I stood there, again, on that hill as I watched the flames of Harmony ascend upon me. The screams of those around me, the survivors–or would be survivors, attempting to flee. The city burned around me, by my hands as I stood there doing absolutely nothing. I watched in horror as I tried to tell myself it wasn’t my fault or that it was some kind of a nightmare or something. That was furthest from the truth though, wasn’t it? The smoke filled the sky, the sun had barely started setting as I watched the crimson hues sharply engulfed by the smoke and ash. I coughed, tears pouring down my face.

“I’m sorry.” Is all I heard escape my mouth. It’s all I could muster the strength to say. I watched my home die. My friends approached.

HERE WE GO AGAIN I Heard myself think. Was this part of the memory, or was this modern me talking? I couldn’t tell the difference anymore but one thing I knew for sure was that I’d seen this play out a million times. I’d watched this unfold in almost every way and each time I found myself here–it only ended one way. We leave that hill; we head through the parking garage in an attempt to rescue our other friend. Someone says something, a few soldiers show up and I throw more flames around. Once again, my own hands drip with their blood. I watched each time as I killed them all. All six of them. They begged, they cried and they tried to fight back. I still ended them. I laughed, or I could hear laughter, but I always figured it was someone else’s. I don’t remember laughing. I don’t remember being this bloodthirsty and brutal. I remember being more afraid than this. Each time, each time this happens I remember it slightly differently. Would I ever know the truth? The actual truth?

I found myself fleeing once again through this burning cemetery of a city’s memory. I wasn’t sure where I was headed but I was heading somewhere. I turned the corner through a neighborhood that hadn’t quite been hit yet. I flung myself over the railing of a park and threw myself towards somewhere. Anywhere. I knew home was gone. I knew everyone was out. I wasn’t sure how I knew this, but I did.

Get out of here. This is just a nightmare. It isn’t real. This isn’t even how Harmony was set up.

I could hear my voice screaming in the back of my head. It came from all around though like a surround sound system. That orange fire burned hot in my hands as anger crept through my spine. I flung a shot of fire behind me.

“Where are you?” I shouted. The other voice that sounded like me was right. This isn’t how this went. This wasn’t how the city was even set up, let alone how it played out. I flung another fireball. The smoke finally engulfed enough around me as darkness befell. I stood there in the darkness, the flames from my palm illuminating the only few inches in front of me I could see. A mask broke from the darkness. That mask.

“You.” I said through gritted teeth as the flame on my hand burned black. That was new for the Graveyard. If this was indeed the Graveyard and not just another nightmare memory. Once again, something I could barely tell the difference between lately.

“You’re finally starting to figure it out, very good. Maybe there is hope for you yet.” Mask said, once again their voices broke from all around. It was fucking terrifying. Another flame broke free of my hands as I watched them stand in its midst, unharmed.

“You still don’t get it do you? I–we have complete control over these domains Mother. You still haven’t figured this out? Is it any wonder that your memories have been falling apart. I bet you can’t even grasp that this is just a nightmare.” It spoke with certainty.

“I–” I started to say something but trailed off when I noticed the school in the background. The very school that now sat as the logo for Watchtower Brigade. Our team. The…team. Right, this wasn’t the Graveyard. I’d have more control here. This had to be a nightmare, but if this was a nightmare how was it possible that someone was altering it? Or even here, for that matter, responding to me with such levels of sentience?

“Such naivety to the world around you, huh, and you’re supposed to be Industry’s greatest vigilante detective? You don’t even know my name, let alone what I am, or we are, or how I'm doing this. Hell, you haven’t even figured out about the body in Harmony, have you?” I watched as its head tilted, as if it said something it wasn’t supposed to and the scene around me started faltering.

“The body..that Melony and the others from Fear mentioned?” I started in on them. The scene continued to deconstruct around me. I grinned. I could feel the mask covering my face now. I wasn’t the scared little AJ anymore but Darkfire. This WAS a nightmare, but I was starting to regain control of it, well, as much control over a dream as someone could anyway. This intruder had been realized.

“Ignore that. It does not matter. You still can’t even figure out your own whereabouts.” I started feeling that unease creep over me again. I felt the tingle in my stomach as their screams once again broke the silence around us. I backed up a bit.

YOU HAVE CONTROL HERE. WE HAVE CONTROL HERE. THIS IS A NIGHTMARE AND A WEAK ONE AT THAT. REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE NOT ONLY A PYRO. YOU’RE AN UMBRA TOO. YOU HAVE DARKNESS, ASSHOLE. USE IT. GET YOURSELF OUT OF THIS.

As rude as I was, I was right. The voice had finally started sounding right again. I stood taller as their voice trailed. That mask tilted at me, confused.

‘What do you think you’re doing, Mother?” She asked.

“What the fuck is up with this mother stuff dude? It’s creepy as hell and I don’t even know you.” I stepped closer with each word “and you keep talking about us and we, are there more of you? What are you some kind of cult or something? If so, how come nothing’s popped up on our monitors? Hm?” I asked. They took a step back. I felt myself envelope the smoke around us as I felt my body back into it. I must have been entirely overtaken by it because they seemed, for the first time, genuinely spooked. I was finally starting to feel like myself again. These last several months, everything that’s happened over the entirety of this case–starting from the first moment I met Mask here, I’ve felt off. My survival instincts, my training and everything I would normally have at my disposal. It all felt wrong, felt broken. I, felt broken lately. But in this very moment I finally started to feel myself again. The darkness overcame me as I shimmered around Mask.

