So somehow I missed posting this chapter up. The story makes a very weird jump from the chapter before this to the one just after this one, and after looking into why I realized I wrote this chapter but never actually posted it.

Whoopsie. All fixed now, hopefully.


The clamor of a bell, voices. The ground was moving. Something seemed to shove into her lungs and she revolted, trying to twist as mouthfuls of river water erupted from her lips, burned her nose.

"On her side! Get her on her…Min! Min, can you hear me? Another blanket. No, another one! No, I don't care, get us to shore immediately!"

She was levered onto her side, gasping for air, coughing. Everything from her sinuses to her diaphragm ached and burned, and she still felt half-flooded. She gasped again, with effort.

"Minerva, shh. It's ok. You're breathing. We're getting you to hospital. Just focus on breathing."

Veta.

She tried to speak, but couldn't seem to do much. Her entire body felt like it was gone.

"Ambulance is on shore," Mike said.

"Can't this damned thing go any faster? We weren't that far into the goddamn bay!" Geny. "Shit. Shit! I can't believe she just dove in…!"

"Not helping, Geny!" Veta again. "Minerva, can you hear me? Just keep breathing."

Min heard a rasping sound, but didn't realize that Veta was almost furiously rubbing her hands and fingers. She still could not feel them, still could barely move. Her thoughts felt as cold and sluggish as her body did.

Then Veta hauled her upright. Min, limp as a marionette, slumped forward and immediately couldn't breathe. It lasted only a second, before Veta was pulling her back against her. Min realized she'd been wrapped in a blanket, Veta sitting behind her, not only half cradling her but offering her body heat as well. Faces loomed in and out of focus. Mike. Geny. A man in a crew uniform. Vague tourists.

Then she could only see part of the boat mast and the thick, white and gray sky, as Veta moved her head back onto her shoulder, trying to keep her airway open.

"Take it easy. Take it easy, you're all right. Mike. Mike! I don't care if you have to twist the captain's arm, get them to move faster! Geny, get…"

Things slid away again for a time. When she woke her entire body hurt, her lungs ached, and Mike was sitting in a chair nearby, half dozing.

"Mike?"

He jolted, gaping at her before shifting the chair over closer to the bed. "Min, hey. You're ok. It's ok now. You're…"


Minerva opened her eyes. Her entire body hurt, her lungs ached, and Kalina was sitting in a chair nearby, half dozing with Binky hovering over her shoulder. Barely had she had time to take in the sight than Lev was filling up her vision.

"You're awake! She's awake!" he said, turning toward the Hunter momentarily before focusing back on Min. "You're awake!"

"I'm awake," she echoed, as Kalina sat up, blinking rapidly, then leaning forward and catching Minerva's shoulders as she started to shift, made to sit.

"Don't you dare," she said warningly. "Just take it easy."

"What happened?" Minerva asked.

"There's about a million other people who want to know that from you," Kalina said with exasperation.

"No one knows what happened," Lev told Min. "Do you remember being in the pub?"

"Yeah," Minerva said, squinting at him. The ache in her body seemed to be fading.

"Do you remember Nara being there?" Kalina asked. The question was gentle, but she couldn't seem to help a bitter slant to the name of the other Titan. "Lev told us-"

"I remember that, yes," Min said slowly.

"After she left you started to look around again, and then you just started screaming," Lev told her. "You were holding your head; I thought that someone had shot you from the window or something, or that you'd shot yourself again. Then you collapsed. I tried to heal you but there was nothing to heal; no wound, no heart attack or stroke, or anything that seemed wrong, but I couldn't wake you up. I called Binky and Poet and-"

He broke off as the door nearby shuttled open, and Zavala stepped through. Min realized abruptly that she was in the same small infirmary they had taken Eris to when she'd first arrived- an infirmary that rarely, if ever, saw the use of a Guardian. She…

And then her mind cleared, almost as abruptly as if a switch had been thrown, and she looked at the Titan Vanguard as she sat up, ignoring Kalina's half-hearted attempt to keep her down again.

