Chapter 196 - Peace Of Mind

"Good Morning Petunia! Thank goodness you're finally awake! Come on! Everybody's waiting for us," Gem said the moment Heize opened her eyes.

And although the blinding white light around her was making her vision blur, she immediately recognized Gem with the voice that was imprinted in Petunia's memories, which she was also confused to see wrapped around her neck in that weird white empty space.

"Wh-where's everyone? Where are we?" Petunia asked but Gem only ignored her question and instead squatted in front of her with a pout.

"Are you saying you don't want to come with us?" Gem said, which made Heize wonder if she was still in Petunia's memories or if she's already back in the real world.

Because not only did she lose control over Petunia's memories, but she was sure that she and Petunia made a deal to save and help each other the moment they got out of that quick summary of Petunia's memories.

"Come to where? Where are we going? There's nothing here!" Heize exclaimed and stepped away from Gem with a frightened expression for losing control over everything that she thought she was in control with.

"I need to go back to the real world and help Petunia!"

"What are you talking about?" Gem asked and acted cute while Heize was still panicking and walking in circles to get her thoughts straight.

"I saw Petunia inside this collar and we made a deal with each other. And just so you know, you're right! I'm not Petunia! I'm Petunia's old friend who's now back to help her."

"What are you saying? Didn't you just literally lock Petunia up in a cell and try to steal her memories from that Stat-hut?" Gem said, her patience running out and exposing her real reaction to the situation instead of the concept that she was faking on earlier.

"Wait, you're talking to me. And you know about what I did earlier! We're in the real world now, aren't we? But what is this? Where are we?" Heize asked while looking around the vast empty white space between them which prompted Gem to stand up and calm herself down first before explaining the situation as simply as possible to this impostor cat in front of her who just confessed her crimes to the real Petunia in 4k.

"You're a hostage in my world now and you're going to tell me where you hid Petunia at or else I'll lock you in here for the rest of your life. I'm the only one who can come and go in this place as I wish, so don't try doing something funny with me," Gem said and pulled a map from the ground which made Heize think.

"This is very similar to the dreaming state that I had in Petunia's memories earlier. But instead of colors and stuff, this girl can only control 20% of her powers and could only lousily pull shapes from the ground-based on my observation. I can't trust her," Heize thought while examining Gem's whole look.

"What makes you so sure I'll lead you to the right place?" Heize asked.

"Do you want to battle it out first?" Gem boldly suggested which made Heize admire her courage a little bit.

"I would love to, but unfortunately I have to decline. Like I've said, Petunia and I made a deal to help each other, so please, take me to her," Heize said with a hint of haste in her face which made Gem trust her guts that were saying to trust this impostor for once.

"Lead the way," Gem said and finally showed the big map of the same checkpoint Headquarters in front of them which was also the same thing that she showed to Von when he was inside Solitude earlier with her.

"This is-" Heize said and looked at Gem suspiciously as if she could not trust what Gem was saying, simply because of her prejudice of how weak Gem is compared to her in terms of controlling their own or other's memories.

"This is an empty version of the headquarters, so chop chop, tell me where Petunia is and I might even spare your life."

"That is, if Petunia says so," Gem added but kept only her mouth shut about the threat to give Heize a little bit of Peace of mind while leading her the way to Petunia.

"Is Petunia still alive? What did you do to her? And what did you mean when you said you made a promise with her?" Gem asked restlessly while following Heize's directions and walking behind her.

"Actually, I want to know who you are first and what is your connection to Petunia? Why is she looking for you? I have a lot of other questions that I want to ask you but that I think should be just it for the meantime. Now spill," Gem said, still keeping her authority inside the place that she had a better understanding and control of, unlike Heize here who did not even know such a place existed even after being the one responsible for Sir Durish, the wolf's ability to also go to a place similar to Gem's solitude but a rather unstable one.

"I'm Petunia's old teacher, my name's Heize and I was the first one who got affected by that potion that my parents and Petunia's parents were trying to perfect in secret in Majesta," Heize answered diligently and looked at Gem's eyes behind her with pleading eyes.

"What?" Gem said.

"I'm tired," Heize said and her limbs just suddenly started shaking which made Gem worry and recall Petunia's symptoms through her.

"Here, ride this," Gem said and closed her eyes while giving Heize a makeshift version of Petunia's gummy cloud using her energy slimes.

She really did not want to do it as much as possible, because giving this fake Petunia a cloud would just make her resemble Petunia even more, but since it was inevitable that any superpowers of anyone inside Solitude aside from Salamandite holders would lose their power, Gem had the cloud prepared in her mind in advance in case something like this happened on the way.

"T-Thank you," Heize said and sat down properly on the floating cloud while still leading the way to Petunia by following a real-life-sized version of the map on the white floor beneath them.

"Huh, is this made of energy slimes? Why does it smell so much like it?" Heize thought to herself and glanced at Gem's faintly glowing necklace for the first time, suddenly remembering her original plans that would not benefit Petunia at all.

"Why are you looking at my necklace like that? Did you do all those things in the outside world just to steal my necklace and Petunia's collar?" Gem asked while putting her arms in front of her chest with an x shape, saying that she would not let Heize touch it no matter what.

"What? N-No! Of course not!" Heize said in disbelief, but when she saw Gem's unconceived face, she immediately followed up with an explanation that was closer to the truth in fears that she might not believe her.

"Well, at first I did, because energy slimes is a very crucial ingredient for the formula that I was making to reverse this stupid curse, but now that I've seen Petunia and talked to her myself, I kind of don't want to do things the hard way anymore and just ask for it first. I'm sure you care about Petunia and what if I tell you that I'm the only other person who can help her and that's why she's looking for me? But in order to save the both of us, we need to cooperate… and I need your energy slimes, even just a little bit of it will do," Heize said and suddenly sighed as if talking for that long just drained all of her energy all of a sudden.

"Fine, I'll help you help her and give you everything you need to help her, but only if she's still alive safe out there like you said, and promise to give her back everything you took from her, especially that collar which contains all of her memories."

"Speaking of the collar, I thought you wouldn't let me wear this? Why is it in my neck and why am I not being sent back to Petunia's linked memories?" Heize asked while pushing the itchy tight collar around her furry neck away.

"Signals from the real world don't reach this place, and besides, that collar is not actually Petunia's stat-hut but rather a replica which Fily just made using makeshift items from the headquarters to make sure that you wouldn't be able to escape if you ever decide to fool me," Gem said with a cold expression on her face which kind of pissed Heize, "It's a taser."

But because Heize was the one at a disadvantage in this situation, she just chose to close her mouth and only say preferable things in front of Gem even though there was a goddamn taser wrapped around her neck, and deep inside, she already cursed this cocky child to the bone anyway and that was enough for her at the moment.