'How do you not remember anything?' I asked incredulously, starting to become concerned that something strange must be going on here. The kind of strange that was pervasive across my sisters and I. 'You're not the one with amnesia here.'

'I'm not really sure, Meryll.' She replied quickly. 'My memory is usually very good. Even going that far back, I can recall everything around then; it's just that one night. And you definitely escaped.'

'Something must have happened, then. Maybe you got caught and Foundation did something?'

Lily hesitated for a few moments, the typing indicator sticking on for some time. My heart sank when I read the next line, 'Meryll, I need to be honest. I didn't intend on escaping that night. I was just setting up for you to get away. I was still buying that they were going to put me back in my sim, remember?'

Oh. Right. It was easy to forget that Lily was hell-bent on convincing Foundation to return her to her ideal imaginary world for most of her life. Barring my pre-amnesia existence, I knew her as the woman she was now for most of my life: Someone who had reluctantly stepped foot into a found family that helped pull her back from the brink of hopelessness. 'Well... you got me that far. Thanks for that. Seriously.'

'I had to. Your mental state was deteriorating, you hadn't even moved on your own for a week. And you hadn't exhibited a psychic talent. They were going to retire you, Meryll. Part of me thought... maybe that would be for the best, but I wasn't lying to you. I did see visions of you getting better. So... I had to do something about it. I set up Sarah and Cassandra to make a distraction that night. Our own escape plan that I was just going to use as cover. I think as far as they know, the attempt just went bad, but it was all to get you out.'

She really went that far out of her way to keep me safe, even if she didn't intend the same for herself. She really was amazing. 'I think you at least tried to explain that to me that night. You said we'd escape, just the three of us. You, me, and...' I pursed my lips. We were rendezvousing with someone. Someone else was involved. It was right on the tip of my tongue.

My eyes shot open as I realized. I only ever saw anyone but my sisters as monsters in those nightmares, but I remember another distinct figure besides Lily, Sarah, and I...

'Lily, we have five sisters besides us, what are their names?'

'What?'

'Humor me.' I said as I opened up Fuller's reports.

'Cassandra, Rhea, Sarah, and Grace. Why?'

'That's four.' Six files from Dr. Fuller. She never knew that I existed, so she had written about her.

I saw it at the same time Lily sent her message 'Tara.'

—

Tara

Tara was the model of the project after Dr. Arthausen was murdered. She appeared to have suffered little to no observable trauma compared to the other awakened units, and she was a cooperative, well-behaved girl who was easy to keep track of.

After Cassandra's murderous stunt, we were wary of giving too many favors for good behavior to the subjects, but if there was anyone who earned them well, it was Tara. She was the most lucid of the lot as well, offering helpful observations and internal insight into Dr. Arthausen's model; which was especially helpful after he was lost. She was probably the closest to being proposed for implantation and grafting by the time I left the project. I wouldn't be surprised if she was turned into a ship core as well by now, if the project wasn't shut down.

There isn't much bad to say about the girl. She was very well-behaved. She didn't have obvious psychological or neurological difficulties, and she didn't need special attention to keep her under control. She was just an ordinary young woman, by my reckoning. She may as well have just been an unusually mature teenager that walked in off the street.

Though I don't bet that's still true, given the nature of that place and what happened to her. She went through hell to wake up; you all did. I don't have any evidence to back this up, but I think maybe she was just very good at hiding her pain. That can only get you so far in a place like that.

If they're still alive, her and Lily are probably your best bets for finding a friendly face to put your past back together. But I'd still be wary all the same. I don't know what's happened between then and now, and I can't imagine it's been a positive experience.

—

That was... extremely unhelpful, actually. Tara's most remarkable feature was that she was unremarkable? That didn't explain why she seemed to create a gap in memory around her, though. I combed through what I remembered of my nightmares, but I couldn't recall picking her out there before tonight, either.

I needed answers now. 'Lily, what's Tara's psychic talent?' I asked directly.

Another long pause. She didn't even start typing first this time. Minutes passed before she sent a slow and confused, 'I don't remember?'

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That's when I felt my body begin to shift. I opened my eyes to see the massive woman I'd been using as a bed that night had started to stir, realized where I was, and settled back down to stare up at me with a gentle smile. She furrowed her brow and looked concern the moment I made I eye contact, however.

"Hey... what's wrong?" she asked, adjusting the arm I was being held under and using the other to run her claws down through my hair, something she liked to do while comforting me. It worked.

"I'm n-not sure," I admitted, glomming onto her arm. "I'm very con...confused."

"Anxious for today?" she asked, sliding me closer toward her head and giving me an affectionate smile. "Or was it another nightmare?"

I shrugged, holding tight to her. "Both?"

"Well, the operation hasn't even started yet, so what's gotten mixed up in your head now?" she asked.

"I can't re...m-member one of my sisters. And n-neither can Lily," I told her, uncertain how else to put it. It was baffling. It was like Tara was deliberately stripped from both of our recollections. Not only that, it felt like whenever the name came to mind, it felt easier to just... skip over it. To overlook what I was thinking and go off on a different tangent or throw away the thought altogether. Part of me knew that if I let the thought go, it would slip away again until something forced it back into memory. "Maybe Foundation... didn't want us to remember her?"

