We arrive in a darkened hallway illuminated by amber-colored emergency floodlights shot through with a pulsing red. It takes all of a moment to clock where it's coming from: something tripped the containment alarms, the lights leaving no doubt about the danger.

I know a second before the klaxon pierces the silence with a near-deafening blast where we are — we're in the Applied Sciences wing of Trimarichus Petrochem. My stinger tip almost pierces through the speaker on the wall, echoing my past, before I pull back.

I've been here before.

I've walked this hallway before, a decade ago. Somewhere in my mind is a memory that's ripping itself free from where I'd bound it in place, along with everything else from my time under Desdemona's thrall. Weeks before I met Tiana for the first time, I was here.

And I...

Oh, god.

I hurt people. I remember that, too. Blood stained the walls from where I'd slashed and cut my way through the guards, the crimson glistening in the low light. I struck to wound. Desdemona's control wasn't yet so complete as to render me without choice unless she demanded it specifically.

But I couldn't save them. I knew it the moment I heard Desdemona's heels clacking against the vinyl flooring.

"What a beautiful canvas you've filled," Desdemona said, wrapping her arms around me. "It's romantic."

"Of course, Mistress," I said. "I promised you their blood."

I remember how she pinched my chin between her thumb and forefinger, delighting in the carnage and cruelty of it. "There's my girl." Then she sauntered down the hallway. To my right, one of the security guards began to stir.

No.

Please.

Stay quiet. Don't—

He moaned just as the klaxon sounded again, and I hoped that Desdemona wouldn't hear it.

For a moment, I thought I was safe. I thought... I thought he'd be safe.

Then Desdemona trailed to a stop. She turned, and caught me glancing away from the guard.

The alarm light pulsed twice more.

And then... And then I heard his screams mixed with the klaxon, swallowing the sound, as Desdemona did what I couldn't do. Blood painted me as she decimated the man. All these years later and I still hear his final plea, weak with terror: "help me."

She made me watch. Made a show of it. Made it a spectacle to teach me that the only thing I should aspire to was the brutal, efficient murder of anyone she deemed necessary. I couldn't fight her. The most I could do was let out a broken sob.

Desdemona tutted. "We'll have to work on that, Kammie."

The name brings me back to here and now. To the person I am. I'm not her. I'm not 'Kammie'. She's never coming back. Desdemona doesn't get to lay a hand on me ever again. Never. Still, the memory has me rattled. Tiana's already moving, though, and I can't be the one to hold her back.

I have to be a hero, and this is my chance. I'm not blowing it.

I remind myself that this is a coincidence. Has to be. Trimarichus gets attacked so often that they haven't sprung for state of the art security measures. I saw a clip of their CEO talking through the grim math of it once.

"The fundamental truth," he'd said, "is that prevention is less important than mitigation."

I grit my teeth. I always hated that statement. It felt like such an abdication. Just a bloodless acceptance that the world was going to get worse and there was nothing worth doing to make it better.

Not this time. This time, maybe, I can make a difference rather than hurting people. God, maybe if it's someone like me — someone run down by this cruel system — I can stop this before it goes further. No bloodshed, if I can help it. No more cruelty.

I can be good. Finally.

I look to Tiana, and I see a visage of pure, steely focus. Even standing next to her, I can't feel her emotions; normally, they're so powerful this close that I have to push against them. Now, though, there's just the slightest traces of them — like they've been pressed under glass.

Tiana's gaze flits to me briefly as she scans the hallway, walking forward cautiously. "What?"

I follow, and belatedly bring my tail up so that I can strike if someone attacks. "Nothing, I just... You're so focused. Is this what it was like when you first fought me?"

A pulse of heat. "No, it was—"

Before Tiana can finish her thought, there's the sound of glass clinking from down the hallway — followed by a muttered curse. As we draw closer, I spot the open door to the Applied Sciences vault; the thick metal of it's bent from where it was torn from the frame.

More of the memory floods back, then.

I did the same for her — for Desdemona — a decade ago. After she'd coated me in the guard's viscera to ensure I never made the same mistake again, she'd commanded me to follow. There wasn't time for me to process. I wasn't a person. Not to a woman like her.

No, I was something between a misbehaved pet and a malfunctioning toy. Something for her to fix. Even as the love she'd instilled in me thrummed through my mind, I felt the hatred for her and clung to it as I could. I knew it wouldn't be long before she snuffed it out.

She always did.

Desdemona strode into the vault as I staggered in behind her, wiping at the viscera coating my face. Through the bloody haze, I saw her pick up a glass vial full of an orange liquid.

"Here it is," Desdemona said, triumphant. "My victory."

Dread fills me now, remembering her face.

I wrap my tail's tip lightly around Tiana's wrist, beckoning her wordlessly to stop. She turns to me, gaze questioning. I open my mouth to speak, but the words fail me. We've not talked about it, really. I don't know how she'd react if she knew what I did. I know she loves me, but—

The crashing of glass makes me jump. I see Tiana's face harden into a grim mask of focus, and then she blinks into the vault.

Fuck.

I chase after her, rounding the corner just in time to see her strike forward with a brutal, magically enhanced jab at someone twice her size.

He's wearing a mask, but I'd recognize his overalls anywhere. Damn idiot's never spent a fucking dime he didn't have to — which means I've stared at them day in and day out, back when I used to haul shipping containers with him.

My heart plummets.

Rax.

It's Rax.