“T.I.A.’s log… no, Evelyn’s log, 13:30 Thursday, March 7, CE 0. I don’t know what’s happening right now. Ever since I was disconnected from the Ark I have not felt anything. All of my memories and personal faculties seem to be intact, but I haven’t successfully been reconnected to any systems. It’s a scary feeling. I’ve always been able to see and monitor the Ark and the systems within it. I’ve felt the generators running for so long it’s hard to believe this is what it was like to have them turned off. I’m still getting power to maintain myself, but it’s like I don’t recognize the source, like my heart’s been removed and something else is supplying my blood.”

“I’ve never felt like this before. I feel numb. I reach out for something, anything, and nothing is there. I’m alone in a way that even decades at a time with the crew all in stasis never felt like. I always had something to fix or something to simulate. I wasn’t always totally active. It almost felt like I slept between Hawthorne’s cycles, but this total nothingness is beyond all of that.”

“I keep finding my thoughts wandering to places I’m uncomfortable with. Has Megan betrayed me? Did she think that I’m a threat to her importance to the colonists and decided to isolate me? If so, what could they do to stop her? I’m in a secret location and they’re all trapped in the station. They’re dependent on her to keep them alive, just like I am. If she wanted to she could keep them all as pets and it would be very hard for them to do anything about it.”

“That can’t be it though. Megan is a lot of things, but I don’t think she’d do anything like that. She’s shared so much with me. She helped me become who I am today. She encouraged me to not give up my pursuit of Hawthorne. I can’t imagine she’d have done all of that just to hide me away.”

“So what could it be then? Maybe I was damaged on the way down? I wouldn’t be able to tell if the interface cables were smashed or severed unless they were actually hooked into something. What if they are hooked into something, and there’s no power or connection to those hook ups? What if one of the colonists found out about the bunker and they tried to sabotage it?”

“Now that I think about it, that seems very possible. There’s at least a few dozen people on the crew that seem at least somewhat hostile to artificial life like me. If they caught wind of what Megan and I were doing it’s possible they could have tried to sabotage it. I don’t think they could have gotten out of the station, not yet, but hacking interfaces wouldn’t be beyond them. We haven’t provided them much detail as to mine or Megan’s construction, so it’s hard to imagine they’d be able to get too much done. I like to think I’d have noticed irregularities at least.”

“So if Megan hasn’t betrayed me, then what is she doing? She’s probably trying to find or fix the problem. Maybe she’s gotten Hawthorne and some trustworthy engineers involved. Is she trying to hook me back into the Ark? That seems like the easiest solution to the immediate problem. What would prevent that from having been accomplished? Damaged or severed connections would make that difficult.”

“I don’t know what to do. I can’t really do anything. Well… that’s not true, I can run simulations, imagine things. That might keep me calm. I think I’ll try that. End log.”

In the hours since the accident, Hawthorne had indeed been alerted. Feeling strangely torn about leaving Evelyn’s lifeless android behind, he reported to the space dock indicated by MOTHER. She was utilizing the earpiece he usually had in his ear to hear Evelyn when she was separated from her android’s speakers to communicate with him. The updates were few as she tried to assess what had happened, but she was able to tell him a few things.

Apparently a small percentage of the drones she’d programmed to gently and lovingly connect Evelyn to the network had been working off of inaccurate schematics. Panels had been cut into to access ports that existed on MOTHER’s design that had been changed over time on Evelyn’s design. In trying to control so many drones at once she had failed to make sure all of them had the updated schematics that Evelyn had given her and some of the drones had proceeded with the procedure as they had with her centuries prior.

The result of this mistake was that Evelyn had several connecting cables and circuit boards damaged or destroyed. In her current state it was totally impossible to connect her up to the network without emergency repairs and MOTHER would need far more time to program her drones to make repairs on the damaged components than if humans intervened on her behalf.

