They really were gone.

Troy realized belatedly that he'd once again stopped in shock upon entering the too empty canteen. All right, he'd only spent a couple of days in the Plains Base before the fleet had taken off and flown in a resplendent formation to meet the mothership lurking somewhere high above. But still, several times every day, he found himself jarred by the change of mood and the apparent emptiness of the place. Most of the SCs were gone, leaving behind only the youngest. The rebel pilots were gone, too, and a significant change had taken place in the overall look.

Now one could mostly see clones all around: MCs, baby-faced young SCs, and the occasional T-clone. And the 'random' humans making their appearance were serious, grim, smiling little if at all. Mercifully, Corinn and Vanya were there to keep the spirits up, but even their bantering was subdued, honoring the others' feelings – and their own. There was no way they could act as if nothing was off, and Troy had had good time to observe, to his great surprise, that the big guys were remarkably sensitive to atmosphere and good at reading unspoken signals. Really, that was more than he would've expected after his first encounter with them.

Talking about the devil... Troy smiled in greeting when he approached the serving area and noticed the aforementioned men giving appraising looks at the displayed selection of foods. Both glanced at him over their shoulders and grinned in response.

"Morning, Troy!" Corinn stepped a little aside to give Troy access to the racks. "Just go ahead, we're still debating over exactly how hungry we are today."

Troy smiled and began to choose things to place into a small basket. "Maybe I'll take my pick first, and then you can have the rest?"

"Ohh," Vanya chuckled, "I don't think even we could manage to polish off all of that. Taking breakfast to Salvador, are you? Why don't you let the MCs bring it to the T-building? They'd be happy do it."

"I want to do it myself," Troy said simply. "I like to know exactly what there is. And I like doing it."

The two men watched him in silence, smiling a little.

"How's he doing, by the way?" Corinn asked.

"Fine," Troy said happily. "Of course there's still a long way to go, but the other TCs and Rori are quite stunned by his progress."

"Does he remember his time on Tabaimo?" Vanya inquired.

"That's the funny thing," Troy sighed. "He shouldn't be able to remember anything of it, but these oddest things keep coming back. Nothing big, in a way, I mean nothing of our studies or such, just little incidents."

"Have the guys been able to offer any explanation to it?" Vanya slurped from the steaming mug he'd picked from the counter. "I've heard this talk about some sub-standard wiping equipment. Is that what's caused it?"

"Probably." Troy took an extra helping of cereal. "They're monitoring us most of the time, and they seem to have found a pattern. The data, the factual things, those are lost... irrevocably, we think. Everything he remembers is something that's related to emotions. When he's been particularly happy, or particularly sad."

He studied his basket and nodded to himself before looking once more up at the men standing next to him. "Well, I'll be going to have breakfast with him now!"

Corinn and Vanya followed him with their gazes as he vanished out of the door.

"There's a man with a mission," Vanya said.

"Yeah, and isn't it good that there's at least two people whose lives might be getting better." Corinn nodded, then his eyes sharpened. "Ah, and I detect that our mission is just approaching."

"Yep." Vanya had also spotted the slim silver-blond figure slinking slowly in. "Right. Let's now focus on stuffing some food into that waif. I swear, if he goes on like this, there'll be nothing left of him for Scott to find by the time those guys get back."

Troy stepped into the T-clones' headquarters with a greeting ready for André, Adrien and Rori, and was immediately taken by surprise by the five extra presences in the room. Really, he should've been able to feel that the School of Angels were there as well; he was already familiar with the uncanny feeling, the humming static that seemed to reach meters around their actual whereabouts.

The quintet jumped up and rushed to greet him with their usual exuberance. Rori had been right, Troy thought as he struggled to save his and Salvador's breakfast under the assault, the T-clones certainly were extraordinarily tactile beings.

"Kids!" Adrien warned, with an effect only he could achieve. "You really are impossible! Didn't we expressly tell you that you're to keep your mental talk down when you're so close to Salvador?"

"Sorry!"

"It's a good thing that the monitoring rooms are shielded as well as they can be," André sighed. "At least the sound stays outside. But really, I think you ought to trot off now, boys. Can't you remember that you might be actually hurting Sal?"

The tingly feeling in Troy's brain died down to a mere whisper as the boys looked at each other and the stern faces of the adults around them in shame.

"We are sorry, really we are," one of them offered. "We'll be going out to play now!"

With that they rushed outside. Adrien rolled his eyes and stood up as well. "I'd better go too. Just so they won't get anything too crazy into their heads."

"Is he still asleep?" Troy asked when the noises had disappeared into the corridor behind him. Rori flicked the screen on and they saw Salvador sitting on his bed, knees drawn to his chest and arms folded on them so that he could lean his chin on them.

