Hrrm.


    Erin gasped for breath as she opened her eyes to a bright white light above her. She was on the ground panting as her mind raced. The last thing she remembered was collapsing to the ground with Bargen nearby. Alex had been fighting someone. She blinked her eyes and looked around her, pushing down against the ground and propping herself up.


    She lay in a metal corridor, the ceiling lined with white lights. A faint humming echoed through the walls, and she closed her eyes against the mild pressure in her head. She didn''t know where she was or how she got there, but the mild burning in her chest told her that her curse had grown.


    "But what happened?" She forced herself to stand up and began to walk down the corridor.


    There was no path behind her, so the only way to go was forward. The narrow metal corridor opened up at its end, and she stepped out into a circular room made of the same silver metal with four oval windows that opened to blackness.


    However, what was most noticeable was the large rectangular box in the center of the room on a raised dais and Alex lying against the stone steps. Erin''s breath caught in her chest. The left arm of his duster was torn away, and a withered purple arm lay resting at his side.


    "Shades," she whispered, delicately picking her way toward the dais. "What in sha-om happened to you?"


    She didn''t immediately rush in. She had learned her lesson back on Glory Plateau. However, she couldn''t resist for long. Even if she had failed, the healer in her still wanted to reach out and help people in need. That was who she was at her core.


    She reached out and checked Alex''s pulse as she knelt next to him. His heartbeat and breathing were steady. She wouldn''t have thought anything odd was happening if it hadn''t been for his arm. However, there it was. She reached out and put a finger against the arm, and it pulsed underneath her touch.


    "I''m going to have to wake you up," she said. "There''s too much I don''t know about you."


    Alex had been the subject of an unknown experiment. She didn''t know all the details, mainly because getting him to talk about it was like pulling teeth from a cat, but it had all been to create an artificial curse. She wasn''t sure what else Doctor Ozymandius had done to Alex''s body.


    "Come on, Alex," she said, shaking his shoulder, but he grumbled and turned his head away.


    Erin raised an eyebrow. She would have to try harder, but she was more certain now that he was better off than she thought. She still didn''t like the purple arm, but he didn''t seem to be in pain. She shook his shoulder harder.


    "Wake up."


    "Five more minutes."


    Slap.


    That did it. Alex''s eyes opened wide, and he tried to shoot up. Unfortunately, it failed, and he fell back down on his side as his left arm flailed uselessly beside Erin''s feet. She waited for him to calm down and take in the room before he finally looked at her.


    "What was that for?"


    "Your arm," Erin said, pointing down to it. "I didn''t want to do anything about it before I asked you, and you were stubborn about waking up."


    He looked at her with a sideways glare before nodding slowly. "Fair."


    With a bit of effort, he used his right arm to push himself further up the dais and rested back against the rectangular box. He took a few moments to gather himself while Erin sat down to wait. Her mind still didn''t feel right, and if he were going to take his time, she would get as much rest as she could.


    "So, I lost my arm taking down that ''Mister Deadman,''" Alex said with a grin. "I need to give it some time to grow back."


    "Your arm just grows back, just like that?"


    "The joy of being a lab rat, simple as that."


    "Do you want my help?" Erin asked, holding up her hand. "I haven''t tested how my curse has changed, but it should still be able to access the first-grade abilities. At least, that''s what Jean told us."


    "He''s right about it," Alex said. "I can still feel fields and manipulate them. The metal generation is the new toy."


    "Do you want my help?" Erin repeated.


    Alex looked down at his arm and then looked back at her. After a few moments, he heaved a sigh and moved so that his left side faced her. He gave her a thumbs-up with his right hand as he looked away from the arm.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "I''ve never had serious injuries grow back while I''ve been awake," he said. "The idea of it has always scared me a little. I always thought it would be similar to watching a doctor give me a shot."


    "Why would a doctor shoot you?" Erin asked as she got up and moved beside him, kneeling and extending her hand.


    "An injection for various health benefits," Alex said.


    Erin didn''t understand it, but she didn''t have to worry about those kinds of things anymore. She opened the gate inside her heart and let the vibrant energy of life itself flow out through her body. It twined around her muscles and legs like a growing vine, and green energy began to glow in her hands as she brought them close to Alex''s arm. She willed the arm to grow and repair itself.


    "Ah—" Alex said through clenched teeth as his flesh moved. "There it is."


    Crack.


    Purple skin darkened and stretched underneath the green light, his arm growing longer as several cracking noises emanated from it. In front of Erin''s eyes, the arm grew from a purple floppy mass to a fully restored arm with Alex''s normal brown skin.


    "There, all better." Erin closed her gate and stepped away.


