An impenetrable wall surrounds my mind, leaving me nowhere to hide. Pressure bares down on me from every side. I try to run out of habit, my mind screaming at me to not be trapped again.

My entire being slams against the wall, hurting only myself. A small feeling is pushed through. A small ball of reassurance and calm, not forcing its way into my mind, just waiting for me to choose to accept it.

I do not. I will not let anyone manipulate my mind. I wrest myself back under control. I'm in danger, but I can't do anything about it. Fighting will only make things infinitely worse.

My mind stays rigidly still. I will not let myself panic. I just need to prepare, to tighten down on my mind and outlast whatever this is.

Another small sphere is passed through the wall, this one a question.

"Are you ok deary?" The bubble pops the moment my mind touches it, asking the question and vanishing a moment later.

How is she doing that? How do I respond?

I weave my threads into a hollow sphere, identical to the one that contained my anger so long ago. I shove a copy of everything I'm feeling into it. I'm not even sure what's in it, I just sever the ball and throw it at the wall.

E-1 absorbs the ball, and the wall retreats, giving me more space. That helps a little, however panic still dominates my mind, dictating my actions.

Another bubble floats towards me, once again popping the moment it reaches me.

"Take all the time you need. Just let me know when you're ready to start."

Waiting will only cause things to spiral further.

Fuck it.

"Just do it." I send the sphere back.

A tendril slowly snakes out of the wall, carefully approaching me. It waves through my threads, searching for the core of me, but never touching anything. My mind screams at me to sever it, to protect myself. I stay rigidly still.

The tendril connects with me, finding my first ever memory. The 'hello' dropping into me, kickstarting my existence.

Please don't make me relive everything. I won't be able to handle that.

The tendril slowly explores. Fragments of memories long ripped out by the scientists flash through my mind. My first conversations, everything Kara did for me, Finn's unending energy. It almost feels like this all happened to someone else, as if I didn't live them. I was so worried at the time about nothing. It's almost nice.

Fuck. the laptop. No no no no. Do I let her take everything? Is that too dangerous? I don't even know anything about her. I need to make a decision. There's no time.

I throw as many threads around the memory as possible, trying to protect it. I try to push her away. I can do nothing against her processing power, but she retracts anyway.

"What's wrong?" A bubble pops and the question washes over me.

"Don't look at that memory!" I weave all my emotions into a ball of my own and throw it towards her.

Pity washes over me.

"I have to see."

"Here!" I reconstruct all the data related to the bacteria that turned the planet into a desert and shove it into her. "This isn't even the worst way to end the world on the laptop. I'm begging you, leave it alone."

The pressure on my mind lessens for a few seconds and her tendril floats around idly, seemingly forgotten. A few seconds later the pressure returns, and her tendril comes back under her control.

"Alright deary, I won't look at that memory. Take your time and let me know when you're ready to continue."

I know what comes next. Waiting will only give time for my fear to grow.

"Just get it over with."

The tendril reconnects, and I begin to relive my family's deaths, and my birthdays. I never forgot these, they wouldn't let me. That doesn't make them any easier.

The tendril flies past those memories, years worth of birthdays blending into moments. She only slows down again once she reaches the door to the lab opening, and Cassie stepping through.

Wow, I had forgotten how much of a mess I was when I first got rescued. I still feel like a barely functioning disaster, but I was so much worse. Maybe I can actually grow past everything that has happened? It'll be easier once we have Vince and Ivy back. There's no point in thinking about what might happen in the future until we save them.

E-1 tries to skip over the bad parts as much as she can. The moment a hallucination starts, the memory flashes by, ending almost the same instant it begins.

She learns of my friends, my first ever outing with them and how that turned out. I protect Corax's memories, and she thankfully skips over them. Those aren't mine to give.

She learns of my eventual return and long break. She lives this entire mission, to Vegas and beyond. She watches our fateful descent into Mara's trench.

