Unraveling the Gordian Knot [IC]

[Electra]

"All right," Erin nodded. "You can listen in if you want. Maybe you can give me some ideas." She took a deep breath and ran her fingers once through her short hair, then opened the door at the end of the high-security psych corridor. The guard called out her presence, causing a flurry of activity behind the heavy metal wall that enclosed the prisoner Erin had never met. Strange scrabbling, skittering noises came from the small porthole, but she didn't stop. She had more important things to do than indulge her morbid curiosity. Walking past the empty cell that should've housed Dr. Archeville, she came to a stop outside the faintly glowing forcefield on the third cell.

Singularity was waiting for her on the other side of the field. The nullifier bracelet was still on her, but the bruises and contusions had vanished now that it was being kept at half-strength. She looked healthy and alert, and there was a pile of young adult books on the metal desk in her cell to indicate what she'd been up to. She blinked and narrowed her eyes as she took in Wander's new appearance.

"I got a new uniform," Wander explained, and a haircut. I told you about how I graduated high school, right?" That had been an interesting conversation, trying to explain what had happened with Omega to her damaged alternate self, but she'd known her counterpart deserved to know that there had been retribution made. "I wanted a new look." Singularity considered that, then nodded slowly. Wander decided to take it as approval.

She stepped back from the field a half-step. "I brought someone to see you today," she informed her counterpart. "She's waiting outside, but I wanted to talk to you first. Things have been going pretty well here, right? They're treating you well, taking care of you, keeping you safe, right? Nobody here has hurt you."

Singularity mirrored Wander's movement, stepping back and furrowing her brow as she listened to the question. She suspected there was a trap in there somewhere, something she wasn't going to like. But it was true that this cell was much better than the other one, the white box. When she left this cell, it was to have a shower or to play with a ball in a little exercise room, not to fight and kill things. She was fed every day, more than once, and there was a TV to look at and books to read. Some of the guards even talked to her. And most importantly, there was no Pathos. 'Right," she finally allowed, cautiously. "It's pretty good."

"Good," Wander said, smiling in a way that was more nerves than smile. "You trusted me that I would take care of you, and help you get better. I want to help you do that. The person I want you to meet today is someone you've never met. She's really a nice person, a very good person. She can help you, and she isn't going to hurt you, I promise. It's just that she has a... a familiar face." Wander looked towards the hallway door and Singularity followed her gaze, for all she couldn't see the end of the hall. Wander looked nervous, Singularity distinctly uneasy. "Just remember it's okay, and you're safe here."

[alderwitch]

Alex's senses had followed along and she took this as her cue, stepping out so that she was visible. There were countless cues to the sane mind that this was not the creature that had tortured Singularity, key words there being sane mind. Alex paused, leaving extra distance between herself and the cell wall, her entire posture placating and vaguely submissive. With her hands upraised, palms out, she offered, "I'm the Alexandra Albright of this dimension,"

Alex kept her voice calm and soothing although she full on expected screaming and frothing, but for the moment she planned to ignore it, "My friends call me Alex."

[Electra]

Singularity froze the instant Alex stepped into view, going still like a bird just spotting a snake. It was hard to tell if she was even breathing. Inside her head, though, the wave of terror and denial and mounting despair was punishing in its intensity. Pathos was back, Pathos was here, and the world was crashing down. She made a soft whimpering sound in her throat, but couldn't even manage a denial.

Wander stepped in quickly, her words tripping over each other. "She's not Pathos," she told Singularity firmly. "This is Psyche, she's my friend. She is from here, not from that other world, she's good, not evil." Singularity didn't seem to hear, still staring at her bogeyman and poised on the edge between fight and flight, for all that both were equally impossible.

[alderwitch]

Alex continued to walk forward and raised her hand up slightly. She was tempted to leach the fear from the woman but in this case, Alex thought even her subtle touch might be too much. Most people couldn't even sense when she was projecting calm into the room.

"I'm Alex," she agreed, "My codename is Psyche. I know you're afraid of what she did. I know you're afraid she'll do it again. It's terrifying, I know, to have someone reach in there and change what you see. What you think."

Alex stepped up next to Erin and touched her arm gently, her voice still calm and quiet but projecting a quiet confidence. She could feel the terror that Singularity had and while Pathos would have reveled in it, Alex only felt a deep sorrow. Still, she figured that like Erin, safety and protection would matter to her doppelganger. "If you'll let me, I can close the pathways she made and give you some protection should you ever see her again. It will take time and some trust on your part, but I CAN do it. Everyone should feel safe in their own thoughts. I am so very sorry that was taken from you and I'd like to help you get that back."

