A/N: I hope you all enjoy this chapter as we tie up some loose ends before the final arc approaches. Another shout out to DiLithiumDragon and SandrC for betaing!


"...And it was right there between a bunch of papers. Weird, huh?"

Frazie turned the question mark in her hand, showing it off to Lili, but made sure to dematerialize it before it popped. Lili shrugged. "I dunno. If any person's head would have Confusion in it, it'd definitely be Vernon's. I just can't believe you got to go inside True Psychic Tales...!"

"Oh?" They stepped through the silent forest on the way back to the GPC, Frazie filling Lili in on what she'd missed along the way. "You don't happen to like those comic books, do you?"

Lili's eyes shot wide as she realized what she'd let slip. "Uh... no! I just thought... you know... you mentioned the Motherlobe, and..." Excuses failed her. It was time for her last resort. "Shut up."

Frazie snickered. Feeling merciful, she quickly changed the subject. "Anyway... we know what the tower is. We know where the tower is. We know we need to stop a crazy doctor that makes people sneeze their brains out and has a pet lake monster. But something still isn't adding up."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, why does he want a bunch of kids' brains? What's he doing with them? And how is this massive lake thing getting around without anyone noticing it?"

Lili glanced up at her, brow raised. "Does it matter why? We're going to kick his butt regardless."

She wasn't wrong. "I guess not. But it just feels like we're missing something... and maybe we can figure out that last bit if I dive back into the dream with Sasha's help one last time. I need to go tell him about the debrained kid corral we're keeping in the TV room, anyway," she noted.

Their destination was right up ahead. The wire cage of the Geodesic Psychoisolation Chambers appeared between the trees, across the bridge. Jogging the rest of the way, the girls entered the enclosure, glancing up at the hither and thither hodgepodge of steel domes. "Alright," Frazie announced. "I'll head on in, you wait out here."

Lili peered up at her again. "...Why?"

"Because he said his lab's secret."

Lili scoffed. "Hardly. You're not the first to be picked for his 'secret' training. You're just one of the ones that didn't run crying from it."

Huh. Suddenly, Frazie was feeling a little less special. "Well... he's only expecting me, and I'm already having a hard enough time convincing him of anything without bringing friends along to put him on guard. Let's just let him think his lab's secret a little longer, alright?"

"Uggggh... fine." Lili kicked at the ground, bummed. Pursing her lips, Frazie looked around for something that might keep her busy.

Bingo. Frazie reached down to direct her attention off towards the side of the area. A long, sturdy stick laid twisting up and down along the ground, long fallen, long forgotten. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm thinking it's a branch."

"Well, yeah, it's a branch. But... it could also be good practice. You can work on your balance. All you need to do is try to get from one side to the other without falling."

"Anyone can do that!" Lili protested.

"But not everyone can do it quickly." To prove her point, Frazie let her go to hop up on the wood and tiptoe across it in no time at all, arms out to keep steady all the way. "You don't start with the tightrope, you know. You start small and work your way up!"

Lili huffed. "I guess." After a moment's thought, she finally walked over and stood on the end, her foot slipping back down to the grass after only a few steps. "Grr...!"

"Arms out!" Frazie called, walking backwards towards the chambers. "I won't be long! And if the lake creature shows up, go invisible and get out of here, alright?"

The kid threw her a thumbs up and Frazie spun on her heel, bouncing off her Levitation orb to skip straight to the highest dome.

Inside, the hatch sat still cracked open just barely enough for her to wedge her fingers in and lift. Finding the footholds, she lowered herself down into the 'secret' depths.


She descended down the glass steps, the underground chamber a familiar sight by now. Surprise, surprise, she spotted Sasha still plugging away at his machine. She was sure his experiments were fascinating, but he could probably spend a bit more time, you know, camp counseling. He showed his face here and there, but his constant escapes to the lab certainly weren't helping keep the lake creature at bay.

