The inside of the chamber smelled… clean. A distant scent of chemicals mixing with the smell of the metal floor and roof, but other than those faint scents, it was a little too clean smelling to settle Taz’s nerves.

Melodica opened up the guitar case and strummed a few notes, tuning it as Nora rolled her head over to watch and listen curiously.

A speaker overhead crackled to life, and Dr. Dewitt’s voice came through. “Melodica, if you could hold off on playing for a few minutes?”

“She’s just tuning the guitar.” Taz explained.

Dr. Dewitt and Ms. Yume talked on the other side of the chamber, their voices unheard, then Dr. Dewitt pressed a button and spoke into a microphone. “Carry on, but then we’re going to ask Nora to do some simple psychic exercises.”

“Okay!” Nora answered, taking a deep breath and laying still. “Taz is a cute name.” She said, quieter, looking over at the little blonde.

“Oh, thank you!” Taz smiled. “Nora’s nice. I’ve never met a Nora before.”

“There were quite a few back in Norway. Is Taz a common nickname for Natashas in America?”

“I don’t think so, I’m the only one I know of.” Taz smiled a little, and accepted the guitar as Melodica passed it over for her to double-check her tuning. “My mom’s ex-boyfriend gave me the name. Same guy who taught me guitar.”

“He sounds nice.”

“He was. I’m sad things didn’t work out. I was his ‘Li’l Devil’ and he’s the one who really got me into music.” Taz sighed softly, and Melodica grinned at the memories.

“He got us into rock, country, blues, some metal, even showed us some classic rap stuff.”

“Still not my favorite, but when you really sit down and listen to the lyrics, it’s kinda like listening to modern poetry with a beat behind it.”

“We’re kinda stereotypical white girls, we like Eminem a lot. He’s crazy good.”

“Our sister, Maddy, though, huge into hip-hop and R&B. Drake, Nicki Minaj, Megan thee Stallion; she can sing along with them and it’s really impressive.”

Nora chuckled. “I never liked rap much. Guess that kinda makes me stereotypical?”

“Everyone has their own tastes!” Taz grinned.

“Got any favorite songs?” Nora asked curiously.

“Oh, yeah!” Taz furiously bobbed her head. “We Are Never Getting Back Together, like, activated my brain when I first heard it.”

“Gawd, Taylor’s so good~!” Melodica cooed.

“And Gaga’s Paparazzi still sits in the back of my head to this day!”

“And Edge of Glory, hwoo…”

“But my favorite rock songs are probably Jukebox Hero and Monkey Wrench.”

“Jukebox Hero is, like, the story of our life.”

“It will be, anyways! But my favorite song to personally play is probably Italian Polka.”

Nora looked curious. “I’ve never heard that one. Who sings it?”

“Oh, it’s not sung, it’s a piano piece by Rachmaninoff and Gryaznov. It’s a classic.”

“And so much fun.”

Nora tittered, smiling. “You have such broad tastes. Back home I mostly listened to American pop music, British pop, and lots of local metal bands. I even drew some album covers for some of my classmates in highschool, before…” She gestured to her head.

“I’m really sorry to hear it.” Melodica said softly, reaching out to squeeze her hand with those far too smooth fingers. “But we’re going to help you feel better.”

“That’s the hope!” Taz confirmed with a beaming smile.

Nora, despite her haggard, tired face, gave a thankful nod. “I really hope it works.”

“Us too.”

The speaker crackled again, and Ms. Yume’s voice came through. “We’re all set up out here. Taz, Melodica, sit still for a bit and leave the guitar alone while we run through some exercises with Nora.”

Taz and Melodica both gave the woman a thumbs up, and Nora took a deep breath, before sighing, “here we go…”

The other two girls sat back to watch as Kaguya’s calming voice led Nora through the motions. “I want you to try and form a bridge with Taz-chan. Just open your mind to her and try.”

Nora’s face tightened at the thought, but Taz and Melodica both felt her mind touch theirs’, and Taz accepted. Nora sucked in a strained breath, and the bridge flooded with a strong sense of discomfort. Then pain.

The bridge itself was a ragged and poor thing, Nora’s presence was patchwork and filled with holes, and periodically punctured by what felt like glass shards through her skull as she laid back and tried to keep it open, with Melodica having to hold Taz’s hand to keep the girls from jumping to her help.

{Hear… m%… &ou… <“ar… me?}

{Nora?} Taz asked, and Nora's hands flew upwards, shaking as they held her head, trying to not bother the electrodes, but Taz’s single question caused such an eruption of white-hot pain.

“W-we should stop…” Melodica said.

“Not… yet…” Nora grit her teeth, growling as Kaguya’s voice raised again.

“Good, good, keep with us Ra-chan, you’re doing well. Can you lift the teddy bear out of the bin beneath your left leg?”