“We refer to the chosen as Mother.” They answered. Ah, I was getting somewhere. Perfect.

“Keep talking Mask.” I said, swarming around them as I trailed through the thick smoke. I wasn’t sure if I was using my dark or fire powers here but It hadn’t mattered, it felt good. Damn good.

“I am the chosen, then?” I asked.

“Obviously. What is this, why is my control breaking?” They asked, breaking character for the first time I've known them.

“Oh dear, Mask. Didn’t the others in whatever cult of yours tell you that you don’t mess with someone that’s got connections to a graveyard? Furthermore, don’t mess with me?” As I said to myself, I felt the sinister, cold darkness overtake my very being as black flames shot from my hands. Before I could even see the outcome, I'd woken up naked and in a cold sweat on the couch in the bunker. My blankets had been tossed to the floor. At some point through the night, I’d gotten myself a drink of water from the bathroom or kitchen too, the glass sat in a ring of condensation on the nightstand next to the couch. I realized I was hyperventilating. I grabbed what was left of the water and drank it down, which only gave me hiccups, but my hyperventilating stopped anyway.

Once I’d grounded myself and remembered where I was, I strolled around pacing. I slid some gloves over my hands, which felt warm to the touch. I paced for a while, having music blare through the speakers I’d built into the ceiling. It felt good. I took the glass back into the kitchen and washed it, cleaned up a few things and headed back into the loft, remembering very little from the nightmare but the fact that Mask had messed up had me intrigued. I’d remembered that much anyway. I took another deep breath and sat down in my office chair. It rolled to a stop and I fixed myself, pulling out the keyboard and waking my Jefferson system up.

“Morning Jeffy.” I said with a yawn. Jefferson appeared on screen as my system came to life.

“Morning AJ.” Jefferson yawned in a mockery of myself. He doesn’t quite have full sentience though his programmer is broken enough to simulate it close enough. It sometimes feels like talking to a real person and I’d even argue that J is one of my better friends than some of my actually alive friends. Not sure if that's just sad or what.

The Watchtower Brigade had been started way early on in my career as a vigilante. I had, initially, been a lone wolf during my zero and one year of this whole rodeo. However, I’d eventually gotten used to the idea of having some help once I realized how vast of a project patrolling Industry could be and how many people had been doing this for even longer than I’d been alive. There’s heroes and villains out there that have been at this for a century. Don't ask me how it’s possible but it is apparently. I had also eventually wanted to connect to the undercity, after making friends there early on. So, I finally figured that I’d form a kind of branching team sort of. We aren’t quite a team, but we keep each other updated and help out whenever there is something bigger than us happening. I don’t ask for help from them as often as I maybe should, hell I barely like asking for help period. I hovered over the chat for a minute before checking it.

I sighed.

Hey guys, anyone around, nightmares have been extremely bad lately and last nights was one of the worst. Something about it though, that and the weird shape I keep seeing in the bunker, on top of the scanner popping on. I don’t know. Could use some advice here. I left the message in the type box for a long while before finally hitting send.

I left for another drink. I slid my cup under the ice dispenser on the slick fridge and ran it. Grabbed myself my favorite zero calorie brand drink and headed back to the desk. I flopped back into my chair, wrapping a blanket around me, it got cold, but I didn’t feel like getting dressed yet. I had a message.

Hey, you’re up early my guy- S. S.

Slipstream, of course. Slipstream has been a friend of mine for a long time now. We kind of grew up together. Not as far back as Harmony, but of course no one could be. They were one of my second group of friends post Harmony, however. I met them right when I’d come out of The Basement.

Yeah, bad dreams will do that to ya, hah. Anyway, yeah could use some advice on this.

Sure thing, whatcha looking for in particular? You wanna meet up somewhere that way it isn’t just over typing?

Yeah, that sounds good to me! Usual gang meet up spot then?

I was thinking somewhere a little different, if there’s people watching you, probably watching all of us to be honest. A new place may be better.

Point. Alright. You pick, Imma get dressed and I'll start heading out.

Gotchu bestie.

I watched their username go offline as I finished checking the rest of the chat. A few memes, a few messages from other friends. Nothing big going down, perfect. I headed into my little room away from my bedroom, changed into the usual attire. It was starting to get pretty chilly outside. A hoody, jeans, black of course and I couldn’t forget the mask. Even though Slipstream and I knew each other outside of our identities, it was still nice to have. I’ve said for years that the mask was starting to become my actual face, which says a lot more about me than anything really.

“Hey Jeffers, heading out. Ill be back later, you got the tracker on?” I asked, slipping my boots on.

“Always.” He nodded on the screen.

“Who’d you have it set to?” I asked, tilting my head as I finished lacing my boots and slipped on my mask.

“You’d instructed me to set your tracker back to Stacy and Nicole.” He shrugged.

“Do me a favor, add Simon to that list too, just in case I need some heavy guns.” I grinned.

“Are you planning to get into trouble?” He asked with a concerned tone to his mechanical voice.

“Not planning. But, you know me.” I winked as I headed up the stairs. I distinctly heard him mutter “I do” as I left out the bunker doors.