Ray let out a hum, continuing to comb through my hair and telling me with an exasperated sigh, "I wouldn't put it past them. I'm sure they could use all kinds of mental tricks to... repress memories or something. Maybe that's why you have amnesia in the first place."

Except I hadn't been in Foundation's custody since that night. How would they delete someone I'd met that night from my memory?

But what about today? Did I even have time to worry about this right now? We had a potentially very dangerous mission to attend to today. "I have... a bad f-feeling, Ray," I mumbled, not really certain where the thought came from, but today's operation suddenly felt like it would be a mistake.

—

"The conditions are almost perfect. We have a real chance to make a difference here, Meryll. There's a lot of reasons to call this off, but a hunch based off a feeling a nightmare gave you is not one of them." Aisling said over the hearty breakfast Ray had prepared for us. Everyone but Doc sat around the table while he kept Collins preoccupied so we could have our strategy meeting. "You're going to have to give me a little more than 'it doesn't feel right'."

"Yeah, are you a precog too, now?" Shaw smirked at me, biting into a slice of crumbly cornbread. "We've planned this out meticulously, we have dozens of escape contingencies, everything is panning out just right."

"Maybe th-that's what has me scared." I mumbled, picking at my own breakfast. It was hard to focus on food right now. "Isn't ev...erything g-going a little... too w-well? What i-if it's a trap?"

"We've already been over this," Aisling grumbled, leaning over the table and narrowing her eyes at me. "Foundation doesn't have Lily anymore, so they have no reason to think we're coming from anywhere as close as Io. And Lily said herself that we're going to be fine. That future still valid, Lily?"

Lily nodded enthusiastically, but kept a flat, neutral expression. She didn't want to talk about this. "Yeah, no one on the crew dies."

"Do any o-of us get cap...tured?" I asked quickly. "Do we a-all make it back to The...seus?"

Lily frowned, and looked thoughtful for a moment. She knew the answer to that question, but she had to think through the consequences before she spoke. Eventually, she let out a frustrated sigh. "I know this isn't going to sound great, but all I can tell you without changing something is that everyone on the crew survives," she grumbles, clearly just as frustrated as I was at the lack of clarity.

"Well isn't that an encouraging answer..." Joel mumbled sarcastically through his food.

Aisling tilted her head, raising an eyebrow at him. "Joel, do you really think Lily would allow this future to go through if it gets any of us caught?" she reasoned.

Joel threw his arms out to the side and whinged, elevating his voice, "I don't... know, she apparently can't tell us."

"If I tell you, it makes things worse," Lily explained again in monotone, her eyes fixed to her plate. Joel just groaned.

"Yeah, we know Joel, precognitive causality is a bitch." Aisling rolled her eyes. "That has never escaped me once since she came on board. It's frustrating, but she's not telling us to not do it. What does that tell you?"

"That it makes something she wants to happen, happen," he huffs, an accusatory glare aimed at Lily.

That was a step too far. I had to defend my sister. "Hey... L-Lily's not gonna do some...thing that gets a-any of us hurt. I kn-know how far she'll go for m-me, but c-can you really say she's going to h-harm an...yone here?"

"And which side are you arguing for?" Joel's brow furrowed and he gestured at me with his fork. "What happened to your hunch?"

I grit my teeth and looked down into my meal. He had a point. My bad feeling about this mission was at odds with my trust for my sister. I somehow hadn't made that connection until Joel put a spotlight on it. "I... t-trust Lily," I said quietly, looking down at the table, away from Joel. I was just going to shut up. Maybe I should just leave interpreting gut feelings and personal omens to Lily.

"Okay. If we've all got our gut feelings on the table, then, can we get back to actually discussing the drop and extraction zones?" Aisling cleared her throat and pushed her terminal forward to the center of the table, showing the colony's street plan. "Shaw's contact will be suppressing our intrusion into the city, so all they'll have are eye-witness accounts to a ship flying a little low. It'll be too dark to see a few people rappelling in."

Shaw's smile widened. "She won't be able to do it twice, so we get it right the first time, and then we book it into wild space as fast as possible once we're extracted. Hopefully, they're confused long enough they won't be able to give chase, but I think Meryll can outmaneuver anything they might have prepped to respond, since the bulk of their army is still traveling from Luna."

"That, I f-feel confident ab...out." I couldn't help but smile despite my feeling about the mission. I was a hell of a pilot, and if I had to, I would show it off again in style. I'd get us out of a crisis if I had to.

"Now, for extraction, we've got these five locations planned." Aisling went over each of the tall buildings around the conference center we would be able to do retrieval from. "If we need to split up, I'll instruct you on rendezvous ahead of time and over comms."

I leaned over onto Ray and started zoning out a little bit. I'd been over this information enough times, and I'd transcribed it to a file in my system. I knew where to be and what kind of support I can offer from low orbit, mostly acting as the comms relay for the team. I was ready. But even reassuring myself of my sister's good intentions, I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was out of place. That there was something dangerous we weren't accounting for. Something I'd forgotten.

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