45

Interlude 4.x (Canary 1)

"Silence. All rise, please. This court is now in session, the honorable Peter Regan presiding."

A soft voice whispered in her ears. "Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape."

She jolted, tried to twist her neck and look around wildly, only to wince at the pain in her neck muscles, and she bumped into the table. Her lawyer gripped the chain running through her armpit and upper arm, trying to help her stand upright, but she nearly fell over when the voice whispered again.

"When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light. Let your heart see what the eyes cannot."

Her eyes widened and her body trembled. She forced herself to calm down and look straight ahead at the judge, despite her rapidly rising heartbeat.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

"We have, your honor."

Paige watched as the clerk delivered the envelope to the judge.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Paige Mcabee, as to the count of attempted murder, how do you find?"

"Not guilty, your honor."

Paige sagged a little with relief. But then the mysterious voice continued, "Yet they shall condemn you even so."

She felt a prickle of anxiety come over her again. What was the voice saying? They found her not guilty, didn't they?

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Paige Mcabee, as to the count of aggravated assault with a parahuman ability, how do you find?"

"Guilty, your honor."

Paige shook her head as well as she was able. No! This wasn't fair!

"They are sinners, weak of mind and weak of heart, full of hatred, full of lies."

She almost missed the next line. "…sexual assault with a parahuman ability, how do you find?"

"Guilty, your honor."

Sexual assault. The words chilled her. It wasn't like that!

"You never intended the result you caused. You have repented, but they have not."

"Is this your verdict?"

"Yes, your honor."

"Paige Mcabee, please direct your attention to me," the judge spoke.

She did, eyes wide, shellshocked.

"Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape," the voice repeated itself.

Did the voice mean what she thought it meant? That the court was going to sentence her to the Birdcage? But how could they, didn't everyone have three strikes?

"…the TSPA, or the three strikes act. At the age of twenty three, you have been convicted of no prior crimes…" she heard the judge say. As she thought, she couldn't possibly be going to the Birdcage!

"Do not be fooled. Look to the man tasked with your defense. Is that the face of an honest man who has lost, or one who is pleased with what he has wrought?"

Her eyes couldn't help but dart over to her lawyer. His lips were curled slightly, twitching periodically, as if afraid to show how proud he was.

What did that mean, Paige thought desperately. Her mind went to terrible places and she forced those thoughts down.

"A play and a farce, a plot and a setup. The goal of this court was not to try you but to condemn you. They have long since closed their eyes to the truth."

With every word, her body trembled more, her legs felt weak and she bumped into the table again with a clang.

"…the courts are forced to continually adapt, to be proactive and inventive in the face of new circumstances that parahuman abilities introduce…" the judge droned on like a robot, ignoring her distress. Why was he giving such a long explanation? What was the sentence?

"There is no justice here. Everyone in this room is against you."

She was acutely aware of the disgusted looks some of the jury members were sending her way, as she shook her head wildly and her chains rattled. She could barely hear the judge's voice now, drowned out by the sound of her heart beating and the awful tension in all her muscles. She found herself having difficulty breathing, and the world seemed to be spinning.

She tilted over and flailed at the table, just barely preventing her self from falling. This time, her lawyer didn't even pretend to help her stay upright, just standing there with a contemptuous look.

"…It is with this in mind that I have decided that there is sufficient cause to sentence you outside the scope of the TSPA…"

No! That was why the judge kept talking for so long, he was trying to justify taking more of her rights away!

"Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape."

"…sentenced to indefinite incarceration within the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center."

The noise in the courtroom was deafening. A roar of cheering and booing, movement, people standing, reporters pushing to be the first ones out the door. Only Paige seemed to be still. Cold, frozen in stark horror.

Had she been able, that might have been the moment she lost it. She would have screamed her innocence, thrown a fit, even swung a few punches. What did she have to lose? This sentence was little better than an execution. Some would say it was worse. There would be no escape, no appeals, no parole. She would spend the rest of her life in the company of monsters. With some of the people that were kept in there, the 'monster' description was all too literal.

But she wasn't able. She was bound and gagged. Two men that were bigger and stronger than her placed their arms under her armpits, practically carrying her out of the courtroom.

Panic gripped her, and with her having no way to express it, do anything with it, the hysteria only compounded itself, making her panic more. Her thoughts dissolved into a chaotic haze.

Her vision swam as nausea overcame her. She might have fainted already, if not for the hypnotic voice echoing in her mind.

Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape.

A third person in uniform, a burly woman, walked briskly beside them, preparing a syringe.

She choked out a garble despite the guzzle on her mouth.

Help me, she desperately wanted to say. Unable to from the words in her mouth, she resorted to pleading in her mind, hoping that the voice could really hear her thoughts. Please, help me!

"Do you wish to be saved, little bird?"

