I chided myself for letting it slip so easily for all of two seconds, then pulled myself back to reality. It had been my mistake–but luckily, it didn’t seem like Annette knew what it meant. Seems like she was stuck between wondering how I knew what her core was called and something like… excitement? Not sure why that was there, but maybe it could be for a good reason.

“Yes, I called you glow moss.” I sighed. “Nia–I mean Persephonia–she showed me a list of cores that were registered to all the human chosen. Yours was on it.”

A far-fetched lie, with a few too many holes for my liking, but it was the only real way I could see out of this that didn’t lead to a secret getting revealed or heads rolling. Annette considered my explanation for a few seconds and eventually nodded reluctantly, but I could tell she wasn’t convinced. Hell, I wouldn’t be either.

“Minor slip of the tongue there Sebastian.” Inopsy laughed. “Okeria never told me why you were acting like you were, but if you ask me, it seemed like you were a little too accustomed to how this world works. Moreso than Juniper here, at least, and she’d been trained for it. Almost like you–and this is just me throwing out a possibility here–almost like you’d done this before. Just like Annette.”

Ah, fuck. Why did Inopsy have to be observant? Couldn’t he just be… I don’t know, the crazy weirdo I thought he was? I tried to keep all emotion off my face as I gauged Annette’s reaction. She… huh. She didn’t seem happy about the new revelation. In fact, she’d already started backpedaling while she glanced over her shoulder. As if she was looking for a way out.

“Annette.” I stated seriously.

She jumped like a shaken rabbit. “YES! Annette is me. I am Annette, and I am glow-moss. I… yeah. I guess just apologizing isn’t enough any more, especially if you actually remember all the horrible stuff I did to you and your friends.”

Jun glanced between me and Annette. “I think I missed something.”

“She knows I kept my memories, and now she’s feeling a whole lot guiltier.” I realized. “Probably because she wants something from me–more than just apologizing–and now she thinks I’m a lot less likely to give it to her.”

“Is it that obvious?” Annette said sheepishly and stared down at the ground. “I thought that… I don’t know… maybe you knew someone who could help me. It sounds stupid now that I say it out loud, since I didn’t even think you had your memories, but I guess I was just desperate. I remember everything I did, Sebastian. I even remember the reasons why I did it. But they don’t feel like my memories. They’re like someone stole my body and piloted it while I was just… stuck there along for the ride. Paranoid, scared, and hateful me.”

Inopsy snorted out a quick laugh. “And what, you thought that going right back to the person who was the subject of your obsession was a good idea? Drown me, that’s about as shortsighted as a blind needlemaw.”

“I know it was a bad decision. I was just… scared.” Annette said quietly. “I thought, you know, maybe I wouldn’t have it so bad if I actually had friends around me. Friends who could stop me if I got too strong.”

“You could’ve stayed weak on purpose.” Jun pointed out. “That would’ve solved that problem.”

I nodded in agreement. “It would’ve. But that doesn’t keep her from getting strong after the point, which she definitely did in my old life. So now we’ve got a problem. Should we trust that Annette’s actually telling the truth, with her core being absolutely perfect for mental manipulation?”

“I vote yes.” Inopsy offered. “She put together my body instead of trying to kill me for my core, which is something I remember you doing the first time we met, Sebastian. You know what, I’ll do more than just vote. I’ll take responsibility for everything she does.”

“You… will?” Annette asked with confusion. “But you said–”

Inopsy cut Annette off with a cough. “What I said earlier doesn’t matter. I didn’t know just how horrible things were going here, and I think I can offer some serious firepower to your cause. My only caveat is that you give Annette and all the other humans a safe place to camp out until they decide what they want to do.”

Something in Inopsy’s voice told me there was more to his offer than I knew, but I really wasn’t in any place to decline. He’d fought off Keratily for a few days on his own, and if we managed to weaken her by destroying the crystals, we could eliminate her threat just by siccing Inopsy on her. Okeria seemed to trust him, too, so I… right. Communicator.

{Okeria, I’m standing right here with Inopsy. But you obviously already know that and have heard everything. Got any opinions?}

The communicator crackled to life with Okeria’s hum of thought. {It’s pretty obvious ta me that Inopsy’s cookin’ somethin’ beind the scenes, but I can’t imagine how that would negatively impact us. If he calls in Addia, that’s just one more ally for us ta count on. And… I honestly can’t think of much else he’d need ta do. As for the woman, I don’t got an opinion. Form that yourself. Oh, and Sebastian?}

Stolen novel; please report.

{Yeah?}

{Ya ain’t got your helmet on. So all this is bein’ said out loud.}

Oh. I chuckled nervously and resummoned my helmet, but the damage was already done. Annette looked even more confused than a moment ago, and Inopsy’s failures at holding in a laugh snuck out of his helmet in little giggles. At least it had cut away the tension that had been building, and led the way to the solution I’d been mulling over since glow-moss actually turned out to be a functioning human being.

