Kaitlyn wasn't even sure where to start with this memory.

The angel girl often forgot how long Pit had been around before she came into his life. He was practically an elderly man, if his angel years had been converted to human years. He had seen more than she could possibly ever imagine. So it wasn't as though she was surprised when she ended up sometime so foreign to her, but she couldn't say she was excited either.

For this memory, her clothes had changed back into her toga, which made sense. Kuro's memory was on Earth, where humans wore completely different clothing than angels did. But Pit had spent most of his time around angels, in Angel Land or in the Underworld during the time of his capture. So her uncomfortable clubbing dress had been replaced with her much softer and more relaxed toga.

The landscape around her was obviously easy to recognize. This was Angel Land, but it seemed slightly smaller. There were less buildings, more open air and fields. In the distance, she could see the farmlands on smaller islands. Were those still there now? When all of this was over, Kaitlyn would ask Pit. Maybe they could go visit. She liked farms.

She felt a twinge of nostalgia. It had hardly been a week since leaving Angel Land to chase after Eris, but it felt as though it had been years. She had forgotten how much she missed her home. Her eyes followed the familiar, yet foreign, skyline, hovering over the massive roof of Palutena's Temple last. She wondered for a moment if Lady Palutena was here as well. Did she look the same?

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She needed to find Pit and fast. Every moment she wasted was another moment that Kuro could be killed. It wasn't that she didn't trust in the dark angel's ability to defend himself, but even he couldn't stand up to a chaos goddess for long.

She glanced around, hoping to immediately spot Pit. But he was nowhere to be seen. There were other angels milling about, but Kaitlyn didn't recognize any of them immediately. She suddenly wondered if any of them could see her, or if she was completely invisible. She didn't have time to test it out.

She unfurled her wings and took to the air, pumping them hard in order to stay aloft. It appeared that there was no wind, so she had to work even harder. She winced a little, feeling the twinge in her limbs from the strain.

There was an updraft much higher in the sky, allowing Kaitlyn to hover a bit with less effort. With her bird's eye view, she could easily see most of Angel Land. But she didn't have the same eagle eyesight of natural angels. She squinted, trying hard to pinpoint the particular angel she was looking for. She knew Pit was supposed to be grey and colorless, like Kuro had been, but unlike the library in Kuro's memory, Angel Land was a wash of white. Finding Pit wasn't going to be easy.

Hold on…is that Nighthawk?

She nearly paused as she caught sight of a quickly moving dark head far below her. There were numerous dark-skinned angels in Angel Land, but if this one really was Nighthawk, then he might be able to lead her to Pit. The two had been friends for a long time, maybe they were still friends at this point.

Kaitlyn tucked her wings into a dive and dropped to the ground. Diving was fun for her, except for the fact that she was still horrible at pulling out of them. It put so much strain on her back that sometimes she thought her wings were going to rip right off. But she had faith in Palutena's magical abilities. Her wings would hold.

With a grunt, she landed right next to the angel, having to speed up her walk in order to keep up with the small angel. Before she even saw the angel's face, she knew it was Nighthawk and that her hunch had been correct. She didn't know any other angel who walked at such a brisk pace, fluttering every so often so his wings would propel him forwards at an even quicker pace. Every movement was as efficient as it could be, and she could hear muttering coming from the angel ahead of her.

Finally, with a few bounds, Kaitlyn managed to catch up to Nighthawk. At this point, she wasn't quite sure if he couldn't see her, or if he was just too focused to know that Kaitlyn was there at all. Nighthawk was definitely younger than Kaitlyn was used to seeing him. His thick curly hair was longer and his face much rounder. But his golden eyes were still narrowed and filled with focus. And he seemed to still enjoy talking to himself.

"No responsibility," Nighthawk muttered. "Said he was going to help me…off being stupid…" He grumbled a few times and his feathers flared out for a moment in frustration. His sandals slapped on the ground angrily.

Kaitlyn followed Nighthawk step for step, having to speed walk to even keep up. Even at this point in his life, Nighthawk still had longer legs than Kaitlyn.

He led Kaitlyn from the Residential District to the Training District area. Kaitlyn glanced around, trying to find the differences between the Angel Land she knew and the one she was now in, while keeping an eye on Nighthawk.

As they walked deeper into the Training Area, Kaitlyn became aware of the faint sounds of yelling and cheering. It wasn't totally odd; after all, they were in the place where angels trained and competed against one another. But they seemed to be headed directly towards the noise, and so it grew louder.

