A/N: *shouts like Mushu* I LIIIIIVVVEEE!

Haha, now that that's over, I have a few things to say here: First off: Thank you all SO much for your patience. So, what were the reasons for the long wait between last chapter and this one? Well, a couple reasons:

1. Gravity Falls has been taking up a good amount of Fangirl Island's running power. The Inside Out section's finally coming back along with it though.

2. Doing things in life, hanging out with friends, general life stuff.

And, most of all, 3. Lack of motivation.

Not that I was out of ideas for the story, far, FAR from it. In fact, I pretty much have planned how it's all gonna mostly play out. These next upcoming chapters just kind of had me hit a mental block, seeing that as eager as I was to get to those upcoming chapters, one or two kind of had me feel a general "eh" mindset.

But I've gotten out of that funk now, and hopefully updates will be much more frequent. And I've learned my lesson to properly split up chapters—if I had done so last time the wait wouldn't have seemed near as long.

Also, about the button being used to save a core memory, I got that from the art book too—there was a diagram of the console with a few buttons labeled, so I went with that, though I realized it has some differences to the movie proper. Fixed that now!

Also, for those of you who haven't watched the deleted scenes on DVD, fun fact: in one of the original ideas, back when the "emotions" had human names (and didn't necessarily serve as Riley's actual emotions since Riley could feel happy even when Fear was at the helm for instance), there actually was a microhpone on the console that the emotions used to talk to Riley. She didn't listen to them much though. XD

By the way, for those of you who like to listen to music while reading fics... listen to "Tears of Joy" from the IO soundtrack at the last section. You'll see why when you get there... for that matter, be prepared to have this chapter be mostly sad.

With that said, FINALLY we can move forward!

In her heart, part of Riley knew that what she was doing was wrong, and had the potential to end quite badly. All such a plan might do was hurt Honesty Island.

But she was being honest with her emotions. She told them the truth, just not all of it. Technically, she should be in the clear.

Even so, her mind was an entire world, and if what she learned from the emotions' story was any indication, it seemed to exert some force on them. It might have other plans.

Speaking of...

Riley stayed silent, glancing at her emotions as a thought began to occur to her. Reflecting on the details of what had happened during the move, she remembered what Sadness had said about the memories. Even with her plans—especially with her plans—she had so many questions. Oe in particular that was sticking with her.

She didn't want to appear too suspicious, or lie. And at least, given the story of the move, it was a perfectly reasonable question that raised a few implications.

"Hey, Sadness?"

The blue emotion in question glanced up at her human cautiously. "Yeah?"

"So, um, when you feel you need to change a memory, you're just... compelled to do it?"

"Yeah," Sadness admitted. "It happens just when you need it."

Riley turned to face the group as the train sped to the shelves of Long Term Memory. "And you just... do it?"

"It's like an itch that doesn't go away until you scratch it!" Anger snapped. "Sure it doesn't happen too often, but when it does—"

"It's awful!" Fear interrupted with a squeak, looking even more nervous along with the fact that Riley seemed ticked off at them. He started pacing around. "The first time, it was like feeling that something was going to attack me if I didn't do it, like there's this force in the back of your head that starts shouting, 'Do it, do it, DO IT!'" Fear crouched down a bit and hid against the back of the train's compartment, having just scared himself. He then raced toward Riley, gripping her hand and looking into her eyes. "Don't you know what it's like to have a voice screaming in your head to do somethi—"

"Ahem, genius," Anger coughed, just as Riley frowned down at Fear.

It only took those two reactions for Fear to realize where he had slipped up. His single hair drooped, letting go of Riley's hand and looking up at the human in apology. "Um, uh," he stammered nervously, backing up a bit and nearly bumping into Joy. "I'll be, um... over here..." With that, the nerve-like emotion slunk away from Riley, looking guilty that he had messed up yet again.

The rest of the train ride passed by in anxious silence. And while Riley couldn't hear the thoughts of her emotions, she was grateful that here, they couldn't hear her own:

So.. they don't even have as much control as they think?

She wasn't quite sure if this gave her more comfort about their actions, or only scared her more. She went with the latter.

But she knew that if she focused on that, the Train of Thought would plummet more.

No matter how angry or scared she was, she had to stay on course. She had to stay in control now.

