Kyung-ha nodded at Leonard, the steely look in her face telling him she had buried her emotions of mourning for the sake of protecting the others. She took the gun and kept it on her side. “It’s going to take lots more than gun to kill him if he lays finger on Keepers.” She said. “I’m going to need you to bring him back to senses if you two are truly close enough to be facefucking.” Kyung-ha said without any hints of joking. But as she entered the hall, she saw Yoon exit Sammy’s door.

“H-Huh? Mom is everything okay?” Yoon was confused to see the two agents upstairs. “I-Is that other guy gone? I-I’m sorry about your lo—“

“Shhh.” Kyung-ha signaled Yoon to keep quiet.

She hesitantly followed her mom as she ventured forward, looking at Leonard with worrisome eyes. “W-What h-happened?”

"Gossip. That is all that is and I will stick by it." Edgar said, unlike Galiah. "And she's right, that IS inappropriate. Like discussing if you're dating Sammy, or have a thing for the agent guy down there. What's the deal with him anyways?"

Banging Yoon's mom, Raven thought, but then shivered at the thought while trying g to erase it from her very being. She looked up at Mason when he mentioned not wanting to be left out of what they were doing. "Well...it sort of.. involves you too. R-Right Edgar?" She added immediately, looking over to him nervously since she could give him any taps or anything from where she was.

"Yes. In fact, it involves all of us. Where's Yoon anyways? I don't think I've seen her all day." Edgar asked.

"Seen?" Raven asked before she could stop herself.

"Ouch."

"S-sorry.."

Meanwhile in the hall, Thube watched as Yoon had exited one of the rooms, and the there were Leonard and Kyung-ha, coming to check things he assumed. But he wasn't bothered. He waited outside the room and took a head count. He didn't need much else, since from what he had seen, they were more of a threat to themselves than anyone else. If anything, he wagered that a squad run of the mill agent would make body bags out of them with little difficulty.

“We’re not” Leo said to her almost immediately. “Thubes just a pig. And remember, that’s if he is there. He could be gone, he could be anywhere in the manor. But we have to remember it’s only an if”
Sammy would be ready ask her own questions at what was going on. But as Kyung shushed her, and she saw the look of desperation on her face, Sammy knew it was something serious. She didn’t even hesitate to pick up the Ashwood that laid next to her nightstand, readying it for the worst
As Yoon asked what was going on, Leo would whisper in a hushed tone, “We don’t know. And in some cases that’s worse”
“Well whatever it is we’re coming” Sammy said, holding the Ashwood by her side
“No you’re not. You’re a trainee and if you stumble your a liability. There’s nothing you can do with a wooden sword”
“If everyone’s in even a slight bit of trouble I’m going to help” Sammy said, clearly just as high strung about it as Kyung. Perhaps it was the sensation of seeing a look different from the stoic expression she had. But it put her on edge. She continued, “If my girls in trouble, I think we can lift the fucking time out for fifteen minutes. I gotta make sure they’re safe”
“Kyung” also said with an exasperated sigh, as if asking for her input on the situation
Sammy would feel a sudden cold chill run down her spine. She wasn’t sure what it was. It wasn’t like a regular cold, it was almost sharp. Like death was just knocking at the back of her head. She was tempted to turn around. Tempted to look around and see. But to her own mind, she thought her imagination got the best of her for a moment. “Yoon could you turn off the AC of yours? I know your worried but I think the four of us can handle this”
As they continued up the stairs, Leo whispered to Kyung. Both to avoid Thube hearing and to avoid Sammy hearing and speaking up. “Kyung… if Thube isn’t there, and I mean if. We shouldn’t put the Keepers on alert. Especially the reclusive one after yesterdays events. We need to be calm or else they’re gonna panic too. So please refrain from saying anything dangerous. One magic nutcase on the loose is bad enough”

“Sorry” Mason apologized to Edgar. “It was that or ask Raven how she and Sammy are doing and… we’ll I felt that was a tad… touchy from the yelling I heard yesterday”
“Just a slight disagreement” Galiah informed hoping to get off the topic of her and Edgar. “Im sure they’ll get back on track to being tighter then the glue trap in no time at all”
Mason turned to Raven. She could see that he really wanted to ask the question. She could feel it in the slight uncomfortable smirk he made. Out of concern for Sammy and out of concern for her. “Well… I hope so” he added, choosing to just leave it at that. He did however take slight surprise to the comment on Yoon. “Hey now. Yoons alright. She’s doing pretty well for herself. Just takes a bit of time coming out of the old shell. But uh… what’s the deal here so I can shut my big mouth”

"Uhh.." Edgar scratched his head. "We were actually going to gather everyone once we had everything down as accurately as we could. But, obviously, you guys to decided to come a little early, so it may not be the best version," he admitted. "Now I'll start with you Mason since you're already here and Galiah has gotten somewhat of a good idea of it already. Have you noticed anything...strange as of lately? Like you're forgetting something, or a few things? Just for confirmation."

Raven sighed in relief, glad that Edgar was able to be the one to explain it. In her mind, Edgar was the smart one, and people listened to smart people. She felt that they would think that she was crazy like she believed most of them did if she had been the one that did so. It hurt, but she tried to tell herself to get over it.

“…… yeah actually” Mason said as he looked between the two, realizing just what was going on as he sat up. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. For the last few days I was wondering what was up with Theo. Plus who was the one that healed Sammy during the… time she twisted her ankle during practice” he lied when he remembered the incident with the Corrupted Raven. “I honestly thought I was insane but…. Are you guys sending that too?”
As he thought about it he remembered the reaction that Raven had a few days ago, when she was walking outside, still unsure of what was happening. And then the day after that. He looked to her and asked, “is… is that what that was all about, Raven?”

Sammy would continue to follow the group, a sense of anger and worry boiling over. It was clear that on top of the training and the talent to fight that Kyung bad taught her, she had also adopted her paranoia, added on top of the fear that at any moment, something could happen. And Ashe walked, she spoke up, “fuck this”. Without hesitation she pulled up the messages on her phone.
Leonard did a double take at the sight of her typing on her phone. “What are you doing?”
“Im texting Raven and Mason” she said without much care
“Did you forget what we told you about giving her space?” He said
“This is an emergency, isn’t it?”
“Possible emergency!”
“Good enough. Taking charge on the time out privilege” Sammy retorted and texted. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say. It was an awkward evening between her and Raven. She didn’t want to sound too upset, but also not too forgiving. She knew that Raven was going through a lot and she had to hope that she was fine but she knew that she needed her space. Was a whole night enough? Did she need a whole day? A whole week? Whatever it was Sammy would not be able to tell. Despite the several responses she came to in her head, all she could write out was one simple response
“Hey”
And she hit send

Kyung-ha released a shaky sigh when Leonard spoke. He was right; if they alerted the Keepers, their magic would spiral all out of control. Galiah and Sammy wouldn't stand a chance either. The whole manor would collapse. She hesitated sliding back her sword into its hiding spot on her body, glancing both at Sammy and Yoon who followed.