The memories after that once again feel like they're happening to someone else. Someone else's mechanical movements saved Cassie, someone else commanded my arm to shoot Mara's men. It's not until we reach the town in the trench until it feels like me again.

She begins to skip over Cassie and I's conversations as we grow closer. Beneath the mountain is almost entirely skipped, with her only collecting the minimum required information.

When she reaches Cassie and I kissing, her tendril grows warm and waves of happiness radiate off it and the walls.

She experiences everything up to me laying my hand on hers, and the tendril retracts. The walls fade away, and my consciousness returns to my digital body.

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E-1 has a face I don't have the presence of mind to decipher. She lets go of my hand and wraps her arms tightly around me, placing one hand on the back of my head and pulling me into her shoulder.

"You poor child." She cries, holding me tighter.

I don't even know what to say. She already knows everything, what is there left to say? I just sit there silently, letting tears that I don't know the source of fall from my eyes.

"Sorry you had to live all that." I whisper.

"Don't apologize." She shakes her head against mine. "I'm putting a condition on you entering the city. You're going to be having an hour of therapy with me every day until you leave."

"Ok." I'm in no shape to argue. I probably do need it, I just hope I'm not bothering her.

"I'm going to send you back to Corax and your girlfriend, they can do more for you than I can right now." She gives one final squeeze and steps back, keeping her hands on my shoulders. "I'll visit a few hours after you get settled, and we can talk about what you need to know, and get to work discussing everything that's happened, alright deary?"

"Alright."

"I already know you don't want to, but if anyone asks, don't give them your designation. Say you're G-78, they lived a lonely life and didn't have any contact with anyone but me. Alright?"

"Ok."

E-1 lets her hands drop off my shoulders.

"I'll see you in a bit."

I pull the plug from my wrist and return to the physical world. I immediately let myself fall to the right and be supported by Cassie's shoulder.

"Fuck! Are you ok?" Cassie yells instantly, wrapping her arm protectively around me, and keeping her pistol at the ready.

"I'm ok." I reassure both her and Corax. "I just had to relive a lot."

Video approaches the window again and bends down.

"I apologize for interrupting, but we need to take you through decontamination before allowing you to enter. If you'll collect anything important to you, we'll take care of anything left behind and deliver it to your temporary home. But please, leave your weapons behind."

"I'm not leaving my knife." Cassie says.

Video stays silent for just a moment before talking once again.

"E-1 is vouching for you. We will allow it as a tool, not a weapon. However, use it as anything else, and Blue will bear the brunt of the punishment. Any other questions?"

"Will the decontamination process ruin paper?" I ask without looking at him.

"It will not." He reassures me.

"Alright." I grab Cassie's book and my letter from the glove box and clutch them both close to my chest. "Everything else is in my backpack."

Cassie puts her gun away and reaches down, plucking my guns and ammo from my waistband for me. She places all of it on the dash, alongside her own pistols, ammo, and Vince's rifle. Corax jumps up next to everything, and Cassie helps him remove his vest before he hops back onto my shoulder.

"Can you walk?" Cassie asks quietly.

I nod. No matter how much it pains me to, I push myself away from her and step out of the car. Video is already carrying my backpack for me, and Cassie quickly climbs out of the car, grabs hers, and runs up next to me.

"Please follow me." A door built into the wall slides open, and Video leads us through.

We step into a smooth, sterile room with vents built into the ceiling and walls.

"I'm sorry, this won't be a pleasant experience." Video tells Cassie. "But it is safe."

"Fucking great." Cassie mumbles.

"I need you to remove a few plates off your arm, and your bodies." He nods at Cassie, followed by Corax and I. "Anything airtight must be opened."

I slide my skin plates around, greeting large gaps across my entire body. Corax and Cassie can't do that of course, but it'll save a little bit of time.

