Back where we left off, Hilda stood completely dumbfounded, staring at the woman who resembled her mother with a look of utter disbelief.

"T-This... y-you... i-is... is it really you, Mum?"

Johanna took a deep breath, then revealed her palm, and the glowing number that had been marked on it.

"Does this answer your question?"

Hilda looked at the number for a moment, before her worries transformed into rage.

"What are you doing here!? I thought you'd stay back home, waiting until I returned!"

"Well, excuse me, Hilda, but I couldn't just stand still while my daughter went missing," Johanna lowered her hand and frowned. "It's been days since you ran away from home."

"Days?" Hilda lowered her head. "So time doesn't flow differently here."

"Told you!" Helga spoke before approaching Johanna. "You must be Johanna, right? It's a pleasure to meet you."

The woman flinched. "How do you know my name?"

"Oh, Dad wouldn't stop talking about you," Helga rolled her eyes. "If we weren't talking about strategy or how to get his number down, we were talking about what a magnificent woman you are, and how you were the light of his life."

"Oh... i-is that so?" Johanna blushed and looked elsewhere. "Well, Irving really knew his way with words."

Hilda folded her arms and looked elsewhere. "Yet another reason to believe that things were better when Dad was around."

Suddenly, a little flame lit up on Hilda's shoulder, which everybody quickly noticed. Hilda squeaked and tried to blow it away, even swatting it, but nothing happened.

"What's going on?!" Hilda cried as Twig jumped to her other shoulder and began blowing. "Why isn't this thing going away?!"

"This is the Burning Rage Car," Helga answered, getting the duo's attention. "It's a Car where a passenger's ire and hatred are transformed into metaphysical flames that don't burn, but hurt nonetheless."

Hilda looked around herself. "So all the people here, are so angry they're burning themselves?"

"Indeed," Helga looked at Hilda. "And just like all of them, the angrier you get, Hilda, the more flames you'll envelop, and the harder they'll hurt."

Hearing that, Hilda grimaced for a moment, then narrowed her eyes and snapped at her mother:

"Now you see why I wanted to get away from you!?"

Helga narrowed her eyes in disapproval, while Johanna winced and replied:

"Away from me? Hilda, I'm just worried for your safety-"

"And that's exactly the problem, Mum! You're nothing but a worrywart!" Hilda yelled, her flame rapidly extending to cover her arm. "I go out with my friends? You worry! I go visit the Woodman? You worry! I go deal with the magical beasts and events that nobody else even touches?! YOU WORRY!"

"Of course I'm going to worry when that happens, Hilda!" Johanna replied. "You're the only family I have left! If I were to lose you, I-I'd have nothing left!"

"So you give me a false sense of choice before putting me on a leash!?"

"No! I just... I wanted to give you the freedom I never had!"

Hilda raised an eyebrow, and her mother explained thusly:

"The truth is, Hilda, that your grandparents... they loved me, but they wanted me to be under their thumb," Johanna lowered her head. "And the more I was forced to do the things they set up for me, the more suffocating it became."

Johanna grabbed her arm and looked away. "Eventually, it got so bad that I ran away and... wound up on the Train."

Hilda's eyes widened, with everybody else looking on in shock, except for Helga, who pocketed her hands with a little smile.

"About time the truth came to light."

Hilda shivered. "H... How long-"

"Years. I was stuck on the Train for years," Johanna sighed. "At least enough years to meet your father, fall in love with him and..." the woman frowned. "When the time came that my number reached zero, Irving still had a few issues to sort out, so while I got to leave, he stayed behind."

Johanna looked back at her daughter with an expression of tired sadness.

"So I was left all alone to raise the daughter I had with him... you."

Hilda frowned as the flames around her arm slowly dissipated... only to not only reform, but spread to her legs as she snapped:

"So, all those times you scolded me for being reckless, all those times you chided me for going off on adventures... and you didn't even have any right to do it! Because you did the exact same things back when you were my age!"

"Hilda, the Infinity Train is completely different from what you normally do-"

"It's a mystical endless train that kidnaps people so it can be their therapist! I think that's as supernatural as it gets, Johanna!"

Helga gasped, alongside the rest of the group, with Johanna looking quite melancholic in turn.

"What... did you call me?"

"You heard me right, I called you Johanna! Jo! Ha! Nna!" Hilda snapped, the flames enveloping the torso. "And you know what?! I'm not even done, because if I'm gonna be stuck on this stupid Train for who knows how long, I might as well get everything off my chest while I'm at it!"

Helga pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ugh, this girl..."

"You never worried back when we lived in the Wilderness! You never worried when I went out and explore the woods! But now that I'm older and we move out, you suddenly start to worry about everything and how all I used to do was apparently wrong!"

"Hilda, where are you getting these ideas?!" Johanna asked in utter shock and disbelief. "I've been worried for your safety ever since you were born! And I never said that what you did was wrong or anything like that!"

