Lena is no longer able to differentiate reality from fiction. Or at least, that's what she thinks is happening.

She drifts in and out of consciousness, unaware of time—ironic, because that other dimension is time. When she's in that dark place, she gets glimpses of things that do not make sense or do not add up. And when she thinks she is awake—though she isn't aware of her body at all
—he's there, even if it is somehow impossible Caelus still sticks around even after however long Lena's suspended in her current state, in various parts of reality. That's why it's easy to think she's dreaming. In so many variants of how the present unfolds, the constant is always him.

She has tried to call out to him several times, to no avail. Just like back when this first happened, Lena feels as if she's a floating soul, watching everything unfold without having control over her own body. Thankfully, she isn't at all destructive this time—but she doesn't exactly know if that's for better or worse, watching her lifeless body wake and fall back into unconsciousness repeatedly, where she herself returns to that realm of possibilities.

It burns. Unlike last time, this time she feels powerless. She'd had the world—literally—under her fingertips, everything beyond reach. She watched every scenario unfold, every timeline and every universe ready for her control. And yet now, her power source is gone.

Glass. She needs glass, the medium of her abilities. Without it, she can't do anything.

With that realization in mind, she blindly reaches out into the void. How is she here, when there's no weapon for her? A part of her panics; the other, more sinister part of her she never knew existed until the drug is slowly guiding her along, coaxing her to let go. To release herself.

But the last time she had went down—the last time she felt powerful—Lena had sent people flying across dimensions, never to return.

She doesn't want that. While most of them deserved it, she doesn't want her abilities to spiral out of her own jurisdiction.

But the second she becomes aware and yearns for control, some unknown force brings her back down. It takes over—not entirely, but enough.

And it's the worst thing that can possibly happen.

Every time she wakes, she can only watch as she destroys. Everywhere around her, things are shifting, items destroyed. She doesn't know what's happening, except that she needs to reach for a glass surface. And whenever the smallest of possibility comes within a certain range, her powers are unleashed, with no way of telling what she'd manipulated every time. She can be changing the future or destroying the past, and nothing can stop her. She has all the power in her to change fates.

She thinks back to the time where Caelus had approached her after blowing away every last piece of shard. And yet, there was that minute piece that he couldn't get rid of; her ability, heightened, had urged her toward it. It was on Caelus. Just a tiny piece of glass—and yet a powerful doorway. A portal.

What had she done then?

She recalls now that she'd been all but defenseless with all the glass pieces around her taken away from her. Lena had reached for Caelus in the aftermath, but was she really, or was it the other being now existing in her soul, beckoning Caelus closer because he had her weapon on him?

With this realization, she tries to remember. Even tries to undo it by will alone in this dark dimension, despite knowing how. There is no telling what damage she'd done—

This knowledge is earth shattering—the possibility of what she might have done to this world, considering her abilities—that she surfaces with a gasp.

And she wakes, fully conscious and fully aware of her body. This time, she feels everything: the sweat on her palms, sticking onto her skin; the hot and cold feeling; the tough ground beneath her. The solid arms around her, protective.

She's back to the present—back here, even if she'd felt so lost for so impossibly long. Something has happened, she just doesn't know what yet. Lena is so sure this is one of her many past flashbacks that she only feels grounded the moment she hears the voices around her.

Arcana is saying something; Lieutenant Raines and Viktas closing in. Caelus doesn't look like he's going to let her go.

It's all familiar, and yet... Lena feels herself itching to reach for that particular piece of glass on Caelus. But this time, she stops herself. She pushes down that strange urge, and thinks solemnly that this might be the result of her going back in time. There is simply no other explanation and no way only moments have passed; she's been stuck in that dark place for as long as she can remember, watching helplessly as possibilities blur past her. Watching, as potential memories she can't recall or scenarios she doesn't know if real unfold.

She wonders what the future had been, and what had she changed in order to get here. A quick glance around through weary eyes tells her that the damage she'd done to some of the people is still irreversible.

It takes everything in her to suppress that demon inside her, waiting to be unleashed. Her hands are fisted so tight her palms are now bleeding from the pressure of her fingernails; her lip bitten and swollen.

But she needs to stay tethered here, in the now. She focuses on Caelus instead of the glass pieces calling to her.

As if sensing her movements and summoned by thought alone, Caelus turns to her, his eyes searching hers. There's something she can't read in his eyes, but she thinks he's rather bewildered.

She looks at him now, and between blinks she can see various forms of him, different in shifting scenarios, including a locked away memory of a young boy that reminds her of him. Still, he's always around.

It's so difficult to fight this push and pull; herself reaching for him, and the other part of her yearning for control of the glass piece. Her shaking hand is outstretched without her realizing it, reaching for that glass piece stuck on Caelus' uniform.

Alarmed, Caelus lets go of her only to take both her hands in his, gripping them hard after surveying her palms. "No," he says rather apologetically, then, turning to the approaching guards—what remains of them, anyway—he reasons, "Your priority right now isn't getting to her. I doubt she'd let you, given the situation. Instead, you should be getting every single piece of glass away from her reach."

As he says so, he follows Lena's starved line of sight to himself, then brushes off the remaining sparkles of glass—however small—away, all while keeping her in check. She thinks she whimpers when the last bit of glass is taken away, and her body sags into Caelus, either in relief or defeat, she doesn't know.

That's being reasonable, Lena thinks. And yet, the question burns her alive: why isn't he afraid of her? The others are wary; some of them perished by her own two hands. She feels sick, knowing what she's done even if some of them deserved it, just like Erebus, who's now gone without a trace. Caelus still sticks around despite what she's done. And he's even defending her.

