It's the middle of the night, and I'm still up. I can't tell whether it's out of fear or frustration that my mind's refusing me to rest properly. Sitting up, I review the facts while staring blankly at the darkness in front of me. Jacob has does unforgivable things to us, something that I'll never forget. But there are also people who are capable of doing worse and have done worse already. I shudder, thinking back to Fitz, Donovan, and their infiltration and encounter with Fitton.

I grit my teeth, angry at myself for being unable to bring back the memories we all needed for this trial from Fitz's mind. I'm sure that he feels guilty in some way, but it's all Fitton's fault; he and this Nixsift are the reasons why the six of us are wrapped up in this mess. Even still, I shake my head, clearly disappointed in myself for allowing the two of us to become so sidetracked while in the male Percipient's head.

Realising that I won't be able to sleep at this rate, I swing my legs over the side of my bed, already feeling the effects of sleep deprivation as the back of my mind desperately beckons me to go back to the bed. Shaking my head, I try to get ready as quietly as I can, making sure that I don't accidentally wake up Fitz. Before I leave my room, however, I check for his thoughts; although happy that he's deep asleep, I'm a bit confused as to why a teal dragon is in his dreams.

Paying no further heed, I exit and am almost immediately blinded by the light in the hallway. Wondering how Fitz managed to sneak out so many times like this, I shake my head and walk down to the elevator. Do I really know where I'm going? No, but I still press the button to the ground floor, which is basically the default for anyone.

The doors open, so I carry myself out with no more of an idea of where to go than in the elevator. Now fully awake, I decide to head to the laboratory instead of the conference room, clearly not in the mood to see Mr. Wallace again. With every twist and turn, I think of a proper reason for being awake so early or so late, depending on whether they're asleep or awake. I sigh, shaking my head; I should probably turn back.

"Sophie?" Caroline asks, opening the laboratory door befor I can even knock. "What are you doing here?"

At the sound of her voice, I immediately clamp a hand to not shriek whilst jumping. Turning around to her, the chemist smiles apologetically for scaring me. Grinning back, I explain, "I couldn't sleep. I keep hitting dead ends on how to incriminate Jacob." I sigh, rubbing my eye with one hand, "I don't want him to walk as a free man, but he's also not the problem itself, only a part of it."

Nodding, Caroline beckons me to follow her inside. "It looks like you have evidence to put Fitton in jail instead of Jacob, but..."

"...We don't know where he is," I finish, feeling frustrated all over again. "There's the scar from Fitz, his and Donovan's testimonies, Steven could testify too, the picture we have from Susan's death, and we could prove that Arien was killed by him as well." I furrow my eyebrows in thought, "But we don't even know where Leila is."

The chemist shakes her head, "The entire thing's a mess. We don't even know how Jacob was caught in the first place."

At that, I frown even more, "He could've easily hidden and gotten away with it... wait, how did people know that he did something wrong?"

"Didn't he kill his brother and sister-in-law?" Caroline asks, looking at me in confusion.

I shake my head, "Yeah, but only he and I know it because he showed me the memories. No one else would've known for certain that he's a murderer or that he tortured us before escaping." My eyes widen when I realise that him being acquitted of any charges is now a very real possibility. "No one can prove anything, especially him being involved with Nixsift. Oh my god." My vision swarms as the possibility of him winning this battle- this wretched, painful battle- becomes very real.

Caroline immediately sits me down, concern evident in her gaze. "Sweetheart," she whispers sympathetically, but the pause after confirms that she believes in the possibility. "It's horrible, I know, but... if we don't have any arguments against him, then how will the police know..?"

Once again, I shake my head, unable to accept this ludicrous outcome. "We need to make these arguments," I demand, hitting my hand on the table. "One way or the other, we need to get it." Groaning, I slam my head down onto the desk, not calming an oncoming headache. "How in the world do we not have anything solid against him? Even though we visited him twice, we got nothing working in our favour."