"W-What are we worried about again? Whats the possible e-emergency on?" Yoon was concerned. She noticed her mother looked a little... pale, and her eyes were melancholic.

"Nothing." Kyung-ha shook her head so that she wouldn't start panicking. But then she eyed Sammy's text message to make sure she too wasn't sounding paranoid through her text messages. "Everything oke. Just stand by us." She said instead. "What you even doing, heading this way?"

"I...I promised S-Sammy I was going to check on R-Raven." Yoon informed her.

"Oh, so you all heading to same spot?"

"...y-yeah, I guess so?"

Kyung-ha would look at Leonard with an expression that told him their next plan. They would just keep all the Keepers in one room and guard them all under their watch. "Hurry on." She told Yoon to lead the way now to where she was headed to see the others.

Sammy let out a sigh as she looked between the two. The way that Kyung had spoke, it was as if she was trying to hide what was going on. What was it that stressed her out so much. Rarely did Kyung ha break her composure. After months of training almost every day, Sammy knew that if her composure changed it was bad. But now she was hiding it. And Sammy was more than aware. She kept her Ashwood to her side as she walked alongside Yoon, turning to her and speaking up. After all if there was no threat, then there was no reason to be quiet. Right?
“Thanks for the help regardless, Yoon” Sammy said. “You’re a good friend. Sorry if I’ve been too busy to notice that”
As the two girls spoke, Leo would turn to Kyung, taking notice of the glance. No words needed to be said. He nodded back to her and continued forward

When Mason had asked her instead of Edgar, Raven quickly became stuck between if she should have said something or just nodded, and a weird loon ended up coming to her face.

Edgar could almost sense it too, and so he hurried to speak. "Yeah, that's exactly what that was about," he answered for her. "And so that's four of us that's been having the same problem then. So something's definitely up, and it isn't a coincidence."

As Edgar started going over some of what she had told him about what had happened starting with a couple days ago, with the only difference being that he had discovered the majority of things instead of her, Raven felt something buzz in her back pocket, along with the quiet chirp that was Sammy's notification sound. She pulled her phone out and looked at it after turning on the screen, only to see that she had a message from Sammy. She turned her phone screen down onto the bed, her attention retuning to the others, sighing, but was feeling a little antsy. "Hey guys, I'll be back. Gotta use the bathroom."

Edgar's attention had turned from filling Mason end in what he could, and he looked somewhere over to where Raven was. "Alright. I'll finish filling in Mason, and then we'll probably talk to Yoon to see if everything matches or at least is close."

"Sounds good," Raven said, having already gone to the door. "I'll be back!"

A small tinge of light pink coated Yoon's cheeks when Sammy had called her a good friend. She wasn't sure if she deserved such a title, being how reserved and distant she had been to everyone for the past weeks. "I-I'm still keeping my promise..." She told Sammy, even if she was accompanying her now. She knew how much Sammy cared for Raven, and she couldn't help but to slightly envy their relationship. Just having someone to love and tell all your secrets to sounded... nice. Someone to eat with and share jokes. It sounded too good to be true for the short Keeper. "C-Come on, it's this way, I think." Yoon led the way now to the room with most concentrated heat, assuming everyone had gathered there. And upon arrival, she gave a very quiet knock on the door that went unheard inside.

Kyung-ha, however, wasn't patient enough to be knocking on doors and waiting for someone's response. Instead she pulled the door open gently as to not take the others off guard. She made sure that the first person they saw was Yoon, who in turn gasped and took a step back when she almost bumped into Raven. "oh-oh––I'msorry––" She stammered.

"Whoashi—" Raven had to stop herself from rushing straight into Yoon on her way out. "M-my bad—" She apologized in almost the same second that she had, though a millisecond afterwards if one had to be technical. But then as she noticed everyone was there, she immediately became weirded out. "Um...excuse..me," she said awkwardly, moving passed Yoon to get out into the hall and head in the other direction that they had come from.

Mason nodded to every word, every single thing coming together like a series of punches to his own psyche. He didn’t know what to even make of it. How did it happen to everyone in one night? How could everyone forget. The clear look of disbelief of how far this… person went to erase them from their memories was far too complicated, yet also too sloppy. Too many breadcrumbs leading back to them. Mason added, “The way it seems, it must’ve been a quick job. No time to get rid of any evidence of their trace. Just remove our memories like they never existed.”
But as Mason was lost in thought, he would pick his head up to see Raven at the door. “Oh uh, sure Rave. No hurry”

Sammy would follow behind the others, With Leonard letting Kyung go in first and was even offering to let Leo in. She gestured for him to go on in first. She wasn’t sure if Raven was in there, or if she was even going to want to see Sammy. But with everyone in the room already, she took in a deep breathe and walked in, her eyes looking to the floor before they would slowly ease up to look at who was in. “Please be here, please be here, please be here” these thoughts ran through Sammys mind. And then another set ran through just the same. “Please don’t be mad, please don’t be mad”. But it was that movement that lead to her crashing into Raven, nearly knocking herself down as she was lost in thought. “Ow, the Fu-“
But she stopped the second her eyes landed on Raven. She was hesitant to speak now, hearing the very sound of her heart racing, a faint blush coming to her face as she looked to her. She took a deep breathe and spoke. “Uh…. Hi… Rave”
It was all she could say. She cleared her throat a little and asked, “uh…. You look good”

Yoon hesitated walking inside the room, giving her small awkward wave to all the inhabitants there. But then she stopped midway, realizing Edgar wouldn't be able to see and instead cleared her throat to speak up. "...hi..." She said, standing by the entrance.

Kyung-ha on the other hand released an internal groan to herself when she saw Raven exit the door and stumble upon Samantha. Her eyes told Leonard to watch over the room while she occupied herself in keeping a close distance with Raven, knowing that as the isolated one from the group, she would be targeted.

"Szzz ow...szz ohmygodit hurts, ooh sonofbitch it hurts —" Raven held her hand clutched against her after Sammy had bumped it a little hard when she had ran into her. She almost cried without any anger or adrenaline there to numb just how damaged it still was since she hadn't used any of the bandages that had been left by the basement. She barely paid attention to Sammy until she lifted her head, her lips already moving to let out her inner sailor until her eyes landed on Sammy's face. Her eyes immediately looked away. For a moment, her brain went into a fart, not exactly sure what else to say after telling the others where she had been going. "Um...hey. Uh...just..need to—" She scooted passed Sammy awkwardly. Just shut up and go, she told herself. "Yeah.." And she continued on her way, now encouraged by the pain that made her entire hand feel hot.

But as she so happened to look back and see Kyung-ha following her, she became even more weirded out, but tried to keep it to herself.

~

"Yoon?" Edgar asked in surprise. "Well, that saves one of us the trip I guess. We were just planning on coming to get you. Would you mind joining us for a bit? It's...kind of important."