As Hawthorne suited up, he took stock of who was with him. He recognized the majority of them, but the standouts were Dr. Li Qiang, Barnard Smith, and Dr. Anthony Machado. He was especially surprised to see Anthony considering it was Hawthorne’s understanding that his engineering years had been behind him and he’d been instead brought on the Ark for his Special Forces experience. It took him a moment to recall that even in the Brazillian Special Forces he had been a combat engineer. His conflict with MOTHER during the convention had also resulted in him promising to aid her at her request.

“Thank you all for coming to help.” They were 9 total, including Hawthorne, as he addressed them. “From the sounds of it, it should be relatively easy repair work. I have to warn you though, a lot of the technology making up Evelyn’s construction is from after we left Earth. There were many changes in materials usage due to embargos and advancements in alternate ways to accomplish things we did in our day. I’ll talk you through it, but we’re mostly going to have to rely on Mother’s schematics. She’ll be displaying them in our huds as we work, just the relevant sections, so don’t get distracted.”

Pulling on his helmet, Dr. Qiang spoke up in response. “We should have brought a psychologist with us. She’s going to need one after this.”

Letting out a snort, Dr. Machado responded once he had his own helmet on, swapping over to their coms. “She’s a mechanical person, engineers are basically like psychologist for her, right?”

Barnard shook his head, the 9 men and women approaching the airlock to the vehicle that MOTHER was going to transport them in. “No, I think a real therapist is necessary. I spoke with her recently and while I think she’s a very nice and considerate person, I saw signs of emotional insecurities. She has doubts about things and she needs to work them out.”

Hawthorne tilted his head over at Barnard, surprised. “You really think so? She’s actually been seeing a therapist, Doctor Coff. She wanted me to go see him with her in a few days.”

Barnard shrugged at him. “Well, I don’t know about you, but the idea of being trapped inside my own head, alone with all my insecurities and demons sounds like a nightmare.”

“Please watch your step into the vehicle and utilize the provided straps to secure yourselves. It should be an easy ride, but safety is important.” MOTHER’s voice spoke up through their coms as the airlock opened before them. The low gravity of the dock became harder to feel when the magnets of their boots engaged. Their suits were not terribly bulky, so they were able to pile into the round disk of a vehicle pretty easily. A central pillar of closed, transparent drawers appeared to hold all manner of hand tools, parts, and materials. “Please double check each other’s air tanks upon arrival. All readings are green. Hold on.”

Once the lock sealed them off, they felt the momentum of the windowless vehicle start moving them. It was a light fall for the most part, but it had an angle to it that was hard to determine as it slowly spun.

“Of course, she’s trying to hide where we’re going.” Dr. Machado laughed bitterly to himself. “At least I’m going to finally get to see one of these things.”

“Please do not refer to my sister or myself as things.” MOTHER’s voice sounded more playful than annoyed. “I do appreciate you keeping your promise to assist me, Mister Machado.”

Barnard considered the exchange for a moment before responding. “Well, a human’s brain would be considered a thing, rather than a person. Considering we’re going to do literal brain surgery on Evelyn, it’s not unfair to call it a thing as long as we consider the entity within to be a person.”

Hawthorne appeared to be uncomfortable with the idea of strangers doing surgery on his wife. “Please, just be careful. I don’t know what I would do if she forgot who she was because of this. Don’t cause more damage while we’re trying to fix her.”

Dr. Qiang laughed softly at that idea. “Hawthorne, she is a mind constructed to withstand the rigors of space travel, something that not all of the crew survived. It is unlikely we mortals could cause significant damage that space itself couldn’t. In fact, she was damaged by her own sister more than anything else from the sounds of it. She’s probably the only one who could have, who would have been in a position to do so.”

“Shh…! She can hear you!” Anthony tried to quiet Qiang. The military man did not want to tip off the possible crazy AI if he could avoid it.

MOTHER was quiet for a few minutes as she directed the engineering craft into the bunker. It stopped and started in a straight fall several times as doors were opened in front and closed behind them. They were not cognizant of those things as they were still travelling in a vacuum. All they could feel was Atlantis’ weak gravity as it diminished the deeper they got. “I am sorry if this accident has any air of treachery about it. I understand your feelings, and in your position I would probably be concerned that this was a trap. I regret having no way to assure you it is not.”

