A/N: Ta-da! I know it's been a long while, and I apologize for the long wait, but at last, here is The Fusion Car! This was especially one of my favorite chapters to work on. I also had some inspiration from other franchises recently that helped me make it possible. I hope you all enjoy this new chapter. ;)

Chapter 8: The Fusion Car

Emma, M.T., Jesse, Alan Dracula, and Jack had enough to worry about with their own problems. Just a moment ago, Emma had just gotten used to the idea of M.T.'s mirror essence bonding with her after everyone else found them just when they made up. But to learn that someone basically stalked Amelia and Ava was unsettling to say the least. And even worse, it turned out Ava had a time limit. Granted she still has some time left to undo the damage, but the possibility of her to decay before her prime was not something M.T. thought would ever happen to her.

Ava was rushed over to an examination table in the lab car. It was a metal racket with straps around Ava. She looked well under the weather with her skin pale as a ghost. Amelia and the others, including Travis, were watching over her, horrified by her condition. She had a gas mask over her as her breathing had become weak.

"I can't believe this…" M.T. said softly. "This whole time… you were on a time limit?"

"According to that James stranger, I am." Ava said glumly with a solemn nod. "I only have an hour left."

"But where do we even start?" Emma asked, fearing for Ava's life. "How are we even supposed to fix it if we don't know what triggered it?"

Travis raised one of his fingers, already having an idea.

"I'll need to examine her to find the root of the problem. In the meantime, you should look around the car for any available scientist. The more help we have with this, the better." Travis urged. But Jack didn't think it would help at all.

"Wait. You actually expect us to go around in circles, looking for people to lend a hand? We can't just rush in blindly like that." Jack countered.

"Excuse me," Travis retorted, "but many of the denizens here have worked on the cloning machine besides me. Their help would go much faster if they were here already!"

As Jack and Travis argued back and forth, Emma started to have an idea pop up in her head.

"Yeah? And how are we supposed to know they're the right guys to talk to? We'd just be wasting our time and Ava's!" Jack shouted.

"You say that like I don't care about what happens to her!" Travis snapped back. "I'm doing the best I can here!"

"Well, how about you do better?!" Jack yelled. But Amelia was getting fed up with the argument.

"Both of you, enough!" Amelia interrupted fiercely, getting in between Jack and Travis. "My daughter's life is on the line, and you choose to waste the time we have by arguing?! GET YOUR BLOODY HEADS TOGETHER!"

When she snapped at them both, her tears were leaking out of her angry face. The sight wasn't lost on anyone present. Jack and Travis turned away with shame as Amelia took her breath and wiped the tears from her face.

"I know you're not a fan of the option, Jack." Amelia said. "But it's the best option we have."

However, Emma widened her eyes, having a eureka moment of her own.

"What about Nicodemus?" Emma asked. M.T. and Jesse turned to her.

"Huh? That guy?" M.T. asked in surprise.

"But isn't he studying for 6 to 9 months in there?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah. But M.T. and I… kinda resolved that." Emma said softly. M.T. blushed a dark silver color on her cheeks towards Emma with a smile. "We just need to tell him about Ava's condition. Maybe he has something that can help. Right?" Emma turned to Travis, hoping he had a clear answer.

"Well… he has been working on the answer to all of our problems, or so I've been told." Travis admitted. "That's got to be the answer to Ava's decay!"

Jesse became more concerned than ever as he stared at Ava's frail body.

"So… what exactly do you mean by decay?" Jesse asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure you want to know that." Travis answered nervously.

Suddenly, Ava started to scream, holding her hands on her head. The heart rate monitor was beeping like crazy. Nobody could fathom how much pain she was going through, not even Amelia.

"Ava! Ava, stay with us." Amelia pleaded, feeling her own heart might stop along with hers if she died.

"My… head…!" Ava groaned. Travis became very concerned when it came to that matter.

"Please don't explode, please don't explode, please don't explode…!" Travis said to himself. Fortunately, after a moment, the headache stopped.

"Phew…" Travis said to himself in relief. But as soon as her headache stopped, Ava moaned wearily, turning to one side of the bed.

"It's not a toy… it's a crystal radio…" she muttered. Rexy was blinking his eyes in confusion.

"What?" He said in bafflement. Frankly, Emma had an idea about what it meant.

"Uh, did she already hallucinate?" Emma asked, only for Amelia to answer differently than what she thought.

"No, that's… that's what I always told everyone." Amelia said. "Alrick always understood that. She must be experiencing my memories. Or Alrick's."

Having heard this, Travis had an idea.

"Then I might know where to start looking for the problem." He said with a determined scowl on his face. "In the meantime, look for help anywhere you can and bring them over here, quickly. My clones are scattered everywhere in this place. They might be willing once you explain what's going on."

The group nodded to his directions. Emma knew just how to go about it, too.

"First, we need to look for Nicodemus." Emma said. "If there's any hope for Ava, it's him. Hopefully…"

Emma, M.T., Jesse, and Alan Dracula took off as Jack stood by Amelia, reeling in disbelief.

"Really?" Jack said. "You couldn't be bothered to look for something to cure her? Like, I don't know, a cure-all?!"

Amelia turned to him with a stern glare. "And how exactly would you know about it?"

Her cautious question made Jack freeze in nervousness before he decided to run off.

"Well, better a rat than a wolf." Jack said, quickly dashing off with the rest of the group, but Amelia was left further confused.

"What wolf?!" Amelia shouted at him, only to hear silence and distant footsteps receding from earshot as an answer. She groaned in defeat and looked back to her ailing daughter, holding her hands on her head. Left with nothing much else to do at the moment, all Amelia could do is hope. But the instant it becomes within her power, she'll do whatever it will take to save her daughter. Whatever it takes.

"You better hurry back. For her sake…" Amelia said sadly.


Meanwhile, back in his own lab, Nicodemus was setting everything up, blissfully unaware of Ava's deadly situation. Although he expected it, part of him was wondering what happened to that girl who wanted to know how to be cured of her affliction. He sighed to himself as he examined a beaker of purple liquid.

"I told her that I'd be studying for 6 to 9 months." He said with regret. "I wonder if I should've told the young lass what I meant…"

But just then, a gentleman's voice spoke out from behind him.

"Perhaps if you tell me," he asked, "I'll put in a good word."

Nicodemus gasped. He knew that voice, all too well, it seemed. And sure enough, he saw James standing just outside his entrance, holding himself up near the ceiling to look down upon him. The old rat scowled at him, as if piercing daggers into his enemy.

"James." Nicodemus said with spite. "Just when I think it cannae get any colder, you come along." James walked into the room with a smirk.

"Is that really all you have to say about me, old friend?" James asked mockingly. "After all this time?"

"We both know you're not here to catch up." Nicodemus retorted. James knew he was right about that. He dropped his smirk and got down to business.

"The next ingredient." He said. "Do you have it?"

It was at that moment when Emma, Jack, M.T., Jesse, and Alan Dracula arrived. Jack held up his hand to bar the others from getting in with a skid.

"Slow it down, people." Jack said to them. "Don't wanna slip up."

They were about to walk in when they overheard the conversation inside the room.

"What's the ingredient for, anyway?" Nicodemus asked. "Something to warm up the room? Has it gotten colder?"

Emma and M.T. took notice of someone dressed in a black robe, but the tentacles around the waist were definitely something new for them.

"That guy…" Emma said to herself as her girlfriend scowled. Jack heard her tone and turned to her.

"You know that guy or something…?" Jack whispered.

"No, but M.T. and I've heard about guys like him." she answered.

"They're called Scarecrows." said Jack and Emma simultaneously. His eyes tensed when he heard her say that. He hadn't ever mentioned them around her, so it was quite perplexing for him to learn that she knew of them.

"How the hell did you know about them?" Jack asked in a whisper.

"Heard of them from a group of Hunters that tried to kill us. Long story." Emma said quietly.

"Wow…" Jesse said. "I have missed out on a lot…"

Meanwhile, inside the room, James continued to press the lab rat.

"You know what I'm here for, Nicodemus." James urged. "My last meeting managed to loosen your tongue on that subject, if I remember correctly." One of his metal tentacles snapped itself closed for emphasis. The rat gulped in dread as James leered over him. "Now, tell me where that last ingredient is."

The rat simply stared at him as he said under his breath.

"Why would I have that?" Nicodemus asked. James growled and stared down at the anthropomorphic vermin.

"You're the smartest rat alive, aren't you, Nicodemus?" James asked with his hands behind his back.

"Smarter than all the dead ones, too." Nicodemus added with pride. But that didn't dampen James' temper.

"Don't hold out on me, rat, or it won't be true for much longer." James threatened. "You help me, I help you. Simple as that. You tell me where it is, and I'll put in a good word for the Castigator to see to your… release." But Nicodemus remained unbent, and he stood firm. While he proclaimed his stance on the matter, however, James saw how he never strayed from the position he stood in, no matter how close he was. This made him rather curious.

"Your master won't let me go, James," was the reply, "and he won't let you kill me. You have nothing to interest me, so take your offer, take your threats, take your worthless wanker of a moo-stache, and PISS OFF!"

M.T. snickered to herself when she heard him call out the Scarecrow; the Sliver had to admit, she was impressed with him. But that wasn't without a price. His words invoked a fury in the otherwise calm and stately gentleman. In his rage, he lurched his tentacles right towards him, missing him by several inches and piercing through a cabinet drawer and pulling out what he'd been looking for: a bottled container of Acrylic Liquid Mirror Essence. And he retrieved it while wrapping another tentacle around his waist to squeeze him to death.

"You're right; I'm not allowed to kill you." James admitted with rage in his voice. "But that doesn't mean I won't make you regret every single word out of your damned mouth!" To emphasize it, he squeezed the rat so hard, an unearthly crack came from him, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. James slammed the rat to the floor with a hard smash. The hard collision made Emma glare at him and try to stop him, but Jack held her back.

"Hold it together." He warned. But Emma wasn't having it.

"I can't just let him get away with this…!" Emma strained quietly.

"You heard the guy." Jack reminded. "Whoever this Castigator is, he doesn't want the rat dead. He's not allowed to kill him."

"Yeah, but still…!" Emma moaned. But M.T. put her hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw the Chrome girl's sad look.

"I really don't like this either." M.T. said. "But things will get too dangerous if we just attack the guy. For all of us. That's not what Ava needs right now."

Emma turned back to the horrific scene, powerless to stop him without causing irreparable damage. For the moment, she held back on her temper and scowled at James, who leaned down to the poor rat.

