The entire mission replays itself out in my head, but every single time, I'm met with a huge gap of a blank- right in the middle of it all and the majority of the entire thing. My level of frustration growing drastically, I try to take a few deep breaths while in the elevator. As soon as I open my eyes again, the elevator coincidentally reaches Level 6 and opens with a cheery ding. Sighing, I step out and turn the corner to Benen's room.

When the male Altruistic opens the door, he greets me with a shocked expression, "Fitz? What are you doing here?" He steps aside anyways, allowing me to enter.

"I'm absolutely done with the world and everything inside it," I mutter, pinching my nose. I walk over to his bed, a headache forming in the back of my head from trying so hard to remember the infiltration from last year. "Sometimes, I wish the head wasn't as..." I wave my arm around, trying to think of something that could explain it, "as tangible as it actually is."

Benen shakes his head, "Try again."

Snorting, I take one of his pillows and chuck it at his face, laughing when it perfectly hits him. "You know what I mean though, right?" I ask him, sitting upright as he walks over. "The simple notion of a memory is so convoluted and weird that it's hard to wrap my head around it at times. Sometimes, I feel like this shouldn't exist, but it does."

The male Altruistic sympathetically places a hand on my shoulder, and I smile gratefully in return. Despite not knowing what I'm taking about, he's still willing to listen. Something pulls at my heart when I remember that Mr. Wallace used nebmentia on him. "I mean, the reason why we left you here was so you wouldn't get hurt," I blurt out, mainly to myself. "Yet something happened, and you can't remember it." I glance up at him, "so how do we know that we made the right choice?"

Benen leans back, already knowing what I'm referencing to. "I wouldn't know," he admits after a moment of silence. "I feel like it is and it isn't." I cringe at the last part but don't say anything. "It isn't because of course, I would've loved to help out in any way possible. But at the same time, it was a good thing that I was here because Sophie was able to find out where you guys went, which put the girls' minds at some point of ease. You two leaving randomly really shook them," he pauses, staring at the ground, "more than I really expected."

At the mention of Sophie, my head jerks up. "She found your memory, right?" When he nods, I continue, "She told me today. And Jacob said that it's a new ability of hers..?" I groan, holding my head in my hands. "At this point, I don't know what I can and can't do anymore."

"Here's the thing," Benen interjects, causing me to look at him. "I don't think you both have all of the same powers or abilities or whatever." He makes a weird face, and we grin at our lack of ability to English well. Quieting down again, he continues, "I feel like you can do something that she can't do, and this recovery-of-memory thing is her thing. Granted, I don't know what you can do, but you'll figure that out. It's like the memory thing from last year- it's like you guys are one person who was split into two. Whatever you didn't know, she knew."

Repeating the last part to myself, I stand up. "Do you think that..?" I shake my head. "Nevermind, it's too much that's lost. And it sounds painful."

Benen stands up before I can sit back down. "No, wait! You're onto something!" Without saying more, he grabs my wrist and drags me out of his room and to his elevator. Practically slamming the button to my level, the male Altruistic looks over at me, a spark of hope and determination in his gaze. "You're onto something."

...

After explaining the entire situation to Sophie and Laurel, who was also accompanying the female Percipient for something, we all stare at one another in a shared silence. What are you thinking? I transmit to Sophie, not wanting to break the silence but also too impatient to keep the silence going completely.

I don't know, she tells me honestly. I haven't done it since Benen, so I don't know what to know. After a moment, Sophie looks up at me. Are you sure you want me to try and bring up those memories?

Definitely. We need to know everything we can about this group. They've tried to killed a few too many times.

Frowning at the last part, Sophie stands up, still silent. She then locks the door, probably making sure that Mr. Wallace can't come in. Turning to me, she commands, "Close your door too- there's a high chance that he can come in through there. And the connecting door too." While I leave them, I can hear her saying, "I'm not sure about this."

And honestly, I'm not sure about this too. But nonetheless, I lock my door.

...

 I don't know what to expect. Even the darkness, I didn't expect it. Wow, I suck at this, I think, even more surprised when my thoughts echo around.

Yeah, it takes some time to get used to it, Sophie replies, her laugh following in the say echoy manner. It's a lot harder when you go into the mind of someone who doesn't want to have any guests in there. We both cringe at the thought of Mr. Wallace's head. Interestingly, the same memory passes through the darkness, all from my vision. The two of us stare at it, almost as if we're watching a movie with no audio, which I remember Sophie telling me about it.

