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“I think you win the award for cutest kid,” the golden-eyed guest admitted, smiling at the baby.

“Well I will take that award gladly,” Richard said, setting Min back down in her crib.

“So…you know about everything? With the Syncs, I mean,” Hershey asked.

“Yes, I do,” Richard responded. “Are you going to ask me why?”

Hershey nodded his head slowly. Richard stepped away from his sleeping child and whispered. “She told me she heard them in her head.”

He leaned in, thinking he didn’t hear Richard correctly. “She…what?”

Richard just kept smiling, knowing how ridiculous it sounded but not caring. “You heard me right. Two of them, actually. She’s their livelihood. Everything is stuck in her head…and growing.”

“That…must have been hard to swallow,” Hershey added, unsure of what else to say.

“It was,” he said. “At first. But, then something happened. A Sync broke in and tried to eat Min.” Richard looked at the crib and Hershey followed his gaze.

“Oh my God,” Hershey said, walking back over to the crib. Richard followed him, reaching over the edge of it and pointing to a red scar on her neck. “That’s from the Sync’s nail…and this—” Richard pointed to a colorful array of black, purple, and pink plastered on her arm. “Is from where Ah accidentally hit her in the arm with the bat while beating the intruder senseless.”

Hershey’s head snapped toward Richard, eyebrows raised. “She did what?”

Richard laughed. “Yeah, that’s when I realized ‘Hey, that’s not the Ah I married.’”

“It was the Syncs…in her head,” Hershey concluded. “Yeah, I guess seeing your wife go postal on a guy does something to you.”

“Yeah,” Richard said. “And killing him.” Hershey winced, sensing it was coming to that. “The police deemed it self-defense, although they were a bit skeptical when I told them Ah was the one who did it.”

“With her broad shoulders and big arms?” Hershey didn’t see how they would doubt it.

Richard hesitated before speaking the next part. “And we had some help from the neighbors…who are also Syncs.”

Richard saw the boy’s head turn to him, but the surprise wasn’t as damaging. He heard a sigh before the words hit. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”

“Huh, Ah underestimated your mental abilities—”

“Richard, you live in a Sync neighborhood!” Hershey hissed. “That has to be dangerous.”

The full-grown man sighed. “It’s already dangerous,” he realized. “Why do you think you’re here?”

Hershey’s eyes shifted. “Friendly conversation?” he posed and Richard just laughed. “How can you just be so okay with a species that’s tried to eat your daughter and violated your wife’s head?”

Richard thought about it for a second and didn’t take long to find an answer. “I choose not to blame a whole egg carton for the disfigurement of only a few bad eggs.”

“The Cider that they were talking about; Walker, Beema, and Talon?” Ah’s face melted as she said it. “Apparently, he’s—from what I’ve heard—this amazingly sweet guy that Beema and Talon took in. He’s…actually who I’m looking for,” she clarified. “And I think where he is now is where Elias is too.”

“Then who’s Shaan?” Matrix asked.

“Oh, the 1st Perna for the new Perna generation,” Ah said. “Duh.”

“Oh, right. I never actually knew his name,” Matrix said. Beta whipped his head around. “Wait you knew about this?”

Matrix looked at him. “You didn’t? I thought, as a Perna, you would know.”

“There aren’t any other Pernas I can ask,” Beta said as if it should have been obvious.

“Well…I think I know why,” Ah piped in.

“Meaning?” Matrix asked.

“You’re telling me you don’t like the Syncs, you banded together with these guys to destroy them, you were killed before your due time, and you somehow involved Plato in this?” Ah questioned.

“I…never said the kill was before my due time,” Beta muttered.

“Well congrats, it was,” Ah said. “Don’t worry, I just hear things. Point is…you don’t know what this means, do you?”

The men shook their head in unison.

“Not even you, Matrix?”

“They only tell me what I need to know,” he responded. “Which included that Beta wasn’t the 1st Perna and some bad stuff went down before he was born.”

Ah sighed. “History’s repeating itself. All of this has happened before.”

Matrix furrowed his eyebrows. “How exactly?”