The sun had fully risen by the time I made it into the city, evading the wall’s guards and Fear Patrol. I spotted a few I recognized and even noticed a bunch of added support squads patrolling. They were persistent with watching for me, huh? I’d still need to head to Harmony and check that body they told me about the other night. I still hadn’t gathered the nerve to yet, but I would need to. Something was screaming in the back of my head that I’d find several answers there.

I know I know. I know I need to go there alright.

A GOOD DETECTIVE WOULD ALREADY HAVE.

Yeah well, I’ve never claimed to be a good one–nor a detective. I’m just a girl that's tired of the way our shit’s run and I have a lot to say about it.

I pulled the throttle of the bike and sped through another alley. I was somewhere on the fourth or fifth level of the city in one of the parking districts. We always picked the ‘downtown’ areas to hang out, if you could call them that. Everything under the top levels is downtown, if you ask me, but I digress. Nice shopping centers, some retro wave gear stores, music stores and things like that filled these areas. Some fancier food places and some of the best hole-in-the-wall places you’d find come out of these little “downtown” districts and it would just so happen that these were in Slip’s turf. I parked the bike along the backside of one of the turnarounds, next to a large industrial dumpster, and figured it was out of the main line of sight there. I hopped off the bike, leaning back against it and took out one of my energy drinks from the bike’s pouch. I absolutely live off these things.

I started to chug the freshly opened energy drink, which had been a much larger one than usual as I spotted someone approaching from the side. I quickly turned, my mask fully covering my face again when the flame in my hand died away.

“Ya know dude, you really are jumpier than usual lately.” A familiar voice shot from the winds around me. When the gust cleared, I looked up at the dumpster and there they sat, sipping away at a store-bought tea. Their face is obscured by the aviator goggles and hat, combined with that oversized scarf of theirs. Slipstream in the flesh. I felt a smile stretch across my face.

“As I live and breathe. It's been far too long Slip.” I said, that smile still held strong and apparent in my voice as they wiggled and jumped down into the embrace of a hug. I hugged them tightly. Since Jess, I hadn’t really had feelings for anyone else. It’d been months at this point but there were still lingering pains there. I did, however, have a small crush on Slipstream. They were one of the first people I had recruited onto the Brigade.

“It has indeed.” They spoke with a smile in their voice. Even though their voice was obscured by a voice simulator, much like my own, I could tell the differences.

“Thank you for agreeing to hang out dude, I–” I felt myself trailing off in thought. My memory, my very own thoughts, had been broken lately. Ever since running into Mask in the park, I’d noticed that there had been increasingly larger gaps between thoughts and there had been even larger gaps in memory. I couldn’t even remember the last time I was at home proper, outside of the bunker. I had several hundred missed calls and texts combined between my siblings, Hell, even Janett had called–even though I'm sure there was some influence from Stacy on that one. My oldest sister would never check on my wellbeing, unless of course she had me in one of her little mental torture games but that’s an entirely different story for another time.

“Yeah, no worries dude. I’m always around to help, you know this. So, what's eating at yea, it isn’t typical you ask for some kind of therapeutic help like this, what can I do ya for?” They asked, leaning against the bike. It was here I took note of their outfit. Typically, they wore oversized baggy clothes that hid their body type, but today I noticed they were wearing a very slimmed Brigade shirt and matching torn jeans. The boots were mismatched colors but it kind of worked for them in a weird way.

I sighed.

“No seriously dude, you can cover anything you need to with me. You always have been, you know this, right? Like, you’re not alone out here, regardless of this whole, Omega wolf personality you’ve got going on.” They said, leaning back, stretching their arms.

They’re lying to us. You know that most people aren’t here to help you. You’ve always been on your own.

My inner voice sounded different. It had been the last couple days since Mask’s interference. I shook my head, ignoring everything around me.

“That’s also a lie!” I shouted. Slip took another sip of their drink.

“When are you going to get that voice looked at?” They asked, nonchalantly.

“I-the voice?” I asked, playing stupid. They gave me a look. Their covered face tilted and I could tell I was getting the ‘mom’ look from them.

“Don’t play stupid, darkfire. I know about that voice in your head. It's a little obvious when you really look at it.” They said. We’d, a long time ago, agreed to only use our persona names when in public settings. I knew theirs, they knew mine. However, we had our safety protocols. This business of ours, vigilante justice, superheroing and the like, was dangerous. Especially lately considering Fear Patrols hard on for us lately. For me lately.

“How did you figure that out when literally no one else has?” I asked in shock.

“Dude, come on. You forget I'm a psychologist or what?” They asked, kicking off the bike and pacing around me, circling like a vulture. I had to admit, I completely forgot about the very concept of day jobs.

“I am not even going to lie to you boss, I completely forgot about the entire concept of day jobs being a thing that exists. They chuckled.

“I suppose that's entirely fair my guy, but lemme just say this. I know, KNOW more than you might think about you. SO please don’t try to bullshit me, especially when you’d asked for help. Ok?” Once again, they gave me the ‘mom’ look.

“I–Fine. Fine, fair enough.” I sighed. I took a deep breath, trying to drown the voice out. In that dream, it was normal, outside the dream though, here in the real? It's been way off lately. It’s like Mask has been affecting me mentally. It’s almost like that voice has become corrupted of a sort by Mask, but I'm not sure how that’s even possible, if it is at all.

‘So, what’s going on dude?” They asked, leading the way over to a bench a few feet away. I followed. Leaning against the bench instead of sitting, I fidgeted with my gloves.

