Welcome to a nice, long Psychonauts story., so please buckle in for a long ride. The main characters are Sasha Nein and Otto Mentallis. The chapters will be alternating between their points of view. Please enjoy and thanks for reading.

Otto awoke with a surge of adrenaline, and he was on his feet striding toward the shower before he'd come fully awake. He turned on the water and stepped in without waiting for it to warm up. The world came into stark focus as the cold water drove away the visions the nightmare had left behind. The glowing embers faded from his vision and he realized belatedly that he hadn't even bothered with the lights this time. With a flick of telekinesis, Otto turned on the lights, and he glanced down at himself only to make another realization. Sighing with frustration, Otto shrugged out of his drenched pajamas and tossed them out onto the counter before beginning his hygiene ritual. While he did that, he turned his mind toward the growing list of problems that he was now facing.

He was in the third week of his vacation after twenty straight years of working at the Motherlobe, and while it had initially been a breath of fresh air, the air was starting to turn sour with cigarette smoke. None of the Psychic Seven smoked cigarettes (they smoked other things that Otto didn't mind as much), which he was grateful for. Sasha Nein did, but he'd long ago come to a deep sense of safety with him despite his smoking habit. Sasha had helped him work through some of his childhood trauma years before, when the Deluginist threat had begun and the rumors of Otto's involvement had started circulating.

Sasha was the only friend that Otto had ever made outside the Seven, and he was a good friend to have. Unlike the rest of the Board under Truman Zanotto, Sasha had directly approached him about the rumors. Otto had reluctantly agreed to allow Sasha to search his mind for proof that he wasn't a spy. Sasha had discovered so much about Otto in that one trip, yet he hadn't betrayed Otto's confidence. When facing the rest of the Board afterwards, Sasha had given only the details to prove that Otto wasn't a Deluginist spy. From that moment on, Otto had respected him, and he'd eventually confided in Sasha to work through some things. Like his phobia of lit cigarettes.

Sasha's calm, soothing voice came to him from past conversations. "A phobia is irrational fear, Otto. Your fear has a very real basis in your past. There is nothing wrong with you being afraid of them."

Otto turned off the water and reached out to grab a towel. He dried himself off without looking in the mirror then he picked up his soaked pajamas and hung them on the door to dry before he went into his room to dress and decide what to do for the day. He had to factor in his tiredness, which was growing exponentially by the day. Oh, and of course the headache that was blooming behind his eyes.

Once he had his pants on, Otto sat down and began rubbing his temples in slow, rhythmic circles. That eased some of the tension, but it was still building. He was going to have a monster of a headache in about ten minutes. So now he had a choice to make. The same choice he'd had to make every single day. Should he go to his friends and talk about what was wrong? That was the best solution for the headache. Otto knew it. He knew it in his gut and his bones. So why were his feet carrying him to the medicine cabinet again? He didn't want this. He wanted to trust them. Then, as he reached for the cabinet door, his eyes landed on the scars that peppered his arm.

Otto's headache burst to life like a geyser, and he moaned and staggered, grabbing the door and opening it. He couldn't do it. He couldn't. He was a bad boy, a bad, bad boy for even thinking of telling anybody what Mother did to him. Nobody needed to know their personal business. Nobody, not even his friends. So he grabbed the Psyconium bottle, popped the top, and took a long swig. The headache began to recede at once, and Otto took another sip just to be sure before he capped the bottle. Relief didn't even begin to describe how Otto felt at that moment. Then came the shame, and he closed his eyes to stop the tears, knowing he should tell the others that he was still taking copious amounts of Psyconium to deal with his headaches instead of talking about things with his friends. Yes, his mother would have said it was none of their business, but Otto so badly wanted to make it their business. He knew they would be there for him, so what was wrong? Yet he knew that already, too.

It was the lake. The lake that none of his old friends had seen in his mind. Otto couldn't get past it himself without help. Sasha had been able to fairly easily navigate the treacherous waters, the fog, and the lake monsters, whereas every time Otto tried on his own, he was sent spiraling out of his own mind into a sobbing, screaming mess. It was why he'd written in rules so that he wouldn't ever have to have a Mental Exam—thank you, grandfathering clause—unless he wanted to. Most agents had to sit through several a year, but not Otto. Only now did he realize that he was so badly off that he couldn't even trust his friends anymore. He'd trusted them more than anybody else in his life, but they'd never gotten to the school in his mind that contained his childhood trauma. By the time he had been ready to risk it all, it was too late and his friends had faded away until it was only him. And it had been only him until Sasha had come along ten years ago.

