Mai stood at the bank of monitors with her arms crossed. She had been nibbling at her thumbnail for the past several minutes while they tracked Lin and Masako through the back halls of the museum. It was obvious they were talking, a quiet conversation that couldn't be picked up on any of the cameras or microphones that had been dispersed along their path, but that wasn't Mai's concern. She was waiting for something to happen. She needed Masako to confirm her theory so that she could get Oliver on board. He probably was already but his trusting her intuition enough to follow her lead was nervewracking, so Masako's word would help to soothe her own nerves more than anything.

Oliver had returned with Monk several minutes ago and joined her at her side without a word. He didn't seem angry. She couldn't sense any sort of tension at all, which was a surprise, usually, it radiated from him, rolling off his shoulders like a physical aura felt by all. But no, he was cool as a cucumber, that one. His own eyes focused on the screens with intent. She'd have to pester Monk and find out what he said to him on their walk around later.

The rest of the room was filled with those watching and waiting for the outcome. It was a bit like a sporting event, Mai supposed, but one in which the audience remained silent. Their bated breath felt like a pressure building at the back of her neck.

"I didn't feel it until we reached the bathrooms at the end of that hall," she murmured to the man at her side, "Then it made me turn around and go back."

Oliver lifted a hand to his mouth while silently processing her words.

On screen, Lin and Masako turned down a hall. He could tell the two were wary. The set to Lin's shoulders was too stiff and one hand always remained at his side, relaxed and waiting. He was on a hair trigger and while that did not bode well for Mai's plan to remain under the radar of whatever it was they were facing, it did at least assure him that Lin would protect Masako. Not that he had ever doubted the man, he was one of his closest friends, but it was reassuring nonetheless. It had been so long since either of them had tackled such a case.

Mai leaned forward and braced a hand against the table on Andrew's left, her other resting on her hip. Her hair was much longer those days, and her movement drew his eyes to the long locks that she had pulled over one shoulder, revealing the collum over her throat. He turned his eyes back to the screen.

"There," she whispered to no one in particular as the two turned once more. As if she had heard her, on screen Masako froze.

Oliver leaned forward to mirror Mai's stance on Andrew's right. The poor man was practically sweating between the two of them but was making an effort to remain calm. Whatever ease Oliver had adopted after his talk with Monk evaporated under an intense tension that bloomed and cycled between him and Mai.

"What was it that you felt?" Oliver asked while on screen Lin reached out to rest a hand on Masako's shoulder.

"It's an intense terror," Mai murmured, "Like unnatural levels of fear. The kind that should have led to heart failure. I felt sick like the hall was warping around me."

"An attack?" Oliver theorized.

"No," Mai shook her head, "A memory."

Oliver breathed a sigh through his nose. The fact that memory had seemingly stained the space around it enough that even Mai had felt so affected just by passing through while in the waking world was concerning. Especially to the degree that she claimed. It implied that what Lydia was experiencing far surpassed the general fear for one's life. It would have likely broken her mind and fractured whatever sanity she had left at the time. Like a spooked rabbit, all that she was would have become fright.

As if to emphasize this, Masako dropped like a marionette with its strings cut. Lin rushed to catch her and lower her to the ground while back at base Ayako and Monk moved into action and dove out of the room to go help.

"I've never seen her do that," Yasu mumbled behind them. "She swoons all the time but she usually keeps to her feet. Not a complete loss of consciousness."

"Whatever it is, it's not natural," Mai stated, pulling back from the table to cross her arms and drop her thoughtful gaze to the floor.

"You mean you don't think it's of human origins?" Tristan questioned from his spot leaning up against the desk. He had been rather quiet since he had arrived but Mai had caught him speaking with several members of their team, asking questions and learning, which was good. She had worried he would feel uncomfortable there and at least bend under the pressure of the case but he had taken to it like a fish out of water. He didn't even mind doing the grunt work they had all taken to rotating: changing batteries, organizing wires and remaining equipment, and temperatures.

"I don't think so," she agreed with a shake of her head.

