“DID is about survival! As more people begin to appreciate this concept, individuals with DID will start to feel less as though they have to hide in shame. DID develops as a response to extreme trauma that occurs at an early age and usually over an extended period of time.”

  ― Deborah Bray Haddock,

  “I don't see anyone else here, but this place is kind of big. Want me to look around?” Evelin says, a bit on edge, also realising the most likely cause of our current predicament.

  “Yeah, you do that.” I say, a bit nervously. “If you need help, call out.”

  “Yes, boss” Evelin puts on a salute before she starts wandering around our inner space. “Little sister, where are you? We would really like to meet and talk with you.”

  I try to focus back on the real world while Evelin messes around in our minds.

  “Lyssa, do you have any clues as to what happened?”

  Lyssa would like to remind you that Lyssa might be in your head, but Lyssa is not in your mind; elaboration is necessary.

  “Right, fuck! Okay, do we have a third person in our brain now, and if so, how did it happen?” I ask her.

  It is possible. Your limbic system shut down for about ten seconds before you teleported away; this could indicate another entity taking over. An ambivalent stress response could also cause it.

  “Can I have that in human please?”

  There are 7151 human languages on this planet; which one would you like?

  “Which ever one they use in high school.”

  The centre in your brain responsible for emotions was shut down for a while. This could indicate that another entity took over control, or was just a response to stress since Lyssa has observed this response before. Lyssa is not sure if it can be dismissed.

  I sigh. “So what you are saying is that, maybe there is someone else, but this can also be just the newest thing on a long list of things that is wrong with us.”

  Exactly.

  “Evelin, what do you think?”

  “Hmm, well, a third would be more logical than us being even more broken.” She stops and looks around for a bit. “Then again, I can’t find her.”

  “So, everything looks normal in there.”

  Evelin pauses and then wildly gestures around. “I mean, for a certain definition of normal, sure, nothing is out of place as far as I can tell, and I can’t find anyone in here.”

  I sit back down on the wall “So, what's your plan?”

  “My plan is to coax out a third person that may or may not exist, and if they do, they only exist in our mind. Ooh gosh, I don’t know. This was not in the hand book at all.” she jumps off the edge of a balcony, straight into the library.

  “We have a handbook?”

  Evelin nods “Two, actually, one for being a corporate slave and one for underground policing.” She pulls the two books off the shelf and starts to leaf through them.

  “Right. I think that library needs more books.” I point out when I notice the empty shelves.

  “You can say that again. Anyway, if there is another person they don’t want to come out, so, there is not much we can do about it.”

  “That's fair, and it's not like they didn't get us out of that situation, just not in the way that I would have liked,” I say, looking at the dancing lights of the undercity.

  “Yeah, I am sorry about that. I should have planned that better. I just, you know, usually when I get called into a meeting, it is because something bad happened that needs fixing and stuff. Being honest has always been the best policy in those cases. But now I think I should have just lied and somehow convinced them otherwise.”

  “I think they're just angry, and that is fair. The problem is how are we going to deal with that anger.”

  “I mean, did we not say that we would do it on our own then?”

  “That is a problem too, but not what I meant. The problem is what happens when the shield breaks and all the people from the undercity flood back up to the upper city, all armed with samurai weapons. What do you think would happen?”

  Evelin shrugs “I'm not a psychologist, but I think it depends on how many of the aliens survive. If there is a common enemy to fight then all will be good, or at least something like that. If barely any of the aliens survive, I don’t know, but when a heavily armed group of people suddenly shows up after most of the city gets destroyed I would have questions. Bit of bad luck, some mall cops getting the wrong idea, and the situation escalates further.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Any plans on how to not make that happen?” I ask, feeling completely lost at the moment.

  “Give them a way out. A different option: people are way less likely to fight when they have somewhere else to go.”

  That made a surprising amount of sense, but that just leaves “And where are you planning to send them?”

  Evelin let out a long, suffering sigh “I don’t know I would bring them all to PsyCo, because we don’t have the room for an entire undercity worth of people, even if their numbers are greatly reduced.

  “What happened to the days when we didn't have the time or money to deal with these problems?” I complain.

  “For one, we are no longer poor, and we do have two minds now, so that doubles the amount of time we have.”

  “I'm not sure it works like that. But considering more minds, what do you think the new gal's personality would be like?”

  “Well, if our split is you getting all our insane thoughts, and I got all the normal ones, it stands to reason that when you start to become more normal, you would also split off your insanity.”