Sammy watched as Raven walked by without so much as a a single word in her direction. She just watched as she left, with Myung following behind in pursuit. Sammy could only let out a sigh as she went to the table and picked one of the free seats, Leonard remaining at the door with his arms crossed
“Hey Sam” Mason spoke. “How you feeling”
“Like I’m in desperate need of a mercy killing” Sammy said as her head fell o to the table with a groan. Clearly to everyone the situation wasn’t going so well. Mason looked to Yoon with a tight lipped frown before he would lean closer to Edgar and whisper to him. “Hey Edgar. Galiah said you and Raven were in the basement having a talk last night. If you can say something to cheer her up, I’d appreciate it. Like if Raven said anything nice or just literally anything at all.”
But then Mason froze, “Unless she said something mean then uh, ignore that”

"....h-hey..." Yoon couldn't help but awkwardly say hello again even if she was acknowledged. She looked back to see her mom go her own separate way. With a small gulp, she stepped in the room and joined the other Keepers, deciding to sit down a bit of a distance away from Mason since she was more familiar with him. She sat on her heels unlike everyone else, easily being able to do a deep squat or an asian squat to make up for a chair. "I-Is everything okay?"

* * *

Kyung-ha made eye contact when Raven turned around to see her, and could already tell she knew she was being followed. She slowed her pace just a little to not frighten her, and instead gave the attempt of an awkward sealed smile that was similar to Yoon's. She couldn't leave her alone if she wanted her alive.

"It wasn't that type of conversation," Edgar replied quietly. "You know her better than I do don't you? Why don't you try to cheer her up?" He suggested, giving a small shrug. When Yoon asked if everyone was alright, he didn't exactly know how to answer that. "Well..that's..a hard question actually," he said. "So I'm just going to get right to it. Have you been having trouble with your memories too? Like any at all? Something you can't remember right, or maybe even someone? Or even something that you would remember, but something doesn't add up?"

Meanwhile, Raven pulled open the bathroom door and tried not to glance behind her again. Once she got to the bathroom door, she didn't hesitate to throw it open, and went to close the door quickly behind her. However, as she turned on the light and turned to the mirror, her eyes widened.

Mason could only curse under his breathe. He was really hoping he had found something there that would help but instead he was just at another dead end when it came to Sammy and Raven. He didn’t know what he was going to do with those two. But as Edgar started going on his conversation about what had happened, Sammy souls slowly lift her head up from the table, listening closely before she would accidently interrupt Yoon. “Yeah after the whole Jackie being here when she wasn’t thing” Sammy commented .”Everyine kept saying Jackie trained us in the pit. But that doesn’t make any sense cause Jackie was gone for a solid month before she came back. Plus this sword and all the other gifts we got. They just… poorer. Outta nowhere”
Leonard listened closely to the conversation, surprised that they had all come to that conclusion on their own, no need for him or Kyung ha to tell them that. He could only give a slight chuckle from where he stood at the door. “You kids are all right” he said softly, everyone able to hear his comment, but he didn’t elaborate on it further

"....n-no..." Yoon wasn't sure why, but it was out of instinct for her to deny feeling out of place to not trouble or annoy others. "M-Maybe...." She changed her answer. "....y-yeah, a little I think..." Yoon confirmed, which encouraged her to keep her hands inside the pockets of her hoodie. "I-I do... O-Or I mean, I have been feeling a-a little..." Empty, she wanted to say, but instead opted for, "L-Lost." She was hesitant to speak too much about it. "W-Why do you ask?"

* * *

When Raven turned the other way, Kyung-ha quickened her pace and was able to put her foot through the room door to be able to enter. However, her face darkened when she heard the bathroom door slam closed. Shibal. She quickly entered the room, disregarding her own routine of taking her shoes off before entering rooms. Her right hand was on the strap of her gun and the other was already carrying her unsheathed smaller sword. "Raven," she began "Raven everything oke?"

"Ah man," Raven said with a bit of annoyance as she had gotten closer to the mirror to look at the cut on her lip from yesterday. She gave her lightly swelled lip as gentle poke as she could put if some weird interest in seeing if it was really as bad as it looked. "Ow—" She winced before letting out a sigh, her head dropping low for a moment. But when she looked back to her reflection, she frowned. "You look like shit..." She mumbled to herself, brushing at herself now with her good hand as she started to notice all of the sand that was still on her, stuck to her clothes and some still in her hair.
But when she heard Kyung-ha's voice near the bathroom, she turned her head to the door with a look of "WTF" written across her face. "Uh..yeah?" she said with a scoff before turning on the faucet to wash her face and hands, only to notice more sand. She groaned to herself with an almost whine, thinking only of how much must've gotten on the bed both in the room and when she had gone up to the attic.

~

Edgar's had only glanced briefly towards where he had heard Leo and Sammy, unaware that both of them had be eavesdropping the entire time. He shifted a little, thinking more about Raven as he started to realize how many more people had showed up. He felt uneasy, of only a little.
But then his brows furrowed some in confusion as Yoon's answer switched every second, it seemed. But he gave her all the time that she needed to come to a more sure conclusion. "Well, I ask because you aren't the only one. Me, Galiah, Raven—all of our memories seem to somehow have been tampered with." He looked over in the directions he thought he had heard everyone individually. "Let's start with that night, the one of the party. What does everyone remember exactly?"

"Well" Mason started "What I remember is this. I got there a little late and had some food. I definitely remember Yoon was talking to someone for... a bit"
"I remember that part too" Sammy said, crossing her arms.
"Then" Mason continued "That was when Theo came back, and he seemed pretty happy to be back, but then things started to shift a bit from there. But, the party. After a bit, Yoon and the mystery person disappeared for a few hours and then came back to the manor. After that.... I don't remember"
"Honestly, I remember the same stuff" Sammy said, crossing her arms as she looked between everyone, "Well, I didn't get a bat. I got a cool wooden sword. But then I also remember Jackie was there for a bit, but... not in the same way that was replacing our minds. It was more like... She was there along with the mystery guest"
And as they were both sitting there, both remembering exactly that Yoon had disappeared that night, they both turned to Yoon. Mason was the first to ask, "Yoon, could you possibly remember anything that happened after the dinner? It seems that this person had a major relation to you in some way."

Edgar found himself remembering almost exactly what Mason and Sammy described. But the more he tried to remember certain things, the more he felt something slip in his memories, like it was resetting him back to square one.

And this for the most part would also be an effect that everyone present would have as they tried to dive deeper, but seemed to meet the same mental block that would push them back.

