Note: The first part of this chapter is written by my best friend MagicalLandofFoo and takes place before the first chapter of this book

Tidbit: This chapter is about 7,000 words all together and is the longest chapter I've written in fanfic ever.

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The day had a been a blur of sadness, anger, and desperation.

She was divorced.

She still loved Darryl. But he didn’t love her. Clearly. She had let him down. Typical. She couldn’t do a single fucking thing right. She found the perfect man and managed to ruin that. Of course she did. Why had she even tried? She should’ve ended it on their first date. He was too good for her. He deserved someone better. Someone who would actually make him happy. Someone who would be a competent wife. A competent mother.

Another nauseating pang of guilt. Her children. Grief hit her so hard she stopped walking. She leaned onto the wall and heavily panted. She couldn’t think about them right now. She knew what she had done. She’d screwed them over. Her children. Her innocent pure children. The lights of her life. Now they were gone.

She had to leave.

The urge to kill herself was stronger than it had ever been before. It was like a hunger, and the desperation to escape the hell she had caused clawed from deep within her chest and up her throat. She raced towards the nearest subway. She had to get home. She had to end this.

Dez made her way down the steps and into the musty air of the subway. Her body led her to the correct stop, she was completely on autopilot. Emotions swirled within her like a sandstorm. The subway arrived, and Dez stepped inside and quickly found a seat.

It was a little crowded, so Dez took no notice when she felt someone sit next to her. She heard a noise beside her and turned to see a man sitting next to her, uncapping a flask. He looked nearly as worn as she was.

His blond hair jutted out in every direction, his red tie was loosely hanging around his neck, and his trench coat was torn on one of the sleeves. He must’ve felt her eyes on him because he looked to her. Staring into his eyes was like looking into a mirror. The same pain and desperation she was feeling was reflected in this man’s eyes. The instant connection they made was indescribable.

“You look like you need a drink,” he commented. He had a rough, British accent that threw Dez off for a moment before she realized he was holding out his flask for her to take. She took it from him and drank.

It was a strong whiskey, and the burning she felt draining down her throat was a good relief to the confusion of her emotions. She handed it back to him.

“I’m John,” he stated.

“Deserey,” she replied. Neither of them said anything else, but it was a comfortable silence. Dez had only felt it a few times with Darryl. Most of the time silence annoyed her. It screamed at her, telling she had to fill the awkward silence she had created. But not this time.

Eventually, more and more people began to leave, and Dez and John were the only two left.

“You’re getting off at Meadow Lakes?” Dez asked. It was the last stop. It was where she lived.

John blinked as if he had been lost in deep thought. Dez knew the feeling all too well.

“I don’t really know where I’m going,” he admitted. “I was…” His voice trailed off, and Dez noticed he was angrily fighting back tears. He uncapped the flask and downed the rest of it.

“You can stay with me.”

What the hell?

Dez had no idea where that came from. She hated having people over. It was always messy because she was always too tired to clean. Her house was a mess, and she wasn’t even sure if she had food.

John looked at her with the same surprise she felt. “Are you sure?”

The subway stopped and Dez stood. John stood next to her. “I’m sure,” Dez finally answered. The doors slid opened, and they walked out.

“So, what’s got you down?” John asked.

Dez involuntarily tensed. She had just begun to forget about it.

John noticed. “I don’t mean to pry. I just…sometimes it’s easier to spill your problems with a stranger.”

“Then why don’t you go first?” Dez asked with more harshness than she intended. Why was she like this? Why was she so mean? This man had been nothing but kind to her.

John shrugged. “I just caused my best friend to lose everything. His wife divorced him, and now he can’t even see his daughter. He had a good life. He was the best friend I ever had, and I had to fuck it up just like I do with everyone I meet.” He was emotional now. Tears glittered in his eyes and he wouldn’t look at Dez.

He was ashamed.

“My husband just divorced me,” Dez blurted. “I managed to fuck that up, too. He was perfect. He was literally everything I could’ve asked for in a person, and I had to ruin it with my goddamn depression because I’m a selfish bitch.” She hadn’t meant to say all that. She hadn’t mean to get that emotional. All she knew was that a tightness in her chest had left her, and tears were streaming down her face. John was right. That had helped, even if it was just a little relief.

“Well, Dezzy,” he said. “Looks like we’re both royal fuck-ups with no hope of a better future.”

