A/N: Did NOT mean to stretch this story out for so long, so super sorry about that! BUT it is finally done and now that I have the basis of this AU set up and going, I can finally start messing around with it and playing with certain scenarios throughout TEW2. Hopefully there won't be too long of a wait with stories to follow up.


Myra felt the familiar ache of an oncoming migraine greet her the second she came to.

And for the next few agonizing seconds, she cursed her own consciousness as the ache persisted and began to evolve into a throb; it felt like someone was shaking their fist around the inside of her skull.

Regardless, this was a feeling she had almost gotten used to by now- a routine, a habit.

Myra moved a hand to touch lightly at her face, half-expecting to find those webs still clinging to her skin- coiled, waxy, and thick. Although usually if she was conscious enough to search for them, it meant that they weren't there anymore. And such was the case as nothing came from her investigation. Nothing more than her own skin, which felt as though it had been battered and stretched thin.

There were small scabs under her fingertips as well though, small collected bundles at the corners of her eyes and across her brow.

Those were new.

It took a few more calculated breaths, a few more outsourced thoughts- comforting ones at that- before Myra felt as though she could risk moving.

Taking herself up on the risk, Myra eased her eyes open with caution first, preparing to shield herself from the blinding lights that would no doubt be waiting for her. In the back of her mind, she was expecting the Marrow to still be surrounding her; she was expecting to find herself in the same room she had been in before. Despite the memories of leaving the room, despite the hopes of finding a way back to Union, everything went gray immediately after she had stepped through the doorway.

Myra could remember blurred afterimages of movement, of traveling...

But it didn't feel like it was her who had been moving.

Myra was convinced that as soon as she had hung up on Kidman, as soon as she had left the dilapidated security of the Marrow, the Matriarch had found her again.

[The Matriarch always found her, no matter where she tried to hide.]

It wouldn't be the first time the creature had reverted her back to the same room over and over again, no matter how many times she had left it. It was like an endless game of taunting where the Matriarch was always one step ahead of her.

There was no pain, no burning sting when Myra's eyes finally opened- and she found herself blinking several times to ensure it, testing and waiting for the deceptive illusion to break.

But it didn't.

Instead Myra found herself staring at a ceiling that was made of wooden planks that were painted an odd sort of forest-green. It came as a stark contrast to the mind-numbing concrete walls, ceilings, and floors that made up the Marrow. As simplistic as a wooden ceiling was, and as simple as the one above her was, it seemed to hold a sense of comfort in it.

Something that the Marrow greatly lacked- especially now given the circumstances.

Which meant that this wasn't the Marrow at all.

This was Union.

She had made it out despite the Matriarch.

... So why did it feel like she was missing something?

Myra slowly forced herself to move, to sit up, and in doing so, she took note of the booth-like seat underneath her. The dark-auburn color of the fake leather was another stark-contrast to the neutral colors of the Marrow- hell, to the neutral colors of the Mobius HQ as well. It was such a small thing and yet it felt like she had been living in a black and white world for so long, she didn't know how to adjust to this one.

The quaint, cafe-like setting around her was odd to come to terms with.

Her memories were completely blank when she tried to connect the pieces, which only made the realization of something missing all the more concerning.

Just how the hell did she end up here?

The subtle ache of her back as she sat up told her that she had been lying down for longer than she thought- for longer than she needed to; an implication that she had passed out at some point, no doubt after the Matriarch had had its use of her. Did she just happen to get lucky and managed to drag herself in here before the lights went out in her head?

Fingers reached up and pressed against her forehead, and Myra was thankful to feel how the throbbing of a would-be migraine had quickly died down to a shallow throbbing just behind her eyes instead. It was still persistent and annoying, but it was better than dealing with the nausea that would have soon been bubbling up in her chest.

Without the migraine, she was free to think, free to feel with clarity.

For once, the pain in her head wasn't caused by the Matriarch begging, or more like forcing itself to come back out.

For once, it was just a simple headache- one that had either been induced by stress or sleep-deprivation.

Now that she was sitting up and a little more in control, Myra tried to get a better hold of herself. Her head still felt like it was swimming and her body felt like it was trying to move through the same water, but she was physically functioning again. She could get up and move as needed be, which was what she needed to do; she was burning time by just sitting here.

