It was huge. It was a dent to his already imperfect being.

     Slowly, Benji ran his finger over the ugly scar around his neck, hating every second of it. A few moments ago, he had only just felt it but now, standing in front of a mirror made it too real. They looked awfully like fingerprints, but Benji had no memory of being gripped around his neck, how he got the scar or how he even got back on the ship. The last he remembered was getting lost in the smoke with Silas.

What the hell had happened?

"How do you feel?"

Benji jumped at the sudden sound of Wyatt's voice, and he tripped over the shoes on the floor. Groaning in annoyance, he gritted his teeth as he tried to stand until Wyatt came to help him up.

"Thanks," he said with a sigh as Wyatt helped him to his bed.

Wyatt nodded then left him, going to the bathroom. He came back with a glass of water then placed his hand over it and said, "Imperium."

Benji watched the water sizzle then settled back. The blonde gave the man an incredulous look when he handed the glass to him. "What the hell was that? What did you do to the water?"

"It will give you strength. Not enough to punch a wall without a bruise but enough to get you on your feet," Wyatt pushed the glass in front of him, and Benji gaped at the glass.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks."

Wyatt frowned then joined him on the bed. "Well, someone has to drink it because I can't just waste magic. Who knows when someone will try to blow up my ship again."

Benji furrowed his brows. "Someone blew up the ship? How long was I out?"

"Three days."

"What?" Benji jumped out of the bed and stared wide eyed at Wyatt. Wyatt just shrugged then placed the glass of magic water on top of his dresser.

"I have papers to write and shit to sign. If you need anything more, you know where to find me." The man rubbed his neck awkwardly then started to leave but Benji quickly caught his arm.

"Wait! Wait, where can I find Edgar?"

Wyatt raised a brow at that then his creased forehead relaxed as if bored by that question. Or that person. "Training or whatever. It's a couple floors below."

Benji exhaled but felt his heart race when Wyatt's gray eyes traced down to where he was clutching onto his shirt. The blonde let go of it as if he had touched fire and took a step back.

Looking away from the man to hide his embarrassment, he said, "T-Thanks."

"Yeah."

     There was an awkward silence before Benji heard his footsteps leaving the room and the door closing. He took a deep breath then stared at the glass of water. Hoping it wasn't some weird magic, he closed his eyes as he took a sip from it. It didn't taste different nor did he feel different. Benji downed the glass after drinking a couple more sips and realizing how thirsty he was.

     The blonde took a quick shower to get rid of the sick feeling he had and wore one of the pairs of jeans Reina had gotten him and Wyatt's plain red t-shirt. Looking through the man's accessories, he was surprised to see a jewelry case filled with beautiful necklaces. They all had a feminine look to them, and that confused Benji since Wyatt was the most masculine gay man he had ever met. He made a mental note to ask the man later then smiled when he saw a black scarf in the man's closet.

    Standing in front of the mirror, he wrapped the scarf around his neck and almost had a breakdown about how awful it looked on him. Benji always hated scarves because no matter how he wore them, they just weren't for him. Edgar and his sister could pull them off but never him.

Now he had to wear one to hide his hideous scar.

     Not being able to stand one more look at himself in the mirror, he set out to look for Edgar...or Silas because they had been together last time he'd seen him. Crossing the hallways, he first checked Silas and Edgar's little room before deciding to go down the stairs. Benji disliked walking the ship's hallways alone mostly because the ship was creepy. He would walk past crew members he had never seen before and when he turned back to ask who they were, they were gone, like they had just disappeared. Sometimes, empty rooms would be full of life and laughter, especially that one room beside the ship's magazine below the training floor.

     As Benji went down the stairs, he felt the drop in temperature like he always did and wondered why he hadn't questioned the existence of ghosts to Wyatt. He remembered vaguely asking him what happened to people when they died but the man had brushed the question away like he hadn't heard it. Benji wondered why the thought of dead people even came up.

