"Alright now 'John'," Katz looked through his wallet. "Or I guess your name is-."

"Asher, it's Asher." He managed to say.

"Well Asher. I should probably make this clear. You were dangerously close to the Syndicates territory." Katz continued observing him from a distance, the man's eyes widened at the mention. "By that reaction I assume you figured out who I am now."

"You’re the scientist guy. Are you going to dissect me?" The man quivered.

"No. That's disgusting." Katz shook his head briskly. "I'm a chemist, mostly. What the hell kind of rumors are circulating now?"

"Mms... he... said you...." The man was suddenly struggling to speak through the numbness he was feeling for a moment. "Rearranged his organs...?"

Katz took a very deep sigh. "First of all, that's not what that means. That's a euphemism."

"Oh." The man relaxed ever so slightly.

"Second of all, that did not happen. Or... maybe it did... That sort of memory doesn't belong to me..." Katz thought about it for a moment then shook his hand as if waving off the thought. "That's irrelevant either way. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." He groaned. "Why do you care?"

"Well, that's not very descriptive." Katz wrote something down on a clipboard.

"Are you really going to sit there and document me dying? I would've preferred you uh, rearranging my organs." He struggled to move again but nothing below his neck was responding correctly as he shifted around in place.

"Sapphire Syndicate doesn't make lethal compounds. They have other goals in mind." Katz explained. "Also please don't say that again."

"What? Rearrange my organs?" He asked.

"Yes, that." Katz sighed deeply again.

"Why not? Why wouldn't you wanna rearrange my organs?" He tried to turn his head towards Katz, but it didn't work out well.

"Organ rearrangement is not a medically recognized procedure." Katz said flatly.

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" He said finally managing to lock eyes with Katz again, "But why not...?"

"Why would you want me to? Are you stupid? I'm not going to have sex with a man I dragged in from the street, especially not one that tried to mug me.” Katz gave him a look of concern.

"Oh. You meant sex." He seemed disappointed somehow at this revelation.

"What did you think I meant?” Katz’s concern soon turned to a puzzled expression.

"I 'unno but you seem a little too innocent for that.” He was starting to seem a bit too comfortable with the situation now, weirdly so.

"What does that mean?” Katz asked. "And you thought dissection was more innocent somehow?”

“The whole aura about you is just too... plain?” His eyes flickered around Katz in a strange fashion as if looking at something invisible around him. “There’s something ominous hanging around you but it’s not coming from you. I figured you we’re being blackmailed or something. This whole thing was kind of a surprise really considering all those colors around you.”

"Are you hallucinating?" Katz asked genuinely as started writing down notes again.

"No, no. I'm not completely human so it's kinda... just... a thing." He tried to gesture to the aura around him, but his hands weren't cooperating enough to lift them.

"Oh. Well, for the record, I'm not either." Katz continued writing, it would probably be relevant to write that down.

"Not what? A virgin?" He laughed.

"No, a human. Are you doing this on purpose?" Katz held his forehead in irritation.

"I ain't got nothing else to lose. I don't know why you'd expect me to cooperate to begin with." He said proudly.

"Huh? Well, that's fair, but... this sudden change in behavior is a bit off.” Katz got up suddenly, he flicked out his pen knife and aimed it at the man's throat threateningly, but he didn't react at all. "That's... interesting."

“What is?” The man was either fearless or completely unaware he was in danger. “That's a cool looking knife, can I have it?”

“No, you can’t have this.” Katz could barely recall some information from BioPort about the Lambda units, this was not dissimilar to that. “Looks like your fear response was diminished. Why would he need that? What use would he have for Bio soldiers? He prefers to do things himself for the most part. What does he gain from this? I’m starting to wonder why he was involved in the Lambda experiments at all.”

“The hell are you talking about nerd?” The man mocked him.

“Do you feel any different?" Katz looked at him carefully.

"No. Not at all.” He said as he started to fade into a deep sleep. Either he was still being contrary, or he genuinely didn't realize he was tired. Katz left the man be from then on, he figured he'd leave on his own once he came to.

Katz tried to write things down about how the Syndicate was trying to replicate some of BioPort’s experiments through some sort of chemical means. But the words appeared to distort as he wrote them.

“Damn it.” He held his head. Katz was starting to feel like Orion again.

Orion looked through the notes in front of him. Boss, BioPort, Lambda… reading the words gave him sense of Déjà vu.

“Who was the boss again?” Orion said to himself. He tried his best to recall but everything was starting to get hazy again. “My head hurts… Screw it.”

Orion went to the bedroom and locked the door behind him. He slept for a few hours at most, or at least that’s what he thought. But it was already morning by the time he woke. He didn't feel good at all.

The man from the other day was hanging out in the kitchen, he looked different somehow. It took him a few minutes, but he realized his outfit was different. ‘Where did he manage to find a change of clothes?’ Orion thought.

“Oh! You’re awake.” He said, perhaps a bit too casually.

“Why are you still here?” Orion asked.

“I wanted to make you breakfast?” He responded.

“What the hell? Why?” Orion asked.

“The most important meal of the day or whatever.” He rolled his eyes.

“No. Why are you in my apartment?” Orion tried to clarify.

