Hey everyone, doing an unusual PSA: For those that haven't been paying much attention to the coronavirus, I think it's worth mentally preparing for a chance that you or someone in your friends/family will get badly sick sometime in the next couple months, and physically preparing for society to slow down for a bit. If even 15% of people are too sick to leave the house at the same time, that's entering Great Depression levels of unemployment. Many aspects of "normal life" will be disrupted even for those who are not sick.

That doesn't mean panic, or prepare for an apocalypse. I still plan on going about my normal life in that time, assuming things don't take a sudden turn for the worst.

But at the very least, if you can afford to buy some extra necessities up front, I think it's worth doing. Get an extra month's supply of non-perishable food, toilet paper, laundry detergent, various basic medications, etc. Don't take any PTO for the next few weeks in case you need to take it later while sick or to help a sick family member. Make a habit of regular, thorough hand-washing while in public and before meals.

I don't tend to be alarmist, in general. Living in the hurricane capital of the US means I have a practice balancing on the tightrope of preparing for potential disasters that often end up being no big deal, and what I've learned is that being reasonably prepared is often worth more than just the peace of mind it provides.

Hope you all enjoy the chapter, and many more to come.

Chapter 78: Merger

Most gyms have two dedicated clinics: one for pokemon, and one for people. Neither is as fully equipped or staffed as a hospital or pokemon center, but they can still do a lot, and are particularly useful to the gym staff when they have a lot of challenge matches booked back to back.

All the other gyms try to have at least one medically trained psychic on staff, but Saffron is the only Kanto gym with a third, smaller clinic specifically dedicated to psychic healing, with six full time staff rotating shifts.

It's Red's first time in it, and he looks around at the soothing wallpaper (a bright blue sky with silver clouds, the vague impression of swablu hidden in the curving lines) and comfortable looking couches and futons as they're ushered into the waiting room by the Gym Second.

Red spent the walk here with his shields firmly up, but he'll have to drop them soon to be checked, and he doesn't want Rei's secret to be at the top of his thoughts. If only he could induce amnesia in himself already… But no, he's had enough practice by now to keep his thoughts in order.

There are two doctors on shift, so Rei and Cyr get called in to be checked first. Daniel, looking like he's not sure why he's here, says he's going to get something from the vending machine, leaving Red, Tetsuo, Jason, and Satori. The latter two are quietly comparing notes about their experience with the merger, while Tetsuo is typing something into his phone...

...and Red is still holding an emergency meeting with Past and Future Reds.

Okay, let's map out where this goes, Future Red says. Outcome 1, we end up linked to the exeggcute again, the cookie thing was an accident or prank from whoever but we accidentally think of Sabrina or Rei, and the secret comes out. Outcome 2, we manage to control ourselves well enough that we don't think of either of them, but Rei is the one that was testing the waters with that cookie thing and she thinks of Sabrina to get to whatever secrets Tetsuo knows about her, outing our own complicity along with hers. Option 3, it was a prank or accident, and we control ourselves, and nothing bad happens. Two out of three, not looking good. I say we tell Tetsuo now.

Red frowns. That's not how math works. We need to know how likely each of the three outcomes is.

Good luck quantifying any of that, since we can't actually know how well the automatic sharing can be guarded against until it happens again, and by then it would be too late if we're wrong. I guess you could just ask everyone if they were responsible again, then estimate whether they're being honest.

Maybe that's what Satori and Jason are talking about. He turns to them, focusing on their whispered words.

"-would have noticed," Jason murmurs. "Influence from the seeds would have been easy to predict, if we knew ahead of time which one we had."

"I believe mine was concerned with the future," Satori says. "It was difficult to stay grounded in the present rather than have my thoughts keep turning to what would come next… but only in the short term."

Jason makes a thoughtful sound. "Now that you say that… I thought I was just interested in experiencing the exeggcute's understanding of its environment, but perhaps that was driven by the seed's desire."

"Were you focused on threats?" Red asks, joining the conversation more overtly by turning his body toward them.

Jason considers this a moment, then bobs his head. "Yes, now that you mention it. There was an extra vigilance of anything else in the room, but as there were only humans, nothing would have struck it as a threat."

"Yeah." Red turns to Tetsuo. "Sir, do you recall any particular drive or focus that might have come from your seed during the merger?"

Tetsuo holds up a finger, other hand still typing for a moment, then lowers his phone and considers the question. "I believe mine was the memory of the exeggcute. It felt like it kept comparing the present against moments it previously experienced, checking for similarities to food that it located, or danger that it encountered. Is this relevant to what happened, or just curiosity?"

"Both? I'm wondering whether the seed that was seeking food led to the… whatever it was, the hyperfocus on cookies."

Satori nods. "That is my guess as well. The merger became so complete that the focus of the exeggcute's seed became the focus of the psychic, and they projected that focus onto the rest of the seeds, and their attending psychics. Had the exeggcute not been withdrawn, I'm not sure how long it would have continued."

"Well that's a clear risk," Tetsuo asks, frowning slightly. "Any further experiments will have to have someone on standby, and with a time limit for them to withdraw even without sign that things went pear shaped in case there isn't one." He turns to Red. "What was your seed's focus?"

Red is still mulling over his first question, and is distracted as he tries to recall. "Nothing jumped out at me," he admits. "Which maybe excludes food and… what was the last one?"

"Coordination, particularly for mobility," Satori says. "But they were not moving, and so it might make sense to not have noticed this."

"There's also flux," Jason reminds him. "Which may be even less noticeable? Or more, if there was rapid change."

Red nods, frowning slightly. Neither of those are ringing a bell. "Well, I definitely didn't notice any desire for food or finding it up until the thought of cookies overwhelmed me, so I think I was either flux or coordination." Which means there's a 50% chance that Rei's seed was the one focusing on food.

His thoughts drift from there until he realizes he's not doing anything productive, and invokes his model of Future Red again. Concentrate on the goal, Future Red reminds him. How does knowing all this help?

Maybe it doesn't. But Cyr probably didn't make a mistake like this, and that means Rei is the only likely suspect, outside of Daniel pranking. Which he probably wouldn't admit to until after everyone is checked out and okay, if then.

Maybe Rei wasn't trying to test things. Maybe she just got overwhelmed by the seed's desire once she merged that deep with it.

Sure, maybe. And maybe that happened while she was trying to project a thought about Sabrina. Does it change anything? Even if it wasn't her, she would be an idiot not to try to take advantage of it to learn what Tetsuo knows about Sabrina now. And she is the one that invited him to join, then suggested he take Daniel's place.

All of which might be moot if he doesn't join them again. Or if they don't allow the experiment again. Which he should probably find out before making any major decisions…

He expects to hear something from Past Red about that, but his most self-critical self is still oddly quiet.

Are you forgetting that it's not an actual voice of a separate person, just an automatic mental process that just happens to manifest as such?

No, but then why are you here and he's not?

...point.

Red frowns slightly as concern starts to tickle at the back of his mind… and then becomes an urge to lower his partition, as odd as that feels. He doesn't even bother verbalizing an internal agreement, just lowers the partition and lets the world sink into a mildly more greyscale version of itself...

Holy...

...and he's suddenly free, free to act, free to be. It's like stepping through a mirror and realizing he was the reflection all along, and suddenly instead of being stuck in the narrow bounds of the reflection, there's more room beyond the edges of the mirror.

