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"Just me." Xanthus called. "I thought you'd be up hurling burrito's at people, yet apparently not!" He noted. "What's goin' on?"

"I won't stick around if you're not up for it, just wanted to touch base and see if you still wanted those questions answered, and maybe ask you a couple. Well... one. Mostly one."

Dive right in, right? No point doing otherwise he guessed.

"Well now we can add 'do you want me to go grab you some take out'... but... yeah. I wanted to know where you came up with Xanthus. Yeah I know, I didn't ask at the time but yeah, the curiosity bug came and bit me."

He spun his signet ring with his thumb so that it faced inward, rubbing his thumb over the grooves on it's symbol.

"Take your time on the questions. As far as I know, I won't be forgetting anything else suddenly."

He took the engine with a raised eyebrow, turning it over and examining pieces as he listened, frowning with concentration that had only a little to do with the actual machine.

It was odd handling it, he couldn't remember how he knew parts of it, but he knew parts, remembered building them when he'd built a machine from parts to ride.

"...No I didn't. Zinkenite called me Realgar when I corrupted." He admitted. "I figured it was something like that. I guess there's more differences between the factions than just the obvious ones."

He glanced up, tapping his ring against the pieces he was holding. "I thought he picked Realgar because it was my name. My title, for a reason. It's a poisonous mineral. They call it the Ruby of Arsenic. Turns to powder in the sun. I looked it up." He added. "Used to be proud of that. But now for all I know he just picked it because it came up in geology and looked vaguely like the trim on my uniform."

He shrugged and glanced back down at the engine. "So are you going to tell me? Or do I have to figure out how to make this work and put it on an go cart first?"

"I don't remember when I learned it, but I remember how to do it. I'd say it was because I built a bike from pieces as a Lieutenant, but then wouldn't I not be able to remember stuff I didn't do in powered form? Like... how to make a bank deposit or... drive a car. But I couldn't remember my old apartment until I looked on my drivers license and I don't remember the names of my parents."

He offered her the practice tool back. "Someone must have assigned them at one point. I swung by Mars. My 'Wonder'." He offered vaguely. "Which brings me back to the point where you still haven't actually answered the question, just hinted around at it a lot. Also for extra weird memory stuff... now I remember having had a horse. I don't have a single memory involving horses except for that one. Pretty sure I don't have one."

Not now anyway. "Babylon said I'd encounter ghosts or 'hallucinations' when he talked about going, but it didn't feel much like a hallucination, not the way I understand them. No shiny pretty colors or sparkly fairies."

He didn't know if the joke would fly, but he didn't know how else to explain it. "It was more like an memory."

"...I'm..." He paused, taking in a breath, and then let it out again. "...You're well up on me. I can only remember the last couple years of mine."

It rocked him back on his heels a bit, metaphorically and literally.

Not a hallucination. Real. Not some trick of ancient dust, not a phantom born out of wishful thinking, but something real. Something to grab onto. She'd given him the name because, unlike what Zinkenite had given him.... it was his name. Then and now.

He rocked on his heels again, clearing his throat as he considered things, and this was far less agitated even than the contents of his mind, which left him punching furiously at the empty spaces as though it might jar more loose. Late to what. What had Bellona looked like? How many hands? How did he even know what 'hands' meant?

"I remembered that she was fast." He shared. It was one small lifeline he could tie down. "I heard someone call me from the hall way, they called me Xanthus and said we were going to be late, and I thought that was alright because it was an excuse to race there and back."

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"...********. I can't say I envy you. I do, but I don't... if that makes sense."

Bellona. It came together like engine parts. He didn't know it, but he knew it.

Xanthus gave a faintly amused snort as he noted. "Damn, everyone knows more about me than I do. Yeah though, that sounds good. And it wouldn't hurt not to have to play Clark Kent as much... If he's not going to have a problem with it anyway." He noted.

She was right though, not having an ID that matched his new identity made things... a bit more complicated, and there were hassles he hadn't even begun to figure out how he'd solve if they came up.

"Phil's loss is my gain I guess."