The scattered dust in the early morning light cast the entire city in a warm reddish-purple haze. Within the confusion, I quickly transformed back to human form, and tried to camouflage as best I could into the crowds. The clothing that I created certainly wasn’t indistinguishable from proper fabric, but I hoped that nobody would notice the occasional wasp-like leg or compound eye peeking out from my clothes. After all, the streets were in complete disarray. I think the people had bigger things to worry about.

How had things gotten this out of hand? Back home in Vancouver, everything had seemed so carefree. So simple. The Angels and Demons were on the periphery, something barely noticeable to the average person. Even the storm had come and gone, dissolving in the morning like a dream. But now, everything was in the light. Everything was being made clear. And the world was terrified.

I passed so many people. People in cloth; robes and scarfs to protect them from the sun and sand. People with those blue bandanas and scarlet thunderbolts tied around the foreheads or arms or necks. People in uniform, helmets and vests and guns, tiny patches of colour connecting them to far-flung nations with interests here. The world was awake. The world was watching. But they were not watching me. Not yet. No, I could follow the crowds, follow the commotion. Because while some were fleeing the same chaos that I was leaving. Others were flowing toward another place. While Sanctuary 1 had been collapsing from the inside out, our enemies had made their invitation.

All that was left to do was to follow. And to hope that it wasn’t too late.

As I continued down the streets, the crowds thickened. The first signs started appearing, too. Words in many languages. Arrows pointing, guiding the people towards the place. Russula. There were other signs, too, though. Posters depicting her.. depicting us as monsters. As alien invaders. What a way to twist the truth. It made my blood boil, triggered something deep within me. The same as when I saw an Echo or Demon before me. It was wrong.

And speaking of which, there were so many Echoes on the street. Little creatures crawling around beneath the feet of the crowds. Some were familiar. Rats and mice and moles and shrews. But there were also stranger shapes, unfamiliar. Their black forms made my vision blur. I couldn’t bear to look down. So many... that could only mean one thing.

A Demon stood before me in shining plate armour, bearing a double-edged shortsword in her hand. Her spiky hair was bright yellow, and interlaced with streaks of ice-blue and scarlet. She stared me down with eyes full of scorn. Dawn. But she made no action. Instead, she turned around and limped onward, vanishing into the crowd. Surely she’d seen me. So then why hadn’t she done anything?

The house itself was surrounded by people. A circle of Blood Thunder members patrolled the exterior, standing watch as real military forces kept a perimeter around the location. At least it had been relatively easy to find. But now, getting in seemed like an impossibility. Everyone approaching the house was screened several times, and I had no business being there by any means. I certainly couldn’t morph into my Imago here either, at least not with so many people watching nearby.

Oh wait. Of course. How had I been so dumb? I held out my hand, weaving the chitin and proteins together into a blue bandana that matched all the others, tying it around my forehead. It wasn’t exactly a great disguise, but just maybe it’d be enough to get in. I steeled my nerves and stepped out of the dust.

At first, the people eyed me with suspicion. But seeing the bandana on my forehead seemed to put them at ease quickly enough. There were probably hundreds of members here at the moment. A stranger wouldn’t stand out much at all...

“Hello,” said a voice behind me. “What business do you have here?”

I turned around. A soldier towered over me. It made me realize just how small and frail my human body was.

“Well?” His eyes seemed to see right through me. As if any excuse I made wouldn’t cut it. I felt my plan falling apart and— No. I wouldn’t. I had to get in. Without the words to speak, I simply stared back at him, as if he ought to know what I was doing here. His eyes and mine were locked for what seemed like an eternity, until he looked away and simply nodded. “Sorry. Please, come in.”

He helped open the door, revealing the interior of a pretty typical house. All sorts of people were milling about inside, each one wearing one of the Blood Thunder bandanas. I disappeared into the crowd—now, which way would Russula be? Upstairs? Downstairs? I considered asking, but my nerves were still frayed from encountering the guard.

The sound of loud footsteps broke my train of thought. Another group of Blood Thunder members were walking by. One among them caught my eye. Someone was walking in the middle of the group. I looked again. It was Russula. Perfect. Her hands were bound, and her mouth was tied, but her golden eyes and matching blonde hair stood out among the sea of blue bandanas.

Now how to get to her? Though our Imagos were definitely stronger than these measly human bodies, there were a lot more of them than us. And I had no idea what sort of mental state Russula was in right now. She was probably in no condition to fight. Perhaps not even in condition to run. So I followed the group discreetly down the hall and through a door, down a set of stairs. To my surprise, rather than a dusty basement with little more than cobwebs and forgotten trinkets, the stairs opened up into an elaborate complex.

There were far fewer people here too. I looked down on Russula’s escort. There were only maybe eight or nine of them. I could take them on. I began to moult into my Imago, feeling the exoskeleton creep over my skin. I’d take the ones in the back first, and then—

“Quinn.”

I knew that voice. I turned my head to see her standing just behind me. She was beckoning me closer. She wore a visor that covered her eyes and surgical scrubs. “Mom?” I whispered.

“What are you doing here?” Her voice was stern, but she wasn’t angry.

“What are you doing here? And where’s dad? And—”

And I looked back down, and Russula was gone. “Sorry,” I said, pushing her away as I descended down the stairs. I looked around in all directions, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

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“Quinn.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “Forget about her. What have you done to yourself? Why are you with them? They’re the enemies of humanity.”

