At the manor house"

Aja woke up early and laid in bed staring up at the ceiling. Today was the day. She would take that final step in removing Tru from her completely. There was some apprehension that came with it. Not that she didn't want it gone, she did. It was necessary, but when it came to messing around with things in her head, one false step could spell disaster.

She took a deep breath before getting out of bed quietly, careful not to wake Tristan. He already worried too much as it was. It wasn't that she didn't care what he thought, but she needed every bit of focus she could manage today. Tristan's worry would only make her worry. That sort of loop wouldn't be helpful to the process. She had laid out some clothes the night before. Unusual in style for her, it was a simple tee shirt and stretch pants. The guns would stay home today. Her sword would remain hangin on the wall. Neither of those would help her today. Neither were needed.

She dressed quickly, grabbed the note she wrote for Rico about what was to be done today and made her way downstairs without a sound. She was out the door and across the yard in no time. Parker was waiting for her by his carriage.

Parker stood silently in the early morning air watching her drawing closer to him. He knew that expression on her face. Worry. It was not something he was used to seeing from this girl he had cared for. But given how serious the mission they were on this morning was, he wouldn't be pestering the girl about it. She had a right to be worried.

And at the Tuttle Home"

Ippons neither slept nor dreamt. Instead, they entered into nightly trances at four hours a pop...restoring both mind and body. Alec indulged in an extra hour the previous night to make sure that his mind had achieved the proper rebalancing that would be needed to pull of the delicate procedure to come. After all, this wasn't just anyone he was performing this psionic surgery on. Other than his wife Sivanna, there was no more cherished a person in all the realm than Aja was to him.

He rose from bed, not the least bit surprised to see that Sivanna had left early for work this morning. Going into the kitchen, he fixed a pot of coffee and ate a light breakfast of fruit and cheese...just enough to stop the rumbles in his stomach and keep his head clear. Coffee was good for the later - not so much the former. Now it was simply a matter of waiting for the pirate-gypsy to arrive.

Back at the yards"

"Morning, Parker," she said simply as she continued past to stick the note in the door of the office where Rico was sure to see it when he came in. Instructions for the crew and things she had thought of last night while getting ready to take a day off. She wasn't used to not being there working with her boys.

"Morning." He replied watching her. "Are you ready?"

"As I'm gonna get.? She gave him a smile. They climbed into the carriage and were off to Alec's.

During the ride, she tried to get her head focused. No daily treatment from Parker had the edges coming undone a little, so she spent the time putting them back into order so when they got to removing the rest of what was Tru from her head, she wouldn't have to deal with it then.

Aja took a deep breath and looked up at Alec, giving him a smile.

"Yeah." There as a small nod of her head at the question. "Think it's past time ta put my screwy head back to the correct range of tilted." She gave them both a grin feeling really blessed to be cared for like this.

Parker smiled amused by her joke. He was long used to her banter no matter the seriousness of the situation. It was one of those things about her that either drove someone crazy or endeared her to them.

"Right." Alec nods with that quiet, confident little grin of his, then he closes his eyes.

Bowing his head for a moment, he inwardly recites the par'banu, the tau-jin meditation that sets the logic-chains of Ippon thought into the appropriate parameters for this type of procedure" This type" Had this ever been done before" Elven Bonds were supposed to be permanent - ever enduring against all things under Heaven. But this Bond was different, wasn't it' Accomplished without the fullest consent of one party, this one didn't quite reach down into Aja's soul...which left it in a realm that Alec was uniquely suited to undo. And so he opened his eyes. Placing the fingertips of his right hand at the appropriate contact points along the side of Aja's face, he begins to interface with her mind.

She closed her eyes and focused on what wasn't hers. What was never suppose to be there in the first place. The explanations and realities of what it was or supposed to be, she couldn't say. She pictured it like a weed growing under the sidewalk, splitting the concrete of her foundations. Something that couldn't simply be yanked out without filling in the cracks to the foundation it went into.

With Alec, she had enough in her to properly remove it. She didn't bother distracting herself with the "what if he wasn't able to help" sort of thoughts. They wouldn't lead anywhere useful or productive. In the warehouse of her mind with the many boxes holding the secrets, abilities and memories, she pictured herself cutting away at those roots to the weed.

With the interface complete, it should come as no surprise that Alec found his mental self-actualization standing in the middle of a vast warehouse that contained endless rows of shelves stretching as far as the eye can see; shelves holding boxes of every size and color imaginable, inside of which would be those aforementioned secrets, abilities and memories.

Before him would stand Aja's self-actualization as she hacked away at a weed that rose so high into the warehouse that it would become lost in the heights. The weed itself had flowered sometime within the past year, and looked impossibly vibrant in greens and whites against the starker surroundings of the warehouse. He glanced back at Aja and says, "That might not be the best course of action at the moment, sis."

She looked at Alec then and tilted her head thinking about that. "Maybe a bit too ambitious?" If anything, that was her worst flaw, the way she would dive in without thinking. Not how she wound up in this particular mess, but there were others.