The man looked up when he heard her reach the bottom. "Ah, Frazie, good to see you again. I was beginning to think all the campers were avoiding activities today."

She approached, pointing back up towards the exit. "That's because all their brainless bodies are hanging out in the main lodge!"

Sasha frowned, adjusting his shades with a low hmph. "Are we still on this childish charade? First, you say they're in danger. Now, you say they're here relaxing in the lodge."

Here we go again. Inside, Frazie was screaming, but on the outside, she was desperate to prove her case. "Both can be true! In fact, it is!"

Sasha held up a hand, shutting her down. "Ms. Aquato, please. I know trips to camp bring out people's mischievous sides, but this has gone far enough. You're already on thin ice from the Phoebe incident. Now you expect me to believe your outlandish claims after you come out of nowhere, break into the facility, and start yelling about a grand brain robbery the very next day? You expect me to believe someone managed to slip under the noses of multiple Psychonaut veterans, kidnap at least a dozen children, and then ever-so-kindly let their bodies wander back?"

...Alright, when he put it that way, he kinda had a point. Even she knew it was stacked against her, but she had to keep trying. "I know it sounds suspicious, but if you'd just go look...!"

"I don't need to. I can sense Milka and Elton's brainwaves in the same place they were."

Frazie opened her mouth to retort, her patience thinning - then paused, an idea popping in her head. Smiling almost smugly, she crossed her arms and leaned back. "And where are the other kids' brainwaves?"

Sasha shook his head, then touched his noggin. "If it'll finally put this game to rest, I'll check. The other campers are presently..."

He went quiet. Frazie could see his brow furrow, his lips parting in confusion as he tried to logically explain what he was sensing. "...Across the lake? How is this possible...?"

"BECAUSE! THEIR BRAINS! ARE NOT! IN THEIR BODIES! ADOY!" Frazie ranted, tapping her head with each word. She wasn't proud of it, but boy, was it justified.

Sasha eyed her, unamused, but finally sighed. "Yes, well, I suppose I deserved that. I'm still skeptical of this missing brain claim, but something is clearly amiss. Fortunately, Milla already went to go investigate."

Frazie recalled seeing the other counselor back at the docks earlier. "Has she found anything yet?"

"No, but I'd say it's about time I checked in with her," Sasha decided. Especially after this new revelation.

"Yeeeeeeessssss." Frazie clenched a fist in triumph - then cleared her throat. "I mean... thank you for listening." She added a soft finally at the end. "But there's something else I came here for." She pointed towards the hai-... brain tumbler. "I've been practicing and learning stuff all day while I looked into all this. I think if I go back in, I might be able to find some more info that could help you two out."

Sasha stroked his chin, considering her proposal. "If you think it might help. I'll send you back in and attempt to keep an eye on you while I reach out to Milla."

Finally, things were going her way. A hop in her step, Frazie headed for the machine. "Same procedure as last time?"

"Correct. Just give me a moment to prepare the tumbler."

For a moment, there was just awkward silence as Frazie stood in front of the machine, not a sound between them but the beeps and clicks of Sasha fiddling with his console. After a moment, he decided to fill the empty space. "So, what have you learned?"

"Well..." Frazie recounted all the day's adventures. "Invisibility... Clairvoyance... and also this," Frazie murmured, conjuring a question mark in her palm - making sure not to set it off. "Lili said it was Confusion."

"Did you cause any lasting trauma to the children along the way?"

"What? No! They're all better off than when I first arrived! I swear."

"Is that so?" The man chuckled, the smallest of smiles on his face. "My apologies for the accusation, Frazie. I know I haven't been the most trusting... but believe it or not, I want these children to flourish. To grow into talented, responsible young Psychonauts. Even you. I, myself, wasn't too sure about letting you run around with that tampered portal, even if the experiment would provide valuable data. I think I'm starting to see that perhaps I should trust you a little more."

After all the resistance, all the denial, that one sentence alone made all the tribulations worth it. Maybe she could finally work with the counselors instead of around them, now. Frazie shut her eyes and smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Nein."

