Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Who are you?

The voice woke her, as she slowly stretched out.

"Who are you?" She looked up and saw the intercom box in front of her face.

I'm….

"Hello?" She asked, crawling toward the intercom and ignoring the way her mind sort of trailed off when trying to answer the question.

"I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself." The strange voice on the intercom said, the cheery tone not doing much to assuage her unease. "Hey there, you on the table! Would you mind taking a brief survey?”

The disembodied voice coming from the intercom was extremely weird and creepy.

"Who is this?" She blinked, unintentionally staring directly into the camera.

"Five questions." Creepy Intercom Lady replied, brushing off her question. "I know you're feeling sleepy but this will make you feel right as rain."

The voice can be Creepy Intercom Lady if she won't give her a name to call her by.

She looked around the conference room, feeling trapped in with no windows. Something isn't right… She slowly slid off the table, stumbling as her legs took a second to kick back into gear.

"Who's speaking?" She asked again, making her way over to the door.

She grasped the handle and felt resistance as she tried to open the door.

"Oh, no…" She muttered, frantically trying it again and again.

When she had definitively proven that the door was most sincerely locked, she began to pound on the door angrily, desperate to escape. "Hey! Open the door!"

The intercom crackled and Creepy Intercom Lady spoke again. "I'll be thrilled to chat once you've answered the survey. Shall we start with question one?"

She braced her foot against the door, trying to brute force it open. "I'm not taking your survey…" She muttered, banging and yanking on the door.

Creepy Intercom Lady repeated her question. "Shall we start with question one?"

She groaned, slamming her shoulder repeatedly in the door to get the lock to budge. "Hey!"

The door remained steadfast, keeping her from whatever else was out there. She tried again. "Let me out!"

"Hey!" No luck. She tried once more. "Open the door!"

"Fuck!" She kicked the door, alone, angry and slightly afraid. She was stuck here, wherever 'here' was.

She sighed, knowing that she wasn't getting out any time soon, leaning against the wall next to the door and sliding until she sat down.

There was silence. Eerie, empty silence. Creepy Intercom Lady had shut up and the buzz of the machine itself was silent. There was no one else in the room, just the long table she had woken up on surrounded by about twenty chairs.

She decided to take a moment to think, and assess the plan to escape. The door was well and truly locked and there was no window. So her only option was to wait and hide until someone came in, like a janitor or someone and sneak out then.

There was one major flaw in that idea. She didn't know if anyone would be coming. She was stuck here, alone.

"…Hey?" She asked, out of other options.

"Hello." Creepy Intercom Lady said.

"Five questions?"

"Five questions."

"What do I get at the end?" She sat up a little.

"Depends on your answers."

"Alright."

"Question one. Who are you?"

"That's the first question?" She had to scoff, what an obvious first question.

"Just a first name will do." Creepy Intercom Lady said. "If you don't know an answer, feel free to just say 'unknown'."

Why would she need to say that? Her name was…

What was her name, again?

She tried to go back through her memories, but the earliest was Creepy Intercom Lady asking that very same question.

Who are you?

"What is this?" She asked, fear coursing through her as she stuck closer to the wall, hoping that it would absorb her.

"Alright. Unknown." Creepy Intercom Lady said flatly. "In what US State or Territory were you born?"

Another blank. She didn't even know where she was born.

"Wait—"She protested, needing a second to rack her brain, find any information at all.

"Which state or territory, please."

She had nothing. No memory of where she grew up, none of it.

"I… don't know."

"Unknown." Creepy Intercom Lady moved on. "Name any US state or territory.."

"Fuck, I dunno… Delaware…" She threw up her hands as Creepy Intercom Lady confirmed her answer.

"What is Mr Lucas' favourite breakfast?"

"What? I don't know that…" She sighed. "Makes no sense."

"I know, right?! Unknown." Creepy Intercom Lady said. "As a reminder, this is your final question… To the best of your knowledge, what is or was the colour of your mother's eyes?"

