18th place wasn't so bad. And it wasn't like they were dead 50th. If they could do better with the side challenges, they could move up.

At least that's the same mantra everyone had tried to comfort themselves with, as they were all cooped up in the living room to discuss game strategy. Eniola wasn't disappointed, but she wasn't too thrilled, either. They couldn't just afford to coast in the middle. These weren't just teams, they were the best of the best. That's why they won in their country.

"I wonder what people are saying about us," Iris wondered. "We should check the internet."

"It's not a good idea," Theo advised. "We need to be focused, and sometimes fan input can be distracting. Especially negative ones. We just need to focus on playing."

"And how will we do that?" Eniola asked.

"She's right," Lucia responded. "We've been playing, and training non-stop and researching on other teams. What else can we do?"

"Build alliances," Theo replied. "We're going to need to have certain players on our side for the next rounds. People who can help us in big rounds promise not to attack us. They do it all the time in internationals."

"I suggest Greece," Jay said. "They seem like ally material. Especially Artemis." He finished with a smile.

"Wow," Eniola mumbled under her breath. Jay was still Jay, attractive, with an inkling to attract other girls. She frowned.

"She's an excellent player," Jay defended. "Nothing more."

Iris suddenly choked out an immense cough and immediately mumbled the words "he's lying" afterwards. Eniola smiled.

"Anyway," Theo continued. "We could get Greece."

"But not the Swedish," Eniola said. "It's a shame. They're such a good team, but they take no allies. Sometimes they are ruthless."

"More like all the time," Lucia replied. "They don't shed mercy on anybody. I think Greece can help us against them."

"Then it's settled," Theo said. "We set out to ally with Greece."

"That leaves us one more thing," Iris then said. "We're in Seoul and so is Azira. We need to look for her."

Eniola sighed again as the room went loud with silence. It wasn't ideal to get roped up into Paradox again, but it was for the better. Better to get it one and done.

"I already started and did some deep searches," Iris said. "I couldn't find anyone named Azira Park living in Seoul or even in Korea. Both of them."

Theo slumped down onto a chair in his room and sighed. His eyes went to Iris. "Are you sure you checked everywhere?"

"I did," Iris sighed.

"To think of it, Azira isn't a Korean name," Jay pointed out. "It's possible she could be a foreigner, or even living in a different country."

Eniola already pulled out her phone and typed her name over a broad search of the internet, trying to cross-search to find Azira. The results weren't helpful. Eniola showed it to them.

"This was a bust," Jay sighed. "Maybe Zaira said it wrong. She was under a lot of stress and was about to get killed. A mispronunciation could've happened."

"We'll never know now," Theo said. "It played once."

A contagious sigh went around the room as Eniola slumped back. Of course, it would not be easy, but she expected they would at least get somewhere tonight. Azira or Zaira hadn't made it very easy.

Eniola kept thinking and kept wondering about Azira. Somehow, that name sounded very familiar. Eniola never knew someone named Azira, but she couldn't shake the feeling she had heard it before. Eniola searched the realms of her mind and came out. She had never met anyone named Azira, but as Eniola realized, Azira might not be someone new. Maybe Zaira knew something.

Azira. Azira. Azira. Azira. Azira. What was off?

How did Azira know Zaira? To think of it, the names sounded familiar to their letters. Letters. The reason Azira sounded so familiar is that it sounded like Zaira.

When you scramble Azira, it becomes another name.

Zaira.

"I've got it!" Eniola shouted, startling everyone.

"What?" Lucia said.

"Azira is an anagram of Zaira!" Eniola said quickly. "Azira. A-Z-I-R-A. Zaira. Z-A-I-R-A. Think of the letters. It's the same thing!"

"You might be onto something," Lucia shared. "But Zaira is dead."

"Is she?" Iris asked. "I think it's kind of suspicious she just died. I mean, I was in a deadly car accident and I survived. Zaira might've even survived. She might even be a fellow cyborg like me."

"It's unlikely Zaira is alive," Theo continued. "We saw her get taken by Paradox in the video."

"We didn't see all of it," Jay pointed out. "We only knew about her barely a year ago, and she died a year before that and we never saw her body."

Theo sighed before running his hands through his hair. "This is harder than I thought." Everyone hummed, defeated in agreement.

"You know what?" Theo vocalized. "Let's just sleep on it. I'm tired and I'm sure as hell you all are. We'll talk about this in the morning. We need all the rest we can get."

They disbanded in a chorus of goodnights before Eniola stepped into her room.

