This site seriously needs some better tags. Where's dystopian? Post-apocalyptic? And, of course, Self-discovery?

Anyway… here. Like I said last time, this is a pretty big chapter. Not word count big, but plot big.

Moray Towers was, apparently, Masked Mayhem's home territory. They were going to ruin our win streak, weren't they?

Behind me, Annie and Jacob were together behind some tiny cover, where Gemini—the sniper—couldn't hit them.

So, instead, Gemini aimed at me. The laser hit my cheek, and I tilted my head to the side. Not a second later, the shot passed over my shoulder.

That… was close.

I dove closer to the base of the platform they were perched on and pressed against its wall. I swam up, launching out of it and into the air in front of Gemini. Turning, I kicked a pillar to my side, pushing myself to the right and dodging a second shot. I opened fire, ending the match with one last splat.

I wondered how it felt for Gemini to find an opponent they could never hit. And as the whistle blew, I smirked, knowing that that opponent was me.

And they won. By about five percent. The final scores slid away, with the team results taking their place. Masked Mayhem was on the top, and we were on the bottom.

I hadn't noticed it before, but all their photos were near-identical. Other than slight angle differences, there was nothing distinguishing each one. And with the way they'd shot the photos, even their hairstyles—which were clearly different in-person—were completely cut out.

I knew Gemini was the Charger… and that was it. Scorpio, Leo, and Taurus weren't so easy to tell apart. And all their names sounded so foreign. Where had they gotten them? How did people tell the difference?

"We can beat them someday," Annie remarked. "We just need one more… One more…"

"Uh…" Something was wrong with her. As the night had gone on, she'd… declined. She wasn't fighting as well as she had before. Ever since meeting Jacob, she'd been on edge. I didn't know what to do about it. What I could have done about it.

I looked at her, worried, as we left the lobby from our last match of the night. Her head was down in what looked like deep thought, and her hands were buried in her pockets. Something in her had just fallen apart, but I could tell it wasn't the loss to Masked Mayhem. None of the other ones had ever gotten to her.

"'Kay," Jacob said, breaking the silence in the hallway. "That's all for me. I'm out, see ya." He turned around and walked away. Hadn't he noticed Annie?

Sullen, Annie waved at him, briefly looking up to acknowledge his departure. "Mm. Take care." She stared at her feet as if I weren't there, right in front of her. Something was bothering her. It couldn't have been Jacob, right?

"One more…" she muttered.

I… I really did care about her. It was weird, feeling this way for the first time in probably forever. I'd only met her a couple of days ago— No, I couldn't keep saying that. She was a friend I had underground. So many things I once loved about her were just… gone. Erased.

And so, even though it was only recently that I had decided my memories weren't worth it, I found myself wanting to find them again.

My eyes narrowed as I tried to find something to say to her. But she was the one to start. "Can we go back down to that subway?"

She…

She'd really just asked to go back. After taking on fifteen at once and breaking into tears. "Why?" I said. "I mean, I'm not against it or—"

"Your memories… they might be down there, right?"
She'd had the same thought that I had? Was this what was bothering her? So why was Jacob the one that triggered it?

"Ah…" I said, relaxing my shoulders. "They might be." Likely, they weren't. But there was a chance. I put my hands behind my back. "I don't want you to get mixed up with that weird subway, though."

"Well, then. Let's go." Annie looked up and faintly smiled at me. "I already am, right?"

The most solemn march in my short memory was when I led Annie to Deepsea for a second time.

The arrows on the floor leading to the first subway pointed in the only direction we could've gone. Really, they were a waste of paint.

Annie sighed deeply behind me. "Still remember nothing?"

"Nope," I said. Then I thought again. Was I willing to tell her about Eileen? She must have known her, right? Being her sister and all…

In any case, I couldn't have kept it to myself forever. She would have found out one way or another.

"Actually… yeah," I said, "I do."

I was horrible at keeping secrets.

"Ever heard the name Eileen Octrope?"

Of course she'd heard it. I didn't even look over my shoulder. For some reason, I didn't want to see her face this time.

Annie gasped, almost inaudibly, behind me. "Yes," she said. "Wh— What about her?"

She was speaking a lot more quickly. Why, I didn't know. "It's a name I first heard at Sharktown, from that girl who broke into the protest," I said. "I once went to fight her but never got a good look at her." That much was true. Her face was obscured by the morning shadows, and someone else with a Roller had gotten up to her before I could have done anything.

But it wasn't what I had found in my suppressed memories.

"A few days ago, I remembered something. It's only a single moment, of Eileen helping me up after… I fell, or something. She was wearing those Hypno-Shades, but they were deactivated. I don't know what any of it means…"

"Oh…" Her voice fell and slowed again. What did that mean? Why wasn't she telling me?

"It could've been anything from a one-time thing to… a lot more than that… I just don't know…" Something in the back of my mind was pricking me again. The same familiarity I felt when I first met Annie. But this time, it was much stronger.

