Author's notes: This chapter ended up taking longer than expected. In part because I decided to go back through "Act 2" of the original story to see if there was any legwork I'd need to do after this chapter. Which was roughly when I had a feeling of dread come over me. Because going back into the original Intercom made me realize just how many intricacies and plot threads could be played with. In fact, a part of me almost thinks I'm doing a disservice jumping over the school day that made Riley come to this decision, but my framing device doesn't allow for backtracking right away.

Then I needed to figure out exactly how I wanted the big moment to happen in this story. And I had to rewrite a part of the chapter AGAIN because I realized that the upgraded console didn't look the way I hoped. It was a headache, but I've finally created something I'm happy with. Hopefully this is satisfactory for getting us over the hump and into the pain.

Also, as a reminder, this is technically still a flashback in Joy's memory.

EDIT: Needed some formatting tweaks

Chapter 2: All Fall Down

Joy had kept very quiet during the train ride back to Headquarters. Nobody could explain it, since they'd always known Joy as the chatty one. It also made the other emotions uneasy as Joy was always the first to have some big idea to fix up Riley. As they pulled into the alcove, everyone disembarked. And as Disgust stepped off last, Riley turned around, looking at the train. She raised a hand towards it, and a white light began to come over the train, before it stopped glowing. "Not yet." she muttered. "There's still so much to do."

Quickly turning around, Riley moved into Headquarters. While the other emotions were whispering to each other about one thing or another, Joy was standing by the central pillar, reaching into her new paper bag for the core memories. "Hey Joy," Riley suddenly said. "Are you sure the core memories still go there?"

A hush fell over everyone, as Joy paused with her hand holding Honesty Island's core memory in her hand. There was a serious "deer in the headlights" look on Joy's face, and she looked down at the memory in her hand to make sure she wasn't seeing things. But no, aside from being a little dimmer, the core still looked bright enough that it could work as a Core memory. And glancing back at the Core memory holder, it still looked like it had the right number of slots. "I, uh, I don't know what you're talking about Riley. This looks fine to me. And I'm pretty sure the others will be too."

"I don't know." Riley looked skeptical. She gestured out the window towards the space where islands of personality would normally be. "Look out there Joy. Does it look like they need to come back?" And indeed, there weren't very many islands left standing. Possibility was there. Isolation was still there somehow. Hockey Island was there. But all the others were either damaged or disappeared into the memory dump.

Joy gave an uneasy chuckle. "Well, they weren't supposed to fall down during all this, so…of course they need to come back. We all need friends, family, fun and all the rest in our lives." Riley again gave a glare. "I mean…in a general sense. Not that we're you, but more that we're here to do this alongside you Riley. To navigate through life no matter what comes at it. That's why I tried so hard to save the original core memories in the first place after all."

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out! Turns out I had to make new ones all over again! It's almost like everything outside doesn't last and will end up betraying you!"

Joy looked back at the holder. She suddenly felt a deep sense of alarm as it almost looked like the holder was losing slots. Joy took a deep breath, and with a quick movement, plugged Honesty back into the holder. There was still a spot available for it, so it accepted the memory with a click, and shot a golden line back out again. Forming that same Honesty Island she'd had before.

"Why did you do that so suddenly?" Fear asked with mounting unease.

Joy then took a few steps towards the other emotions. "I needed to at least have Honesty Island back before we had this conversation." She then positioned herself between the emotions and her girl. "You say that everything 'outside' doesn't last, right?"

"Yes! Learning! Friends! Parents! Interests! What's the point in making it all work if nothing ever lasts and they turn on you the moment you start acting differently?!"

"Is that why you want to stay in the Mind World forever?"

A silence as deep as the sea settled over Headquarters at that question. Fear began looking between Joy and Riley with Horror. Anger with shock. Disgust with surprise. Sadness was trying to look neutral, but seemed on the verge of tears. Riley though had a look between guilt and suspicion on her face.

"Joy..I mean, where did you ever get the idea that I'd want that?"

While Joy knew this was going to be a…sensitive thing to reveal given how uneasy the mind workers were about volunteering the information in the first place, she wouldn't lie even now. "I heard your stream of conscious thoughts when I was in Imagination Land. And the mind workers confirmed it with me afterwards."