"Would you stop lying to me!? I've already seen you for who you really are!" Hilda kept yelling even as her remaining arm and leg were engulfed in flames. "A control freak that freaks out as soon as I the leash you got around me loosens! I mean, you can't even let me get through this stupid Train without dragging your ugly mug here!"

Johanna opened her mouth, but not a single word came out. Someone did come out of Hilda, however: Alfur, who immediately ran to Twig's side as the deerfox backed away from his enraged owner.

"Well, you know what!? I'm sick and tired of being kept in a leash! I don't care if you know more about the Train than I do, I'll figure it out myself, so scram! I hate following your rules! I hate you breathing down my neck! And most importantly, I! HATE! YOU!"

And that was all Hilda got to say before the flames enveloped her completely, a pillar of fiery light emerging from where she stood as the Bluette screamed in agony, to the horror of her friends and Helga's disapproval.

"I told you, point blank, that the more you succumbed to your anger, the more the flames of hatred would consume you," the identical girl stated as she stomped towards the agonizing Hilda. "But did you listen to me? No! It went in one ear, and out the other."

"Well excuse me for being emotionally unstable!" Hilda spat, seemingly striking a nerve with Helga, given her notable glare. "Maybe if you stopped being as vague as possible and just told me things as they were, this wouldn't have happened!"

"I can't tell you what you need to hear, Hilda, nor even what you want to hear!" Helga yelled back. "You gotta figure it out yourself! My only duty is to guide you through the Train: whether you learn a damn thing or not is up to you!"

"You're getting angry as well!" Hilda yelled in disbelief. "Why aren't the flames consuming you!?"

"Don't be mistaken, Hilda. Just because I sound angry doesn't mean I actually am angry," Helga lowered her head. "At this point, after waiting for your arrival for so long, I don't even feel angry at seeing how you act... I'm just disappointed."

Hilda's eyes widened, and her rage paused for a moment, being replaced by fear as Helga turned around and walked away.

"Where are you going!?" Johanna snapped at the Bluette. "Didn't you say your role was to help Hilda!?"

"I can only help her so much," Helga bitterly stated. "If she refuses to be helped, then there's nothing I can do for her."

Then, she stopped, and faced Johanna.

"But that doesn't mean there's nothing you can't do."

Helga winked with a sneaky smile, and getting the hint, Johanna promptly ran to the burning girl's side.

"Stay away from me!"

"Hilda, it's okay," Johanna said as she slowly approached the fiery girl. "I'm here to help you, I promise-"

"No, you're not! The only reason I'm in so much pain right now is because of you!" Hilda cried, tears falling down her cheeks as she curled up in an agonizing ball. "If you hadn't tried to control my life, none of this would've happened!"

Johanna flinched, but rather than go along with Hilda's furious expression, she took a deep breath and answered:

"You know what? You're right."

Hilda whimpered as she looked at her mother, who sat down and explained what she meant:

"If I had been more clear about the rules... if I had managed to see just how much I was hurting you by letting you do whatever you want... maybe we wouldn't be here."

Hilda stood up weakly and spat. "Yeah, it's... it's all your fault!"

She screamed in pain when the flames intensified, bringing her back to the ground.

But Johanna remained calm. "You ran away after the argument we had, didn't you?"

Hilda looked shocked for a moment, then looked away. "Y-Yeah..."

"I only got angry at you because I was so... worried and tired, after the dozenth time you escaped to deal with a potentially life-threatening anomaly."

Hilda turned back to Johanna. "You should've trusted me-"

"And I did, Hilda: I trusted you to come clean and be honest with me once everything was done," Johanna lowered her eyelids. "Instead, you chose to keep lying to me."

Hilda lowered and shook her head. "You wouldn't understand..."

"Hilda, how would you feel if you trusted me to tell me the truth about my adventures, and yet I chose to lie to you instead?"

Hilda finally ran out of snippy responses, and she kept her head low as the flames covering her vanished... followed by tears dropping to the floor.

"I'm sorry."

Johanna went to Hilda's side and hugged her, the Bluette shedding tears as she returned the hug.

"I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay."

"No it's not..."

And as Hilda cried her heart out in her mother's embrace, both her and Johanna's numbers glowed, with the duo taking a moment to check on them.

They had both shrunk down to 40.

"Well, looks like your stay here is going to be even shorter than I imagined," Helga hummed. "Given the stupidly high decrease rate of your numbers, one more Car should do the trick. Once you get the lesson, you'll get to go home."

"And I think I know exactly what to do now," Johanna stated.

Hilda raised an eyebrow as she wiped her tears. "You do?"

Johanna flashed a smile to her daughter.

"Hilda... it's time you learn more about your father."

Hilda's eyes widened and glimmered with a sense of hope and excitement...