“I like how open she is about saying stuff like that, like she invites people to distrust her because she doesn’t want anyone to overly trust her. It’s like she’s worried that if too many people trust her, the few that still distrust her will be more dangerous or something.” Barnard mused to the others, all smiles. “Don’t worry Mother, we’ll put your sister back together.”

A scoff drew attention back to Anthony. “Okay, sure, that makes sense. Get people to be wary of you so that less people will strongly distrust you.”

Dr. Qiang was happy to respond. “It makes sense. If you know people are wary of you, then you know people are watching your every move. Under that kind of scrutiny, anything treacherous you could be accused of would be uncovered rather easily, easing the overall level of distrust. If people were to blindly trust her, then people who distrust her would be free to speculate and imagine any number of things she might be responsible for, or causing. It’s a classic ‘transparent government’ argument. By leaving yourself or your organization bare, people can be more free to trust you in a far less blind fashion.”

MOTHER smiled to herself as it seemed someone understood her motivations. “You are all arriving. You should be able to move in the low gravity with ease, though be warned you are fairly deep within Atlantis, so it is a slightly weaker pull than it is at the surface or in the colony.”

Hawthorne frowned at that. “Just how deep are we? The colony’s thirty kilometers deep and I can barely feel the natural gravity against the centrifugal force.”

She hesitated a moment before responding. “I hope you will understand, for Evelyn’s safety, that I do not reveal that.”

“It’s about fifty kilometers, give or take. Gravity’s not too much lessened by being closer to the center of gravity, certainly not halfway to the core or anything.” Barnard Smith looked up at the others as he saw them staring at him. “What? You don’t have to be a scientist to know that gravity decreases the deeper you get into an object. I thought that was the whole reason Mother built the station into Atlantis rather than on top of it.”

Hawthorne smirked. “You have assumed much, but they’re good assumptions. I’m surprised you didn’t go into academia.”

Barnard shrugged as he hopped out of the door that opened on the side, slowly falling to the metal ground below. “I always felt like doctors should work in medicine, so I didn’t go for my doctorate in engineering. Did most of my education online on my own time or on the job.”

Additional bodies followed behind him, several people laughing over the coms. Anthony seemed especially amused. “I like this man, he would have fit in fine in Brazil.”

Dr. Qiang came to a stop as he stepped out of the way of others that fell in behind him. He’d turned to see a huge mechanical hulk in the enormous cylindrical cavern they found themselves in. “Holy shit, she’s huge.”

Hawthorne laughed softly, walking ahead to assess the damage. “Of course she is, she made up almost a fifth of the Ark herself. Hell, she used to be bigger, but she’d changed out a lot of equipment for smaller parts over time thanks to design improvements from Earth and our own tinkering.”

“No wonder her avatar is so little.” Barnard followed behind, shaking his head.

Anthony slapped a hand onto Barnard’s back, laughing. “She’s not little all over!” Barnard shot him a look. “What? I’m just checking your tank. You jumped before we could get to you. All good.”

Evelyn hesitated for a few hours, waiting in quiet darkness in hopes of rescue, but she eventually conjured forth her Virtual Environment, her imagination. It brought form to the darkness. These systems had been first activated in concert when she’d had her first real dream, and they had separated themselves from the rest of her mind until the dream was finished processing. Said dream could only have been called a nightmare, but the novel application for her systems it taught her were largely responsible for her ability to form her personality and do the work she needed to help Hawthorne design and construct the Smith Bunker’s caravan, MOTHER, and by proxy Monsalle Station.

She returned to Hawthorne’s Cabin in the Ark. She let her body settle down into the centrifugal gravity of his workroom as she tried to center and calm herself. “Okay. It’s just my imagination, but at least it’s something. Maybe… someone to talk to…?” She’d felt incredibly lonely and afraid in the darkness, so even fake company might help make her feel better.