"You're lucky this ingredient was in your hands, so I'll let it go. But if you ever speak that way to me again," he warned, "I will tear your soul into pieces, and scatter them all over this car for every other disrespectful wretch who dares to question me! Am I clear, rat?" Nicodemus barely moved his head up to stare at him.

"Crystal…" Nicodemus answered bitterly. James released the tentacle from Nicodemus and held the bottle in his hands.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Nicodemus." James said with a mocking smile. "Until next time." James took his leave, using a device on his belt to teleport out of the room. Nicodemus tried to stand up once he'd left the room, but with much difficulty. He put his hand on the desk and lifted himself up by degrees.

"Oh, bollocks…" Nicodemus groaned, incredibly sore from his assault. "Worth it, though." With the confrontation over, Emma, M.T., Jack, Alan Dracula, and Jesse entered the room. Emma and M.T. rushed over to the rat to help him up along faster.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked.

"I've been better… but thank you, lass." Nicodemus said weakly.

"You look like you were hit by a truck." M.T. said with concern.

"Ah, if only that were true…" Nicodemus replied with regret. Just then, Visco hopped out of Emma's jacket hoodie and up to the table. It was squeaking as it waddled to the front of him. Upon seeing it, his wounded eyes suddenly brightened up, and he made a cute face towards it, almost forgetting all about his woes.

"Oh! A Viscoso Mutans!" Nicodemus exclaimed. "Aw, I'd be fawning all over you if I wasn't in such incredible pain…~!"

"We saw what happened back there," Jack said from behind. "How did you fall that far, working with the Scarecrows?"

"So you know of them, eh?" Nicodemus said with a furrow in his eyes, turning his attention away from Visco, who went back up to Emma and turned into a hairbrush. Emma brushed his matted fur back to soothe him with her companion's help.

"We heard of what they do to the other cars. And what they do to denizens…" Emma said empathetically.

"Aye. They're all true." Nicodemus woefully answered. "Got caught in the middle of one of their exterminations to prove it."

"Exterminations?" Jesse said with fear. "Those guys kill Denizens?"

"As far as they're concerned, they were never real enough to be considered equals." M.T. explained. "They followed Osore's example when he destroyed the Paradise Car. They wanted everyone to be as miserable as they are." M.T. put her hands on Jesse's shoulder with a frightened, dead serious look. "Trust me, Jesse: they're the worst kind of Passenger you don't ever want to mess with."

"And for good reason, at that." Nicodemus replied woefully. "I could've been killed right then and there, but James was aware of my… talents. He put me to work, making some blasted super weapon out of his ingredients he wanted me to find."

"Do you know what he's working on?" Jesse asked.

"No." He shook his head. "James never shared that information. He's a cunning one, that sodding bastard…"

"Not to mention a psychopath." Emma interrupted. "He was there when Ava got sick."

Nicodemus widened his eyes with shock.

"Ava? She's here…? Today?" Nicodemus questioned with worry, knowing James was involved.

"Not for much longer if she doesn't get help within an hour." M.T. said. "Something's making her sick, and it's killing her."

Nicodemus put his paws on his poor forehead, feeling disgraced.

"Oh, no…!" Nicodemus bemoaned. "No, no, no! Damn you, James!" Once he slammed his hands on the table, the sudden noise troubled Visco, forcing him to retreat into her jacket pocket once more.

Jesse saw how saddened he was. That hinted him to the bad news right away, but he needed to know.

"What did he do?" Jesse asked.

"He's just made off with the only thing that can fix it, that's what he did!" Nicodemus cried out.

Emma and M.T. looked at each other, completely puzzled.

"You mean that Liquid Mirror thing?" Emma asked for confirmation, to which he nodded. "But… what's so special about it that he'd steal it?"

"In theory," he said, "it was supposed to be the answer to everything, because it can literally be anything! It wouldn't rely on a reflection to form itself; it can form into whatever you told it to. Like say…"

Jack, Emma, and M.T.'s eyes widened from the realization. But Jack pieced it all together.

"The cure-all for Ava's condition." Jack said.

"Yes! That!" Nicodemus cried out. "As if my last one getting nicked from those slugs was bad enough, that son of a bitch just stole our last hope!" But Emma's eyes widened from the realization. She began to connect the dots as Jesse offered a solution.

"But can't we just find the ingredients for the cure-all? You already know where to look for them, right?" Jesse asked.

"There's no point, lad!" Nicodemus wailed. "Even if I fast traveled and snatched the ingredients, the actual procedure to make it would take too long, even in my spatial room!"

Nicodemus' breathing became hollow, and he was filled with pure melancholy.

"I'm sorry, lads." He apologized. "But without that cure-all, Ava's as good as done for." However, thanks to the crucial information about his cure-all, Emma wasn't one to give up.

"Maybe she isn't…" Emma said softly, placing her hand on her chest. Nicodemus and the others turned to her.

"What are you on about, lass?" Nicodemus asked.

"I was sick, too, once…" Emma said. "When the Flecs were chasing me, I thought I was gonna die. But Jack… he gave me that cure-all."

Nicodemus saw Jack's tense face, and he already grew suspicious.

"Did he now…?" Nicodemus scowled. Nevertheless, despite Jack's nervousness, Emma went on.

"Ever since," Emma continued, "I've been changing. This whole time, I thought it was something that Hunter's poison did that made me like this, or that it was M.T.'s essence, but… it was the cure all along."

Nicodemus took note of the glimmer of hope Emma had about that fact.

"You don't seem too shocked, lass." Nicodemus said.

"I am." She affirmed. "I mean, I have a LOT of questions about this. I'd probably go insane if the circumstances were different, to be honest. But I'm not the one dying. Ava is who matters here. Do you know how I can help?"

Nicodemus put his finger on his chin as he tried to think of something.

"Hmm…" he said. "Perhaps if we—" But then, he stopped himself. "Bah! No. At this point…"

"What is it?" Emma asked, wondering what his second guesses were about.

"We'll get to that bit in a moment." He said. "You two." Nicodemus pointed to Jack and Jesse as Alan Dracula glanced about. "Make sure you find the scientists on my list at the desk. They can help stabilize Ava until the cure is ready."

"Uh, that's actually what we were gonna do after…" Jesse tried to say, but Jack nodded.

"We're on it." He simply said.

"And what about us?" Emma asked, gesturing to herself and M.T.

"We'll talk over the rest in my spatial room," said he. "Time is quite literally of the essence."

Nicodemus raised his eyebrows with a knowing smirk, and Jesse laughed at his quip.

"I get it! Because of the essence." Jesse giggled. Alas, Jack rolled his eyes.

"It wasn't that funny." Jack grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Agree to disagree." Nicodemus said. "Come on. I'll show ya."

Nicodemus walked up to his door, and held up a badge from his pocket. He held it where the scanner was, and the light shone green. Then, the door opened up, letting loose a fog that seeped out into the room. Inside it, there was literally nothing at all, save for his desk and an operating table beside it. The group looked hesitant at first, but Nicodemus urged them on.

"Come on!" He said. "We mustn't stand around dilly-dallying'!"

Though reluctant, Emma and M.T. turned to Jack and Jesse. The passenger of the two had a fierce look of determination.

"We'll figure this out, and we'll help Ava." Emma said.

"I know you will, kid." Jack said.

Emma gave him a smile before she and M.T. entered Nicodemus' spatial room together. Once inside, they realized there really was nothing else there at all! They were all cautious, afraid that they might fall, but Nicodemus assured them.

"Oh, don't mind the patch of oblivion around you." Nicodemus said. "It's not like you can't walk." Emma looked behind her and saw the door close itself. But on the other side, she could barely see beyond the patch of oblivion. She walked up close to the door and looked closely past it to see Jack and Jesse standing there like before. Alan Dracula was frozen as well, standing still.

"Uh… nothing's moving." Emma said.

"Exactly!" Nicodemus said. "The spatial room is beyond almost all concepts of time. I was actually studying how to remove a certain essence as per your request last time."

This made Emma feel sheepish, rubbing her head with shame.

"Oh… I didn't know…" Emma said with guilt and embarrassment, recalling how she almost pushed M.T. away.

"No, lass." He said. "The fault is mine. I didn't take enough time to tell you about it. Anyway, speaking of time, I adjusted the time so that we have about three hours in here before the door opens."

"Why three hours?" M.T. asked.

"It's important for your first time not to be surrounded by blank oblivion for too long, or you'd go crazy." Nicodemus said. "Trust me. It's not a pretty picture."

Emma looked back out at the wall, just as Jesse looked into it.

"Huh. Can't see anything in there…" Jesse said.

"Come on. The sooner we get more help, the better the chance Ava has." Jack said. He strolled off and Alan Dracula went along with him, following the patch of grass in his pocket.

"Got it." Jesse nodded. He turned back to the door and placed his hand on it.

"I'll see you guys later." Jesse said softly. He walked away from the door for a moment. But he slowed down the walk, having a suspicion about them coming back sooner than expected. He turned around and pointed his fingers.

"Aha!" Jesse shouted. But nothing happened. "Oh…"

"Jesse!" Jack called out.

"Coming!" He shouted back before running with him.

Inside the spatial room, Emma could see Jesse slowly walking away. It was at a very slow pace, in fact.

"Huh. Now he's moving slowly." Emma said during her play-by-play.

"That means they're on their way." Nicodemus said. "Good. Now, ordinarily, the best option is to remove the cure-all from your system and pass it on to Ava. But it's too late if it's already assimilated that essence into your body."

"Assimilated?" Emma asked.

"Aye." He answered. "The hunter had turned his essence into poison, correct? The cure-all acted as an antibody and mirrored its effect. Instead of poisoning you, it's made you stronger."

Emma recalled a moment ago when she tried to find M.T.

"So, what about that feeling I had when I was looking for M.T.?" Emma asked. "I felt like I could feel her presence, and I followed it to find her when she ran away."

Nicodemus raised his finger up to state his hypothesis.

"That may be symbiosis at work." He theorized. "Since assimilating that essence into your body, it's become a part of you. And the moment you took M.T.'s essence inside you…"

"It's been trying to make M.T. a part of me." Emma finished in realization. "But why?"

"Good question." He said, fixing his glasses as he sat down on his desk chair in front of it. "Has anything else happened since we last met?"

M.T. gave him a basic version of the explanation to speed things up.

"Emma and I got into an argument, I ran away, she found me using her mirror sense, we kissed, and then we started to fuse together. Emma was panicking, I calmed her down, we stopped, and we found out about Ava getting sick." M.T. bluntly explained. "Now what does that have to do with Emma absorbing me?"