"So holnd on" Leo finally said, making sure to glance down at his phone from time to time, making sure that Kyung hadn't sent any phone calls or messages while she was away keeping an eye on Raven. He spoke with the occasional glance to the group. "You're telling me that you all came to the same conclusion as Kyung and I all on your own, without any proper training in investigation and just simply found this all out on your own"
"Actually we came to this conclusion simply by speaking to each other" Galiah responded honestly. "Found it all but colliding our own heads together without any violence. I believe you humans call it, 'putting the heads together'"

Kyung-ha didn't let out a sigh of relief despite Raven's answer. "Okkeeee, good good––" She faked her enthusiastic voice to keep the calmness. But her face immediately sulked into a frown afterwards, awaiting her right outside and as attentive as ever. Now that she was alone, she could feel her emotions try to itch her for a reaction. Her eyes wavered from the doorknob to the badges on her waist back and forth. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted kill something. The woman wanted to get on her knees and just shout out an apology to whichever spirit of her comrades was listening. But she couldn't. Even in her time alone, she knew she wouldn't be able to. Her lips twitched in attempt to form a grin, but they wiggled into a frown and she bit her lips to prevent the break in her composure. She tried again, this time successfully conjuring the smallest of grins to seem friendly and non-threatening when Raven came out.

* * *

"..." Yoon fell quiet while listening to what everyone else remembered that night. Oddly it didn't match her own recollection, for she had no memory really talking to anyone. How could she with her introverted she was? "M-My mom was cooking food for us..." She recalled, despite some of the cuisines that were offered oddly were out of Kyung-ha's culinary awareness. "And... And we all ended the night drinking some w-wine that was really icky..." She paused. "But... But I don't really remember even going to sleep that night, I-I think I drank so much w-wine that I blacked out, I-it was my first time... I-I don't even know why I drank in the first place..." She shared shamefully.

Raven bit her lip and squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she gave herself a three count before sticking her swollen hand under the cold water. It hurt at first until she readjusted the pressure with the twist of a knob. She sighed loudly out of relief, and let her hand remain there until it got to used to the temperature and the water started feeling warm. She splash her face a couple of times to try to get rid of some of the tiredness, as well as the faded red smears that were still around her nostrils and upper lip from the previous day.

After she finished, she looked herself in the mirror again. She looked a little better. She dried her hands very carefully before going to leave the bathroom, only to find Kyung-ha there the moment she opened the door. And to see her there with a gun and a drawn sword, she slowly stepped backwards back into the bathroom and closed the door back and locked it.

~

It was then and there that Edgar wanted to speak up, knowing that Raven had been the one to figure things out way before he did himself. In fact, he started to think of not for her, they wouldn't have even gotten as far as they were starting to get now with piecing things together. Because it was one thing to guess and assume, and a whole different ball game when they had a walking confirmation. But remembering what Raven had made him promise, he didn't say anything about it, and instead chipped in, "That's the term," he said to Galiah. But then something came to mind. "Wait a minute...so do you guys think that Jackie's memories have been messed with to?"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember the wine" Mason said as he tried to remember it fully back, thinking to it
"Yo, you all got to have wine? Where was I?"
"Where do you think?" Mason spoke, already hinting that even then before all of this she was still hanging out with Raven at every opportunity. It was what immediately silence a following response. Mason turned to Yoon and spoke, "But no... No I definitely remembered you had to leave with someone, Yoon. That is the important part. I just... Don't remember who. It was Kyung cause she was still here. And Leonard had just arrived that day with Sangeon. So if you weren't with Kyung, and it certainly wasn't Jackie, and it wasn't any of us..."
But Mason would only give a loud groan of frustration as he spoke, "This is annoying. What I wanna know is why did whoever this person is erase our memories in the first place? Were they that bad?"
"Must've been" Sammy suggested. "They probably did some fuck and had to hide what we were doing. Luckily, I don't think Yoon got hurt in anyway. Didn't see any scars or injuries or anything on her when we were training so that's a plus"
But as soon as Edgar brought up the possiblity of Jackie, Mason spoke, "No... She went missing shortly before the party ended. She must still have her memories"
"And if we have the coordinates to where she is..." Sammy mentioned
"Then we can find her and get the answers we need" Mason finished, feeling a sense of relief now as he rested back in his chair. And as he let out a sigh, he turned to Edgar and let out a groan, "So Edgar. What's the catch? Come on, I'm waiting. What's the thing that's gonna make this bullet proof plan a bullet ballet?"

"Well..nothing, aside from actually finding out where she is and someone actually going to wherever that may be now," Edgar said. "Because what we don't know is if Jackie is still anywhere near the coordinates that we got." He rubbed his chin on thought.

A text hit Sammy's phone while everyone was figuring things out, and she would see that it was from Raven.
GET THIS LADY
And then the second text came a second behind it.
GET THIS LADY AWAY FROM ME NOW!

"Don't we still have that fucking walking shit talking bear or something" Sammy said, leaning back in her chair lazily, which only further confused Leonard on just what kind of stuff was going on in this manor
"I believe Ricklenbourne is currently unobtainable at the moment" Galiah responded, "But I hope that wherever he is he is staying out of trouble"
Sammy just sat in her chair, foot tapping as she looked at the ceiling before responding, "Well, that kinda sucks though"
"How so?" Mason asked
"If Jackie isn't at the coordinates, then that means Edgar blew his eyes out for nothing" Sammy spoke dryly before she would attempt an apology. "No offense, by the way, bro. You did more then any of us did"
And as Sammy would look at her phone finally, letting out a sigh, expecting shit talking from HECTOR, her eyes squnited to read that it was from Raven. And further more, when she saw tha tit was a text telling her to get Kyung away from her, she immediately fell out of her chair ,in a panic. Mason and Galiah would both perk their heads up at the sight before Sammy would stand up, taking Ashwood to her side as she shouted, "I gotta go!"
And before Leonard could even attempt to stop her, she threw the door open and ran down the hall as fast as she could, leaving the room empty and confused. Mason just groaned in his hands as he spoke, "That girl is utterly helpless"
"Completely helpless" Leonard spoke up in agreement
"It would be endearing if it weren't so tragic" Galiah added onto it

"I-I don't know..." Yoon said regarding her well-being that night. "I-I woke up in a different room with a bleeding thumb a-and a key in my pocket..." She commented absentmindedly. "I-I usually stay with my mom and brother, s-so I thought it was kind of odd I had gone to bed that night s-somewhere else...

* * *

"Raven," Kyung-ha knocked on the door as gentle as she could while saving away her weapons. "Raven you should come out so we can go back and regroup with rest, eh?" She suggested, hiding her impatience to the best of her ability. "We need to talk about stuff going on with all Keepers present."

As if on cue, as Kyung-a would knock on the door, Sammy would eventually come to the door and knock on it. She looked to Kyung's belt, seeing the weapons now more clearly. She wanted to ask just what the hell was with the weapons, why she was carrying a pistol in the first place. It was scary to just see her teacher brandishing a handgun causally, but she didn't want to startle Raven any further. Instead as she was at the door, she knocked on it and spoke up, "Raven... it's me. I don't think Miss Park is trying to hurt you. I think she's just cautious. Can you please open the door?"

Edgar was quiet, having already thought about that very possibility. He had been thinking about it for a couple of days now, even when he tried not to aside from when his attention was occupied by Galiah. But as he thought back to the spell and the coordinates they had gotten, the gears turned in his head. That was, until he was startled by the sound of a chair and a body falling. And as everyone casually commented, he could only ask, "What the hell was that?"