In this case, the extra stuff is his memories of what he was thinking and doing during the exeggcute merger. Namely, how the part of him behind the partition "woke up" and started experiencing the exeggcute seeds' connections to each other, which he then tried to model by changing the partition to match it so both his partitioned and unpartitioned selves would continue to exist in parallel rather than one at a time.

Except they aren't new memories, because he remembers having them all along, living through them. He's Red, and there's only one of him, now. His partitioned self is just a specific type of thought pattern, focusing on certain emotions and perspectives while avoiding others. Namely, his depressed ones.

(...shit.)

"Red? Are you alright?" Jason asks, and not just because Red has gone rigid, is staring into the distance with wide eyes. His shields are down, and he knows he must be giving off a very strange signal to the medium's unique psychic senses.

We have to test it. Even through the pain and grief and sadness that comes from lowering his partition, he knows this is important, that his other self is right to be freaking out, because this might change everything…

(Wait,) Future-Present-Happy-(Partitioned?) Red says, and still clearly in shock that he finds himself in this position, and there's a sense of disorientation—

"Red, if you're okay, say something."

—that he is the partitioned one, and Red feels a brief surge of vindication that itself quickly gets swept aside in the thrill of the moment. (Hang on… is this it? If we can lie without detection now, and they find out... we'll never be trusted!)

If we can lie now and they find out later that we didn't say anything, they'll trust us even less, Red thinks, and holds a hand up to reassure Jason and the others, all of whom are staring at him now. "I'm fine." He feels their minds probing his, trying to test if he's okay, but his shield is up, he can do that much easier now than he normally can when his partition is down. They can tell something is off, though, Jason in particular… "Just had to take my partition down for a moment…"

"That's what usually happens when you do?" Jason asks, sounding mildly alarmed, and this is already an emergency, because now Red has to lie to answer him or tell the truth...

"Sorry," Red says, and stands. "Going to head to the bathroom." He walks off before they can respond, and hopes no one tackles him for a forced mental screening because of what happened with the exeggcute.

(Not that they'd be entirely wrong to, if this were a movie we'd be acting exactly like someone hiding something... because we are!)

Red realizes he's sweating through his shirt as he enters the hallway, and wipes at his brow as he walks by Daniel, ignoring the older boy's curious look. He heads straight for the bathroom, glad it's a private one, and locks the door before going over to close the toilet lid and sit on it.

"Take it slow," he murmurs, then thinks to pull out his notebook, hands trembling just a little. He needs to better understand what happened...

Exeggcute work by something like multiple partitions around a common mind, he writes. During merger, I felt myself "awaken" behind my partition, and adjusted it to match what the exeggcute use. As a result, my partition seems both stronger and weaker.

His handwriting is barely legible, and he scratches out a few words to rewrite them as he takes a few calming breaths.

Notable effects:

With partition up, Partitioned Red can't model current self even a little. But I still remember events from then, the same way I used to.

With partition down, Partitioned Red is more present- (Ha. Present. Should tell Leaf that…) -and feels more independent. I can also create a shield better, as if it's still up. (I'm helping with that.) He seems to be helping with that.

Do I still exist when the partition is up, the way he does when it's down?

Red stares at the words, sweat sliding down his neck. It had been a philosophical question before, but now… it feels too real, knowing that Partitioned Red is so "alive" with it down.

That doesn't make any sense, though. With the partition down, they should be more merged, shouldn't they?

(Bring the partition back up, see if you can say something now that we're expecting it.)

Red considers this for only a moment before he realizes something extraordinary, and quickly writes it down.

Can sense Partitioned Red's sincerity. Does it work both ways?

He barely finished thinking the thought before the answer was obvious.

Yes. We're not actually separate minds; we both know everything each other knows. Like doduo?

No.

(No.)

There's no disagreement. Different ideas are propagating back and forth, different thoughts, different perspectives (Partitioned Red thinks this is much cooler than he does) but… they are, in fact, of one mind.

Until…

Red nods, and doesn't waste any more time worrying about whether he can trust his other self, which is itself a huge relief. He brings the partition back up…

...and feels some part of him fall away, folded up in the origami of his mind. The partition has never felt more real to him, or more nuanced: he can sense the thoughts traveling through it, just like he could sense them moving in the web of the exeggcute.

But nothing's coming back…

He brings the partition back down and takes a deep breath, the sterile scents of a clean bathroom helping slow his racing pulse.

Before, having the partition up was cutting away parts of himself, then seamlessly reattaching them so that he could recall what he did and thought without those parts, but not change any of it… and all the while, that lesser version of himself would be gone.

Now he feels like the partitioned portion of his mind is never actually going away. Partitioned Red is there when it's down, and he's still there when it's up. (That still doesn't make any sense? What does it change, concretely?)

He considers a moment, then writes out a math equation, 157 x 248.

(Too complex, you won't have pen and paper.)

Right. He scratches out the last numbers, leaving 15x24. It's a problem he feels like he can figure out with just a few moments of effort, without the answer immediately coming to mind. He quickly brings the partition back up.

Red stands up and stretches, then goes to wash his hands, then examines his pale face in the mirror, doing anything but letting himself think about the numbers. He wonders what the others must be thinking of the way he left so abruptly. If he decides not to tell them, he can just pretend he had a sudden stomachache, but he still has to figure out if he should reveal what he knows about Rei, independent of this development… oh, and the mental exam to check for any lasting effects from the exeggcute merge is certainly going to reveal all this.

He wipes sweat from his neck, worry churning through his stomach at the added constraint. As if he doesn't have enough to worry about... Okay, that should be long enough. He brings the partition back down, and immediately knows the answer is 360.

Red sits back down on the toilet lid, amazed by the sudden double memory; one of freaking out about what happens when he leaves the bathroom, the other doing some quick mental math and freaking out about what happens when he leaves the bathroom.

The memories are utterly entwined. There really weren't two of him while the partition was up: there was just him, with part of him unaware of the other, larger part that contained him.

A circle in a slightly larger circle.

This is big. He doesn't know if it would allow him to hide lying or not, but it's still a unique psychic phenomenon, as far as research he's read covers, at least. Maybe someone like Rowan has already discovered it.

Rowan. He needs to talk to the local partition expert. But first he needs to find a way through the current predicament…

(Yes, ground-breaking mystery later, time-sensitive social crisis first.)

Red rubs his eyes, already feeling the exhaustion returning, the cloud of sadness that makes nothing seem more attractive than going home and pulling the covers up over his head…

(Hey! Time-sensitive social crisis!)

Red frowns. If Partitioned-Red isn't like a separate person, just a line of thought that's based on a model of himself without the depression or grief, a part of him whose priority focus is on goals, then Future Red is probably the better name for that part of himself. But when the partition is up the Future Red being referred to is a very different one. It's like a nesting doll, really, and…

...and thinking about this isn't helping, just distracting him from the far less pleasant and more important problem facing him.

He wets some toilet paper and wipes at the dried sweat on his neck and forehead, wishing he could just pause everything for an hour to think. No, that's not his actual wish. His actual wish is to not have to deal with this at all.

One foot in front of the other. Something he had to learn to do when Dad died, and it was hard at first, but it helps. Red starts writing a basic outline of his situation just to keep his thoughts moving in a constructive direction.

Problem 1: Should I reveal Rei's goals or try to guard against them coming out during the examination?

Problem 2: Should I admit to/test new partition's potential ability to lie?

Resources: ? Leverage? None. Get some?

