The woman stood in the corner of the room, her blue-white eyes staring intently at the camera. There was a pause before the corner of her mouth raised. A smirk. The woman then spun around to face the tall apartment windows, and pulled the drapes open in one fluid, dramatic motion.

She stood there, looking down at the daylight crowds, 6 stories below. She was smiling still as she grabbed the bookshelf, and with one heavy tug, threw it crashing into the window. She seemed unfazed as she dusted her hands off, and carefully navigated around the broken shards on the floor. She lifted the bookshelf up and back to where it originally sat in the corner of the room, neatly nudging it into place.

The woman then made her way, stretching her arms as she went, back to the tall broken window. She climbed into the window frame, sitting back on her heels, and turned her attention back to the camera. She sat there for a moment, looking at the camera, then smiled again. Her hands let go of the window frame, and the woman fell backwards, through the window, into the depths of Downtown.

Ami gasped, despite her best efforts. She, Red, and Cil were all sitting on her dusty couch, crowded around the security feed from just a couple hours before. Ami had forced them to wait outside, door tightly secured, while she took a nap outside. She wasn't sure what would happen, if the predator would even take over at all in broad daylight, but seeing this... It was almost too much.

A strange feeling came over Ami, and she was unable to place it at first. Her stomach sank, and her hands began to shake. This stranger, this woman, whoever she was - walking around in her own body, her own skin. She felt so helpless, so used, so violated.

They waited, watching the empty room on the screen. Red flicked the video forward every so often. She must have come back somehow - she was in the room when she woke up. Her eyes turned to the shattered glass on the floor. Six stories.

Red nudged Ami, bringing her attention back to the screen. Ami could see fingers on the window frame. The woman on the screen pulled herself back up through the open window with ease, and jumped into the room in a wide, graceful arc. There was something hanging off one of her arms, dangling back and forth, and dripping red dots onto the floor.

The woman pulled it off her arm and faced it close to the camera.

A rat mask, covered in blood.

Rats in the Walls.

The woman then looked directly into the camera as she threw the bloody mask out the window.

I told you so.

Ami watched as the woman turned back to the window, kicking the glass to the wall. She then closed the heavy drapes, walked back to bed, and tucked herself into bed.

Red paused the video then stood up suddenly.

"I'm going to find Sabrina," he said curtly. "Before anyone else does."

Cil shot up from the couch. "She..." Cil started, shaking with anger. "This woman killed someone... Not just anyone, but a member of the cause... And you're just going to leave?"

Red was at Ami's door, his hand absently tracing the large steel locking mechanism. When he only bit his lip as a response, Cil pushed past him and sprinted out the door. Red then turned back to Ami. They held eyes for a moment, before Red finally nodded, turned away, and shut the heavy door behind him.

Ami sat alone on the couch, her eyes locked on the broken glass shattered in shards throughout the wooden floor. There was a war inside her. One part of her wanted to scream, tear up and destroy everything in sight, or maybe even try jumping out the window herself. The other part of her was numb, broken, tired. She wanted to lock herself up, hide away until everything was over. She was sick of not being in control, sick of being used.

Her stomach suddenly lurched and she jumped up, crawling frantically to the bathroom. Her hands clasped the sides of the bowl as she threw up the hot white acid of her empty stomach. She leaned back and noticed red on the sides of the bowl. Scabs where she had slid across the pavement this morning, from the blast, had broken open.

For some reason, it was this sight, the broken and bleeding scratches on her palms, that finally broke Ami, and she began to cry.

Ami hugged her legs to her chest, and let the tears silently fall down her face. She did not remember the last time she had cried, and as much as the feeling overwhelmed her, she let herself surrender. Her face flushed red hot as the salty tears dripped from her eyes into her mouth. This time, she would not stop them.

Tomorrow she would fight, scream and kick for herself, but tonight... Tonight she would sleep, curled up on the cold tile of the bathroom floor. And it was okay.

---

Ami woke up to the familiar chain of clicks coming from her front door. She stared at the bathroom ceiling for a moment, studying all of the tiny textures she hadn't noticed before. There was a crack from the light, down to where the mirror once had been before she ripped it out and threw it away. She felt her body ache, still not recovered from the day before. The pain was exaggerated from a night spent on the tile floor. She sat up, feeling her sore hip, and a wave of relief fell over her. At least this meant she stayed herself last night.

Ami stood with effort, using the wall as support for her stiff muscles. She made her way to the windows, and opened the heavy drapes, exposing the broken frame. The city hummed to life through the light haze of morning. The tiny drones, carrying deliveries, buzzed through the old brick and new metal buildings, weaving like flies as they went. She watched them, for a moment, mesmerized by their coordinated dance above the main street.

Flies on a carcass.

She couldn't help but smile. So morose.

Ami stretched out the last tightness in her back and arms from the night before and got dressed. Her thoughts were with Sabrina this morning. This strange girl was also stuck here, lost and afraid, and now hunted. She wanted to meet her, talk to her - tell her she wasn't alone.

She sent a message to Red on her lens. It was a long shot that he would respond. She was unsure how he felt about all of this, but she could tell that he seemed to care about this Sabrina girl, and that gave her some hope.

Ami: Find her?

Ami paced as she waited for his response, and it came quicker than she had anticipated.

R: No. Searched west and main.