She didn't know how she got to Union exactly but that wasn't the point anymore.

She was here now and she had a job to do- and she had every intention of doing it.

The first step she needed to do was figure out just where exactly in Union she was. A quick look around the small cafe didn't give her much information though- especially not with the blinds pulled down as they were. Her first instinct was to say that she was in the business district, which would put her off-target of where she needed to be. And if such was the case, Myra would have to run the risk of going back into the Marrow in order to gain access to the residential district instead.

After all, she was fairly certain that the trains weren't running anymore.

Moving a hand to the table next to her, Myra used it as leverage to push herself up- and used it for stability when her legs were less than determined to support her. It felt like her whole body was weak, no doubt from overexertion, but she had to keep moving. She had to keep pressing forward- otherwise both she and Lily would remain trapped in STEM.

Myra turned back towards the table when she felt that swimming motion flood through her head again and placed both of her hands on the tabletop for balance. Just a quick breather, a quick recollection of her strength, and she would be good again; she had to be anyways.

And that was when she noticed the doll sitting only a few inches away from her hands.

Myra hesitated at the sight of it before she slowly reached out and gently touched the doll, just barely brushing it with the tips of her fingers. Part of her was fully expecting it to dissolve under her touch like an absent memory, like those ghost images she kept catching of Lily running through the streets of Union.

But the doll remained.

Carefully wrapping her fingers around it, Myra picked the doll up and pulled it close to her, feeling the familiar weight and texture of it in her hands.

Lily's doll.

It was dirtier than it should've been and the left arm must've gotten caught on something given that it was partly torn open, which allowed for some of the stuffing to come free. A rather common issue given how Lily used to take the dolls everywhere with her. Myra couldn't count the amount of times she had to break out the crochet kit just so she could fix up the wear and tear the dolls went through- all while Lily waited anxiously next to her, waiting for her to be done.

Lily wouldn't have just left her doll behind.

Had she-?

Did she run into Lily again?

Did she make Lily drop her doll?

Or maybe she had ripped it away from the girl...

More importantly though, was Lily still around somewhere?

Was her daughter still close by?

Just the thought alone had Myra almost shaking as she pushed herself away from the table and turned to leave.

If Lily was still around, she had a better chance of finding her in this form- she had a better chance of keeping Lily from running away from her.

She knew the Matriarch terrified the girl even though the creature didn't actually wish to harm her. Despite the creature's constant control over her, it's intentions were never to hurt Lily or scare her in any way; the Matriarch was just trying to protect her in all the wrong ways.

Despite the hatred of the idea, Myra knew that if the Matriarch had somehow managed to catch Lily, the girl wouldn't have been hurt in any way.

If anything, Lily would almost be safer with that monster than she would be on the streets of Union.

It just brought up the issue of finding out where the Matriarch would've taken Lily if that was the case. And unfortunately, despite sharing a body, sharing a mind, Myra didn't have the ability to ask the creature that very question.

It didn't matter though- she first needed to look for Lily herself.

Myra didn't think about the dangers that had overrun Union, that had stripped it of people, of stability.

She didn't think about how she was going to defend herself, or how she was going to avoid getting ripped into pieces in this form.

All she cared about was getting to Lily before any of that could happen to her instead.

Myra made it a few steps, just barely cutting halfway across the small cafe before she watched as the door she was heading towards opened on its own. She came to a slow stop as the quiet jingling of the bell above the door broke the suffocating atmosphere of silence that had filled the room around her; for some reason, the small jingling bell sounded oddly familiar.

It reminded her of that piece of memory she was still missing.

And Myra found the answer to the absent memory when she watched Sebastian step in through the door a few seconds after the bell.

She watched as he caught the door and carefully eased it closed behind him, keeping it from slamming shut. He kept it from making noise, from drawing attention- an easy implication that there must've been some of those things lurking around outside.

Despite being only a few feet apart, Sebastian didn't notice her- at least he didn't before he closed his eyes and gave out a heavy exhale.

He seemed more focused on running a hand through his hair, pushing it back and out of his face.

His hand continued on with the motion as he eventually rubbed at the back of his neck- and Myra heard the quiet groan that accompanied the motion.

