A/N: Hi everyone, I'm back! I know this chapter took a while, but seeing as it is Headquarters, I wanted to make sure I got everything right for this, especially figuring out where the door was, haha. Anyway, here Riley will be introduced to Headquarters, with a bit of a surprise along the way, so, onward!

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Inside Out on some level, but I don't.


On the train, Riley turned briefly to her emotions, the trio on board looking at least relieved that the chaotic ride was over and they had each made it back in one piece.. "Where's the entrance?"

"There's a doorway on the right," Disgust said. "Well, right from our perspective."

Riley nodded, going past the windows and pulling up to the right side of Headquarters. A few feet away from a panel that was used for unloading supplies, a square door with a circular window on the upper half could be seen.

"Careful!" Fear exclaimed, cringing and shuffling forward in case he needed to intervene. "Don't crash!"

But luckily, Riley was getting better at controlling her Train of Thought. She pulled up carefully to the side, stopping within stepping distance of the door. Grinning and feeling proud of herself that she had actually managed to control the train just by thinking about it, she pulled on a lever that hung from the ceiling. As she pulled it, the train's whistle sounded.

Inside Headquarters, Joy practically tugged Anger along with a renewed spring in her step. "They're here! She's here! Riley's here!"

"Yes, Joy, I know, I saw her." Despite his apparent annoyance, Anger had to admit that he was amazed as well. "I'm just grateful that she didn't crash the train!"

As a small platform extended from the side of Headquarters to allow the passengers off, Riley couldn't help but stare as she stood in front of the door. Kneeling down as the others got off and stood beside her, she could see a purple floor and walls, slightly dulled in their normal color due to her not being awake on the outside. And there seemed to be an oblong beige construct visible if she squinted.

Riley turned to look at her emotions—Sadness and Disgust both smiling encouragingly, and Fear looking even more nervous, as if her mere presence might cause Headquarters to collapse. "Are you guys ready?"

Sadness stepped forward and put a hand on Riley's. "Are you?"

Gratefully looking down, the human girl nodded and carefully opened the door, having to bend down slightly in order to enter Headquarters at last.

Riley's eyes widened as she stepped through the door and into the emotions' living space, the three emotions filing in after her. She found herself surrounded by purple walls, and staring at what she knew had to be the control room of Headquarters. The place where the screen usually was, the long curving console with its myriad of buttons and levers, the shelves where memories were stored...

"RILEY!"

And a blue-and-yellow streak racing up faster than Riley could blink and hugging her tightly around the waist, nearly sending them both to the floor.

Riley, nearly having been knocked over by the speed at which the excitable little being crashed into her, looked down. Joy—for if her looking similar to Riley's drawing hadn't given it away, her "nearly knocking Riley down" excitement sure did—was beaming up at the blonde-haired girl with the biggest smile on her face. "H-Hi Joy!" the blonde girl exclaimed, catching her breath for a moment before eagerly hugging her back with a wide grin on her face.

So this was Joy. The emotion who had given her so many happy memories throught her life. Riley knew that if she were still linked to whatever it was that created memory orbs, there would definitely be golden ones rolling onto the shelves right now.

For a moment, Joy just relaxed in the hug that she and Riley were sharing, until the reality of it suddenly hit Joy like a firework.

This was a time to be celebrating! Riley was here!

"It's you!" Joy shouted happily, breaking off from the hug and bouncing around excitedly, practically doing a cartwheel. "It's you, it's you, it's you!" The eager motor-mouth looked like she was so happy she wanted to race upstairs, bring down her accordion, and play it as loudly and excitedly as she could. "It's you and you're here and—"

The blue-haired light source managed to pause in her excitement, clearing her throat but unable to keep the ecstatic grin off her face. "So Riley, I'm Joy, as you know. And you've already met Sadness, Fear, and Disgust!" she added, indicating each one as she hurried them each into her little congregation.

"Yeah..." Riley said as the three in question stood next to Joy, Anger coming over as well though standing a bit apart from them.

"And this," here Joy stretched her arm out to pull her brick-like companion close to her and the others, "is Anger."

Despite his annoyance at being pulled over like that, even Anger managed a stunned smile. "Hey, um, Riley..." He tilted his head upward, realizing just how tall Riley was here.

As if he wasn't already short compared to Joy.

