Original date: 2013

Series: Mirror's Edge (original, spoilers for endgame)

Notes: I wrote this after being tired of waiting for a Mirror's Edge sequel. It was based on that brief official ARG that seemed to be hinting at a different Mirror's Edge 2 before they went with Catalyst.

Reasons for abandonment: I got busy with college and soon after is when I got sick, so unfortunately I had to drop this. Then Mirror's Edge: Catalyst was announced and I didn't feel like working on this anymore since I got my wish. I got a lot farther with it than I remembered though, although once again my shot memory means I completely forgot what was supposed to happen next. I hope you enjoy my attempt at a sequel, anyhow.

The heated, stinging sensation of the darkened fist that came at her rippled through her cheek as her head was pushed back by the force. Faith let out a grunt automatically, but tried to hide the pain beneath her deep breaths. She awoke not too long ago to the sight of a lone light shining in her face, bleaching her eyes and making her blind for the moment, the cold feel of a metal chair riding up her arms. Her wrists were tied together, she quickly found out, and there wasn't much she could do from this angle. Shadowy figures stood before her, the reflective shine of familiar black armor outlining what looked like a beefy PK officer. She thought she saw another in the room, betrayed by bouncing light, though she wasn't sure if more lurked in the darkness. From a quick surveillance the room seemed oddly similar to those interrogation-like rooms she found in Pirandello Kruger's warehouse, and it didn't take Faith long to realize that she might be the next bloody chair on the floor.

"We're not going to ask you again."

She looked up at them, her coarse, oiled hair clamping together and hanging in front of her dark eyes. "Yeah?" Faith spouted, her head facing down but her eyes aimed up at her captor. "Good, I'm getting tired of hearing you talk." Another hard push against the side of her face by black leather forced her to violently exhale—this hit didn't seem as hard as last time, though her nerves might have been getting used to it at this rate.

"How did you get in the building?" the PK questioned her. They had been playing this game of back-and-forth for hours now. Or maybe minutes, Faith wasn't really sure. Her thoughts were all over the place, her emotions being spun together. She felt angry, but she wasn't sure who to direct that anger to anymore.

Since Merc's death, Drake had taken over as the main Tracker. Though Faith's actions at the Shard had managed to stall the Icarus project, it wasn't able to fully stop it. Callaghan became something short of obsessed with it and fully funded it secretly out of his own pocket, blowing things out of proportion about the Runners in order to gain support. Though the election was pushed back due to Pope's death, it was obvious Callaghan was on his way to winning another term, if by default. Faith and Kate were marked as public enemies, the infiltration of the Shard being fed to the public as something close to a terrorist attack. They claimed it was some sort of conspiracy by the Runners, and urged the public to give up any information they knew about them and to turn them in should they be harboring any. That didn't put a stop to their clients—some people knew the news was full of it, others valued their services too much to give them up, but some of them backed out. There were a couple of close calls here and there, but nothing to worry about as of yet. With Celeste gone and still somewhere MIA, Drake was relying almost purely on Kreeg and Faith for most of the jobs. They were his best Runners at the moment, and with Mercury gone things were a bit rough.

Being a wanted fugitive, Kate was forced to give up her position as a member of the CPF, though with Lieutenant Miller gone and labeled as one of the "terrorist conspirators", the PK's had basically taken over what was left of the now-deemed untrustworthy police force. Kate now stayed within Drake's hideout, helping out in any way she could through tracking. The destruction of the city's surveillance in the Shard had managed to put a serious limp on Callaghan's plan, giving the Runners what they thought was an advantage for a while, though what little positivity they could count as good news was thrown out the window since the PK's far outnumbered them and were a lot more difficult to deal with. Especially those left over from Project Icarus, though there were only a few. Faith just got lucky being able to take them down and avoid their bullets that whole time. Of course, her luck did run out, as those punches to the face were reminding her.

For a while they were just barely surviving, something that Faith only knows how to do. The PK's couldn't cover everywhere, so Drake was usually able to isolate them out and direct Faith into the empty pockets of town. Callaghan was making a serious move to find her, though, and things weren't getting any easier with the Runners. And that's when they showed up.

Someone had hacked into their frequency, Faith's frequency. She was making a run and doing her best to heed Drake's advice of where to step to avoid getting shot, but his words over the com were cut out by interference as a new voice took over. They claimed they didn't have much time, but that they were November, they had information that the Runners needed, and they wanted to help. They gave her a time and place, then disappeared just as erratically as they entered.