Shaking, Nora’s psionics stretched out, and her teeth ground together as flaring pain bloomed, grasping something out of a small bin built into the side of the bed.

Melodica, this time, stood as if to help as the teddy bear slowly and shakily lifted up towards Nora’s blindly grasping hand.

“Steady, Mel-chan, stay steady, this is important…”

Nora clutched the teddy bear to her chest and gasped loudly. Taz could feel the residual pain through their wavering bridge, and she tightly clutched her guitar, glancing towards Ms. Yume and Dr. Dewitt as they typed into their computers, spoke briefly, and then focused intently on Nora.

“Okay.” Kaguya said in that oh-so-calming voice. “Your psionics are active, it’s time to move onto Taz-chan’s and Mel-chan’s part. Please start playing your guitar, whatever song catches your fancy.”

Taz and Melodica glanced at one another, and shared a single thought. Though neither of them had been given any reason to believe that their natural talent would fail them today, there was that fear now that they were sitting here next to somebody in legitimate pain.

With a deep breath, Taz took her guitar in hand, Melodica matching the motions, and the first notes of Sweet Child o’ Mine rang out through the chamber. Though the playing was stressful, the song was forever nostalgic to her.

She was twelve when Robbie had pulled up to her school with a slip signed by her mom to pick her up. He told her that her mom was in the hospital with a badly rolled ankle, and had called him to pick Taz up and keep her company until Aunt Zi could get her home.

Sitting in his old truck, he asked her if she wanted to listen to anything in particular. The whole situation had been weird for Taz, she’d only known Robbie for a few months and already enjoyed his guitar playing, but her mind was on her mom. When she said she didn’t care, he told her he wanted to play his favorite band.

Then Guns n’ Roses came on.

Taz sat glued to her seat, listening to this song as they pulled onto the road leading away from the school, hearing the guitar with a whole new sense of wonder. It didn’t have Taylor Swift’s acoustic sound, it wasn’t quite the electric beat she was used to with pop at the time, it was a unique and sonorous and beautiful sound that led into the uplifting bass and crash of drums, and Axl Rose’s unique, nasally singing voice.

When the song ended, Taz meekly asked to hear it again, and Robbie just grinned, squeezed her shoulder, and didn’t complain once when she replayed the song over and over again the whole way home.

From that moment on, guitar was her life, and the only thing that pulled her away from it was the beauty of the piano.

She hadn’t noticed that she had begun to sing along to the song. She didn’t have Axl Rose’s voice, she couldn’t sing with the same tone or the same passion because she wasn’t a trained vocalist – yet – her voice was much more suited to church choir and soulful sopranos, but she and Melodica leaned together and sang, the tulpa providing the backup instruments to the song.

Taz opened her eyes about two minutes in, and nearly stopped as she saw Nora’s face.

Her mouth was partially open as she stared up at the teddy bear, floating aimlessly above her torso. Her eyes were wide, tears streaking down her cheeks as she reached up to touch the bear. The bridge between them was solid and sturdy, and Taz felt no pain coming her way, just silent, thoughtless relief and wonder.

Nora finally took a deep breath, and gathered the bear into her chest and squeezed. Above her head a cartoon-y bird appeared, flapping around before disappearing. She breathed frosty breath out of her mouth, running her hand through the steamy cloud as she laid there.

Taz felt heartened, but at the same time, Nora’s sheer shock left her feeling nervous. Nora was using her powers to manipulate the space around her in a limited fashion, adjusting the cot so she was sitting up without so much as touching the levers and knobs, and staring down at the teddy bear.

The song came to an end, and Nora slowly turned to face Taz, her face red and her eyes shining, and with a little gulp, she asked: “C-can I hear another one?”

With flushed cheeks, Taz nodded, and Melodica started with the piano opening to Bright Lights, the two girls’ voices rising together as they sang and played, the guitar kicking in with a downplayed strum, and Nora laid back against the bed and simply breathed.

A few more mimicries appeared, Nora playing with her powers painlessly for the first time in a year and a half, using telekinesis to play with her clothing or the bear, her head rocking to the song as her eyes closed.

Another song, some Def Leppard that Robbie had them practice so they could play the song together when they went out camping. Taz and Melodica went through every song they could think of, but it wasn’t until they were halfway through Iris that Nora was asleep.

Fitfully so, at that.

Taz and Melodica glanced at one another, switching to softer piano music for Nora to snooze through, the bridge still established, but all Taz could feel was her contentment. No lingering fears or pains, psionic power naturally flowing out of her, sometimes causing the teddy bear to jump, at one point trying to drag Taz’s chair closer, but at no point did Nora seem in pain.

When looked over at the two doctors monitoring them, she nearly jumped, seeing Dr. Dewitt leaned against the glass, openly staring with big, scarcely blinking eyes. He had one hand on his chin, his mouth open as he tried to process… whatever he was seeing, and Ms. Yume was typing rapidly while glancing between the chamber and the console.