"Wow... you're tall. You make me feel short."

Riley shrugged, uncertain of what to say, but the happy expression on her face was a clear indicator that she didn't feel too awkward about it anymore. She was just thrilled to be there.

"So, we're your emotions, and this is home base!" Joy exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air, "Welcome to Headquarters, Riley!" She bounced over and took Riley's hand eagerly leading her along as the others followed. "First we'll show you what's here on this floor, and then we'll show you our rooms upstairs!"

Riley's heart leapt in excitement. True, the emotions had told her about the basic structure of Headquarters itself, but now she would actually get to see it!

"First of all," Joy said, leading Riley close to the console, "this is the console that we use to, well, be your emotions." She danced over to each spot. "We all have a place on the console, and whenever we think you need to feel happy, sad, etc. etc., we just press a button..."

Joy pressed one in the center, and the console shone briefly with a golden light.

"And presto! The console glows depending on which emotion's touching it, and bingo, you feel our influence and act accordingly!"

Riley looked over the myriad of buttons, most of them not labeled, as she processed what this meant. Her smile turned into an expression of uncertainty. "So, wait, I, um..."

"You what?" Disgust asked cautiously, arching her brow at Riley's apparent concern.

"I, um..." Riley felt almost silly for asking the question on the tip of her tongue. But then again, it was a big console, and she felt she had a right to ask. "I still have free will, right?"

"Oh, pfft, of course you do!" Joy exclaimed, taking Riley's hand to try to reassure her. "We just help guide you, we don't control everything you do."

"If we did," Anger admitted, "I'd type out a few choice words to say to some of those annoying people we've seen around the city."

Despite how unnerving the idea was, Riley still managed to smile again. The emotions acted as her guides but gave her freedom to choose for the most part. At least that was more comforting, rather than creepy. Feeling a bit reassured, she looked over the various console controls. "So, what do these all do?"

Sadness pointed to an intent on the left. "That's the idea plug-in where we give you ideas."

"And those ideas are right over here!" Joy called, racing over to one of the indents in the wall near the core memory holder and the intercom before returning with a light bulb. After a moment of its light shining from the console, the idea bulb was removed as she handed it to Riley to see.

Riley looked at the idea bulb, noticing that the words 'Use Emotions to Study for Test' were faintly inscribed on it. "So, if you plug that in tomorrow, I'll get that idea even though... technically I have it now?". Her facial expression turned perplexed.

"Yeah," Sadness said, her expression looking a bit more droopy. "I just remembered that test..."

Joy looked sheepish—probably not the best idea to pick up. "Uhhh, forget that! I mean, right now," she said quickly, getting the idea bulb from Riley and placing it in the alcove again. "We'll show you the Idea Fields where those come from sometime! Oh, maybe we'll even get there as a brainstorm is happening, then you'll really see the ideas grow!"

Riley felt fascinated by all this. Guess people were right when they said that brainstorms spawned bright ideas. They probably never thought of anything like that!

Joy practically skipped back to the console. "Oh, and a button here in the center allows us to call up a memory if we want to!" She pressed the button in question, focusing on recalling any happy memory, and a slow hum was heard as a pole-like construct extended from the top of the core memory holder that rest in the floor. Joy clapped her hands in anticipation, haven't not inputed any memory specifically but eager to see what happy memory would pop up. "Then the memory's image projects onto the screen through this neat little combo set-up I call the Mind's Eye."

As Joy spoke, Riley and the others noticed a tube pop down from the ceiling and a golden-colored memory hovering into place, projecting onto the Mind's Eye as a little bit of familiar music started.

"TripleDent Gum—"

Everyone simultaneously cringed.

Anger screamed in frustration, his head catching fire. "NOT THAT ONE!"

Joy facepalmed. Of all the happy memories to get brought up it had to be that one? "Really?"

Riley, after a moment, started humming along, sympathizing with both of them. Just when she thought that little jingle got out of her head.

Shaking her head in exasperation, Joy quickly pressed the same button on the console to send the ear worm straight back to Long Term Memory as the pole-shaped projector lowered. "Sorry about that," she said. "The Mind Workers sometimes like to send that one up as a prank."

"Yeah," Sadness said, "that's where most of the catchy songs come from."

"So now you have someone to blame," Disgust added.

