The following morning saw little change.

Sure they might be knocked out, but in the few moments when they were awake, Wash and Ruby made the full use of their lungs to deafen the entire hospital wing.

And that pattern continued all night and all morning; scream, pass out, have what looked like the worlds worst nightmares, wake up, scream, repeat.

But through it all Church could only stand there worrying with a feeling that this was his fault and a growing hatred for that Felix guy everyone kept mentioning.

Church shifted from his vigil by the window with intent of getting into a more comfortable position for his ghostly limbs.

As he did so he acknowledged the others in the room.

Yang and Blake had been on opposite sides of Ruby's bed all morning and by his count still hadn't moved.

Of course Pyrrha wasn't far, usually resting on another chair, although now she was out getting some food from the cafeteria for everyone.

Sarge and Caboose were also there, but much like Church, barely a word was spoken.

Then the silence was broken by Blake.

"Why did this happen?" The Faunus suddenly said aloud.

"No idea." Was Yang's short reply.

"There has to be something to explain this." Blake insisted. "People don't just have a breakdown like this for no reason, there's signs and symptoms."

Yang flinched, something that her partner immediately picked up on.

"You know something." Blake's tone was more matter of fact than accusing.

"I'll tell you latter. "Yang promised. "But it couldn't have caused this."

"Okay." Blake nodded before sighing. "I just hope Ruby recovers."

"Me two, she was screaming like a person possessed."

It was at that point Church felt like jumping up and yelling "Eureka!" But he didn't, because he wasn't a complete dork or anything.

Ah, who was he kidding?

"Eureka!" Church shouted out, startling everyone.

And it was everyone, even Blake and Yang stopped talking to look around.

"Did you hear something?"

Blake looked around, confused. "I think so?"

"What's the word blue?" Sarge asked.

"I know how to fix this." Church told him.

"How?"

"Caboose."

The idiot in question waved at them. "Hello!"

"No offence but, no wait. complete offence blue, but what could he do to help the future of red team?" Sarge questioned.

"No not Caboose himself, but I think I can enter her head like the all those times I went into Caboose's and force Wash out, which should in theory stop it." He explained.

Sarge thought on it. "But if I remember correctly didn't you doing that with O'Malley cause irreversible brain damage to Caboose?"

They both turned to look at Caboose.

"Well, I think it could work." He endorsed the plan, which really didn't give him much confidence.

"Well, either I go in or we try and wait it out."

Sarge made a concerned noise. "Well... go for it."

Church nodded and went right next to the bed and stood there.

"Well, what's the hold up?" Sarge demanded.

"Shouldn't I say something, like a one-liner or something?"

"No just get to it!"

"Right... right." Church grumbled, before he quickly thought of a particularly cliché one. "Alright, into the breath."

Then he jumped in.

The patrol came around at exactly five minutes after dawn, precisely on schedule.

It was this type of clockwork efficiency that Locus appreciated.

Not only was it good military practice, but it also something that an experienced mercenary like him could exploit.

So, as the patrol moved past the building Locus silently sprinted over to the side of the Menagerie armoury and got to work on the lock to the back door.

Based on his research and intercepted communications the remainder of his equipment, including his invisibility enhancement and 'future' cubes, could be found within the compound.

And after researching the status and politics of the universe he found himself in, Locus was impressed with the level of security on the door.

But still it was nothing compared to even the UNSC's worst facilities.

So after a less than a minute, he was in.

The door closed behind him, Locus pulled up the old construction map he had found on his helmets Hud and followed the corridors along, skilfully avoiding the few guards inside and the cameras.

It wasn't particularly challenging, especially since he didn't have to watch Felix and prevent him from being caught.

So as he went by he tried multiple doors, taking quick peaks and closing them when he saw the lack of his equipment.

By coincidence all of the rooms he tried lacked his equipment except the last room, which when he entered it had his equipment all neatly lined up under a harsh bright light.

It looked like something from a good Hollywood movie that Felix would watch for 'research' when he could.

It was a trap, he was sure of it.

But still, there was only one thing he could do.

He stepped into the light and started methodically reequipping his equipment, snapping the invisibility enhancement into his armour, putting the sniper rifle on his back and putting the grenades on his belt.

Something then caught his eye, a scroll left open on the table, curiosity got the better of him and he picked it up to read.

It was a report on strange energy readings across the world. One of them matched the location and time of his arrival, and several more readings could be found across the world. One in Vacuo, three on an island called Patch, another three in Vale, one in Atlas and one in Mistral.

If these readings were true, then it was entirely possible that there were others in this world with him.

An intriguing possibility.

"An interesting read isn't it?" A voice called out from behind him.

Locus turned around and saw the chieftain of Menagerie, Ghira Belladonna.

This could be a problem.

Well if nothing else, Church could say that Ruby's head space was better looking than Caboose's.

While Caboose's head space was a military compound of some kind, Ruby's was a lovely looking house inside a forest.

It was very tranquil and peaceful, like a warm summers day.

But there was also a seeming lack of people or mental images of people anyway.

"Hello, anyone here?" Church called out.

With no reply Church started walking toward the house, figuring that it was his best bet.

But as he got closer the tranquil air became more and more eerie, and an existential feeling of dread slowly came over him.

Yep, that seemed about right.

By the time he had reached the door Church had a very bad feeling in his gut.

he reached over and opened the door and entered the building to very homely house, the kind of place Church wouldn't mind raising a family.