When she opened them again, a patch was hovering in front of her face. The same one she'd seen in Vernon's mind, only a lot more tangible. "I see you're missing a badge. Here."

With pride in her chest - and a lot of pins over it - Frazie accepted it and set the badge with the rest of her collection. Finally, a complete diamond on her shawl.

Maybe she was a good fit for this whole 'psychic' thing after all.

A moment later, the machine behind her whirred to life. "Just take a deep breath, relax, and I'll speak to you on the other side," Sasha instructed.

Frazie nodded. Once more, the brain tumbler spun and shook. Something tugged at the back of her head and she felt herself falling backwards into the infinite abyss of the Collective Unconscious.

Sasha looked at her, then forward again, his mind reaching out while he worked. Even with an entire lake between them, the familiar warmth of his partner's mind could be traced. "Have you found anything yet, Milla?"

Her voice floated back, airy, light. "Oh, Sasha! I've been looking for a cave system, but all I see is that old asylum... and Coach's brainwaves are coming from it."

"And the children?" He knew how she'd respond, and his lips grew taut.

"Let me... oh my stars. They're here. They're all here."

"All?"

"Most, but there's so many of the kids here! At least seventeen. It doesn't make any sense. I'm going in to investigate. If this doorman will just let me in..."

Sasha's brow furrowed. "Doorman? I thought the place was abandoned."

"Me, too."

More puzzle pieces were falling into place, and none of them fit together. "Be careful, Milla. Something's not adding up." He glanced to Frazie, the girl deep in her trance as she made her way into the Collective Unconscious. "I'd join you, but I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment."

"That's fine, darling, I can handle myself. I'll keep in touch!"

"Just let me know if you need any assistance. I'll be on standby."

"Wonderful, baby. I'll check in again soon."

Their connection died down, their conversation complete, and yet Sasha didn't feel any better. Once more, he tried to reach out to Coach and found his attempts futile. He pressed gloved fingers to his face, sighing, trying to make any of this any clearer.

All of Frazie's claims had been completely asinine... but they made a lot more sense if Morceau was involved. He could've taken the two kids across the lake and used tracking them down as an excuse to appear busy while he moved other campers across. But he hadn't moved from the lake, Sasha checked in on his brain waves to make sure of it... yet the soldier had been nothing but suspicious since they lost contact with him and Milla went out to go investigate...

Nothing made sense.

Hoping against hope his worries were unfounded, that Milla would find their colleague and the kids safe and unharmed, Sasha tried to focus on viewing Frazie's data on the console. But the more he thought on it, the harder it was to come up with a scientific explanation for it all. He'd had the utmost faith in his peer, and didn't want to consider it was being used against them. If Morceau had been lying to them after Sasha had defended his competency to Ford...

Scheiße. Just what was Oleander up to?


More doors had opened up in the subconscious conglomerate, just like Sasha had claimed, their destinations as varied as their designs. A skeevy city where people's faces were just starting to return. An infinite galaxy where a lone astronaut tried to train their new crew. A world of imagination and ideas, where a storyteller spun new tales to continuous applause.

But there was only one mind here she was interested in.

Pacing around the ring past all of them, she cracked open her own door and ducked inside.

Bleak stone walls greeted her, as well as cell bars. The same spot she'd first ended up in. At least the exit was open this time... and her little bunny guide was there waiting for her, as if she'd never left.

"We meet again, BFF." Frazie stepped out to join him, the bunny promptly hopping off with her in pursuit. "Let's try this again."

Her headspace was just as unnerving as ever. Cells indented in the walls, chains and sconces hanging all around... and more meat, stuck to the walls, bunched up in the corners.

She was starting to regret having hot dogs for dinner. Seriously.

And this bunny... was it a bad idea to follow it? Was it a Bad Idea itself? If it was, it was a cute one at least. The only thing it shared in common with those things was its long ears and stature. It looked back at her as they walked, its nose twitching, and she didn't have the heart to try and label it anymore.

