Lyn bolted out of the restaurant. Sure enough, she spotted Cydney a few miles away, walking back to the hotel that they were living in and looking deep in thought.

"Cinna!" she called out.

Cydney saw her, but instead of smiling or greeting, she swiftly turned her head away and continued walking. Well, that was not a reaction Lyn was used to at all. Picking up her pace, she caught up to the petite girl.

"Cinna, why'd you leave?" Lyn grabbed her hand. "Come back, there's this really good cake that I think you'll like."

Cydney's eyebrows twitched. "I'm tired. I'm going back to the hotel to rest." She glanced at Lyn before adding, "You should go back to your Pumpkin."

So Cydney did overhear the conversation. Lyn gulped. She had never seen the sweet little Cinnamon this angry before.

"Cinna..." she asked, staring at the sulking girl delicately, "are you... are you jealous?"

"N- No!" Cydney's face turned pink. "Why would I be?" With that, she started marching even faster towards the hotel.

Lyn was not sure if she should be feeling happy or sad about this. A strange, tingling sensation filled her chest, and she let out an exasperated chuckle. "Cinna, why would you even be jealous of a random girl? You know I'm the nicest to you."

"You're nice to everyone."

"But I'm the nicest to you. Look, I'm not going back to the restaurant, I'm going back to the hotel with you."

"Whatever..." Cydney mumbled, but her tone was softening.

The city had arranged a hotel suite for the five of them, with a spacious living room connected to three bedrooms. Raph, being the only dude on the team, got a room to himself. Cydney and Millie shared a room while Lyn and Irene shared the other. When they reached the hotel, Cydney grabbed a bag from her room and emptied the contents onto the coffee table in the living room.

It was a strange assortment of items: a pair of large, emerald earrings; a stained clutch wallet that was tearing on the sides; an old mascara tube; and lastly, a strange, rectangular piece of metal. Along with all of that was also a standard textbook for enhancer magic that Lyn recognized.

Lyn frowned. "Oh, are you enhancing something right now? Making your new weapon?"

Cydney nodded. "These are the only objects I can do magic on."

"Just these?"

Lyn stared curiously at the items. She could sense nothing special about them, but then again, she wasn't an enhancer mage. She picked up the strange metal object and examined it. It was black and glossy and had a flat, rectangular shape that fits nicely on the palm. Dirty plastic covered one side of the object, and a layer of glass covered the other. She had never seen anything like this before.

"This should be perfect," she suggested. "It's metal, so it should be the easiest for you to transmute to a sword."

Cydney shook her head. "That's too important. I don't want to touch that."

Instead, she selected one of the emerald earrings. Tossing it into the air, she floated and twirled the gemstone around her fingers. It pulsated with different brightness, molded into different shapes, and stretched into different sizes. While working on these transformations, Cydney flipped through the pages in the textbook, frowning in concentration and muttering to herself.

This was the standard enhancer magic routine. Lyn had seen a few of her fighter friends study their new designated weapons like this before. From experience, she knew that it was going to take a couple of hours. Resigning herself to be ignored, she laid on the couch and picked up the strange metal object again.

She flipped it around a couple of times. It was seriously just a weird piece of... thing. There were some tiny buttons on the side that she could press, but nothing happened after she pressed them. Why would this seemingly useless item be 'too important' for Cydney to use as a weapon?

The longer she observed the metal object, the stronger something within it tingled—the same exciting sensation whenever she raised her hands to the clouds, whenever she felt the charges in the air.

Lightning.

For some inexplicable reason, Lyn sandwiched the metal object between her fingers and pressed. Her fingertips sparkled, and a flare of electricity zapped across the metal block.

Instantly, the glass part of the metal object lit up and turned bright white. Lyn was so startled that she almost dropped it.

"Hello, Sin-Ni Yen." A message in block letters appeared on the white surface.

Sin-Ni Yen? That sounded like Cydney Yen. Was that Cydney's real name? And if so, was this a message for her? Cydney had never been able to send a message using basic magic, so was this some kind of a magicless way to communicate?

Lyn's brain was inundated with questions. She peered at Cydney, who was still poring over the textbook. The small earring around her fingers was now a shiny, green dagger.

"Cinna," Lyn probed, "I, uh, think you have a message?"

Cydney barely registered Lyn's words. "Hm?"

"I think someone is saying hello to you? Do you want to message back?"

Lyn tried to show Cydney the words. Unfortunately, they had disappeared from the metal object. All that was left on the white surface was a silhouette of a half-eaten apple. Huh.

"Oh never mind, it's gone now. It's just showing an apple now."

Hearing that, Cydney jumped up suddenly. Her newly-transformed dagger crashed onto the floor as she ran towards Lyn and snatched up the metal object. She stared wildly at it, gripping it as though it was the most precious thing to her.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

Oh no. Lyn's heart turned to stone as she realized that she had probably done something very, very wrong. She cursed at herself once again. She had already rendered Cydney's sword useless because of her elemental magic, so why did she stupidly use it again? And worst of all, use it on something that Cydney cherished?

"I'm so, so sorry, Cinna, I- I don't know what came over me. I- I used my magic on it—"

"Of course!" Cydney broke into a smile, her voice filled with elation. "You charged it!"

Once again, Lyn was taken aback by Cydney's reaction. Before she could say anything, Cydney lunged forward and hugged her in the waist, knocking the air off of her lungs, and almost knocking her off the couch too.

