String - Identity 12.4

I found myself at the center of an endless expanse.

I felt… strangely at peace.

I observed the space before me—a nebula that grew and shrunk at the same time, defying sense and logic. The knowledge came quickly, plucked out of the ether and used to paint a picture.

Space—something my human mind could scarcely comprehend… and yet, something else. Understanding that would have never come naturally to me made itself known. 

Unified source—[GENESIS] propositioned [EVOLVE]. Cooperative outcome concluded: [POTENTIAL] existence established.

The expanse heaved and contracted, like reality itself was taking a breath. I saw colors I recognized, and some I didn’t. Greens, purples, and blues… and ones that did not have names—would never have names. 

I desired to move, and my form was propelled forward. 

I allowed the abyss to swallow me whole and I stumbled upon a truth.

I followed it to the moon, the first voyage—the hollow God—the orbiting relic—the embodiment of infinity. 

Luna.

I knew there were two. There were supposed to be two, but where the second was, only a black hole hung in the sky. 

Aurora.

It loomed large over the Earth, its void leading somewhere I was unable to follow. I wanted to, but a force repelled me.

Irregularity. Unforeseen. Source; interference [ALTERATION] proposition. Link compromised.

I saw the pieces before I comprehended their meaning.

The space around me shook.

I felt… dread.

Deviation accepted. Proceed.

I saw truth.

I saw lies.

And it broke me.

/-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

I woke up with a gasp.

My body felt stiff and sore, but very real. My flesh was mine once again, and the subtle throbbing pain in my head told me that the world I perceived was, in fact, the real one.

Once I managed to settle myself, I relaxed back into my bed. I was in my room at our hideout tucked under my blankets. I could feel the bandages and stitches Sam must have applied, but they didn’t hurt. A quick peek under the covers revealed there was very minimal bleeding. It seemed like Sam had done her job well.

I threw off the covers and slowly staggered out of bed. Once my feet were on the floor, I took another moment to reflect on what had just happened. Was it the drugs mixed with all the stress that caused such a vivid dream? I could recall every moment—something I was never able to do.

I rubbed my face, feeling the cold sweat coat my hands. 

What was that?

I tried to recall specific details—feelings that I… felt? That didn’t seem like the right word. I didn’t even know how to describe my experience. It was like I stepped out of my body and became something else entirely. The door opened and light streamed into my room. I looked up in time to see Sam step through with her phone torch on. When she saw that I was awake and half out of bed, she let out a sigh of relief and flicked the room light on.

“You’re up quicker than I expected. How are you feeling?” She walked over and sat down next to me. “Is there any pain? Discomfort? I put everything back together, but even the best surgeons make mistakes sometimes.”

“Bit stiff,” I murmured, rolling my shoulders. I was thankful my bones didn’t feel like broken glass beneath my skin anymore. I gently touched the shoulder, tracing my fingers along the edge of the scar. The artificial bone was in place, and I felt stronger than I ever had. “Most of the pain is gone, but I still feel a bit off.”

Sam let out a slow breath of relief.

“The biogel is doing its job then. The scars will take a few days to fade, but you should be good enough to jump back into action—not that I would recommend it, you should still rest.”

I tried to blink away the grogginess in my eyes so I could focus. She looked disheveled and tired.

“How long have I been out?”

“The surgery took about five hours, and you’ve been resting for another six. A lot has happened while you were out,” Sam explained softly. Her expression deepened as she leaned in close to me. “You were… twitchy after the surgery. I changed your bandages a few times when I was adding fresh layers of biogel. You were saying some weird stuff.”

“Weird stuff?”

“Yeah. Sounded like gibberish, I couldn’t make any sense of it. Gold might’ve been able to, but even then… I’m not sure. I’ve been worried that Orange fucked something up when I was trying to fix that fracture on your skull.”

I carefully touched a shaved part of my head where Sam had made the incision. The scar didn’t hurt, but I could feel the dried layer of biogel smeared across it. All my mental faculties seemed normal and I didn’t feel brain damaged, if that was even something you can feel. So far, I felt fine.

“I don’t usually talk in my sleep. It was probably the trauma and the drugs messing with my head,” I reasoned, uncertain of my own conclusion. “Though, I did have the weirdest dream ever.”

A weak chuckle escaped Sam’s lips.

