(A/N: I'm on vacation! Just chillin' in Florida. Great weather. Jealous? Ha, ha! Well, I can't stay long though. Still managed to get this out on time. I worked extra hard before leaving to have it ready before I left, so I hope you enjoy it. I'm not overly fond of this chapter title, but I myself was drawing a blank on what to call it. I'm open for alternate titles if anyone has any good ones.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 7: The Blank Slate

I.B. whistled as he opened the Core Memory container. He examined the Core Memories, searching for the right ones. "Lets see, what's this one? Teenage Boy Band? We don't need that one."

He pulled it the glowing memory out and tossed it over his shoulder. Outside of Headquarters, the Island of Teenage Boy Bands powered down and stopped functioning.

"What's next? Tragic Vampire Romance? Who needs it?" He tossed this one aside as well. "Honesty? Lets keep that one. Nostalgic? That one powers The Island of Change and Loss; I guess that ones fine. Hockey? That can stay too. Hmm, Friendship? Nah, I'm the only friend Riley needs."

He continued to go through them, a few more Core Memories joining the others on the floor. With each Island that lost power, different aspects of Riley's personality shut down.

"Ah ha! Here's the big one. Romantic Love." He pulled it from its slot and examined it, scowling when he saw Jordan's face reflecting in it. "That should be me, not that stupid boy."

He threw it against the wall and dusted off his hands, as if having completed an unpleasant chore. "Perfect. And once Riley wakes up, we'll get to work on dumping Jordan and thinking about me again. For now, lets have her dream about me a bit."

He walked over to the control panel. He frowned as he looked at the Dream Screen where it showed Riley single-handedly defeating the entire opposing hockey team and winning the championship.

"Ok, enough of that," he said, and pulled the plug, causing the screen to go black. Cracking his knuckles, he reached for the controls. "Lets play a more pleasant memory."

"TripleDent Gum, will make you smile! TripleDent Gum-"

"Not that," he growled, sending the memory back. "Ok, second times a charm."

A different memory arrived and began playing. I.B.'s image of when he was first created appeared on screen. "I would die for Riley!"

He smirked and leaned back in his seat. "There we go. That's much better. Enjoy the view, my dearest Riley."

He glanced out the window, thinking about the Emotions. He wondered where they were right now. No doubt trying to get back. Not that they'd be able to. As long as he was in Headquarters, he was in command.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

"Where is everyone? Anger demanded. "We haven't run into a single Mind Worker."

"Riley's asleep, genius," Disgust told him. "They're off duty except for a few monitors."

"And Long Term Memory is huge," Sadness added. "We're not likely to run into anyone on sleep duty."

The red Emotion struggled against his bindings. "Well, I want to get out of here!"

Fear cut his eyes at him. "What are you complaining about? We're the ones carrying you."

Anger's head started smoking. "You trying to start something?"

Panic quickly settled in. "No, no, just saying…"

He trailed off as a loud rumbling sound echoed all around them. Looking to the source, the Emotions watched as one of Riley's Islands of Personality powered down.

"Hey," said Joy, "what happened to Teenage Boy Band Island?"

Before anyone could answer, another Island powered down, followed by another, and then another.

"What's going on?" Fear cried. "Why are the Islands powering down?"

"It must be I.B.," said Sadness. "He's removing the Core Memories that would distract Riley from thoughts of him."

The process seemed to stop after Romance Island lost power. Disgust looked at the powered down Islands, then at the ones that were still running. "Why did he only remove certain ones? Like Hockey? Wouldn't her love for hockey be a distraction?"

Joy thought about which Islands were working and which ones weren't. "Riley's love for hockey is something he loves about her, as is her honesty and such. It looks like he's shutting down the ones that relate to Riley's relationships with other people." She looked at the one with the statue of parents and their child. "At least he left Family Island alone."

"For now!" Fear cried histerically. "There's no telling when he'll pull that one, or any of the others!"

A small flame appeared on Anger's head. "When I get my hands on that rotten, no good…"

A look of despair was on Joy's face as she looked at the powered down Islands. "Why would he do this? If Riley's so important to him, why would he cause all these problems?"