"Sir, where's Eris Morn?"

Zavala frowned, glancing at Ikora who had come in on his heels, Gen hovering behind her.

"I believe she's in the Archives," Ikora said coolly.

"I need to speak to her," Min said. "And to you."

"Minerva, one thing at a time," Zavala said, holding up his hands. "You have been unconscious from unknown causes for nearly two days now. Your Ghost was not able to find any injury to account for your state, and-"

"Two…" Min looked at Kalina and Lev in shock. "Two days?"

"Yes," Kalina said, and Minerva felt a surge of guilt at the worried, exhausted look in the Awoken's eyes.

"So you need to take things slow, take it easy," Zavala said. "One step at a time until we figure out what happened."

"I know what happened," Minerva said, then shook her head. "I mean, I don't know exactly what or why but…I had another memory. I know-"

"What? What did you remember?" he asked. "What do you know?"

Min felt her words stick in her throat, and glanced at Kalina again. Catching the look, Kalina reached over and took her hand. "It's ok. You can tell us."

"Not like this," Min said, giving Kalina's hand a gentle squeeze, before looking back at Zavala. "I need to speak to Eris, alone. I'll tell the rest of you too but, I need to speak to her first. It's…it's a private matter of respect. Please, sir."

He measured her a moment, folding his arms, before nodding wordlessly at Ikora. She turned to Gen, and with only the same glance needed, the Exo vanished to find Eris.

"Are you willing to speak to some of what happened before she arrives?" Ikora asked. "Your Ghost says that you ran into a stranger, in the Cosmodrome. Then later, into Blayd and Nara."

"Yes," Min told her. She'd almost completely forgotten that stranger. "The first one, she was an Exo. I don't know who but, not a Guardian?"

"No, definitely not a guardian," Lev said. Ikora looked at him.

"You said that she seemed to know Minerva."

"She did," Min said, as Lev bobbed a nod. "She said something like 'I'm with her now. No, just her.'"

"She might have been expecting Gen and I to be with you," Kalina said. "But you didn't know her? Never saw her before?"

"No, never," Min said. "She also told me that where we were- the spot where Lev found me, where I was Lightborn- was not the beginning. She seemed to know what we were doing there."

"Nara and Blayd as well both seemed to know things they shouldn't," Zavala said moodily.

"Yes, the Twins knew about the pub," Ikora said. "Lev told us that as well, though that is less surprising. There are networks upon networks in the Tower, as well as the City. It would be naïve to assume my own shadow network is the only one of these. I am less concerned with how Blayd and Nara know about Minerva and her memory of St. Petersburg, and more concerned with why Nara seems to care so much about it. From what the Ghost has said, this seems to go beyond mere irritation that we did not send her to the moon as was her desire."

Minerva nodded. "She was obsessed with finding the reason that I was sent instead, felt that the reason was buried somewhere in that life before I was Lightborn, but she didn't say why she'd come to that conclusion."

"You told us you remembered something?" Zavala said, but Min was already shaking her head.

"If there was a reason in that life as to why I can resist the Deathsong or why it seems I'm the only one that can go up to the moon to stop the Hive and come back alive, it was not part of what I remembered," Minerva said.

He made a thoughtful sound, then turned as Gen reappeared in the doorway. Ikora stepped out to join him, and as she did Eris approached the door almost tentatively. Zavala looked back at Minerva for a moment, but if he had reservations, he was keeping them to himself.

"We will be just outside," he said, and then stepped past Eris to join the others.

Kalina gave Eris an uncertain look, as her hand tightened in Min's a moment. There were questions and concerns in her eyes that stirred Min's guilt all over again, but she said nothing. Getting to her feet, her hand reluctantly fell away from the Titan's as she went to join the others out in the corridor. She looked back, and Min met her eyes briefly before Eris stepped further in the room, and the door slid shut.

"Do you want me to-…?" Lev asked, and Min shook her head.

"No, you can stay out, Lev," she said. She pulled the blanket over her lap off and swung her feet down off the floating table. She felt just fine now, all lingering pain and confusion having gone.