"Where would the memories of Bing Bong be if they're still here?" she asked.

"It's alphabetical," Sadness said. "It'll probably be under B for Bing-Bong."

"How can we tell?"

"The sections are marked," Sadness pointed out, leaning out the window and standing on her tiptoes slightly to point. "See those levels up top?"

Riley looked, noticing that along the side one one of the upper levels, a large A would be seen engraved on the pale-colored paneling.

"They added those so people wouldn't get confused," she said. "New Mind Workers kept getting lost in there."

"You guys nearly got lost in there!" Anger pointed out.

"Well, at least there's landmarks now," Fear muttered, glancing down at the bottom. "Landmarks are good..."

As the train pulled to a stop above the right section, Riley opened the door and looked down.

"Wait Riley!" Fear exclaimed, having gone to get the rope ladder but immediately raced toward Riley. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm gonna fly down," Riley said with resolve.

"Wait, WHAT?!" exclaimed all of the emotions at once.

But before they could do anything to stop her, Riley leapt out of the trai...

... And almost instantly flew back up.

Their jaws dropped.

"... You can still do that?" Disgust said in a stunned silence.

"Guess so," Riley said, actually smiling, much to their relief. "Come on, let's go!"

Fear's eyes widened. "Wait, what are—AGHHH!"

With the Train still in the air, the emotions suddenly found themselves launched out, now hovering next to Riley. They all flailed for a minute, especially Fear who looked like he was going to faint.

"Get us down, GET US DOWN!"

"Shut up, fraidy cat!" Anger scolded with a roll of his eyes, even though he too appeared shocked that Riley's powers of warping reality extended beyond Imagination Land.

Riley paused, a curious expression manifesting on her face as she looked from her emotions down to the B-section of Long Term Memory. Maybe if she focused...

One moment, the gang was hovering in the air. The next, they suddenly found themselves making rough contact with the ground.

"Agh!"

"Oof!"

"Ow..."

"What the—"

"Woah!"

Joy was the first to pick herself up from the heap, looking up at Riley who seemed just as surprised. "Did you just... teleport us?"

"I guess so," Riley said, putting a hand to her head to try to stop her dizziness.

"How the heck are you doing all that?!" Anger asked, bewildered as he nudged Fear away from him. "That's like, impossible!"

"Well, I just sort of... think it," Riley admitted. "I'm not really sure how else to explain it, I think it and it happens."

"You continue to impress me, Riley," Disgust said, smiling up at her.

Riley only managed a half smile back before turning away from them and seeking out the different sections.

"Riley's still mad at us," Sadness commented with a sigh, her head drooping.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Disgust said, looking a mixture of displeased and guilty. After all, she had been one of the ones to go along with the running away plan.

"What if Riley blasts us to pieces with lasers?!" Fear asked, taking a few more steps back from Riley as if he thought that could happen at any moment.

"I can hear you, and I'm not gonna do that," Riley called.

Joy was relieved to hear a bit of laughter in Riley's voice. But Fear, wary as ever, didn't look completely convinced.

Finally, passing memories categorized in 'Billiards' and 'Bills' but right before 'Bingo' (Riley having won a game of that against Meg when she was 7), she saw a more faded memory. It took on a sepia color, the sound was muffled, and the image was blurred, but Riley could see her younger self drawing some sort of pink creature on the wall.

Riley could really only see its pink shade, and it was a figure she didn't really recognize clearly, as the memory was fuzzy and muffled. But she knew who it must be ven before she faintly herd her younger self sing.

"Whos' your friend... Bing Bong, Bing Bong!"

The emotions watched silently as Riley took the memory in her hands, observing it carefully as they wondered what she was going to do.

Riley drew her finger back and forth along the surface of the memory orb, rewinding it andAfter the memory revitalizing she had done, Riley knew this could potentially be easy. She could focus on the memory orb, and everything she knew about Bing Bong, and bring him back...

Or could she?

She could do lots of things here. But something that complex, when there had already been a Bing Bong, after what he had done for her...

Silently looking at the memory orb, her gaze became out of focus as her thoughts drifted to what had transpired over the past few days, how she had been firm about separating her own identity from those of her emotions. If she brought Bing Bong back, and it was more like a recreation... not only would it be as if he were easily replaced, but how might the new Bing Bong react? How much harder would it be to live up to separate yourself from what a previous version of you had been?

