Foxtail arrived at the workshop with her stomach knotted up. From the front door, she could see the establishment was the same organized chaos that she had departed from and upon seeing Jin at the countertop, her nerves eased slightly.

Jin, on their part, was looking gloomier than usual, their eyes filled with deep bags, a sullen expression on their face. She walked in –

“-don’t know why. One minute he was next to me and we were conversing with one another, the next he fell on the ground and I have to keep him from getting trampled by city folk.” Itzhak stated.

The knot in her stomach tightened.

“Well, I’m not much of a doctor, but I believe that his eyes shouldn’t be the way they are now,” Jin shuffled about and noticed Foxtail standing at the front door, “You might have an idea of what’s happening. This looks to be like something within your wheelhouse.” Foxtail gingerly approached the countertop and felt the warm palm of Itzhak brush onto her head.

“Welcome back, Little Fox. I am sure your day has been as eventful as ours, no?” He smiled at her but the tired expression in his eyes didn’t evade her.

“Well, Jin’s device worked. I found where the Banshee is hiding. I also confirmed that Peepers, the Meister, and a local delinquent are bound to chairs in the warehouse that she’s chosen to hide in. We can talk more about my end of things later. Where’s Foreigner?” Foxtail asked, although from the snippet she walked in on, she had a feeling she wouldn’t like the answer.

“It’d be easier to show you. Follow me.” Jin motioned for Foxtail to follow them to the back and upon moving beyond the threshold, she saw Foreigner on the operating seat in a catatonic state. He was laying down in an awkward position, his body unnaturally still, with eyes open to the ceiling above. His eyes were waves of blue and black and small glimmering white dots like stars would stream across the dark expanse.

“I didn’t think that Foreigner was capable of… I didn’t think he’d be like Peepers or me…” She reached out her hand and then reeled it in.

Was this a part of his past too? More importantly, if he was beginning to change like she had, had he hid the process and just never told her about it? What sort of influence would he have had to remember to cause such a reaction.

Foxtail turned to Jin, “Have you performed any of your memory unlocking surgery on him while we’ve been here? Beyond the first time we arrived?”

“No. I had no reason to perform additional surgeries because my skill set wouldn’t provide any additional assistance. Do you believe his memory has something to do with his changed state?” Jin inquired.

“Well, it has to be that, right? Sure, he’s gone through a lot of shit since he’s been running around the City, but from my own personal understanding, this sort of transformation requires a… deeper well of experiences to draw power from. He only has two days worth of experiences and even if they’ve been stressful, it shouldn’t lead to this.” Foxtail was trying to wrap her head around the situation, and then something in her mind lit up. “Can you inspect the memory locks on him?”

Jin frowned, “Why? Those locks are held by the strength of J Corps Singularity. There shouldn’t be anything that could crack it.”

“Just humor me, will you? Do your magic and let me know if anything’s happened to the locks. Or inspect that sliver that you made previously. Just look in there and see if anything in his headspace has changed.” The two shared a look with one another and Jin relented, grabbing at his tools and prepping the room for the procedure. Foxtail walked out of the room.

“Do you know what happened to our friend?” Itzhak asked.

“I have a hunch but I hope I’m wrong. Regardless, we should make a battle plan with and without him.” Foxtail replied, grabbing at the whiteboard to jot down notes.

“Do you not trust that Foreigner will come back to us?” Foxtail paused at his statement and then continued with her actions.

“It doesn’t matter if I trust him to do his part or not. If my hunch is right, he has shit to deal with that we can’t rightly help him with. If it’s not what I think it is, then Jin will do their best and we will be stuck fighting his battle for him. Granted, it’s our battle now too since they have my friend and Jin’s Meister but none of this would have happened if Foreigner didn’t enter into our lives.”

She could feel Itzhak’s eyes on her back as she marked down notes from her expedition. Did he want her to sugarcoat the situation? Foreigner was as much a friend as he was a stranger and although he saved her life, there wouldn’t have been a need to save her if they’d never interacted.

“I understand the position that he has put you in. But if you did not meet him, then we would not have met. You would not have confronted that anger I saw when we first met. I am sure that Foreigner is some sort of monster but that is what this City produces.” Itzhak approached Foxtail and gently held her hand, keeping the marker still. “It is important that we maintain trust in the people around us. He could have ran away but he remains to fight. For the sake of your friend and Jin’s Meister. That shows enough courage to stand beside by. Judge him by the actions of now, and not the imagined actions of the past.”

Jin ran out of the curtains with the first outward expressions of emotion that either of them had ever seen.

“It doesn’t make sense. I-it doesn’t make sense.” Jin locked eyes with Foxtail and ran to her, “How did you know to look at the locks?”

“I thought that more of his memories were leaking out and were influencing this change. Is that what’s happening?” Foxtail was grabbed by Jin, their grip pathetically weak, eyes full of panic.

“I don’t understand what I’m looking at. It shouldn’t be possible, that Singularity makes sure of it and the repercussions are severe if tampered with incorrectly but Foreigner is emptying the partitions.” Foxtail remembered that partitions meant the memory blocks housed in Foreigner’s mind but she wasn’t sure what the implications were. Jin registered her confusion and elaborated, “The sliver I opened has widened enough that his mind is forcibly leaking the locked contents into other partitions, essentially leaving the locked sections of his mind empty while housing his former memories in accessible partitions. But that shouldn’t be possible. It would mean…” Jin took a deep breath and let go of Foxtail, turning to look back at the backroom. “It would mean that there’s something else operating in his mind that isn’t him. Something like a Master Controller that has access to all partitions.”

Is that what the Banshee had meant?

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but whatever comes out of that office might not be the Foreigner we know. Do with that information what you will. Time is approaching and we need to have a plan finalized for tonight.” Jin ushered their ultimatum and focused his attention on taking measured breaths.

Foxtail turned back to Itzhak and raised her eyebrow, “As I was saying, one plan with him and one plan without. We’ll leave him with the details if he shows up but he’s too much of a rogue element at this point. He’s my partner but right now, he’s also a liability.”

She waited for a retort from Itzhak but none came. She went back to writing out her plans.