Myra watched as his hand eventually moved away from his neck before it moved to his left shoulder, fingers slightly clutching at the torn portion of his shirt. She didn't know why she didn't say something, why she didn't try to get his attention; it felt like she couldn't move, like she shouldn't move- like the image before her would disappear if she did.

Just like it always did.

Sebastian turned and opened his eyes, looking over to where Myra had previously been lying.

Or at least, he started to look in that direction before his eyes caught sight of her standing where she was.

But Myra was too busy looking at the bloodied mess of his shirt to realize that he had seen her.

His fingers just barely masked where something, or someone had cut down across his left shoulder. A good portion of his shirt was discolored from where blood had flooded out of the injury, spilling down the length of his torso almost. In order to draw out that much blood, whoever or whatever was responsible for the injury had to have sliced in deep.

... And it was that thought that pulled out the memories Myra had forgotten about.

She had found Sebastian after all, just like Kidman had told her to.

Just... not in the way she wanted to.

Not in the form she needed to be in.

"Lily is our daughter, Myra!"

The words rang fresh inside of her head once more and Myra remembered them as they were in the moment, in the heat of battle.

They had felt like a physical blow, raw and powerful despite the unforgiving situation- but the words had been powerful enough to make the Matriarch itself recoil from them. At the time, and even now, Myra wasn't certain why that was all it took to cut down the Matriarch, but she didn't question it. In that brief second of recoil, she had felt herself in the seat of control for once. And while she hadn't been able to see details, while she couldn't make out exactly who he was, somehow she still knew full and well who was in front of her.

That hint of light, that brief touch of freedom had only lasted a second, but it had given Myra exactly what she needed to know.

It allowed her to find out what the Matriarch's weakness was.

The Matriarch was obsessed; it was a manifested obsession.

But now Myra had something- no, someone- who could deter her from it.

In that light of realization, Myra had forced up every memory she could dig out after three years of forced forgetting and denial. In that moment, she had forced herself to remember; she had forced herself to live in each memory, to play each one out scene by scene, word by word so she had something solid to hold on to. So she had some kind of weapon, some kind of ammo to fight back with.

"This is Sergeant Detective Sebastian Castellanos, he'll be-"

Myra brushed the Police Chief out of her way and approached the introduced man on her own, quick to offer her hand out to him. She had already toured the KCPD office on her own and had picked up rather quickly on how the information and the workflow moved around the department. She had already learned the names of the officers working the front desk, as well as those on dispatch. Not to mention, she had done her research on the department, as well as research on the Sergeant Detective in front of her.

She hardly needed someone to help her make introductions.

She could handle them well enough on her own.

"Myra Hanson," she introduced, catching eyes with the supposed Lead Detective.

She had seen pictures of him in the newspapers and on TV- as well as a few during her internet research. But seeing the man in person was certainly different from seeing him in still frame. The Sergeant Detective was tall, which was something pictures could be misleading about; but the man easily carried a foot over her in height, and possibly two in width across the shoulders and chest.

Myra did well to keep her eyes focused on his face, implementing it to memory and picking out things that pictures couldn't quite depict. Dark-brown, almost black hair was smoothed back for the most part, showing off his somewhat-chiseled, somewhat-rough face; a feature she thought had been caused by bad lighting in most of his pictures- it was by no means an insult however. There was the growing appearance of a five o'clock shadow coming in along the cut of his jaw, which either implied laziness or a solid work ethic; only time would give her the correct answer.

If the man was at all surprised by her forwardness, he didn't show it.

Perhaps he had done his own investigation on her as well.

"The new Investigator," Sebastian replied, as he took her outstretched hand.

"For now," Myra remarked, catching what looked to be a subtle twitch on the corners of his lips. "I was told your department needed some help around here."

"That's the shorthand of it."

Their first meeting didn't exactly go as planned.

Considering that about an hour after introductions, Myra referred to him as an asshole when she was on the phone with her sister. She had been unaware that he was outside on a smoke break when she had stepped out the same door to take the phone call. And of course, Sebastian didn't bother to announce himself even once throughout the whole phone conversation.

Sebastian would later admit that that was when he realized he was smitten with her.

(Puppy love was what she called it.)

The ghost memories had been like acid, eating and melting away at the Matriarch's control- at its power, at its wax skin that had held her in bondage every time the monster took over.