Riley knew this "we" sorting out was taking a bit of a toll on her life Outside. She didn't want anyone here to be subjected to a similar feeling, if not a worse one.

With a sigh, she reached up and slid the memory back into place on the shelf.

When she looked down, she saw the surprised looks on the emotions' faces.

"Riley?" Sadness said, breaking the silence among the emotions. "What are you doing?"

Letting her gaze linger on the memory orb in its proper place, Riley closed her eyes. When she turned to look at the group, her gaze looked slightly saddened.

"Trying to bring Bing Bong back would be like trying to clone him, or give him an identical twin," Riley explained. "It would be like him, but it might not be him. And I wouldn't want new Bing Bong to be stuck trying to separate who he is from somebody else."

The emotions looked down, each of them clearly feeling a bit guilty seeing as they knew exactly what Riley was trying to convey.

"Besides..." Riley glanced at the orb once more. "Bing Bong was willing to sacrifice himself to save my mind. I'm not gonna take that away from his memory."

The emotions then dared to glance up.

"You're willing to do that?" Anger finally said, the first to break the silence.

Riley nodded. "I mean, I'm not completely alone here; I still have you guys. And you remember Bing Bong. It's not like he's really gone forever as long as someone remembers him, right?"

"... Yeah," Sadness said finally after a pause. Despite her, well, sadness at Bing Bong having disappeared, Riley did make a very good point. As long as someone remembered him in some way, he wouldn't really be gone forever. As long as Riley's mind existed, Bing Bong's memory would remain in some form—even if not in the way memories were usually made.

"But... you're willing to just... let him go?" Anger asked. "I mean, after you were ticked off at us for before—"

"I wouldn't want you guys replaced," Riley quickly assured. "And I wouldn't want Bing Bong to be like that either." She sighed a little, glancing more down as her voice grew quieter. "I don't want anyone else suffering through an identity crisis."

She looked upward at where the memory was placed. For a moment, a little bit of its former golden hue returned, and Riley managed a small but genuine smile.

"Thanks for everything, Bing Bong."

Sadness sniffled, already trying not to cry. But her sniffling turned into a surprised gasp as a moment later, the emotions found themselves being lifted into the air once more. For a moment, they hung suspended, as Riley took one last look at the memory. With another blink of an eye, the group found themselves on the train again.

Riley took another look down as the emotions were silent, before making sure the front door was shut. "Come on guys. Let's go back."

The emotions and Riley all gave silent, forlorn waves to that section of Long Term before Riley turned her gaze back to Headquarters. And just like that, the Train was parked by the structure's side as if it had never left at all.

Joy glanced at Fear. "Hey Fear, what ti—?"

"4:30am," Fear replied, already having looked down at the watch the moment Riley had teleported them back.

But the emotions were otherwise silent as Riley entered the building with them, and she looked at the blank screen of the Mind's Eye, as if searching for any image at all. Finally, she stepped closer to the console, looking down at it.

"H-Hey, um Riley!" Joy said quickly, moving more over toward the core memory holder and finding Riley's silence uncomfortable. "You, uh, wanna see our rooms now? You haven't seen them yet!"

Though the yellow emotion tried to smile, the attempt at a grin fell from her face when she saw Riley shake her head. The human girl silently walked to the console, kneeling down in front of it. She surveyed the buttons, then looked at the alcoves where the idea bulbs were. Then at the unsettled and guilt-ridden faces of her emotions.

Turning back to the console, Riley focused on it and placed her hand at the top, causing it to glow white. The clatter of a slew of memory orbs sounded from the shelves, all of them primarily white but with color swirled in the middle to signify the most prominent emotions.

Joy felt her heart sink as she watched the steady progression. Sad memories dominated it at first, mixed with Joy after she was comforted. Imagination Land was almost aal yellow, and then..

Then they got to the memories that all the emotions knew had to be about the story of the move. Anger dominated around the center, and some of them being especially vibrant caused all the emotions, Anger especially, to feel guilt at that.

Then Fear, Disgust, and Sadness reigned as well. And aside from Joy mixed with Sadness a little at around the time of their group hug, testing her abilities at Long Term Memory, and some happiness mixed with sadness when deciding to leave Bing Bong to memory at Long Term, accepting what he had done for her... yellow wasn't seen in the memories since then. Not even now.