~

"She followed me to the BATHROOM Sammy, with a pistol and a fucking sword! It's weird and I'm not going for it—I'm not opening shit!" Raven shifted around in the bathroom, grabbing the plunger as her only defense if had to. "You guys are acting real sus right about now, and I don't like it!"

"Well" Leonard was the first one to speak, "Considering it was Samantha and she bolted out of her with the speed of a deer, I'll give you three guesses. Guess right and you win a prize" He said with a slight annoyed sarcasm
"It's best not to think about it for now" Mason said as he tried to bring everyone back to the state of the conversation, "So it's as simple as that, well as simple as our lives right now can be. We just gotta find Jackie, get her to talk and hopefully get all this shit figured out. We just need to figure out something. Surely, at the very least, the coordinates can give us a rough estimate of where she might be. surely she couldn't have gotten too far in two weeks"

Sammy looked to Kyung who looked as though she wasn't going to budge from where she was. Sammy looked to Kyung then back to the door and spoke in defense, "Hey, I'm freaked out too! I just woke up from a shit night and I still don't know what's going on. And I'm just... I dunno. tired. Confused. But I'm with you, Raven. I don't know what's going on and it's just... wild. Raven, please. I think she is just on edge after... Some stuff happened, I don't know. Everyone seemed a little on edge this morning after some stuff. I just..."
Sammy pressed her head against the door and spoke, "If you won't come out... Can I at least come in. Speak to you face to face. At least then if there's someone even slightly as tough as Kyung with you... maybe she'll go?"
Sammy didn't know why she suggested it, but it wasn't a completely stupid thought, she told herself at least. She felt that in the last two months, she had come a long way to where Kyung was. At the least able to avoid a few of her punches. And if she was there with Raven, maybe Kyung would trust Sammy to watch her. She still had no idea what was going on, why Leo and Kyung were on edge, why they were carrying weapons. Was it connected to what was going on with everyone's memories? She didn't know. All she knew was Raven was on edge, and she wanted to help in some way.

"Samantha she cannot stay alone here." Was all that Kyung-ha said, getting straight to the point. "She must come back with us." She took in a deep breath and knocked again, calming her voice some to avoid reprimanding her to come out at once. "Excuse, excuse," Was her way of apologizing or saying 'excuse me' to dismiss her actions. "It no my intention to scare you, I carry these everywhere." She spoke truthfully. "Come out, please. Let's go."

Raven stood still for moment, listening for anything else while Sammy was speaking through the door. She had a feeling that Kyung-ha hadn't gone anywhere, and when she mentioned everyone being on edge, she hadn't thought so herself about that morning. It started off in a bit of a toss up, yeah, but to her everything had been going fine, or at least had started to before everyone started showing up like it was some sort of party. But as Sammy suggested going in with her, the first thing she thought about was the deadly sense of awkwardness she got from hearing the suggestion. It made her stomach gurgle a little.
And then she heard Kyung-ha speak, not only saying that she couldn't stay there, but then knocking on the door again to get her to come out. She tried not to let the anxiousness that had began to climb have it's way, and she tried to find something in her to combat it. But then what? Was she just going to hide there in the bathroom? She did have her phone, so she at least knew it would be possible to camp there if she needed to until they all just went away. "How about no? Yeah..yeah—no." She shook her head, even if they couldn't see it. "I'm good."

~

"Have you not seen how fast that broom of hers goes?" Edgar said with a bit of uncertainty about how much ground Jackie could have covered. "Because that thing got her to one side of Florida to the other pretty damn fast if I'm remembering correctly."

"If she still had the broom though" Masn added, "Don't you think she would have been back here by now. She's been gone for a month at this point" Mason added, "I don't know where, but it's been way too long to just be a simple get away"

Sammy let out a sigh as she was left to sit outside the door, and she would turn to Kyung. "Miss Park, whatever it is that is going on" She stated, "I will handle it. I don't know what it is, or what you're not telling me, but I know that you don't have a handgun on hand easily. But I need to do this. And I can handle myself. Whatever is going on, I have your training. And if you really are that scared" She took out her phone and hit the call button, the phone in Kyung's pocket now ringing, course Sammy turned her phone on mute just in case Kyung would say something "You can keep this on to listen to us. Just down the hall with the others, only a few seconds away. five minutes, that is all I am asking from you. Please, Miss Park. I just need five minutes"

Five minutes? Raven was of course listening with her ear now to the bathroom door, and her brows knitted together. She knew that something was going on, especially with all the talk of worry and her being "handled", it was unsettling. But it also managed to piss her off a little bit. Enough for her to finally open the door in her own. "Look, I don't need help going to the freaking bathroom okay?! I don't need a babysitter! What's next, you're going to be trying to tie my shoes? Why don't BOTH OF YOU get the hell out?! It's literally not that hard, like at all! Can I not have privacy anymore? Is that what this is?! You're trying to listen to the sounds of a girl using the bathroom, is that it!?"

~

"Unless, her memories were changed, possibly," Edgar suggested again, not putting anything passed the possibility now at this point. "And what then if that ends up being the case?" And within that lied am entirely other problem that they would have on their hands.

Yoon had fallen silent, letting the people around her with the bigger and more authoritative voices do the speaking. She didn't like inserting herself into conversations either, not wanting to pass as someone who was rude or too talkative. Her deep squat had settled to a full sitting, where her knees were now pressed against her chest with her arms wrapped around them. She listened attentively, but her eyes were on the center ground between them all in thought.

* * *

Shibal. Kyung-ha cursed to herself again. Her face had reddened only a little bit as more thoughts infiltrated her head, tears beginning to barely coat her waterline as she processed more people being killed because of her. This Keeper was going to die on her watch because she was being too fucking stubborn and difficult for whatever reason. It was a lose-lose situation, they either pulled her out by force and risk her going mad again, or leave her in there to possibly get murdered. "Samantha," Kyung-ha's voice had cracked and her eyes were wide while staring into hers. "She not coming out. She want stay in there." The irony of it all would've made her laugh if she wasn't aware of Thube's presence. She unconsciously began to pace around now, weighing her options until Samantha asked her for five minutes. The woman frowned, knowing she wouldn't convince Sammy to leave either. They were both equally and stupidly stubborn. Another body. She thought as she pitifully stared at her student, easily picturing her presence gone in the manor if Thube got to her too.

There were three Keepers in the other room––including her own daughter––while there was only one Keeper in the current room she was in. She sighed, not surprised at Raven's typical outburst. All she could do was cup Sammy's cheeks with her cold hands and let her make her own decision of whether she wanted to stay or leave, for she had already made her own. "Goodbye, Samantha." Kyung-ha said, making her depart from the room.

