Slowly, I rise and walk across the room to retrieve my katana from its sheath. I angle my sword and hold it in front of my face. Closing my eyes, I concentrate on the energy signature it emits. This is not the same weapon that I saw in my vision. Light Workers don't experience a hybrid state of consciousness during lucid dreaming, but I'm certain the vision I experienced was part of the dream world. The ephemeral dimension between the present and the future. Throwing off my sleep tunic, I walk over and stand before the holographic mirror on the wall. Pressing my hands on the sword's hilt, I raise the katana above my head. Taking deep breaths, I close my eyes and still my mind. The sword vibrates and hums as I pull energy from the atmosphere and into my body to charge it.

Opening my eyes, I gasp. In the reflection on the wall, I see an electro mesh skeleton that is imbedded in my flesh. The metal is illuminated with a violet spectrum of energy. An exo-skeleton overlapping my spine in a metallurgic cage. It must be constructed of hyper-light material, because I've never felt it.

"Shit—"

My sword drops to the floor, the point landing with a loud pound ping as I start to tremble. How long has this horror been inside of me?" My face floats ghost-like in the mirror—pale and lifeless. Can this invasive hardware be used to terminate me if I become infected?

Or disobey.

My rage and wildness shift to a new level as I recall the last words Evander's said to me during our fight. "Sylex is using us. Why do we risk our lives when we could leave this dying planet in a galactic heartbeat. Light Workers have a guaranteed spot Off-World." Holding me in his arms, he had whispered that he loved me before I shoved him away.

"Evander, stop! I can't leave Terra."

"Why do you want to stay here?"

"I choose to stay here because I believe my mother is in one of the abandoned outposts. The ones we're never allowed to visit. l can't leave until I find the truth."

"How can you find here why Sylex forbids access to the ancient past? Zoe, if your mother is alive, she would want you to escape from this planet, not risk your life searching for her."

If I hadn't been so focused on finding her, then maybe he would still be alive instead of undead. Evander didn't understand that I have a connection to her through my inner sight. I can feel her. She can't be dead. Without my belief that she is alive, being a Light Worker in a losing battle against darkness would destroy me.

By The Goddess, a veil has been ripped from my face. Everything is clear—Sylex's corruption—their agenda to seek ultimate control over our world. I see my destiny in the universe. To stop them.

As if to confirm my suspicions, the vicious humming accelerates and vibrates inside of my head. My teeth start to chatter. I clench my mouth shut as the red circular light in my palm blinks ominously like a demon's eye. Making a fist, I squeeze the gem until my fingernails are diggin into my palm. If only I could shatter the tracking device. Or dig it out of my palm. I've never had a red warning. If I don't respond within one week, then I will be vaporized. My life is not my own. I grit my teeth. What the hell did Sylex do to me?

What kind of cyborg monster am I?

Who mutilated me and put this steel mesh monstrosity into me? I angle my body in the hologram. Who is the puppet master pulling the strings and choreographing the events that I dance to?"

A searing pain pierces the base of my spine and rises until there's a buzz saw grinding in my head. I worry my skull will be split in two, until I hear the rumbling laughter.

Come here. The voice invades my mind like an icy finger. You will lead me to your mother.

"No!" I twist around, but only see shadows in the corners of the room.

The voice is savage now.

An insistent tapping from the window breaks the control the creature has over my mind. My partner's face appears in the window.

"Evander!" Running over to the window, I plunge my upper body outside and hang from the opening, searching the building's exterior. The dusk has come early this evening, twilight filtered through a fine silt, but I can see all the way to the ground floor. No one's there.

I slide down an emergency exit tube feet first and land next to the incinerator. Puffs of steam surround me and I stumble into a trash receptacle and knock it over. I bolt around the corner where a dark clad figure in utility boots is running across the courtyard. He moves with the powerful grace of a cougar. I watch in disbelief, momentarily stunned as I see the fleeing figure's resemblance to my ex-partner. In a burst of speed, I get close enough to see his handsome profile before he swivels and points a black rectangular shaped device at me. My feet are knocked out from under me as I'm hit in the chest with a pulsing shock wave.

Shit!

I fly backwards and land in collapsed heap, clutching my chest as pain ricochets through my body. Recovering like an enraged bull, I lunge at him. Grabbing him by the wrist, I make him drop the pulsar weapon. It lands on the flagstone with a sharp clatter, while his almond shaped green eyes angrily track the flash of gold the box emanates. Glaring at me, he hisses, "Release me."

Recovering my breath, I look at the stranger. "You're not Evander. What are you? Replicant—tell me who you are." His gaze returns to the device on the ground, but I know he can't control it remotely and hit me again.

"Argh!" With a strangled cry and inhuman strength, he breaks free and recovers the shock wave weapon. I leap onto his back. Using the thumb of his  free hand I see him swipe the black teleportation device to start an emergency step jump out of this area. He angrily tries to shake me off of him, but I cling to him as stubbornly as a barnacle.

As we struggle, I smell his male, woodland scent. Evander's essence. Confusion slows my reactions. His pre-set coordinates should have teleported him by now, but my added body weight creates a drag.  He's able to create enough time distortion drag to materialize in the alley behind the apartment building. I collapse on my stomach as his shimmering form disappears. I hear footsteps and I see him leap over the toppled trash receptacle as he bolts around the corner and into the night.

"I will hunt you down." I shout after him. A young couple leaving their apartment unit stare at me. I can't chase him. I'm half naked and I don't have my sword. I'm too exhausted. I return to my apartment, unsure of what I've encountered. Was that really Evander? He looked like my partner, but at the same time, he didn't. Or something undead inhabiting his body? I reach for my sword and then hesitate. When throbbing pain in my head increases and the correlation between the hardware in my body and Sylex is clear. If I use my sword to psychically discern the truth, the electromagnet mesh of steal in my body will activate a searing pain to stop me.

I have to use my own resources instead of my psychic powers. I rub my temple. Evander hasn't had time to grow a new head, but if he has, his human memories will be lost. He will become feral. With the undead, we have to physically slice their head off and cauterize their necks. The head must be burned. The thing I failed to do with him. If I don't change what's happened, my partner will be lost to this darkness.

I grab something to eat and then gather everything I will need to survive off the system grid. I will have to keep moving to avoid the Sylex trackers. from my apartment. As a rogue guardian, I can't return here.

I rush to my hover car and yank open the trunk. The crypto chamber is empty. Evander has become whole again.

Who did this to him? Who is controlling him? The only way I can find the truth is to return to Dredge Towers and find the creature that attacked me. The creature that I believe turned Evander. When I find him, I will cut off every piece of him until only his head is left and he begs for mercy until he tells me the truth. I grab my sword and backpack, then turn and scan the small utilitarian apartment. I have lived here my whole life as a public servant. With a deep breath I step out into the corridor and shut the door.

My hover car lifts off and I do fly over of my sector to give Sylex my decoy coordinates. I have never disobeyed, and they have no reason to doubt my obedience, but when I reach the edge of the sector, I go offline.