“Yeah, it was probably everything that happened taking its toll. I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she leaned in and gently rubbed my back. “I’m happy to see that you’re awake and okay. I was just coming in to change your bandages and add another layer of biogel, but since you’re awake, that’ll make things easier.”

She undid my bandages and began applying the healing gel to the surgical scars. It was cold and made me shiver slightly.

“Is there anything on your mind?” Sam asked, trying to make light conversation. When I replied with an idle shrug, she nodded and continued to work away to make sure my injuries were properly taken care of. “I can catch you up on what you’ve missed. It’s not much, but there have been some developments.”

“Hmm. In a moment,” I said softly. I wanted to know, but I needed a few more moments of peace to realign my thoughts. The dream just… made everything feel so small. “I just need a moment to… to figure this out.”

“Figure out what?” Sam stopped, giving me a curious look. “Your weird dream?”

“I… yeah,” I said, not knowing what to say. “It was definitely weird. Surreal and… unearthly.”

“What was it about?” She asked.

Where was I even supposed to begin? I could barely make sense of it. The understanding I had was unlike anything I’d experienced before. Yet now, it slipped through my fingers like water. Before I could even realize what had happened, most of it was gone—fleeting. 

“Some sort of outer body experience. I don’t even know how to describe it,” I frowned, trying to recall anything that would have been helpful. “I was in space—like outer space. I saw the Earth and Moon… and—” I stopped, squinting as I struggled to recall anything past that. It was all an incomprehensible blur “—a hole in the sky.”

“You were under a lot of anesthesia while I was playing doctor. It was just the drugs and everything that happened today catching up with you.” Sam reasoned as she finished up. 

Sam wrapped a fresh set of bandages around me, covering all the different areas she had to operate on. She gave me a pat on the back to let me know she was done. Slowly, I pushed myself off the bed and onto my feet. My knees wobbled a little as I adjusted to the feeling of having artificial bones.

I performed a few stretches, feeling my tender muscles ache, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

“Good as new,” I said softly. “I don’t feel like anything is out of place.”

“That’s very reassuring to hear,” Sam said earnestly. “I was worried the artificial bones wouldn’t work properly.”

“They would. My power fits them to my needs,” I said. “The only issue is that they’re not as advanced as I’d like them to be. They won’t heal or grow naturally along with the rest of my body, but I can make ones that can. These ones will need to be replaced within the year.”

Sam’s expression dropped.

“I’m going to have to do all that again?”

“Probably not,” I replied. “I’ll make sure to install automation on the Full-Body Reconstructor. Less work for you, but it would probably put me at ease if you supervised the process.”

Sam exhaled, relieved.

“Thank goodness, I really don’t want to do that again. Once was enough,” her relief was short-lived as her thought process continued down that track. “In fact, I don’t like the idea of you being cut open in general. That was messy, I don’t think I’ll ever get that out of my head.”

I watched her shudder, and a grin forced its way onto my face.

“I don’t imagine it was a pleasant process.”

“Nope,” Sam sprang to her feet. “Want to get some air? Sun’s up now so we should probably get some now before we go to work tonight. I’ll give you the rundown on what’s happened.”

I grunted out an agreement before throwing on some clothes. We made our way to the roof in order to get a better view of the city. Our hideout wasn’t exactly tall, so it was the only way to survey what had happened while I was asleep. 

There were still Walkers and Sweepers patrolling the streets, and a few notable pillars of smoke were rising at the far end of the city. Pandora territory had been attacked, just like I had briefly seen last night. Cyberspace’s diversions had sewn chaos and drawn eyes away from our conflict. From the looks of it, that hadn’t changed since we withdrew.

“Where to start…” Sam ran a hand through her hair. “I suppose your friends is as good a place as any,” she turned and pointed over toward the Citadel. “Not sure if you remember but we talked about what happened with Comet. Mia told you she retreated back to base.”

“I remember,” I nodded easily. “I remember everything pretty clearly.”

“Right, well,” Sam heaved a sigh. “While you were out, Cyberspace revealed that nothing notable has come of that. They have Wildfire’s body, but Comet—Abby—hasn’t been cooperative or told them pretty much anything at all. She’s isolated herself inside the Rookies quarters. That’s all Cyberspace’s informants have been able to gather. As far as we can tell, the ECU is unaware Madhouse was involved.”

That should have been good news, I didn’t feel good about it.

