Lucia walked out of the house and into the Australian forest, as she held Elisa's clammy hand. She clutched her phone tightly in her hand like someone might already have sent an update. It didn't feel like she was on a journey to save the world. It felt mellow. Lucia almost forgot that she was supposed to be scared. Instead, she felt excited.

"How are we going to get to the safe house?" Lucia asked Jay. "Where is it, for that matter? I hope we don't walk in circles."

"There's a map in this thing, but it's super far away. Sydney is huge and I'm just realizing it right now," Jay explained to her with a sigh. "It's going to take us hours to get there on foot and we don't have time for a journey like that. Not when there are more pressing issues."

"I have a question?" Lucia asked, knowing what she was going to ask didn't match his explanation. "Does Keone weird you out?"

He stayed silent for a while. "What does that have to do with finding the safe house?"

"I don't know," Lucia replied. "I figure we could make some conversation. I mean, he's Eniola's technical ex and your kind of his replacement. Is it weird?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "But it doesn't matter. We have to get Elisa back to her parents and then meet up with the others to play the SCOPE game that decides the fate of the world."

Lucia sighed. "Focusing on the assignment. Right. If we can't walk, then how do we get to the safe house?"

"We could take a maglev," Jay suggested. "Yeah. I think that could work."

"I hope you plan on getting behind and pushing it because you forgot that the maglev trains aren't powered," Lucia said. "Let me be the first to remind you that Kain took the power out everywhere."

"I know where to find a power source," Jay said with light eyes.

"That is?" she continued.

"I'm holding it," Jay said with a smile, holding up the phone with a shake. "Did you know phones used to be charged by things called battery power, and the only place we found them was in the generator? However, one watt of battery power is 100 times more powerful than thousands of electro-signals because of modern inventions."

"Your point is?" Lucia wondered.

"The maglev trains only need to be powered by 100 electro signals and a cellphone only needs about 6 watts to work," Jay said, smiling. "Meaning this phone can power a maglev, no problem."

Lucia's eyes brightened. "Oh, my gosh! Where can we find a maglev station that will take us to West Sydney?" Jay toggled with the phone before appearing with a map marked with a red pin.

"Less than a kilometre away," Jay said with a feverish smile on his face than Lucia took.

"Why have you tucked away that genius side away?" Lucia asked as they further walked through the forest. She could see a hazy city through the thick canopy of trees.

"What do you mean?"

"See," Lucia pointed out. "You're kind of smart, but you've never shown that you liked any of these interests."

Jay sighed and kept walking forward. He didn't look back at her. "I don't know. I guess I never needed it."

"You should, Mr. Genius," Lucia teased, and Jay sniffed out a chuckle.

All 3 of them emerged from the trees and out into the background city streets. Lucia put a hand above her forward to see thick smoke hanging in the air. She gulped.

"This way," Jay instructed, eye glued to his phone. Lucia ducked just in case some angry prisoners and rogue androids wanted to come their way and tussle. But so far, the streets were like a ghost town. For now. But actually, it was probably because they had evacuated people.

They walked more in the streets and Lucia watched her back, front, sides and aerial view just in case someone wanted to plunge into the air. But then Jay stopped. Lucia looked at a staircase that led down to the underground.

"We need to stay careful," Jay whispered. "We don't know who might be down there."

Jay grabbed onto Elisa's other hand before they slowly sauntered down the stairs. The only thing audible was the metallic footsteps that rang beneath them. Lucia's heartbeat so quickly in her chest, and her hands shook with ripples of nerves down her hand. She kept steady just in case Elisa wanted to be scared too.

"It's dark," Elisa awed. "It's dark."

Jay suddenly removed his hands from Elisa's hands when they had gotten to the bottom of the steps and onto a platform. Goosebumps stained Lucia's skin, as her eyes scanned the dark for any threats. Lucia looked in Jay's direction as he heard the metallic panel open.

Suddenly, all the lights turned in and a desolate-looking maglev station took its place in the darkness. Lucia looked around at the place, which had been long abandoned. There was one singular maglev parked in the middle of the tracks and holo-screens above it that were bare of telling people where to go.

"There's our ticket to West Sydney," Jay said, and Lucia and Elisa took in a breath. "It's going to take us where the safe house is and then to Zaira."

"How are we going to work it?" Elisa asked after being so silent.

"I have the power source right here," Jay said. "I'm going to get on fixing the train, and I'll ask for help if I need it."

