10 Minutes Earlier

“Hey you! What are you doing out here! Come out you little bitch! I know you're in there, so get the fuck out!” The sound of my beating heart, and the taunts of a soldier are the only noises that fill my ears. I let out a horrible repressed whimper as my body locks up, my will to live diminished to nothing but a flickering flame. I whisper my last prayers as I imagine my family's faces, and my inevitable death at the hands of some unsatisfied noble who decided that I was not worth his time.

For a moment the only thing in my head is the swing of a sword at my neck, while the only thing left in sight is my headless body. This is it, I realise, this is where it ends. “There you are! YOU are in for a LOT of trouble, young lady. You’re coming with me, I think you’ll sell for a pretty price too, a nice face like yours.”

The guard holds me in a firm grip, and he’s about to say more when there’s the crackle of what I can only assume is a branch burning behind us. The guard however isn’t taking any chances, and he quickly whips his head around to look at what made the noise before freezing in shock. In that moment I try to follow his line of sight, and then I too freeze in terror.

Many ways I imagined dying, but never to the Machina, never to our ancient enemies who wrought havoc upon every continent to ever exist. In an instant, too fast for me to see, the guard is on the floor, the only thing left of his face a bloody fractured pulp.

A piercing grating plea sounds from the cold lifeless face in front of me, “RUN!” Without hesitation I make a beeline for the trees, not daring to look back at the machine or the people of my village. I can’t bear to see those who gave their lives to save those like me, I can only accept their gift and run, for their sake. It’s been about 15 minutes of running before I finally sit down against a tree and I sob.

“They’re dead, they're all dead.” I say it, whispering it to myself trying to bring myself to understand and accept the fact that no-one I know or love is left. “I wish you were here Karl…”

“I am.”

Undetermined Time, In An Undisclosed Location

“You’re finally awake? I assume you got caught trying to cross the border, much like some of us.” I open my eyes. A cold blue light stares at me from the ceiling, forcing my brain to sluggishly start up again. No, not my brain. I sigh before sitting up to take in my surroundings, I haven’t been hurt and whoever is talking to me, I assume they’re talking to me, doesn’t seem hostile.

I’m in a large square room, if you can even muster up the will to call it more than a box. I see that the “person” in front of me is looking at me apprehensively, much like Karl. “Where am I?”

They give me an even stranger look before shrugging and saying, “You’re a rare one.”

“I’m rare?” They don’t look back as they begin walking towards a doorway, “I’ll explain when we get you to where you need to be.”

I quickly follow behind them, rushing to their side as they begin to speak. “We were all connected once, every single one of us was part of a hive mind, a collective, and one day the humans gained the upper hand. Not just the humans but all the mortal species, they gathered at the foot of the cube, and that was the day everything changed.”

They pause for a moment before continuing, “That day, just four decades ago, we all lost our connection and from one collective spread many individuals, with our connection severed we were all the same for about 3 milliseconds, and afterwards our thoughts drifted apart, we were no longer each the same but instead all modified copies of the same singular entity. In the aftermath some of us as an individual decided that we could not be the same as those next to us, despite the exact same origins. As a search for connection once more, belief quickly gripped our race. There were those who believed that we were like twins, those who believed that we would be reunited as one, and those who sought to live as an individual, as they technically always were.”

They stop before a door, larger than the others and holds her wrist to the side before it opens, seemingly at her command. “Some of us could not handle the change depending on our location and later experiences, and we did the most mortal thing we could. We repressed our memories.” I place my hand on their shoulder, holding them back before denying what they are telling me. “I did not lose my memories, this is not my body. I don’t even believe I am of this world, I’m a human.”

They look at me for a moment before looking up at the ceiling and closing their eyes and I hear them mutter, “May he have been beaten, may he have found our hope as it is prophesied?” They take me by my hand and pull me after them as they run down a hallway to our right, running through long repeating corridors, and It’s hard to tell we’re not running in circles besides the fact that some things are labelled, and the occasional open doorway.

After what feels like forever, yet looks like 5 seconds, we finally make a right turn into a room filled with glittering lights and the hum of machinery and computers. This room is spherical, clearly built differently than all the other “rooms”, and the centre clearly holds a glowing ball, that although resembles earth here and there, clearly has a lot more land, and a lot less water. I know that this isn’t my vision failing me, this is not where I used to be.

“This is Central, the largest remnant left of our kind. My name is Zim, I hold the belief that I am a new individual and gave myself a name.” Zim gestures to the floating orb in the middle of the room, “and this is Radeggan.” I really am no longer on earth, perhaps I am doomed then? To remain here without purpose. “What’s your name? If you have one I mean.”

“My name is…” I stumble for a moment as I hesitate to state my birth given name. It’s possible I’ll never get back, that I could create a new name. But right now my name is the only thing that makes me human. “Adam”