Sammy prepared the tea. He added some honey and lime to help with the taste. And asked everyone to find a comfortable position. They should be lying down since their bodies would essentially be sleeping. There was also a bathroom on the corner for anyone who wanted to use it. After about twenty minutes, everyone did whatever they had to do, and the tea was finally ready.

"Sammy. Can I ask you a question before we start?" Alex said while staring at her second cup of hot chocolate.

"Of course. I'll do my best to answer it," the turtle nodded with a smile.

"When we remove the curse… will I be in danger? I mean, I'm the one who is the most cursed. Won't doing this hurt me?"

"I don't believe so. What we are doing won't be an aggressive removal. It's not like we are pulling the curse out. In theory, it will work just like a bad flu. Eventually, the virus will die out," Sammy explained.

"Really?" Alex looked up.

"Really. Even if this is the first time I'm doing something like this, we have no reason to believe that when the curse dies, you will feel any pain. But you reminded me of something I forgot to warn you all about. Thank you," Sammy smiled and turned to the rest of the group, "May I have your attention for a moment?"

The entire party stopped their last preparations and got ready to listen. Only then, Sammy started speaking again, "Thank you. What I have to say is this. We will be deceiving the curse, and even though I dismissed a lot of what it can do, I don't think it will go down without a fight. From the little that I know, I can already imagine the curse trying to trick us into stopping or trying to make us help it instead of destroying it. I don't know how it will do that, but it's something that must be in our minds."

"Yeah… that might be tricky, but just to make sure I understand things. We will be going there believing that we traveled to the past, correct?" Adriel asked.

"Correct. After you drink the tea, I will use something similar to guided meditations to bring us to the correct memory. But I'll change some of the words to make you believe that we will be traveling through time. I won't go into details right now since knowing exactly what I will say might make it harder for you all to believe," Sammy continued.

"And is there anything else we should be aware of?" Bonnie asked.

"Well… we will be inside a memory, but that also means that we will be interacting with memories, people, monsters, and other things. Those things won't be able to see me when we are inside the memory," Sammy started pouring the tea into glasses for everyone.

"So you will still be there?" Alex asked.

"Yes. I will be able to move around somewhat freely between what each of you is experiencing. But if you talk too much with me when the memory people are around, they might notice something strange," Sammy brought all of the cups on a tray and started to pass them to everyone.

"Wouldn't they notice you? I mean, you are not exactly easy to hide," Shane said.

"What? Wait, does this shell make me look fat?" Sammy looked back with an expression of genuine worry but quickly started to laugh, "I'm just messing with you. Don't worry. Inside the memory, they won't be able to see me, and I'll be a small flying turtle following you around as if I'm just one of those animal companions in video games that gives you some exposition about the world. Now, are you all ready to begin?" Sammy asked everyone individually, and they all said yes. The turtle started to make some movements with his water hands, "Very well, then please drink your tea, and we can begin."

"Whose memories are we going inside? The curse's?" Alex asked before starting to drink her tea. However, when she tasted it, she almost spat it out. It was extremely sour and tasted like a mix of muddy moss and turpentine, "Holy crap. This is awful."

"I know. And I apologize for that, but I need you to drink everything," Sammy gave her a sad smile, "Now, for the memories, it is like you asked. We will be going inside the curse's memories while using one of you as a medium. So, Alex, you would be the best candidate for it since you are the one who has the curse at its most advanced stage."

"Yeah… I figured," the assassin sighed before plugging her nose and finishing the drink.

The rest of the party did the same. Only Shane and Helena didn't plug their noses, but that ended up being a mistake. The taste of the tea was horrible on all levels. After that, Sammy clapped his water hands, and countless others appeared in different colors and sizes. Those hands started to move almost in a dance, creating a rainbow pulse behind the turtle. In Hera's eyes, those hands started to leave trails behind them, and the colors melded together as if they were inks that an artist was mixing. Somehow, Hera could even hear those colors, as if each of them was a note on a xylophone. Then steam started to rise and form small swirls that danced along the rest of the colors, turning Sammy's office into a psychedelic stage.

"Now, please, all of you lay down and get comfortable," Sammy's voice sounded almost ethereal, as if it wasn't coming from the turtle but from the room itself. Everyone slumped back on the chairs or couches they were currently using, "Please, focus on my voice. I want you all to think about the curse. What is it like? Where did it come from? How did it start? Ask it so we can understand it better. See the curse among the steam above you, and don't fear. We are all in a safe place."