Nicodemus took a short moment to process what M.T. had told her. He put his fingers on his chin, formulating another theory.

"Well, lass," he began, "from what I understand, you were on the verge of fusing until Emma stopped it. Which means, it must be reacting to her wants and needs. So, for now, Emma, let's stick with recreating the cure-all with your mirror powers."

Emma looked down at her hands, remembering how out of control they were when Alan Dracula went crazy trying to force Perry out of him.

"Can I really do it, though?" Emma asked with concern. "What if I lose control again?" Nicodemus placed his paws on her hands as he spoke.

"We'll never know until we try. After all, as Einstein would say, imagination is more important than knowledge." Nicodemus encouraged. Emma felt touched by his words, and she smiled back at the rat. She turned to M.T. and bore a confident grin.

"Okay. Let's do this, M.T." Emma said with renewed grit.


Meanwhile, Jack and Jesse were going back to the Lab Rats they've visited before, looking for any help from the rats while keeping Alan Dracula from straying too far. The first group they checked were the rats who were testing their stress levels.

"Guys! We need your help!" Jesse shouted. "Our friend's gotten really sick!"

The rats looked up to Jesse, seemingly surprised by the news. They looked at each other for a moment before turning back to him.

"That's awful." The silver rat said.

"I hope your friend gets well soon." The orange rat said. Their nonchalant replies didn't sit well with Jesse.

"But I just said we needed your help!" He shouted. "So… Can you please help us?"

The rats turned to each other once again. After what appeared to be a moment of consideration, they gave their answer.

"Sorry. We cannot." The silver rat said. Jesse grumbled in frustration, but he took a deep breath to remind him of the bright side.

"It's okay. There's other places to look…" Jesse told himself. But Jack saw the tension in him a mile away.

"Sure, but try to take it easy on yourself." Jack said.

"Sorry! No time for that!" Jesse shouted before he took off like a rocket. "Come on, Alan Dracula!" Alan Dracula began to follow Jesse, running off close by him, in fact.

"Hey, Jesse!" Jack called out after him as he followed pursuit. He wasn't blind to the deer's instinct to floor the boy. "Really? Now, you don't need grass?" But as he ran to him, he heard yet another round of ominous whistling from behind. He looked behind him to see that the wolf he saw before was now standing on his hind legs, staring at him as he whistled.

Jack's eyes narrowed down to a small size as the wolf slit his finger over his throat and pointed at him just as he finished whistling. Not wanting to see him anymore, Jack continued his run away from the wolf as it stared at him menacingly.


Meanwhile, Amelia and Travis were checking over Ava's vitals as Rexy paced back and forth anxiously. The poor dinosaur was worried sick since her first headache. All the while, Ava was mumbling to herself. It wasn't making Amelia feel any better at all.

"Oh, come on! What is taking them so long…?!" Amelia spoke worriedly. By that point, Travis finished up on examining her head with his stethoscope, and he got out his tablet, showing them to her. Inside it was a first-person view of Amelia as she graduated with Alrick.

"Okay. I just finished the diagnostics, and I have some good news and bad news, Amelia." Travis said. "The good news is, for the most part Ava's stabilized. What she's experiencing are memories of you and Alrick. With how they are so far, it's going smoothly."

Amelia became anxious enough to know she didn't mishear him when he said bad news.

"But that's also the bad news, isn't it?" Amelia said.

"Yeah." Travis said with a frowning nod. "If your past was anything like you've told me, it's only a matter of time before that triggers a change in Ava."

While Ava was moaning, she laughed softly.

"You wanna make a run for it? Bunk off before they hand us diplomas…?" Ava muttered. Following her mumbling, Amelia saw a sweaty and nervous Alrick laughing anxiously. Amelia laughed softly at the memory before turning to her daughter.

"What if we woke her, Travis?" Amelia asked, part of her not wishing to relive that memory.

"The result would be too unpredictable, Amelia." He warned. "For all we know, the shock could kill her."

Amelia looked back at her daughter, overflowing with anxiety.

"But how…? She was fine before we got to this blasted car. Why is it attacking her now?" Amelia asked, starting to feel another hole, one larger than Alrick.

"I don't know." Travis answered. "But I have a feeling if we let her sleep and watch the memories, we'll be able to figure out what happened."

"Are you sure?" Amelia asked. "Is there nothing more we can do?"

"I wish there was." Travis answered. "I told them to get more help, but who knows where my clones are? If they even bring back one of them, it'd be a miracle by itself."

"What about that Nicodemus guy, and his cure-all stuff?" Rexy said, recalling what Jack said to the others before.

"He was already in the process of making another one." Travis said. "Perhaps Emma and M.T. might be onto something with him. For now, all we can do is hope."

Amelia glanced back down at Ava, seeing her chuckle warmly in her sleep.

"Not enough change to call a cab, luv." Ava giggled softly. Amelia ended up smiling softly towards her despite her circumstances.

"I hope it's all we need…" she said softly to herself.


Back at the spatial room, Emma was sitting on the examination table as Nicodemus stood in front of her while M.T. was beside her.

"Okay, let's see what we're working with here." Nicodemus said. "Try to change your hand into something."

"Uh, okay." Emma said, although a bit uncertain with his request. She held her hand out, palm stretched out. "What should I turn it into?"

"Just something you think your mind can handle." Nicodemus said.

"Got it." Emma replied. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. For a moment, nothing occurred, which made her all the more anxious. She began to think really hard, grunting as she tried to stir up a change. While Emma strained, her hand began to get coated in a metal skin. Nicodemus took fascination to it right away, though he kept distance in case it ended up larger than normal.

"Interesting…" he said to himself. "You can stop now, lass." Having done all she could within reason, Emma ceased her strains, turning her hand back to normal and panted out of breath.

"Yay… I did it…" she said weakly.

M.T. saw her exhaustion and went to her.

"Emma, are you okay?" She asked with concern.

"I'm fine, M.T. Just… a little… tired…" she weakly replied. But Nicodemus knew better. He stepped up to her and put his paw on her chin, lifting it up so her face was level with his.

"Can you see my face right now?" Nicodemus said.

"Of course I can—" Emma replied. But she paused for a moment when her eyes suddenly went blurry. "W-Wait. I… I can't see anything anymore…! I'm blind!"

"Settle down." Nicodemus said. "It's typically normal for iron deficiency."

"Iron… deficiency?" Emma asked.

"You've been getting that essence flowing into you instead of your normal human blood." Nicodemus explained. "And it's having an effect on your physical body."

"So, I need a blood donor?" Emma asked.

"Or in your case, someone whose essence works well enough to be passed on as blood. M.T.?" Nicodemus turned to the Sliver, who already had doubts.

"Pfft. It's gonna be a lot harder to get my essence through needles, if that's what you're thinking." M.T. said with a scoff.

"Oh, please. What do you think I have this for?" Nicodemus said, pulling out a needle, crafted purely from his Acrylic Liquid Metal earlier. "I managed to fashion my syringe with this material. So, consider yourself needled."

M.T. stared at the needle and blinked her eyes. Emma felt like she could go crazy from needles. She knew she would. But M.T. didn't feel like it was a big deal.

"Huh. Okay." She shrugged. "Not like I could feel anything anyway."

She held her arm out, waiting for the needle. But to her surprise, the moment the needle stuck itself in, M.T. was overwhelmed by the sensation of pain in her arm.

"Ow!" M.T. said, jerking her arm away from the lab rat and taking the needle along with it. "What was that?!"

Nicodemus furrowed his eyebrows, not too pleased with how she jerked away his syringe from his grasp.

"And you said you couldn't feel a thing…" Nicodemus teased.

"Hey, this was your needle that lodged into—!" M.T. started to retort, but it made her hesitate to finish, realizing what it meant.

"Into my… skin." M.T. said with realization in her voice, partially filled with wonder.

"Yes, yes, fashioned from my just-as-hard material. Now hold still, so I can retrieve it, if you please." Nicodemus grumbled. He snatched the needle and her essence out of her arm before he went to his desk and opened a drawer from it. Inside it were his lab equipment filled with straw. The rat took out a beaker and squeezed the needle to leak it into the container.

"But I've never felt anything touch me before. Like, ever." M.T. said softly, still amazed over the fact that she could feel pain. Nicodemus turned to M.T., dawning upon the meaning of her words.

"Oh. I see…" Nicodemus said. "We'll solve that bit of mystery later. Right now, your girlfriend's body still can't function without human blood. And since you two started trading essences and such, Emma's body hasn't adapted well enough to go without it. That's where your blood will come in." Nicodemus walked up to Emma, holding the beaker in his hand.

"The more of the essence she partakes, the more her body will come to accept it, and the less hassle she'll have to go through in the long run. Like adapting to poison." He theorized. M.T. was lost on that concept.

"But, how exactly does it work?" She asked.

"Think of it this way: imagine yourself an emperor trying to fortify yourself should anyone poison you." He answered. "Taking in subtle amounts at a time can be unpleasant, but it will allow your immune system to identify it and fortify itself against its otherwise lethal properties."

"Oh. That's actually pretty cool." M.T. said with an impressed grin. "Aye." He said. "Jack's cure-all stripped Emma of that Hunter's poison, if her tale is to be believed, so its natural course now should be assimilating more of the essence into her body to allow it to adapt."

Emma glanced at her hands in spite of the blurriness she was experiencing.

"Uh… so, it's actually a good thing I've been taking her essence?" Emma questioned.

"Aye." He answered with a smile. "Otherwise, you'd have been a goner within days, even with the poison out of your system."

Emma gulped anxiously, picturing that deadly scenario.

"Where is that essence?" Emma asked with nervousness.

"Right here." He answered and held it out in front of her. Just then, Emma felt a headache, making her groan.

"Ugh…! My head." Emma groaned. When she opened her eyes, she saw Nicodemus' flask in front of her.

"Hey. I'm not blind anymore!" Emma said with joy.

"Of course not. The blindness was only temporary." Nicodemus explained. He handed Emma the flask, and she pressed it against her lips, drinking it up like it was water. As Emma gulped it down her throat, the essence was going down smooth, leaving nothing left in the flask at all. When Emma was done, she sighed in relief and licked her lips.

"Huh. I don't remember it tasting this good…" Emma said to herself.

"That's good." Nicodemus said. "That means you're getting more used to the essence. Let's see if it's made any improvements. Try doing exactly what you did last time."

Emma nodded and held her arm out again. Like before, she closed her eyes. But this time, her skin changed to its chrome state more smoothly, like a river going down along the stream. Emma opened her eyes and gasped excitedly.