"Your heart is in the right place," he replied as he made a circuit around the base of the weed. He reached out and touched it. "Here...put your hand on it. See how it feels to you."

Aja followed him with the thought in her head that it was a little weird for someone else to be wandering around in here with her. If she thought too much about that, she would laugh. But she knew she had to focus on the task at hand. She reached out and touched the weed and frowned.

"Like it's feeding," she said with the slightest tinge of annoyance. Well. That was disturbing. Aside from the inane thoughts that filtered into her head at all hours of the day and night, this was more unsettling.

"It is." Alec runs his hand along the stalk for a moment, sampling the texture for a moment. "These Bonds...they are supposed to be symbiotic. Give and take, and the processes making the hosts stronger than merely the sum of its parts." He frowns, his eyes tracking the weed upwards until it disappeared far above. "But this...this one is just taking. And taking and taking." He shakes his head. "It's a wonder you haven't lost your mind entirely to this thing."

Aja grinned a little as the joke reflex kicked a comment to the tip of her tongue about having lost her mind years ago. But the seriousness of what that bond was kicked it back, silencing it. She stared at it.

"Knew I should've brought the c-4." That one slipped past the serious censor and she sighed. At a later time, she would ponder the ability to act normally inside her head, for now. She was just wondering how to get rid of this thing. "So. Do we start top down?"

Thinking off all the boxes around them, Alec thought, Probably could find a block or two of C4 in one of those. That the thought would echo throughout the warehouse belies the futility of keeping one's thoughts to one's self inside a mindtouch.

"No. We start at the roots." He kneels down, inspecting where the stalk disappears through the floor.

Aja grinned a bit at Alec's thoughts about the boxes in her head and looked at those very boxes with a grin. "Yeah, might be a weapon or two hidden in here. I know I got traps fer those unwelcome." She had the biggest smile about that, but it dropped as she looked down to where the weed disappeared.

"Down there is where you find what Ippons call the integer...where your every thought, feeling, and reaction originates. In a physical sense, I will be altering the polarities of neurons in your brain that are associated with Tru's Bond. While I'm at that, we will be down there...rearranging your integer as the roots begin to die, leaving voids in their place."

"Changing bits of me?" That piece of information pinged around a little bit before she took a deep breath. "Well. It's what we gotta do to get this outta here." She looked at Alec and gave him a brave smile, the fact that they were more connected now hadn't been lost on her. "Let's hope you don't start craving pixie sticks." She gave him a wink then.

"Think of it as putting you right again. Creation knows that there is nothing about you I would want changed.? The journeyman winks at her, then makes an all-encompassing sweep of his arm.

Parker had been watching them both in professional fascination and in worry for the young woman he had thought of as his own. He prepared what he thought they would need as he waited with bated breath. When Alec slumped forward, he mopped at the man's head with a cool rag, trying to be more than a comforting presence. He remained silent as he tended to Alec.

Aware of that pain growing, she spun around to look at Alec, the smile that remained from the unleashed battle, dropped the moment she saw he was no longer there. The shiny cutlass that had been her buddy a second ago was dropped as she too was brought back to the present moment. Aja moved her hand to her head and cringed at the pain there.

"Oww. I feel like I just woke up after drinkin sambuca shooters."

"What's a Sambuca shooter?" He asks mumblingly as he slowly comes into some semblance of focus. His head was pounding as if an army of angry, drunken dwarves were mining his cranium for a particularly elusive vein of ore, and even the mention of what he assumed was an alcoholic drink had him unbearably nauseous. He glanced at Parker and smiled gratefully at him for the application of a cold rag, and slowly straightened his posture. "Well Aja...besides hungover, how do you feel?"

Parker nodded to Alec then moved to look at Aja closely. His hands feeling her head for signs of fever or stress.

"Sambuca is Greek, tastes like liquorish and it will make you wish someone would cut yer head off." She grinned the tiniest bit before swatting at Parker's hand lightly. "I'm ok. Just.." She trailed off and lowered her voice some cause even normal volume hurt. "Give me a minute."

"As you wish." Parker moved away and went to the tea set up. "I have some tea that should help the pain lessen. What the two of you have done may take time to fade off." Parker kept his voice lowered for their benefit.

"Never had much truck for Greek anything." Alec reaches over to rest his hand comfortingly on Aja's shoulder for a moment, smiling, then he slowly gets to his feet and goes over to the futon. There he flops down on one corner to help himself to some of Parker's tea.

Aja smiled feeling Alec's hand on her shoulder and slowly moved to sitting after a moment. "Ow. Think that weed bit my pancreas." Her hand was pressed to her forehead, the joke a solid indication that at least most of her was ok. Parker merely smiled and placed the cup of tea in her hand.

"Please drink this."

She peered at Parker for a moment but ended up doing as he asked without complaint. She wasn't much in the mood to anyway.

The tea was bitter and tasted like some combination of willow bark and boiled socks, but the medicinal properties were evident the moment that the dwarven army in his head sudden found itself short a few hammers.

