By the time the meeting ends, Holly and Raz are both grim faced. Holly starts rapidly writing whilst Raz tries to distract her with airy light conversation. Lili is more than willing to indulge him, talking about them possibly moving in together in the near future, her father's return, Milla's return. He fills the time and air with inane but gentle things. That much makes Lili know the two aren't going to tell her anything.

Holly finishes soon enough sliding the paper into a manila folder, setting it on her desk's edge next to her stapler. The green haired woman moves around her desk to motion for Raz to join her. She states she'll Lili again tomorrow at the same time. Lili simply smiles and bids Holly goodbye.

Her fingers brush across the desk, subtly pushing the file forward across the desk as she walks. Without much of a pause Lili has the manila folder tucked under her arm. Neither Holly or Raz seem to notice in the moment. Raz opts to stay behind with Holly to discuss something. and Lili isn't going to dissuade him.

She knows the way back to her room. She can walk back by herself. The redhead quietly makes her way back down the hallway, folder held close. Even if the hallways are empty, Lili walks leisurely back to her room. One thing she's learned from Mother is a lady shouldn't rush around if she has a secret. For once Lili will agree with that.

She steps through the threshold of her bedroom, snapping the door shut behind her. She locks the door out of habit moving to settle down on the edge of the bed. She kicks off her shoes, falling back to flop on the bed as she opens the folder.

Holly's handwriting is precise, clean- at best her i's are dotted with stars. Lili is glad it isn't a mess, it means she can read this fairly quickly and place it back in Holly's office later.

CASE NOTES:

Upon examination by myself and Agent Aquatos, we discovered extensive damage to the mindscape. Main hub of activities, memories and nightmare containment was destroyed by a third party. Agent Aquatos found a crack in the mental landscape's ground starting at the wreckage of the hub of activity. The cram lead to the back reaches of Ms. Zanotto's mind. The deepest part of the crack has a high risk of breaking further if memory vaults aren't mended, and mental residents aren't allowed to attend to damage properly.

Nightmares are running rampant delaying initial investigation given their size. Other agents required for proper containment. It is very likely we will need four agents max to fully reel in the nightmares blighting the landscape. Personal demons also present a solid problem. Nightmares and Personal demons have started roaming together attacking anything in sight.

Several years worth of memory vaults have been destroyed purposefully by Ms. Zanotto's captors. I was able to salvage a hand few at best and stitch them together. Falsified memory vaults have been put in their place in an attempt to rewrite over previous memories. The weak workmanship means the new memories did not fully take. Falsified memories were taken for investigation. It is very likely given the workmanship there are psychic signatures on the reels themselves. I am currently searching for the vast majority of her memories, currently they are hidden from plain sight. Given how her memories are surfacing from conversation with old friends it is likely something in her mind has either unearthed them or they were not buried very deeply to begin with. Lili's mind will start to filter to the natural memories now that the fakes have been taken away. Within a few days her mind will properly reroute itself to the correct memories.

Mental residents have been corralled into a small pen deep in the woods so natural maintenance was delayed. Along with the mental residents are all of Ms. Zanotto's emotional baggage. What healing Ms. Zanotto's mind started without it's mental residence has been slow at best. If she had not been found her mind would have naturally taken four years to fix itself.

After speaking with Dr. Evergreen we've come to the conclusion Lili's abilities and memories were suppressed with an anti-psychic drug called Psi-trite, which is incredibly illegal and dangerous in high quantities. Seeing Lili's mind in person only confirms my suspicions. Psi-trite has the effect of cracking a mental landscape from overuse leading to insanity and complete loss of psychic abilities. It is likely Lili's continued use of the drug caused the crack, if not that, her captors had attempted to break her mind in two for easier control. Will follow up with Lili personally to see how she was treated. Given what I've heard from Dr. Evergreen in passing it will not be pretty. The added trauma will make things more difficult. In particular trying to teach Lili how to wrangle her own nightmares once again.

Dr. Evergreen intends to do a full course of blood work to be sure Lili hasn't been poisoned. Given her results from the psychical it is likely she's at least going to be unable to use her abilities beyond passives. Herbaphony and Lili's natural strength at telepathy continues to function at a low level. Far lower than her original ratings.

My over all estimation as of now: Lili Zanotto has a chance of full recovery, but will not be able to remember large chunks of her life. Some memories are too tattered to fully put back together. Her psychic abilities will return with time and practice. On the Psychonauts Official Field Agent Rating Scale she is a firm 2 out of 12. The rest of her powers are hard to pinpoint at this current point in time.

Lili closes the file, letting it drop on her chest as she tries to digest all of that information. Some of the jargon used completely flies over her head in the moment. Even if some of it sounds familiar it doesn't click in context for her. What she does understand though is she's kind of never going to get some memories back. The thought alone makes her rub her hand through her hair in quiet frustration. She'll never be Lili Zanotto completely again.