Riley laughed, pretty certain that there would be more times like that in the future—they seemed to come up at the most random of moments. It was then that another point of the console caught her eye. "What about that?"

All the emotions turned to see that she was pointing at the big red alarm marked "Puberty". They all looked at each other, then at Riley.

"Not sure," Joy admitted.

"No idea," said Fear.

"It's just sort of... there." Disgust shrugged, "It takes up space."

Riley tilted her head, looking as if she were pondering looking up what it was. After all, it was on her console, it had to be a natural response, right?

"Anyway, we'll figure out that Puberty thing later, come on, Riley!" Joy exclaimed, back to her enthusiastic self and trying to put the ear worm and the Puberty alarm out of her mind.

Riley, resisting the urge to keep humming that gum commercial jingle, followed Joy and the others. Joy pointed out Anger's time-out corner over to the far left of the console (causing Anger to grumble in indignation) and the empty shelves that held memories in a given day before finally skipping over to the circular construct in the center of the floor, pulling up a tab that caused the pillar to rise.

At first, Riley squinted from the light, the core memories brightening up the nighttime lighting of Headquarters considerably. But upon getting more used to the light, her mouth dropped open. The mix of colors of the core memories shone before her, and as she looked closer, she could see images of herself in them.

"These," Joy said with a dramatic flourish, "are your core memories that form your Personality Islands!" Letting a small chuckle escape her at the nearly entranced expression on Riley's face, she went on. "For instance, Hockey Island is powered by the memory where you scored the final goal in your first hockey game in San Francisco, but the other team still won by a point and you resolved to do better!"

"I remember that," Riley said, noticing the mixture of red and gold that made up the memory. "That moment pushed me to do better next time, and even though our team didn't win everyone cheered me on anyway."

Joy and Anger smiled at one another before the former emotion pointed out one of Riley reading a book, a mixture of purple and green. "That one powers Tragic Vampire Romance Island."

"Why in the world did we start reading that?!" Fear lamented, twitching a little at remembering how scary he thought it was. "That book was just creepy!"

"And yet it was like staring at a train of fireworks crashing into a train of moldy broccoli," Disgust muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"Too horrible to watch but too interesting to look away."

At the realization that she and Disgust had said the same thing at the same time, Riley looked down and smiled at the green emotion. Disgust smiled back.

Joy pointed out the memories that powered other islands. Friendship, Boy Band, Science...

At the one for Family Island, she stopped. As Riley went over to look at it too, her expression turned almost somber. There, in a mixture of yellow and blue, was an image of herself and her parents hugging, expressing their mutual homesickness after Riley had returned from running away.

"That's..."

"Yeah..." Joy nodded in response. "Family Island..."

Everyone fell silent. Even after a year, the memory was still as fresh in their minds as if it had happened just the day before.

It was on the tip of Joy's tongue to spill to Riley about everything that had happened in those three chaotic days. The chaos, the breakdown, the sacrifice that their host had no idea about...

But she let it go for the time being. There would be time to tell Riley about all that later.

"So, anyway," Joy said, leading Riley off to the right, "these little alcoves are where we store idea bulbs, and here," she said, gesturing to the little mechanism that had started this in the first place, "is the intercom that allows us to talk to you."

Riley looked at the sparking construct, its metal mesh dented slightly and the light near it remaining on. She then turned to Anger, offering the shortest emotion a grateful smile. "Thanks, Anger. For breaking the intercom."

"Seems like my little demonstration paid off," said Anger, for once glad that him breaking something had caused something good to happen.

Joy already felt like this was the best day—or, night, rather—of her life, and every moment Riley was here was making it better. She eagerly led Riley forward, closer to the windows as she adopted a bit of a "tour guide" voice. "If you continue to look to your right, you'll see the supply delivery panel and our lockers underneath the ramp to our rooms. And to your left, you'll see the shelves of mind manuals!".

Fear stiffened.

Riley's eyes widened as she saw how many books there were. To think that somehow, all these books had knowledge of what exactly went on in this expansive Mind World. Her Mind World...

How similar or different was her Mind World to that of others? What were the minds of her parents like? Her friends?

Joy glanced backward toward Sadness, still using her tour guide voice. "Our resident expert on mind manuals is Sadness, so if you have any questions feel free to ask her!"

