Everything is foggy, it feels like I’ve been in darkness for the entirety of my life. I hear faint sounds, people talking, whispers, even laughter. I don’t know where I am and I believe I’m losing touch with who I am.

I feel like if I don’t constantly remind myself I will forget and just be a wandering spirit in the darkness, cursed to wander just to wander. No purpose, no being. Nothing. All of a sudden I see a bright white light. It is a single concentrated beam of light shined directly in my eyes. It moves from one eye to the other and then back to the first.

I slowly open my eyes and I can see Mason and Jay hovering above me. Mason has a small flashlight hovering above my eyes, testing for dilation.

“W-Where…am I?” I slowly ask, my voice is a lot more strained than I thought.

“Slow down there, tiger. You’re lucky to be alive, you don’t need to rush anything,” Mason said.

“I’m alive?”

“You saved my daughter,” Mason said.

I sit up and I feel a rushing headache coming on.

“Hey, what did he just said about taking it easy?” Jay asked.

My head begins to pound.

“My head…why does it hurt so much now?” I ask, holding my hand up to my head.

“Yeah, there’s one thing we have yet to tell you,” Jay said.

“What is it?” I ask.

“The Automaton had those syringes that were full of Tubocurarine.” I have a bad feeling about this.

“Okay and?” I ask, fearing the answer.

“The drug would’ve killed you if it reached your heart,” Jay explains.

“And it didn’t.”

“Because we removed the drug from your body before it could reach your heart.”

“That’s great! How’d you manage that?”

“We…didn't know the circumstances of you being...” Mason begins.

“We didn't know how to handle what you are, Gavin. Or rather, what you'd become.” Jay said.

“Your body is a more complex version of the prototype I had running. Gavin, you're an automaton,” Mason said in awe.

“Yeah, this is what happened when Jack got his hands on me basically to make a long story short.”

“Well, I also have to explain that you don't really have a heart anymore. At least, not fully,” Mason said.

“Explain.”

“Well, in your new body your heart is equal to that of a tiny generator. It's not susceptible to the Tubocurarine. In fact, none of your body actually was since your whole respiratory system has been automated.”

“I still felt it all, you know?”

“Yeah, your nerves have been fused into the circuitry. That's how you can move around and feel things around you.”

“I see.”

Just then, I see the faces of Jay and Mason turn into looks of horror.

“W-What’s wrong?” I ask.

Jay points behind me. I turn quickly and then I see it too. It looks to be like a rip in time itself. Coming right through it is an arm I can recognize by the long blue sleeve with golden markings.

“What is that?!” Mason asked.

I don’t even get a chance to explain as the arm grabs my neck. I feel an intense burning sensation as his hand makes contact. I scream out and I’m yanked through the rift in time. The next thing I see is that I’m being thrown against ICARUS. I crash against the hard metal and I look up to see Jack standing before me, stationed in the pit of ICARUS.

“Well, it seems like you had a nice reunion,” Jack said. I can still feel my neck burning from where he grabbed me. Just what did he do?!

“What? Cat got your tongue?” Jack asked. I try to speak, to move, to do anything, but I’ve lost all feeling in my body.

“Well, it seems like you’ve made my job all the easier. You weren't supposed to talk to them, you were supposed to let the stupid girl die,” Jack said.

He walks closer to be, but then he stops. I see a weird look across his face. It turns to one of curiosity, but it doesn’t stay for long and in the next moment his face turns to one of surprise. He steps forward quickly, but then I see everything go dark.

I open my eyes and see that I am in the space between dimensions. In another second I see Jack’s arm once more and I try to swim away from it. I locate another dimension in the distance and I propel myself towards it.

Right when I’m about to make contact I feel a hardened grip on my leg. It's on the one that got burned, so I wince a little as it tightens. I stretch out and grab hold of the new time and yank myself through. I tumble through and land against the wall. I hear some screaming as I see Jack tumbling in after me.

I look around to notice that I’m outside of Andrew’s house.

“You…what did you do to me?” I ask, finally getting my voice back.

Jack gets to his feet slowly, obviously dazed. “You…jumped,” He said, looking up at me, as he does his face grows into one of shock.

