Darkness.
Still. Silent. Endless.
It was peaceful in a way—like floating in a dream with no beginning or end. But then, something changed. A flicker. A pulse. A sensation, distant yet growing stronger.
A soft hum vibrated through the empty space. Then, suddenly—
BZZZT!
The Headquarters jolted to life. Lights flickered erratically, the floor rumbled, and the large console in the center crackled with static as power surged back into it.
A muffled groan echoed from one of the small bedrooms, followed by the creak of a door swinging open.
Joy stumbled out, golden curls bouncing as he rubbed his eyes. His movements were sluggish at first, like waking from a deep sleep. But the moment his eyes adjusted to the light, they widened with shock.
"What… Wait! Are we—?"
A second door slammed open.
Anger groggily shuffled out, his fiery red hair sticking up in every direction. He blinked, his sharp orange eyes dull with confusion.
"What just happened?…" he muttered, rubbing his temple. His voice, though naturally firm, lacked any frustration—it was more of a dazed observation than an actual complaint.
From the far corner, a soft sniffle.
Sadness sat curled on the floor just outside her room, her knees hugged to her chest. Her navy-blue curls framed her teary face as she stared at the ground, overwhelmed.
"How are we… alive?…" she whispered, her voice trembling. "We were… gone. We were resting… so warmly… I… I can't handle this…"
Another door creaked open, but this time, it barely made a sound.
Fear peeked out, his lanky frame shivering as he cautiously stepped into the main room. His piercing purple eyes darted around, his fingers twitching as if ready to defend himself from an invisible threat.
"I don't like this," he muttered, breath shaky. "Something's wrong… This isn't right… This isn't right at all…"
The Headquarters was exactly how they remembered it—the same glowing console, the same pathways leading to their personal rooms, the same large screen that displayed the outside world. And yet, something felt different.
Joy took a step forward, his face lighting up in realization.
Then, without warning—
He grabbed Anger by the shoulders and started spinning him in circles.
"We're alive! Yes! WE'RE ALIVE!!"
Anger flailed. "DROP ME."
Joy ignored him completely, laughing as he twirled around. "We're back! We're perfectly fine!"
Sadness sniffled harder. "But how…? How did this happen?…"
"More importantly—" Disgust's voice cut through the noise. She was leaning against the console, arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently. Her silver-green hair shimmered slightly under the flickering lights, and her expression was a mix of boredom and annoyance.
"Why are we just standing around celebrating when none of this makes sense?" She gestured at the screen. "If we're alive again, where exactly are we?"
Fear straightened up, his eyes flashing as magic activated in his fingertips. He slowly approached the console, pressing his palm against it. A faint purple glow emitted from his hand as his Judgment View flickered to life.
His pupils dilated. His breathing quickened.
He gasped.
"…This isn't right," he muttered. His voice was distant, almost like he wasn't speaking to them, but to himself. "This isn't where we should be… this isn't…"
Then, a voice. A familiar one.
"Raziel!"
The emotions snapped their heads toward the screen.
A woman had called out—but something about it sent a shiver through them all.
On the screen, Raziel—no, Asriel—flinched at the name. He was sitting up, staring at his small hands, his delicate fingers trembling slightly. His messy golden curls bounced as he looked around in confusion.
Fear's voice cracked. "…That's not our name… but… why did he react?"
Sadness wiped at her eyes, her breathing uneven. "Are we… not who we are anymore? Did we move somewhere else?… Are we… faking to be someone else?…"
Anger, who had been surprisingly quiet, crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the screen. His normally composed expression was now twisted in deep thought. "…If we're alive, but we aren't 'us' anymore… then who exactly are we supposed to be?"
Disgust scoffed. "Oh, fantastic. Existential crisis. Right on schedule."
Joy hesitated, his usual energy faltering for the first time. His eyes flickered between his fellow emotions, seeing the uncertainty, the fear, the weight of something much bigger than them pressing down on their shoulders.
But then, like flipping a switch—he forced a smile and clapped his hands together.
"Alright, everyone! We got a second chance at life! Let's make it count!"
Sadness flinched. "But the first time… ended with our death…"
Fear let out a quiet whimper. "And if we suffer the same fate again…?"
Disgust rolled her eyes. "Yeah, great pep talk, Joy. Super helpful."
Joy puffed out his chest. "Come on! Look!"
He pointed at the screen.
Raziel touched his face, then his arms, examining his own body with wide, curious eyes. He was so… human.
Joy beamed. "See?! We have a human body now! We're not monsters anymore! No more running! No more humans chasing us! We're just like them! I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen!"