"Then I'll do my own research," he informed her with a straight face and a thumbs up. He pushed himself away from the desk and strode across the room where his backpack had been left at the foot of the couch.

Outside the room, several sets of footsteps could be heard as the group returned with Masako in Lin's arms. She looked like a small fragile doll in his hold and Mai felt her heart squeeze in panic before Ayako stepped into view and guided the man into the break room, instructing him to set her down on a cot without any worry in her tone. Ayako would know best, Mai reminded herself, she is a doctor after all. If there had been any major concern she would have called out for an ambulance immediately.

Monk trailed back into base rubbing the back of his neck but looking relieved. "Ayako says she'll be fine but she wants to take her back to the hotel for the night to rest up," he explained in gentle tones. There were many relieved sighs from around the room. Andrew, Sam, and Nora had never had the experience of watching Masako work directly so Mai imagined it had been alarming, to say the least. Perhaps they might have seen her on television at some point but Mai knew for a fact her specials were heavily edited.

Ayako left to take Masako to the hotel an hour later and Oliver sent Sam, Yasuhara, and John along with them. It was best to build up on the rotation now so that others could go tomorrow without too much debate. By the time the room had grown a little quieter, a little emptier, it was nearing ten PM and Mai could feel her eyes aching with the need for sleep. But she wasn't ready to surrender yet. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't at all affected by the aftershocks of terror she had been exposed to, her own heart fluttered with the beginnings of panic when she imagined falling asleep and coming face to face with whatever it was that had Lydia. She hadn't seen it the first time, perhaps because she had been too far away, but now all that stood between them and it was a charm Ayako hung on the wall in the hallway.

So Mai busied herself with, well, busy work. She reviewed and organized the temperature sheets before passing them on to Lin to document. Then she went with Monk to check all the batteries on all the equipment just to be sure they would all last through the night. When that was done she updated the whiteboard with what they had learned that day while others shuffled into the break room to get a few hours of sleep. The marker squeaked in the growing quiet and soon it was just her, Oliver, Lin, Monk, and Nora hidden in her spot behind the whiteboard working away into the late hours of the night.

"Mai," Oliver called out when he caught her yawning for the fifth time. He was sitting behind the desk, watching the video feed through his laptop while Lin sat at the bank of monitors. A pen glinted in his hand, constantly flipping and weaving through his fingers absently. Any time something of note occurred he would mark down the time in his notebook for later review but besides what Mai had caught earlier, there was nothing. It wasn't surprising, more to be expected than anything, but it made it very easy for him to notice her obvious attempts to avoid sleeping.

"Not yet," she tossed back over her shoulder.

Outside the window, she could make out the lot where all their vehicles were parked. There was a single light on to illuminate the courtyard but it failed to pierce the darkness a few yards out. Anyone could be sneaking around out there, or so her exhausted mind thought, and she imagined she could see figures moving about every time she looked. She really was tired, but she wasn't ready to subject herself yet to what she knew was awaiting her. The marker in her hand shook and she gave up on updating the board in favor of capping the marker and letting out a sigh. She was being childish. She had sent out Masako to experience what she had in the hall knowing full well she would sense it more strongly than she had. To avoid sleeping just because she was fearful of delving deeper? That wasn't fair.

"Alright," she murmured to herself, fists clenched at her sides.

Monk pulled his feet off the coffee table from where he sat on the couch, eyes turned to Mai. He had only been up scrolling through his phone until he felt tired enough to sleep but if Mai was getting ready to retire he might as well too. He pushed himself to his feet with a stretch and a grunt.

"You want me to set an alarm?" Monk asked through his stretch.

Mai half turned to face him before she lifted her wrist to gaze at her watch with scrunched brows, struggling to concentrate through her sleepy haze. She counted the hours off on her fingers, not caring if Oliver was watching before she nodded. "Set one for five AM and then again at seven, if I haven't woken yet," she replied tiredly.

