Hello again. It's been a year since I've touched or even looked at this story. To be honest, I have no idea where I was going with this, and there was literally no plot established in my head. But thank you to the nine people who reviewed, the three people who favorite-ed, and the four people who followed.

I think that I'm going to make this a collection of oneshots. I cannot see where I would go with this otherwise. So a collection of one shots based on the prompt "memory loss" it is. This is my new first chapter, and the original first chapter will appear maybe three more chapters down the line. I'm only planning for this to be about 5-6 chapters long.

This is rather random and the middle may be slightly disjointed, which will last for a while until I can fix it, because I wrote this on a whim and came up with the ending and beginning first and second, respectively.

Thanks again, everyone.

Chapter One: Assonance

It had taken over four months, five laboratories, 1,200 deaths, and about 10,000 torn out hairs before the process was deemed safe enough to test on the one mutant they could not possibly lose.

The scientist steeled herself and raised a slightly shaking hand, armed with a scalpel, to make the first cut.

The world was riding on this. She could not fail. But could she do this? Could she?

Her vision narrowed down to the beam of light that was reflected off the metal of the scalpel as it fell.

Five shadows of different length slipped down the hallways silently, splitting up and traversing down different paths without a single word or gesture. Their shared thoughts were more than enough communication.

Sometimes, they wondered what they were. To have six conjoined minds was a rare happenstance, even in the experiment-happy lab they had woken up in. Experiment Two theorized that it probably had something to do with the youngest of them, who possessed a talent in thought manipulation. Experiment Three had stopped caring when he realized they could send pictures and colors alongside their thought-messages. Experiment Four hadn't contemplated it at all, just accepting it and using the rest as a sounding board. Experiment Seven had the same attitude as Experiment Two when he found out, completely by accident, that smells could be delivered into the others' minds when he chose to do so.

As for Experiment Six? She had been curious and had delved into the minds of the scientists around her. After a while of collecting information, she decided that it probably happened because of her and a chemical that was supposed to grant new powers that went awry. She concluded that her mental pathways had reacted unfavorably to the enhancer and tore themselves open. Her mind had probably found itself weakened and her power would have then surged away in a wave to find a way to seal up the breaches. As the same batch had been given to all of them, even the one in a medically-induced coma, the feeble and fluctuating pathways most likely had attached to the only familiar minds they could find: the other five of them. And after time, the pathways would have grown stronger and more solid and probably had reached out to the ones they could sense were connected to them, so they were now joined in a web of links.

But that was the past. That had already happened. And the destination they were traveling to held someone who could determine their future.

Experiment One.

Not much was known about Experiment One, even to them. Their lives before this one of bleached walls and shared minds had been wiped clean. They had no recollections or memories of anything prior to their existences here. Her mind was mostly blocked to them, as Experiment Six had closed off all access to her thoughts, saying, "You don't want to know what she dreams of all the time."

They had seen her before, distantly from hazed memories that Experiment Six had sent to them. They had talked about her before, wondering about the strange bond they felt with her despite not knowing her. But they had never met her before.

So they were going to now. Relying on the vague locations Experiment Six had scrounged out of many random scientists' minds, they twisted and turned all throughout the laboratory, hoping that at least one of them would get to the room before they were caught.

Experiment Six was chanting in her mind as she jogged in time to the tune of a small ditty she had pulled out of a scientist's mind. Recognizing the melody, Experiment Four chimed in as well, singing softly under her breath as she paced down the corridor. Experiments Two, Three, and Five did not join in, but relaxed at the familiar song.

"What would you bestow on a lonely child

Except for the gift of a sweet, lovely smile

Loud babble in a tense situation

May only be spoken to divert inquisition."

Experiment Three had thought the lines slightly too happy, and he eventually jumbled up the patterns to come up with a new verse, which Experiment Six and Four now strung along with the original:

"What recognition would you bestow on an arrogant child

When silence is prevalent no matter what situation

Remember: the mask of a thin, frigid smile

Will be shown to ward away any rude inquisition."

Experiments Four and Six now began singing in a round, one cascade of sound following the other, until a chime of bells was transmitted along the link to everyone from Experiment Two. Experiment Six frowned as she felt Experiment One stir behind her dam of concrete and brick. What had changed?

Experiment Two saw fit to enlighten them on this account. His thoughts rumbled along the link, as soft spoken as his voice when he chose to use it. "... I found Experiment One's room. A doctor just entered it. An operation was just finished."

Experiment Six could almost feel everyone's frown. Operations were a tricky business; they were risky and she had seen many experiments die as a result. Scowling just a bit harder, she forced herself to run faster, footsteps landing inaudibly as she raced down the empty passage.

"So, doctor. Is it done?"

The woman trembled in the face of Dr. Batchelder's steely question, knowing instinctively that if she said no or if she had made a mistake her life was forfeit. "Ye-Ye-Yes..." she mumbled.

Dr. Batchelder raised a greying eyebrow, his body language projecting that he had caught her doubt. "And you are convinced that no problems occurred? I'm sure you have been notified of the consequences that will befall you if any harm has come to Experiment One."

"Ye-Yes, I'm s-sure." Inwardly, she cursed herself for the stutter, but was conscious of and relieved by the fact that this serious man inspired the same reaction with all her colleagues.

He hummed noncommittally, walking in circles around the patient's bed. Her shoulders rose and fell systematically, and her heart rate remained even. Although her eyelids jerked slightly at his second round, she soon calmed down, taking in deep breaths of air. Jeb glanced at her one more time before he headed towards the door, calling out, "We shall see in a few days."

He opened the door and stepped outside. The woman barely stopped the door from slamming shut as she scurried away in the opposite direction. Jeb headed down the hall before tossing over his shoulder, "Experiments Two to Six, stop eavesdropping. Follow me."

Five sheepish figures trailed after the retreating figure of Jeb, minds racing and talking about the girl inside the room.

Eyelashes fluttered open as the subject of the conversation outside sat up, discarding all pretensions of being asleep. She tilted her head and stared at the wall eastwards of her bed. Damask blushes of color had been carefully stroked over the blindingly white walls and gave the impression of being trapped behind the black frames of a painted window. If she hadn't known better, she would have said she was watching the rise of a new world.

But there was no new world. Just a tired, weary, civilization that would give anything, everything, for a new dawn.