Allies:

Red pauses, considering his peers. Maybe Jason would back him up, if he says he's fine without wanting a full psychic screening? And if he doesn't reveal Rei, maybe she would help cover him up for the partition. But he can't ask for advice from any of them on how to address either problem without giving things away… And despite the progress he's made with befriending them, he doesn't know how far he can actually trust them.

Not the way he once could Leaf or Blue during their journey. But this is what he chose, and at the end of the day, he's alone here...

(No we're not!)

Red blinks, then frowns. You don't count.

Instead of responding with words, he just gets an impression, a memory, of Dr. Seward's calm voice telling him that she's available if he ever needs her, to not hesitate to call in an emergency, and him believing her.

...this isn't that kind of emergency. She can't help with this.

(So call someone who can! Why do you think we can't trust Leaf the way we used to?)

Another memory, this one much more recent. Of Leaf hugging him, and telling him she doesn't blame him.

(She cares about us. So does Professor Oak, and Mom. We're not alone.)

It's true. He knows it's true, even if he instinctively recoils at the idea of reaching out to them for help. He's a mess right now, and much as he hates the idea of just boxing all his negative emotions up, he doesn't want to force them to deal with them...

(Then let me do it!)

Red stares down at the tiles, considering it. That… might actually be an option. What does he lose by putting the partition back up? Now that he feels his own persistence through the intervening time, it doesn't feel like cutting off part of himself. And this is an important thing to solve, one his feelings of grief and pain and loneliness (And anger, can't forget that now that we recognized it!) are just distracting him from.

Alright. There's a sense of surprise from his partitioned self, but now that it's obvious how useful it would be he doesn't waste any more time, letting the partition rise back into place between blinks.

He still feels anxious, but the weight of the broader worries is off his shoulders. He calls Leaf after a moment to review what he's going to say, hoping she's not busy.

"Hiya Red, what's up?"

"Hey, Leaf." Red clears his throat. "Got a minute?"

"Yeah, what's going on?" Her tone instantly changed at the sound of his, and just hearing her concern makes him feel a little better.

"I need… advice, I guess. I'm about to throw a lot at you, so um, save questions until after?"

Leaf is silent for a moment, then says, "Okay, I'm sitting down. What's going on?"

Red takes a deep breath, then lets it out. "So long story short, before Sabrina left town she tasked us with figuring out if a psychic can develop a way to lie even to another psychic. While we've been working on that, I made friends with her oldest student, Rei, who admitted to me that she's only been staying as Sabrina's student because she wants to know what she's been up to with all her secretive trips." Red runs out of breath, and sucks in a new one. "About an hour ago we all got together to link up with an exeggcute—really cool, by the way, I have to tell you about that later—and I figured something out about my partition from the way they network with each other, it's like a single mind with six sub-parts, and now my unpartitioned self is more… it's hard to describe, I guess it's fair to say more distinct while also being more connected?"

"Wow. Uh. Is that… good?"

"Yeah, it is actually. I feel more like a single person than I did before, even though the division is more clear. Hard to describe, like I said. But here's the thing…"

"You think you can lie to other psychics now?" Leaf guesses, voice low with awe. Or maybe fear.

"If I had to bet? No, I don't think so. Things can cross the partition, and we both know everything each other knows as long as it wasn't figured out while the partition is up. As far as I can tell, at least. But… I don't know, and I feel like I should check, right? Shouldn't I?"

"…wow. Okay. Ooookay… Red, that's… I think I get why you called…" Leaf's voice is both worried and thoughtful, and it's easy to imagine her expression; brow drawn in concentration, eyes alight and constantly moving as she paces. "It's like what we talked about on the ship, you're worried about how other psychics will treat you…how the world will treat psychics… But wait, if Sabrina wanted you guys to figure this out, you can't keep this to yourself! Whatever she asked about it for, it might be important!"

"Uh. Yeah, she said she thinks there's a psychic who can..."

"What?! Red!"

"Okay, yes, now that you mention it, I obviously shouldn't keep this to myself," he says as he rubs his eyes. "Is it at least okay to wait until she's back, do you think?"

"Maybe. But if there's something you can do in the meantime, it sounds like she expected you to do it."

Red sighs. "Yeah." He doesn't like the answer, but he can't think of another argument, so he tables thinking about it for now. "So what about Rei, then? I'd feel really bad about betraying her."

"Yeah, that sounds tougher. What made it suddenly come up? Like why are you deciding whether to tell others now instead of earlier?"

"Oh! Right, I didn't mention that part… someone did something during the exeggcute merger that made everyone think about a certain thing, and now I'm worried that, whether it was Rei or not, or an accident or not, Rei might use it to learn something about Sabrina from the gym Second, who was with us."

"Huh. Well, if you're such good friends with her, why not just talk to her about it first?"

Red blinks, then shifts. Did he use the word "friend?" He can't remember. "Well, I wouldn't say we were friends exactly."

"Oh." Red can hear Leaf's frown. "Then… why would she tell you something like that?"

"Uh. That's another long story… I guess it was basically just a way to understand each other's motives while working together."

"And… she didn't swear you to secrecy, or anything?"

"No. Actually she even said she didn't care if I told others, or at least made it seem like not a big deal."

Leaf is silent for a moment. "What exactly is the problem then?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why not tell others?"

Red's the one who frowns now. "Why would I? it's not like she's doing anything illegal or even against any rules. I don't even have any evidence she did anything!"

"Right, but if she's not your friend, and she admitted this to you and said you could tell others, what's wrong with just letting others know you're worried about it?"

For some reason Red has trouble grappling with the question, though on some level he knows it's simple. "It would cause a lot of drama?"

"It sounds like you're already caught in some. Is that the actual reason?"

Red doesn't have an immediate answer to that, and as he ponders it, he notices a feeling… like…

Like…

His phone chimes, and he checks it to see a text from Jason. Rei and Cyr are fine, Tetsuo said rest of us should still be checked to be sure. He and Satori went in, we're next. He doesn't ask if Red is okay, but Red can read the concern between the lines. He texts back a "thanks" as he says, "Leaf, can I call you back?"

"Sure. You alright?"

"Yeah, I just have to think about it and don't want you to wait."

"Alright. I'll be here."

"Thank you. It means a lot." He ends the call, then gets as comfortable as he can on the toilet seat before he closes his eyes.

Focusing is a new enough tool to still be at the top of his mental toolbox, but even after taking a moment to review his options it still seems like the right one for the job, given Leaf's question. But he doesn't want to do it while the partition is up and part of himself is closed away.

There's still a moment of hesitation, a moment of not wanting to give up his autonomy, of fear at a set of new values and potentially different goals suddenly becoming his new normal, but knowing for sure that he's the partitioned one, the Red in the mirror, and that the broader, unpartitioned Red is still a conscious presence while all this is happening, is enough to make him just drop his reservations, and the partition along with them.

Red feels the depression come, but he's still too engaged in the crisis to let it consume him. He takes a few moments to calm himself so he can try focusing on the felt-sense again.

(Think about telling people about Rei's plans, then point to where the feeling is.)

What are you, Therapist Red now?

(Sure, why not. Just focus, would you?)

You mean-

(Yes it's very funny that the word means two different things. Concentrate!)

He closes his eyes and imagines talking to Tetsuo in private, mentioning what Rei told him... then points to his stomach.

(Describe it.)

It's like... a pair of wringing hands, twisting in my guts...

(Is it on our side or against us?)

That's not a hard one. It's a fear response, right? So on our side?