In its weakened state, Myra had gotten enough control of her own to help rip the Matriarch apart just the same.

It had been agonizing- debilitating even.

But it had been necessary.

And the end result, despite the pain, despite the mental trauma, had been worth it.

Because for the first time in a long time, it felt like she had been cleansed; it felt like she was actually free from the Matriarch itself. Myra couldn't hear those thoughts in her head anymore, not like she had back in the Marrow.

She couldn't even feel the Matriarch's presence under her skin

Right now...

Right now, all Myra could think about was Sebastian.

All she could think about was the ambush the Matriarch had sprung on him, drawn in by the sight of Lily's doll in his grasp.

Myra thought about the battle- if it was even fair to call it that.

Loose memories collected images of tossing him around like a ragdoll, of throwing him into the brick front of the building they were standing inside of right now. She could feel the weight, the force of each strike through the wax hand she had pinned on him- feeling the vibrations of his bones through the congealed material. And at the time, it had been a reward, a delight to feel such a successful strike.

But now the vibrations lingered in her chest, throbbing hollowly in her heart as it beat in time to the memory.

In absolute silence, Myra let herself take him in.

The three years between them felt more like decades, and the hell and loneliness between them was all the more apparent as she quietly catalogued all of the changes she saw in him. Myra had been watching him through lens, through pictures; she knew what he looked like even before now. But seeing him up-close like this, seeing him eye-to-eye, seeing him on the same plane of existence, Myra realized she didn't know.

She didn't know how badly things had affected him.

She didn't know how STEM had changed and corrupted him the same way it was doing to Union now- the same way it had done to Beacon.

In a sense, Sebastian was a Haunted existing outside of STEM, completely oblivious to his sense of loss conscious.

Or maybe he was aware.

Maybe he did know.

But that only made things worse.

Sebastian looked exhausted- beyond exhausted really. It looked as though he wasn't really living anymore; it looked like he was just going day-to-day on autopilot with no sense of life behind any of his actions.

It was a cultivated feeling of hate that Myra had gotten used to herself.

But... despite everything, there were still things she recognized in him.

His hair was still pushed back like it had always been- even when Myra first met him, and even after her constant complaints about how unprofessional it looked. Not that Sebastian ever listened to her about it, which she ended up being glad that he didn't. Long rides stuck in the car, lazy mornings, and late-nights spent around him cultivated the habit of her running her fingers through his hair- or gently tugging on it when he got on her nerves.

Of course, she had to be careful with the hair tugging, otherwise he would reach over and grab her hair by the bun with one hand.

(They got in a lot of fights in the car by doing that.)

The biggest difference to her, the one that stuck out the most perhaps, was the change in his skin tone. Sebastian's complexion had always been bronze and tanned, a blessing from his Hispanic genetics, and it had a habit of just getting darker every time he was out in the sun. Whenever the two of them handled outdoor crime scenes, he would always come back to the office a few shades darker than when he left.

And of course, she would come back cherry-red, skin dehydrated and itching- and always in pain.

"You look good in red, Investigator."

"I will have you by the throat, Detective."

"And you can have it if you can lift your arms that high."

But now his skin looked pale, almost flushed and washed out.

And maybe the dim, florescent lighting in the cafe was to blame, maybe just STEM overall was to blame but... she had her own thoughts and theories on it.

"Myra."

Sebastian was the first to break the silence between them.

And Myra could see the hesitation in his eyes when he looked at her, when he said her name out loud. And there was no denying that he didn't look entirely convinced that that was who she was.

And she couldn't blame him for that.

But the sound of her name in his voice again...

Myra nodded at first, a simple confirmation to fill in the space. It felt like her throat was so tight she couldn't squeeze a word out. She wanted to, she tried to, but each attempt was met with this feeling like she had someone else's hand wrapped around her neck, compressing her throat and crippling her voice. Asides from speaking with Kidman earlier, Myra couldn't remember the last time she had actually spoken to another person, another human being since she had entered STEM.

"Sebastian," she finally spoke, finally edging his name out.

And she swore it felt like a wave of cold air rushed over her when she said it.

A cold realization that washed and chilled her down to the bone.

But it didn't stop her; it didn't freeze her in place again.

