A blur of motion passed Carl's peripheral vision as a Spore-Beast with shrew-like features slid into position beside Kevin. Paz and the nearby Spore-Beasts immediately dropped to one knee; heads bowed in respect.

  "Primal Champion Midge," Elder Sameru said with reverence. "You've come."

  The shrew-like Spore-Beast approached, pulling small crystalline nodes from a pouch at her side. "The memory corruption has progressed further than we anticipated, Elder. The Ronfaure amulet was a good first attempt, but it can't handle this level of fragmentation."

  She placed the first node against the amulet, where it adhered instantly. When she placed the second node on Kevin's shoulder, a thin strand of blue-white energy connected it to the first. With each new node she positioned across Kevin's body, the web of energy grew more complex.

  A holographic figure flickered into existence beside her, wearing a flaming bandana and modified J-Clan tech. The figure studied the energy web with a critical eye.

  "It's a Soul Siphon Matrix," the hologram explained, circling Kevin. "It doesn't just contain corruption. It processes it, filters it, makes it manageable."

  The web of energy pulsed in a counter-rhythm to the angry red flashes coming from Kevin's body. Where they intersected, the energies neutralized each other, creating small points of purple light.

  Carl stared at the hologram, a strange recognition washing over him. "You look like…"

  "Carl the 'Lightning Fist'," the hologram said with a grin. "Yo, it's been a while . You have an old Soul, but you look hella younger. You can call me FireJack."

  Carl's mouth fell open. "How do you know my…"

  "Questions later, man," FireJack cut him off, his expression turning serious. "Yo, we're on a ticking clock here! Three minutes tops before this Matrix blows. Your boy's rage is juicing up that sword fragment, and that sword's feeding his anger right back. Classic feedback loop, man."

  Elder Sameru knelt beside Kevin, placing a hand on his forehead. "The sword has attached itself to a specific memory, a moment of great rage and pain. It will continue to feed until that memory is confronted and released."

  "We need to enter his mindscape," Midge said, adjusting the final node. "Paz, get over here. This is your job actually."

  Paz stepped forward, staff at the ready. "Primal, I do not deserve to be in your presence. I obey the Retsam. I've been preparing for this since the Sword Master returned."

  "Enter his mind?" Carl asked, looking between them.

  FireJack's holographic form flickered. "Only way to break the sword's hold, bro."

  Carl looked at Kevin, who was breathing heavily, the energy web around him beginning to spark at its connection points. "I'm coming with you."

  Paz looked at Midge, who nodded. "He must. The bond between them is strong, it may be what we need to navigate the fragments."

  Kevin's eyes flashed red as he stared at them. "Stay out of my head," he growled, his voice deepening unnaturally. "You don't need to see what's in there."

  "That's exactly why we need to go," Carl said firmly.

  Elder Sameru placed a hand on Carl's shoulder. "The path you seek to walk carries great peril, young one. The realms of memory obey not the laws of our world, and when tainted by the Power Swords' corruption, they become treacherous beyond measure."

  Midge extended her hand to Carl while Paz positioned herself at Kevin's head, staff touching his temple. The wooden staff glowed with a soft blue light, resonating with the Matrix nodes.

  "The Matrix will stabilize his physical form while we travel," Midge explained. "But we must hurry, the connection points are already overloaded. Champion Paz, have you learned the rituals of summoning? And for the love of all that is the Retsam you better say yes."

  "Yes Primal," Paz replied, "I know the Empress's Song."

  "FireJack, let's go!" Midge reached out to Carl.

  "At your side as always Midget," he replied and disappeared.

  Carl took her hand without hesitation.

  Paz closed her eyes, her voice taking on a rhythmic quality as she chanted:

  "Per somnia ad veritatem, through dreams to truth.

  Anamnesis to aletheia, remembrance reveals reality.

  The shadow self must face the light.

  Memento mori, memento vivere.

  By Mnemosyne's waters, we seek what lies beneath.

  MindSpace, Reborn!"

  The air around them glowed and distorted, reality fracturing into crystalline fragments that reflected moments of Kevin's life, too fast to distinguish, but unmistakably powerful. The Matrix nodes pulsed in perfect synchrony with Paz's chant, the energy web expanding to encompass Carl, Midge, and Paz.

  "His rage has festered for thirty years," Elder Sameru said quietly. "Be prepared for what you may find."

  Kevin's eyes rolled back, his body going rigid as the energy web contracted around him. The ground beneath them dissolved, replaced by a swirling vortex of memories and emotions. The heat gave him a sweatless glaze, and he felt his own mind with Kevin's. It was like he wanted to be pulled apart from the seams, and his vision became confused.