(Is it? Check. Out loud.)

Red rolls his eyes behind closed lids, but clears his throat and, focusing on the felt-sense, murmurs, "I'm afraid to tell Tetsuo."

The feeling in his stomach barely reacts, but there's a tightness in the back of his neck that he suddenly becomes aware of.

(Okay, so that's true too, but it's not the feeling in our stomach.)

Red frowns slightly. What could it be, then? Feelings of sadness keep trying to intrude, and he has to redirect his attention away from thoughts of Aiko as he tries to focus on the wringing-hands in his stomach again. "I… don't want to be seen as a traitor?" That caused some reaction, the hands in his stomach squeezing tighter. "I don't want Sabrina to feel like I betrayed her…" Huh. The feeling is weaker again. "I… don't want Jason to think badly of me?" he guesses, thinking of the closest thing he has to a friend among the students. But no, that reaction was even smaller than the Sabrina one…

Red's frustration serves as an opening to the grief over Aiko's death, the anger and hurt from Blue's recriminations, and his uncertainty over Leaf's reaction, though thankfully some of the sting of that is gone when he reminds himself of what she said at the ranch… he wishes he could just put those feelings aside for a moment so he can concentrate…

Woah. That's not a thought he usually has with his partition down.

(Not my fault.)

No one else in there right now. He knows Partitioned Red is right, though. He didn't feel any kind of influence from his other self, the way he can send impulses and thoughts through the partition.

Which means… maybe it's related to what he was thinking of, rather than a distraction from it?

(What does Aiko have to do with Rei?)

And then it seems obvious. "I don't want to betray her," he murmurs, and feels the hands tighten in his stomach… though there's something more. "I don't want to... be seen as someone who betrays his friends."

Pain, pain in his upper chest, related to but distinct from the icy pain between his ribs, and a block in his throat that makes his next breath shaky. The part of him modeling his partitioned self is reflecting his thoughts with feelings of skepticism and curiosity.

Red sighs. "Thank you," he murmurs to the feeling in his chest. "I understand the concern, now. I can better figure out what to do, and… make sure that we don't lose anyone else, or… look like I don't care about my friends to my friends."

The hands in his torso relax their grip on each other little by little as he speaks, but don't change or fade away. He wonders why not, but realizes a moment later that the concern is still there. He's only done half the job in identifying it and reassuring all parts of himself that it's something he'll address.

(Okay, so… first question. Is Rei actually our friend? Would betraying her secret actually make us a "bad friend?")

If he thinks of the initial interaction that resulted in him being told the secret, the obvious answer is "no." She even told him he could tell others, and it wouldn't be a big deal!

But… after that, while they worked together, they became closer. She was more open with him, stayed after their assigned experiment time to chat about their pasts and views on psychic phenomena. He's not sure if that's quite enough to be called "friendship," but what does he know about making friends? All he can do is compare the relationship to others, and the closest it resembles is how he and Jason have gotten to know each other better over the past month. He definitely feels like he knows her more than Satori, for example, who he's also spent time with lately, let alone any of the other students.

(I don't think just knowing someone well is the same as being their friend. No, this has more to do with what we want.)

It's true. He wants to be Rei's friend. Because she's smart, and competent, and well known. He wants her to think positively of him.

Put like that, it's not really friendship. It's admiration, mixed with something much more self-serving. It's a little sad, that he would probably be even more reluctant to betray her if he liked her more, on a personal level, or if she was a generally friendlier and bubbly person rather than a mostly distant and aloof one. Or, as long as he's being honest, more helpful to his goals.

(The felt-sense also worries about how others see us, which is irrational, since they might think we're more moral for sharing her plans.)

He frowns, fingers rubbing his temples. Maybe he needs to look at this another way… He could use Internal Family Systems too. Future Red might have more to say.

But no, that lens doesn't feel like it fits for this situation. Instead of Past, Present, and Future Red, he thinks of another example Dr. Seward mentioned: Child, Teenager, and Adult. His "inner child" is probably the one that's most worried about being disliked and not having any friends, but he's not sure how well the other two inner-selves would fit. His "inner teenager" just feels like himself, now. It's interesting to think that when he's older that will change, that some shard of his current self might crystallize into a complex reference point of stereotypical behavior and perspectives, and he gets distracted for a moment wondering what they would be.

(Tick-tock, tick-tock…)

Right, another time. Maybe if he models his different interests arguing about what he should do? Inner Psychic, Researcher, Trainer? No, those don't map well for this kind of decision. Maybe a more literal internal family system, like Child, Mother, Father...

That one feels right. The Child is the easiest, since it's the same as before: worried about making friends. Scared of being disliked. What effects would that have on the system? If there were siblings they might be annoyed, but if the Child is crying and the only two others are parents, the Mother… is comforting it, first and foremost. Telling it that things will be okay. That even if they lose friends, they're not friends that matter. And that it… he… should just focus on doing what's right, and he would get the right kinds of friends as a result.

He thinks of his actual mom, the primary influence in his internal concept of what an archetypal "mom" would do, and knows Laura Verres would put extra emphasis on the "do what's right" part. More specifically, thinking of their last argument, she would say honesty is important. Which is ironic given that she sometimes lies to uncover hidden truths for her work…

(Well, we did think that we can just say we were trying to learn more about her plans first, remember?)

Huh. He does remember that. It's rare that he thinks of himself as particularly cunning, especially given how bad at lying he is, but maybe he inherited some of it from his mom after all.

As for his inner Father, the stereotypical archetype that comes to mind is someone focusing on more concrete advice than the Mother. Less comfort and guidance, more practical suggestions, like...

...like dad…

Pain spreads through his stomach, making him feel the hole there in a way he hasn't for a while. It's been overshadowed by everything with Aiko, and before that he got good at looking away from it without his partition up.

But now… now he feels like he has to be able to do this. To honor his dad, the kind of man Tomio Verres was, Red can't let the time he spent with him go to waste. If he can't model his dad's advice when he needs it most, what did Tomio spend so much time teaching him for?

Red absently reaches up to brush tears from his eyes, and searches through his memories of his dad for anything that might help in this situation… and once again he feels something from his partitioned self. A resonating, a melding, a borrowing of strength through neural pathways less bent by grief. It makes thinking about his dad painful, but not damaging, like carefully picking through broken glass, feeling light cuts that sting rather than bleed.

Surprisingly, he also finds himself thinking of Professor Oak, and advice he's passed down, though most of that relates to pokemon and science (and, on one memorable occasion, bike riding while indoors, which he turned out to be rather against). It makes sense, given that he was a father-like figure to Red too. He knows his dad wouldn't see it as a betrayal, at least.

So, what would Tomio Verres and Samuel Oak say, in a situation like this?

The Professor would say that collaboration is an important skill for a scientist, and remind him that he may need the good graces or positive regard of the people he's working with for future opportunities. Red's learned that well enough, from his own experiences. And his dad… he would want Red to be prepared. To have a backup plan, no matter what he chooses.

Red's phone buzzes, and he checks the screen, knowing what he'll see: They just came out. Our turn to get checked.

Red could pretend he's sick, or stay a bit longer, but that would make them worry about him. Maybe make them suspicious that something is wrong.

(We can go back slowly, but we have to decide, one way or another.)

Red nods, and stands. Be honest. Make friends. Be cooperative. Have backup plans. Even without anything concrete in mind, he feels better about what he's walking into as he slowly makes his way to the sink and starts washing his hands, thoughts on his next steps.