November was something of a legend among the Runners. Faith didn't know much about them for a while, but Merc knew their history personally. He said they were a group that emerged from the downtown riots, a group of survivors that took the event to heart and acted as a secret organization to fight off the city's control. When they found out about the Runners they did whatever they could to help them, little stuff like keep the word low and out of sight, sometimes stepping up to bigger jobs like having a mole on the inside and helping them bug the CPF's systems. But their actions dwindled to a point of rare existence, and having no set way to contact them since, they were presumed to have simply dissolved. The Runners were still able to get by without their help, but some of them worried that something was up, and November's complete absence when Faith needed their help the most also confirmed that theory. But that interruption seemed like an intrusion into reality. Could they really still exist? What did they want with them now?

Faith relayed the news to Drake, who had no idea the transmission even happened. He didn't seem to buy it, and neither did Faith, but she knew there was only one way to make sure. Drake warned her that it was perhaps a trap, and that was already brewing on her list of concerns before she even told him about it. She took a careful approach when she arrived at the meeting place, seeing only one person there. He was in a trench coat and tried to conceal most of his face, but he wore red, which was almost a universal symbol to tell that you're a Runner. It didn't look like an accident, either, though with the propaganda going around about how Runners are practically the next cult it could have easily just have been public information he took advantage of. He kept his claim that he was a part of November, and their silence was due to their mole being compromised. Faith questioned why they didn't let the Runners know that, and he explained they had to go into immediate silence in order to be sure the rest of them wouldn't be found out. She wondered what exactly became of the mole, as the November member didn't give her enough of a chance to ask nor explain himself.

He told her he had vital information that would help her and the other Runners breach Callaghan's security and scramble him even more, a claim certainly big enough to cause some concern. Faith expressed her suspicions in bluntness, Drake being in agreement with her. November had apparently scraped up that information in the time of their silence and believed now was as good as a time as any to make use of it, since things were a lot worse with the stints Faith pulled. He gave her a code to let her in to Callaghan's office without causing alarm and get passed the security systems in their database, encouraging her to use it as soon as she could. Then he took off, leaving Faith alone to ponder her suspicions.

She worked it out with Drake, and they came up with a plan, with Kreeg on standby in case things went haywire. Security was tight now more than ever around the city, but Drake managed to single out an area where there was a bit of breathing room. Faith made no haste in getting there, however her concern for being lead into a trap again didn't slip past her. Considering how the last time she took advice she was met with a whole army and an almost-certain death, she didn't exactly want a repeat. Kate was there on the com for her, encouraging Faith to keep her guard up, and that she wasn't sure of the validity of November's claims. Kate hardly had any idea about them to begin with, which may just mean that they were too good at keeping themselves secret. Faith made it to the door, carefully sliding herself in between the dark alleys and past the security cameras, and punched in the code. The door unclicked, and Faith quietly stepped inside. One down, as much of a shock as it was to herself and Drake. Maybe the guy was truly from November after all.

Or maybe he was just someone trying to get her killed.

She made it to the computer, the console that could get her into the central database. PK's littered the areas inside, but Faith kept to the air ducts and the higher ground, staying out of sight. She punched in the numbers on the keyboard, using the same information she was given by November. But the only thing she managed to do was be denied access, and that's when she and Drake realized something was up. Faith punched in the numbers again by Drake's command, but the same result happened, and her anger at being betrayed had to be subsided when she heard the parading footsteps of PK's making their way over. Faith immediately took off, dashing by those that tried to keep her contained and climbing her way towards an exit. But they had some of the Project Icarus cops with them, and they took her by surprise. Faith would normally be able to avoid them any other time, but they seemed like they were tipped to her being there—they were too planned. They got her with a Taser to the back after boxing her in, causing her muscles to immediately lose their abilities and forcing her to the floor. She was still conscious, breathing, muffled shouts of concern coming through her com from Drake. Apparently, though, they weren't happy enough with that, and Faith's vision was cut out with a smack to the head. That's when she woke up here, being barraged with questions.

"You mean how did I get inside this little box?" Faith responded to her interrogator, flipping her hair to the side of her face with a swish of her head. Her voice was a bit gruff from the assaults, though that didn't change her attitude. "You tell me, I was pleasantly blacked out that whole time." She could see the PK winding up another punch to her face at her toying answer, but a shout from behind him made him pause his movement.

"That's enough!" a new voice shouted. Faith didn't recognize the source of it, despite its strange familiarity—it was a male, though it didn't sound gruff and weathered like the PK's did. Outlines of light drew a new figure into her vision, to which she grunted at once she recognized who it was.

"You have quite the mouth, do you know that?" Mayor Callaghan himself stood before her, his gray suit both blending in with the darkness around him and yet somehow standing out in her vision. He looked like he had just come from giving one of his usual speeches of lies, with his dress-to-impress attire and his dark hair gelled back in a typical business man curl. She looked up at him, her eyes squinting at the details of his face.