Instead it pushed her forward, pushed her towards him.

And once more, the two of them met in the middle.

Myra tucked herself against his chest, burrowing her head into his shoulder and tucking her arms underneath his; her fingers practically dug themselves into the center of his back. And it was only seconds before she felt the weight, the warmth of his arms around her, pulling her in, and anchoring her to him- just like they had before.

And for a second, she felt Union melt around them.

"Please tell me you're real," Myra whispered, half-begged into the brace of his collarbones.

"I could ask you the same thing," Sebastian replied.

And Myra felt the reality of his comment hit a little too close, a little too deep.

He had been without any form of knowledge or acknowledgement of her existence, of her status after her disappearance. For all he knew and believed, she had been dead this entire time. Meanwhile she had been aware and kept up-to-date about him; she had known about every step he took, every decision he made. She knew about his investigation into Mobius and she had prayed that he wouldn't follow in her footsteps, that he wouldn't make the same mistake she had.

But he did.

And that was why they were here now, why they were finally together again.

Mobius had torn them apart.

And now it had inadvertently brought them back together.

Myra carefully moved her fingers to Sebastian's left shoulder; she felt the tear in his shirt, she felt the cold dampness of the fabric from his own blood. She could still remember the violent strike of the attack; she could still remember the blood, the sound of him screaming. When the pad of her thumb carefully peeled back the frayed edge of his shirt, she expected to see the injury still exposed- and part of her wanted to see it, wanted to use it as a form of self-punishment for allowing it to happen.

Instead, she found the white hint of a bandage underneath his shirt, hinting that he had already patched the injury up on his own.

(Something he shouldn't have had to do.)

"I'm sorry," Myra started again, feeling as though she had worn out its meaning. "It feels like I've been in here for so long... I don't even know when I started to lose control over myself."

Despite the memories she had forced on herself, the memories she had forced herself to remember, all she could think about in this moment of reuniting was how she had left him in the first place.

How she had abandoned him when he needed her- when they needed each other the most.

She had gotten so caught up in wanting to know the truth...

She had tried too hard to convince him and had gotten too frustrated when he didn't budge, when he didn't believe her- and then they started arguing, and that was their shared downfall.

She left on her own, knowing that it was the better thing to do.

And now look at where it had gotten her.

Lily was gone.

But Sebastian was back now.

And she had almost killed him.

"It's okay," Sebastian replied, one hand moving to brush through her hair once more- a therapeutic gesture for the both of them. "... I know what it's like."

She had been a monster when he saw her.

She had toyed with him, tried to kill him within seconds of encountering one another...

And he was acting like it was nothing.

Like it was all stuff he had gone through before.

It made her cling to him a little tighter.

"Kidman says you've been in here for a week."

Myra could vaguely recall Kidman informing her of that before but... words and hours were the first things to get blurred inside of STEM.

STEM made the passage of time feel different, indistinguishable almost. To Myra, the time felt longer; it felt like she had only been in here for days, weeks even. Given the state of Union, given the decay and destruction that laid crumbled around their feet, it could've easily been weeks or months just the same and she would've been none the wiser.

And all of those patients, those victims who had been in here for three years...

If any of them had survived, if any of them had had the chance to get out, life outside of STEM would be unbearable.

Even during Kidman's debriefing, the woman couldn't believe that despite everything that had happened inside of STEM, despite everything that she, Sebastian, and Joseph had gone through, the entire ordeal had only lasted half an hour.

Pulling herself away from him, if only to an arm's length, Myra moved her hands to his chest- not yet wanting to break the physical contact between them. It felt like if she did pull away, if she did let him go, he would disappear. And so would she- and she would wake up again in the Marrow to find that this whole thing had been some kind of vibrant, detailed hallucination.

Myra could feel Sebastian watching her, questioning her- but she couldn't bring herself to look back at him.

"I'm sure you have questions," she started, forcing her voice to be steady as she spoke.

She knew he did; she'd be foolish to think otherwise.

After all, why wouldn't he?

He had every right to know.

"You work on finding Sebastian and you let me handle the rest, okay? And just go with whatever I say, alright? You can trust me. Sebastian doesn't... he doesn't have to know everything. Not right now at least."