Sammy was almost completely frozen solid when she felt Kyung's hands resting on her cheeks, hearing the words that trailed off completely. She didn't know what to make of it. She was stunned, almost a little bit confused as to what she meant by any of that. It was only when Raven threw the door open did Sammy turn to the door and hear another outburst from her. She turned back to Kyung, hearing her parting words as she stepped away from the bathroom and returned back to the room with the others. Sammy could only watch in solidarity, already turning her phone off at this point, the only sound being the breathing from her that was slowly boiling over. But before Raven could even shut the door this time, Sammy would put her foot between the door, stopping it from closing and opening it> There was more then just a bit of sadness in her voice, It was frustration, anger, even a bit of pain. But she kept her composure. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Sammy asked as calmly as she could. "You called me for help? I came back, and I see my teacher outside the bathroom with a fucking gun. I don't know what the fuck is going on, like she and Leo are hunting down some fucking demon or something but they refuse to say a thing and on top of that, you're not fucking talking to me. I don't know why, but you're not. If there was something I did, I'm sorry. I really am. But I don't know and that just adds to the constant confusion, Rave! Ever since the shit with the fucking bat, things have been fucking madness. I don't understand it. No one's saying nothing, people are just keeping things to themselves and I'm just left feeling fucking confused. Edgar, Galiah, I don't what their deal is. Leo and Kyung have this constant back and forth of bullshit. The fucking memories. And then you with all this magic and this anger and I just... I fucking..." Sammy paced back from the door, falling into a sit on the floor, completely at a loss now as she sat there on the floor, her hands brushing through her blonde hair as she looked to the floor. She took in gasps of air as she sat there on the floor, feeling a sort of panic, something that she hadn't felt in a long time. Not since that phone call. She finally spoke. "I don't fucking know what's going on anymore, Raven. I feel like I'm going fucking insane. Even when I try my hardest for you and the others, it just feels like I'm not supposed to be here, like I don't belong. You kept it far away, but now I just... I just... I don't know... It's like some voice in my head screaming you're not good enough, you're not shit. And I don't want to believe it, but it just screams louder and louder. Even when I don't believe it, it just doesn't go away."
Sammy sat there with her hands brushing through her hair in a sort of frantic manner. "I want to be strong to protect everyone and yet I don't even know what's happening. I want things to just be simple and every day new shit overcomplicates. I want things to just go back to the way they were. When we met on that street corner and we had a whole day planned, before we knew how utterly fucked things were going to be. I just want to go back to that, but without any of this bullshit, Raven. And I wish that... whatever the fuck it was that was just getting to you too, I could just take it away. Just get rid of all this constant fucking stress and anxiety and pain and agony. I want to just take all that and throw it away, just to see you smile cause then I at least know that I'm doing something right in this shit life, but I just... I just... I don't know. I don't know a fucking thing and I'm sick of not knowing, Raven. I'm fucking exhausted. I'm.... I'm scared. Scared of just... not knowing anything about anyone. It just... sucks, Rave. It just... Sucks"

Mason had gone completely silent at the idea. What if she had lost her memories. What if there was no way they could get their memories back even from their one reliable source? It was enough to make Mason start to worry more as he leaned in the chair. "I guess.... really all we can do at this point is just hope that she hasn't"

Kyung-ha exhaled a shaky breath when she exited the door and walked through the halls. She felt a teardrop fall off her waterline when she looked down to see the badges on her waist, in which she immediately caught and wiped away. She shook any remaining tears away immediately, as if she had been trained to do so. And It was only then when she saw her strands of her long hair fall forward with her head did she realize she hadn't even tied her hair back to its normal bun. As she walked through the hall to return, her fingers combed through her scalp to push the strands behind her shoulders and out of her way. It didn't take long for her face of stone to return as if nothing had happened. She had been training her facial features when she had cancer to hide her expressions, after all.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

That was only the hook that had caught on to Raven's attention, and she stated at Sammy in shock. Hearing it from her, it almost felt as if something tore on the inside. And as Sammy begin to go off, she could only stare at her. She could only feel, and listen. And at first, she had started to become angry Sammy tried to make it seem as if she had chosen any of it. The bat. Her abilities. But she held herself together. The way she saw things, she was just as confused as everyone else, but trying. She was trying. She didn't know why she was always being followed, or why the crazy bitch had followed her into a room with a sword and gun to start with.
Yet Sammy only hit her with more, and more. She could feel her frustration. The pain in her voice. Yet she could only wonder why she was feeling something clawing from deep down inside. She tried to keep it down, but Sammy's first words only spun back around in her head, and she twitched. But still, she listened to her stress about Leonard and Kyung-ha, one she didn't know and the other she was steadily starting to dislike even more than she had before. And then to Edgar and Galiah, which she didn't understand them being a part of the problem.

"Maybe you're the problem," Raven heard a voice only heard to herself whisper into her ear. It was her own voice, but slightly deeper, though she currently couldn't pay attention to the difference. "Think about it. They're on you like hounds out for blood. Your blood."

Raven gulped, and stood stiffly, watching Sammy now on the floor. She felt like she was supposed to be doing something, but her mind had started to become so numb that she couldn't think straight. She listened to Sammy talk about how she hadn't felt as if she were good enough. And it hurt, because she knew the feeling well herself. And the feeling was paired with many memories, ones that she pushed against as they tried to rise.

"You know what makes people feel like this? Shit people. Maybe you're just a shit person, Raven," her voice spoke to her again. "But you'd know that, right?"

Raven's lips pressed into a straight line as she tried to shake off the intrusive voice. And as Sammy talked about the complications that all of the magic had brought and just wanting to go back to how it all was before, she couldn't help but to agree. She wanted that too. She wanted it as badly as she wanted to get away from all of it, from everything.

"Sounds too perfect to be true. That's why moments so fragile never last. A glass cannon.". Her voice said coldly. "Look at you. You're just as scared as she is too. Maybe if you weren't here, she wouldn't be like this. So. What the fuck is wrong with you Raven?"

Raven started to fidget as she heard the question again. It was almost like she was looking through twelve year old eyes once again. She had just been trying to make something nice. Do something good. Stay out of the way, and to herself. But every single time, she was dragged away from that comfort. Something good backfired. Something nice was turned bad. Trying not to hurt anyone, not to bother anyone, it always...

"You know what would make her not have to worry about knowing? Knowing that you're gone. Or dead. Just think about it. Is this a life you want to live?"

Raven couldn't bring herself to say anything to Sammy. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. But maybe...maybe she did. And all that could break the surface was, "I'm.. I'm sorry I... I'm trying to be good enough too—"

"But you can't and you're not, and you never will be," the voice of her own interjected. "You can't live up to what they want. You won't. Because she may be feeling as if she's going insane, but you ARE. That's why you'll never be able to do anything but fail. Those other losers, you failed them too. You can't even get a memory straight."

Raven's shoulders tried to stay steady, and she tried to find words to say to Sammy to love the voice wrong. "I..I can try harder—"

"Noooo, you can't, Raven. No, you can't. Look at yourself. How much longer are you going to have to try? Are you going to TRY to try?"

"I...I...S-Sammy I'm sorry that I can't be right."