Joy felt devastated. Riley's visits to the Mind World were supposed to be happy! They were her escape from the Outside! How could everything have gone so wrong?

Riley just stared at the memories, her grip clenching firmly on the console as she recalled what happened, and everything the emotions told her. As they looked closer, they noticed Riley's hands trembling slightly.

Finally, Riley released her grip on the console, still bathed in white from her touch. Without a word, she went over to the button in the middle of the floor and stepped down on it.

The six in Headquarters followed the paths of the memories with their eyes as the glowing spheres descended through the Memory Matrix, heading off from the winding pathways to Long Term.

"... R-Riley?" Fear asked carefully, as if afraid saying anything would cause Riley to lash out at them.

Riley turned to face the emotions as the last of the memories began their descent, the blue, red, and purple that made the last few almost leaving a wispy trail in their wake. Her blue eyes stared at them with a mixture of all those emotions—sadness, primarily—but they were all subdued.

"... I'll see you guys in the morning," she finally murmured, closing her eyes as a white light began to engulf her like a bad TV picture.

Joy gasped, her eyes widening further as she saw a lone tear slide down Riley's cheek, the normally cheerful emotion racing forward and stretching her hand out as if to somehow get through to her. "R-Riley, wait, no!"

But Joy's hand only grasped air as she hit the ground, the spot where Riley had been now devoid of any life form as the sky outside Headquarters darkened to night.

"Wha..."

The others just stared for a moment as Joy picked herself off the ground, Headquarters seeming far too silent for their liking.

"Riley just... left," Disgust said breathlessly.

"What if she doesn't love us anymore?" Sadness asked.

"No..." Joy shook her head, trying to force her gape of surprise into a smile as she turned to face the others. "I, I mean, come on guys, Riley still loves us! She said so, Riley would't lie!"

"What about Honestly Island cracking out there?" Anger retorted.

That remark silenced Joy. The smile on her face slowly fell, and her expression looked more akin to Sadness.

The screen of the Mind's Eye flickered to life, showing an image of Riley's house in San Francisco. Clearly Dream Productions had started showing their dream for the night.

The five emotions glanced at one another before Sadness slowly stepped forward. "I'll take Dream Duty tonight."

To everyone's surprise, no one argued. Not even Joy.

Disgust looked back and forth from Sadness to Joy. "Um, Joy?" she said hesitantly, "this is where you usually say," here the fashionista tried to imitate Joy as much as she could, even raising the pitch of her voice. "'No, I'll do it tonight, Sadness, you can take tomorrow! Riley needs a bit of cheering up... after... all...'"

Disgust trailed off when she saw that Joy's expression barely wavered.

"... 'that'..."

Joy just looked at the spot where Riley had been before heading toward the ramp, turning and gesturing toward the others. "We'll... tomorrow will be better..."

The others looked on for a moment as Joy started to head up the ramp. Then they looked at Sadness.

"You guys go," the blue emotion said quietly. "I'll stay here."

As the others went upstairs, and Sadness gave them a sad wave and a "Goodnight," no one noticed the remnant of white that flickered on the console.

"Good night guys."

"Good night, Joy."

"Good night."

"Hope things don't turn out to be a disaster—"

"You're not helping, Fear!" Disgust chided, noticing Joy's wince.

Their voices faded as each emotion shut their doors behind them to get ready for the next day.

Joy was the last to enter her room, slowly opening it and nudging the stray letters away before shutting the door behind her. She glanced through the peephole.

No one had come back out to the main hall. No one to probably peek in.

Removing her hand from the doorknob, Joy slowly turned to face the interior to her room. Though nothing had changed, even here seemed to have lost its spark. The light of the moon and stars through the window to her "happy place" gently shone in the makeshift sky, providing extra light along with her own glow.

Joy took a deep breath, not even acknowledging the roughness of the stepping stones and barely seeming to feel transition to the plush green mat under her feet. As she walked by, closer to her bathtub bed, her eyes met her framed drawings hung on the wall.

With her hands folded, Joy let out a sigh before silently staring at them. Sunlight, places both she Riley and liked (Disneyland was a favorite) and wanted to go to (Paris), and things that she wished she could do. Not Riley-she but Joy-she.