The headache had receded to a low ache in the base of his skull, which meant he could now function. So after staring at himself with disgust in the mirror, taking in the shame and fear mirrored back at him, he turned and left the bathroom, turning off the lights. He finished dressing then pulled on his lab coat. Whenever he wore his lab coat, he was a respected Psychonaut, not a scared, naughty little boy who needed to be punished, so he wore it every day, even when not working. His friends teased him about it, but he didn't mind. He had a good idea that they would stop if they thought it bothered him. But it didn't bother him that they teased him. It bothered him that he couldn't trust them. And so he was back to the lake that lay in his mind, quiet and still as long as the monsters were undisturbed by passersby. He couldn't trust them with that.

It hurt too badly, the shame and guilt and fear and self-loathing that Otto felt around his friends sometimes. He'd failed them at the most crucial moment of their lives, and they had lost everything because of him. He couldn't get past that trauma enough to trust them with his childhood trauma. So he'd just keep taking the Psyconium. It was all he could do at this point. But as he glanced at the calendar, he realized brightly that Sasha would be back at the Motherlobe soon.

Despite his irritation with Sasha over the Psyconium earlier in the summer, Otto wasn't too miffed at him. Yes, it had been humiliating, but much good had come of it. Besides, he could talk with Sasha about the nightmares and flashbacks he'd been experiencing. Nobody else in the entire world knew him like Sasha did. Even when he wasn't actively inside his mind, he understood Otto's intentions and vouched for him to the Board. He was a friend. The only one who had made it across the lake and past the monsters, into the frozen fog, and even down into the depths of the school where his tangled, complicated childhood lay in his psyche. Sasha was the only friend Otto trusted right now, and that, too, made him feel so ashamed.

There was a knock at the door, and Otto jerked out of his revery. He straightened his coat then padded over to the door. Cassie and Compton stood there. Otto smiled.

"Good morning," he said brightly.

"It certainly is," Compton said. "I've got an idea for breakfast."

"I'll eat anything you cook, old bean," Otto replied, and he shut the door behind him and walked with his two friends toward the Heptadome.

Cassie giggled. "Oh, Otto, you're so funny."

"He's acting funny, Boolie. He's not mourning at all. What's wrong with him?"

"I don't think he has any feelings at all, personally."

Otto shrugged, ignoring the scathing voices from the past. "I can't help that, Cass. But I did check myself in the mirror, and I thought I looked pretty good."

Cassie laughed outright and Compton snorted, but his eyes shone with glee in the morning light. The air was fresh and wonderfully outdoorsy, just like when they'd first found the Gulch. There was no smell of sanitizer or cleanser, just wonderful forest air. Otto enjoyed the forest very much, but his heart just wasn't content as it had been so many years before. The same people were here, but he felt isolated from them all.

"Otto?" Compton prompted gently.

Otto glanced at him. "Hm?"

"Lost in thought again, eh, old bean?" Compton asked.

Otto's face warmed, and he reached up and adjusted his glasses then smoothed his hands over his lab coat before tugging it closed. He fiddled with the buttons but didn't button the coat. He could feel Cassie and Compton staring at him, but he didn't know what to say. That was happening more and more often, and he knew they were beginning to notice. Once again, they didn't ask, but he felt their eyes on him the rest of the way to the Heptadome. He was relieved to find Helmut and Bob already there. Ford and Lucy were lingering at their house.

Unwilling to wait a second longer, they'd gotten married as soon as Augustus had said he didn't care. It had hurt Lucy to hear that. Augustus hadn't even looked at her as the rest of the Aquatos packed up to go on a tour with their new act. But she'd waved them off with a smile. Then she'd broken down and began mourning the life she could never get back. And oh, how she missed her family. But the time she'd been spending with her old friends and her new husband had really helped her in her darkest time. She was already almost her old self again, only with a renewed vigor for Ford, which was both amusing and a bit irritating as they weren't very particular about the location of their amorous activities. At least Bob and Helmut were respectful.

There was a ping deep in his consciousness and he paused for a moment, focusing on the burst of information. Sasha was back! He'd take a day or two to settle in then come by to chat. Otto was pleased by that, and he sent a packet of thoughts back in a return burst. Then he continued walking.

"What was that about?" Cassie asked, peering at him.

"Oh, Sasha Nein is back at the Motherlobe."

"The one taking your position until you go back?" Helmut asked.

"Yes, the very same," Otto said.

Bob shifted and cleared his throat. "You don't think he'll try and force you out?"

"The thought never crossed my mind," Otto replied.

"We wouldn't know. You never share anymore," Ford said, coming in with Lucy behind him. She smiled and trotted over to Cassie, plopping herself on the same cushion and leaning against her. Cassie smiled and embraced her with one arm then turned to Ford.

"Ford?" she asked. "Now?"

"I see no reason to put it off," Ford said.

"Put what off?" Otto asked uneasily.

"Your Mental Exam, of course."

And that was what Otto had been afraid of.