"I...I" Nicholai didn't say anything, instead, she ran away.

"Hey!" I went over to run after her, but I felt a hand on my shoulder

"Don't" I heard Lee's voice, I turned, did he even know?

"Lee, Ni-

"I know...I know" I was surprised, Lee knew and he let it happen? Why!?

"B-But!"

"No, It had to be this way, it took me awhile, but...I understand, I'm sorry" Sorry? 

"What are you apologizing for? Nicholai was the one wh-

"I did Crystal, I shot Sam" H-huh? How could he do that? Shoot his best friend? I-I don't understand. "Hate me all you want, but don't blame Nicholai for it, if it wasn't for her decision, we'd all be dead" Is this meant to reassure me?

"What's with you!? Sam was your friend wasn't she!?"

"Yes, b-

"But you revive Kenneth and not her!? Why is that the case then!?" I didn't understand, what's with him? How could he go back on his word?

"If I failed, which was almost guaranteed, it'd cause her so much suffering, I couldn't do that to her" I looked to the floor

"So...there was no choice?" Sam's death was inevitable...damn it...why did the only person I could talk to about everything die?

"There..." Lee went from looking at me, to the floor "There was no choice" I think I understood now, not everything, but a decent amount, a part of me couldn't accept it, I didn't want to believe it. Lee took his hand off my shoulder "If you do want to talk with Nicholai, please, don't blame her, she's been through a lot today" I nodded, I went to catch up to Nicholai, I wanted to apologize, I said it in the heat of the moment, but a part of me knew I believed what I said, and so, I wanted to say that I was sorry. 

Soon, I made it to our personal quarters, these quarters were just for us, Bravo team, I heard music to my left, and when I turned I saw a sleeping Nicholai who had tears drying on her face, and Kenneth, who had a candle on the middle of the table, reading a book

"Kenneth..." I didn't expect Kenneth to be here, I thought he was doing something else

"It's alright, I think Nicholai knows you didn't mean it" He knew what I wanted to say...did I get mad at people that much? So much that they can tell when I'm apologizing?

"Yeah..." I sat on the chair beside him "What're you reading?" Kenneth closed the book, using his thumb to keep his place

"I don't really think it's for kids your age" He said it with such a cocky smile, I knew he was joking but it still pissed me off

"You forget how old I am? I'm not twelve anymore!" I said in a joking manner, and not an angry one, I had begun to shut out what happened earlier.

"Well, ask Lee" Huh?

"He suggested it to me, he liked it, although he said it should be given to younger kids...and no, he wasn't calling me young" Curiosity got the better of me and I looked at the cover and author, by my surprise, it was my book

"Lee held on to it?" Without me noticing I smiled

"Yeah, I mean, it was the first thing you gave to him, and it was a good read anyways" I couldn't tell if it was a lie or not, I wrote it when I was 1-...' not kids your age' huh? Damn, how did I not realize that sooner, he was telling me from the start! "What's the matter, you seem like you realized something" His smug face was obvious

"Prick!" I joked about and Kenneth went with it

"How rude, my feelings, they're hurt..." I may have been a teen, but it felt like I was a little kid again, and Kenneth was acting like that cool, kind, and comforting Uncle "You know, you and Lee share a lot in common, maybe you two could come to an understanding" And now that feeling was gone "Why do you even hate him?" This again, these twins love asking me this question.

"It's classified, but, I'll try and be more "Friendly" With him" I said friendly in a condescending tone

"That's all I can ask for...you know this story has a few plot holes" He immediately changed the topic back to the book I wrote

"Damn you! I know! I had a strict deadline for school!" Kenneth smiled at my response

"You and Lee really are alike" I didn't see how, the only thing we had in common was DNA and hair, anything else is different, our gender, our attitude towards others, how we eat, literally everything. "By your face, I assume you don't believe me, well, I can't force you to believe things..." Kenneth looked at his wrist, a blinking light was flashing, I looked down at my wrist, the same light was blinking

"Those things are getting close, we gotta start the train" I got up and headed for the command car(The driver car, Crystal calls it the Command car)