When Red returns to the waiting room, Tetsuo is still there, but everyone else has left. Red sees that the door to the second room is standing open for him, but slows as he approaches.

The gym's Second looks up from his phone. "Alright, Red?"

"Sort of." Red clears his throat. "I actually need to talk to you about something. Let me go get checked out first, though."

Tetsuo raises a brow, but nods, and Red enters the psychic doctor's room. It looks more like a therapist's office than anything, with a couch set across from the psychic inside instead of a chair, and Dr. Zhang smiles at Red as he sits. "Welcome, Mr. Verres. Please feel free to lie down if you'd be more comfortable. We're just going to run through some basic diagnostic exercises to make sure you haven't been strangely affected by the merger."

Despite everything, some of Red's nervousness fades. Memories of Dr. Laurie in Pewter had him expecting someone with terrible bedside manners. "I'm okay sitting, thanks," Red says, and swallows the lump of nervousness in his throat. "I, um… have a fairly unique condition…"

"I know about your partition," Dr. Zhang assures him as he gets out a file that Red suspects is about him, and uncaps his pen.. "Would bringing it down for a few minutes be harmful, or affect your ability to participate?"

A month ago Red would have said yes, but… "It's actually down already."

"Oh, great! Then let's begin. I'm going to do a simple projection, alright? Just tell me what you feel."

Red closes his eyes, makes sure his shield is down, then waits in a haze of anxiety, thoughts darting from one worry to another. Without something else to focus on, he feels the storm start to gather in his head, the frost slowly spreading through his chest, and his thoughts start drifting more and more to that night, to the pain of Aiko's loss, of Blue's judgement…

There's a flicker of something else, so foreign that even though it's a barely noticeable blip of emotion, it still stands out. "Happiness," Red says, voice a little dull to his own ears.

"Great. Next, why don't you project something to me?"

"Um. I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Why not?"

"With my partition down, the things I feel are… not pleasant." Didn't he say he knew about the partition? What did he actually hear about it?

"I see. Well, I appreciate the concern, but I can assure you I'll be able to bear it for a moment."

"Alright," Red says, and wonders if he should bother trying to muster up another emotion to project. His experiments with Rei taught him how to efficiently channel someone else's emotions, but the other minds around him are psychic, which would be detected. Instead he just shoves most of what he's currently feeling toward Dr. Zhang and hopes it'll be unpleasant enough that they can move on.

The doctor lets out a sharp breath, and Red stops the projection. There's a moment of silence before the other psychic clears his throat. "Impatience, and anxiety, and depression?"

Part of Red feels like apologizing. (That would be me.) But it's too much effort, and he just says, "Yep. Next?"

Dr. Zhang is quiet a moment, then makes a mark on the sheet. "Your file stated you haven't managed any telekinesis yet, so we can skip that and just do a brief merger when you're ready."

Here it is. Red gives a determined nod, and shifts his attention to his breathing, filling his thoughts, the whole of his attention, on the cold air entering his nostrils, filling his lungs, then leaving in a warmer stream. A moment later he feels the doctor's mind surrounding his, then briefly overlapping…

Breathing in… and out...

...and despite everything, he feels the man's confusion, then curiosity, then amazement, as he notices something odd about Red's mind.

(Whelp. So much for that idea.)

Red lets his breath out in a rush, knowing his disappointment and resignation are evident, and brings his shield up before the shallow merger becomes something more. Plan B it is.

He opens his eyes after and sees Dr. Zhang blinking at him. "Was that… what was that?"

"It's a side effect from my partition," Red says, and though he wants to move on, curiosity gets the better of him. "What did it feel like?"

Dr. Zhang takes a moment to think, fingers tracing his cheek. "It was like your mind has an extra layer around it."

Red thinks again of a circle within a slightly bigger circle. "Yeah, that feels about right."

"Would you mind if you put your partition up, so I can…?"

Red hesitates. "Do we have to?"

Dr. Zhang seems to come back to himself, and shifts, looking a little embarrassed. "No, as long as that existed before your merger with the exeggcute, your assessment is complete. I'm sorry, that was unprofessional of me."

Red feels a twinge of guilt, and not just because he's not telling the doctor about how it was the result of the merger. What he picked up from the doctor was genuine curiosity. A desire to know, to learn.

And it takes just another moment to realize that Red can't keep this sort of thing secret. Maybe he can become better at lying or being cunning at some point, but right now, it's too important a potential discovery, and even if he's afraid of people being afraid of him… sharing what he knows feels right.

"Well… to be honest, my partition wasn't like this before. It changed, and I'm not fully sure of the extent of how yet. It always used to feel like there were two personalities in me, but now they feel more merged. I feel more whole, with the partition down, and… the part of me behind it can multitask even with it up."

Dr. Zhang is staring at him in amazement. "That's utterly fascinating, Red. You're doing something that I don't believe most psychics even know is possible."

Red blinks. "Most? Did you know it was possible?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. I've read about such things, but they were… well. They seemed a little hard to believe. More so even than stories of multiple personality disorder, the evidence for which is entirely anecdotal."

Red's interest rises again, and it feels like he's remembering how he felt during his journey again, always excited to talk to new people in each place they visited who studied any of the fields he was interested in. How did he almost pass up the opportunity to talk to a psychic doctor?

(Thanks, Dad.)

"Could you share whatever you read with me? And maybe I can come back and talk to you about it, soon?"

"I'd like that," Dr. Zhang says with a smile, and pulls his mouse and keyboard to himself. "I'll see if I can find it now. Good luck, Red."

"Thank you!" He stands and bows, then leaves the office to find Tetsuo on the phone with someone in the waiting room. Red sits beside him and waits, still processing what happened.

"Hey, I'm done here. I'll head down now." The Gym Second closes the call, then turns to Red. "All good?"

"Yeah. Um, I know you just said... Sorry, but do you have time to talk for a minute?"

"Sorry, not really." He stands and stretches. "This experiment ended up taking way more time than I planned. But we can walk and talk, or make an appointment for tonight?"

"Uh, I need to talk about something private. And… it's kind of time-sensitive."

Tetsuo pauses halfway out the door to frown at him. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Sorry." Red shifts his weight, wondering if he would have pursued it this much or just given up before, with his partition down.

Tetsuo sighs and reverses course, going into Dr. Zhang's office. "Sorry to intrude, Wen, but would you mind if we borrow your office? Red says he needs to talk in private and I have somewhere I need to be soon."

"Of course. I can take an early lunch." Dr. Zhang still seems somewhat distracted, and gives Red a significant look that he can't interpret as he leaves.

(He probably thinks we're going to tell Tetsuo about our... us. About… me. About this?)

Red ignores this and sits on the couch again, while Tetsuo leans against the desk, arms crossed. "Alright, what's so important?"

"Um…" Shit, he was planning to build up to this tactfully, but now he feels rushed and unsure how to begin. "Well… about what happened today… I think someone might have done it purposefully."

Tetsuo frowns. "Yeah, I've been thinking that too."

Red blinks. "You have?"

"Sure. Do you think the conversation stopped just because you had to use the bathroom?"

Red feels a flush rising up his neck. "I didn't really think about it. Was kind of distracted."

Tetsuo's smile is wry. "Right. Anyway, I asked Cyr what the focus of his seed was when he got out, and he said it was flux, which makes it seem pretty obvious that Rei's seed was the one that focuses on getting food. What I want to know is why it ended up happening, and if she did it on purpose, what that purpose might have been. And no offense, but since you're not Rei, I'm not sure what you have to offer besides guesswork."

