Lena is trapped. Again.

She feels as if she is spiraling down into nothingness, with no control on this endless fall.

She's trapped between nowhere and everywhere, but all she can think of is that she may be forgetting something important. And she doesn't want to forget. Not again. Not anymore.

But she doesn't know where this is, only that it's a new form of torture, to endure the endless possibilities stretched out to her but not being able to reach them.

Time isn't a measurement in this place. It's an infinite fall, but she doesn't feel the gravity either.

It's a dark fall with so many glowing lines—but wait, has she seen those before?

When she'd fallen into this dark abyss previously, she can only feel helplessness and fear. Now that she's aware of herself and with the knowledge of what this entails...

Her own mind awakens. After all her training and all the revelations of her abilities, she wonders what she can do. Lena is the one in control, not this void of a dimension—a door leading to endless possibilities.

The visions on glass surfaces she sees, Lena reminds herself, are not random. She can travel in them, through them, because there are worlds within. Her abilities, what they might seem, enable her to see random visions that form on the surface of glass objects. And yet, Lena has since learnt that she can phase through glass, transversing through the space in between so long as she has a glass medium placed somewhere. But the images across glass she sees serve more than mere visions, and glass objects are more than mediums: she had soon discovered that the scenes that shift and appear on glass are actually worlds within—dimensions. And being able to pass through that very medium makes her a trespasser of universes, realms.

Those worlds, Lena comes to realise, are not limited to their own. They act as branches of existences across the universe, of different realities or states the world might be in.

And she had been able to travel back in time a few times now with purpose.

This place, her now awake mind resonates, is the realm of possibilities. A world walker; a time traveller. She reminds herself that's who she is.

Here's she's unseeing, unfeeling. Despite the lack of control in this dimension, there's now something different inside of Lena. While she feels disconnected to her body, there's something powerful churning in her system.

Yes, powerful. And this place, this realm—it's as if the whole universe is under her control, just beyond her fingertips' reach.

She can do anything.

With that in mind, she reaches out, thinking to stop the fall. She wills everything here to obey her. The whole dimension—this whole possibility of multiple timelines laid out for her.

She stops in midair, her fall ceased, defying gravity entirely. Lena is in control.

She weaves through the space—it's like floating in an antigravity room. Before, there were doors. Now, there are glowing lines. Lena approaches them. Touching one of them burns, but the flash of scene she sees burns even more:

A white room. Soldiers guarding up inmates. A table turns, and a fight breaks out. Screaming.

Lena's head is almost splitting in two when she stops whatever that is, only to be plunged into another scenario, no much better than the previous one:

The world is burning down. Is there anyone even alive? An eerie voice echoes: I am in the centre of it all, down on my knees. Screaming in a world where no one will hear me.

Lena blinks, and she finds that she doesn't want to see any more of this. Turning around, she tries to move to another path, only to be greeted by a sudden shift in environment. Her feet touch the ground now, as she faces a dark hallway, infinitely long with just as many doors on both side. It's the same behind her.

Not only does this dimension take different forms, Lena is starting to think it's alive. Every single time she's been here, it's a strange experience on its own. There's something different this time however, because she has never had the experience of seeing things. She barely even touched anything before she's forced back to reality, as if she isn't allowed to.

Which makes her bolder this time around.

She walks forward.

Every door is different in design, but all of them of the same size and tightly shut—that is, until a door to her left is slightly ajar. Lena moves without thinking, grabbing hold of the knob and pulling it open.

Immediately, a blinding white light washes over her, and she's now blinking upward into a pair of purple eyes.

"Lena?"

She's on the ground—or is she? She's aware, awake; and yet she feels... disconnected. It's as if her soul is there but barely able to control her own body. If she's dead—

A familiar face above her is saying something. She barely hears it, but she can see the urgency in the flash of his eyes, even if the rest of his face appears apathetic. Something unravels inside her. It's only then that she hears herself screaming on the inside, and it isn't getting out—she has no control of her body. She's watching, and she's unfeeling. She can do nothing as she screams and calls, but is unable to reach for Caelus.

Her vision jerks, and suddenly she's standing up, Caelus a few feet away from her. He looks as if he's halfway trying to use his abilities, and that he doesn't know what to do with them.

Something else catches her awareness. Another man comes to stand near Caelus—who'd been trying to step closer back to Lena—and Lena recognizes Arcana. When did he get here? He says something to Caelus, before bringing his gaze to Lena. Another thing she notes is the ground full of glass shards. It's a mess, it's a battlefield—and she feels powerful. Even without touching them, barely seeing them, she feels them calling out to her. Not one, not few, but every single piece.