"Not just close, some are already on the train, they're in the way back so they haven't attacked anyone yet, start the train and join us in the back" Kenneth put the book down and headed for the back of the train. I entered the Command car and saw Matt

"I got it! Just go help Kenneth" From his voice he knew what was going on, the train slowly but surely started up, now it was just a matter of dealing with those things. When I passed through our quarters again I saw Nicholai sleeping, I went to wake her up, but no matter how much I shook her she wouldn't wake up,

"Damn it, why are you such a heavy sleeper!?" Wasting anymore time could change the tide, I decided to leave her, if we fight them and win they won't even touch the front of the train, so she'll be fine. "Kenneth!" While running through the empty cars I called for Kenneth, hoping I'd catch up in time, the empty cars gave me a feeling of unease yet pride, if they're all empty, and not in the front, it means they're fighting, it made me proud to be a DT, I still hated it though.

As I made it to one of the cars in the back I began to see gunfire and I saw Kenneth with his bow, firing explosive arrows. Those things, the Monsters we were fighting looked like the corrupted, but they had some bones floating in their transparent form, some even had skulls on where their face would be, right, these people used to be DTs, one of us, and now...they became that.

"Crystal! Help the people evacuate to the front, then come back and fight with us!" There weren't many people helping with the evacuation, so while I may hate Lee, I understood his choice,

"Got it! Just hold on a bit" I ran over to a kid who was cowering under a table "Come on, you don't have anything to be worried about" I reached for the kid when I heard something bang against the floor, I turned to the noise and saw one of the monsters about to kill a man, the man couldn't move, I questioned it at first but then saw his leg bleeding. I got up and ran towards him, tackling the guy before he could be killed "Here!" One of the powers of DTs is to summon things we desummoned, and that includes everyday items, so I summoned a crutch I used months ago. At first, it was only a small amount with minor cracks, but now the entire roof of the car had been torn off, allowing more to enter. I ran back to the kid, he was still scared "Come on kid, we have to go" The kid looked at me but then focused on something else, he got up from the table and ran "Hey!" I turned but I saw him hugging what looked like his parents, that's settled then

"Crystal, what's going on?" I saw Zach coming from the other car

"Those things are here! Come on! Help me with evacuation!" I saw so much more kids, damn it, I didn't have time to save them all! This was pure chaos, then I had an idea "Lee!" A few seconds after I called him he came through the monster that tried attacking the man from earlier, killing it.

"What is it?"

"If I remember, this car wasn't important, let's cut it!" Lee looked behind him, looking at the chaos

"Yeah, let's get everyone out, then we'll cut the car, we'll hold them off, if you need support just call one of us" I nodded at Lee. When I looked behind me I saw Matt helping with evacuation as well, heh, that was unexpected, I thought he'd fight if anything. I looked around, it seemed like more people were helping with the evacuation, there was no one else to help, not from what I could see, so I decided to join up with Lee on top of the train.

"They're still working on getting people out, but I can help now" I summoned my sword, twirling it, then getting into a stance.

"Good, Kenneth, Lend me your power!" I saw Lee's eye glow as his sword and hand became electrified. RIght, the team link that allows you to share powers, I still didn't have it due to the shortage. I transformed my sword into a sniper, I was still inexperienced, if they're already having issues with them as veterans then I can only imagine how long I'd last in a fight against them. I couldn't do a damn thing though, I don't know what power Lee used before I got here, but his speed was beyond comprehending, and with his electricity sparking all over the place I had no choice but to shoot at the things farther back

"We're good!" I heard Matt shout from below us. Lee slid down in between the cars, with me following him shortly. Lee tried shooting it with his sword, it had no effect

"Great" He then tried slashing it, nothing 

"I got it" Matt moved in front of Lee, planting an explosive "Let's go!" We moved into the other car while Matt pressed on the trigger to the detonation handle. I see Lee try to grab something that was in the air, but we all got out of the explosion's range sooner or later.

"What was that? Why'd you try and go back in?" I question Lee, and all he did was take out a ring "And what's that?"