She glanced at one of her doing ballet off to the left, just underneath a drawing of the sun. She knew could try to order a ballet outfit from Imagination Land and have it delivered or something, but it wouldn't be the same as doing it with others. The only one who might even be somewhat willing to try that with her was Sadness.

But Joy's gaze focused on one drawing in particular. One of the ones she first saw every morning when she woke up. She took a deep breath. It had been a while since she really felt like she needed to do this.

After all, she was Joy! She was the strongest, the most enthusiastic, the most cheerful...

But even she had her moments of sadness. This was one of them. Taking a deep breath, her eyes focused on the drawing's taller figure. "I need to talk to you."

She then stood up straighter, moving a bit off to the side and adopting a more mature-sounding voice. "What's wrong, Joy?"

The yellow emotion bounced back to her original position and her previously held posture, glancing up with an unusually forlorn expression like she was looking at someone taller than her. "It's Riley."

Back to the second position and her older voice. "What about Riley?"

Joy sat down against the wall, looking upward as if she were a little kid. "We told her about the move, and... it didn't really turn out well."

She got up and looked down at where she had been sitting just moments before. "It didn't, huh?"

Joy sat down once more and nodded. "She got super mad at us for the whole running-away-idea thing."

Again she stood up and made her voice sound older. "Didn't she forgive you for it?"

As she sat down again, Joy paused. "Well, sort of... I mean, she hugged us, but she's still mad." Joy glanced down at the floor, as if unable to face the one she was talking to. "I feel like I ruined everything."

The emotion managed to stand up again, her chest feeling a little tight. "Sweetie," she then said in that gentle voice, "i-it wasn't your fault. You and Sadness were gone from Headquarters, so Disgust, Fear.. a-and Anger had to... t..take over..." She forced herself to swallow. "It's not your fault Joy."

The attempt at pretend wavered, unable to keep it up anymore as Joy focused on the words. Her bounciness from one position to the other became more of a stumble as she sat on the ground again, speaking as her normal self, her voice breaking. "I-It was though! I was such a control freak and Riley nearly ran away because she couldn't handle the others when I was gone!" Her glow dimmed as she looked firmly upward. "I wasn't there for her and now she might hate us, Mom!"

A heavy silence was present in the air at the last word. Her breathing audible, Joy continued staring up at the empty space nearby as if expecting an answer, some sort of comforting words to assure her that it wasn't her fault. But at this point, Joy wasn't up for more pretending. She didn't even bother to jump back to her second position to fill in the role of her missing maternal figure. The one that she never had like Riley and knew she never could have.

Joy wrapped her arms around herself, lost in thought, her chest feeling tight as she found it hard to swallow. She herself had served as the team mom for the emotions, and in some way to Riley, over these past few years, and it had helped in some way. But it was times like these where she knew it wasn't really the same.

Riley's parents weren't hers'. The other emotions were the closest thing she had ever had to a family. Just as Riley had said, she wasn't her emotions. They never had parents to look after them and teach them about the world.

She placed her hand on the picture she had been addressing, a slightly younger version of herself being hugged by an older woman with a similar bang in the middle of her forehead. She took a small glance at the words she had scrawled next to it.

Me & Mom.

Joy kept her hand on the picture, trying to imagine that she was being comforted by the gentle touch of another instead of just paper and ink. But she couldn't will that into existence like Riley could with Bing Bong.

And Joy felt something slide down her face. One tear first, then another. Her breath came out shaky, trembling slightly.

Don't cry, she told herself. You're Joy, not Sadness. You rarely cry. You cry when you're happy... don't cry, don't cry...

But she knew she couldn't just hold this back, as much as she wanted to. It felt like forever ago since she realized how valuable crying was. But it still hurt.

"I'm... I'm sorry..."

And Joy cried. It had been over a year since she had really done any full-on crying, and this wasn't near as despairing as her time in the Memory Dump when she thought she would never get out. But there was still a deep sadness.

Joy briefly thought about going back to the main control room of Headquarters to talk to Sadness about it, but she banished the thought almost immediately. She didn't want to bother Sadness, especially seeing as she was on Dream Duty tonight.

