Joy and Pitch's Fear and Sadness looked up at the sky. Even though there were Fearling streaking through it, they could tell it was getting dark.

"Pitch is-"

"Sleeping!"

They looked at each other in astonishment.

"Hey, can you break your telepathic connection just to explain what's going on?"

Annoyance came through their eyes, but they nodded and separated. Fear walked along to find shelter while Sadness walked with Joy.

"Pitch is close to his greatest triumph. The thought that he's sleeping is... astounding. We might actually get control before he finds the beam."

Joy's eyebrow rose quizzically. There was a question that kept repeating over and over in her mind, she just didn't want to voice it. But she had to. Taking in a deep breath, she began.

"Why are you helping me? If you're technically part of Pitch... why aren't you evil?"

Sadness spun around then, surprising Joy so much that she tripped. His eyes narrowed and he shook his head in disgust.

"Pitch wasn't always evil... he used to be a hero. Know your facts before you speak!"

His eyes flickered, and he turned away from her. Joy just stood there, an awkward silence between them. She opened her mouth to ask, but Sadness had already beat her to it. His hand flicked out and plucked a memory from a nearby shelf. Silently, he tossed it over and went to join Fear. Joy looked down to see a yellow orb with an image of a little girl in it. She gently ran her hand along the surface and sighed.

"This memory, it's... happy."

She hadn't even realized that Sadness and Fear had walked ahead. The two called out to her. Instead of putting back the memory, Joy quickly stuffed it into a bag that they had taken with them from the vault. She ran to catch up with the others. Fear pointed out a shaky hand. She followed it to see the escaped memory from Riley examining some of the memories. Sadness nodded to Fear. Fear's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything. Carefully, Sadness stepped out into the corridor and tried to smile.

"Hello."

The memory whipped around and cocked his head.

"You're Sadness, aren't you?"

"Glad to see we didn't bring a dumb memory into Pitch's brain. He's much too clever for that."

"Forgive me, but why are you here?"

"I'm Sadness. Do you really think they need me up there? No one needs me... so I've come to take you up to Headquarters. They're willing to make you an emotion. Your title is to be Boredom."

"Change me into an emotion? Can that even be done?"

"You dare question the emotions? If you are, then you're basically questioning Pitch. Maybe you should be Doubt."

The memory blinked, deciding whether or not to trust him. He was as emotion after all... Soon a smile curled up his lips.

"On to Headquarters then."

Sadness kept the memory in front of him, while Fear and Joy followed stealthily behind. By the time they were almost in Headquarters, Sadness grabbed the memory and nodded hurriedly towards Joy. She ran forward and focused out her mind. The thing that she met was confusion. She triumphed easily. The memory relaxed and Sadness reluctantly released him.

"Distract Happiness, Disgust, and Anger."

Pitch nodded obediently and moved forward. Joy closed her eyes. She could see everything he saw. Their minds were linked. When the memory walked in, she saw that Happiness was at dream duty. He looked up at smiled in confusion.

"Hello there! Why are you here?"

The memory just returned the smile absently and shrugged.

"I just wanted to see what Headquarters looks like. Maybe you could show me?"

Happiness rose his eyebrow, but nodded. While he was distracted, Sadness and Fear sneaked in. Happiness didn't even know what was coming when they jumped him and dragged him to the side. Happiness moaned, but stayed down as Fear went for the controls. Joy felt like jumping and celebrating. The plan was working! She'd be able to go home and hug her friends and make Riley smile...

"Joy! Your control!" Fear screamed suddenly.

Joy snapped back into it to realize that she had unfocused for too long. The memory was free and was chasing the other two emotions around. Joy ran into Headquarters, making Pitch whirl and growl at her.

"You! I should've gotten rid of you when I had the chance!"

All the noise made Anger and Disgust come bounding down the stairs. Anger's head sizzled, his black hair catching on fire.

"Destroy them all!" He yelled.

Pitch flew at Joy first. She screamed and held out her hands. A ball of darkness shot from her fingertips, throwing the memory to the ground. She glanced at her hand in surprise and looked up again. The others screamed and went into a battle with the three. Fear against Disgust, Sadness with Anger, and Joy with Happiness. More darkness went through Joy, ricocheting against the walls. Happiness dodged it easily and tried to trap her into a shadow. She crawled away easily and ran for the panel. The panel was a lot more complex than the one in Riley's mind. Eenie meenie miney mo... she pressed a random button, which made Pitch jerk forward. Joy looked up at the monitor to see that she had woken up Pitch. Happiness tackled her away from the console, making the boogeyman gaze around in confusion. Joy scrambled to get to the buttons and started pressing things randomly. Pitch laughed and doubled over. Tears of joy started streaming from his eyes as he gasped for breath.

"Come on you stupid thing! Just give me a portal or something!"

She threw forward a throttle. Pitch tried to move but couldn't, he was laughing to much. Fear pushed Disgust away and made a run for the console. Disgust tried to stop him, but Fear just rose a cage of shadows around the emotion. Fear gently pushed Joy out of the way and started masterfully handling the console.

"No! Get away from him!" Anger yelled.

Sadness stood in his way, holding the powerful emotion back. The console turned a bright purple, and Pitch gasped. He shot forward into a shadow. Joy looked at Fear quizzically.

"What did you just do?"

"The only way to get you home is by transferring you into Riley's mind. For that, we need Riley."