Riley looked like she'd just eaten a sour prune. "They did what? You're already inside my head, and now you tried to hear my thoughts without my permission?"

Joy gave a helpless shrug. "They suggested it."

Riley looked upset, but tried to suppress the look as best as she could. "Okay, well, maybe you heard wrong. What makes you think that'd be something I'd want?"

Sadness stepped up next to Joy. "You told us you feel safe here on Monday night after everything. So you might have a desire to keep that safety for as long as you can if you don't feel that same safety in everyday life."

Riley blinked once, twice. "I mean, but if I don't engage outside, how will I know that my emotions are working properly? You remember what happened when I locked you all out."

Now Fear stepped up, though nervously wrangling his hands. "That's very true. Except we all know that when you're Lucid Dreaming you don't need us to feel emotions when you're inside here. It'd be a non-issue. And I'm a little concerned that you aren't giving us a straight answer Riley."

Riley took a discreet step towards the mind manuals. "But, didn't mom and dad say something about needing to seriously go see a clinical psychologist? No matter my own feelings on the matter, why would I need to do something so drastic if I'm clearly going to be prescribed something so everyone can think that I'm normal again?"

Disgust, with her keen eye, saw exactly what Riley had done, and placed herself on the far side of the others between Riley and the shelves. "We all know that the minute someone finds out we're taking medicine for some mental problem or other, nobody will ever see us as normal again. Ann and Jordan will still be there, but Tracy could have all the power to say she was right to call you crazy. And in only seventh grade, that would become a death sentence for the rest of the year. So yes, it could work. Or, you could want to do something where you're never seen as crazy by those around you. Like…being in here with us?"

Riley could feel her carefully protected wall of thoughts crumbling, but she made one final plea to keep them off the scent. "Surely I would've told all you about this if I wanted to do something like that!"

Anger joined Disgust, also positioning himself between her and the manuals. "Unless you were afraid to have this conversation with us. That after you knew that we made mistakes with your life, you wanted to make sure that we'd never be able to stop you if you could find a way to work around us knowing. That for something as big as this, you'd be able to do it on your own and not have us messing it up or trying to talk you out of it. And I think that's exactly what's happening now." Riley was still clamming up, so Anger took one more step, realizing that to get the truth, he'd have to cross the line. "Isn't that right, Crazy Girl?"

That did it. Riley's face curled into a snarl and she unloaded on Anger. "I'M NOT CRAZY! HOW DARE YOU ANGER! After all the trust I put in you the last few days and You're trying to make me doubt myself? I can't be disappointed again! Not after we ran into that problem with "outside projection" that doesn't seem possible for humans. I'm so worried that you might be schizophrenic hallucinations, and you want to deny your own existence!? I have to believe you all are real, or nothing I've gone through the last few days will be worth it. And if the only way I can do that is to be here forever, then I'll do it!" Riley then caught herself. And now looked quite embarrassed.

All the emotions now looked horrified to have Riley admit this to them all. Joy spoke up. "Riley, even though you were disappointed and upset by all that we've gone through the last few days, that's no reason to think you have to stay inside here forever."

Riley now looked very upset. "I…maybe I'd believe you on Sunday, but after everything we've been through? Everything that's happened to me? The symptoms of Schizophrenia. Tracy turning everyone against me? Mom and Dad! I..I just can't deal with it anymore. I need this place to be real, and I don't want to be out there anymore."

Fear next stepped up. "You can't be serious! Riley, the only way to stay here forever might be if you…I don't know, fell unconscious and ended up in a coma. That's like, my 3rd greatest fear, and.." For a brief moment, Fear shot a look at Joy, and it wasn't a pleasant one. "Exactly what I was afraid might happen when we started talking to you." Joy gave a silent wince at the accusation, but said nothing in the moment. "It's asking for trouble and not what we're supposed to do for you or what you should EVER do to yourself."

