𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒

019. what the hell happened

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED," Naoki demanded as the five of them sat down on a large boulder. "I don't want any sugarcoating or anything. Tell me, cold and straight." 

"What's the last thing you remember?" Xandra returned. 

They were sitting under the shade of a green tree, sunlight falling in dappled patterns along the grey of the rock. Paris held up a hand to block a patch of light that fell right into his eye. Dexter passed him his baseball cap. Behind them, kids screamed and ran along a playground bridge, thundering past, giving them good sound coverage. 

"Kasper Daniels," she said. "We were stalking him down to remove the damia." 

"Main character moment," Paris sang quietly. Dexter smacked him. "What? Naoki killed it." 

Xandra leaned back, blowing air out of her mouth. "That was so long ago." 

Theo nodded. "Like, I forgot it happened." 

"Kasper Daniels, Jesus," Dexter rubbed his forehead. "You know he graduated to become a baseball player?" 

Naoki blinked. "He graduated?" 

"Okay, look," Xandra said, leaning forward. "That happened. We followed Kasper, killed his damia. But that's where your memory splits from reality, right?" 

Naoki scrunched her forehead, a headache coming on. "...I got kidnapped." 

"And then you and the Queen of Shadows fight, right? You find out she's your mother, Illias comes to save you, but she catches you both, and you fight her to the death," Xandra supplied. 

Naoki looked lost, shutting her eyes. "Yes, yes that's what happened. You're saying that it didn't?" 

"Well, it didn't happen quite like that," Theo said haltingly, wincing. 

Naoki steeled herself. "So then what?" 

Xandra raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" 

She nodded. "Yes. Tell me." 

Xandra rattled them off, and with every word, Naoki grew paler. "Your biological mother is Jazira Mae, a convicted criminal currently residing in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, nearly at the end of her sentence. She was a former triad member, caught on a drug bust. Your biological father is Kiernan Rox. A while ago, Jazira and Kiernan had met in the dream world, she an unregistered Walker and he a budding Keeper." 

Naoki barely registered Theo's hand on her arm, she shook him off like a fly. 

"Jazira was caught while pregnant, and gave birth to you in the facility hospital. You were almost put up for adoption, but Kiernan convinced Jazira to allow Rosa and Hannah to take you in. Rosa was the Keeper general at the time, Hannah was the combat trainer. Kiernan wasn't able to care for you. Mirage was in upheaval, something about psychedelic drugs influencing the world, and he had to live in Mirage full time." 

"If you thought the seventies were crazy, this shit was nuts," Paris mused.

"So who is the Queen of Shadows?" Naoki demanded. "How is she not real?" 

"She's real," Xandra and Theo exchanged looks. "She's very real." 

"Who is she?" Naoki slapped her hand down on the grass. 

"She is you," Theo said quietly. 

Naoki sat in the silence of her shock, trees rustling around them. Her friends watched her, concerned, but all she could see was her vision tunnelling, the world swirling around her. 

"The Queen of Shadows was your code name. Because in Mirage, you can manipulate darkness. It's... terrifying."

Was anything she knew real?