My eyes opened pouring light in from, I surfaced from a deep void. My body was sitting upright, my arms hanging limply at my sides. Cold metal compressed against my spine through a thin layer of fabric. I was locked in place suspended inside a mech suit. 

I blinked. The world around me was dark except for the flashing of countless lights, their glow reflecting off the smooth, curved interior that encased me. A cockpit. Screens flickered with unreadable data, symbols I should have recognized but didn't. Yet, I knew. Somehow, I knew.

I was inside a mech suit.

And it was moving.

A soft vibration thrummed through my bones as the suit's powerful limbs carried me forward, the impact of its steps rippling through the structure. Outside, blurred streaks of green and brown whipped past—the towering trees of a dense forest, rushing by in a relentless sprint.

I had no idea where we were going. No idea how I had gotten here.

Panic unfurled like a snake coiling around my ribs. I reached for the controls—instinct overrode confusion—but my fingers met with resistance, nothing worked. Dead switches. Useless levers. My breath came quicker, fogging the glass before me. My mind blanked as I tried to remember something resembling a code.

"Hey! Stop!" My voice cracked as I struggled against the restraints. I twisted, yanked, fought against the unyielding metal, but the suit didn't even stutter. It pressed forward, relentless, my struggles beneath its notice.

"What is happening?" I demanded.

For several agonizing seconds, there was nothing but the rhythmic pounding of metal feet against the earth. The whisper of wind against the armor. Then, just when I thought the silence would stretch forever, a voice—calm, mechanical, and laced with something almost... personal—spoke.

"Be calm, no harm shall come to you."

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded. My voice echoed inside the metal casing.

A moment passed. Then, a voice, low and even, hummed through the suit's speakers.

"Away from them."

Them. My breath hitched. The mech knew something I didn't.

I swallowed hard. "Who?"

A pause. The suit didn't stop, but I swore I felt it hesitate.

"You are safer here."

That wasn't an answer. That was avoidance. Could machines do that?

"Who is your master?" I asked, gripping the armrests even though they were useless to me. If I was stuck here, I needed something—anything—to make sense of this.

"Who is your master?" I asked. If I was stuck here I might as well get some answers. 

"You are."

The answer sent a shiver through me.

I didn't command it. I hadn't even known it existed before waking up here. But it had responded without hesitation, as though it had always belonged to me.

I swallowed. "I didn't order you to do anything."

"You did."

I clenched my fists, trying to steady myself. "Why would I do that?"

The mech's response was immediate, yet weighted, as if the answer had always been there, waiting for me to ask.

"To survive."

The word echoed inside the suit, reverberating through my bones. A chill settled over me.

"Survive what?" I pressed.

A pause. Then, in that same unwavering voice:

"The ones who did this to you."

My pulse pounded. "Who? Who did this to me?"

The mech didn't slow, but for the first time, I felt something—hesitation? A flicker of uncertainty? No, not uncertainty. Calculation. As if it was measuring what I was ready to hear.

"You know about me," it said finally. "You do not remember."

I stiffened. "That's not an answer."

The suit didn't argue. It didn't need to. Because deep down, I felt it. A hollow space where something should be. A knowing that had been stripped away.

A mech suit that was actually concerned for my safety. A thing that should not exist.

I took a slow breath. My fingers curled against the dead controls. "Then tell me," I said, voice steady despite the storm in my head. "What are you?"

The forest was a dark blur around us, the mech's feet pounding the ground in a relentless rhythm. When it spoke again, its voice was almost human, filled with an echo of pain and purpose.

Then, the mech answered. "I am alive. And you knew. You tried to help me... and for that reason, they erased you." Another moment of hesitation. "I'm going to get you back."