Margo watched through the Multi Man's eyes as Carl assisted Whitey to his feet. She peered back at Mason, who stood over Jack's unconscious body, nudging him with the tip of her boot. 

"Mason," said Margo, "we need to let him go. He's not helping us out anymore."

Mason forced herself to laugh. "He's never helped us, Sandoval. He was more of an amusing experiment. Most of the redemption therapy patients are."

"Then why have you been keeping him around this whole time?"

Mason nudged him again. "Just the slightest ounce of sympathy, I guess. Besides, only Psychwatch can dispose of one of its many utilities."

Margo curled the Multi Man's hands into fists and said something she'd immediately regret. "I am Psychwatch!"

"Not right now, you're not," said Mason, flashing Margo a quick glance. "And if we get you back, you won't be anymore."

"Alright, enough," said Carl. "We need to start searching before it's too late. We don't how long you've been like this, Margo. And look at how much blood this body has lost already!"

The Man's missing limb stung like the open wound it was, but Margo's weakness felt restricted to her mind alone. The body was hurt, but she as a person, as a concept, believed she was withering away out of existence.

Carl looked at Whitey. "Does this man plan on surviving any of this?" he said, pointing at the Man.

Whitey shook his head, and Margo said, "No. I don't think any of them do."

"Oh shoot, it makes sense you'd know," Carl said. "What have you heard from him? Or discovered."

"Carl...it's been days since the antipsychotics wore off. Even if I told you what I heard him say, how would we know if it was real or not?"

Carl's eyebrow curled. "Are you still hearing voices or seeing things that shouldn't be there when you come back into his body?"

"So far, no. But when I go back into the PACER, sometimes I see and hear things. Like Ellie."

"Ellie," Carl repeated, taking a few seconds to click. "Oh! She isn't hurting you, is she?"

Embarrassment hid behind the Multi Man's mask, and the feeling wasn't even his. "I wish I could tell you exactly what's going on in here, Carl," said Margo. "But we just need to get me out of here."

Without a word, Whitey started walking, a flick of his fingers the only signal for them to follow him.

"Commissioner," said Carl. Margo sensed his distaste for her. "Let's go."

"Go on ahead with Sandoval," Mason replied, glaring down at Jack as if she'd unearthed a valuable relic. "I'll be waiting here."

Margo rolled her eyes beneath the Man's mask, and she watched Carl replicate her frustration with a long groan. Were she not brought down by exhaustion, she would've been delighted that Carl sensed perfectly that she was still there in that body that didn't belong to her.

But the moment she followed behind him and Whitey, the PACER yanked her back in.

She stood on a vast plane of dirt, a world in which humanity had never reached its full potential. No buildings, no sidewalk, no modified landforms like canals or tunnels. The sky above her was a featureless, flint-colored haze, the sun no more than a woolly ball of light hovering above the atmosphere. Her only company were her two younger counterparts, Pre-Erasure and Post-Erasure, though another individual stood yards away.

Margo Present met the sky above her and screamed out for Carl, unable to warn him that the body had been repossessed.

* * *

Carl jumped as another explosion rocked the building, his Fatemaker at the ready. Whitey's refusal to flinch rattled his bones. He wasn't afraid to die, Carl thought. There was an agenda built into his head, poured in through a hole dug out with an icepick. Whitey was clay.

Carl rested a finger against the ThoughtControl piece in his ear. "Nikki," he said, "how many more Sentients are there?"

No answer.

"Nikki?" he said again. Still nothing. "Thomas, do you know how many Sentients your boss has built?"

"No," said Whitey. While Carl crouched at the sound of the next explosion, the boy retained his gait. Even Margo remained tranquil amidst the chaos, Carl observed.

"Margo, how are you holding up?" he said. "You okay?"

The Multi Man's body nodded at him, the remaining hand shielding the bloody stump where an arm had been. Carl knew something was off already, but another urgent matter grabbed his attention.

"Andrade, Kusanagi," he said through his piece, "where are you?"

"We're fucking cornered!" replied Andrade, and the distant gunfire sounded two feet away through their pieces. "We're nearing the exit, but we've got six masked men on us and two Sentients standing by! We miss a shot, we could end up taking out half the building!"

"Shit. We'll be there soon! How's Kusanagi?"

"Coming and going just like Sandoval. He's bleeding badly. Have you seen the commissioner anywhere?"