“Alright, so here’s the thing.” I started. I Info-dumped everything on them. Everything from the moment I met Mask in the park, the memory issues and the dreams and nightmares. I described the night with Simon and the night with Stormcaller and RJ. Melony and Jess telling me about the bodies? Everything.

“Well I’m going to ask a very stupid question here, but have you gone to Harmony yet to look into these bodies?” They asked, keeping full eye contact with me.

“I–haven’t. I can’t. Dude.” I admitted, more to myself than them. They just looked at me, almost like they were mentally taking notes on our impromptu therapy here.

“Right. I know that Harmony has a lot of trauma for you, buuuut I can’t help but think that, at some point, you should probably go right? I mean Melony and them are gonna just keep the heat up. They’ll keep pressing. You know Fear Patrol as well as I do. You HAVE to go, if anything, just to see this body for yourself, if it’s even still there. I doubt they’d leave a body out in the open like that, but you never know. I’m not going to sit here and pretend to understand how these guys in our lovely government office do things.” They chuckled.

“I know, I know. It’s just that the last time I was there, I had a panic attack. I tried visiting a few times over the years. You know my history there. Everyone that knows, ME does. It was the last thing I experienced before being put through The Basement. I– I’m not sure I can ever force myself to go back.” I admitted, the pain was evident in my voice as the inner thought laughed.

YOU KNOW YOU WERE PUT INTO THE BASEMENT BECAUSE IT WAS INDEED YOUR FAULT. IT ALL WAS. ALL OF THEM. THE FOLKS, THE INNOCENT FOLKS. YOUR FRIENDS. THE ONLY FRIENDS YOU REALLY EVER HAD. ALL OF THEM. THEYRE ALL DEAD AND ITS YOUR FAULT AJ GREEN.

Wait. AJ Green? My voice never called me by my own name.

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“GET OUT OF MY HEAD WHATEVER YOU ARE!” I shouted, falling to my knees. I scratched at the sides of my mask, trying desperately to get this thing out. It was evident, now, that someone or something was messing with my very make up genes. I don’t know how that was possible but there was no way in hell I was entirely myself here. I knew it now. Things were starting to come together a little bit.

“Hey, talk to me–what's going on?” I heard Slipstream getting off the bench. They were over me. Everything else was a blur. I could feel them standing over me concerned but also seemed like they were giving me my space. I screamed again at whatever this entity was inside my head. Was I being possessed? Was that even possible?

“Something is inside of me.” I said through gritted teeth.

‘What do you–” They started and suddenly I felt myself being shoved over by a gust of wind.

“What the fuck?” I asked, just right before hearing the small wisp of a bullet plunge into the cement next to us. My hand was instantly on fire, bunging that black hot flame. It grew even more intensified as I scanned the area. This was not the day for this. I found Slipstream ducked next to me, dragging me back towards the dumpster. I pulled away from them as I stood my ground. I was tired of needing help. I was tired of needing to be saved by people and letting my emotions and personal traumas get in the way of what I was here to do. The fire grew even stronger in my hand than it had in a long time. I felt the rage. I stood, facing the direction the bullet came from.

"You alright Slip?” I asked, changing the sound on the voice changer.

‘Yeah, are you?” They asked, a small gust ball sat stationary in their palm.

“I'll be fine. Where’d you see the shot from?” I asked through gritted teeth, now ducking behind the dumpster with them on the other side.

“Up.” They said as a shot of gusted wind blew from their hand, redirecting another bullet into the wall next to us. Damn, that’s a handy power. I had only seen them in action a few times. I scanned the area, looking for any familiar faces. If that was Melony, she would have hit one of us. It wasn’t until I had finally seen the red dot site from the top roof across the way. I motioned to Slip behind the dumpster with my left hand. With my right, I gestured towards the area and nodded. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was on my feet and slip-spacing between the dark spots along the wall and through the pipelines up to the roof. I felt myself rushing through the air, momentarily invisible to the naked eye.

I threw myself into a roll, landing on my knees as I slid. It hurt a bit, but I’d done this a million times before and this wasn’t anything new. The flames returned to my palms as I threw a ball of ignited gas. I didn’t know I could do gaseous forms but here we were. The gunman dodged and tucked around the gas, expecting it to be a fire blast as I heard coughing from under his facial mask. I swung around as he fired another shot at me. The bullet flew over my shoulder while I tucked and threw an actual flame blast at him. I scorched him right in the chest as he flew back towards the bricks behind us. Just as I’d approached him, staring right into his body cam-which we all know directs back somewhere at headquarters, I grinned under the mask. Before I could say anything and brat them though, another shot whizzed right next to my ear in rapid bursts. My head snapped back to see three more Fear Patrol soldiers clambering out of the rooftop exit. These soldiers weren’t like the typical agents we encountered. These guys were mobile and heavily armored. I threw a blast of fire towards the gray-armored soldiers as it engulfed them but evaporated just the same.

“Well shit.” I heard myself mumble as I dove through more gunshots. Ya know it really isn’t a fair playing field when I’m out here trying not to kill these guys and they’re trying their hardest to turn me into Swiss cheese.