  The last thing Carl heard before reality gave way was FireJack's voice: "Welcome to the mindscape, bro. Try not to get lost in there."

  Then the world vanished, and Carl felt himself falling through layers of his friend's consciousness, toward the source of a pain that had been buried for far too long.

  Carl’s mind went from a vertigo feeling to nauseous and back again. The world around him swirled and colored the perception of living. This wasn't like going through portals, which gave a nauseating aura. No, this feeling is like the world around him dissolved into a swirling vortex of color and light. If this was the part where he would lose his lunch, now would be it.

  "Hang on brother," FireJack's echo appeared everywhere. "We are entering the mindscape.”

  Fragments of sensations overwhelmed him all at once. No more was the smell of pine and wood from the Commons, or the smell of food coming from the tavern. No, this new sense of smell, like washed down bleach, steps across a tiled floor, and the barely registered buzzing sound of lights over his head.

  Next, he heard a ticking clock, one that counted the seconds at an impossible slow rate.

  Carl blinked, disoriented by the sudden shift. "Where are we?" he whispered, his eyes scanning the unfamiliar surroundings.

  Paz, her staff still glowing faintly, replied in a hushed tone, "It’s no longer where, but more of a when."

  Midge's voice carried next. "Carl, this is one of his memories, and this is where the Soul Matrix found the strongest source of corruption. This is what the pendant wants us to see. This must be a significant moment for him."

  Carl's eyes gradually acclimated to the dim illumination of a familiar classroom. institutionalized beige walls solidified around them, barely kept motivational posters filled the space, some with curling at the corners. He tried to reach out for the poster, but his hand half passed through the wall. Reality does not exist right now.

  "Remember the corruption," Midge said. "It does not have a right to be here and that includes us. We are committing an atrocity of the mind so let it crystallize around us. Don't fight or try to manipulate events as they do not exist anymore in this time frame."

  The soft scratching of lead against paper seemed unnaturally loud in the oppressive silence of the memory-space, punctuated only by the occasional muffled sob from somewhere in the shadowy recesses of the room.

  Shadows coalesced into desks. Blurry figures sharpened and formed into students hunched over blank pieces of paper. A chalkboard materialized at the front of the room, white dust hanging suspended in air that smelled of anxiety and adolescence.

  "Over there, the red aura," Paz said, pointing to the front row with her staff.

  Carl's breath caught in his throat. A boy no older than thirteen sat hunched over his desk, pencil moving across a paper. His glasses, held together with scotch tape that was peeling at the edges, sat crooked on his nose. His clothes, a size too small and worn threadbare at the elbows, looked salvaged from donation bins. But what struck Carl most was how small Kevin looked, how vulnerable, hunched over that desk like the world might collapse if he made a single mistake.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "Kevin," he whispered. The name caught his throat, almost a prayer. This wasn't his confident friend, his brother-in-arms. This was a child bearing invisible wounds, carrying burdens no kid should know existed.

  The classroom pulsed in response, the lights flickering as if acknowledging the name. Outside, the gathering clouds darkened, and the first drops of rain tapped against the windows.

  "FireJack, Carl," Midge said, looking around and seeing the room. "Is any of this familiar to you?"

  "It's a classroom," FireJack said, appearing next to Carl. The holographic image took form and walked around. "It is a school for this type of age, more communally called an 'elementary and middle school'. As far as where, from the looks of the surroundings it's…"

  Carl cut him off. "Hamilton Junior High, but I did not know he went to this school. It's weird, because back then everyone knew everyone as there was no real bus system so everyone walked in the neighborhood. Not like anyone had a car back then."

  "Be careful Carl," Midge replied. "You too, FireJack. Emotional imprints leave traces," she replied. "This memory has been revisited often. Strengthened by repetition. Keep focus on the red aura."

  Carl moved closer, studying his friend's face, so young, yet carrying burdens no child should bear. Kevin was taking a test, and he was working through problem after problem. Sounds were made around the room as he could hear the other students groans around him, followed by the repeated tapping of rain on the outside windows. The thunder erupted and he thought he saw a lightning strike.

  "Something's about to happen," Paz warned, her staff glowing brighter. "The emotional signature is spiking."

  As if summoned by her words, the classroom door opened. A man in a dark suit stepped in. Carl didn't recognize the uniform as a school employee. A principal perhaps? He moved directly to the teacher who sat at his desk reading a book with one hand and adjusting his purple suspenders with the other. They spoke in hushed tones, but loud enough for Carl to hear. The voices were muffled, and he figured that Kevin did not hear exactly what they said. The teacher's expression shifted from annoyance to concern as he glanced toward Kevin.