Eniola wouldn't let the thought of Zaira and Azira being similar leave her mind. Something about this was ominous like there was a presence watching over her. She leered around the room with her gaze, just to be sure.

Did Zaira die? Iris didn't think so. Iris had barely survived her car accident, and that was only thanks to her cyborg replacements. How would Zaira become a cyborg if no one found her?

Eniola soon undressed and stepped into the shower, which automatically turned on at her motion. She let the water soak her coiled curls before letting the rest of it run down her body in one fluid motion.

When she came out, she dried herself off before getting dressed. She immediately flopped down on her bed and into the covers. She had left all of her physical energy out in the SCOPE arena, and all of her mental energy had just been drained trying to figure out where the hell Azira Park was.

Her eyes drifted to a close relaxing sleep but suddenly snapped open again abruptly, like they were being forced. A moderate light hit her eyes as she felt a metallic gray floor underneath her.

"What...?" she began, hissing before getting up in the odd room. Where did she go? She was just in her bed minutes ago!

"Hello Eniola," a neutral voice boomed at her ominously from nowhere. Eniola jumped up as her heart began hammering in her chest. She pivoted around so fast her head spun to see no one around her.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" she yelled. "Where am I?"

"Don't be afraid," it orated.

"I actually think I will be afraid," she said defiantly. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"I cannot be shown," it continued. "But I will talk to you."

"About what?" Eniola asked, loosening herself. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I need to be destroyed," it continued. "When I am unleashed into the world, I will wreak havoc and possibly change things for the better or the worse, depending on who takes charge of me."

Eniola simply stood there; eyebrows raised. What was in the water she drank today?

"What are you talking about?" Eniola asked.

"You need to find Azira immediately," it continued. "Because Azira killed Zaira."

Eniola swallowed a gulp. Did this mean they were different people and Eniola was jumping to conclusions? Zaira and Azira were two different people?

"She killed her not in the way you think," the voice continued. "And now you must find Azira. She will destroy me."

"And where will I find her?" Eniola asked. It said nothing until a holo-screen suddenly popped up with an address pasted on it.

Eniola thought about the address. Did Azira truly live here? Was this some mess in her brain?

"Azira is there?" Eniola asked. Nothing was said, but the silence confirmed it.

"I have one last question," Eniola began. "Who are you?"

"I am Enigma."

◣

Enigma. Enigma.

That was the only thing Eniola could think of as she walked out of her room and into the communal eating area for all the players. Teams congregated within themselves at each table, and it didn't take long for Eniola to spot her own. For a dining hall, it was surprisingly nice, with smooth white walls shifting in holographic landscapes and arched ceilings high into the sky. The floors were lit up with shiny colourful tiles that were walked over by the servers. Eniola did a double-take at the human servers before realizing they all wore the same face. It was jarring at first until she recognized the face. It was the Jiwon assistant they had at the airport.

But the word was constantly in the forefront of her mind. Enigma. Enigma. Enigma.

She turned over the events of last night's dream. Pretty creepy, if you ask her. What seemed burned into her mind was an address it gave her that didn't float away from her memory in the morning. Azira lived there because Enigma told her.

Enigma. Enigma. Enigma.

"Eniola," someone called to her, snapping her out of her investigative thoughts. Jay called Eniola, where they were all sitting.

"Hey," Eniola yawned, as she came around the place and took her seat. A holo-menu popped up in front of her and displayed its never-ending options. "Good morning."

"Why were you late?" Lucia asked.

"I slept in," Eniola lied.

Correction. At least kind of. She slept in for part of the morning, but the rest was trying to find something ominous on the internet for Enigma.

"At least you're here now," Theo said. "We have a lot to do before we get to the arena."

"But first let's eat," Iris said. "I'm starving."

The freaky, hyper-realistic androids brought them enormous plates before they brought pots and plates full of Korean food for them to eat communally. It replenished Eniola's ever-dwindling energy. She looked at her friends. She wanted to tell them, but she didn't want to sound crazy.

"Get this," Eniola began, making eye contact with anything but them. "I had the weirdest dream last night."

"Was I in it?" a low whisper trailed into her ear. Jay smirked against her ear.

"You wish," Eniola joked, fighting the smile creeping onto her face before she nudged him in the arm.

"We're eating," Iris mentioned, while she averted all eye contact.

"Anyway," Eniola continued. "Something was talking to me about Azira Park. I dreamt of an address and his thing called Enigma. Or maybe it was Edward or the engine. It was probably stupid since we all have weird dreams. Like one time I dreamt, I was tied up and-

Eniola trailed off in her conversation as she observed the expressions of shock all her teammates wore. Iris stopped dead in her eating tracks, as Theo and Lucia exchanged wide eye contact with one another. Eniola could feel Jay freeze next to her.