Dr. Dewitt signaled to her to stop playing, and Taz and Melodica brought their song to a natural stop. The chamber’s speaker crackled a little, and Kaguya spoke very softly: “Taz-chan, Mel-chan, I have a strange request: that feeling you have when you play, whatever you are doing with your mind, try and do it without playing. Focus on that feeling and keep it.”

The two girls glanced at one another, than Nora in her fitful sleep. The teddy bear wiggled on her lap again, but Taz could feel the first inklings of pain coming from her head. How did she feel while playing? The strange question made her hesitate, but she focused her mind on Nora, but the girl’s teeth began to grit…

Then, Melodica gave a low, soft hum, humming an old choir song, and Taz began to follow suit. She wanted Nora to hear her, to enjoy the song, meager as it was, so that it would protect her, to enshroud her in music and beauty, to have fun and feel relaxed, and happy.

Nora’s breathing evened out again, and the humming tapered off, but Taz tried to focus on that feeling she had while humming.

It was difficult without using music to concentrate, but she still tried.

The glass panel that kept the room isolated slid upwards, and Dr. Dewitt squeezed into the chamber. He settled a large hand on Nora’s forehead, and spoke gently in some foreign language Taz didn’t understand.

“Remarkable…” Dr. Dewitt whispered. “That’s enough for now. Let’s let her sleep for the moment.”

The two girls nodded and stood, walking out of the chamber following the big doctor, glancing back at Nora as they were seated near the computers the two doctors were typing away at, muttering to one another.

After a few minutes of stressfully keeping an eye on Nora to make sure she wasn’t still in pain, Dr. Dewitt nodded, and turned his seat to face the girls. “Do the both of you remember what I told you about your PPS and your PPA?”

Taz and Melodica both nodded, listening intently as he went on.

“Auras normally require permission to be bridged with. It is your first line of defense against psychic intrusion.” Dr. Dewitt explained, sitting back with his hands resting on his stomach, and with a spin of his fingers, a cupcake appeared in the air with blue frosting… but it was nearly bald, the frosting looking like most of it had been wiped off by some greedy finger. “Even a weakened aura like Nora’s will protest unbidden intrusion, though in her case, it will also try and fight back against a permissive bridge.”

“So what are we doing?” Melodica asked, and Dr. Dewitt considered for a moment. In the places where the cupcake’s blue frosting was weakest, pink frosting began to fill in the bald spots.

Ms. Yume spoke up, typing while she did. “Based on what we could divine of your personal aura, you were creating a strong brainwave while you were playing, and it was filling in the cracks, providing a sturdy, but porous buffer to both her aura and her signature.”

“That’s great, but I still don’t get it.” Melodica said, and Ms. Yume gave a snort.

Ms. Yume tapped her fingers against the desk in thought, and Kaguya answered for her. “In short: Taz-chan, you have a fairly extraordinary filter for someone of your age and experience. When you played, you shared your filter with Nora.”

“And…” Taz thought for a moment. “That means I… did what?”

“It means,” Dr. Dewitt cut in, “that you processed her psionics for her. You connected with her on an external-psionic level; not internal where you share memories, thoughts, and emotions, external, where psionics interact with reality.” The cupcake’s scarce blue frosting was suddenly filled in with pink, covering balding areas. “Taz, you and Melodica both shielded her from herself. You did not heal her psionics, you filled in for whatever was missing, or broken.”

“And we suspect that you use your music as a focus. Playing puts you in a certain mindset, yes?” Ms. Yume asked, getting a pair of nods in return. “That mindset is key to your ability. You should be able to do it passively if you learn how, but for now, your playing is a wonderful way to ease the mental strain on other people.”

Taz smiled. It was not fully happy, but she was hopeful; that part of her that always wanted to be special and unique was emboldened by the news, but that came with the twin feeling of nervousness of what the future held for her, especially with Brain Scythe on the prowl.

Melodica was the next to speak up. “So why is it that when Taz or I play music, we can lessen her burnout?”

Dr. Dewitt snapped his fingers rapidly in thought, but gave a small nod. “Well, I told you that you both had a unique PPA and PPS, remember?” A pair of nods. “Mel, you are obviously capable of the same thing, but in addition, Taz may be able to borrow your ability when she plays, but I can’t say for certain. This is all mere conjecture until we can perform more tests.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I’m borrowing Mel’s aura or whatever since I’ve played for myself while she was doing Mel things and was fine.” Taz said, and Dr. Dewitt turned towards his computer to type.

“The broader implications of your abilities – creating a nigh-sentient tulpa, your musical healing – leads me to a tentative hypothesis. Taz, we need to discuss fast-tracking you into a dividualism class, I have very strong suspicions.”

