Every legend has an origin. However with Wraith, it is a mystery. Not only to the people who know her name, but to herself. This is her story. How she met herself, her mysterious past, and an already known future. While on the look of her own discovery, she meets new people, new places, and new experiences. All under the watch of a voice. A voice that was there all along since the beginning of everything.
Chapter 1: Untold Beginnings
Voices. Multiple ones. Flashing lights. Monitors. Undistinguished sounds. People. Wearing, robes, white ones. Scientistslet me sleepTalking to each other. Faces. Just watching. Watching me. Can't move. Restrained. Pain. Pain. Pain. They just watchleave me aloneThrough the pain, visions. Things, I've never seen or sensed before. Voices. Unfamiliar ones, but not from the outside. But from withinI don't understandWith feelings entangled. Thinking that this is part of me. Or already was. I've been and seen this before. I already know this voice. But from what. Where. Who. The pain comes and goes againstop itDetained. A threat. Me? Dangerous. Scared. Have to run. Protect myself. Stay. Alive. Why? Why are you in my head? Who?don't listen don't listen don't listen don't listenAm I scared? Get out of my head. I don't understand. Yet I know everything. I can't see what I need to see. Yet I have already done so. I feel nothing. Yet there are feelings present that do not belong to me.
who am I?
This torments her mind everyday. Voices fill her head, unable to sleep for endless days. But it has become part of her. She has learned to focus and suppress. Just fragments of her only past. Yet she knows she has much more to remember than this. They told her that she volunteered. That she was part of something great. Helping the enrichment of many and the discovery of the unknown. That she was gifted. And also understood the risks. Yet she doesn't remember anything. Not even her name or origin. But she was supposedly told everything she needed to know at the time. She was told she was in some sort of detainment until further notice. That she was gravely wounded from battle and with a permament loss of memory. They were trying to help her. But deep down, she knew something was wrong. With herself. And with them. All of them. Confused, yet curious to know more. Afraid and wanting to run away, yet holding herself back to know more of what was going on. Curled up in the corner of an empty white room. Nothing but silence, with the inner voices and fragments in her head.
She is, was, a soldier. From what she was told, she was a pilot, fighting for the organization of the so called Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation. Her recon squadron and other squadrons from other battalions were dispatched on a planet on an investigation for a possible finding of resources and securing of vital sections on the vast inhabited lands. The area they were sent in was a canyon, but inside the walls there was an abandoned research facility with a mining area not far from it. It was vital that the research was sent back and the mining facility secured. Once they arrived to the site, it started.
First, it was in the mining facility, when the team was divided. They came from the skies. They catched them by surprise, and confined them inside the facility. They recieved the radio contact, just when the fire started in the research facility. An all-out battle against a similar foe. All of the troops sent in this investigation were annihilated, and she was considered part of the casualties, until they found her. It seemed as if the I.M.C. was not the only one on the lookout for such objective. Trying to ensure her safety to make it back alive, she was shot, fell from the bridge connecting the canyons into the river. However, her transmission stayed intact. She was recovered unconscious, and heavily wounded from the battle and the fall. At this point, she was clinging for life. Vital to uncover the findings done that day, she was kept alive under strict medical attention for almost 6 days. Her percentage of her recovery were very low and medics were running out of options...
That was what she was told
The lights went off and on rapidly. Light came from within her. The light from her eyes grew brighter. She could feel everything. She knew something was wrong. But no matter how much she tried, she couldn't do anything. She couldn't move from where she was. Restrained, she had to bear the pain. Those people. Faces. They. Just watched. Why. She did not understand. There was something amiss. Pain. Unbereable to the point she could not hold on any longer. As she could feel, something, taking over her own self, she felt her mind and vision drift away slowly. Drifting away, into what it seemed as nothing. Yet something was there. In between the pain, the thoughts, there was something she did not recognize. Yet she has already been here before. Lost. Into nothingness. Cold. Dark. Fading away...
"...keep her..."
"...further research..."
She woke up. Her head was in inmense pain. Again, she could not move. Her wrists and ankles were restrained. Her bed started rising to the point that she could see straight at the corner of the roof. It was dark. It was cold. A single light flashed above her. The rest was pure darkness. There was a wall, with a glass on it. On the other side, she could see figures. Some, like 5, or 6. A voice filled the room. It was one of them. She has been asked many questions, like who she thought she was and if she could recollect anything at all. She also had the opportunity to get answers for herself, but still wasn't enough. After learning of her role as a soldier, and past events leading to the foundation of the I.M.C., she was asked about her opinion on the corporation and their goals. Even though deep down inside she had something to say, about everything, she just, didn't know.