Red sits a little straighter. Here it is. "Rei actually admitted a motive last month, when we started working together. She said… that she wants to know what Sabrina is up to."

The words hang in the room between them, and Tetsuo blinks, then blinks again. Something in his posture changes, one kind of tension leaving as another, more subtle one takes its place, and after a moment he brings a hand up to rub his mouth.

When he finally speaks, his eyes are still on the wall, "With cookies?"

Red's own tension bleeds away a little. Despite the words, Tetsuo's tone wasn't skeptical. Confused, and curious, but not doubting. "I think that was the test, or just an accident from her first full merger with everyone—"

"—directed through her seed's desires, yes. So you believe she would have thought of Sabrina instead, and that's why she asked me to join you all, then join the group?"

(This is easier than we thought.) "Yeah. Basically."

He's frowning slightly. "There are a couple problems with this idea." Now he sounds skeptical. "First, how could she know what the effect would be? Mergers with exeggcute are rare, and group mergers like this even rarer."

"Maybe she didn't know exactly," Red says with a shrug. "But Satori knew something like it was possible, remember? And even though Rei is smart enough to make an educated guess like this, it didn't actually work out the way she thought. But… well, I do remember feeling how the exeggcute hivemind worked, getting a sense of what it would mean to be a part of it."

He sighs. "Yeah, me too. Okay, the second problem is that Rei has been Sabrina's most dedicated pupil. Why would she risk her position here by trying something like this at all? Furthermore, why did she tell you of all people? No offense, but…"

"I know," Red says. "But I am curious, and driven to test my theories, and it was… kind of a bargaining chip, I think? She said she doesn't have much to lose, so I guess she thought getting me on her side would be doable."

Tetsuo's earlier impatience seems to be gone, and he thinks for nearly a full minute in silence, the clock above the door quietly ticking the seconds away. When he finally stirs, his gaze meets Red's. "Alright, so even with a mental check to prove you're being truthful about what she said to you, we still have no proof that she actually did anything with the experiment on purpose. Being curious about Sabrina's activities isn't a crime. Having the food-focused exeggcute seed doesn't prove she did anything purposefully, and her not bringing it up after could have been embarrassment. We'd have to check her for honesty, which is a big breach of trust on our part and could damage the relationship if we're wrong, not to mention lead to legal recourse if she feels offended enough. What we need is something more obvious. Do you know of anything else she's done?"

Red shakes his head, a part of him still feeling antsy about talking about Rei like this behind her back. He keeps thinking of the way she dismissed the worry of him telling others. Why do that, unless she really didn't care about him revealing her? It feels like he's missing something. "No, but she also mentioned that she was testing your shield?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much expected among peers, though." He smiles slightly at Red's surprise, and he leans away from the desk to head for the door, clapping him on the shoulder. "Thanks for telling me this, Verres. Not much to do about it now, but at least I know to make an excuse to not participate in the next attempt, in case she tries it again. If you can think of a way to prove Rei's intentions, let me know."

"There's going to be another attempt, then?" Red asks, glad the experiment will continue.

"I've already started the review process, now that we know it's safe so far. We'll probably need the legal team to write up some waivers for anyone willing to try again, but I see no reason to cut it off, especially since the outcome was so unique."

"Wouldn't that be a way to prove it, though?" Red asks. "If she manages to do it right, and force everyone to share thoughts about Sabrina?"

"Sure, yeah," Tetsuo raises a brow. "But I'm not going to risk what I know getting shared, and she probably won't do it without me in the merger."

Red blinks at the implied admission that there's something to know about Sabrina. "Couldn't you just induce amnesia first?"

The Gym Second purses his lips, shakes his head. "The private things she's shared with me are too tied into who she is, and our relationship. It's a good idea, but keep thinking." He claps Red's shoulder, then leaves Red alone in the office.

(You forgot to tell him about how maybe we can lie now.)

Red sighs, and goes to find Cyr. Tomorrow. For now he has some questions about exeggcute mergers...

It takes a few days for Tetsuo to get the experiment approved, and Red uses that time to practice with the new form his partition has taken. A quick experiment proved that Red can't lie against a psychic any better than before, though Red can't help but think that he's getting close.

Rei acts as normal as ever, and seems impressed by how he rarely brings his partition up anymore. When he wakes with it up, there's barely any hesitation left to bring it back down, and the longer he spends with it down the easier it is to feel the protective layers of his unpartitioned thought patterns, grounding him in his goals and work rather than letting his negative thoughts and feelings overwhelm him. Jason helps him get a handle on these too, and Red asks for another exposure to his pokemon to see if the partition helps against surrealism. It doesn't.

Red still has bad moments, times when he can't focus and just lies in bed, thinking over the night of the storm, remembering the feel of Aiko's clothes between his fingers before she tore away. Remembering with a hollow ache the sense of her and the others' minds snuffing out as, barely ten minutes after they went in, the ceiling of the floor they were on collapsed over them.

He remembers these moments, lives them again… but doesn't get lost in them. He has the tools, now, to ground himself in his current time and observe his thoughts and feelings from a distance, the way Dr. Seward taught him to do with the earlier parts of the night. His journaling helps too, when he can find the motivation to do it, and having Partitioned Red's thought patterns, his "voice," operating so independently in his head… it helps.

So does talking to Leaf about what he's going to do about Rei, both over the phone and when he goes to help with her own project. He feels more comfortable staying longer than he did before, rather than worrying that he's imposing, and he has more time to spend with his pokemon as they bike around the ranch and into the outlying fields a little. It feels good, brings back positive memories, and he can tell she misses it too.

It's on one of these nights, after they're back in Aiko's room where she codes and he writes in his journal as their pokemon recover from their exercises, that their conversation weaves back and forth between her next goal of sustained wild behavior in captured pokemon and his worry over how he can prove what Rei is up to before she sabotages the next experiment. And in that weaving, Leaf off-handedly suggests a solution that makes Red forget everything else for a moment.

It's devious. Seemingly risk-free. And when he messages Tetsuo about it, the Gym Second agrees almost immediately.

Once everyone's schedules sync up, they all meet at the gym again. Tetsuo has waivers waiting, and then they travel down to the practice room together.

Everyone sits next to their seeds, with Daniel standing behind Tetsuo with the exeggcute's pokeball ready to withdraw it again.

"Alright everyone, let's take things slow," Cyr says. "Make sure your merger with your seed is stable before exploring their connection to each other. Any questions?" He looks around, and nods, then closes his eyes.

Red does the same before he concentrates his senses on the seed in front of him. It's harder than last time; for one thing he's anxious about whether Rei is going to try something again. For another, even with the progress he's made over the past few days, using any psychic powers with his partition down is still more difficult. He expected his partition being down to make his psychic abilities stronger, and maybe it has, but if so it's not noticeable yet. Thankfully, he knows from his practice over the previous days that merging with his pokemon isn't additionally complicated by his partition being down.

Which is why it surprises him when, as the merger starts to finally take hold, he finds that the changes he made to the partition to change it into this new form have actually helped to make the merger more effective. He has a matching native experience for the type of partition that the exeggcute cluster uses to keep each seed distinct while its overmind utilizes information and processing from each.