"But it's perfect for all of us! Think about it." Riley began to look over all her emotions. "Fear, in here, you can always be beside me to protect me. And they'll never be anything new that could be dangerous. Disgust, you can always be here to always make sure I stay away from anything poisonous. And if it's just us and the mind workers, we'd never have to worry about getting it wrong. Anger, everything will always be fair for me, because it's always going to be about me." She paused a second looking at Sadness. "Sadness, we'll always be together when things get messy, and we can cry together as a family." And then she looked at Joy, who had a face filled with regret and conflict. "And you know that I ought to be happy, right Joy? This is a beautiful place where we can find all kinds of imaginative, creative, wonderful ways for me to be happy for however long I can be in here. Isn't that why you're my Joy in the first place?"

Joy looked down, her mind racing. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't wanted to talk to Riley as a solution to the intercom's damage…maybe we could've had some kind of…I dunno, medication to help with it? Something that could help from the outside in? But now, Riley just loves it here more than outside. How can I…"

"Riley." It was Anger who spoke up, looking her straight in the eyes. "We'll always be here as long as the intercom isn't fixed, but…you doing this? Trying to be asleep forever?" And Anger then got a VERY serious look on his face. "You're just trying to run away from your problems again."

"What?"

"You heard me. Instead of standing up and saying that you won't be looked down upon, you're just trying to escape the judgment and fear you're feeling about what it's like to know about us."

Riley scowled. "How can you possibly talk to me like that? Wasn't running away from home an idea YOU picked out?!"

Anger looked down. "Yes. I did." Then he looked back up with a fierce determination in his eyes. "And I won't let you make the same mistake I did. I won't let you use your anger to justify doing something wrong!" And then, to everyone's surprise, Anger gave Riley a big hug. Riley blinked a couple times, very confused. "Because we love you. And since you're stuck with us, we can't agree to this idea." Anger turned to look at the other emotions. "RIGHT, everyone?"

The other emotions glanced at each other, trying to figure out how to sort out their own ideas of what Riley was saying. This was way beyond what they ever thought they'd have to face as emotions. Eventually, it was Disgust who stepped up first.

"I admit the idea is…tempting. To never have to worry about broccoli or boogers ever again. But…we exist to be there for you in the challenges on the outside. And I for one do have an interest in seeing who our first proper boyfriend is. Not just someone imaginary like Harry. We can't find new things we should move towards if we're all inside your head forever avoiding what we already know is bad."

Fear came next. "Your mind isn't any safer than the outside world." Fear sighed at admitting this. "I originally wanted this to just stop so you couldn't accidentally hurt yourself, and so we couldn't hurt you. But…being around you inside here was pretty wonderful. While you could be a bit…reckless, you learned to take care of yourself. And I know that with us working together, we can find a way to be just as safe on the outside as the inside. And…that's what it means to be brave." Fear's eyebrows lowered into a look of determination. "To have fear, but to find a way to use it or to carry on to what needs to be done. If there's no true benefit to you staying here, then I can't agree to it either."

Sadness looked at Riley with big, empathetic eyes. "I know it's been hard. This has been a bad week for sure. And I understand your desire for isolation more than you might believe. It makes me just want to lie down and bemoan how nobody understands us." Riley's expression softened slightly at this. Then Sadness took a step towards Riley, reaching for her hand, though Riley stepped back in response. Sadness looked down very sad at that. "We feel alone and hurt. And that's not something to ignore. But…you've been pushing everyone away as well. Even if we can't convince anyone, we have to at least try to show how you believe in what's happening to you. You can't give up on your Friends and Family after all they supported you through. You have to show them your true feelings about us, and they might show how much they care when you do."

Riley looked hurt, with her eyes looking at the 4 who just spoke to her. Finally, she looked at Joy. "Joy, please….I just want to be happy again."

Joy cast her eyes down. And then, in a voice so quiet it was barely above a whisper, she said, "Why don't you want to be happy on the outside Riley?" She slowly brought her eyes up, and although she didn't look intimidating, Riley took another step backwards on seeing just how hollow Joy's eyes looked. "I was made for you to be out there. Not in here, but enjoying everything you experience and love and meet wherever you might go. I was so joyful to see you and talk with you like I once dreamed about, but not at the cost of everything else! Where's your hope that we'll get through all this? We endured through the move after our rough first few days. We got through being Scatterbrained. Why can't you believe that we're going to get through all these problems and find something better at the end of all this?"