“Wow, that really helped.”

He chuckled, and that made Dez smile. She hadn’t smiled in weeks. She shouldn’t be smiling now. Guilt began to creep in, and she looked away.

“We’re almost there,” she said, changing the topic. She led them up a driveway, pulled out her keys, and unlocked the door. She stepped inside but was too afraid to turn on the light. She was ashamed of the mess she called a home.

John walked in right after her and immediately felt for a light switch. He searched for it with almost a desperate edge. Was he afraid of the dark?

The lights came on. Dez brushed past the messiness of the entranceway and heard John following her. She led him to the kitchen and turned on the lights. She stopped so suddenly that John ran into her. He mumbled an apology while looking around. Dez winced. Pots, pans, half-opened Ramen packets, utensils, and empty cereal bowls lay atop every clean surface of her kitchen.

“You’re almost as messy as me,” John said. Dez nearly jumped. He was closer than she realized.

She blushed at how close they were and the mess that was her kitchen. “I can’t imagine anything worse than this, so I find that hard to believe.”

He looked down at her. “Don’t even try to outdo me on self-pity, I’d win,” he said with a slight competitive edge.

“Oh, yeah?” Dez countered, not really sure where this courage was coming from. Maybe it was a result of the day she had or the fact that she hadn’t been this close to another man since Darryl. “Because my life is pretty fucked up.”

John raised an eyebrow and took a step even closer. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

“Neither do you.”

And suddenly they were kissing. It was wild and full of lust and need. It didn’t take them long to get to the bedroom. Dez’s thoughts were a whirl of emotion and she wasn’t exactly sure how she had gotten to this point, but doing this with John – with someone who knew true sorrow – was something she’d never experienced. It was harsh but passionate. There was desperation like she’d never known, but she found comfort in someone seeking the same answers, someone feeling the same pain. She’d never fucked someone like that, and she knew it would probably never happen again.

He was gone when she woke up the next day, but she didn’t care. She was torn between extreme guilt and satisfaction. Being with John had saved her life and had given her some sort of solace that there was at least one other person out there who knew what utter despair and helplessness felt like.

But the guilt…

She had sex with someone the same day she divorced her husband. How weak was she? She couldn’t even wait one fucking day? She really was the worst.

Dez pushed that memory out of her mind, but it came back to her in her low moments. Those deep moments of sorrow. She’d wonder if John was still alive, or if he’d escaped this wretched world. But something in his eyes had told her he had seen worse. The way he had basically clawed for the light-switch when he first got inside. The haunted look in his eyes as if he was seeing something else.

She’d never thought she’d see the day, years after their one night stand, when John walked into the Waverider.

{~}

The museum was a lot larger than Anita had been expecting. It was crowded wall to wall, people rushing around to get to the exhibits with ecstatic grins on their faces. Children screeched loudly, carrying balloons and Flash dolls around with them, as their parents attempted to keep up with them. (According to the sign on the front of the building it was family night, so unfortunately there was most likely going to be an overwhelming amount of children. Ugh.)

On the floor, round platforms sat, a holographic image appearing whenever people pressed the button on the wall behind the platforms. Presently, two families of four were watching the hologram intently.

It was a man, no older than thirty, with long dark hair and a goofy grin. In fact his whole persona (a Star Wars shirt, [Anita was pretty sure her brother had the same one back in 2016] a pair of jeans, and sneakers. The guy’s hair was barely combed either) gave him the appearance of a large man child, not a professional scientist. But according the thing’s ramblings that’s exactly what he was. A scientist. Not just any scientist, though. According to the hologram he was non other than Cisco Ramon.

As they maneuvered through the swamp of humans, making their way into a large room displaying replicas of varies weapons, Anita turned to Oculus. “Mr. Ramon is a hologram?” she asked, raising her voice a little to be heard over the crowd around them.

Oculus shrugged, adjusting his glasses on his nose, even though they’d been perfectly fine before. Absently, he scanned over a few pictures that hung on the wall, as a mother and her daughter squeezed passed them to get to the display box presenting Weather Wizard's wand. “He's a human, I think. I’m not sure what the hologram's for. Just to look cool, I think. He’d be older now, though.”