"Oh, thank you so much, Lyn! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"No- No worries, Cinna," Lyn stammered; her heart felt like it was beating through her chest. "I'll do it again for you anytime."

She genuinely had no idea what she did that was making Cydney so happy, but she was glad that Cydney was no longer mad at her.

"So, what is this thing?" Lyn asked. "Some kind of a messaging device?"

"Yeah," Cydney replied, looking at the metal block with such endearment that Lyn felt embarrassingly jealous of an inanimate object. "It doesn't work anymore, though."

The apple silhouette disappeared from the metal object, and then, to Lyn's surprise, a picture of Cydney appeared.

A sharp gasp escaped Lyn's throat. That was the most beautiful picture of Cydney she had ever seen. It was the same Cydney, with the same round eyes and adorable cheeks. But the eyes were a lot brighter, as though they were bursting with energy, while the cheeks were bulging out a lot more from the biggest and warmest smile Lyn had ever seen. This Cydney in the picture was the most cheerful and happy person in the world.

"Cinna!" Lyn gushed. "This is you!"

"Yeah. Me, seven years ago." Cydney smiled wistfully. Compared to the picture, the real Cydney seemed... a lot more tired and sad.

Lyn could not take her eyes off the picture. "You're seriously so beautiful."

Cydney chuckled. "Do you want to see more?"

She swiped her fingers along the glass surface of the metal object. Lyn watched in awe as an explosion of colors, shapes, and pictures appeared. And then, as Cydney promised, yet another picture of Cydney appeared. This time, the young girl was posing in front of a giant ice cream sandwich, her mouth wide open, all ready to eat it.

"Cinna..." Lyn gaped longingly at the picture. She could not believe this side of Cydney that she was seeing—playful, cheery, lively, and so, so happy. Oddly, as thrilled as she was to see these pictures, Lyn also felt as if her heart had been stabbed with a thousand daggers.

Why had she never seen Cydney like this in real life?

Cydney swiped her finger again, revealing a picture of herself with three other people.

"This is my mom, and my dad, and my younger brother," Cydney explained as she pointed to each person. In the picture, Cydney was laughing, while her younger brother, who was a head taller than her, sulked by the side. "I was bullying my brother right before this photo was taken, that's why he's looking so grumpy."

"I didn't know you have a brother."

"Yeah, but I haven't seen him or... any of my family in... years." Cydney's voice croaked.

Lyn's eyes widened. "Cinna, why... why can't you see them? Can't you... Can't you go home?"

Cydney gazed at the picture of her family blankly. "I don't know how."

"What do you mean you don't know how?" Lyn sat up anxiously. "Where are you from? Tell me, and I'll help you figure out how."

Cydney did not reply. She swiped her finger again, and this time, a moving picture appeared. Young Cydney was dancing to a song that Lyn had never heard before. Her moves were so fluid and her face was so expressive. Lyn could not help but squeal with joy at the utter beauty and elegance of it.

"You're a dancer, Cinna?"

"Once upon a time."

For the next few minutes, Cydney continued showing Lyn even more pictures of herself. Lyn found herself learning so much about this woman she had worked with for the past month. Her friends, her family, her teachers, her various dance performances... It felt like Lyn was learning about Cydney all over again, and she loved every bit of it.

A photo of Cydney next to a boy appeared. He had his hand around her shoulders, and their cheeks were pressed against each other. They were both smiling, but Cydney's smile was particularly... contented.

"Oh... who is this?" Lyn tried to ask as casually as she could.

"Oh, he's... Imran. He's... He was my boyfriend."

"He... was?"

"Yeah. I mean, I never broke up with him or anything. I just... haven't seen him in years." Cydney's voice was trembling as she let out a sigh. "I hope he's... with someone else now."

Lyn did not feel relieved by that answer. As much as she hated to admit it, Cydney had never looked at her the way that she was looking in this picture, and Cydney might never look at her this way ever. But there was one thing for certain: Lyn wanted nothing more in her life than to see Cydney this happy again.

"Cinna, let me help you," Lyn pleaded. "I'll do anything in my power to bring you home, to bring you back to your family, and your friends... and- and your boyfriend. Please just tell me how I can help. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it, you know that right?"

Tears welled in Cydney's eyes. Lyn quickly reached her hand out and wiped them away.

"Don't cry, Cinna," she muttered gingerly. "Let me help you. Please."

As always, Cydney did not reply. She forced a smile and changed the topic. "Do you want to hear some of my favorite songs from the past?"

Apparently, the metal object even had the capability to play music, which blew Lyn's mind once again. The songs that Cydney was letting her listen to were some of the most bizarre songs she had ever heard—the lyrics were either terrible or just nonsensical made-up words. Young Cydney also seemed to be especially obsessed with songs by a group of men that called themselves 'One Direction'.

"This guy's hair is funky," Lyn pointed out as they listened to the tenth One Direction song.

"Yeah, that's my favorite guy." Cydney giggled. "Do you want to listen to another one of their songs?"

Remnants of the cheery, carefree Cydney crept back the more songs they listened to, so Lyn was more than happy to oblige.

"Of course, Cinna."

They spent the rest of the night listening to music, looking through more pictures, talking, and laughing. As the night wore on, they fell asleep next to each other on the couch.

ϟ☁ϟ☁ϟ

A/N: Whelp, I guess one of this book's major plot twists is finally out: Cydney was a One Direction fan! xD