Sadness gave Riley a shy wave in response, pleased that Joy was giving her this special attention.

Riley squinted as she glanced over at the books, picking out a few of their titles. Core Memory Retrieval, Console Construction, Outside Assessment... She cautiously stepped closer. Maybe if she could just peek at one...

"No, no, no, Riley!" Fear pleaded, following her gaze and racing to stand in front of the shelf. "You shouldn't read those, who knows what could happen!"

Riley tried to look sympathetic. She could understand Fear's nerves, but... "It's not like they're books that will change who I am if I read about them. I'll just learn what it's like."

"Can't be too careful," Fear protested, standing in front of the shelves like some kind of guard, "books give you ideas!"

"Oh for the love of Pete!" Anger muttered. "Knowing more about the Mind World won't hurt! In fact, it could help her not get hurt!"

Even though she really did want to take a peek at those books, Riley couldn't help but smile. She had only known each of her emotions as living beings for a short while, but already she had grown to love them. They were dynamic, fun, varied in personality...

And reflecting on that suddenly had an idea come to her. At least it might take Fear's mind off of his protectiveness...

"Hey, guys!" she grinned, stepping away from the windows and manuals and closer to the core memory holder. "Guess who I am!"

Fighting the urge to snicker, Riley balled her hands into fists, crouching down a bit and making her voice lower and more gravelly-sounding. "What?! We lost the hockey game?! That's not fair, that shot the other team made was a FOUL! AAGGGGHHHH!"

"Anger," said everyone aside from the aforementioned red emotion.

"That is so you, Anger!" Joy exclaimed, cracking up and pulling said emotion close before giving him a noogie.

Anger's eyes lowered in an irritated scowl, but once Joy's hand left his head, he managed to look up at Riley with a slight chuckle. "Gotta admit, that is a pretty good impression. All you're missing is the hair on fire."

Fear gasped, looking horrified at the idea as if he thought Riley would set her hair on fire and paint herself red to complete her "impression". "Don't even joke about that!"

With Fear being the next one who had spoken, Riley's eyes got a bit more sneaky. After a pause, she suddenly straightened up like a stick, making her face appear scared as she started running around in a mock panic. "Ahhhh! Tree root, look out, we're all gonna DIIEE!"

"Oh, oh, you're Fear!" Joy exclaimed, bouncing up and down.

Said purple emotion crossed his arms, looking a bit in denial. "Hey, I don't act like that!" His look of confidence faded after a few moments as he then paused and looked cautiously at the others. "Do I?"

But Riley wasn't done. She held up her hand in front of herself, waving her fingers as if they were the legs of an insect. Her eyes widened before she screamed and stumbled backwards. "SPIDER, SPIDER! Get away, it could be poisonous!"

Anger chuckled looking at Fear with a smug expression. "Now that is you."

The single hair on Fear's head drooped. As embarrassing as it was to admit, that was what he'd do in such a situation when he was really scared—try to scramble as far away from said spider as possible.

Riley stopped her frantic scrambling, pausing in thought for a moment before suddenly recoiling, looking revolted. "Is she seriously wearing that? That shirt's so last year!"

Fear snorted. "Totally Disgust."

Riley flicked her hair back in an over-dramatic way, clearly having a blast as she took on a bit of Disgust's tone. "And whose idea was it to have broccoli pizza be a thing?! Really, people have no taste!"

"Wow, that is like me," Disgust admitted, looking up at Riley with an expression of admiration. "You're a pretty good impressionist!"

Riley opened her mouth to thank Disgust for the compliment, only to close it as a thoughtful expression crossed her face. Her shoulders slumped, her expression became droopy, and her voice more morose. "Thanks, I guess."

"You're me," Sadness said, raising her hand.

Riley tried not to smile, even though it was hard not to because she was having so much fun. "Sometimes we need to cry, like when homework gets wrecked by spilled milk and Riley worked real hard on it..."

The blue emotion actually tried to manage a smile. Riley really was getting a hang of what her internal companions were like. Even if remembering that happening was sad and causing her to frown at the memory...

Joy on the other hand was beaming. Riley's impressions were actually enjoyable to watch. "Oh, this means I'm last!"

