Okay. You've all been asking. You've all been waiting. So here it is, the first chapter of the sequel of the sequel of Asleep! I'm so happy I've got this far! Please be considerate and favorite, subscribe and review at the end. Pretty please? I think I deserve it!

Max POV

After the shock had worn off, we'd all started barraging Iggy with questions. How long were you in the School? How old are you? Who are your friends? Have you ever heard of us before? What's your name again? How old are you?

The answers, respectively, were All my life, seven years, I don't have any friends, no, James, and I already said I was seven!

And then the conclusion was drawn. Iggy was changed. And, again, it was all our fault.

We'd had the party anyway, but instead of it being Iggy's Sweet Sixteen, it was for mom 'getting some special promotion'. We hadn't given him the presents, of course; the bomb supplies were now safely housed with Gazzy's, and the glass orb was sitting next to Fang's bed. Quite a bright adornment for his normal decoration, but for some reason, he had asked for it. I had the lighter with the word 'Ignite' on it in my hand. I would keep it until Iggy came back.

I'm sure both me and Fang had the same idea. We wanted a piece of Iggy with us, however small. These were the presents intended for him. We'd keep a firm hold on them until we could finally give them to him.

I stared at the small silver lighter in my hand. Ignite. My eyes blurred, and suddenly the word looked remarkably like Iggy.

We had sent Gazzy, Nudge and Ella to sleep, or at least to bed, after the party. Iggy was sleeping on a blow-up mattress in Gazzy's room. Iggy's own room was untouched, as it would remain. For some reason, it didn't seem right for a not-himself Iggy to sleep in his own room.

"Max, what are we going to do?"

I looked up and into Fang's haunted eyes. Mom was standing in the doorway, looking worried. Meagan was sitting with her back against the wall, her head back and her eyes closed. Angel was sitting next to me, her eyes penetrating.

I didn't answer Fang, instead talking to Angel.

"Angel," I said hoarsely. "You knew something was wrong the minute he woke up."

"Yeah," Angel answered. Her voice was high, young, and yet she seemed so old.

"How?"

Angel's expression twisted.

"While we were in the School, Iggy sent me a message. He said that if he didn't make it, he'd give me all the memories he had hidden. When he woke up, they hit me."

I ponder this. All the memories Iggy had never revealed, all his pain, all his suffering, every little speck was now with Angel. This could be useful.

"Do you mean to say that… that Iggy's dead?" Fang asked, question in every syllable.

"I don't know. No. But Iggy's… gone."

"But isn't it just amnesia?" mom spoke up. Her hand was clasping the locket at her throat, and she looked worried, yet calm. "It can be easily treated. Well, not easily, but the memories are still there. A jolt will knock them back to the surface."

Angel shook her head at the same time Meagan replied "No."

"What is it, then?" Fang asked.

Meagan is the one who spoke up. "Amnesia causes people to forget any length of memories. It could be any amount. From their entire life to a single day."

"Well, Iggy did forget nine years of his life," I pointed out, going over the number again in my head. Sixteen minus seven was, yes, nine.

"Nope," Angel said this time, shaking her head. "If he'd had amnesia and forgotten nine years of his life, he'd still be Iggy, just at age seven."

I realized she was right.

"Then why…" Fang asked, his voice lowering.

"Does he think he's a different person? I don't know," Meagan answered. "You'll have to ask Angel, she's the only one who really can."

We all turned to Angel, our eyes searching, hopeful. She looked back at all of us. Her blue eyes were so wide, so reflective. And I suddenly wondered what that onslaught of Iggy's memories had done to her.

"Iggy… well, that's not Iggy," she finally said, answering our unspoken question. "I mean… what I mean is, there is something that can happen where one thinks they're someone else. I guess it could be considered a form of amnesia. Like, after a shock, a different person surfaces."

"So? Is that what happened to Iggy?" mom asked. "The shock of the surgery caused him to switch personas? Couldn't you just switch them back with your powers?"

Angel looked to the ground. "No. I mean, if that is what happened to Iggy, Iggy would still be buried there. His memories would still be contained in his mind. But they're not. They are utterly gone."

"What does this mean?" It was Meagan's turn to ask.

Angel sighed, and she picked at her dress. She had put it on the instant we'd returned home, covered in lace and frills. A gift Iggy had bought her with his own allowance. I remembered the incident well. The six of us, my mom and Ella were at the mall, clothes shopping of course. Angel found this dress, totally impractical, silly and useless. She had begged and pleaded, but I told her if she wanted something like that so bad, she needed to buy it herself.

Of course, little Angel had no money. Mom only gave allowances to me, Iggy and Fang, since apparently we were old enough. So Angel had pouted over to her 'big brother', aka Iggy, pitifully relaying the sad tale to him. He'd lifted her up and whispered into her curls, brushing his long, slender, sensitive fingers across her cheek to wipe away her tears. Then he had pulled out a wad of cash he had been saving to buy himself a pair of really expensive sneakers, and gave them to her to purchase the dress.

At the moment, the two had seemed like the most caring pair in the world. A little sister off to tell her brother about some cruelty. Also, at the moment, all I had really taken in was how adorable Angel was, especially when pouting, and how annoyed I was at Iggy for giving in to her.

Now I finally realized something I had never actually noticed before, not ever. Just how selfless Iggy was.

He always thought of others before he thought of himself. He always covered for Gazzy when one of their bombs went wrong (blowing up on accident, or having too wide a rang, etcetera). He always got up and moved when one of us wanted to sit in a certain place. He always followed mine and Fang's orders, mostly without complaint, even though I now realized how unfair that was. I mean, we actually had been treating him like a seven-year-old, even though he was our age.

Oh gosh. We had treated him like a seven-year-old.

And now he was.

"What it means is that all of Iggy's memories have been virtually taken from his brain," Angel continued. "They're simply not there. They're gone. And these new ones have taken their place."

"But that means…"

"Yeah," Meagan said. "It means that probably some creep at the School downloaded his memories off his brain during the surgery."

My face paled, and I knew I was white as a sheet. So that was what Mr. Evil Scientist had been doing with all that equipment.

"So," said Angel, speaking up yet again. "Iggy's memories aren't there. Even though it's Iggy's body and brain. Now, that person sleeping with Gazzy is some boy named James. And Iggy's gone." She choked back a sob, and now I saw tears in her eyes. "Iggy's dead," Angel continued, the water finally escaping her lashes and running down her cheeks, "In all the ways that count."

Big surprise to you all. Yes. From here on out in this fic, Iggy is no longer alive. In his place is James. Let's hear it for James! No? I don't blame you, you all must hate me now.

Anyway, please review. I'll love you forever.