Riley's eyes wavered. She closed them for a second, and for a moment Joy hoped beyond hope that they'd gotten through to her. But when Riley opened them again, they were hard and angry. "There's nothing I had out there that I can't have in here. And I won't be stopped now." Riley raised her hands, made a pushing motion, and the next thing Joy knew, she and the other emotions were flung back against the ramp to their rooms.

"What are you doing?" cried Fear. "How are you doing this?"

Riley gave them all a hard look. "You may have used the console all these years, but this is MY mind. I'm not going to go through another day like yesterday after all the trouble I got in, and if you won't help me, then I'm doing this right now!" And with that, she waved her hands again. White light came over the emotions as they suddenly were seated on the couch but with straps on them in various ways.

Joy had her hands and legs bound. Anger was high up on the couch with his head slightly above the top. Sadness had a few straps underneath her legs. Fear was in a full body bind. And Disgust was held in the middle with her legs also held to the couch. The couch was also facing back towards the manuals instead of the console.

"Riley!" Anger cried, his head erupting, but the flames never touched the couch. "You're trying to suppress us? You stop this right now young lady! You're in so much trouble, we'll have to take away dream visits for a week!"

Fear squirmed, but couldn't slide anywhere due to his "nerve" being held at all places. Sadness couldn't slip out of her bindings, and Joy and Disgust simply couldn't utilize anything to get out of their space.

Sadness looked at Riley, a desperation in her eyes. "Riley! What you're thinking about will probably involve a lot of consciousness tampering. Too much! For all we know, you could accidentally give yourself a brain hemorrhage." Riley didn't respond at first, just running her hand over the various titles. "You promised us! You promised you wouldn't use anything dangerous without understanding it."

Riley glanced back. "Of course I'll understand it and be careful. After all, what's the point of staying here forever if I can't enjoy it?" She grabbed a few different manuals from the shelves, and sat in front of the emotions with the books closed in front of her. "And no matter what you might think, I want to share however much time I get with all of you. I'm sure you'll come to agree that this was for the best."

Disgust kept pulling with her wrists. "No! We didn't ask for this. You won't earn our loyalty by forcing us to watch you carry it out! Let us go!"

Riley sighed, then went to her first book: Direct Host-to-Mind Interaction. "This seems to be an obvious place to look for something like this." She opened the thin manual, only to suddenly gasp.

Fear flinched, his eyes looking around headquarters to see if they were about to fall into the dump, but nothing happened. "What's wrong?"

Riley looked up at them with wild eyes. "I…I can't read it. It's all a jumble of letters."

Fear let out a break of air he didn't know he was holding. Sadness though gave Riley a firm look. "Even if you're lucid dreaming, you're still dreaming. And that means that like in so many dreams, you can't read because it uses different parts of your brain."

Disgust then gave Riley a half smile. "It seems like you can't do anything without us, can you? And we'd never agree to help, so let us go, and we can figure something else out."

Riley hesitantly closed the manual for a second, then frowned. "This is MY Mind. Even if I have to break all the old rules, I'm going to figure this out. I don't need you all for this." She stared at the manual hard, and after a moment of the book shining white, the book looked legible to her. She began skimming through it, bookmarked a page, then set it aside. Next, she did the same to the manual labeled Outside Assessment. Then to Console Construction. Then on Recall Protocols. Then on Advanced Console Operations.

Fear looked over to Joy. His expression was a mixture of terror and, interestingly enough, anger. Which wasn't too surprising since he could be cross when it came to emphasizing a fearful situation, but he still looked somewhere between hyperventilating and screaming like Anger might. He whispered, "Well Joy, does this answer your question?"

"What?"

"What was it you said when we started this? Oh yeah, If I remember, you were saying something along the lines of, 'What could happen?' This turned out great, didn't it? Riley's on speaking terms with us, and now we're going to be stuck inside for however long she manages to stay asleep if she doesn't die first. Are you happy now?"

Joy felt shocked, and a little frustrated at Fear doing this now. "Hey, it's not like you had a better idea that night! How were any of us supposed to know things would go in this direction?"

