The next morning, I decide to go visit the cafe again for breakfast while the others are mostly still asleep, the only exceptions being Ciana, who stayed in our cabin for the night and is currently balled up in a cocoon of blankets and watching TV, and Dimitri, who's working on sharpening his weapon. On the way to the cafe, I pass by the cloaked woman again and her blazing eyes meet mine, making me feel somewhat uncomfortable and I suppress the urge to shudder.

The cafe is fairly empty in the morning and there's a different barista, this time it's a female, and I spot Kat almost right away in a white fur jacket with a black tank-top, white shorts, black winter leggings, and calf-high white Timberland boots. She leans over her pumpkin spice latte and blows on it slightly before she lifts it gently, cupping it between both of her hands, and takes a sip from it as she sits there on a black bar stool with her ankles crossed behind her.

I make my way over to her and sit on an empty stool next to her, watching as she glances over at me.

"Well, hello there," Kat smiles, "I told you I'd see you again."

"Yeah, you did," I smile back and the barista looks to me for my order.

"What would you like, Sir?" she asks as she holds out a notepad and a pen, watching me expectantly.

"Do you happen to have pancakes?" I ask.

"Which kind would you like? We serve blueberry, strawberry, regular, and banana. We also have a seasonal pumpkin flavor," the barista asks.

"I'll have one banana and one blueberry, please," I smile and the woman nods, "oh, and a lemonade."

"Your order will be ready shortly," she says and I nod.

"Thank you," I say as she starts working on my order.

"So, how are you?" Kat asks as she takes a sip of her latte, her eyes intently focused on me.

"I'm kinda tired, but other than that I'm good. You?"

"Me too," she says with a curt nod, "but I like coming out here early. There's less people around."

"You don't like people, or?" I ask.

"Well," Kat hums thoughtfully for a moment, "I find people very interesting, but they're typically too intimidated to talk to me. So, I'm usually quite lonely. But, when there's hardly anyone else around, I feel more comfortable because it feels like I'm not being pressured to make conversation when nobody wants to."

"I see..." I trail off, "you must be pretty isolated, then."

"Yeah, I guess so," Kat smiles sadly and continues drinking her latte.

As Kat shifts around on her stool, I notice a silver necklace glinting in the light and I furrow my eyebrows because something about it seems so familiar. The hanging orb pendant has black shadows swirling around inside of it that disappear from sight every so often and the letters 'KL' are engraved on the glass on the front of the orb that's surrounded by elegant silver framing. My eyes continue to focus on the swirling shadows inside the orb and it's almost as if they're drawing me in, wanting me to only pay attention to them in a hypnotic manner.

"I'll have one mochachino, please."

I snap out of my thoughts whenever I hear a woman's voice from next to me and I glance over to see the woman in the cloak, my eyes widening. She stares straight ahead at the barista and only looks over whenever the barista turns her back to us. Because she has her hood pulled up, I'm unable to see her eyes, but her lips twitch with interest as she looks in our general direction before she turns back to the barista.

"...Gabriel?" Kat frowns and I jolt in surprise upon hearing my name.

"Yeah?" I shake my head, meeting Kat's concerned gaze.

"Are you okay? You spaced out for a good five minutes," Kat says worriedly.

"Yeah...yeah..." I sigh and run a hand through my hair, smiling at Kat as the barista places my order down in front of me and starts to work on the mysterious woman's order, "I'm fine."

Suddenly, the train jerks and all at once, four things happen in a moment that seems frozen in time. I accidentally bump into Kat, which then makes her gasp and her right arm flies out in an attempt to balance herself and gets caught in the chain of her necklace, breaking the chain and making it fly off of her neck as the mysterious woman glances other with wide eyes and her breath hitches as she reaches into her pocket as Ciana runs inside the cafe frantically.

"Gabriel!" Ciana shouts, "get away from them!"

Just then, the mysterious woman throws a golden metallic orb in our direction and the orb spins and clicks before a bright flash of white light goes off and all sounds fade away. Once the light fades away and I can finally see again, I'm surprised to see that me, Ciana, the cloaked woman, and Kat are in an empty space full of just white as far as the eye can see, only a floor of glass tiles keeping us grounded.

"What the hell?!" I shout and look around, bewildered.

Just then, I notice Kat holding the sides of her head and bending over as she releases small sounds of distress and slowly sinks to her knees. My eyebrows furrow as Kat's hair turns completely white and her eyes turn to blue, her broken locket resting at her feet. Ciana scowls and raises her fists, knocking them together and twisting them in different directions to summon her gauntlets as she takes a fighting stance.

"Is that..." I trail off, realization hitting me hard and I summon my katana.

"Kione," Ciana continues to scowl and my breath hitches as I glance between her and who I formerly knew as Kat.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?!" Kione shouts, her blue eyes raging as she looks at the mysterious woman and the area around her lights up in purple and red flames as she yells.

"You know why I can't do that," the woman says and Kione runs towards her almost thoughtlessly.