“You…you kept your body, how did that…”

I don’t let him finish. I’m running at him and I catch him off guard, sending him off of his feet. I have got to find something to protect myself with, anything at all. I look around me and I can’t see anything within reach that will help.

Jack gets to his feet and I see an angry look fill up his face.

“Why you little…you’re just as annoying as your pesky father,” he said.

He then brings his right arm up and I see something begin to form in it. It’s some sort of purple mess of goop. It looks sort of like some sort of plasma. It begins dripping out of his hands onto the ground below him and it starts burning the grass around him.

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Jack takes a step forward and then he throws the plasma glob. It hurtles right towards me and instinctively I raise my hands up in front of me. The plasma coats my hands, but then the strangest thing happens.

It doesn’t burn or anything, but instead it begins to wrap around my hand and arm like a double helix. It dances around my fingertips and I feel like I can will it to move with my own mind.

“What the hell now?!” Jack screams.

“I’m as surprised as you are,” I said, my eyes not leaving the foreign substance.

“It must have been when I grabbed you,” Jack said, more to himself than me.

Maybe, is it possible he’d given me these powers by accident? It’s plausible that he accidentally did the same thing to me as he did to my future self. That could mean I already have my ticket out of here, I just have to survive this fight.

“Just how dangerous is this stuff right here?” I ask, walking closer towards Jack.

“You don’t know the power of which you deal with,” Jack said, backing up a step.

“Oh how the mighty act,” I start. I can see Jack’s eyes moving fast from my hand to my face. “Now, do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?” I ask. Jack is silent for a second and then a wicked grin appears. In a matter of moments Jack whips his arm up and I’m lifted into the air.

I half expected the telekinesis to come in at some point, but it is still as restricting as last time. I cannot move my body at all. Maybe I don’t have to move my body. I breathe slowly and concentrate on the plasma covering my arms. In another moment the plasma begins to shift and change. It begins to bubble and in the next moment I see it hop off of my arm. It heads straight for Jack, scalding the side of his head. I hear him yell and I’m dropped to the ground. I look at him and see that nearly a third of his face had been burnt by the bubbling plasma.

“You son of a bitch!”

In a matter of seconds Jack has closed the distance between us and he shoves me to the ground. I feel the wind get knocked out of me and the whole world around us changes in a flash. One second we’re outside of Andrew’s house and now we’re on top of the Republic Plaza building. Jack looks around himself, confused and I take the opportunity to kick him off of me. He catches himself in mid-air and is now hovering a foot off of the ground.

“What the…you can float now?” I ask.

Jack doesn’t answer, he immediately rushes in and picks me up. We’re rising up, higher and higher. The rooftop of the Republic Plaza begins to shrink to the size of a raisin.

We continue to rise up, but then I feel something different, as if everything just fell into place. My beacons of reality, they’re all doomed if I can’t get out of this, which is why I will get out of this.

I can get out of this, whenever I need to. I have the power.

I concentrate and then I close my eyes. My heart begins to slow and I feel the air around us change. I open my eyes and we’re standing in my college dorm room. Jack falls backwards onto my bed and I look around quickly. I reach for my roommate's knife drawer but feel the left half of my body held back. Jack's telekinesis pulls me away, but I pull my hardest to push forward. It feels like my body is tearing itself apart, but I manage to grab hold of a knife inside of the drawer and I toss it at Jack.

He lets go of me to catch the knife just before it reaches him. I feel the metal of the knives, they're cold and hard, but I'm not even touching them. All in one mental motion I feel them rising out and soaring out towards Jack. I can see I catch him off guard.

In another moment I close my eyes and I’m gone.

~...~

I’m floating in the space between dimensions, I don’t even care which one I go to, I just need to get away. I need to find a place to regain my thoughts.

I need to find someone to help. Bring me to anybody. I’m floating through the darkness and then I see a sudden light ahead of me. I swim through the space to reach the light.

I’m reaching closer and closer for it. I finally reach it and I extend my arm out towards it. I get just one slight touch of the light and I’m dragged in like stray dust to a vacuum. I awaken in the middle of a desolate city street.

