your head so that it would make perfect sense to you."

[Narrator]

She pulls her legs up to her chest and wraps her arms around them, wincing when she touches the bandages where the surgeon patched up her femoral arteries and starting to cry

[Samantha McManus]

She sighs and walks up next to the bed, putting her hand on Becky's shoulder.

"It's not your fault. Nothing here is. She saw what she considered an opening, and she took it. She's the monster, here."

[Narrator]

She keeps sobbing for a while but eventually calms down a little.

"I... I don't think I like the truth very much."

[Samantha McManus]

"The lie was worse. It was leading you to your death."

[Narrator]

"But it didn't hurt nearly as much..."

[Samantha McManus]

"But now you can show her that she was wrong about you. You're not meant to be used. You're not disposable."

[Narrator]

"No, I'm not... I just... I guess I just wanted to impress you and I believed her when she told me she knew how to..."

[Samantha McManus]

"She doesn't know me as well as she thinks she does."

"And I... didn't see quite what I expected when I looked in your mind, either."

"You really do believe. She didn't force that, and she can't take that from you."

[Narrator]

"You're... surprised by that?"