Bianca and Helma sat on the benches inside the bus station on Opelucid city, where their self imposed mission to find the rest of the remnants had taken them. According to the information that they had gathered, all of the remnants captured by the authorities were placed somewhere in the city, now they just needed to learn their exact location. During their bus trip to Opelucid, Helma told Bianca all about what happened to her in the ruins, when Zinzolin arrived, and Bianca told her everything she saw from her perspective, jointly devicing a common timeline of events. All of their talking and thinking made them tired and hungry, so once they got off the bus Bianca got a nice meal for the two of them as they resigned themselves to wait for an idea to fall from heaven.

Hours passed, hundreds of people walked by them and buses came and went. They kept getting more and more food once they finished eating to distract themselves from the fact that they had zero idea of where to go, it was a classic case of using food to fight boredom. Suddenly, during a slow hour at the station, while Bianca was at her most contemplative state staring at the nothingness in front of her, a boy walked in her line of sight, from right to left in slow motion. Bianca felt a strange sensation when she saw him roaming on her visual field; she had never seen him before and at the same time she knew exactly who he was. He was accompanied by a truly unknown woman, shorter than him but visibly older. Bianca was navigating pleasantly deep in her reverie, so it took her a few seconds to react. She shook her head violently, and when she became conscious again she turned to look at the boy walking away from her and became certain it was Jonny.

She softly elbowed Helma and pointed at him. Helma also turned to look at him while pleasantly chewing on her bread, then she opened her mouth from the shock, disgustingly showing the minced content inside. Once she recogniced him too, both of them took their food with them as they moved closer to Jonny, and continued eating, in a rather entertained manner, as they shamelessly eavesdropped on his conversation with the older woman.

"Are you sure it's okay if you pay for my ticket ma?" Jonny said as he rubbed the back of his head, "you already bailed me out and brought me clothes."

Jonny's words made Bianca start minding his outfit, he was wearing black and white canvas shoes, green skinny jeans, and a red hoodie that had the image of an oran berry with a smily face on his chest; he looked like an almost cool nerd. Almost.

"Meh, we'll figure it out later Jonathan, don't worry about it," his probable mom replied waving her hand up and down, dismissing his worries,

"thanks ma, I promise I'll pay you back," Jonny said. Then he felt two sets of stares directed at him and turned around looking for the source.

"Hey," Jonny said when he found Bianca and Helma, "look ma I told you I had normal friends too, now they look more normal somehow, that's Colette Bianca and that's Helma, ah! Why are you using a cane? Wait...what are you doing here?"

Bianca awkwardly approached him with Helma following behind her even more awkwardly. Bianca raised her hand while she held a small milk carton on her other hand,

"hi," she scantily said,

"I'll be honest with you Jonathan, I did not believe you and I'm still not sure if you paid them to pass as your friends, nice to meet you two,"

"no ma, if I had money I would've paid you back instead, therefore they must be real I mean what more proof do you want?"

"We were looking for you Jonny, do you know where the rest are?" Bianca asked,

"uhh, I do," Jonny answered with an insecure voice, "can you give us a minute ma?"

"Sure whatever," Jonny's mom walked away and got in the line to get bus tickets.

Jonny's countenance changed, his face got serious, almost worried.

"After they retrieved us from the giant chasm we were taken to the main hospital here in Opelucid city, so they could check what happened to us after Zinzolin took control of our minds, and then exploded his devices on our heads, save mine, when he lost...but everyone thinks Grimsley was behind all of it, and they think that there's still some sort of mind control going on because we want to convince them otherwise. It's not that bad, there's enough space, they feed us, but when they are done examining the rest they will prosecute them. My mom went over to the police station to bail me out before that happened, but everyone else is still there,"

"how do we get them out?" Helma asked,

"I don't know, how do you get someone out of prison? It's basically that, some of them are more keen to get out than others,"

"but we need to do something," Bianca added firmly.

Jonny sighed and rubbed his forehead again, "yes we do, but perhaps you need to hear what some of them have to say..."

Bianca watched as Jonny walked up to his mom and told her to get on a bus that would take her home. She agreed, but ordered Jonny to give her a kiss on the cheek, a task that he completed begrudgingly.

Hours later, the three of them were standing in front of the Opelucid general hospital, a gray building many stories tall, more akin to a fortress than a health care facility, with alert and courteous guards standing around every corner. Bianca had gotten herself a red jacket, and a wig, brown, long and straight. A worse, fake version of Jonny's mom's real hair,

"there's no way this is going to work guys, my bad," Jonny said,

"what are you talking about? You've been here before," Bianca replied,

"alright, first, if I manage to get in it won't matter because you won't, you look nothing like my mom, secondly, if I do get in there's no way I am getting out again, and I don't know if my mom would want to make the trip here again so soon,"

"if that happens I will vouch for you,"

"you are as much in trouble as we are Bianca."

Neither of them noticed Helma approach one of the guards until she was already speaking with him. Then Helma pointed at her friends and Bianca managed to take off her wig a second before the guard looked at them. He made a signal to them to approach him. They hesitated, he made a signal again and both of them approached him at the same time, nervous and weary. The guard said nothing and opened the door when they arrived. And they got in, just like that.