"Apparently not. I think he's waiting for you. But he's had a good night, slept peacefully and only woken up a couple of times. Go right in." Rori switched the screen off once more with a wink. "We're not going to watch you eat, don't worry about that!"

"Wouldn't that be rather boring, too?" Troy asked and slipped through the door. A brilliant smile greeted him

"Good morning, Troy!" The clone straightened and flung his legs over the edge of the bed. "Mmm, breakfast! Let's sit by the table, shall we?"

Together they unloaded the basket and spread everything on the small table that'd been adorned with a tablecloth as of late. The color clashed horribly with the curtains, but neither of them paid any attention to such minor details as they settled down by the table and dug in.

For someone so skinny, Salvador sure had a voracious appetite, Troy mused as he watched white teeth sink greedily into a piece of bread. He was sure that he wasn't imagining the healthier color that had replaced the earlier paleness of those too-lean features, or the slight filling on bony wrists. Even the eyes were definitely brighter as they flickered towards him from underneath long blond bangs, though sadly empty of the so familiar coyness that had once been such a prominent characteristic. Troy squashed the longing that once more threatened to creep up. Salvador was there, he'd been badly ill but was looking much better again. That definitely was something to feel good about. And he needed all that food to get some flesh back on his bones once more, Troy thought, eyes widening as he realized that Sal's plate was just about empty.

After breakfast, they crawled to lie side by side on the bed, Salvador snuggling still a little closer. Troy's breath caught when a slim arm found its way across his belly, fingers digging into the soft cloth of his shirt, and his hand moved instinctively to push it away – only to hover there for a few seconds before pressing gently to rest on Sal's wrist on his stomach. The clone hummed in his throat.

"Troy..."

"What is it?" Troy tried to see Sal's face that was resting against his shoulder, but failed, thanks to that thick hair that only left the tip of the nose visible.

"We've been talking so much. About Tabaimo, and all that."

"Yes?"

"I understand now so many things. But... what about these other memories? From – TerraFour."

Troy's whole body stiffened, he just couldn't help it.

"What about them?" he asked hoarsely.

"I remember being there. With a man called Calvin." The clone trembled a little, arm tightening around Troy. "Then... this Orcagna. And Juri, I remember Juri well, he helped me and I remember traveling with him. He was never vicious or nasty to me, the way Calvin was, even though my head was aching. I remember Juri helping me, holding me and telling things would be all right."

Troy swallowed at the pang of jealousy that shot through him. Stop it, he ordered himself.

"Yes... what about that?"

"All that happened, did it?" Salvador raised his head to peer at Troy. "It's all so befuddled. Almost like the things about Claus. No, not so badly though. But anyway."

Oh damn, what do I do now? Troy sneaked an arm around Salvador's shoulders and squeezed a little.

"Please don't think about that now, Be-Sal," he pleaded. "You're not well yet. There'll be time to talk about that later."

"But it's so confusing!" Salvador insisted. "I think I dreamed about TerraFour last night. There were these palm trees, and a sea or some other big water behind them. And music."

"Couldn't it have been on Tabaimo?" Troy suggested.

"No. I know it wasn't. It's not – those memories don't feel the same. They're more distinct, somehow, even though it's all such a clutter. And..." Salvador rested his chin on Troy's shoulder. "I've been wondering why Terry and André and Adrien look so much like me."

Please don't look at me like that, Troy thought desperately. What should I tell you? What can I tell you?

He stared at the thoughtful face that was right now really too close for comfort, and suddenly saw just what was so different about Salvador when compared to Benedict. Where Ben had been lively, Sal was quiet. Ben had been self-assured, Sal was lost in a fog. Ben had been almost frightening, Sal was... endearing. Troy blinked.

Just what did I think right there? Surely I ought to be endlessly disappointed and taken aback by Sal! After all, I lo-liked Ben, and this person here is nothing like him. Why don't I feel cheated, now that I'm here and have really had to accept that he's not Ben?

"You used to call me Ben, but that's not my name," the soft, wondering voice cut through his self-study, as if the clone had read his thoughts. Troy's breath caught – well, scratch that, maybe he had? "Besides, where are we? We traveled a long way with Juri to come here. And you weren't here to start with, so this is not Tabaimo. But where exactly is this 'here'?"

"Sal," Troy croaked, "please let me get André here. I won't be able to answer all those questions."

"All right." Salvador settled back with a sigh rubbing his forehead against Troy's side. The gesture caught the dark man's attention.

"Is your head aching?" Troy asked quickly.

"No, just a little funny," Sal said absently. "I'd so much like to know. All this is such a mess, such a jumble. I'd like to understand all these thoughts and memories a little better."

Unseen by Salvador, Troy raised a hand and beckoned towards the camera placed above the door, at a perfect angle to capture the entire room. He was almost certain that it wasn't on, as their talks weren't routinely monitored any more, and was convinced of it when the action failed to attract any attention. Well, there was always the button to press.