Red feels himself smiling as he finishes the merger, marveling at the new feeling of his partitioned self immersing itself in the seed's unique experience, while his attention remains distinct and elevated. As he feels the seed's simplistic body, looks through its eyes, and notes the flow of its attention…

Threat assessment. No question; the seed is constantly using the exeggcute's collective psychic senses to scan for the presence of other pokemon around them. It's tense because of the battling pokemon it senses in the nearby rooms, but thankfully it also uses each outward-looking seed's eyes to ensure that there are no threats in the immediate area.

Red decides to try and map the connection to the other seeds a little, and finds himself being drawn along the mental web that each seed sends pulses through. It's… beautiful, really. He feels the draw to get pulled into it tugging at his attention, but resists by simply keeping his own broader mind focused while his partitioned one stays immersed. It's like multithreading with his partition up, though he can't do it nearly this efficiently without borrowing the exeggcute's instincts. Nor would he be able to maintain his distance if the others weren't merging with each seed.

(Not yet, at least. Growth mindset!)

There's not enough evidence that "growth mindset" actually works.

(Well it definitely won't with that attitude.)

Red sighs. His more optimistic side is right, in this case; he wants to be able to do this when not merged, which means he's going to practice it, and he might as well believe it's possible at least so as not to discourage himself. As long as that doesn't falsely encourage him beyond a point when he should give up—

SABRINA

Images of the gym leader fill his thoughts, as do his thoughts and his impressions of her, his curiosity of her secrets, his worry about Rei trying to find them, his admiration of her, all as one big ball of thoughts and impressions… and as they're pulled toward the mental web, his broader self is still separate, and instinctively acts to block them from leaving to join the web.

What he isn't strong enough to do is stop everyone else's from flooding him, and he sees Sabrina in five whole new lights.

Mentor - respect - gratitude - disagreement...

Hope - learn - collaborate…

Obsession - admiration - curiosity - desire…

That last one is Rei. He can tell because of the flash of memory that comes with it, of when Rei met Sabrina, years ago. She was so proud… and she does admire Sabrina, but somewhere along the way her desire to know more, and frustration at being locked out, started to color all their interactions.

Each thread is distinct at first, then blurs together, then becomes distinct again, pulses of thought gathering again and again. The part of Red not overwhelmed expects the flow of memories from the others' experiences with Sabrina to end at any moment, but it's hard to tell how much time is passing, and each wave of thought that doesn't end in the exeggcute being withdrawn makes him doubt what he's experiencing even more. Does an exeggcute's sense of time change when it syncs?

The thoughts continue to cascade in and out, and he finally realizes with dawning horror that their assumption had a fatal flaw. They expected something obvious to happen, like last time, that would let the person not merged know to withdraw the exeggcute. They'd set a timer, as discussed, but it was for twenty minutes, and Red has no idea how much of that time has passed already. He might be the only one that can put a stop to it before people start passing out from psychic exhaustion, or whatever other consequences might come from this.

He briefly contemplates putting his partition up, but no, that would immerse him entirely in the merger: it's one-directional, and his broader, whole self would simply be diminished as part of it is locked away. Maybe he can learn to change that at some point, but for now a simpler solution comes to mind.

If part of my mind really is working independently… There's no reason I can't have his part use my powers too, right?

It's hard. Harder than even his first psychic exercises were, harder than he can recall anything being. If it were just about power, it would be like trying to lift a car, and utterly beyond him, but it's not. It's focus and finesse, tracing a line of woodgrain along the whole length of a room without looking elsewhere, and he knows he can do it if he could just… concentrate…

Legend - admiration - curiosity...

Teacher - desire to please - pride - desire to overcome...

Some of the memories are embarrassing, like the time Sabrina apparently lectured Daniel for being too dismissive of others' ideas. Red feels that embarrassment reverberate through the mental web… Daniel thinks of how he has been trying to change, to overcome that... and a moment later comes surprise from Rei, confusion over why Daniel is part of the merger, before thoughts of Sabrina overwhelm everything again.

Guess the jig is up. Not that it matters, now… he just has to end this before anyone gets hurt.

Red rallies his thoughts and tries to think of a solution, something besides just trying again, and suddenly realizes that if being inundated with thoughts of Sabrina is too distracting, he needs to be as calm and unaffected as possible to concentrate through it.

It takes only a moment to remember Rei's mental state, the cool, calm, detached mood that seems to occupy the majority of her waking hours. With it comes a portion of the extraordinary focus she brings to her powers, and soon he's extending a thin, gossamer thread of mental energy toward the seventh person in the room… the seventh mind he can sense, the one not in the merger.

Tetsuo. He's sitting in the circle, in front of one of the exeggcute seeds, but it was Daniel who merged with it instead of the Gym Second, completing the trap without even offering real bait.

Red feels his thoughts slipping around the edge of Tetsuo's mind. The older man is wary, but patient. He's watching for signs of distress, but doesn't see any yet. Red can't think of something to draw his attention to, so instead he just concentrates on Sabrina as hard as he can (easy enough to do) and projects THAT bundle of mental noise at him.

A moment later the tenuous thread snaps, and Red feels his psychic exhaustion threaten to break his link with the exeggcute on its own… but before that can happen, there's the electric crackle and snap of the exeggcute being withdrawn into its ball, and everyone immediately falls over or backward, some of them groaning or clutching their heads.

Red and Rei are the first to recover, and as he sits up, he watches her expression shift from tired shock, to calm resolve. She meets his gaze, and there's no accusation there. Just knowledge.

Red looks away. He knows he shouldn't, that what she did was reckless and underhanded, not to mention it risked their research. But he still feels an irrational shame. He could have just told her, couldn't he? He could have just let her know he'd told Tetsuo, and… and she would have just left…

(Or, she would have just not done this, and found another way to try to get Sabrina's secrets.)

"Is everyone okay?" Tetsuo asks, and Red feels him scan each of them. No one is strong enough to shield, for the moment, but he simply dips in and out long enough to make sure no one is in serious pain. For Red's part, he feels like he can sleep for a day, but he's a lot less discombobulated by the experience than the others probably are.

"What the hell was that?" Daniel complains, rubbing his arm where it hit the floor when he fell over. Convincing him to join the merger again instead of Tetsuo was the hardest part of this otherwise simple plan. Red suspects he only managed to do it because Daniel was curious about what was going on, and because he didn't want to feel like the only student who had come that couldn't manage it.

"Rei?" Jason asks, hand on his prayer beads. "Did you do this?"

"It was her," Satori confirms, frowning at her peer. "She is much stronger than she's let on. Perhaps stronger than Sabrina?"

"Perhaps," Rei says, voice cool and calm.

Daniel snorts. "Right, sure, but what was the point of this?" He looks between Red and Tetsuo. "If you knew this would happen—"

"We didn't know." Tetsuo hands the pokeball to Cyr. "Thank you for the use of your pokemon, trainer. This has become a private matter, and it would be best if you go to ensure you and your pokemon are well."

"I think he's earned the right to be here," Jason says, troubled gaze moving from Tetsuo to Rei, then back.

"No, that's okay," Cyr says, voice a bit strained as he looks around with wide eyes. "I'll go… you can fill me in later."

Jason nods, and Cyr struggles to his feet, tests a few steps, then waves to them and hurries out.

"Okay, just us inner circle folk now," Daniel says as he shifts to sit against the wall. "Spill."

Red is about to speak, but it's Tetsuo who answers, summarizing everything without making it seem like Red is responsible. Which may make sense, but surprises him. He keeps waiting for someone to turn to him with a judging glare or betrayed look, but no one does. Most of them are watching Rei by the end, waiting for her reaction.