Mai was just glad she had thought to bring the spare comforter from her hotel room and a pillow. It was nice of the museum to provide the cots but they were a far cry from the memory foam king mattress she had been sleeping on for the past month. At least with the heavy feather comforter, she could feel a little more secure. It weighed her arms down as she shuffled into the break room and squinted in the darkness. There were already several sleeping lumps scattered about the room on their own cots. Andrew and Tristan had chosen to split a pull-out couch and Mai struggled not to giggle at the scene. Tristan was sprawled out and snoring while Andrew had tucked himself into a ball beneath the blanket. Given that Andrew was a large burly man used to construction work and Tristant was willowy and pale, she would have expected their roles to have been reversed.

Monk shuffled up behind her and nudged her further into the room. They would share a pull-out couch themselves, it wouldn't be the first time, but Mai felt bad he would be stuck sleeping with one of the lumpy pillows from the couch while she had her feather-down cushion of comfort.

As quietly as they could they pulled the frame out of the other couch and got to work making up the bed with the basic sheets. They folded the thin blanket to add extra padding before tossing the comforter over top. Once done, Mai grabbed her night bag and hurried out into the bathroom to brush her teeth and change into a pair of leggings and a T-shirt. It wasn't the comfiest clothing to sleep in but she didn't want to donne her pajamas in front of an entire room of people, some of them strangers. It wasn't as if she planned on sleeping long anyways.

On her way back to the room, Oliver stepped out of base and reached out for her. His hand settled on her arm before he gently turned her about and guided her back a couple of steps so that they were out of the line of sight of those within any of the rooms. Not that she suspected anyone would be snooping, but the break room door was open and Mai could see several cots before she moved out of the way.

"Yes?" she questioned with an arched brow, finding her back resting against the wall with her bag gripped in her hands.

Oliver slid his hands into his pockets and leaned a shoulder against the wall next to her, eyes lowered. Gosh, he really had gotten tall, she marveled quietly to herself. She just hoped Monk didn't come out looking for her and find them in such a position. It wasn't really all that suggestive, nothing like Nora stumbling upon them in the archives, but Monk seemed a little touchy when it came to her.

"I wanted to apologize," he murmured quietly.

Mai blinked in surprise, feeling a smile pull at her lips, "You've been doing that an awful lot, lately."

Oliver huffed, self-deprecating mirth evident, and looked away off down the hall. "I'm sure I owe you even more," he replied lightly. After all that she had put up with and done for him and his family, long before he even knew she was actually aiding his brother (unknowingly or not), he was certain he owed her more than he could ever repay.

"I don't keep score," she spoke up with a shrug. She couldn't hold grudges, just as she didn't count favors, things came and went and she preferred to help and forgive whenever the chance arose. "But I'm sorry too," she added in a quieter voice, her smile turning gentle under his returned gaze.

Oliver eyed her for a moment before he stepped forward into her already waiting arms. It was like she just knew when he wanted to reach out. Perhaps it was more of her intuition, pulling the strings and urging her to act because the thought of someone knowing him so well sent a thrill of something through his chest that he was quite unfamiliar with. Still, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, burying his face in the crook of her neck. She felt so small in his embrace. He could never remember her as being so tiny. In his mind, she was vibrant and full of spirit. When he thought of Japan he thought of her, when he thought of Gene he thought of her, every time Lin was forced to exorcise a spirit he thought of her and how she had managed to cleanse an entire school of lingering students on her own. She was all-encompassing. And yet…her head barely reached his shoulders.

Mai had shifted her bag to one hand so she could at least wrap an arm around his middle but she pulled away after a few moments, her eyes burning with the need for sleep. Oliver tucked a strand of her hair behind an ear before he kissed her forehead, silently bidding her good night, and stepped back into base as if nothing had happened.

Mai only wished she had such composure. She was too tired to feel embarrassed, to agonize over his gentle ministrations and what they might mean, instead, she did her best to carry the warmth she felt back with her to bed to face her fears.