    She hadn''t felt the surge of energy she had expected, but the overall healing process had definitely worked faster than before. If she had access to that much growth power back on Glory Plateau, Abed might have survived.


    She took in a breath, closing her eyes as Alex stood up next to her. When she opened her eyes, he was flexing his arm and gripping his fingers into a fist before releasing them again. He did it a few times before he smiled and punched his fist into the air.


    "Just like new," he said, wrapping his arms around her in a quick hug before letting go and stepping away. "Thanks."


    Her breath caught in her chest for a moment, but she stifled the surprise and focused on the more important issue. "You''re welcome. Now tell me how we got in here. Tell me where ''here'' is."


    "That''s a little more complicated," Alex said, looking up at the ceiling. "I thought this was an island core, but this doesn''t look like anything I''ve ever seen before. After I got you inside, I kind of finally collapsed over here while checking the place out."


    "And why are we inside?" Erin cocked an eyebrow at him.


    "Time differential," Alex said. "Cores can control how much time flows while inside in regards to the outside. I was hoping that we could use that to help both of us recover in a few minutes if there were still problems outside."


    "And this isn''t a core." Erin got it, but that didn''t mean the implications weren''t trying to give her a headache.


    "Yeah, found that out right before I collapsed. If you''re up, that means we''ve been in here for at least a day."


    Erin nodded and stood up, looking over the rectangular box. It looked like a coffin of sorts, and a single line ran along the top of it to form a lid. She had no idea what could be inside, and no writing was on its surface.


    "What about this?" she asked, reaching out to touch the box''s surface, which was almost freezing cold. "It''s freezing!"


    She ripped her hand away, rubbing it with her other hand as she looked down at it. Alex also stood up and touched the box, but he didn''t rip his hand away immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.


    "▇▇."


    A spike of pain ran through Erin''s head as he spoke the words. She flinched and held her hand to her forehead, where the pressure was greatest. It had been fleeting, but it was like the word Alex had spoken was telling her to obey it. She closed her eyes tight, focusing the pain away before turning her attention to Alex again.


    Blue letters flickered out from his hand like an electric spark. They first formed a circle around his fingers before stretching out along the lengths of the box, lining up on the corners, and then running into the dias below. Alex released a breath, a fog cloud coming out of his mouth as he released the box and stepped away.


    "This is the second time," Erin said, clenching her fist as she watched him. "You seem to be able to do things that no one else can. You were an authorized user of the logbook, and now you have this. Who are you?"


    "I am who I''ve always been," Alex said as the lights across the box grew brighter. "I''m a guy from Earth who was taken to this world. I want to go home, and I''ll do what it takes to get there. What else really matters?"


    "What about all of this?" Erin raised her voice, gesturing to the room around her. "I don''t know anyone who can do this!"


    "Are you saying you can''t trust me?" Alex asked, putting his hands in his duster''s pockets. "What about you? You won''t even tell us who you work for."


    Erin stopped short, biting her lip. It was true that they had worked together for a while now. However, she did not willingly share that she was an agent of the People''s Revolution. Alex also didn''t know it was part of her mission to keep track of him. He was a person of interest to the revolution. His powers and exploits could be one of the keys to taking down the Scions.


    "I did trust you," Erin said, sighing. "When Mister Deadman showed up, I trusted you to finish the fight. I let myself collapse because I knew you would win."


    Alex raised an eyebrow and looked at her. He exhaled and took his hands out of his pockets before reaching out and touching the box again. He looked down at his hands.


    "I don''t know, and that''s the truth," Alex said. "I don''t know why I can do these things. I assume it has to do with the experiments, but it took me three years to get my mind back after escaping August. The things I did there—I warped the world itself with an island core, and that did something to my mind. If I hadn''t been knocked away from it, I would have turned August into a black spot. I don''t even remember most of the lab anymore. I just remember the old man that helped keep me sane."


    "I work with the People''s Revolution," Erin said, the strain in her mind releasing as the information flowed out from her. "I joined it to help people."


    Alex looked at her with widened eyes, but he nodded. At that moment, a bridge had been built between them. For the first time since they had met, they had shared something openly with each other, holding nothing back. Maybe they could make it stronger, but that would take time.


    Click. Hiss.


    White mist streamed out from the box as the lid of it clicked open. Alex locked his gaze on the lid, but Erin stepped back, covering her mouth out of instinct. She had far too many experiences in her life of mysterious gases. She only stopped when she realized that Alex hadn''t moved at all.


    A bright white light shone out from the crack as the lid was pushed back and to the side, metal arms holding it in place as it revealed what was hidden inside. Alex gasped out a breath as he looked down at its contents, and Erin had to get closer to see.


    The white light shone up at her as she looked inside.