Kidman's words rang quiet in her head and Myra questioned what it was that the woman had told hm. There was a plethora of things that could've been said, either in truth or in lie- and she had no knowledge of what Kidman went with.

She could trust Kidman, that much Myra knew, that much she didn't doubt.

But she still needed to brace herself for whatever questions might come at her, whether or not she knew the correct answers to them.

"Not right now," Sebastian replied instead, as he reached forward and brushed aside a loose strand of hair from her face, gently tucking it behind one ear. "We can... we can talk about things later."

Myra tried not to let the breath of relief that escaped her be noticeable.

Good.

She didn't want to talk about it either.

Not right now at least, now while she was still trying to work things out in her head.

Sebastian deserved answers just as much as anyone, more than anyone really- but the answers she had would not help him.

Myra felt his hands move to cup her face again, and again she reached up and covered them with her own, sliding her fingers between his. His skin was warm against hers; he was always warm- it was a perk of being hot-natured, a perk for her anyways. "How did you know it was me?" she whispered, as she finally looked up to meet his eyes- and she felt that hint of weakness in her legs when she did.

Even in the darkness of that ambush, Myra could still remember him saying her name.

It had to have been out of disbelief, but at the same time, he had sounded so confident when he said it.

Somehow even in that moment, as strange as things were, Sebastian still knew who she was; he still knew how to recognize her.

She didn't know how though.

As the Matriarch, it always felt like she was engulfed in this mass of flesh and wax, it always felt like she was larger, more monstrous; she had to be, given she had that guardian, that Watcher following her around, obeying her every command. Every one of her senses was gone when she was in that form though. She didn't know how she looked, she didn't know what the Matriarch looked like- she was always blinded by its presence.

But something must've stuck out.

"Your earrings," Sebastian answered.

The answer was almost comical it felt as Myra moved to touch one of the pearl earrings in response. The rather sizeable earrings were the only noticeable piece of jewelry that she owned and wore- and they had been quick to become a part of her trademark attire.

So even as a monster, even as the Matriarch, they were still visible?

Why?

They must've played some part in her design but... what good did they do?

"You were always wearing them," Sebastian continued, "and it turns out, you still do."

Was that it then?

Did the Matriarch want everyone to know that it was still her underneath all of the wax and excess skin? But if someone had never met her before, they would have no idea who she was or what significant the earrings brought. The only people who ever saw her with them and could recognize her by them would be Mobius personnel, and Sebastian.

"Why wouldn't I?" Myra replied, as she continued to fiddle with the earring. "You gave them to me after Lily was born..."

Of course.

Lily would recognize the earrings as well.

For just a brief second, Myra had forgotten why she was in STEM in the first place.

She had forgotten why she had willingly stepped into this machine.

Her daughter-

No, their daughter.

"Lily..."

"I'm looking," Sebastian started, assuring her of something she already knew.

Of course he was- Lily was the only reason he was here to begin with.

Lily was the only reason that Mobius went looking for him to begin with.

Because Sebastian was the only person who could do it, he was the only one who could find her.

He was the only one who cared enough to find her.

"Have you seen her?" Myra questioned.

"Not in person, no. I've only seen her in these residual memory things that STEM's holding on to," he answered. "I don't have a timetable on it but I know Lily was in this building recently. Someone or something was chasing her and she escaped them by crawling through a maintenance hole behind the counter; she got into the back room which was locked, which was also where I found her doll."

Myra clung to the doll a little harder at the words.

She knew Lily was getting chased in here and it wasn't just by the Matriarch.

She knew there was another culprit in STEM who wanted their daughter.

"Lily managed to escape out the back window and into the parking lot without being detected. I don't know where she went from there though. She somehow managed to backtrack into the city but I haven't had a chance to follow the signal again." There was a subtle pause, a break in the once-normal protocol conversation between them, before Sebastian continued. "I barely got across the lot before you showed up."

Myra flinched at the memories.

She could still recall in vivid detail the motions that the Matriarch went through to track him down, to corner him here of all places.

Simply by using Lily as a target as well.

At the very least, it meant that they were in the right place- they still had a chance at finding her.

They didn't have a choice though; they had to get to her first.

"Did you see who was chasing her?" Myra asked.