"It's what allows me to time travel, I almost have it fixed, and unless you wanna stay in this hell, I wouldn't call it useless" Me and Lee were already back on arguing terms, that little peace treaty that I promised was already gone, meh, it didn't matter, Lee was already intolerable with Sam, he would only get worse.

"Forget it, we should just focus on how the evacuation went" Matt cut off out arguing, it was probably for the best he did

"Right, I'll handle this car, there are probably more in the other cars, so we should take one car each" Lee looked around for a bit "Where's Kenneth?" Worry started to set in, was he still on the other car?

"I'm fine, god, you guys are blind" Kenneth was behind us, he called us blind yet I was sure he wasn't there before

"Blind? You probably just cloaked" I argued, which resulted in him looking at the separated car we were leaving

"I don't know what you mean" A few seconds after I began to feel exhausted, tonight was an absolute nightmare, Sam, the car, so much happened, I began to feel like I wanted a break.

"What happened?" Nicholai came into the car panicked, I guess she was asleep so it made sense

"Those things got onto the train, we had to cut a car, it's fine though, we were able to handle it" Kenneth began to explain what happened while I walked past them, going to a different car to see how the evacuation went.

Overall, the situation seemed dire, it went from an equally spaced population to a massive car's worth of people attempting to fit into some storage spaces. I began counting, the car's populous before was 2000, this car held 250 people, I had a feeling the other cars wouldn't add up to the total. Kids were missing, and some kids who were here were looking for their parents

"Damn you Raymond" I hated him, abandoning his people, forcing me to fight alongside a bunch of rogue kids, and from what I heard from Lee, an incident happened during the trial that Lee was in, and the apology was terrible...hold on, a corruption attack during one of the most jam-packed events that aren't revealed to the public until they're about to start, then this, it was a weird and terrible idea, but what if there was someone on the train that was with the corrupted, it was, like I said, a very stupid idea, but it made some sort of sense, how else would those things know where the train was? Unless they could sense corruption...I looked over at Lee, his eye was still messed up horrifically, and it was clear his arm was still damaged, otherwise, he would've easily cut that coupling off even I know that, and yet....and...no, this is the one thing I shouldn't blame Lee for, not even he would kill people on this train, Sam's situation was clear enough.

"At this rate, we won't be able to stop the train anymore" Nicholai was behind me "Getting supplies is going to get harder, refilling is going to be near impossible" Her voice was getting more and more panicked

"I guess that is the case isn't it..." That ring that Lee had...it was our final hope, if that ring goes missing or breaks, or if we can't even fix it, then we're full-on screwed.

"Hey, Nicholai" I got her attention "Kenneth can fix things right?"

"I wouldn't say everything, but I guess?" Her voice was still slightly panicked, but she calmed down a slight bit

"What're the chances that Kenneth can fix Lee's ring?" After hearing my question, Nicholai opened the door to the other car

"Kenneth!" Kenneth soon came over "Lee's ring, do you think it's fixable" Kenneth looked a bit mad

"How many times do I have to say it, yes, it can, I'm just looking for a certain piece, which would be one of our resupplies we're stopping at" One word in the sentence worried me

"Would?" I emphasized the word, Kenneth isn't the type that would use words carelessly unless he was joking

"If those things knew where we were, then someone is clearly being a waypoint for them, meaning we can't stop, which I assume you all already know, so, unless we make this our final supply run, we can't stop, and the piece I need is supposedly deep in the facility" Kenneth crossed his arms, he probably began to realize the situation we were in, but I had a few more ideas

"Hold on, why not use other survivor camps" I said with a smile

"Most if not all of them are dead or infected" But Matt, talking from the other car, shot it down almost immediately after I said it.