The woman in the cloak unclasps her cloak and tosses it aside as she pulls out two uzis from her thigh-holsters and shoots rapidly at Kione, who disappears in a cloud of darkness before she reappears above the woman with her scythe in her hands. Kione swings at her and the woman bends backwards in order to avoid the scythe's blade before she drops one of her uzis and grabs a slim, intricately designed, silver dagger that's wide at the top with a ruby near the hilt and goes to a pristine needle-like point at the end.

Ciana and I join the fight against Kione, and Ciana manages to knock Kione's scythe out of her hands. As Kione attempts to disappear in shadows to reclaim her scythe, I grab ahold of her wrist and go with her. I inhale sharply at first because all I can see is darkness and then we appear back in the white room, falling from several feet high. Kione looks back at me as my hand begins to glow with bright white light and Kione's hair color slowly drains back to the color it was as Kat as we fall. Kione's eyes widen as they turn back to silver-grey and dark shadows begin to pulse around my arm and travel around it. I immediately release her arm due to the weird feeling that fills me from the shadows and the shadows disperse upon me releasing her and Kione's eyes close. We eventually hit the ground, me landing on one knee with Kione landing flat on her back.

"Gabriel! Are you okay?" Ciana shouts and runs up to me, followed by the stranger, who summons a pair of handcuffs and puts them on the now unconscious Kione.

"Yeah..." I trail off and look at my arms, "I think so...I absorbed her powers temporarily and she just fainted."

"I appreciate having help from you both," the mysterious woman says and draws our attention to her as she holds up Kione's necklace and examines it, "I introduced myself previously to Ciana this morning whenever I went to your cabin to warn you that Kione may be stalking you and she bumped into me outside as she was leaving. Since you weren't there, I decided not to raise any flags and I went looking for you myself, and I suppose Ciana felt that something was wrong and she followed. My name is Briar Llevar, but I go by Blondie."

"Who are you?" I ask, confused as to what's going on.

"I'm a member of the Lightdagger Brigade," Blondie grins and puts Kione's necklace in her pocket before she pulls out her ID and flashes it to me, "I've been tracking Kione for quite some time. I was informed that Kione was in Orina and so I immediately made my way over and followed her."

"And what about this place?" I ask, looking around.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Blondie laughs sheepishly, her brown eyes with a reddish-orange tint to them somewhat mirthful, "we're currently in a prison designed for Iegashyias. I transported us here with a MTOD-- Metal Transportation Orb Device--in order to ensure that no civilians were harmed. This entire area is a battleground that's put into place in the prison for that specific purpose. I would need to use another MTOD in order to take us to the cell area or for us to leave back to the train."

"Do you know why Kione was stalking us? Aside from her working with Coralyinn," Ciana asks.

"Of course," Blondie nods, "I have an entire file on Kione alone. I could show it to you if you follow me to the holding cells. I have to lock Kione up before she wakes up."

Ciana and I glance between each other before we both nod in agreement.

"Alright," I say, "we'll follow you."

Blondie nods and grabs another orb out of her pocket and throws it up in the air, another flash going off before we're standing before rows and rows of cells in a white building. Most of the cells seem to be empty and there are a few guards dressed in blue and grey uniforms patrolling around, a few of them nodding in recognition, smiling, waving, or tipping their hats to us while others just keep patrolling with stern expressions.

"This is a new hall, so this area's pretty empty," Blondie explains as she leads us towards the end of the hall while carrying Kione.

Blondie eventually stops in front of an empty cell near the end of the hall and she summons a key card before she swipes it across a keypad and a beep rings out as the cell door opens. The cell itself consists of a white cot, a wooden desk with a stool, and a small shelf on the wall. Ciana helps Blondie place Kione on the cot before Blondie removes the handcuffs and replaces them with a simple white bracelet on Kione's right wrist. We quickly shuffle away from the cell as Blondie swipes the key card and a beep rings out again as the door locks shut.

"One moment, please," Blondie says as she types in a four digit code on the keypad and presses enter.

We stand there for a few moments as Blondie finishes up typing on the keypad before she turns to us and sighs, dragging the back of her hand across her forehead before she places her hands on her hips and smiles.

"Alright, follow me, please," Blondie instructs and heads towards the doors at the end of the hall.

We follow her through the grey metal double-doors and end up in a room with red walls and glass floor tiles with multiple cubicles throughout the room. Blondie weaves through the rows of cubicles and we pass by multiple other workers who are either on the phone, writing, searching on computers, or doing various other tasks. We eventually come to her cubicle, which consists of a somewhat messy desk with papers scattered everywhere, a red office chair with wheels, a black laptop, a cup filled with pens and pencils, a yellow notepad, a picture of what's probably either her friends or family on a beach trip with her and one with them underneath a tree with a tire swing, and a small shelving system with multiple boxes, sticky notes, containers, and various other items in it.

"Do all of you who track down Iegashyias have an office?" Ciana asks.

"No," Blondie says as she sits down in her chair and slides up to her laptop, "some of us who go out in the field don't make any reports or even have an office, they just focus on keeping justice and fighting in the moment, and some others in the field are assigned to protect specific people. Those of us who have offices are ones who fight with specific targets, similarly to bounty hunters. Then we have to file reports about those we capture and we also get the reports of who to capture from our laptops."

