“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m against keeping that person here.” Once more, Medusa marvelled at the contrast between Chimera’s appearance and his voice, it was a deep baritone, but soft and elegant…

Medusa personally blamed the lion head for granting him that voice… it was like vocal silk… the best comparison would be that actor from the early twenty first century called Morgan Freeman.

“Well it was orders from above, deal with it.” Geist, on the other hand, had a childish inflection that made Medusa dislike him… then again, none of the assassin’s bar their leader actually liked Geist… despite him being the leader replacement, should the leader die.

Medusa couldn’t see Charon dying though, considering his title of ‘he who ferries the dead’… Charon would likely die at the end of the world only.

“Still, he’s a normal human… hardly worth sending three assassins of high ranking to retrieve, even if we were told to try and get his Chained as well.” Chimera replied, and Geist sighed in response.

“Listen… that normal human, is surprisingly dangerous. He gathered all seven of those Chained you know, within four months of being in this prison… us assassins barely got two to join us in the past year.” Geist explained and Medusa agreed with the idea…

The one called Aaron was dangerous in a most unusual sense, and Medusa was not looking forward to dealing with him once he got the slightest bit of freedom.

Medusa knew, as an assassin, that she should try to kill her targets without letting them see her… the problem was her ‘ability’… she could, somehow, read certain brainwaves by looking into the eyes of another.

To be exact, she could read the past of someone, and using that, estimate what they would do. It was strange, and a horrible sensation because the truth was, no one was innately bad.

Within their own memories, they were all justified, every single one of her victims… and yet she’d pull herself from their memories so as to kill them.

Over time though, she began to be affected by the things she had seen, the things she had (not) experienced, and she was changing overtime, losing herself…

Then she appeared… Medusa had been sobbing, screaming, laughing, she didn’t know, but she had snapped at some point…

And then that Chained appeared, gripped Medusa’s skull between her cold metallic fingers, looked into her eyes, and Medusa could feel again.

Since then, she had never worried about diving too deep into a victim’s memories… which is also why she was the one being asked to talk to Aaron and get him to join their group.

It was quite easy to get someone to agree to a request when you know everything about them… usually at least.

“Fine, fine, I’ll leave that man alone… but I warn you Geist, I doubt Typhon and the others would let us leave with their leader that easily.” Chimera stalked away through the bigger door made specifically for him as Geist clicked his tongue and looked away.

“Old fart… hey, Medusa, go see if you can talk to that Aaron guy. Remember, we want him to join us willingly.” Geist added and Medusa nodded and walked out of the room, going down a different path than Chimera did…

Medusa wasn’t quite happy with the situation, despite how she said no complaints, as her ability to read memories was usually a traumatic experience… knowing everything about a person, made her sick, and usually disgusted with the person in question.

As she came up to the soundproofed room, two people guarding the room with baseball bats, she wondered if maybe he wouldn’t be as sickening as the others.

She nodded to the two guards and they opened the door for her, letting her inside to see Aaron, tied to a chair in the middle of the room, a bag on his head so he couldn’t see… luckily, he could still breathe… that was a problem on its own though.

“Oh, someone entered the room? Finally, I nearly pissed myself, so can I use a toilet… better yet, do you have some food, I mean, you kidnapped me, what, twelve hours ago and I barely got any food? This had been a horrible two days so far.” Oh Medusa realized why the guards stood outside instead of in when she heard him running his mouth off…

She stepped closer and with some hesitation, began to speak… she hated talking… she wasn’t a socialite ever after all.

“Aaron… you’ve been invited to join the Assassin’s Guild. Will you comply?” Medusa asked in a monotone as Aaron’s head perked up, tilting a bit to the side in a skew manner.

“Let me think… nope, not joining, not much on the killing I’m afraid. By the way, you have a lovely voice, not much emotion in it though, try smiling as you speak.” Medusa was so glad for meeting her in that she no longer got headaches…

“Again, will you comply? Should you not, I will take measures to ensure you will.” Medusa said in that same monotone as Aaron shook his head.