Riley laughed as, in a sharp contrast to her mimicry of Sadness, she suddenly changed her voice to sound more hyper and bouncy, letting all her excitement and happiness show as she hurried over to the others. She started practically dancing with Fear, then Joy, since they were tallest, before pulling the gang close. "Hey, everyone, up and at'em! We're going to make sure that nothing gets in the way of Riley having a great day!"

Giving her emotions a friendly hug before releasing them, she began practically dancing over to the console in a very Joy-ish way before raising her hands. "And with just a few little button presses—"

Fear screamed and abandoned his post in front of the manuals, racing over to try to stop her. "Wait, Riley, no!"

"—then we'll help Riley have the best day ev—AH!"

The human girl broke off her Joy impression as she leapt back, her gleeful expression instantly morphed to one of shock. Her eyes were widened, and once everyone else noticed, they did the same, Fear freezing to the spot. Riley pressing the buttons in that last moment hadn't done anything physically to her body outside, at least not that they could tell, but it did do something to the console.

It lit up just as when an emotion touched it.

Only this time it was brighter, almost blindingly so, like that moment when Joy had first touched the single console button when Riley was born. And this glow wasn't an emotion's color...

"Um, guys?" Riley asked, her joyful demeanor replaced by a curious uncertainty as her hand hovered over the console. "What does white mean?"

"Don't know!" Fear exclaimed, looking nearly catatonic like he thought the world would explode all around them at any moment. "I-It's never done that before! It's just turned our colors!"

And the console turning white below the controls wasn't the only thing that happened.

Headquarters brightened up, the purple hue that coated the walls and floor becoming more illuminated, almost as if Riley were awake. Fear then let out a yelp as a rattling much like an earthquake reverberated from the shelves where memories were stored. And like rocks tumbling down a cliff, sphere after sphere showed up one after the other, several mixed with colors of varying emotions, but all of them possessing the same silvery glow that was now present on the console.

Fear, his eyes wide in terror, cried out and gripped onto the nearest thing, which happened to be Anger before he was smacked away. "What's happening?! We've NEVER had memories look like that!"

Once the group got over their "yes this is happening" shock, they ran over to the new onslaught of memories, their expressions growing more surprised as they saw the scenes depicted though them, moment by moment. Riley landing in Dream Productions, hugging the three emotions there, driving the train, being here in Headquarters...

As if things couldn't get more weird, a chiming noise sounded from off to the left, farther back than the shelves where short term memories were stored. And the chime was directly accompanied by a glow that shone with the brightness of a miniature sun—but not the color of an emotion.

All six of the occupants of Headquarters turned, all of them just as confused. The sound was unfamiliar to Riley, but the emotions recognized that particular chime any day...

The flower-shaped mechanism next to the shelves that stored a day's short-term memories spun near the bottom, bringing up this new memory that shone brighter than the average one. Moving up a little thanks to the mechanism, a small wall that normally blocked the lowest pathway slid out of the way, and the memory started to roll down a pathway just at the floor.

The group started racing after it.

"It's a core memory!" Joy exclaimed in awe.

Sadness's eyes widened. "But it's white..."

"W-Why is it white?" Fear gulped, anticipating the worst as he looked from the white core memory to the plethora of memories that now filled the short-term shelves.

"Because we weren't the ones who touched the console," Anger pointed out, "Riley did."

"Yeah, but..." Disgust stared at the memory as if hypnotized as it went along its path. "I thought only emotions could create memory orbs..."

As the core memory hit the bottom of the holder since the pillar was raised, Joy raced over and picked up the memory, turning it over in her hands. The memory swirled with the white aura that made it shine like an ethereal mist, its prism-like color almost mesmerizing. Joy brushed her finger over the surface, observing that this core memory went from when Riley was first doing impersonations of her emotions to that moment where she had touched the console and had caused it to light up with that glow it had never possessed before.

The placement of the other core memories shifted slightly, a new indent appearing in the pillar-shaped holder to make room for the new one. Waiting for it to be placed and create a new Personality Island.

Riley's eyes widened in a sudden realization at the white color, glancing briefly at the new memories on the shelves before turning back to the core one. "I think... I think I know why these memories are white."

Sadness looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Remember what I learned in science class a few years back?" Riley questioned, turning to face her emotions. "About how white light actually contains all the colors?"

After a pause, the others nodded.