It was only after Nighthawk led her up a slight incline that Kaitlyn suddenly knew where they were. She had been here, but only as a spectator. This was the place of the angels' greatest form of entertainment: the Airball Arena.

It wasn't much of an arena, really. Wooden posts, as thick as tree trunks, hung suspended in the air. They were there purely by magic alone, seeing as there was nothing to hold them up. It spread out a good several hundred feet, but both "goals" consisted of two posts that were attached to various islands. This was supposedly to help keep the balls from falling through the Cloud Barrier when a goal was made. It didn't do much either way. Still, the islands made good seats for spectators.

Airball to the angels was basically the equivalent of football to humans; only the elite could really play well, and the angels were very, very competitive. To them, Airball was practically a religion. You either followed Airball teams, or you didn't. There was no in between.

Kaitlyn found Airball fun enough, but she could hardly play it, even just a pickup game for fun. Her flying skills were hardly up to par, and a player had to be incredibly fast and agile to keep up with the lightning-quick shots and defenders.

A team was currently playing at the Arena, but Nighthawk wasn't slowing down. If anything, his pace quickened when he saw the players. He took a running leap and shot into the air, moving towards the players, who were in the middle of what appeared to be a scrimmage.

He placed his hands over his mouth and screamed, "PIT!"

The angels who were playing stopped their game, the ball landing directly in the thin hands of an angel girl, which Kaitlyn realized with a start was a younger Kestrel. Even from the ground, Kaitlyn could see the annoyance on her face. "You'd better have a good reason for interrupting practice, Nighthawk."

Nighthawk's body went even more rigid, as though his irritation hadn't been clear enough. "Lady Palutena assigned me to find Pit."

Out from behind Kestrel, moving very slowly, came a very young, round-faced Pit. Kaitlyn's couldn't see him very well, but his wings were very small, and were pumping hard to keep him in a hovering position. He looked embarrassed. "Hey Nighthawk."

Nighthawk's jaw set. "Pit, can I speak to you over there? On the ground?"

Pit's shoulders drooped for a moment. "Yeah, sure," he replied quietly and the two of them made their way back to the grassy Training District ground, where Kaitlyn was waiting.

Kaitlyn knew this was her chance. She needed to grab the chains inside of Pit, which tinkled lightly as he landed, and fix them. But she was entranced by the image of such a young Pit. His wings were tiny, like a little baby bird, and far out of proportion. Was this what his wings had looked like when he had come to Earth? No wonder he hadn't been able to fly properly.

Nighthawk immediately began his lecture on why Pit shouldn't be flying as much as he was, and Pit rolled his eyes in frustration. It was obvious that he had gotten this talk multiple times, and Kaitlyn was surprised he even let Nighthawk talk to him like that. After all, they were both the same age. But he endured it, even if his gaze was both bored and annoyed. His eyes, which would have been bright blue if not for the nasty black and white colors he had reverted to without his memories, were filled with determined. Kaitlyn knew that this was not the last lecture that he was going to get from his best friend.

This was Kaitlyn's chance. She knelt down in front of him and glanced inside of the void that hung inside of his body. But where Kuro's hadn't been too far back, Pit's was huge. It was like a warehouse of chains. This was literally going to take hours, and Kuro didn't have that kind of time.

She needed to stop worrying herself. She took a deep breath and plunged her hands into the massless void and began the slow work of putting Pit's memories back together.

While Kuro's memories had been full of battles, pain, and intense mental states, most of Pit's were much lighter. This didn't make the work go any faster, and it was just as hard to put the memories back together, but at the same time, Kaitlyn felt much more comfortable doing Pit's than Kuro's. His thoughts felt whiter, purer, and calmer. There was no inner turmoil, no horrible dark thoughts.

Still, Kaitlyn found herself panting and sweating. She wasn't sure how long she had been working, but Pit was still in his position and hadn't moved. Was time going slower, or was Nighthawk still lecturing Pit? She didn't have time to find out. She had to keep working. Kuro was waiting for her.

"Kaitlyn!"

Ah, and there she went, thinking she could hear Kuro actually talking to her. The pressure must have been getting to her.

"Kaitlyn, is that you?"