[Electra]

Singularity shrank back from the forcefield as Alex approached, raising her own hands in a futile gesture of defense. She backed into the desk and sent the books tumbling to the floor, then stumbled over them until her back was pressed against the wall of her cell and there was nowhere else to go. "No," she muttered, shaking her head. "No, no, please no, stop, no..."

Outside the cell, Wander looked from Alex to Singularity, moistening her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. "You should probably stand back from the field," she murmured to Alex. "When she throws herself at it, it can sometimes bow. You might get a shock."

[alderwitch]

Alex sighed and dutifully stepped back, "I had hoped talking would help at least a little," she told Erin, turning her head slightly away from the woman freaking out at her presence. The only real sign at how painful Alex found this were the faint lines around her eyes and the fact that the sunny, cheerful face she always presented had fallen away to actually show the troubles she carried on her features. Alex ran her fingertips over her brow slightly and took another step backwards before she dropped to the floor and folded her legs up under her as if she was settling in.

"Do you want to stay out here?" Alex asked Erin, her voice quiet as she folded her hands in her lap and looked up at her meaning of course, staying here and out of Singularity's mind, "It's going to be unpleasant and what's inside is... well, it's terrible. Not just your memories but what's layered on top of it all. It's twisted and obscene what's been done to her."

[Electra]

Wander wanted very badly to say yes to that, and to stay outside and well away from the suffering and chaos in her counterpart's mind. She had her own memories of pain to deal with, and she didn't want to risk polluting the good ones by seeing them twisted and perverted. But she couldn't ask Alex to go where she herself wouldn't, and how could she look Singularity in the eye if she were too much of a coward to face for a few minutes what the other girl lived with every moment? With a sigh, Wander sat down and assumed the lotus position next to Alex. "Unless it's going to make things harder for you, I'll go too," she said. Inside the cell, Singularity turned away from them and began tapping her forehead against the wall, lightly at first, then with increasing vigor.

[alderwitch]

"Enough," Alex said it but it was backed by her force of will. That carefully contained power - so much power - spread out of her and filled the room with an almost unnatural calm. She projected the sensation of warmth, and comfort. It was the feeling of a rainy day, snuggled safe in a blanket with a hot drink. It was the sensation of being cradled safe in a mother's arms. It was a the smell of a favorite childhood toy warm from the dryer. Alex spun the emotions out of her own psyche and laid them over the room, leaching the fear and rage and leaving that balm in its wake.

I'm going to put her under and force her to calm, then I'll pull us inside, she explained to Erin mentally to give her a bit of warning. Once she'd laid the groundwork, Alex used her most deft and light touch to slip into Singularity's tortured psyche. It was unnaturally easy, the channels that Pathos had worn down like raw holes in the natural barriers in the girl's mind. The link established, Erin would feel the wrenching sensation she associated with her psychic friend's tug into the realm where thoughts existed.

Erin would wake to find herself standing in a surprisingly stark chamber, very different from the sort of dreamscapes that she was used to accompanying this little trick. Alex's mental projection looked no different than her physical form but that was entirely for Erin's sake. Her appearance was a deliberate projection that overlayed her psyche's. The expression on 'Alex's face however was very grave. She stepped over to one of the dingy walls that looked like something out of a filthy dungeon and touched them with ephemeral fingertips.

Oh, this is very bad, Alex said, running her hands down the wall. There were doors of all shapes and sized around the vestibule, some large and some impossibly tiny and every size between. She left those alone as she moved around the room, touching the walls very carefully as she went. I imagined it but this...

Alex looked like if she could have thrown up, she would have. Apparently, whatever this room was, it repulsed the psychic. When she stepped back to Erin, she even wiped the hands that didn't really exist on equally ephemeral jeans. This is vile.

[Electra]

Erin was relieved to see Singularity give up on her self-harming behavior and go to lay down on her bunk. She did her best to ignore the fact that her deranged counterpart was crying, sluggish silent tears that snuck their way under the blanket of enforced peacefulness. Singularity didn't like what she thought they were going to do to her, but what Alex was going to do could only help. It had to help. How long could Singularity stay imprisoned before she was never going to be fit to release?