  “That's a fun theory, if only it wasn't for the fact that you are just as insane as me.”

  “Hey, I'm on your side here. No need for friendly fire.” Evelin starts to show that cute pout as she tries to glare at me.

  I laugh. “We'll continue this conversation later, okay? Someone is coming.” I say, turning around to face the newcomer.

  “Justin, what can I do for you?” I say, with a smile that is completely pointless since I'm still wearing a mask.

  The boy finishes walking up the stairs before he speaks. “I don’t think there's much, it's more what I can do for you.”

  I raise my eyebrow in surprise. “Oh, how so?”

  “I want to help. Like you said, a lot of the sun-loving assholes don’t deserve saving, but a large part is still innocent, so I want to save those.” Justin says, determination all over his face.

  “That would be great. I really could use all the help I could get, but won’t your sister get upset?”

  “First, Katelyn is not my sister, just a colleague and friend. Second, won't she be more upset with you, her girlfriend?” he says with a smug grin plastered on his face.

  Well, fuck me. The little bugger does know how to use his words properly then. “How do you plan to help me, letting me borrow a few of the drones? I could really use some construction bots.”

  “I have nine construction bots with me. I can also purchase more if necessary. I also have a suggestion, if you don't mind,” he says, fidgeting nervously.

  I smile at the kid. “You do realise I'm not your boss, right? You are free to tell me whatever you want to say.”

  He nods. “Then I think we should go here and here.” A data package gets sent to me with a map of the undercity, revealing different locations. “And blow them up.”

  “Is there a reason to blow them up, or is this just for the fun of it?”

  Justin asks me, "You blow stuff up for fun?”

  “I haven’t yet, but I feel like there is a certain amount of catharsis with blowing stuff up. I'm pretty sure I would enjoy the experience.”

  Justin looks at me, slacked-jawed. “Aren’t you supposed to be the good guy?”

  “I don’t know. The only thing I am supposed to do is kill aliens. This other stuff,” I gesture around, “just makes me sleep better at night.”

  Justin takes a small step away from me as he continues ”Regardless I don’t want to blow it up for fun. It would block off the antithesis and the rubble can easily be moved and shaped into supporting structures, so it would take less time to construct more pillars.”

  The map in my vision updates with some more markers, with suspected hives, as well as optimal places for construction as he speaks.

  “Justin?”

  “Yes?”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you are fucking brilliant?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Than let me be the first this is fucking amazing. Which one should I hit first?”

  Justin frowns. “Not I, we. I'm coming with you.”

  “Are you sure? It is dangerous…”

  “I am sure. I'm not as strong as you, but I have full confidence in my defences to last long enough for you to take out whatever threat that's out there.”

  As I give it some thought, it does make sense. He doesn't need the ability to kill all the things since I was planning to do that all by myself anyway, so as long as I don’t have to protect him, it's fine. No, it's better than fine. Four hands are always better than two… Or would it be six hands since there are three of us?

  “Welcome aboard. I guess. When are you ready to leave this place?”

  “All my drones are here already, so I am ready to leave as soon as you are.”

  “Great, I still need to stop by somewhere. Someone confiscated my swords, and I would like them back now that I'm leaving.”

  “Who is bold enough to take a Samurai’s weapons?” Justin asks in wonderment.

  “I don’t really know. I was pretty out of it, on account of having taken a bullet to the brain”

  Justin winces; “That sounds painful.”

  “It was a real head scratcher that’s for sure. Anyway I’ll be back in twenty or so minutes. According to the internal data, there in a warehouse not far from here.”

  As Justin nods, I teleport away and into the warehouse, not bothering to speak to the security guards as I browse their inventory. Most of it is rather useless: some guns, and tons of bullets. I find my swords in different areas of the warehouse. Someone decided to sort their stuff by colour rather than type of weapon for some reason. Just as I am putting away my second sword, a guard who seems a bit braver than the other ones around here confronts me.

  “Hey, what are you doing here?!” he shouts at me.

  “You know what? I’ll tell you honestly: Not your fucking problem.”

  With that statement I teleport back to the wall where Justin is waiting for me.

  “You ready to go?” I ask.

  “Yes.” he says as he steps on a drone. Some kind of heavy-duty construction exo-suit starts to form around him.

  “Well, try to keep up.” With that as the start sign, I jump off the wall, ready to cause some mayhem.

  Shinobi