She shelved that thought for later. Ma and Pa watchtower were coming up down the path.

Looming overhead, the twin structures continued to swivel, their lights illuminating the way and scanning back and forth. Their faces still made her skin crawl. Yep. Still looked like Mom and Dad. At least this time she knew how to avoid alerting every mental entity hiding in this dungeon.

The rabbit pounced on ahead, undetected by the spotlights. Cheater. Not foolish enough to do the same, Frazie cloaked herself in Invisibility and followed after.

She didn't know why, but sneaking through the spotlights made her gut wrench with guilt, as if she was actually sneaking under her parents' noses. You'd think she'd be used to that by now after two days of indulging in everything they opposed. Despite the uneasy feeling it gave Frazie, the towers stayed oblivious to her passing right under their lights. She just had to remind herself it was all in her head. Literally.

Soon, they were in the clear, and Frazie made herself visible again. They continued on.

Frazie was starting to wish she had someone to talk to, the place leaving her uneasy and her partner not much for conversation. ...Wait, she did, actually. "Sasha?" she called out.

"Any obstructions, Frazie?"

"Not yet. I made it past the alarms. Now we're just whoooOOOOAAAAAH...!"

Frazie teetered and wobbled before a hole, arms pinwheeling. Finally catching herself, she took a couple steps back, staring dejectedly at what lie ahead. "Uh... scratch that. There's an obstruction. ...A big one." Her little helper sat off to the side, scratching its ear while she stepped up and peered over the edge.

It was the end of the world. Like, the actual end of the world.

The walls and floor of the dungeon abruptly ended, as if someone had ripped the rest of it out. Pure darkness was all that remained. Cautiously, she dipped her foot into the abyss - yep. Nothing there. She picked up a stray slab of beef with her mind and flung it into the pit. She never heard it land.

She looked to the rabbit for answers, and it stared right back, tilting its head. It looked like even it had no idea what to do.

"Say, Sasha," Frazie mumbled aloud. "What does it mean when there's a huge hole in my head? Like, there's nothing in front of me."

"What?" Her helper went silent a moment. "Normally such a big gap would indicate some sort of mental blockage... or a chunk of the brain being missing. According to my readings, though, your mind is completely healthy." Looking around and ahead, Frazie wasn't sure if that was reassuring or not. "Do you see anything out there?"

Frazie squinted into the darkness. It just looked like a bunch of blackness to her. ...Wait. She peered even closer.

Shadows.

Floating in the void were silhouettes, big and small. They were hard to make out against the gloom, but they were there. Silent. Unmoving. Maybe even a trick of the imagination.

"There's something," Frazie reported. "Hold on, let me try something."

Concentrating, Frazie cast her mental reach out into the void. To her relief, she felt it hone in towards the nearest shade. Closing her own eyes, she tried to see through her target's... if it had any.

Turns out, it did. And it saw the world a lot differently.

Her Clairvoyance revealed paths, stretching out across the void, twisting and turning. Annnnd it started just a bit to her right.

Skeptical, Frazie dropped the connection and took a step to her side, tapping the pit again. To her surprise, her foot found purchase. Huh.

She set her foot flat, the invisible route stable. "Come on, buddy," she called to her furry friend before stepping out into the nothingness. "I'm leading the way this time."

Entering the figure's mind again, she followed the unseen path very carefully. The bunny hesitated at first, but followed after soon enough, hopping very slowly behind her. It took some work, but soon, the dungeon fell farther and farther behind as they crossed the chasm.

Whenever she got too far from her borrowed eyes, she latched onto the next one, the unusual figures proving very useful at least as she followed their gaze into the unknown.

It didn't take long for the secret path to bear fruit, a speck appearing on the horizon. A few more steps closer, and Frazie could see their destination.

The tower.

The spire of thorns and brick, hoisting a brain high up into the sky far out ahead in the darkness. "I found it!" Frazie called, quickly sight-jacking her way across the rest of the path.