Lucia nodded and explored the desolate landscape with Elisa. They walked around as Jay pried open to train, but not before passing by a vulgar drawing sketched onto the wall. Lucia immediately covered Elisa's eyes, who went confused.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," Lucia said. "But we're going to find supplies while Jay gets the train running again so that we can reunite you with your parents."

"I miss them," Elisa said quietly. "I want to find my parents."

"We will," Lucia said, before finding a door at the end. "What do you like to do for fun?"

"I enjoy going to the beach," Elisa said vaguely.

"Really?" Lucia awed. "Me too. Where I live back in America, there are lots of beaches too. I used to go a lot with my parents."

"What do your parents act like?" Elisa asked.

Lucia expected to answer quickly, but it didn't come. She didn't know. Lucia had been 12 since she'd last seen them and their journey to America again had probably been halted because of Lucia. She wanted to know who they truly were, but they'd lied to her and Macy.

"They're full of surprises," Lucia said. They sure were. Technically, Vargas wasn't her real last name and she was too afraid to ask.

"Wow," Elisa replied. "My dads did a surprise birthday for me last year. They gave me lots of presents and I ate lots of food."

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"Wow," Lucia replied. "What did you get?"

Elisa talked for the rest of the time about her birthday party and all the presents she got last year, and Lucia listened to her voice as they walked down the maglev platform. Elisa didn't seem too worried about her parents now. It was a nice, warm, childlike distraction from everything.

Lucia wanted to be held and cooed into her ear that everything was going to be okay, even if it was a comforting lie. She wanted to not have to grow up too fast, and have her parents looking over her shoulder for her. There were at least 5 birthdays, her high school graduation, and 2 SCOPE championships that her parents had never been there for. She wanted to feel bitter, but no matter what she did, she couldn't.

"Do you want to see the maglev now?" Lucia asked. Elisa nodded.

They walked back from where they were before they moved back to where the maglev was. Jay was crouched over a panel that had been opened on the back and was currently doing what looked like hot wiring. Lucia sat down and dangled her legs across the edge before Elisa sat next to her with her legs crossed.

"Whatcha doing?" Lucia asked nonchalantly.

"Trying to convert the power in here," Jay explained. "In case you haven't noticed, it's really hard."

"I can see that," Lucia laughed in response. She peered further. "So why have you hid the mechanical part of yourself until now? Explain."

"I guess I never needed it," Jay told her. "It was more of a fun activity than a real consideration. Androids do everything now."

"That's what happened to me and Eniola," Lucia mentioned. "We used to work at this android warehouse, but then the moment we took paid vacation for the SCOPE championship, they replaced us with androids. It was such a dick-I mean rude move. But it didn't matter because we won the SCOPE championships."

Jay chuckled out a laugh. "You know, sometimes I wonder what we'd be doing if we didn't win the SCOPE championships. You probably wouldn't have a job."

"What would I even do without SCOPE?" Lucia wondered. "I can't see myself working in android stocking for the rest of my life. To consider, SCOPE was kind of my life plan. To do it as long as I could until I couldn't. And for college or university, I never really considered it. I didn't know what to do with my life. Theo had a plan of moving up the ladder in the Puzzle before he owned it. I planned that if I did nothing with my life and he did, I'd just marry him and be a rich housewife."

"For real?" Jay laughed.

"Yeah," Lucia replied. "Iris is still in high school, but she has a plan to become a life coach and help people, which is good. She's good at that sort of thing. Then there's Eniola."

"We went through that whole dilemma of her having to choose between being a doctor and a SCOPE player," Jay finished for her. "Been there and done that."

"I used to think Keone would only be the one to get successful at SCOPE, so I tried to challenge him," Lucia revealed. "Then he went off the grid then came back with ULTRA, which didn't last. But what about you?"

"Huh?" he said like he was off guard.

"What would you be doing if you weren't a SCOPE player or on Rogue?" Lucia asked. "Livin' it up in the countryside?"

Jay rolled his eyes. "You know all the south isn't just cowboys and grass."

Lucia shrugged. She'd like to tease Jay about his yee-haw life before Rogue.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life," Jay admitted. "I felt bad about it most of the time because all the people I knew were moving on with their lives and I was stuck. Then all the stuff with my dad happened, and I moved to California."

"Damn," Lucia mumbled.

Jay refocused back onto the train, toggling with a bunch of cables. They didn't do much talking as Jay continued to work, or at least pretend to work, on the training panel. It took a couple of hours, and Lucia either rested on the platform, pretended to know what Jay was doing, or entertained Elisa.

"Are you going to drive the train?" Lucia asked. She'd wished that he'd say no.

