"That's so cool! Did you really run into a temblor? I never knew they still existed!" Sundance asked in a chirp. He was sitting on the roof of a moving train with Resh and Amera. They were already in Lithuania and the different scenery brought different emotions. "I heard a meteor took them all out months ago, somewhere on Earth."

Amera smiled and softly poked Sundance in the forehead. "Where you heard that rumor, I have no idea but I know good and well that gossip like that travels like rats in the Refuge."

The Refuge was the equivalent of a homeless shelter. Nothing good ever came to it. It was where the corrupted, the mentally ill, and the unwanted lived. People rarely took showers or brushed their teeth. Every family had a room to themselves the size of a linen closet and incurable disease was seen more than food at times. It was a cramped, awful place and someone would rather live on the street than in the Refuge.

Sundance laughed. "Oh come on. I've lived in the Refuge all my life and I've never seen one rat."

"You're very lucky."

Resh scowled. Despite Sundance's acceptance with the place that provided him hospitality being bashed, she didn't like watching. "Didn't you mean to say something else, Sundance?"

Smiles and laughter dissipated. Sundance nodded. "My father…my birth father, I mean. I heard he was one of the scientists to support that whole temblor theory and he even helped draw out the blueprints. But the temblors didn't kill him…he killed himself when they first started malfunctioning. I guess his mind couldn't take a failure. I don't know his name or face but after getting ri–after me, he went on to have a few more kids. Sucks, they'll grow up without a father."

Resh made a face of disgust. "A rotten man in life and death…"

Amera nodded and touched Sundance's shoulders, noticing the change in his character. "Don't feel bad for him, Sundance. He doesn't deserve anyone's pity."

"I don't feel bad," Sundance objected and moved to his feet, smacking away Amera's hand. He started to wobble on the fast-moving train. They passed an abundance of trees that seemed to become one, looking like a long tail of green. "Well, I do, but for his kids. Some of them never got to meet their father."

"Neither did you."

"It's not me, I'm thinking about but I guess that's the way life is." Sundance said.

The train slowed down to a checkpoint and a select number of passengers got off. Sundance looked ahead and saw a girl, a mamodo. She was sitting at the very top of a tree, watching him watch her. Red hair, brown eyes, blue stripes on the face. He knew her. He knew her.

Sundance gasped and received the attention of his friends, taking a step closer. "It's y–"

But the train chugged forward before he could say and Sundance lost his ground, flapping his arms to catch himself. He flipped upside-down, screaming, flailing. Someone yelled his name and Amera lunged forward, grabbing his ankles before he was gone for good.

He forgot the mystery girl's name and face in a second. Sundance screamed at his friends while hanging upside-down, his heart pumping through his chest.

"The blood is rushing to my head!" Sundance yelped, holding his head, rocking in the air. "Can someone help me up already?"

"I don't think I can take this…"

"Stop being so nice and you'll be able to."

Before purchasing the plane ticket for Lithuania, Eve had received a letter in the mail with no return address. Inside of the envelope were reservations to a five-star hotel in Vilnius, the closest to Trakai Island Castle, and a message.

Congrats on your win. Wish I was there to see. As a celebratory gift, take this. Meet you in Lithuania, dollface.

–L & V

So when Eve arrived in the hotel with Kyo and Phil and their mamodo, she wasn't baffled to see Lilja sitting on a chaise lounge in the lobby. A chartreuse book in her lap, a ballooned white dress, her nails like claws, long and curled, and a necklace with a gold bird charm. There was something like a tattoo on her neck but Eve couldn't be sure. Viola wasn't in sight but Eve knew not to touch her book unless she wanted to risk another injury.

"Don't you all look sweet?" Lilja asked, smiling. She addressed Phil and Kyo along with their mamodo. "It is so nice to meet you all, I am Lilja. I assume Eve has told you all about me."

"Actually, I haven't."

"Oh wow. That really hurts my heart."

"Does it? You know what really hurt my heart? My wrist when you broke it."

"I fractured it and only out of self-defense."

"You know what–"

Phil turned to Kyo. "Sometimes I just don't ask."

Kyo nodded, making a face. "Agreed. Let's go eat some food before we're caught up in this mess. Come on, Resh, Amera. Sundance?"

"I'll stay here."

"That's all I'm saying! You didn't have to fracture it. Have you ever had your wrist fractured? It hurts." Eve protested, bringing a hand to the wrist. She touched it briefly before sighing, looking back at Lilja. "Anyway, why are you here? I thought you worked alone."

"Oh I do but I'm making an exception just this once," Lilja explained, smiling like normal. "Viola is currently scoping out the area and I see that you've built an alliance of your own. I wouldn't exactly call it ironclad but it is something."

