They made it all the way outside in tense silence. Kai felt himself wondering all sorts of things as he walked behind her, like whether or not Bonnie had told anyone she stayed behind, how exactly she even knew she wasn't 'entirely Bonnie', had she actually thought he was sexy bef—

"That's rather epistemological of you, Kai." Bonnie laughed.

"What?"

Bonnie sighed. She stopped walking and slowly turned to face him. Her eyes regarded him with a kind of deadness that, despite the sense of absence, held in their gaze a devouring purpose.

"Nevermind. Do you feel any different?"

"What do you mean? Also, why did you say that thing to me before? Why won't you be direct with me about what's going on?" Panic returned to his fingers and spread rapidly to his chest. He had never experienced such intense waves of inner turmoil, even after the merge with Luke.

"What's happening to you Kai?" Bonnie took a step forward and then seemed to immediately regret her decision, for she exchanged her stoic gaze on him for a bored one off to the side. "Are you having a panic attack?" Bonnie gave a hoarse laugh. "Of course."

Kai became instantly aware of how sweaty his palms were. That he was trembling, slightly. That his chest struggled to convince itself a full breath.

Am I?

"Seriously? Was I this obnoxiously skeptical of everything too?" Bonnie tossed her hands up, frustration sparking the indifference in her face into what Kai could easily recognize as anger. It was not enough to distract him, however, from the odd manner in which Bonnie spoke.

"What does me being obnoxiously skeptical have to do with you?"

The sun had begun to bow its head to the intrusion of the night sky, and it was at a point just behind Bonnie's head where this battle took place. Kai could see the edging orange glow as it descended shyly behind Bonnie's hair. He was obtusely aware that such observations were foreign to him, but, before he had the chance to question why, Bonnie answered it for him.

"Because I'm half of you now. And you're half of me. And the Bonnie that went back with everyone else is God knows who, because both parts of me are right here, in you and I."

This time Kai could not suppress the panic. He dropped to his knees.