He looked around the living room when a little girl camp sprinting into the room giggling as she did so.

She had strawberry blonde hair and was wearing overalls with bright green eyes that seemed very familiar.

Then his double walked through the door.

"Slow down!" His double cried with a southern accent, this must be the director.

"But dad mom's nearly home!" The little girl cried.

"I know but that's no reason to jump around like a maniac."

The director had a daughter. "Who'd a thought?" Church mumbled before going into the door that they came from and ending up in a jungle.

Wait, what?

Church turned around and the door was gone.

"How does that work?" He pondered out loud.

But he didn't have time to think further a loud voice called out, "Get down!"

Church obliged, ducking behind a tree just in time to avoid an explosion.

"Holy shit!" He cried out. whose memory was this?

A half a dozen soldiers ducked behind the same tree Church was behind.

"Sir we're being pinned down." A slightly familiar voice reported into his radio.

"Yeah no shit David." Another one of them said.

"Quiet, orders are coming through."

This memory was no good, he needed Wash or Ruby and this memory had none of them. But how to leave...

As church pondered this a grenade landed at his feat.

"Get down!" some one cried as Church just sighed.

"Son of a-"

A bright white flash consumed his vison and when it was gone Church was in another memory.

"Happy birthday!"

"-Bitch." Church finish lamely in the middle of kids birthday.

Looks like it was one of Ruby's memories this time.

Time to get to work.

"Hey kid, Ruby." Church knelt down beside her. "Remember me?"

But Ruby didn't react, simply continuing the memory as if nothing was amiss.

He tried waving his hand, snapping his fingers under her nose and shaking her but nothing worked.

Looks like this was just a memory and that Ruby herself was most likely in a different one.

As such he left the memory through another open door which led to a big black void that had a tone of doors lining it.

"What's this?" Church asked out loud.

"A gateway." A voice informed him.

"Jesus!" Church yelled out, surprised to get an actual answer.

He turned around to see Blake sitting on a chair in the void, a book in hand.

"Christ kid you scared the shit out of me." Church said before frowning under his helmet. "Wait, how the hell are you here?"

"I'm not." She flipped another page. "I am simply Ruby's mental image of Blake."

Oh yeah, he'd forgotten that was a thing.

"That's cool, but shouldn't there be more of you?" He asked.

"There is, but they've all been scattered due to the arrival of the other." Ruby's mental image of Blake explained.

"Right, then can you help me, I need to find 'the other' calls himself Washington, if I find him then I can get him out and everything will return to normal."

"That door there." Blake pointed the door over to Church's right before returning to her book.

Church looked back and forth from the door to Blake. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Seems convenient."

"Are you complaining?"

"No, no, no." Church denied. "It's just... uh..."

"Just what?"

"you know what, I'm just going do it." Church said awkwardly.

Blake gave a neutral hum as church walked away, coming to the door in question.

It was the same type of door as all the others, so Church wasn't quite sure what made Blake so sure Wash was behind this one, probably some kind of weird brain stuff.

Still, if Wash was here then it must be pretty terrible, as such Church took a minute to steel himself and then he entered the room.

But what he found didn't seem particularly disturbing.

Wash was just sitting there, on a chair at what looked like a kitchen table, a warm cup of coffee in his hand and a letter on the table.

"Hello Church." He greeted, sounding just plain exhausted.

"Hey Wash, ready to get out of here?" He asked.

"I... I don't think I can." Wash replied, exhaustion pouring into every word.

"Sure you can." Church encouraged. "Hey, I'll even do all the heavily lifting."

Wash went silent and turned his head to the letter on the desk.

"What's that your reading?"

"The letter you and he got home informing them that Allison-" The room shook at the word. "Was K.I.A."

"Come on." Church put a hand on Wash's shoulder. "Lets get out of here, you can continue this when your outside the head of a kid."

"Alright." He said more agreeably than he'd ever heard the freelancer be.

"Okay, just hold on I guess."

Church shifted slightly, closed his eye's focussing on Washington.

And then they left.

As simple as that.

As it turns out trying to pull someone out of another persons conscience took a lot more effort than you thought.

As a result, Church felt absolutely wiped as he tumbled onto the floor, Washington's unconscious body not far behind him.

"Did it work?"

"Well agent Washingtub is here so I will say yes."

"I'm fine by the way." Church grumbled as he got up. "Just to let you know, that was a lot harder than it looked."

"I know, sleeping is very hard."

"Shut up Caboose."

Sarge made a humming noise. "Shouldn't little red here be waking up right about now?"

True to Sarge's word Ruby hadn't stirred from Church's leaving, with the sole exception of her face looking slightly more peaceful.

"Well, I mean it has been a traumatic experience, so she'll probably be unconscious for a little bit longer." Church theorised.

"For how long?"

"What do I look like, a medic?"

"Of course not, not nearly enough purple." Sarge said. "But let's hope that she wakes up soon."

"Yeah, lets hope."

Notes:

And that's the end of that chapter.

Not much to say in terms of notes for this chapter, only that Locus is fun to write.

As always thanks every one for reading and extra thanks to commenters/reviewers, you guys and gals make my day!

Next time, Ruby wakes up, Cinder receives a call and more! But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.

Review replies:

Jerry12344321: As you wish.

ReaderWarrior: Well, I hope you don't mind me stealing that idea for the next chapter. And thanks for the offer, if I ever need a beta I'll let you know.

Brain.H.H: Indeed.

Annonamous Elephant: Thanks! that means a lot to me!