She continues to sit calmly for a moment after he finishes, then simply says, "You've caught me. Well done. I'll tender my resignation, and go pack my things." And just like that, she gets to her feet.

"Hold it." Tetsuo's voice is hard, and everyone turns to him. Red feels a sudden foreboding, the anger in the Gym Second's face unmistakeable. "You think it's just going to be that easy? Five people were just subject to what could be considered a psychic attack just now. A psychic pokemon attack."

Red stares at Tetsuo for a moment, not understanding, then feels ice flood his veins. "What?"

Tetsuo doesn't answer, gaze staying on Rei, and when Red looks back he sees some of the older student's composure has finally cracked. Her face is pale, eyes wide as she swallows. "That's not… no one would—"

"No one would? Let's poll the room." He looks around, expression remorselessly flat. "Who here thinks purposefully utilizing a pokemon's abilities against humans for personal gain falls under Renegade crimes?"

The room is silent, and Red can feel his heart pounding against his ribs. He never thought… he didn't mean for this…

"Might need to be investigated at the very least," Daniel says, and his expression shows his disdain quite clearly.

Flashbacks of Yuuta come to Red, of everyone turning to face him, to make him pass the final judgement, and he forces himself to speak past the block in his throat. "Wait! Everyone just… hang on. Let's just calm down and not rush into anything we can't stop." Red swallows. "Rei didn't know it would hurt anyone. We even have the last experiment, it provided evidence that… that it was safe..."

"We did sign waivers for risk of harm," Jason says, voice troubled, but Tetsuo shakes his head.

"They didn't cover intentional injury."

Red licks his lip. "But... it's not like she was trying to hurt anyone, or trying to get money, it was just…"

"Red," Rei says, and her voice is like a calm lake, with just a ripple moving over its surface. He looks at her, unable to slow his breaths, and her eyes are so guarded they're as empty as a doll's. "It's okay."

"What do you— "

"It's fine. Really." She turns back to Tetsuo. "I trust that Sensei will be a fair and merciful Leader. I'll stay, and confine myself to my rooms, until she returns to judge me herself. You can check my intentions yourself, if you'd like."

Tetsuo stands, then walks to her. The four other students sit and watch, frozen as statues, as Sabrina's senior student and Second lock gazes from an inch away… two breaths… five… eleven… Red tries to slow his breathing and his pulse, but his emotions are a stew right now, and if he tried focusing he'd name a dozen different felt-senses.

No one was supposed to die!

(They won't Brand her for this,) Partitioned Red says, and the thought is mixed with both confidence and doubt. (She's right, at the very least Sabrina wouldn't want the negative publicity… maybe she's banking on that.)

"Alright," Tetsuo says, and steps away. "You'll go to your building and stay there until Sabrina returns. If at any point anyone notices you're gone, I go straight to the Rangers. Clear?"

"Clear," Rei says, and some tension seems to come out with the word. Her posture remains straight, however, face calm.

"Everyone else, upstairs to get checked out again. We can discuss this privately after we've all gotten some rest."

The days following Rei's house arrest are strange ones. For one thing the sense of a power vacuum is hard to ignore; Red expects Rowan or Tatsumaki to step in, or even Daniel. The other two senior students seemed shocked by what happened, but no one seems to want to step into the leadership role the way they might have if Rei had just left, or even if she'd been Branded. There's a lingering sense of disquiet among the other students, one that most of them cover up for by focusing on their research.

Red wonders a dozen times over the next two days if he should go talk to Rei, dismissing it each time as a terrible idea. He talks to Jason and Satori instead, and Leaf, and his mother. Both assure him that he did the right thing, that it's not in his control if she's investigated, and his mom even reminds him that he can just vote against her Branding if it comes down to that. He can tell they're worried about him "relapsing," but after that first day his sense of guilt isn't as strong as general anxiety over what would happen next.

Which turns out to be, just a few days later, Sabrina returning to her Gym.

Red is watching the mayor of Celadon give a speech about a police raid of the city's Rocket Casino when he hears a knock at his door. His mental sense reflexively goes out, and he scrambles out of bed when he realizes it's Sabrina.

"Just a second!" he says as he hurries to get presentable, then opens the door a bit nervously.

The Gym Leader looks very tired, but none the worse for wear for her long absence. "Hello, Red. Is it okay if I come in?"

"Of course, Sensei! Welcome back!"

"Thank you." She sighs as she enters and drops unceremoniously into his computer chair, leaving him to sit on the edge of his bed. "How have you been?"

"Ah… I think that's my line?" he asks with a nervous smile. "Is everything… okay?" He's not sure how else to address the extensively long absence.

"Well enough," she says, voice containing some amusement. "We can skip the smalltalk, if you'd like. I'm just here to say hello, apologize for being gone so long, and make sure I'm caught up on anything I should know."

"Oh, yeah! Sure. Um. How much did Tetsuo…"

"Everything." She smiles, and it's a warmer smile than he's ever seen from her. "I have a lot of piled up Challenge matches ahead of me, and a lot of paperwork, and a lot of teaching for all of you, and I need to figure out what I'm going to do about Rei. But before all that, I should thank you, Red. You showed not just loyalty, but cleverness, and restraint, and unusual skill, far beyond your experience. None of them would be nearly as valuable without all the others, and from my own selfish evaluation, loyalty most of all. I wish I had been here, but from all accounts you exemplified everything I prize in a student, and I can't even take credit for most of it. So… thank you, Red."

Red is blushing, and he's not sure what to say. He feels a strong urge to deflect some of the praise, tell her how he had help, but he knows she's not going to accept it anyway, so he just nods, and humbly says, "Thank you, Leader. I mean… you're welcome."

She grins briefly. "Your partition has changed. How much did that have to do with what you managed?"

"A lot," he admits, relieved that they're moving on to something important. "I don't know how much time you have, but there's a lot I have to talk about with you… I think I'm really close to being able to actually, you know." He lowers his voice. "Lie. Dr. Zhang sent me some articles about a thing called a 'tulpa'... I think I have something similar, and if I learn amnesia… that would be the key."

Sabrina leans forward, all signs of her earlier casual demeanor gone. "It's funny you should mention that… Rowan said something similar. I think it's time the two of you had some private lessons with each other… and I'll be there too occasionally, of course." She nods, seemingly to herself, then stands. "Come, let's go pay him a visit. You can explain to both of us together."

"Alright." He goes to strap his sandals on, a worry still drifting through the back of his thoughts. He knows he has to ask her… "Sensei?"

"Call me Sabrina, please."

"Um. Alright. Sorry if this isn't my business, but… I have to know, what will happen with Rei?"

The Leader gives a careless shrug as she leads Red out the door and down the hall. "It was terrible betrayal, more toward her fellow students than me, so of course she can't stay. But I think once I speak with her, we can work something out without getting the Rangers involved... unless one of you wants to file a complaint yourself." She eyes him over her shoulder, dark hair rippling down her back. "Do you?"

"No!" He smiles, feeling a knot in his chest relax for the first time in days. "I'm glad to hear that. Thank you."

"Of course." She sighs. "The saddest part is, she was so close to learning what she wanted to know…"

Red blinks. "What do you mean?"

Sabrina glances at Red as they enter the elevator and smiles. "You'll find out soon enough, Red. Like I said, loyalty is something I value above all."