Fear was about to give a retort about just whispering forever, or having Riley tell mom and dad out of fear to get medicine to help fix the intercom from the outside, but Disgust cut him off with an elbow to the side. "Knock it off you two. We can argue about this later."

They watched as Riley took the different manuals over towards the console so they could no longer see her. However, as she held Host-Mind Interactions in her hand, she looked at the 5 little people inside her head. Her expression was grim. It did make them wonder if perhaps Gloom had gotten under Riley's skin after their experiences in the Subconscious. Although, she didn't seem apathetic, but rather darkly sad and determined. "I'm sorry it came to this. I wanted to wait a few more days to put it all together and have you all come around, but you forced my hand, Joy."

Anger interrupted any remark Joy was about to say, still squirming in place. "We let you see the wonders of your mind. Let you drive trains and fly and fight monster clowns, and you're repaying us with betrayal? You were always a guest here Riley. You're not a God meant to stay here forever!"

Riley again looked at Anger with frustration. "I can move machines with my mind. I can fly. I can teleport. I can change my clothes and bring storms. Everyone here is meant to serve my best interests. How am I NOT your God here?"

Anger clenched his fist. Riley had a dark point, but he wouldn't concede that this plan was right. "You're not a god. You're a girl who's had some bad days and decided that nobody would understand what you're going through. Just like me, you couldn't help but let out your anger. But even then you didn't have the heart to commit to your position. And now you want to do something so extreme it could really hurt you? Stop this madness now before you do something we can't save you from." Anger then softened his expression. "We let you in even when we had our concerns, because we thought you'd handle it responsibly. Were we wrong? Aren't you Riley Andersen who loves Hockey, and sees possibilities in every day and night while being a good girl?"

Riley looked down. Again, the emotions perked up in the hope that they'd broken through. Riley then gave Anger a quick hug, but Anger stiffened. This was definitely a hug of anger. If she was carrying a knife, he would've probably felt it. She walked over to the core memory holder, and raised it up. And placed a hand on it. "I'm sorry, Anger. But I'm not. This is the only way. And none of you are going to stop me." And with those words, the central core memory holder spat out Hockey, Honesty and Possibility Core memories.

The emotions were utterly horrified seeing Riley send those cores out. It gave Anger chills remembering how she'd rejected Tragic Vampire, Goofball and Boy Band islands during the day too. But they also knew what this meant for Riley. She was now fully unanchored from her mind since Isolation Island wasn't plugged in.

Anger though saw that the symbolism given was contradictory. "Don't lie to us! You know that's not true. The fact those cores shot out means that you don't fully believe that. You aren't being honest with yourself!"

Riley didn't respond. Instead she walked away, moving the console which was now behind the couch. And the emotions heard no more as Riley was no doubt looking through the manuals to do whatever she was trying to do.

Disgust looked at the other emotions. Noticing how with Anger so high up, there was a little bit of a lean on the couch. And so, Disgust murmured to herself, "Oh, it's the oldest trick, but I'm going to hate it." She looked at the others. "Alright. We don't know how long Riley's going to take before she manages locking herself in, so follow my lead. Swing back and forth." Everyone started to struggle, moving the couch, but not causing much change. "No. Together!"

Disgust began swaying against her bonds, and one by one, the other emotions began following her lead, moving the couch back, forward, back, forward, back. And then, it tipped all the way over, tumbling in such a way that it actually broke the straps all at once.

Disgust groaned. "Ow. And yuck."

Immediately, some of the other emotions began picking themselves up, and began running towards Riley, who was looking over the mind manuals, and pressing a few of the buttons in sequence.

"Riley, Stop!"

"Wait. Hold on a…NO!"

It was like the next few moments were in slow motion. Anger, Fear and Joy were rushing at Riley. Sadness was calling out, and reaching for all of them. Disgust was just getting up. Riley was at once reaching for the last console button, and turning her head towards the emotions in surprise. Headquarters was lit up, but no memories had started coming in yet. And then all at once, the emotions reached Riley and threw off the aim of her hand. So instead of pressing Memory Recall, it slipped and pressed a different button.

