Elliot was quite surprised when they found Leon alone in the living room. It had seemed like the entire time after the Winter Ball, the boy had been surrounded by people, almost as though he was trying specifically not to be alone.
"Hey, kiddo. What are you doing here? It seems like everyone else is out of the house," They asked. Leon seemed to shake out of whatever trance he was in as he looked at the person leaning on the arm of the couch. He shifted over to make some room for them.
Elliot smiled softly, "Are you…Are you doing alright? It seems like you're trying to distract yourself from something."
Leon seemed to hesitate, before laughing slightly, "How do you always know these things, Elliot?" He asked.
"Call it a sort of second sense, I guess. What's bothering you?"
"This might sound strange but…Did you and Chaewon-Nuna both date someone for a while? This would have been a while back, I think when I was still a kid," Leon asked cautiously, "I mean I don't know the history of your relationships and I don't really remember it but maybe, it would have been before Nuna had to give me away."
Elliot considered it for a moment, "Hm, no, I don't think so. We probably would have remembered that. Why do you ask?"
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it…" Leon said, staring off in the distance, "Elliot?"
"Hm?"
"Is Sector 4 real?"
Elliot froze at this. Of all the things they were expecting the younger to ask, this had not been one of them. It was a simple question, one that if asked to anyone else in any of the sectors, the answer would have been simple as well. And yet, Elliot knew with their hesitation, that Leon already had his answer.
"Why…Why are you asking?" They sighed.
Leon looked down at his own hands, "I thought I remembered everything. Turns out, after seeing that bastard De Luca, I remembered a lot more. Not about…You know, the other stuff, but about this place. Or these places. I tried asking Nuna once, but she didn't know what I was talking about. She said that it wasn't real, that Sector 4 was just a ghost story that people made up to scare children and adults away from that area of the Stronghold. But that's not the case, isn't it? It…It exists, doesn't it?"
Elliot sighed, "You're partially right. It existed at one point, but it doesn't exist anymore. Sector 4 fell when you were nine or so, not long after Chaewon sent you to Sector 2. She only sent you away because we started seeing the cracks in Sector 4, and we weren't sure we could stop it from falling. Eventually, we were going to join you after it was over, but somehow the White Lotus found you. When…When we made it out of Sector 4, it wasn't…Us."
"Huh?"
"We weren't the ones who got ourselves out of there. I don't know who it was, but someone saved us. And when we came to, which I should also add was months after the fall of Sector 4, Chaewon didn't know what I was talking about. To her, we'd always been in Sector 2, and you had been taken away from us. She knew nothing about Sector 4, that we had lived there, that we were part of the White Lotus branch there…I don't know exactly what they did to us—To her, and everyone else, I suppose—But nobody else seemed to remember it existed," Elliot said quietly.
Leon looked at him, "...No one except for you. So, tell me, why do you know about Sector 4 when even I don't remember much about it?"
Elliot was hesitant, "...I think you know why I know all of this, Leon. I can't tell you, but I think you know. Why do I have the same information as someone like De Luca, where I remember more than you do?"
"...Oh," Leon's eyes widened, "Oh. Oh no. You're not actually…"
"...Yeah."
"How?"
Elliot looked down at this, "I don't know. Like I honestly have no clue. Something happened, one day I woke up, and yeah…It wasn't the White Lotus though. They didn't do this to me. I don't know who else it could be though, because only the White Lotus has that sort of influence, power, and the scientific equipment to do something like this to me. All I know is that they don't know about me."
"That's why The Rebellion was able to make such big moves so quickly this time around," Leon said with a dawning realization, "It's because you knew more about them than they realized, so they couldn't counter you guys."
They bit their lip, "Yeah, but…God, what's the point of that if I can't help you? I don't have the information that you specifically need to help everyone, and that kills me more than anything else. I promised Chae I'd look after you and then…"
Leon made a soft wounded noise and leaned in to hug Elliot tightly, "I don't blame you, and I know for a fact my sister wouldn't blame you either. I knew it was going to be on me and Risá to make this work. I wasn't expecting any help at all, but you've helped so much. After all, you kept Chae, Xander, Kaedan, Mina, Lumina, Bella, Hyunwoo, and Val alive this long. Everyone is still alive. I can work with this."
"She doesn't remember though, does she?"
