Life sucked. If all the recent events didn't prove it, the fact I just spent an hour trying to turn back into a human and not feeling any closer proved it. The sad thing was, I didn't really care I couldn't take a human form. Sure, it was a massive inconvenience and I wouldn't be able to go out and do some normal things, but my alicorn for was all I really needed. It had power and I felt more comfortable in it. Maybe it was just because I had spent several days in the form that I simply had gotten used to it, or maybe I just enjoyed it. But regardless, it was annoying to know it was lost to me.

It was almost two in the morning and I was still wide awake. I had put Ergo, or Steven, just to help me keep the names straight, in the basement in a cell Panacea had grown. I briefly wondered if knowing his civilian name was a breach of the rules, but Lisa had learned his name before Tagg decided to make him a fall man.

Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. Not my bedroom door, but the door into the house. Climbing out of the bed that had become a little too small for my massive figure, I walked through the house as quietly as I could so I didn't wake anyone up. The knock came again before I managed to get there, this time a little more forcefully. I opened the door with my telekinesis when I was a few strides away. On the other side was Amber.

"Nova," she sniffed. "What have you done to my brother?"

Looking at her I immediately felt bad, but I had been expecting it. I knew beforehand she and her brother were close, but it didn't change what he had done to her. And for all I knew, he made her believe she was that close to him. That was the scary thing about this all, once the possibility of her mind being manipulated is opened up there was no real limit as to what he might have done.

"I have done anything, yet," I told her, hopefully in a reassuring tone. But Amber shook her head.

"You need to let him go, he did nothing wrong."

"Yes, he has," I stated. "He's being manipulating your mind, Amber."

She hung her head and looked down. "I know," she said quietly.

I stared at her.

"You… know?"

"Brother doesn't think I do," she stated sadly. "But whenever I wake up, whenever I notice gaps in my memory, I know I've gone too far again."

"And you think that's okay?" I asked, incredulously.

"I don't know," Amber admitted. She gripped her sides and started rocking back and forth nervously. "I don't want to hurt anyone. I never hurt anyone but bad guys that hurt me or brother. But they don't need both kidneys. Dead people don't need their hearts anymore. And I always replace the organs I take with replacements. They're just as good as the old ones, and I can make so much better use of theirs. But Brother always tells me when I'm going too far, and I've gotten so good at staying out of people." Amber let go of her sides and looked at her hands. "But sometimes I just can't help it, and I go too far. Next thing I know, I'm somewhere else, my memory is gone, and I never hear about it again."

"Amber, that's not right. He doesn't have the right to do that too you. I know you might think you need this, but there is a better way. Cheshire and I can help you if you want. You've got friends. We can help you."

"Friends are nice," Amber said with a slow nod. "But they aren't my brother. My brother has looked out for me for as long as I can remember, stuck with me no matter what. I don't need friends, I need my brother."

I looked at her for a long time, trying to wrap my head around that idea. But one thought still nagged me.

"Amber," I began slowly. "I think it might be possible your brother manipulated your mind so you would be so close to him."

Amber shook her head violently.

"No," she stated seriously, but I could hear a waver in her voice. "He wouldn't."

"You don't know that," I pressed.

"I don't need to know that!" Amber said forcefully, before quickly returning to a softer tone. "He's my brother, I just need to believe he wouldn't do that."

I found myself at a lost for words. There was simply not a response to that. All she wanted was her brother. The brother that had supported her, been there for her, and looked out for her. Every part of me was shouting this was a good thing, a normal thing. But it felt so wrong.

"Please Nova," Amber pleaded. "Let my brother go." I watched her carefully, wondering what I should do.

Eventually, I hung my head and sighed.

"I'm going to talk to him one more time," I stated. "If he tells me why and what he has done, I might let him go. But only if you are really in control of your actions."

"I am," she insisted. "And tell him… tell him that I remember waking up in the wrong body. It might make him talk."

I nodded and stepped away from the door and gestured inside with my head.

"Come on in," I said. "You can sit on the couch while you wait."

Amber nodded sullenly a started hugging herself tightly again. I guided her to the couch, on the opposite side where Aisha had crashed. I was about to wake her up, just in case, when I saw Lisa standing between the entrance of the living room and the kitchen.

"Are you going to help me with Steven," I asked her quietly. Lisa shook her head.

"I'm not going be able to help with this, not in the way you're thinking," she stated. "I'll stay here with Amber though."

"Okay," I said quietly. If it was bad enough she still wasn't going to tell me, then I guess I had to get it straight from Steven. I turned towards the stairs.

---

"Will," I said, shaking him awake with my telekinesis. He woke up in a light daze that reminded far too much of Drunk Will.

"Mmmhm, what can't I do for you horsie goddess?" He mumbled. With my magic, I pulled the bars of the cage wide enough apart for him to step through.

"Go upstairs and hang out for a bit. And if you do anything I will personally rip you in half."

"Ssssounds great." Will offered an unbalanced salute and started stumbling up the stairs. I looked back at Steven, who was wiping the weariness out of his eyes after having been woken up in the same manner.

"You're sister is here," I started, to see if it would have any effect on him. "She really wants to see you go free."

"But you don't plan on letting me out," Steven stated.

"Not else you tell me why."

Steven shook his head. "I can't."

"Why a not?"

"Because there no one would ever accept the answer, least of all you Nova." Steven sighed and hung his head. "I did what was needed, that is all I can say. And I did what I had to do for Amber."

I studied him for a long time, waiting to see if he would react or speak at all. After several minutes of prolonged silence, I told him,

"Amber says she remembers waking up in the wrong body."

The effect was instant. His eyes went wide and his hands went to his head. He ran a hand through his hair as he processed that bit of information.

"No, no I got rid of that. She couldn't remember."

"But she did," I stated. "And whatever it was, she still stays with you. So what was it?"

Stevens swallowed and continued to hold his head.

"All this time," he murmured. "And she never even doubted me once despite it. Goddamn it. God fucking damn it."

"What happened," I pressed, sensing the cracks forming. Steven paused for a moment and considered things.

"I want to see Amber," he stated.

"After you tell me. And you might be able to leave with her."

He quirked his mouth and continued to think it through, struggling to come to a decision. Finally, he said,

"Alright, fine. But it's not a happy story."

"I'm listening," I stated, sitting down on the floor. Steven took a deep breath and sighed.

"It was her trigger event," Steven began, "And mine. It was... complicated and hard. I don't- I can't-..." He sighed again and looked up at me. "There's no easy way to say it, what happened."

"Take your time."

And that he did. He paced his cell for a few minutes. Sat down and thought hard. And all the time, I was using my magic. I wasn't sure why I had been doing it, or what I hoped to get out of it. But I knew the longer he hand to think, the more time he had to construct a lie. He didn't seem to notice my magic wrapping around his head, so I continued to play with. Deciding what I wanted.

I wanted the truth, I wanted to know what he was hiding. And above all, I needed to know what he did to his sister.

My horn sparked once before I felt a connection to his mind. For a moment, nothing happened. And then some images began to assault my mind with Steven's voice behind them. Everything he had been thinking about flooding into me in the span of a second. And what I saw was not a happy sight.