Monk was already gently snoring away on his side, one arm tucked beneath the pillow and hogging more than half the comforter. Mai scoffed quietly before climbing onto the other side and tucking herself under the comforter with her back to him. The mattress was thin and limp after years of being tucked away and abused, but her pillow made it bearable. She settled her head in the feathery comfort and opened her eyes, staring out the window of the room. Just like the one in the base, it looked out onto the courtyard lot where their vehicles were parked. The archway that allowed trucks and vehicles entry was gated and locked but she could still see out onto the street from that angle. Cars passed in the night.

She was stalling.

Mai took a deep breath and breathed out slowly, urging her body to relax as she did so, releasing the tension in each muscle from her toes to her neck. The heaviness of sleep crept up on her, like the incoming tide, her consciousness pulling away in the ocean with each wave like sand beneath her feet. She could push it further if she wanted, to step out into the waters would be astral projection, and she would find herself on the astral plane. But that wasn't what she wanted yet. The ocean stared back at her, waiting, but if she entered she would be exposed to it. Whatever it was. Stepping out would put them on the same plane of existence, and she wasn't ready for that yet. So she settled on the beach and let the waves wash over her and lull her to sleep.

And she was running.

The hallways passed her by in a repetitive blur that she had long since grown used to but with that familiarity came desperation. If there was no new environment then there was no hope for her escape. She had been running for hours and had yet to find an exit. She had delved into the exhibits a handful of times but vast open rooms were dangerous. The hallways at least slowed it down.

She had grown numb to the feeling of her feet pounding across the floor, impact rattling her shins and sending throbs of pain up to her hips. Her arms pumped at her sides, shoulders on fire with the strain. And her lungs, oh how they burned. Her throat felt raw and bloody from gasping for air but still, she pushed herself forward. If she slowed she would die.

She spun down an offshoot hall and nearly tripped over her own feet before she righted herself with a wet gasp. There was a tickle in her lungs that begged her to stop and work it out but she ignored it. There was a voice in her mind imploring her to look back. Let me see, it whispered in her ear. And despite the few scant strands of logic she had managed to hold onto she found her head turning, eyes sliding to the side, taking in the shrinking hallway behind her without her permission.

It wasn't the first time she had seen it. She had caught several glimpses of it throughout the last few hours but every time it sent such a thrill of terror through her body that her heart faltered, sending sharp pain shooting through her chest and arms. The tickle in her lungs grew and she whipped her head back around in time to slide to a stop and throw a door open, regaining her pace not a moment later.

She had been on the track team at school, she thought, perhaps that was why she was still going. But try as she might reach for those memories, to confirm whether or not it was true, she found herself coming up empty-handed. That was because all that she was had been narrowed down to the last few hours of her life. She was running, she was a runner, and she would run until she died.

Earlier she had cried, sobbing in horror while she pushed herself on, but now her tears had dried and her eyes glazed over. Any water she had left within her system was devoted to the continuation of her pace. She had accepted that if she stopped running her life would come to an end and despite the fact that a part of her had long since given up, bits of her soul ripped away to pass on without her, she would not allow herself to lose the race. It was all she had left.

What did it look like, again?

There were stairs beneath her feet, flying by as she took two to three at a time without remorse for the damage it did to her knees and ankles. She could look back again, but maybe when she had reached the bottom. Darkness swelled up from the basement to meet her, reaching out with cool comforting arms. She could rest down there if she wanted to.

No, she corrected herself, what. Did. it. Look. like.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and slammed up against the metal doors leading into the basement with a haggard gasping grunt before she dared to look back over her shoulder. It was a monster, an amorphous mass of shadow and gruesome limbs, faces, undulating and shifting, reaching for her. Slathering jaws and waves of blood spilled across the floor and flowed down the stairs before it, like the winds before a storm broke. The sound of the fluid siphoning down the stairs to patter against the landing, like a mockery of a babbling brook in the woods, was the only sound she could make out over her gasping breath and pounding heart.

She blinked. All she saw was the figure of a man, backlit by the fluorescent light from the hall above. Standing at the edge of the first step.

Terror shot through her as a hand squeezed her heart. She tossed the door open and ran into the darkness. The depths of the museum where long-forgotten relics rested and waited for their time to see the light once more if it ever came. The air was still and stagnant, and still, she ran deeper and deeper, until she could feel the weight of the Earth overhead.

