Visiting Professor Virgil was, at the very least, a fruitless endeavor.

She actually ran out of her office straight to the Research of the Archives department to search for more clues about my case. She couldn’t even wait for me to finish talking before running away.

Even so, somehow, I didn’t feel all that disappointed after all. To make someone like her run behind her books, well, that was as important as agreeing that I was on the right track.

Being a tad bit more eccentric than the rest of our colleagues, for Virgil to actually focus on my project gave me a tint of satisfaction.

Okay, a lot of satisfaction.

But, if there was someone that could help me crack this code, then Virgil was the one. But, while our visit was a small, personal victory for me, it was an utter failure for Jay. Seeing his troubled expression made me feel responsible for raising his hopes. Professor Virgil was kinda his last hope.

When Silver and Zan appeared at the door, we were still standing, still dumbstruck by the Professor’s sudden disappearance. Silver, afraid that the events of our last meeting were repeated and she seemed quite a bit concerned when she barged in.

After reassuring her that everything was perfectly fine, she calmed down. Well, at least things were mostly fine.

“This place is huge!” Zan suddenly exclaimed.

I kept forgetting that Silver had been teaching him English.

“Yeah, Zan is really excited that we visited the Institute. The poor kid got bored back at the support center, all alone and countless Android examining him.” Silver showed her usual affection towards him.

Jay snorted and walked outside. Frankly, I wished that after six months traveling together, Jay would finally show even the slightest bit of affection towards me.

Everything between us had turned from unbearable to plainly desperate. At least, he now talked more than before and didn’t finish a conversation by storming out of the room. The only thing that was better was that he had become somewhat more considerate of my feelings, and that made me happy. Happier than I dared to admit.

“Okay, now that this mission turned out to being a failure, where are we going next? Any other unnecessarily big buildings to visit? Any other crazy Professors?”

He sounded bitter, I knew I would have been bitter if I didn’t remember anything about my past. Still, I had run out of ideas and places to visit. Human planets had their share of research centers, but we had visited them all.

“We’ll figure something out, don’t worry. I just need some time to think.”

Jay snorted again. Okay, he was annoying me without a reason now. We headed to the hovering platforms altogether, and we rode one each. Our descent to the main floor felt more boring than before. Passing through the same departments again, I focused my attention to Jay. His troubled scowl disappeared as soon as we found our way to the interesting parts of the Institute.

His eyes shone watching all the experiments and technology he could see. Everything he didn’t understand amazed him. I felt my stomach twisting in a tight knot thinking all those things. He could look cute after all, not that I had ever thought otherwise.

If only we could spend the rest of the day here, going up and down the departments, giving him a VIP tour of the place, making him forget our most recent failure.

And then, it finally came to me.

I floated closer to Silver’s platform.

“Hey, Silver. Do you mind taking care of Zan for the night? Jay’s feeling a bit down, and I want to take him for a stroll around the city, to show him the place and get his mind off his people. He kinda needs it.”

The Android looked at me quizzically, trying to understand what was wrong with me.

“Okay, but are you sure you’re going to be fine? What if that guy appears again? I don’t want you to be alone with him if that happens.”

Frankly, I hadn’t thought about that possibility. She was right. If Dark Jay suddenly appeared, I could be in grave danger. But, for the last six months, there had been no incident of him waking up, and after extensive discussions with Silver, we figured that he only woke up when certain events took place, stressful events like hitting his head hard or getting seriously injured.

“Nah, it’ll be okay as long as I don’t hit him in the head or something, right? What might go wrong? We’re gonna be fine,” I said to her, but she didn’t seem all that confident.

“Have your phone on standby, and if anything happens, call me. I’ll make sure even the army comes to your rescue” she said to me.

Zan was trying to understand what we meant. He looked confused. He smiled at me, although it could be a snarl. I still hadn’t figured out if he liked me or not.

“Not worry miss Eladia. Zan will save you if something bad happens.”

His deep, resonant voice made him sound both cute and surprisingly mature. Zan would definitely be a good-looking man when he would grow up. But he still had some way to go.

The trip back to the main floor seemed shorter than the way up. I kept my eyes on Jay for the most part of our descent, trying to understand what was going on in his mind. He showed no emotion, and it felt like he was furious about something and yet he kept his calm.

I was trying to figure him out from the day we found his crashed ship on Primordial Earth. To this day, I had no idea what was wrong with him. I only knew that I found myself observing him more often than not. It was like when we were in the same room, my eyes came to life and did their own bidding.

I heard the fuss of the big crowd roar below me, we were getting close to the hell called reception hall. Against all my hopes, people still swarmed in, in thousands, and I felt even less comfortable than before. At the very least, I wished we would have spent another hour or two back in the Professor’s office, so I would have had time to calm down and get ready to go through this again, but it seemed I was wrong.

We stepped off the platforms, and I could already feel the presence of countless people choking me. Silver was on my left side talking with Zan and Jay was on my right side, making people stare at him for being this unusual being that nobody had ever seen. Even though I was with people that I could trust, I felt more lonely than ever. People scared me, especially when in big crowds.

I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, but I always acted as though I could so people didn’t have to see me shake like a fish out of the water. Breathing became a choice and moving was difficult. And yet, among the endless sea of heads, there was one that I would rather not see now or ever.

“Eladia Matthews. What are you doing here?” A red-haired man with a groomed stubble and big, inquisitive eyes appeared before me.

“Sean. Who would have thought we would run to each other here?”

The man looked at me, then Jay, then Silver and Zan. He didn’t seem one bit surprised about my unusual company, which either meant he had already heard the news of my arrival, or he just acted that way to seem cooler. Either way, he was still damn hot.

“Yeah, it’s amazing. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”

Sneaky bastard. He was taking advantage of my weakness. He knew I couldn’t refuse him while in a crowd.

“Yes...yes of course. You already know Silver. This is Zan, a friend from Primordial Earth, and on my other side is Jay. Jay is...another friend from Primordial Earth.”

Jay and Sean noticed my qualm.

“I’m not from Earth, and my name is Jasih,” Jay hurried to correct me, but luckily for me, Sean didn’t seem to care.

“Nice to meet you all. I’m sorry, but I have to attend a meeting in ten minutes. I hope I see you again, love. Take care,” he said and passed between Jay and me with an elegant squish.

For a moment, I thought that somehow I had managed to get away with the minimum damage, but knowing Sean, he always left the best for last. And that was what he did again, only this time, he made sure to go big.

“Oh, huge guy...what was it again? Jasih. Make sure to take care of this girl. When we dated before, she used to be in trouble all the time. Come Tora, they’re expecting us,” Sean said and left, with a tiny robot flying to his side.

Tora, as well as Silver, was a mandatory Chronicler assistant. Every Chronicler had to choose one while studying their major. But that didn’t matter now. I slowly turned to see Jay’s reaction, but by the time I found him, he was long ahead of us towards the exit. I only had time to spot his head before rushing behind him.

Damn you Sean. You and your big mouth. But, the big question is why the usually thick Jay is suddenly so upset? What happened?