"It worked…" Emma said in awe, looking at her hand from all angles. She even looked at her own reflection inside it, seeing her smiling face. Then, she had an idea in her mind, imagining herself with claws like Wolverine. Suddenly, three long knives stuck out from between her knuckles, surprising her.

"Whoa!" Emma shrieked, nearly falling to her back. She looked at the result, completely awestruck.

"Whoa… it's just like I… I imagined it." Emma said in further intrigue before the claws retreated.

"Where did those come from?" M.T. asked in alarm.

"Don't know. It just popped into my head." She answered.

"That means my theory was correct." Nicodemus said with pride. "Way to go, lass! Just one step closer to making Ava that cure."

But as happy as she was with her progress, Emma couldn't help but think of Ava the last time she saw her the moment she heard her name. Thus far, she was able to replicate something she had a fleeting thought of. But that brought up another concern: how to create her cure.

"That reminds me: how exactly am I gonna recreate the cure-all for Ava?" Emma asked with concern.

"True. We didn't exactly get a good look at it before we used it." M.T. said.

Nicodemus put his fingers under his chin, making him grumble.

"Oh. That's a real problem, that." Nicodemus said anxiously. "Without a clear memory, we won't be able to recreate it." He scratched his head, trying to think of a workaround. M.T. had thought of it just the same.

"But what about making a new one with my essence?" She suggested. "It's practically like that living metal thing you made, right?"

"Aye. But even if it does work, using the same formula that mutated Emma would only trigger the same result in her. And we both know you've got your own path to follow rather than to stick around with Ava much longer." Nicodemus answered with a grim expression.

"So, we did all this for nothing…" Emma said with a feeling of crushing defeat.

"Not necessarily…" Nicodemus said, feeling hesitant himself. "At this state, the only way we can perfectly create the cure-all for Ava's sake without incurring the same condition Emma has gone through is if we get a sample of the two of you together."

"You mean, like, taking both our essences?" Emma asked.

"No. I mean both of your essence as one." He answered. "Either they must be fused or…"

Emma and M.T. both widened their eyes at his words and turned to each other.

"We fuse." They said simultaneously.


Outside, Jesse and Jack were running all over the place, trying to find anyone who can help with Ava's condition. But alas, there was no such luck. They stopped at the Robot Repair Station, but there wasn't anyone there, likely due to the clutter of bolts on the ground. Next, they visited the Teleportation room, but even if they could find someone who can help, it's uncertain whether or not the machine wouldn't let them back into the room. They were running out of options, and fast. Jesse seemed to take it hard especially.

"Come on…!" Jesse groaned. "How hard is it to find some decent help around here?!"

He'd stopped in the middle of the Lab Car at a fountain, looking left and right for any sign of the rats he hadn't asked yet. However, it was practically empty. Apparently, it was much harder than the young man thought it would be. Jack was almost running out of breath trying to catch up to Jesse and the deer.

"I never thought Jesse would be the one to make me run in circles…!" Jack said to himself. "And we had the deer!" By the time Jack had caught up, he saw Jesse's point. Or should be crawling with clones by now.

"Huh. You'd think you'd have seen at least one of them by now…" Jack said to himself on observation. But Jesse was too busy pacing back and forth, too completely stressed out of his mind to think about that.

"Think, Jesse, think! Where haven't you looked yet?!" Jesse said to himself, trying to force himself to think of someplace else to look he hadn't already seen yet. Jack wasn't sure he could stand the sight. He was in the young man's position once before, back when he didn't think he had a lot of options left for him.

"Hey, Jesse. You wanna take it easy?" Jack asked with concern.

"'Take it easy'? How can you say that when Ava is dying?!" Jesse snapped.

"Because running around in circles isn't helping her, either." Jack scolded. He didn't blame him for his panic, but he wasn't going to take it lying down.

"Well, at least it's something!" Jesse shouted. "I can't let them down! I have to find help!"

Jesse was about to take off, but Jack took him by his shoulders and throttled him.

"JESSE!" Jack cried. "Listen to me! You can't help anyone if you can't help yourself. So get it together!"

Jesse stood dumbfounded by his tone and his throttling, but with her life at stake, he couldn't ignore it.

"How am I supposed to keep it together if she could die at any moment?!" Jesse said with fear in his eyes. "I've never…! I've never forgotten how it felt when Emma was dying around me. And now, it's happening all over again. How else did you expect me to feel? If anyone died because I did nothing, I'd never forgive myself."

Jack saw how traumatized Jesse appeared. His tears were going down his cheeks like a waterslide. It was a rather upsetting sight for him to witness. He knelt down to Jesse's level, taking a knee to do so.

"I get it." Jack said softly. "Death is the scariest thing to happen to anyone. And it has a powerful effect on everyone around it. Especially me…" Jack wiped away Jesse's tears, making the young lad look at him with a warm expression on his confused face as he went on. "But the thing is, Death comes for us all. Whether we want it to or not…"

"Are you… Are you just telling me to give up?" Jesse asked, misunderstanding his point.

"No, Jesse." Jack said. "All I'm saying is that you shouldn't let it paralyze you. We still have some time to find some help for Ava. But no matter what happens, you shouldn't let it get to you. It won't help her if you're panicking the whole way."

Jesse took a moment to think on his words, as well as a deep breath. Jesse exhaled softly before he nodded to him.

"Okay." Jesse said. "But where would we start looking?" Just then, the duo heard a voice far away.

"Can I help you two with something?" he said. Jack and Jesse turned around to see Travis. But with the way he asked them, it was as though they were strangers to him. Jack grinned upon seeing him.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Jack said as he stood up. "In fact, do you know where your pals are? It's a really important emergency. About Ava. Can you hurry back?"

But what he didn't know was that James was on the upper level, absconding with another item from a room. It appeared to be a small metal High-Tech glove. He had the thing on his hand as he scowled down at the trio.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be asking for any outside help on my watch…" James said in an ominous whisper. He looked up above them. Hatching a devious plan, he fixed his eyes on a scaffolding above them, held up via two metal chains, one on each side. One of his tentacles shot up to the ceiling and cut into the chains, causing it to fall. Jesse noticed the shadow before looking up and gasped.

"Look out!" He shouted. By instinct, Jesse pushed the clone out of harm's way, just before the scaffolding could crush him. James grunted in frustration before he took off from the scene in a flash of light. Jack went to Jesse and checked on him.

"Jesse! Are you alright?" Jack asked, kneeling down to inspect him. Jesse got off of the clone and sighed.

"Yeah, I think so…" he replied. "It's Travis I'm worried about."

As it happened, the clone was rather surprised by the ordeal.

"Oh, my…!" said the clone. "That was a close one. Thanks for the help."

Jesse smiled at the clone, relieved that he didn't die on his watch.

"Sure. Anytime." Jesse replied back. But Jack took notice of the chains scattered on the floor. He walked up to the scene of the crime, seeing that both ends were unnaturally broken off. But he didn't want to assume too much.

"Do your chains usually break off like that?" Jack asked the clone.

"Never! They're made of the strongest metal there is in this car." The clone answered. "The only thing strong enough to penetrate it is…"

The clone paused, coming to a frightening realization. Jack came upon the same conclusion himself.

"Is itself." He finished.

"Someone must've cut the scaffolding to try to kill us." Jesse realized. Even he could put it together with stakes as high as they were.

"That would explain why we barely saw any of the clones before this one." Jack supposed. "It must have been the stranger that told Ava about her time limit."

"Someone's out to get me?" The clone asked dreadfully. "That's horrible!"

"Yeah, big time." Jesse said. "But why would someone go through this kind of trouble to get to us?"

"I don't know." Jack answered with a look of uncertainty. "But one thing is clear: whoever that stranger was, someone's got it out for us. And by extension, Ava."


Speaking of Ava, she was moaning in her sleep as her breathing became more shallow, the oxygen mask on her face giving her the support she needed. Rexy saw her arm dangling down from the bed and he went underneath it, hoping Ava would wake up.

"Come on, Ava… you've just gotta wake up. You just gotta…!" Rexy said, beginning to get teary-eyed from the thought of actually losing her. Amelia wouldn't blame him for it. It was exactly how it was with Alrick. And she knew all too well how that turned out. Travis didn't think it was a good idea for him to be so close.

"Rexy, I know you're anxious, but–" he began. But Amelia held her arm over him.

"Let him be, Travis. I know what that's like…" Amelia said weakly, staring at the tablet in front of her. The memory that was playing on the tablet was the time when Amelia proposed to Alrick.

"And I'm just a simple Hu-Mon." said Amelia with a grin. "But perhaps, we can bridge the gap between our two civilizations."

The memory of Amelia opened up the gift of wedding rings from her perspective, looking up at Alrick. She looked up at him with a big smile.

"So… what do you think?" She asked. To answer, he took off the hood and nodded with a teary smile.

Amelia smiled sadly at the memory. Not a day went by that she hadn't thought of him. But since Ava came back into her life, she'd been wondering how he would feel if he were still here with her. Doubtless, it was likely that he wasn't on the train, but to imagine him with her and Ava… maybe she would've been alright with a family. She turned to Ava, smiling sadly.

"Travis, if Alrick was here… what would he think?" Amelia asked glumly. Travis glanced at Amelia, feeling sorry for the way she felt. He put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"I'd think he'd be proud of you for working so hard for her." Travis said. "Even if it's not the person you wanted her to be at first."

Amelia's face softened with guilt the longer she stared at her.

"She wasn't my first attempt, you know," Amelia said. "The last time I made him, he… he was an abomination. He was a danger to me and himself. I had to put him down…" Amelia held her arms on her elbows, trying to forget that awful memory. "But it let me know that I was close. And yet, of all the things I managed to create, all I brought back were turtles."

Amelia was getting frustrated at this point. But she sounded more disappointed than angry.

"All I've done is try to escape, to run away." Amelia said. "And now…? I just want to take her home."

Travis wrapped his hands around Amelia to hug her.

"We'll help her, Amelia." Travis comforted the British woman. "We'll find out what's going on with her, and we'll cure her. I promise."

Just then, an all too familiar voice spoke out from the tablet.

"Now, why would you want that?"

Amelia gasped and turned her head, suspecting that he'd returned.

"You again!" Amelia cried out. But Travis tapped her shoulder.

"No. It's the memory. But I don't remember him being in there." He said. Amelia's eyes widened in shock when he saw him.

"Amelia and the other women have been going at it on their own." Alrick's voice responded. The James he was talking to was dressed in a dark gray tweed jacket over his red shirt with dark gray pants, and he had glasses over his dark blue eyes. "I just want to do my part and support them."