She nodded vigorously against the neck hold and made another garble. Please! I don't want to go to the Birdcage!

The woman with the syringe must have thought she was trying to fight back, and barked out an order for the men to hold down her head.

As the tip of the syringe entered her neck, she heard one last whisper.

"Believe in me. Pray to me. Give me your heart. Cast unto me your burdens, pains, and fears. Surrender your soul and accept me as your lord and master. Keep faith, and I shall bring you back from the depths of hell."

The tranquilizer entered her bloodstream, and she was swallowed in darkness.

O O O

In the dark cell where Canary was being kept until she would be transported to the Birdcage, a black wand shrouded in an equally dark aura materialized.

The syringe attached to Agate was pushed into Canary's neck, before the wand dematerialized again without a trace.

As Canary stirred and blinked her eyes open, she couldn't tell where she was. This time, she had not even the semblance of human rights, isolated in complete darkness, wrapped in containment foam, strewn haphazardly on the cold ground without so much as a bed.

As she remembered everything that happened, she whimpered and tried to move, but couldn't. The paralysis terrified her.

It was that foam, she realized. The restraints weren't enough, they'd sprayed her with the stuff to ensure that everything below her shoulders was covered. She felt nausea well in her gut, her heartbeat quickening. Her breathing increased, but the mask made even her breath feel confined.

The silence was suffocating. All she could hear was the sound of her breathing, and all she could feel was the nearly unbearable pains in her muscles throughout her body.

As the minutes passed, she grew increasingly uncomfortable. Thoughts of her life and the trial passed through her mind continuously.

All she had wanted was to be a good singer. Everything had been going so well too. It wasn't fair. She didn't even realize her power was active when she told her awful ex-boyfriend to go fuck himself. It was just a small mistake…

The Birdcage was meant for monsters! The worst sorts of criminals, not someone like her.

Maybe this was her penance for the sin of buying her power. She took the easy way to get ahead instead of just singing honestly.

She shivered as she imagined the horrible things that the other inmates would do to her, then she winced and whimpered as she felt a muscle cramping up. Then she started crying. The tears slipping down her cheeks and onto her open mouth, locked in position by a metal frame, tasted salty.

The minutes stretched into hours, and unable to do or see anything, it felt like an eternity.

It was torture, she thought. They people who decided to put her in the Birdcage wanted her to suffer as much as possible.

It seemed like a ridiculous thought, but so many things had been ridiculous about her trial that it started to seem reasonable. Everything in that room was against her, the voice said.

The voice. That's right.

There'd been a voice that promised to save her.

Where was it?

Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape.

She was going to the Birdcage.

…

She was going to the Birdcage.

Where was the voice?!

…

...

Did she simply imagine it?

…

…

There was a strange light. Just a single dot in the darkness.

She blinked and it was gone.

She blinked again and it was back.

…

Sometimes the dot would appear, sometimes it would appear somewhere else.

She couldn't look at it directly, or it would disappear.

…

Sometimes the dot would wiggle and blur.

…

Occasionally it would change colours.

…

A strange sound reached her ears, sort of like a low buzzing and screeching mixed together.

…

If she concentrated on it, the sound seemed to be a lot of small voices, but she couldn't make out the words.

…

They weren't saying anything. They were moans and wails. The sound of souls being tortured. Once she realized that, she desperately tried not to think about it, ignoring it in the hopes that it would go away.

…

It didn't.

She was going crazy, she decided. She was seeing things, and hearing voices.

…

There was a pattern to the light moving. If she kept her eyes open and resolutely didn't look at the light, it would move in a specific way.

…

It was tiny, but she saw it shifting into a different shape. It was a letter.

F.

…

A.

…

I.

…

T.

…

H.

It was a word.

FAITH.

Unbeknownst to her, Agate reappeared above her with another syringe, and injected its contents into her.

She felt a prickle on the back of her neck, and a shiver run down her spine.

The moaning and wailing disappeared, and she was left with blissful silence.

She blinked again, and the light was gone. She blinked a few more times, and it never came back.

She felt a quiver of excitement. Was it a sign?

As soon as the thought of faith came into her mind, her delusions disappeared.

When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light. Let your heart see what the eyes cannot.

She remembered, now, what the voice had told her in the last moment.

Keep faith, and I shall bring you back from the depths of hell.

The mere thought of faith had brought the hellish voices to a stop, and make her mind clear again.

Could it be?

Her last moments at the trial before they tranquilized her was coming back to her.

She could almost hear the sweet voice whispering in her ears again.

"Believe in me. Pray to me. Give me your heart. Cast unto me your burdens, pains, and fears. Surrender your soul and accept me as your lord and master. Keep faith, and I shall bring you back from the depths of hell."

There was still hope! The voice wasn't just her imagination.

It was definitely real.