She closed her eyes, trying to picture what her own mother looked like, but was met by nothing, no synapses firing off a memory, not even an inkling.

She opened her eyes wide, startled and creeped out. She had a mother… and even if she didn't, someone would have told her what she looked like… why can't she remember it?

What else can't she remember?

Dread rolled up her spine, making her stiff and pale. "What… What's happening?" She asked, terrified as to what Creepy Intercom Lady wanted for her, her purpose in the room, why she couldn't remember anything before waking up in on the table in the middle of the room.

"Okay, to reiterate, your answers are: Unknown, unknown, Delaware, unknown, and unknown…”

She scarpered backward as she heard the turning of a lock behind her ear.

The door was silent as it opened to reveal a woman in a white blouse and blue skirt, clutching a large binder. As the woman spoke, she realised that this was Creepy Intercom Lady.

"That was a perfect score." Creepy Intercom Lady grinned.

Chapter Text

Ahlaam sat in her car that felt far too empty and lonely, sobbing profusely.

Her Taavi was dead, and she had to go on.

Ahlaam could barely breathe, the weight of loss crushing her chest and choking her with tears.

Her Taavi was dead and she was alive and it killed her to live with that.

Ahlaam wiped her face with kleenex when she stopped crying, and got out of the car, crossing the parking lot to the large office building of Chazira, Inc., the company that she now worked for.

She shoved the tissue into her pocket and coughed from the sheer cold winter in Kier.

The building was large and imposing, slate grey stone standing out like a shadow against the white snow that covered everything else.

The large windows looked like eyes as they allowed glimpses into the mysterious and important work going on within.

Warm air greeted Ahlaam as she went inside, making a beeline for the front desk.

"Ahlaam Scout?" She asked the receptionist, showing her company issue ID.

The receptionist looked up, grabbed the phone and dialled her boss.

The clock ticked and everything was eerily silent as Ahlaam waited for a response.

"They're ready for you, Ms Scout." The receptionist said, letting Ahlaam pass. She winced at that title, having fought too much over still being Mrs Scout, not Ms, wanting to hold onto her dead husband a little longer.

Ahlaam walked through the hallways, to the locker room for the severed employees.

She went to her assigned locker and opened it up.

The locker was bare, not many personal items inside. A pair of office-appropriate flats, rather than her snowboots that she had on, a fitted blazer to replace her winter coat and a drawer, containing a second ID, and Chazira issue watch that she exchanged her regular ones for.

She slipped the ID lanyard over her neck and put her blazer on.

Ahlaam confirmed that her locker was locked before walking over to Jud, the security guard, who checked that she didn't have anything unauthorised on her person.

Once it was confirmed, Ahlaam thanked Jud and walked over to the elevator at the end of the hall, pressing the button to go down.

The doors opened and she stepped inside.

The doors closed and the elevator took her down to the severed floor.

Everything cut out as she descended.

~*~

Ahlaam S heard the ding of the elevator and she opened her eyes.

The elevator door opened and she was greeted by the familiar white walls of the severed floor, the only world she ever knew.

The walk down the labyrinthine hallways of the severed floor from the elevator to Macrodata Refinement was familiar and easy, so she took her time.

Ahlaam S shoved her hand into her pocket, finding a used tissue that her outie must've forgotten about, so she discarded that in the nearest bin and kept walking.

She arrived at the familiar green carpets of MDR, where Rose H, her coworker, was already at her desk refining.

AJ G came in last, so he wouldn't be here for another ten minutes at least, but no Addie A, as department chief, she always arrived first, but she was gone.

"No Addie again today?" Ahlaam S asked Rose H.

"Nope. I really needed her to. I've almost finished Sagitta and she needs to be here otherwise I'm not getting refiner of the quarter." Rose H pouted.

Ahlaam S turned on the crystal cube of her own face she had won for completing the Antikythera file and then the computer.