Kaitlyn's brow scrunched together as she suddenly realized that the voice she had thought was only in her head was actually real. She jerked herself around, letting go of the chains. In the sky, shooting down towards her, was Kuro. He was dressed like she was, in a toga and sandal-boots, as though he had just woken up to a normal day in Angel Land.

"Kuro!" Kaitlyn shouted as the dark angel landed next to her. "What are you doing in here? And how did you find me?"

Kuro shrugged. "Finding you was relatively easy. I can sense you, remember? Listen, I've got a plan to finish off Pit's memories. I need you to go out and keep Eris busy for as long as you can."

As if on instinct, Kaitlyn's hand reached down to touch the pistol, which was shoved into her belt. "Kuro, you know I can't fight her. She terrifies me, and if she manages to get the upper hand on me…"

Kuro's strong hand gripped her shoulder, shaking it a little as if to comfort her. "I know this isn't easy for you, Katie. And it's not like I can expect you to just get over your PTSD. It wouldn't be fair of me to expect that. But I know you. You're the best sharpshooter in the entire Skyworld, and I know you'd do anything to keep Pit safe. Give me two minutes, that's all I need, or at least I hope so. You can do this, Kaitlyn!"

The angel girl bit her lip for a moment, before nodding slowly. She pulled the pistol from her belt and turned off the safety. She cocked it and watched as the empty bullet shell popped from the cartridge and disappeared into thin air. "Okay, I'll try."

She held the gun up and closed her eyes, letting a long breath. Then she shot herself into the sky and flew over the Training District and…

She popped back out of the Codex, stumbling a little as she landed on the cavern floor. Immediately, her senses were on hyper-focus. She lifted the pistol to the side of her head, waiting to strike at a moment's notice.

Upon inspection, the cavern looked exactly as it had before. Eris was nowhere to be seen, which made Kaitlyn's stomach clench in unease. She gripped the gun tighter and tighter, until her knuckles became white. She could feel her hands trembling. Her heart pounded as she looked back and forth, turning around a few times. Where was Eris? She had to be here.

"Behind you."

Kaitlyn didn't have time to react. Something hard smashed into her back and she slammed into the cold stone floor with a cry of pain. She tried to roll over, but was met with a foot on her chest.

Eris' smile was as unnerving as ever. "Ooh, pity Kuro didn't come himself. I was hoping for a challenge." She put more weight on her foot, crushing the air from Kaitlyn's lungs. The angel gasped for air, her arms flailing as she tried to push the foot off of her. But it was to no avail.

"Stop it!" Kaitlyn shrieked. She tried to lift the pistol, but she barely had to strength to keep gripping it in her hand, much less point it at someone.

A gun materialized in Eris' hand, and she lowered it slowly so it pointed directly at Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn's eyes widened and she tried to scream, but no sound came from her mouth. Not again! She couldn't move. Her line of vision became narrower and narrower, as though she were looking through a telescope.

Eris' dark eyes lowered and her smile widened with glee. "I stand by every previous comment. You're as weak as ever. You're fine when you're the one attacking, but put you at the other end of the barrel and you shrivel up like a raisin."

She's right…she's right…

"You know what your little condition does? It makes you weak!" She spat out the last word, as though it were poisonous.

She's right…she's right…

Kaitlyn's eyes brimmed with tears. "Stop, stop…" Her words only came out as mumbles with no force behind them. She couldn't control herself. Everything felt slowed down, confusing, and so, so terrifying.

"Hey, leave her alone."

The voice that Kaitlyn heard was both foreign and yet familiar. Both Eris and Kaitlyn looked to where the voice came from, up above them. But before they could make out the figure, it dropped and smashed directly into Eris, throwing her off of Kaitlyn.

"P-Pit?" Kaitlyn panted, struggling to sit up and catch her breath.

The figure turned and Kaitlyn couldn't hold back a gasp. It was Pit, but…not Pit at the same time. His hair was brown, but streaked with black. One eye was sky blue, the other blood red. His white wings were speckled black. The toga he wore was white, but the gem pins were purple, not red. His smile was both familiar and unfamiliar. "Hey Katie."

"Wait, Kuro?" Kaitlyn looked the figure up and down, unable to believe her eyes. It was both Kuro and Pit at the same time. And yet…not?

Pit-Kuro, or whatever he was, looked as though he were about to respond, but didn't get the chance. Eris had already risen. She raised the pistol, aimed, and fired. Pit-Kuro responded instantly. He pulled out his blades and span them around. The bullet fell to the ground, now split in half.

