The hallway was unnervingly quiet.

At least for Carla, it was. When she was in Beaumont, the hallways were always noisy. The dragon boys and girls were the loudest then—and their cheering on one another during classwork was what she always heard back when she was there. But this is Winchester. There were no monster hybrids here.

"Testing, testing! Hello! Can you hear me?"

Frank turned his head. He swore he heard a feminine voice, but not over the loudspeakers in the hallway. Carla stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the voice as well, but James seemed to continue walking. It appears that he hadn't heard anything at all.

James noticed the siblings standing still. Their faces looked pale. Frank looked as if he were in shock, and Carla's bangs covered her left eye. She was biting her lip and her fists were clenched tight.

"Are you both okay?" James asked them.
"Yeah." Brother and sister replied in unison.

Carla and Frank walked up with James all the way to the rooftop. When they arrived there, they noticed a boy who stood facing the sun. Oddly enough, he didn't have a shadow. Not even in front of him.

He turned his back and happily greeted the three students. His black hair was covered by a brown bonnet, and he was wearing a green hoodie with his uniform. His hoodie was unzipped, and he wore checkered Vans. Judging by the way he looked at the three, he appeared to be taller than any of them—and older, too.

"Are you guys lost?" He asked. "By the way, name's Dave Parker."
"No, we aren't." Carla answered.
"I see." Dave smiled. "Well then, I'll take my leave."

As Dave was leaving, he stopped in his tracks. He walked back to Carla and examined her. He was sure he'd seen her before.

"Uh, Parker?" James said. "You're being creepy."
"Seems like it." Dave replied. "What's a nice place like you doing in a beautiful girl like this?"

Carla snickered and let out, "Oh my God."

But he kept his gaze on the girl. As he was studying her, Carla studied him as well. She swore she recognized his face—and his voice. And his personality. She knew him from when she was still in Squad Upsilon. She was sure he was in Delta.

"I know who you are." Dave let out, his tone serious. "Three years ago, I was a part of Squad Delta—the bomb squad."
"We were with Omega then. Unfortunately, there was a bomb we weren't able to detect until too late. It killed the entirety of Upsilon except their leader."
"She was seriously injured by the explosion. On top of that, she was the youngest. And she was ten years old."
"Delta, Upsilon, and Omega were tracking down Olympia Césaire—the mother of the prince that Upsilon succeeded in protecting. But at a cost."
"The leader of Upsilon killed herself before Olympia could lay a finger on her."
"And here you are, Carlisle, standing before me. How are you alive?"

Carla trembled. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Right now, he was talking about the cause of her death like it were a ghost story—and she even had the heart to tell her friends that on their way to the rooftop! James and Frank looked at her. As shocked as they were about Dave telling her how she died, they kept their gaze at her. They were looking for confirmation.

"James, Frank..." She was having a hard time. "It is true. That's how I died."
"Yes, but sis..." Frank bit his lip. "The question here is how you're back, and you have to tell them. You've already told me."

Oh God, Carla thought. How could she tell James and Dave? She had been able to tell Frank. He didn't need answers anymore. He only needed this—Dave's story of her. He needed to know how she died.

"I... I was brought back." Carla answered. "Miss L-Ludenberg had finally learned Cornerstone Wing. It was an ancient ritual used to bring people back from the dead..."
"After that, I went to Beaumont. I finally had a chance to start clean. What made me glad was that, nobody even recognized my name at Beaumont. They knew of my clan, but not of me. I was off to a good start."
"That was, until Miss Klara offered me a mission after freshman year. She asked me to stay in this school for sophomore year to help liberate a restless spirit."

She exhaled and waited for Dave to say something. After all, he was the leader of Delta, and always had the last say in meetings. All the while they were silent, Carla expected her senior's verdict to be harsh. Dave looked at his left and he exhaled.

"I remember what you told Adam. You told him you were coming back. I'm not going to ask any more questions."

Dave opened his arms. Carla hugged him, and he hugged her in return. Frank put his hand on his sister's back, patting her and then wrapping his arms around Carla and Dave. James watched awkwardly.

The three let go of each other. Dave patted the girl on the shoulder and told her he was Adam's cousin. Carla's jaw dropped at the revelation. Frank and James didn't react, though they didn't know Adam.

"How are you...?" She asked.
"His madwoman of a mother is my dad's twin sister." Dave answered. "And I hope you still remember me as David Césaire."

Dave left the three shortly after. James tapped the shoulders of Frank and Carla, urging them to go back to their classroom. Before they did, Carla brought her tab out and checked the time. It was 8:54 AM.

"Looks like we were out for too long." Carla sighed.
"Well, isn't this like the good old days?" James asked, smiling.
"I'm so stressed out." Frank ignored his question.

The three walked back to Sophomore hall, only to hear screaming from in their classroom when they got past the last step. They ran in immediately. What they saw surprised them.

Katrina's hands were clapped over her mouth, and Kilra was there to comfort her. Warren was unconscious on the floor. Sucre's fists were in flames, though she wasn't burned—she looked like she was struggling with something. Jack looked angry, his teeth and fists were both clenched as he rushed to the teacher in front of him—a middle-aged man whose eyes were glowing red as he flipped the desk and engaged Jack in hand-to-hand combat.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Sucre yelled as she shot a ball of fire at the possessed teacher.

Just as the man got burned, Jack closed in on him and landed a punch on his face. Warren jolted back to consciousness and joined Sucre and Jack in battle. Carla instructed Frank and James to take cover with Kilra and Katrina.

But she noticed something else. Someone was missing.

Her left eye glowed teal. Carla ducked to her right as the desk came flying right at her. She decided to join the battle. Warren and Sucre were combining attacks, and Jack was trying to look for an opening. He stayed out of sight as Carla rushed to battle.

She was hesitant at first. She knew using the Sensory Orb to read her opponent's movements and eventually counter him could bring a great deal of pain on her classmates. She was lucky she avoided the usual consequences with her eye when she fought Chloé earlier, but this is the present. Luck isn't on her side now, but she had an idea.

The enraged teacher took notice of her and attempted to hit her. Carla dodged his punch. But he wasn't done yet. He kept trying to hit the student, but his attacks kept missing her. When Carla thought it was time to counter, she looked at Jack and cocked her head at the exhausted man.

Luckily for her, Jack understood what she was trying to say. He jumped from the bookshelf five tiles away from where the desk originally was and landed a drop kick on the side of their teacher's face.

"Uh..." Kilra was in shock. "I hope he's not... dead?"

Carla took a mirror out of her pocket and placed it beside the man's mouth. The glass fogged a little.

"Not dead, but we have to take him to the nurse's office." She declared.
"I can help," said Kilra. "I'm a Sylph Dreamer."

Carla smiled. With the help of Jack, she propped their teacher against the wall Katrina and Kilra leaned on. She wiped the sweat and blood from his face as Kilra took a water bottle out of her bag and opened it. Carla stood aside as her classmate manipulated the water out of the bottle.

The students watched as Kilra waved the water around the teacher's burns and bruises, the water glowing as she was healing him. When she was done, she called for Jack and Warren to bring their unconscious teacher to the infirmary.

"I only lessened the severity of the burns and the bruises," Kilra explained. "I still can't heal bruises properly, though. It'd be nice for some human remedy as well."
"Understood." Carla nodded.

The rest of the class rearranged the chairs and put the desk back in its place. Warren and Jack returned to the classroom. They looked distraught.

"Guys," Jack said, trembling. "We found a secret room. And Chloé's in it."