“Again, no… I’m a bit busy trying to explore this place, plan a prison break, trying to dye Typhon’s hair green, you understand, it’s the usual.” Medusa wasn’t quite sure what this man was thinking, but decided that it had taken long enough… she was willing to try her Memory Scan.

She removed the bag from his head and Aaron got to see Medusa for the first time, though he made sure not to look at her eyes… what, he heard Typhon mention their names.

Still, wearing a very form fitting body suit was bad for the health in Aaron’s opinion… it was dangerous. At least Empusa had the decency to hide or change her shape if she was about to be seen, Medusa just didn’t care.

Well, she was technically clothed actually…

Then his chin was grabbed and he was forced into looking into Medusa’s eyes, and he blinked at the electric blue orbs, feeling a massive pain in his skull… before she stumbled back in shock, shaking her head, and he was wondering what just happened…

Then she was in front of him again, looking into his eyes again, this time speaking as she did so.

“So that’s why I can read memories, I’ve never considered that bit of information… We Chained don’t seem to wonder why we were created, though it hurts to think about… that too, I didn’t know that… so that’s the recipe for Coca-Cola…” from her high speed mumbling, he had figured out what had happened.

“Oh, you can read memories? You’re a portable Mem-Viewer? I thought those were only used in rare higher order courtrooms?” Aaron asked towards Medusa who frowned at his words folding her arms and shaking her head.

“No, I’m quite different, since I’m a living person. There was originally a bleeding effect where I would lose myself in the memories of others… over time, that bit vanished, though I can still be affected by sufficiently powerful memories, such as your own.” Medusa responded in turn and Aaron blinked in surprise.

“Oh, yes, that makes sense, unlike Mem-Viewers you don’t just store the memories on a hard-drive, you use your brain, and if it fills too much space, it overwrites your own memories… how would that be fixed though… ah, a cloud storage device like in the old days, just send the memories onto storage devices, your brain must be part mechanic it would make sense.” Medusa’s eyes brightened and she nodded ecstatically.

“Exactly, and so-” and this was the scene the guards looked at when they opened the door to check what was going on, before immediately closing the door again… they had probably been seeing things…

Miss Medusa never smiled or spoke so much… she almost looked excited.

On the other hand, the moment the door closed, their expressions reverted to neutral instantly, which would have shocked anyone still watching.

“So, you know what I know now?” Aaron asked her and Medusa tilted her head before waving her hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture.

“Kind of, I see your memories, but I don’t get the associated thoughts you had with most of them, or the reasoning behind your choices… but I can guess those… now that’s what normally happens… but you have a stronger memory, and it affected me… so I know how you felt, the emotions you had.” Medusa replied and Aaron frowned… now imagine, a world where suddenly you have someone know who you are completely, but you don’t know them…

“Please ignore my preferences.”

“Request denied.”

“Darn it.”

They had a quick conversation to just determine things, but Aaron was sure of it… that phrase was meant in more than just the obvious…

He had used it before with someone else, but never with Typhon and the others. The response was also important, and so was his following one.

“…I’m not sure how I feel, with you knowing so much about me… on one hand, I feel violated. On the other-” Aaron was interrupted by Medusa who gave him a knowing look.

“On the other, I know practically your entire life, and because of that, I’m more likely to help you out instead of kill you or something.” Medusa finished and Aaron nodded with a contemplative look.

“I enact the Ender’s Game protocol. I understand my enemy, and therefore I love him as he loves himself… there’s a bit about destroying the enemy, but let’s ignore that.” Aaron mock winced upon realizing the fallacy of his joke, as Medusa raised her eyebrow.

“That protocol is flawed in your situation anyway, and we both know it.” Medusa replied and Aaron blinked and, were his hands to be untied, he would have been scratching his cheeks in nervous habit.