Kaitlyn took a moment to look at the blades. Pit and Kuro's blades had both been identical, save for their colors, but these blades were completely different. The two looked as though they had been made of multicolored prism crystals, spliced down the middle to a blade-like thinness. It was gorgeous, but Kaitlyn had never seen anything like it before.

"Hey," Pit-Kuro yelled. His gaze was completely level with Eris'. "This is between us, not her."

Eris looked almost as confused as Kaitlyn, with eyes narrowed and gun raised. "What kind of crazy chaos magic is this? Who are you?"

If anything, Pit-Kuro straightened up even taller. "I'm everything you hate about your enemies. Your game is up, Eris. We're taking Mnemosyne back." He glanced back at Kaitlyn. "You have to go back into the Codex."

Kaitlyn had to shake her head out of her confused state. "Wait, again? What am I supposed to do now?"

"This isn't going to be easy," he said, his voice lowering. He combined the two blades into a large bow and pulled back on the invisible string. "I need to you to find Mnemosyne."

"Find Mnemosyne?" Eris laughed gleefully. "Please, she's the very heart of the Codex. That little weakling will never find her! And she won't even leave Codex. It's practically taken over her mind."

"Not on my watch," Pit-Kuro growled. He corrected his stance, aiming his arrow directly at Eris. "Kaitlyn, I know you're shaken up and tired, but this is the last step. You can do this."

Kaitlyn could feel the tears brimming her eyes. "You said that last time. You say that every time! You always say you believe in me and that I can do anything and everything, but I can't, Pit! I can't! I'm not trained for this, not like you!"

"But you're—."

"I'M NOT AN ANGEL, PIT!" Kaitlyn yelled. It was as though the stress was filling her, like a water balloon about to burst. "I'm…I'm not like you. I've tried, I really have, and I thought that maybe if I tried hard enough, everyone would accept me and I would be just like you. But…I'm not. I'm like a loose bomb."

Pit-Kuro let the arrow loose, which Eris easily dodged. But Pit-Kuro didn't seem too worried. With lightning speed, faster than Kaitlyn had ever seen Pit or Kuro move before, he attacked Eris with the blades. Even she seemed surprised at the speed of which he moved. "Just go! I'll explain everything and talk to you later!"

"But—."

"The entire balance of the world lies in you finding Mnemosyne! Just go!"

Kaitlyn swallowed, looking nervous, but she didn't have much time to think. A whishing by her ear and a sharp pain to her ear caused her to stumble backwards. A knife went clinking to the floor, and Kaitlyn gaped at Eris, who had thrown the knife so fast that Pit-Kuro hadn't been able to see it.

"You're not going anywhere," Eris hissed as her blades clashed with Pit-Kuro's once again.

On instinct, Kaitlyn raised her weapon, aimed, and fired. She wasn't sure where she had gotten the strength, but there was something about the knife versus being attacked with a gun that Kaitlyn didn't find nearly as terrifying. Maybe it was because she had trained with the angels, who all used blades and bows.

Eris, still in combat with the Pit-Kuro person, wasn't able to move away in time with her blades already locked. And without focus, the bullet hit true. The goddess jerked back from the force, giving Pit-Kuro a chance to attack and gain the offensive. Kaitlyn couldn't help but feel a little pleased.

"JUST GO!" Pit-Kuro yelled. "I'll hold her off!"

Kaitlyn looked at the fight, feeling the pistol grow heavy in her hand. Something about hitting her target had made her feel better, made the stress go away a little. Come on…you can do this…

"Good luck, Pit," she said. "Or, Kuro…or whoever it is."

"You too," he grunted back.

She could hear Eris crying out in anger as she ran to the Codex and flipped it closed and stared at the front cover. It was a beautiful book, leather, gilded on the edged in gold and brass and inset with multiple gems. The largest of which, an oval-shaped gem that morphed between multiple colors, was set in the middle. Kaitlyn took a deep breath and pressed two of her fingers against it, closing her eyes. She only had one shot.


She appeared in what she considered to be the oddest of the places, mostly because it didn't seem to be anything at all. Total, utter darkness surrounded her, a void of nothingness. She raised a hand spreading it out in front of her. But, it couldn't be darkness, because she could see her hand clearly. She seemed to glow a little, like the moon reflecting off the sun. A light corona surrounded her, giving her the barest amount of visibility.