Closing her eyes, Wander allowed herself to be drawn into the psychic link. She felt an odd sensation, like she was being dislocated without moving, then opened her "eyes" to look around. "I don't understand," she admitted, looking around at the room of doors. "What is this? What does it mean?" The room itself made her feel uneasy, though she couldn't say quite why. Somewhat reluctantly, she followed Psyche's lead and touched the slimy surface of the wall. Immediately she felt a wrenching sensation of illness in her nonexistent guts, as though she'd put her hands in something noxious. "Jesus," she managed, snatching her hand back and wiping it on the blue and gold uniform that was still part of her self-perception.

[alderwitch]

'It's a complete fabrication to start with.' Alex swallowed and then repeated her circuit of the room, although this time examining the doors, 'My... Pathos built this into her head. It's a fold in her brain, hidden away from her with additional negative reinforcement in the walls to keep her mind from ever wanting to find it. These doors...'

Alex pressed the palm of one hand against them, her brow furrowing as she took in the construction. The very wrongness that Erin sensed was like a palpable miasma to the psychic and while Alex's hands were steady, her projected face was pale and drawn. It went against every instinct to touch this construction but Alex wasn't here to shy away from the work. Nothing would get done if she did, 'They're short cuts. It's like, hm, a security booth. Or more accurately, it's like having someone hide in your attic with peepholes in every room. It's the ultimate invasion.'

'I'm so sorry,' Alex whispered that to the walls when she stepped back again. Rubbing her hands together, she turned away from the walls and towards Erin. Visibly struggling for self control for a moment, before she shook herself and focused on the task at hand 'When her mind is less fragmented, I think I can unmake it but it will take time. She had years to build these in and I'm sure there's nasty hooks to cause pain and distress if anyone tried to remove them. Let's take a look at her actual psychic landscape and start there.'

[Electra]

"So she could just, like, sit here and see into any part of that Erin's mind she wanted?" Wander grimaced, running her hands up and down her own arms. "That's so creepy." She shook herself, trying to maintain her composure and taking a cue from Psyche to do so. They both had to concentrate on fixing things, rather than what was wrong. The largest door swung open silently, allowing them to walk out of the booth and into the entryway of Singularity's mind. It swung shut behind them and disappeared.

The place they came out in was a strange room, half-lit and tumbledown, looking like the remnants of a large rotunda with a vaulted ceiling. The ceiling was full of cracks now, the floor littered with rubble and shattered glass. Wander abruptly realized what it looked like, the main entrance of the Seattle Art Museum, though in a much reduced state now. It looked as though at some point in the past, there had been a siege defense mounted here, with the remains of boards nailed across the frames of doors that hung from their hinges and overturned furniture pushed out of the way of hallways. One wall had a massive hole hacked into it, as though made with sledgehammer and pickaxe, providing free access to the rooms beyond.

Off to one side, Singularity was sitting at the docent's booth, staring straight ahead at nothing. She was still very young in her self-perception, the Erin of EZO1 in better days, for all she wore her blue prison coverall and had hair that was hacked short and uneven. She didn't seem to register their presence at all right away, rocking slightly in the grip of Psyche's power.

[alderwitch]

"Yes, very." Alex agreed as they entered the vestibule that served as the center of Singularity's mind, fractured and fragmented as it was. The expression on the young psychic's face was remote as she took in the damage, clinical and detached in a way that would have sent shivers down the spines of many that she called friend. For those that knew her, the blankness of expression was the best indication that she was well and truly rattled by her alter-ego's handiwork and had retreated into a place where her own emotions were folded deeply away. As long as she examined it like a problem to be solved for the moment, Alex could suppress her own revulsion.

She took in Singularity's appearance as well, her gaze sweeping from hair to toes, "She's still so young. Not much older than when she fled the dimension if at all. That's likely a combination of trauma and deliberate repression. In abuse cases of all kinds, the sense of self is generally stunted. Part of that is self-protection on the mind's part."

Alex stepped closer and raised her hand to chest height, "I'm going to release her from the mental grip I have on her. Sadly, I can't just fix the appearance of the mindscape. Well, I COULD but it would be just as false as what Pathos had done. Just a patch job. We need to know where she feels safe in here. That will be the best place to start building back up."

After giving Erin that warning, Alex relaxed some of her control over the girl's broken mind. She was more concerned about hurting Singularity than she was about her own well being. Physically, Alex was fragile but here in the mental arena, she was a power player. But with the war torn mindscape beneath her feet, Alex was even more conscious than usual about the repercussions of flexing that power.