Riley stepped closer, looking briefly at the memory shelves before kneeling next to Joy, peering at the core memory in fascination. "When I'm here, I don't need you guys to express emotions. The white core memories must be because I can express emotion on my own while I'm here!"

Joy ran her fingers over the sphere. Reflecting on Riley's reasoning, it actually made sense. Each emotion had their own color, but Riley, here, had all of them.

"I think Long Term Memory is going to have to make a new section," Sadness said.

Fear seemed to be trying to calm down, looking at the white-hued memories with more anxiety. There was now a way of collecting memories here at night, but none of them had caused the Mind World to spontaneously explode, or Riley to be hurt so far. No crumbling islands, no erratic spasms or fainting spells from their host. It just seemed brighter here in Headquarters, with a new class of memories. Nothing wrong, no big deal...

Riley looked at the little nerve in concern. "Fear? Are you okay?"

"Well, um... so far nothing terrible has happened, so..." He forced a smile, for Riley's sake. "... Maybe?"

That was a good enough answer for her.

Joy smiled a little as she looked at the other inhabitants of Headquarters—her gaze fell on Riley in particular. "Hey Riley," she said, her glow brightening along with her smile as she held the new core memory in front of her. "You wanna do the honors?"

"Huh?"

"Placing the core memory," Joy said, giving a nod to the core memory holder behind her. "I mean, you did make this one."

Riley paused, a bit stunned at the offer. Not only had her presence here in Headquarters activated a flood of new memories of a type they had never seen before, but Joy wanted her to place this new core memory?

The thought excited her. She knew that core memories like these created Personality Islands, based on the briefing that the emotions had given her, but now she was actually going to see one created! And it would be her doing!

She started to reach for it, but a purple hand stopped her, followed by Fear's violet eyes looking at her.

"Woah, woah, wait, you putting in a core memory?!" Fear gasped, looking jittery and seemingly trying to debate on whether he should just grab the core memory and place it in the holder himself—or just trying to force it to Long Term. "That core memory?! What if—"

"Fear," Disgust groaned, "it's not like the core memory's going to blow up if she holds it!"

"How do you know?" Fear exclaimed, all sorts of thoughts suddenly running through his head that he hadn't pondered before. "This definitely falls into that category of 'consciousness tampering' that the mind manuals warned us about even more than Riley touching the console did! What if Riley placing that memory," he squeaked, pointing at the orb in question before giving his companions a helpless expression, "does something bad?"

"It doesn't matter who places it!" Anger retorted. "Point is, it's here, it's a core memory, and it's Riley's." Shaking his head in exasperation at Fear's worry, the brick-like emotion craned his head up to look at Riley. "Joy's right, Riley—you oughta be the one to place it."

With a grateful look at Anger, Joy held the new shining memory toward Riley, her smile becoming gentle. "Take your memory, Riley. Make a new island."

Her head spinning, Riley carefully took the memory from Joy and held it in her hands. She flinched as its surface was cool to the touch, almost like a sphere of crystal. For a moment, she squinted her eyes at the image of herself, there in Headquarters with her emotions and reenacting their traits.

This is my memory, she thought to herself, barely able to believe it even though she was staring it in the face. I mean, the others are too, but I... I did this! I made this core memory!

With this feeling of awe surging in her head, she looked down at her emotions before stepping close to the core memory holder. Staying down to be on the same level as the mechanism, and hearing Fear repeatedly mutter something that sounded like "Please don't explode," in the process, she gently placed the core memory in its designated slot.

The memory was accepted with a click, and a new pathway of light extended from the core memory holder. The group raced toward the windows, Riley getting a much better view of the islands than she had on the wayward Train of Thought. Pressing close to the glass, Riley and the emotions watched as the new light bridge took shape.

The light spread out and upward to form the shape of the new Personality Island, the bright light fading to reveal the colors and shapes that made up the newest structure of the Mind World. Much like Family Island, statues towered over as one of the main focal points. However, on this there were six silver statues, one a good deal taller than the rest—it was Riley and her emotions.

To the left of the statues, similar to the Golden Gate Bridge on Family Island, there was a towering replica of Headquarters itself as seen from the outside. Shelves of memories of many colors—including those joined by the silver glow of those obtained at night in the Mind World—surrounded the exterior, with a miniature Dream Productions in the back as her initial gateway.

