"Hey, Spinebreaker."

Vanya rolled her wheelchair into Spinebreaker's room to find him chipping the wall behind his bed, a forest green binder on her lap. As soon as he saw Vanya, Spinebreaker immediately fixed his posture and sat up straight, his right thumb on top of his left one and killed all the expressions on his face.

"At ease, Spinebreaker." It's been a month that they've found him, it turns out that he's as empty now as he was empty then. He can memorise the facts that Five told him about, but everyone can see that Spinebreaker has yet to accept that they're his memories.

"Hello, Ms Vanya," Spinebreaker greeted, head looking down. Vanya rolled her wheelchair closer to her brother and made him look at her eyes.

"Luther, do you have any new memories?" Vanya asked, but Spinebreaker didn't answer. Vanya sighed and changed her words. "Spinebreaker, do you have any new memories?"

Spinebreaker didn't say anything as he kept his face emotionless, but as they say, sometimes silence speaks louder than words. Vanya sighed and opened the forest green binder, touching the pastel green pages.

"Do you know what this is, Spinebreaker?" Vanya asked.

"No, Ms Vanya."

"It's a compilation of the poems you wrote from when you were eight to six years ago," Vanya explained. "You loved writing poetry. We were practically best friends before I moved out, you used to write poems and I used to musicalise them. Do you remember?"

"Yes, Mx Five told me."

"I found this binder in your room and a couple more of your poems on our dad's study and compiled them all, do you remember his name?"

"Yes, Mx Five told me that Spinebreaker's father is Reginald Hargreeves."

"Yes, you're right-" Vanya nodded, flipping open the binder to the first poem. The poem is called Journey to The Space and the handwriting looks messy like a child's handwriting. "You wrote this when you were eight years old, you were so proud of it that you showed it to everyone. I musicalised it for you. Would you like me to read it?"

No response. No matter how often they tell him that he can respond to not only accusatory questions and demands but also comforting questions and he can have a choice, he just doesn't seem to remember the fact (or he does, but doesn't think it's allowed to). Vanya looked down and cleared her throat, she's going to read it anyway.

Journey to The Space

Stars, moon, nine planets
Always excite me, always
Feel a pull to you

It may seem like such childish dreams
But I know that you're always there for me
People think that I'll be very lonely
I'll go very happily, yes

"Do you remember writing that, Spinebreaker?" Vanya asked. Spinebreaker didn't answer. "You were so excited to go to space that you were dubbed 'Spaceboy'. You really wanted to go to space and be the youngest astronaut, and you did. You were always so excited about space and Astro science, we always call you 'the Science-y Twins' with Five."

"The Science-y Twins," Spinebreaker repeated. Vanya grinned and hugged her brother, feeling glee as it's the first time he ever spoke without being forced to. He's coming back!

"Yes!" Vanya pulled away, still very noticeably giddy. "What do you think about Five?"

No answer. Vanya supposed it's too soon to expect him to do anything more than what he did today. She supposed that repeating what she said unprompted is as far as he'll go today, not yet individual thinking. Still, it shows that she can't give up on him. He's coming back to her. A step closer on breaking Luther free from this state!

"Do you want me to read another to you?"

No answer, but Vanya knew that's because he wouldn't choose for himself. Vanya cleared her throat again and opened another several page, reading it to her brother.

As Bright As The Stars Above

We're children, we're young
Seven children, seven lives
He gathered us all

To him, we are only assets
To me, we are all unique kids
I love you, truly, though I don't show
We are all stars of different show

Together, we'll shine as bright as the stars above

"Do you remember writing that?" Vanya asked. Spinebreaker didn't answer. "You wrote that after your first failed mission, when Dad told us all that we're incompetent and that failure isn't tolerable. You kept trying to defend us, but Dad wouldn't listen and instead got you in trouble for defending us. After that, we were all miserable. You kept trying to get us to cheer up again, you wrote this poem and copied it six times, sliding the six down our doors. Do you remember that?"

Spinebreaker doesn't answer.

"Answer me, Spinebreaker-" Vanya prompted. "What do you think about yourself?"

"As Ms Vanya's servant, what Spinebreaker thinks does not matter," Spinebreaker answered. "As Spinebreaker's master, what Ms Vanya says, Spinebreaker must do."

"Spinebreaker, it's not like that-" Vanya sighed. "I don't want to command you, I want you to have your own thoughts. What are your thoughts about this?"

Spinebreaker closed his mouth and looked down, seemingly deep in thought. She used the very same method Sissy used on herself when she was an amnesiac to get her to remember bits of her life, by involving the amnesiac and making the amnesiac think about the past and try to connect dots instead of just telling the amnesiac what to do, which was what Five very often do. It seems to be working, Vanya concluded, as Spinebreaker kept thinking.

"Spinebreaker thinks that the author was being helpful," Spinebreaker concluded. Vanya nodded vigorously.

"Yes, you were," Vanya choked a sob. "What else?"

Spinebreaker said no more and Vanya nodded. There seems to be only so much that he can say, one month of kindness means nothing compared to six years of violence to the point of brainwashing.

"I'll read you another."