When I glance up again, Caroline furrows her eyebrows in thought. "Should we visit him one more time?" she asks, tapping her chin lightly with her finger. "Did we ask the right questions the last few times we saw him?" My eyes widen when I realise that she's onto something. "I mean, from what I've heard, everything's awlays gone off track. Meeting with him, memory recovery... I don't think we were fully prepared for anything having to do with this trial," Caroline continues, "so we need to prepare ourselves for his games and his misleading answers. And definitely his lies."

I hastily grab any sort of scratch paper and a nearby pen, ready to write some questions down. "Like why he was hiding in Oregon?" I voice out, scribbling it down when she nods. "Or how he knows Leila or Arien, because only Fitton has connections to them and is still alive." I involuntarily shudder, Susan's body flashing through my head. "Or where Leila is now, and why she disappeared."

"Or what made him kill his brother and sister in law," Caroline adds, grabbing another pen and writing it down. "Or why his brother changed his appearance for a few years."

"Or Nixsift. Does he know Fitton and that one guy who you knocked out... Aeron?"

Caroline nods. Sitting down in a chair, the chemist exhales deeply, something that I can deeply relate to at the moment. Glancing at her watch, she sighs, "Well, looks like the night only grows younger for us. Should we get going?"

I frown, "We can't sleep now, there's-"

"To the prison," Caroline corrects me, "to get some answers that I'm sure that we all deserve."

"Oh," I breathe out. I know that I didn't have a plan for when I woke up in the morning, but it wasn't this. "Yeah. Let's go."

...

Why do I keep coming back to prison? Is the universe sending me a sign- telling me that I need to rot in jail as well? Expaserated, I keep these questions and more to myself as we enter the now-familiar entrance of Jacob's current "home". Inside, I can't decide between feeling uncomfortable or ashamed when I realise that I recognise quite a bit of people within these dreary walls. Even whilst walking up to the receptionist, I purposely divert my eyes, avoiding the weird gaze she gives me before addressing Caroline.

After that encounter, Caroline and I head up to Jacob's cell. The chemist looks at me in confusion when I deliberately walk past Jacob's cell. Before I can go any further, she puts a hand on my shoulder, causing me to turn around. "We came here for a reason," Caroline reminds me, pushing me back to our actual destination while I groan loudly. "Let's just get our answers quickly and go home, how about that?"

Closing my eyes and sighing deeply, I decide to listen to the rational chemist. Opening them again, I stare straight at Jacob, who looks even more mangled than ever before. Wrinkling my nose in disgust, I refrain myself from turning away when he smirks slightly. "Let's just go," I mutter, guards silently picking up the convict and bringing him down to the visitation area. As I walk by, I realise that we've past the one Fitz and I used last time, which is under construction. Probably from the damage, I think to myself.

Once Jacob's handcuffed to the table in the new room and the guards have left the room, I turn to Caroline. We need to soundproof and divert the cameras, I transmit to her, who nods in responds. Closing her eyes, most likely to do what I told her, the three of us sit in a moment of silence. When she opens her eyes again, Jacob speaks, his voice incredibly raspy, "To what do I owe the pleasure this time?"

At the sound of his voice, I curl my hands into fists to avoid acting like Mr. Wallace did that one time. "We need answers," I seethe, standing even straighter. "And you're going to give them to us."

Jacob scoffs, pauses to look at me... and bursts out laughing. Slapping his chained hand on the metal table, he cackles even louder. "And what makes you think that I'll do that?" he asks once finished. "You got quite a bit of information last time, and you even when into my f-"

I take a deep breath, ignoring his bloodcurdlingly annoying tone. "You murdered Michelle and David, Jacob. You're a murderer. You showed me-"

"Excuse me?" he sneers while narrowing his eyes at me. "I don't know what you're talking about, sweetheart. How could I show you a hypothetical murder? From whose perspective?" Jacob shakes his head, chuckling, "I thought that you had an actual argument against me, not lies."

Biting my tongue, I curl and uncurl my hands to release some of my anger. "You showed me, you showed me in that warehouse that I went to two years ago," I breathe out, my voice wavering slightly. My eyes begin to burn with tears of frustration, but I refuse to let the smirking mess of a man in front of me get the glory of seeing them fall. "You showed me stabbing Michelle and David, and all of the blood.... You took something from them-"

"What'd I take?"