"Well, if it's cause to help a friend," James said, "who am I to turn away a friend in need?"

Amelia heard his voice in the memory. She knew it could only mean one thing.

"That's not my memory." She said with a breath of shock. "But why is he in Alrick's?"

"Splendid!" said Alrick. "Now, what do you think I should do?"

"Hmm… one theory comes to mind if you're trying to recruit the witless masses to your cause." James said. "What about putting on a show for them?"

"A show?" he asked.

"Something no one will not soon forget." James said with a wicked smile. "And I have a feeling you know just what to do, don't you?"

Amelia already didn't like where the scenario was going.

"What are you up to…?" she asked herself.

Meanwhile, in the spatial room, Emma and M.T. were still coming to grips with what Nicodemus was suggesting.

"You need us to fuse together?" M.T. asked.

"But the last time that happened, we were almost swallowed whole." Emma added.

"Until you stopped it." Nicodemus reminded.

"Only because of M.T." Emma countered. "If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be… well, us anymore."

"Is that what you think would've happened?" Nicodemus asked.

"It's what we saw." Emma said. "In our dream."

"Oh. I see your concern, lass." Nicodemus said. "But dreams are often transitory, not literal. What you think was the end might be just a new beginning. That's how I imagine it, anyway." However, M.T. still had her reservations.

"But if that's true, how come I dreamt it, too?" M.T. said.

"Because, you two are forever linked." The rat said, pointing at the two girls' hearts. "The cure-all was assimilating your essence into her body, so she can get used to it. But in doing so, it's practically made her like you, yet not like you. In short, you've set up a personal link to each other."

"And how exactly does that help?" M.T. asked.

"It means," Nicodemus said, "if you still want to be yourselves, you can choose that for yourselves, and the essence inside Emma will react accordingly. Biologically, you're being granted free agency, Emma. You can be anything, only so long as you wish it."

Emma paused for a moment, looking under her shirt to notice that the essence it was assimilating was crawling up her neck slowly.

"So, you're saying that if we fused, we would stay that way until… we don't want to be?" Emma asked.

"Like I said, imagination is more important than knowledge." Nicodemus said with a confident grin. But then, he had a look of slight hesitation. "Although in this case, it might be worth the exception..."

M.T. was getting tired of the uncertainty, but she knew better than to lash out. Still, she had to let him know she wasn't having it.

"Look, we just wanna know. Can we still come back or not?" M.T. asked with authority, making him drop the hesitation and causing him to panic.

"In theory, yes." Nicodemus said with a gulp.

"Then that's good enough for me." M.T. said.

Emma looked at her girlfriend, puzzled by her willingness to go along with something that could end up erasing her identity.

"But, M.T…" Emma said, stunned and speechless to say anything else.

"You said it yourself, Emma." M.T. said with a dead serious look. "Ava's the one dying." Her face softened, her grip loosening on the foot of the bed. "And besides, if I do lose myself… At least the Flecs won't chase me anymore. What about you? Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Emma looked down at her legs, moving them up and down as she thought it over. She also glanced at her now chrome-like hands, looking at her reflection.

"Well…" Emma said softly. "To be honest, if I were to fade away, I'd have plenty of regrets to leave behind. Like not being able to help my mom, or giving up Charlotte, or… or never being able to see my dad again."

All the same, Emma scooched herself closer to M.T., placing her chrome-like hand on M.T.'s. The instant she did, they bound themselves together, perplexing the Sliver who looked upon Emma as the thin layer of chrome overcame her whole face, hair and all. Even her green eyes turned into a black olive color amongst a sea of silver to match. "But if there is anything to this that would go for me… it's that I got to have one more kiss with you." Emma finished with a soft smile, her voice having added a metallic layer to it. M.T. ended up laughing with a giggle.

"That's so damn cheesy…!" M.T. chuckled. Emma laughed along with her for a moment before they leaned close together and planted their lips upon each other. On contact, they stuck together like glue, moaning blissfully into each other. Emma leaned herself on top of M.T., laying herself on top of her as the essence did its work.

As Emma moved her hand up along her arm, Visco hopped out of her jacket pocket and onto the table to watch. With both of their busts on top of each other, they laid down their legs upon each other, and the essence swirled up from their legs and along their waists to their faces, creating a makeshift chrome cocoon, which wobbled for some time. Visco squeaked curiously to Nicodemus, wondering what was happening to them.

"Hmm. They made their choice, little one." Nicodemus said with a soft smile on his face to the slime gerbil. "Let's hope it pays off."

Inside the cocoon, Emma and M.T.'s bodies were beginning to melt, becoming one with the cocoon. Their clothes began to turn chrome-like as well, fading away to meld with their structures before their forms completely faded away into a formless blob, their voices blending together before their mouths completely faded altogether. After that, there wasn't anything. Only a blob in its place where they once laid. Emma and M.T. were gone. Or were they?

A short moment later, the blob shifted again, reforming itself as a new voice moaned out of it. It began to sprout its arms and legs first. Then, it accentuated the curves for a more feline build, especially on the bust. Next came the appearance of a new outfit to cover the extremities. And her face formed, having a side buzz cut her bangs going down to the right side of her head and having a chrome-like streak on it. And finally, her eyes opened up, sparking a shining olive color in the silver sclerae.

Soon enough, the cocoon itself began to melt away into her skin as the new being moaned with a rub of her head. When the chrome cocoon was absorbed, her clothing changed. She was now wearing a black jacket with red sleeves under the arms and a red hoodie, along with M.T.'s black pants and brown shoe-strap boots. She also had a piercing hole on her left ear. And to top it off, Emma's number remained on Shine's right palm. The new being stretched her arms and glanced at the amazed Nicodemus. She looked down at the doctor and the slime gerbil before she spoke.

"What?" she asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

"Actually, lass," he said, "it's your whole body I'm looking at."

The fusion looked at her chrome-like hand to see her reflection. She gasped in awe at this new form of hers and grinned.

"Damn, I look good~" she said, more than pleasantly surprised by her look. She looked down and saw her number of 118. "I still got my number, too. I guess I am still me, after all." Then, her smile went away, with confusion taking its place. "Actually… what am I going with, M.T.?"

The fusion crossed her legs and tried to think of something.

"Hmm. Well, I mean, Emma T. sounds weird, but it's not like I had a name, either." The fusion said. She dropped her cross-legged state, letting her legs dangle down. "Good point. What if I called myself, 'Shine'?"

She changed position with her legs and raised an eyebrow.

"Really? That's what I got?" She said, in a disbelieving and unimpressed tone.

"I thought it was pretty!" She said with a bashful look. "It's not like it's my name as a person."

The fusion thought it over before she gave herself the two cents.

"Yeah. It does sound better." She said. "Okay. I'm going with Shine. But I owe me later."

"Yeah, I know." Shine said in what Nicodemus would assume to be Emma's personality.

"Well, glad you got that covered, lass… es?" He said hesitantly. "Now, let's get to the real work." He held up a syringe and tapped his finger on the needle, making Shine laugh nervously with a sweaty expression.

"Why do I feel like I'm gonna die…?" Shine asked herself timidly.

"I promise you. You won't feel nary a thing." Nicodemus said softly, already sensing where it was going. But thanks to M.T.'s newfound sensitivity, Shine was easily frightened.

"Liar!" Shine yelled out. "Get that thing away from me!" In her reaction, her arm turned into a whip and ended up snatching the syringe right out of his hand! Shine had a couple of seconds before realizing what she had done.

"Whoa… I wasn't even thinking of it that time. Was I?" Shine asked the doctor, who took the syringe back from her grasp.

"Look, I understand your fear of needles, but you said it yourself." Nicodemus said. "Ava is dying. And she won't recover if you don't cooperate!"

Shine held her head down, feeling ashamed for how she acted.

"I'm sorry…" she said somberly. "Let's try again."

Shine held her arm out, trying to get it over with. But her right arm shook in hesitation. Her left hand clasped itself on the wrist, trying to get it to hold still.

"It's okay." Shine said reassuringly to herself. "I'll take it from here."

Shine closed her eyes and breathed in a deep sigh. Her whole body began to lose its chrome layer, and she had Emma's light tan skin tone in its place. She opened her eyes, as well as her left sleeve, and looked at him.

"Will this make it easier?" Shine asked.

"That'll do, Shine. That'll do." Nicodemus answered softly. He went up to the left arm and stuck a needle in it. Shine grunted from the injection, but she powered through it as he took in Shine's essence. It still had the silver appearance, but the liquid inside it was a lot thicker than normal. He took the needle out of Shine and examined it. Shine took a look at what he got from her, too.

"Is that my blood?" Shine asked, staring at what he got inside the syringe.

"Well, it's about as thick as blood." Nicodemus answered. "Hopefully, this might be enough."


Meanwhile, Jack and Jesse were with Travis' clone. Alan Dracula was trotting behind them. Since the attempt on his life, they've been on guard trying to protect him from any harm that should befall him. They didn't expect a guard duty job at all, but with how suddenly Ava went sick, someone clearly had it out for Amelia. At this point, they mustn't take any chances.

"Alright. So far, we haven't seen any other clones. Or any other rat, for that matter. No bodies, not even a soul here to speak of… So that means, you, Nicodemus, and Travis might be the only ones left." Jack warned. "That's why Jesse, the deer, and I will be behind you."

"Behind me?" He asked nervously. "But what if something comes after me?"

"We can charge up and head it off before it gets anywhere near you." Jack said. "And if that bastard tries anything from behind, he'll learn what 'Jackknife' means the hard way."

Jesse became puzzled, raising his pointer finger.

"What does jackknife mean?" Jesse asked.

"Don't worry about it, Jesse. It's not important right now." Jack said. "Yet…"

"But what about the Time Machine?" Jesse suggested. "If we fail this time, can't we still undo it?"

But as they made their way back, Travis discovered something more alarming than a lack of presence thereof. He saw sparks in an adjacent room.

"Oh, no…! No, no, no!" The clone cried out. He rushed out to the room, and to his horror, he saw the Time Machine utterly destroyed. Wires were frayed, the ring was dismantled, and the panel was beyond repair. "The Time Machine! It's destroyed!"

Jesse widened his eyes when he saw it. In the long run, it would've been useful if Ava had died, so they could try again. But now, without it, she's truly done for. Jack sighed with a sad frown.

"Looks like he did his homework too well." Jack said. "He must've counted on us figuring that out." Jesse was distraught for a moment, holding onto his fists, trembling with anger. But then, he tried to calm down.

