The next several minutes flew by in a blink. Aiko did not resist the soldiers' efforts to subdue her, for she felt sluggish all of a sudden, and did not notice much except for a strange tingling on her hands. They were . . . clean?

Where did the blood go?

But that was a question that could be answered later. She had to atone for what she had caused. So Aiko, tilting her head in the direction of a soldier standing before her, made a peace offering.

"Could you, um, take that box to the doctor, sir?" she whispered weakly, looking at the tiny cube still resting under her seat where she had stowed it earlier. Her creation---well, what was left of it, since she had shared most of it with her companions on the trip over---had accompanied her all the way here. There were two small slivers left. It had to be stale by now, but she had nothing else to give.

"Please? I want him to have what's inside. It's . . . it's some chocolate cake, sir. The little boy should have a little, too. He must not get to eat sweets here."

The others in the emergency room didn't react to the absurdity of the sight that they had just beheld. Realizing Jun's confusion, Rena turned to face him as she began to walk out of the room.

"Everyone has things that they're good at," she explains, offering a small smile and a bow of her head before walking back out into the hall.

Back in the briefing room, the soldiers escort the cuffed Turk and Aiko downstairs into a holding area. The two of them are placed together into a cramped cell with no furnishings save two bunked cots. They were uncuffed and searched for anything that could be used as a weapon before the cell was magnetically sealed.

The others who hadn't been involved in stabbing people are escorted to a building next door, which contains the living quarters. Each room is a double and is segregated by gender. The rooms are small but comfortable, equipped with basics such as a fridge, microwave, and a single net-connected computer. There's a shower room at the end of the hall that all this block's residents shared (also segregated by gender).

"Take some time to settle in," the secretary advises. "You'll have clothes and supplies brought to you. This evening, you'll be meeting with the major to discuss your work here."

Lars walked into the room, scouting it quickly before dropping himself on the bed. "Ugh...And me here hoping we'd get some decent answers and not just more questions..." He sighed heavily. "And those two idiots also got themselves arrested as well, just adds to the trouble..." Lars looked over to the computer. "That's it, i'm going to find out what's going on in here, maybe Oraph has some kind of website where i perphaps could get more info..." Lars turned on the computer. "But then again, they probably wouldn't put up anything as important as this on their homepage, but i guess it's worth a tr- Oh, Youtube!" Next thing he knew, Lars was now entretained watching Youtube videos and his mind had completelly wandered off.

Turk fought back against the soldiers the best that he could with his knife when they went to subdue him. He even attempted to disarm one of them, in an attempt to upgrade his killing power. After being restrained, he was pleasantly surprised when he was taken away to a containment cell. This is a nice surprise. A containment cell. So much for karma. Turk had only spared someone once, and it came back to bite him in rear when that girl brought reinforcements to deal with him. Since then, he made sure never to spare anyone- If no one went for help, there would be no additional casualties.

Being stuffed into a containment cell of this size was refreshing to Turk. He recalled that as a child, even having walls was a luxury. After that, he found himself on this spacecraft or another, stuffed into single-person capsules meant for maintenance crew. Looking at his cellmate, Turk found himself relieved. At least, if she sets me off again, I won't suffocate the wrong person.

After glancing at his data tool, Turk swore and hit the wall with his hand. "Damn you to the void, Oraph. A magnetically sealed locking mechanism. This is going to cause all sorts of trouble." Turk began cutting of the power to the device on his arm. "Let's hope that there hasn't been much damage."

Upon being escorted to her cell and freed from her cuffs, Aiko dashed to the cots and clambered up to the top bunk to sulk and grieve. The first she did because her plea had been ignored and her cake left to rot; the second was her natural reaction to what had just happened. Tears streamed down her face, but she was silent. She would not have noticed the violent man's presence were it not for his blood-red aura.

Better stay quiet. I've already done enough to hurt other people . . . enough for the rest of my life.

So she said a silent prayer for the doctor whose death she had almost certainly caused, mourning him along with the child they had neglected to save.

Finally deciding to speak to his cellmate, Turk stepped out from under the top bunk and leaned against the wall. "Sorry about earlier," Turk continued, trying not to remember why he lost control in the first place, "It's a sensitive subject. I lost control there for a bit, and burst into attack. I was... only going to restrain you and prevent you from causing further hard to that doctor, but... I guess I really snapped, didn't I?"

Turk held out his hand for a handshake, "I'm Turk Liu, collector and salvager of old Terran artifacts. Hand a troubled childhood, but I guess I didn't turn out too bad." Glancing at the door for a moment, he turned his attention back to the top bunk. "Chances are, they'll execute me. Types like Oraph don't think too much about trampling over the lives of others, although that's usually the same opinion that I have of the bourgeois. From what I've seen today, Oraph doesn't really care about your kind either. At any rate, if we're going to get trampled by them anyway, why not get to know each other?" After all, she didn't kill a man. If anything, she'll get off with some penal sentence, so I might at least be able to keep my data out of their hands.

Arel walked into one of the rooms, taking a look around at her new "home". It was a decent place it seemed.

"One thing after another....first nearly dying a ship, then learning of this secret Oraph thing, and now I have a job here." Arel sighed to herself as she took her jacket off and threw it onto a bed. She remembered how mysteriously the bloodstains had disappeared on their own. It was ....very unsettling.

I feel kinda bad that I've been abusing my jacket so much... Slowly she took out the items from the pockets on the jacket, removing them one by one and depositing them onto the bed. Her trusty pair of gloves and a mechanic's multi-tool (basically a Swiss army knife). After setting these items aside, Arel proceeded to log onto the computer to surf around the internet for news of what had happened on Morgan and other related items. Upon her research she happened to spot an add advertising a new bakery...

...I wonder if that baker is doing ok...She's been having so many breakdowns....

Aiko was taken aback by the sound of her cellmate's voice and pressed her back against the wall instinctively, trying to shrink away from him. The man that had belittled her, scoffed at her, had just tried to kill her was attempting light conversation?

"I . . . don't mean to offend you, mister, but . . . are you for real!?" she asked hesitantly. "Do you honestly think I'd want to talk to someone who went after me with a knife just now? What's wrong with you?"

The question echoed in her head. What exactly is wrong with him?

Then she saw his outstretched hand---really got a good look at it. It was clean, like hers!

"The blood!" she gasped. "It's gone! It disappeared from your hands, too!"