She'll always be Lilian Crenshaw somehow.

She plops the file onto the bed next to her, rolling onto her side and back up onto her feet. Lili moves towards her window, pulling up the blinds to look at over the forested landscape. The sky is overcast with the threat of rain. From inside she wouldn't know what the weather was. The building was so insulated from the world. The redhead grabs her shoes, her keys, and a coat. Once she's situated with little hesitation she heads back out into the hallway leaving the file behind on her bed.

The sky cracks open, pouring water over the forest by the time she gets outside and Lili doesn't have any complaints. She simply shoves her hands into her pockets and treks onwards. Lili knows she's too angry to think, right now, she needs to just stop thinking.

She's survived worse.

Apparently.

###

As thunder booms, a phone rings. When it's picked up by Sasha Nein, A harried Truman Zanotto hurriedly speaks. His voice is strained, emotional. Sasha has a strong idea of what the man is feeling. After so many near leads the thought of another one being false is heartbreaking.

"Sasha- are you serious-?"

"When have I ever lied to you?"

"God. God- she's-" Truman is close to tears now, voice cracking. Sasha gives the man time to recollect himself. When he speaks his own voice is gentle. "She's alive, Truman. Your daughter is alive." Sasha quiets as Truman chokes on a sob. His composure is crumbling at this point.

"I'm getting on the next plane now. Keep her safe."

"I intend to. You be safe yourself, Truman."

"Thank you, Sasha. Thank you."

###

Fingers thread through her hair, yanking her head forward and upwards. Lili can distantly hear thunder rumbling. Even with all the attempts at sound proofing the building thunder still prevails. Her body moves with the yank, offering no real resistance. A mixture of casual defiance, self preservation and being bonelessly tired.

"Are you done yet?" She questions cooly in turn. Her voice is rough and her mouth tastes like metal. Maybe she bit her tongue again? At this point it's a little hard to tell.

"You just don't know when to shut up? Do you?" The man hisses back, light colored beady eyes glare down at her. Father, Alexander. Alexander Paquin. She recognizes his face. She remembers reading his file at some point.

"I tend to be a little talkative is all." She muses in turn, a thin smile curling across her lips. "Sorry if you can't keep up, Alex. Want me to slow down a little?"

The man simply yanks her by the hair forward, Lili manages to maintain a smile even amongst the pain. "You're going to be sorry." He threatens back. He leaves an opening wide enough Lili gladly takes it.

"I've heard more scary back talk from a camp full of kids, Alex. Maybe you can swear a little, give me a thrill." She manages a wink, more predatory than the man can handle given the way he drops her.

"Fucking Psychonauts." He swears softly to himself. Lili manages a tired kind of sarcastic clap. She knows the more of a show she puts on, the better chance of survival for the other captives. Be the problem child she was always meant to be.

"That's a good start, keep it up."

Lili keeps walking, forcing herself through the haze of her mind slowly sorting through memories. Now she has a name with a face.

Finger slide into her mouth, trying to pry it open. Instead she bites down on the knuckle. The man trying to manhandle her screams in agony as she holds on. Teeth dig into flesh, then bone.

Lili manages a muffled wet swear around his fingers. This time the blood in her mouth isn't her own.

Lili missteps in the mud whilst walking, quickly losing her footing and pitching forward. She doesn't have much time to correct herself, grabbing onto a tree branch. Even with this much rain she manages to keep steady. "Ugh."

She cradles her arm close to her chest, breathing out heavily as pain radiated through her. Lili holds the other woman's gaze firmly. Mother- Lucille Frappi practically squirms under her gaze. Her straw colored hair catches the flickering florescent lights almost giving her a halo.

"If you want a fair fight, you should come over here." Lili intones quietly, on the edge of finding enough energy to spring forward at the other woman. If she had more time she could easily make Lucille hit the floor.

"Your arm is broken, girl, I could beat you so easily." Lucille bluffs lowly back. "It wouldn't be worth my time."

"Why not try then?" The woman never draws any closer, simply dumping water onto Lili from a safe distance before leaving. Lili simply laughs at her, a bitter amused sound that makes Lucille avoid eye contact with her for the next few days.

Lili's grip tightens around the branch, letting herself bodily rest against the tree. She flexes the arm she remembers being broken experimentally. Not even phantom pain lingers. She finally releases the branch after she finds her footing again.

Some part of Lili knows she should go home. Before the rain gets any worse, before she hurts herself, but, she doesn't want to. She isn't sure if she can be Lili Zanotto like everyone wants her to be.

The sound of her name being called, ever so distantly makes the redhead sigh and relent. She realizes it is Sasha when she pauses to listen. She pushes away from the tree fully, heading back the way she came. Even if she isn't fully Lili Zanotto. What's left does care, does genuinely love these people.

She isn't about to hurt any of them again.