“Fuck that, as far as I’m concerned there are three ways to earn enough to move above ground, I call them the dream, the nightmare, and the deathwish. The dream is becoming an apprentice for a skilled trade, and learn enough to be useful above. The nightmare is being ‘volunteered’ during a corp recruitment drive; There are always people that join up, but we all know if they’re recruiting down here it’s not for something good. And the deathwish, which is joining a gang and somehow surviving enough to gain a leadership position.”

--Evelyn ‘Teddy’ Claire, on trying to earn enough to leave Calgary’s undercity

“Hey Nana, what was the world like before there were aliens?” I ask my nana, while playing with some toys on her living room floor.

“Things were still bad even back then,” Nana says with a sad expression, “but not as bad as they are now.”

“Will things ever become better again?” I ask, looking up at her with big eyes.

“I sure hope they will, my golden-eyed treasure,” she says as she rubs my head. “Never let this world consume you.”

“Aw, that is actually sweet, maybe a bit dark, but sweet nonetheless.” a high-pitched feminine voice says from behind me.

I turn around and see a woman wearing a big purple hoodie and a white mask.

I jump back, trying to get away, only to hit my head. I blink a few times as the fog clears away. I look around: I am in some kind of metal structure. I rub the back of my head, trying my best to remember how I got here. Then a figure walks in, picking up one of the boxes before looking at me.

“Hey, you have finally woken up. You must have been under a lot of stress, but we are back home now, so you are safe; once you have gone through inspection, you are free to leave.” The captain guy says.

I frown. Home? Safe? What is going on? I slowly stand up and follow the guy out of the car. I seem to be in some kind of fort, with tall walls around me and people standing guard on top. I can hear the sound of gunfire in the distance, but it is only a minor thing. I walk into the courtyard and notice that there are two more of the big trucks parked here.

I look around to see if I can find the guy that spoke to me before. Because even though this place looks interesting it is certainly not my home. I spot him with some other people. They are going through the boxes, pulling out boxes of… is that ammo?

“Hey, uh, I am not sure where I am supposed to go.” I ask as I approach the other people.

“Ah, you just go through that door there. They will do some tests to make sure that you are not carrying any Model 7s inside.” the man from before says. “Also, please leave your swords behind. No weapons allowed in the city.”

I look at him in confusion and look down at my hands only to realise I am holding two swords really tightly. “Yeah, no.” I say before I can even think about it.

Suddenly, the place gets a lot more tense as people start raising their weapons at me. A cold chill starts to climb up my legs towards my spine.

Evelin, calm down. They are all equipped with samurai gear. This is not a fight you can win.

I take a deep, centering breath as I feel my body grow warm again, and unclench my hands, making the blades clink to the floor.

‘Lyssa, please tell me they are from a different samurai than the control chips.’

Lyssa assumes they are from a different samurai. Their weapons look new.

I turn back to the man. “Sorry about that. They helped me survive, so I had gotten a bit attached.”

The man looks at me, confused, before shrugging, “Well, okay, it is understandable. Good luck out there.”

I nod. “Thank you so much.”

I head to the indicated door and open it. Inside are some cubicles with people working in them, all wearing white doctors' coats. As I stand there, a bit confused, one of the doctors waves me over. I sit down at his desk with an awkward smile.

“Name and occupation?” He asks me.

“Evelin, security officer.” I say without pause.

The doctor raises an eyebrow. “Aren’t you a bit scrawny to be a security officer?”

“Well, I deal with cybersecurity, so I need enough strength to lift a laptop and not much else.” I say with a smile.

“Sure. Can I have your arm? I need to draw some blood for the test.” The doctor says with a bit of a strained smile.

I give him my right hand, and he uses a small device to puncture a hole in my finger. Then, he wipes it onto a piece of paper before putting it into the machine. After a bit, the machine prints out the results, and the doctor looks at it.

“You are fine. There is no sign of infection with antithesis parasites, but your blood cell count is a bit low, and there are some other things in there I am not sure about, so I recommend you to see a proper doctor.” the doctor says.

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“Do you have any idea where I can find one of those?” I ask.

“Just walk outside,” he says, indicating a door on the other side of the room. “You will see a big neon sign of a cross. Go there, and you'll be fine.”

I thank him before standing up and walking out. The city outside is quite small, most of the buildings don’t reach above four stories, and the ones that do seem about ready to fall over. I push my way through the crowd, following the doctor's advice and heading towards the neon sign. While walking, I note that most of the people here look somewhat downtrodden, and not the normal amount that you expect from the undercity. There is this underlying feeling of dread on everyone’s faces that makes it almost feel tangible.

I reach the place and find myself in front of a heavily reinforced metal door. I knock on it a few times, and a metal viewing window opens up. I can see two brown eyes looking at me in surprise. Then the slit closes as I hear multiple locks get unlocked. The door opens up, revealing a middle-aged man with black hair wearing a priest's robe.

“You poor child, come in. You must be in so much pain right now.” the priest says.