She looked down, but she couldn't see anything below her. Was she flying? No, her wings weren't moving. They spread out behind her, like if she was standing, but her feet were not touching any surface. She was floating.

Then, without any warning, a light appeared. It was a tiny light, only a pinprick, but it was the first light besides Kaitlyn's body itself that she had seen since entering. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus on the light. Her vision kept going in and out, and she rubbed her eyes multiple times. The light twinkled like a star. Kaitlyn found herself staring at it, and she could feel her vision blurring as she stared at the light. She could hardly remember what she was doing there.

She suddenly felt the need to touch the light, to raise her hand and catch the light as she might do a firefly. She reached her hand out and stretched her fingers, trying to touch the light. But just as her fingers were about to brush the source of light, she suddenly caught sight of another light.

That one had definitely not been there before. As opposed to the icy blue of the first, this one was reddish, like Beetlejuice opposed to Rigel in the night sky. But as Kaitlyn reached out to touch that one instead, another light appeared, then another. Then, without even her attempting to touch the lights, more and more kept appearing.

Before long, she was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of lights, and the more she was reminded of stars. The lights formed groups, like galaxies and nebulas, and Kaitlyn could only stare in awe at them.

One of the lights drifted towards her, and Kaitlyn slowly raised her hand and stretched out a single finger. When she touched the light, it gleamed brighter for a moment, and then it expanded. To Kaitlyn's shock, the light opened to form a ring, and inside the ring was a projected image, as though she were seeing inside it. She got very close, leaning in and staring. The image was of a small boy, chasing a butterfly through a meadow. She had never seen the boy before, but he was followed by a middle-aged woman, who looked as though she could be his mother. The woman scooped the boy up in her arms, and they rubbed noses before she kissed him on the head and let him run around once again.

This must have been a memory. While Kaitlyn had been exploring individual memories of her friends, this was where they all combined together.

This was the heart of the Codex.

Kaitlyn tipped her head back a little, thinking hard. Hadn't Eris said something about this? That Mnemosyne herself was the heart of the Codex? Then where was she supposed to go from here? Were these all her memories, since she was the Goddess of Memory herself? Or did she have her own little star-light?

Well, she might as well start looking. Once again, she could feel herself becoming more and more anxious. Pit, or Kuro, or whatever the heck the person was that had appeared in the cavern was fighting Eris, again, and probably didn't have that much time. She felt as though she had been going in circles, with all of her anxieties, fear of timing, and the feeling of complete and utter confusion and loss. She didn't know what to do.

Pit…what the heck had happened? And Kuro? What had he done? Who the heck was out there fighting, Pit or Kuro? It seemed like both, as those they had fused together or something. And now the more that Kaitlyn started to think about it, the more weirded out she became. How had Kuro fused together with Pit, and why? But it seemed to have gotten Pit down from the chains and his mind out from the Codex, so that made her a little less worried. Though, that didn't make her any less stressed.

She took a deep breath. How was she supposed to contact Mnemosyne? Just scream out into the void? But that didn't make sense. Mnemosyne was sleeping and her memories completely out of whack. So what was she supposed to do, scream until she woke up? Somehow she didn't think that that was going to help. Mnemosyne was a goddess, under a magical spell. Yelling wasn't going to work.

Slowly, Kaitlyn stretched out a foot and began to walk among the stars. She didn't feel as though she were actually stepping on anything, so the very concept of her moving was very odd. But somehow, the void seemed to work with her. So she walked.

She passed by star after star, trying to see if there was any particular one that seemed out of place or odd in any way. But they were all very similar, if different colors, and were still positioned normally. Nothing seemed to be different.

As Kaitlyn walked, the void itself began to change. The black openness slowly graded down into different colors. Where her feet had once not touched anything, ground appeared beneath. It was grass, soft and green. Above, the black faded to navy then to dark blue, then eventually to the periwinkle that the sky often seemed to reflect. And then trees, bushes, and other such pieces to the landscape until Kaitlyn was sure that she was walking through a meadow. The only things that stayed were the stars, but they were much less visible. They were still beautiful, twinkling and gleaming from their own light, but now they were faded and less prominent. They were part of the background. The meadow itself was where her attention was being drawn.

She kept walking through the meadow, among the stars. Somehow, this whole experience wasn't horribly weird to her. After living in Angel Land for over three years, she had seen a lot of strange things. This was just another one.

