When I finally open my eyes again, I feel so refreshed physically, but I'm still mentally drained from what I just learned about myself. A yawn escaping my lips before I can stop myself, I sit up and stretch, slowly becoming more and more awake. After rubbing the remaining sleepiness from my eyes, I see that Steven's looking over at me, a soft grin on his face.

"Do you feel better?" he asks, sympathy in his eyes. When I nod, his face brightens up more. I chuckle softly at how alike he and Benen are. Clearing his throat, the pathologist says, "We should probably get you down to the conference room. We need to tell Mr. Wallace that you stayed overnight here so we could do some research together."

I nod, standing up. I blink a few times before making my way over to the pair of doors that I destroyed. My face becoming pale, I try to ignore the damage as I make my way over to Caroline. Smiling at me, she says, "Sophie already left, but I think she's either in her room or in the conference room, if you want to see her."

My eyes widen at the last part, knowing that Sophie's most likely there. "Thank you," I say hurriedly before dashing through the open doors, the memories of what happened before entering my mind. At this, I find myself beginning to run down the hallway, my eyes wide. I hear a pair of footsteps behind me and realize that Steven's following me.

Once I burst into the conference room, I see Sophie glaring at Mr. Wallace, who looks like he's on the verge of shooting her with nebmentia. Apparently, neither of them heard me walk in, so I storm over to them. When I'm within earshot, I hear Sophie say, "You tried to erase our memories! Why won't you just say why already?!"

Before Mr. Wallace can snap back at her, I interject, "What's going on now?"

Sophie turns to me, a smile flashing across her face. Her smile falls when she faces Mr. Wallace, though. "I came to confront him about him trying to erase our memories," she explains angrily. "It's... unheard of!"

Mr. Wallace is about to say something when the conference room doors slam open again, revealing a slightly flustered and confused Benen. Looking at Fitz, he smiles. "Hey, Fitz!" he greets happily, waving at me. Then looking over at Sophie, he says, "Laurel and Audrey want to see the two of you now."

"Why?" Mr. Wallace, Sophie, and I ask simultaneously.

At this, Benen discreetly points to his head, most likely telling me to read his thoughts. Nodding just as subtly, I stretch my consciousness over to his mind. Once I do so, I transmit, Why do they need to see us?

They found something, Benen states. I think it has to do with the court date. But it definitely has to do with Jacob.

My eyes widening slightly, I turn to look at Sophie. "We need to go now," I announce to Mr. Wallace before taking Sophie by the hand. Once the three of us leave Mr. Wallace behind, I tell Steven, "Meet us in my room in about fifteen minutes."

And with that, we get into the open elevator to go up to my room.

...

"So let me get this straight," Audrey says after I explain that I was knocked out for a day. I "accidentally" leave out the part about me being allergic to nebmentia or being able to transform in a dragon. "He tried to erase your memory with nebmentia, and he blocked you from contacting you-" The Sovereign pauses, pointing at Sophie. Turning to me again, she finishes, "And then you decided to jump in and take the nebmentia yourself, and you went flying."

"Wait- doesn't nebmentia make you forget?" Laurel asks, making me realize my mistake of explaining what happened in general. "So how do you remember?"

I shrug, not want to tell anyone else until I tell Sophie. "Something must've gone wrong," I say. "Since I apparently remember what happened." One look from the forensic pathologist tells me that I played the slip-up well.

Shaking her head, Sophie looks at Audrey. "What happened?" she asks. "Benen came to say that you two needed to see us."

"Something about Jacob's court date?" I question, raising an eyebrow.

The female Altruistic nods. "Sophie and I first looked at his court date," Laurel begins as we all sit down. "It said it's in two weeks."

"But..?" I ask, dread pooling into my stomach.

"The judge decided that his silence was too unnerving," Audrey interjects. "So that date is now pushed a week early, so it's next week now." For further proof, the female Sovereign holds Sophie's computer up to our faces, showing that the date is, in fact, next week.

Suddenly, Steven's voice enters my mind, That means that we'll have to start training you and your new ability earlier than we would.

I frown visibly. When were you thinking that we should start?

Today.

Then when are we starting? I ask, raising an eyebrow.

Now.

...

I find myself standing in front of the laboratory again, my eyes never leaving the broken doors. I then look over to see Steven staring at me sympathetically. "We're going to replace them later today," he says, patting my shoulder. Nodding solemnly, I still look at the doors for another moment before finally stepping through.

Once inside, I ask, "What are we supposed to do right now?"

"Well," Steven taps his chin. "We should probably try to train you to be able to transform at will, and you should actually be able to control the waves of blinding light that you emit."

"The ones that cause people to forget that I transformed into a dragon, right?" I ask, walking towards the middle of the laboratory. Sitting on the metal table, I frown. "My scar usually hurts before I change," I recall. "Does that mean my scar will always hurt from now on if that happens?"

"We'll just have to see," Steven says honestly. "But for now, we need to try and see what'll trigger your transformation. So..." Suddenly, the forensic pathologist pulls out the crossbow-gun that Mr. Wallace had used on me before. It doesn't help when Steven points the gun right at my chest.

Immediately, my scar begins to burn madly. The pain is so immense and sudden that I fall off of the table, writhing in pain. Not even fifteen seconds pass before I'm glowing a dark blue. The room's enveloped in white, the pain beginning to die down. I wait until my vision clears up to see that I'm flying as high as I can go, away from the nebmentia. I hear the beastly scream of my dragon form escape my lips before I'm flying backwards, my scaled tail slamming into things with reckless abandon.

Once I'm backed against the wall, I see that Steven quickly throws the crossbow-gun to the side, his test tube of nebmentia shattering when it collides with the ground. "Fitz!" he yells at the top of his lungs. He comes towards me, but the white light blinds the room, making him forget that I've transformed.

I'm about to come down slightly when I hear multiple pairs of footsteps nearing the open doors of the laboratory. This time, I feel mental energy pooling into my head. After a few seconds, I open my eyes again to see the blinding light die down. I then realize that Steven now doesn't know that I'm a dragon now, along with whoever was coming near the laboratory.

After the room as become clear again, I see myself glowing a dark blue before my scales are nowhere to be seen. I manage to catch a glimpse of my arms before I fall. Somehow, I land on my feet, but stumble a bit from the sudden lightheadedness. Once I stare forward, I see Steven looking at me with a shocked expression. "You became a dragon again, didn't you?" he asks, staring down at the gun thrown to the side and the nebmentia on the ground. "So an archance and nebmentia trigger the transformation, then."

I nod, assuming that the crossbow-gun is the archance. "There were some people who were coming down to the laboratory," I tell Steven. "I then used the light to erase all of your memories of me."

"You used it?" Steven asks. "Then we've made progress on that. Otherwise..." He looks around the laboratory. "We'll need to clean all of this up before anyone else can notice this."

Suddenly, Benen and Donovan rush in. Their eyes widen when they see me. "Put a shirt on," Donovan says, throwing a shirt at me. "Yes, I went into your room, but that doesn't matter right now," he says when I raise an eyebrow. "Unless you want Sophie and the others to see your scar, get dressed fast. They'll be here in a few seconds."