Isabelle walked out of the lab, holding tight to her toddler's hand. Harper. Her baby. She had lived, but she wasn't... normal. At least in a emotional sense. She looked like a perfectly normal child, and nothing was wrong with her healthwise, but she would often throw... tantrums were the only thing you could really call them. Harper would curl up in pain and stay that way for a few minutes, but a sound would never leave her mouth. Even as tears streamed down her face, she would never let so much as a gasp escape her lips. Which was why Isabelle didn't even realize this was a problem until one evening when they were all sitting in the living room and Harper suddenly started quietly sobbing.

Why was she constantly hurting? Nobody knew. Not the doctors, not the scientists, not even Corin, who she'd finally contacted as a last resort. No one knew what was wrong. It was... Troubling, to say the least. And it just got more worrisome when you add that she rarely smiled. The first time she'd seen a genuine smile from Harper was caused by Bailey, when she started clapping when she finally walked. Walking wasn't what made her happy; it was Bailey feeling proud of her...

Ashley had been like that. Before she... before the accident. She'd always wanted approval before she was really happy about something. Maybe Harper would've been like that even without Corin's "plan." Maybe even without the experiment at all. It was completely possible that Isabelle's first test with project H.A.R.P. could've made Harper like Ashley. That could be why it seemed so severe...

"You good, baby?" Isabelle asked when Harper suddenly stopped on the sidewalk. Harper looked around frantically, as if she were searching for something... or someone. Worried, Isabelle looked around as well, but she didn't see anything. Trying to look casual, she picked up her daughter and smiled, "You wanna go home?" Harper looked at her without a word, but she did look afraid, "Me too, honey. "

She started walking towards her friend's house, hoping that whoever her daughter had seen would get confused. All of a sudden it seemed like there were a ton of her colleagues from the other lab wandering the streets, though most of them were just people who'd volunteered their children and lost them. One of them had even been a teenager who had... Bad experiences... That led to her volunteering her child. Isabelle saw her wandering the streets with a nicer looking man and two kids; a little girl and boy, about the same age. The teen had been one of the first to volunteer their unborn baby, so it wasn't surprising that she had two other kids now, but it was kind of sad that they couldn't have one more child.

Harper was becoming frantic. She was often looking at Isabelle, but every now and then she would look behind them, possibly at someone. Her friend's house was probably too far away to get away from whoever was following.

Before she could second guess herself, Isabelle walked over to the girl and her kids. "Hey, Caroline!" She exclaimed, hurrying over, "How have you been?"

Caroline-that actually was the girl's name. Isabelle remembered- turned towards her. At first she looked confused, but quickly began smiling, "Hey! How are you?" She came up and wrapped Isabelle in a side hug. "Stalker?" She whispered as soon as they were close.

"Yeah." Isabelle replied quietly, repositioning Harper on her hip.

Caroline grinned. "It's been so long!" She exclaimed, walking over to her husband and their kids, "John, this is Belle. Belle, John."

Isabelle was surprised that Caroline remembered her, especially since she wasn't supposed to remember having a kid in the first place, but that was the least of her worries, "Hello."

"Hey," John replied, "When did you meet Carol?"

"Oh, we go way back," Caroline exclaimed, slightly gesturing with her chin behind them, "Come on, let's go to my house and catch up!"

Isabelle smiled, "That would be great."

______________________

The city was brightly lit, as you'd guess a town among the stars would be. People wandered around as if they were on Earth, going to stores, talking, everything normal people did. The only differences were the bright auras around them, the fact that they were semi-transparent, almost like ghosts, and that they had had "blonde" hair.

It was weird. Not all the people had "blonde" blonde hair. It was a more dull, faded color, like how worn jeans turn white at the knees. And it wasn't all of their hair, just a piece of it. Some people had a single strip framing their face, while others had large, disproportionate sections mixed with brown, red, and black.

It explained the strangeness behind the boy's hair. The tips were the weird blond thing while the rest was a dull maroon, providing a weird color change effect that didn't really line up with everything else, which was basically just black and white. Even the clothes everyone wore had a shimmering white look.

"Where exactly do these Councilors live?" She asked as they walked past a shop.