She returned to the medical bay. After a couple of days of checkups, she was sent to rehabilitiation for her body to grow back strong and functioning properly, and even had the opportunity to go back to the frontlines were she supposedly belonged.
This was it. This was the time she was waiting for. By going back, I could uncover, understand everything, she thought to herself. She needed to accept the fact of who she was before, and carry that on.
She accepted. She began basic and advanced training, and passed like flying colors. She grew understanding of her abilities and what she was capable of. She was able to manipulate only fragments of what they called the "void". For mere seconds, she tries to stay inside of it for as long as she could. In those seconds, she did not exist. Her body became part of it. In and out. Again and again. Until it became part of her.
She was also able to move around with the use of rifts. A portal, breaking through the void, were her and possibly others, could mobilize with ease in just seconds, to a next portal created by the same individual, her. These have to be placed manually, and takes a lot of stamina from the user, exhausting her relentlessly. Nevertheless, she trained hard, and trained effectively to fully adapt to what she used to be.
However, she had to do all of this alone. She could not have any social interaction with fellow peers. She was being monitored at all times due to her current, "condition", and that all was proper procedure.
On her way back to her room a voice called to her from the hallway. Distant. Close. Unknown. Familiar. She could not tell. Then it was her arm that started acting up. It all happened so sudden. Intense pain. Felt like it was jolting by itself, yet it was fine. She went back to her barracks and straight to her room, while holding down the pain to not attract any attention. The voice. The voice was still there. Here.
RunrunGETOUTyouarenotSafewhatisthisDONOTTRUSTnooneiDon't understandstopTHISLeavewhileyoustillcanGONOWplease...
She collapses on her floor...
4 minutes later...
Knockknockknock
Knockknockknockknock*gasp
She opens her eyes. The pain still residing and the fact clear as day. There is something wrong, "w-what the...", "Hey! Finally... your awake." The voice speaks, but there is no one here. She starts breathing heavily, losing her composure as she stands and goes for the door. The door automatically slides open and a guard appears. "Unit 722?", he says. "Y-yes", she responds, trying to keep down her physical, and what it seemed, mental, struggle. "Check your personal registration. Your next assignment has been issued." The door closes itself, as she turns around fast, as if looking for something. "Who are you?!", she says. "Listen, there is no time-", she interrupts, "Answer me! How... how is this...". "Possible?", says the voice. "I don't understand either but you have to trust me. You're not safe in here. They. All of it is a lie, you need to leave, now", "Stop this!", she screams. "Leave, my head!", "I can't!" the voice replies. The voice seemed to act human, as if it had its own feelings as well. "I can't..." says the voice. "I'm stuck here with you, and you'll just have to bear with it, understand?", "I don't!" she screams, punching the ground. "I don't understand anything! I... I... I don't...", "You will", the voice answers, reassuring her. "If you want to understand, I can help you. I can get you answers. Let's start with your assignment. Go get yourself ready. You'll see for yourself the lie you now live."
Motionless, she just stood there, looking at the floor. She stands and makes her way to the armory, picked up everything she needed, and went straight to the briefing. "I'm going crazy. I'm going crazy." The words repeated themselves over and over again in her head. Little did she know, this was going to be her last mission.
A small dropship carrying a dozen of a squad, including herself, were sent to a city, which was not that populated, neither that prosperous. When the rest of the dropships arrived, all of them began descending and preparing for troop deployment. This mission supposed to be for securing the area, she thought to herself. "It is not what you think", the voice said. "So you can read my thoughts as well?", she said. The voice replies, "Remember, for now on I am part of you. You'll have to grow adjusted to me now." A red light blinks and everyone stands. The door slowly opens and the light turns green.
Everyone scrambles and start to jump down from the dropship "They are watching", the voice says. "They are trying to see if you're still capable, so just remember your training." That is when the gunshots started. The citizens began running away from them. Chaos emerged everywhere. Cars crashed and the police started arriving, trying to hold off the squadron off the city. It was useless. She saw how people fell to the ground for one second and motionless the next. How others were being robbed off their homes. How buildings were destroyed.
Confused, she asks, "What... is this...?" "THIS, is what the I.M.C. really does", replies the voice. "Selfish bastards just take what they want whenever they want. Without no one standing in their way. We were and are part of this. But there is still time. You. Me... We, are one in the same. You won't understand, so I will understand for you." "W-wait, what are you saying...", she says in utter confusion. The voice has one moment of silence, hoping for understanding.
"You... are me. I, am you... from when you lost, everything."
*This is literally the first time I publish something. But I have always been making up stories, without the motivation of writing it down. Please let me know if you enjoyed it.