All her mind is thinking is how she wants everything erased, and that's a dangerous thought to be having, because she can just about do so if only she fights for it—

"Please," Lena barely makes out, but she doesn't know what she's asking for.

The hold on her hands tightens. Caelus says, "Hold out, just for a little longer."

"What did I do? I've did something bad, Caelus, I don't think I can reverse it without triggering something else, I—"

"It's not your fault," he reassures her, then holds her closer just as footsteps approach.

Another set of footsteps, more urgent, mix into the fray, and Lena hears Arcana say, "We have other things to worry about."

Lena closes her eyes, trying to drown out all the voices, including the one inside her.

That's why she doesn't hear what the rest of them are saying after that, and the reason she's surprised when the voices leave without further argument or interruption.

She opens her eyes slowly, lifting heavy lids. Lena half expects the scene to have change, and she does look somewhere other than Caelus to check—in all of her visions, he's always there for some unknown reason.

It's still the present. And this time, other than Caelus, Arcana is within proximity. The headmaster of Arcane Academy is talking in hushed tones to his ace, and when he turns his attention to Lena, his face is almost apologetic.

Sure enough, he says, "I wish we didn't have to do this."

That doesn't sound like good news. Lena's own defeat doesn't stop the foreign substance in her from reacting to that in alarm. She couldn't stop the raw scream and primal instinct that push her to lash out, trying to summon every glass shard in vicinity. While they're all far away, she pushes beyond her limits, and feels the ground shake in response.

Arcana and Caelus both look at each other, then around them, where pieces of shattered glass begin shaking and levitating toward their master. If it were anyone else, this will easily be the reason for them to either let go, turn away or even attack Lena in defense. But the people before Lena are the headmaster of Arcane Academy who has one of the most forbidden types of ability, as well as one of the six strongest ability users in the City of Leatia, and they do not so much as flinch. Instead, before Lena can do any real damage, Arcana looks on standby to use his own lethal ability if need be, while Caelus casually builds up a storm barrier to contend with Lena's heightened, unusual abilities.

Amidst the whirlwind, she hears his voice. "Do you trust me?"

Strangely enough, that seems to bring out something in Lena—the real her that's buried within this new monster. Once again, she manages to control herself, taking a deep breath and ground herself to reality. It's barely in check, her abilities, but she is almost sure Caelus' abilities die down alongside hers. While this is a given victory for her to suppress her violence, she isn't sure this is a long term solution. She can barely move her body without losing herself to that urge to unleash her abilities on the world.

Still, she manages, "Yes."

A mixture of emotions cross Caelus' purple eyes, and Lena wonders if it's her heightened abilities that grant her this higher sense of awareness toward him as she senses first relief, then hesitation, and something akin to regret.

Something bubbles beneath the surface of her skin, boiling her blood. Lena snaps that chamber close; if she can trust anyone at all, it'll be Caelus.

"Maybe we don't need—" Caelus begins, but Arcana interrupts somewhat politely.

"While it appears that she's been in control since... a moment earlier"—Lena can see Arcana inclining his head slightly and turning to the side, where Lieutenant Raines and Viktas are organizing the remaining guards—"this isn't going to work, with her being so unpredictable. I barely convinced them to let us handle it—seeing as Lena is my student—with that one condition. If we are somehow discovered to be incapable to keep her in check, it's not only the consequences of her abilities that we have to worry about. The authorities will then have a reason to take her away. You know they're already keen on doing so, and will not hesitate at any given opportunity. We're only granted this one chance because I have them on blackmail."

All those are enough of a reason for Caelus to relent, "Fine. But she's coming with me. I'll even take full responsibility." His gaze leaves Lena only for a moment, to look at his mentor seriously. "Please."

"I wasn't planning on letting her out of our sights" is Arcana's gentle reply. When he next addresses Lena, he says, "I'm sorry for this."

The headmaster's apology scares her, but she doesn't lose control this time, because Caelus' hand finds its way to hers, and he holds her gently at first before squeezing it tightly as if as a reminder of his presence. Lena barely notices the weight of a pair of heavy metal clasps closing in around her wrists, cool and foreign to the touch.

She gasps softly and her energy drains, and something in her dies out. Only a void is left, and this sensation isn't something she enjoys feeling at all.

Lena doesn't recall making a sound, but she might have whimpered or something, because Arcana says again, "I'm sorry. This was the only way."

Feeling numb, Lena lifts her head with whatever remaining strength she has left and looks down to her hands, where she finds that surprisingly, Caelus still has his hand around one of hers. That may as well be the reason she takes in her new situation calmly: the metal bands over her wrists.

Suppressors.

Of course. That can guarantee she never uses her abilities. But this anti ability technology is keeping more than her abilities at bay. How can anyone stand this being on them for longer than a few minutes?

Lena tells herself it's for the best. She won't be able to lose control and harm anyone within her range at any given time. And yet she finds herself asking when this torture will end.

Arcana gets up and head toward the other government figures. Lena realizes that she can't hear them, and her vision is equally as blurry. Panicking but with no strength to fuel that emotion, she can merely wonder if she's about to go under again, even with the suppressors on.

She doesn't want to close her eyes. She's afraid of what she might find—and what she might do.

Her hands reach out blindly, and in the process she faintly remembers Caelus trying to take her hand back. While she trashes, he holds her closer, whispering something she barely makes out. She thinks he says, "Don't give them a reason to take you."

"Stay," she makes out. Every blink of her eye takes her back to the infinite possibilities, and it scares her. "Stay with me, Caelus, please."

"I never intend to leave you like that, Lena," he replies softly.