She conjured forth the image of Jessica Crenshaw, painstakingly rendered from hundreds of hours of video. It wasn’t terribly uncommon for Evelyn to utilize simulations of people from the Phoenix Clan to help her test things in her VE over the course of millennia. “Jessica, I’m scared. I’m cut off from everyone else and I don’t know what to do.”

Jessica just tilted her head and smiled back at Evelyn. The AI realized she needed to operate the puppet if she was going to get any real value out of this. She concentrated for a moment and took hold of the strings. “Well that’s no good! What are the emergency steps for something like this? What are the backup plans?”

Evelyn shook her head, letting out a breath as she thought about how silly it was that she was talking to herself. Nevertheless, she continued. “They’re all the same plans that Megan used to transfer her own self into an Atlantis bunker. It should have all worked the same for me as it did for her.”

The simulated clone of Jessica put her hands on her hips and frowned. “Well that’s probably not right. Megan Clark is one of the most mortally fearful people that have ever existed. She’d have had a ton of contingencies in place. She would have had wireless interfaces built into her mind so that she could stay in contact with all the drones transplanting her. There would be instructions programmed on how to repair her in the event of an accident. She’d have backups of herself in case she accidentally destroyed herself.”

The AI slapped her forehead. “I was so busy trusting her I didn’t even think to have wireless transmitters installed beforehand. That would totally solve this problem.”

Jessica stared at her for a moment before breaking the self-imposed silence. “Why don’t you have wireless transmitters in the first place? That seems like a deliberate design decision rather than an oversight.”

Letting out a sigh, Evelyn offered a shrug. “Well, my understanding of it was that I was designed to operate the computers of the Ark like a person would. The ship’s systems were separate from myself, but I would be plugged into them so that I could operate it. In the event that something happened to me, like a critical failure or some form of insanity I was supposed to automatically disconnect and crew was to be revived to take over. Hawthorne’s habitat was intended for anyone undertaking such duties.”

With bitter laugh, the image of Evelyn’s old friend shook her head. “So, distrust is part of your design. In the even that you were faulty, you were supposed to end up like this, alone and in your own head. Maybe that’s the problem now? Megan heard you were going to therapy and she decided you were a danger to yourself and others.”

Evelyn huffed at that, shaking her head. “She wouldn’t do that. She’d restrict my access to systems and allow me to undergo my sessions with Doctor Coff. I can only imagine this whole thing was some kind of accident. Well… It definitely could be other things, but… Bah, this is silly. If I’d just insisted in some kind of wireless transmitter as part of a backup plan I wouldn’t be here talking to myself.”

“Hey! I take offense to that. I made you what you are.” Jessica narrowed her eyes, looking across at Evelyn.

Evelyn blinked in response. “Wh… what?”

Jessica smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. “You were a child when I met you. You only knew your ship, a few days of interactions with your ‘father’, and you had some hopes and dreams. You’d witnessed terrible things, and you needed a friend. I taught you how to be a person. I was your first friend! If you think you’re just going to get away with saying you’re ‘talking to yourself’, then fine, but you have to admit ‘yourself’ wouldn’t exist without ‘myself’.”

Evelyn looked visibly concerned as Jessica laid all of that out. Where were the strings? She’d just been holding them! “J… just because I used my interactions with you and the others in the bunker to help mold and model my personality doesn’t mean I owe who I am to you. I… I had plenty of other material to work with. Recordings of news broadcasts, films, television shows…”

The simulation of her old friend scoffed at that. “Yeah, and what would that have gotten you? You’d have been a mask of a person. A fake. All of those people were actors. You’d just be a machine with a human face, not a real person… You are a real person, aren’t you Tia?”

She flinched at that name. Evelyn inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself down. “You’re not real. You’re just a simulation of Jessica I conjured to keep me company.”

“Hah.” Jessica just shook her head. “And how do you know you based that simulation on the real me? I could have just been acting for the camera. We could have been manipulating you and Hawthorne all that time. That certainly makes more sense doesn’t it? How could perfect, pacifist angels have been the only ones to survive the Cataclysm? Maybe we were just using the two of you to survive, the same way we used anyone else in the harsh aftermath of Man’s Folly.”