Eve touched her chest and made an offended face. "Are you insulting my entourage?"

"Just questioning it," Lilja shrugged.

"A good part of my alliance is missing." Eve said. "Seiku and Ishimaru have school so they couldn't be on the same flight as us. They're supposed to be here tomorrow morning so we'll be going to take down Ophelia and…Caleb the morning of."

Lilja nodded. She glanced at Eve with the corner of one eye. "If your plan remains intact by morning, I will be surprised."

"Why wouldn't it? It's been going good so far, very ironclad." Eve shared with a smile. Sundance looked at her and beamed. Seeing him smile made her think of her mother and her ability to make the people around her smile even when things were bad. She knew how to get her words through to someone's heart and make them smile while they were in pain. There was no one like her.

Eve cut her smile. Still, it hurt to think about her.

"Just wait until tomorrow." Lilja whispered.

Sundance turned to her. "What did you say?"

"Oh, just talking to myself."

Viola burst into the lobby on that second. She was tracking dirt into the hotel and there was a gash on her cheek that was streaming with blood. A hotel employee holding a vacuum watched Viola with scorn.

"Viola, update," Lilja said coldly.

She nodded at her book-reader. "Yes…we have to get out of here. They saw me, a boy in Trakai Castle saw me. The one from before with the old-man face, Ophelia's partner...reinforcements, danger, we're in danger–"

"Spit it out, Viola."

Sundance's ears perked and he glanced toward the door. A woman was walking her child over to the window, showing him the outside through glass, pointing out the little things. Sundance started to run, adrenaline propelling his legs. He grabbed the mother, ripping her away from her child. The child wailed, tears without blinking, screaming for his mother.

"Danger, coming for us," Viola gasped.

Viola had no reason to finish now. Smoke and plaster and glass rocketed through the building. Eve couldn't see anyone so she covered her ears against the screaming.

"I don't know what to do! Please help me!"

"Figure it out yourself. I won't always be around to pick you up when you fall."

Lilja grabbed Eve's arm, throwing her forward. She didn't see her face but the Icelandic accent wasn't hard to forget. "Remember what I told you about teamwork? Go! Do something!"

Eve staggered, running through the smoke and dust. There was a crying coming from somewhere and Eve was able to see the child without his mother on the ground in a fetal position, sobbing and astonishingly unscathed. She lifted him into her arms and ran for an exit. He was lighter than Sundance but was crying too hard.

It was chaos outside. There were two mamodo with their partners, a girl with roses in her pink hair and an eye-patch over one eye. The other had mid-length black hair and red eyes, appearing to be bored, uninterested in the fight. He wore a black jacket with a hood, a red shirt, a gray hat and cargo shorts of the same color, and red-black sneakers. She couldn't see their partners through the smoke but she heard their voices, there was a boy and a girl.

"Kuraza!"

"Ezo!"

With a spear made of shadow materialized in his hand, the boy mamodo came running until Viola fought him off with her crossbow. The weapons clashed with a clang. Viola let out an animalistic scream and swung her crossbow at her enemy like a club. She got him in the face and the attack sent him reeling into the gray. She chased after him and they were already toppling over one another in a scuffle, punching and kicking.

"Sundance!" Eve screamed.

"I'm here!" Sundance screamed back. "But I can't right now! I have to help the people!"

"Llmol!"

A vine that appeared out of nowhere struck out and wrapped around Eve's ankle, keeping her from running. Thorns dug into her skin like spikes. Before she fell, she made sure that the child had safe ground before she collapsed over him, grabbing his shirt to get him to his feet but he clung to her, desperate. He was crying harder.

"Go, run! Get out of here!" Eve yelled, prying him off. "Go! GO!"

"Eve, I'm coming!" Sundance was closer. The vine crawled up her leg, squeezing it, dragging her.

"Quarrelo Ezo!"

Viola was still fending off the boy mamodo. Civilians were screaming and crying. The child remained clinging to Eve.

"Haradi!"

Rose petals with the sharpest edges were trundling toward Eve. She covered the child, opened Sundance's book and shouted with her greatest desperation.

"Lomas Bleez!"

Sundance's rainbow boomerang swung over them and demolished the rose petals, curling through the smoke as Sundance ran over to her, breathing deep and covered in dirt.

"What would you do without me?" Sundance asked, laughing through the chaos.

"No idea." Eve smiled.

"I've had it!"

"Now you're getting it."

Shorter chapter but there's going to be a lot of battle going on through the next few. There may be a late update but that is because my last exam is this week and I'm crossing my fingers to my final grades. Wish me luck!

The song to this chapter is 'Burn it Down' by Linkin Park.

R&R!