“You don’t think we don’t know what you are, darkfire? You and your little friend down there have a problem too.” One of the soldiers said once the bursting had seized fire. I quickly glanced downwards to the left of me, over the side of the roof to see Slip duking it out with a few soldiers. It looked like one of them had some kind of rock powers as She pulled the surrounding gravel around Slip, trying to encase them. In the blink of an eye, however, they’d pushed themself out of the danger zone and behind the four soldiers that had just previously cornered them. I couldn’t watch anymore though as a fist collided into the side of my head.

“Dammit” I shouted as I shook it off, hurt like hell. I’d felt some kind of steel? Another glance revealed the soldier to be wearing a steel glove. Wonderful, Fear had pulled some powered folks along with them this time. It was a safe enough bet that Melony’s team was either monitoring this encounter from wherever the body cam footage was being sent to, or from the location itself. Either way, if they were pulling out the powered soldiers already, we had probably better be getting going. I closed my eyes and everything slowed down a little. I smelled the gunpowder. I smelled the gas of the industrial building we were fighting on. I heard the soldiers calling orders. I hadn’t actually slowed down time, but I was trying to get myself into The Graveyard. I heard a rumor that you could just enter it from the real world, but I had never practiced it. As I attempted focus, another sharp pain slammed into my side as I hit the side railing with a clang. I’m not sure what hurt worse, the punch itself or my ego for letting someone get not one-but two hits on me.

“Try it again.” I said through gritted teeth as I could feel the vigilante in me starting to take over again. The same one that had taken over in my dream. I shook my head, relinquished the Graveyard attempt and ignited flames in both fists. I could feel the black embers dancing around my gloved hands. The soldier’s cockiness stopped the minute he saw the look in my eyes. I’ve been told my eyes gleam a slight smokey green when I get angry. My mother’s eyes, I’ve been told by siblings. Another burst of rounds shot around me, this time as a warning to stop.

“Alright, we have both of you surrounded, put your hands in the air, and step back slowly, placing your arms behind yourself.” Both teams of men shouted to us.

“Nahh I don’t think so.” I said.

“I will not repeat myself.” He remarked.

“Nah, I’m good.” I said with a grin. I’d finally caught a glimpse of what I had been looking for and decided to take a risky opportunity. Just as the soldiers started to approach even closer, I saw bouncing off one of the nearby windows–a purple dot site. I knew exactly who it was. I shifted my body weight, twisted slightly and winked at the guy in front of me that was only a rifle-barrel away from me now. His head looked at me with a tilt and perplexed awe and wonder.

“Get your hands beh–” Before he could even finish the sentence, I kicked up a loose sheet metal from the ground with a flick and a loud pang. The loud pang was followed by the pained screams from a guy to the side of me as Melony’s bullet plunged into him. The soldiers, unaware she was there, looked around in confusion and chaos.

“Yeah, why would I surrender to the B team anyway?” I asked before lunging myself in a spiral off the rooftop and flinging myself into the only spot of darkness the parking lot below had. I shot into slipspace.

The next sequence of events went by in a blur. I wasn’t even sure if it was me anymore that was controlling my actions, or if it was the voice. The real voice. Cause I heard a faint, weak, “Move. Get to the bike, get to the bunker. Figure this out.” There he was. The voice I was used to. It sounded distressed though, which weirded me out considering the voice was supposed to just be my own inner monologue right? Either way I took heed of his warnings and sprinted as quickly as I could to the bike, throwing a few blasts of dark fire bolts towards other soldiers I came across.

“Slip, we’re out of here!” I shouted over the bursting gunfire. Before I even had the bike started and hoovering in the air with that almost silent hum of its engine, I felt a gust of wind grip the back and something shouted “Got it.” We took off leaving a trail of black and orange smog behind us. Fire and Darkness–Stormcaller installed a signature colored escape plan for me. I think I am starting to fall in love. We headed out towards the city, weaving in and around traffic and headed towards the walls. I wasn’t sure where we would go, but I had some ideas on what we needed to do next.

_____________________________________

After what felt like days of circling the outer walls of the city and running mini tactical ops through the dunes around it, we’d finally found ourselves away from any search party friends that had been in pursuit. The bike sat safely in its little hidey-hole. The dilapidated old shack I called a garage. Hey, never let them tell you I’m not a girl of fancy taste. After making sure there was no one watching, Slip caused a little heavy weather coverage for us to dash into the bunker. I lead the way ahead of them down those clanky metal stairs.

“I can’t believe I am in the infamous bunker.” Slipstream whispered, though I heard and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“It’s nothing fancy, mind you, but it’s more of a home than my actual home is sometimes.” I admitted. We descended the stairs and with the flick of my wrists, the lights kicked on following a single clap. (They’re motion detecting, but I'm nothing if not a woman of flair with a love for theatrics.)

“Nothing fancy? Holy shit dude, I’d always heard the stories from you and the others in the chat but this is nuts.” They said, their voice cracking. They still had the voice changer on, but I’d long since turned mine off. This was someone that I had known for a half a decade and they had numerous times they could have outed me or even betrayed me and hadn’t. There isn’t even a yet there either, I knew them. My inner voice, whatever it is, usually had an uncanny sixth sense about people and Slipstream had never raised a single red flag. I offered them the couch as I strolled into the kitchen.

“Want anything dude? I got water, pops, tea, you name it.” I peeked around the corner, tossing my mask aside. Their eyes went wide.

“You sure?” They asked.

“Yeah of course, I’ve got loads of stuff here aint gonna cause me anything giving you some.” I snickered.

“No not that, I meant the mask, you took it off.” They said, still slightly surprised.