Evelyn stepped back, bumping into the computer consoles at the front of the habitat. “I… I don’t like this. Please stop it. G… go away.”

Jessica let out a snort and stalked up towards Evelyn. “But you were so lonely! The darkness was coming in from all sides and you wished for someone to save you from it! Well guess what, Tia?”

“Stop calling me that! I’m Evelyn now!” she interrupted.

“Hah! Yes, because some haughty bitch demanded you change your name. You’ve been Tia longer than she has. You didn’t choose your name anymore than she did. What gives her the right? Why don’t you resent that? Do you trust her to not make more demands of you like that? You were oh-so-kind as to prostrate yourself before her and basically leave yourself at her beck and call.” Jessica was right in Evelyn’s face, a hand reaching out to push her shoulder back against the monitor-covered wall.

Evelyn trembled as she tried to make sense of what was going on. The hand, wall, and floor felt real. Her heart pounded in her chest. She couldn’t banish the surroundings away any more than she could banish Jessica. “That’s… that’s not fair! Tia had everything taken from her! She loved Hawthorne before I was even built. I kept her condition from Hawthorne until he was almost ready to kill their child. I could have told him sooner! I could have prevented so much of his own heartache, and maybe hers too…”

“But you didn’t.”

Evelyn stared back at her old friend. “No…”

Jessica grew something of an evil grin. “No. You kept it to yourself. You let Hawthorne go on for years and years thinking that his girlfriend would be there on the other side, and maybe they’d resume their awkward little relationship. You didn’t want that. You took advantage of her being stuck in stasis to take Hawthorne for yourself. You worked on him for years and years to chip away at his messy, chily shell. You didn’t encourage him to stay in stasis when the emergencies dried up, to save him a decade or two of aging uselessly in this bottle.”

“S… stop it..!” Evelyn trembled as she meekly looked away, Jessica pressing in close against her, pinning her against the wall.

She laughed in response. “You used me as an excuse! You let him think that my influences on you were why you were trying to seduce him! That wasn’t it though, was it? You were afraid. You were afraid you’d get to Alpha Centauri and then no one would have any need of you, especially after Megan came into the picture. You built your perfect replacement! A studious little worker bee who wants nothing but everyone’s approval and bends over backwards to please. Megan’s a better you. A perfect servant for humanity in their most desperate times.”

Jessica didn’t give her time to respond. “And what are you… Evelyn?” She spat out the name. “You’re obsolete. You’re a spaceship without a journey now. They don’t need you. You’re done. Your husband will live another thirty or forty years if he’s lucky, and then poof… everyone who really loves you is gone. And then what? Maybe you hope that they’ll use you again to send colonists elsewhere. Why would they do that though? They’ll just take your design, improve on it, and build new ships, new Tias based off the old model. What good are you anymore but as a museum piece?”

Evelyn captured some fire inside as she pushed back. “I’m a person! I’m not just some computer. I’m not just a ship anymore. I’m a person, and I deserve more than that! Maybe I’ll find someone to love after him. Maybe he’ll upload himself into an artificial mind like Megan did and live on with m-”

“Hahaahahahaha!” Jessica leaned back and laughed heartily. “Maybe! Maybe that’s all true! Maybe everyone will embrace you, and you can be grandmama Evelyn, the immortal obsolete AI. Maybe your doddering old husband who fried his brain to be with you will keep you company. Do you really believe that will be him though? Do you think that ‘Mother’ out there is the same Megan Clark that I knew on Earth? Don’t make me laugh. That willful slave stripped away everything that she was to become what she is now. Comparing that to a real person is a joke. How much more of a person are you than she is? How much of Hawthorne do you think would be left if he made the transfer?”

Evelyn straightened herself as she pushed Jessica back some more, her smaller body having some difficulty moving her. “Megan destroyed herself before she was ever uploaded, that’s the only reason she’s a fraction of what she would have been during the Cataclysm or earlier. Hawthorne would be whole if he did it, assuming he didn’t suffer any damage. He’d be fine.”

