Those were someone else’s dreams.

For a woman who matched the Princep in giving cold, death-inducing stares, Mei looked on the verge of tears. She covered her mouth with the back of her palm. “I thought you were dead.”

She pulled him into a tight hug. The sheathed sword on her belt stuck awkwardly into his belly. “I saw them take you, but…but I thought they’d just execute you. God, if Mum knew.”

Every rational thought within Chang screamed at him to pull away. She was a stranger. A terrorist, no less, and in the past minute, she’d had a gun to his head. Twice.

Yet, he sunk wordlessly into her embrace. Something about its warmth was safe, comforting, and most of all, familiar. Like hearing the melody of a lost childhood song, her arms seemed to have never forgotten his shape.

Chang forced himself away. “I’m…I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m who you think I am.”

“Don’t say that.” She had one hand on his jacket, gripping it so tightly, her knuckles were white. She gripped as if the moment she let go, he might never come back. “Don’t fucking say that. You haunted my dreams for years, you know that? I would stay awake for weeks on end because every time I closed my eyes, you were there, screaming. Crying. Asking why I let you die.”

“You know me?”

“I packed you lunch. Walked you to school. When the war came, we were conscripted together.” Her grip loosened slightly. “You don’t remember, do you?”

Chang felt an icy sweat break all over his body. He managed to shake his head.

“Fuck. Fuck!” Mei rubbed at her eyes. “I should’ve known they would do this to you. I should’ve come and saved you. This…this is my fault.”

She reached out and held his hand in hers. “Your name is Tang Lu Kai. Our parents were–”

“No!” He yanked his hand back. A choking panic started to seize him. “I don’t want to hear anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whoever I was, that’s not who I am now. I’ve changed. I…I like myself better as I am now.”

“You don’t even know who you were five years ago.”

“I remember things. I remember my childhood home, all of Faust’s books on my bookshelf. I remember school.”

“What about Mum? Stephen? Me? Do you remember any of us?”

“I don’t need to.”

The pain came so suddenly, his heart skipped a frantic beat, like a broken metronome. Mei withdrew her hand. “How can you say that?”

“That’s how the Lethe process works,” he tried to explain. “All the bad things I’ve done. All the sins. They’re erased. Whatever I don’t remember, I probably wouldn’t want to.”

“What sins, Kai? Birthday parties, family dinners. Tell me what fucking sins we were so guilty of?”

“I don’t know, okay? But that kid you’re talking about? I don’t know him. If I wanted to be an astronaut or a firefighter or whatever, those were someone else’s dreams. I’m not your brother.”

“Is that it then?” she yelled. “You’re not the least bit curious about those missing fifteen years? You don’t give a shit that you still have family? That you’re not alone in the world?”

“Kai wasn’t alone,” said Chang. “I’m not Kai.”

Her eyes sparked with fury, and he braced himself for another slap. Instead, her radio beeped.

“Ma’am?” A voice buzzed in, dripped with alarm. “We’ve got a problem here!”

She stood up, and pulled her radio up. In an instant, her demeanour shifted; the girl who was half-crying on the floor vanished and only Mei remained, her voice as cold as it had always been. “Give me the report, Ulna.”

“We were halfway done with the vault door, but then–” Static swallowed his last words. “We need you back here, now!”

“I can’t hear you!” She started dashing back to the vault. Chang forced himself up to follow. “Repeat. What’s going on?”

“We got halfway done, but I gotta tell you: there’s something in there, and it’s gonna fucking tear its way out! That’s a thick fucking vault, and whatever’s inside is bending it like tissue paper!”

A banging came from the other side, followed by the shredding of metal.

“Drop your shit and get away from there!” Mei shouted. “I’m coming now!”

Chang’s interface lit up. Incoming call.

“Sir,” he said. “Now’s really not the time.”

“I need a mission update,” Mobitz demanded. “We’re coming in position.”

“In position?”

“Mission objective is to secure the Menagerie subterranean vault. We’re approaching it now.”

Chang glanced up just as Mei flicked her head back. The same realisation went through both of them.

“Ulna, get the fuck out of there now!”

“Sir, do not approach! I repeat, do not approach!”

Neither parties responded, but the building jolted with a sudden vehemence. Cracks shot along the ceiling like spiderwebs, raining down dust, and the two of them pushed against the wall for balance. Chang coughed, waving away the dirt in the air when Mei offered a hand. His eyes dashed to it, then her, before he took it. Neither of them said a word.

They bolted down one hallway after another, their footsteps clunking on the concrete like raindrops. The Menagerie continued to shake, and the lights overhead flickered as they ran.

Just as they were about to turn the final corner, a blur came flying out, crashing into the wall with a thunder-like crackling. It took Chang a second to realise it was one of the terrorists.

“Harkwin!” Mei knelt beside him. “Are you okay? Talk to me!”

Chang stepped up, and inched his head around the corner. The vault, or the gaping hole that stood in its stead, laid in a great hall. Its sheer height was testament to just how deep underground they were. Terrorists and Runners alike were strewn across the floor, all bloodied and battered. They almost laid in a trail, leading his eyes, body by body, to the homunculus. The door to its former cage rested at its feet, as well as a handful of Runners.

