\ Entropy \

Thunk!

Marsia snapped awake, the sound of metal clattering in her ears. Her sight was occluded by a bright sunset glow, so vivid she thought she was on Earth’s surface. She reached up to pull herself upright.

“A-ah!”

But she found she could not. Her hands were tied down to the surface she’d been sleeping on. More than that, she couldn’t move a muscle—it hurt to try.

She glanced around, trying to understand the scenario. The luminous glow she’d seen before had only come from the hundreds of vibrant wires which coiled around her every limb. Her head hurt taking it all in.

Focusing, Marsia tried to remember how she’d gotten here. She saw in her mind a stage, an estate, a world of advanced technology and perfect order. Her memories soon followed, strung along with the locations; X2, it’d been called.

She knew now it had all been a lie, a falsity prolonged in her head for so long she’d thought it her reality. Her memory of it all wasn’t perfectly clear—likely a fault of the simulation she assumed these cords had connected her to.

Marsia wasn’t particularly fond of wired electronics. Her only experiences with them involved mic-ing up to sing, and when they invariably failed her, she would just throw them out. How she wished she could throw these wires out.

And yet her body, aching at the joints, would not move an inch. She couldn’t bear it much longer—she longed to squirm and kick her legs, to wail loud as she could. Surely it would attract someone, but right now, she couldn’t risk something like that.

Thunk! Clank!

She heard that strange sound again, the noise that first pulled her out of comatose. It came from somewhere vaguely above and behind her; she tried to crane her neck to see, but the room was too dark, and her muscles too weak.

For a moment, she considered calling out to it. The low chance it was a person might have been worth taking. But ultimately, she held her tongue—and an instant later, she was immensely grateful she had.

A door, about three meters in front of her pod, creaked open. Marsia could only faintly make out the silhouette behind it, carrying a dim flashlight and wearing a glowing set of laboratory goggles.

She shut her eyes and faked unconsciousness as the scientist approached her pod. Something deep in her soul wrenched as the woman’s breath hit her face.

“You’re asleep, aren’t you, Marsia?”

She felt an urge to strangle this scientist and bash her skull into the ground—an urge that felt wrong and foreign in her mind. She was not one to condone violence. Why would she want to do something like that?

Then again, the woman was certainly encroaching on her personal space. Plus, she was involved with whatever this terrible experiment was meant to be. Maybe she deserved a little violence.

“I sure hope you aren’t awake. I wouldn’t want to kill you while you’re conscious, now would I?”

She heard the swift cocking of a gun. More accurately, a pistol, as Locri had taught her; any larger than a handgun, and the action would have taken longer. Marsia was almost relieved her body wouldn’t move, because she would have been shivering uncontrollably otherwise.

Suddenly, she felt the cold sting of metal on her forehead. A sense of dread held her down now, more than the wires or the pain. All responsibility fell to keeping her face still, which she managed to do with some success.

“Last chance, Lilia. Speak up or get your brains blown out your backside.”

Synapses fired off in her brain—she remembered this voice. This was Agent White. Without opening her eyes, she could tell the agent had a demented smile on her face. It almost made her want to smile, herself.

The one and only thing she knew about White was this: she was a liar. Everything the woman had ever told her in X2 was false, and only for her own gain. So why should this be any different?

In an act of courage—courage she’d never had until now—Marsia stayed motionless. It was a gamble she was somehow sure she’d win.

And when the gun left her forehead, she knew she had. White huffed and clicked the safety on her gun. She heard the agent muttering to herself as she turned around to leave.

“Good. We can still get this thing back on the road. Ghiles will be happy about that,” she said, boots clacking against the floor. She continued her whispers as she walked out the door.

As soon as the door clicked closed, Marsia let out a loud exhale. She imagined a reality where she’d been shot through the skull—a reality where she’d made the wrong choice—and shuddered. She was lucky to be alive.

Then, once again, she heard that peculiar noise.

Thunk! Clank! Clatter!

It was getting… louder. Marsia rolled her eyes as far back as they would go, trying to get even a glimpse of what the racket could be. Out of fear, she writhed in her bindings, attempting an escape.

The pain was a whole new sensation for her, nothing like tripping in high heels or being thrown against a wall. She imagined fire etching lines into her skin, electricity prying her wounds open with metal claws and stinging her with a thousand needles. It was real.

