RECAP Just dropping in a quick edit because I realized I should probably start recapping this. Lux is an assassin from a future timeline where the world was devastated by some vague force for evil. In her timeline, the resistance used cryogenically frozen bodies to upload the consciousness of agents like Lux for purposes of assassination, spying, and subtrefuge. But, something went wrong and Lux was shunted to the present day in a body that still had it's original consciousness: a boy named Corey Smith. Now, Lux and Corey are seemingly at war over control of the body.

The body of Corey Smith is on the floor, but with one fitful turn he abruptly rises to his feet. The body blinks three times in rapid succession, features slack as though stunned. HELPER hovers in the air nearby. Lux! Oh good, you're ok! What happened? You fell down and looked like you were having a seizure.

Corey Smith's body looks at HELPER blankly, it's expression strange and distant. HELPER jets up to within inches of his face, scanning the body's features. Hey, are you in th-

I'm fine. The body steps away from HELPER, but it's eye contact lingers for a moment. Then, with a jerky movement, it goes to the dresser and starts pulling out clothing.

HELPER'S eyes flash a couple times as he watches these proceedings. Uh, hey Lux, what are you doing?

But the young man simply continues haphazardly pulling clothing out of the dressers, clothing which he then tosses onto the bed. Spotting a piece of luggage, he then tosses that on the bed as well. Unzipping it and tossing it open, he then starts to shovel the laundry inside. HELPER sidles up for another closer look, and the young man instinctively swats at him, as though batting a fly. Just...leave me alone....

Lux, what's going on? I don't understand. HELPER backs off a bit to give him space.

Corey's body turns to face HELPER. Look, I don't need any help right now. So you can shut off or power down or whatever.

HELPER tips to the side a bit, mimicking a canine-like display of head cocked confusion. You're not Lux, are you?

Of course I am. The body slams the luggage shut and zips it up. He averts his gaze from HELPER, pausing a moment and squinting, as though responding to some kind of internal stimuli.

Corey, is that you? HELPER cautiously circles around him. Oh dear...this isn't good....

Look just.... Corey shakes his head, and he finds himself doubling over a bit, hands on his knees and looking like he's going to be sick. What the fuck is wrong with my head.....?

Corey, where do you think you're going? You can't just leave! HELPER intones plaintively. What do you think that will solve anyway?! Lux will still be with you. Come on Corey, think about it!

But Corey isn't listening to the robot's reasoning. His body lists to the side, and he hits the wall shoulder first. His eyes go blank and expressionless and he topples over the nightstand next to the bed, sending the lamp crashing to the floor. He soon follows suit, dropping onto the carpet with a thud. HELPER hurries over to him, swaying back and forth over his master's body. Ohhhhh noooooo....


Corey Smith opens his eyes. And then he gets punched in the face. He calls out in equal parts pain and surprise as he finds himself falling once more, this time onto the unforgiving wooden surface of a dock. Jesus! His hand goes to his nose, but there is no blood. Looking up, he sees Lux standing over him in her original form: a lithe 5'11'' Serbian woman with flowing dirty blond hair and a body that looked like a perpetually tensed coil ready to spring. What the fu-....

Shut up. Lux steps over his prostrate form, squatting down on top of him so he can't get up. If you do that again I swear by all that is holy I will find a way to destroy your consciousness and toss it into the winds. Her voice is steely and menacing, and Corey can't suppress a shudder in response to it.

Corey flips all the way onto his back in slow practiced movements so as to avoid alarming the crazy woman presently hunched over him like a bird of prey. Lux watches him intently, but doesn't speak and doesn't move away. Corey chooses his words carefully, clearing his throat a bit before speaking. Look, I-I just panicked okay? I don't even know how I took control like that.

And you won't ever do it again.

Can I get up without you, like, destroying my soul or whatever? Lux stares intently at him for a moment or two longer before relenting and standing up. She moves to the end of the dock, giving Corey a moment to catch his breath and finally survey his surroundings. He slips his feet under him and slowly rises, but almost loses his breath again in awe of the sight before him.



His jaw hangs open as his senses drink it all in. Is this heaven?

No. Lux responds, without even turning to look at him. It's a place I go to in my mind when I need to calm down.

Corey continues to awe at the ethereal sight before him. The silvery lapping waters. The setting sun. The massive unbelievable orbs hanging suspended in the sky above their heads, heavenly bodies at once beautiful and terrifying in scope. His eyes blink, and when they open, they are cloudy with moisture. It's beautiful.

Lux looks at him now, in his reverent state, and something in her features softens. I'm not a monster, alright?

Corey pulls his attention away from their environs to consider the woman. I didn't say you were. He wipes away a bead of moisture that escaped his left eye. But we need to have a serious talk about where we go from here.

Yes. We do. Lux pauses, and an uncomfortable gulf grows between them before she breaks the silence again. I'm not good at this.

Not good at what?