She scrolled through the list of files, before settling on the most pressing one to refine.

Ahlaam S coughed.

"Your outie get you sick?" Rose H asked, lowering her divider so she could see Ahlaam S.

"I don't know, probably." Ahlaam S shrugged as she continued refining the data pools on her screen.

"I'm on track for that waffle party at end of quarter." Rose H replied, mostly teasing with her threat. "Cough on me and I'll rip your larynx out."

"Wouldn't handling my germ-ridden larynx make it more likely for you to get sick?" Ahlaam S replied, a slight smile on her face.

"Hey kids, what's for dinner?" AJ G walked in and both Rose H and Ahlaam S groaned at that.

"AJ, you know how much we hate that joke." Rose H rolled her eyes as she kept refining, having already earned her (mostly self-imposed) title as best refiner. "How many reasons did we come up with, Ahlaam?"

"Eight." Ahlaam S replied, depositing some numbers into the boxes on her screen.

"One, it's demeaning, and two, what kind of dad are you if you're making the kids make dinner?" Rose H elaborated.

"No Addie again?" AJ G deliberately brushed past this, shocked and mildly offended at the slight against their great founder, Kier Lucas.

"I think she's sick or something, Ahlaam's coming down with something too." Rose H confirmed as AJ G sat down at his desk.

"We don't know that for sure, Rose." Ahlaam S countered.

"Good morning, Macrodata Refinement!" Mr Milchick, Deputy Manager of the Severed Floor, came into the department. AJ G stood up respectfully as his boss walked in.

Chapter Text

"Now, Ahlaam S, Mr Cobel has moved into the much larger corner office recently, a compliment would be most appreciated." Mr Milchick said as he escorted Ahlaam S toward the office of the manager of the Severed Floor.

"Got it…" Ahlaam S replied, turning to her supervisor curiously. "What's this meeting about?"

"Mr Cobel will explain it all." Mr Milchick answered plainly, not looking back at Ahlaam S as they rounded the corner and pressed on.

Ahlaam S sighed and kept quiet, knowing better than to keep asking questions at this stage, but her worry for her best friend, Addie A, kept gnawing at her.

They stopped in front of an office door labelled "Mr Cobel— Floor Manager" and Mr Milchick opened it, stepping inside and gesturing for Ahlaam S to enter.

"I have Ahlaam S for you, sir." Mr Milchick announced as Ahlaam S stepped inside.

Mr Cobel was sat at his large desk, staring straight at them with a slightly too wide smile that unsettled their bones.

Mr Milchick closed the door behind him and stood silently with his back to it.

"Nice office, sir. Better location than the old one." Ahlaam S looked around at the dark wood panelling and bright fake sunlight streaming through a false window.

Mr Cobel scoffed, letting out a small "Pssh" sound as he rolled his eyes.

"This old place? I hate it…" Mr Cobel laughed, interlacing his fingers, forming a triangle with his hands. "And we have the board with us."

Mr Cobel gestured to the multifunction speaker/intercom in the centre of his desk, to Ahlaam S' surprise. "I'm here with—"

"Ahlaam S…" She listened to the silence of the board on the other end of the intercom.

Ahlaam S wrung her hands nervously. "If this is about me subbing for Addie as floor manager again, I should be fine, I've done it many times before—"

"Addie A is no longer working for this company." The smarmy smile on Mr Cobel's face dropped in an instant.

Ahlaam S'e eyes widened in disbelief. "…What?"

"She was no longer an employee of Chazira, Incorporated as of last week."

"I am very sorry, Ahlaam S, you two were my favourite office friendship." Mr Milchick offered a slight comisserating smile.

Mr Cobel shot Mr Milchick a look and continued discussing what will happen after Addie A's dismissal.

Ahlaam S wasn't paying attention, feeling incredibly heartbroken over the fact that her best friend had just disappeared without another word. Quitting this job meant their death.