At some point, her feet stopped floating above the grass and instead she found herself walking through the grass. Her feet were bare, and her toes pressed into the soft grass. A breeze blew by, catching her blonde curls and tossing them over her shoulder. The wind made the grass move in waves, like water, and whistled as it came and left. Kaitlyn felt her shoulders loosen and relax, not realizing until that moment just how tense she had been.

Mountains spread before her, dipping in and out of the landscape. Waved from a nearby lake lapped against the small beach that appeared at the bottom of a small hill. Besides the wind, there was hardly any sound. Leaves from nearby trees, scattered across the meadow, rustled cheerfully, but there were no birds or small animals playing in the branches. It was silent, peaceful.

Whereas her stress had been filling her before, Kaitlyn now felt as though all of her stresses and worries were melting away. She could stay here forever, let the wind carry her away to distant lands. She would never have to worry ever again. What was there here that could scare her? Nothing. She was safe, she was protected, she was—

Kaitlyn shook her head violently, nearly throwing herself off balance. No, she couldn't think like that. She had a job to do. She had friends, and a world, to save. There was something about this place, though, that made her want to drop all her baggage and never leave. And it was terrifying. The very idea that just being here, not even for more than a few minutes, could make her change all of her views, even her fierce loyalty, was not a comforting thought. She had to get out of here fast.

She picked up her pace, still walking. The farther she got into the meadow, the fainter and fainter the tiny lights became. She had to get back to the entrance soon. She could use the stars to find her way back. They could be like a compass, she supposed.

She continued onwards, craning her neck in every direction. She had to keep planning. What if Mnemosyne was captured here too? What if she, for some reason, didn't want to come back? What if the mentality of the place had taken hold of Mnemosyne's mind as well? Kaitlyn had to find some way to convince her. She had to come up with some kind of argument, like debate club when she had been back in high school.

She was so enthralled with her argument, coming up various points that she could make that she almost missed Mnemosyne entirely.

Kaitlyn looked up for a moment and was so surprised that there was another person that she stopped in her tracks. The girl stood on the beach, by the lake, looking out to the white-capped mountains. Her long greyish hair, pulled back into a high ponytail, tossed slowly in the wind. She was of a petite build, and she seemed to be shorter, or around the same height, as Kaitlyn. Her loose, silk clothing blew in the breeze.

Kaitlyn cleared her throat and swallowed. Mnemosyne didn't seem to have heard her, or even realize she was there, because she didn't move at all, not even turning her head to acknowledge her visitor.

"Hello? Is that you, Mnemosyne?" With an awkward glance to either side, as though afraid someone might be watching, Kaitlyn edged over. She kept coming closer and closer until she was standing next to Mnemosyne. The goddess girl continued to stare out into the mountains with unseeing grey eyes. Mnemosyne, like Pit and Kuro had been before, was completely colorless. Her entire form was in shades of black, white, and grey. Did that mean that her memories were gone too? That seemed like the only option that made sense. She probably wouldn't recognize Kaitlyn, then, even though the two of them had never met. But Mnemosyne was Goddess of Memory. She probably knew Kaitlyn better than Kaitlyn knew herself.

Kaitlyn walked in front of Mnemosyne, a little unnerved by the girl's sightless stare. Her large eyes were wide and unforced, and no matter where Kaitlyn stood, the girl didn't respond, even when Kaitlyn was practically nose to nose with her.

"Mnemosyne? Hello? It's me, Kaitlyn. I'm Pit's friend."

Kaitlyn rubbed her head a few times, her voice getting steadily louder. "Come on! I need you right now!" But still, the girl wouldn't respond.

Kaitlyn swallowed and raised a hand, gently resting it on the goddess girl's shoulder. She was getting desperate. What if this was what the room had done to Mnemosyne, made her a statue? She would never be able to get the goddess out! "I really need to you to hear me," she whispered. "Please, please say you can hear me!"

With a gasp like someone coming up for air after being held underwater, Mnemosyne jerked back and fell to the ground with a cry. "Geez, Kaitlyn, you could have waited!"

"I'm so sorry!" Kaitlyn immediately said, not totally sure what she had done. She could feel her cheeks going red from embarrassment. She hurried to the goddess, helping her to her feet. "You just wouldn't respond, so I kept on trying to wake you up and you wouldn't move!"