"What?" Eniola asked, cutting through the weird silence. "You think I'm weird, don't you?"

"I had the same dream last night," Theo admitted. "Everything you just described, I dreamt of it, too."

Before Eniola could process it, Lucia spoke up. "I did too."

"So did I," Jay admitted.

"Me three," Iris then said.

"Hold up, this is freaky," Jay faltered. "How did we all dream about the same thing?"

"It's called shared dreaming," Iris explained, as she focused on invisible space. "It's when two or more close people have the same dream at night. No one knows what causes it."

"If this is some freaky shit, count me out," Lucia said and her eyes flitted close and then touched her, forward, then her shoulders and then her collarbone, while muttering in a whisper. "I knew we were close, but I didn't think we were that close."

"But we got an address," Theo said. "Do you think we can trust it?"

"Hell no," Lucia continued. "What if it's dangerous?"

"Everything about Paradox and Zaira and Azira has been dangerous," Jay said. "We almost got crushed to death on my girlfriend's birthday and survived. If something goes wrong, we'll get through it together."

"That sounded inspirational," Eniola complimented. "But I'm still a bit freaked."

"So am I," Iris agreed. "This is some next-level stuff. But possibly, it could lead us to Azira."

"Oh yeah, and did you hear she killed Zaira?" Jay wondered. "I thought Paradox did that."

"But not in the way you think," Eniola and Lucia both quoted.

That was freaky.

"Then it's settled," Theo agreed. "We are going to endanger ourselves on purpose for the umpteenth time."

◣

Someone was behind them, and Eniola was sure of it.

She didn't know you could feel eyes loom over you and burn through your innermost soul. But she was sure of it in such a place as this.

This address Enigma gave them was in some rundown, red-light district in Seoul called Tokjin. She nervously clutched onto Jay's hand so tightly that his tan skin went ghost white.

The streets didn't hold a building fully intact as most of them had been graffitied, shot through, or straight up desolated. It smelled like hot garbage, and looked like it, even with the sad gray filter Eniola saw the world through.

All of them stayed tightly packed in a group, and that only made them stand out more than newcomers and easy targets in a place as scary as this. Eniola knew they should've walked separately. They wore the same drab gray clothes that made them all look like some street hoodlums instead of tourists from the rich city.

It's to save the world. It's to save the world. Eniola thought it over her head repeatedly, ignoring the fast speeds her heart was pounding at. It wouldn't be a surprise if it came out of her chest. She thought the same phrase, as her body went rigid like a stick when they walked past a group of men and women that screamed "I'm in a dangerous gang, don't cross me".

No eye contact. Eniola diverted her eyes away from them. Maybe they also saw them as a gang.

Eniola looked back at Theo, who had subtly wedged a knife into his pocket. That, Iris's kind of developed illegal cyborg abilities, and their underdeveloped fighting skills from SCOPE, were all they were riding on. Hopefully, Azira would tell them how to travel back safely.

Suddenly, Theo stopped them and put his hand out to stop them. Their footsteps came to a halt as Theo slightly took out his phone from his pocket to see something. Eniola peered forward.

They had arrived.

Eniola expected nothing fancy, but this had gone below her already low expectations. The metal garage looked like the only thing holding it together was duct tape and constant prayers. Someone completely sketched it in graffiti as the metal walls and ceilings looked to be sliding off. Eniola guessed it was some variation of a garage, but something must've gone wrong in the thought process.

"It's do or die," Theo whispered. "If you guys want to go back, I won't blame you."

"We're staying, Theo," Lucia said while putting a hand on his shoulder. Theo stepped forward before knocking on the metal, which made an echoing sound back to them.

The door suddenly glitched into non-existence, and Eniola took a sudden step back.

Inside was easily the most tattered living place. A dirty mattress to its place in the corner on the dusty floor and crates filled with what looked like food and water were stacked together. However, the main attraction was the flurry of computer screens sitting against one table, and the figure hunched over it.

A thick pile of dreadlocks sat atop their head while some escaped down their back. The blue light reflected off parts of a silhouetted face Eniola could barely see. The person was rocking back and forth in the chair they were sitting on.

"Hello?" Theo asked with a waver in his voice. "Azira?"

The figure froze in their tracks before they turned around on the chair to face them.

Eniola gasped. She recognized that face anywhere.

It was Zaira.