"Well done," Sasha praised. "I'm afraid you're on your own for figuring it out, though. There's no record of such an unusual structure in subconscious texts. Its mysteries are for you to discover."

She figured that'd be the case. "I'll reach out if I need any more help, then."

"Good luck, Ms. Aquato."

Taking a moment to appreciate being back on visible ground, Frazie glanced around for her critter friend... and saw he'd already scampered off to find the entrance without her. "Hey! Wait up!"

Catching up, she chased it around the building. There didn't seem to be a safe way to climb it, the vines too tight, the thorns too sharp. Fortunately, around back, a lone entranceway sat... guarded.

Another shadow stood in the doorway, this one squat, with dull eyes. When she drew close, it looked up, its unflinching gaze locked on her face.

"Uhhhh... hi," Frazie greeted awkwardly with a wave. She got a blank glance in response. "Any chance you could let me by?"

The figure stayed silent.

"Right. Alright, fine, let me just..." She put her hands on it and tried to squeeze past it, climb over it. No dice. There just wasn't enough room.

It was time to get assertive. "You asked for it." Frazie lunged for the shadow and pulled, grunting and yanking to no effect. It was surprisingly stuck for something so small and lacking a physical body.

She ramped it up a bit. She hit it, only for her fist to bounce off. She set it aflame, and the creature just blinked at her through the fire. Telekinesis didn't budge it. Ramming into it with her shield only left her knocked on her back.

"Come on!" Running out of options, Frazie stepped back and called on Confusion. She wasn't expecting much, but she let the grenade fly nonetheless.

The shade looked down as it clanked to a stop by its feet. It stared at it, leaning down just a bit to get a closer look.

The explosion enveloped it. When the flash cleared, the figure wobbled on its feet, staggering to and fro without reason or purpose. Frazie silently cheered to herself as it wandered off away from the door.

Frazie ran for the entrance before the thing could come back. There, the bunny awaited her, standing off to the side. It didn't plan to follow her. Its job was done.

She squatted down to pat it quickly anyway. "Thanks, BFF." The critter nuzzled her fingers just briefly before she stood again, bid it farewell, and ran inside.


Inside the tower, in its highest chamber, a panel in the floor shifted. It lifted just a teeny bit, letting Frazie peek through the gap.

She could see... a pair of shoes. Fascinating. Eyes trailing up the leg, she recognized Loboto, his laughter ringing around the small room while he clutched Milka's brain right beside her.

It was like her dream had paused, just waiting for her to return. How polite. And now, she had front row seats.

Loboto cackled with manic glee, his operation going off without a hitch, his sneeze powder perfected. The celebration was short-lived, though. His laughter died down when a loud ringing buzzed around the chamber.

"Always when I'm gloating," Loboto muttered under his breath. The twisted doctor reached for a phone on the wall, talking with someone she couldn't hear. "Ah, yes! The procedure was a rousing success! Feel free to start bringing in more patients... we'll have everyone cavity-free in no time." He listened as the person on the other end rambled a bit. "Yes, I still expect full payment even if I get it done under estimate!" He covered the receiver and leaned over, whispering to Milka's brainless body. "Unbelievable. People are so unprofessional nowadays."

Frazie strained to listen in, to see if she could make out who was on the other end... but no dice. All she could hear was Loboto's footfalls and his eccentric tone.

And also, to her good fortune, a thud sounding from the adjacent room. The doctor heard it too, snapping his head towards it. "Oh! One moment. I think the sailor boy fell out of his chair. And I still need to give him his lollipop!"

Loboto dropped the receiver, letting it bonk against the wall, carrying Milka's brain underarm as he departed... stomping on Frazie's tile as he went. "Hmmm... uneven floor. I should fix that."

The man left, the door sliding shut behind him, and a pained Frazie lifted the tile back up a second later. Rubbing her aching head, she quickly climbed up into the dentist's room.

