[???, ???, ???, 3:24 PM, May 7th, Tuesday, 2025]
Jack Daniels stood alone in the council room of The Syndicate, being overloaded with thoughts about all that had happened.
"Sakura's alive and she joined The Syndicate… That must mean Jasmine is alive too!"
The realization brought a small spark of hope to the inner emptiness inside of him.
He couldn't stay here anymore.
He decided to head out through the same doors that he entered the council room from, the same ones The Boss left through.
The moment he opened the doors and stepped through, he realized something was very wrong.
There was no hallway in sight, instead the doors opened to the very void itself.
"Ah crap! If I had taken one more step…" The thought passed by, unnerving him further.
Right as he was about to close the doors, he saw something in the distance of the void.
Obadiah was floating towards him on a piece of rock, his arms crossed in front of him as he stared at Jack.
"What the hell? Is he slowly coming this way…? Where did he even come from…?"
Jack for some reason was very intrigued by the sight and decided to wait for him to arrive, once Obadiah got closer he shouted at him.
Obadiah Ariston: "Hey kid! The Boss sent me! Special orders!"
The small rock platform connected with the small space between the double doors and the void, making Obadiah stand in front of Jack.
Obadiah Ariston: "The Boss you'll need a house-tour, to get your bearings. So come on. I'll show you what's allowed and then your room, you need to rest, we're having another meeting tomorrow."
Obadiah stepped past Jack.
Jack Daniels: "H-hey! What… What the hell is up with this place?"
He quickly followed after Obadiah as they stepped back into the council room.
Jack glanced over his shoulder at the double doors, seeing them twist and contract and then vanish into nothing, leaving behind just a stone wall, making him jump slightly.
Obadiah Ariston: "This is Headquarters, it's a strange place isn't it… We operate on a global scale, through the puppet corporation Ariston Industries, which is controlled by me. Obviously. I'm sort of in charge of everything, but I'm not The Boss… He just tells me what to do. 'Everyone follows orders, no matter how volatile or quirky they are', or so he said."
They continued walking through another set of double doors on the left side of the room.
It opened up into a larger hallway than the one before, this time made out of white tiles, looking almost clinical like a hospital hallway. With buzzing lights shining down from above on Jack's bloodshot tired eyes.
Jack Daniels: "Wait a minute… So you're in charge of all this stuff and The Boss is pulling the strings behind the scenes? And you guys are global… Right, that makes sense."
Obadiah Ariston: "Uh huh, you got that right."
They then stepped through another set of double doors, opening up to a larger space that looked like the main office of a hospital building. Several people in lab coats, nurses, and doctors were moving around them.
A man hurrying by with a bunch of documents in his arms.
Two nurses pushing a man in a black suit on a stretcher with bullet wounds on his chest.
A lady at the receptionist desk, holding two phones at once trying to talk to different people at the same time.
Jack Daniels: "They look busy…"
Obadiah Ariston: "Right you are again. Y'know, I've decided to go counter-clockwise per say, with the tour, like how everyone introduced themselves earlier. We're starting with the last sectors— the top sectors of Headquarters—going down to the first. This is Sector A of The Syndicate, designated for research, scientific studies, medical facilities and really top secret stuff. Kaiden Nakamura, our lead scientist and researcher is in charge of this entire place. It's a facility basically, there's hallways going down and up for miles… And around maybe twelve levels? I don't know, even I'm not allowed on the bottom floors. This is the twelfth floor, it's basically a hospital. This is where our wounded agents get better."
Jack stood there, rubbing his arms together anxiously, taking it all in.
Jack Daniels: "So this place is made up out of different places scattered across space?"
Obadiah glanced at him with a smirk, patting his left shoulder, Jack flinched away, Obadiah put his hand down but the smirk remained.
Obadiah Ariston: "You really precede your reputation, kid, that's smart of you. Yeah, there are lots of things in Headquarters, from small caves, to single tiny rooms, to large facilities, to office spaces… Anything, really. That is, if your legs can carry you to walk that far. When everything is in your reach, you can't really find anything, can you?"
Jack Daniels: "You read that from a fortune cookie."
Obadiah Ariston: "Trust me, I wish I had… Anyway, let's carry on, we're not supposed to mess with their workflow too much."
They both walked back through the double doors, ending up in a completely different hallway, it seemed much smaller than the other two hallways, made out of a pristine dark oak, there were bookshelves lining it with scattered books and pieces of paper all over the floor and candles on the walls lighting it up moodily.