“Oh yeah… right… well, you know me, but I don’t know you… so, would you help me… even knowing who I am and the things I’ve seen?” Aaron asked, trying to instil a sense of seriousness into the suddenly off-key conversation.

“Of course I would… after all, even if I now have all your memories, I’m not you…” Medusa said, leaning down to look into Aaron’s eyes, this time he felt only a minor sting in his skull as she looked at his bindings.

“So unlike you, I don’t hate you.” Medusa said and Aaron struggled to not freeze at her words… having someone know that, was different from hearing them say it aloud.

“...Thank you.” Aaron said, with genuine emotion in his voice as she untied his legs and then walked behind him to untie his arms.

“You’re welcome. Now, make a plan to get us out of here.” Medusa said and Aaron frowned, rubbing at his wrists as he looked at her… and inwardly wished he could go shower, he had been tied up for quite a while after all.

“Don’t you have my memories and some of my thoughts? You should be able to think up a plan to get us out of here Medusa.” Medusa blinked a bit in surprise that he hadn’t nick-named her like he did with Mino and the triplets… then again the triplets didn’t know what their names meant…

Okay, maybe not having a nick-name was better.

“I have your memories and some of the feelings you felt during them. What I don’t have is your mind that comes up with the plans you do… oh, but you will need information.” Medusa noted as she adopted a thinking pose… one eerily similar to Aaron’s usual one, though he tried not to care about that.

“Ahem, there are two guards outside the door, which opens up to a hallway. The hallway then splits into three paths, and if we go left we might encounter Chimera.” Medusa said.

“Okay… now normally I’d say let’s go there, but I have nothing to offer him seeing as I don’t know him. By the way, Chimera’s are cool, aren’t they?” Medusa nodded absently and Aaron frowned at that… hey, she took a bit too much of his personality traits at this point… though she claimed to still be different, he’d wait and see.

“Well he is getting annoyed with the Assassin’s Guild, and Geist is being a pain in his behind. I might be able to persuade him to join us.” Medusa added and Aaron thought… he could work with that… yeah, he could.

“Fine then, but what are the other paths? We can’t just work with one path under the assumption of it being the best one.” Aaron needed information to work, and if he wasn’t getting it then this whole ‘planning’ thing was pointless.

“Right, right, if we head straight we would end up encountering Geist’s personal offices, and he most certainly can’t be persuaded to join us. The right, on the other hand, leads to the garage and the guild’s transportation methods… not as good as that bus of yours though.” Medusa admitted, using her newly acquired knowledge to realize how amazing such a vehicle was inside Tartarus.

“And how guarded would the garage be, I’m guessing that path has most of your men? How many were there anyway?” Aaron asked and Medusa was quick to tally.

“We had twelve with us, and six more standing guard here as back up so eighteen total. There might be one or two on Chimera’s path, plus the two outside, maybe fourteen.”

Aaron nodded at her information, formulating his plan as Medusa looked at him, not quite sure what to make of the young man… despite him being older than her.

Yes, despite being an assassin in Tartarus, she was only eight when she was shoved into this place… and from what she saw from his memories, he would be sympathetic to her plight…

Medusa bit her lip as she looked to the door, trying to not focus on Aaron… memories were usually a fickle thing, and even with assistance memories didn’t affect her much… but Aaron’s did.

Why, she didn’t know. Maybe it was because his memory was near eidetic, maybe it was because he could clearly remember the emotions and thoughts he had in those moments…

And maybe it was because they were more alike than she had known before she had looked into his eyes.

Whatever the case was, Medusa wasn’t in the right state of mind to be helping him like this, or promising to assist him, but she knew that even if, when, she calmed down and got most of her own feelings under control, she’d still think of him as a person she could relate to and trust.

So even with her choices as of current being flawed, she had enough mental faculty to be able to say that when she got herself back under control, she’d still help him out.