Riley's energy self fell to the floor. Fear and Anger holding each of her arms, Joy holding her by the waist in a desperate hug. Then they heard a slight sparking noise. Everyone stopped for a second, turning to look at the console. There were sparks of white lightning starting to dance all over the surface, and it didn't look like it was stopping.

Riley looked at Sadness. "Sadness…what did I just press?"

Sadness opened her mouth to respond, when suddenly, Riley's form disappeared from Headquarters. The monitor lit up as Riley seemed to come awake. But then, they saw her form again appear in Headquarters. The emotions looked between the Riley they met inside her mind, and the eyes of the Riley they'd seen through for 12 years. And then, both Rileys suddenly let out a blood curdling scream.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

The lightning continued to arc across the console, but then it began to zap towards the stream of memory orbs that were coming in. And hit the other memory shelves. And both Rileys fell to their knees on their floors.

"Riley!" All the arguing before was immediately forgotten as different emotions ran to try and do different things. Anger ran to try and bring the console back under their control, though he only got zapped back in response. Fear began running towards the Core Memories still in Headquarters. Sadness and Disgust began running up, and Joy knelt down with the energy riley.

"Riley! Look at me! Listen to my voice Riley. What's wrong?"

The energy riley turned. "It Hurts! My head hurts so much!" But the monitor didn't respond the same way. Instead, the Riley outside ran out of bed, and immediately unlocked the door from earlier in the evening.

Then they heard mom and dad coming. "Riley!" The door flew open, and there they were. "We heard you screaming, what's wrong?"

"It Hurts!" the energy Riley repeated. But the body still didn't say that. At least not initially. They saw it reach out to both their arms, and then the emotions heard five words. Coming from both Rileys. "MY Head Hurts! HELP! ME!"

At that moment, the monitor cut out, as the lightning struck the front space, and they could see no more. The lightning continued to zap out, the console looked like it was beginning to flare in light, and then they heard it. A deep rumble. Anger looked up, and pointed. "OH FLYING PIGS!" The other emotions looked up, and they also felt their panic growing. Headquarters was cracking!

Sadness saw the cracks, her eyes went as wide as saucers, and then she immediately turned to the emotion closest to her. "Disgust, get to the far side of the console! We need to activate emergency evacuation protocols!"

Disgust looked at Sadness in confusion for half a second, then made her way to the side of the console with idea bulbs. Sadness carefully made her way to the other end, then pointed to several buttons. "Press the smaller orange buttons on your side at the same time as I press the blue ones. We'll press the middle button together. Then as soon as you do, get to the Train of Thought."

Disgust nodded. Then she looked at everyone else. "All the rest of you, get whatever you can in the next 30 seconds, then get on the train!"

"NO!" Riley tried to stand, but her form was starting to flicker between active and disappearing. "I…I can fix this! I can still….We don't have to….Aaaaggghhh!" she collapsed again in pain. "Why aren't I waking up?"

Joy tried to pull Riley up, only to suddenly get a zap, as it seemed Riley's energy form was now giving off zaps just like the console was. Throwing Joy off of her.

Fear immediately placed the three core memories on the floor by the pillar and the bag with the other cores still in them. "You heard her. Let's move!" He ran for his room, wanting to grab his emergency kit. Anger meanwhile ran for the mind manual shelves.

"Joy?"

Sadness was looking at Joy, who slowly stood up near a continually flickering Riley. Shock still, watching as a crack made its way out to The Intercom that started everything. It cracked to the device, then cracked all the way around it. And then, the entire mechanism fell off the wall with a thud as the circuitry behind it became exposed with only a thin wire still connecting it to what was left of the wall.

Joy looked at Sadness, her eyes full of fear and sadness. "What have we done?"

Anger snapped out from the shelves as he hauled different manuals onto the floor. "JOY! Focus. You want to survive this? Get Bing Bong's bag. We need something to carry as many mind manuals as possible."

Joy gave a hollow nod, then dashed off to her room. 14 seconds later, she emerged right behind Fear. Both were carrying bags, though only Joys would hold what Anger was hoping for. Joy made her way to Anger, and the two began putting as many manuals inside as possible. Fear grabbed the bag still holding Family and Friendship Island's cores, also throwing Honesty back in and holding a bag in each hand, ran to drop them on the Train of Thought.

