Tori is surrounded by the white liquid of the STEM, She wears the helmet the Scientists gave her, The woman helps her in wearing it,
"My Name's Juli btw, Juli Kidman." She says,
"Well, It won't matter when I kill you, Juli," Tori said.
Juli chuckled, "Maybe, if you survive in the world of stem, we've found a lot of anomalies in there, creatures created by Jade's mind, in stem, they are real."
"So, the 4 handed creature? Is it real in there?"
"Yes, it's created by Jade herself, we don't know how, but something made her create these."
"And how do you suppose I kill it? Where am I even supposed to get weapons?" Tori asked,
"I don't know, but in stem world is also affected by the connectors mind, so whoever goes in, gets some sort of special power, you are a Ghost, a trained killer, your power should be interesting." Juli answered.
"So My survival chance is based on luck huh?"
"Yes." Juli smiled.
"Everything is ready, Tori heard one of the workers say."
"Are you ready Tori? Or should I say, WRAITH?"
"Just get me down there."
"Here we go." Juli said as Tori felt her entire body being submerged by some sort of liquid, must've been the liquid of stem. She feels lightweight, and then, all of a sudden her vision turns black, or that's what she thought, she was falling, into a black abyss.
"Oh, shiiit!" she screamed. "what's happening Juli?"
"You are entering the stem world, You might fall for some moments, don't worry, you won't die from the fall," Juli reassured her.
"what the hell!" Tori kept falling for some moment, and then in a blink she founds herself in water, she looks around and finds herself in darkness, surrounded by this water,
"Juli? Can you read me? Where am I?" she said,
"You're in an area separate from the main system right now. This construct is called your "Room." It's a safe zone that was formed from your own memories."
"Safe zone..." The place around Tori gets illuminated as she finally understands where this water is from, a certain lake.
Tori took a deep breath, as the memories the couple shared here came rushing in her mind. She has to save Jade, she won't fail this time.
Tori looks at her cabin, but it wasn't a cabin this time, it was a house, a house of a certain friend she can't forget, the house of Ghost.
She slowly walked towards the house, her heart racing. The condition of the house was just like when she had first entered with the team - damaged and deranged. The door was unlocked, so she got in with no problem. She knew where she had to go - the basement.
"Status report, Tori?" Juli's voice came through the radio.
"I'm going in to find some weapons. Tell me how I get out afterwards," Tori said with determination.
"You have to find a mirror Tori, Mirrors connect the Stem World to your safe place. Touch them to teleport outside."
"Okay, so what was Jade's safe place?"
"A certain lake with a cabin."
"Huh? Wait, her safe place is this?"
"No, it has similarities, but both are different, you can't get in other's safe places without them touching you."
Tori went down the stairs and opened the basement door.
She smirked as she saw the weapons hanging on the wall, and the suit, The Ghost's suit.
"It's a bit big Ghost, but I could make it work."
She wore the armour, she took her assault rifle and a shotgun, and finally, the mask.
The mirror was right at the end of the room.
"Any warnings before I go Juli?"
"Don't die out there. The place is strangely deranged and has its way to play with our minds, we can't come in contact with any of the people we sent in, if you can, save them too."
" Great. So your "experts" need rescuing too, huh?"
"Just save whoever you can Tori, you don't want to live with guilt."
"Yeah, Considering I live at all after saving Jade, guilt is something I've learned to overcome."
"I've sent the data in your phone, look at them for the info about our lost people, they can help you find Jade too."
"Hoffman. Psychology and surveillance? This one could be cagey. Sykes. A tech, but at least he has some small arms training. O'Neal. They must not have been expecting trouble if they sent in all these technicians. Harrison. Combat specialist, huh? Hopefully, he can take care of himself. Baker, Team Leader. He's the guy I should try to find first."
She sighed.
"Jade, your team, and now me… We're all stuck inside STEM… I still don't understand why you can't just take them all out of their pods and wake them up." Tori asked.
" It doesn't work that way Without a Core, we're totally locked out of the system. To forcibly remove anyone from STEM at this point would kill them and leave their consciousness trapped inside there." Juli answered.
"Great, you guys have some stellar backup plans." Tori joked.
"Stating the obvious isn't going to speed things along. You need to find Jade. Otherwise, she, you, and everyone else inside is going to die."
"Really? When do you care about other's life? You only care about saving your so-called Core, not Jade. You manipulate people for power, you don't have any dignity."
"Okay. I get it. And I don't blame you for feeling that way." Juli sighed.
"You'll never know how I feel until you've lost your loved ones," Tori said.
"I never had a family to lose. Just two people who brought me into this world and treated me like a burden instead of a daughter."
