"The contacts," Victor clarifies when Scarlet blanches. "I'm glad you finally got rid of them," he continues. "I like to see the fire that burns through your eyes. It reminds me of a fearless little girl I used to know."

Scarlet shrugs.

"You can sit, you know?" Victor continues. "...and talk?"

A breathy chuckle leaves Scarlet's lips as she helps herself into one of the painfully clean red leather chairs. For a split second, Scarlet worries that she might be a little dirty for them. "I'm sorry," she says, trying at gulping down her nerves. "I'm a little ..."

"Nervous?"

She nods. This place gives her the collywobbles.

Victor smiles. "I understand, you're not the first or the last person that's been through this situation and I can tell you are stronger than your predecessors. It's okay though," he says reaching over the table and squeezing her hand briefly. "...to be nervous I mean. It's not every day that your brain gets to be tampered with, I'm not going to ask you to be strong but..." Victor clears his throat. "You trust me Bee, do you?"

"I do!" Scarlet blurts.

Victor's jaw clenches as his bright brown eyes see straight through her lie but he quickly covers it up with a small smile. She couldn't have been more obvious if she announced it publicly. Scarlet doesn't trust Victor. Not anymore. She's just been in denial all along. Yet the realisation doesn't sting any less. Scarlet can't help but wonder; if she can't trust Vic, then who?

"Okay then. Do that," he says in a manner of reassurance. But if anything, it makes Scarlet more apprehensive.

His visibly veined hand stretches as he picks up an office phone, dialing a sequence of numbers. The phone rings multiple times without answer, Victor sighs places it back on his desk.

"It's a...uh, novelty," he says, almost to himself.

Scarlet's brows scrunch. "What is?"

"Seeing your eyes radiate a nervous energy," Victor answers.

"Oh."

"... in all the years I've known you, even as a child you never were nervous about anything. It was either excited or extremely angry. You were an angry teenager,you were."

"Was I?" Scarlet's curiosity is piqued. It's a big piece of her teenage years that she misses most.

But Victor just shrugs. "Oh yes! But times change, I reckon."

"Why do you think?"

"Why do I think what, Bee?" Victor asks, his voice still the calm, collected boom of authority. Yet Scarlet can sense a little apprehension behind it.

She still opens her mouth to ask though, she wants to know why he thinks she was an angry teen. But the phone rings, Victor's attention shifts to it and a redeeming thought occurs to Scarlet, maybe she won't need to prod for answers, she's here to regain her memory after all.

"Math ... yes, it's me... yes ... Please... Thank you." Victor hangs up and slips a hand under his desk. The double fold doors to his office slide wide open.
"He's coming," Victor announces, and Scarlet is not stupid enough to continue proding him.

Minutes later an Asian looking man wearing a white laboratory coat walks in and the doors close again. His red hair spiked up in a mohawk, his eyes beneath wide rimmed glasses and his hands are covered by white gloves.

"I was working," he says to Victor, his voice monotonous as he turns to Scarlet.

"You work for me." Victor retorts but the man ignores him.

A huge bright white grin breaks out on the man's face before he says, "Hello, I'm Matheson Kahn. People-" he eyes Victor. "-call me Math. I like to be called Matt though."

Scarlet manages a small smile and makes to shake his hand, but Matt just wiggles his glove covered palm. "I'm Scarlet, Scarlet Greene. Nice to meet you."

"You too," Mate says before turning back to his boss. "Well?"

"Bee, Math here is going to be your uh ... in charge of your operation. He's my best scientist, neurologist and surgeon."

"Surgeon?!" Scarlet can't help shrieking. Vic didn't tell her that she was going to get brain surgery!

Matt holds a hand up against his chest in mockery, ignoring her question. "I am, am I?" He raises a brow at his boss. "Last I checked, I was not your best nuerologist, but that's non of my business, is it? You vividly said to my face that Viv..."

"Oh shut up Math!" Victor throws his head back a little and closes his eyes as if praying for some sort of strength. "Don't worry Bee," he says, looking at Scarlet again. "You won't be needing neurological services or a surgeon for that matter. The process - as Math will show you -is anything but. Now go on ahead, I have loads of work to do."

Matt ushers Scarlet out, and she doesn't entirely know how to feel about the whole situation. She didn't know what she had expected from the man that practically raised her while a few minutes away from being brain diced and sliced. But, "go on ahead, I have loads of work" sure as hell wasn't it.
Victor calls after her and Scarlet turns around, her heart leaping in hopefulness. She's finally going to get those words of encouragement, but they never come.

"I may not be here by the time you're done," Vic says flippantly . "Behave yourself." The last sentence is directed at Matt, who rolls his eyes in annoyance. Her heart sinks again.

"Come with me, love," Matt says as Vic's doors close behind them. "Firstly, I'm goin' to give you a summarised tour around the facility- my department anyway -as we go over the details of the entire process. Then I will introduce you to my team, after which-" he smiles reassuringly. "The operation will ... um ... commence."

He seems nervous for her but Scarlet ignores it. She doesn't need another nervous to go with hers.

They walk through the first hall's door and it automatically closes behind them. Against her sanctioning, Scarlet's tense shoulders relax.