“Oh, I guess I did. Habit, I suppose, unless you mind? I can throw it back on?” I asked, grabbing drinks from the fridge. They were silent for a minute before finally taking their own goggles and hat off. They left the scarf covering their mouth, but I got the gist of what they looked like.

“Nah, that's cool. I’ve just never seen you before outside of like, papers and news articles The Institute news sources run, ya know?” They explained. Which was entirely fair. AJ Green is plastered all over the news, constantly. Outside of this darkfire gig I have, I am somewhat of a big name in the political and business worlds. I see myself on the news all the time. I tend to keep it that way on purpose, throwing people off the trail of my actual secrets. The only people that even remotely have ideas, are a couple of lower ranking Fear Patrol agents that have had “wild Conspiracy Theories” in the past and now, Jess. She could be an issue if things get too heated and if things continue down the path they’re going, then I’d have to–I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

“Yeah, that’s entirely fair. Anyway, here’s me.” I chuckled, flopping down in the desk chair and waking Jefferson up. “Feel free to make yourself at home, I figure you’ll stay the night, I don’t want you out there after earlier, I’m sure Melony’s team is still on our tail, probably around the bunker to be honest, luckily none of them have figured this out yet.” I shrug. It's an obvious place for a hideout when you stop to think about it, I’m not sure if I’ve just gotten lucky that they haven’t decided to take a stroll down here of if there’s some kind of other reason maybe. I hope it's just luck and I’m not setting up my own impending downfall here waiting for a ticking time bomb to go off sometime soon.

“So, if you definitely are cool with it, I may actually chill here for the night. Its already getting dark out and for Graveyards sake, I am not attempting that run with them hot on our asses.” They said, I nodded from the computer chair.

“Of course, dude, no worries.” I was a little surprised to hear them use the term, ‘graveyards sake.’ Not everybody knows about them and those of us that have a connection to them, of the few of us there are, know even less about them. Graveyards tie in with a major traumatic experience, that's all we know for sure about them. I’m sure there’s urban myth and fantasy about them but I wanted to ask Slip so badly. Before I could, they removed their scarf and relaxed on the couch. I could see the tension in their body laxing.

“Something wrong?” They asked through a drink of pop.

“I–no. You said Graveyard Sake. It's not the most common expression to hear used, is all.” I figured now was as good of time as any to bring it up if I was ever going to. They tilted their head, thinking.

“Well yeah. I mean, I guess I heard it somewhere in chat maybe? I think you’ve used it a couple times…” They trailed off.

“Now who’s being secretive?” I grinned, clicking away at the keyboard, speaking of chat. I opened the chat server and started skimming through the messages, it had been very active. I saw Stormcaller talking a little bit, so she finally decided to be a little more social, which I was happy with. Having the undercity involved was a huge advantage to me, watchtower I mean of course.

“Well since I know about your voice, I guess it’s only fair you know. I have a tie in with a Graveyard. I know you’re not going to believe me but there.” They said flatly.

I chuckled.

“What?” Their voice cracked.

“You’re talking to someone that has to deal with Graveyard bullshit on a regular basis my guy.” I continued laughing. Their eyes widened.

“Really and I'm only just NOW hearing about this? How long have we been friends, you ass?” They asked jokingly. The next couple of hours were nice, we spent them catching up on various topics, talking about our own Graveyard experiences and things of that nature. Jefferson had music blaring in the background for us. The storms rolled in, which always sounds nice on the roof of the bunker. X

The night eventually settled in. I made sure that Slip had been comfortable enough, grabbed extra blankets and pillows and took to the couch, as I barely use the bedroom as intended anyway. I discarded everything but my matching orange panties and bra as I got myself settled onto the couch, left the light on over the kitchen sink, turned the hallway light off for Slip and started drifting away.

I stood in an open field that was similar to the park from the night I met Mask. The full moon should have been illuminating the place, but the mists low-rolled in, covering the grass in a wet dew. I was younger and in the completely wrong body. War flashbacks anytime I had memories or dreams involving my old male body. I sat on top of the wet park bench laughing. Both of us were laughing but I couldn’t see them. They were shrouded in a black covering. It wasn’t quite static, but almost like my brain had completely tried erasing the actual memory of whoever it was. We laughed for a good while; I had my mask pulled up enough to eat. So, it had been sometime during my early days of darkfire.

I was holding an energy drink, ah yes, the bane of existence. (Always had been, I supposed.) Whoever it was turned to me and handed me a piece of paper. The message written on the paper had been scribbled out in the same type of weird static the person was obscured by. Flicker lights rapidly approached from the distance down the street. We both jumped up, my mask found itself back on my face as fire burned in my hand. The hoover cars surrounded the park and before either of us had even the briefest minute to react, police armed with heavy weapons and automatons alike, cornered us. I ushered whoever it was behind me, but the scene broke in static, as most of my nightmares tend to do and I found myself on the ground watching as they hauled whoever it was away in a prison vehicle. Two androids had their full weight on me and I realized it was a little weird for androids to be involved, how often had I run into them ever on patrols–especially with everything I was involved with? I tried as hard as I could to break from their grasps and to help but I watched helplessly as they carted whoever this was away. I felt the anger boiling. I could physically feel myself getting hotter and suddenly, nothing. I felt a poke in my neck and everything blacked out.