When she felt a pat on her head as she turned and looked up at Aaron who had a sad smile on his face, she struggled to hold in her tears.

“It must be difficult, having to live your own life and the life of someone else… and for having to live my life, I’m sorry.” Aaron wasn’t blind to what was going on, despite the unspoken agreement to not touch this topic; he could see that she was finally realizing exactly what had happened…

And Aaron really couldn’t help but feel sorry for the girl, as he knew his own memories better than anyone but the girl in front of him… worse though, was that having his memories actually affected her personality and thoughts…

How could he understand what it was like to look into someone’s eyes and almost become that person? To feel your own emotions dampen and theirs replace your own?

It must have felt sickening, for sure, and the fact that she hadn’t attacked him said a lot about her character, even before she was altered through her meeting with him.

They had both been avoiding it, as Aaron wouldn’t bring it up since she was the affected party, but seeing her so clearly trying to hide how she felt was a sore point for Aaron, knowing that she got like that because of him… indirectly.

It was still her fault for trying to see his memories after all… not that he knew why his memories had affected her so much when she claimed that normally they wouldn’t affect her.

But after hearing his words, Medusa couldn’t help but sob a bit with him not sure what to do… then sighing and hugging her head to his chest.

She froze a bit in response to his actions before she cried a bit more, realizing where she recognized the gesture… and crying because she recognized it.

It was… complicated, for both parties. Aaron, because he knew that, even if she hadn’t known what was about to happen, they were both violated in an emotional sense with what just occurred… and yet, despite being the ‘victim’, Aaron was the one who came out better than the other.

For Medusa, it was because she now knew everything about Aaron, and it felt so… wrong, to know those things. She hadn’t felt so horrible with the others she had done her Memory Access to, but then again, they were common murderers, rapists, terrorists, and more.

They had legitimate reasons to be in this prison… and while Aaron had them to, Medusa just found his reasons, no, found him more acceptable than them.

So she was realizing what kind of violation she had done to both Aaron and herself, and realizing that she had also intruded on something private and sacred.

She stepped back, drying her tears and nodding at him as Aaron tilted his head a bit with a tired smile at her actions, once more recognizing them.

“I’m… I’m sorry… for looking at your memories… for… for seeing what happened to you.” Medusa added, still sniffling a bit and Aaron sighed at her words.

“Thank you for the apology… and for the record… I think my memories are my burden. You didn’t know you’d be accepting that same burden when you saw my memories though.” Aaron replied and Medusa nodded, and he reached out and patted her head, and once more she recognized it.

“So how can I get mad at you for sharing my burden, even if it was unwillingly?” Aaron asked with a smaller smile and Medusa smiled a bit at his words, though her cheeks were still a bit wet from tears…

They had some form of understanding. They could move beyond this strange situation… never, would they forget it, but they could deal with it.

“So come on, Medusa… let’s go meet our friends.” Medusa smiled at his wording, noting how he already accepted her into his group, and indirectly promising that Typhon and the others would accept her…

It was one of the nicest things ever said to her, better yet, it was genuine, despite his controlling nature… then again, both of them knew he was like that, so he wouldn’t try to be like that with her in the first place.

Typhon, Empusa, Mino, Cyclops, the triplets, Jaeger, basically everyone he had met since entering the prison had been in some way manipulated by him…

But they both knew he could never do something like that to Medusa after this incident, and for some reason, instead of making Aaron angry, or afraid of her… it made him more relaxed around her, knowing he didn’t even need to put up an act around her, at least not to maintain appearances.

“Sure… let’s go.” Medusa said, and he easily followed behind her as she went to the door, and she already knew she had to guard him…

She had seen Empusa’s frustration with him during the Minotaur event after all.

With that, Empusa opened the door, and was quick to knock out the two guards with quick punches, making Aaron blink.

“…Okay, I thought you were an assassin… you’re surprisingly considerate though.” Aaron added at the sight of the unconscious assassins and Medusa shrugged in response.