Listening to his cellmate's comment, Turk look at his own hand. "You're right. There's no blood." Must be an effect of the containment cell. Didn't know that they had this kind of technology now, not that it matters. Turk turned his gaze back to the top bunk. "As I explained earlier, I did not intend on killing anyone. It just happened. One moment, I was moving towards you with the knife, I was going to restrain you, but then there were these images--Memories from my childhood, and then I was standing with a bloodied knife over a dying man. I was not... myself. However, that is not a subject that I care to discuss. We do want to prevent another incident like that from happening right?"

Turk withdrew his hand, and stood, deep in reflection. His childhood was not something that he found comforting. He made a mental note, The next time someone makes a child cruelty rant, I'm staying out of it. Well, if there is a next time. Without changing the neutral expression on his face, Turk sat down in the lower bunk in silence, retrieved his notebook, and starting reading through it. Thinking on his impending execution, Turk starting talking to no one in particular, "At one point in time, humanity believed that there more to life than life itself. They believed that after death, one would be judged by a creator being, and then sent to either paradise, or to eternal suffering. I wonder if that applies to humans even now, when belief in science has cast away this creator?"

Aiko bit her lip in uncertainty. Speaking with someone boasting a penchant for going on murderous rampages was not exactly her idea of a good thing, but then, who was she to judge?

Should I . . . reach out to him? Can I trust him?

"I don't really know . . . if I believe in anything spiritual, Mr. Liu," she said finally, "but I believe in doing right by others. Making people happy. Doing the best that I can."

And then Aiko felt his aura again. It was a soft brown now, like the fur of a dog, instead of the bright, bloody red she had sensed before. For the moment, he seemed stable.

He and I . . . we're the same, somehow.

She inhaled sharply.

"My name is Aiko. Do you . . . like cake?"

Silence.

"It's okay if you don't . . . heheheh." A nervous laugh sprang from her lips.

(*Suddenly reappears*

This post should summarize EVERYTHING that happened since my absence, so, yeah. All the way back to finding those dead people on the Venerate. I hate sounding so detached from events like this, particularly in the middle and last section of my post, but it's the best I could do to hurry this out.)

As soon as Nate had stepped into the bridge, he immediately regretted it. The sight of the dead bodies, strewn across the floor, forced him to recall a recent memory. He was there, on Morgan, watching the ship he was a passenger of in flames, the people surrounding it and ravaging it for its supplies. There was something he should've done immediately, and that was turn and run. The last thing he needed was to get involved in some way he didn't need to be. But he turned back and looked.

The sounds of gunfire and screams played back in his mind vividly. The group of people was large, each individual grappling and attacking each other for their prized supplies. Someone shot three people for a small parcel. Another stabbed someone else in the eye with a pocket knife. A look down was all it took to see the dozens of people who died by getting trampled in the madness.

Nate's vision snapped back to the present, though his mind was trapped back at the riot. It all slurred together in his head, the riot, the ship, the dead bodies... He couldn't distinguish the two in his mind, throwing him even further into the grasp of insanity.

I killed these people... All of them. It's all my fault.

His mind no longer bothered to consider what was going on around him. As far as he knew, he had no sense of consciousness as his guilt over what happened on Morgan overtook any sense of rationality.

I killed these people...



When Nate's vision snapped to once more, he was laying in a bed, gunshots calling him to attention. He had a massive headache, and tears started to well up in his eyes. With a few minutes, he started to untangle the web he had formed in his mind. After seeing the bodies, he only had vague, blurry images in his memory to figure out how he had gotten here.

"I lost it..." he murmured to himself. Now that he had successfully separated the images of the ship from the riot, he could only sigh. As if he needed the events of the riot and the immediate quarantine to haunt his mind anymore.

He was alone, as his roommate had left a little before him. Now fully aware of his surroundings, he soon found himself summoned to a meeting, and was handed a choice: Employment with Oraph, or imprisonment on his current planet. He remained silent as the others argued, starting to fall back into his depression over what he was responsible for back on Morgan. It was as soon as that planet's name started to rise up in discussion that he knew what he was going to do.

"...I'll join you," he said quietly, no doubt unnoticed by the way the others were shouting around him.

It wasn't before long that Aiko began to break down. As Nate listened in, he started to find a certain kinship with her. It'd be stronger if he actually bothered to give out his emotions as often as she did. But under current circumstances, that was impossible. All he knew was the current incident on Morgan was his fault, and if getting closer to any of them would only result in his secret slipping...



Soon after, Nate found himself being directed onto the ship to Erza. Before the trip had started, a sudden stack of paperwork was slammed down in front of him. He contemplated lying about his past, but realized it probably wouldn't do much good. Not that he had much to hide. All it took was a simple fabrication as to why he was headed to Morgan that fateful night, and his background was complete.

As for the ship... His experience on it led to some complications. He wrote down accurately what he could: Waking up in the cabins, finding the others, and then seeing the dead bodies on the bridge. After that, he picked his brain to find more details, but couldn't get much else other than following the others to the ships and leaving. He cringed as he looked over his slightly fabricated story, as its ending was far too short for its own good. He could've just told the truth, that the sight of the dead bodies left him out of sorts for the rest of the trip, but that could just invite more questions, and he didn't want them to be asked.

"It'll have to do, I guess... Not like I could talk to someone else right now," he said under his breath.

As he looked solemnly at his hopefully not completely obvious lie, the paperwork was snatched quickly out from in front of him. It looked like it was out of his hands now, literally. He could only sigh again and watch the rest of the events play out in front of him. There was no helping him now; he had fallen into a depressed state.

He was guided to a physical exam room, which served as a means of perking him up, if only because of the pain he was put through made him unable to think about anything other than when the last needle would be going into his almost-naked body. After what felt like twenty injections and who knows how many other tests, he was able to put his clothes back on and enter the meeting hall. Thankfully, he was slightly on edge because of the examination, and paid close attention to what played out in front of him.

As soon as the mention of a plague breaking out on Morgan came up for discussion, Nate's teeth clenched behind his closed lips. If anyone was going to notice him acting strangely, it would be now. He tried his best to calm himself, but he suddenly found himself without reason to. The slide of Rem Visconti showed up on screen, and everyone began to get worked up. As soon as the meeting was finished, he could only sit there, horrified at what he had just seen.

It was then that Aiko broke out once again. This time, it was in rage.

"Why . . . why use a little girl . . . a child!?"

Even with their attempts to pacify her with an explanation, it was obvious that she was going to chew him out. Unfortunately, Nate could only look on in horror as his current thought soon proved to be almost literal. In practically a single bound she was in front of the doctor, with Arel following to stop her. It was hopeless though; Aiko shoved Arel out of the way and began to attack the doctor. It was then that someone he didn't know, or was even really aware of, went and continued to pull Aiko away.