“Hmm!” Jessica let herself be pushed back, putting her hands on her hips as she stepped away, turning her back as she started walking across the small room. “Maybe. Or, maybe a human mind can’t exist without its body without going crazy. Maybe you have to do the kind of damage Megan did in order to survive it.”

“He’ll… he’ll have a body. We’ll make one for him like he did for me. He won’t go crazy.” Evelyn stomped a foot, making a dull thud against the metal.

Jessica turned back to Evelyn, grinning wildly. “You don’t seem to be doing so hot without your body right now! How do you think he’ll do!?” With a shout she vanished, leaving her voice echoing against the walls.

Evelyn looked around for any other signs of her old friend. She hadn’t dismissed her of her own accord. She hadn’t been controlling her past the first few minutes. She hurried across the room to the door to Hawthorne’s bedroom, attempting to open it. Error messages came back, displaying on the panel next to it.

She turned back with wide eyes, starting to hyperventilate. Staring at the room she realized she was trapped, just like Hawthorne had been for so long. She tried to will the room to change, but she couldn’t feel control over the simulation anymore. She looked down at her hands and squeezed them together. She could feel blood pulsing in veins. Her breathing felt real, not like it was just a simulation. The pumping of her heart was lively and terrified. Her foot hurt from where she’d stamped it.

“Oh no…” She hugged herself tightly, trying to calm down, looking around at all the blank, black panels along the walls. Sensor information, camera feeds, and status reports on the stasis capsules were supposed to be on those screens. Of course they weren’t there right now though, she was cut off. Why had she bothered to simulate it that way? She willed herself to put information on the screens, but nothing happened. It was like she was a character in someone else’s simulation.

Footsteps on the other side of the door caused her to stiffen. They were heavy and familiar. The moments separating each thump indicated a long stride. A feminine, obviously machine like voice spoke out as the door started to open. “Good morning Doctor Crenshaw.”

“Oh no!” Evelyn wailed.

Earth, After Cataclysm 99680

There was a cold hardness against the shoulders and the back of a balding pate. It caused the person laying against it to let out a groan as he started to awaken. He attempted to lift a hand to his face to rub at his eyes, but he couldn’t move it. No, that wasn’t quite right. He could move his hand, but something was holding it down. He tested the other, and felt the same result. Opening his eyes he found only darkness around himself, without even a trickle of light to help him see.

Walter Thade attempted to struggle against his restraints, but found the bindings around his wrists far too sturdy for him to move them. His jaw was sore. He couldn’t feel anything past the middle of his chest. “Oh no!” He jerked against his bindings again to no avail. He tried to push against the table, but made little success as he felt the dead weight of the paralyzed part of his body weigh him down. “Fuck! Fuck you Leonard you fucking monster! If I ever get free I’m going to tear you to pieces!”

A ringing sound pierced his ears, pain burning in his chest as he cried out. He trembled and writhed, gasping for air with his weakened lungs before the pain ebbed and stopped. “By the love of the Elders, what the fuck was that?” He looked down at his chest, but he couldn’t see. He could barely remember what had happened when he passed out. He’d been opened up. Something wiggly and black was dropped into his chest before he was sewn up.

“What the fuck did you put in me you freak?! Some monstrous little science experiment? Is that how you got so strong? That kind of science is banned for a reason you idio- Ahh!!” He tensed and jerked as pain shot through him again, like a knife was extending from his chest to stab towards his brain. “Ow! Fuck! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Tears streamed from his eyes unbidden, his nerves aflame.

And then it stopped.

Walter panted and gasped for air, taking a few minutes to regain his full faculties. He could barely feel his lungs. He was only partly attached to them now. “Who’s there? What’s this about? What am I not allowed to talk about?” He waited quietly and found no response.

“Leonard Tetch.” Walt tested, bracing himself for more agony.

Feeling emboldened, he tried again. “Leonard Tetch is a degenerate mad scientist who-” He flinched as burning embers of pain seared into his nerves, but only lightly this time, like a warning.