"She just marched on through to find Holloway. She really just leave you both there?"

Andrade didn't answer. They both knew it. Everyone knew it. 

"Nikki isn't responding," Carl said to break the silence. "Has anyone else been able to reach out to her?"

"I'll try," said Kusanagi. "She's overwhelmed, but she'll listen to me."

"Thomas," said the Multi Man's body. Carl was still too preoccupied to notice the switch.

It took Whitey's hand forcing into his chest, freezing him in place, to reprioritize the situation. The boy's eyes radiated defeat. He'd been found, and now there was no running away.

"Shit," Carl whispered again, and he carefully turned toward the Multi Man, whose head had been trained in his direction before he could connect the dots.

"Keep the gun facing in front of you," said the Multi Man. "We all know you can't solve anything anymore by shooting me."

Suddenly, Carl himself felt like he'd be switched out with a more effective alter. Anyone who could do what he could without the rage and the doubt.

"Thomas Caulfield," said the Man. "That's a name you haven't heard in a very long time, haven't you, Whitey?"

Carl saw that Whitey was crying.

"Yep, there's definitely a reason for this behavior," said the Man. "If I haven't killed him by the end of the day, you should see him through a Scan, Maslow. I'm sure you and your colleagues will find something interesting."

"What do you want?" said Carl.

"I'd like my arm back. What happened to it?"

"It's gone. You'll just have to regrow one like the rest of us. Where is Margo?"

The Man tilted his head. "If I tell you, you might change your mind about wanting to find her."

The barrel of Carl's Fatemaker met him point blank before either of them could blink. "Where the hell is she?" Carl asked again.

"Allow me the privilege of a prosthetic arm," the Man said, "and I will tell you exactly where she is."

The Fatemaker shifted to Subjugate Mode. The Man chuckled at the sight. "Y'know," he said, "when it comes to learning a man's secrets, the power in his brain has to be on for it to be possible."

Carl jabbed the barrel of the Fatemaker into the Man's shoulder by his remaining arm.

"Ah, I see what you're getting at," said the Man. "You'd like to bribe me with two cybernetic arms instead. Frankly, I'm fine with just one. And I'm sure Margo would, too. Don't you think?"

Carl said nothing.

"Whitey," said the Multi Man, "were you heading to the armory? Answer honestly, please."

The boy was still crying. Carl jumped again at the sound of another explosion beyond the walls. He composed himself as best as he could.

"Thomas Caulfield."

Whitey immediately stopped crying. He turned around to face his superior, his red eyes glowing as tears glistened along the rims of his lower eyelids.

"How about we show Officer Maslow here the armory?"

Whitey nodded his head, and he resumed walking. No change in direction. Carl pondered the boy's intentions from the very beginning as he pursued the two enigmas before him.

"Is that where you're keeping her?" he asked the Man, and he jumped at the sound of gunfire resonating down the hall.

"Last we checked," the Man replied. "Are you gonna shoot me if she isn't?"

Carl ignored him, returning a finger to his ThoughtControl piece. Nikki, he thought, answer me. Are you okay?

No, she replied.

What's wrong?

Everything.

Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. All you need to do is work on the drones. Find the Sentients, keep an eye on whoever's left. Don't hold yourself responsible for our losses.

"Alright, you know what?" the Multi Man said. "I admire you, Maslow, so I'll just be honest with you. Margo isn't in the armory. However, I still do need something from there in order to get you to her."

"What is it?" Carl growled.

"A cybernetic arm like the one Inspector Andrade has. If we have several, we can replace hers with a lamer, cheaper model should anything happen to it."

Carl slammed the Multi Man against the wall, splattering it with blood from the wound. He felt the PACER halo hidden behind the mask as he jammed the Fatemaker against the Man's head.

"TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK SHE IS!"

Trembling. Whimpering. That was the response Carl got. The Man's voice was higher, more hopeless. "Carl? What's happening?"

"Margo!" Carl exclaimed, and he turned the Multi Man's body so she could see him again. "Margo, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to."

"Did we find my body yet?"

Carl gulped. "No, but we're still looking! We'll find it soon, I prom—"

The Multi Man's fist swiftly met Carl's throat. The officer tumbled back. Words couldn't leave his tongue, only coughs and gurgles. Carl collapsed to the floor, grasping his neck. His Fatemaker slipped from his hands and landed out of reach.

