Rae shot up from where she lay. She looked around and realized that nothing looked familiar. She was no longer in her living room. She was in some kind of… facility? Was the best word she could think of to describe it. She was surrounded by what looked like incubators. Rows upon rows of them. As she took in her surroundings, she realized she was also in an incubator, but the glass from her pod had been lifted, allowing her to sit up. The atmosphere in the room had a calming blue hue to it, but Rae didn’t see any lights anywhere. It was as if something else was lighting the room. A tangible feeling in the air giving off the blue hue. She looked at the foot of her pod, where three people stood. 

One was the man from her Elysium feed earlier. John Thorson. He had quite a large frame for a short man, which made him both intimidating and slightly adorable. His black hair was slicked back, and his dark eyes had a particular shine to them that lit up his face.

Next to him was a woman with orange hair. She towered over the two men to her side, which wasn’t saying much. She was slender and wore a smart suit. Her brown eyes were deep and soft, perfectly accented by the warm smile on her face. Given the circumstances, though, the smile did nothing but creep Rae out a little.

Finally, a short, round man with a walrus mustache stood to her right. He had a suit on as well, but it was much more ill-fitting than the woman’s. He looked annoyed at the mere thought of being there. His gray hair gave Rae a hint that he was on the older side, whereas the other two were closer to her parents’ age. At least, she assumed they were about the same age.

Rae went to make a move when the woman’s hands shot out. “Be careful, now. You’ve been under for quite a long time. Your body might need a second to readjust.” 

Rae looked down at her body and saw that she was in a hexagon-covered body suit. It was light grey with dark grey lines all over it. Her hair hung down her shoulders halfway down her torso. Why was her hair so long? It had been down to her shoulders just before she went to sleep. She thought back and remembered what had happened just before she fell asleep. She had seen those shards of reality falling around her and had been enveloped by darkness. She lifted her hand, and it felt like it was the first time she had lifted it in her entire life.

“Where am I?” Rae asked.

“That’s not important right now. I’m Cami. We spoke earlier. I wish I could tell you everything right now, but -”

“That’s enough, Chaos,” the walrus-mustached man interrupted. “Extract the target and move.”

“It’s Agent Chaos to you, Stanton. Remember who’s in charge here.” She shot him a sharp glare before returning a warm gaze to Rae. “Come now, sweetheart. We don’t have much time. I promise all your questions will be answered as soon as we can safely do so. John, time check?”

“Ten minutes,” John responded. “Which means my relief will be here in five. We have to move now. Or, more accurately, you two have to move. Make it look believable, Cami.”

“Of course, John,” Cami said sweetly before blasting him several pod rows away.

“Holy shit, is he okay?” Rae asked, still sitting squarely in her incubator.

“Him? Yeah, he’s fine. Probably. Thors tend to be pretty resilient,” Cami said dismissively. She stuck her hand out to Rae. “Come now; we must be going.” Rae took her hand hesitantly. She helped Rae out of the pod. Rae felt her feet hit the cold steel floor and shivered. She looked down, and she had no socks or shoes on. That wasn’t right, either. None of this was right.

“What’s going on? Where am I?”

“Closer to answers now than you were the first time you asked. But as I said before, we don’t have time to ask questions. We must be going. I promise everything will make sense soon. Oh, and you need to put this on.” Cami pulled a small device from her suit jacket pocket. It was a limiter.

“I just got mine off. I’d much rather not put it back on.” She didn’t have much magic, but she valued what she did have. She wasn’t going to go back to what she had. Even now, it felt like the magic was a part of her. She felt it flowing through her veins as clearly as a heartbeat. It felt different than it had before. It almost felt overwhelming.

“Put it on,” Stanton said gruffly.

“What he meant to say, darling, is that you really should put it on.” Cami shoved him not so gently, and he let out a grunt. “It’s for my safety as much as it is yours. I can force it on you. The fight that would break out would be quite dangerous for everyone in the building, but you’re untrained. I think I could get it on there.”

“Fight me?” Rae remembered how she had blasted John away as if he were a fly. “I’m a sixty-cell untrained witch. You’d murder me.” Cami laughed.

“Okay, then. Let’s just go with that for now, and you put this on for me then.” She wore a smile that set Rae at unease, but she knew she couldn’t fight her. She took the limiter and put it on, feeling the clasp lock around under her forearm. Rae shuddered. It looked like the one she had taken off a few days prior. Metal, cold, with circuitry and runes along it. It took up about a quarter of her forearm. This one felt different, though. When she put it on, it felt like a much larger portion of her magic had been cut off. It felt like a part of her soul went dormant. She didn’t like it.

“Don’t worry, dear,” Cami said. “You can take it off any time you want. There’s a button on the bottom of it. Just leave it on until you understand what’s happening. Then if you choose to take it off, nobody can stop you. Quite literally.” She said the last words with a giggle. Rae was confused. She fumbled with the limiter and realized Cami wasn’t lying. There was a button on the bottom of it. She pressed it and felt the clasp unlock. She locked it back into place. Why did she insist Rae wear it if she could just take it back off?

Just then, the blue hue in the room turned blood red. A big screeching sound came out of nowhere. Rae heard the sound of metal scraping metal somewhere off in the distance.

“What the fuck is going on?” Rae asked Cami.

“Oh, bother. They’re early. Follow us. Stan, if you would lead the way. I’ll stay back with Rae to make sure she doesn’t get lost.” Stan started through the rows at a rapid pace. Rae had to almost jog to keep up with him. She turned at one point to see Cami following them with ease with her long strides. She easily had five or six inches on Stan, who had another inch or two on Rae. Rae cursed the gods for making her 5’4” for the first time in her life and continued the quick pace to keep up with Stan. They soon made it to a corner with no doors or windows. Where were they going? All that was in front of them was the steel wall made of metal panels. The alarm was still screeching, but Rae hadn’t heard the metal grinding again.

