Nathan's ears were ringing.
He blinked his eyes open to a blurry ceiling and the sound of tools clattering. Faint voices drifted around him—soft chatter, something being tightened, metal scraping. Then footsteps approached.
"Hey… are you okay?" a voice asked.
Nathan rubbed his temples. "Yeah—yeah, I'm fine. But what about the machin—"
His vision cleared just enough to see a familiar face. His own face… but not quite. One of the entities helped him sit up.
"So, you guys are working on the machine?" Nathan asked, still groggy.
"Of course we are," the entity said cheerfully, giving his shoulder a playful nudge. "Can't have you getting in trouble now, can we?"
Nathan let out an awkward laugh. There was something unsettlingly natural about how it spoke, how casually it moved. He noticed another one of them watching him from across the room—glancing at him over and over like they were worried.
He pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the entity working the hardest. This one was completely absorbed in the machine, muttering under his breath as he fidgeted with wires and panels.
"I appreciate you helping," Nathan said, "but I don't think you'll be able to fi—"
"Finally done," the entity said, stepping back. "That was a close one."
Nathan stared, stunned, as it hurried to the control panel and powered it on. The machine hummed to life, lights stabilizing.
"Yes," it whispered in relief. It shut the machine off again and went right back to double-checking the wiring as if it had done this a thousand times.
Still in disbelief, Nathan sank into a nearby chair. One of the entities followed him, sitting beside him.
"Hey. You sure you're okay? You didn't get hurt, right?"
"I'm fine, I just…" Nathan looked at the others. "How—how are you all—"
His words trailed off. Something was wrong.
He squinted and quietly counted them.
"One… two… three… four…"
He frowned. "Hold on. Something's off."
The cheerful one tilted its head. "What? There are four of us here. So?"
"There were five of you," Nathan said. "Someone is missing."
Silence.
Across the room, in the far corner, one of the entities sat curled up with its knees pulled to its chest, staring at the floor.
Another entity shifted nervously. "…He's right," it said softly.
"Are you sure?" the cheerful one asked. "Maybe you counted Nathan earlier. He's the only one who wasn't—"
"I know what I saw," the nervous one said sharply. "And he wasn't like us. His presence… it felt wrong."
Nathan's stomach tightened. He remembered that fleeting moment before he blacked out—another figure standing over him, cold and unreadable.
"Well, he couldn't have gotten far," Nathan said, pushing himself up. "You guys stay here, I'll go look for—"
The door slid open.
"Nathan?!" Sera rushed in, slightly out of breath. "The alarm went off, so I came as fast as—"
Her words died as she saw the four entities behind him.
"Nathan. What did you do."
"Hold on, Sera, I can explain—"
"You better have a good explanation," she snapped. "The procedure wasn't tested. We didn't even know if it could work, and now—"
"Heyyy!" the cheerful entity waved at her. "Don't worry, the machine's fine!"
Sera froze. "How are they talking like they have minds of their own?"
"I don't know!" Nathan said. "They were like this when I woke up and—"
"When you woke up?" Sera's expression shifted. "What happened?"
Nathan explained everything—the shock, waking up, their behavior, the missing one. Sera sat down heavily afterward, overwhelmed.
"So let me get this straight," she said slowly. "You went behind my back. You used the machine. All because you couldn't get over her? And now one of these things is running around the building doing God knows what?"
Nathan looked away, guilt twisting in his chest.
"I'm sorry, okay?" he said quietly. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I just didn't want to keep feeling like this. I didn't know what else to do."
"You could've talked to us," Sera said.
"That wouldn't fix anything."
"How would you know? You didn't even try."
The entities watched silently—one with a faint, soft smile, another tense with worry, one still curled in the corner.
A long silence passed before Sera finally sighed.
"Nathan… I'm sorry. I know what you're going through and—"
"No," he interrupted gently. "Don't be. This is my fault. And I don't even know how to explain any of it to you. But right now, I need to fix this."
Sera stood. "Who said anything about you doing this alone?"
Nathan exhaled, relieved. "So… should we start looking for the missing one?"
"We will," she said. "But first, we need to identify which emotions are out. Did you already do that?"
"Well—"
"Of course you didn't," she sighed, heading to the control panel.
"Hey, I got knocked out before I could do anything," Nathan muttered.
She activated the machine. A soft hum filled the room, and the entities all began to glow—each a different color.
"Ooh, tingly," one said cheerfully.
Sera checked the readings.
"Okay… the bright yellow glow belongs to Joy. The red one is Love. The indigo one is Grief, and the pale green one is Guilt."
Guilt groaned. "Figures. I get stuck with the pale one."
Joy tried not to laugh, Love sighed, and Grief just looked away.
Nathan looked at Sera. "What about the last one? The fifth?"
Sera kept reading—then suddenly froze.
"…Nathan," she said. "The fifth one isn't an emotion."
His blood ran cold. "What do you mean?"
"I mean it doesn't even have an emotional frequency." She showed him the panel.
Nathan leaned in and read the words:
UNKNOWN ENTITY.
"This is why you shouldn't have done this," Sera said, rubbing her temples.
"I said I'm sorry."
"Sorry won't fix it now, will it?"
"So what do we do?" Nathan asked.
"We put these four in containment until we find the unknown one," Sera said. "Then we put them all back."
"What?! No. They helped me when I passed out. They're not dangerous—I know myself."
Sera snapped, "You're the reason an unknown entity is roaming the halls of the Aether Institute. We don't need more of you causing problems."
Joy, Love, and Guilt gasped. The indigo one lowered its head.
Nathan looked hurt—but didn't argue.
Sera exhaled, realizing what she said. "Nathan… I didn't mean—"
"No. It's fine," he said quietly. "I deserved that."
She softened. "…How about this. We won't contain them, but they stay in this room. No one's scheduled to come here this week."
Nathan nodded. "Okay. Fair enough."
They walked toward the exit. Nathan winced suddenly, holding his head.
"Are you getting a headache?" Sera asked.
"Yeah… I probably haven't recovered from the shock yet."
He paused. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"…Never mind."
Back in the room, the entities watched him leave. Suddenly, grief—still curled on the floor—groaned in pain as his form began glitching.
"What's happening?!" love shouted.
"Try the control panel!" guilt yelled.
But before they reached it, the indigo entity released a surge of distorted energy, blasting the others backward. They all began glitching violently.
"N—Na…than…" love whispered weakly before collapsing.