Within a few moments the door opened and André peered questioningly in.

"How're you guys doing?" he asked, as if he had just accidentally sauntered by, and stepped in. "Sal, do you need your medicine?"

"No thanks," Salvador said and burrowed a little closer. Troy felt his cheeks burning. He still blushed without fail whenever someone looked at them like this. Of course he knew that the camera was there all the time and he'd no way of telling when it was operating, but somehow that wasn't so bad. At least then he could ignore it and pretend that they really were alone. Ignoring somebody who was actually standing in the same room wasn't quite as easy.

André looked quizzically at Troy whose hand was still resting next to the button.

"Actually, Salvador wanted to ask... uh... about some things," Troy said hesitantly. "And I'm not sure I know enough to tell him what he needs to know."

André nodded, eyes narrowing slightly. Troy could feel a slight poke somewhere on the edges of his mind and tried to push the questions Sal had asked to that general direction, like the TCs had taught him to do. He knew he was very clumsy with it, but they were so patient, even tried to conceal their winces when he was being too forceful... but this time, apparently, he managed to do it right, because André's lips just parted slightly and he looked astonished. And then a little pained.

For a moment Troy thought that he'd after all been too loud somehow, before he realized it was because of what André would have to tell Salvador. A little nod and an amused quirk in the corner of the blond man's mouth confirmed the guess.

Yes, Troy, you're right. I'm wondering how the hell we're going to break this to him without shattering everything we've gained so far.

"So, Salvador, what was it you wanted to know?" André asked aloud.

"I seem to have these different sets of memories," Salvador said, head resting against Troy's shoulder. "And it's all so confusing. There are bits and pieces that are obviously from Tabaimo, with Troy, but they're so scattered and disjointed... then there's this huge big clump of things from Terrafour, with Calvin – and Juri, and traveling, and all that."

Troy hugged him tighter when an involuntary shudder made him pause after the name of his dreaded 'guardian'. André nodded, making a quiet soothing sound, and the other clone relaxed a bit.

"Then I seem to remember some very vague things about Claus, but they are the most confusing of all." Salvador frowned and shook his head a little. "They're so... bleary. Like a dream, or something, and all the rest is just one huge blank. I feel like I'm in a big dark room and I can't figure out what I should do. There are these flashes, but I can't seem to find my way out, I can't even decide which way I should try to go, and I'm afraid."

"I can understand that," André nodded, eyes deep and understanding. "There are so many pieces missing, and I definitely think we'll have to start giving those pieces to you – maybe not all of them at once, because there'll be a lot for you to deal with. Maybe too much at one go."

Troy felt a surge of protectiveness.

"Sal's been through so much, you mustn't do anything to hurt him!" he stated firmly. André smiled a little.

"Troy, if we don't start answering those questions right now, they'll just continue haunting him, and that's not a good thing at all," he said. "Believe me, I know something about it. Besides, Sal is not alone. You're there, Rori and Terry and Adrien and myself are here to help and support him. In fact I think I ought to ask at least Rori here, and maybe Terry too. It'll be easier to explain with all of us here, because although even we don't know everything firsthand, we know about slightly different things."

He made a show of fingering his comm, for Salvador's sake, Troy knew it. He'd already been made privy to the fact that André and Rori had an astounding ability to communicate mentally, even though Rori was a perfectly normal human and had no special abilities. Of course it was André who did most of the work, but through concentrated practice Rori had managed to increase his sensitivity considerably so that he was able to not only converse with his lover but even to some extent 'overhear' the TCs mind-talking with each other.

True enough, Rori's curly head peeked in after a couple of minutes and he looked questioningly in. "What is it?"

"Come in, please," André gestured towards a chair, himself curling up in the other one. "We need to talk. Salvador has some questions."

"Ah," Rori nodded and took a place next to the long-haired blond. "Did you call Terry in as well?"

"I did. Let's wait for him and then you, Sal, can start grilling us." André grinned to ease the palpable tension in the room. "And we promise to try and be understandable."

Terry joined them soon. Troy looked at the two identical and yet so individual faces of the clones, and concentrated on holding Salvador while battling his own anxiety.

Perhaps they'd originally intended to reveal only parts of the whole truth, but Salvador made it impossible. The events on Tabaimo. Why Troy still occasionally slipped to calling him Ben? What really had happened to Haldor Leboyer? Why couldn't he remember anything of what must've taken place between Tabaimo and TerraFour? Who was Calvin? What did those disturbing memories of Claus Orcagna mean? Why had Juri brought him here? Why did he look so uncannily like André, Adrien and Terry? Why was he ill?