“Cyberspace needs better moles then,” I remarked sourly. “One of Ajax’s Walkers saw us and attacked. There’s not a chance in Hell they don’t know by now.”

“Attacked Lucy, you mean,” Sam retorted quickly. “And if they know anything, they’re keeping it very quiet. On that note, they’ve designated her ‘Phoenix.’ A proper threat rating hasn’t been applied yet, but, considering she destroyed a Walker, I can’t imagine it being any lower than an A.”

“Where is she?” I asked, getting to the root of the problem. “Do we know?”

“Somewhere north of Bayside.”

“That’ll be her grandparents’ place.”

“That’s what we’ve been thinking too,” Sam mused. “We won’t know until we follow up, which I imagine you’ll want to.”

Without a doubt. It was going to be my first course of action. I needed to make amends and do my best to fix what damage I could. There was no way to tell how bad things actually were until I was faced with the consequences, and I wasn’t about to go bury my head in the sand on an issue like this.

“Everything that happened… I could have prevented it if I had known what was going on. I brought Lucy into the fold and Cyberspace took advantage of that. I let them force her into the same position we’re in. I… I didn’t even try to stop it.” I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw hurt.

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Even if you had tried, I don’t think Cyberspace would have stopped, and I highly doubt Lucy would have taken kindly to you policing her life,” Sam said, her tone melancholic. “You know her better than I do. Do you think she would have been happy just sitting around and letting us do all the work?”

I grimaced and looked down.

The answer was obvious.

“No.”

Sam opened her mouth to say something, but she stopped herself. She looked down, a forlorn expression cast across her features. I saw regret and reluctant acceptance in her eyes. I could tell she wanted to say something, thought I needed to hear something, but couldn’t bring herself to say it.

I knew what she wanted to say. It was written all over her face. Gold would have said it already if she were still around.

“It’s okay. You’ve told me before, and I just didn’t want to believe it. Any life I would have had as Maxis died the night I Awakened. All I could have ever been from then was Upgrade. We’re going to be playing this game till the end. There’s no running—no pretending things can go back to normal.”

Sam looked away, refusing to meet my eyes.

“It’s not easy to accept. I wanted both lives, and I figured I could make it work. With Cyberspace, I thought I had the resources to do that,” I sighed and closed my eyes. “I should have known it would only speed up the inevitable… and here we are.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I dismissed her apology with ease. “There’s nothing more to consider. We have to find Lucy—she’s Awakened and the ECU will know where she is soon. Abby will want Lucy on her side.”

“I know—I know, I meant that ‘I’m sorry things turned out this way.’ Your friendship with Abby and Lucy meant a lot to you, and it’s because of me that you’re even here,” Sam moped, crossing her arms. “I wanted you on my side after seeing what you could do. All that power and potential…” She shook her head as if she were disgusted by her own greed. “I saw an opportunity to stop running and finally build something worth sticking around for.”

I gave her a pointed look and snorted. Moping like she was didn’t suit her. It looked wrong. I couldn’t fault her for her decisions either. If I were in her shoes, I could see myself making the same choices.

“Where else would I have gone? If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve been wrapped around Mirage’s finger. You rescued me from my own stupidity.”

“I think you would’ve eventually landed with the ECU if we went our separate ways. Gold figured… she predicted you would swallow your distaste if it meant you got to work closely with Comet. Granted, you’d have to endure being thrown into a lab to develop your tech without the possibility of actually going out and doing the manual heroing. You wouldn’t be allowed—to valuable of an asset to risk.”

“You say that like The Cains wouldn’t have been worse.”

Sam sighed.

“It’s a similar sort of deal you get at the end of the day. The ECU wouldn’t threaten your family and they would give you some freedom, and you’d have Comet to keep you company. But you wouldn’t get to use your powers like you do now. No matter which way you slice it, it’s a case, and I knew you wouldn’t like that. I used that to my advantage.”

“I know,” I said under my breath. “I’ve seen what they’ve done to Nanoforge.”

They might not have been responsible for her condition, but they had allowed it to deteriorate till that point. They still used her technology—still developed it, which meant she was still working for them, probably trapped in a dark workshop with nothing to keep her company except her machines.