"It's amazing!" Riley exclaimed.

"And a bit disorienting," Fear admitted, feeling somewhat faint at seeing the miniature replica of Headquarters below them, as if he were looking at the Mind World from far away.

Riley couldn't help but stare in awe. It was just the sort of island that she would have imagined for a core memory such as this. Had her thoughts on its appearance somehow caused it to be that way? Or had the Island's spontaneous structure been just formed out of aspects of the core memory itself?

Either way, this Island wasn't Joy's and Sadness's like Family Island. Or Fear's and Disgust's like Tragic Vampire Romance Island.

This new Island was Riley's. Only Riley's.

"Well," Joy piped up, "what are you gonna name it?"

Broken out of her thoughts, Riley looked down at the golden-skinned emotion, who was gazing up at her with an expectant grin. "Wait, me?"

"Sure! Every island needs a name!"

"But—"

Disgust looked at their host with a smug grin. "Riley, you made it, you name it!"

By the looks on all their faces, all of Headquarters' normal inhabitants were waiting in anticipation (with additional anxiety from Fear at the "consciousness tampering"). This opportunity had been given, and none of them were going to take it away from their young host.

Awed, Riley stared down at the Island, putting careful thought into it. Whatever name she gave it had to be special. Focusing on its features, various names popped into her head, so to speak, as she tried to think.

Emotion Island? She had been imitating the emotions at the time...

Headquarters Island? She was there, after all, and Headquarters was a prominent figure on the Island...

Memory Island? Memories were a prominent part of it too...

Dreaming Island? She did get here through dreaming...

Mind World Island? The Island was like a miniature Mind World...

But after several moments of those ideas, her eyes widened as she realized that she was going about it the completely wrong way. Those names were focusing on what the Island consisted of. But this was an Island of Personality, it was meant to represent an aspect of herself. It had to represent what it really was. What she was.

A small smile crossed her face as she stood aside to let her emotion companions see it better. She took a deep breath, hoping they'd like the name. "Before tonight, I accepted that you guys were little voices in my head, but I didn't think I'd ever get to see it aside from you guys telling me about it." She laughed lightly, the corners of her mouth crinkling into a smile as she looked down at her emotions.

They, even Fear, smiled back.

"And now you guys introduced me to so much and, well, here I am... with you guys. And I love it."

Joy sniffled, actually feeling like crying tears of happiness. Sadness was already crying.

The smile on Riley's face grew as she wiped away a single tear that had formed at the corner of her eye. "Even now I've seen more than I could have ever imagined—"

Disgust couldn't help but chuckle at that, shaking her head in amusement. "And you still have a lot more to see."

Riley nodded in agreement. "And honestly, this never would have happened if Anger hadn't gone and broken the intercom."

Anger grinned triumphantly.

"So I've decided on a name for it." Riley said, glancing down at the island her core memory had created. "Possibility Island."

The brief silence that followed was broken by Joy letting out a happy squeal and leaping up into the air. "I love it, Riley! That's a perfect name!"

"Really fits it," Disgust said, nodding her approval.

"And fits you," added Sadness, smiling a little.

Feeling as happy as if she had just won the hockey playoffs for her team, Riley grinned widely, kneeling down and pulling in all her emotions for a group hug.

Even Anger didn't protest as the five looked up at her happily, the human girl wrapping her arms tightly around her mental companions.

Their presence was soothing, comforting...

But it was then that Riley noticed a light beginning to form around her, feeling a bit more separate from them, a bit too relaxed. She released her grip on the others, who looked up at her in alarm. "Hey, wait, huh?—"

With a flash of light, Riley was gone, the lighting in Headquarters faded, and the sky darkened into its normal nighttime look, stars dotting the sky.

"AH!" Fear screamed, looking frantically around, giving a glance toward the mind manuals as if thinking she had somehow been able to teleport there. "W-What happened?! Where's Riley go—"

"Calm DOWN!" Anger snapped, punching him and stopping the frantic nerve in his tracks. "Look at the sky, she just went into REM sleep!"

"B-But..."

"Lucid dreaming is hard," Sadness reminded them softly. "And that was her first time. We're not gonna be able to talk to her again until she wakes up."

For a moment, there was a silence among the group. Without Riley here, all of a sudden Headquarters felt... empty.

