Mot's POV:

I wasn't going to let my emotions take over me. I kept telling myself that as I worked at my machine, desperate to try and figure out how to make it work. I was in my own section of the room, since the machine was an odd shape. A side door was at the end of the section, and I was tempted to just leave through it. Nobody would notice me leaving, anyway, since I was so isolated from the rest of the room. But, obviously, it would have been foolish to actually leave.

In the background, I heard Ambrosia praising Sparklez, and the whirr of his machine. Of course, he was the one who was able to make his machine work. I didn't like to admit it, but, in a kind of twisted way, I was slightly jealous of Sparklez. Well, that wasn't unusual for me. I was a bit jealous of everyone around here.

Incredibly frustrated, I almost didn't hear the small click that came from the door next to me. By the time I noticed, a man who looked terrifyingly similar to Dianite poked his head in. His eyes shone turquoise, and they seemed to stare right through me. I probably would've screamed, but the man quickly put a finger to his lips, shooting me a terrified glance. 

"Who are you?" I whispered, making sure I wasn't overheard. 

"Dioptase," he answered, poking his head further into the room. "You're Mot, aren't you?"

I found myself gripping one of the levers on the machine for comfort. "Umm, yeah, I am. Do... do you need something?"

He shook his head. "I have a message for you, from Dianite. My alternate. He says he knows you."

I almost stopped breathing. "Dianite? Yeah... I know him. Why?" I was shaking, although whether from joy or fear I didn't know. 

"I saw him, in a section of the laboratory. I couldn't stay there long, because the leaders would've killed me, literally," Dioptase sighed. "But I asked the gods if they wanted me to pass on a message to someone else, and Dianite said he wanted me to pass a message to you."

"How did you find me?" I asked, my voice barely audible. 

The god shrugged. "There was a young brown-haired girl working at the visitation center who knew where you were. Although I'll admit she almost had my head when I asked for you." He let out a small laugh. 

"Oh... Alyssa." When he gave me a confused look, I added, "She's my daughter. Anyway, you had a message for me?"

"Yeah." Dioptase cleared his throat, making sure once again that nobody was watching. "He just wanted to let you know that he was safe. They hadn't hurt him or wiped his memories, and I guess Dianite thought you'd be worried about him. He also said that he'd see you soon. Not sure how he's planning on getting out of there, but he sounded confident."

I felt almost dizzy. "Oh... okay. Well, thanks for letting me know, I guess."

Dioptase looked at me worriedly. "You look like you're going to be sick. Are you alright?"

I couldn't look him in the eyes anymore. "I'm fine." I waited until I saw the god leave and heard the door click behind him before looking up again. 

Andor's POV:

As Dioptase was leaving, I began to mess around with the buttons on the cameras, and found some incredible additions that would prove to be very useful. There was a menu I could pull out on the screen, revealing a list of commands. The first few were to close the doors between the rooms, which I guess was for shutting down the visitation center, or making sure that nobody could enter or leave Galena. The next few were for scanning the cameras themselves, which I tried out immediately. 

It allowed me to scan any person in the cameras, I quickly found. My heart beating, I moved the scanner over to the mysterious woman, who was still crouching in one of the hallways. She wasn't completely faced at the camera, but the machine was still able to tell who it was. 

An image, a name, and a description appeared on the main monitor. The blond lady's face appeared, along with the name "Safire". Under description, where it would normally place a person's gender and birthplace, all that appeared was the word "error" written in a small red font. Underneath, however, it provided a much more detailed description, linked in a way that made it slightly difficult to read. 

"Safire:FormerMemberOfGalena:EscapedToChrysobeyrl:BrainwashingFailed:DeemedTraitor:WantedCriminal", the description read. I stood there, frozen with shock, as I realized that a criminal was about to steal all of Deviser Gaines's memories. 

At that moment, Malachai cheerfully exited the laboratory, holding a small blue capsule. "I've got the memories!"

The woman, Safire, smoothly hurried back into the visitation center. "Thank you!" she cried, taking the capsule carefully from his hands. "I'm in a bit of a rush, so I think I'll just go..."

"No!" I yelled, filled with a sudden burst of fury. It was very rare that I felt anger this intense, and the others seemed to sense it. "I know who you are, Safire."

"Safire?" Malachai gasped. "The traitor? This isn't her, she's tall and blond..."

"She's got a disguise," I said desperately. "Galena's cameras don't lie, Malachai. I've got the proof right here." I gestured to my screen, even though he couldn't see it. 

The twin grew incredibly pale all of a sudden, and pulled the capsule away. "I... we have to... authorities..." He blindly felt for the door to the laboratory, but Safire acted quicker. 

To our absolute horror, she lunged at Malachai, grabbing his throat and pinning him to the wall. As fast as lightning, she removed his weapon from the holster, a cutlass-like sword, and pointed it at his forehead. 

Safire's POV:

This wasn't going the way I had planned, but at least nobody with any sort of power was around me. Now that I had taken the worker's sword, I was the only one armed. Malachai stared at me with pure terror, his eyes focused on the weapon being pointed at him. 

"Don't you dare kill him!" the girl screamed, but I knew there was nothing she could do. She was unarmed and weak, and I was armed and strong. Not that I particularly wanted to hurt her, or any of them. I had one task only. 

"You will give me the capsule," I hissed at Malachai, "and you won't report this to the Galena authorities. Then, I will let you and these two go unharmed. Do we have a deal?"

"No," Malachai cried, his voice hoarse and thin. "I won't let you get away with anything... traitor...."

I let out a long sigh. Why did he have to be so difficult? Brainwashed people were usually easy to manipulate with fear. "Then I'm going to have to kill you."

"Malachai, just agree! Please!" the boy yelled.

"Fine." Malachai looked away from the sword, and his light gray eyes seemed to burn a hole straight into me. "Do whatever you want. I refuse to be like you."

He probably assumed that I wasn't actually going to kill him, in which case he would be correct. I turned the blade over, and struck him as hard as I could with the flat end of it. Malachai collapsed to the ground, unconscious, but not dead. Probably didn't even feel a thing, and wouldn't, until he wakes up and realizes what happened. But, no matter. I would be long gone by then.

Now that I had the memories, I could finally leave. But, as I began to run toward the exit, an enormous metal door came crashing down in front of me. It echoed throughout the visitation center, and I almost fell over. 

"Galena's technology is quite amazing," the boy said. I turned around and found him glaring at me, his cold eyes the same as Malachai's before I had knocked him out. Was I going to have to do the same to these two kids?

"Andor!" the girl shrieked. Unlike the boy, Andor, she looked petrified of what I was going to do to the two of them, and rightly so. Courage is a good thing, but there is always a time and a place when it isn't the best thing to use. In small quantities, cowardice is what ends up saving your life. 

"You two were the ones discouraging Malachai from letting me hurt him," I reminded them. "Now it's time for you to take your own advice."

"Let her go," the girl begged, but Andor was having none of it.

"You're a traitor and a criminal!" he yelled at me. "I'm not letting someone like that take Gaines's memories!"

"I'm helping Gaines!" I snapped, waving the capsule in the air. "We're partners, and friends. Galena is the enemy here, and you're only helping it!"

"I don't trust a word you say." I saw his finger hovering over the alarm, which would bring dozens of guards into the center. It would be the end of me. "If you dare to do anything, I swear I will..."

The girl was crying now, backed up against the wall. I decided that I'd have to throw the short sword, as if it was a dagger or a knife. 

It would kill the kid, but oh well. These two were expendable for the good of Anatase, weren't they?