Jack Daniels: "This place looks like a library…"
Obadiah Ariston: "This is the entrance to sector B, designated for information, studying, learning, books… Lots of books… And memories. This is a great way to reach The Null, it's the last level before The Library Of Babel, and also a great place to spend your time if you want to relieve memories, especially here, on the first floor."
Jack Daniels: "The Library of what… What the hell…"
Obadiah stepped first through the acacia doors, revealing the inside of a house.
Jack's house.
He couldn't believe his eyes, he rubbed them twice to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
They were standing in the foyer of The Daniels Mansion, although it didn't look right, there were no colors on anything. It all looked black and white except for them, even the sunlight streaming through the mosaic above the front doors seemed wrong.
Jack Daniels: "What the hell is this?!"
Obadiah Ariston: "This is the first floor of sector B, promptly called The House Of Memories. I'll be honest with ya kid, I didn't want to take you here, but it was not up to me… Besides, you would've probably wandered here eventually."
Just then a woman stepped out from the kitchen, into the foyer, it was the same strange woman from before that told Jack to not push The Boss further. She seemed to be holding a large gray book in her hands with what looked like a compass on the cover with four different colors that stuck out on it, blue, purple, cyan and orange.
Obadiah Ariston: "Oh, Hana! Perfect timing… Excuse us for disturbing your reading time, I assume you've been quite busy?"
Hana: "No worries at all Mister Ariston, I can set aside my books any time…"
She said and put the book down on a small table near the front doors.
Hana: "It's nice to see you again Jack, I hope that you're adjusting well to all of this. Everything seems so sudden, just at first, but everything will make sense later."
Jack Daniels: "Yeah I'm… fine."
Jack looked her up and down briefly, she seemed dangerous in a way he didn't understand. She felt so familiar to him, but he couldn't remember her.
Jack turned to Obadiah, tugging on his sleeve.
Jack Daniels: "Gramps, that's enough, let's go."
Obadiah Ariston: "Huh? Are you sure? Reno wanted to meet you in the lower levels… But I guess that was just a favor she was asking, I don't have to humor her. Right! We'll leave you to it, Hana. Let's go, kid."
Jack followed after Obadiah, glancing over his shoulder at Hana who waved at them with a warm smile.
Hana: "Take care!"
The phrase seemed to pierce right through Jack, even if his mind didn't remember it, his body did.
[Los Dios, California, America, 12:12 AM, May 4th, 2011]
Gloria Daniels: "—You have no right to lecture me about how to raise my children, l-look at you! You're drunk! You can't even tell the time!"
A woman with a tied ponytail, wearing an elegant white dress with beautiful crystal swan earrings shouted to a man with his back to her.
William Daniels: "I am not fucking drunk! Shut yer' trap, woman!"
The man had a mustache, a top-hat on, wearing what looked like a banquet black suit with a bowtie and all, a gold chain hanging from it, tying it to his trousers and belt.
He slapped her, holding a large bottle of Erika Daniels whiskey in his left hand.
Gloria reeled backwards, covering her cheek with her palm, feeling tears prick at the corners of her eyes.
Jack Daniels: "What… What is this?"
The world around him seemed black and white, the only thing that had color was his own body, even they—his parents—were grayed out.
He seemed to be standing in a similar mansion, but there were noticeable differences, like there was only one main hallway in the center of the foyer leading to the rest of the house, the door that usually led to the kitchen seemed to be replaced by a giant opening into what looked like a living room.
Jack spun around, trying to find a trace of Obadiah or Hana, neither of them were there.
William Daniels: "I don't have to take your crap woman… I should've never let you meet Henry, you mess around with Ariston scum—"
William turned his head to the side, spitting right onto the floor of the foyer.
William Daniels: "You get stabbed in the back… Erika! Erika?! Where are you?!"
He turned, clumsily stumbling towards the right-side stairs leading to the second floor of the mansion.
"Erika? Who the hell is this guy? Why is he in my house… Wait, this doesn't really look like the mansion—And how does he know about Ariston Industries?" Jack thought to himself, glancing around the foyer, noticing the lack of a mosaic above the front doors.
Gloria Daniels: "No! Leave her alone, you monster! She didn't do anything wrong!"
William Daniels: "Shut the hell up!"
He swung the large bottle of Erika Daniels, the whisky bottle connected with her jaw, sending her backwards onto the floor.
She began sobbing and watched him climb the stairs, looking around for Erika.
Jack Daniels: "Crap, this is bad…"
The sound of pattering feet came from behind him.