"Okay, then we can just use the cars (The ones humans drive, not the train cars), and when we get it, use the cars to catch up to the train then hook the car onto the train like Nicholai did before" I kept throwing ideas, hoping one would work

"That's what I thought, but then we'd lose a ton of gas, fulling the cars, then using even more gas using the hook, so it would be our last supply run due to our lack of fuel" Damn it, but I wouldn't give up

"I got it, what if we have the people get the material t-

"Isn't this the same idea?" Kenneth cut me off

"Would you let me finish?" Then it was silence "As I was saying! We gave the people who're getting the material wait there until the train comes along, since the train conserves a ton of fuel, we'll have enough for the train to circle Eaxura four times and we'll only have to go around twice, that way we can have them go on foot so we don't have to fuel the cars, and we don't need the hooks" Everyone thought for a few seconds, Kenneth was the first to respond

"Yeah, that seems like a good idea" Kenneth uncrossed his arms and began writing something

"There's two issues in it, and two major ones" Lee's concern was clear, I was ready to hear it, this was something I couldn't be stubborn about "What about those things? We'll encounter them across the way I'm sure, so it's clear we'll have to be stealthy but we're on a timer, meaning we can't be slow. That's just one issue, the other is the fact that Kenneth needs to fix it, taking up even more time so we have to make it back on the second go around, hell, we don't even know if Kenneth will have enough time if we do it perfectly" To be fair, I never thought of either of those when I made the plan "But...it is the best idea we have, alright, we'll have Nicholai as our handler, me, S...Crystal, Kenneth, and Matt will go after that piece that Kenneth needs"

"No...No Lee, you're staying" Lee looked confused, I knew I'd have to make him see my way

"What? Why not?"

"Lee, you're a mess, your eye, your arm, your mental state, you need rest!" I may have hated him, but even I knew when Lee needs to stop

"I can still go! We need to be stealthy anyways, I don't need my arm, I doubt the material will be that heavy for just a ring." Lee, was being as stubborn as ever, and the others were just letting me handle it, heh, letting two really stubborn people fight it out, I can't blame them

"How stupid can you be!? Only you know how to work that stupid ring! If you die then we'll all die! Are you fine with that!?" If you told me what I just said was stupid I'd agree, after all, I practically just told everyone on the train that our chances of death were high.

"...fine....so be it" Lee finally stood down "At the very least take this" Lee tossed me a case, when I caught it I noticed how heavy it was "It's a care package, I made it and put it in my inventory just incase, and if I'm not gonna be fighting for awhile then you should have it" The whole inventory thing weirded me out, you can put anything in your hud and no one would know.

"Alright, I'll hold on to it" I put the package in my inventory "So, how soon are we leaving?" I looked at Kenneth, he peeked his head out a window and looked around

"Soon, very soon, I'd say about...thirty minutes" Kenneth sounded sure of himself, I guess there was no reason to question it.

"If that's the case, you all should get ready" Lee walked past us "I'll make sure to take care of everyone here, I can at least do that" His voice was still a bit sorrowful, he must've really wanted to go, maybe he knew where it was and wanted something...I guess the least I could do was find something that Lee may have wanted.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." While they may have thought I was talking about the mission, I was moreso talking about what I had written earlier.

"Well, if you and the others can handle it, then there's no need to worry" Lee had left the car, most likely heading towards Bravo team's quarters

"Now, let's get to preparing" Matt followed Lee, and soon we all did, it was a bit awkward considering the conversation we just had made it sound like we were splitting up, only for us to follow him, then again, our gear was in our quarters, why not in our inventory? Many reasons, but some of us just have it in our rooms for the aesthetic.

Soon we made it to our quarters, it was cold outside so I decided to put on the best coat I had, I had to readjust my holsters but it wasn't too difficult, everything else I had on was fine, so there was no point in changing anything else, I did, however, bring an extra pistol just incase, your average bullets wouldn't kill them, but it would stun them incase we had to run. I went outside of my small room and was greeted by the others

"Ready?" Matt was fiddling with his gloves...glove I meant...he had a robotic arm, he didn't have two gloves, there was no need either if you had a robot arm, from the looks of it we actually all had fingerless gloves, heh, I guess we're a lot similar in our style and logic.

"Yeah, and from the looks you all are as well, let's get to it then" I readjusted the bag on my back 

"Yeah!" Kenneth cheered on, we all went to the front of the train and used our magic to teleport off of it, why not just teleport to it? Many complications and another reason I hate Raymond, he planted MEMPs all over Eaxura, it was an EMP that also took out magic, so getting close to Eaxura's inner cities was suicide, and yet here we were

On our way to save the past, present, and future