“Well, I became an assassin because the leader of the guild found me when I got into this prison in the first place. Besides, I only killed targets.” She added and Aaron nodded.

Even if he thought she might be doing so out of consideration for… a certain memory of his.

Again, it was weird having someone understand him and support him like this… sure, Typhon initially helped him only out of pride and necessity, and now helped him due to being friends, but Aaron didn’t even know Medusa beyond her name, ability, and that she was an assassin for quite a while.

“Very well… so let’s… do you hear that?” Aaron asked as he heard a roar of what sounded like pain, and then considered palming his face realizing who he had just asked…

Medusa noticed Aaron’s realization though and just gave a small smile, knowing he would have caught it… she had greater senses than a normal human, of course she heard.

“Yeah… from the sounds of things, it’s Chimera I think… and if he’s fighting seriously, then I can only assume Typhon finally arrived… possibly Geist if he annoys someone enough.” Medusa said and Aaron sighed in dejection.

“Trust Typhon to be so brilliant as to make my plan near worthless… is that a bad thing or a good thing? Eh, having an overly good subordinate is troubling, but not bad.” Aaron reasoned with himself as Medusa nodded in agreement.

“Okay, so with him doing that, we’re just going to go right… I mean, Typhon is getting better at planning and being a leader, so I’ll believe he can sort out Chimera. In the meantime, let’s secure a path out of here, just in case Geist gets a bit grabby.” Aaron added, thinking of a plan of action…

And yeah, Typhon would be angry, he always was when Aaron did something without explaining, but he’d always understand and accept it, with an apology.

Hindsight is 20/20 but Aaron couldn’t get away with it every time.

“Well, from how your memories show Typhon, I think he’d accept it… well, he’s very likely to get angry at me.” She added as Aaron nodded begrudgingly… Typhon was learning to not stay mad at previous enemies, but then again, tried to kill him and all that jazz.

“Well, he can’t complain. At this point you know my plans, and how I think to some extent, and are showing willingness to help me. By the way, do you think my plan would work?” Aaron asked as they walked down the corridor, ignoring the left path where noises of fighting could be heard, continuing until they found a right turn.

“I… I don’t honestly know… Tartarus has stood for roughly fifty years, I don’t think it’ll fall easily. I can see you think the same, but whether or not it will work, it’s the best plan for escaping I’ve ever seen.” Medusa admitted as they turned the corner, only to see four of the assassin’s waiting…

Medusa defeated them pretty easily, making sure not to use her needle-like fingers and instead knocking them out or dislocating limbs.

Aaron just stood back, knowing that while the assassin’s in Tartarus were likely more physical based than outside ones, it didn’t seem likely for them to kill him with ranged methods unless they had things like throwing stars or something…

And if they did, Medusa would protect him… he halted in his thoughts for a moment to consider the déjà vu of the situation.

“Well thanks… again, information is the key to planning, and I know very little about Tartarus in general beyond certain things.” Aaron admitted and Medusa nodded with an awkward smile, tapping the side of her head and he shrugged, uncertain of the depth of her knowledge on his memories… she had them all, but how much did she understand them.

“Well, we both can be sure that what you know is not everything that Tartarus has. For one, no one has ever seen the Warden, despite knowing one exists.” Medusa frowned at her own words and Aaron agreed once he noted it…

Right… if there was a Warden, where was he?

Too many questions and not enough answers in Aaron’s opinion.

“Well… whatever the case may be, we don’t know if my plan will work until it happens… that being said… thanks for believing in it.” Aaron said easily as they moved past the corridor, coming up to the garage where most of the assassin’s would be in waiting.

Medusa considered his words and had a small smile, unseen by Aaron… of course she’d believe in his plan… after all, she hadn’t believed in much of anything for the past few years.

She stepped into the garage, the assassin’s still unaware of her changed allegiances and so treating her with the respect of her old station… this made it easy for her to get them in quick order.