Meanwhile, Sadness and Disgust began typing onto the console even as it continued to glow and spark. Disgust even got a shock from the lighting. At which point she looked over, while making sure to still follow Sadness's strokes. "How do we know this will even work with the console using so much of Riley's tampering?"

Sadness gave Disgust a helpless look. "We'll just have to find out." Then after pressing a few more buttons, her hand hovered over the blue button under the Puberty alarm. "Okay, now press the middle button with me on three. One, Two, Three!"

Both emotions pressed their buttons, and Headquarters immediately lit up with red light. And from nowhere, a loud voice that sounded like a grown up Riley blared, "Warning! Emergency evacuation has been activated! Please proceed to an open space on your floor close to the outside, and prepare for ejection." Disgust nodded to Sadness, ran to grab the core for Hockey Island, and made her way to the Train of Thought.

Sadness meanwhile made her way to the Train as fast as she could, as her smaller legs meant she didn't have the luxury of getting anything else. As she moved through, she briefly pressed a button to begin sending Riley's orbs out to Long Term. And then Sadness called, "Fear? Can you grab as many manuals from near the console? And make sure Riley is with you!" Fear gave a panicked nod, then zipped over as fast as he could to grab two of the manuals.

"Evacuation in 35 seconds."

Anger and Joy had Joy's bag of holding in one hand, and a few other manuals in another. They scurried to the entrance to where the train was, setting down some things, while Joy then ran to grab Riley and Possibility Island's core, racing to meet up with Fear as they moved towards their girl.

"Evacuation in 27 seconds."

Suddenly, a fault line opened up between the train entrance, Fear's position and the main part of headquarters, throwing the floor in the air. All the emotions looked over at the still hunched over Riley. Her form pulsing with light, shining off her red and green shirt. Joy was near the fault, her eyes uneasy. "Riley! It's time to go. Grab Possibility's core, and we can get out of here."

Fear also began reaching over. "Riley, take my hand. I'm not leaving until you're safe!"

"Evacuation in 18 seconds."

Riley looked up at the two emotions. Her face was a mask of pain and grief, as she slowly hauled herself to her feet, looking remarkably small despite being taller than everyone else. "What have I done?"

"Riley, come on!" Joy and Fear both jumped to get across, but Riley held up a hand, and both were abruptly pushed back.

"10"

Joy looked up. "Riley?"

"9"

Riley looked at the five emotions who she'd come to know so well.

"8"

"I'm sorry."

"7"

Riley made a pushing move.

"6"

The emotions were flung onto the train of thought.

"5"

They looked up.

"4"

Fear called out. "Riley, we're all getting out of this!"

"3"

Riley shook her head.

"2"

"Nobody needs me. Not even myself."

"1"

"NO!"

An air siren sounded, and like a giant slingshot, the train of thought was shot straight out towards the shelves of Long Term memory. On a lower part of Headquarters, a sound like a t-shirt cannon went off, as little people were seen being fired through a tube out the side of the tower. The glass of the window broke, and mind manuals began flying out of Headquarters too.

All the while, Riley sunk to the floor, looking down at the white core memory she'd created. The last memory left in Headquarters. She crawled over, the pain throbbing in her head. She reached for the memory and picked it up, looking at how much fun she'd had during that first in person meeting and use of consciousness tampering. A tear rolled down her cheek. "Why couldn't it stay this simple?" she mused quietly to herself.

Then the control console exploded in a blast of white light. And as the light grew, there were a few more great cracks, and with a sound like cement breaking in half, Headquarters began collapsing towards The Memory Dump. Riley felt herself becoming weightless, holding onto the core as tightly as she could. The pain was starting to spread through her body. And then…

CRASH!

All at once, everything impacted. The Train of Thought crashed sideways into the cliffside, sending everything flying out. The emotions on the train flew off, books and bags going flying in different directions, and Joy's imaginary bag bursting open, sending manuals flying out at different angles. Beings from the lower floor began landing near imagination land, near the core 5, all over the mindscape. And far below all of that, Headquarters impacted into the memory dump. It seemed to bob up and down for a second, and then it parted the memory orbs like water, sending it down with their precious girl still inside.