"Don't panic…! Don't panic…" Jesse said to himself. Jack saw how hard he was trying to keep himself together and had concerns that he may not be able to. But as if to reassure him, the boy took a deep breath and put on a serious face.

"We have to hurry back to Ava." Jesse said.


Meanwhile, Amelia was watching the rest of the memory as Alrick was on top of a motorbike. From his perspective, there was a vacant street save for the sidewalks full of passersby. He turned his head 5 degrees to the side, showing Amelia not only herself and James on the other side of the street, but also the few friends who supported him and Amelia both.

One of them was a girl with short, dark brown hair, a blue midriff, and a dark blue skirt. Another of his friends had dirty blonde hair and a mustache, as well as a bright red long-sleeved shirt. And another young man had dark brown hair and tan skin with a white sweater vest over his lime green shirt and khakis on his legs.

"Alright, before we begin," Alrick called out. "I'd like to call to everybody's attention my beautiful darling wife!"

The crowd cheered with an uproar as the cameraman zoomed in on Amelia, along with his friends, who clapped for her. Amelia blushed bashfully over the applause she was getting.

"Oh, please, stop, all of you…" Amelia replied with a red tint over her whole face.

In the present, Amelia started to feel embarrassed herself. Rexy saw her bashfulness and became puzzled.

"Hey, how come you got to be on TV?" Rexy asked, feeling quite jealous that Amelia got to be on television.

"I never asked to be." Amelia replied. "Especially not with how often it vilified me for standing up for my beliefs."

"Besides, that's not what we're focusing on." Travis said. "Keep watching."

"I don't know if I can bear it…" Amelia said softly, wanting to turn away from what was sure to be his last moments. Travis moved the tablet away from Amelia to spare her the pain with a sad frown on his face. He and Rexy watched the footage as Alrick prepared for his stunt.

"Alright! Let's do this!" Alrick shouted out. The crowd cheered for him as he revved up the engine. And within seconds, Alrick had taken off. He sped up across the ramp and was about to jump straight off. But the moment he began the climb, his front tire wheel started to skid out of control. As a result, Alrick began to swerve left and right out of control. And to make matters worse, Alrick lost his grip, and he ended up flung right off of the motorbike!

It was a rather bloody aftermath to say the least. His body ended up crashing into the ground, breaking his bones and ribs in several places with each impact he made. And just when he thought it was safe, the fractured wheel section of the motorbike impaled him right in the back with a sharp stab!

Ava let out a choked gasp as the memory played back. Alrick was doing the same in his awful predicament.

"ALRICK!" Amelia was the first to cry out. But James was the first to take action. He lifted motorbike off of him, making him scream in pain, and he tried his best to clot the wound with his hands.

"Someone call an ambulance, and hurry!" The past James said. "This man needs urgent care, immediately!"

The memory should've ended then and there. At least, Amelia wanted it to.

"Please turn it off, Travis. I can't witness that any longer…" she begged softly.

"But we still don't know what happened to her." Travis reminded, but Amelia's heart was too broken to care at this point.

"And we're not going to figure that out in the past." Amelia coldly replied. "Turn it off. Please…"

Travis saw the tear coming down her face. Rather than put her through any more heartache than she had already, he began to consider it.

"Oy, I hear ya." Rexy said softly. It somehow looked worse than when you told us…"

"Just. Turn. It. Off." Amelia spoke in a cold reply. Rexy gulped, not wanting to get on her bad side and stepped aside. Travis was about to turn it off when a dark chuckle was heard.

"Such a dreadful accident, Mr. Timmens. Quite dreadful, indeed." James said sinisterly.

Amelia turned her head to the tablet, shocked that there was anything more out of what had happened. She went closer to Travis and took a look inside it. What she saw was James sneering at him.

"But I did warn you that the bike wasn't safe." He continued. "None of this would've happened if you just listened to me!"

James was telling him so in a scornful manner. Meanwhile, all Alrick could do was choke on his gasps.

"But no. You and Amelia chose to be ignorant of society's rules." James said with dissatisfaction. "And this is what it's come to."

Amelia's shocked and horrified face began to worsen, her breath quickening in anger as her tears fell from her face.

"Well, I suppose she at least can still be saved. Oh. And don't worry: I'll be sure to give Amelia your love."

In the reflection of James' glasses, Alrick's bloody and oil-covered body stared in horror as his life started to fade from his eyes.

A tear dropped down onto the tablet screen. It was from Amelia. Her fists trembled in extreme anger over what she had witnessed. Even Rexy didn't see it coming.

"That was no accident…!" Rexy realized. "He was set up!"

"This whole time…" Amelia said, trying not to let her voice become muddled in sadness. "This whole time…! I knew he was murdered, and I was RIGHT!" Amelia slammed her fists on the hospital bed near Ava's legs, the impact of which made the dinosaur flinch. "First, he murders my husband! And now, he's poisoned my daughter! Why won't he leave me be?!"

Amelia's downpour of tears trickled down to Ava's bed, the girl unmoving. Rexy went up to Amelia's legs. It was safe to say he was no fan of James' either.

"I swear, if I see that son of a gun again, I'll tear him a new one!" Rexy snarled. "Nobody poisons my friend and gets away with it!" However, he realized one crucial thing he berlooked. "Wait. How did he poison her?"

Travis stared into the tablet and had an idea.

"Wait a minute…" Travis said to himself. "Amelia. That hair sample you brought here. On the day he died, was it before the accident, or after?"

Amelia sniffled, wiping her tears away with her arm.

"After. Why would you ask—?"

Before Amelia finished, she stopped and thought over what it meant. "Wait a moment. It couldn't have—!"

"But it did." Travis said. "That hair sample you used still had trace amounts of oil on it. It wasn't enough to happen immediately, but it's definitely triggered the reaction in Ava now."

That solved one part of the problem. Now came the other.

"Great. But how do we fix it?" Rexy asked, frustrated that there still wasn't an answer yet.

"You can't." James said from above. Amelia, Travis, and Rexy look up to see James descending as his tentacles propelled him down to their level. He had a stern look on his face, and of course, Amelia, Travis, and Rexy were none too pleased to see him. "But if you value her life, you will listen to me, now."

"And why the hell should we?!" Jack called out from behind. James turned around to see Jack, Jesse, the deer, and Travis' clone. But James didn't waste a word on them. He lurched one of his tentacles right at the clone, urging Jack and Jesse to push him aside to safety. However, the tentacle anticipated this and went to the ground instead, precisely where the clone fell. His eyes widened when he felt a stabbing pain in his furry chest. Before he knew it, he began to wobble and melt away into an orange puddle, much to Jesse and Jack's horror. Even Alan Dracula was frightened as the tentacle pulled back to its master.

"You monster!" Travis shouted from behind. He lunged at James, grabbing the tentacles and trying to force them off of his waist, but he retaliated with their spin attack, striking him on the head and flinging him away from him and to the ground with a hard thud. His lab coat was torn to shreds thanks to his metal appendages. Rexy knelt down to him to try to wake him up.

"Travis!" Text shouted. Amelia turned to James with a scowl.

"Do I have your attention now, Amelia?" James asked with a deceitful smile.


Meanwhile, Nicodemus was adding in the ingredients to the cure-all using Shine's metallic blood as a basis.

"Let's see… a quart of Sulfuric Essence." Nicodemus said to himself, dropping a bottle of red liquid into the beaker. It made a small spark as a result. "A tablespoon of zinc."

The addition of Zinc plopped down into the mixture before opening up a straw-stuffed desk drawer. It had a test tube full of blood inside it. He picked up the tube and popped open the stopper.

"And finally, the most important thing: human blood." Nicodemus said. Then, he turned his eyes to Shine. "And don't ask where I got it. It's a scientist's business."

"Uh… okay?" Shine asked, uncertain if she should be worried. All the same, he added a drop of it into the mixture. Then, the one drop began to spread all over the liquid, turning the rest of it into blood. A few seconds later, the mixture faded away into its original silver color. Shine blinked her eyes, uncertain of what happened.

"Did it work?" She asked tentatively. Nicodemus held the beaker of it in his hands and stared at it.

"Speaking as the Smartest Rat Alive… I have no bloody idea." Nicodemus said, making her groan in frustration.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Shine cursed, likely from M.T.'s side of her.

"I can't help it if there's no way of knowing, even for me. The cure-all those slugs stole was experimental in the first place. And it turned you into that. But with this.. all we can do is hope for the best." Nicodemus said sternly. Shine's expression softened.

"Okay. Sorry…" Shine said, feeling a bit guilty for cursing him.

"It's okay, Shine." Nicodemus said softly. "I wish I could get a clear answer, too."

Just then, the device beeped inside the spatial room, and the door opened up. Shine and Nicodemus turned to it and saw the room outside.

"Just in time. That means you have twenty minutes to find Ava and cure her, provided nothing else has happened." Nicodemus said proudly. Shine grinned, thankful for the time she had in the end.

"Cool. That's plenty of time at this rate." Shine said with a confident grin, putting her fist in her palm.

"Aye." Nicodemus agreed. However, he still can't help but worry. The way things looked, it may be too easy. He had a very weary look upon him, something that didn't go unnoticed.

"What's wrong?" Shine asked. The lab rat turned to Shine, holding the beaker to her and putting a stopper on it.

"See that you get this to Ava. It may be her only chance." He said with a desperate look. "And if all else fails, there's something I need you to do."

"Okay." Shine nodded to the doctor with faith. "What do I need to do?"


Meanwhile, James was standing victoriously in between Amelia, Jack, Jesse, and Alan Dracula. He'd dispatched all of the Travis clones and knocked the original out of commission. Sadly, at this point, all Amelia could do was hear him out, as much as she loathed it.

"What do you want from me?" Amelia demanded.

"When we last spoke, I told you there was no cure." James said, keeping his smirk. "But things change over time. Your rat friend should know."

Amelia glanced behind her, looking upon Travis. He'd previously told her about his experiences with time travel not too long ago. Her heart almost stopped when she realized what he'd done.

"You've actually traveled through time itself just to get back at us?!" Amelia asked in shock.

"I'm offering an olive branch, Amelia." James scolded. "You'd do well not to look a gift horse in the mouth."

Jack didn't believe a word he said, and neither did Jesse. The young man growled at him as James continued.

"You have the opportunity to go back and change things," he said, "to never lose your dear Alrick again. Perhaps, you might even have a daughter with him, a true family. That's what you're after now at the end of the day, isn't it?" Amelia's face softened at the idea. She did wish that for her just recently. But Jack called him out on it.

"With what?!" He retorted. "You've already destroyed the damn thing in the first place!"