It was rather bare, aside from the rotary attached to the veiny walls... and Milka's chair. Frazie cast the kid a concerned glance, watching her try to suck on her arm. There was nothing Frazie could do for her, not yet.

But she would. She just needed to get to the bottom of this.

Tiptoeing over to the abandoned line, she lifted the phone and listened. Silence. She cleared her throat, hoping to prompt a response on the other end.

She got one. Just... not what she expected.

The phone suddenly whirred like a vacuum. The mouthpiece sucked with incredible force, snagging her hair. "What the...?" Then, her cheek. "Wait...!" Defying all logic, the pressure intensified until her whole head went in, followed by the rest of her.

The phone swallowed her whole, passing her along the phone line. To where, she wasn't sure. She tumbled through, a very confused electric current falling over and over through the darkness to an undisclosed location.

It finally spat her out into a chair. Frazie gasped and clutched at her face, making sure all of her had made it through. Alright, she was intact.

But where was she?

She landed at a desk, stuck in a dark office room that seemed oddly familiar. The only other thing around her were a few posters shrouded by the shadows and some assorted pages spread out on the tabletop.

Drawn to them, she scooted closer to investigate, leafing through them. Some were orders for materials, steel, glass, treads, fuel. Assorted military and Psychonauts applications marked with big, fat DECLINEDs. Assorted ramblings, scheming, other things that didn't make much sense to her.

And blueprints. Frazie leaned over the large blue documents, studying them. She wasn't quite sure what she was looking at. Large hunks of metal scribed in white ink, lifted by sturdy treads and carrying brains stuck to the front in large domes.

She might not entirely understand what it meant at a glance, but the label in the corner of the paper made its subject scarily clear.

Psychic Brain Tanks.

Frazie mouthed the words to herself, in disbelief. Someone was building tools of war and piloting them with... kid's minds? Who else's brains could've been in the sketch? That was messed up. Who the heck would come up with something like that?

Suddenly, a loud boom echoed around her.

Jumping out of her seat, Frazie spun as the walls around her rattled. One by one they fell, toppling outwards, crashing to the floor and disappearing.

The darkness lit up with light, the shadowy room replaced with a long white hallway. One that looked worryingly familiar.

And just in case it didn't, the shadow of a man standing in the doorway at the far end of it did.

"Coach?!" Frazie stepped around the desk, staring down at him. She'd had her suspicions ever since Ford mentioned how strange Coach was acting, slowly growing... but the counselor hadn't been capturing children for the mad doctor's sake.

Loboto had been working for him.

The short man's fiery glare sent a chill down her spine. For a moment, their eyes locked, neither backing down... until finally, he spoke. "So what do you think, soldier?"

What did she think?! That was something you asked about your dinner plans, not your scheme for stealing kid's brains and making them weapons. Her mouth opened and closed, at a loss for words. "What... is all this?" was all she could get out.

"A plan long in the making," Coach answered brusquely. "These kids are just what we need to shake the country to its core. Indestructible, indomitable tools of war... if used correctly. It might seem ghastly, but on the battlefield, you do whatever it takes to win. And we will win. We will show the world it can't reject us. Not anymore."

"We've been cast aside for far too long, Frazie," he went on, hands behind his back. "Because of our gifts. Because of our methods. Or worst of all... because of our height," Coach growled, shaking a fist. "It's time for a glorious new age where the Psychonauts are on top of the world instead of just working for it!"

Frazie balked. "That's..."

"Brilliant!" Coach finished for her.

"I wasn't going to-"

But he cut her off, suddenly eying her intensely. "When you first arrived, I thought you were just some cannon fodder with a way with words. But look at you now... all those badges, gleaming with pride on your chest."

Frazie glanced down, lifting her shawl to see the diamond of patterns pinned along it. "My... merit badges?"