All that resulted was a stab, and the images of dead bodies to begin to pile up in his mind. It'd just be another one to add that was his fault in the long run, he was sure.

Aiko's face suddenly changed, from that of someone about to murder someone who had pushed them too far to the panicked discoverer of a body, calling for help immediately. Nate was about to stand, but Jun did it for him.

"What is wrong with you people!?" he shouted, soon running out of the door to find help.

The doctor was soon wheeled out of the room, and that served as the end of the meeting. He did his best to try and maintain a smile as he was walking out towards his new living area, but the most he could do was remain expressionless. When it came to choosing a room, Nate just pushed one of the doors open to find Lars sitting on a computer, doing whatever it was that put a child-like grin on his face.

"Do try and keep it down, I need to get some sleep after all this," he said off-hand, wondering whether or not Lars would even hear him. Regardless, with how tired he felt, it probably wouldn't even matter. He fell into bed and stared at the wall the bed was up against. After a few minutes, he wondered if he could even be able to fall asleep...

"Cake. I've read about cake." Turk paused, "I've never had the chance to eat any. My budget was tight, and I didn't allow for luxuries. It's sad to say that being here in this cell is probably the most time I've spent doing nothing." And doing nothing is what I'll probably be doing for the rest of my short existence.

Turk was relieved that the girl, Aiko, was finally speaking to him. With the possibility of execution looming over him, he wasn't himself at all. For the first time in his life, Turk truly felt that he had no options before him. This wasn't something that he was used to, he had always managed to get what he wanted, no matter how long it took. I've fought through people, robots, debris and even the environment, but now all it takes is a magnetically sealed cell to defeat him. Turk reflected on his past, his collection, and the image of the blue world deeply engraved in his memories. "So close, yet so far away."

His thoughts returning to reality, Turk asked, "So, why are you here? Out here in space, involved with Oraph? I can't imagine that they're in great need of cake."

"I woke up on the Venerate. I don't know why I was there. I met my . . . friends," she said haltingly, "and after our escape, we were brought here. The Oraph actually had the gall to offer us jobs. The rest is . . . as you saw."

Aiko sighed.

"I shouldn't be here. I should be in my kitchen baking. I'm going to be the best pastry chef on Morgan---or at least I was," she muttered bitterly. "But now I've had two psychotic breaks and am responsible for the deaths of at least two people. I don't deserve to live. I don't deserve to be a patissiere. Not when I'm only capable of hurting people."

Tears pricked at her eyes anew, but she was glad to be condemned. The others probably wanted nothing to do with her after what she had done. Still, she wished she could say goodbye.

Zhi . . . now you know why I wanted them to shoot me before. Everyone knows. And Jun's right. I can't help anyone.

I nearly forgot that there were people like this in the world. Just two kills, huh? Better keep my mouth shut on this one. I can't even remember how many.... Turk sat in contemplation, trying to think of the right words to use. "If you're unhappy with the deaths you caused, if you regret it, then don't think that you don't deserve to live." He responded to Aiko, still hidden from his view by the cot. "You ca't unkill someone, but you can live life in their place. You shouldn't worry about not deserving to live for causing the deaths of others- Those are thoughts left to the ones who have killed many more, although by that point, they probably won't regret it, or think about death." What am I saying? Turk put his hand over his face, and hit his head against the wall. That was the stupidest thing I've ever said.

Getting out of the cot and moving to where he could see Aiko, he looked at her with a cold expression. "Reflect on your actions while you can, regret them. Hate yourself for them, but when you get out of here, move on with life. Don't get caught up in the past." He paused for a moment, and from his pocket, he retrieved a small black box. "This is an old memory unit. It won't work on any equipment created within the last 1200 years. Pre-Nexus stuff." Turk handed it to Aiko. "If you and those others were on the Venerate, that is how you're connected to Oraph. However, I haven't had any contact with them. I don't know what they brought me in for, but they'll probably dispose of me for that outburst earlier. Keep this close, keep it away from them." I don't know if that's what they're looking for, but I don't intend on having it destroyed with me. If anything, someone else, maybe this girl, will find that planet. That blue-green paradise. If the others weren't expendables, it was likely that he wasn't either. The best way to evade Oraph was to ignore the old saying. Hiding a tree in a forest would only slow Oraph down, with all their resources. It would be better to hide it elsewhere, somewhere that they wouldn't think of looking.

Aiko looked at the small box Turk had just given her and turned it over in her hand a few times before putting it in her apron pocket. "Why are you giving me this? I mean, I know you want to keep it from the Oraph, but why me?" She hopped off her bunk and stepped towards him. "Where am I supposed to take it, anyway? What am I supposed to do now that I'm in jail and you're going to be---to be---"

She couldn't hold it in any longer. Her knees buckled and she slumped to the floor of the cell, weeping softly.

"Everyone has things that they're good at,"

Jun stared on in confused silence as the white haired girl spoke to him. He waited until she left the room, hoping that maybe, by some chance, she would elaborate.

She never did. She just left him with that annoyingly cryptic answer that meant absolutely nothing to him. One that he was, in fact, pretty much convinced was BS. Had she ever seen him before today? Talked to him? Of course not, because if she did, she'd see a direct contradiction to what she said.

He continued mulling over things for a couple more minutes as the doctors finished up what little procedure was left after that little miracle earlier. That impossible, crazy miracle.

"... Seriously, how did that happen!?" He eventually snapped again, this time turning to the doctors. One of them narrowed her eyes.

He was promptly escorted out.

--------------------------------------

Jun had the fortune of being abandoned by Nate and Lars when rooms were being assigned. While the two of them shared a dorm-like double, Jun got one of the same size to himself. He was assured, upon entering, that he wouldn't be alone there for long, but, in his head, he personally swore to appreciate the privacy for as long as he could.

He decided that the task would be all the easier when he saw the computer set up in the corner. With a smile and a crack of the knuckles, he sat down, and let himself get lost in whatever communities he could connect to.

For the rest of the night, Shaomei Jun was no more.

---------------------------------------

Zhi attempted to get a chance to approach Aiko before she was led away by the authorities, but the panicking crowd wound up holding her back. Despite her promise to Jun that she would take care of the situation from the point he left, she wound up being fairly inconsequential in the end. The scene was as tamed as it would get before dispersing.

Once it did finally disperse, the remaining Oraph officials in the room wound up escorting her and the others to their living quarters, destroying her immediate chances of talking with anyone directly involved. Instead, after even being separated from the boys of the group, she was left in the company of Arel, and only Arel. Not that she minded, Arel was a nice girl, but she could also obviously take care of herself. She had no real need for Zhi to be there.