"She's still gone," said the Man in his normal voice, and he marched over to the Fatemaker and stomped on it until it bled sparks. "For the record," he said, "I only need the arm to stop the bleeding. I could have you and the rest of Psychwatch on your knees even if all that's left of me is my beating heart."

Carl's throat ached. He wanted to vomit. He felt his face growing beet-red, the veins popping out like worms vacating soil. Everyone else wanted control, but he wanted to be there when Margo would emerge from the PACER with her integrity intact.

"One more thing, Carl Maslow," said the Multi Man. "Neither me nor my young subordinate here have fully learned how to install a cybernetic limb. Perhaps you could get Inspector Andrade to assist you."

Carl directed his swelling rage at Whitey, hoping to break the stoic facade he was too damn good at putting on. The eyes, Carl thought. Those were the only way he could sense the guilt if such a thing was present.

"Get Andrade," said the Man, "and I'll show you where Margo has been this whole time."

* * *

"Carl!" shouted Margo from an unreachable dimension. Her younger selves took her hands, scanning the sky for her target.

"What's happening out there?" asked her Post-Erasure self. "And who's that person out in the distance?"

Margo Present stood on her tiptoes but returned to earth, knowing another scream would be just as futile as the ones before. She followed her Pre-Erasure self as they shifted their sights to a humanoid thing standing yards away. At a distance, it was nothing more than a silhouette, a three-dimensional shadow tracing Margo Present's every move. Then it started walking.

"Is that a person?" whispering Margo Post, but her future self gestured her to shush and look after their youngest self, taking Pre-Erasure's hand.

"Is it gonna hurt us?" said Margo Pre.

"No, I won't let it," said Margo Present as she aimed her Fatemaker at the incoming stranger.

A familiar voice reached her ears with the passing breeze. "Wow. I always said we Sandovals only look after ourselves. Guess your brain took that to its logical conclusion. I gotta say, though, you were fucking adorable when you were young."

"It's that lady!" whispered Margo Pre.

"Shit!" said Margo Post. "When you were gone, this girl showed up and—"

"I know exactly who she is," said Margo Present, curling her finger around the trigger. "Hello again, Ellie."

The distant individual materialized before them in the blink of an eye, frightening the younger counterparts. Ellie looked the same as she did the day she sent Margo spiraling downward. Perfect posture, dark red lipstick layered over a playful smirk, long brown hair styled in a wavy bob that reached her shoulders. She stood two inches over the host whose mind she plagued.

"Took a while to find you," Ellie said. "Almost thought your mind expanded in size or something." She glanced down at Pre and Post. "How are you girls doing? Is she treating you alright?"

Neither of the younger counterparts said a word.

Without glancing back at Margo Present, Ellie asked, "Have you told them what I mean to you?"

"Have you?" Margo said.

Ellie smiled. "I've said some things."

Margo raised her Fatemaker to the illusion's head, forcing her to laugh. "They were crazy things!" Ellie said. "Wanna hear—"

BAM!

Margo's young counterparts shrieked as a stream of blood sprayed from the back of Ellie's head, the Present not even recoiling from the shot. Ellie stumbled back three feet but remained standing, sneering at the person who once believed her to be a sister. Blood oozed out of the hole in her forehead, and more trailed out each nostril down to her chin. All she could do was laugh more and spit the blood into the soil beside her.

"Here's what I told them!" she said. "I said 'Hi! I'm the sister you never knew about. I'm the sickness you never knew about! I followed you around for years, watching over you, watching you grow, watching the world show you how meaningless your existence is, watch you receive all the punishment you deserve!' And then I gave them a solution. I told them the only way they could stop themselves from ever having to see me!"

"I'm not interested," said Margo Present, and she fired another shot, this time through Ellie's shoulder. A chunk of skin dangled off her arm, and blood poured down to her fingertips.

"I told them all they had to do was kill themselves!" Ellie shrieked. "Throw away life. THROW IT FUCKING AWAY!"

Five more shots, all through her torso. Ellie refused to fall. She had that in common with Margo. But she never raised her voice to a grating howl ever again. Instead, she looked down at herself, watched blood soak into her clothes, reduce her allure to an exposed, ineffective facade.

"I'll never leave you," she said weakly. "I'll be with you when you die."