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that!" Mnemosyne's voice was surprisingly cheerful as opposed to Kaitlyn's horribly freaked out one. "I was trying to See."

"See what?"

"Just See. Seeing is something I used to be able to do. I could look into people's memories, short term, long term and even pack memories. Catching people's short term memory can usually tell me something about where a person is at that moment, because I can see where they were a split-second ago. But I haven't been able to do it, not since Eris stuck me in here."

Kaitlyn glanced around. "Can't you just touch the memories around you?"

Mnemosyne cocked her head, like a curious puppy, and smiled a bit. But her eyes were sad and tired. "Oh, I can't touch them. I can only watch as they appear and disappear. There are so many less than there should be."

"But there are hundreds of them," Kaitlyn said.

"Yeah, but there are billions of humans and other animals that live in the Overworld," the goddess pointed out. "And they still have their memories. Well…they have most of them. Only the gods and angels have totally lost their memories. But by tonight, even the humans will have no memories left. It must be really confusing, the poor things."

She looked genuinely upset at the thought of the human race losing their memories. Kaitlyn had met quite a few gods, and besides Palutena, there were very few that were actually interested in humans. Some of them downright hated human beings. But this ancient goddess who looked no older than a preteen adolescent was actually sad about humans losing their memories. Kaitlyn felt something inside of her glow with pride.

Mnemosyne looked at Kaitlyn and smiled. Kaitlyn could see the age in her eyes, the immense wisdom her tiny body held. "Did Pit send you?"

Kaitlyn nodded. "Yeah, he did…I think. It's confusing, but you'll see why when we get out of here. Are you ready?"

Mnemosyne gave Kaitlyn a sad look. "I don't know if I can leave."

"W-why not?" Kaitlyn asked, slightly taken aback. She knew she might have trouble; Eris had made that very clear. Still, she had been hoping Mnemosyne would be able to go with her, no questions asked. But she had learned that in a world of gods and magic, nothing was ever that simple.

Mnemosyne held up her hand, showing them to Kaitlyn. The angel girl squinted hard, and let out a little gasp. Wrapped around her hand, almost invisible, were the tiniest memory chains Kaitlyn had seen. Pit's and Kuro's had both been large, like the kinds of chains that would be used to hold something on the ground. The ones that tied up Mnemosyne's hands were closer to necklace chains, glinting a pale silver in the sunlight. They appeared to wrap around her wrists and go straight up into the sky.

"Where do they lead?" Kaitlyn asked quietly. She touched the chain, rolling it between her fingers. The chain was as fine as spider silk.

Mnemosyne looked up and shook her head. "I think it's connected to the book. Or maybe Eris. I'm honestly not sure."

"How did you get stuck in here in the first place? How did Eris even get her hands on the Codex in the first place?"

A dull grey flush rose in Mnemosyne's ashy cheeks. "Eris is a master manipulator. She knows how to remind you about your past, how to make your feel inferior. She can take your greatest strengths and make them feel like weaknesses."

"She got inside your head too, huh?"

"Indeed." Mnemosyne nodded, jingling the chains as she gave a gentle tug. "I can only assume she did the same to you."

Kaitlyn gave an experimental tug herself, frowning. "Yeah, something like that."

"Was it your PTSD?"

"You know about that?"

Mnemosyne smiled, looking a little pleased. "I know everything. I'm the Keeper of Knowledge. It's my job to know everything. I've been watching every single person on the earth since Zeus gave me the position. He's my nephew, you know. And he fathered my children."

Kaitlyn grimaced. "Oh, yeah, I remember that part…"

"I hope you can meet my children someday. The Muses always love a guest that they can entertain."

"I'll try to make a date of it," Kaitlyn replied. "How can I get rid of the chain?"

The goddess shrugged. "I honestly don't know. At one point, I would have known. But now…I'm not connected with the Codex anymore. So I'm fairly useless."

Kaitlyn stuck her hand into her jacket pocket, rummaging around a little. "First off, when I get you out, I really need new clothes. This dress sucks. Second of all, what can you tell me about this?" She drew out the Apple of Discord and held it up for Mnemosyne to see.

Mnemosyne's eyes widened and her small mouth broadened into a grin. "You found all the pieces! I was hoping you would!"

The goddess' tone of voice made Kaitlyn feel a little better, reassuring her in her quest. "Yeah, we found it! But I don't think I can use it without you. I need to get you out so you can give Harmonia back her memories, so she can change the apple to the Apple of Concord, and force Eris to eat it, or something like that."

