The lobby was full of people, a few of them turned to look at her as she entered. She was about to brace for another getaway but they just went about their business as if this was everyday routine.

“This is Chaos Corp,” said Danae from behind her.

A handsome tanned woman in casual clothes greeted her with a smile, handing her a leaflet marked with the same emblem and name from on the side of the building. In an odd sharp cursive it read:

Protecting the people of today, to train the people of tomorrow.

The rest of the front was taken up by two pictures, one of Danae's human form, and one of the headquarters building itself. Danae escorted her through the crowd of people. The room had long, worn leather benches in rows for people to sit on. Surprisingly alive potted plants were placed intermittently along the walls and between them a bit higher up hung psychedelic paintings that were only slightly pleasing to the eye.

They walked up to a wide, vacant reception desk covered in grey objects. As Danae approached the gate separating it from the rest of the room it immediately opened for him. A robotic voice came from the gate.

“Welcome back, my lord.”

Danae stopped just short of two large metal doors on the other side and looked to her.

“You're already programmed into the system, just walk up to it.”

Zade looked to the gate and back to him. He was expecting her arrival? Well, the wanted posters had already told her that. But this was equally confusing and impressive. She walked up to the gate, which opened to let her through.

“Welcome, Dick van Killjoy-McStuckUp.”

Zade stopped. The gate attempted to close, stopped an inch from touching her, opened again, and then repeated.

“Did I just get insulted by a robot gate?” she tilted her head at the machine, which was still attempting to close.

“Yes, now get the hell out of my way,” the gate replied.

Zade stood speechless.

“That's Action,” said Danae. “You should probably do as they say.”

“It is a gate?”

As soon as these words left her mouth the gate administered a strong electric shock to her thighs. She buckled forward onto her face and the gate finally fully shut above her. She could've sworn it just sighed.

Danae pressed a silver button on the wall next to the metal doors. The ring around it lit up blue for a second, and this time Action's voice came from beyond.

“Doors opening.”

Sure enough, they opened, revealing a small room with reflective metal walls. Danae stepped inside. Was it some sort of empty closet? She slowly got up as the feeling returned to her legs. She cautiously hurried through the doors, lest the same thing happen again.

“Doors closing.”

“Don't mind them,” said Danae as the doors closed behind her. “They're just cranky cause they don't have a physical form.”

Zade was honestly used to curious and unique entities by now, after all meeting Mother Nature was a life-changing experience, but this still had her speechless.

Inside the room was three rows of more buttons. Danae pressed one labelled 362. The ring around it glowed blue and the room started shaking.

“What in the...” she said, backing against the wall and preparing to fight her way out.

“Oh right,” Danae said, surprised. “This is an elevator. It goes up, and down. A quick way to different floors of a building.” He dragged out each word in a patronizing manner.

“Oh...” she sighed, somewhat in relief that the room wasn't about to digest them. She still didn't like it.

“It seems you are tense Miss Killjoy-McStuckUp, I have analysed the situation and have come to the calculated conclusion that you are in need of some calming music. Playing calming music now,” said Action from some holes in the wall above the buttons.

Slow jazz with an overlay of bongos began to play. It wasn't very calming. Wait...

“Why does it keep calling me that?” she asked, offended that Danae hadn't told them her real name.

“'They' Zade, why do 'they' keep calling you that. Please, Action is a person to. A cranky person with no physical form, but a person none-the-less.”

Zade waited for him to continue and answer her. He didn't.

He said it was a quick way to go up or down, but it sure took them a while before the red letters above the door read 362. The room slowly stopped shaking with a ding noise.

“Doors opening.”

They exited into a long hallway that stretched to either side. In front of her were two wooden doors standing a few feet apart, a mirror image of each other.

“Welcome to your new home. The Chaos Penthouse,” said Danae, moving in front of the door on the right.

She raised her brow in confusion. “New home?”

He opened the door and waited for her to enter.

The sight was like heaven to her eyes. The 'elevator' was truly some kind of slow portal. The room was wide and spacious, full of natural light from the setting sun that flowed into the room through two walls to the front and right of her that were full windows. The walls to the left and behind her were sky blue and the furniture was themed black and white. It was as if someone had decorated this room to match her mind.

At the far end was an L-shaped couch next to the window with its back against some stairs that led up to another door. In frond of the couch was a low white table and in front of that was a desk with a large black glass object on it.

The side closer to her was a more practical looking area, a large, smooth, stomach height table with drawers placed all along the sides. There were also six cupboards along the wall next to her. It was surprisingly homely.

She walked forward towards the window and froze.

-

Zade turned to her, “How about you?”

“How about me what?” Sera asked back.

“How about you, do you want a realm of your own?” she clarified.

“I can do that?”

She arched a brow. “Of course you can! You have the power to!”

Sera's face lit up in excitement.

-

“Danae...” Zade said sternly, fists suddenly clenched. She could tell the change threw him off. “Why are there only two rooms?” She turned her head. Danae had forgone his mortal guise, adopting the dark skeletal form she was used to. Much harder to read the expressions and thoughts of.

“I told you,” he replied coldly, turning away. “The tome brought everything within a small radius. Itself, me, and you.”

Zade's form shimmered and she was suddenly standing in front of him, catching his eyeless gaze. She held a dagger of pure black energy against his chest. He made no attempt to retaliate.

“Where are they?!” she tried to remain calm, but her hand quivered.

Danae remained silent.

“Where are Farjack and Sera?!” she was shouting now. It was so rare that she got this angry.

He turned around and as he did his cloak evaporated like smoke that parted to reveal his human form. He walked towards the door.

“Don't make a fool out of yourself. There's nothing either of us can do now. Get some rest. Try this neat thing the humans call 'sleep'.”

And then he was gone. Door shut behind him. She heard the faint voice of Action from the hall and knew he wasn't going to his room. She didn't know her way around this infernal building so there was no chance of confronting him further.

He was right though, and she knew that. There was nothing she could do to help them now. To her she was just with them, but Danae had spent a year or two without any of them. If he couldn't find a way to fix it then no one could. She had to find out what happened to them though. With or without his help.

Curse this amnesia, she thought. Why were magical side effects always amnesia?

She glanced down at the Chaos Corp leaflet in her hand, and then back out the window, looking down upon the massive city that surrounded a forest.

A forest that had once been Sera's realm.