"You said you've been tracking Kione for a while," I start, "just how long were you following her?"

"About three years," Blondie says and stretches in her seat before she cracks her fingers and begins typing on her laptop, "I was always able to find her, it was just a matter of catching her and finding a good opportunity to. According to my files, Kione was interested specifically in Reine Yvatlovich's chain, but there's more to it than most think."

"What do you mean?" Ciana asks wearily.

"Kione worked with Coralyinn, yes, and one of Coralyinn's goals is to take all the power she can from the members of the chain she's in. But, Coralyinn also has a particular interest in Gabriel's family," Blondie explains, "nobody's really sure why, but apparently it aligns with Coralyinn's agenda somehow."

"Is that why so many of Coralyinn's people have been focusing on me specifically?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.

"Probably," Blondie nods and glances over at me before her eyes flicker back to her computer screen, "you probably just thought it was due to the chain, but there's extra motive when it comes to you. Maybe it's because you're able to absorb the abilities of others and use them against them, which is what Coralyinn is able to do, but only because of her daggers. Coralyinn steals the gifts of others and keeps them for herself, but you temporarily take them and throw them back at the user twice as hard. Perhaps she thinks if she has your gift that she won't need her daggers anymore to do it, which would be beneficial to her."

"Okay...and I have another question, but it's about Kione specifically," I say, "how was Kione able to look like someone she's not? I understand that she's Psychosis and can mess with perception and the minds of others, but she just..."

"...I'm usually quite lonely..."

"She seemed genuine," I finish, frowning, "you can't fake the kind of emotions she was showing."

"Gabriel..." Ciana says quietly, her eyes sad as she frowns.

"That's probably because she wasn't faking," Blondie starts, "Kione Lawless used to be a normal human named Kione Katarina Lawless who lived in the Fall Sector, almost on the edge of winter. But she stumbled upon something she shouldn't have and she got consumed by a dark gift that was stored away by its previous owner in a pendant. It literally drove her to insanity and changed who she was entirely. Before she completely lost her mind, she used the pendant she found and had it turned into one specifically designed for her that still kept its properties. Whenever she wears it, it manages to change her back to who she once was. The pendant appears around her neck only when she's worn down enough for it to appear, otherwise she's able to keep it away."

"Do you know why Kione was near Khalida's sanctuary?" Ciana asks, "she claimed she was working with Khalida, but we never got an explanation for it."

"Khalida made a deal with Kione and Coralyinn that they wouldn't disturb each other," Blondie sighs, "if Khalida didn't interfere with Coralyinn, then Coralyinn wouldn't bother Khalida. Kione works for Coralyinn and therefore abided by Khalida and Coralyinn's deal."

"Do you think she'll be happier here?" I frown, "I mean, she'll be who she once was, but she'll be imprisoned."

"I think she'll be better off here than she would be anywhere else," Blondie smiles sadly, "she may be imprisoned physically, but to her it's freedom mentally. It also keeps her from causing trouble, even if she doesn't mean to."

"Yeah..." I breathe out, "you're right. It's just that I think of how sad and alone she seemed and it doesn't seem right that she could possibly also be such a psychopath."

"She'll be okay," Ciana smiles sadly and places a hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently, "we should get going back to the others."

"Yeah," I nod, "you're right. Thanks for everything, Blondie."

"No problem," Blondie grins, "now, you've got a train to catch and I've got a report to write up."

Blondie reaches into her pocket and hands Ciana a metal orb and closes her fingers around it gently.

"You'll want to go over to the glass booth over in the corner of the office when you use that so that you don't accidentally drag anyone else along," Blondie says, "you're new to using one of those, I'm assuming, and so it'll be harder for you to know how to bring only specific individuals. I'd throw it for you, but I'd disrupt the rest of the office. When you're in the booth, the light stays condensed into the glass area. Take care. If you ever see me around, don't be a stranger!"

"Thanks," Ciana smiles and we wave goodbye to her as we head over towards the glass booth before we open the door and step inside, "you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go," I say and Ciana nods.

Ciana twists the orb and, for the third time today, a bright flash goes off and makes me feel blinded. As the light fades away, I'm left feeling extremely cold and off balance only to realize that Ciana and I are standing on top of the train in the dusk as it's moving, freezing cold snow blowing and whipping in our faces as the train goes around a long bend, snowy mountains surrounding either side of us as we're on a mountain path. The train itself is heading towards a brick tunnel in the mountains and a deep drop off lies to the right of the train due to being up in the mountains.

"Come on!" Ciana shouts over the train and the weather as she hovers over top of a hatch on the train's roof.

I slowly make my way over to Ciana, fighting against the wind as she lifts open the hatch and jumps inside. I jump inside after her and pull the hatch shut just as we reach the tunnel and I sigh in relief. I look around and notice that we're standing near the bathrooms and Ciana breathes out tiredly, her eyes meeting mine.

"How about we keep that entire experience to ourselves so that we don't worry the others?" Ciana asks.

"Yeah," I nod in agreement, thankful that we're on the same page, "that sounds good to me."

We both laugh in relief as Ciana throws an arm around my shoulders and we start to walk back to the cabins, glad to just be back safe and with each other.