Anita nodded slowly, her eyes lingering on the mother and daughter. The girl was a little over three years older than Anita, her hair pinned back in pretty braids. She was smiling at the Weather Wizard's wand with amusement in her eyes, ecstatic, no doubt, to learn about the foes of everyone’s favorite scarlet speedster. (Vaguely, Anita remembered that Oculus had said he’d been here before. So, she wondered how he didn’t know who the Flash was when he’d come to 2016. This museum was dedicated to him by the looks of it.) The girl’s mom stood near by, grinning at her daughter’s happiness, as she wrapped her arm around her lovingly.

The scene sparked something inside Anita that she wasn’t quite ready to feel. She couldn’t really identify what it was. The closest she could get was the same sensation one got when they’d been smacked with a million baseballs. Everything stung. Her chest, her stomach, her eyes…Something about seeing that mother with her daughter, laughing and smiling as if all was right with the world... It just reminded her that her own mother wasn’t around anymore. (Sure, she visited her sometimes, but it wasn’t really the same. And with her mother running off on that escapade of hers she might as well have been lost forever.)

For a moment all Anita could feel was that stinging sensation. How could that mother and daughter be so close? How could they just be laughing and joking around, like nothing bothered them? It wasn’t right. It wasn’t…fair. Anita couldn’t say she had never been close to her mom before, because she had. A long time ago. They use to do everything together. Movies, books, board games even. But then everything changed. She changed. They didn’t talk like they use to. They didn’t laugh or hang out. They just sat in an uncomfortable silence until Anita went home to her father. And it was like Anita wasn’t good enough for her anymore, like she was upset with her for growing up…

She shook her head, forcing the thoughts out of her head, as she turned to see Oculus staring at one of the pictures on the wall like he was lost in his thoughts too. Anita glanced at the picture, vaguely taking note that it was a portrait of a team of crooks known in her time as the Rogues. Oculus seemed particularly interested in the man they called Heat Wave and the woman called Golden Glider, as his eyes kept flickering over their painted forms.

“Did you know them, you think?” Anita asked. She knew it was a bit of a stretch, ( a guy like Oculus would surely be eaten alive in a group like that) but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask anyway. What was the harm in ruling things out?

Oculus shook his head, as he turned to face Anita, that big grin of his returning once again. “Nah, I thought something might have been there…But it’s gone now,” he said. He scrunched his face up complexly, and at first Anita worried he was in pain. “I think it’s just…” Oculus hesitated, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “I wonder what exactly they were all going rogue from.”

Anita shrugged. She didn’t really understand why it mattered. They were here for Mr. Ramon not to see the Flash Museum. (Though she had to admit the museum was kind of cool.) “I don’t know. Society I guess? Why do you care?”

Oculus ignored her question. Instead, he went back to staring at the Rogue painting intently. Anita tried not too be too annoyed at him for it, since he was trying to figure himself out, but it was extremely hard considering she had gotten bumped into several times by a kid with a giant stuffed Flash doll and a man with several figurines. (Somehow, though, Oculus managed to avoid getting rammed into by any of the other museum goers, and that kind of annoyed Anita even more.)

“Why would they want to rebel against society?” Oculus wondered. “Was it hard?”

Anita stared at him, narrowly avoiding another collision with a frantic father chasing his toddler son across the room. She scowled, as the child let out a horrendous screech. “Was what hard?” she asked, growing more and more irritated the longer they stayed in this stupid crowd.

“Their lives,” Oculus said. He lent closer to the picture, just in time to avoid getting whacked in the face with a child's stuffed animal, as they tossed it across the room.

Anita rolled her eyes. “Everyone's life is hard. Who cares. Can we get out of here? I’m getting a headache.”

Oculus flashed her an amused smile. “What, you don’t like children?” Anita could tell he was just teasing, but she was in no mood.

“No, I don’t,” she said. “For the same reason I don’t like old people. They’re loud, they stink, they’re gross, and they’re whiny.” She folded her arms over her chest. “So can we please just look for this Ramon guy already?”

“Yeah, come on,” Oculus said. He turned to move into the next hall, but he stopped much to Anita's dismay. “Wait. You don’t like old people?”