But eventually, the silence was broken with a sigh from Joy, followed by one of her signature smiles. "Well, hey, it worked! We can actually talk to Riley and bring her here!"

"But it got cut short so suddenly!" Fear exclaimed. "What if something like that happens if we go with her elsewhere?"

"It's okay, she'll just go to REM sleep and we'll talk to her in the morning!" Joy said, patting him on the back and keeping up a sense of cheerfulness. "The more she lucid dreams, the longer she'll be able to stay!"

"Well, they do say practice makes perfect," Disgust pointed out.

"And I," said Anger as he started to walk up the ramp, "need sleep practice for tonight if we're going to be doing any more of this 'staying up til after midnight' stuff. See you all in the morning."

"Same here," Disgust said, following after him up the ramp. It was then that she paused, turning back to Joy who was looking at the newest core memory. "Oh, Joy?"

Joy turned to look at her. "Yeah?"

Disgust offered their emotion ringleader a smile. "That was great. I'd be totally cool with having Riley back again."

"Me too," Fear admitted, "we'll just have to be extra careful!". He put his hand up to his brow in a salute. "I will be on round-the-clock Riley Safety Patrol!"

"You already basically are," Disgust said, rolling her eyes slightly as she went upstairs as well. "Good night, guys.".

"Good night!" Joy called cheerfully as Disgust, Fear, and Anger headed off to bed. Now she just had to send those new memories down to Long Term—

"Joy?"

The yellow emotion in question turned at the voice, peeking around at the core memory holder to see Sadness, staring once more at the memory that powered Family Island.

For a moment, just as when Riley had been there, the two stared at the memory in silence.

Finally, Sadness spoke up. "... When are we gonna tell her?"

Joy looked at Sadness in silence, her expression almost as morose as her companion's. There had been so much going on then. The loss of the core memories. Anger, Disgust, and Fear trying to hold things down in Headqaurters. Bing Bong's sacrifice to save Riley...

Finally, Joy let out a sigh, taking Sadness's hand. "When it's the right time.". The corners of her lips turned up slightly as she looked down at Sadness. "I wanted her to have fun on her first night here."

Sadness nodded at her in understanding. Riley deserved that.

Their gazes turned to the newest core memory, the prism-like light shining back at them.

"I like Possibility Island already," Sadness said after a moment.

"Me too." There was a hint of pride in Joy's voice. "And it's all Riley's."

After a pause, Sadness quietly walked away from the core memory holder and over to the intercom. She turned back to Joy. "Think Riley can hear us even when she's in REM sleep?"

Joy paused, going over to the intercom as well. She had never really given much thought to where Riley's consciousness was when she went into REM sleep, whether Dream Productions decided to give her dreams or not. But it couldn't hurt to try.

The golden emotion smiled as she looked at the intercom. "Good night, Riley. Sleep well."

"See you in the morning," Sadness added.

As they stepped away from the intercom, intending to send the new memories to Long Term, Joy stopped in her tracks.

"Wait," Joy looked at Sadness, realizing they had forgotten something, "we're gonna need to bring the Train of Thought back then too!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot..."

They looked at one another for a moment before Joy waved a hand dismissively.

"Ah, let's not worry about that," the yellow emotion said, patting Sadness on the back. "It'll be there in the morning."

"Like Riley's new island."

Joy glanced over at the core memory holder at Sadness's words It felt almost like a dream, but Riley had been here, just as they were. And had literally brought something new to her mind. A serene smile crossed Joy's face.

"Exactly."

As Joy then sent down the new night memories to Long Term, she and Sadness headed off to bed as well. With the light from Joy's glow fading as she went upstairs, the only light remaining on the main floor were those generated by the core memories—with more of a glow joining them than before as Riley's new memory shone with its newfound, ethereal light.


A/N: Well, Riley's created a new kind of memory, nothing is the same anymore! Her first trip to the Mind World may be over, but don't worry, there'll be more to come once she gets more of a hang of lucid dreaming! So, how will Riley handle the next day in the human world after what she's just seen in her mind? You'll find out next chapter!

Speaking of next chapter, my current plan is to try to, when circumstances permit, get a new chapter of this up every week or two. Til then, hope you enjoyed and review! :). Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, faved, and followed so far, and if anyone wants to draw fan-art for this story, be my guest! ;).