Prologue

The light was so bright that it was overriding the senses and hurt the eyes. She lifted her hand to try to shield her face and eyes but even then, the light was overriding her vision, as far as she could tell since she could not see her hand, her arm, anything, just white light. Was she even lifting her arm? She thought so. Instead, all she could feel was emotions: fear, panic, and some other sensations that felt almost odd to her. These feelings didn't feel like they came from her, more like they came from the light around her. It was overwhelming.

She tried to walk but like with her arm and hands, nothing was visible. Was she even moving? The light kept intensifying, it was so bright now it was making noise in her ears, making them ring and making her head hurt. As she 'moved' forward the intensity increased, now she felt like it was doubling her over, she was now yelling, screaming, trying to be heard? It was so loud she couldn't even hear her own voice. Why is no one coming? Was she even making noise? Where even is this?

Her eyes started to burn, her head pound, she now knew she had fallen over, because as she hit the ground something splattered on the ground. Looking down she saw it was blood, the only other color she could see in this white void. It was so bright, so red it stood out, it was jarring. Reaching for her burning eyes, she could feel something warm on her cheek, her eyes, it was her eyes, now she was panicking. Breath coming up in ragged gasps, searing pulling pain from the back of her neck….

Back of her neck?

Blinking the white-hot light started to fade into a dark space, the change was gradual and blurry. Her first thought was the blood she was seeing was in her eyes causing her to see differently but as her focus returned she could see shadows, there was no blood. She moved her head a little but she stopped as she groaned in pain loudly, there was lancing pain shooting down her spine. What she could tell was that she was facing the floor. She could only move her head a fraction, her arms and legs were not responding, why couldn't she move them?

Trying to look around again but more slowly she could make out a faint glow from one side. Her brain instantly told her it was the light from a computer monitor. So, she was in a room with computers, not exactly helpful considering they are quite common. Then a flash:

Someone was dragging her down a brightly lit hallway, she was kicking, screaming, doing everything she could to break free.

"You can't do this!"

The mountain of a man that was carrying her did not respond but the small round drone that followed sneered at her "so far as anyone is concerned you died in an accident, there was nothing left and no one is looking, no one cares about a nobody."

She fought harder, trying anything, but her arms were tied down, and her feet uselessly kicked at the air.

Realization hit her, this is a lab; looking carefully to her left there was a tray full of sharp instruments. She tried to move an arm, nothing. Then she tried to kick her leg, nothing. They were tied down, it was the only explanation for how she was leaning, but she couldn't feel them either. Something was very wrong for her not to feel them.

Suddenly in a rush her hearing came roaring back: alarms? She didn't hear this at first when she came too since her ears were ringing so much from the 'what ever it was', but there was a loud alarm that was blaring so loud it made her jump. It was a mistake to jump, the back of her neck sent a shot of pain so strong down her spine causing her cry out again.

"You need to stay still! Please try not to move so much" What the actual - What?! There was someone there? She turned her head slowly, only that someone met her halfway. She stared at it in shock. "After everything he, can't even face me while he kills me?" she snarled at the drone. It felt good to lash out in what little way she can, despite the pain she was feeling. However, she quickly realized this drone was different than the one she remembered, maybe he needed a stronger looking one, maybe she managed to break it with a well timed kick when they were taking her away?

The floating drone tilts to the side in a mock attempt to seem confused. Usually drones have small little motors where you can see that it's holding them aloft, but this thing…it was uncanny. She couldn't see anything that accounted for how it was floating there. "Okay…," it said slowly " that's new," it moved to the left and then swung back only to stop inches from her face. A blue/white light washed over her face and then stopped, it reminded her of the light from before. "Did I make a mistake? This is the right one, I am sure of it," It beeped a few times, then the tangs spun around as if it was thinking. The voice was male, but usually when a drone was used you could still hear the user's voice. This voice was not one she recognized.

"Tell Clovis no matter what he does, fake alarms, fake crisis, I don't care, I won't tell him what I know and I sure as hell will not be one of his Exo pawns!" She snapped at the little drone.

"Clovis? As in Clovis Bray?" The drone asked, now it moved about the room scanning computers and instruments.

"Yes, Clovis, fucking Bray, the man who locked me in this room," she tried to move again, she was getting feeling back in her limbs again, but her legs and arms were very tightly strapped down. "What the hell are you doing to me now?!" She roared.

The drone flew back and again hovered in her face "I really think first you need to stay still, if you keep moving you might die again,"

"Staying still is honestly not something I want to do in this room, I would rather…wait…die again?" The bright light? Was that her being dead? She always heard stories from before the Traveler; where people thought that when you died you would see a bright light, but it felt very different from those stories and she didn't put much stock in them. Death was a complicated process, the bright light was often just the release of energy from a dying brain. At least that's what she thought. If she had died and no human was in the room, how the hell did she come back?

The drone looked at her and then said the weirdest things, "When I arrived you were still alive, which was a shock to me to be honest since it's been a few days, maybe a week. I am not entirely sure" it moved to the right and scanned the desk. "I didn't think you were my match so I left to see if I could find them since our matches are always dead. My plan was to revive them and see if they would be willing to get you out of this set up, by the time I swept the station, and returned to you…you stopped breathing and your heart had just stopped. Its when I knew you were my match" She stared at the drone as it chattered at her, the things it was saying were so utterly bizarre that it can't have possibly been speaking the same language. Somewhere she could hear someone scream, "What do you remember?" it asked her as her attention came back to it.

She thought about this for a moment, she remembered…being dragged into the room by a large man. She now remembers how this man held her down as they strapped her into the table. She tried to fight them, she even managed to bite one, but they held her down and sedated her. She remembered the needle and then the voice, the sneering voice that always kept her up at night. "They forced me in here" she croaked.

The drone looked at her and then looked down almost sad "that's evident from the signs of struggle" the drone then looked at her "what else?"

There was a flash as her head started to hurt more, she groaned out, "My name is Shae" she growled, "that light you make is making my head hurt back off a bit would you?" She panted as her head felt almost to heavy to hold up.

The drone did as he asked, "You're dehydrated and starved, this wont be easy" it said as it floated around her, "I doubt we can get you out without a few attempts and you dying a few times"

Okay that was weird, "What?" she asked "Dying a few times?" Generally, you die once…a few times, how?

The drone came back, "Right, I forgot, I am a Ghost! My job is to help you, stay by your side and revive you when you die. I can do many other things but these are the biggest things in my opinion." This drone was so happy to be telling her this, that it just kept chattering away. It was getting harder to focus on this thing. Was there really a person operating it? This thought was the last coherent thing she could manage just as the edges of her vision clouded and grew dark. Hopefully it was just a really bad dream. The last thing she heard was the alarms and another loud scream.