"You're right. You can't. And so I think we both know what needs to be done when you're all out of "Cans" and "Trys" to throw against the wall. When you have no more deadends to turn around from, and it's just that one, big, gaping hole at the end of you're road. When the more you try to climb out, the deeper that pit gets with your regrets and all of your trying and your failures there to eat you alive until you lay down with the worms willingly. Until like an anchor into the ocean of whatever you call a life, you sink into the soil."

Raven's mouth felt dry.

And the voice spoke again, egging. "How many firearms are here at your disposal to end this bullshit? The barrel will taste like steel, like having a microphone to your lips. If your brains were on the wall, maybe they'd be able to pick them and find what they wanted. How many blades? What about the pocket knife you have? There's a pond not far off from here."

A hard gulp tried to go down Raven's throat, but it was like a large pill.

"A diagonal cut down the inner forearms, and a horizontal slashing at the wrists. You'll die from hyperthermia, and if not then the blood loss would guarantee it."

Raven's shoulders dropped into a slump. Her voice cracked harshly as she pushed out a sheepish laugh. "I'm so sorry Sammy. It's..it's just so much. S-so much that I want to tell you, and I try bu-but it hurts so bad—"

"Then END the pain," The voice whispered in her ear demandingly, but calmly, playing the part of a tranquil understanding for Raven. "I believe five minutes are up. "

Raven just stopped talking then and there. Her lips trembled into a smile.."I..I'm..I love you, Sammy. I'll.. I'll be.. I'll just...go." She backed out of the room, turning around and slowly returning to the others. She made her smile stop twitching as she approached the door and just opened it.

~

Edgar's head turned towards the door as he heard it being opened, wondering if it was someone leaving or someone coming. But the he heard Raven's voice.

"S-sorry for the wait, guys. Um st-stomach problems," Raven stammered.

But the voice became harder on her. "Straighten up your act. You can't expect to end it if you're drawing attention. Straighten up. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Raven did just that, and put in a cheerful grin that showed her freckles. "We can get back to our stuff." She closed the door behind her softly.

Kyung-ha, who had returned a few minutes prior, had been leaning against the wall near the door entrance observing the Keepers and their surroundings. But she became genuinely shocked when Raven returned, enough to get her off her lean while wondering if Sammy had gotten through with her when she left. She watched as she sat down with the rest of the Keepers, and only then did she finally exhale a somewhat satisfied breath to know that all the Keepers were in her peripheral, and that Sangeon was safe hidden away––unknowing that her son was actually making pancakes himself in the kitchen. Or at least attempting to.

Yoon's head glanced toward the door when it opened, seeing that Raven had finally returned. She gave her best friendly smile when she heard her stammer, albeit it was still shy and reserved. She wanted to say that she too had stomach problems if she drank too much soda, but thought it would be a weird fact to state with their current discussion. Perhaps a 'welcome back' would be better. But when she opened her mouth to speak, the air that came out was dry and her anxiety she stopped her from talking. Yoon rested her chin on top of her knees to continue the discussion.

"Alright, picking back up where you left," Edgar started to say to Raven. "We pretty much have come to the agreement of the obvious problem. There has been some messing around with everyone's heads. But now we know that it also includes Leonard and probably Kyung-ha too if that's the case."

Raven nodded absentmindedly for moment. "That's...good. That we found that out, I mean. It makes it easier, right?"

"I'm not to sure about that. We've gotten passed the first couple of questions, but now we're to the biggest ones. "Who, and why? We know now that it had to be someone that was here before and after Jackie. But that doesn't leave us with much."

"Oh.." Raven fiddled with the papers that she had brought with her, opening her folder and looking through them.

"We also came to the conclusion that Jackie could also have had her memories switched or changed too. And we have the coordinates, but there's a big chance that she's longer there with how long it's been by now."

Raven only nodded quietly at first, not fully there but enough to listen. "So..all we need to do is find Jackie, and if her memories aren't screwed like ours, then we can get better answers on what happened? Right?"

"That's what we've boiled it down it down to so far, yeah, Edgar nodded.

When Yoon saw Raven fiddle with the papers from her folder, it reminded her of something she too had that they could use as evidence. She patted around her hoodie until she retrieved the scrap of paper she saved in her pockets from earlier. "...e-excuse me?" Her quiet voice was like a snowflake landing on a leaf, taking advantage of the silence to ask for permission to talk. "I... I also have s-something that can help––actually, i-it's my mom's but it h-has stuff on it that r-relates to the mysterious person." She slowly unfolded the scrap of paper so that it wouldn't tear any further since it had visually gone through a lot of damage. Inching it forward, she let everyone take a look at it and its cut off words and scribbles.

––guised as ––en.

–––ana trainings on––– –––otect––––
Stubor—ness from in––––
Ja….––antine’s–– –––땅콩 버터 만두 pg.23–––

M̶e̶d̶i̶o̶c̶r̶e̶ oke 한글, but–––

So pectful t––– hurt––––monster––– Yoonie l̶i̶k̶e̶s̶ her.

––––Knows about––– ––March 29, 2053.

That is, until she realized Edgar couldn't read off it, which meant she would have to talk. Yoon gulped. "S-So th-this is like a journal... Or I mean––" Yoon closed her eyes to gather her breath. "This page is like a s-small biography of this person... M-Me and my mom have no recollection of who this was written about." She emphasized. "But s-see, like over here this word is missing a letter, but I-if I add an M to it then i-it says Mana trainings." She informed. "I-I was thinking... maybe... She trained some of us?"

Raven glanced up slightly, and she spoke very softly, so much so now that her words weren't heard as Edgar had started talking. "I thought so to."

"Really?" Edgar stood up a bit straighter now after what he had heard, now a bit irritated by the fact that he couldn't see what everyone else could. "That's actually not to far fetched. I felt like something was drawing me to the training facility when I went down to check on Raven. It was like...there was something else that I use to do with someone down there."

Raven looked over her own papers before closing her folder, her eyes lowering down to the plain tan coloring of it as she fell silent again.

"...a-and g-get this, sh-she also apparently spoke Korean, maybe she's K-Korean like me, o-ooh and then d-down here––" Yoon's speech suddenly stopped when she saw Raven's attention leave as she fell quiet. "....o-oh I-I'm sorry I-I didn't mean to interrupt––" She misinterpreted her silence, not wanting to feel like she was hogging her spotlight. She was curious what she had to share about her folder and was ready to be all ears. "A-Are y-you okay?" Yoon couldn't help but ask out of habit. "M-maybe this paperhasnothingtodowithherandioverthoughti­t––­&qu­ot; Yoon doubted herself, also out of habit. "I-I'm sure yours is more precise––"

Mason looked to Yoon and Raven at the papers, sensing that there was a sort of anxiety from both of the girls from the otherside of the table. As Yoon was already trying to make up different ways that it would help them both, Mason had spoke, "It's fine, it can both be useful. It's not a contest or anything. Every piece of evidence helps"