"No," Jay said. And Lucia sighed in relief. "It's still automatic. And I think that we have a working train. It fuck-

Lucia nodded over to Elisa. "It freaking worked. Now, all we need to do is get on this train."

Jay reached forward and kicked the side door before it hissed open into an interior. Lucia let out a joyous laugh before she hugged Elisa out of happiness. Lucia stepped out from the platform and into the train, feeling the black floors and white exterior. Then Jay closed the doors together.

The train made an announcement showing to the boarding passengers, which were 3 in this case, that it was time to go. Then the train began moving.

"Wow," Lucia said in awe. "You did it. For real. Jay Yoon fixed a train and got away with it."

He laughed, then crouched down to Elissa's level. "This means we're closer to your parents." She returned to him with a smile.

Soon, the maglev roared to life, before it moved swiftly out of the station onto the tracks suspended above the ground. Lucia looked over at the window, into what should've been a city. But a hand flew over her mouth.

The city should've been beautiful, but the highest skyscrapers had been crumbling and a layer of smoke covered the lower city. Lucia could see bodies underneath the smoke in hazy action. It was complete chaos. Lucia wondered what San Francisco would look like. Or Mexico City, where all of her family was. She snapped her gaze over to Elisa and wrapped her into a hug.

"How long till we get to my parents?" Elisa asked.

"The next station," Jay told her. "It will only take about 10 minutes on this sky maglev. It would've taken us hours on foot, though."

"We could've walked there in the time to fix the maglev," Lucia realized. "But oh well. We have it now. We might as well use it."

"Yeah," Jay agreed. He turned back to Elisa. "Are you excited to-

Suddenly the train came to an abrupt stop and halted so violently that Lucia tumbled in her seat. Lucia immediately clutched onto Elisa as her breathing went heavy.

"Jay!" Lucia yelled. "I thought you said the power was enough?"

"It is!" he yelled back, before slightly getting up. "I don't know what's wrong-

The maglev once again shook, which sent ripples down Lucia's spine and a shout escaped her throat. Jay fell flat on the ground. Lucia quickly stood up and crouched next to him.

"Oh my God!" she screamed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Jay responded, as he pushed himself up. "Maybe our power source wasn't as powerful."

Then a rickety sound hissed from underneath the maglev and it only took Lucia one second to latch onto a pole, as the maglev veered to the left. A shuddery breath escaped Lucia as she immediately caught hold of Elisa's hand, who yelped.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Lucia screeched. Jay dared to pick himself up, but not before he wobbled as the maglev kept veering back. He hit the wall and slumped down again as he peered at Lucia with anxious eyes.

Jay took a quick peek outside of the window before he sat back with a pale face. "We're tilting!"

"Huh?" Lucia yelled.

"We've titled off the edge," Jay said, as panic laced his voice. "It's only a matter of time before we completely fall."

Lucia's eyes widened as she mentally cursed. No. They couldn't die. Not before they faced Enigma.

"We're going to die!" Elisa cried out.

"No!" Jay said. "We're not, because I know how to get up out of here."

"Tell us," Lucia screeched, as the maglev tilted abruptly again, pushing them further onto the brink of death. Lucia blinked tears from her eyes as her hands paled, holding on.

"Sky maglevs always have emergency parachutes," Jay realized. "Just in case they need to evacuate."

"Where the hell are they?" Lucia yelled.

Jay crawled on all fours at an angle before he used poles to guide his climb up.

The train veered again with a creak and sent them to lower again.

"Hurry!" Lucia yelled.

Jay pulled himself upwards again before, at the moment's spur, he stood up again and reached for the ceiling compartment. At once, backpacks rained down from the ceiling. Lucia sighed in relief. Jay collapsed to the ground and slid back again until he hit the end of the compartment. Lucia slid a backpack down to him.

Lucia quickly strapped on her own, with hands working at ungodly speeds. The panic was doing something to her. It was like a regular backpack, but some harnesses connected to her waist and her tights. Quickly, she strapped on to Elisa. It was horrendously big, but Lucia didn't have time to get a smaller one.

"We're going to jump out of this train before we fall," Jay said, frantically, just as the train further titled. Lucia slid back again across the metallic floors before she caught another pole.

Jay's eyes scanned around the train, and Lucia followed him. A fire extinguisher lay in the corner. Quickly he stood up and grabbed it before he kneeled by the window again. Then at once, he raised it into the air and hit it through the window. The glass broke and rained out onto the ground. Jay did it again until there was a big enough hole.

"Who's going to go first?" Jay asked.

Lucia was already on her way to stepping out of the hole. She hissed as something sharp poked the back of her thigh.