She just had to keep running.

Because he was coming.

When she returned to the waking world it was like waking up from a car crash. Her head ached and the world blurred around her as she opened her eyes to the dim light of early morning. Everything was spinning and her heart was pounding away in her chest, like the beat of a hummingbird's wings, it thrummed with pain. She reached up with a trembling burning arm to clutch at the front of her shirt with a stuttering breath, pain lancing through her shoulder and into her back.

Disorientation reigned supreme over her mind while she struggled to collect herself. For an intense and frightening moment, she couldn't remember who she was, where she was, or why she was there. Fear thrilled through her and her heart fluttered warningly. She just needed to calm down and think.

The room around her was dark and still. Several figures were laid out in cots on the floor while an open door on the far wall allowed warm light to spill through, cutting a swath through the darkness, although it didn't manage to reach her. Light would help, she told herself. If she could get to the light then she could push the shadows away, hold them at bay, until she could get back to herself.

She reached a trembling hand out to grip the edge of the mattress and kicked a leg out over the edge with a whimper of pain, she couldn't feel anything below her knee but her thighs and hips ached so fiercely she could only assume her bones had been shattered and ground to dust. She bit her lip and pulled with all that she had left and the world spun around her before she felt the impact of hitting the ground with a ragged gasp, the breath knocked from her lungs for just a moment. Short rough carpet fibers rasped against the flesh of her arms as she struggled to push herself up.

"Mai?"

The voice startled her and she lost her battle against gravity, her arms giving out beneath her. Was that her? Yes, the name sounded right. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness around her as someone threw themselves out of the bed and bounded around the other side to reach her.

"Mai!"

Hands reached for her, grasping her shoulders, and she cried out as pain shot through her again. If her throat wasn't on fire she would have begged for them to stop, if only to forestall the pain until later. Just let her know a moment's peace before she was subjected to more. But she couldn't work her tongue around the swelling. She could only just reach out a trembling hand and set it on the thigh in the corner of her vision, he was kneeling at her side, she realized. The last person she remembered being at her side was Monk. And the recollection of who she was and who he was and what she had been doing forced tears to spill forth while she choked back a pained whimper unsuccessfully.

"Shit," Monk muttered, panicked, while someone who must have been woken by the noise flicked the lights on. "Naru!" he called out over his shoulder, barely sparing a glance to see it was Nora who had gotten up to do something while the rest in the room had pushed themselves up and were still attempting to process what they were seeing.

The cracked door was thrown open not a moment later and it was both Naru and Lin who rushed through. The panic in Monk's voice had been enough to rouse Oliver from his focus on the monitors, eyes burning from lack of sleep and lost in a trance, but within a second he had tossed himself out of the chair sending it crashing into the wall behind him before he was out the door, Lin on his heels. Monk was a stoic man when it came down to it so the fear that Oliver had detected in his tone was enough to send his own heart racing.

And he knew it pertained to Mai before he had even stumbled onto the scene. She was sprawled out across the floor, crumpled in a heap, just struggling to lift a hand to reach for Monk. Naru dropped to his knees at her side before he even knew what he was doing.

"No, don't!" Monk snapped at him as he reached for her.

"I can't help her from here, Monk," he muttered darkly, teeth gritted.

Monk sat back on his heels and ran a hand across his face while Oliver reached out and pulled Mai up into his arms, she gasped in pain but managed to bite back any further sound. Her head settled on his shoulder while he ran his eyes down her body, searching for injuries of any kind, only relaxing by a mere fraction when he noticed nothing. She reached a trembling hand out to him and he took it without thought, bringing it up to his chest while turning his eyes to hers. She was watching him with an unfocused gaze but even as they sat there more clarity appeared to return.

"I'm…I'm okay," she whispered.

"What happened?" he asked and though his tone was once more cool and composed as always, his hold on her hand tightened. He was reminded of his own thoughts a few hours ago, of how small she was in his arms despite how larger than life she appeared to be in his mind. Now she lay within his hold shattered and shaking, seeming smaller than ever before.