And, being truthful to herself, it was a bit refreshing. Not… good, not nearly, but it set her head straight. She could again move a finger, feel a twitch in her wrist. Seeing the wire ports to either side of her wiggle, she realized breaking free might not be so difficult after all–

Bang! Thud!

An air vent cover fell from the wall behind her and rattled on the ground to her side. Whatever had made those sounds was in the vents—and now, presumably, coming to get her. Her mind conjured up some kind of violent monster, as if she were in sleep paralysis.

The beast sulked in the shadows, crawled down from the air duct, and approached her. Its silhouette was spiky and overbearing. Wires lit up bits of metal and fabric—an abomination, from what she could see of it.

Marsia furrowed her brow. She could take it on untethered, she was sure of it. But this monster had caught her at her most vulnerable. She decided she would have to accept her fate.

“Kill me now,” she whispered. “Give me mercy, and make it swift.”

“…What?” the unknown said.

“Do you want me to scream? Would that bring you satisfaction?”

There was a slight pause as the shadow contemplated how to respond. Suddenly Marsia was much less intimidated.

“No. Don’t scream. Definitely don’t scream. And… why do you want me to kill you?”

“Uhm… is that not what you came here for?”

“Marsia, it’s me. Arufa. From Underside, remember?” The girl leaned into the light of Marsia’s pod, finally showing her face.

What she’d mistaken as a spiky exterior was, in reality, a wild mess of shining silver hair. She hadn’t initially recognized her voice—it was noticeably deeper than it’d been in X2, and the whispering made it hard to identify.

“Oh. I… pardon me,” Marsia replied, for lack of anything else to say.

Arufa shrugged, her expression mostly confused. She kneeled down in her strange mechanical outfit and began pulling power cords. “It’s fine. Did Agent White check on you already?”

“Let me think—ah, yes, she did! I remember because she held a gun to my head to see if I was awake!”

“Loaded?”

“I had my eyes closed, you bloody dimwit, I wouldn’t know. But she certainly cocked it.”

Arufa pulled out wire after wire, tearing them with just her hands. Despite her atrophied appearance, she had some level of strength—enough to pop off a vent cover and endure some electricity.

“Did she… say anything to you?”

“She was getting all fancy with me. ‘Wouldn’t want to kill you while you’re awake’, was what she said. The lunatic.”

“Goddamn, Ghiles wasn’t kidding, huh?”

Marsia raised an eyebrow. “What’s that about Ghiles?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you later. Just let me get this… last… wire!” she huffed, ripping out the final cord attached to Marsia’s skull.

Sparks danced around the frayed ends as Arufa helped Marsia to her feet. She didn’t feel entirely in control of her body as of yet, but a hand to hold certainly helped.

Seeing Arufa’s new appearance, Marsia wondered if she looked any different herself. Similarly, her hair was new and beguiling; hers was short and trimmed, as opposed to Arufa’s mangy mane of silver.

“I don’t look too odd, do I?” Marsia asked. “I’m still gorgeous, right?”

“You know, if it matters that much to you, then yes, you’re still gorgeous, Marsia.”

“Great. At least I look better than someone.”

“Wha– hey, I literally just rescued you!”

“I could have done it well on my own. And for the record, I did seriously think you were a monster.”

“Jeez. You didn’t give the ungrateful vibe back in X2. But I guess things are different now,” Arufa muttered, letting go of her hand.

Marsia blinked—she wasn’t the ungrateful type. She had always made it clear she was thankful for what she had. So why wasn’t she acting that way now?

She looked away. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t like me.”

“I get it. Everything is weird right now. I’m a little on edge too.”

Arufa stepped up into the pod and reached back for the vent. Marsia saw her shiver as she pushed herself up and inside. Her skin was certainly pale, much lighter than it had been in X2—she seemed almost ghostly in the cold.

“Do you want me to follow you?” Marsia said softly.

“Yeah, c’mon,” she replied, her voice echoing in the metal tunnel. “I can tell you more when we’re further in the vents. And maybe we can actually catch a break for once.”

“Crawling through the building’s innards doesn’t sound like much of a break.”

“Well, it’s the only one you’re gonna get. Get in before someone else finds you.”

Marsia shook out her hands, still sore at each joint, and scaled the pod to join her new friend. Seeing the wires beneath her feet, memories of X2 ran through her mind. Most notably, she remembered the embrace she’d had with Arufa before shutting off the simulation. She smiled faintly.

Then, without hesitation, she dug herself into the air vent and never looked back.