“Alright, Inopsy. You’re on the hook for her.” I decided. “And we’ll try to find someone that can stop your schizophrenia from getting worse, Annette. But you obviously know how genetic diseases and the armor work out.”

She nodded. “I was a living example of it.”

“Right. So, uh, don’t get your hopes up. I guess.” I winced at my own words and hurried to cover them up with nicer ones. “Okeria managed to get his disease under control, but it took a long time and it was something he caught. And it was Keratily who helped him, who we’re definitely not asking for help any time soon.”

“Why not?” Annette asked.

“It’s a very long story.” Jun chuckled. “And one we’re not completely sure of, either. But if you want to listen, we can tell it on the way to the safehouse.”

Inopsy leaned in and raised his hand. “I’d like to hear it too, if you’re not going to use helmet-comms. Okeria’s explanation was just enough to get me really pissed off, but it didn’t explain a whole lot.”

That… wasn’t a very good sign for Inopsy’s stability. For a moment I wondered if he’d be the bigger problem than Annette, but I brushed that off as too far-fetched. Okeria trusted Inopsy. The guy was the only reason we’d managed to escape Keratily back in the oilsea. If he was going to betray us, I doubted it would be to Keratily or Scalovera.

So it was the future I had to worry about.

“Let’s get walking.” I said and turned on my heel. “Where should we start? From Jun’s relationship with Keratily, or when we first met her?”

“The beginning, please.” Annette requested, then shyly added “If that’s possible.”

I nodded in confirmation. But I still decided to omit any information about The End. “Alright. Well, since we’re going from the very beginning, it all started when one last person died…”

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

“...And that’s up to the point where we got into the oilsea.” Jun said as she finished telling the part where my armor had almost killed me. “It wasn’t called that the first time we went in there, though. It used to be called the… drowned signpost? Something like that?”

She looked to me for confirmation. “Dredged switchport.”

“Right. That.” Jun nodded. “There’s a whole lot more to tell, but we’re here already. If you don’t end up trying to kill us, we can tell you the rest in a few days.”

“What? A few days? But that’s so looong.” Inopsy whined.

Annette sighed and smacked him on the arm. “Be a little patient, idiot. What happened to the guy who was trapped in crystal for literal weeks?”

“He got out. And now he wants to hear the rest of the story.” Inopsy pouted. “What’s wrong with wanting to know something?”

“Timing.” Annette said. She shook her head, then gestured for me to lead the way. “Sorry about him.”

I blinked slowly and wordlessly moved my hand to the obvious metal plate we’d used to cover the obvious hole. There were no signs of anyone disturbing it, but that didn’t mean nobody had. I mean, I was sufficiently disturbed from just a few sentences that completely shifted Annette and Inopsy’s dynamic in my mind, but that was a different kind of disturbed. One that kept my mouth shut as I threw Okeria’s plate aside and jumped down without saying anything.

Jun landed next to me not a second after my feet hit the floor. {That was… different than I expected.} She said while holding in a laugh. {It really felt like the tension just bled away when the story got to Walkalong, didn’t it?}

{For some reason, yeah.} I snorted and called on my clearance. It ripped a hole in the metal that Inopsy fell through with a little yip of surprise. {...I didn’t mean to do that.}

I turned at the crunch of Annette landing right next to me. “I didn’t mean to do that.” I repeated.

“No, but he did.” She sighed, then leaned close to Jun and whispered to her. “Is Inopsy actually all that powerful? Or is he just really good at not dying?”

“Good question.” Jun shrugged. “Maybe Okeria has a good answer for you, but I definitely don’t. How about you, Seb?”

“Hell if I know.” I sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but welcome to the hideout, glow-moss. Try not to kill anyone while you’re down there.”

Annette stiffened, then nodded. “Yes, sir. I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.”

“That’s not what I…” I began, but Annette jumped down before I could finish. “I was just being sarcastic.”

“And she’s a lot more scared and worried than she’s letting on.” Jun patted my shoulder and pulled me into a quick hug. “I think I want to like her, but I’m a little scared she’s a manipulator like Keratily. Once we don’t need Inopsy to counteract Keratily, we should try and find someone with a core that works like a lie detector or one that lets you read minds. That way we can know for sure.”

“Good call.” I agreed and leaned into the hug. “Honestly, though… what scares me the most about her is if she actually wants to atone for what she did. I don’t think I can ever forgive glow-moss, but maybe Annette will be different.”

Jun broke the hug and pressed our visors together. “If she isn’t, I’m here for you. Mortician and Okeria are here for you, and so are Thorn, Ambus and Gloriosa. We know who she is, what her core does, and that she probably isn’t stronger than either of us. Atonement or betrayal–we’ll all live through it together.”