“Are you kicking me out? Oh, come on it's not like I can leave my little train wreck all alone.” He laughed tussling Orion’s hair.

Orion glared at him.

“You can’t keep acting like you're worthless, you're a good guy-” He paused looking at Orion’s current form then corrected himself “Er- girl.”

Orion finally had enough and tried to force him out physically, but the man wouldn't budge, he just seemed concerned. Orion didn't have the energy to actually do anything, so it sort of looked like he was trying and failing to push a brick wall. He couldn't believe it had gotten this bad overnight.

"Um? Orion? What the hell are you doing?" He asked flicking Orion in the forehead.

"I'm trying to make you leave. Why are you sticking around here?" Orion asked rubbing his head where he got flicked, it ended up leaving a small mark. It only lasted for a few minutes but longer than it should have.

"Why not?" He replied looking at Orion as if he'd asked something exceedingly absurd.

"I literally drugged you and technically kidnapped you off the streets." Orion stated flatly. "That would definitely have deterred me."

"I know you weren't exactly in your right mind, and well, I guess you rarely are. No hard feelings on that, honestly." He paused.

Orion stared at him with a confused expression.

"But I'm not going to lie, it was kinda hot." He teased under his breath, only further contributing to Orion's confusion.

“What the hell?” Orion looked at him with a bit of disgust.

"Oh, don’t give me that. You’re definitely more of a freak than I am.” He waved Orion off. “Besides that, was so long ago, you've already made up for it."

"Was it? That long ago." Orion looked disillusioned once more at the passage of time.

“Oh… You might want to sit down for this.” He pat Orion’s head. “How long ago do you think that was?”

"It wasn’t yesterday, was it...?” Orion stared at the floor.

"Oh, yikes, definitely not. Let’s see… We've been living together for almost six months now.” He explained finishing up with the stove.

“Six months?” Orion struggled to wrap his head around it.

“And that happened maybe a good number of months before that. So, I think that happened almost a year ago now.” He pulled out some forks and knives and set them out.

“A year… I lost a whole year…” Orion sighed. It didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would, but it still felt awful to lose that much time, even if it was only lost temporarily.

“I wouldn’t say it’s lost but… How did you manage to forget that much? That’s a lot more than usual.” He asked casually, it was clear this hadn't been the first time they'd had this sort of interaction. “Any of it coming back? Or do you need help?”

"I... Yes. I need help." Orion admitted, the man could have been lying to him and he'd be none the wiser. But for some reason Orion found himself wanting to believe him. It was obvious to him now a considerable amount time had passed at least. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I should just tattoo it on your hand since you keep forgetting." He grabbed Orion's hand jokingly and Orion quickly pulled it away. "I'm kidding, it's Asher."

“Asher. Asher. Asher.” Orion repeated it a few times hoping it would stick. He felt strange. Surely he wouldn’t feel like this unless they had some sort of relationship, right? And for them to have this close of a relationship, Orion couldn’t help but wonder how it could’ve reached this point without him knowing. “Even if it's been a year… How exactly does one go from that… to a relationship?”

“Uhh… hahaha.” He laughed nervously. “You have a bad memory, and I have bad taste, how about we leave it at that.”

“I don't think I can…” Orion blinked.

“Well, I would say you have bad taste too, but I have a lot more self-confidence than you do.” He teased setting the food at the table.

“That doesn’t answer- Whatever.” Orion just stared at the food placed in front of him. An omelet, he couldn’t remember the last time he had a real breakfast. It gave him a strange sensation of warmth and familiarity, it felt… safe.

"Anyway, that boss of yours, you remember he's not human right?" Asher asked.

Orion nodded in acknowledgement but didn't say anything. He had been under the influence of this unknown entity for a long time now. Orion was often unsure of what he had done, but still wracked himself with guilt at the thought of any of the possibilities that crossed his mind.

“I know it's hard for you to understand since you're so messed up from it... How do I explain this?” He thought about it for a moment. “You're not being hypnotized in the traditional sense; his species isn't capable of that. He's erasing your memories with his abilities and manipulating you mostly.”

“But my memories aren't completely gone?" Orion held his head in pain. “If it’s what I think it is… Why would I remember anything at all?”

“You're not human. The most it can do is eat the memories from your brain, but your brain is like, auxiliary, since you’re a shadow. As long as your brain itself stays intact it’s a temporary problem for you. It doesn't always come back correctly because you have...” He gestured in a vague way, “Well, you have other issues going on.”

“Oh...” Orion wasn't sure how to take it. “What am I supposed to do about this?"

"If you were a human, you'd be a lost cause at this point and this sort of thing doesn't even work on my kind... But I don't really know enough about shadows to say, especially not one that's cast from a human. Not even my mom knows much about that.” Asher thought about it for a moment. "I think you'll be okay. The more stable you are mentally the less it'll be able to affect you. At least that's what I've gathered from all this."

“Mentally stable.” Orion laughed and looked down at the ground in defeat.

“Sure, this was a pretty big lapse but… You've been doing better lately. You've been remembering my name more consistently. Except for today that is.” He assured him, “You're getting better. Try not to let it get to you. We'll figure this out.”