  "This is it," Midge said softly. "The catalyst moment."

  The skinny teacher nodded to the man and began walking the aisle toward Kevin's desk. The atmosphere in the memory-classroom grew heavier, the rain outside falling harder, the lights dimming imperceptibly.

  "Mr. Kevin," the teacher said, his voice cutting through the silence with artificial cheerfulness that didn't match his eyes, "I need you to follow the Principal to the front office."

  Young Kevin looked up, confusion written across his face. Carl's heart twisted as he watched his friend's expression cycle through bewilderment, concern, and the first flickers of fear.

  "What about the test?" the boy asked, holding out his paper.

  The teacher's face softened for a moment, the only adult who recognized Kevin's desperation to prove himself, to be good enough. But then the professional mask slipped back into place.

  "Turn in what you have," the teacher replied, his smile not reaching his eyes. "Go with him now."

  Carl moved to stand beside Kevin's desk, knowing he couldn't be seen but unable to stop himself. "What's happening to him?" he asked, turning to Midge and Paz.

  "We're about to find out," Paz replied, her eyes fixed on the classroom door. "The memory is shifting. Prepare yourselves."

  As young Kevin stood and gathered his tattered backpack, the classroom flickered around them, colors bleeding at the edges, the rain pounding harder against the windows. The students, the teacher, the desks, all dissolved like watercolors in the rain.

  "Stay close," Midge commanded, reaching for Carl's arm. "The memory is transitioning."

  As the classroom dissolved, Carl felt the temperature drop. The memory was shifting, taking them to the moment Kevin revisited in nightmares, the moment everything changed.

  The last thing Carl saw before the classroom disappeared was young Kevin's face, a mask of confusion giving way to the first stirrings of a deeper emotion: fear mixed with something darker, something that would eventually consume him.

  Anger.

  Before anyone could respond, the scene around them shifted and blurred. The classroom faded away. A stone concrete sidewalk replaced the ground they stood on. The rain increased in its tempo. Carl's attire dampened unexpectedly, catching him off guard since this was meant to be merely a recollection. Midge and Paz looked to be unfazed as the rain bounced away from them like they were wearing a protective aura.

  "I wish I could say that I was here, but I did not go to this school," Carl replied. "Kevin and his cousins went to this school however, as it is in their particular neighborhood."

  "The terrain is strange and unfamiliar," Paz said, taking in the sights.

  "Well," Midge replied, "It may be unfamiliar to you, as you have not been further south than the Cascadia forest. Most of what you see is Round-Ear Human designs"

  Paz's staff brightened the area. "The signature is spiking again, Primal."

  The answer materialized before Carl could finish the thought. There, on the rain-slicked steps of Hamilton Junior High, stood a soaked thirteen-year-old boy whose entire world was collapsing in real time.

  A young boy stood alone on the steps, wearing taped-up broken glasses and worn clothes that looked salvaged from a secondhand Goodwill shop. Rain hammered down on his small frame. From the boy's drenched appearance, Carl guessed he might have been standing outside for several minutes.

  The rain plastered his hair to his forehead, his glasses spotted with droplets that distorted his vision. He stood still, as if movement might make this nightmare real, his knuckles white around the straps of his backpack, the only possession he had with him.

  Where in the hell is his umbrella?

  Behind Carl, loud sirens whooped in the distance. Several black and white striped cars, each bearing the Stockton Police Department on the door and large glaring strobe lights on the roof pulled into the lot behind them. Each one carried an ominous dark red aura.

  "What is this," Midge said, "An attack?"

  "No, my dear Midget," FireJack said, materializing once again. "Those are police cars, vehicles designed for security personnel in traveling and arresting perps. Carl, did Kevin tell you any of this."

  Carl didn't answer. The larger than life police cars were towering over the group. He had imagined that the way they looked and pulled up on a thirteen year old boy would look something similar to this. He still didn't understand what this was all about.

  "I don't know," Carl replied. "Why are the cops here at the school and what does it have to do with Kevin?"

  The young boy did not move. The reddish aura pulsed in synchronous beats with the cars, and the loud sirens wouldn’t turn themselves off. Kevin's eyes were hollow, and they felt desperate towards him.

  The rain continued to pour, and lightning struck across the sky.

  "The sirens are annoying," Paz replied, trying to cover her ears. "Is there any way to turn them off?"

