Aly did as he said, moving to the couch and having a seat.

"I'll be all right." She said after a moment. "But, Armo wanted to talk to you about what it was he pulled off me. Twice." She added after a couple of seconds.

"And thank you, Armozan. You know I appreciate it. You're in my head, after all." She added with a smirk

"You know it?" Aly asked.

"Doing better than him or me." She added with a sigh as the resident zombie came into the room.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Because Aly, you really don't look so hot. You ok?" She asked.

"I'll be fine. Just... gotta let my head stop hating me. Impact with the cement stairwell." Aly answered.

"eesh, that's fun." Aedan commented before looking to Azazel.

"So yeah. Az, what's up?" She asked as Cain entered the room as well.

Aedan was silent before sighing and looking toward Aly and Armo.

"Where'd the mana come from?" She zombie asked.

"Tore it off the kid." The shadow responded, motioning toward Aly.

"How'd you get it?" She then asked Aly.

". .. from what I can gather, I was infected while at the Unit." Aly answered.

"So Erica did it?" She asked.

"I didn't see her, at all, while I was there." Aly responded with, honestly.

Azazel didn't receive a response for about a minute or two, before there was a change in the air there. Moments later, there was a twist of what looked to be her markings in the middle of the room. When they retreated, Erica was standing there, looking a bit disorientated for a moment.

"Ugh. Gotta get used to that." She muttered before looking around.

"All right, I'm here. What's up?" She asked. Aedan was silent.

"Since when do you have active mana like that?" She asked.

"Uh? Oh... a bit, actually not sure how long specifically." Erica answered.

"I assume I wasn't called here to talk about that though."

Erica didnt' say anything before sighing. She held a hand out toward the mana, and Azazel couldn't stop it.

It went right for her, but when it hit the glove, she sighed, it was stopped.

"Sorry abotu this." She said before removing her glove, which caused the air to change, drastically. The mana, almost instantly, zoomed in for her hand.

It hit, almost seemed to dance around a bit, before being absorbed in, at which point Erica put her glove back on.

"Definitely mine... but... how?" She asked, looking toward her hand with a curious expression.

"I swear, I haven't done anything that could have caused this." Erica said, her voice a bit defensive, and most certianly confused.

"But... if my own mana..." She started before sighing.

"You guys are alchemists," she then said, addressing Aedan and Cain, "right?"

"We are. What of it?" Aedan answered.

"Any chance you guys can find out? Or if Az can? Or ... fuck, I can go to ask Zeke? I dunno. I mean... can't we ... connect them or something?" Erica asked

Erica just nodded.

"Yeah. Of course." She said.

"If I'm not needing... can I head back home?" Aly asked after a moment or two.

"I want to make sure tha tLevi's ok." She added after a couple seconds.

"Thanks Azazel." Aly said, getting to her feet.

"If you guys need me for anything, you know where I'll be." She added before heading off. Once she was gone, Erica just sighed.

"wait. Before I do anything..." She started.

"Or rather, is there any time needed before anything can be done about seeing if the mana is actually mine? Or something elses or whatever?" She asked.

"Yeah, a bit. Why?" Aedan asked.

"I'm going to go see if I can help one specific person. I'll be back." was the last thing Erica said before vanishing from where shew as, another twist of those tendrils akin to her arms.

She appeared in the offshoot room for the Unit, stepping out and wondering if Jake was still manning the desk, or if he'd gone home.

"Yeah, I am." Erica said with a nod.

"Thanks, Jake." She added before he let her in. She carefully traversed the halls, making her way to the head office, and a bit apprehensive about it all.

By the time she reached Hal's office, she was sporting a pretty nasty bruise on her neck, and crawling up her face on her chin. Along with that, her shoulder had been knocked out of the socket (but she quickly fixed that). The reason? The fact that in there was insanity.

She knocked, didn't wait for an answer, before just making her way into the office and closing the door behind her, using her recently discovered mana to keep it locked and barricaded so no one else could come in.

"Yo. You need help. Will you let me?"

Erica just approached his desk, leaning down onto it.

"I wish you would accept my help, realising that it will hurt - most likely a lot - and that I'm not entirely sure this will work." She said simply, plainly, and pointedly. Then, before giving him a chance to actually do anything about it, she took her glove and sleeve off, grabbed his hand with hers, and saw the markings. That was all she needed.

The next thing Hal knew was a feeling of shocking pain, as it felt as if his mana was being peeled off in the same manner as his skin if he was being flayed alive.

It lasted for close to three minutes, before it was done, and Erica straightened up, an orb of twisting mana in her hand.

"Feel better?"