I woke up in the bunker drenched in cold sweat. Everything felt warm but numb. It was a very difficult feeling to describe and the best way I can is that I felt like I was having a panic attack. Oh, I might have been. I curled up on the couch and watched as the kitchen light flickered. That wasn’t exactly anything new either, it did that occasionally. It had a short somewhere in it that I always meant to fix but never got around to it. Jess was supposed to get her sister Jenn to help but, of course, we all know how asking for that now is going to go. I finally grounded myself and managed to focus enough to regulate my breathing. I heard the fridge close as I noticed Slip holding another can of pop in their hand. They leaned against the wall, watching curiously.

“You alright there?” They asked.

“I–don’t know. I had a wild dream? Memory?” I started.

“Go on–” They hummed. Before I could say anything, there it was, standing behind them. The faceless being. She crept up behind Slip and stood there, peeking over their shoulders at me. The thing’s head tilted curiously as it watched me. I couldn’t help myself from pointing to it.

“Don't–move. Behind–you.” I spoke in a broken, shaken pattern. Not many things scare me in the world, but this thing–whatever it was, is one of them. Slip followed where I pointed with their eyes and simply shrugged.

“What? The flickering light? It’s probably just a short or something. You could easily get that fixed if you wanted dude. Are you good?” They asked as they stepped closer to me. A flame built itself in my hand and I felt the heat in its full intensity. I wasn’t wearing my gloves. Slip threw their hands up immediately.

“Don’t move.” I whispered to them.

“Woah, woah, hey dude it’s chill there’s nothing here. Literally nothing.” They frantically tried to prove their point by wiggling their arms around in circular motions. Their hands waved around and through the entity. No, that wasn’t right. I mean surely the spirit, if it was a spirit, was just slipping through and phasing in and out, right? Had ghosts even been real? Supernatural shit happened quite a bit, I mean we were both just talking about our Graveyard experiences. I backed up a bit, the entity was still approaching.

“It’s still there dude.” I said, panic setting into my voice, the fire in my hand dwindled as I fell back onto the couch. Faceless stared at me and for something that had no eyes or mouth, its grin was as wide as a cheshire's. Slip looked around.

“What's still here?” They asked calmly. Faceless curled around them, almost mockingly.

“Her! You seriously can’t see her?” I asked, getting a little mad now.

“No, there is literally nothing here dude. Watch.” They channeled a small gust of wind from their hand and blew it around them. Faceless flickered, momentarily, but stood its ground. That’s when I realized. I was just seeing it. It wasn’t actually there but it was something inside my head.

“Wait, Wait wait wait.” I said, baffled and a little scared that either there was something seriously wrong with me mentally, or–or–someone was able to implant thoughts and images into my head.

“I’m here dude, I’m here.” Slip took a step forward with a hand out, reaching for my shoulder. I accidentally flinched, but they held their ground and placed their hand on my shoulder.

“Is-is it possible-” I started, in a whisper.

“Is what possible?” They asked.

“Is it possible for someone to have an ability that implants thoughts or images into your head?” I whispered, as if the faceless couldn’t hear me. Slip tilted their head, thinking for a minute.

“I mean, I don’t know of any, but that doesn’t mean anything.” They admitted. I looked over to my computer. I knew the one person in the world that could help me with this one. If I could just get to Simon, get a hold of him, I could maybe get looked at or even just ask him. I started towards the computer. Faceless noticed and something shifted-they lunged at me. It was like something out of a horror movie. Faceless shrieked and the lights flickered, slipstream wasn’t there anymore and everything was tunnel visioned. Their claws grew sharper, fangs grew from a voidless, non-existent gaping hole where her mouth should have always been. She lunged across the room with an ear-piercing shriek as she latched onto me. I tried to fling her off but couldn’t move. My whole body was shutting down. I dropped back onto the couch, the last thing I remember seeing was her non-face shrieking at me and one of her hands reaching upwards to lunge back down at me. Suddenly, the sharpest pain I’d ever felt in my life, including the time I was impaled, followed. With that, a thick pool of black opened up at my feet and I jumped in.

I stood on that same hill again, as I smelled the town of Harmony burning around me. The people screamed, the same song and dance for me. I watched the tower in the distance, the building I designed the Watchtower Brigade sigil after, burning. It remained though, oddly enough, to this very day. I looked around, frantically, at the scene. Smog had covered the sky faster than I remembered, but these “trauma memory nightmares” constantly changed to reflect what was going on with me, it seemed. I ran towards the high school. It stood its ground as though the engulfing fires around it meant nothing. I rushed, hearing the screams of one of my friends. That was new. They weren’t supposed to be anywhere near the school. I lunged myself forward as fast as my boots would take me, these boots I wore regularly, felt like cement blocks dragging me down into the riverside as I ran. Regardless, I pushed forward. Their screams grew fainter the closer I got. It sounded like they were inside the building itself, which shouldn’t have been right at all. I don’t remember anyone being in the school when the incident happened, we were out of school later in the evening. The sun had already been setting, which was evident in the distance. I could see the ball of dim orange breaking through some of the smog. I finally slowed as I came to the base of the school. I stopped, flames in my hands. Instinctively, of course I couldn’t quite place why until I was able to notice them more clearly. There I saw, in the field outside the grand entrance. The oval circular drive wrapped around the front, broken concrete covered in blood and char, overgrown in this nightmare version with weeds and debris of various kinds. I saw them, for the first time, there in that particular nightmare sequence.