Her stomach dropped. Maybe this rat group had already found her. Maybe she had just lost her only chance to find someone like her.

No.

She wouldn't let herself give up until she had at least searched for herself. So Ami threw on her jacket and made her way to the door. Her hands hesitated on the handle. If this girl was a target just because of her appearance, Ami would be too.

Ami went through the old man's clothes that were left in the apartment. She searched through the small closet, bringing up billows of heavy dust as she went. She coughed as she riffled through the cardboard boxes stacked on the bottom. She found a black, wide brimmed hat and some circular lensed, mirror-finish sunglasses. Pretty old fashioned, even during Ami's time, but it was better than nothing.

She stepped down the stairs, two at a time, making her way down to the main road. She decided that she would start her search on the north side and work her way down. Part of her was also curious what everything would look like after the chaos of yesterday morning.

It was worse than what she had imagined.

Ami walked through the still-smoking streets that she could on the north side of town. Many of the paths she took the other day had been blocked off by metal and concrete debris, twisted through the paths like vines. As she navigated through the mostly-empty streets, she came across the rubble where the ID Chip factory once stood.

There were makeshift white tents along the street with lines of disheveled people, waiting for water? Medicine? She wasn't sure. She walked up the front of the line, carefully weaving between the crowd so she didn't stand out.

She expected to find HoloGuards at the tents, but it was only a couple of kids, at the front, distributing small packages of rations. They looked like teenagers, and were just as disheveled as the people they were helping. The people in the line seemed just as confused as Ami as they approached the front.

"Are you from the City?" a short, older woman asked the two teenagers at the front table. She was holding her arm tenderly, probably an injury from yesterday's explosion.

"We're from Chellis," said the teen with short cropped hair as they handed over the brown bagged package. "We'll be back tomorrow if you need more."

The Chellis Coalition.

They were mentioned in the video at Red's place. Weren't they part of the reason there was an explosion in the first place?

She walked around the tent and found another group of people, sorting through the rubble. As she made her way forward, Ami felt a buzz in her pocket. She pulled out the vibrating lens in her pocket. She pulled it closer to her sunglasses and was able to make out the name on the small glass screen.

It was Charlie.

Ami hesitated before declining the call and putting the device back in her coat pocket. She wasn't ready to face Charlie. The last they talked, he said the explosion was an accident - but Ami knew what she saw yesterday. She saw the carefully coordinated masks weaving through the crowds before the explosion started. He was already a HoloGuard, it wasn't a stretch that he was working for Optica too. She wasn't ready to face that possibility just yet.

She walked up to the debris clearing group, still looking for any signs of Sabrina. It was there, hauling away a heavy chunk of concrete, that Ami saw a familiar face. Standing a head above the rest was the green-eyed man who had pushed Charlie to the ground when he was chasing her down Main Street.

The man suddenly turned to Ami, and her breath caught in her throat. She looked away and moved on the other side of some broken scaffolding, hoping that her makeshift disguise had worked. She waited there for a moment in the shadow of the twisted metal, but when she finally stepped back to the road, he was there, leaning against the rubble around the corner.

The tall, green-eyed man had dark, wavy hair parted down the middle, framing the severe features of his face. Ami found him to be more intimidating than handsome though, especially now that her heart was still beating hard in her chest from surprise. He was re-tying a cloth covering over his already dirty hand.

"Helps with the blisters," the man spoke as he fastened the last loose ribbon of cloth behind his wrist. His eyes flashed up at Ami. "Nice hat."

Ami touched the wide brim absently, "It's... vintage."

He smirked as he started wrapping up his other hand. "It sure is..." He paused for a moment, biting his lip in thought. "Have any more HoloGuard problems? I haven't seen you on Main for a while."

So he did recognize her.

"Uh - No," she hesitated. She considered thanking him, but the words felt awkward in her mouth.

"You don't see any of them out here, helping us," he scoffed.

"Huh?"

"The HoloGuards," he answered, fastening the other wrist. He then leaned back against the folded steel post, crossing his arms. "Without people like them, none of this would have happened."

She wasn't expecting that. Did he think the HoloGuards set off the explosion? She was under the impression that these were all members of rebel groups that the video talked about, especially after seeing that the "Chellis" were here. She thought that they were picking up after the mess they made. She tested the waters.

"I thought it was a machine malfunctioning that caused this," Ami said. She looked to the tall man, reading his face for any sign of deceit. To her surprise, he smiled.

He then turned to Ami, smile fading. His bright green eyes were staring into her with a strange intensity, and Ami started to feel uneasy. He was too close to her, and the distance felt dangerous, but she fought the urge to take a step back. The man then took another step forward, his mouth now close to her ear. Her breath caught in her throat again but she stood her ground.

"We both know that's not what happened, Ami," he whispered.

Before Ami could react, her pocket buzzed. Another call.

She turned away from the strange tall man, only for a moment, as she padded through her pockets. She looked up as the lens continued to buzz in her hand, but the man was already gone, lost in the crowd.

Ami cursed as she placed the lens to her eye. It wasn't Charlie this time, but Red.

Red: Found her. My place. Come now.

Sabrina.

She pulled her hat tighter over her head as she turned to the Roe, shaking off the bizarre interaction with the tall man as she went. Then something hit her, causing her to stop in her tracks.

We both know that's not what happened, Ami.

Ami.

He knew her name.