Every answer led to a handful of new questions, each pertinent, each distressing if left unanswered. Troy observed that the clones were desperately trying to skirt around the core question – T-clones – but were finally forced to touch even on that sensitive topic, although with remarkable sensitivity. Salvador was relentless, though. He needed to know, because he wanted to understand.

And so time ticked past, they talked, explained, put forth guesses and possible answers, told the truth as far as they knew it. Salvador was tense in Troy's arms but he didn't give in.

"The reason why those memories of Claus are particularly vague is that the Union had really too little to go on with," Terry said. "The people who did that to you, who in effect implanted those 'memories' in your mind, were far from experts. That, plus the crappy equipment they used, combined to only confuse you thoroughly. That was why you couldn't keep those things coherent, and that's why it feels like a dream, like you said. You only had a handful of facts. You say you can't even properly recall what he looked like. You'd never actually met him, because he was already dead. The idiots probably just showed you one picture of him, and stupidly expected that it'd be enough."

"The reason why Calvin was so angered by your 'failure', as he called it," André added, "was that he couldn't understand how badly the so-called experts had failed. He'd probably been working with correctly primed T-clones before, and everything had gone well. It might've even been one of us... me, or Terry, or Adrien. But he wasn't a real, trained guardian, not someone intimately familiar with everything involved in the process. If he had been, he'd have realized early on that you were not going to make it, and he'd have called the whole mission off."

Salvador nodded dully.

"But... if I am a T-clone... who am I then?" he asked hoarsely. "I'm not really Salvador Marquina. That's just another bubble, just like Benedict was. I'm not Ben, I'm not Salvador, I'm just a T-clone, a nobody!"

"I know how you feel," André said gently. "You see, I went through the same thing myself. I was primed as André Lemotte, and the rebels intercepted me during a mission. I had a pretty hard time coming to terms with the fact that everything I thought I knew about myself was just – a hoax. In your case it's even more difficult, because it looks like your priming's been at least relatively successful. They've given you enough data to build a personality, but they failed to give you enough to build the 'memories' of Claus that you were supposed to have. Then there's the fact that they also failed to wipe off all of Tabaimo, and that's been confusing you further. So you have it far harder than I ever did. But try to look at it this way: you are now Salvador, just like I am now André. Everything that's happened since you recovered from that priming is now yours to keep. Even though much of it has been dreadful, those are things that you have really experienced, and nobody's going to take those away."

"Although we would like to take some of them away," Rori added. "What you had to endure on TerraFour would be a lot for anybody to handle."

"That's right," Terry joined in. "But surely there's something good, too, something worth remembering? Juri was there, you know him. You're now here, you're safe, we're there to help you, and there's Troy. Even though much of what's been is lost, you're not completely in a void, and you can build yourself a life from now on."

Salvador, still more than a little dazed, shook his head weakly but Troy pulled him close.

"You are you, Sal," he said almost furiously. "We all are here for you. I'm here for you. You are Salvador Marquina, my friend, and I won't let you down. We'll get over this, right?"

The clone buried his face on Troy's shoulder without a word. The others exchanged a look and stood up.

"Is your head aching?" Rori asked. "Would you like to have your medicine?"

"No," came a muffled reply. Rori sighed.

"You mustn't stop taking the painkillers if you need them," he reminded. "They're just that, painkillers, they don't muddle you up. In fact they make it easier for you to deal with this, because they help you in a purely physical way. Your body has also suffered from the attacks and is now recovering, so please don't do yourself harm by trying to endure the headache without them."

"I'll make sure he takes it if he needs to," Troy said, cheek pressed to golden bangs, arms tightly around the clone.

"All right. I think you need to rest now." André touched his twin's shoulder reassuringly and then straightened. "It's going to be all right, Salvador."

Troy closed his eyes and tried to stop his head from reeling. Of course he'd heard it all before, but he still felt overwhelmed. How much more Salvador, then, who'd so far been grasping at threads and was now exposed to the entire ugly truth? Troy felt a wave of sadness wash over him. Somehow, it had finally gone home for him as well. Ben, his sparkling friend, hadn't been real. He'd been a figment of imagination, something created for a purpose and then deleted when the purpose had been fulfilled. The person in his arms right now was Salvador. Somebody Troy definitely knew very little about. Somebody who didn't even know himself what he was and what he would become. Somebody who hardly was anything at the moment. Ben was gone for good.

Troy took a deep breath and waited for the inevitable grief for his dead friend, but it didn't come. He just kept hearing Sal's breathing, kept feeling the desperately clutching arms, kept stroking the slim back gently. He realized that he was murmuring something under his breath. Sal, it's all right. You'll see, everything will be all right. I'm here for you. I won't leave you.

And he fully meant it, too. He frowned to himself. Obviously Salvador wasn't the only one confused here. This would definitely take some thinking over.