But for whatever reason, it couldn't save her yet. It knew she would fall into despair, and told her to keep faith. Or maybe it was giving her a trial to overcome.

She had to believe in him. Her. It?

Keep faith.

Even her pains were going away now. She felt good. No, she felt wonderful!

Everything was so clear and obvious to her now. Why was she so lost and afraid before?

She just had to believe in the voice and keep faith and everything would be perfect.

O O O

Keep faith.

Her faith had been wavering, she knew. When they moved her onto the transport, she thought that might be when the voice would come to save her. But she wasn't worthy. She was weak. After that brief moment of clarity and bliss, her anxieties and despair set back in, and along with it her pains and discomfort.

As she was held up by the giant metal claw in front of Dragon's CGI rendering, she found it very difficult to continuing believing. But she had to.

"…I even wrote a letter to your judge, the DA and your governor saying as much. I'm sorry it wasn't enough…"

Dragon's sympathetic, but hopeless words didn't help. A sliver of suspicion came to her as she wondered if Dragon had been part of the rigged trial. What if those letters Dragon sent had condemned her instead? The Tinker might have lied. She was the most powerful and respected Tinker in the world, and even the one who managed the Birdcage. If Dragon protested, how could innocent Paige Mcabee be sentenced to the Birdcage still?

She numbly listened as Dragon told her to look to Lustrum, the woman who "put herself in charge of that cell" for protection. All she could think about was the things she'd imagined before, and how right she had been that the Birdcage was full of monsters.

Of course a girl like her would need protection. The Birdcage wasn't like prisons that had guards and wardens enforcing order. It was a lawless den of monsters, and to survive, the only way was to become one of them or become their toy.

"….Prisoner 601's chance of escape from the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center is .000025% with no gross deviations…"

Why…did Dragon tell her that? Was she mocking her?

Dragon droned on about the security measures in place.

It wasn't enough to put her in the Birdcage, knowing that she'd never get out. Dragon had to put a number to it. Tell her all the ways she'd die if she tried.

She shut out Dragon's voice and repeated the mantra in her mind again.

When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light.

Let your heart see what the eyes cannot.

Keep faith.

O O O

The cell that was her new prison was better than the one where she was kept before the transport to the Birdcage.

At least her restraints had all been removed, and there was some light.

But that was little comfort to her when she knew her cell offered no protection against any of the monsters in the Birdcage coming in.

As soon as she finished meeting Lustrum, she fearfully shut herself in her cell. Even though she knew it was no real protection, she felt just a bit safer without the dangerous vulture-like looks from the other inmates in this block.

When Lustrum demanded to know why she was in the Birdcage and she explained how she made her ex-boyfriend literally try to fuck himself, mutilating himself in the process, the extreme feminist and her followers actually laughed and patted her on the back. "Nice one! Serves the fucker right!" They cheered.

They were monsters, all of them, even the ones that sympathized with her.

When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light. Let your heart see what the eyes cannot. That was the only thing still keeping her going.

But try as she might, nothing she did brought back that sensation of pure bliss when she had first found her faith.

By night time, she was on the tip of giving up, when she finally couldn't take it anymore and started crying again, thinking that she had imagined the voice after all, or that it didn't have the power to bring her out of the Birdcage. Nobody had ever escaped from the Birdcage, after all. What made her special anyway, that she deserved to be saved?

"Please…save me…please…!" She sobbed while on her knees, hands clasped as if in prayer in front of her, shaking with each sob.

"I've been faithful…so please…you promised…! Please!"

But like magic, as if the voice had been waiting for those sincere words, it came back to her.

"You have indeed been faithful and your faith shall be rewarded."

Her eyes were shocked open. She saw a shining white ball of light with a yellow halo on top, and a hazy image of several sets of utterly massive white wings extending outwards from the centre, floating in front of her. The whole image was blurry and looked transcendental, making the magnificent wings appear completely unlike the mundane white wings on the Simurgh. The wings stretched across the room, going into and through the walls, yet still somehow visible to Paige, as if mysteriously refracting through higher dimensions.

Incomprehensible to the mortal mind.

"G-God?" She stammered.

"Paige Mcabee," the voice resounded clearly now, no longer a whisper, but a harmonious sound that was almost like a song. "I am Agatetron. I come to you with the Spirit of the Lord. He shall speak to you through my voice and offer you a Sacred Covenant. Do you wish to be saved?"

"Yes!"

"Then, first you have one more task to complete."

She listened intently as the angel gave her extensive instructions and some tools to assist her that dropped from the ball of light.

Hours later and well prepared, Paige walked silently to cell block T, which was led by the villain known as Teacher.

Her heart was pounding in her ears but she held control of herself with her repeated mantras in her head and reviewing the memories of the instructions from the angel Agatetron.

When she asked to see the leader of the block, she was met with a knowing look from the man guarding it.

O O O