[Electra]

"Younger than that," Erin murmured. "I haven't been that short since I was thirteen or fourteen. Before anything bad happened." She tensed as Alex released her control, putting a hand on the bat at her belt that naturally appeared when she expected it to be there. Four times out of five, Singularity chose flight over fighting when she hadn't been wound up beforehand, but there was always that fifth time.

Singularity didn't snap to attention as Psyche's grip relaxed, but gradually blinked and shifted, as though coming out of a deep daydream. She rubbed her face, then stiffened all over when she caught sight of the intruders. Looking around, Singularity realized that they were already inside her mind, had gotten in somehow while she was distracted. Pathos was back, Pathos was back... The entire mental structure shuddered with the force of that knowledge, sending a rain of plaster and ceramic tiles showering from the ceiling. Her opportunity to fight had been lost already, there was really nothing that could be done, but even so, she hunkered down small in the booth and began to creep away, as though if she were small and quiet enough, she might escape notice in her own mind.

Wander kept her gaze partially averted from her counterpart and watched from the corner of her eye, much as she would when hunting rabbits or squirrels. "Let her go?" she asked Psyche, sotto voce

[alderwitch]

'There's someplace in here that she still feels safe,' Alex responded back to Erin, though on a private channel. When the mindscape shuddered, Alex spread her hands out, sending power to reinforce the structure which actually gave strength to Singularity since they were wandering through her mind, 'Encourage her to go to it. If it comes from me, she'll suspect a trap but she trusts you, I think. At least as much as she can trust anything. She's very feral at this point, relying on instinct and primal fear rather than reason.'

Alex turned slightly away, giving her back to Singularity as if she were distracted. It was illusory since even in her own body, Alex relied on senses well past her eyes and ears. Here, they were even more magnified. 'Some place she feels Pathos touch the least. I suspect it's something mundane. Her favorite memories Pathos would have used against her, her worst fears likewise but the banal, the every day. There's little to use in it and still some comfort in routine to it all."

[Electra]

"It's okay," Wander said in a louder voice, still not looking directly at the pitiful form of her double. "You can go if you want, we're not going to hurt you." It wasn't clear whether Singularity actually believed that, but she broke from the crouch and ran, through the hole in the broken wall and into the rooms beyond. The colors in the rotunda immediately became more washed out, the lines less distinct, even as things on the other side brightened into life with the sudden attention of their owner.

Wander gave Singularity a moment, then followed her through the hole. The museum theme was continued here, a gallery of ruined exhibits, arranged down both sides of a long hallway. In the exhibits, Erin recognized artifacts and pictures and dioramas from her own life, all with the protective glass broken to allow easy access. Despite her earlier resolve, she couldn't bring herself to look closer and see what had been done to them. In the distance, she could hear the echo of running feet as Singularity retreated further. "So is each of these like a memory?" she asked Alex, looking around. "Or like a mental metaphor for some memory? I don't see the inside of my mind this way... but I guess I've never taken a tour of it like this, either."

[alderwitch]

"Yes, and no. Our minds read what is and provide a visual that translates it the most easily into something that is... more accessible. What you perceive here and what I perceive are actually subtly different as well, as my senses provide more information than yours do, due to my particular talents,' Alex explained, keeping her pace slow and meandering. She was using this chance to get a look at all of the damage and would pause along the way to fix this or that small crack but mostly to make sure that any artifacts spilled into the pathways were put neatly back in the open dioramas with a wave of her fingertips. That seemed more important to Alex than all of the signs of damage along their path.

"The inside of your mind is different, because YOU are different. This level of organization is... unnatural. My mind might appear more like this thanks to my training, with everything in neat rows and columns but the untrained mind is more meandering. This is, like most things here, a manipulation of her natural mind into something more useful to Pathos' needs." Alex shrugged slightly and looked over her shoulder, "And the damage represents both her own fragmented response to all of her trauma as well as the occasionally heavy hand of my counterpart. Which, for the record, is deliberately so. She has my control, that much I can sense, although I think her power is focused differently. Not unsurprising since we have very different world views but she deliberately chose to leave these gaping, damaged holes. I suspect for cruelty's sake alone. That, in some way, I find the most obscene. She didn't HAVE to do this to her to control her, but she WANTED to."

[Electra]

"It's a way she can show her power," Wander guessed. "Assault can break things in the real world, and Hex can make buildings explode by looking at them. The Blank prefers subtlety, like Midnight does, but he can still make weapons and wreck things. Most of Pathos' most effective and scary powers are invisible. Maybe that frustrates her." She cocked her head and listened. "I think she's stopped running."