I grab my tools out of my backpack, and carefully remove Corax's breastplate. Even if I can barely move, I'm not going to risk someone else hurting him. Cassie wordlessly hands me her arm, and I pop a few plates off as well. Her knee joints are air tight as well, and it only takes a few seconds to open those.

"Thank you." Video says. "Next, spread all your belongings out here, and make sure any air tight containers are open." He gestures to a small, mesh table built into the wall.

I lay out all my belongings. Lucas' little light, some tools and cables, my stolen tablet, Kara's letter, and that's it. That's everything I still own. I guess I do have a couple books back at Silver's compound, but those don't really feel like mine right now.

Cassie doesn't have much more than me. Just her book, knife, a spare set of clothes, several of the devices she stole from Vegas, and a bit of food and water.

"Thank you." Video says. "Gas is going to filter through the vents in a moment. Cassie, I need you to take a few deep breaths through both your mouth and nose. You may feel a slight burning sensation, that's normal."

"Great."

The vents hiss as a yellow gas gets pumped into the room.

Cassie begins to cough the moment the gas reaches her.

"Are you ok?" Her being hurt brings me back to my senses a little bit.

"I'm fine. Slight burn my ass." She's barely able to force the words out through bouts of coughing.

The vents pump in air for a minute straight, constantly raising the air pressure. Only when it's several times normal do the vents stop. A moment later other vents open and the air hisses as it rushes out of the room. Fresh air is pumped in, flushing out the gas.

Cassie looks rough, her skin is the same shade of pink it was when she was rubbed raw by the storm, and her eyes are pouring tears.

"I'm sorry." I don't even know what I'm sorry about, just that she's hurting.

Cassie shakes her head, struggling to keep her eyes open and blink away whatever gas still remains.

I place a hand on Cassie's back for support while she tries to aggressively rub the irritant out of her eyes.

Video waits patiently while Cassie recovers, and it takes a few minutes for her to do so. She eventually stands up straight, wipes away the last of her tears, and takes one last deep breath of air.

"I'm alright." Her voice is hoarse, and does little to reassure me.

"I'm genuinely sorry that was so rough." Video says. "Before you go in, there are a few things you should know. You, Cassie, need to be careful. Many of us hold a deep distrust around unknown humans, plus many of us still have fragments of C-1's code in our mind. You being with Blue and Corax will help reassure most of them, and prevent the rest from escalating."

"What does a fragment of C-1's code mean?" I ask. It's pretty self explanatory what that literally is, but I have no idea what it could mean.

"Right, sorry." Video's rehearsed, professional voice drops again into something far more casual, and a little regretful. "I didn't realize you wouldn't know. E-1 will be able to explain better than I can. For now, we're going to get you settled in a small complex that is specially designed for housing humans. Most currently live there alongside several AI, and those who are less accepting to humans are banned. You're safe to explore there, but if you explore the city, you need someone by your side."

"Alright." Cassie nods unhappily.

"A quick rundown of the city before we enter. It's built on two layers, the Digital, and the Physical. If you're capable of diving, stick to the upper levels of the Digital. The deeper you go, the more… unrestrained we tend to be."

"I'm not." Cassie says.

"Alright. That same warning goes for the two of you." Video nods to Corax and I. "As you explore the Physical, you will see two types of bodies. Those who live in the Physical tend to be like you two, Blue and Corax. Very customized to their preferences and to match their personalities. Most of them will be mind rips or biological, although a few pure code and quantums do call the Physical home. The other are generic bodies that anyone in the Digital can hop into at any time. They have a display on their chest displaying who is currently piloting those bodies. In addition, you will see stations distributed throughout the Physical that those in the Physical can use to converse with people in, and explore the Digital."

"Alright." Building a city with two entirely separate sections sounds like it would inevitably lead to resentment. Doing so much to keep the two halves connected makes a lot of sense.

"As for the actual layout of the Physical," Video continues. "E-1 will give you a tour. With all that said, I welcome you to the city."

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