"True. But there's nothing broken that can't be fixed. Don't you agree," James asked, holding his hand out. She looked back to her daughter in her sickly condition, her breathing becoming slower and slower. "All that and more can finally be yours to grasp. If you agree to give up your pointless crusade of independence, that is."

Even with his words so crudely spoken, Amelia was tempted to take his offer. And if things didn't happen the way they have, she would have. But the attack on Ava and Alrick shut down any chance of her accepting it a long time ago.

"Go to Bloody Hell, you murderous wanker!" Amelia cried out in anger. "It wasn't enough that you went against our wishes to be free to choose for ourselves, but you murdered my husband and poisoned my daughter for it! I would rather die than give it up! So don't bother wasting any more of my time ever again!"

James' face was unbent for a few seconds. But then, his ruse faded away, and he started to become just as angry as she is.

"So be it…" James snarled. Suddenly, one of his tentacles lurched toward Ava and captured her straight off the bed. Another tentacle zipped to Jesse and grabbed him.

"Ah! Jack!" Jesse called out. Jack reached his hand for the young lad and tried to pull him away.

"I got you, Jesse!" Jack said. But James smacked him away to the deer, who turned into a pillow cushion and broke his fall delicately. James had both Ava and Jesse in his grasp as he stared daggers into Amelia.

"I've tried to get you to come to your senses humanely." James said bitterly with pure malice. "But now we do this the hard way. Either you accept my deal, or else you'll find we at least have one thing in common. You're not the only one who hates children."

James' two other tentacles flew up near them and spun around like saws. Jesse squirmed and writhed, trying to break out of the tentacles and save his head from being chopped off. And his fear grew worse knowing Ava was helpless to avoid it.

"Ava!" Jesse cried. The tentacle's blades were drawing very, very close to her neck, liable to snap it off any second. Amelia could barely stomach the thought of it. She was about to lose someone who mattered to her, again. And if she didn't give in, she'd lose her forever. Her fists wavered, already giving in to his temptation. But then, just when things were at their darkest…

"HEY, FUCKSTAIN!" Shine called out. James halted his action for a moment, keeping the blades within reach of their necks.

"Excuse you?!" James shouted, outraged by her coarse insult. He turned around, only to see a raging fusion barreling right at him, her left fist coated in a layer of chrome skin.

"Let go of my friends!" Shine roared, immediately throwing a punch across his face, catching Amelia, Rexy, Jack, and even Alan Dracula by surprise. The impact of her hard skin against his cheek knocked out several of his teeth, forcibly removing them from his mouth. And greater still, the force of the impact launched him farther away from Amelia and the others, but not before his metal appendages released Ava and Jesse in their master's lapse. Shine saw the duo falling, and she stretched her arms with a silver layer around them, catching Ava and Jesse before setting the latter down on the floor. For his part, Jesse was astounded.

"Wow…! That was… amazing!" Jesse exclaimed, forming a dark brown blush on his cheeks. Shine smiled back with a blush of her own.

"I know. I'm pretty great, aren't I?" Shine replied.

"You two fused together! Just like Steven Universe!" Jesse said excitedly. Then, he had a puzzled expression. "But how did you fuse?"

"We'll talk about that later." Shine said with a blush of her own. Alan Dracula walked up to Shine and licked her in the face, making her giggle. "H-Hey! Good to see you, too, buddy." She turned her head over to see Amelia running over to Shine and Jesse as Jack walked over from behind.

"Ava! Is she alright?!" Amelia said, more scared than ever to lose her. Shine looked down at the young girl, who nestled against her in the arms. While she was comfortable though, Ava didn't seem too pleased. She was moaning, as if her pain never stopped.

"She looks fine for now. I'm just glad I made it in time." Shine replied back. Amelia took Ava from her arms and held her close.

"Oh, God bless your soul." Amelia said with a warm smile to her dear daughter. Then, she got a closer look at Shine. "Though, I can't say I've met you before. Yet you seem familiar."

Shine smiled back at her.

"I'll explain later on that." Shine said. She got out the beaker of Nicodemus' cure-all and handed it to Amelia. "Right now, she has to take this."

But suddenly, one of James' tentacles shot out like a rocket. Shine saw the arm and got in front of Amelia.

"Look out!" Shine yelled. Just before the arm could hit her, she caught the mechanical appendage and held it at bay with her hand. It screeched, trying to reach for Ava's cure-all in Amelia's hand. In James' end, he had a major bruise, and blood was coming out of his mouth. He had become deranged at this point.

"If you really thought I'd take your coarse insult lying down," James threatened, "then you don't know the first thing about me!"

To retaliate, James swung another of his tentacles right at Shine. But she was prepared. She caught the assailant with her right arm, holding it at her side.

"What kind of psycho are you?!" Shine asked with pure disgust. Suddenly, the tentacle she held back wrapped around her waist and struck the bottle to the ground, making it shatter and spill the contents all over the place. Amelia, Shine, Jack, Rexy, and Jesse stared in horror as the last drops were spilled out. James chuckled darkly as he glared at the fusion.

"Someone who is tired of losing…" James answered. His tentacles retreated back to their master as he coldly glared at Amelia. "You should've accepted my offer, Amelia! You can forget about seeing your daughter or your husband alive ever again!"

Suddenly, a shot rang out, and pierced through James' right shoulder. Everyone turned their heads to see Alan Dracula's eyes blazing red and steaming. It fired its laser eyes so concentrated, they pierced through his arm, severing his hand from his body, and spurted blood all over the floor where his arm was shot.

"Alan Dracula?" Jesse said in shock.

"Damn it…!" James grunted, holding his hand over his wound and turning the wrist of his cloak into a makeshift tourniquet to stop the bleeding. "I promise you, Amelia… You're not through with me yet…!"

With that, James made his less than graceful exit, teleporting out of the car with the watch on his remaining arm. Though the conflict was over, Amelia was utterly devastated. Her daughter was now on death's doorstep, and at any moment, she could be taken forever.

All she could hear was ringing in her ears, staring at the blood from James' hand being cut off. She turned her head to the unconscious Travis as Rexy tried to wake the doctor up. She couldn't hear him, but she knew what he meant to say to her. And worst of all, the still, rapidly fading body of Ava. Her first daughter, and soon to be her last. Amelia began to weep all over again, seeing a flash of Alrick's broken and bloodied body in her arms in Ava's place. How could she fail again…?!

She tried her hardest to stay strong, for her sake. But with reality reminding her that everything is impermanent, it was looking impossible to do so. Shine, Jesse, and Jack saw her kneeling down, broken in mind and spirit by the sadistic excuse of a gentleman. The trio felt utterly terrible about it all, but Shine was the one to step up to Amelia and kneel down beside her. She cleared her throat, and her head turned.

"Amelia. It's okay. We still have one more chance." Shine said softly. Amelia looked at her in disbelief at first, but her gentle smile gave her a hint that she knew something. Shine moved her jacket away, revealing a stretched-out Visco inside, holding onto her syringe, full of the new cure-all Nicodemus had made. Amelia's eyes widened in utter surprise, overwhelmed by the hope filling the hole in her soul as Visco stretched over to Shine's shoulder and held up the syringe with a squeak. Shine picked it up and smiled.

"Thanks, Visco." She said with a grin. Visco placed her a kiss on the cheek with its small nub as Amelia watched.

"Wha…? How did you—?" Amelia said, speechless by the stunt she pulled.

"Sorry I had to fool you like that." Shine apologized. "I didn't want him to know about this. Or he would've broken it, too."

Suddenly, Amelia wrapped her arms around Shine, and she sobbed onto her shoulder.

"Thank you…! Thank you so much…!" Amelia wept, her tears coming down like waterfalls onto her jacket. Shine tried to pull free, but her grip was too tight.

"Okay. Okay…! Getting kinda tight here." Shine grunted. Amelia finished her hug and wiped her tears away and put on a stern look despite her red eyes.

"You must never tell anyone about this. Ever." Amelia urged with a weak volume in her voice. But Shine held her hand onto Amelia's own hands.

"Amelia. It's okay to let yourself be human." Shine said with a soft tone. Amelia turned her head away with a frown.

"I suppose…" Amelia said.

At that moment, Jack and Jesse walked up to the duo, along with Rexy.

"Not to be petty, but why didn't you break his limbs?" Jack asked.

"We were running out of time. I wasn't going to waste it picking a fight with that monster." Shine said. Then, she held her hands on Ava's head and looked at her.

"Now, let's help her." Shine said. "Jack, can you help Rexy wake Travis up?"

"I'll no doctor, but I'll see what I can do." Jack replied and he walked over to the dinosaur.

"You know, you didn't do much either." Rexy said with a scowl.

"Give it a rest." Jack mumbled. Shine glanced at Jesse next.

"Jesse, can you keep Ava steady for me?" Shine asked.

"Uh, sure!" He said kneeling down close to her and held his hands under her head. Shine went around him and stopped at the middle, glancing at her frail figure. She held the syringe at the ready as she moved Ava's sleeves up.

"Well, here goes…" But before Shine could inject it, Amelia piped up.

"Wait!" She cried. "The problem isn't in the arms. It's her whole body. The oil in her body is what's poisoning her."

"Then, where should I put this thing?" Shine asked, hoping she knew the answer. Amelia glanced over at the glove that was severed from James' hand.

"I think I might have an idea how to figure that out." Amelia replied. She stood up and walked over to the glove before scooping it up. The woman picked it up and pulled it off of the severed hand that came with it, which made for a gruesome sight. She shuddered when she looked back at Alan Dracula, who was now casually trotting over to Jesse and Shine. Amelia walked back to the duo cradling Ava and put it in her own hand.

"It's a good thing the deer shot James' hand off with this." Amelia said. "Otherwise, this might've been more difficult." She looked back up to the deer and cleared her throat. "So, um… thank you. For that."

The deer leaned close to Amelia and licked her in the cheek. She was disgusted, but the gentle licks weren't as slobbery as she expected. Regardless, she knew just what to do with it. She put it on her hand and pushed a button on the back of it. It shot out a green scanning light that zoomed up and down over Ava's ailing body. Shine and Jesse watched intently for any sign of the ailment that was affecting her. It didn't take too long to find it.

The glove suddenly beeped, and the light turned red when it stopped just at her chest. Amelia gasped hoarsely at the sight of black spreading all over her blood veins.

"Damn it…! The oil must've done more damage than I thought." Amelia said. "It seems to be spreading from her heart. If we inject it into one of the veins, it should spread to the source."

