When I first came to, there was only one sensation that I could feel: cold. It was freezing cold wherever I was. The next thing I knew and felt was the darkness, it was everywhere and not a single point of light in the distance. I spent hours in that silent darkness, it was like Augustine's chromium cell. But much wider.

Too wide, in fact.

The next thing I remembered after the darkness was waking up in a hospital bed. The smell of alcohol and antiseptic medicine was gut-wrenching. I watched the people around me move and work on my body. They don't seem to see me, which brings me to the conclusion that this was one of those "Out of Body Experience" people on the internet believed so much and based countless novels, tv series and movies on. When I first heard of the thing, I laughed at the idea, it was preposterous and stupid… no though… I don't know.

But I do know one thing: this was the last power I gained from my previous one. They call it Astral Projection, a mythical ability to exclude one's conscious mind out of the physical body and into the world. Fantasy and the work of heretics, says people of religions. But I don't believe them, nor did I about Astral Projections. I stretched my arms in front of me, but they weren't there. I could feel the fingers moving but I couldn't see them, I looked down and saw nothing, no feet, not body. I was just a thought floating in the air, people around me were oblivious to the person I front of them.

I watched them operate on my body, and I could feel my Hyper Regeneration working but it's going to take some time to fully heal from what Nemesis and Augustine did to me. Although, I don't remember what they did to me. It's all a blur. Or rather… erased. I walked away from the scene and into the hallways where I see Xing crying and sobbing, huddled next to the operating room's doors. She's not letting anyone near her, that much I can tell. I see Lee and his girlfriend, Emily asleep. It must be dawn by now, judging from the faint glow from the windows.

I walked around the clinic and found myself on the rooftop just as the sun rose from the horizon. Its times like this that I can finally get myself motivated to fight Augustine, when we were back in the Monasteries, all I did during the mornings were to sit with the monks and bathe in the sun's morning light in one of their top, secret rooms. At first, they didn't want me there, I could tell, but as the week passed, they began to forget about my 'evil' past and come to terms of what I was trying to change… which is good for them because I don't really know what I want to change. I could go back and ask them but… it's not like they can see me right now and talk to me. I don't think they'd tell me the answer to my own question as well.

Coming back down into the lobby, I found Lee awake and talking to a doctor, I remember his face as the guy who operated on me. I'm still not sure how a clinic could have a surgical doctor on staff, that or how they have the equipment and supplies to do so, but I'm grateful for his efforts. They seem to be in a deep conversation.

"Is there any way, like we can take the machines out of this place?" Lee asks.

"If you want the staff notice them missing, be my guest" says the man. "I assure you that he's safe here, I have a friend on the next town over, I'll have him call me when there's any news of the D.U.P"

The D.U.P again. Of course, as long as Augustine and Nemesis stands tall, we'll never get rid of these types of conversation. I headed out the front door and walked across the street. I want to see the extent of this Astral Projection thing, and if maybe… I can fly? I try to muster up all my strength into pushing myself upward and steadily I did rose but only by a meter, I'm hovering, that's all I could do. That and listen to people's conversation without them knowing, but I could already do that from the start with my telepathy… can I even use my powers? A good question that I hadn't previously thought about. I fly—or rather floated—to an vacant lot near the clinic and tried to create magma from my hands. At first I thought they would appear but… they didn't and the longer I stand here expected them to burst into flames and drip molten earth, the more I feel a little tired. I guess I can't be too far from my physical body.

I float back towards the clinic when a group of shady individuals by a nearby alley caught my attention. They seem to be in deep conversation about something, then I heard the words Bioterrorist and Augustine and I immediately floated to the inside of their little circle.

"I tell you man, one of those Bioterrorists is at the clinic, he also has a girl with him and another being treated" says a pale, boney-thin man. Judging by the looks of his clothes, he's a nurse at the clinic.

"Then we should call the D.U.P, we can get the reward money and split it amongst us" says another man, this one wore a loose jersey shirt and camo pants.

"But what if they fight back? You remember what happened to Chicago" says the only woman in the group. "I don't want that to happen here in Valve, Clifton's already ruined by the earthquake, I don't want another disaster caused by those freaks"

Freaks. That's a new, but oddly widely used, term for us that I haven't heard for a long time. Chicago… if I could change the past, I would. I let Blake down and caused this whole uptight version of the D.U.P, not that they weren't uptight at the very beginning, but then again… all they ever wanted was me to be gone… but, what then? After I'm gone, the biggest threat they have at the moment, they'll move to the next one and until not a single Conduit remains except for Augustine.

I need to warn the others.

But how? I don't know.