The room was pleasant, spacious, and quiet. Peaceful, even. It was making her uncomfortable. With so much weighing on her mind, the thoughts of soft sheets and microwave meals were completely unwanted.

At the passing of only twenty minutes, Zhi caved in.

"I'm going to check on the doctor. I want to make sure he survived. Will you stay here, Arel?"

Turk watched the figure slumped on the floor, weeping. That didn't go as well as I hoped it would. "Yes, I'm going to be executed for inflicting a fatal injury on a man, resulting in his death." He finished Aiko's sentence quickly without concern. "One of us is going to be out of here alive- That's you. Oraph isn't going to execute you. You didn't stab someone in the chest." ]i]Why can't she understand how important this data is?[/i]

"Keep it away from them. I don't even know if that's what they want, but I'm not taking any chances." Turk tried to think about the next step for Aiko. Pre-Nexus equipment was hard to find, most of it was in museums or lost in space, and even then, the chances that any of that was serviceable was rare. "If it were me, I would make use of Oraph's resources to locate an older vessel or installation. Some sort of terraforming, colonization, or cold-sleep spacecraft or space station. If you're lucky enough to manage that..." Turk tore a page from his notebook and placed on the floor next to Aiko. "The encryption scheme. I know it by heart, but Oraph won't be getting that from me." All things considered, Turk hoped that the baker would be able to keep everything out of Oraph's reach. He figured that, even if they weren't in this cell, he could trust her the most out of the others, given previous examples of her dislike for Oraph. Had he known that Oraph had some sort of reason for obtaining him back on Eutocius, Turk would've hidden all this elsewhere.

Arel nodded. "That sounds fine, but....I'll come with you. I'm quite worried as well." Even if the doctor was responsible for condemning those poor kids, he was still a human being after all. Quickly Arel shut down the computer and rose from her seat. Research could wait. Grabbing her jacket from the bed, she tied it around her waist before patting Zhi on the shoulder and flashing a smile.

"Let's go."

Still confused, Aiko looked at the sheet of paper for a few moments before pocketing it. "I won't know what to do with this either, you know," she said lamely. "I only know how to bake. But my friends . . . they might be able to help."

If I still have friends, she thought. But they're better off without me.

Suddenly, an image of Jun appeared in her mind---his scowl, his condescending stare. For some reason, Aiko found comfort in it. "I frightened him from the beginning," she muttered to herself. "At least he won't have to worry about The Human Rolling Pin anymore."

Somehow, in spite of everything, that made her smile.

Arel and Zhi need to ask for directions a couple times, but they find their way to the emergency bay without too much difficulty. When they inquire about the doctor's status, however...

"Doctor who? No one's been admitted in the past hour, let alone a doctor. Did someone put you up to this?" When Zhi supplies Dr. Ashcroft's name, the nurses exchange puzzled looks. "If you need to talk to Dr. Ashcroft, you can probably find him at R&D over in building 13."

***

A bored-looking officer walks into the room with the cell where Aiko and Turk are being held, scribbling some notes down on a clipboard. He doesn't notice them at first, but when he does, he looks up in surprise before double-checking the notes written on the clipboard. "The hell are you doing here? There's nobody assigned to this cell..." The officer goes to grab a superior to investigate what's going on.

"It looks like this was someone's idea of a practical joke," the superior officer says, apologizing to the two inmates. "You're supposed to be upstairs with the rest of the Venerate team." They're released from the cell and escorted upstairs. Turk is told to move into Jun's room and Aiko is moved into a room by herself until her roommate arrives.

A couple hours pass and Aiko hears the beeping sound of the swipe-lock on her room's door permitting a visitor. A short figure wearing an Oraph uniform steps inside the room, struggling to drag her heavy suitcase through the door. Growing frustrated, she lifts the bag which was nearly as large as she was over her body with some effort. She looks up and suddenly notices that the room has another occupant.

"Hello! Are you my new roommate? I'm--" she starts before losing her balance and tumbling over, dropping her suitcase on herself. "--erm, Rena."

Dr. Ashcroft was never admitted into the rooms? He was already back in his office? How could that even be possible? Were the nurses just somehow uninformed about what just happened?

After taking a moment to recollect her thoughts, Zhi calmed herself down, and asked the two for directions to the office. They gave them without so much as a hint of concern for anything except Zhi's sanity.

She tried not to think too hard about what just happened, and what she would think if she actually found the doctor, working happily in his office. She simply followed the nurse's lead with Arel, and knocked on Ashcroft's door as she would for a meeting.

Upon hearing that he wasn't going to be executed, exited the cell and reactivated his arm mounted data tool. His silent gaze turned back on Aiko. After fiddling with the device, he beckoned her to come closer, and showed her the display. [Tell no one. From now one, we're probably being monitored.] Following the soldier, Turk entered the his new cell and looked at the boy on the computer. So this is my new cellmate. Doesn't seem too bad for the moment. Silently, Turk hid himself away in a corner of the room behind the furniture, and tried to reflect on what had just happened.

Oraph isn't going to execute me, so it is quite possible that whatever work this is will involve a 'Shoot first, ask questions later.' philosophy. I don't like this one bit. Turk wasn't feeling exactly sociable, and he wasn't exactly prepared to deal with anyone. Not without his knife at least.

As expected, even taking a nap's impossible. Ugh...

Despite his inability to sleep, Nate simply lay in his bed staring at the wall in front of him. Just like he had been doing for the previous while, his mind replayed everything that caused his impossible situation to occur in less than a week. As he did, a curious thought popped into his mind.

My parents don't know where I am at all! They're probably worried sick!

It was enough to catapult him upward, although as he expected, Lars didn't seem to notice a thing. He ran out of bed and went to Lars' side, grabbing onto his shoulder and beginning to shake him violently.

"Lars! Lars! Get off the computer! I need to use it right now! Please!"

It had been several hours since she and Turk were released---on the grounds that what had happened was some kind of prank---and Aiko was still confused. After being shown to her new quarters (which, in contrast to the cell she'd shared with Turk, fortunately contained a bathroom), the baker made a mad dash to retrieve her cake and returned to the room to do some much-needed thinking about what in the world was going on.

She was startled out of her reverie by the beep of the swipe-lock and the presence of a stranger lugging a heavy suitcase into the room. "Hello! Are you my new roommate? I'm---" Suddenly, the girl toppled over, nearly crushed by her own luggage. "I'm, erm, Rena."

