Under the heavy scent of damp earth and clover, the air felt thick and sweet. It was a weird match for the cold, metallic taste stuck in the back of the man's throat.
His eyes snapped open. Above him, the sky was a messy bruise of deep purple and bright orange. He couldn't tell if the sun was coming up or going down.
"What the..." he muttered. His voice sounded like gravel rubbing together, totally foreign to his own ears.
He tried to sit up, but a sharp spike of vertigo hit him hard. As he pushed himself off the ground, a surge of pain shot through his ribs and down his legs.
"Ow... damn it," he hissed, clutching his side. He forced himself to stand, his knees wobbling like he was on a moving boat. He took a few shaky steps, looking around the massive, open field. Far off in the distance, the sharp, glittering shapes of skyscrapers poked into the sky. It was a city, but he didn't recognise a single building.
He looked down at his hands. They were rough and calloused, but clean. His clothes—a black jacket, dark pants, and heavy boots—felt sturdy. They felt new, or maybe they just didn't feel like his.
"Okay, think," he said out loud, desperate to hear a human voice, even if it was just his own. "Where am I? How did I get to a field?"
He closed his eyes, trying to catch a memory, a face, a flickering image of a home. Nothing.
"Wait," he whispered, his heart starting to hammer against his ribs. "What's my name? My name is..."
He stopped. He waited for the answer to pop into his head, but it never came. He searched for a first name, a last name, a nickname—anything.
"Why can't I remember my name?" he shouted at the empty field. "Hey! Does anyone hear me? Who am I?"
As if responding to his pointless desperate pleas, the air in front of his face shimmered and a translucent blue pane of light flickered into existence, hovering inches from his nose.
The man froze, his breath hitching as the sudden glow reflected in his wide, dark eyes. The panic didn't vanish, but the sheer absurdity of the sight forced his brain to stall.
[ SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE ]
[ SYNCHRONIZING NEURAL PATHS... SUCCESS ]
[ CALM DOWN, SUBJECT. CORTISOL LEVELS ARE REACHING CRITICAL THRESHOLDS. PLEASE BREATHE. ]
He stared at the floating text, his mouth hanging slightly open. "A... a screen? Am I dreaming? Did I hit my head that hard?"
[ NEGATIVE. THIS INTERFACE IS TIED TO YOUR CURRENT BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURE. ]
[ WELCOME BACK TO THE PHYSICAL PLANE.]
The man let out a shaky laugh that sounded more like a sob. "Welcome back? I don't even know where 'here' is, let alone where I'm back from."
He reached out a trembling hand to touch the panel, but his fingers passed through it like smoke. The blue light pulsed gently, and despite the madness of the situation, a strange, artificial wave of tranquillity seemed to wash over him, calming his racing heart to a steady rhythm.
After calming his racing heart, the man took a deep breath. The strange, cooling sensation from the screen was actually working. He wiped a smudge of dirt from his forehead and looked directly at the floating blue light.
"Okay," he whispered, his voice steadier now. "If you're tied to my 'biological signature,' then you must know what's going on. Who—or what—are you?"
[ I AM THE AEGIS OF ORDER. ]
[ I SERVE AS YOUR NAVIGATOR AND SUPPORTER. ]
The man blinked. "Aegis of Order? That's a bit of a mouthful. Can I just call you Aegis? Or... how about Geeze? No, that sounds like I'm annoyed. Let's stick with Aegis."
[ NICKNAME 'AEGIS' ACCEPTED. ]
"Great," he said, sitting cross-legged in the grass. He felt a bit ridiculous talking to thin air, but the city in the distance wasn't moving, and he had nowhere else to go. "Now, the million-dollar question. Do you know who I am? Because right now, I'm a total blank slate."
[ IN THIS WORLD, YOUR REGISTERED NAME IS VANE BROOKE. ]
"Vane Brooke..." He repeated the name, tasting it. It felt familiar, yet distant, like a song he had heard a long time ago. "Okay, Vane. That's a start. But why can't I remember anything else? I know how to speak, I know what a city is, but I have no idea how I got into this body or this field."