"It's an extreme love," Sadness explained. "Riley is everything to I.B. He wants her to want him as much as he does her, even if he is only imaginary. He can't bare the thought of being forgotten or ignored. And he especially can't stand having Jordan replace him. He's very jealous. He loves her so much he's willing to do whatever it takes to get her, however he can."

"If he loves her so much, he should let her go," Anger growled through gritted teeth. "Her happiness, wants, and needs should be more important than his own."

"Perhaps he believes he can give that to her."

Disgust rolled her eyes. "A man who thinks he knows everything. Typical."

"We've go to do something!" Fear shouted. "We've got to get back to Headquarters! Let's make a run for it!"

He began running, forcing the yellow and green Emotions to run along as well while Anger and Sadness could only go along for the ride.

"Wait, wait, stop," said Joy.

They ended up toppling over again, this time with Sadness on the bottom

"Ouch!" Anger grumbled. "What was that for?"

"I think I broke a nail," Disgust complained. "Joy, if my manicure is ruined…"

The yellow Emotion rolled her eyes. "Forget your nails. Sadness, does that look familiar?"

"I don't know, I can't see," came the blue Emotion's muffled reply from her face being pressed into the ground."

"Well, then just… argh! Hold on." She rolled them over so Sadness was no longer on the bottom. "There, look!"

Sadness blinked, looking at the large building that seemed to stretch on for miles with a door that led inside, above which were the letters DANGER KEEP OUT! That definitely did not read 'short cut'.

"Joy, no. That's Abstract Thought. Don't you remember what happened the last time we went in there? We were almost completely broken down into shapeless, colorless masses."

Joy smirked. "Exactly. We'll use it to get out of these ropes."

"But, Joy, we could get trapped in there forever."

"It'll be fine. We'll just stay in there until the first phase, then get out before we abstract too much. We'll stay by the door so we can get out right away. Now come on, everyone, on your feet."

With much effort, they managed to get back up and headed for the door. With her hands bound to her sides, Joy bit down on the wheel to turn it and open the door, then used her foot to turn on the machine.

"Ok," she said, "once we're inside, we're going to start to abstract. As soon as you're free, get out as fast as you can."

Disgust gave the door a look. "What do you mean, we will abstract?"

"You should have read the manual," Sadness replied gloomily.

"Ok, everybody ready?" Joy cried.

Fear looked hesitant. "This doesn't seem safe."

"Here we go!"

They scampered into the machine. Inside was a pure white room that seemed to stretch on forever with the exception of a second door being on the other side. It was like being stuck in oblivion. The feeling was very unsettling, and Fear looked close to having a panic attack.

It happened to Anger first, then Disgust, followed by Joy, Fear, and finally Sadness. Their bodies warped, becoming something one would expect to find in a Picasso painting.

"AH!" Fear wailed. "What is this? What's happening?"

"Calm down," said Joy. "I told you we would start to abstract. This is normal."

"Nothing about this is normal!" Disgust insisted.

"Just hang on a few seconds. We should start to- there we go."

One by one, they fell apart, pieces of their bodies dropping off until they lay in multicolored piles of body parts.

"Now what?" Fear shouted. "We're going to pieces!"

"It's deconstruction," Sadness told him, "the second phase. We have to get out."

With their bodies in pieces, they were able to get free of the imaginary rope. Pulling themselves together the best they could, they exited the machine. Once they were outside, the process reversed, and they were once again back to normal and in one piece.

Fear was hype rventilating. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! That was crazy! Why would you have us go in there?"

Joy nonchalantly smoothed out her dress. "Well, it got us free."

"Yeah, nicely done," Anger grumbled as he dusted off his suit. "Now lets get to a station and get back to Headquarters."

"Just one problem," said Disgust, waving her finger around, "the train doesn't run while Riley's asleep. Do we just get to the nearest station and wait for her to wake up?"

Joy snapped her fingers. "No, I have a better idea. We'll just use a recall tube. Look, there's one right there!"

She ran over to the tube, the other Emotions right behind her, Sadness with hesitation. "Joy, wait. Remember what happened the last time you tried this. You fell into the Memory Dump."

Joy paid her no mind as she detached the tube. "That's because one of the Islands collapsed and broke it. Now come on, we have to hurry. I'll go first."

