For the remainder of the mission, Orion breezed through mapping out the place. A lot of the off-limits places were weapons storage and hidden exits. There were only a few places left for him to check now. Time was still on their side.

“There's a secret exit on the far wall.” Orion said, “There's a hidden panel with a keypad. If I use the data tool it opens up a small section of the wall to a tunnel leading out of the building.”

“Got it. Anything else?” Ricky said writing down the information on a digital map in front of him.

“There are no other exits on this side of the building aside from this, heading to the next location now.” Orion informed them.

“Keep it up. You're doing great.” Claire praised him.

“Yes ma’am.” He replied.

He reached a corridor leading to an area that was almost maze-like, if there was something important they needed to find, it would be here. He paced around casually but cautiously, acting as though he was lost.

Orion looked forward at what would happen when he went through the door, at the entrance was a man. The same man who'd been getting in his way since before. 'Of course, of all things, it's Phalaris again.' In all of the possible branching paths there was only one outcome.

They try to shoot him, his shadows block it, but some indescribable force stabs him. Phalaris wasn't human and he clearly had some kind of power capable of combating his shadows, but he couldn't tell what was hitting him in that moment.

Orion also couldn't tell whether he would die from it, but he wasn't about to find out. He could almost feel the pain as his body tensed up in response. Despite him knowing it wasn't real and it didn't happen, Orion struggled to get his body to understand he was safe and calm down.

Not a single time before now had any of his actions lead to this sort of outcome. Who was Phalaris? What was he? Why did his shadows not work properly around him? All he had were more questions than answers and a dull throbbing pain in his chest.

"Orion are you alright?" Ricky asked. “You went quiet again did something happen?”

Orion was still locked in a bit of a panic and couldn't respond.

"Orion?"

"Y-yeah." He managed to squeeze out. "I'll have to try again later. Something's in there."

"What kind of something?"

"I don't know but it can tear through my shadows somehow." Orion tried to shake it off, but he was still feeling the dread. He couldn't help but wonder if what happened during the explosion incident was effecting him even though he couldn't remember it, which was extremely likely but he wasn't entirely sure.

Orion continued to wander around aimlessly without much purpose. While it was something he was supposed to do to keep up with the image he was presenting in order to 'accidentally’ end up places he shouldn't be without being too suspicious… This was not intentional.

Orion was zoned out and not fully aware of what he was doing.

“Orion?” Imani called out to him.

“Hmm?” He responded.

“You're not doing well, are you?” She asked.

“Can you read me through this thing?” He questioned. Imani’s powers were still a mystery to him.

“Not through audio feed, no. But I saw you through someone else's camera. You're not quite the same as usual.” She explained. “I don't know how to describe it but… Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know if I’m feeling much of anything. Just frustration mostly.” He explained.

“Fear does that to people sometimes.” She said.

“I know but it’s so different. Things outside of my expectations are so uncommon that it’s hard to wrap my head around.” He added. “I’m not afraid I’m just mad.”

“Focus on your breathing, get a drink or something to eat and try to calm down.” She urged him.

“But I am calm.” He quipped.

“Even if I’m seeing your emotions more intensely than for humans, it's at such a ridiculous level that I’m surprised you aren't even shaking.” She said.

“Maybe I am…” he looked at his hands. “I’ll go try to calm down.”

He took her advice and got something to drink. He also decided it would be a good time to eat. He quietly talked to Imani for a short while about the situation and soon forgot he’d even been bothered by it in the first place.

“Is everything alright now, Orion?” Imani asked him.

“Yeah. I’m good. Thanks.” He said.

It was weird to him that someone else could read his emotions when he wasn't aware of them at all. But he managed to get back on track so quickly he couldn't help but be grateful for it.

There were far too many outliers now, anything the book said was near useless to the current circumstances. It just didn't make any sense to him. What changed? He followed everything that he was supposed to, even if he didn't do it well enough there was plenty of room for error by design.