| Peripherals, Pt. 2 |

Marsia and Locri stepped down onto the subway escalator, descending into the rusty old station they’d surely seen before. Escorted by a legion of security, they stood waiting in the rafters for their train.

Marsia eyed the peeling paint across the walls. “Miss Lonestar?”

“Yes?”

“Why is it called ‘Callosum’, anyways?”

As if on cue, the faint rumbling of the railway echoed through the tunnels. The security guards chattered faintly about the dangers of Underside, but Marsia paid them no mind.

“I’m not sure, Miss Lilia,” Locri replied.

“But can’t you look it up?”

“I could if I had my armband. I left it at the estate so Agent White couldn’t track our location.”

“I’ll just ask Arufa to look it up.”

“Isn’t she a broke criminal? Why would she have a phone?”

“…Maybe she stole one…?”

“You’re reaching,” Locri said. “And maybe spend your mental energy on what we’re about to do instead.”

The Callosum Railway pulled into the station, screeching to a halt. Its several sets of doors opened, and the security force flooded in, impatient. Marsia pulled Locri along to a car closer to the front.

It was as old and broken as she’d remembered. Cracked windows, dislodged seats—not exactly premium transportation, but it would work for what they needed. Marsia, too short to reach the handles, grabbed onto one of the many poles lining the central path.

In theory, their plan was simple and concrete: walk calmly to the front as the train approached their destination, then change course and head to the X2 Monument instead. If they achieved it smoothly enough, security would be none the wiser.

Daydreaming the scenario, though, Marsia knew just how much could go wrong. If they were caught going forward in the train, there’d be problems. Caught changing trajectory, even worse. And, of course, security wouldn’t just let them hop out of the train if they could help it.

“Next stop, Briar Wells Amphitheater, Underside. Please watch your step,” spoke the busted speakers above. Marsia resisted a slight jolt as the train began moving along the tracks. She glanced around at all the guards and spoke to Locri.

“Miss Lonestar, I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. “I think it’s in the next car up.”

“I’ll come with you,” Locri replied.

“As will I,” another bodyguard said. “For your safety.”

Locri shot him a look. “To be frank, I think Miss Lilia should choose.”

“Well, she’ll have to choose us both. You know our rules. Outside the Estate, two bodyguards at all times.”

Marsia, looking for some way out, shook her head. “I think it’s okay, really. I’ll be right back.”

“No, he’s right,” Locri said. “He’ll come with us.”

Tension rising in her breath, Marsia tried to figure out what Locri was planning. She hadn’t expected anything like this to happen—especially not after two sentences of her plan.

She let go of the handrail, feeling a little wobbly, and made her way to the cabin door. Opening it, a wave of wind nearly swept her off her feet; she reached for the next door and slid it open, stepping one car closer to the engine.

The two bodyguards came with her, albeit much more sturdy walking through the connector. Locri closed the door behind them—a strange smile spread on her face.

“Marsia, duck.”

Expecting a threat outside the train, Marsia dropped to the floor in fear. She shut her eyes and relied only on her other senses to figure out what Locri had meant.

But it was obvious enough when she felt a splatter of some warm fluid hit her hands. The bodyguard hit the ground with a thud, rolling a little and bleeding heavily from the skull. Marsia scampered to her feet and staggered backwards.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to scream her guts out, for this poor bodyguard who’d just been murdered. But she knew her only chance at freedom relied on her silence. Her eyes darted to Locri’s smug expression, holding a smoking silenced pistol where the man’s head had been.

“You… psychopath!” Marsia hissed quietly.

Locri pocketed the pistol and sighed. “It’s not like I wanted to. He just got in the way.”

“Couldn’t you have just knocked him out?!”

“That was the plan. But for some reason, I don’t have my tasers. You can thank Skyler for that.” She shouldered Marsia out of the way and opened the next door. “We really don’t have enough time to talk ethics here. You plan on seeing Arufa again, right?”

“…Right…”

“Then let’s get moving.”

As they traversed car after car, Marsia felt disgusted with herself. Her plan had gotten an innocent man killed—and worse, she didn’t feel all that bad for him. It was as though her internal moral compass had failed her.