She hopped inside. The other Emotions shared an uncertain look before Anger shrugged and reattached the tube, and Joy was immediately sucked up, heading back towards Headquarters.

"Hey," Disgust said to Sadness, "that time when you and Joy got lost, why didn't you at least send the Core Memories back?"

The blue Emotion shrugged. "I guess it just didn't occur to us to try that. I was too sad to think about it."

"What about Joy?" Fear asked.

"I guess she was too happy to think about it."

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

They were fools to think that he wouldn't be monitoring them. The moment Joy attempted to recall herself, I.B. knew, and he immediately took the appropriate action.

"Oh no," he muttered sarcastically, "they're attempting to get back into Headquarters. Whatever shall I do?" He tapped his chin. "Hmm, you know that feeling when you have a thought, it's on the tip of your tongue, but then you lose it."

He pressed a button on the control panel. Outside, the suction of the recall tube reversed directions, and Joy was sent back the way she came.

"And just to make sure they don't try that again."

He held up a sheet of metal and stuck it into a slot on the control panel. The metal sheet caused the main recall tube that connected to the others to suddenly seal shut.

"I'd like to see them use a recall tube while Riley is drawing a blank."

It would be a bit of a nuisance to constantly remove the sheet of metal every time he had to recall a memory and put it back afterwards to make sure the recall tube wasn't used without his permission, but at least it would keep the Emotions from coming in that way.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Joy cried out as she ended up back where she started. The other Emotions opened the tube for her so she could climb out.

"What happened?" asked Fear.

Joy smoothed out her dress. "He must have inserted the blank slate. No memories can reach Headquarters as long as that's stuck in there."

Disgust threw her hands in the air. "Great. So now what? Do we just sit here until he needs to recall a memory and removes it?"

Fear grabbed her and began shaking her. "Are you kidding? We can't wait around for that! There are trillions upon trillions upon trillions of shelves of memories! More than that! More than we could ever count! And there are thousands of recall tubes connecting to different parts of Long Term! We can't just hope he'll pick a specific memory at the specific tube we're at!"

Disgust slapped his hands away. "If you mess up my hair, I'm tossing you in the Memory Dump."

Joy sighed. "He's right though. Looks like we're going back to Plan A. We'll wait for Riley to wake up and take the Train of Thought."

"If we can make it to a station before she wakes up you mean," Anger grumbled.

"Ah, we'll make it. There's a station right by here."

Disgust raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

Joy walked over to the machine of Abstract Thought. "Just on the other side of this door."

Fear's hands slapped against his face. "Are you crazy? We can't go back in there! I can't believe you made us go in there the first time!"

"It'll be fine," the yellow Emotion assured him. "Look, it's already done abstracting from last time, and there are no Mind Workers around to turn it on again. We'll just make a run for it. In and out in thirty seconds."

She gave them an eager and expectant look. Fear was shaking his head while Sadness tapped her index fingers together nervously. Anger and Disgust shared a look before the latter rolled her eyes. "Sure, fine, whatever."

"Oh, yes, I'm with you," Anger muttered sarcastically. "After all, what's the worst that could happen? Oh, yeah, we could be stuck in there forever as nothing more than two-dimensional blobs of shape and color!"

Sarcasm aside, he seemed to be on board, and so Sadness relented as well. "Actually we would revert even further to colorless, shapeless masses. But I guess it'll be ok if we're real quick about it."

Joy beamed. "Great! That's the spirit!"

Ignoring the trembling purple Emotion, they went back over to the machine. Taking a deep breath, Joy ran inside. One by one, the other Emotions followed her until only Fear remained. "Maybe you guys should go on without me. I think I'll take the long scenic route."

In response, Anger's hand flew out of the machine, wrapped around Fear's neck, and pulled him inside.

(A/N: It's fun coming with ways things work in the human body and incorporating them to the Inside Out world. The blank slate for example. Ever draw one? Well, this is how it works. A blank slate is inserted to cut off ideas from getting into Headquarters. I'll be doing other things like that. In the mean time, I.B. is already causing trouble. The Emotions are free, but they're still stuck outside, and I.B. is making sure they can't get back in. Joy and Sadness had it tough the first time, but now there's someone working against them. Things certainly aren't looking good.)