"Well hello, Mr. Mayor," she told him, dry sarcasm being obvious within her roughened voice. "I guess I should consider this an honor, shouldn't I? Are you here to punch me in the face too?"

"Cute," Callaghan remarked, taking a step closer to Faith as she gently moved her head around. "Funny how things work. We've been trying to shoot you down for weeks now, especially after that little stint you and your sister did at my offices…"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Faith interrupted. "Guess I should've made it more obvious that I hate your guts."

"Oh, that crashed helicopter at my doorstep was certainly more than enough," Callaghan answered with a fake hint of interest in his voice. "But despite all that shooting, it turns out you were just so much easier to simply capture instead." Faith let a slightly angered grunt slip through her teeth, turning her head away from the man before her. She thought she almost saw Callaghan smirk, then droop his lips into a concerned frown as he said, "I'm alarmed to hear you think of this as a game. Do you realize how many people you've killed?" Faith wasn't sure how genuine those words were, though the very thought of it made her angered.

"Do you?" she snapped, a sneer tugging her lips with mixed emotions. "My mother is dead because of what you did."

"Now now, there's no need to blame me for that." Callaghan began to stroll around the room, taking small, soft steps without looking at the Runner before him. "What happened at the November Riots wasn't of my doing. There's no need to make me look like the bad guy." Faith let out an angered laugh at this.

"Oh, don't worry, I think you've been doing that just fine on your own," she scoffed. "Nevermind the fact that you also killed the only man I ever considered to be my father." She was thinking of Mercury as she said that, the thought of his bleeding body and her promise to him being burned into her memory. Faith gave another tug at her restraints; they didn't budge, and she instead succeeded at irritating her skin. Her eyes drifted around to spot somewhere she could use to escape, a plan already bubbling in the back of her mind, though most of it consisted of improvising her way out of here.

"Well," Callaghan began, swinging his weight around his heels as he changed his direction. "That was your fault, wasn't it? After all, you were foolish enough to lead them right to us."

"You think you're really going to make me believe that?" Faith immediately countered. She could see right through Callaghan's game, trying to soften her in order to make her talk, make her feel guilty. Callaghan stopped in front of her after pacing in random directions for the past while, some sort of plan curling the sides of his lips.

"Why yes, I do, considering how I can show you right now." Though confused at first, Faith's muscles tensed as she watched Callaghan hold up something in his hand. It was small, almost unrecognizable in the washed out light, though a highlight of red outlined the round shape.

"Damn it," Faith muttered under her breath. The com… Her emotions must have been more readable than she hoped, for the man before her seemed almost impressed with himself at seeing Faith's worry.

"Such a tiny little device, isn't it?" Callaghan asked, rotating the com around gently and observing its details. "You would think all it's good for is telling secrets in your ear, but no, there's more to it than that." He stepped a little closer to her, to which Faith responded by moving her body back a little. "Do you know what we're going to do with this?"

"Dissect it and release more lies about how it's a new kind of weapon?" Her muscles tensed as Callaghan leaned in and grabbed her chin between his fingers, bringing her head uncomfortably close to him. He seemed rather irate at her, his grip being a little tight, though not violent. At least, not yet.

"I know you're not as stupid as you're pretending to be, so I'd advise you to stop it," he muttered through his teeth. Faith shook her head out of his grip, her eyes narrowing with disgust. Callaghan stepped back from her and began to stroll again, the com still in his grip. "You see, since you went out and broke all of our surveillance equipment, we're having one hell of a difficult time trying to keep up with where you Runners are. We may have found you, but we know there are more of you out there." He stopped, his back now facing Faith. "With this," he continued, staring at the device before peeking his head behind him. "Well, we can hear everything. We found the frequency your little communicators work on—we know exactly what you're up to." He turned fully around and looked at Faith, almost as if he was waiting to see her reaction. Faith left him only with an angered glare, though she squeezed her fists behind her with her actual emotions. He stepped in closer to her, leaning over and placing his face not too far away from hers. He wasn't finished with his points yet, Faith could see—which made her nervous.

"From this, we were able to track down your location." Though his words at first shocked her, Faith kept her emotions behind a mask of apathy and wondered if he was just lying to mess with her. "Your little friend, Drake? We know exactly where he is. We know exactly where your sister is. And I don't allow fugitives running around loose in my city." He spoke the middle words of his sentence with a staccato of angered determination—though Faith wasn't sure of the validity of his threats, she knew he would order Kate killed should they find her.

"You expect me to believe all that?" Faith questioned, her words having a little simmer of disgust in them. Callaghan looked at her with a smirk, then straightened his posture and looked at one of the PK's behind her.

"Well? Show her!"