Hi everybody! Welcome to the sequel to When It's In Your Hands! It is pretty much required that you read the first book before you read the second one or things may be pretty confusing.

Note, please: THE PLAN HAS CHANGED. Yuu Tendo will NOT be coming back. I am sorry but it is just NOT going to work out. Don't cry! Don't hate me! Just bear with! (He's not really dead, it's just a story!)

With that 'happy' note, we can be getting back to the story.

Enjoy!


Kyouya awakens to dim lights and thin sheets. As the world swims into focus, he can just make out Zayne's voice coming to him.

"...long way."

"No kidding."

The garbled conversation floats in and out of reality until he forces his mind to be quiet a moment and let him think. He sits up, dizzy for a moment, and then grinds the heels of his hands into his eyes to wake himself up.

Zayne notices that he is awake and comes to stand beside him. "It's about time you woke up", he tells him.

"What happened?"

"We've landed at a boarding school. I can't believe the portal worked." Zayne is beaming infectiously, and Kyouya grins back. They've made it. They've really made it.

"Why did I pass out?"

"It happens a lot to travellers", Zayne says. "All that mass running through space and reassembling...it can have a tiring effect."

Kyouya tells himself to stop asking Zayne questions. The answers always make his head hurt.

"You need to get up and eat something. Think you can stand?" Kyouya nods and Zayne helps him up. They walk down the halls together.

The old-school wooden walls of the boarding school are set with big windows, open to the sunlight. Sunlight seemed a thing of the past until now. He marvels: amazing what a little time underground can do to you!

Zayne notices he has stopped in front of a window and comes to join him. Outside the window, on the lawn, high school-aged boys run after a football. Two more boys sit under a tree with notebooks, studying for class.

Here in this corner of the universe, life has gone on as normal. It seems strange and unreal. Zayne taps him. "Kyouya..."

He turns.

"Let's go, OK? It all seems strange right now. But we won't be here long."

We won't be here long? "Why not?"

Zayne shakes his head. "We need to talk to Sabrina. There's a lot to think about right now."

But when they reach the cafeteria, Sabrina isn't there. Tai waves to them cheerily from a table near the wall, where Cythia and Kevin also sit. But there is no sign of the SOS leader.

As they reach the table, Zayne gives Tai a meaningful look. She shakes her head almost imperceptibly. Kyouya is nearly too preoccupied to notice.

Kevin climbs into Cythia's lap to make room for them. Kyouya sits across from him.

"Yoya! Yoya! We beated the aliens all up!" yelled Kevin. "We leaved them all behind! We maked it!"

"I knew we would, kid", Kyouya tells him.

"I knowed it too. Eat da lunch", Kevin tells him, shoving a sandwich into his hands. Kyouya takes it gratefully and it is gone in seconds. Cythia laughs and hands him another one.

"I didn't realise I was so hungry", he says.

"Dimensional travel can have that effect on you. Kevin ate six times that much."

"I'm a little piggy", Kevin says gravely. Cythia shakes her head.


Late that evening, Zayne takes a long walk, giving himself time to think. He could cut straight across the building, but he takes the long way; even for his enhanced mind, there is a lot to consider.

What lies in their future? Where will they go?

He checks his watch. It is nearly eight. The sun outside is half-hidden by the horizon.

He passes students on their way to late classes or their dorms. Half of them will be up late studying. Through open doorways he can hear the sound of coffee pots starting up, ready to keep the students energised throughout the long night. These dorms are as busy after dark as they are in daylight.

Zayne allows his mind to pick up on the signals of the students' brains, lets himself absorb the life and sound of the dorms, but he knows he is only trying to distract himself. He can feel the gears whirring in the heads of the boys, he can feel the water boiling in the coffee pots, he can hear pencils on paper.

He doesn't know where Sabrina is staying. But he knows where to find her.

Zayne reaches the door to the study hall and walks in. A lone figure stands by the windows, made into a silhouette by the light behind her. His footsteps echo on the stone floor and the study hall seems a place suspended in time; there is light there without a source.

Sabrina turns. He can see that she knew he was coming. She always does. She possesses a sixth sense as a leader that he marvels at.

"I think you already know why I'm here", he says softly.

Of course she knows.

"Tai should be here."

"She's stressed."

"We're all stressed", she snaps, and then turns toward the window, pacing and pulling her hands through her hair. "Zhou Xing woke up."

"That's not why I'm here. You're avoiding the subject", he reminds her softly.

"I don't want to think. Luis is gone, I'm really worried about him. You know how he gets." She is babbling agitatedly.

"Sabrina."

"Not right now, Zayne. Give it a few days!"

"They're going to call us back to Unity Station any time now. We need to figure out what we're going to do once we get there."

"How about we not do anything?" Sabrina whirled. "Let them take care of the others."

"They need our help. Don't you want to be on this case?"

"I don't know. I don't know what to do, all right? Let somebody else handle this. We just saved the last humans and cat on earth. We don't need this."

Zayne is troubled by her attitude. Normally she is so calm.

"We're going to be in trouble with the Elders."

"Give it a few days", she says again. "Let them all wake. Let me think, Zayne. Don't ask me to do this right now."

He senses the agitation coming off of her, like a damp grey tang against his bare forearms, and he turns away. "What about Luis?"

"Let him come back in his own time. He needs time. We all do. Go to bed", she says.

Zayne doesn't think he can sleep tonight.