Ah paused when Hershey and her husband walked in with the baby. “Hey,” he said, glancing up at the two guests in his living room before whispering something in her ear. Hershey sat down next to the guys.

“Oh yes of course!” she responded much louder, grabbing their baby from him and rocking her as the husband left the house. Once the door shut, Ah pushed up her glasses and crinkled her nose. “Diapers.”

They all nodded as if they understood.

“So anyway!” Ah continued. “A few years ago this, or something a lot like this, happened involving the Syncs and the Pernas, or really the Syncs and Plato started by a Perna…one much like you.” She sighed. “His name was Shaan. He was the very first! And yet…he heard the Sync’s calls, specifically Walker’s, to come down to Earth and ‘try something new’ as she put it.” Ah smiled as she rocked her baby. “Turns out, he’d only listen to Walker, because he only liked Walker. They were…in love…or so she thought.” Ah paused. “When he got down there they made a love child to see if it would…‘work.’ Well, it did work…and it was amazing…until the 1st Perna got a little bit stingy with his dad rights.”

“Meaning?” Beta asked.

“Meaning the Pernas stole the baby and the Syncs got pissed off, naturally. So…the Perna said ‘come at me bro’ and ‘come at me bro’ really meant come after all of Plato so when we started getting pissed and throwing things Plato started getting pissed and throwing things back and boy—!”

The baby started crying and Ah began to rock her until she fell back asleep.

“So,” Ah whispered now. “Basically, things ended in war, but they covered it all up eventually.”

“How did they end it? The war I mean?” Beta asked.

Ah turned to Beta with a serious look. “With the Perna’s death.” Beta’s eyes widened. “What?”

“You heard me,” Ah said, leaning back in her chair. “He was the one who started it, so he had to be the one to end it; it was only fair. In fact, afterward, the Pernas were driven so crazy that they practically broke themselves and disappeared from Plato and Earth forever…until you came, of course.” Ah smiled at Beta. “Now…everyone’s afraid that history’s repeating itself…with you.”

There was a quick pause before Ah clapped loudly, startling them both. “So! Let me help you find Elias so that I can find the Cider.”

Hershey smiled at Ah, unsure what it was about her that made her seem so likable. He was about to say yes when a sharp pain hit him. He flinched and looked over at Beta instinctively. He wasn’t sure what it was, considering Beta looked completely fine, solid even. But, in a way, Hershey could see past that, see something in his red eyes that frightened even him.

Someone trying to get in.

“Sorry I just…I need to go.” Beta shot up quickly, literally stepping on Hershey’s toes to get out of the house. He tore the front door open and left it like that, and it was only when Hershey saw him kick the mailbox that he decided to leave Matrix alone and follow.

Getting outside and shutting the door, Hershey ran over to Beta and held his hands out. “Beta, what’s going on?” His friend didn’t hesitate to turn to him and tell him exactly what was on his mind. “I killed someone.”

Hershey stopped walking then like his foot got caught in the dirt. He let his hands droop just as Beta raised his up and shrugged. “That’s it. That’s the big secret I’ve been keeping this whole bloody time. I figure there’s not much point keeping it since I’m just going to die anyway as the ‘prophecy foretells.’ That’s why we’re on this quest…because I shot someone and I guess Nature didn’t like that very much—”

“Beta—”

“And I liked it!” he screamed, his voice echoing off of the house’s walls. Beta chuckled, pulling at his hair. “I thought I was saving them! I thought, I thought I was doing the right thing.” His nose scrunched in that way it did when he was about to lose it. “But then again, every time I think I’m saving someone it just ends up hurting me more, right?”

Hershey sighed. “Beta—”

“No no!” he interjected. “I’m not done because you haven’t heard all of my confession yet. I know what I did was terrible, yeah? And yes, I understand that because of what I did, because of what I still do, its destiny for me to hurt everyone and everything that I touch and somehow still have it all fall back on me because I deserve it!”

