I opened my eyes, splitting my mind in two between a crushing pain inside my skull and a piercing, burning blaze of artificial light. I gasped, dragging in the cold, damp air with a burning pain. My heart punched into my ribs, over and over, ripping my body in half with as if the muscles had never been used. “I… Help,” I whimpered. “Shh, you’re all right Rolly,” a soft voice called. I clenched my eyes shut, the light burned through my eyelids and burrowed into my mind. It hurt, everything hurt. “Help me,” I gasped, tearing my throat with each sound. “You’re safe now, you’re with me.” the voice called again, closer this time. “Just relax,” it was a girl I knew… Somehow, I knew her voice. I felt a prick in my arm, the cold sliver of a needle sliding gently into my vein. I desperately tried to call up a face to the voice, to name the girl. Somehow I knew her, somehow, somehow… Somehow. A rush flooded through my arm, hitting my head with a sudden relief. The piercing light faded, my mind drifted from the voice in the room, “I’m sorry, Rolly. Just let me help you.” the pain fell away as the room descended into darkness. I just had to recall her name, I knew her somehow, somehow I knew her… Somehow… I edged back against the bridge, rain beating against my face with painful stings. “No!” I heard myself yell, fumbling the simple word, fighting through tears. Crack. I was thrown back against the railings, hit by a tremendous force. Crack, crack, crack. I fell, my body convulsed with each thunderous noise, the bullets tore into my body. “You mother fu-” crack. Another shot hit me and I looked up, the shadowy figure towering over me with a grin, his teeth contrasting against the dark sky, lit up like a malevolent cheshire cat. He lifted his hand up in a strange gesture, his fingers rolling up and back down. My strength drained, pain cutting deep into my mind and body. Invisible hands clutched my arms, tearing at my skin, and they pulled me up. The hands lifted me up against the railing and I felt the warmth of blood leave my body as they tipped me over. The freezing rain sapped my strength, trading my energy with blood. I fell back over the railings, tipping through the air in a swirl of darkness. The sky fell away above as I plummeted and I watched the water rush up towards me. A scream cut the air, slicing the rain apart, pulling the world into parts as I smashed into the water. I know that voice, somehow. I lunged, grasping at the air. I was sweating, breathing hard. The blood and rain was gone but the pain persisted, dull and throbbing where it had been sharp and piercing before. I looked around, the room was dark and quiet, excluding the readouts from a distant display monitor. I patted myself down, wincing as my hand hit one of the many sources of pain, hidden under the thin synthetic bed sheet. I was patched together with bandages, wires and sensors. I brushed them aside, letting the cables dangle down beside the bed and instantly the room lit up with alarms. The door burst open, “Rolland!” the girl panicked. She ran over, deftly flicking switches on half a dozen different machines. “You’re awake?” she asked, shocked to see me sitting upright in bed. “I mean, of course-of course you’re awake,” she said, looking me over, “Why wouldn’t you be?” she said finally. “Who… Are you?” I asked faintly. “Violet Alamo, your one and only!” she said cheerfully, recovering completely from her shock. I looked at her dumbly, her voice, I knew that and the name, it was so familiar. I watched her shut off a few of the machines around me, she couldn’t have been any more than twenty years old with short, self cut, hair dyed a bright pink. She looked capable, as if these machines around me answered to her every beck and call. She stood there for a moment, expecting an answer, “Don’t worry, keeping that brain of yours alive was expensive, so try not to break it so soon, okay?” “I… Know you, right?” I asked cautiously, the memories stirring but so long forgotten. “Of course you do, but don’t worry about that. You’ll be just fine with some rest, you know it’s incredible what medical science can accomplish when you don't need to contend with ethics, morality and-or the judiciary system!” “What happened to me? I- I'm sorry, I just, I don't remember you… Or me for that matter.” I asked, not really sure if that was true. Violet Alamo, Violet Alamo, V A, Vi Al, Vial, Vile. It suddenly all clicked. “Well you had a rather unfortu-” “Vile!” I cried, cutting Violet off with my realization, “You are Vile!” “Well that's rude,” she pouted. “But good for you, that memory of yours will be back in no time!” “You go by the name Vile, right?” My world was opening up with a flood of memories. “Vile is one of my many aliases, yes.” she said smiling gently, “But do you know who you are?” the question shocked me, I hadn't even thought about who I was. “R-Roland,” I said, unsure of my own name, “Roland Neeko.” “Very good!” She said, almost patronizing me, “but don't worry if you can't remember, give it a few days and it'll come back to you, well, most of it.” “Most of it? What's that supposed to mean?” “So many questions! How many times do I have to tell you, don't worry, just relax. No one expects you to do too much today. Just rest, I'll fix you something to eat.” I felt so strange, like I had known this girl for a lifetime. I liked Violet, I trusted her, but I had no idea why. She walked out of the room and I took a moment to appreciate my surroundings. State of the art medical consoles surrounded my bed, their displays now flatlined with the lack of signal input. It was a small apartment with the bed taking up most of the main room while what little other space was filled with electronic components and computers. A table filled one corner of the room, covered in machine and electronic parts while an automatic pistol lay partially disintegrated on the table. Violet walked back through the doorway, ducking under the low archway, balancing a bowl in her hand. “I've got you something,” she said, resting it on the nearby table. “Soup?” I asked dubiously. “Home made and everything!” she cried happily, handing me the spoon. I tried it, it was rare to see home made food of any kind, I couldn't imagine the hoops she would have had to jump through to find the raw ingredients. It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. “It's… Good.” I said, hesitating slightly. She raised an eyebrow before sitting down next to me, looking between the soup and my face. “is it?” she asked, gazing at the window's drawn curtain. “Sure, I honestly don't know how you did it, do you want some?” “No, I'm fine, thanks.” Violet said, suddenly losing all her previous enthusiasm. She looked preoccupied, dealing with something beyond what I could see. “Finish that up, if you're feeling up for it, we'll get you outside and breathing some slightly more fresh air.” she stood up and walked out without looking back.