She suddenly remembered her savagery towards White when she’d fought her in the Callosum. It felt unlike her in this very same way, this unnatural acceptance of moral wrongs she knew better than.

A couple cars to the engine, she spoke up. “Locri, do you at all feel… conflicted about killing that man?”

“…Yes.”

“Did it feel like you weren’t yourself for a moment?”

“Exactly—how did you know?”

“I feel that way, too. So… perhaps it’s a normal grieving response.”

They finally approached the head cabin, where Locri again busted down the door in one swift strike. Marsia ran up past the map of X2 and took the controls. Looking out the front window, she saw the train had just shot out of the tunnel and was straight on course to a large stadium in the distance.

Slowly, she pulled the sticks to the left, and the trajectory gradually changed with them. Eventually, the tracks being laid before them lined up with the X2 Monument. It certainly looked different on the Underside, what with its fog and neon lights.

Marsia nodded and smiled to herself. “Hey. We pulled it off. That wasn’t too bad.”

“Freeze!”

A group of guards lined up their shots on her and Locri’s foreheads. About four or five of them—more coming in each second—blocked off the exit. There was nowhere to run.

“Locri Lonestar, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” one spoke up.

“Taking off with Lady Marsia and killing a comrade? What’s gotten into you?!” another said.

“Move and you’re dead. Let the girl go.”

Locri stood perfectly still, her only movement the blinking of her eyelids over olive irises. Marsia found a distant look on her face, alarmingly void of emotion. She looked fearless.

“I’ve just noticed something,” she said.

Click! The guards all adjusted their guns in unison.

“Do you want to know what I noticed?”

Marsia held her breath. This was Locri’s end.

And she breathed one more time to speak…

“None of you have faces.”

Marsia stood in bewilderment. She stared up at Locri, looking for some kind of answer, some kind of hint. But she was dead serious.

She turned to the guards in fear, hoping they wouldn’t execute her bodyguard—no, her friend—on the spot. They stood there, aiming, aiming without a scope. Aiming without eyes.

Not a single security guard had eyes.

Nor did they have any facial features at all. There was nothing distinctly human about them, even. The more Marsia really looked at them, the less real they seemed. The more distorted her reality became.

Without fingers, they couldn’t fire their guns. Without legs, they couldn’t stand upright. They were literally figments of her imagination, and as she saw them for what they were, they became blurry and malformed.

In a panic, she whipped the gun from Locri’s pocket and began firing at random. Fear drove her every motion, pounding lead into these subhumans she’d called ‘bodyguards’. Nothing leaked from the bullet holes—she’d only assumed they had blood earlier.

When she ran out of ammunition, the legion had essentially dispersed. She gave Locri a pained glare and handed her back the pistol.

“They’re not real…”

Locri turned away, towards the window. The Underside shot past them at brilliant velocity. “We were just imagining them.”

“Even the one you killed?”

“Somehow, yes.”

Marsia wasn’t sure why tears welled in the corners of her eyes. She suppressed them, but they poured over against her will. She was unimaginably upset and barely knew the source of her grief.

“Locri, what is all this? Why is it happening to us?” she said over her weeping.

“I really have no idea, Lady Marsia. I just looked closer and all of a sudden, I knew it wasn’t right.”

“We have to tell Arufa! And Skyler! They need to know the world’s a lie!”

“We’re right over the X2 Monument. If that’s what you want, we should jump out now.”

Marsia caught the blurry silver spire in her peripherals, coated slightly with tears. She rubbed her eyes and put on a determined scowl. “You’re right. Let’s do it.”

“At your service.” Locri pulled her grappling hook off her belt and fired it straight at the glass. The metal bolt shattered the whole pane—she stepped aside to allow Marsia through.

In primal fashion, Marsia got a running start and leaped out of the window, falling into the grass below at high speed. She tumbled and tumbled, all of X2 orbiting around her, before finally coming to a stop.

When she shakily pulled herself up, she found Locri had landed soundly next to her. Marsia was just about to ask whether she was alright, when—

“Marsia!”

She snapped her head towards the voice. Running to her was the girl who’d changed her life forever. A girl she’d thought she might never see again, until now. Marsia summoned all her strength and ran forward into the arms of someone she’d always known.

“Arufa!”