" "Better to have loved and lost"? Is that what you're saying?" Tori asked.
"Maybe. At least you had people who cared about you…" Juli replied.
"Point taken," Tori said as she touched the mirror and felt light take her entire body.
"Jade, honey what's wrong?" Tori heard a woman's voice, it sounded like Catherine.
"Why aren't you ever home Mom?" a kid's voice came in.
Tori opened her eyes and found herself standing in a hallway, with large stairs ahead, red carpet on the floor and stairs.
"Is this the right place? What the… What… the… hell?" She finds the body of a member of the Kidman team stuck in the air at the time of death. Blood gushes from a hole in his head. She looked at the name badge.
"Baker."
"Kidman, I found one of your so-called experts, Baker."
"Your voice tells me he doesn't look so good."
"Yeah, there's a hole in his head. Why is he floating and getting shot over and over again as if rewinding a videotape."
"That's an anomaly, must've been a reason for dying while the core is missing."
As Tori climbed to the top floor, she stumbled upon a corpse of a woman in a wedding dress. Surrounding her were the bodies of men with roses instead of heads. The sight was enough to make Tori sick to her stomach.
"Jesus Christ. What the hell is this Kidman?" she asked, hoping for an explanation. Kidman was just as bewildered as Tori. "I... I don't know," she said, her voice trembling with fear.
"Someone's doing this as if enjoying it, trying to make an art."
All of a sudden Tori heard a woman laugh, and a chainsaw sound. She immediately crouched as she saw the blades go just an inch over her head. She looked behind to see the monstrosity, a woman with multiple heads, and her body... it was made out of hands, a lot of hands. Tori pulled out her shotgun and fired, the shot only stuns the monster as it gets up swinging the saw all over, Tori goes back barely dodging the blades.
"Run Tori. Get out of that place!" Kidman's voice came in.
Tori fired another shot, decapitating one of the heads, but it does nothing as another head grows right on the spot. Tori turns around and runs. The monster chasing right behind her, she finds herself in a hallway with an elevator at the end, She runs with all her strength and barely makes it to the elevator closing it as the monster hit the doors, screaming and laughing.
"All right what the fuck is going on here!"
"That's just one of them, Tori, there are far worse out there, I told you, after we lost the core, the place became unstable."
"Yeah, a woman made out of hands wielding a saw, what worse can be out there?" Tori sighed as she reached the bottom floor, She finally sees the exit door. She slowly opens it as light touches her eyes.
The world outside was far worse than she imagined, it wasn't just crawling with zombie-like creatures, the lands were broken, and there was a whole island turned upside down floating in the sky above her.
"Jade.. never thought your obsession with horror was gonna be my downfall." Tori joked as she remembered a moment with her lover from the past,
Jade and Tori were lounging on the sofa in Tori's living room, their legs entwined as they scrolled through Netflix, trying to decide on what to watch. As always, Jade was pushing for her favourite horror movie,
"Come on, Tori, my movie is way better," Jade argued, scrolling through the horror section.
"I don't know, Jade, I just want to watch something comforting and sweet," Tori replied, scrolling through the romance section.
Jade scoffed. "Sweet? That's boring. We need some excitement in our lives."
Tori rolled her eyes. "You excite me enough, AND I KNOW You just want to scare me."
"Maybe a little," Jade admitted with a smirk. "But you know I'll protect you, cuddle with you when the killer slashes the girl's throat."
Tori laughed, leaning into Jade's side.
"I don't doubt that for a second. Why don't we watch a mix of both? We can find a movie that has both horror and romance."
Jade rolled her eyes. "Uuugh, I hate it when they shove romance into horror."
Tori shrugged. "I'm sure we can find something you like."
They continued to scroll through the options, finally settling on the Fear Street trilogy. Tori had heard good things about the movies, and Jade was as gloomy as before, but even in the deepest pit of her dark heart, she was happy to be with Tori. As they settled in to watch, Jade couldn't help but tease Tori. "You sure you can handle this? It's pretty scary."
Tori rolled her eyes. "I can handle it. Besides, I have you to protect me, remember?"
Jade grinned, wrapping her arm around Tori's shoulders.
"That's right. I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you."
"So will I love," Tori promised.
Juli turns off her mic. She took a deep breath thinking about the plan.
"You think she can help us locate the core, Kidman." The administrator of STEM Corp came in. "This is important, The core must be saved, for our business."
"Yes. I know she can and she will." Juli answered.
"Why is she helping us even after knowing that we will kill her without giving her a chance to return to her body?" A worker asked.
Juli sighed.
"Ghosts... Ghosts aren't afraid of death. Because they are Death."