"No, but I've got an idea who it is," Sebastian replied- and the tone of his voice was enough of an answer on it's own; it was enough to tell her that she wasn't going to like the answer. "It's this weird flamboyant asshole who takes himself to be some kind of artist of some sort. I saw him kill someone and freeze their body with his camera as soon as I got in here. He killed one of the Mobius agents too- the lead Security guy, Baker or something, turned him into some kind of exhibition art piece. No idea who the guy is just yet, but I can tell you he has a significant amount of influence inside of STEM- more so than normal."

An odd bit of information Myra was surprised that Sebastian knew about.

While it was common knowledge in research that patients inside of STEM could influence the world alongside a working Core, the amount of influence was usually small and minimal. The influence given wouldn't be enough to save someone in a situation like this against the Lost- or against whatever kind of psychopath they were apparently dealing with.

Kidman's reports detailed multiple situations where she, Sebastian, and Joseph were reunited despite the odds against them, and Kidman was adamant that it was their combined desperation to find each other again that influenced each reunion. Together they had been able to swing STEM into their favor- even if it was for just a short amount of time.

Still, to know that someone inside of STEM was holding a power of influence over the system, perhaps because of the lack of a Core, was troubling.

Especially given that this person was using it to kill.

"The fucker knifed me in the shoulder too."

Myra felt a mix of confusion and anger now.

She had no idea who it was that Sebastian was describing.

She only knew of one person who would be chasing after Lily, and he wasn't a self-proclaimed artist- not in a physical sense anyways. And if that was the case, then they now had to deal with the risk of two psychopaths going after Lily.

And at the same time, whoever or whatever this person was, he had intentionally hurt Sebastian- and given that this man had already killed before, there wasn't anything stopping him from trying to kill Sebastian the next time they crossed paths.

Except for her.

"There's a man in here with us by the name of Theodore Wallace; he calls himself Father Theodore," Myra started.

Sebastian had insisted on not wanting answers, not yet at least, but this was something that he needed to know.

Especially if there was another psychopath in here going after Lily.

"It's a long story that I will tell you in due time but... just know that I've been trying to get Lily out of here, I've been trying to get her away from Mobius," she continued. "I've had this evacuation plan worked out for months and Theodore was going to help me get Lily out of STEM; he had a plan of getting rid of Mobius for good. With his help, I was able to find the right time to enter STEM and strike, but he- he fucking back stabbed me right when we found Lily. He never wanted to help, all he wanted was get rid of Mobius and take STEM for himself- and utilize it in some kind of world domination scheme."

The more she talked about the man, the angrier she got.

Theodore was the only reason Myra trusted the Matriarch with Lily- and that was only through desperate trust.

The Matriarch could protect Lily from him, that was it.

"Theodore underestimated how smart Lily was though and she managed to escape before he could use her- but she got herself lost in STEM while doing so. The whole reason STEM is collapsing right now is because of him. He put all of us at risk and trapped us in here because he wanted to start an arms race," Myra finished, as she moved one hand to tangle in Sebastian's shirt once more. "So now we have two psychopaths in here who are trying to get Lily- and I count as a third."

"Myra-"

"I've been all over Union looking for her but this place... STEM is changing me. It wasn't apparent at first or maybe I just never noticed it, but it didn't take long before I was completely powerless to it," she interrupted. "It latched on to me like a parasite and it just kept growing. It knows I want to find Lily; it knows that she's my only focus right now- and it's been using that obsession against me with every step. I can't control myself when I'm that thing and I can't stop it from making me think that STEM is the best place for us."

Myra stopped to catch her breath, to focus on the weighed presence of Sebastian's hands on her shoulders now.

"I haven't been myself in a long time. Not until now, not until I found you."

Despite her initial doubts, her initial pessimism, Sebastian seemed to understand.

"I'll get you through this," he assured, before he pulled her back in against him. "We'll both get through this and we'll get Lily back."

It sounded so hopeful, so naive, but Myra desperately wanted to believe it.

They were both starting over.

They were both back at square one in terms of everything.

But they could do it

Myra knew how STEM worked from the outside, she knew how things were affected on the inside.

Sebastian knew how to survive STEM, he knew how to kill it.

And it was their daughter who was at the heart of all of this.

All they had to do was find Lily.

Even if it meant killing everything and everyone that stood in their way.