Mai's eyes fell shut for a moment, wishing she had the energy to describe in detail what she experienced but knowing she didn't. Another tear trailed from the corner of her eye down her cheek. "She…" she faltered, emotions swelling, "She was so strong." She hid her face in the crook of his neck. "She was so scared, but she refused to give up," she whispered. Lydia had run until her body have given out on her, knowing it was her one strength, the one thing no one had ever been able to beat her at. It was her last line of hope and it was the one thing that had allowed some part of her to continue existing. She kept pushing for that finish line, for the feeling of euphoria that came with winning, even though she knew it was her last moment and it would never come.

How tragically beautiful.

"Lin," Oliver muttered quietly, "Will you put the kettle on?"

Lin nodded from where he stood behind them before he turned to delve back into the hall. The final room, the one they had deemed reserved for meetings, had a small kitchenette that boasted a kettle and a minuscule tea selection. It was a quick and easy task to fill the kettle with water and set it on the stovetop.

Oliver turned his attention back to Mai and shifted, sliding one arm beneath her legs so he could lift her fully into his hold and stand. Mai groaned with the movement but reached out to grip the front of his vest and shirt in a fist; the most she could do to support herself at that moment. Monk stepped forward to help but found there wasn't much he could do while Oliver lowered Mai back onto the pull-out couch.

"I don't want to lay down," she mumbled quietly and Oliver shifted her back, propping the pillow up behind her so she could at least sit up against the back of the couch. Monk was moving to pull the comforter over her legs when Lin returned to the room with a frown.

"Just rest for now," Oliver instructed quietly while sitting on the edge of the mattress, "When the rest get back from the hotel you'll go and sleep there."

Mai bit her lip and gripped the blanket as best she could in her weakened state. Because now she didn't want to leave at all, she wanted to help Lydia. But Oliver was right, she knew he was. If she wanted to help them face off against whatever that thing was then she needed to be at her best and she was far from it now. She dropped her head back against the pillow behind her with a sigh. "Okay," she muttered, "But I want to attend the meeting this morning."

Oliver sighed through his nose before he shifted to check the watch on his wrist. It was still only five AM and they're meeting was at ten, going by the schedule that Mai herself had felt was necessary to set out. That would give her five hours to recover from her dream and whatever psychic-induced pain it had caused her before the others arrived and Ayako could mother-hen her. Though, he was certain Monk would be doing enough for the both of them before she arrived.

"Alright," he agreed resignedly.

Monk squawked in protest in the background, "No way, you need to relax for the rest of the day Jou-chan."

"You know that's not how this works," she shot back tiredly, though she did manage to chuckle. The mirth, as buried under exhaustion as it was, did wonders to soothe everyone in the room including Mai herself.

Oliver left and returned a few moments later with a cup of tea in hand. He reclaimed his seat on the mattress and gently lowered the cup into her hands, resting in her lap, and watched as she carefully lifted it to her nose. It was orange spice, one of her favorites, and something that Oliver had seemed to know very early on. She recalled the Urado case and the night she had experienced the death of another, how he had come to her side in the dead of night with a cup of tea then too. Although her hands shook she managed to take a sip and lower the cup back to her lap without incident. The warmth soothed her throat and settled in her stomach pleasantly, settling her nerves, and reminding her of better times. Times when her mother had still been alive.

"Thank you," she mumbled with a sigh of relief.

Oliver stood and slid his hands into his pockets, taking a step aside while Monk moved in to look her over himself. The majority of those left at the museum were his team and now he could feel all of their eyes on him while he tried to physically and emotionally put distance between himself and Mai. He dropped his gaze to the floor, turning his thoughts to the case and what her dream might mean. He wanted to write it down before either of them could forget what she had said so he slipped out of the room the moment he felt a few less eyes on the back of his head to search out his notebook in base. He knew full well Mai would not return to the hotel until she was good and ready no matter what he or Monk said, but he was satisfied with the five hours of rest they had managed to agree upon. It was better than nothing.