"Precisely. Those are more than just some flimsy patchwork, girly. They show all you've managed to cram into that brain of yours in just a couple days. They show just how flexible your mind is, how much potential it has! They show... that you're the perfect fit to lead my new army into battle." He held up a hand, clenching it tight. "All you'd need to do is lend your mind to the cause."

She was going to be sick. She'd just been honing her long-ignored talents, working hard to make something of herself... and he'd seen it as a test of her capability, to judge if she was the perfect tool for his scheme. If he had his way, she'd be the next one in Loboto's operating room.

Like hell she'd let that happen.

"So..." Coach repeated, voice low. "What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Frazie poured all her feeling into her carefully-constructed response. "I think you're completely out of your freaking mind!"

Coach huffed, but didn't seem too surprised. "Am I, Frazie? Or am I the only one here with the vision and drive to get things done?"

"No, you're really just absolutely insane."

Coach jabbed a finger up at her. "They thought Newton was crazy, too! Van Gogh! Bonaparte! I taught a giant fish how to tiptoe!" Coach's scowl deepened... and then curved upward into a sinister sneer. "Don't say I didn't give you an easy way out, cadet. You could've been the general of my army, the two of us carving a glorious new age for psychics. Now, I'll have to make you my tank commander by force."

"Fat chance!" She was done trying to reason with this megalomaniac. Frazie lunged forward, fist raised, ready to knock this stupid plan right out of his head.

Her punch stopped an inch from his face. Startled, she tried to push forward, straining against the unseen force grabbing her. It was futile. Her feet left the ground as she floated upward, held aloft.

"Did you forget? You're in my mind! I run the show in here. This is my world, missy, and you are not welcome in my world!" Coach taunted. "We'll meet again soon, kid. Dismissed!"

With a laugh, he launched her skyward, up and out of his head. His chortling followed her all the way out.


Frazie's head spun - partly because of all she'd just learned, but also because she'd been roughly ejected back out into the Collective Unconscious.

Tumbling over herself, she landed on her back in a daze, trying to piece everything together. The kids kidnapped by Loboto and his creation, all to fuel a crazy soldier's plan for world domination. That was how the thing had been getting around unseen... Oleander had been feeding it his knowledge of the area, showing it all the secret routes and tricks it'd need to go undetected.

Frazie jolted upright. She needed to tell Sasha everything.

"Sasha!" she called out into the nether. "You've not going to believe what I just saw!"

"Milla?"

"What? No, why would she be in here?"

"Milla!"

"Uh, no? It's Frazie? What are you..." Once more Frazie felt herself getting yanked around. "WhooooooooOOOOOA...!"

The blue world collapsed in on itself, regrowing into the slate walls of Sasha's compound. Frazie stumbled forward in reality once more, the brain tumbler whirring to a stop behind her. Ejected from the mental world twice in succession... just a liiiiittle bit disorienting. Slowly coming to her senses, she looked around, trying to find the counselor.

The man was already halfway up the stairs. Frazie reached out to him. "Wait! What's going on? I need to tell you something!"

"I'm sorry, Frazie," Sasha called down as he climbed. "I had to abort the experiment. Something unbelievingly urgent has come up and I need to leave immediately."

Was Milla in trouble? Frazie's face fell... and fell further knowing that Sasha was running headlong into danger unaware. "Wait, I know what's goi-!"

"Hold that thought." Sasha reached the ladder and floated right up it. "In a rush. Official Psychonauts business."

A second later, she was alone."I told you something was wrong!" Frazie shouted up the stairs after him, stomping her foot in frustration.

But being vindicated didn't make her feel any better. Coach, plotting maniacal deeds with the brains of the campers... and the remaining counselors walking right into his trap. She could only pray that Milla was alright, and that Sasha knew what he was getting into.

Deep in her gut, though, she knew things were about to get worse. And there was only one person left who might be able to help them get a handle on things.


This isn't the last we've seen of Frazie's strange little headspace. The counselors are gone, few (if any) campers remain, and Coach's involvement has been made clear. Things are going South real fast. The twisted spires wait on the horizon...