"What did you do Helma?" Jonny asked her, completely amazed,

"it's the cane guys, this is a hospital after all," she said as she walked full of confidence in front of them, and she was right, watching someone of her age and height walk with a cane was nothing short of adorable.

Jonny led them around the clean and silent hallways and from elevator to elevator, and instead of stopping them to ask questions, the guards opened doors for them as soon as they saw Helma. They actually started feeling bad because of how nice they were being treated by the unsuspecting staff.

They reached the seventh floor, where the remnants were being kept. The main hallway bifurcated into two other hallways, one that led to another wing of the hospital and an exit, and another one that led to an isolated block of rooms, which was monitored by a less friendly guard; the latter was the one they needed to get through. They rested their backs on the wall of the hallway, just far enough from the guard for him not to mind them, but close enough so that they could see any remnant who crossed from room to room, and be seen by them.

Time went by, some remnants crossed but they didn't see them. They actually seemed satisfied, even happy. Maybe life in a hospital room wasn't that different from a life in a cave, or maybe it was because they were together, either way it spoke of their former quality of life. Suddenly Lucia passed by, but she turned away as soon as she saw them, noticeably disconcerted. She stood in the middle of the hallway and took a deep breath, just then she turned so the guys could take a look at her face, with noticeable disgust in her demeanor. She had two generous black eyes, completely bloodshot too, her nose was swollen as well, she had a visible scar on the bridge of her nose and her left ear was bandaged. Lucia stood there for a moment, waiting for them to take in all of the imperfects on her face. Then she went and spoke with the guard, she actually had to argue with him for a while even though she was only moving a few feet away, and he ultimately let her through.

"I'm very glad to see you Lucia!" Bianca exclaimed at the same time she went over to hug her. Lucia accepted the hug without a smile and did not reciprocate it,

"what are you doing back here Jonny?" Lucia asked still deadpan,

"don't worry about me, I can get out again I think, they just wanted to see you and talk to you, so that we could plan our next move,"

"ha, good one," Lucia exclaimed with a bored tone,

"we are serious," Bianca continued, "Zinzolin's attempt might have failed, but he is still out there,"

"so what?" Lucia added,

"we can't let him get away with it,"

"what is that going to change? I'll tell you, nothing,"

"come on Lucia,"

"no Bianca, just stop, why do you want to keep this up? I didn't want to fight in the first place and look where I ended up, how I ended up,"

"that's right, it was Zinzolin's fault, we need to clean our names," Helma intervined,

"it's useless, how much lower can we sink to them, in their eyes?" Lucia asked,

"why do you care so much what people think Lucia?" Helma asked back,

"because I care Helma, I care, and I'm done,"

"we were thinking of a way to get you out of here," Bianca continued, "maybe Jonny and I could pass ourselves off as your parents and we could pay your bail out money, what do you think?"

"please don't do that," Lucia said, "and don't try anything, or if you do I don't want to be part of it, I'm just going to stay here and wherever they take me until they let me get out, bye guys...seriously don't try anything." She then turned back without giving them a chance to respond, and promptly went back into one of the rooms.

The guys were devastated. Jonny had to force the girls to get out of the hospital before somebody caught them. The affable guard by the elevator pressed the button with the same helpful disposition but the guys kept the somber expressions on their faces, and they reached the main entrance without a care in the world. Nobody was paying attention to them anyway, or so they thought.

They had the exit right in front of them, when Cheren stepped in to block it with his arms crossed and a smug expression on his face, which made it ten times more punchable.

"Cheren? What are you doing here?" Bianca asked,

"the gym leader?" Helma also asked even more surprised than Bianca,

"indeed, and I could ask you the same, it was as brave as it was stupid of you to come here,"

"I don't want to talk to you right now, or ever," Bianca said,

"wait, what? Why not?!" Cheren's smug expression disappeared and was replaced by one of confusion and worry,

"all of this was basically your fault, you were right there with the remnants before me, you caused all of this by spreading lies about Grimsley and them,"

"that's ridiculous Bianca what have they done to you?"

Jonny stepped in front of the girls, "dude, I'm done," he said, "I have acquired enough self esteem to realize that the only reason you are blaming us is because you don't see us as people. It would be too easy for me to say that this is all your fault, I'd say you don't have any redeemable qualities and I'd direct all of my anger at you, unfortunately, you are too much of a person for me to treat you like that, however, seriously dude, you were on the cave, you saw what we were doing, or rather, what we weren't doing, do you really think you are innocent in this?"

"Wait, hold on, I didn't hurt anybody,"

"get out of our way,"

"I can't let you do that, I need to put a stop to this,"

"put a stop to what? You don't even know what's going on, you are a joke." Helma lost her patience, she carelessly walked up to Cheren and put him in a headlock, then Jonny helped her take him out of the hospital.

"Let's take him with us guys, I have an idea," Bianca said,

"what are you talking about? Somebody help me! I'm being kidnapped, why does nobody care?! Come on! Anyone?! Nobody cares, nobody ever cares." Cheren cried out, but to everyone around they seemed like a group of friends, making use of their youthful innocence and joy in a quite indiscreet, and a bit disrespectful manner. Nobody cared for Cheren as they dragged him far away with them.