Then the maglev tilted again. Waiting for something to happen always made it scarier. Quickly, Lucia slipped through the window and jumped.

The air rushed past Lucia in a blurring gust of wind that made her feel alive for a moment. The ground got closer, so Lucia reached behind her to find the cord and she pulled it. She was flung back up into the air before the gust of the parachute released from above her and slowly settled her to the ground, where she landed. The parachute spilled from behind her.

Lucia could hear her heart ringing in her air and the adrenaline running through her veins like a drug. That wasn't that bad. It was kind of exciting. It was probably going to be the most thrilling thing she'd done in her life. At least for the next hour.

Lucia looked back up to the sky to see Jay and Elisa falling through the sky before both of their parachutes emerged from their backpacks. Elisa came off with a smile, but Jay looked like he'd seen hell and back, with the way his face reddened and his breaths came out shaky.

"Oh, my gosh!" Jay said, panting. "I'm never doing that again."

"It was fun," Lucia teased. "I've always wanted to go skydiving. I guess I can cross that off of my list."

Elisa said. "Yeah-

Elisa was cut off, but the loud sound creaked from the maglev. Lucia's gaze snapped back and her breath hitched. The angle was so sharp that the maglev almost wasn't even on it anymore. Then it creaked some more.

"Get back!" Jay screamed, and Lucia grabbed Elisa's hand and made a run for it down the streets and into a narrow alleyway. Lucia clutched the back of her thigh, which screamed with pain. When she pulled it back, blood soaked her hand. Her face went dry.

Jay stopped and let two walls sandwich them. The maglev was now barely visible from what Lucia could see. Sweat drenched her.

Then it dropped.

It crashed onto the earth like an explosion, and Lucia covered one ear with her dry hand, which did little. A cloud of smoke rose in its wake.

"That was close," Jay mumbled.

"You think?" Lucia replied, looking at him exasperated.

"Where are my parents?" Elisa croaked. Lucia turned back to her, then to Jay.

"In there." Jay pointed to what looked like an abandoned factory. It was a huge grey building wedged in between broken buildings and alleyways. Elisa and Jay walked, but Lucia limped over there across the cinder-ashen streets. Lucia tried to ignore the pain and the blood that gushed out. She almost sighed in relief when they stopped.

"Do we knock?" Lucia asked.

"I don't know," Jay said, as he touched the door like there might be a secret code to find out.

Quickly, the doors banged open and two bulky male human soldiers in black riot gear stood side-to-side and on guard. Lucia stepped back.

"Come inside," one said. "The safe house is this way."

"We're here to return this one to her parents," Lucia said. "We're not staying in the safe house."

"Come with us," the other soldier said. "It is for your safety."

"No," Jay replied. "We don't want to be put in here. We're only here to return her. Just let us go and her stay."

"Fine," one said. "But just to let you know, you need to find another safe house if the danger comes onto you."

"Okay," Lucia replied before she crouched down to Elisa and wrapped her in a hug. "Stay safe."

"Thank you," she replied. Jay joined in the hug.

The soldiers escorted Elisa into the bunker, and Lucia turned to peer inside. Something inside of her wanted to run inside and hide until all of this was over. But she held herself back. Lucia turned back to Jay as they both let out a collective sigh.

"Well," Jay said. "It's time to find Zaira. Has she given you a location?"

"No," Lucia revealed as she checked the phone. She immediately slumped down into the alleyway wall.

"Oh my gosh," Jay mumbled, as she looked below Lucia. "You're bleeding."

It was like the cut had hurt even more. The adrenaline wore off and instead left a rush of pain. Lucia looked down at the bloody gash. Red soaked her pants.

"Uh," Jay fumbled before he reached down to his pants and ripped off the bottom, revealing his ankle. He split it apart before he bent down to Lucia and looped it around her thigh. She hissed out in pain.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Lucia asked. "Let me guess, you secretly are a medical doctor?"

"Not at all," Jay replied. "I just don't want you to bleed out before we find Enigma. Plus I'm not Eniola."

"How motivational," Lucia mumbled.

"Tell me something I don't know," she hissed. "I cut myself as we left the maglev."

"Damn," was all Jay said. The pain subsided, but Lucia could still feel the gash in her body.

The world glitched again for about five seconds. Lucia slumped back into the wall again as her gaze moved over to Jay. His eyes were wide at something. Lucia turned.

Then a circle of black light and stars appeared in a quiet circle. It was like a portal. Lucia prepared to run as a yelp escaped her.

The hole swirled like a whirlpool before it moved closer and closer to them. Then it consumed Lucia and Jay.