Asher started to doze off…

He once more dreamed of white walls, but he wasn’t running this time. He quickly became aware he was dreaming but he couldn't seem to do much about it other than watch whatever events were going to unfold in front of him.

For some reason he felt… really hungry. He was so hungry he was struggling to figure out where he was going. The white walls were blurring together in an endless pattern that seemed to go on forever.

A crackling noise brought everything back into focus.

Before him stood a small mass of winding shadows that seemed to be steadily growing.

He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt afraid. He tried to turn and run but he couldn’t move. Something inside him told him it was already too late.

The mass exploded into a giant form. It was… a dragon.

 ‘That little girl prattling on about dragons yesterday probably influenced that.’ He thought to himself.

When it locked eyes with him Asher’s mind was flooded with failed attempts at fighting back. He couldn’t even bring himself to try fighting as the dragon bit into him.

Somewhere in his mind he couldn't help but feel like perhaps this was for the best, but he couldn't quite place why.

He woke up for a minute not entirely sure where he was, but Orion being beside him was enough for him to feel safe enough to try and close his eyes again.

He had almost managed to fall back asleep when he was snapped back into awareness by a sudden glow in the room. There was a particularly loud buzzing as well.

“What’s that humming sound?” Asher asked still in a bit of a haze.

“Thats the technology suppressor.” Orion responded. “It prevents communications and other Lucidian tech from working and all that, but it also functions kind of like a white noise machine. It's hard to focus without it on.”

Asher looked up to see Orion pouring some sort of blue light from his hand into a flask. He began mixing it with some supernatural looking chemicals. All with strange auras that danced haphazardly throughout the room.

“Orion, what are you doing?” Asher asked.

“Um...” Orion looked up, “Well, I’m just working.”

“You’re hurt; shouldn't you be resting?” Asher advised.

“Well, I wouldn’t be able to do this otherwise and I am already so far behind schedule.” He explained then twirled his finger in the air intermingling with the strange vibrant auras. “I can't waste a single minute of this stuff you know.”

“You mean, the celestial energy?” Asher asked.

“Of course, the amount of time I can use it is limited to being practically dead, so I’d rather not have to start over. Besides, I’m worried about what will happen if I don’t finish the project in time…” Orion mused, “Well, I do suppose I’m also worried what will happen when I do.”

“Some kind of apocalypse will happen if you don’t but, what exactly will happen if you do?” Asher got out his knife and started playing with it, it helped ease the subtle feeling of worry creeping into his mind.

“Well as soon as it’s completed, there’s no way the celestials won’t notice. Vacuous will not be happy either.” Orion continued.

“What about Phalaris?” Asher asked.

“What about him?” Orion asked.

“I thought you were afraid of him.” Asher questioned, either there was something he was missing, or Orion was a lot worse off than he thought.

“Afraid? Of what, the bug?” Orion laughed, “Why would I be afraid of a bug?”

“Orion you’re terrified of bugs normally.” Asher reminded him.

“Orion.” Orion said, “Yeah that might be true for Orion.”

“You’re not… Orion?” Asher asked.

“By process of elimination, I suppose not.” Orion said.

“You're not Katz either.” Asher said.

“Not even close.” He shook his head.

“Are you Soup?” Asher made a wild guess.

“How on earth did you guess that?” He replied.

“Just a gut feeling.” Asher said, “Well, why is Orion afraid of Phalaris then?”

“I wasn’t aware that he was. Phalaris is annoying sure, but he’d be decent if I just put duct tape over his dumb mouth.” Orion laughed, "Phalaris is just doing what needs to be done, don't worry so much about it."

“Katz also seems to be scared of him.” Asher continued.

“Now that just doesn’t make sense. Phalaris wouldn't do anything to warrant that.” He put his hand to his mouth in thought. “I wonder if they’re missing something.”

“Are sure you’re not the one missing something?” Asher asked quietly.

“If anything, he’s the one that’s terrified of me, especially after what happened at BioPort.” Orion laughed again.

“I thought you couldn’t talk about BioPort.” Asher stared at him; it was evident this Orion did in fact know a lot more than the others.

“It’s technically classified but that hasn’t stopped me before.” Orion continued, “Other than going feral, there’s really not much of note anyway.”

“So, what's The Lambda serum?” Asher asked.

“Oh that. It was designed to keep shadows from going feral and to stop shadows that have gone feral from causing mayhem. It has… different effects on humans.” Orion explained, “Unfortunately for them it didn’t get completed in time for Phalaris to survive.”

“You mean he died?” Asher’s expression twisted in confusion.

“A celestial brought him back in order to manipulate me. Unfortunately for them, Phalaris wasn’t too keen on working with them.” Orion explained, "Understandably so, I think he much preferred being dead to potentially being consumed by the distortion if the project fails."

“Oh.” Asher said, “Then what exactly is it they’re so afraid of?”

“I couldn’t hazard a guess.” Orion said as he carefully examined the concoction in his hand. “Well, that should do for today.”

“So, what is that for anywa-” He didn’t even get to finish his question before Orion downed it like a shot. “What the hell!?”

“Oh, don’t worry it won’t kill- No… as I recall you’re not a fan of that answer either.” He sauntered back over to the cot, “The side effects are still the same. It wasn’t anything unusual.”

“I thought you were making some kind of alloy?” Asher stared at him in shock.