How dare Addie A's Outie… She's gone forever…

No more silly jokes between them, no late afternoons together slacking off from refining outside of Milchick and AJ G's discerning views…

Addie A being gone left a giant gaping wound in Ahlaam S' existence, having been a constant presence in her life since waking up in the chamber to Addie A's voice asking who she was…

Ahlaam S was suddenly aware of her bosses staring at her, waiting for a response.

"Huh? What did you just say?" She blinked, returning to the present moment, to the rule

"—As the second most senior worker in the department, you will be inheriting Addie A's position as department chief, onboarding new hires and managing the other refiners." Mr Cobel repeated.

"Oh?! Um, Thank you." Ahlaam S smiled nervously, swallowing her internal heartbreak, needing to work and act proud of her new promotion.

"Please, put your lanyard on my desk." Mr Cobel stood up behind his desk, grabbing a department chief ID from the drawer.

Ahlaam S took her lanyard from her neck and laid it opposite the new one. She swapped lanyards, putting her new one on.

"Congratulations, Ahlaam S, on your promotion." Mr Cobel said, a smile returning to his face. "A handshake is available on request."

"Thank you again, sir. I'd… like to have the handshake, please."

"Of course." He stepped over to Ahlaam S, extending his pale hand out.

Ahlaam S awkwardly shook Mr Cobel's hand, which was slightly cold.

Mr Cobel removed his hand, replacing it in his dark coat. "You have a brand new hire to onboard. Go! Get to it!" He shooed her out as he retreated to his desk.

Ahlaam S walked out of the room, followed by Mr Milchick.

She paused before she left. "Oh, and thank you to the board."

"The board will not be contributing vocally to this meeting." Mr Cobel finished, waving her off with a flick of his hand.

"Don't worry if this sets you back, AJ G attended Addie A on several of her onboardings and he'll be with you…" Mr Milchick said as they walked down the hallways to the Waking Chamber.

"I'm fine." Ahlaam S said a little too harshly, ignoring the way that it would be a slight comfort to have a friend helping her.

Mr Milchick led Ahlaam S down another series of corridors to the Waking Chamber, where she would supervise and onboard her new hire, another woman.

AJ G was waiting outside the door for the pair of them.

"Congratulations, Ahlaam." AJ G inclined his head slightly, stepping off of the wall to walk in with them, survey binder tucked under his arm.

"Thanks…"

"I shall leave the pair of you to it." Mr Milchick said, before walking off down the white hallways of the severed floor.

"Let's do this…" Ahlaam S went into the viewing room to the Waking Chamber, where the new hire, a dark haired woman in a teal dress, laid asleep on the large table in the middle of the room.

Ahlaam S flicked open the binder.

"So, what am I doing?" She looked up at AJ G, searching for answers.

"Just choose the questions based on their responses and you should be fine…" AJ G gently rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Ahlaam S smiled, comforted by her friend as she began to flick through to the first question in the survey, noting what the typical response should be and how to proceed.

She pressed the button activating the intercom.

"Who are you?" Ahlaam S asked, watching intently for the new innie's response.

The new hire slowly stirred awake.

Ahlaam S repeated the question. "Who are you?"

"…Hello?" The woman stared into the camera in the intercom.

AJ G took the binder and flicked through. "Shit."

Ahlaam S took her finger off the intercom. "What?"

"You forgot the preamble…" AJ G handed it back to her on the correct page.

"Yeah, shit was the right response…" Ahlaam pressed the button again and laughed nervously. "I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself— Hey there, you on the table! Would you mind taking a brief survey?"

Aside from the new hire, Mags C, as the form said, trying to escape and break into their viewing rolm from their shared door, it went wel, once she had calmed down enough to answer the survey.

Ahlaam S walked into the Waking Chamber, binder in hand, a grin on her face. "That was a perfect score."

Mags C stared back, utterly confused.