Helping her up, Aiko introduced herself with the sunniest smile she could manage. "Oh, are you okay? Let me help you with that suitcase."

Lars was watching a cat video and then suddenly he was being shaken by Nate. Wait what? "WAAHHH!" Lars flailed alongside with the shakes like he was a ragdoll before he started yelling out. "OKAY OKAY YOU CAN USE IT, JUST STOP SHAKING ME."

It turns out that building 13 is actually on another of Erza's floating platforms, so Zhi and Arel are directed to the gondola that would take them to the neighboring island. A set of cables connects each of the platforms of the Oraph compound and a gondola is used to travel between them. In spite of the assurance about the gondola's safety, one can't help but feel uneasy as the craft departs from the station and the only thing under them is the sea of silver-blue clouds. Even worse is the realization that Erza is a gas planet and that there wouldn't even be a solid ground to be crushed into.

The gondola creaks uneasily as it crosses the bottomless chasm connecting the two floating islands. Twenty nerve-wracking minutes later, it arrives on the nextdoor island and Arel and Zhi are able to enter building 13. R&D is on the second floor. Some directions-asking leads them to R&D Section 4, the Seraph development area which Dr. Ashcroft leads. They enter to find themselves on a catwalk overlooking a hall that served as both a lab and machine shop. In the center of the shop, the badly-mangled Seraph is being hosed down, coating the metal grated floor in disgusting red foam as the blood is washed off.

"Calm down, Rex. I can't get a fix on your ground state if you keep jumping around like that." In one corner of the lab, a young man of roughly 20 with white hair is sitting in a chair, wearing a bulky head-mounted display with nodes, circuits, and wires protruding from it. The wires trail back to the Seraph. Dr. Ashcroft fools with some settings on the computers to which Rex is hooked up. "You're not even at half of Rem's interface efficiency. Are you even trying?"

"Sorry," Rex responds. "I'm kind of out of it today."

***

Rena stands up with some effort and shakes her head. "Nope, I've got it." She manages to lug her suitcase over to her bed and then, once there, sits on top of it, breathing a sigh of relief and victory. Then it falls over. "Are you new here?" she asks Aiko as she starts to unpack, carefully placing her collection of toy robots on the desk next to her bed. "I haven't seen you around before."

Turk came to a conclusion that he could not trust anyone other than Aiko, at least not yet. He recalled a tactic that was used on some of the spacecraft that he had worked on, where there were members of the crew that would easily join in on any mutiny, while reporting movements back to the bridge. To that end, he decided to scout out the other rooms.

---

Most of the others were away, perhaps working under Oraph. Since he roomed with Jun, he could more easily watch the boy. Knocking on the door to Lars and Nate's room, Turk identified himself. "This is Turk Liu, I'm working with you under Oraph. I'd like to know more about you, if we're going to be working together and living in close proximity."

"I guess you could say that. I . . . um, I like your robots."

Aiko noticed the girl's hair was white. Just like . . . Rem's, she thought. I wonder if they're related.

And then she had an idea. If she couldn't give any cake to the poor doctor or to Rex, she would share some with Rena. "Do you like cake, Rena?" she asked brightly. "I have some. It's not very fancy and it's a little stale, but . . . it's chocolate."

"Alright, thank you, Lars!" Nate said, his voice almost a shout.

Lars stood, letting Nate sit in front of the computer. He pulled up his e-mail client, only to see an e-mail from the one person he didn't want to see one from: His mother. Tentatively, he clicked to open up the message, wishing that he didn't have to directly see what his parents were feeling.

Nate,

Where are you? I heard the ship that you were supposed to come back to home on went missing! Please send me a reply the moment you can, just to let me know if you're okay. Your father and I are so worried...

Write back soon,
Mom.

A look at the time stamp revealed he had received the e-mail a few days prior. It was enough time to send his parents into a panic, which escalated Nate's dismay.

"...How can I even begin to tell them what happened to me? If I told them,ll it'd do is make them more worried," Nate muttered, hoping Lars didn't overhear him.

At this point, he wasn't even sure, nor did he particularly care, what Lars was doing. Nate's eyes remained locked on the computer screen. He moved the mouse over to one of the links on the side: Compose Message.

"Well, here we go."

With a click, he began to write his message.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm sorry about not getting back to you sooner. My laptop battery died, and even if it didn't there really wasn't much time to talk to you throughout everything that's happened to me since I got on board that ship from Morgan. I've been through quite a lot, but I'm not sure how much of it I'm allowed to talk about to you, so I'll just tell you that I'm safe. I've got a good job now, but it means that I won't be able to come home for a while. I promise though, that I'll come home as soon as I can, so wait for me!

I'd love to just drop this and come home right now, but I can't. I made a mistake and I have to figure out what happened.

Nate paused, looking at the last sentence. For some reason, it made him feel a little queasy. His letter wasn't finished, but at the same time, he felt scared to continue on. It wasn't too long until he realized why. He knew himself pretty well, and what he would type next was expected of him, even if it was insane. As the images of the people dying in the riots came to the forefront of his mind once again, his fingers typed the next sentence.

And, if possible, I want to fix it.

Those last five words were what did it. They were the words responsible for his apprehension.

I want to fix it. Nate thought. I'm probably the person least likely to do it, but I want to fix it. There just isn't any other way for me to get over this for good.

With that, Nate finished up the letter and sent it out before he could have any second guesses. He wanted to fix what he screwed up, and there was no way he wanted to let his mind scare him out of it.

Before he could will up any more conviction, he heard a knock at the door. The voice on the other end wasn't one he recognized.

"This is Turk Liu, I'm working with you under Oraph. I'd like to know more about you, if we're going to be working together and living in close proximity."

"Okay, one second!" Nate said, without a hint of worry or paranoia in his voice.

His mind was in its clearest state it had ever been since he had woken up on the Venerate. He had made up his mind, but silently hoped he would actually be able to do it. Before his doubts could continue to populate his mind, he threw them out and opened the door.

Turk entered the room, and seeing Nate, he extended his hand for handshake. "Nice to meet you. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Turk Liu, nice to meet you." Still fully focused on Nate, he continued, "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get involved with Oraph? I wasn't paying too much attention earlier, but were you also on the Venerate?" If this guy was on the Venerate, it was unlikely that he was a spy, unless Oraph recruited him soon after they recovered that vessel.

Taking a sweeping glance around the room, Turk noticed Nate's roommate. What caught his attention was the man's mechanical arms--It had been a long time since humanity had made use of mechanical components, switching over to growing organic replacements and genetically engineered humans. He had to have those arms for study. I want those. Turk pushed Nate aside and headed for the other man. "Those arms, I want those. Can you possibly give them to me?"