Caught off guard, I take a step back. "What?"

"You said that I took something," Jacob says, looking at me. "What was it?" Something dances in his eyes as he watches my face pale, and I suddenly feel sick to my stomach.

Swallowing uprising bile, I shake my head. "A... a test tube," I choke out, looking away. Sorting through my memories to make sure, I finally make eye contact with him again. "Yeah, a test tube. Something was inside it, and- and..." My voice trails off, unable to piece together where I'm going with this.

"Awww," Jacob sickeningly coos, sending shivers down my spine. "You wanted to come in here with a fake argument and convoluted memories and lies to make me admit something that I clearly didn't do?" he clarifies, pouting mockingly. "And you think that this magical test tube was a part of it?" As iIclose my eyes, unable to take his appearance any longer, the criminal continues, "Sweetheart, you don't know what you're talking about. Stop daydreaming and pay attention." He claps to get my attention, and my eyes snap open as I jump back. Smirking, he sneers, "I am a free man. Always have been. Everything and everyone only works in my favour. You have nothing. You have no one."

Feeling extremely proud of himself, Jacob turns to Caroline, who's been silent the entire time. "Miss, you may want to take this girl to a doctor. She seems to be hallucinating, and we can't have that, can we? Who on the jury would believe her?"

Anger blazing in her gaze, the chemist walks over to me, "This was a mistake. We need to leave."

"We need answers," I reason with her, using her own words against her. "We have to stay."

"Sophie-"

I interrupt her but turning to Jacob, "Your trial is in two days, but you have no one! You definitely don't have us, you and I both know that you murdereed the last two people who would stick up for you, you disobeyed Nixsift, and Leila's magically disappeared when it seems like you might need her right now!" I grab my arms and roll up my sleeves, showing unscarred skin. "You tortured me, you psychopath! You heated a blade and cut it across my skin, all while my friend had to watch. You showed me memories of your hands covered in your only family's blood and didn't even regret it!"

Warm tears run down my face, but I don't care at this point. "Do you even know what Fitz had to do to get me out of there?! No, you coward! You ran away and left a lookalike in your place like a coward!" A sob interrupts my monologue, and I turn away from both the speechless criminal and chemist. Placing a hand over my mouth to stifle my cries, I look back. "I can still remember what you did, you horrifying creature! I can still feel the agony running up and down my face and arms, all while you smiled and enjoyed!" Phantom pain prickles my skin, and I rub furiously at my arms as if I'm shaking off a spider. "Fitz came in and saw me like that- left alone in a rickety chair, cauterised cuts everywhere, and rentia crystals on the ground from your memories of killing them. He had to carry me out while I was writhing in agony from what you did, you sick monster. How could you!?" My voice breaks at the last moment, taking everyone aback.

I slam my fists down on the table, slightly startling Jacob. "You will be alone," I spit in face, as if speaking to him is venom to my tongue. "You will be locked away from society and from your stupid Nixsift people. We will get justice for what you did to us for everything- everything- that you, Fitton, Aeron, and whoever the heck else did to us." I notice his facade breaking as another reality sinks into him, and I keep going. "I will testify, Fitz will testify, we all will. We'll describe everything that's happened. However..."

"What?" Jacob's voice cracks.

"You're right about one thing," I say, stepping back, "they won't believe in Nixsift. So wouldn't it be easier for us to just say that you did everything?" I purse my lips in thought, "Yeah, I could do that. Fitz even has the scar from Fitton, who's also disappeared. So looks like you're the scapegoat." Caroline looks at me, clearly warning me to not go any further, but I mouth for her to wait a few more minutes.

"You can't do that!" Jacob roars, ripping out of his seat so quickly that he knocks the piece of metal down. Desperate to get to me, the convict tries and fails to free himself, so he stares at me helplessly.

"Try me," I spit, narrowing my eyes at him.

And Jacob opens his mouth to respond.