"Thank you, Parker...this stuff works."

Parker gave Alec a smile then.

"I am glad." He waited a moment to press for more information. "Were you able to free her mind from that bond?"

"Good question. Ask her what Tru is thinking or feeling at the moment."

She was letting Alec field that question at the moment, she was a little preoccupied poking around in her head. She heard Alec and slowly opened her eyes, smiling in spite of her head still pounding.

"I can't hear anything from him at all." That smile got bigger. "I forgot what it felt like in my head when I didn't have him babbling away."

Parker smiled broadly before resettling on the futon allow Aja space now. He knew better than to hover.

"There you go," he said to Parker with a small grin. A wink given to Aja, he nursed a few quiet sips of tea.

Aja smiled at Alec, she would've laughed aloud but suspected that would undo any effects Parker's nasty tea was having on her head. She sat silently, drinking the tea and slowly poking around in her head, checking things out.

"Think everything's ok. Feels a little ...weird. But I'll be able to tell more once the headache wears off."

"You'll be staying the day in bed, yes?" Parker asked her lightly. It was his wish that she would, but he had learned long ago not to give orders but to ask her questions. She only gave Parker a thumbs up to that with a small smile. She knew he only wished her to be well, and she wasn't going to fight him on it. At least, not today. "And you, Alec. You will be resting the rest of the day?" It was a careful question as he didn't want to sound pushy with a new acquaintance.

While the journeyman thought it best that Aja take the rest of the day to rest it off in bed - and no doubt Tristan would approve of that plan - he had an inkling that something other would transpire. Probably won't be setting off explosives in the harbor for a while, in any case, he thought.

"Ah, yes...you can count on that," he replied, rubbing his temple.

"I shall leave you more of the tea to help aid in your recovery." Parker had no doubt planned that all along, but it was a lead up to something more. "And if you ever require me for any reason at all, I shall be glad to render my assistance. I am grateful for you helping Aja with this when I could not."

"Thanks. I appreciate that." He offered Parker a grateful smile...or at least the closest approximation of one that he could muster under the circumstances.

Aja slowly opened her eyes and looked over at Alec.

"Man, if I ever had a doubt at our level of friendship, brother...I certainly don't now." Aja half crawled over to Alec and laid her head on his knee. "Thank you." that leg was hugged as tightly as she could manage.

He just kind of...stared at Aja as she made to wrap herself, as it were, around his leg and rest her head on his knee.

"Ah, well...I told you that there was little I wouldn't do for you, sister." He brushed his hand against her hair and smiled. "I'd do it again. And you would've done the same for me."

Aja smiled up at Alec.

"I'd totally do that for you. Walk fire, take on a dragon...even drink the evil Sambuca." She chuckled a little. "I'd even share my pixie sticks." Parker smiled as he listened to them while setting out a small bag with the tea in it for Alec and straightening up.

"Ugh. I think at this point a pixie stick might go a long way to sharpening up the fuzzy edges in my vision." He said jokingly at the pirate-gypsy. Bending over at the waist, he places a tender kiss on her cheek. "And you were just brilliant in there. I know where to go if I ever need a good sword to watch my back."

Aja sat up smiling at him.

"Been a while since I've had a good chance at a decent fight." She leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Think a little sugar might be a good idea, caffeine, something. Might speed up the process on getting rid of the headache." She moved in case Alec wanted to get up. She was still working on that particular thing herself.

"A little caffeine would be beneficial towards that goal. Help the blood vessels open up." He stood to move to assist Aja to her feet. "Come off the floor, dear."

"I'm workin on it." She grinned at Parker and slowly stood, putting her hand to her head. "Yeah. That whole moving around thing" Totally over rated right now."

Alec was in no big hurry to get up, but since everyone else seemed to be doing exactly that, he sets his teacup down and slowly gets to his feet as well. "You two are welcome to stay here as long as you like, but you really should think about laying down someplace soon, Aja."

Once her sense of balance was back she smiled at Alec softly.

"Are you going to be ok?" She asked quietly. Parker stood silently, holding on to her arm. He could see by the look on her face, she was holding it together until they reached home.

"I'll be fine. You just worry about you today, sis." He glances at Parker as if to say, Watch after her, will you? He then walks to the front door and opens it, stepping through onto the porch and immediately regretting it when the brightness of day smacks him rudely across the head.

Aja too winced at the sudden introduction of brightness. She then inwardly cringed about Arcadia which was generally bright and sunshiney all the time.

"I'm going to go park my butt on the bed and bury my head under a pillow." She grinned now moving for the door, her hand to her eyes. "I'll call ya later on. Make sure yer ok." She patted Alec's shoulder then took a deep breath heading out into the full sunshine. Parker followed her outside, a warm grateful smile given to Alec as he stayed close to Aja. He assisted her into the carriage, before getting in himself.

She fell asleep on the ride home leaning against Parker's shoulder. He smiled at her fondly, no longer worried about the damage she was undergoing. It was over now, the healing process would be more effective, not just a quick patch to keep her functional.