Chapter One

Alpha woke up to one of the most excruciating headaches he had ever known. With all the different personalities in his head it was inevitable that he would have the occasional headache, but never one as bad as what he was experiencing at the moment. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to take stock of all the personalities and reign them in. To his surprise there seemed to be only one causing him problems. All his other personalities seemed to be suppressed, at the moment, making them the quietest they'd been since his composite. It was just the one, and unlike the other personalities that just fought to be heard, this one fought to be in control.

Alpha groaned and pressed his hand against the side of his head. He began pressing down on the personality, trying to suppress it. He didn't recognize it, which was extremely odd because he knew all the people inside his head.

After a minute or so the person finally gave in. As it subsided, he was suddenly hit by a memory, making his head feel like it had been split open.

He was standing in the power plant where he had taken Echo. All his tech was gone though, and he was holding a knife. In front of him was a woman tied to a chair. She had tears running down her face, and was pleading for him to let her go.

The memory ended as abruptly as it began.

Realizing for the first time that he was in a bathroom, Alpha crawled out of the tub and over to the toilet, where he was sick.

After he was done vomiting he rinsed his mouth out at the sink and tried to figure out what happened.

He didn't recognize the clothes he was wearing or the memory he had just had. When he tried to recall the last thing he remembered he discovered that his own memories were hazy. He could barely remember living in a Days Inn for a few days, months after his last visit to the Dollhouse. Everything after was a blank.

Alpha could think of only one person who could erase his memories. "Topher."

Even with 48 different personalities, nothing could have prepared him for what he found outside. Entire buildings were collapsed, fires burned, and people wandered around in obvious confusion. Alpha tried to rationalize what had happened.

Maybe a bomb went off, and the explosion caused amnesia, one of his more practical personalities rationalized.

It didn't explain the new personality, though. Alpha knew that if he wanted answers, that the best place to go was the Dollhouse.

It took over an hour to find the right building. Everything was so destroyed, that he barely recognized the different streets. The top three floors seemed to be destroyed, but the base was intact. Using the same entrance he used with Ballard, Alpha re-entered the Dollhouse.

The Dollhouse seemed to have been untouched by the chaos above ground, and at first he thought it was empty. Then he heard the voices. Walking down the main steps, he could see Sierra and Victor sitting on one of the couches with a little boy, reading.

As he approached, Victor looked up from the book they were reading. He stared at him warily as he stood and walked towards him.

"Adelle said you left. What happened?"

Without a word Alpha hit him in the side of his face with his gun, causing him to fall to the floor. He pointed his gun at him. "I don't know. You tell me."

Victor looked up at Alpha, eyes blazing. "So much for being, 'lapsed'."

Alpha raised a brow. "Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by that."

"Oh god, you went aboveground, didn't you?"

He turned his head toward Sierra. Her voice had a note of irritation in it despite the terror in her face.

"I guess so, since I woke up aboveground, in a bathtub I might add. Now, if one of you doesn't start explaining why half of L.A. is destroyed, lover boy here is going to have his brains splattered across the floor. "

"Alpha," a voice said sharply. Alpha spun around to see Echo standing in the hallway that led to the sleeping chambers.

As always his heart sped up at the sight of her. She hadn't changed much since he last saw her, except for a few strands of gray in her hair. He grinned wickedly at her.

"Hello Echo. The three of us were just having a little chat. You know, old friends catching up. I don't suppose you want to tell me why I woke up in a bathtub with a hazy memory, do you?"

Echo regarded him calmly, yet still wary of the gun he had pointed at Victor. "Put the gun down and I'll explain everything."

"And if I don't?"

She took a few steps toward him, and pulled a handgun out from behind her back. "Then you'll be the one with your brains splattered across the floor."

Alpha knew that he could just simply point out that he could shoot Victor before she got the chance, but he decided he'd get answers faster by giving in. He pointed the gun away from Victor and up at the ceiling. "Fair enough."

Echo lowered her own weapon. "Good. We can talk in Topher's office."

She walked past him and headed for the stairs. As he followed her he could hear Victor telling Sierra to take one of his guns for protection. Alpha smirked.

Smart boy, he thought.

Topher's office hadn't changed either, since he had last been in it with Echo. It still looked like someone's dorm room. He noticed that they had fixed the window, wincing as he remembered Echo tackling him through it.

"You should probably sit down," she told him, though, she herself was standing.

"You sound like you're about to tell me someone died."

"Someone did die," came Victor's voice.

Alpha turned to see Victor standing in the doorway. He walked past him and positioned himself behind Echo.

"A bunch of people died, actually," he continued. "All that destruction you saw out there is the aftermath of a war."

The gears in Alpha's mind began clicking away as he took in what Victor just said. His more intelligent personalities thought of what could have led to a war, and why he wouldn't remember it. They all came to the same conclusion.

"The technology got out of control didn't it?"

Echo nodded. "Yes, like, end of civilization, out of control. There were mind wipes on massive scales. The Chinese were the first to use it. They programmed people to be killers-we called them butchers. They would kill anyone who wasn't like them. It wasn't long before all form of technology was used to transmit wipes. The people who got hit by those were usually just put into a Doll state."

"Was I wiped," Alpha asked, finding it hard to believe that he, of all people, would be susceptible to the mass mind wipes. After all he had been able to develop feelings for Echo despite the regular wipes he'd been put through as an active.

"Not exactly," Victor answered.

Alpha raised an eyebrow. "What do mean? Either I was wiped or I wasn't."

"You were wiped, but it wasn't by one of the blanket signals. Topher found a way to restore everyone's mind to their original personality. People with Doll architecture in their brain, like us, who hadn't been wiped, would forget everything after the first blanket signal."

"Would the people with Doll architecture also have their original personality restored?"

"Yes."

Alpha's mind went back to when he first woke up, remembering the personality that had fought him for control.

"You two obviously remember everything that's happened. How come you didn't have your memories erased?"

"Topher used a pulse bomb to restore everyone to their former self. We were underground when it was set off, so it didn't affect us. We're going to have to stay underground for about a year, so we won't be touched by it's after affects," Echo explained. "You went aboveground before it was set off."

"So I was here when all this was happening? I knew about the pulse bomb?"

"You helped Topher put it together."

"So I choose to go up to the surface, knowing that I'd be restored to my original personality?"

"Yes," Echo said, sounding exasperated.

Alpha was silent for a few moments before letting out a scornful laugh. "Please, like I'd ever do something like that."

He continued to laugh as both Echo, and Victor, stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. He didn't care though. The idea of him willingly returning to his original personality was absurd.

"I mean, really, after smashing the damn wedge my original self was in, do you really think I would want to go back to being the weak creature I was before?"

"You were different," Echo said quietly. "Ten years of fighting changed you."

Alpha stared at her, trying to figure out if he had heard her correctly. "Ten years?"

She nodded. " I can tell you everything that happened, if you just listen."

He looked at her for a moment, wondering if he could trust her to be truthful about what happened. She had no reason to lie to him, other than to manipulate him, but seeing as he himself was a master manipulator he didn't think she would be successful if she tried.

"Fine. It's not like I have anything better to do, not with Starbucks being destroyed and all."

"You should, sit down then. This is going to take a while."

Reluctantly, Alpha sat himself down on Topher's couch to hear what he'd been doing over the past ten years.