Beta covered his mouth instinctively; afraid if he didn’t he would’ve just spilled everything. Hershey just stared him down, mouth ajar. It wasn’t from shock or from fear…but from pity. Hershey couldn’t remember a time that he had felt much else other than that. In fact, in a twisted way, he could relate to Beta. But instead of hurting everyone around him, he helped everyone around him…yet he still got hurt. So Hershey took a step forward, and then another, and then another, and did the only thing he knew how to do…

“Beta…” Hershey grabbed Beta’s bicep and squeezed, getting his attention. Beta was cold and tense, and Hershey could tell that he was shaking up to the moment where he had laid hands on him. “I forgive you.” Beta heard the words but didn’t process them, unsure what they meant. No one had ever truly forgiven him before, for anything he had done. “And I’ll forgive you a thousand more times if that’s what it takes for you to believe that you’re more than just a destiny.”

Beta’s eyes drifted down to the ground, thinking about that: If his life could really ever be more than what it already was. “Thank you,” Beta whispered just loud enough for Hershey to hear. Slowly but firmly, Beta maneuvered his arm out of Hershey’s grip and took a step back. “But I was born a Perna, born to fight a battle that I might not completely agree with but have to support…and there’s no other way around that.”

Tick.

Beta gasped, feeling like something had just switched on inside his skull. Hershey’s eyes went wide as Beta fell onto the not-so-soft grass bed. “Beta?”

Beta could see his mother’s feet before him as she bent down and reached a hand out. He didn’t remember her fingers looking so bony as they wrapped around his throat. The sensation of his eyes bulging inside his skull as the oxygen on route to his lungs jammed was deadly. He knew it was all in his head, but at that moment it didn’t feel that way. “Tell them what you did,” his mother began. “Tell them everything.” Beta, for a moment, forgot how to breathe. “You deserved every bit of what you got, you always did,” Elias’ voice rang out inside Beta’s skull, the message repeating over and over again.

But it didn’t last long.

Hershey grabbed ahold of his shoulder, trying to see his face. It was that one touch, that moment of contact that allowed the air to continue its course to his lungs and the haunting image of his own mother taking his life scatter like a smoke bomb. It didn’t take long for Beta to say the words he was on route to saying anyway. “Hershey, I need you.”

Hershey looked down at Beta, eyes widening. “I—What?”

Already Elias’ image began to dwindle and the pain lessened more and more. “Look, I don’t know what it is but…when I’m around you there’s just something there that makes the pain go away.” Beta took in a quick, sharp breath and coughed it back out.

Hershey just blinked, unsure of what to say. But, finally, he settled on: “…I’m helpful?”

Beta remained silent, shocked by the question. His mother had long since disappeared, but the sting of her still remained. The fact that Hershey thought he wasn’t helpful was beyond him. Other than Matrix, Beta considered himself the person who knew better than anyone just how helpful Hershey could be. “You’ve always been helpful…Hershey.”

“Hey! Guys!” Beta and Hershey turned as Matrix walked up to them, his face showing his annoyance at being left alone. “Where’d you go?”

“I just needed some air,” Beta said, squinting at the sun shining from behind the house and into his eyes.

“Well, since we’re all out here, might as well voice my opinion,” Matrix said, seemingly unconcerned. “So, I think, just throwing it out there, that’s she’s schizophrenic.”

Beta nodded, mouth drooping in understanding. “Alright, well, let me just throw this out. Um, you eat people.”

Matrix’s nose twitched. “That…is true.” Beta and Hershey smiled. “But also not my point. She’s weird, her whole story is absurd, and anyone willing to give up an entire life like that has to be crazy.”

“Huh,” Hershey uttered. “That’s sort of like exactly what Hershey said earlier, isn’t it?” Hershey’s nostrils widened, edging his way into a massive grin.

Matrix clicked his tongue, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Okay, fine,” he breathed out.

The three of them walked back inside and placed themselves back on Ah’s couch. Beta was about to say something when Ah cut him off. “Just so you know, I could hear all of that…because it’s part of the whole Sync thing? So, I just wanted to say I am not schizophrenic, I appreciate your concern, and I’m happy to join you guys.”

Beta, Matrix, and Hershey shared a three-way look and turned to Ah simultaneously smiling.

“Then we’re in agreement.”