Mai walked back to the rebel base in a daze. Her brain raced, switching between believing Ayres to believing that it was some sort of mind game by him. But in her heart of hearts she knew what he’d said was true. It corroborated what the other player had told her, and she was certain that they had never met.

Her memories of her mother and father were total fabrications. As were her memories of her life. She hadn’t been alive for a year, let alone years. And then the worst truth hit her. Li was also a recent creation. Her whole reason for being, for entering the Culling, her whole motivation to Ascend was the creation of some arsehole writing a game.

Head spinning, she tried to remain standing. It felt as though her heart was going to burst. Or did it? Was this merely more of her programming, or was this genuine? Her brain raced, jumping from thought to thought with the speed of light. Sweat beaded on her brow, whilst her mouth turned dry.

Her emotions were just as mixed. Anger, fear, sadness, hurt, even the odd ounce of guilt flooded through her. But of all of them, sadness was currently winning out. Sadness at the thought that her bond with Li wasn’t real. That the reason for her struggling to remember her parents was because of poor programming rather than a poor memory. Sadness that her memories of her life before she punched her abusive neighbour were all false.

Mai latched onto that thought. The memories before that day were false, but the ones she had made since then weren’t. And one memory she had which was particularly strong was meeting Dakota.

I’ve got to tell Dakota, she thought. Bending over, she vomited, her stomach unable to cope with the emotional turmoil. She felt as though the world was spinning, as if she’d had far too much to drink.

Cold sweat beaded her forehead, and as she staggered along the street civilians stepped aside to let her pass, hands covering their mouths as if they thought she might have something catching.

Hanging back before she reached the rebel sector, she composed herself, wiping the sweat from her brow, drying her eyes, using nanites to make them less puffy with the liberal use of makeup.

Walking through the gate, she kept chit chatting to the bare minimum, just nodding to the guards, giving a wave to those who bid her hello. As she neared the main base, she found her feet dragging, as if they were coated in lead.

Each step took her closer towards hurting one of her few friends, and she had absolutely no idea how the mercurial Dakota was going to take the news. Would she erupt, be angry at Mai for not letting her know sooner? Or would she immediately go and announce the news to the rest of the world? Would she refuse to accept the truth? Or would she break down, be unable to face the truth?

One thing was certain, this was going to hurt their friendship, something which Mai relied upon. The thought crossed her mind that she could keep it secret. It wasn’t as if the players in the rebel faction would say anything. According to Ayres they’d all signed agreements that they wouldn’t say anything unless a Mega Minion directly asked them about it.

Mega Minion, a term she detested with every fibre of her being. Might as well call her a malfunctioning semi-autonomous slave.

“Dakota, come and meet me in my room please,” she commed as she entered the top of the rebel compound. “Soon as possible.”

Making her way to her room, she prepared herself for what was to come.

“Reporting as requested,” Dakota said as Mai opened the door to her room.

“Thanks, come in. Take a seat. Got something I need to tell you,” Dakota’s grin turned into a frown as she saw how serious her friend was.

“Sure, what’s up.”

Mai joined her friend at the table, took hold of her hands and started her story. It took nearly thirty minutes to cover the story, Dakota asking her to repeat things she’d said, clarify things.

Tears were spilt, hugs were shared, and curses were shouted before Dakota was able to get her emotions in check. Mai fought just as hard to control hers, the telling of the story opening up all of the wounds once more.

“I didn’t tell you,” her friend whispered, tears streaking her cheeks. “I’ve been seeing Goblin on the sly. He was one of those outsiders who joined us in the fight against Maggi Becker and her people. Is it fake? Or is he only seein me because of the fucking novelty factor?”

“I don’t know,” Mai’s heart broke all over again as she saw the hurt she’d caused her friend. That Dakota was seeing someone was a surprise, she didn’t know where her friend found the time or energy considering the amount of work they were having to put into running the faction.

At any other time she’d have been thrilled to hear her friend had found someone.

“How the fuck have you manged to keep this secret?” Dakota’s eyes held hers.

“Barely. It’s been eating at me this whole time. Since when I first suspected something strange was happening in the culling hangar. All those gangers, urbexers, prisoners and ex-military, the way they spoke and seemed to share in-jokes amongst each other. How they didn’t speak to us as if they didn’t consider us worth speaking to.”

“Bastards,” hissed Dakota. She dried her eyes using the sleeve of her jacket. “I want to break the entire fucking system. Make these bastards pay for treating us this way. Show them that we’re not to be messed with.”

Mai blew her breath out, cheeks puffed as she felt relief flood through her body.

“We’re going to break the fucking system. First, we make this city ours. Then, we take the fight back to the Upper City. We win the culling, we fucking Ascend, something no-one like us has ever done.”

Dakota grabbed both of her hands and held them so tightly it hurt.

DAMAGE! 1%

“Promise me, no matter what, that we won’t stop until we’ve made them pay.”

“I promise,” Mai squeezed her friends’ hands back.

“And the Ghosts are going to help us?”

Mai nodded. She’d sketched over her agreement with Ayres, wanting to concentrate on the true reason for her visit. But seeing how well Dakota was currently taking the news, she decided they needed to think about something else for a few minutes.

“We’ve agreed that I’ll continue to expand our walls. He’s going to cede the next five blocks to us, which will increase our control points massively.”

“Won’t that affect their control points and income though?”

“It will, but after the last set of fighting, they don’t have the numbers to hold it. It makes sense for them to pull inwards slightly so that they’re not overstretched. Ayres has put up recruitment posters on what passes for ‘real life’ social media, and he’s certain that he’ll be able to get a good number of recruits once they find out that he’s got an official alliance with me”.

“Makes me feel like a fucking circus freak. Maybe we should charge people to come and stare?” sobbed her friend, the emotions momentarily getting the better of her. Mai waited for her to get herself under control before speaking again.

“We could. Not many would pay to see your ugly mug,” she cackled, pleased to see Dakota join her. “Now, how about we start planning how we’re going to break their fucking game?”