"I guess it makes sense," said Adam.

"We really should have thought of this possibility," responded the Powerguard.

"There's just been a lot to keep track of. You can't really expect me to think of everything."

"I know, we're flying by the seat of our pants here."

Both Adam and the Powerguard sighed and then shrugged at the same time.

"Creepy," commented Tom.

"Can someone explain what is happening?" demanded Lucas.

"Sure," said the Powerguard.

"Preferably from Adam," insisted Brittney.

"Of course," said both Adam and the Powerguard at the same time.

"Creepy," repeated Tom.

"Here is the quick and dirty of it," said Adam. "I cleared out the Powerguard's memories. Then I connected his memory space to my own."

"That was so you'd have more space to put your classes," added Brandon.

"Exactly," agreed the Powerguard. "But once my memories moved from my body to the Red Clan's…"

"You gained access to Adam's memories, essentially becoming Adam too?" asked Carlos.

"But that didn't happen when you linked classes with Cruxannith," stated Alissa.

"If she had been capable of thought, then she would have been able to use the Protector class skills as well as Adam," continued the Powerguard. "She wasn't given memories while I was, so now I'm capable of acting like Adam."

"Then now that you two are sharing memories, both of you are the same person?" asked Randall.

"Mostly," answered Adam and the Powerguard together.

"Too creepy!" exclaimed Tom again. "Or would it be two creepy?"

Everyone ignored him.

"Is this going to be a problem?" asked Lucas.

"Yeah, I've seen a bunch of movies where aliens impersonate someone else and take over their life," complained Joseph.

"It shouldn't be a problem in that way," said Adam. "He isn't impersonating me. He literally has all the memories and experiences that make me Adam."

"Then he won't try to kill you off and replace you?" asked Andrea.

"No way," chuckled the Powerguard. "I know who the original and the clone are, so to speak. Though clone isn't the right term since we are literally working off the same memories. What he experiences I'll be able to remember and what I experience he will also remember."

"I might have to agree with Tom that it is creepy," said Alissa, trying to cover certain parts of her at the thought of the Powerguard remembering intimate times she shared with Adam.

"Regardless, I don't have access to the same abilities as Adam. We're still two separate-ish souls and bodies, though we are working off the same memory bank. I can't access his pseudo-skills or his other class. Just the Powerguard one."

"Then everything went alright with the memory merger, and Adam finally has space in his soul?" asked Nick.

"Not exactly," responded Adam. "I'm really having trouble concentrating and remembering. Some things are clear, and others aren't. Like, I can't remember what I did to share the memories."

"That will be a problem," said Abbey.

"Hopefully it's an easy fix," said the Powerguard. "I'm guessing the tube wasn't large enough to allow the energy to go both ways without being clogged. Essentially our memories are constipated. You need to clench and squeeze it through."

"Gross," said Ed.

"I'm having trouble remembering how to do all that," complained Adam. "Can't you do it?"

"I just said I don't have the skills. Sounds like our most recent memories are the stuck ones. Must be why I understand better than you what has happened."

"Then I guess I have to do it," groaned Adam before he asked the Powerguard, "any advice?"

"Don't use [Soul Shatter]," the invader version of Adam recommended. "Just put your energy around your memory region and gently squeeze. Hopefully that'll be enough to push out the clog."

"Maybe we should leave you two alone for this," suggested Carlos.

Adam ignored him and re-entered his soul. After moving to his memory region, he felt an unpleasant vibration from the energy around it. There was stagnation. Usually the memories moved about, getting closer to some and further from others as they relocated to fit the space. This time, it felt like a bunch of gears that wanted to turn but were jammed.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Inspecting the tube took Adam some time as he traveled the length of it a few times. He tried to pull and widen the tube, but the amount of space he had available was still limited until the memories could flow in both directions properly. Reshaping the tube felt a bit too difficult with the energy inside building as the memories wanted to move but couldn't.

Using a brute force approach in this situation seemed like a bad idea, or at least counterintuitive, but the vibes he was getting from the energy said it wasn't going to be fine for long.

Deciding to follow the Powerguard Adam's advice, he took the energy he could gather and wrapped it around the outside of his memory area. It was a large space and required most of the energy he had remaining.

Once it was coating the memory region, Adam used [Soul Combine] in an odd way. He used it on only the surrounding energy and tried to pull it through combining, tightening it all like a draw string net.

He felt a shudder throughout his soul, and Adam's mind blanked out for a moment. When that didn't solve the problem, he pulled harder on it. The shudder he felt became a full-on soul quake, shaking and vibrating everything around him.

"That's unpleasant," the Powerguard said, "but keep it up."

Adam grunted as he tightened his grip on the energy and squeezed it with all his strength. Very slowly he felt his memories pushed into the tunnel leading to the Powerguard. The tube rumbled, but the contents did give in.

Feeling a different kind of shudder, Adam suddenly remembered when he erased the Powerguard's memories. Then he tried to recall the day the [System] arrived. All the details came to mind easily and clearly.