“Let’s go!” Anita grabbed his arm, tugging him into the next hall, as he muttered, “Who doesn’t like old people?” to himself. She let out a sigh of relief as they walked through the next door way. This hall was blissfully quiet compared to the one they had just left, and it was significantly less crowded, too. It mostly consisted of bored teenagers, texting on their phones. At least Anita thought they were phones. (They looked more like watches than anything, but their fingers were tapping away at the screen, like teens' fingers would be on their cell phones back in 2016. So, she figured phones were a pretty good guess.)

Anita was almost willing to bet the teenagers wanted to be anywhere else, but they were dragged her by their parents, because their siblings wanted to come. (Annoying younger siblings? Anita could relate.)

Oculus moved through the room quietly, as though the teenagers put him off somehow. Anita snorted, wondering how small children screaming at the top of their lungs could possibly be more tolerable than apathetic adolescents. That, she supposed, was just one more strange thing about this man…

“May I ask you something?” Oculus said, as they reached the next hall of the museum. Anita shrugged, maneuvering around the glass cases holding the Flash's suits throughout the years.

“Just did,” she said, looking around. They were the only people in this section of the museum, she noticed. There was an elevator at the end of the room, ending the exhibits. Not even the guards were in this section, like they were just inviting thieves to steal something from them. “But what?”

“Two halls back you said that everyone’s life was hard,” he said, suddenly sounding very dead pan. His words took on a long, dramatic drawl, like he was thinking hard about every syllable before he spoke them. Anita frowned, quickly deciding that she preferred his up beat attitude and slightly flighty and unfocused tone to this one. This one was just…rough. Like the edges of a blade. It was rather frightening. “Is yours?”

Anita blinked, spluttering awkwardly, as she struggled to grasp the concept of his question. Her back stung, the sensation of an ice cube running down her spine startling her into attention. She shuddered, shaking her head. “I, uh, what do you mean? Why would you ask me that?” She leaned on the wall, trying her best to relax and act cool, but her palms were growing sweaty. And she worried that her discomfort was too visible, because Oculus actually took several steps away from her in, what she guessed was, an attempt to make her feel at ease.

Oculus shrugged, and she cringed when he spoke. “Everyone is someone.” His voice still held that bladed tone, words cutting deep in a way Anita didn’t think was possible. Oculus's eyes were off too. They weren’t gleaming the way they’d been since they met; his eyes were like walls, put up to hide something, to keep someone out. Belatedly, she wondered, as her knees buckled under her, what could have caused him to build those walls and who he’d been trying to keep out with them. “And you’re someone. So, if you’re someone, and everyone is someone, then you must be like everyone. And if everyone’s life is hard…”

“I –” Anita started, but she felt that invisible baseball from earlier slam right into her gut. “I don’t…”

Oculus frowned, suddenly looking normal again. The walls in front of his eyes crumbled to pieces; the edges in his voice slowly dulled until they were no more. He was once again that confusing dork Anita had met at her school a few hours ago, albeit with a concerned frown on his face. “Look, you don’t have to answer. I was just wondering…”

Anita nodded slowly, still trying to catch her breath. She was having trouble wrapping her mind around these abrupt changes in attitude. So fast, so sudden. No warning. Perhaps, he was a bit bipolar? But somehow she didn’t think that was quite right. There was something else. She just wasn’t sure what it was…But what had prompted the changes in the first place?

Anita took a shaky breath, as she stood up right again. “I-it's fine,” she said quietly. “It's…not really that hard, actually. There’s just…a lot going on…with my mom. So, that kind of sucks.”

“Ah,” Oculus said. “Sorry.”

She nodded, looking at her feet. “Yeah, me too…”

“…Let's see where this elevator goes, shall we?”

Anita thought he was just trying to change the subject to get her mind off her mom, but she decided not to call him out on it, especially since she wasn’t really thinking about her mom. Not right then anyway.

Oculus glanced at the panel on the side of the wall, frowning curiously. “This thing only goes down.” Anita glanced over his shoulder, and she realized he was right. The thing only had one button: an arrow pointing towards the floor. There was also a keypad next to it.

“Looks, like you need an access code to use it,” Anita pointed out.

“Ah, yes,” Oculus said. “The lock to keep the average museum goer out.” He turned to her, grinning broadly, as he fiddled with his glasses and held up his watch. “Good thing we aren’t average.” Anita couldn’t help grinning back.

{~}

The elevator ride was surprisingly short, Anita thought. They didn’t talk much during the ride, and Oculus kept fidgeting like a child with ADHD. But Anita didn’t mind much. Her thoughts were plenty loud enough to fill the silence anyway.

