"Well?" Nate asked.
Zac shook his head helplessly. There would be no way of knowing until…
The liquid started moving. Everyone watched intensely as two human shapes formed.
"Okay," Carla said. "I do not want to go through that again. Ever."
"Me neither," Isaac agreed, quietly.
Taylor and Jessica smiled at each other.
"They're back to normal," Taylor said.
"Yay!" Zac cheered with a tired enthusiasim.
"Not… not quite," Jessica said, softly, looking at her brother and his girlfriend with a new understanding.
"What do you mean?" asked Nate apprehensively.
Jessica didn't answer, just moved forward to give them each a loving hug.
"You weren't yourself," she said to them firmly.
"But we were," Isaac replied.
"No. You weren't. Your hearts weren't being properly countered. You were each a lopsided personality, and you're not responsible for what happened."
"Say, uhh…" said one of the henchmen, butting in, "what's going on?"
"You two are under arrest, by order of MIA -" Rocky began.
"I don't think so, bucko," Gretel said, teleporting onto the scene. "We had a truce."
"We had a truce with you. Not with them."
"Well, they're my people. And you can't have them."
She jumped over swiftly, latched onto her henchmen, and teleported in an instant.
"Damn it!"
"Ignore them," Zac advised. "Their war will be going on forever."
Nate grinned.
Isaac and Carla's eyes met, and Taylor saw what Jessica must have seen… Except… Taylor remember what she had done for him, and wondered if there was some deeper scarring going on than what was showing up in their empathic signature.
"I think I can fix it," he said quietly.
"Fix what?"
But Taylor didn't answer the question. Instead he sent his mind into Isaac's, and then Carla. He found the memory centres where the memories from the last couple of days were kept and blocked them out. This he could do.
*My present to you,* he said to each just before he did it.
"What did you do?" Jessica asked in amazement, the moment she noticed the scarring gone.
"I wiped their memories of the last couple of days," Taylor replied. "There's no reason for either of you to be tormented by things you never would have done were you in your right minds. Or bodies.
Confused looks crossed Isaac and Carla's faces.
"What are you talking about?" they asked together.
They were answered with mild laughter.