“Mom, you wouldn’t understand,” I said. “You’re the one being misled. We’re trying to protect humanity.”

“From whom? That’s certainly not what Dawn says.”

Dawn? Oh no. I could already hear the metallic footsteps echoing on the tiled floor. Sure enough, the Demon emerged from the shadows, dressed in shining armour. Her steps were slightly uneven; she had a limp.

“Your venom,” she explained, noticing my gaze. “It stings quite a bit.”

“I sure hope it does,” I said.

The demon smirked. “I may as well say it now, then. Your Angels are done for. Our sleeper agent infiltrated Sanctuary 1. Your connection to the chorus and to Gaia, the very thing that gives you strength, will be overtaken. Broken. Twisted to our purpose. The chorus of symbiotes is going silent to make way for a single voice. His voice. And so the Angels will fall under the sway of anoth—”

“That won’t happen.” I felt another surge of clarity course through my system. The eyes and ears and sense to see my enemy clearly. To see how she was an abomination. To see that... but...

“You feel it already.”

There was something else in there. Almost like an itch inside my brain. Not something. Someone. Another presence was hiding inside the chitinous exoskeleton, crawling about with segmented legs and hoping to worm into my mind. Reaching out to touch it in my mind’s eye brought only pain and disgust. It was wrong. The same sort of wrongness as... as... “An Echo,” I whispered. “But how.”

Dawn took another few steps closer. I felt my mother’s hands grasping my arms, too. “Don’t worry, Quinn,” she said. “You’re confused right now, but everything will be made clear soon. Just rest.”

The patch of darkness in my mind was spreading. Claws reached out in the darkness, poking at my consciousness. I knew that if I were to listen and give in, I would likely never wake up again. Or at least, not as myself. I broke free of my mother’s grip, drawing the stinger and pointing it at Dawn.

The Demon didn’t flinch. Instead, she slowly drew her shortsword, levelling it at my chest. “You know, Quinn, I ought to punish you for what you did to my two colleagues...”

“That’s enough.” Another Demon walked into the room.

“Thea.”

She nodded. Thea was wearing the same fitted purple suit as always. “Dawn, please escort the doctor out of here. There is work to be done.”

“Only formalities. Quetzal’s plan worked,’ said Dawn.

“We’ll see about that,” Thea muttered. “Perhaps there are things that he didn’t account for. Either way, you should just leave.”

Dawn muttered something under her breath and stormed off. My mother followed shortly behind, though at the last moment she looked back for a moment. Was she trying to tell me something? I couldn’t tell.

I turned back towards Thea. “You’re working with them?” I asked.

“I could ask you the same,” said Thea. “There’s no difference. You’ve accepted your path. Your destiny. I’ve only done the same.” She sighed. “You know, I thought that maybe there was another way to do this. That we wouldn’t have to fight.”

“There is—”

“But you’ve shown me time and time again that you don’t believe that. You’re nothing more than a slave to your destiny, shackled to your—”

“Look at me,” I interrupted, transforming into my Imago. My new Imago. In the early morning light, the crimson glowed like burning embers and the yellow shone like stars. My long, slender stinger gleamed as it caught the sun’s rays. “I have taken the destiny and made it mine.”

“It’s a destiny that ends in our destruction,” said Thea. “Making it yours is no different from accepting it from someone else. All you’re doing is trying to selfishly keep your own goals while appeasing the Angels. But sooner or later you’ll have to choose between one or the other. Well, actually, you already have.”

In an instant I was at her throat, my stinger aimed at her neck. But she’d caught the blade between her fingers. And then, her face melted away, reforming again into one that I knew all too well.

“You’ve still got one weakness, don’t you?” she said. But it wasn’t her voice. No.

It was my mother’s.

And my mother’s face. And body. I hesitated, and she threw me to the ground. “You are still holding on to this person, aren’t you? You want to know what she was doing with Blood Thunder? You seem to be under the delusion that you can accept your fate, your destiny as an Angel, and keep yourself. You will lose yourself sooner or later. Or you will lose your destiny.”

“I’ll prove you wrong. I’ll keep both.”

Thea laughed with my mother’s voice.

“Where is Russula? Tell me where she is.”

“Why should I tell you?” she said.

I didn’t know what to say.

“How about this, Quinn,” she said. “Which is more important to you? Your mother? Or Russula? Which do you care more about? Who you were? Or what you can become?”

“I...”

“I’ll even give you a choice,” she said. “See, the Doctor is preparing for surgery now. She’s all alone. You could go over and talk to her. I’ll make sure that Dawn leaves you alone. The door is right there. But if you insist... you can go and see Russula instead.”

I wanted to do both. To talk to my mother, figure things out, and save Russula. There had to be a way to do it. There had to be.

Thea unlocked a pair of doors and gestured into the dark hallways beyond. “There are two doors. But you’ll only have the chance to go to one before we begin the operation. I can’t give you more time. But be honest. Show me your resolve to your ‘new cause’. Show me that you’ve made this destiny your own. If you can.“

The two voids lay before me. But my choice was obvious. Though my mind was racing, my body already knew which one it wanted. And so I went with the flow and stepped through the doorway...