The elevator opened up to a long, narrow hall, curving around, reminding Anita a bit of a race track. The walls were bare, painted white, and the lights were rather dim. “Hm…Ominous,” Oculus said.

Anita nodded in agreement, feeling a bit uneasy. But still there was a tingle of excitement in her gut that tugged her forward, forcing her to move down the hall alongside Oculus.

They had only walked a few feet before they passed by a wide room with white walls and dirty tile floors. On the far wall computer monitors hung from the ceiling, surrounding a large opening. Inside the nook was a an empty mannequin; in front of the door was a wide desk, taking up most of the floor space. Anita would have thought that no one had entered the room in years, judging from the state it was in… Except that she could see two men standing behind the desk with their backs turned to them. They seemed to be working on something intently, their bodies stiff, as the scrunched together.

The man on the left was built like a tooth pick, thinning blonde hair on top his head. He was wearing a white polo shirt and loose pants to match. Anita could tell he was professional by nature, probably one of those scholarly types. She was almost willing to bet he’d gone to Harvard or Yale.

The man on the right was a polar opposite. His greying hair was clearly falling out, as was made evident by the bald spots on the back of his head. He was skinny as well, though he had far more muscle on his body. The man was dressed in a purple t-shirt and shorts. (Which was rather disturbing to Anita, considering how weathered the man's skin was.) She could tell just from the way he held himself he probably wasn’t one to take much of anything seriously.

Anita guessed they must have been in their early to mid seventies at the earliest. (Children and old people? This day just got better and better…) Oculus gestured for her to keep quiet, as the duo ducked behind the wall, watching the two men.

“I don’t understand,” the man on the left said, sounding quite flustered. Anita detected a thick British accent, as he spoke. “How could they not want to come back? What about the city? What about the Flash?”

The other man shrugged. When he spoke, it quickly became clear that he was, very obviously, American. “To be fair, Julian, this place isn’t exactly discrete anymore,” he said. “Besides, we’re all old. And after what happened with…” He trailed off, his shoulders slumping slightly. “Well, you know…”

Anita frowned, glancing at Oculus. But he seemed just as confused as she was. Did these two know the Flash? It sounded as though they had a falling out though…

The other man, Julian evidently, nodded, sighing heavily as he ran his hand over his face tiredly. “Yes, Dibney. I remember. But now is not the time to wallow in self pity about the past! We have to figure out where he sent himself. Which earth?”

Anita's frown deepened the more the men talked. She only grew more and more confused as the conversation between the two men went on. What did he mean which earth? There was only one of those…wasn’t there?

“Yeah,” the man on the right, Dibney, said. “I know. But moving on isn’t exactly easy! You’ve been away for a long time, so it’s probably easier for you. But for the rest of us? Not so much. We have been a team for years, now. A loss like this really takes a toll.”

“Teams show up for each other, Dibney,”Julian snapped. “You said it yourself. You all have been a team for years. And throughout those years, not once have any of you wavered. Not like this. You have rescued each other time and time again. Even when Savitar tried to kill Iris! Why is now any different?” 

Anita was having trouble making sense of what they were saying, and she had no idea who Savitar and Iris were. What did they have to do with the Flash or Central City?

“Well, I also said we’re old,” Dibney told Julian, shifting so that he was standing sideways, showing off the side of his face. It was rather chubby compared to the rest of his body, and his skin was littered in wrinkles.
Oculus pushed Anita back so that they were further behind the wall and a bit more hidden; from the new angle Anita could see the side of Julian's face as well. He had thin scruff and reading glasses perched on his nose. She also spotted the thing they’d been working on: a small, circular machine with buttons covering just about every inch of it.

“And we’re tired,” Dibney continued. “We can’t keep doing this forever you know.”

“Of course not, but –” Julian cut himself off with a shake of the head. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter. Let’s just get this over with, shall we?” He went back to fiddling with the machine. Dibney followed his lead, turning to see whatever Julian was doing.

Julian pressed a few buttons, and Dibney reached behind the machine, fixing a pair of antennas so that they stood upright, pointing at the ceiling. Anita wasn’t sure what they were waiting for, but after a moment, Julian spoke, sounding a bit excited. “We’ve got something!”

