It turns out my need for Ryan's help comes much sooner than either of us was expecting.

The next time I go to Dion's apartment, he's not there. When I search for his tracker, he's across the city. The blinking dot doesn't move over the course of several hours.

When I find the place, it's in the old warehouse district and the building looks condemned.

"Something is wrong with that place," Augustus groans. They slink to the back of my mind even as I'm inching away from the building.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. There's something unnatural there. It's like the beginning."

"The beginning?"

I expect them to clam up, like usual, but they seem disoriented, like they don't even know they're supposed to keep things from me. "My first few days of consciousness. Before the disease. Everything was clean and safe. Then... the mutation. Everything changed. It feels that way again. Like I'm changing. The world is rotting around me and I can't-." Now, Augustus stops, realizes who I am and what they're admitting to me. "I don't know if I'll be able to be in there with you."

A panic I didn't know I could ever feel again pierces my chest, like my parents are in front of me... so much blood. "You're going to leave?" I collapse against the nearest wall, even though it's broad daylight and people are staring at me.

August softens into my mind, molding around the bad memories like a haze of summer fog. "I can't leave you, Mason. Even if I wanted to. Which I don't. But I'll have to hibernate while you go in there for Dion and the others."

My racing heart slows. I'd already been prepared to go in there without backup, but it is a little frightening imagining going in there completely alone. It's strange how much I've grown used to Augustus's presence in my head. But still, they hibernate every so often, so I know what to expect. The idea of them being gone for good... of going back to how I used to feel without them... I don't even want to imagine it.

Neither Augustus nor I bother to discuss what that means with each other, we already know.

Even if we started with this pretense of me only letting Augustus stay until I helped them with their mission to save the world or... whatever they were trying to do in that water treatment plant, both of us know we can't be separated.

Not... again.

Augustus worms away from my questions, slinking to the back of my mind as I escape the side of town where Dion is.

I have to think of a plan soon. Even though Dion knows I'm coming for him, I don't want him there any longer than he has to be. With the way Augustus was feeling, I can't imagine what they're doing to people there. I have to put an end to it.