Act 2: Upheaval V - The Red Sword

"Vat that have do with wrong bodies? Answer questions. Not beat around bush! Vy you claim to be Nick when you clearly aren't?"

Suddenly, the champions and their Szef can hear knocking at the door.

"Helloooo!" a familiar voice says. "You're all still in there, right? Can I come in?"

It's Zenon Duma, and he's fiddling with the knob.

"Oh, i probably will be soon enough. Next time i wake up, most likely. Edward put your Orbs in our heads, and now we're slowly turning into you."

Then he hears the knock on the door - "Shit..."

"Our minds haven't been 'assimilated' because we have orbs of our own slowing it down, and having to deal with this whole situation is utterly horrifying, infuriating, and not by choice. Understand now?" Talking about this, especially concerning the circumstances, appears to be getting Konrad worked up.

Mihai looks back at Nadia - "Someone keep him busy for a minute. I can't deal with both of them at once right now."

"Vait, vy would putting Jacob's orbs in other people's heads do...vatever you claim it does? May thought they just sever connection to Enemy? Und who that outside door?"

Nadzieja nods at Mihai and walks towards the door. May realizes that this young woman—who must be around her age—is wearing Stoic monk robes, which she is very familiar with. The other monk turns the knob and a well-groomed man appears in the door frame.

"Oh, hi there—woah!"

The man barely has time to utter a greeting before he is pushed into a hallway by the Szef, who then joins him outside. Before the door closes again however, May has time to notice something else— an Aspect of Life is standing beside the man.

Zenobiusz looks back and forth between the champions and the door with wide eyes.

Mihai looks at Zenobiusz - "Sorry. You deserve an explanation but try to bear with it for now."

Then to May - "We cured that Green Mage back there, but he doesn't know it. Doesn't know anything, and we'll still need his Orb to save someone else. So try to keep calm for now, alright?"

Konrad pulls out a ring and is about to flick it at Zenon and shout, before Nadzieja pushes Zenon out and closes the door behind her. He puts the ring back in his pocket. he's calming down, after having someone else to be frustrated with.

"Really, the nerve of that man. Anyway, to answer your question, the orbs also function as an archive of the memories for whomever used it first. After that, if someone uses someone else's orb, all their memories get replaced by the archive retained by the orb. Don't you know this?"

"Vy would I? May only got orb yesterday." She grabs her head with both hands and says, "Ich brauche einen drink, das ist alles verrückt."

"You only think it was yesterday, it's been a lot longer than that. You must have carried that Orb for years. The Sphere worked, but only around Medial. The rest of us got shut outside. With the Enemy."

"So ve failed?" May asks, clearly upset. She sits back down on her bed. "Vere are the others? Did they make it?"

"Medial should be safe at least, but we don't know what really happened yet. The memories... it's complicated. As for the others, well... depends on how you define making it. Marcus is still fighting the Enemy, but he sort of fell out with Edward. Edward said Jacob died, but he's a backstabbing bastard so he could be lying. In the meantime, he somehow got a hold of all our Orbs, stuck Anne's in the head of my fiancé and made away with her, left us to rot in a dungeon while our minds were erased. So far, i'd say he's succeeding."

"Anne is...currently puppeteering within Fedler, and Edward Fox," he finishes, almost spitting the word out, "has decided to do things his way, and I believe he replicated himself somehow. The Grandmaster of the Coins is Edward, and it seems Wanda Makara Szef of Clan Atak is also Edward. The replicant inside Makara called the other his 'brother' in a letter of correspondence. We only know of one other who is in Luxus right now. I'm afraid that's all we've learned about your people."

"Erased?" For the first time May looks at her own body and hands. A look of horror spreads to Steve's face. "Deremonda's massive Tölpel, ich bin ein Mann!" The shock of this moves something within May and for a moment she feels like she's falling...only to be caught by Steve. They coexist for a moment and he says, "Fascinating. I'm glad Zelk isn't here for this, she'd be quite upset right now."

His question stolen, Mihai just waits to see what his friend does next.

"Not quite, but I'm getting stronger. It's okay May, I'm Steve. This is my body and my friends need me. So please go back to sleep." In their mind's eye, Steve still holding May, she nods and asks how. "You got me. I've never done this before either."

Zenobiusz is relieved that Steve is mostly back, but he's also freaked out by what he's witnessed so far.

Konrad listens, dumbfounded. Normally he wouldn't be surprised by Steve's ability to hold a conversation with himself, but he isn't exactly talking to himself right now. "Please let Steve be in control from now on," he offers. "we really need him to be at his best for the fight ahead."

"......."

In their mind's eye May says she's trying to but she doesn't know how Scar-man. Steve laughs, there and in real life, and says "His name is Konrad, not Scar-man, and he's just trying to help." May is frustrated and says he isn't. Steve decides to get things back on track with a suggestion. "You were falling when I caught you, right? Maybe if I lay you down you could try closing your eyes and sleeping?"

That comment about "scar-man" makes Konrad smile as it makes Steve laugh, and then he walks over to Zenobiusz.

"You're smart, you know when to open your mouth and when to close it. It's something I actually need help with myself sometimes, but I don't have to convince you to never speak of this, do I?"

Sense Motive 21
Whether looking for outright lies or lies of omission, I want to Konrad to discern for himself whether Zeno truly intends to keep from telling anyone what he's been learning.

"What Konrad is trying to say is what you just saw is a massive can of worms. It'll take a while to explain, but we'll do our best once we're able."