Cami stepped up from behind Rae and put her hand on one of the panels. The panel dissolved into thin air and revealed a small device with a singular button on it. “Rae, come here, darling. Take my hand.” She extended her hand to Rae. Rae hesitantly grabbed hold of it.  “Now grab hold of Stan’s hand there.” Rae reached out to Stan, who put his hand on her shoulder. “Yes, that will do nicely. Okay, this is going to suck. Sorry.” Cami pushed the button. Rae felt her feet lift off the ground. The world was spinning at a sickening pace, and Rae immediately felt nauseous. 

As quickly as the world started spinning, it stopped. Rae’s feet hit the ground hard, and she collapsed to her knees, where she got sick. After vomiting whatever was in her stomach up, she looked around. They were in another steel room, this one no bigger than her bedroom. It was also shaped like a hexagon. There was a bright light orb above them in the center of the room. Other than that, the room was completely bare. Rae spotted a glass door against one of the walls as a large man opened it and walked through.

“Camille! It seems your mission was a success,” the large man said. He was in a suit, like Stan and Cami, but had a different air about him. He seemed much more… significant. He had salt and pepper hair and stubble that gave him a very distinguished look with a sharp jawline. Rae imagined he was quite attractive in his day.

“Yes, sir! One Rae Riot, successfully extracted.” That was Rae’s name, but what did she mean by extracted? Where had she been? And where was she now? Rae could feel herself getting sick again. Cami squatted next to her and placed her hand on Rae’s back. Rae immediately felt better. “Sorry about that. Teleportation has that effect on people their first couple of times.”

“Teleportation? What level of magic is that? I’ve never heard of anyone capable of that.”

“You wouldn’t have, Rae,” the large man in the doorway said. “There’s a lot of things that you never thought possible that we can do here.”

“Where is here?” Rae asked as she finally made it to her feet.

“One of many questions you have, I’m sure,” he responded. “And I will answer every single one of them. But first, let’s get you to your room and cleaned up. Camille will show you to your room. I’ll be by to debrief you after I’m done syncing with my agents. Stan, if you would follow me.”

“And you can follow me, Miss Riot.” Miss Riot? Ugh. Speaking of which, where was her mother? Probably still at work, completely unaware of what was going on. But something felt wrong about that answer. Something felt off. Rae got up to follow Cami out of the room and into the bright hallway. The walls were stark white and bare, only interrupted by the multiple glass doors that lined the hallway. The floor was a black marble that was so polished that Rae could see her reflection. As Cami led her down the hallway, Rae peeked into the other rooms. They were all steel hexagons like the one they had teleported into. Some of them had tables in the center of the rooms. A couple of them had people. Rae slowed her walk as they passed one door. Was that person chained?

“Excuse me. Is that person chained to the floor?” Rae asked incredulously.

“Oh, yes. Him,” Cami said with a tone of disgust. “He gave us quite a bit of trouble on our way to find you. Don’t worry, he’s fine. A much better fate than he deserves, I assure you. Follow me, darling.” Rae hovered her hand at the release button of her limiter before shaking it away. She still didn’t know where she was, and this witch, whoever she was, was powerful. Rae wasn’t going to be able to get out of here. She’d wind up chained to the floor like that poor bastard. She followed Cami a few more rooms before Cami stopped and motioned toward a glass door.

“If you would, please, step inside. It will eliminate any tracking devices, magical or technological, that are on your person.”

“Tracking devices? I don’t think I have any….”

“You wouldn’t know about them, silly. If you did, they wouldn’t be very effective, now would they? Step in. It doesn’t take but a second.” Rae listened because, again, she didn’t feel like she could say otherwise. The door snapped shut behind her, and a red light glowed from the center of the room. It flashed, and the light temporarily blinded Rae. As it went away, the red light turned green. The door behind her automatically opened.

“All done!” Cami exclaimed from the hallway. “Now we’ll be off to your room. I do hope it’s to your liking. We used the reconnaissance from John to mimic your bedroom as much as we could.”

“Wait. I just realized you guys keep saying my room. Am I expected to stay here?” Rae asked. 

“At least for tonight, yes. After that, your fate is up to you, darling.”

“What about my house?” Rae asked the obvious.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Cami reached out and stroked Rae’s cheek. The fuck? “It’ll be alright. All will become clear soon.” 

“Where the fuck are my parents?” Rae demanded. She felt her magic starting to well up around her limiter. It felt like an intense burn that she needed to put out. She went to take her limiter off, and Cami’s hand intercepted hers.

“Please. Remain calm. It is of the utmost importance that you remain calm.”

“Or what, you’ll fucking force me to?” Rae snapped

“Yes, Rae Riot.” A challenge rose in Cami’s eyes that Rae knew she couldn’t match. “I will. Now, remain calm.” Rae put her hands back down by her side. Not because she wanted to but because she knew she had to. For now. “Now, follow me.” Rae was hesitant but eventually started after her.

“I don’t like this,” Rae said.

“I know, hon.” Cami sighed. “This is weird. It’s all weird. And it’s going to stay weird for a little while. But you’ll adjust. And you get to pick your destiny from now on. Nobody else. Just you.” Cami kept using those words. Fate. Destiny. What did she mean by them? Rae was just an ordinary girl. And right now, she was alone and scared.