I smile at him. “It is fine. I’ve had worse. I don’t really feel any pain.” I say as I walk inside.

The clinic, if you can even call it that, is not much, but at least it looks clean. There is one of those patient table things you can lay on. A medicine cabinet with a heavy-duty lock on it and a mirror… Fuck do I look that bad? The hole where my eye used to be looks gross, to say the least, but the rest of my face doesn’t look much better. Blood and cuts everywhere, blisters and scars from what look like burns.

“Wow, I look like a ghost.” I say, as I hear my own voice breaking.

“It looks bad now, but that is because the wounds did not get properly cleaned. Let me take a look at them, and I am sure it is not as bad as it looks.” the priest says as he pats the bench thing.

“Thank you,” I say as I sit down.

“No problem. My name is Father Donoivan. What is your name?”

“I am Evelin.” I say, as I try to relax.

“That is a beautiful name. Now, Evelin, can you take off the mask?” the priest asks.

I pause but then nod. I did not realise I was wearing one, but it was there. As I take off the mask, it starts to crumble and break apart in my hand, landing in a thousand broken pieces on the floor. I instantly feel my face grow hot as all my confidence disappears, and I start to cry.

“Hey, hey, it is okay. I am sure you can get a new mask just like it. Almost everything can get replaced.” the priest says.

I guess that is right. I am a samurai, I can just get a new eye, but what if it looks different? I feel something deep inside me stir, telling me to breathe.

“You are right. I guess I am overreacting too much. I will be fine.” I say with a smile.

“That is good, child. You must have had a rough couple of days, but you are safe now, I promise. Are you willing to tell me how you got like this?” He says as he starts cleaning my wounds.

“I kind of have the feeling that a lot of things happened, but I can’t really remember exactly what.” I say, a bit embarrassed.

“That is strange. Did you hit your head recently?” the priest asks.

I frown and am about to shake my head when I remember. “I bumped it in the car when I woke up, but it was not really a big impact.” I say, a bit confused.

“Then let me just name some injuries, and you tell me how you got them, if you remember.” he asks.

I nod. “That may work.”

“Okay, let's start with the biggest injury. How did you lose your eye.”

I frown. I lost my eye. Yeah, I did, but now I don’t remember. I remember a gunshot. “I think I got shot,” I say, a bit unsure about myself.

“You got shot in the eye?” the priest asks, a bit surprised.

“You can say it was a real brain tingler.” a weird voice says.

I look around, trying to figure out where it came from. I could have sworn I had heard that voice before, but I can’t remember where. There is no one there. “Did you hear that?” I ask.

The priest looks at me, confused. “I did not hear anything. Are you hearing voices?”

I pause. Wait, did I hear things? Am I truly going crazy now? I start to breathe more rapidly now, as panic sets in. How did I even get to this city?

“Kid, calm down. Everything will be fine.” The same voice says. It sounds like my own voice, just a bit different. “Everything will be fine. Just ask Lyssa about the things you don’t remember.” The voice gets even further away.

I pause for a second, catching my breath.

“Father Donovan, can you give me a moment to look through my logs? That might help me figure out how I got this bad a lot easier.”

Donovan smiles “Of course, that makes it a lot easier; in the meantime, are you up to date on your tetanus shot?”

“No, I am not,” I say,with an awkward smile. Due to my occupation, I am vaccinated against every sexually transmitted disease on the planet, but not the more mundane ones.

“I see. Well, I will give you one then, just in case.” he says, with a smile, before walking off to the medical cabinet.

‘Lyssa, what happened to me?’ I subvocalize.

With your eye or with your situation in general.

‘Both, I guess.’

Well, for your eye, that is simple. You really did get shot. The bullet has been removed, and the damage to your cranium has been healed. For the other things, you fell into the undercity and tried your best to survive, but did get some injuries along the way. Nothing that Lyssa can’t fix. Especially now that you are somewhere safe.

‘But why do I not remember anything? Is there something wrong with me?’

Nothing is wrong with you. You are just different. You have something called dissociative identity disorder. So basically, there are other personalities in your head that sometimes take control.

I try my best to stay calm. ‘Sorry, but that sounds really scary to me, someone that can just take over my body.”

Lyssa is not sure, but it has happened before. Every time you put on your mask, you become the other. That is why your memories might be fuzzy, but I believe that both of you have the same goal.

I think back to all the times that I have become Maniac. It is true that those have always been fuzzy. I thought that was just the adrenaline, but maybe it was something else, like an out-of-body experience. But was she evil? No, she has always done everything I wanted to do if I had the power, so if she is evil, then so am I. I guess I will deal with it another day.

“Are you okay?” The priest asks as he walks back to me. “You look a bit pale.”

“Yeah, I am fine. I'm just surprised about how much has happened.” I say with an awkward smile.

“I understand you must be very tired.” Then he looks away. “I run a small orphanage upstairs. Once we are done here, you can stay there for a bit and rest, if you don’t mind the noise.”

I smile. “Thank you so much. I think I could use some rest.”