He barely reacted before a black and white version of Erika Daniels passed through his body. She was wearing a night-gown, her hair seemed to be tied up in a ponytail and she had some bunny slippers on. She must've just woken up.
The sensation of her passing through Jack felt like being submerged in ice-cold water.
The moment she passed through him though, the severe temperature seemed to disappear.
"What the—Is that Erika?! She looks so young… What is she holding…?"
He looked in her arms and saw a baby, wearing only a diaper, in her left arm she held a bottle of milk that the baby was drinking from and in her right arm a baseball bat that seemed too big for her.
Erika Daniels: "Mom, are… Are you okay? What did Daddy do?"
Gloria slowly stood up from the floor, her expression turning serious, wiping the tears from her eyes.
She grabbed Erika by the shoulders.
Gloria Daniels: "Listen to me Erika, there's a car parked outside—You have to get in, the driver, he'll… He'll take you somewhere safe, okay? We won't have to deal with this anymore, and then we can be together, just the three of us…"
She looked down at the baby, smiling, rubbing his right cheek affectionately. The baby giggled in response, pushing the milk bottle away from his mouth.
Erika Daniels: "But what about Dad? Shouldn't he know about the contract—"
Gloria Daniels: "Sweetie, look at me. There is no contract. Understand?"
Her eyes turned wild suddenly, she gently shook Erika's shoulders.
Erika Daniels: "Y-yes… I do."
Gloria Daniels: "Good girl, now go do as I said—"
William appeared again at the top of the stairs, he threw the bottle of Erika Daniels, it flew through the air before shattering in front of them.
William Daniels: "Come back here! Erika! What are you doing with my boy?!"
Erika took the chance, she ran towards the front doors, grabbing a small backpack from a coat rack and clumsily putting it on and she ran outside.
Jack saw the outside for a split second.
It seemed so different from the suburbs that he was used to, he saw large apartment buildings that were unfamiliar to him and there seemed to be steps leading down right onto the street.
"Wherever this place is, it's right in a city…" He thought to himself as he saw Erika's younger self retreating, feeling a gloomy lack of emotion for her.
William Daniels: "Why?! Why did you call them? To take my daughter to use for whatever fucked up experiments they do?! Why?!"
William had reached the bottom of the stairs, he then pulled out a small revolver from his coat pocket, pointing it at Gloria.
William Daniels: "Where are they going to take her…? My baby girl… Jack… My boy…"
He began tearing up, clicking the safety latch on the revolver.
Gloria Daniels: "I'm sorry to have done this William, but you've never understood me, what I really want from this life… Gold alone is not enough, and it never will be."
And then, the sound of a gun being fired.
Jack Daniels: "Dad…?"
Everything around Jack seemed to ripple and distort, creating a nauseating feeling as Jack felt himself being pulled backwards by an unknown force, flying through the back wall of the mansion and out into the city itself.
Catching a glimpse of the limousine at the base of the mansion driving away, but everything became blurry—
[The House Of Memories, Sector B, The Syndicate, 3:45 PM, May 7th, Tuesday, 2025]
Obadiah Ariston: "Hey, kid… Are you okay? Come on, let's go."
He was standing in the exact same position he was in earlier, looking back at Hana.
She had a worried look on her face.
Hana: "Is there something on my face…?"
She asked innocently, pointing to her right cheek, Jack's eyes widened and he stumbled backwards only to be caught by Obadiah.
Obadiah Ariston: "Oi! What's the matter? Did… Hana did you use your powers?!"
She didn't say anything, she simply turned and picked up her book from the nearby table.
Hana: "I didn't do anything, this house lives and breathes on its own… Whatever Jack may have seen is something he'll have to deal with personally, and maybe perhaps some things are best left forgotten."
She then walked off back into the living room.
Jack jumped up to his feet, tugging on his jacket.
Jack Daniels: "I'm fine, she just… She looked familiar, that's all."
Obadiah grabbed his shoulder, looking into his eyes.
Obadiah Ariston: "Kid, if you saw anything at all just know that there's no shame in it, her ability—"
Jack Daniels: "I didn't."
Obadiah felt his tensions and decided to let go.
Obadiah Ariston: "Best if we get out of here before something else happens… Come on."
Jack followed Obadiah quietly, looking back once more over his shoulder, seeing Hana leaning against a kitchen counter, opening up the book while catching his gaze.
Jack Daniels: "Disgusting."
They both stepped back through the wooden double doors, both of them feeling uneasy.