Stepping away from her drawing so as not to smudge it, Joy instead lowered herself to the floor. She thought of her drawings, not just here in her room, but in her "happy" place which she could easily get to if she wished. All she had to do was climb out the window, walk down the path, and reach that little house which she considered a second home for her, forgetting all her worries—or at least pretend to forget them.

Unable to sleep, she decided to do just that.

Forcing the tears away, Joy moved around her bathtub and brushed the pink curtains of the window to the side, enough for her to step over the window and hoist herself onto the other side.

The dirt pathway underneath her feet comforted her, as she walked along it, briefly glancing back. From the pocket dimension of her happy place, the window back to her room looked merely like the window of an everyday house, with pale yellow brick.

Except the only way in was through said window.

Sure, it was quite a bit different from her Happy Place, which on the outside was a replica of Belle's house from Beauty and the Beast, but it was suitable for what she liked.

With the light of the moon and stars to guide her, as well as her own glow, Joy walked along the path and surveyed the few trees that surrounded it. It was the closest she felt she could get to what walking in nature was actually like. Not just experiencing it through Riley's senses as her emotion, but just as herself. As Joy.

Was this how Riley felt? The thought wasn't exactly comforting to Joy, and she picked up the pace to her house.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and flicked on the nearby light switch. While the exterior was like Belle's house, the inside was quite different. The lights in the main interior shone light bright orbs, there were ramps to each floor instead of stairs (which could function as a slide in a pinch) and a ball pit that was right by a small kitchen with a fridge full of ice cream.

She remembered how both Riley's parents, and Sadness, had once said ice cream was a good comfort food. But even as she went across the ball pit and opened the fridge, she sighed. She pulled out a bowl and a tub of ice cream for herself, but only put a single scoop in her bowl.

Joy then stood up and got another bowl, placing it across from her at the table and scooping another lump of ice cream into it. "There ya go, Riley!"

As expected, there was no response.

"So, um, yeah," Joy said, glancing around a little, "this is my happy place, glad you're... here to... see it..."

The yellow emotion trailed off, placing the spoon into her bowl with a clatter. As much as she wanted to imagine Riley was here with her, their host was clearly in no mood for that.

Riley just needed time.

Finishing off the ice cream for herself, Joy went over to the upper floor of the house, containing her bedroom here, but that wasn't the most conspicuous thing about the upstairs.

What was most noticeable was her drawings, some similar to those in her room while others more grand. Some were of things Outside, some of herself and her friends, some of Riley, some of completely imagined worlds...

Some of Bing Bong...

And some of the family she never had.

Joy looked at one picture that she had been working on. It was her and the other emotions, as well as Bing Bong, with Riley at the center, all of them in a group hug. But they were accompanied by two others as well. A man and a woman who looked somewhat like Joy, but older.

The emotion looked at what she had marked the painting:

My Family.

Of course, she knew that could never be. Her imagined parents didn't exist. Bing Bong had been forgotten. And Riley herself was now feared to have had that chance lost.

As Joy gathered a few of her supplies, she looked at another picture of herself and her imagined mother. If her mother were here, if she were real, she might be able to give advice. She might know what to do to help with Riley.

But Joy knew that she'd just have to rely on her own judgement just as always. And hopefully things would turn out okay for Riley in the morning and they hadn't messed everything up for good.

Hopefully, soon, Riley would be willing to see this.

And as brought her paints closer to herself, feeling tears come to her eyes once more as she looked at her drawings, Joy was glad that no one had seen her go to her Happy Place. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to see the happiest of the emotions cry over not only feeling like she lost a friendship, but lost something she never truly had.

A/N: This chapter was quite longer and more feelsy than I was initially expecting. ^^; Yeah, sad hidden depths for Joy there. :( By the way, I didn't make up all that stuff in Joy's room: according to the art book, that's actually what's in there, including the Happy Place, though I did make up what the inside looked like. I wish that it showed the other emotions' rooms as well, but oh well, that's where imagination comes in. I wanted to include that scene with Joy at the end to give a bit of parallel/contrast to Riley's thoughts with Bing Bong, especially when I noticed what one of Joy's drawings was—hence the title of this chapter being able to refer to both of them.

So with that sad bit and a potential cliffhanger regarding what's up with the console there, see ya next chapter—which I promise will be out MUCH sooner—and remember to review! Also... *hands out box of tissues in apology for feels last chapter and this chapter*