Fear twitched. "Ohhh, you just jinxed us SO hard."
Sadness shifted uncomfortably, her voice barely above a whisper. "…But if we aren't monsters anymore… does that mean we lost who we were?"
No one had an answer.
Raziel, on the screen, hesitated as the woman approached, calling his name again. His lips parted slightly, as if the name felt foreign on his tongue.
And deep inside Raziel, the emotions could only wonder—
What had they just woken up into?
As the emotions struggled to process their new reality, Joy remained fixated on the screen, gripping the control panel with anticipation. His golden curls bounced slightly as he scanned their surroundings, trying to make sense of it all.
Sadness, Anger, and Disgust stayed where they were, their eyes glued to the large screen displaying Raziel's every move in the outside world. Their vessel sat there, confused, staring at his own hands as if they didn't belong to him.
Meanwhile, Fear wandered the Headquarters, his sharp purple eyes darting around the dimly lit space. Something felt… off. He had an instinct for these things—a sense that always nagged at him when something wasn't right.
That's when he saw them.
The memory spheres.
Row after row, the glowing orbs lined the walls of their endless memory gallery—except… they weren't glowing.
Fear's breath hitched. He reached out and carefully picked one up. It was dark. Almost lifeless. A swirling gray fog pulsed over its surface, glitching like an old television screen caught in static.
His grip tightened. "…Guys."
The others turned at the sound of his trembling voice.
"Our memories… they're all gone."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
The emotions slowly approached, their eyes flickering across the vast rows of lifeless spheres. Not a single one held a flicker of color. No warmth. No emotion. Just… emptiness.
Fear hesitated, holding up the darkened orb for them to see. The gray static pulsed slightly, like it was broken—locked.
Disgust scoffed, crossing her arms. "Great. So not only are we in someone else's body, but we've also got a factory reset on our memories. Fantastic." She rolled her eyes. "New life, new identity—woo-hoo. Someone bake a cake, it's our second birthday."
Joy forced a chuckle, rubbing the back of his head. "Come on, it's not all bad! Look around! All the memories are still here!" He gestured to the endless rows of spheres. "They're not erased… just, uh… kind of… the same?"
Anger frowned, his normally calm expression deepening with thought. "If they're still here but don't have any color or detail… it means he forgot."
Joy's hopeful smile wavered. "Forgot? Completely?"
Anger nodded. "Yeah. And if we came back to life, maybe this is just a side effect. Something went wrong during the process."
Sadness hugged herself, her deep blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "So… he really forgot? Everything? Everyone?" Her voice cracked. "Just… gone?"
The weight of her words settled over them like a thick fog.
Joy swallowed hard, his usual enthusiasm dimming for the first time. Slowly, he reached for one of the lifeless orbs, cradling it gently in his hands. The soft hum of the control panel was the only sound in the Headquarters as they all stood in silence, staring at the overwhelming sea of lost memories.
Then—
"Wait."
Anger narrowed his eyes at the memory shelves, his sharp gaze catching something different. He lifted a finger and pointed toward a small cluster of orbs sitting further back.
"If everything's forgotten… why do I see a few of them glowing?"
The emotions turned sharply toward where he was pointing.
A handful of memory spheres—only a few—stood out against the darkness. Unlike the others, these weren't glitching or lifeless. Instead, they pulsed faintly with color, though they were dim compared to normal memories.
Joy stepped forward cautiously, carefully placing the orb in his hands back down. His blue eyes flickered with curiosity as he reached for one of the glowing spheres.
The moment his fingers touched it, a soft purple hue shone through the mist—Fear's color.
Inside the sphere, a fragmented memory played: darkness, the cold sensation of liquid, the feeling of being trapped inside a tube. Then—nothing.
The memory cut off.
Joy frowned. "…Fear, this memory is yours."
Fear stiffened. His fingers twitched slightly before he hesitantly approached, staring at the dimly glowing spheres. His expression was unreadable as he studied them.
"They're all mine?" he murmured.
Joy nodded. "Yeah. Every memory with light is one of yours."
Fear hesitated, deep in thought. He reached out and brushed his fingers over another sphere. A faint glimmer of purple pulsed beneath his touch. "…But I don't remember saving these."
His brows furrowed.
"If I didn't save them manually… then they must have been stored automatically."** His voice was barely above a whisper. "Somehow…"
Silence stretched between them once more.
They weren't just dealing with forgotten memories. They were dealing with something unnatural.
And none of them knew what it meant.