     After making a turn into the hallways, he felt a cold breeze brush past him and his brows knotted when he heard some snickering. Benji wasn't as curious as he was the last time he was on the ship and had overheard a few odd noises. The scary man had warned him to never open any door that wasn't his, and he had obeyed that. He didn't want to cross the man again.

     Ignoring the noise, he dashed to the training room, coming to a halt when he saw Silas pacing in front of the door. He slowly walked up to him until Silas noticed him and stopped, then smiled awkwardly.

"Benji, you're awake?"

"Yeah, and you're pacing. For a second there, I thought you were your sister." He teased, folding his arms so he could rub them to try to warm himself up.

"Hm..." Silas rolled his eyes then pointed to the scarf around his neck. "Nice one."

"Surprised I could pull it off?" He lied swiftly as he dropped his hand to his waist. "So what are you pacing for? Edgar in?"

"He is."

"Then why are you out here? Fighting with your boy toy already?"

Silas fumbled with his fingers then said, "We're not fighting. He just wants to talk, and I want to do something other than talking." His cheeks reddened, and Benji had to admit he was cute.

The thought of Silas being cute seemed to send him back to Omar where the boy was clinging to him. After that, everything just went blank and he realized he was staring at  Silas without blinking.

The curly haired boy narrowed his eyes at him and asked, "What was that? You were staring at me weird."

Benji kept gazing at him as he came closer. "My memories. I can't remember how I got this scar and you got nothing."

"Wait, what?"

"I can't remember what happened after we got surrounded by the smoke. Did we meet someone? Did someone do this to me?"

The muscles in Silas's face tightened as he stared at him, making Benji feel even more uncomfortable, but then Silas brown eyes widened, and he gripped his shoulder. "The charmer! The charmer took your memories. Shit, we have to go see Reina."

"Wait, what? When was this?"

Silas didn't answer and walked past him, making Benji roll his eyes and follow closely behind him. As they walked up the stairs, Benji tried asking what happened while he was asleep but Silas just shrugged and ignored him until they were in front of Reina and Ava's room. Silas knocked on the door, and it slid open slightly before Silas could speak up.

"Should we come in?" Silas asked after giving Benji a weird glance.

"Stay right where you are. I'll be there in a minute." The woman huffed, and the boys waited, taking a step back when the door open widely.

Reina came out dressed in a black, knee length nightgown and yawned as she rubbed her eyes. Her eyes fell on Silas then trailed to Benji, giving him a once over before smiling.

"It's good to see you alive."

Benji was slightly surprised at her genuine tone, and he blushed slightly at her smile. It couldn't be helped, the woman was a beauty, especially in that outfit.

"Wh-what happened to me? I don't remember what happened in Omar. How did I get this scar?" He asked as he placed a hand on his neck.

Reina cocked her head at him then turned to Silas. "What's your first name and last name?"

Silas looked confused by the question as he answered, "Silas Mock."

"Your real name is Silas Mock?" Her eyes narrowed at him, and it seemed to get Silas more confused.

"Yeah, it is." He paused and his eyes widened as if something dawned on him. "Except you mean the last name my real parents had."

When Reina nodded, he frowned at her then glanced at Benji, "Carter. My name is Silas Carter."

Benji noticed Silas tense as if the name weighed heavy on him. He had never bothered to get to know where exactly Silas came from. Meeting him at the camp and knowing Ava was his foster sibling was as much information as he cared to know.

     An awkward silence settled on them until Reina cleared her throat to get their attention and crossed her arms over her chest. "Now in a situation like this, I've heard people being released from charms in two ways. The charmers release them themselves or the charmed forcefully release themselves. A charmer can release someone if they were the one who cast the charm on them by simply using the release spell.

"However, if the power moves to someone else, the new charmer can't do anything about it. The charmed will then have to forcefully release themselves by using the charmer's real name and the release spell."

"Then what is the spell?" Benji asked.

Reina rubbed her neck then gave him a shrug. "No clue. I don't even understand the whole concept of charming. I just know that with a power like that, you can control anyone and the charmed won't realize it unless the charmer makes a mistake. The only people that might survive being charmed are people with good mental ability; to be able to push someone out of your mind before they can tamper with it. If you can survive a mind reader, you can survive a charmer."