Before she can register Arcana's expression, her vision tilts, and she sees many other people. She tenses at their identical uniforms. Soldiers? Just like the one she'd seen in the flash of a scene—

Two familiar figures: Lieutanent Raines and Viktas. Something unlike what she'd felt when she first become aware of her surroundings bubbles beneath her. If she had been somewhat keen to reach for Caelus, an opposite kind of cruel force fuels her with the need to approach these two, if only to end them. They aren't her allies.

Clouded by this judgement, Lena is dimly aware that her body is moving on its own. They are saying something, but she barely hears anything. She raises her hand as if to test it out. All around her, the soldiers raise some kind of weapon.

They never touch her. The glass shards rise, protecting her. Every single piece either reflects the damage or makes the laser projecting from the guns disappear entirely, perhaps to another dimension.

Pure shock and disbelief cross the features of the two authority figures of higher status. They pull out their abilities, ready to fight. A flash of white appears at Lena's corner, and a blast as strong as how she's feeling right now competes with her safety of a wall from the levitating glass pieces that are hers to command. Caelus appears in the midst of it as she turns halfway to meet him, and while something in her is telling her to tear everything in everyone to pieces, an inner part of her—the real and buried part of her—falters.

Caelus took the opening, but so does the guards. And yet when they approach, this time Caelus himself is the one pushing them back with a storm. He approaches her, his atmosphere fighting against her glass.

That's when she notices the man pinned to the wall at the far end of the way.

Almost forgot you.

A glass shard flies directly toward Erebus, and since the man is stuck to the wall with suppressors, he isn't able to avoid the glass piece from lodging directly into his chest. While it's a narrow wound as a trickle of blood slowly flows down his torso, its mere seconds before the man disappears entirely.

Lena feels the environment around her shift to something dangerous. If it was tense before, it's a landmine now, waiting for the lightest of movements to blow.

She can't say she feels any remorse for that man. He deserves to be sent to the worst ever possible realm—hell, even, if Lena has the say.

And so does everyone else in this room, some part of her whispers. They're going to take you down. They're not going to let you get out of here.

Show them what you can now do.

Lena has no control over what happens next. True to that eerie voice, the guards close in on her. Arcana is at the end of the hallway, trying to argue something across to Viktas and Lieutenant Raines.

No one is able to step near Lena. With every glass piece being at her command, the moment anyone makes a move, they are trapped by the nearest shard, transporting them elsewhere but here.

Lena turns, and two sharp whips of purple angery beams hurtle toward her. Her body is moving on its own as Lena feels further and further away from her own body, this reality, and the whole battle unfolding before her. Glass shards are swept upward as both Viktas' abilities and some more of the uniformed guards lunge for her.

No one and nothing touches her. A burst of glass later, even Viktas' abilities are snuffed out, and more of the soldiers either forced backward or disappearing entirely. Shouting orders, Lieutenant Raines is a mask of calm; on the other hand, Viktas' face is one of shock as his abilities do nothing against her, and she's all but ready to throw a glass shard to make him disappear—

Her glass shards are blocked and scattered by a storm, its force so strong Lena is almost knocked back. The new powerful entity inside her helps keep her on her two feet, and she turns to face the real threat—Caelus.

Her body attacks instinctively, but something in her pulls back. Lena's rage here is unidentified, and uncontrolled. What made her lose control? More importantly, this strength of hers is dangerously boiling to the surface.

Caelus hesitates, holding back, but he doesn't have any reserve for all the glass pieces around Lena. He sweeps them away with his storm, forcefully prying them from her. He says something to the two government officials, Arcana backing him up.

Lena doesn't want to attack. If it's Caelus—

Everyone is your enemy. This is your power.

She tries to pull back, but she's only getting further and further away from her body, disconnected as she watches Caelus try to get her from all the glass pieces. It's a solution, but herself reacts badly and defensively. The glass is hers to command.

Because of the damage done to the room, it's hard to erase all traces of the shattered pieces of glass. They are everywhere in this underground hallway, and Lena feels powerful because of their existence. With them, she can do anything.

Lena's body moves on her own accord, raising the glass shards to fight off Caelus. Can't he of all people see, that she's just bestowing judgement on these people who deserve it? Erebus certainly did; these guards and Viktas—they'd all come to them without warning or explanation, and they have been all but suppressing them in the Arcane Academy.

They don't deserve to be here. As Lena thinks it, her body fights harder. It takes complete control over her final shreds of mentality, using the loose storm from Caelus as an opportunity. She can feel it when a piece of glass grows close to Viktas, and a few of his guards. Before the glass surfaces touch them however, they're again repelled. No, something comes between them. Caelus' atmospheric barrier is so strong and in precise control that it does not allow any more of her deadly weapon to touch anyone in this hallway. She might have caught them off guard initially by sending Erebus away, as well as all the other guards, but they quickly adapt.