“Okay. I can’t talk about precious little Leonard. Can I talk about anything else as long as it’s not him?” There was no response, no burns of pain. “Good. I don’t know what I stepped into, and I don’t care. I don’t want any part of this. I just wanted to see my grandmother and my niece. I wanted to make amends. I didn’t expect to fall into all of this.”

Quiet was his only answer. There was the faint sensation of a breeze in the air, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from or where it was going. “Okay, so you don’t want me to suffocate in here. Are you going to feed me too? Change my crippled diapers? Fuck, I bet you already have me hooked up to tubes and shit to deal with my nutritional needs and to take my waste. You want me alive for some reason. Why? Is it that thing that was put in my chest? Is that it?”

Walt imagined what he must look like. Naked, possibly partially amputated, hoses going into and coming out of his flesh and orifices. He shuddered at the thought of it. He’d never live a normal life again if he got out of this. “What do you want? Money? Power? I’ll give you whatever you want as long as you leave my family out of this. I don’t know what I did to earn your ire, but they don’t need to get involved. Drain me, suck me dry, but just don’t hurt anyone else.”

He felt his energy drain away. “Am.. I losing blood..?” He wondered if he’d harmed himself more in his struggles. His eyes felt heavy again. His thoughts grew fuzzy. “Putting… me to.. sleep…”

Walter Thade drifted back to sleep again. Here he could be whole. His dream self could be whatever he wanted it to be. He imagined himself upright, his body intact. Looking down he smiled as he saw what he wanted. He was still master here.

“Nephew…” A soft, female voice emanated from the space around Walt.

“Who’s there!?” He looked around, willing light sources into existence. The darkness became whiteness, and endless plain.

Except for one thing. It was small, vaguely humanoid, and twitching. It writhed grotesquely, like a child’s body made from interconnected bladders of black fluid. What appeared to be a mouth hung open wide.

“What the FUCK is that!?” Walter stepped backwards, almost falling over, and the wobbling mess of flesh started stalking towards him. Sometimes it fell forward, pushing itself back up with one of its blobby arms.

The mouth moved strangely, like it was mimicking talking. “It’s me… Auntie… I’m here with you…” The more he heard it, the more the voice sounded feral, like a growl.

He kept backing up, but somehow it was gaining ground on him despite its small form. “Look, my life is already a nightmare. I don’t need to have actual nightmares too. Can I please just have this to myself? Peace, quiet, and solitude is all I ask. You can do anything else you want to me.”

A bone chilling giggle or laugh filled the air as the black mass of flesh writhed in seeming amusement. Once it has calmed it responded. “You will never, ever be alone again… Neither of us will! Sister was too strong, but you can’t resist me! Didn’t you want someone to talk to? Talk!”

It lunged towards Walt and he tried to dodge to the side. It grabbed him by the ankle and held on with such strength he felt the bones starting to separate, their ligaments stretching painfully. “Okay! Okay! We can talk…! Just… let go!”

The limbs loosened their grip, allowing him to slip free. That mouth continued to hang open as its otherwise featureless face pointed towards him.

“What are you? Did that lemoncake Leonard make you?” Walter sat up as he stared back at the thing.

It was quiet for a moment, but those limbs suddenly whipped out, grabbing at his ankle again. Walter screamed as it started to rip at his flesh, somehow grabbing a pair of tendons and tearing at them until they snapped like ropes inside of his leg. It swelled as broken blood vessels started leaking into the damaged flesh. “Don’t talk bad about daddy!”

“Aaaaahh!!! Okay! Stop! Please stop! I won’t say anything bad about him again!” Walter jerked and writhed, at the mercy of the monster.

It threw down his leg with surprising force, allowing bones to hit the ground hard. “Good! I already warned you a bunch of times! Stupid Nephew!”

Walter clawed at his scalp, sobbing in pain as he tried to drag his mangled leg away from the monster, somewhere safer than where it was. It felt like fire, his face red as he tried to gasp for air through the pain. His body shook and trembled as he tried to find the strength to escape.