“Which are what, Hugo?” Ms. Yume asked, staring at him as he typed silently for several long, stressful seconds.

“Hm.” Dr. Dewitt touched his chin. “How much do you know of the Greater Gestalt Theory?” He asked, turning to face the two teens once more.

With a surprised blink, Taz answered. “Yeah, Mr. Walsh was talking to us about it. Something about psychics joining minds together to accomplish bigger psionic feats?”

“Correct, if a bit of a simplification.” Dr. Dewitt was about to speak, but a small scowl from Kaguya made him hesitate, then clear his throat. “Anyways, as intriguing of a theory as it is, the GGT’s main obstacle is this: every human being is an individual; independent, with different desires and emotions, even different brain chemistries preventing a perfect melding of mental abilities. The GGT requires everyone involved be completely in sync, a singular entity to make the most of enhanced psionics.”

“What Dr. Dewitt is trying to say is that the GGT doesn’t work because no two people are perfectly, mentally alike, even twins.” Ms. Yume offered.

“Right. But.” Dr. Dewitt considered for a moment longer. “... no, this strays too close to domination.”

“Yes, it does.” Kaguya all but growled.

“What does?” Melodica asked, some bite in her face at their lack of explanation.

A few more moments of silent contemplation, and Ms. Yume sighed. “You’ll learn about it eventually, it’s not a big secret, but proponents of the GGT have been exploring the possibility of a ‘mother brain.’ A single mind that can encompass and take over a host of willing participants to direct them like a computer.”

“The problem with a ‘mother brain’ is that, again, people are independent; even having absolute control of one other person’s mind is extraordinarily difficult as their tendency towards independence will resist.”

“And each additional mind compounds on that problem, and then the mother brain could also be flooded with multiple sources of senses and emotions.”

“Remember what I said about people with split personalities not being healthy? Factor that by ten, or twenty, or however many people attempt it.” Dr. Dewitt bridged his fingers in front of his eyes. “But you can project a separate, functioning, independent personality. You created a tulpa with her own psionic ability. You can enshroud a person in your psionic ability and act as their barrier, but if you reverse the intention, fill in the cracks of their psionics and direct it…”

“You’re saying I could be a mother brain?” Taz asked in a small voice.

Dr. Dewitt and Ms. Yume were deathly quiet. Before either could speak, however, Kaguya did. “And that is quite enough of this conversation.”

“Well… Kaguya…” Ms. Yume said weakly, and Kaguya furiously shook her head.

“You know as well as I do that she is too young and too inexperienced to be even considering something so lofty and dangerous. Ask her to wrestle a gorilla, why don’t you?” Kaguya huffed, staring down both of the suddenly shamed doctors. “We can think and hypothesize all we like, but none of this information leaves this room. What would happen if somebody more crudely inclined were to hear of this? I won’t stand for it.”

With a sigh, Ms. Yume nodded, and stood up. “Kaguya is right. This isn’t appropriate talk right now. This is all just speculation, and the logistics of it are dark enough.”

“I… agree.” Dr. Dewitt nodded, standing slowly. “Yes, this is enough of this talk. Taz, Mel, I’ll escort you back to your dorms. Dr. Yume…?”

“I’ll finish up around here and get Nora back to her room.” Ms. Yume nodded at Dr. Dewitt, taking his seat as he held a hand out to Taz and Melodica, helping them both up with a smile.

The walk back to the dorms was quiet and uncomfortable, with Taz and Melodica eyeing one another. They were clearly speaking to each other, but Dr. Dewitt did not intrude, and held the door open for them both.

“Girls, listen, please.” He spoke very gently, frowning to himself. “Don’t let what Dr. Yume and I talked about weigh heavily on your minds. We are people of psience, banter and ‘what ifs?’ are natural to us. What we said—”

“You didn’t answer me back there.” Taz said with an uncomfortable shift in her stance. “Do… do you think that I could be this mother brain thing people are looking for?”

Dr. Dewitt looked away from her, thinking, then sighed heavily. “As I said, it’s only a thought, but the potential… it is there. Whatever you do, don’t go pursuing that line of thought though. The proponents of the GGT believe it to be some utopic, godly thing, but for it to work, it dives deeply into domination.” He held a hand out to Taz, who hesitantly rested hers in his big, meaty fingers. “I have lost many students to domination, the very founder of this school being one of them. I don’t want to lose another.”

“We won’t deal with that stuff.” Melodica said, trying to sound energetic. “We promise.”

Taz nodded. “We promise.”

“Good.” Dr. Dewitt smiled and took his hand back. “Now, go get your rest, do your homework, so on and so forth, and please don’t speak too loudly about what we did. A student is a student; leave the dangerous work to us.”

Taz and Melodica stepped inside, and Dr. Dewitt waved them off with a smile.

Neither could say why, but all the speculation and implication was uncomfortable… but remarkably curious.