Editing Catherine the Pariah (section)

==Writefaggotry==
===The Awakening===
<Catherine.> Her eyes opened to meet a darkened room. <Catherine, it is time. Wake up.> Its tone was robotic and it spread quickly inside the seemingly empty area. It felt familiar, but she could not understand why.

<Catherine, tell me. What do you feel?> It talked again. There was a sort of warmth to the voice, but it retained its sharp edges, as if warning her to not come any closer.

Somehow, she felt almost forced to respond: <Cold...> She could barely sense the tips of her fingers- her entire body felt like it was missing somehow. And yet it was still there.

<Good. What else do you feel?>

She wasn't sure of what to answer. She tried to move her legs but they didn't respond. The same issue was happening with her arms. She struggled briefly, only to find she was completely immobile- defenceless.

<Don't attempt to move. Simply tell me. What else do you feel?> At this, Catherine almost said she was scared- until she realized she wasn't. She wasn't really feeling... anything. The various emotional reactions that should have been flowing through her now seemed muted- not gone, but only a portion of what they were. She remembered his initial query, and put her thoughts aside.

All around her, she felt a tender flow move through the air. She wasn't sure what it was, but once she noticed it, it quickly vanished, leaving her to wonder.

<Nothing.>

<Good.> The voice chuckled. Despite this, it sounded sombre- as if it did not enjoy this. She wasn't expecting that. <Hopefully you'll do well enough.>

<Well enough for what?>

There was silence for a moment. <You shall see soon enough. Now, go ahead and try to move. I've restored your motor functions, but there may be fine-tuning required.>

<Restored my...?> Catherine attempted to move her arms, and could now do so easily- it was as if she had never had any trouble with moving it in the first place. Though, despite the darkness in the room, she could tell something was very different with her arms. They looked as if they were covered in a dark carapace of some kind.

She sat up, seeing the rest of her body covered. Oddly enough, she still couldn't feel much save for at the extremities. <Did you... did you give me armor? Am I going to be a warrior?> She almost felt glee at this, but something was missing.

<...Not quite, dear.> The voice almost sounded sorry, now. <It will be best understood at the mirror.> She saw a sheen of light in the corner of the room- the mirror, she assumed. She took note of the rest of the room too, now that she could look around freely.

She had been sitting on a metal slab- with a depression left for her body, it seemed. Various cords connected to the slab, and the whole area seemed to glow a dim green. There was no windows or holes in the walls to let light in, so she temporarily wondered how everything seemed to have that green tint. She also spied an odd-looking spear leaning next to the slab she was on, glowing an even brighter green. <Is this yours?>

<Ah, that is actually yours now. You will find training with your Warscythe to be unnecessary for the time being- I have already installed the relevant banks of information via cranial slug. We can get to that later, first come to the->

But Catherine was already on her feet, grabbing the spear with both hands. She swung it a few time, initially slightly puzzled by its lightness, then tried a few more experimental swings and thrusts. This was actually quite fun. <What was that you said about a crane-slug? This seems easy. If I knew this was so easy->

<Please. The mirror. Now.> The voice seemed to have lost some of its patience at this point. <It is important to see if you can pass this trial.> Catherine obeyed more quickly now, placing the Warscythe back down and walking to the mirror. The only sound was the distinctive *clank* of her boots as they reverberated on the floor.

She stopped in front of the mirror to gaze at herself. <What do you see?> inquired the voice.

<Wow...> If she wasn't a warrior now, Catherine thought, she sure could now at least look the part. The armor looked imposing, scarier than any ganger she'd ever seen. The mask was simple, almost like a caricature of a skull stretched vertically like rubber- but possibly the scariest part of all. If she had always looked like this, life would have been a fair bit easier for her family- no one would have messed with them while mining deeper down. Despite this, she did not feel happy about the armour, or the weapon. Still, she realized, such little feelings. Maybe it was shock?

No, she suddenly realized. There were other things wrong as well. <...How am I so tall?> It was almost as if she had a body the size of an adult somehow. She continued to address the voice: <And why can't I feel anything under this armour?>

Silence; then a slow drawn out sigh. <It's not armour.>

She stared in the mirror, not quite understanding. And then she did.

Her emotions- mainly shock and horror- seemed to explode from nowhere as she attempted to rip her shoulderplates and pauldron off. The voice was saying something, beseeching her to stop and listen. She wasn't listening. With a final sickening sound of wires disconnecting and metal being warped, her pauldron and surrounding plates were violently removed from her body, crashing against the opposite wall. She looked at what was left at the shoulder, hoping she would find a regular, human joint with skin, with flesh and blood underneath-

There was no such arm. All that remained was a hunk of metal in the shape of a ball and socket joint. <oh god, oh god, oh god->

<Enough! Pariah, I command you to- > but Catherine wasn't listening. She was screaming now, attempting to rip the mask on her head off her head. She knew it had to be a mask, there was no possible way this could be real. Oh, by the Emperor, this couldn't be happening- it had to have been a cruel joke- 

At this point, she was violently slammed to the ground, her arms pinned down and her Warscythe removed by an unseen assailant. She attempted to twist her head away from the mirror, but a second assailant held her head down to force her gaze. <This facade will cease now.> The voice, some distant part of her said, was emanating from the one forcing her to look. He looked similar to how she did- grey armour, a horrifying mask... but there was a difference- he had only one large eye occupying the majority of his face. He was familiar... <You are under my command now. And it will be this way now and forever more.>

Catherine recognized him now- the ''thing'', that killed her mother, that took her to be tortured... she let out one final scream before the Cryptek dragged her away.

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