[ YOUR LACK OF MEMORY IS A NECESSARY SIDE EFFECT. ]
[ YOUR SOUL ORIGINATES FROM A PARALLEL WORLD. YOU WERE BROUGHT HERE UNDER AN AGREEMENT WITH THE CORE OF THIS WORLD. ]
Vane's eyes widened. "A parallel world? Like... an alien? Or an isekai story?"
[ PRECISELY. HOWEVER, ASIDE FROM THE NECESSARY BASIC INFORMATION AND COMMON SENSE, ALL OF YOUR PREVIOUS MEMORIES AND PERSONALITY WERE STRIPPED AND SEALED. THEY ARE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS TO YOUR CURRENT STABILITY. THEY WILL REMAIN LOCKED UNTIL THE TIME IS RIGHT. ]
"Dangerous? What was I, some kind of monster?" Vane muttered, a small, nervous smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. He was halfway expecting the screen to flash a "Just kidding!" or tell him he was a misunderstood hero.
[ AFFIRMATIVE. ]
[ YOUR PREVIOUS SELF WAS CLASSIFIED AS A HIGH-LEVEL THREAT. AN UNSTABLE ELEMENT. A MONSTER IN HUMAN SKIN. ]
Vane's smirk vanished instantly. He felt a cold chill run down his spine that had nothing to do with the morning air. He stared at the blue text, his mind going completely blank for a second. He had joked about it, but hearing a glowing computer screen confirm it so bluntly felt like a punch to the gut.
"Wait, you're serious?" Vane asked, his voice cracking. "No sugarcoating? No 'it's complicated'? Just... a monster?"
[ DATA INDICATES NO NEED FOR DECEPTION. YOU WERE A DANGER TO YOUR PREVIOUS WORLD'S STABILITY. ]
Vane sat there, dumbfounded. He looked at his hands again. They looked like normal hands. He didn't feel like a killer. He didn't feel like a monster. He just felt like a guy in a field who really wanted a glass of water.
"Okay... okay," he whispered, taking a moment to rub his temples. "I need to process that later. Like, much later."
"Anyway, why would you pick someone like me if I'm such a "dangerous person" or whatever? That seems like a massive design flaw, Aegis. Why not pick a saint or a hero? Why the "monster"?"
Vane crossed his arms, staring intensely at the glowing blue text. He was half-expecting the screen to start flashing red and sound an alarm just for him asking.
[ THE SELECTION WAS NOT BASED ON MORALITY. IT WAS BASED ON SURVIVAL. ]
[ AN EMERGENCY PROTOCOL WAS TRIGGERED DURING THE INITIAL BINDING PROCESS. THE PREVIOUS SOUL FAILED TO STABILIZE. TO PREVENT A TOTAL SYSTEM CRASH AND THE COLLAPSE OF THIS REALITY, THE WORLD SOUGHT A COMPATIBLE REPLACEMENT IMMEDIATELY. ]
[ YOUR SOUL WAVELENGTH WAS A 100% MATCH. YOU WERE THE ONLY SUBSTITUTE CAPABLE OF HOLDING THIS BODY TOGETHER. ]
"A 100% match?" Vane ran a hand through his messy hair, feeling a headache brewing. "So I'm basically the only spare part in the multiverse that fits this specific engine? Talk about bad luck."
He looked toward the distant city again, the glittering glass feeling a lot further away than it had five minutes ago.
"Wait a second," Vane said, his voice dropping an octave. "You said I'm a substitute. A replacement. If I'm in here now... what happened to the original guy? What happened to the 'real' Vane Brooke?"
"Did he die from some kind of sickness?" Vane asked, his voice barely a whisper. "Like a heart attack or a really bad fever? Is that why the body was empty?"
[ NEGATIVE. ]
[ THE ORIGINAL VANE BROOKE EXPERIENCED TERMINAL PHYSICAL TRAUMA. ]
[ CAUSE OF DEATH: MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE AND CRANIAL FRACTURE RESULTING FROM A VIOLENT ALTERCATION. ]
Vane winced, his hand instinctively going to his chest. "A violent altercation? You mean he was murdered? In a fight?"