One comes close enough to Arcana, but it doesn't affect him. She is uncertain if it's her actual self screaming for her body to stop, or if Arcana himself is powerful enough to stop everything that's happening. Whatever it is, Lena pulls back during those precious seconds, and that moment of hesitation costs her. Caelus forces a storm on her, cutting an opening, and she's barely left with any glass pieces.

Her body goes into fight or flight. Lena doesn't even have control of herself anymore as she watches through her own eyes. Her hands pull some movement and the smaller bits and pieces of glass come together in her defense. She's wide open, but Caelus doesn't seem to allow anyone to get near her. He made the space for them both—knowing she will hesitate.

That part of her does. She pauses, fighting against an invisible string pulled so tight it hurts. Her body. She can't control it. As Caelus cautiously steps forward, something in her snaps: two entities struggling for control. Both her subconscious and her body scream in opposition, her mentality willing all these to stop at once, while her body fights through and sharpens the remaining glass medium that are barely in pieces toward Caelus.

He can't conjure his abilities without hurting her in this confinement. Is she thinking strategically to win and to get out of this, or is she thinking about it because she is desperately reaching for him in her mind?

She's about to go insane.

He doesn't use his abilities, as predicted. Her body attacks without a thought, but Caelus doesn't even care for the shreds of glass that easily permeates his barrier but are not strong enough to cut through him and send him off to another dimension.

His speed is something she doesn't see coming. Her body had been ready to fight Caelus off with abilities, but whatever this foreign entity is in her, it isn't helping her physique as much as it does her ability. Covered in scratches, Caelus reaches her and then forcibly pry her hands from that one glass shard she's been holding to command every other. In a strong gust of wind, Lena can feel him summoning a whirlwind from their point as a centre, scattering her weapon of choice away.

He holds her still, locking her hands in his own shaking grip.

And when the storm clears, she hears something for the first time since Lena had emerged from the darkness: "Don't let her near any glass."

No. But how will she survive without her medium? She struggles, and Caelus has to pull her down to the ground. She can see him hesitating, and that strange, foreign part of her almost use that to her advantage—

"Lena, stop."

His voice shatters something in her. She struggles to breathe, to come to the surface. Her senses are returning slowly—she can now hear, and slowly she begins to feel the toll of using her abilities at such an unknown expanse on her own body.

"Help," she pleads, her voice barely a croak. The gravity of what she'd done begins sinking in, her eyes barely taking stock of the damage around them. "I-I can't control it—"

A hand closes around Lena's shaking ones. "You're back. It's all right."

But her body isn't all right. It's burning, as if it needs a release. She stares into Caelus' eyes, the purple bringing comfort, and still she shudders uncontrollably. Her abilities are boiling just beneath her skin, waiting to be released. Her eyes burn at the inability to do so. She forces that part of her away. If this was the destruction she can havoc, she doesn't want to be that person. She needs to stay in control. Her, not that other part of her hidden just beneath her skin, ready to take over. She grasps thin air, but Caelus firmly closes her hands together with his.

"Take her into custody," Viktas commands somewhere to their right, and footsteps approach.

"Stay back," Caelus warns.

A cool voice advices, "Don't get yourself involved in this, too." Lieutenant Raines. Lena feels as if she hears something else in her voice.

There's shuffling, but no one comes any closer. Lena lifts her head, her eyes blurry, and notices that Caelus is not letting anyone near him—or her. He looks from Lena and then to his surroundings, not a single emotion on his face as he scans the room as if calculating how best he can fight his way out of this situation with Lena in his arms. On cue, he holds her tighter, closer.

He isn't going to let them take her away, she thinks, her heart beating faster. And worse: he might as well be ready to go with her if it comes down to it.

"Caelus, I—" she barely manages a word or two. The pain is starting again, and she can almost feel the nearest available glass shard— "You need to get out of here."

She doesn't say we, like when Caelus first arrived.

Caelus hears the meaning in it, because he looks at her as if she's his undoing, even if he is her very own.

"You clearly underestimate me" is all he says in response.

Arcana steps between them and the authorities, but their voices are growing distant.

Lena can feel that tiny piece of glass shard somewhere on Caelus' person, hidden from everyone but her own abilities. She doesn't know what will happen if she comes into contact with it.

"Caelus," Lena whispers, calling out. Her eyes flutter close as the world spins. He leans closer, and she feels his pulse—and something else. A doorway no one else can peruse.

She doesn't want to go back to that dark place. She doesn't know what will happen if she does, and what will she wake up to—

"I'm here," he replies, before she is swept away again.