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All of the sudden, Jericho heard a pounding at his door along with what sounded like a winded and very urgent Malodore. Oh no. Had something gone wrong somewhere? Quickly, the dragon jumped to his feet and rushed on over to answer it.

"Malodore! Is something wrong? What's going on?" he asked while urging the Plague doctor into his room.

The news hit Jericho like a truck. And for a moment he just stood there and stared at Malodore to make sure that he heard correctly.

"She's.. she's really alive? Then.. then that scream! That.. that was really her! Oh Jack. She's alive! Wh..where is she? How is she?"

The dragon had taken a hold of the doctor's shoulders, staring into its eyes as questions flooded into his mind. The scream was one thing, but to actually hear confirmation? It was kind of overwhelming.

"She is, she really is," Malodore agreed, a lump rising in its throat again. "I saw her. Talked with her. She... I'm certain she was dead, killed by the Insanity, but they brought her back - one scientist. Sinclaire, she said her name was..."

It shook its head slowly, trying to make sense of things; while it had been running here, its mind had been utterly dominated by the imperative to get back to Jericho and the others and tell them. Now, though, that flood of mixed emotions was threatening to overwhelm it again. "She... she isn't as we remember her, Jericho. I could tell, I... her mind, her memory, is scattered. I saw her shifting and changing the more we talked, like she was adapting to me. She... she didn't remember me, not at first," and admitting that aloud made it close its eyes hard against tears that threatened to spill over. "I let her see my memories, and she seemed curious, but... she was so fragile. She didn't even remember her own wings, or her own old injuries..."

-And then, suddenly, it realized someone else was in the room. Its wings flared for a moment, but then it identified her and the spars checked their movement convulsively. "Shehk," it managed. "Quick, come - close the door."

She hesitated, stepping back towards the hallway awkwardly before Malodore insisted she come in. Jericho seemed to agree as well. If this was the case, it was probably important - Jericho wasn't going to be a gold statue, it seemed. Never the less, she shut the door quietly behind her before she stepped into their little 'circle' of sorts.

"What's happened?" she sounded highly concerned, and for a second she looked to Jericho, wondering if.... no. She looked back to Mal again after she'd convinced herself that wasn't it - or rather, really HOPED that wasn't it.

Jericho let Malodore do the explaining since it could do that better, having had the first hand experience. It was struggling right now, and he couldn't blame it. Quite frankly, he was torn personally on how to take this news.

"No.. no.. we understand. She's back.. but at the same time... she really isn't.." he muttered while letting his wings sag down. He felt pain right now, but he couldn't quite imagine the magnitude Malodore must have felt to witness that in person. It must have been something.

Malodore buried its mask in its hands, and for several minutes it shook with soundless sorrow. "She is... alive, and so perhaps..." it managed, breaking its silence at last, "there... but if she truly does not remember, I cannot force her, I..."

Was it almost worse this way? It could see it all so clearly in its minds eye: her returning, moving away from it. My Andeon, she had said. Two mindflayers, hands entwined. As it should have been, really. It had had no right to her in the first place. What had happened before was an aberration; it would now be corrected, as such things should be. A bleak inevitability.

It would, perhaps, do best to put her from its mind and heart and move forward - and yet it wanted to hold on to her tightly and never let her go.

"There is... there is more," it said, finally, shoving that pain away as hard as it could. "The Bogeymen are going to have examinations here, at Amityville. Related to Insanity. Sinclaire invited me to be involved, with Nurse Cricket's permission. But, Jericho, you must... you must not let them know. Not yet. I must take the measure of what they are doing..."

It could take care of them all, and in so doing not concern itself with its own problems. Yes.

"She just needs some time." Shehk agreed, "Coming back like that....isn't easy." At least, that was how she felt.

Shehk sat up just a bit straighter at mention of the boogeymen, looking to Jericho. She'd already told him her piece on them, but knowing they were coming so close to his 'comfort' zone made her nervous, actually. She wanted to reach out and squeeze his hand, but she made a note to..not. If he needed it, he'd initiate, she guessed.

"I definitely think it would be good to have someone 'on the inside' in a way with the Boogeymen's 'sweep', or whatever their examinations are going to be." she nodded. "I think it would put a lot of the students here at ease as well."