Margo Present lowered her gun. "Girls," she said, "we have paranoid schizophrenia. Symptoms started exhibiting around the age of twenty-two, as is usually the case. She is one of them."

Margo Present had a counterpart on each side, Pre to her right, taking her hand, and Post to her left. They watched Ellie lower herself to the ground, unable to look her host in the eye, instead watching her blood coat the dirt.

"Schizophrenia?" Margo Post asked, her voice slightly higher than a whisper.

"That's right," said Margo Present. "You hear her or see her when you get older, try your hardest to ignore her. Get a prescription for antipsychotics, and tell Mom and Carl. They'll help you take care of it."

"Is it easy living like this?"

Margo Present sighed. "Life will never get easier, even if we never had to deal with any of this. But it'll be harder for us to give up. I promise."

She glared up at the sky once again.

* * *

Andrade fired over a table as cover, burning holes in the wall and oftentimes grazing the arms or torsos of her attackers. To her side, Kusanagi waited to pass out and wake up somewhere better, studying his clothes as a murky shade of crimson overtook them. Voices had been screaming their names into their ears through their ThoughtControl pieces.

"Fuck!" Andrade shouted as she took cover beside Kusanagi. "There's too many of them, and the Sentients are still there."

"Eradicator Mode," Kusanagi coughed. "Have you tried it yet?"

"Joseph, even one incorrect hit with that mode could still set off what's left of them."

Kusanagi exhaled a painful breath. "Try the masked men first. Then the Sentients."

Andrade nodded and touched her ThoughtControl piece. "Maslow, what's your position?"

"I have the leader in captivity," Carl said, "but he won't cooperate unless I fulfill his request."

"What does he want from you?"

"He needs me to stop the bleeding where Holloway blew his arm off. And he needs your help installing a prosthetic."

Andrade visualized the issue, hoping to pinpoint any fabrications in the Multi Man's request. Not many potential ways to deceive them. The installation would indeed prevent him from bleeding out, but it would also provide him with a weapon. An easily vanquishable one, however. Not much in the way of immediate danger apart from her current dilemma of going against several armed crooks and two walking bombs.

"I'll see what I can do," she told Carl, "if I can somehow get us out of here."

"Forget about me, Daniela," said Kusanagi. "Find yourself a way out. I'll take care of them."

"You can't even stand up!" she said.

"I know. And I doubt I'll stand again." Kusanagi grunted as he sat up, not even flinching as a few bullets collided with the wall just above him. "But you can still help them. You can still help Sandoval."

The Fatemaker trembled in Andrade's arms. Bullets raced toward her but connected with the walls around her, spraying her and Kusanagi with dust. She pondered what awaited her on the other side of the wall, how many of her fellow officers fell victim to stray shots, how many of their own masked men had been struck. What value did human life possess in their eyes? If it did at all.

Through the bullet holes, she realized the wall came between her and a three-way intersection in a corridor.

"You see that?" she told Kusanagi. "There's a way out."

"Great," he said, managing a weak smile. "Good luck. Let me know if I can do anything to help."

"Come on, Joseph, there has to be a way to get you out."

"My only options are a bodybag or a dustpan, Daniela." Kusanagi glanced at her. "You get to leave alive. Do it."

She took Kusanagi's hand. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Just live and get better. And now that you've pointed out the holes in the wall, I have an idea." He winced as he raised a finger to his ThoughtControl piece. "Atkinson, send a drone to my location."

"Y-Y-Yes, sir," she said, and seconds later, she added, "S-S-Sir, there are two Sentients just outside the room!"

"I know. Tell me when you're within six feet of them," Kusanagi said, and he flashed Andrade an ardent gaze. "Andrade, listen to me. On the count of three, I need you to blow a hole in that wall and run out as fast as you can. Don't look back. Just fire. Don't even change modes."

With her mouth ajar, Andrade nodded. "And you?"

"I'll cover you. Trust me."

"I'm here, K-K-Kusanagi," Nikki said. "I'm on the other side of the wall behind the Sentients. Is th-th-that what—"

"That's perfect, Atkinson, thank you. Now, when I tell you to, I need you to send out the pulse."

"But sir!"

"It was great working with you, Atkinson," he said, his smile breaking Andrade's heart. "Keep finding people to trust. You've got a bright future