"But I'm still stuck. I can't leave without the chains being cut, and I don't even know if they can be cut."

"They have to be able to be cut," Kaitlyn said. Still gripping the apple, Kaitlyn walked around Mnemosyne. The only chains that seemed to be attached to the goddess were the ones on her wrists. So Kaitlyn only had to find a way to break those. But Kaitlyn had only had experience with putting the chains together, not splitting them apart.

"These aren't memory chains, are they?" She asked.

Mnemosyne shook her head. "Memory chains are much thicker. These are something completely different. Hephaestus once chained the goddess Hera with a set of chains, but they were unbreakable except by Hephaestus himself. But Eris isn't a forger. If she made these, maybe another god could break them."

"Like Harmonia?" Kaitlyn immediately asked.

Mnemosyne nodded. "Yes, I guess so. But Harmonia is an old goddess. She was one of the first to lose her memories. I doubt she'd know what to do."

"Maybe she can still help us…" Kaitlyn said quietly. "The only problem is that she's still stuck in the cave. And if I have to go out and come back into this Codex one more time, I'll probably die from mental overload."

Mnemosyne shook her head. "Bad luck. We'll have to find another way."

Kaitlyn blinked. "Bad…luck…?" She stuck her hand into the dress top and drew out the coin. It had been there for so long that she had completely forgotten about it. It was warm from her skin and a little sticky from the sweat, but it was still there. To her relief, she hadn't lost it.

The goddess gasped. "Is that the Harmony Coin?"

"Yeah," Kaitlyn nodded. "Harmonia gave it to me when I came to find you guys. Somehow, she seemed to remember for a moment and she healed me when I fell into the cave."

"You must have awakened something in her," Mnemosyne said after a pause. "Like me, Harmonia is a mother goddess, meaning she has children. Maybe you being harmed jumpstarted her mothering instincts."

"Well, let's hope this will do the same." Kaitlyn took a deep breath and held the coin in her palm, clenching her fist. Please bring me some sort of good luck…And she set up the coin and flipped it.

The coin hadn't even landed when a figure suddenly appeared next to her in a burst of sparks. Twirling into existence, purple skirt flaring and twisting around her in an unseen wind, was Harmonia. She practically glowed with power, her eyes clear of the fog of her lost memories. She stood tall and strong, like a general preparing her army. If she had some sort of weapon, the image would have been complete. But Harmonia was the goddess of harmony. A weapon would have been out of place.

Her blue eyes, sharp and alert, gazed down at Kaitlyn. This was the first time Kaitlyn had been aware of just how powerful Harmonia really was. The only times Kaitlyn had really been with Harmonia, the goddess had been weak and unable to hold her own. Now, she was the epitome of what a goddess should really look like: seven feet tall, tawny hair streaming behind her, and an aura that even Kaitlyn could feel.

With sped unmatched, Harmonia's hand reached out and grabbed the coin in midair. Her eyes narrowed and her expression was grim. "Did you summon me?"

Kaitlyn let out a sigh of relief. But she didn't have time to lose. "Harmonia, I need you to break these chains." She took the chains in her hands and showed them to the goddess.

Harmonia held the tiny chains in her long, slender fingers. "Crafted by my sister, no doubt." She gripped the thin chains in her hands. With what seemed to be no effort at all, the chains snapped between her fingers. From the place where the chain snapped, it seemed to melt away, disintegrating and floating to the sky.

Mnemosyne rubbed her wrists, as though the chains had been uncomfortable. At once, her color returned to her. Her skin went from grey to a pale peach color with rosy cheeks. Her hair became the powdery blue that Kaitlyn had seen in pictures. She looked almost fairy-like.

Her small lips parted into a grin. "It's all coming back to me…I can see it all…I can see it…"

Kaitlyn held out her hand, not able to hold back a smile of her own. "Are you ready to go?"

"Whenever you are." Mnemosyne slipped her tiny hand into Kaitlyn's and Kaitlyn led her and Harmonia back to the plane of stars.


What time is it?

SUMMER TIME!

Yep, finally my freshman year of college is over, and so I'll finally have some time to actually finish this story :) Thank you all so much for being patient and waiting for this chapter. I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the story, which I'm excited for. Hope you enjoy, as usual!

~Pixie