Buildings are in complete disarray around me. There is nobody around me and the whole place looks like it has been abandoned for years. I stand up and get my bearings and I cough. The air around me even tastes toxic.

My brain is racing at a million miles a minute and my body is doing its best to catch up. I then hear a stray thought enter my mind. It freezes me to my core and all other functions stop as soon as I hear it.

“Gavin.”

That is all, just one single word, in one unforgettable voice. I hear him. I hear Jay. I turn around in a full circle, looking for any sign of him. Nothing. Telepathy. It must be. I remember Micah saying something about me being able to talk with those like me like this. I connected with him, that means. It might mean I can answer back.

“Jay? Is that you? Jay?!” I ask, panicked.

“Gavin, I can’t said how happy I am to hear your voice again. Where are you?”

I look around my surroundings, trying to find out any indicating features. I see ruined skyscrapers all around me and the one building that is still standing only has the first floor surviving. There is a massive gate surrounding the perimeter of the building, but I can see the words “Republic Plaza” coating the front of what remains on the building. I'm in Denver. I'm in MY Denver, back in my time. I can't believe I'd ever be thankful to be in a ruined city.

“I'm in Denver,” I tell him.

“R-Really? We’re in the town over! I’ll swing by to pick you up, we have some minor things to take care of first,” Jay said.

“We?”

“I’ll explain later, it’ll make much more sense,” Jay said.

I take a deep breath and lean against the gate. Just who could be with him? All of a sudden my head begins to pound. I’m having another vision. It overlays my current vision like another layer of the world. No passing out this time. I’m staring at the spot I had just been standing in, but from a different time, perhaps?

It doesn’t seem to look any different at all, so maybe it was just a few hours ago? I see Jay standing in front of a small car and then another figure comes into view.

I recognize him immediately as Andrew Cress. Right beside him is a younger girl, blonde hair and brown eyes. I can also see she is bleeding from a wound on her head and it looks pretty serious. This vision is from 2022, and that's where I feel I am now. I can feel the intuition I had prior rush back to me.

Apparently, it’s not as serious as I think, because she is able to move and function properly, but it still has me uncomfortable. I think this might have been right after Andrew and his sister left that virtual world. What was his sister’s name again? Jen?

“So, what do we do from here on out?” Andrew asked.

“I’ll take you both back to your house and I’ll go on my way.” Jay said.

“You…worked with both of our fathers, didn’t you?” Jen asked.

“Yeah, I’m Jay Rein. I have my own son who is just like you two,” he said.

“Really? Where is he?” Andrew asked.

“I’d said he’s having a blast on his school field trip to the Bronx Zoo. I’d left him with some people I trust that I know will raise him right,” he said, somberly.

“What about you?”

“I…don’t trust myself to not ruin his life anymore than I’d already had,” he said. “I’d let some old friends of mine adopt him, as they had always wanted a kid, but couldn’t have one of their own.”

“What’s next for you, then?”Andrew asked.

“I had mentioned it a bit before, but I plan on continuing my research on the cure for Radical-9. I owe it to my boy to make a world that is safe for him to live in,” Jay said.

Jay gets into the car, followed by Andrew and Jen. I walk up closer to the car to hear them better.

“Radical…9?” Jen asked.

“I’ll explain it later,” Andrew said.

So Andrew knows of Radical-9, then?

Jen looks in Andrew’s eyes for a moment and then shifts her gaze to the ground.

“So, you’re Jack’s daughter. I can see it in your eyes,” Jay said, looking into the rear-view mirror.

“Y-yeah.”

“Before all of this, he was a good man with good intentions. Something in that stupid specimen had brought something…feral inside him. I don’t know how else to explain it.” Jay said.

There is a tense silence. Jay begins to drive off, I watch as the car leaves my field of view. The vision fades slowly and I’m left standing beside the gate. I can see a bright light in front of me, two of them, actually.

I notice it’s gotten extremely dark outside and stars fill the skies. The two lights close in on me and I finally see them to be headlights. The car returns just as quickly as it had left, but the one difference is that this time it isn't a vision.