There was something up with her and Eileen—not just them being related, but something… I couldn't tell…

"I… I'm afraid… I don't know what it means… she… I don't know what she's like…"

What was I to Eileen? What was I to Annie? Underground, what did Annie think of me? What did she feel now? Contempt? Pity? Both?

The ramp ended as it opened up into the first abandoned subway with the elevator and mostly intact train. I slowed down and stepped to the side, backing up to the wall to lean on it. Recalling that moment had taken a toll on me. I felt… so afraid. Afraid of myself.

Who I was isn't who I am.

I tried to tell myself, tried to remember that this was just a particularly interesting soldier, but it all just kept pointing back to me.

This was me. All of it was me.

I couldn't let my past define me… but it still happened.

Under Octrope, Eileen had tried to take over an entire civilization. Where was she now? Did I play a part in it?

"Let's go," I said, opening my eyes a crack to find Annie in front of me. I wasn't at my best, but my best wasn't coming back anytime soon.

I'd been through hard times before. In Deepsea. I just had to suck it up and press on, just as I'd done before.

It was never like this, though. It was always about one of the tests, about just trying again.

But there was no way to retry the past.

I moved ahead of Annie. She was saying something, trying to stop me, taking me by the hand, bringing me back, but I pulled away. I didn't know why I kept walking, but I did.

The soldier in me shut down my emotions, told me to just keep going.

But I wasn't a soldier. I never was.

I was just a child, lost in my own mind. Memory loss was hard, tougher than anyone would expect. Especially for someone like me, who could've done everything or nothing.

I might have met Eileen after tripping over a shoelace, or I might have been her right hand.

I might have been an ally to the Octropes, or I might have had nothing to do with them.

But I didn't know. I didn't know anything. And it all came back to that simple fact. I didn't know.

I didn't even know how old I was. My own birthday. Family gone, old friends gone. Did I ever love someone? Laugh with them? Was I a quiet person? Loud, outgoing?

I didn't know.

How much did my personality change after the memory loss? Completely? Or not at all?

Did… did I even exist before Deepsea? What if there was no past to discover? What if I was supposed to be the ultimate life form TarTar spoke about?

No, no, that was impossible. I had to stop thinking that. That made no sense, I knew I had a past—

My head made a quiet thump against something, and I stumbled backward and fell to the floor. I had walked right into the train's window. I hadn't realized it was there.

"Y— You okay?" Annie stuttered behind me. She ran up to where I was on the ground but made no move to help me up. I didn't blame her. I wouldn't have known how to handle myself either.

"Mm." I hummed. I wasn't hurt at all. Physically, at least.

"Who's there?" said a voice on top of the train.

I stood and turned my head to the train's roof. "Captain," I said flatly.

"Oh. Uh," said Rose. She stepped into view from the train's rooftop. "Hey, Sky— What. Are you doing. With her."

"Huh?" I groaned. I looked at Annie. "Don't worry, she's fine." I looked up sullenly at Rose. "She asked to come back down here, so…"

Her Dualies were out. Both pointed down. Not at me, but at… Annie.

I turned to Annie. In an instant, my fear washed away. And in its place, confusion.

Annie gripped my arm. "L— Let's go. Now."

"Wh— What—"

She started to run back to the ramp, pulling me along. I tried to wrench her off, ask her what was happening. Why was Rose attacking her? Why was she down here in the first place?

Why now, of all times?

"Annie, what's happening?" I yelled.

Rose jumped off the train and chased after us. She wasn't firing. "Sky, get her!" she yelled.

What? Why? What had she ever done?

I stopped before we reached the corridor, planting my feet on the ground. Annie almost fell, but then she caught herself and looked back at me, right in the eyes.

And there, I froze.

What was I looking at? This was Annie? She looked so… afraid. So desperate. She had something to say to me, but couldn't say it. She wanted me to come with her, but I couldn't. I wanted to reach out to her. But I didn't know how.

Clenching her eyes shut, Annie let go of me and sprinted up the corridor. I dropped my arm, and it fell lifelessly to my side. I stared up the ramp as the last of her ran out of view.

"Sky. Sky!" Rose caught up to me standing petrified on the floor and stopped. "Why…"

"No… wait. Why are you attacking her?" Her footsteps grew quieter and more distant.

"Don't you know who she is?" Rose panicked. "She…"

"Annie?" I said, turning back to see her, her wide eyes staring into mine. "She's… A— Annie, right?" Rose was just mistaking her for someone else, right?

Someone… else…

Rose blinked. "Annie? L— Like, Annabelle, right? No, no. That's not— How even—"

"That's not… then, wh— who…?"

Someone else…

Her expression relaxed, and her face turned to curiosity more than anything else. "You don't…"

"Captain. Who is she?"

Someone else.

"I… Eileen Octrope…"

Hoo boy, this chapter was hard to write. I really went for that spiral into despair, all building up into the plot twist that crashed it all.

I had to polish this and proofread it so many times, guys, this chapter needed to be as good as possible.

In other news, I finally figured out how to do those line break thingies. I'm more than a year late, but whatever.