"Okay. Lead the way, Amelia." Shine said. The woman nodded, and she expanded the scanning range. The resulting X-Ray showed them all the blood veins closest to her heart. And as it happened, the vein they were looking for was in the abdomen level. Shine undid Ava's jacket, removing the sleeves and setting them on the floor before opening it up. What she saw underneath was a black tank top over her. Shine moved it up to show her bellybutton and Shine aimed it on the right of it.

"Okay. Here goes… everything." Shine said softly. Without hesitation, Shine placed the syringe into the vein where that spot was, and injected Nicodemus' cure-all. Through the x-ray, they saw her substance overcome Ava's sickened structure like Pac-Man chasing ghosts. Little by little, the blackness faded away, replaced by a brilliant glowing white of Shine's cure-all. Amelia ceased the X-Ray and looked over Ava's body, leaning close to her face.

"Ava… Ava, wake up. It's me, your mother." Amelia spoke softly, hoping that she could hear her voice. For a few seconds, she said no word. But suddenly, Ava coughed out of nowhere. Amelia, Jesse, and Shine backed up, letting her have some space as she finished her coughs. She moaned weakly, opening her eyes to see Amelia looking over her.

"Mum…?" Ava said weakly. "I had a weird dream. You were there. And I was… marrying you, I think? And there was this stranger. I thought he was my friend, but then, I crashed. And… I was my father."

Amelia couldn't hold back her tears. She hugged her close and tightly, making sure her arms didn't let her go ever again.

"No, Ava. That could never be true." She said softly. "You are not your father. You're better. You are my daughter. And so help me. I will never stop loving you for it. Never." Ava hugged her back as she started to weep softly into her. Shine and Jesse smiled at the touching moment between the two. And to join in, Rexy cried out.

"Ava!" The tiny T-Rex cried out. He was waddling over to her at breakneck speed, and the first thing he did was hop on top of her and Amelia, nuzzling his head against her as he cried.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Rexy whined as he cried all over Ava. She gently rubbed the top of his head.

"Rexy..! I'm not your mum." She said with a chuckle.

"I-I thought you were gonna die…!" Rexy sniffled. "But I'm so glad you didn't…!"

"We all are." Travis said. He was holding an ice pack on his head, courtesy of Jack.

"He had a knockout, but he'll pull through." Jack said. "Not that anybody asked."

Shine smiled at him all the same and replied.

"Thanks, Jack. I'm glad he's okay." She said. Jack grinned back at her. However, he still had one thing on his mind.

"And what about you two?" He asked. "How did… that happen?"

Shine smirked back at him.

"Well, you might say we bridged the gap between our civilizations." Shine coined, making Ava chuckle as Amelia rolled her eyes. That said, she was still surprised by the possibility of a fusion between passenger and denizen. Even more surprising was what it meant to her.

"Looks like the cure worked after all." Nicodemus said. His voice got everyone's attention as he walked in from behind the group. Shine and Jesse smiled at him.

"Nicodemus!" Shine and Jesse grinned.

"Sorry I couldn't be here sooner." He apologized. "But you were faster than I was back there, lassie. And without the Time Machine, I had to rely on my own two legs for that."

Amelia glanced at the rat with a scowl.

"I'm sorry. Who are you?" Amelia asked skeptically. Nicodemus hung his head down.

"A rat who fell in with an unsavory face." He said with shame. "I thought I could trust that man after he saved my life during my escapades. But instead, I…" Overcome, the rat hung his head down, wrapped up in guilt like a burrito. "I ended up putting your little lass in danger. I don't expect you to forgive me for it after what you've endured, but all the same… this rat wants you to know that he regrets it with his life, and will regret it, every, single, day."

Ava felt sorry for the poor rat despite her circumstances. It was far more than her mother could say. She scowled at him with a deep loathing. Her daughter got out of her grip and hugged Nicodemus, leaning toward him.

"I don't blame you, poor fellow." Ava said softly. "He fooled my dad, too. And mom."

"That's true." Jesse concurred with a deep tone he wasn't usually known for. "But now, we know who he really is: someone who used them to get what he wanted. Well, I'll tell you this. The next time we see him, or any Scarecrow, they're not gonna get away with it."

Shine wasn't expecting to see that side of him at all. What had happened while Emma and M.T. were away?

"Slow your roll, commander." Shine teased with a smile and a bump on his shoulder. "We'll take it one step at a time." Jesse smiled back at Shine and nodded to her. Then, he turned back to Nicodemus.

"Oh, that reminds me." He said. "Can she defuse back into Emma and M.T.?"

"Oh-ho. So you've figured it out, eh, lad?" Nicodemus said, impressed by his observation.

"I know who my friends look like," Jesse said. "Even if they are in the same skin. Plus, her mirror powers were kind of a hard tell."

Shine blushed bashfully at Jesse, moving her bang farther back and turning her head.

"So, how do we—?" Shine started to ask, but her form began to wobble out of control. And her displaced voice became two as her form turned into a blob splitting into two. They themselves reformed back to who they were before as the girls asked.

"Change back?" Emma and M.T. said simultaneously. It took a short while for them to notice that they did go back to normal.

"Hey! It worked!" Emma said.

"Yeah-ah-ah! It's good to be back to normal." M.T. said with a big smile.

"Well, not entirely…" Nicodemus said, pointing at Emma's chest. To her surprise, she saw that her bust had grown to the same length as M.T.'s D-Cup bust.

"What the…? Did I get older?" Emma asked in befuddlement.

"That cocoon must have calibrated your bodies ideally suited for the fusion." Nicodemus guessed. "By the look of you now, you're both… 18."

M.T. and Emma stared at each other bashfully the second it crossed their minds.

"That's… good." Emma said with a blushing smile.

"Yeah. Growing up's gotta happen at some point, right?" M.T. added. She also took a glance at Jesse, seeing him looking at her bust. Once he saw her looking back, he stammered.

"Ah! Sorry! I didn't mean to stare…!" Jesse said nervously.

"Heh, heh. Nerd…" M.T. giggled sweetly at his bashfulness.


Some time later, Ava, Amelia, and Rexy were on the bridge with Emma, M.T., Jack, Jesse, Alan Dracula, Travis, and Nicodemus on the other side.

"Well, everyone, this has been a… memorable experience." Amelia said. "But we have other cars of unnatural coding to fix. All the same, I should thank you for everything you've done for my daughter."

"She had my back last time." M.T. said. "It's only fair that I had hers for once."

"And I really appreciate that, M.T." Ava said with a beaming smile. "We both do." The sliver smiled back at Ava and held her metal fist out to her. Ava responded with a fist bump to her. With that, the bridge began to separate, taking Amelia's group with them as Ava waved.

"Goodbye! It was wonderful to see you again!" Ava called out.

"You better be careful, Ava!" M.T. called back out. Ava's backpack set up a recliner for Rexy and belted him up as her and Amelia's boots magnetically attached themselves to the car that rose up. And within seconds, it skyrocketed like a speeding bullet out to wherever they went. As they faded out of view, Emma held onto M.T.'s hand, both giving each other smiles of affection. Just then, Nicodemus piped up.

"So, where are we going next?" He asked. Emma raised her eyebrows curiously.

"We?" She asked.

"I've done a lot of wrongs on this train that I want to right." Nicodemus said. "And I know I'll feel a lot better if I get some justice for what James has done."

M.T. put her fingers on her chin to think it over. Their end goal was getting Jesse and Emma's numbers down after all.

"Uh… I don't know…" M.T. said.

"I assure you, I won't be a bother." Nicodemus said. Then he held up his wrist to show a watch. "I'll be like your traveling companion."

He put his fingers on the watch and pushed it, causing himself to shrink down to a small size. Jack looked down at the shrunken rat.

"See?" He said. "Now, I won't take up so much space between ya."

Emma and Jesse looked at her.

"Well, he did help us cure Ava." Emma pointed out.

"And he might help us out through a few cars, too." Jesse added. But M.T. was still in thought over the decision.

"I don't know… What do you think, Jack?" She asked. The trio all looked at the silver-haired man, awaiting his decision. He glanced down at Nicodemus as he waited for his decision. On some level, he thought, he could relate to him on righting some wrongs. At the moment, who else could? Jack held his hand out to Nicodemus as he spoke.

"Okay. But he's coming with me." Jack said.

The group all nodded in agreement.

"Okay," said Jesse.

"That's fair." Emma added.

"Just try not to be too rough on him." M.T. said.

"Like you're one to talk!" Emma said with a teasing smile. She gave him a bump on the arm before she bumped her back. The girls laughed together as they walked across the bridge, deer first. But before Jack could walk forward, Nicodemus spoke softly.

"Listen, brother. A word?" He asked.

"Look, if you're asking me for cheese, I don't have anything on me, so sorry to disappoint." Jack said bluntly.

"Not about that." The rat said. "In case we come across that Scarecrow again, there's something you need know. Your girl. Emma."

Jack looked up ahead of the bridge, seeing Emma laughing with M.T. as they held hands with each other.

"I saw your DVD, Jack." He said quietly. "The longer you wait to tell her who you are, the more damage you do. She will resent you, and you may lose her forever."

Jack was initially surprised, but it made sense that he found it here of all places. For all he knew, he must've built the thing in the first place. All the same, his face fell into a deep malaise.

"She's better off not knowing who I am." Jack said glumly. "They all are."

Nicodemus wasn't buying it.

"Aye." He said with a small scowl. "So you value your privacy more than your daughter?"

Suddenly, Jack clenched Nicodemus in his grasp, making him squeak. The passenger had a dead serious look on his face.

"Don't. Say. That. Ever. Again." Jack warned. Nicodemus gulped, reconsidering his stance.

"Fair enough." He weakly replied. Jack eased on the grip, and he held him close to his leather jacket pocket. Nicodemus walked inside the pocket and curled up before poking his head out.

"I stand by what I said, though." Nicodemus said. "If you don't tell her soon, you'd lose her."

Jack looked back up to the group as Emma called him out.

"Hey, Jack!" She said. "What's keeping you?!"

"Just getting used to my new companion!" Jack called out. "I'm catching up!"

Jack walked along the bridge before he looked down to Nicodemus.

"Not a single word..." Jack whispered, continuing his walk to his daughter, all the more determined to keep hidden who he really was.


Meanwhile, James, having retreated to his lair through other means, was tending to himself, his arm on a table as his mechanical arms fetched him a cup of tea amidst the ruined landscape.

"Unbelievable…" he muttered. "Making a new arm is going to be such a pain." He paused to take a sip of his drink as he looked at the ingredients he made off with before his circumstance.

"Hmph. All the same, this is far from my last act." He said with a deadly smirk. "I'm only getting started…"