When he checked the flow, the memories could move around in his region but then would pick up speed and fly through the tube and into the Powerguard. Memories flowed freely both ways, and everything Adam tried to remember was once more available to him.

"I think it's fixed now," said Adam, as he returned to his body to inform his friends. The next 15 minutes were spent with everyone asking Adam questions, which both he and the Powerguard answered. Then they asked each other questions to confirm that both bodies could remember the same things. That allowed them to know that wherever the memories were stored, both could access them.

"What are we doing with Invader Adam now?" asked Randall, to everyone's surprise.

"What do you mean?" asked Alissa.

"Well, is he an invader or ain't he?"

Both Adam and the Red Clan body stared at each other, as if considering the options.

"I think we should leave him as the guardian and caretaker of the prison," said Adam after a moment of thought. "He isn't as strong as I am, and we can't afford anything to hurt him, since that'll also hurt me."

"Is that safe?" asked Lucas as he still watched the Powerguard warily. "I mean, can we trust him?"

"That's like asking if I can trust myself," said Adam wryly.

"Not quite the same thing," said Carlos, "but won't he get bored staying here all the time?"

"Not really," answered the Powerguard. "I'll remember everything Adam does, so I won't feel like I miss out. Plus, I'll just get some of the video games from the Jackson Rift. That'll give me plenty to do."

"Yup, he's Adam," smirked Nick.

"I'd normally say that two of the boss are better than one, but this is too strange even for me," said Tom.

Adam shrugged. "We'll get used to it, although it would be nice if he didn't look so disgusting."

"Just make sure you tell Ilidasha," suggested the Powerguard. "I don't want her or the other guards to attack me."

***

"Whew, that feels better," said Adam after he reconnected the Protector class from Cruxannith. "I'm starting to feel a bit like Frankenstein's Monster though. I'm pretty sure my soul isn't supposed to have this many parts. Or be spread among three bodies."

"It's ok, darling," comforted Andrea, "at least you don't look like a monster…like him."

"That's true," nodded the Powerguard, not offended.

Adam just sighed and then got down to business.

"Now that I have more space inside, I'm ready to try what we came here to do."

Immediately the tension in the area rose as all his friends became more concerned. They looked at Adam, reached for weapons out of habit, and just generally tried to do whatever made them feel safe and in control. The reality was that none of them had a role to play in this. They would need to just stand by and accept whatever result Adam got.

"Any advice or ideas?" Adam asked the Powerguard.

"We have the same memories, so I assume anything that I would think of would be the same as what you thought of."

"I was just wondering about that. Even though we have the same memories, and thus the same experiences, maybe being in a difference race changes your way of thinking."

"I'll pay attention to that. For now, I think it would be best if you build a separate class region for the Powerguard class if you can. That way there isn't a chance of the classes or skills conflicting or interfering, and it might allow the use of more than one skill at a time. Combining them would also mean that losing one of the class hosts will destroy all your abilities."

"Sounds logical," agreed Adam.

"Of course you agree, since it was originally your thought," chuckled the Powerguard.

"Let's just hope I can get it done," sighed Adam, not at all confident.

***

To Adam's surprise, it wasn't difficult building the region for a new class inside himself. He built it away from the Protector class, as much as distance existed within a soul. Since he had helped Hammond reinforce and expand his class, he was already familiar with how the class boundary should feel and work. It wasn't that different starting from scratch.

He began simply, making a structure, and then he built it up from what he remembered. The energy needs were high though and he was forced to begin drawing energy from his friends through the hacked former [System Conduits]. Alissa willingly volunteered Carlos as the first battery, and to everyone's surprise, he accepted.

Adam wasn't interested in draining them, just using enough to reinforce his efforts. Leaving them crippled or weakened felt like a deal breaker to Adam, even though he needed extra energy to build the constructs inside.

Carlos was pleased that the energy drain also didn't end up hurting.

Because the structure that Adam was building had to fit the Powerguard class, once Adam created the basic construct, he spent a lot of time traveling between the Powerguard class within the Red Clan body before returning to make changes to the class boundary he had made. It was time consuming and tedious, but like his earlier soul shaping work, he felt the resonance with what he was building and gained a stronger inherent understanding of how the soul and energy worked together.

Once he was satisfied with the container he had built for the class, Adam began work on the tube that would pass through the soul bond and connect the Powerguard class with his new construct. The energy requirements were provided by Brandon. He insisted that he needed less energy than the others because he was a support, reducing the number of skills he used during battle.

Adam accepted his reasoning and only took what he needed to build the connection between the class spaces.

"Here goes nothing," Adam said out loud for his friends' benefit right before he finished connecting the two spaces.

As he used [Soul Combine] to attach the tube and then used a targeted [Soul Shatter] to allow the energy to flow between the two, both he and the Red Clan body grabbed their chests.

Yet, for once, they didn't feel pain or collapse, just some heat.

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