Once it ends, I ask, So what do we do now? Do I have to think of the infiltration?

Sophie takes a moment before nodding. Sounds about right. Let's see what you already know.

Sighing, I think back to last year. Up first, it's Donovan and me meeting with Mr. Wallace, where he subsequently hit us with nebmentia. Sophie's eyes widen we see Mr. Wallace realising that I can withstand at least one piece of tzanion. After shooting me a few more times, I finally go down and everything blackens. I'm just unconscious, I tell Sophie. The actual blank comes later.

She nods, and my memory continues. I'm on the boat, and people try to attack and subdue me with more of the painful teal crystals. However, I manage to fight a few and escape, quickly running to the open area. Two unknown people stare at me before shooting me, and I fall unconscious again. Anger bubbles within me when I say, I heard your voice, so I tried to get to you as fast as possible. Someone mimicked your voice to get me to go there.

Before Sophie can say anything, a memory of hers flashes through the darkness. It's her looking through her drawers, and I immediately know what she's thinking of- the prostrator I left for her before the whole infiltration. I- I try to explain, but the memory continues. She enters my room, and then she goes back to hers. Audrey comes in, they speak, and then Laurel's at the door. The three of them run out the door, and the memory finishes.

Sophie looks at me, You could've used that. And actually escaped. And not been hurt. And-

I cut her off, I left you that for a reason. I didn't have enough time to tell you everything, and I didn't want you to come with me. I- Before I can stop it, the memory of me actually leaving her comes to my head. I had put the prostrator in her room, and she walks in, half asleep. Like it did during that moment, my heart twists and turns as I see her fall on the ground, too tired to keep going for the night. I remember lowering from the ceiling with Benen and Donovan and cradling her in my arms. I placed her in her bed again, and... I look at Sophie, breaking my train of thought. I place a hand over my chest, forcing myself to not look away from guilt.

Once again, we're in darkness, not even our thoughts surrounding us. It's just Sophie and me. That realisation- that it's just the two of us- triggers a huge flood of memories, and neither of us can tell who's sending which ones. I think that we both know that we're going off topic, severely off topic from what we signed up for, but we still let it. Whether we'll admit it or stop it, who knows?

For one of them, it's Aeron trying to kill us, but we're both together. Both of us were thrown to opposing sides of the laboratory and got injured, and Caroline was the true hero of it all, smacking him on the back of his head with a metal rod. That was hilarious, Sophie says whilst chuckling, and I couldn't have agreed more.

Another was us entering Mr. Wallace's mind. I already know that this one is from me because after, the memory shows Sophie being picked up, already unconscious. You brought me back? she asks, turning to me. When I nod, the memory of placing her in her bed flashes through. I then walk over to the chair that I pull in front of the connecting door, already having locked the door. I needed to make sure that Mr. Wallace wouldn't burst through, I admit, the two of us watching me struggle to stay awake and quickly passing out.

The memory of us this morning flashes through, but older memories are quick to push it to the side. But already, we know what it'll be about. Her and me.

Us on the train to Oregon. Our encounter with Leila. Waking up that one night. Me showing her the scar. Or some memories, it's just the two of us sitting there. Either talking or transmitting, it doesn't matter, does it? It's clear what really does. The two of us are silent through the passage of memories. That silence spoke for us- these are some of our cherished memories, whether good or bad.

Suddenly, all of the clutter disappears and calms down to one memory at a time. The first one is the two of us in the car after Benen and I broke into Jacob's hideout for Laurel and Sophie. She woke up at one point, clearly in pain, but she was also safe. I remember her in my arms; I was trying my hardest to not any of her scars. I don't know what to say for that, I say honestly. I couldn't describe how awful it was to see you. I... I didn't way for so long to just have someone try to take you away, you know?

Her mind immediately flashes to us seeing each other after the infiltration, when Donovan, Steven, and I come back. An indescribable sense of relief had washed over both of us when we saw each other, and I sigh, clearly recalling the moment. I know what you mean. I didn't see that scar on you, but I didn't wit for you to not come back. We didn't choose to wait permanently.

We both glance back to the close promixity of ourselves from last year and look away, embarrassed. Suddenly, a memory comes back up, and Sophie looks absolutely horrified. I also can't see the entire memory properly, but it's... a ribbon.

A teal ribbon.