Nearly a second after he spoke, the machine sparked, and the two men jumped back.

“Bullocks,” Julian cursed.

Dibney chuckled light heartedly. “Welp, spoke too soon…”

Julian sighed. “I suppose this is why Cisco was always the engineer,” he said dejectedly, as he folded up the machine.

Anita glanced at Oculus, her eyes going wide with surprise. Cisco? As in Ramon? If she was right, these men were looking for him too. They had said they were a team. Did that mean they could help? Then again, a lot of things didn’t add up. What had happened to make their team split? And what exactly had happened to Cisco Ramon? Could these men really be trusted?

Dibney nodded sadly. “Back to the drawing board, I guess,” he said.

Julian let out another exasperated sigh, as he began gathering the machine up in his arms. He turned around, stepping into the hallway, Dibney right behind him. Oculus grabbed Anita's arm, as he made to move… But it was too late. Dibney and Julian spotted them immediately upon exciting the room with the computers.

For a moment, there was only a stunned silence, as the four people stared at one another. Anita counted two beats, before Julian spoke with alarm, “Oi, you’re not suppose to be down here!”

Dibney placed a hand on the other man’s shoulder, squinting at Oculus and Anita. “Wait, is that…”

Anita didn’t hear whatever he’d been about to say, because Oculus had started dragging her down the hall at a sprint. She heard the men calling after them, but she didn’t stop to see what they wanted. Anita wasn’t sure if they could trust them; she wasn’t sure what would happen if she turned around to let them talk. They could help them find Cisco or they could be completely insane and kill them. The possibility of the latter was enough to keep her legs moving….That is until she toppled to the floor.

Her knees hit the floor hard, the smacking sound echoing throughout the halls. Oculus skidded to a halt, as Anita's hand slipped away from his; he turned around to see what had happened, letting out a startled yelp. Anita frowned at his reaction, looking down in search of whatever she’d tripped over; and when she spotted it she felt her stomach churn, as she realized why Oculus had the reaction he did.

On the floor was a limp looking arm, stretched out like silly putty across the ground. Anita screamed, jumping up to her feet again, as the arm began retracting down the hallway. She pressed her back against the wall, only to fall over a second later. Anita grunted, sitting up and looking at Oculus, who stared back at her with wide eyes.

The older man held a hand out to her, pulling her to her feet. Anita stood, her legs trembling under her. “T-that…arm…” She pointed down the hall where the arm had gone.

“I know,” Oculus breathed out, his voice shaking as badly as her legs. “And this room…”

“Room..?” Anita turned around to see what he was talking about. There was a room that hadn’t been there before. It was wide and long, curving around with the wall in the halls; shelves were stacked against the ghost white walls, and round ball like objects were stuck to the ceiling and floor. On the other side of the room, a single, frail looking computer stand stood alone. Slumped against one wall was a small girl, her head tilted at an awkward angle.

“Whoa…” Anita muttered. Momentarily, she had forgotten all about the freaky arm she had tripped over or the men they were running from. She stepped into the room, turning in a circle to take in all the details. “What is this?” she wondered.

“I’m not sure,” Oculus said, stepping forward. “I –” He was cut off, when the wall slid closed behind him. It blended together, becoming completely camouflaged. “Think it’s a secret room,” Oculus muttered, finishing his thought.

Anita and Oculus paused for a moment, waiting until they heard Julian and Dibney's footsteps rush by, before turning to the girl. She was no older than eight years of age, long, bright red hair trailing down her shoulders. (The color sort of reminded Anita of Elmo from Sesame Street.) Her skin was pale, the same shade as a piece of paper.

Anita's stomach began doing flips, and she felt like she was going to be sick. Were those men keeping this child locked in here? Her hands shook, and she lowered herself to the floor, as Oculus slowly approached the girl.

“Who are you?” he wondered out loud. Oculus bent down to his knees, looking the girl over for any signs of life. He reached his hand out to touch her, lifting her head up gently, only to jerk it away and let her head fall back down again.

“What?” Anita asked, her voice smaller than she would have liked. She was starting to fear the worst… “I-is she..?”