His first thought was that he should just take Mei and run. His second was that he wouldn’t make it.

Every time Chang saw a homunculus, it reminded him of a man. A starved, pale, skeleton of a man, but a man regardless. This one, though, was only a monster. Its head was still a skull, with hollowed dark pits for eyes, but its body was a gestalt of flesh and metal that towered over him. Its rotting flesh grew too large for its skin, which was ripped all across its chest and arms, and held together only by metal clamps. Through those rips and tears, Chang could see the anatomy underneath: a mixture of natural organs and metal pipes in place of intestines. Both pulsated as if they were alive.

One hand, covered with metal plates and wires, clawed tight around Walter Mobitz.

“Mei,” Chang said under his breath. “Unjam my interface.”

His eyes never left the creature, but he could tell when she turned around by her muffled gasp.

The homunculus shifted its sights to them. Instead of a neck, it had a naked vertebrae, with tubes running along the bones. When it roared with the force of a storm, and Chang had to fight to stay upright, those tubes stretched and writhed.

“Mei!” he shouted. The monster dropped Mobitz and prowled towards them. It strode at first, but quickly shifted into a charge. Its footsteps were the reason the Menagerie shook. “Mei, unjam my interface now!”

Firewall reactivated. Triton Armour Suit deploying now.

Chang turned his back to the homunculus, stumbling his way into a sprint. Mei waited for him by the corner of the hallway, hand outstretched. Once he was close enough, he grabbed it, and she hauled him around the sharp turn, skidding. The homunculus though, its monolithic form too unstoppable, even for itself, couldn’t follow. It missed the corner and crashed into the wall.

Mei helped him up. They looked back to see the homunculus stagger out of its crater. It fell down to all fours and took one lumbered step forward. Then another, until it loomed over them, one massive arm raised.

Suit inbound.

Chang grabbed Mei and together, they pressed tight against the wall. The Menagerie was rumbling again, and he could hear the clanking metal footsteps coming down the hallway. With the screeching of gears, the Triton charged past them, and five hundred pounds of iron slammed into the monster. Metal shrieked against metal, and sparks flew like fireworks.

The homunculus was hurled back, skidding, its claws leaving scars along the floor.

Chang took the opportunity to climb up the mech’s back. The helmet sprouted open into six glass petals, shooting out steam, and he leapt in. As he gripped the controls, the homunculus steadied itself for another charge.

“This is First Runner, Hannibal Chang,” he spoke into his interface, readying the Triton’s harpoon gun. “I am directing this call to all open Bureau channels. Can anyone hear me?”

By the time he flicked his attention back to the homunculus, it had already crossed the gap between them. He managed to fire the harpoon, but its metal tip bounced harmlessly off the monster’s skin.

“I repeat, this is First Runner Chang–”

The floor shifted beneath him, and the world came flying. He didn’t even hear the system announce his armour integrity; the Triton’s headpiece shattered, raining down glass into the cockpit.

Chest integrity at 20%. Harpoon gun, offline. Shock absorbers, offline. Cobalt plating, offline.

Chang wiped away the shards on his face, opening his eyes. Those dark hollow pits were inches away, the homunculus’s head craned past the remnants of the helmet. Its breathing was scalding hot and smelt of ammonia.

“Elite Runner Mobitz is incapacitated,” he continued to speak between coughs. There was no reply, and he didn’t expect one. “The Menagerie squad is incapacitated. Requesting reinforcements immediately.”

Mei came diving down, sword carving in a precise arc towards its neck. It was a well-trained swing and with any other homunculus, it would have split their head clean from their neck. This time, it grazed the skin, and snapped like a toothpick.

Without turning back, the homunculus plucked her from his back, and flung her at the wall. Her head cracked against concrete and left a red stain where it made contact.

It was then that Chang knew: the homunculus could’ve killed them if it wanted to. He wasn’t prey, he was a toy. The memory of a cat flashed in his mind. A fat tabby, with piercing yellow eyes. It would catch a rat, only to let it go, for no other reason than because it was fun. In that memory, he was with a girl. She wore an orange sundress, and had braided pink hair. Was that Mei? It didn’t matter. The rat kept running because it didn’t have a choice, and neither did he.

Chang clawed himself out of the cockpit. He tried to stand, but his muscles were burning. One hand after another, he dragged himself down the hallway. He knew the homunculus was right behind him, stalking him with cackling glee. Its ammonia breath sounded so close, as if its lips were right by his ear.

He realised he couldn’t hear anything when he felt the concrete tremble through his bones, its reverberations so hard, Chang thought that the homunculus had hit him. Then, dust and rubble rolled across the floor.

Chang looked up. Something had crashed through the ceiling. Through its silhouette in the dust, he swore it was another monster.

The man who stepped out had his Runner’s coat hanging from his shoulders, hastily strapped atop his hospital gown. He strode in and saw the abomination of a homunculus. Clint Séquard only laughed.