As his voice echoed, Hera started to notice some small dark shadows behind his water hands that continued to do that odd dance above them. Little by little, those shadows grew, forming cracks much like the ones on Alex's face. But Hera wasn't afraid. Looking at them was like watching something unique, something that made her curious. Then, she saw a large lung dragon from behind. The shadow tendrils surrounded him but not in a way that seemed like they were inside the creature, but more as if he was carrying them around. Another thing she noticed was that the dragon seemed to hold something, but she wasn't sure what. That image quickly changed as two large spots of black appeared amongst the colors, swallowing the dragon. The tendrils were coming out of them in a way that was much similar to how Alex's eyes currently looked. As Hera stared into those black eyes, she could feel a pull, as if a part of her wanted to get closer.

"Very good, everyone. Now if you feel something calling you, don't worry. Give in. We are all safe. Doing so will allow you all to connect to the past. But don't stand up. Move your mind and not your body."

Hera listened to Sammy's voice, and everything he was saying sounded like the absolute truth. There was nothing to fear. Something was calling her, and it would even be rude not to go there. She focused on the black eyes and felt them becoming bigger and bigger as if she was going inside a tunnel. But even then, she could still see some of the colors. They were darker than the vibrant red and yellows she had seen before.

Sammy noticed everyone was getting close to the dive and started tying up some loose ends, "Hera, remember what you can do, how your relic can use magnets to help, but that is its limit. Shane, your creation is brilliant. Your relic being a sling and an ammo pouch that can create pellets for your attacks is amazing. And Adriel, we all will forever remember your sacrifice. Using your parrot relic to save us all from a monster by sending it away as bait. It is unfortunate that you cannot create it again, but know that if it wasn't for you, all of your friends would not be here."

"Thank you, Sammy," Adriel said with a smile as a tear formed in the corner of his eye. Losing a relic was not easy, but it was better than losing one's life.

"All of you need to remember that the tools you carry with you will change. They will match the time period we are traveling to, for if we leave anything behind, we might damage the timeline in ways that cannot be fixed," Sammy added.

"Wait, aren't we just going inside a memory?" Blue asked in a daze.

"I'm afraid not. We will go to the past and destroy the curse there before it was able to grow properly. The memory we are using is just an anchor point to locate the correct time and place. This is a spell that was given to me by the system, and it seems like it will be the only chance we have. This spell will never work like this again. Now, I need you all to look at the forest that just appeared inside the darkness of the curse. That is our destination. We all must go there, don't stop and don't look behind. Focus on that point, and don't stop. Time travel is complicated, and we will only have one shot at this," Sammy lied, but it was part of the deal. He had to make them believe they were not going inside a memory but to the actual past. Only then might this plan work.

Hera sent her mind towards that hole. It was something she would never be able to do normally, but thanks to the mushroom, leaving her body felt easy. That being said, as Sammy told her, she didn't look back and just pressed forward. She could see another two people in front of her, but they were just human-like shapes moving forward in the dark tunnel surrounded by color. Out of nowhere, Sammy appeared in her view. At first, it was the same massive turtle that she already knew, but little by little, he changed. Slowly becoming smaller, his eyes turning wider in comparison with the rest of his head. His flippers were getting shorter, and the number of flowers on his carapace reduced to one. It was still surrounded by a tye dye motif, but it was much less extravagant now. He was no longer wearing his glasses, but the baby blue tophat was still there, now much smaller than before. All in all, Sammy was closer to a guide, or a plushie, than a giant turtle like he was before.

Sammy then pushed forward, now stopping by the side of the first of the two people ahead of Hera. A few moments later, he went to the other person and then towards the green light at the other end of the tunnel. Not wanting to be left behind, the Empress tried to move faster. The light became brighter and brighter until trees started to come into view. In front of Hera was a massively sprawling jungle that seemed to go forever. She got closer and closer, admiring the view. There were so many different types of foliage and flora that simply existed with incredibly lush colors in this place. As she was about to cross over the limit of the tunnel and dive inside the light of the forest, she realized that she was staring at that area from above, and just as her body left the dark tunnel, she felt gravity pulling her to the forest floor.

"Wait, noooooo!!" Hera yelled as she fell to the ground. Luckily, the moment she hit the floor, she bounced up as if she just had hit a giant waterbed. She bounced a few times, and when she finally stopped, she got up. At the same time, the earth beneath her feet became hard again, turning into solid ground.

The fall ended up sobering her up, and all the fuzziness that was in her mind was gone. Looking around, she was alone in a jungle that was a bit familiar to her. Calling out her court, Hera turned to them, "Let's start moving. We need to find the others. Don't mention anything about the future to anyone here. That's an order."

Her court agreed, and they started moving, searching for the rest of the party.