Ignoring half of her lecture, Benji took a step towards her and gave her an icy glare. "What do you mean you have no clue about the spell? Aren't you a magician? Or mage, was it?"

The woman seemed amused by his anger and that only pissed Benji off more. What did that mean for him? His memories wouldn't ever come back?

"I am a Mage. Not a Charmer. Think of it as we know our spells, and they know theirs. I have no interest in learning the spells of a charmer since it doesn't help me in any way."

Benji frowned. There had to be something. She was a telepath, right? She could read his mind. Reina should be able to read his mind.

"And I can," Reina answered the questions that troubled him, and he wondered if he had voiced them out.

"What's going on? If I can help, let me." Silas spoke up, looking less tense than he had been.

Reina took a deep breath and dropped her hands to her side. "There's nothing you can do right now except master your charmer's element. However, for you, Benji, I can't make you remember your memories, but I can look for them in your memory bank and tell them to you. It would help put the pieces of the puzzle together because when I found you both, just the dust of the Madara was there. There was no body. That was why I was surprised when Silas went up in flames."

"He's not dead?" Silas asked, his eyes wide with relief.

Reina shook her head and said, "I never said he wasn't dead. There is a one in three chance he isn't. However, whoever tried to kill you both got his ass covered up which is, in fact, suspicious."

Silas' shoulders slumped, and he bit his lip.

Benji hated the fact that he couldn't remember anything. Not even the thought of a man, Madara or even almost dying, but if Reina could dig into his mind and find it, he was fine with that. "Do it," he stated causing Reina and Silas to look at him.

Reina smirked. "Fine. Be here at 8 am."

"I'll be there too." Silas added, "I want to try my best to help."

The woman nodded. "Okay. You both need some rest so go help yourself. If either of you sees Edgar, tell him to come tomorrow too."

"Okay." Benji and Silas said in unison then turned out of the hallway.

Silas ruffled his hair as he said, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you."

"You can actually. Tell me what happened while I was out." He stopped in front of him. Benji hated not being in the loop especially when whatever happened might affect him too.

Silas stiffened and didn't say a word until Benji inched closer to him. The boy sighed and said as he looked away. "I can't tell you the full story because... well, I was out the whole time. It's best to ask Edgar or Wyatt since you are good pals with him."

Benji clicked his teeth together then walked away from him. He had no idea where Edgar would be, and he didn't want to interrupt his lovey-dovey time with Silas if he did find him. It was best to just ask Wyatt.

     Coming out onto the deck, a shiver went down his spine at how cold the air was and how noisy the deck was. He had never seen these many people on the ship before. During the day, it was eerie quiet unless Edgar or Reina or whoever was making a noise. These many people couldn't be on the ship.

"What you looking so dumb for, boy? Haven't seen a crew before?" A man brushed past him, laughing with a jug in his hand. He winked before joining a group of women who were laughing at something they found funny.

     Shaking his head, Benji tried to ignore them as he walked across the deck. Some men threw teases at him and one even complimented the scarf he wore making him curse under his breath. A sigh escaped him when he managed to reach the door but it was pulled open by someone inside, and he choked. He choked not because of his scarf or the air, but because of something being emitted from the person in front of him. Benji watched Ava step out into the cold, and she glanced away from him like she didn't know who he was. She stopped walking suddenly then raised her right hand to stare at it.

Benji swore it was Ava. Her blond hair, her clothing, her runes... everything. He had thought she was in her room because Reina didn't ask for her, but staring at her back as her braids ruffled in the wind, it was her. Surprisingly, before Benji could ask what she was doing, she vanished.

"What the-?"

Who was that? Fang spoke for the first time since He had woken up.

"That's Ava...right?" Benji didn't want to believe. He sensed something bad. Something very bad.

Fang stayed silent for a while.

Benji never expected what the beast said next. He stared at the spot Ava had disappeared from as the beast's words echoed in his head.

Benji, that wasn't Ava.