“I already completed that phase; the alloy is meant to hold onto celestial energy without...” He grabbed the metal part of Asher’s knife; it glowed for a moment before crumbling to dust. “…Disintegrating.”

“Hey! That was a gift.” Asher pouted.

“You needed a new blade especially the way you use it.” Orion started unscrewing the handle.

“What’s wrong with the way I use it?” Asher asked.

“You’re not supposed to use it to open cans, Asher.” Orion cleaned up the handles and started fitting a new blade. “This stuff’s a lot stronger than stainless, and while it probably wouldn’t be a good fit to fight the distortion. It will provide some modicum of protection.”

“Is it stronger than diamonds?” Asher asked curiously.

“It’s derived from Sapphires which is not exactly as hard as diamonds naturally but imbued with celestial energy it could be.” He said handing over the knife.

“Sapphires? That’s why you came to the Sapphire Syndicate, isn’t it?” Asher asked getting a feel for the knife in his hand.

“It’s in the name.” Orion laid back down on the cot.

“But why do you need him for the project?” Asher asked.

“Phalaris’s the only one with access to the stuff keeping me from going feral and the one who can deal with the Lucidians directly.” Orion explained, “He’s also got something protecting himself from me in case I really do go feral.”

“Is going feral really-.” Asher remembered the dream he had and changed the subject. “Never mind. You… You asked if I could keep a secret or something right?”

“What?” Orion seemed perplexed.

“It was you in the notebook, right?” Asher picked it up off the counter opening to the page.

"I think the rest of your answers are here." He snapped the book shut and made a rather perturbed expression, “That’s not my handwriting.”

“Who’s is it then?” Asher was taken aback.

“I can’t answer that, I’m sure it’s fine… The project is almost complete anyway. But still, I think you should hang onto this for now.” He said putting the book back in Asher’s hands. “Don’t show it to anyone else. Definitely not to me.”

“O-okay.” Asher put the notebook in his pocket. He hadn't seen Orion that afraid since Katz walked out on him during breakfast. There's definitely something wrong, but Orion definitely won’t say what it is.

“Is that all the answers you wanted?” Orion asked.

“Actually, I have a dumb question for you.” Asher decided to take the conversation in a bit of a lighter direction. “Why do you like blondes?”

“It's kinda arbitrary to be honest. My first crush was a blonde and I just kinda stuck with it.” Orion said.

“Who was it?” Asher teased.

“Justin Timberlake…” Orion said.

“He's not blonde.” Asher quipped.

“He was at one point.” Orion looked away.

“You’re telling me, the only reason we managed to be in a relationship is because Justin Timberlake had frosted tips?”

“That’s entirely possible.” Orion shrugged.

“I have another dumb question actually. Say, Orion?” Asher continued.

“Hmm?” Orion responded.

“Why do you seem to think my name is John?” He asked.

“It's not?” Orion seemed surprised.

“No, it isn't. It’s Asher.” Asher said for what felt like the thousandth time.

“You took your father's last name, so I just figured you ended up taking his first name as well especially since you introduced yourself as that.” Orion explained.

“I would never do that, I hate my dad, and his name isn't even John.” Asher squinted at him, “If I was taking anyone’s name it would be yours.”

“Oh.” Orion paused, “Now, how did I manage to mix you two up like that?”

“With who?” Asher asked.

“John’s son, clearly.” Orion replied, “Something to do with BioPort… I think. But you two aren’t anything alike, so I don’t know why I made that mistake.”

“So wha-?” Asher started.

“I’m falling asleep…” Orion interrupted him, “I don’t think I can answer more questions.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Asher found it difficult to believe that Phalaris wasn’t behind all these problems. This Orion was pretty clear about him not being a threat but... With Orion’s memory problems, he might have known something about it and couldn’t remember anymore. Even if there was another explanation, there were no leads.

The only thing Asher knew for certain was that he wouldn’t be able to get an answer out of either of them.

Asher watched Orion sleep for a few minutes, tossing and turning a few times before waking up again. He sat up with some frustration on his face.

“What's wrong?” Asher asked.

“This isn't exactly comfortable.” He sighed, “It's probably better just to go home at this rate.”

“Yeah and I’d rather not stay here any longer than I have to anyway.” Asher agreed.

Orion took a last check of the room to ensure everything was put away properly. As they made their way to the front door, Orion looked like he was starting to nod off again.

“If you're that tired I could just carry you.” Asher offered.

“No, it's fine.” Orion replied twisting a pen between his fingers. “Honestly it's just my eyes that are bugging me.”

“Well, walking with your eyes closed is probably not a good idea.” Asher informed him.

“I know that.” Orion said as he walked outside. “Still, I don't-”

He paused mid-sentence, stopped walking and his arms dropped to his sides dropping the pen that was in his hand.

“Don’t what?” Asher looked at him carefully, he hadn't even acknowledged Asher's question before suddenly walking in a very familiar direction. “Orion? I thought you were over this now.”

Either Orion was too tired to respond or whatever it was that compelled him to walk in circles had him completely in a trance.

“You're in no state to be doing this right now, Orion.” Asher picked up Orion who didn't even bother to fight it.

Asher thought quietly about it for a moment before putting the words out loud as if to organize them.

“Whatever it was got triggered as soon as you left the building. Is there something actually causing this or is leaving work somehow traumatic for you?” Asher asked not expecting a response. “Either way, it's really concerning.”

Orion as expected didn't respond, he remained in a trance-like state all the way home.