Phoebe's skull felt like it was going to explode. She was lying on a bed, curled up in a ball and holding her head with both hands. It had started after she exited the joined mind she had used with Sarah to transfer the memories, it was as if her brain realized that there were new memories in her mind that absolutely did not belong there. It started off as minor discomfort, then turned into a headache and now it was a pain that Phoebe was unable to describe, partially because she found it hard to form any thoughts at all.

A lot of the new memories contradicted existing ones. Phoebe's brain, like any normal brain, was used to her being her and not somebody else. Sarah had told her something similar. The memories Phoebe had received were only a fraction of Sarah's, just ones that were in some way related to Peter, which still was a respectable amount since Peter had been a sponsor of their project for a couple of years.

After some hours the memories came alive, the pain would subside and then she would be pulled into one of the memories. Phoebe would then relive it from Sarah's perspective. After each memory the pain returned to full strength before she was thrown into another memory.

Sarah stood at a high table in one of the university's hallways. In front of Sarah was a tall man with short brown hair and green eyes, he was wearing a simple yet elegant suit.

He said: "I have heard about your project. And your loss, I feel sorry for your friend. You are Sarah, right? My name is Peter."

Sarah answered: "Thank you. Why did you want to meet me?"

Peter leaned onto the table. "I have a proposition of sorts. I can provide you with funds and contacts for your research and all you have to do is to keep me updated with anything you may find out." As Sarah didn't say anything he added: "Take your time, you know how to contact me.

With those words he turned around and made his way to the exit.

As the memory faded, the pain increased again. In the few moments of clarity Phoebe had she theorized that the headache would stop once all memories had been processed… however long that would take.

Sarah now stood in the laboratory, next to her stood Harald. They were both working on welding circuits into small black metal pieces.

They were interrupted by the entrance door opening, Peter walked in.

He called out to them: "Hey, how are you doing?"

Sarah answered: "We are working on what will be my fingertip implants. I'll be able to interface with both computers and humans once I have them."

Harald added: "I'm doing what I can while I can. The MRI showed a severe decline in activity in several of my brain regions, don't know for how long I'll be able to keep standing if that continues."

Peter said: "Just be careful please, we don't want another one of you dying."

It took longer for the pain to return this time. Phoebe was able to sit up and drink some water before her head started spinning again.

Sarah was woken from her sleep by her phone ringing. She reached for it and picked up.

It was Anna, she sounded very upset, panicked almost. "Sarah, you need to come to the hospital right now. Peter had a heart attack and they are trying to revive him."

Sarah was wide awake all of a sudden. What could have caused that? Why was he at the hospital and when it happened? She decided to ask questions later.

She put on the first clothes she could find and rushed to her car, not even bothering with taking her wallet or her driver's license with her.

She arrived at the hospital ten minutes of risky driving later, she exited the car and sprinted up to the building. The staff must have been informed about her coming since she was directed to where Peter was immediately after coming in through the door.

The woman behind the counter said: "Second floor, room six.

Sarah kept on running. Up two flights of stairs and down a corridor, she almost ran over a tired surgeon who was getting ready go home. Once she arrived at room six, she opened the door. Two nurses and a doctor stood next to Peter's bed, Anna was there as well.

The doctor said: "We managed to stabilize him. He should regain consciousness any moment now."

Sarah sighed in relief.

Peter opened his eyes, groaned and tried to sit up, only for the nurses to tell him to stay down for now.

Anna asked: "What happened?"

Peter just weakly pointed at the doctor, who started explaining: "He just came in here saying that he was in the process of having a heart attack, then he collapsed. I still have no idea what exactly is happening here."

In the meantime Peter had gathered enough strength to speak. "That psychological trauma I had in school… I thought I was mostly over it thanks to your help but after all those years but something managed to bring it back."

The doctor seemed to understand. "Ah, I see. Heart failure due intense stress. It's rare but it can happen, it was good that you noticed and came here, otherwise it might have ended badly."

Peter just nodded, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Phoebe's mind was unusually clear after this memory, maybe it had something to do with the length of it, maybe it had been the last one. She thought about what she had just seen. Maybe this was the event that Sarah had told her about during the interrogation, the event because of which they had to cut away most of Peter's emotions. It was a possibility.

After the pain didn't return in half an hour Phoebe decided to go outside and talk to the others about it. Hannah would probably have an idea how to interpret those memories, even if it would be a very sparsely worded one as was usual for Hannah.

Phoebe opened the door of her container and looked around. Anna was still sitting at a computer with Gerald, probably going over the specifics of their code. Sarah was talking to one of the guards they had brought along. Hannah just stood around on the side eating a sandwich.

As Phoebe stepped out of the door she heard Anna call: "Sarah, could you come over here, Gerald would like some insight into your finger implants."

Phoebe flinched, when Anna said Sarah's name she herself had felt addressed and it had taken her a moment to remember that she was Phoebe and not Sarah. It was a little bit scary how the memory transfer already affected her.

After shaking off the feeling Phoebe walked over to Hannah who just greeted her with a hand gesture since she was in the middle of biting down on her sandwich. Phoebe then told Hannah about the decision she and Sarah had made and about the memories she had witnessed in the past hours.

Hannah just said: "Hm." After a questioning look from Phoebe she added: "Write it down. We'll look at it then."

While this was not as helpful as Phoebe would have hoped she couldn't deny that everyone should have a rough idea about Sarah's memories, if details were required Phoebe could answer. Now that she thought about it, it was really a good idea from Sarah to isolate her memories in Phoebe so that they could have a look at them with as little bias as possible.

Phoebe went back to her container, opened her laptop and started writing while the memories were still fresh in her head. There was a lot of information to go through but then again, that was her job.