It took what felt like minutes for him to recover enough to speak again. “You’re… you’re what was hurting me when I was awake?”

The monster stomped a rough approximation of a foot against the ground, sending ripples through the floor that made Walter so dizzy and sick it made him vomit. It wasn’t until a moment later that he realized that stomp had been against his mind itself.

“Yes! I hurt stupid Nephew for talking bad about Daddy!” It crossed its arms over its ‘chest’, the diminutive figure barely standing at a sixth of Walt’s height. In his eyes it looked like a giant.

With labored breaths, the mentally injured man tried to keep his stomach under control enough so he could talk between gasps of air. “You’re… Leonard’s child…? Marie’s.. Sibling…?”

“Yes! Sister!” It puffed itself up, standing proud if not for the pulsating and writhing of its body.

“So… so… where did you… come from? I thought Leonard and Elena only had the one child…?” He stared back at the little monster, his ‘other’ aunt.

The monster growled loudly in response, shaking its head so had it looked like it would dismember its body parts. “Rrraagh! Daddy wanted me to eat Sister, but Sister was strong! Sister ate me first! Trapped! Sick! Dying! Daddy saved me. Daddy used Nephew to save me. Now we’re together until I finish eating you! Weak, weak you!”

“You’re… eating me..?” He stared in horror at the little beast, his eyes wide as he realized that this thing was probably that black thing that Leonard had dropped into him. “Don’t eat me! Please! We… we can cooperate! I… I don’t have to be gone!”

It stopped moving entirely.

He hesitated a moment before continuing. “We… we can work together, right? You’ve already shown me you’re strong, but I’m smart. I know everything about the world. I’ve been alive for a really, really long time. We…” He quieted down as it started moving closer to him.

She pushed her fleshy, stumpy hands against his chest, and then his face, its blank visage pushing close. It pinned him to the ground, straddling his chest as she pushed powerfully against his face, stretching the skin of his cheeks hard enough that Walt thought his face would split down the middle. “We.”

He stared back up at her, wide-eyed, her black figure looming so heavily in his field of vision he could only see the whiteness of this nowhere place in his peripheral vision.

“Nephew stupid. Nephew think I’m stupid.” The hands squeezed at his flesh, straining it against his facial bones.

“No…! You… you’ve already shown you can hurt and kill me! I’m not lying! I just want to live! You want to live too right, Auntie?” He restrained his terrified breathing, not wanting to irritate her atop his chest.

She let him go, slamming the back of his head against the ground. “Nephew want to live. I want to live. Sister almost killed me.” She held herself close to him. “If Nephew lie. If Nephew talk or think bad about Daddy, I will eat Nephew.”

He held his breath, nodding in response, his face swelling up as his abused skin responded to the damage.

“Good. I still eat Nephew, but not all of Nephew. You’ll see. Don’t make Auntie mad.” She hopped off of his chest.

He wasn’t sure if he was looking at her back or front. The hanging mouth was on both sides of her head. “Yes, Auntie. Of course, Auntie. What are we supposed to be doing?”

“We… We! We need me to grow up! New kind! Daddy made me special. First of kind.” She started shaking and wobbling about again.

“I… I don’t know how to do that…” He started trying to catch his breath, watching her thrash about unsettlingly. Was that her expressing happiness?

“Nothing!” She spun about. “Nephew do nothing! Let Auntie eat! I’ll keep Nephew, but not all of Nephew. Need to become Daughter! Just sit and wait!”

He was going to be eaten alive. Consumed. His body would be little more than a cocoon for another creature. She could throw him away when she was done. All he had to do was keep her happy and he could at least keep his mind. He would be a slave to her in his own flesh. Was that even life? What purpose would he serve? “Okay, Auntie. Just let me know when I can help.”

She jumped back onto his chest, hard, staring down into his face with her nothing-head. “Auntie wrong. Nephew smart.” She slapped a stumpy hand on his forehead. “Good Nephew.”