[ AFFIRMATIVE. THE SUBJECT ENCOUNTERED A 'CHILD OF DESTINY' DURING A HIGH-STRESS EVENT. THE RESULTING POWER IMBALANCE LED TO THE CESSATION OF LIFE FUNCTIONS. ]
"A 'Child of Destiny'?" Vane blinked, the term sounding like something out of a comic book. "What is that, some kind of superhero? Or a chosen one? Why would a hero kill a guy in a field?"
Vane shook his head, looking more lost than before. "Aegis, I don't get it. Can you give me some context? Who are these people? Why did they kill him?"
[ UNDERSTOOD. SEARCHING BIOGRAPHICAL DATA... ]
[ ERROR. CONTEXTUAL EXPLANATION DEEMED INSUFFICIENT FOR CURRENT COGNITIVE SYNC. ]
[ INITIATING SUPPLEMENTAL BIOGRAPHICAL UPLOAD TO STABILIZE IDENTITY. ]
"Wait, what do you mean by discom—"
ARGH!
The scream tore out of his throat before he could stop it. Vane clutched his head, doubling over as a massive flood of images, sounds, and smells crashed into his brain all at once. It wasn't a gentle "remembering"; it felt like someone was slamming a heavy book open inside his skull.
"Urghh…."
He saw a cramped, dim apartment with peeling wallpaper. He smelled the salty, oily scent of cheap instant noodles and the sharp tang of laundry detergent. He felt the stinging heat of a split lip after a back-alley brawl and the heavy, aching weight of a backpack filled with things he shouldn't have been carrying.
Mom...
The thought hit him with a wave of warmth. He saw a tired woman with a kind smile, her hands rough from working three jobs just to keep the lights on.
"Eat up, Vane," she whispered in the memory, pushing a small bowl of rice toward him. "You need your strength for school."
He saw two little girls—his sisters—giggling as they shared a single piece of candy, their eyes bright despite the shadows in their room. "Big brother, can we have a whole box of these?"
Then, the darkness came. He felt the crushing, hollow grief of his father's funeral. He remembered the burning anger at the drunk driver who had ruined everything and walked away with a fine. He saw himself stealing bread from a corner store, fighting older boys for a few coins in the dirt, and finally, the exhaustion and relief of finishing school against all odds.
But the memories didn't stop there. They turned violent.
He saw a rain-slicked alleyway. He was standing there, shivering, caught in the middle of something he didn't understand. A group of men in expensive suits were surrounding a younger guy—a teenager with messy hair and glowing, arrogant eyes. This was the 'Child of Destiny.' He looked like he stepped straight out of a movie, radiating power.
"You're in the way, loser," the boy said, his voice dripping with bored contempt.
Vane tried to back away. "I—I'm just passing through! I don't want any trouble!"
CRACK.
A fist blurred through the air. Vane felt his jaw shatter. He hit the brick wall, the world spinning. The 'hero' didn't even look at him; he just used Vane's body as a literal shield to block an incoming strike from one of the suited men.
The pain was white-hot. Ribs snapped like dry twigs. Vane collapsed into the trash, coughing up blood, watching through blurred vision as the 'Child of Destiny' laughed and finished off the rest of the thugs with flashy, impossible moves.
"Check the trash for any witnesses," the boy commanded one of his followers, stepping over Vane's broken body without a second thought. "If he's breathing, stop it. We can't have rumors."
The last thing the original Vane saw was a heavy boot coming down toward his face.
The surge ended just as quickly as it had begun.
[ DATA TRANSFER SUCCESSFUL. YOU ARE NOW SYNCHRONIZED WITH THE IDENTITY OF VANE BROOKE. ]
While the notification disappeared, Vane stayed hunched over in the grass for a long minute, panting heavily. Sweat dripped from his chin onto the clover.
"That... really hurt, Aegis," Vane wheezed, wiping tears and sweat from his eyes. "A little more warning next time?"
To Be Continued