  However, the noise did not bother Carl. Partly because he heard them before and maybe tuned them out.

  "Carl," Midge said, "You better come look at this."

  Over at one of the cars, Midge was looking into the window. Carl immediately saw the horror, and a dawn of realization struck him when he saw what the Primal saw.

  Four small children huddled together in the back seat, tears cutting clean tracks down their dirty faces. A little girl, no older than five, pressed her palm against the window, her mouth forming a word over and over: 'Kevin.' The smallest one clutched a ratty stuffed animal missing an eye, while the oldest boy, still so young, tried to comfort the others despite his own terror.

  Lightning struck again, and this time, Carl backed away, as this was a memory no one in the world wants to experience.

  "Bro, this is…" FireJack said. He hesitated, showing no visible glitch, as if the hologram itself was frightened by what it witnessed inside the vehicle.

  Two professional women appeared behind the young Kevin. They conversed with each other behind his back with their umbrellas protecting them from the rain, yet they did not seem to want to shield his friend.

  "Is this him?" one of the women asked, her voice clinical and detached.

  "Yes. Surprising, he actually showed up here," the other replied, eyes fixed on her clipboard. "Without those little ones in the car, we'd never have known about a fifth child. He's considerably older than the others."

  "Police said they got a tip. When they entered," she lowered her voice, "that house needs to be burned to the ground, considering its condition."

  The woman checked another box on her clipboard, categorizing a family's collapse with a casual flick of her pen. She adjusted her umbrella while Kevin stood soaking, as if his discomfort was too insignificant to acknowledge.

  "And their mother? Her status?"

  "Hospitalized, according to paramedics. Charges are sticking though. No chance she's getting these kids back anytime soon." She sighed. "God, these poor children."

  "Remember, it's just a job," her colleague said automatically. "But this is the worst case of substance abuse I've seen in years..."

  "Well, that's it here. You heading to Mary Graham to process them?"

  "Already called ahead about the large intake. Want me to swing by the scene and grab... something for their belongings?"

  "Trust me, you don't want to go back to that house." She shuddered. "Complete nightmare. Media is all over it. Go straight to the Hall, get these kids cleaned up."

  Neither woman looked at Kevin as they spoke, as if he were just another item on their checklist, not a child whose universe was imploding. Not once did they offer him shelter from the rain that soaked him to the bone.

  The two ladies paused like someone pushed a freeze button on a show.

  "Oh man, Carl," FireJack said. "Yo, this was on the news… I remember this."

  "FireJack," Midge said. "Explain. Do you know this scene."

  "Only by memory, but briefly. There was an incident at a house…" the hologram started.

  "'It wasn't my fault,” young Kevin said, his voice breaking. Then again, louder, as if trying to convince himself: ”It WASN'T my fault!”

  His small hands clenched into fists, the knuckles white, fingernails digging half-moons into his palms, a gesture Carl had seen his friend make countless times over the years, never understanding its origin until now.

  His voice cracked on the word 'fault,' the mask of stoicism slipping to reveal the terrified child beneath. He took a half-step toward the police car, toward his siblings, but stopped as if invisible chains held him back.

  “Kevin, it’s me Carl,” he said. Tears formed but the rain masked what they could.

  "Leave us alone," the young boy said.

  Carl wanted to scream, to grab those women and force them to see the boy drowning in rain and grief before them. 'He's just a kid,' he whispered, his voice breaking. 'He's just a goddamn kid who tried to keep them safe.'

  "Carl, the aura's spiking," Paz said, her voice tense. "This is definitely what the corruption's latched onto."

  I hate you!

  A fiery crimson aura exploded outward, shattering the windows of the old schoolhouse behind him with a deafening crash. Shards of glass rained down, glittering in the eerie light.

  "Carl…" Paz said.

  I couldn’t protect my mother!

  The heavy wooden doors of the building slammed open and shut repeatedly, as if caught in a violent, supernatural wind.

  I couldn’t protect my family!

  The sound of breaking wood and squealing hinges bounced through the rainy schoolyard, making everything feel even more chaotic.

  This is not my fault!

  I hate this world!

  Kevin took a step forward, and suddenly his emotions were gone. "Carl, I told you to stay out of my head."

  "Kevin!" he replied. "We need to confront this! You need to control what is happening!"

  "Like before? Like then? Like now? This, Carl, is MY memory. It happened to me and me only. You have no right to be here. Leave me alone."

  "Kevin, I am not leaving," Carl replied. "We will figure it out together!"

  GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! I WILL KILL YOU ALL!