"...Not everything. But she's starting to remember. It's given me more hope than I've had in a long time, especially since she seems to be filling in the blanks that I'm missing. I didn't even know about the safe…" Leon said, and that reminded him of what he was originally going to ask about, "Hey, about Sector 4, the rumors of a Queen? What about those? Are those true?"
Elliot frowned, "...I mean…I vaguely remember one? I practically worked in the government and I don't even know what her face looked like. She's just…I know there was a Queen but that's all I know," They laughed a little, "Why are you asking though?"
"No reason…Just curious…" Leon said, thinking to himself, "Just wanted to know how many rumors were actually rumors and what was true."
"Well, I guess you have an answer to that one now. I know there was a Queen and honestly, I only believed up till the part that she murdered her entire government, which might have freaked me out or worried me if not for the fact that they were fully White Lotus. I didn't think the whole ghost thing was real until…Well, Risále's whole thing."
"Yeah, I guess…" Leon said softly, "I think I just remembered something. I need to talk to Risá about something, I'll talk to you later, alright?" He got up, squeezing their shoulder, "Thank you, though," And with that, he was gone.
Elliot sat there, still somewhat surprised, "Well…That was weird. Well, he's always been a strange kid, I guess."
Leon ran up the stairs and knocked on Risále's bedroom door. The girl opened it and smiled, "Hey Leon, what's up—"
"Hey, I'm sorry but I need to talk to Apocalypse," He breathed out quickly. Risále looked vaguely annoyed by this, squinting at him.
"What, is the human embodiment of chaos better to talk to than I am? Come on, I'm much more interesting—"
"Risá. Please."
She sighed and nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm kidding. Give me a second. Come inside, I'm guessing you want to talk to her alone?"
Leon followed her into the room and waited as Risále sat on the bed and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, her eyes were red, and she shifted her posture. Leon spoke hesitantly, "Apocalypse? Is that…You?"
"Yup. What do you need?"
"It's not what I need from you. I thought you'd want to know. Elliot isn't like me, isn't like us. They know everything. Like the White Lotus members," Leon watched Apocalypse's eyes widen at this.
"You mean they're…"
Leon nodded, "They made it out of the whole situation, technically. They just got involved again to try and help us. Moreover, they knew about Sector 4, which even I didn't know about-"
Apocalypse looked even more surprised, "You didn't know? Honestly, I thought you had realized what I needed to explain to all of you."
"I mean, I won't lie, I partially didn't believe you when you said you were Apocalypse the Queen because well, that's just a kid's story now. People just think Sector 4 and you are some…Crazy ghost queen who murdered her entire court. But Elliot just confirmed that Sector 4 exists-"
"Woah, woah, woah, slow down kid," Apocalypse held a hand up, "So, you're telling me that I died and that the only thing everyone remembered was that I slaughtered my entire government? And not that the fucking government was trying to pull a Julius Ceasar on me—Which they somewhat succeeded in—And was, you know, the White Lotus?!"
Leon looked concerned, "Hold up, Julius Ceaser you—You know what, I'm not sure I want to know. Anyways, yes, the only person who remembers is Elliot, but just like you mentioned, he doesn't remember you. My sister definitely doesn't remember you."
Apocalypse looked down, "I had guessed that, although I didn't have confirmation till now. Or, until the first time people mentioned me around them. That was when I knew for sure that they didn't remember me."
"Apocalypse, why don't they remember you at all? You said you…That you loved them. And plus, you were the Queen of the Sector they were working in the government for. How could they just entirely forget you? Hell, how did we forget Sector 4 existed?"
"You're asking the wrong person, kiddo. I didn't realize people didn't know I existed. I…Only made it so Chae and Elliot wouldn't remember me because it would hurt them more to know what happened to me. They were fatally injured and I barely had my people get them to Sector 2 before I died. Them not remembering me was part of the plan, but I didn't do anything to the rest of the people in the Stronghold," Apocalypse responded.
Leon hummed thoughtfully, "So, if it wasn't you…"
Apocalypse groaned, "...Then it's the White Lotus bastards. God, I should have fucking known. I guess murdering me wasn't enough, they also just had to make everyone forget about me and my home. Just great. Well, I guess this means more to explain when I have to tell everyone what's going on."
"You do realize that you can't keep avoiding them and you're probably going to have to talk to them when you have to explain everything."
"...Fuck."