“She's cold,” Oculus said distastefully, and Anita rolled her eyes as she recalled him saying he hated the cold. She walked over, getting down on her knees as well, examining the girl in front of them. The poor thing… so small … so fragil…

Anita frowned, as she spotted a tag on the girl’s maroon shirt. She lifted it up to read, but instead of the shirt size, the tag read: Digital Overclocking Codec – “Doc”

“She’s a computer?” Oculus guessed, reading over Anita’s shoulder. He made a face. “It says Doc. I wonder if that means she’s a doctor.”

“Nah,” Anita said. “I think someone just really wanted to make a Z Nation reference.”

Oculus shrugged. “Fair enough.” He glanced over the girl again. “There’s a button on the side of her neck.” He reached out, pressing his fingers to the side of the girl’s neck.

Instantly, the girl snapped to attention, making Anita and Oculus jump back. Slowly, the girl, Doc, opened her eyes, blinking as she took in her surroundings. Anita startled as the girl's eyes landed on her. They were intense, packed with wisdom and experiences beyond her years, the color the most unusual Anita had ever seen: a deep, vibrant purple.

For a moment, the girl just stared at the duo in front of her, taking in their faces, like a computer processing input. When she finally spoke, her voice was a bit rattily, the way people's voices tended to get when they had a sore throat, but other than that it was perfectly smooth. No traces of robotism at all. In fact, if Oculus hadn’t just turned her on like a machine, Anita would have mistaken her for a normal girl with an abnormal appearance. Her accent was vaguely British, Anita noted, as Doc abruptly rose to her feet. “Mum!”

She wobbled slightly, as she attempted to move, making Anita wonder just how long she’d been locked away in here. Doc stumbled to the computer stand, banging her fists against it. “Mum!” Anita cringed, as her tiny hands smacked against the stand, her shouts getting louder. “MUM!”

“Hey, hey!” Oculus said, hurrying to his feet. “Take it easy. We’ll help you find your mother.” It was a bit alarming how calm and gentle he sounded just then, but in retro spec, Anita shouldn’t have been surprised. She had only been with him a few hours at best, and she could already tell he was one of the kindest souls on the planet. “Who is she?”

Doc glanced at Oculus, pausing for a moment. She pointed at the computer. “Mum,” she said. “Help. Mum.”

Anita frowned. “The…computer? That’s your mom?” She wasn’t sure she was understanding the robot girl correctly, but she nodded, repeating, “Mum.”

“Okay…?” Anita said slowly.

Oculus shrugged and started fiddling with the stand. After a second of him playing around with it, a blue holographic head materialized before them. The head was vaguely feminine, but it kept flickering, glitching. “Greetings,” the head said, its voice so staticy that Anita almost couldn’t make it out. “I am Gideon. How may I be of service?”

“Mum!” Doc yelled.

“Greetings I am Gideon. How may I be of service?” Gideon repeated. She was much more robotic and computer like than Doc seemed, and Anita felt her heart break as she watched the little girl beg for the other computer's attention. But Gideon only seemed capable of introducing herself and asking for instructions. She didn’t even seem to register her apparent daughter in front of her.

Meanwhile, Oculus stood off to the side, shaking his head, as though his mind had suddenly gone fuzzy. “Gideon,” he repeated slowly. “That sounds…familiar…”

Anita hissed in annoyance at all the sudden noise. “Maybe you knew someone with that name,” she told him. “It’s pretty common.”

Before Oculus could say anything, Gideon turned her head to him. “That would be me,” she said. “We once knew each other.”

Oculus visibly tensed, and Anita could tell he was getting a bit excited. “We did?” he said, as Doc looked at him, silent now. “I don’t…remember. Who…” He trailed off, glancing at Anita before returning his gaze to Gideon. “Who am I?”

Gideon's form flickered. “You are –” That was all she got out before the stand began sparking, and her head disappeared with a wild flash of light. Anita jumped back, yelping. Oculus and Doc screamed simultaneously.

“No!” Oculus groaned.

“MUM!!” Doc screeched. She tried to run forward, but Anita grabbed her before she could. The computer stand was sparking dangerously. Robot or not, Anita was pretty sure the kid would be badly hurt if she went anywhere near it.

Anita felt Doc shaking in her arms, the girl’s body heating up significantly, so much so that she had to let go. The wall Oculus and Anita had came in through opened up once again, and the lights started flickering the more distressed the girl became.  Then, all at once the lights went out all together, leaving the trio in pitch black darkness.