Discussions. Like this. Look Corey... Frustration alights on her face for a moment. ….I can't imagine what this must be like for you. And for what little it's worth it's not supposed to happen this way.

Yeah. I remember. I'm supposed to be dead.

But.... Lux sighs. ….you're not. Another pregnant pause.

Corey looks up at the planets again, and then back to Lux. Look, I'm still struggling to accept that this is all real. I....I still can't.... Surprisingly, he lets out a small laugh. I'm still not convinced this isn't some kind of weird hell devised for me.

You haven't experienced hell yet. Lux replies, an edge of conviction in her voice. She walks it back a bit then though. This isn't hell, Corey. It's just....

….a shitty situation.

Really shitty.

Corey throws his arms out, and allows himself another small chuckle. So we've established this sucks. But what do we DO about it?

I can't give up your body Corey. You yourself told me you saw what's at stake. You know what I'm doing here. You know what I've already given up to get this far.

I know. And....maybe one day we can separate. Somehow. But this is my body Lux. I was born with it. You can't just....

Lux holds a hand up. I understand, I understand. Just....

You need to give me control of it sometimes. Corey takes a step towards Lux, and he speaks the words impulsively. It's only fair!

Lux breathes out an annoyed sigh and turns away from him again. Corey takes a few more bold steps towards her, bridging the gap and ending up at her shoulder. Come on! You know I'm right.

You're an addict Corey.

The boy takes a half step back, his face taking on a mild sneer. So that's what this is about? I don't deserve to....

No! Lux barks, turning to face him again. How do I know I can trust you? Corey, I don't know who you are! I don't know why you used drugs or what....what hole you had in your life.... She runs a hand through her hair in frustration. If I give you this chance Corey you need to stay clean. You need to stay safe. Because so much more depends on you staying alive this time than just you, okay?

Corey is stunned into silence for a moment, and he pulls into himself, casting his gaze down to the dock in a look approaching shame. I....yeah.....I get it....

But do you? Do you really get it?

Yeah, I really do! He replies plaintively. Corey takes in the horizon again, watching the radiant sun that seems to be in a state of perpetual setting. Going to the edge of the dock, he sits down, letting his feet hang over the inky waters. Do you know how much I'd like to be able to say I was abused, or that I had a shitty home life, or some kind of trauma that made me fuck up so bad? Man, I'd love to have something to blame it all on. But I don't....I just don't. I'm a fuck up. And I had plenty of time trapped in my own body, surrounded in darkness, to think about that. To beat myself up over it. And do you know what the worst part is? What makes me REALLY stupid? I did drugs because I wanted to LIVE. I didn't even want to die! I just wanted to avoid falling back down, I wanted to avoid feeling bad after riding the mania.

I don't understand.

He looks down at the water, seeing his reflection in it's gentle laps. I know this probably won't help you to feel better about me, but if we're gonna be stuck together like this you should probably know the truth. I'm bi-polar. Or at least, I was. Who knows if I still am. But yeah. Sometimes I'd be riding this manic high where I just felt on top of the world. Unstoppable. I didn't need the drugs then, the disorder WAS the drug. But when the good feelings started to go away, and I could feel the depression coming back....it felt like drowning. It scared me because I always knew what was coming. So I started to try to put it off. Keep the high going. And when I felt myself start to slide, I'd start using. So there it is.

Lux studied the young man for a moment, before sitting down beside him. I appreciate that. The honesty, I mean.

Sure. He looks at her. Tell me something about you.

Huh?

Well, the way I see it, this situation we're in, this is about as intimate as two people get....

Don't make this weirder than it already is.

I'm not trying to! But, it's kinda true. We're sharing the same body. I think we should really get to know each other.

Lux's gaze goes downcast, actively avoiding Corey's eyes. I don't have much to say. She speaks the words with an air of finality.

Corey seems to get the hint. Okay. Yeah. That's okay. Another uncomfortable silence reigns for a few minutes until....

If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dream
Where immobile steel rims crack
And the ditch in the back roads stop
Could you find me?
Would you kiss-a my eyes?
To lay me down
In silence easy...

Lux looks at Corey, her expression a combination of surprise and something undefinable. What are you doing?

Corey stops singing and meets her gaze again. He shrugs. Singing a song. You didn't like it?

But why?

Just to see if I still could. I'll stop if....

No. No, it's okay. It was...nice, actually. Lux looks back down at the water beneath their feet. I don't recognize it.

It's an old song called “Astral Weeks” by Van Morrison. My dad listened to him sometimes. I kinda like the really old stuff. Corey clears his throat and smiles, trying to remember where he left off. Then, settling on a different spot, he continues.

From the far side of the ocean
If I put the wheels in motion
And I stand with my arms behind me
And I'm pushin' on the door
Could you find me?
Would you kiss-a my eyes?
To lay me down
In silence easy
To be born again
To be born again.....