Eight of them there may be, but normal humans, generally, were not prepared for a surprise attack by a Chained. The Hunter was the exception, but even he’d be heavily injured in a case like this.

Medusa also had to remember to thank Aaron for that funny bit of info involving the Hunter… Jaeger… Hunter… it caused snickers.

So with her taking out the eight with quick non-lethal methods, Aaron stepped into the garage, looking around at the vehicles with an interested expression.

Medusa didn’t blame him, he had quite a bit of knowledge across various fields of study, and Engineering was simply one.

And he liked his cars near blindingly fast… she was sure that was part of the reason for his interest in the subject.

“So… do you think Geist will mess with Typhon and the others?” Aaron asked, and Medusa thought about what she… he, knew about Typhon, then reviewing what she knew about Geist.

“He’ll try, but Geist isn’t actually that strong as a Chained… his main ability is his Fog, and that makes it near impossible to use any of your normal senses. It’s kind of a sense-disabling drug and standard fog in one.” Medusa explained and Aaron could see the use in such a power…

Well of course, nothing was completely worthless in his eyes, so of course he’d get the idea of using such a fog in an area full of dangerous traps.

Medusa blinked at the random thought and had come to the delayed realization that she had some more of Aaron’s thoughts and habits than she expected.

“So Geist might try to mess with them, but Geist is, at heart, an assassin, someone who only attacks when he can kill his enemy… and killing someone in a crowd is difficult and dangerous.” Medusa added, and Aaron nodded, looking at the vehicles, frowning until he saw the Jeep.

“Right, so he might attack in the gap where Typhon will, inevitably, try to convert Chimera to our side. Let’s take this out, and go get them.” Aaron claimed, and Medusa sighed…

She had the sinking feeling that something insane was about to occur… and seeing Aaron’s memories, she knew that he was also expecting it, and unlike her, revelling in it.

So she got in the Jeep in the passenger seat in front, with Aaron at the wheel, having seen his memories she knew he was a brilliant driver…

Let’s take a moment to mention that one memory where Aaron knocked out an F1 driver and did the race in the guy’s place…

He did all that just to get to the trophy by the way. And to drive a fast car, but that was kind of obvious.

So with a start of the engine, Aaron drove, eerily calmly, around the corner, moving towards the other exit that Chimera was guarding… then he noticed a crack in the wall… a crack that was getting ready to burst.

“Don’t do it.” Medusa said, and she was pointedly ignored as Aaron revved the car as much as he could.

They moved forward just as the wall broke and Geist was sent flying out… in front of their car when Aaron hooted.

“Surprise Mother*Beep*” and with a thud, Geist was knocked even further down the road, and from the building the confused face of a darker skinned man, Typhon and his friends, appeared.

“So… are you guys going to get on, in, which ever works… oh, and Medusa’s on our side!” Aaron cheerfully said as Medusa waved with an awkward look on her face as the group as a whole waved back, with an exception of who she presumed to be Chimera.

Typhon snapped them out of their stupor when he snapped out orders; seating arrangements were decided quick, though Medusa noted that Cyclops was not there…

On the other hand, the triplets where now hanging on the ceiling of the car, Minotaur’s horn coming dangerously close to stabbing her shoulder, Chimera sitting awkwardly near the window, Empusa on the other side looking at Medusa with confusion and Typhon had somehow ended up in the boot of the car, though his head quickly appeared.

“So, how did this happen?” Typhon asked, pointedly looking at Medusa as Aaron reversed, going to his last remembered location of the Chained Bus, patent pending, as he looked back at Typhon and the others, ignoring the cheering of the Triplets.

“…I’ll explain soon, but how about you first?” Typhon blinked, sighed, then opened his mouth, and Medusa had no doubt that he was about to say something strange…

Well, they’d learn the story soon, if the triplets stopped shouting about “WAFFLES!”