They followed the gallery into another wing, this one more dimly lit, cast in mysterious blue shadows from a light source that was impossible to identify. There were ruins here as well, but it seemed different. Some of the debris had been rearranged, pulled around and piled up in one corner in a way that was just a bit too deliberate to be accidental. It looked almost like a scrap treehouse, or perhaps the junkyard dwelling of a homeless person. The exhibits in this hall were empty, whatever they had contained had been removed and secreted elsewhere. "How do you want to play it?"

[alderwitch]

Alex paused to listen as well and then shrugged at Erin, "Well, I won't go in there unless she invites me. Part of a good mental defense is the belief that it works. Maybe keeping the boogeyman out will be a bit empowering for her."

She glanced around and for the first time since entering the mindscape, Alex smiled. It was an expression filled with relief. "This, this is good. It's a starting point. I can move mountains if I'm just given the starting point."

Alex turned back towards the tree-house and moved forward until she was with in easy eyesight of the vantage points that Singularity no doubt had from her fortress. Turning slightly towards Erin, she waved her hands towards the surrounding landscape, "Like any frightened, abused creature, we'll let her come out to us. If she doesn't come out, she's not ready. But this is where we start rebuilding. Just like junkyard clean up at school, we'll move things around, fix what can be fixed and use what can't to help add to her defenses here. It will register on some level that we're not cornering her, we're not forcing her to deal with things, we're just making her safer. That's the best first step I think we can make. It comes down to trust. And it has to be earned."

She pointed out a few places that seemed the most in need of shoring up but Alex would defer largely to Erin's expertise on creating makeshift fortifications. For once, their roles were reversed as Alex gave over the planning portion of creating a fortress and what would most make Erin herself feel safe and took over the heavy lifting of the actual rubble.

[Electra]

Wander had plenty of experience creating makeshift shelters, though never out of the broken remnants of someone's mind before. She tried to follow Alex's lead and treat it like a real-world construction project, but it was hard when little bits of herself kept peeking up through the rubble. She made the mistake of picking one up, a plastic makeup kit she'd gotten for her thirteenth birthday, and was suddenly rocketed into another place and time.

It was Erin's birthday party sleepover, and she'd just gotten her first makeup kit, so it was time for makeovers! Her best friend Kathi insisted she knew what she was doing, so with much giggling, the birthday girl was put into a chair for the royal treatment. With her eyes closed, Erin could feel hands on her face, in her hair, gentle and friendly at first, but soon growing harder, more insistent, pulling her hair and poking at her skin. She protested and opened her eyes, only to find herself inches away from the snapping jaws of a zombified Kathi, lunging for her throat!

"Jesus," Wander croaked, dropping the plastic box back to the floor. "That's not how it happened. But it seemed so real." Even now, a tiny nagging doubt played in the corner of her own mind. She hadn't seen Kathi die, hadn't seen Kathi as a zombie... had she?

[alderwitch]

"Here," Alex said and took the kit gently in her hands, picking it up from where it had fallen. Alex's brow wrinkled in concentration and her eyes closed as she felt for the memory running through her fingertips and looked for the accuracy of it. "No, this is spliced together. It's part construct. Most of her memories are twisted into nightmares I think from what little we've seen."

With her brow still furrowed, she twisted the kit in her hands a few different times, opening it and twisting it this way and that as the plastic seemed to bulge between her fingertips. Blowing out a breath, Alex finally opened her eyes and handed it back to Erin, untwisted by Pathos handiwork. It was a bizarre exercise for Alex, as she had to figure out how she would have made such a nightmare - were she willing - and then delicately untwist the falsehood from the reality of it all. It helped that she was so familiar with Erin's own memories and thoughts.

She reached out to Erin and put the make-up box back in her hands gently, "You didn't. It wasn't real, Erin. You must be very careful here to guard yourself as these nightmares are designed for her emotional vulnerabilities, for your emotional vulnerabilities. They will be designed with as much skill as if I had crafted them to wound you, with all of my knowledge of your dreams."

Alex paused then and asked, her voice quiet in the too silent chamber of Singularity's mind, her tone vulnerable, "Does it frighten you? That I could do this?"

She glanced around and went to pick up another discarded relic, turning it over in her hands as she admitted, Because it frightens me.