"We don't exactly have homes, per say," the boy explained, "More like temporary living quarters. Almost everyone had their own idea of what time it is based on when they got here. Like how I'm assuming you think it's the middle of the night."

"Well, it is."

"On Earth, maybe for you. But for me, it's about 5 in the afternoon. For at least one of our Councilors, it's 7 in the morning. Of course, there's some overlap, but it mostly results in people sleeping for however long until they think it's a logical time to be out and about, and then they leave so someone else can take their room. Somehow it works, but it does make some moments more chaotic than others."

"Because some times are a little more clustered than others? Like, more people came here at, say, 8 at night?"

"Exactly." The boy stopped in front of one of the larger buildings, "Alright. The Council should be here. They all come whenever they feel they should, so you'll probably meet more as time goes on. And, yes, the Ruler knows what she's doing. She was very careful when picking these Councilors."

She hadn't really been thinking about the chance that these people might treat her harshly, but now the idea suddenly burst into her mind and refused to go away. Taking a deep breath, she followed him into the building.

There was only one room in the building, but it was huge. In the center of the room was a circle of raised chairs connected by thick, smooth planks of dark wood with a small opening facing the door. About 30 chairs were there, and about a dozen had people seated in them. A mix of men and women sat in a circle, surrounding a mosaic on the floor that showed a sparkling night sky, similar to the Rift she was so used to. The rest of the room didn't have much; fake plants, tile floors, and lots of empty space.

The boy led her to the middle of the room, never hesitating until they were standing on top of the mosaic. This gave her a better look at the people in the chairs. Maybe 5 girls and 8 boys sat randomly, lots of empty seats in between. All of them had slightly darker glows than the people she'd seen outside, but they all still had that weird blonde thing.

"I see you've found another, Raven." A woman asked, though she looked more like a young teen than an adult. Her almost brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, the underside of her scalp blonde and buzzed short. Unlike the people outside and many others in the room, she was clearly wearing a baggy sweatshirt and maybe 5 necklaces, shocked seemed a little much, but was also coming from the girl who randomly had daggers in her pockets.

The boy - who was apparently named Raven - nodded, "It's been a while, but I have."

The man - who also looked more like a teen - sitting beside the girl leaned over, his curly, dark hair bouncing slightly as he moved. Like the girl, he was definitely wearing a sweatshirt, but his looked very similar to the mosaic on the floor and the endless expanse of space around the city, "You're almost an adult right?" He smirked when he nodded, "What, have you been waiting a few decades to arrive?"

She looked to Raven for an explanation. He sighed, "Most of our... 'older' residents showed up a long time ago. And yes, 18 technically counts as older."

"How much have you actually told her?" Another girl asked. Her hair was cut just below her chin in messy waves, and black glasses rimmed her eyes. Blonde streaks lined her hair randomly.

"Honestly, probably more than you would've liked, but she's come and gone a few times," quiet mumbling began at this statement, but quickly died down, "She also remembers almost nothing after each visit."

The first girl slightly smiled, "So. It's finally happened."

"Um... what?" She asked, again looking to Raven for help, but he looked just as confused as she felt.

The curly haired boy leaned back again and looked at the girl, "You really think now is a good time? It's almost-"

"I know, I know." The girl looked across the room at another boy, "What do you say?"

He tore a hand through his hair, which was almost completely that weird blonde color, "I don't know. Maybe if she comes back not remembering this meeting?"

The girl sighed, "Fine. I'd just rather get this over with, and I think everyone else would, too." She looked back down at her, "You may leave. Please, visit us again when you come back."

"We will, 'koda." Raven promised, and he grabbed her arm, "Never stick around after a meeting, no matter how short," he muttered to her as he dragged her out. He didn't stop until the door closed behind them, and he sighed in relief, "Well, I guess there's nothing else for me to do, so. I guess you can go now."

She was about to protest when she was shaken awake.

Yay! I actually got this done... instead of sleeping... eh, this is more important. Ngl, I almost forgot to write in everything I was doing today, but I managed to get it done!

I don't actually have much to say about this chapter maybe besides the fact that 3 of the 4 mentioned Council members are based on people I know irl. Everything from how they look to their speech was supposed to imitate them. Idk why that would be important, I just wanted to say that, lol.

Well, I think that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see y'all later! Bye!