Eris did not move forward, and giving her a faint smile, Min gestured at the chair that Kalina had vacated.

"It's ok," she said. Those odd, glowing eyes shifted to the seat, and Morn seemed to debate silently a moment, before she moved over and sat down.

"I remember you," Min said quietly. "Whatever happened to me, whatever caused it- I have no idea about that, but while I was unconscious, I had another memory. And I remember you. You were right. We did know each other in that past life."

Eris shifted a little. "I am…unsure I want to know the details," she said softly. "And yet I desperately desire to know them at the same time."

"That's why I wanted to talk to you in private. What I remember…is really kind of personal. I won't tell the others if you don't want me to. I won't tell you if you don't want me to, either. But I wanted you to know, that I remember. I know who you were."

Eris regarded her quietly for a long time. Min didn't push, didn't speak. Morn's hands were gripping the arms of her chair as if she felt she might be thrown from it, but Min didn't think she was doing so consciously.

"I have seen and experienced unspeakable horrors, in the warren of the Hive," Eris finally said. "I have faced fears that I could not have comprehended before, in those dark spaces. Why is it this that gives me pause? Why does this fill me with anxiety?"

"I know why," Min told her gently. "I know why it scares you, and I know why it terrified me."

"Was I responsible for your death?" Eris asked with a faint tremor to her voice. "I fear that-"

"Don't fear that," Min said, shaking her head. "No. You were not responsible for my death."

If Eris felt relief at this, she did not let it show. At last, she nodded. "Tell me."

"Your name was Erisia Pyatova-Hsien," Min said. "And it was the night before Arrival…"

She told Eris about seeing her at the bar, about feeling like she knew her. She told her that she'd recognized her because they'd seen her face on some vids and ads in the weeks ramping up to Arrival.

"You were a bit of a celebrity," she said. "Not world famous, I suppose, but known. You were an extreme swimmer. You made the occasional headline, broke a couple of world records. Highest altitude swim I think was one of them. For Arrival, you were going to swim the Neve and across the Gulf of Finland, to Kotlin Island. It was freezing, but you had-"

"I had swum the Baltic," Eris said. Her hands were gripping the arms again like a vise, but her voice was filled with a kind of wonder. "And the North Pole. I thought that I could…but I was wrong…"

Her three eyes shifted a little, as she sat forward, searching her memory. Then her eyes lifted to Min's again, and Min knew she remembered.

"One of the risks of swimming in such cold temperatures is for the swimmer to abruptly sink and drown with little to no warning, even to themselves," she said slowly. "I had the kayak there next to me, and the guide ship. The fog was so thick…but I was doing fine. I felt confident, unconcerned, and then the next moment, I was under water. I was sinking and could not make my limbs obey me enough to get back to the surface."

"Yeah," Min said softly. "When the kayaker lost you he lit a red flare, started shouting. You told me that the flares would be used in case of catastrophe, kind of laughed it off but I saw the flare, realized what had happened, and-"

Morn leaned back, staring at Minerva. Most of her facial expression could not be seen, but there was a faint tremor in her lower lip for a moment. Just a moment, then gone again. "I saw you, coming through the gloom. I was nearly dead, drowning. I could feel myself going, knew I could not make it to the surface. I was dying and then there was light. A…a skim drone. And then you were there. Reaching out to me from the dark. I knew that you would save me. I…"

"I didn't," Min said sadly. "I didn't save you. By the time they pulled us both out you were…and I nearly was…"

Eris's eyes shifted again, as if searching. She swallowed once, then again, convulsively. "We talked all that night before," she said quietly. "You told me that you were a private, a medic, on leave for Arrival with your friends. We talked until the pub closed. You were so warm and so kind, and we…"

Here she broke off, then stood abruptly, and walked out the door. Min watched her go and covered her face with her hands. When Kalina gently touched her shoulder a moment later, Min lowered her hands, but did not look at the Awoken.

"Mini? Are you all right?" Kalina asked softly.

"No," Min told her, and closed her eyes. "No, I'm not even close to all right."