[Electra]

Erin sat back on her heels, looking around the shattered dreamscape. "No," she finally decided. "Pathos scares me, but I'm not afraid of you. It matters less... less that you could, and more that you wouldn't," she explained, struggling to put the right words together. "I mean, I could attack you in your sleep and really hurt you before you had any chance to stop me. I could kill almost anybody we know with one or two hits. And that scares me, but it doesn't scare, say, Trevor, or you, because you trust me more than I trust myself. I think it sort of comes with the having superpowers thing," she admitted with a shrug.

The artifact Alex had was a small one, a broken door handle, with a brief and nasty memory attached. She didn't see it the way Erin would have, as a real and visceral memory, but she could clearly perceive what it was. Singularity had escaped from her confinement in the white box once, killed several guards, and made it nearly to the outside doors before being brought under control by Pathos. That memory was buried behind a construct where she'd left the box only to be overwhelmed by the forces of the Tyranny Syndicate, who gave her a severe beating before tossing her back in the box with no chance of escape, ever. The construct was almost a perfunctory one, as though it had been repeated many times over.

[alderwitch]

Alex gave her a grateful smile for the pep talk before her gaze focused on the door handle in her hands and narrowed. "Hmm... Of course!" It was unrelated to their conversation but Erin had many times seen that 'Aha!' expression on Alex's face. This time was no different. She took a step or two away from Erin and then, switching the door handle to one hand, beckoned with her free hand. Random bits of rubble floated down the hallway, summoned from several distant corners of Singularity's mind, all similar to the door knob itself and none of them noteworthy to look at.

"Don't worry, these aren't memories you share." Alex explained, moving quickly through them. Since it was Pathos' patch job, they were easier to undo than the ones twisting Singularity's older memories. Alex sorted through them, dropping them into piles once the memories were restored of 'quickly subdued', 'serious battles' and 'near escapes' as she fixed each one. Under her fingertips, the visual representation of each adjusted, as if a patina of grime was cleared off of the surface. Still dented or fragmented, but no longer with that oil-slick illness of Pathos touch.

"Singularity?" Alex turned slightly, once the work was done, looking fatigued but pleased, "I know you've been watching. I have something you should look at. Did you know that you almost got away on your own from Pathos? A few times?"

She started to back away from the pile of memories slowly, giving a good deal of space so that her presence wasn't intimidating Singularity from the cleared memories. "I've restored these. The truth, like I promised. There's nothing here to hurt you."

[Electra]

There was no response for a long time, long enough that Wander began to shift from foot to foot with nerves and impatience, wondering if this was a fool's errand. Psyche was far more patient, though, and seemed like she would wait all day if needs be. Finally, there was the sound of movement from inside the makeshift shelter, and a moment later, Singularity appeared, looking wary like a hunted animal. She stared from Wander to Psyche for a moment, then at the pile of artifacts Psyche had repaired. Moving quickly, she skirted wide of the heaped rubble and approached the pile, squatting down next to it and attempting to look at them without letting Psyche out of her sight.

She reached out a hand to touch one, then pulled it back as though afraid it would hurt. Singularity rocked back and forth on her heels for a moment, making an agitated humming noise in her throat, then seemed to gather her courage and picked one up, coincidentally the same doorknob Alex had fixed first. Her eyes seemed to unfocus for a moment as she experienced the repaired memory. As soon as they cleared, she tucked the doorknob under her arm and snatched up the rest of the memories, filling her arms with them. "Mine," she muttered, "mine, mine..." When she had every single one, she ran with them back into her shelter, still casting furtive glances over her shoulder.

[alderwitch]

Alex tipped her head to the side, hands tucked behind her back. She nodded slightly and commented quietly to Erin, "The mind, even a broken mind, rejects the artificial and craves only self delusion. Delusion crafted by another hand is inherently foreign. Now, whether that will bring her any sort of peace..."

She sighed and rubbed her fingertips across her head absently, as if smoothing out the tension. "That would take a precog to predict, I gift that I - thankfully - have never been blessed with."

Alex turned towards the rest of the rubble and waved her hands in absent little circles, "This will take me many days - if not months - to straighten out but I think we've made the best progress I could have hoped for. Is there anything else you'd like to try before we leave?"

[Electra]

Wander hesitated, cupping her elbows with her hands as she scanned the wreckage. "I don't know," she admitted. "It's... I know this is what she's used to by now, but I feel kind of bad just leaving her here in this. It doesn't look like anything has changed." Wander didn't really know what more she'd been hoping to accomplish, and it really was progress that they hadn't just triggered a screaming fit, but the whole place was so unnerving. "Does one of those... door, things, whatever, open into here?" she asked.