Even on the way to the lab, Arel was in awe of everything. The technology used on Erza was top notch in her book. Even the ride on the rickety gondola was fascinating. However more wonders seemed to await her at the lab. The doctor seemed to be alive and well, walking around as if nothing happened.

"You're alive, sir?" But how? Technically there was no way that he should be walking about....the amount of blood he lost should've been enough to almost kill him. She took a quick glance at the Seraph, Rex, and the mess of wires that were strewn about the floor. No doubt they were in the middle of an experiment.

Ah this day just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

"Cake? Yeah, I love cake!" Rena replied with a wide smile. "But what's chocolate?"

***

Dr. Ashcroft gave Arel a confused look. "How am I alive? What are you talking about? Are you sure you don't have me mistaken for someone else?" Rex noticed the two strangers and quietly took in the bizarre conversation. At length, the doctor added, "...Did something happen?"

Lars had went to seat over by his bed after Nate got the computer for himself. Lars sighed and then remembered he was supposed to have been researching on Oraph and not checking videos on the internet, he sighed and dropped his head. "I really need to find a way to deal with this ADD of mine..." Just then, the man from earlier, Turk came into the room. The teacher stared at the man in front of him for a moment, remembering the events from earlier. "Lars Olimar here, try not to stab anyone while you're around." Just as Lars said that, however, the man named Turk walked up to him, asking for Lars's mechanical arm. Lars chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry bud, I kind of need them." Lars went to look over at his mechanical arm, a small light in it indicating that it was still fully charged. He then turned back to Turk. "If you're desperate about having one of those, though, i suppose i could make more when I have some free time, although why you would want mechanical limbs when both of yours work just fine is beyond me."

Aiko's mouth dropped open in a round O of surprise. "You've never had chocolate? It's one of the most delicious things in existence! And you can do so much with it: eat it as candy, drink it, flavor things with it, put it on ice cream . . . you need to have something chocolate right now! Hold on!"

She quickly plated one of the remaining pieces of cake and set it in front of Rena along with a fork. "Might need something to revive the flavor, though, since it's a little old . . . ah!" Aiko had received a bounty (to her, at least) of food and supplies about an hour before, and she recalled seeing a jar of raspberry jam somewhere amid the cache. Its retrieval was swift. Grabbing a knife, Aiko spread a layer of jam on top of Rena's cake, letting some of it drip down the sides for good measure.

"I hope you like it!"

Arel was taken aback slightly at the reply she received. "Ah......well......I mean you got stabbed earlier. At the very least you shouldn't be up and walking. Do you remember anything that happened at the conference?"

But then again the blood on my jacket did disappear. Do they have some super secret item that they used on the doctor?

Rena eyed the cake with wonder, looking back and forth from Aiko and the cake as if asking for permission to eat it. Realizing that it was indeed hers to eat, she beams. "Okay, just a minute." She hurried over to her half-unpacked suitcase and rummages through it before producing a plastic bag containing two plastic bottles. Rena walks over to the sink and fills a glass. She takes a pill from each of the two bottles and downs them with the glass of water. She puts the bottles on her desk and returns to Aiko, staring down the "chocolate" cake before taking a bite of it.

"It's amazing! Thanks!!"

***

"Stabbed?" Dr. Ashcroft repeats, bewildered. "Nothing like that happened at the briefing. Maybe the change in atmosphere is getting to you. Hallucinations aren't unheard of around here." Rex's eyes widened in what might be surprise, but he said nothing. "Well, I guess that's it for today's tests," the doctor decided, beginning to remove the equipment attached to Rex. "You've got a lot of ground to make up for. We might have to give you a copilot to make up for the NSA emission deficiency."

There he was: Dr. Ashcroft, alive and well. Well, and completely unaware of any moment in which he was not well.

There was no way it was possible. If what she saw was to be believed, then he should, by all means, be lying in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery. In fact, even if it turned out that the injury was minor, and he was allowed to go back to his work after being stitched up, he still should have greeted them with a sheepish grin, and comment about how he was doing fine.

This was a trick. Every bit of this had to be planned.

Ashcroft? He really was okay. He'd never been hurt. After all, the man who stabbed him could have very well been a plant. He conveniently appeared right as they were being recruited, and it was strange that he was able to bring a weapon into the meeting at all. The whole thing, Aiko's outburst aside, had been staged. Now they were intentionally acting like it had never happened. It was a mind game.

The question was why. Why would they want to offset their view of reality so much?

Zhi placed a hand on Arel's arm, forcing herself to smile like nothing was wrong.

"Someone must have just been playing a prank when they told us. Let's just go back, we don't want to keep getting in the way of the doctor's work." She told the bewildered girl, desperately trying to keep her voice calm. Even so, her eyes still drifted to Ashcroft, intent on keeping track of his reaction. If he was in on this, he would have to notice her lie.

----------------------------------------------------

"Warning: Any posts made from this location will take up to two weeks to appear. Please consider using a local server."

The message appeared again. Of course. Why did he ever think otherwise? He couldn't post on Morgan servers from here. That just wasn't how it worked. That would be just fine and dandy, since he could still access Erza networks just fine, but hey! Funny thing! He didn't give a shit about Erza networks, because he was completely inconsequential to them. He'd have to make new accounts, introduce himself again, and build up the ranks. It would be such a glorious amount of trouble that it just made him giddy inside. If giddy was defined as "Full of burning rage".

He would still do it, of course. If he was going to be stuck here, there was no way in hell he was going to deal with real life. Especially since "real" seemed to be a pretty relative term around here.

Unfortunately, now his concentration was broken, and with it came the realization that the door to his room had slammed shut while he was ranting to himself in his head. Someone had come in.

With a groan of headache irritated annoyance, Jun turned around in his chair, and looked toward the door. No one was there. A quick glance around the room following that confirmed that he was as alone as he was a moment ago.

Did they seriously think they could just burst in here, spy on him for a moment, and not think he'd notice? Whoever "They" were.

Not willing to take the invasion of privacy sitting down, he left the room to follow. He would find whoever this nosy bastard was.

Right after entering the hallway, he noticed a figure rounding the corner. His target. After a quick stretch of his legs to ready himself for battle, he chased them down the hall.

Unfortunately, by the time he caught up, they had already entered another room. One that, much to his annoyance, wouldn't open with his key. It was probably someone else's living quarters.