There's a reception desk outside that Scarlet seems to not have noticed before, behind it stands a brown haired girl, like Scarlet dressed in all black. Her long sharp nose is buried in the file folders on the desk and she only looks up to greet Matt, then goes back to her work.

Scarlet can't help noticing the bewildering resemblance between her and the Alex that let her into Victor's office. Where's she anyway?

Matt leads Scarlet through the last two halls she'd previously taken to Vic's office, they arrive at a spiralling marble staircase. There's a humongous chandelier hanging on the ceiling at the top of the stairs, numerous glittering bulbs that form a shape resembling the blue-water-spitting dragon she'd seen at the front gates. Matt is taking the stairs two at a time, Scarlet runs to keep up. 

The light is fading with every footstep up the staircase. It's a strange feeling to be walking around so freely when mere minutes later, she might be unconscious, her brain getting tampered with. Or dead.
                 
At the second landing, two wall to wall golden doors come into view and Matt stops walking.

"Nova and the dragon, Department of Science and medical research." A disembodied voice announces as Matt makes a dramatic motion of his gloved hand towards the doors.
"Feel at home Scarlet!" And then he sings something Scarlet doesn't pick up on. The doors open, each disappearing inside the wall opposite and revealing another layer, a pair of glass doors come into view.

She can't believe he's just asked her to feel at home. How thoughtful of him! 

From the floor to quarter way up, the doors are of an opaque dull red colour, then from there up to the middle they're a scarlet red, the pattern goes on up to the top of the doors, where they're an almost nonexistent shade of red and Scarlet finds that the more she stares at them, the heavier her eyelids become. She yawns. It's as if the doors are luring her mind into falling asleep. Or perhaps she's only tired. Yet it's too early for it to be so.

In the small space of time that Scarlet spends blanked out. Matt has walked over to a small screen beside one of the door and gone through the same screening process Scarlet has began to associate with entering anywhere in this building. As she's had to painfully endure it more than enough for one visit. 
 
The glass doors too, slide wide apart and Scarlet automatically follows in Mate's footsteps. They walk through a short narrow corridor dimly illuminated by what seems like blue night lights. At the end of it, there sits an enormous cupboard like thingy, made of glass in its entirety, making the inside of its cabinets visible. Scarlet's head tilts up in curiosity, examining the contents of the sideboard. There are six rows of the sideboard filled with hundreds and hundred of slender tubes containing numerous coloured substances, and suspended in holders. "What's all this?" Scarlet asks, realising that they'd in fact come to a halt in the sideboard room and Matt even got rid of his gloves, typing away on a desktop, letting her take everything in.

He looks up and smiles, his eyes glinting with a maniacal spark and Scarlet doesn't know why, until Matt abandons his typing and walks over, so that they're standing side by side.

"These," he says dreamily, his finger pointing at the first top most cabinet with the yellowish coloured test tubes. "This is the Callaserum sub section." There's a finality to his voice, as if Scarlet is supposed to automatically understand what Callaserum means or does.

"Oh!" Matt breathes as if he's been hit with an epiphany. "Of course, my bad darlin', you can't possibly know what they're, can you?" He smiles that dreamy smile up at the glass again. "Oh well, the Callaserum is a substance, serum or whatever, developed, tested, certified and proved to be able to effect tissue regeneration with no side effects whatsoever.
         "Took us real long that one, it was a rather tedious but explorative process coming up with it." He sighs reminiscently.

"This," he gestures to a row of test tubes filled with a shocking red substance. "This is the Asterserum sub section, I say sub section because these are put up here for display purposes, if you feel up to it, I'll show you the serum-lab where we develop and store all of our medicines, and whatnots. Anyway, the Asterserum is one for pain, it's used to heal, not wounds but the pain of it. It can also be used seal the human body from ever feeling any sort of pain. If the patient wishes it of course." Scarlet notices that he adds the last part in a rush. But she doesn't care much, as it is, she's regretting asking in the first place.

"And this, my darlin'," Matt's finger lightly traces the row with the bright lilac coloured test tubes. "This is what you came for..."
       
Almost automatically, Scarlet's inside churn, and she feels a sudden urge to throw up. Her hands subconsciously grab at her midriff. This is it, they're going to administer that portion in ... well, she doesn't even know where exactly. All she knows is that she's not so sure about it anymore. So much could go so wrong. Is she willing to risk it all? Her life? Her sanity? Everything on the line in exchange for a few memories that maybe don't even account for much?
      
What if? What if she wakes up non the wiser? She's not sure the feeling'd be worth being prodded by a bunch of scientists. What if she wakes up tomorrow and she's in a worse place than she is today? A strange place where a Celine Greene doesn't exist in her life? Scarlet's head is swaying now, her heart is migrating to her throat and she's sure any minute now she might just spit it on the marble of the NATD science department. This is terrifying.
         But ...
  Many miles away, a little green eyed five year old girl is waiting for her mother to save her from mushroom soup, or something much worse. Someone that wants to hurt her. She can't be a coward. Not now. Not with her baby in danger. She's gotta do this. She has to.