“It still seems to me that I’ve done you a pretty raw deal. Everything’s spiraled beyond my control, and without Gold, I feel like I have no idea what to do.” Sam said, her tone hoarse. I frowned as I observed her closer. It almost seemed like she was going to burst into tears again, however, she managed to refrain from falling too far. “So I mean it when I say that I’m sorry. I took advantage of you because I was selfish.”

I chuckled lightly and rolled my eyes.

“You say that like you were the only one being selfish. Say what you want but you didn’t force me to lie to Abby or bring Lucy into the fold,” I mused, looking away. Cyberspace’s words rang in my head like a bell. The painful truth. “I made those choices. I was selfish too. I could have told Abby and kept Lucy ignorant. I didn’t, because I thought it would cause me the least amount of issues. We’re self-interested by nature, Sam.”

“I… yeah, I suppose we are,” she relented, her shoulders sagging. “That doesn’t mean I’m not sorry.”

“Hmm. I know.” I mused. “But, I don’t think you’ve screwed me over at all. Think about what we’ve accomplished. If we went our separate ways back at the start, then there wouldn’t be a Bayside. Grim and the rest of the Cains are only gone because we’re the ones that figured out how to take him down. So many more would have died.”

Sam considered my words, her mood lightening up somewhat. She straightened her shoulders and pursed her lips before nodding.

“I guess you’re right about that.”

“And now there’s another big fight breaking out,” I pointed over at the columns of smoke rising in the distance. “Pandora, the ECU, and Ajax are fighting, and it doesn’t seem like Pandora can win, especially not with the Mothership still here. I imagine if we don’t do something things will get worse.”

But what to do?

Was it even a fight worth getting involved in? Cyberspace would want us to sit on the sidelines and watch things unfold.

“With Ajax here, it won’t be as bad as Grim. There’s some order but Pandora is fighting back viciously, and they have backup,” Sam paused as her lips thinned. I saw the bad news before she even had the will to utter it. “Mercury is here, along with thirty-three more Supers to help combat Ajax, and they’re all experienced veterans.”

So, Cyberspace hadn’t been spewing nonsense after all. They really did have backup—one of the founders coming to their aid. Mercury, here in Bayside. That was a scary thought.

But why? Why go to such a length to hold your ground in a city like Bayside? Why not cut your losses and leave? What’s here that’s so important?

I couldn’t make sense of it. 

They had to have something to gain, or… perhaps it was much simpler than that. Maybe they were just here to send the message that they weren’t going to allow Ajax and the ECU to push them around. 

There was no way to be certain without the risk of being dragged right into the middle of the conflict.

“They got here quickly. Aren’t they usually on the other side of the world?”

“They have teleporters. Cyberspace identified the one helping to coordinate the effort against Ajax is called Janus.”

“All that power, and all they’re able to do is force a stalemate?” I turned my gaze toward Ajax’s Mothership. It was a testament to his strength. The world had a very good reason to be scared of him. “At least that buys us time.”

“I wouldn’t bank on it. It’s just like last time, any moment the fighting could escalate. It’s a stalemate now, but each side will be looking for weaknesses to exploit, and they won’t hesitate to take it.”

I narrowed my gaze as I noticed something peculiar.

“The Walkers are patrolling closer to Pandora’s territory,” I murmured, looking around. From where we were standing, I couldn’t see anything close to our position. “That leaves other areas of the city sparse with a lighter presence. We can move more freely now.”

“Not completely,” Sam said. “But it is much better.”

“Good. We’ll need it.”

Sam chortled as she rocked back on her heels.

“I think I know where this is going.”

“We’re going after Lucy,” I declared. “Abby will have arrived at the same conclusion as we did. She’s Awakened now, and if the ECU is smart, they will try and recruit her. With everything she knows about us and Cyberspace, we can’t allow that to happen. She already died once because of Cyberspace, I’ll be damned if I allow that to happen a second time.”

“I don’t think she’s going to be in a clear state of mind,” Sam warned. “She’s a Morpher. We don’t even know if she’s regained enough of her conscious mind to transform back.”

“Even if she hasn’t, we’ll help her.”

“How?”

I wanted to say that I would cross that bridge when I came to it, but I knew that line of thinking got me into this situation. 

“Get your things, we’ll discuss it with Liam and Mia on the way.”

“Wait, we’re going now?”

I had already turned to head back inside.

“The longer we wait, the more time we’ll lose. No time like the present.”

Lucy needed my help, and I wasn’t going to let her down.

Not this time.