Whatever. He wasn't going to give up the chase here. He would get in, no matter what it took. With all the anger he had built up over the course of the day, he...

Knocked on the door.

This guy can make these? Turk was somewhat disappointed. Although the technology for mechanical limb replacements was available, he had hoped to obtain an authentic sample, not a modern variant. Turk quickly decided that Lars could not be trusted at all. "Ah, I was mistaken. That is not the arm variant that I am looking for." Turk backed away from the man. He moved towards the door, and turned his gaze towards Nate, "That was disappointing. I have other things to look into." After briefly waving, he left the room.

***

The next step is to get my knife back. I'm really limited in what I can do without it. Turk tracked down an Oraph employee, and promptly inquired about his weapon. "I had a knife with me earlier... During the presence room. I appear to have... lost possession of it. Can you redirect me to where I can re-obtain it?"

As soon as he finished knocking, the door to the room burst open, right into his face. The person who exited seemed to take no notice of his presence there, and flat out pushed past him before heading down the hall again. Jerk.

After taking a quick moment to recover from their rudeness, Jun finally got a good look at who it was. A good, long, angry look.

"... You!" He exclaimed before they could get too far out of range. "Why are you out of jail!? Didn't you stab a guy!?"

... Wait. If He-Who-Stabs-Aimlessly was out, that also meant that Aiko was probably released, too. What the hell was going on here? Neither of these people should be allowed to walk around freely. They were dangerous.

"... And where's Aiko!? Is she out, too!? I need to talk to her!" He added as an after thought. An after thought he wasn't even consciously aware was drifting in his head until he said it. It was kind of weird actually, but yeah, now that he was thinking it over, it was obvious. He couldn't get that crazy chick out of his head. She was haunting him. There was no way he could keep up any of this without getting answers from her. This was his perfect chance.

"You're welcome!"

Aiko beamed at the young girl, watching her devour the cake with joy, but frowned upon seeing the two pill bottles and wondered what they were for. So she decided to ask.

"Are you sick, Rena? Why do you have to take those pills? Do you want me to make you anything else to eat? Ehehehe . . . I'm not good at anything but baking, but I can manage rice. And maybe I'll try my hand at soup, just for you! You should have some juice, too," she chirped. It was time to search the fridge.

Dr. Ashcroft waved them off, his genuinely confused expression not betraying any knowledge of a lie. Once free of the equipment keeping him to the chair, Rex hurried to follow.

"Hey, wait up!" he called. "Are you heading back to the barracks? I'm going that way, too." He helped Zhi and Arel climb into the gondola before boarding it himself. As the craft carried them across the sea of clouds toward the barracks hall, he relaxed. "Sounds like some senior officers are giving you guys a hard time. Don't worry about it too much. A lot of weird stuff happens around here. You guys came from Morgan, right? I'm Rex," he said, offering a hand to each of them. "I grew up here. Never seen another planet, actually. What's it like living on the ground?"

As they left the R&D floor, Ashcroft sent a memo to HR requesting the records for the Morgan group's personnel.

***

Rena finished the cake and made a sound of both delight and disappointment at its loss. "Nope, I'm not sick. I have to take medicine for my treatment or else I might get sick, though." She flops down on her bed and waves her feet back and forth as she watches Aiko search the fridge. "But you're really good! It's a lot better than the food they serve here."

Aiko laughed. "So you liked the cake? I'm glad. You can have the other piece too, if you want." With this child around, the baker felt happy---more so than she had any right to be. But maybe I can make up for what I've done . . . through her. Move beyond what happened, like Mr. Liu said. I wish we had found her, but we didn't know anyone was even alive on the Venerate. Maybe I can let go of the past if I protect Rena, and Rem's brother too.

She paused for a moment and looked over at the girl. "What kind of treatment is it?" Much to Aiko's dismay, Rena looked confused upon hearing the query, as if she didn't know exactly how to answer

"I don't mean to be rude at all! I'm just curious," she said hastily. "But . . . never mind all that. You probably have to hear grown-ups talk about it a lot, huh? That can't be any fun. You may not be sick, but is there anything special you'd like to eat? I'll try to make it for you. It'll be good practice. As much as I'd like for it to be true sometimes, one can't live on dessert alone!"

After failing to get an acceptable answer the Oraph employee, Turk turned around to face the direction of the annoying voice. Moving closer to respond, he decided to give a vague answer. "Aiko? I last time I saw her, she was brought out of the cell by Oraph troopers. As for the other issue, I was told that someone played a practical joke, and that I was to be sent here instead of jail." Turk thought for a moment before continuing, "You'll have to be more specific on that final point. My hands are perfectly clean. Considering the build of my knife, and the fact that I always retrieve it, there would be blood on my hands if I stabbed a guy."

Turk put his hand over his empty sheath. "If you really want me to stab a guy, I'm sure that can be arranged." Turk gripped an imaginary knife, wanting to seem like a threat. Instead of the empty space, he found a familiar grip. Why is this here? Oraph took it from me. Immediately letting go, Turk attempted to hide his discomfort about this new change. "I assure you, I am completely in control of my mental faculties at this moment. I won't attack you without warning."

"Really?" Rena asked in wonder as Aiko confirmed that the other piece was for her as well, causing her eyes to widen in delight. "But you were traveling all day. You must be hungry, too. Maybe we can share it?" When asked about her treatment, the girl looked away and chewed on her lower lip, trying to recall the explanation she must have been given. "Rex, Rem, and me all have to take medicine so our Utrecht doesn't get worse. I don't know what it is, but Rex says it's really bad and that mom had it bad."

Rena's lack of concern for her condition indicated that she probably wasn't aware of the severity of her situation. "Special? Umm... I like chicken soup," she decides. "Rex always makes it for me when I'm sick."

"No, you go ahead and eat it, Rena. I'm fine! Chicken soup it is, then!" And so Aiko set to work. After a few minutes of preparation, a batch of soup was simmering in a borrowed slow-cooker, which she had procured soon after her "move." She had wanted to try making a soup today, and now Rena gave her all the more reason to try not to mess it up.

"It'll be ready in thirty minutes! Is there anything you want to do while we wait?"

So she has Utrecht syndrome, Aiko thought. Poor girl . . . I'll have to do everything I can to help her feel better!

Zhi accepted Rex's company when he offered it, and allowed him to follow them on their way back to their rooms. Though, thanks to her earlier paranoia, she didn't drop her guard around him.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Zhi." She greeted, taking his hand. "This is a nice place they have here, though, yes, we have been given a bit of trouble since we've arrived. Not much, really, but it did lead us here, to the labs."