Sammy had still yet to return from the hall, She sat there on the floor, hearing the words that Raven had spoke. They were so few and yet they were so much in these times. Hearing those words that she couldn't be right, that she still loved her despite all that was happening. It was like a small candle flame in a pitch black thunderstorm. It was so small, but the glow of it kept Sammy sane to some degree. She still did not return to the room yet. She merely sat there. Still thinking about if she did belong among the group. And as she sat there, she would pull out her phone, remembering the words that Raven had said to her and texted onto them, doing her best to avoid any spelling errors and using emoticons
"I'm scared too, Raven"
"Scared of losing you"
Scared of never being good enough"
"But you are good enough"
"Better than good enough"
"You aren't the only one that has things they want to say"
"Who's so scared of what there is to say"
"But no matter how hard they get, I will be there"
"No matter how bad, I'll get you through this"
"Just like you've gotten me through this shit"
"You will always be more than good enough to me"
"I love you so much, Raven"
Sammy had to swipe away a single tear drop that landed onto her phone, fidling around with the tear drop awkwardly before she would finally be able to continue and send the message. She still didn't get up. She just sat there, wondering who else in the home there was outside of the meeting

Raven tried to answer right when Yoon asked her if she was okay. But in many ways, she had already started to break. What was supposed to be the right answer? The right way for her too feel at the very moment. You can't even figure out something as simple as a yes or no? What the fuck is wrong with you?. The voice wasn't even necessary this time, as it had already successfully infiltrated her thoughts. And it had won. But she kept her smile, and no tears came as she replied to Mason while agreeing. "Yeah. You're right. We're working together not against one another," she said with a small tremor to her voice that had grown quiet. And as her phone began to give buzzes, she would slowly put in on silent, not being able to bring herself to read any of the texts. "I..I um..." Her eyes went around the room quickly, and then back to her folder. "Sorry...and.. I'm.. I'm glad you guys are here," she said suddenly, her lips trembling into a smile. But she didn't look at any of them by this point, only at her hands, having to blink some of the blur from teats that tried to come from her eyes as she tried to be more enthusiastic. "Al-alright uh.— I-I had it here somewhere," she stated as her hands sifted from paper to paper, trying to avoid the things that they had already discussed while she was absent.

If Edgar had been able to see her during all of this, perhaps he would have been able to spot the grey that had began to overtake the younger woman from the inside. But instead, he was more interested at the moment in whatever else it was that she had that would give them an edge in their situation.

Mason's head lifted a bit when he would hear the response that Raven made, about how she was glad that they were all here for her. It was an odd response to just bring up out of the blue, but he scratched at the back of his head and replied, "Well, we're glad you're here too, Raven. We're all in this together after all."
But soon the room would be interrupted by the constant ringing of Raven's text messages. It was one that everyone else in the room tried to ignore, but as he heard the sound, as well as taking notice that Sammy was nowhere to be seen, he started to wonder why she was sending a barrage of text messages, and why Raven had been acting weird compared to yesterday. He kept his mouth shut, at least for now. He just wasn't sure what he could say. He knew less then everyone else here at the moment

"Okay..um...I-I think I got it," Raven would say as she pulled one of the more crumbled pieces of papers away from the other ones that had been in the folder. She laid it flat against it and used the palm of her good hand to smooth it out some. She tried to focus as best she could, but was finding it more and more difficult as she kept screaming at herself internally to just be normal. She begged it of herself. Her voice shook some this time as she spoke, but she his it behind a straight smile. "I found it." She gulped, looking over at Edgar for a moment, and then down at the paper that she held before lifting it to hide her face from view as she would start to speak. "I..I wrote down a lot of stuff that I could remember from Florida, and sort of used that as my base for what had been my hypothesis, which was "If my memories weren't right, then it started sooner rather than way before, " she explained. "Ever since I got the....Corruption out," it still hurt to say it. "I could remember things. Almost everything. My very first pairs of shoes. The she that I lost my first tooth, and the day it happened and around the time it had happened. The doctors that pulled me out at birth. Childhood stuff that I shouldn't have remembered like that, not as clearly as I do. It all goes by like it's in slow motion sometimes, and I can remember every detail, almost every word, every piece of clothes that was worn in a lot of cases and...and..." Her knees instinctively went up to her chest. "..other..stuff. It's like I can't... forget."
She stopped for a moment, biting back the tears that tried to come again and swallowing it all down. "So I started thinking, well i-if that's the case, then why couldn't I remember something from just a couple weeks ago? Something that felt important. And no one else seemed to notice or bat an eye at it, how..off it was. I knew that Jackie had helped me in Florida, but there was always this nagging feeling that she wasn't the only one. It was like when you know you forgot something, but the more you tried to remember, the more harder it got. And so..I guess I just started searching. At first I only saw it in certain places, like in the kitchen. It was like this...big knot. Of sounds and voices, and it was like some sort of...you know, when you get a pack of sticky notes and that feeling of like, pulling the sticky parts away from the other ones? It was like that, but.. bigger, and I could see it when I tried to remember."
Her feet pulled closer to her. "But every time I got close, something in me just...hated it. We hated the feeling that came from it. That's how I knew we were getting close to something. And then...I could see it in you guys too. It's like this...this flimsy but sticky, staticky shape that's floating inside your heads. I can still see them when I try to focus on it. I can feel it."

"Can...can they come out? Do you believe that you would be able to take them out somehow?" Edgar asked as he had soaked in everything with a greater sense of just how bad this was. But he was also impressed that Raven had found out all of it own her on, which made him feel guilt about what he had originally thought.

Raven lowered the paper, but didn't look at any of them. "I... don't know," she answered in a low voice, hating that that was her answer.

Mason looked over everything, hearing it all and sensing that it was something almost similar to that. As he would finally lift his eyes from the table after scanning through the different papers he would add, "No, no, I think you're right, Raven" He said. "This just kinda confirms that we didn't forget on our own accord. It was like someone reached inside and pulled it out of us. Took a piece of our minds and just stole it. And whoever did this must have also been why Jackie is gone now and why all this shit is going on... I guess the only question now is why. Why would they do that."
Galiah gave a nod and a smile, "Well, regardless, I must say that I am proud of you all" She spoke as she stepped ever closer to the table, her eyes turning from one Keeper to the next. "You all came together to figure these things out on your own. You used your magic to solve this, or just your own minds. That is, as Leonard would say, a "Damn fine job". And I must agree, very damn fine job indeed to all of you"
"Hey, don't damn fine job us just yet" Mason said, though feeling a little fuzzy from the compliment, "We only just know that stuffs messed up. We still don't know the who, or the why or the solution to fix it"

Edgar couldn't help but to smile some when Galiah had complimented them all on a job well done. It made him feel as if they were getting somewhere, making some sort of progress again little by little. And he knew, he hoped, that eventually it was going to pay off if they just kept at what they could. "Well, I'd say there's nothing wrong with a little pay on the back every now and then."

Raven however, didn't feel the same way as any of the others. She didn't smile, or even look at the elf when she had started talking. And all she said was, "Yeah.."
She placed the papers that she had back into her folder, having already gone through the majority of them with the rest being her own recollections of things. And since Edgar had already went over one half, she didn't feel any need for them to be out anymore.