- Story-time! Janie tells Hip about the past of the kids and Lone. She also reveals that after Gerry murdered Miss Alicia Kew, they moved into Mr. Kew's mansion in the woods.
- She tells Hip how Gerry went through college and medical school, falsifying records and obtaining degrees. This involved some of the usual Bonnie and Beanie teleporting tricks. Ho-ho.
- Those were good times, Janie tells Hip, because Gerry wanted to learn so much. She learned a lot too, because the information passed through her.
- Janie says that there are two kinds of people who love to learn and use information: people who are genuinely interested, and people who want to prove something, such as that they are more popular. Gerry, she says, was the second kind. After all, he'd been looked down upon at the orphanage.
- Gerry decided he no longer needed to prove anything to anyone, since he could do anything. He lost his motivation and regressed into acting like a vicious child.
- Janie, meanwhile, dated an engineer who told her about one of Hip's academic papers about counter-magnetism. That led to Gerry learning of the anti-gravity device. Hip is amazed to hear that Lone invented it simply to help the old farmer.
- Baby told Gerry that if the invention were discovered, there would either be a war or science would advance too quickly. The discovery would add mind-powers to science. Gerry didn't care. He simply wanted to be left alone.
- Gerry decided to hurt Hip out of vicious meanness and to stop people from coming after his group. He found him, probed his mind, and learned Hip wanted to appoint a volunteer to get the gadget with him.
- Hip says he regrets his hotshot behavior. Janie says she thought he looked romantic and reveals that she followed Gerry's orders to help him become the supposedly stupid soldier. She didn't know his plan. Gerry, as Thompson, had Hip's records destroyed and the lieutenant discredited.
- Finally, Gerry gave Hip a mental block or occlusion. It was a command that stopped Hip from recalling what had happened. The only way to defeat the block was via an abreaction, or reliving, through detailed memories, what had happened to him until he could piece together what had put the block in place.
- Hip, driven and curious, had pieced the parts together on his own for those seven years he recalled. He worked his way toward Miss Kew's house, where he encountered Gerry/Thompson and attacked him. Gerry made him slam into the window and gave him the command to get sick, sicker, and die. Geez.
- Gerry's revenge infuriated Janie. But she couldn't attack Gerry, since that'd be attacking herself. They're one single life form. Janie says Gerry killed and hurt other people too.
- Hip asks her why she chose to rescue him. Janie says that first, the battle in the town by the window was the straw that broke the camel's back for her. Second, she says, the gestalt, her life form, is alone without morals or ethics, but Hip inspires her.
- She explains that although the gestalt is More Than Human, its parts, namely she, are not too far off from human beings. She is still Janie and still felt human enough to help Hip. She makes it clear that it wasn't love, and defines love as joining and merging with someone to become stronger.
- Hip thinks over his past arrogance and feels humbled. He tells Janie that when he hunted for the device, he just wanted to be popular. She asks what he wants now. He says he doesn't know, but it isn't popularity.
- Action time! After telling Hip he might discover what he's seeking, she suggests they return to her home, Thompson's, so Gerry might learn to feel ashamed.
- Hip's, like, What, ashamed? She answers that she doesn't know how to build a system of morality, but she knows violating morals leads to shame. So she'll try to make Gerry feel ashamed by showing him Hip. Perhaps, she reasons aloud, Gerry will see how he's hurt this brilliant, driven person, and feel ashamed.
- Now Hip's all like, Come on, will that really work? She says Gerry won't be able to kill him because she's Gerry's only link with Baby, the powerful memory of the gestalt. Gerry won't cut off his own brain. Hip agrees to come and promises Janie she won't have to kill herself to sever the link between Gerry and Baby.