Lux doesn't speak again, content to sit and listen to Corey Smith from Sacramento California finish his song against the backdrop of her own mind. But in this moment, this placid instant in eternity, she gains a sense that a seed has been planted. Something she hadn't prepared for. Could never have prepared for.

And she begins to understand just how well and truly screwed she is.



So I'm going to reiterate myself a bit here, but I've had an outrageously trying day and I'm going to allow myself this luxury.

Don't waste my time.

Are you two listening? Let's do it again, for posterity.

Don't waste my time.

Now, you might think that with the level of animosity I'm leaving at your collective doorsteps, that I consider you, Cadryn and Natia, my enemies. I don't. You know what I do consider my enemy? Days are my enemy. Time is my enemy. For those of you that weren't paying attention I am trying to prepare this body and my mind for the most difficult undertaking of my life.

But even though I don't consider you enemies per se, that doesn't mean I won't break you both to serve as an example.

Cadryn,you're alive. You have, at least for the time being, found a reason to live I presume. Great. Truly. I'm not being sarcastic. I don't want you to die. Although apparently, neither do you. Because, as you have so conveniently noted, your plea for help was some sort of rhetorical game. I don't think it's funny. Nor do I completely believe that it wasn't sincere. But at any rate, it flies in the face of good taste and, if I may be so bold, seems like the kind of cheap tactic a man of excellence such as yourself shouldn't have to devolve to. Do I really bother you that much that you would fake a death wish in some desperate attempt to win an argument? That's not the mark of a champion Cadryn, it's the mark of a man whose fuel is desperately running low in the middle of the desert.

Cadryn, let's call a spade a spade. If you were as incredible as you say you are, you would have been Universal champion. Full stop. You want to point to results as being the only true measure of success here? Then by your own standard you don't measure up. You only knew how to win....half the time. I guess the other half the time you forgot how. It's even more mind boggling that you're attempting to rebut me by admitting that my core argument, that you are a man without purpose, WAS your purpose. Swoop in like some capricious fey God of wimsy, give up your hard fought earnings, leave...return....wash....repeat. Cadryn, that's not a legacy, it's schizophrenia. At best you are a glorified FLAKE, passing off a career of middling inconsistency and flight of fancy as some ode to the ages. That's not how that works Cadryn. Hercules didn't duck in and out of his labors because he felt like it. You can't be a part-time legend.

But I think the thing that bothers me the most about you is that you have the unmitigated gall to make light of death. To pretend that's its finality, and the waves of devastation that loss leaves behind is just some canny rhetorical trick you can renege on when I call you out on it too hard. In fact, I'm not sure what I find MORE insulting: that you actually wanted to die and are now making light of it because you're too weak and insecure to face the reality of your situation head on, or that it all really was some cheap ruse to garner attention to yourself like a child screaming a profanity at a family mixer.

You don't need my respect? Good. Because you don't have it. But you might be wishing you did when I'm still here winning in six months and you've quit again because you're bored and STILL not the Universal champion.

And now we have last, and certainly not least, Natia. I'll admit Natia, I was this close to writing you off. What folly that would have been. Yes Natia, I can indeed “swing 'em”, though not as well as I once could. It's a work in progress.

I will disagree with you on one point though, a point that I think is really quite demonstrative of how different we are. You described being in a fight as exhilarating. That the act of combat is what lets you know that you're alive. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you've never been in a fight at all. Your friend was right. There's nothing fun, or sexy, about getting hit. That's why we, as trained fighters, try to avoid it. But you clearly view a fight as some kind of game. A contest. Not in my world, Natia. Because in my world, a dropped guard can mean never seeing your loved ones again. In my world, being a fraction of a second too slow means that something that was once human but is no longer now knows what the blood in your throat tastes like. Oh sure, this is the XWF and our lives aren't at stake....are they? But for my entire adult life, I didn't have the luxury of fighting for sport or seeing getting hurt as some kind of game. Bruises aren't tattoos or a fashion accessory, they are signs that someone or something GOT TO YOU.

It's interesting Natia, that there is one thing about Cadryn that you seem to have missed: that both of you have a kind of death wish. Granted, yours isn't so overt, but the fact that you see wounding yourself, getting hurt, as some kind of badge of honor is something that, like Cadryn's supposed desire to die, offends me on a deep level.

I don't want to die. I don't want to get hurt. Pain isn't fun, or a game. Pain is real. Pain is loss, and fear, and misery. But most of all, pain is failure. It cannot be avoided, but it should ALWAYS be mitigated. That's something that a true warrior understands. And it's been to my personal experience that those who don't, typically don't last long.

Don't misunderstand me Natia, you clearly have a degree of respect for me. I appreciate that. But we are of two very different minds when it comes to the sanctity of life. Pain is not life. It's not existence. And worshiping at it's altar is a fool's errand that will dig a hole in you so deep you may never escape it's clutches. Trust me. And see you soon.