Anita could feel Doc shaking next to her. Though from fear or anger she couldn’t say. She couldn’t see through the dark, but she aimed the comment in the direction she remembered Oculus standing last. “We have to shut her up,” she hissed. “She’s going to –”

Too late. As the red back up lights switched on, Anita spotted Dibney and Julian round the corner. The two groups stood, staring at each other, stunned. Abruptly, Doc went silent as soon as her eyes landed on the two older men. “She’s still in here?” Julian said quietly after a moment.

“Well…apparently,” Dibney muttered. Something about that look in his eyes bothered Anita. He looked almost guilty. “I didn’t even know this room still existed…Doc –” The man started forward, but the girl backed against the wall.

“Who are you?” Oculus asked, stepping in front of the robo girl protectively. (But it wasn’t really a fatherly manner. It was…something else. Something more personal to Anita, like the way and older sibling might stand up for their kid brother or sister.)

Dibney took a step back from the amnesiac, almost looking frightened. “Ralph Dibney,” he said, pointing to himself before gesturing to his buddy. “And Julian Alberts.”

“You work here?” Anita asked. Her insides felt like the wet clay her mother sometimes used to sculpt, but somehow her voice came out sturdy as a rock.

“In a sense,” Julian nodded.

“What do you mean?” Anita asked.
He looked back and forth between the trio in the hidden room, hesitating “It’s complicated. We’re…not with the museum.” Julian’s eyes fell wearily on Doc, hiding behind Oculus and Anita. “I’m not sure how much you remember…about Cisco…that night he put you in here…”

“Zero-Zero?” Doc said, stepping forward at the mention of Mr. Ramon.

“Zero-Zero?” Anita echoed.

“Like on a graph,” Julian explained. “The two points zero-zero are the starting point. Or the –”

“Origin,” Anita interrupted. “So, this Cisco guy is Doc's origin, meaning he built her?”

“Indeed,” Julian nodded.

“Just like he built Patch and the time travel books,” Oculus muttered to himself.

Anita stared at him. “Wait. Ramon built Patch too?” Though, in Heinz sight she shouldn’t have been surprised. Of course someone who built two versions of time machines and a robotic child could also build a holographic cat too. Oculus ignored her though, turning to Julian and Ralph. “What is this room, and what do you do down here?” he asked. “Why is this little girl locked away in here?” His voice had taken on that troubling edge again, and Anita involuntarily took a step back.

Ralph and Julian exchanged looks, frowning as if they had just had the same exact thought process. Their bodies simultaneously squared up, like they were trying to assert dominance between the two groups. “We don’t have to tell you anything,” Ralph said. “You’re not even supposed to be down here!”

“Neither are you,” Anita shot back, her voice somehow still much stronger than she felt. She watched as the men's shoulders slumped, sorry filling their eyes instantly, and she smirked with satisfaction. “So, if you take us down, we’ll take you down with us.”

“Listen, Anita –” Ralph started, but she cut him off.

“I never told you my name,” she said. Ralph paused for a moment, as if he were processing her words, trying to remember if she had actually told him her name or not. When he found that she had, indeed, not the frown on his face deepened.

“Oh, right…” he said slowly. Oculus moved Anita behind him, staring at the older men skeptically.

“We knew your mother,” Julian said quickly. “Well, sort of. We met briefly.”

“I don’t understand,” she said. Next to her Doc was looking at her, unblinking, as if she were processing something about Anita. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Oculus was standing in front of the two girls, as if he were afraid the older men might try to harm them. Anita was too distracted to get annoyed at his protective attitude though. The two older men had said they’d known her mother. But if that were true why had her mother never mentioned them before?

Julian sighed. “Look, we’ll explain…what we can. It’s dangerous for you to know too much.”

“Dangerous?” Oculus asked. “How?”

I’m not sure if I like the way this ended up or not. I had planned for it to go completely different, but you know how writing is. You want the story to go one way, but it decides to ignore you and go off on a completely different route. I guess it’s alright though. Hopefully y’all liked it anyway.

I do hope I’m not being too obvious about Oculus's identity before he lost his memory in this chapter. But I suppose we’ll see when it is finally revealed. Do you have any guesses as to who it is yet? 

I have also started a watching fic for Sandstorm, for those of you who have expressed interest for that. There is only one chapter up so far, but I will have more up soon. Promise. Here’s the cover so you can find it easily.