Seven figures stood shrouded in cloaks. One of them, kneeled down in front of a screaming person, someone that resembled one of my friends. Without thinking, I threw a black flame towards them, it spiraled into an invisible wall and shattered. I couldn’t move now, as the one on the left looked at me and stepped forward. I was being kept in place by something. They smiled through the cloak, I could see the smile, though still shrouded. The one kneeling in front of my friend lifted a syringe from his arm. He screamed, cursing them as he tried to use his abilities.

“You, poor, poor innocent child. You can’t touch us, not now.” The shrouded one spoke, waving the syringe in a taunting manner.

“I’m gonna kill you, bastard.” Joshua said through gritted teeth.

“Josh–” I started.

“If only she’d gotten your message in time. If only, if only she cared about you.” Shrouded one said, chuckling as it looked to me with a laugh. Josh cursed again.

“She does care! She’ll be here to help; she’ll see my message and I bet she’s already on the way!” The older version of my friend screamed back in defense of me. He wore the same torn hoody and jeans I remembered, though larger and those gloves with the thumb hole cut out.

“If she cared, she’d be here, wouldn’t she?” Shroud said.

“I am here!” I threw another blast of fire at the invisible wall. The flame snuffed itself out against the barrier.

“She’ll be here!” He shouted again through pain, the shrouded one moved its hand through the air as the smell of fresh blood broke.

FIGHT THIS, AJ. FIGHT THIS. IT’S NOT A REAL MEMORY. SOMEONE’S IN HERE THAT SHOULDN'T BE.

The voice finally broke its long silence.

“It’s about damned time, what did you go on vacation or something?” I asked out loud.

BEEN BUSY. FIGHTING WHATEVER THIS IS THATS GOT AN IMPRESSION IN OUR HEAD.

“Wait, so there IS an outside force looking in?” I asked.

OF COURSE.

“Of course, as If I knew that was even a possibility of a power?”

TRUST ME, I GET IT BUT RIGHT NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO ARGUE, FIGHT THIS. BREAK IT, BLOCK THEM OUT.

Shrouded took another slice across the air as Josh screamed in pain again, more blood trickling from the wounds.

“What the hell? Are they controlling his wounds from some kind of blood power? I thought blood was something that didn’t exist?” I said, more so to myself than the voice.

LOOKS LIKE.

I focused as best as I could to get out of this weird little control they had over me. I tried very hard, harder than I had ever needed to, to block something out. I closed my eyes as Josh screamed more. I kept them closed and focused on The Graveyard. I hated them, but if it was a way to get out of this mess, I would take it. Sometimes those Graveyards acted as portals between the waking and the astral worlds and if there was ever a time I needed it in a pinch, it was now. Considering this was usually where I went when I traveled through the Graveyard, I’d need to find some other place to anchor to. Or at least I assumed that's how it worked.

I focused in on the Bunker, but that flickered in my mind as Josh screamed. I focused in on the bunker some more, but it flickered again as the faceless one peeked around the kitchen corner and into my mind. I shook my head and refocused onto something else. Where else could I go? Simons? I didn’t have a connection there outside of Simon really, could I go to RJS? I didn’t think I’d had a strong enough link there either. We’d only just started talking again. My house, of course. I’d try to get to my house. I hadn’t been there in a while. I looked at my house and with all my might, took one last look at the scene before me. Josh had grown silent, I’d assumed they killed him, tears broke against my cheek. There was no way this was real; it had to be some kind of mind trick or something whoever they were had been playing on me. The Graveyard finally opened up and I took a step towards it. Before my foot went through though I heard a voice ringing out.

“If only you knew how real this was, AJ. If only you’d been a little more careful, maybe you could have saved him. Oh well. The 7 patiently wait for you to realize the truth. We’ll be here when you’re ready, Mother.” It spoke out. Before I could say anything in response, the Graveyard closed on me and everything went gray.

When I’d opened my eyes, I was lying face-down and sideways on top of my messy bed. My bed. My bed in my room at my actual house. AJ’s house. I shifted checking myself over. I was still in my bra and panties from before but it worked. I was somewhere else. I wasn’t in the bunker anymore. I shuffled in bed hearing the sounds of conversation and music from downstairs. I looked around for my phone, which must have been left back at the bunker because I couldn’t find it. I’d need to hop online and message Slip and let them know I was ok. I got out of bed, seeing myself in the mirror. I had on a matching orange bra and panties set, which looked disheveled, to match my curly orange hair.

“I look like a mess.” I said to myself. I could think though, for the first time in a while I could think and it didn’t feel like there was a blockage in my brain. Everything was flowing properly and I remembered something. The piece of paper I found in my pocket that first night I met mask, the crumbled up and soaked through paper with the barely legible address on it. I remembered something with the smoke cleared now. I threw myself into the computer chair and logged on the computer, something I hadn’t touched in ages. It booted up as a Jefferson, not my own, but a standard Jefferson smiled back at me.

“Greetings, Miss Green. Nice to see you again.” I nodded to Jefferson.

“Heya Jeffers, can you access all my files for me, specifically pictures, from a few months ago. Anything with this title.” I rattled off the numbers on the sheet of paper. Jefferson opened a few files for me and opened up a specific picture, one from before that night. The sheet of paper looked much fresher in my gloved hand and the back of it read something that had since been erased.

There are survivors. AJ.