As she was speaking, Zhi glanced to Arel to check how she was doing. It seemed unlikely that she wouldn't still be thinking over the recent events.

"We're from Morgan, yes." She answered the other question when her eyes met with Rex's again. "I... this is my first time off the ground, so I honestly don't know how to describe it. It's different. Heavier. Not necessarily better, though. I love the architecture here, possibly even more than I do at home."

Her attention drifted to the boy's hair again, and remained there for a few moments. She couldn't help but notice the similarities he had with his sister, but also found it rather strange that they would both have such an unusual feature. Was it albinism? She looked to his eyes again. Green. It couldn't be. Maybe it was just bleached?

Before Zhi's thoughts could cause the conversation to fall into too much awkward silence, though, she tried to start it up again. "Out of curiosity, why did you decide to join Oraph?"

----------------------------------------------------

"You'll have to be more specific on that final point. My hands are perfectly clean. Considering the build of my knife, and the fact that I always retrieve it, there would be blood on my hands if I stabbed a guy."

... Uh, what? Was that seriously supposed to be an excuse? Oh, hey, I don't have blood on my hands any more, so I can't have possibly stabbed that guy that you watched me stab. Alright, sure. He could just keep believing that was convincing, because he wasn't about to question someone crazy enough to do so.

"If you really want me to stab a guy, I'm sure that can be arranged."

Just as Jun was about to to speak up again, though, he was interrupted by the criminal, and-- "Holy shit is that a knife? They let you out with your knife!?"

He accidentally said the last of his thoughts out loud, which he quickly realized was a bad idea when the person involved was...

"I assure you, I am completely in control of my mental faculties at this moment. I won't attack you without warning."

... "In complete control of his mental faculties". Yeah, just great. That's just what was scary about the situation, since "I" in that last sentence spoken happened to be complete psychopath. He was already about to go see one of those. Two was really starting to push it, in his books.

In fact, with that thought on his mind, he decided to make a run for it, leaving his terrifying company with nothing more than an "Okaybye" as farewell.

------------------------------------------

All attempts at asking about Aiko's whereabouts ended in failure. Yet, strangely, any attempts at asking about her arrest ended in nothing but raised eyebrows. Something was definitely wrong.

Including, as he noted to himself, his obsession with finding her in the first place.

Even so, since crazy guy was here, in these hallways, it seemed quite likely that crazy chick would be nearby. They had about the same amount of time to escape, after all.

So, using that thought as a base for his search, Jun started making his way through the girls' barracks. While he was unable to to find any names on any of the doors, he was able to at least guess which ones were occupied by the lights on the security devices. Once his options were thinned down, he started on the long, and increasingly stupid task of knocking on every one of the occupied doors.

Several of which he found slammed in his face.

"Thanks!" Rena beamed, satisfied that she now had the best roommate in the world. As Aiko started cooking, Rena went to work on finishing off the chocolate cake. "Are you unpacked yet? We can help each other move in."

***

"Nice to meet you too," Rex replied. "It's not normally this crazy around here, although there are days. The whole day's kind of been a blur to me. It doesn't really feel quite real, you know? Like I'm about to wake up from a dream." He noticed Zhi's eyes fixated on him and he decided to return the favor, looking at her eyes with a grin. "I'm down here," he points out playfully, noticing that her gaze was fixated above his face.

"Joined Oraph, huh..." He scratches his chin. "I don't think you can really say I 'joined' them. Mom and dad worked for them and we were all born here on Erza. We were surrounded by Oraph all the time, so the people here are like family to us. I guess technically it's a job, but it doesn't feel like it. I grew up helping out around here."

The navigator had been too busy looking around the base and at her surroundings to pay much attention, however she did catch the end of Rex's words.

Arel smiled. She knew exactly how it felt. "Ah I kinda know what you mean. My brother joined the military at a young age, and I tagged along with him when I was younger. He got along so well with his squad mates and all. At one time he told me 'Yep, meet my family...well my family away from home that is.' Hell, I was pretty much considered a part of the 'family'." Absentmindedly she'd be fidgeting with the dog tag that she wore around her neck, spinning it this way and that.

"Oh. Anyways. My name's Arel Mathis. Nice to meet you, Rex." She held out a hand towards him.

Aiko grinned sheepishly in response to Rena's offer. She had no more than the clothes on her back. "I don't really have anything to unpack. I wasn't given any time to prepare to . . . move," she admitted. "But I'll still help you settle in and---what was that?"

A loud series of thumps cut her off. "Oh, someone's here. I'll see who it is."

As she opened the door, what would have normally been a cheery "Hello!" was turned into a startled "Oh!" when the realization hit her: Jun was standing in the hallway, and to say he looked upset would be the understatement of the century. The color drained from her face.

"If you're looking for Zhi, I haven't seen her since . . . before," she stammered.

Like a dream? That was one way to put it. Though, the way Rex said that, only to follow it with a joke and a laugh left her with an unsettling feeling. Were things really as staged as she thought they were?

"We were surrounded by Oraph all the time, so the people here are like family to us. I guess technically it's a job, but it doesn't feel like it. I grew up helping out around here."

"... Like family. That must be nice. To be able to work for family, I mean." She found herself idly responding as she drifted into thought. Thought that she was quickly wrenched out of when she realized what she was saying.

... Surely it had to be nice. It was personal, easy, and familiar. So why did she feel such a desperate need to hear his answer?

--------------------------------

At the final knock, the door opened. It opened to finally reveal the one face he'd been looking for the entire time. The same, meek, shy, and yet somehow unsettling face he'd seen over and over these past few days. He balled his hand into a fist.

"Oh!"

Oh, she said. That's all she had to say as greeting. Just oh. Figured.

"If you're looking for Zhi, I haven't seen her since . . . before"

Zhi? If he had been looking for his sister, he wouldn't be knocking on random doors, now, would he? She was just trying to get rid of him, wasn't she? She was starting to realize that he was on to her.

"No. I'm not looking for her. I was looking for you." He finally responded, the harshness of his stare not translating well into his artificial voice. Before he could continue, however, something caught the corner of his vision. Something small, and white. His eyes darted to the space over Aiko's shoulder.

They met with the girl from earlier. The reality breaking one. The last person he could possibly want to see right now. His anger with all of the day's events finally started to boil over.

He tried to hold it back by slamming his fist into the side of the door.

"You! Creepy girl! The little one!" He shouted over to her. "They want you over in the medical rooms again! They say they found someone dying of old age and want to just completely fix that! You can do that, right?"

She probably actually could. Creepy little brat.