Alexa's heart pounded in her chest as she stared into the unnerving, wrinkled face of Agent Three. His impossibly wide smile seemed to stretch even further as their eyes met through the glass.

"Well, well, well," Agent Three's muffled voice came through the door. "If it isn't the little troublemaker herself. Come to cause more chaos, have we?"

Alexa took an involuntary step back, her hand instinctively tightening around her conceptual raygun. "I... I was just passing by," she lied, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Oh, I'm sure you were," Agent Three replied, the nasally sound sending shivers down Alexa's spine. "And I'm sure you weren't at all interested in our little passenger here." He gestured towards the sleeping woman who resembled Infinity.

Alexa's mind raced. She glanced between Agent Three, the sleeping woman, and her guards.

"Go on," Three said. "Break open this door, try to free her, give me a reason to erase you from existence."

"What do you want?" Alexa finally asked Agent Three, her voice coming out stronger than she felt.

"What do I want?" Agent Three's smile didn't shift, didn't move at all as he spoke. "Why, I want what I always wanted. Order. The removal of... dangerous anomalies that threaten the stability of the System."

"Order, huh?" Alexa snapped back. "Funny how 'order' always seems to involve erasing people from existence. You seem rather talkative today, Three, why is that? Pretty sure that last time we've met you were like 'nullify'-zippedy-zap. Is that some kind of nullification-proof door or something? Or maybe you're just scared of me on the account that I've unmade your ass the last time we met?"

Agent Three simply stared at the girl from behind the glass, Alexa's own face reflected in his round glasses.

"You know, Three," Alexa said, forcing a cocky grin onto her face and trying to fill in the tense silence. "For someone so obsessed with order, you sure do cause a lot of chaos. I mean, erasing people left and right? That's bound to leave some messy loose ends and holes in reality."

"Chaos is merely a temporary state on the path to perfect order," Three replied smoothly. "To maintain stability, certain... disruptive elements must be terminated."

Alexa felt Cottie tense beside her, ready to spring into action if needed.

"And I suppose you get to decide which 'elements' need removing?" Alexa challenged. "Seems pretty arbitrary to me."

"Two decides who is to be unmade," Three countered. "I am merely an enforcer of the rules."

Alexa snorted. "Right. Two. And I'm sure Two is totally fair and unbiased."

She glanced at the sleeping woman again, an idea forming in her mind. It was risky, but when had that ever stopped her?

"Tell you what, Three," Alexa said, leaning closer to the door. "How about we make a deal?"

"A deal?" Agent Three's voice dripped with amusement. "And what could you possibly offer me, wizardling?"

"I could offer you... order," Alexa said. "Because it would be a shame if this train accidentally imploded on itself before it reached its destination. I've already accidentally destroyed one liminal space. What's another one, right?"

Three remained silent, seemingly contemplating her words.

"Just let me talk to her," Alexa nodded towards the sleeping woman tapping the [Murderer] tag on her arm. "And I promise not to accidentally-on-purpose murder everyone on this train before we reach Manchester."

"Wizardling, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that you have any leverage here," Three replied finally. Alexa moved ever so slightly, noting that the Agent's head turned to follow her, tracking her tag.

"Well, my understanding might be deficient, but my raygun sure isn't." She patted the conceptual weapon at her hip. "And I'm pretty sure it can do a number on this train if I decide to use it."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Alexa," Zee Captain's voice came from behind her, a note of warning in it. "Think carefully about what you're doing. Threatening one of the Numbers is a very dangerous game."

"Oh, I am thinking," Alexa shot back without taking her eyes off Agent Three. "I'm thinking that I'm tired of being pushed around by cosmic bureaucrats who think they can just erase people when it's convenient for them."

Agent Three remained silent, not engaging in Alexa's words.

"You know what, Three? I don't think you're as all-powerful as you pretend to be," Alexa said. "If you were, you'd have already zapped me out of existence. But you haven't. Which means either you can't, or you're not allowed to. So which is it? Does Revolution's ticket make me immune to nullification, declare me as part of the un-zappable ruling class, as it were?"

Alexa's silver-blue eyes narrowed as she focused intently on the door separating her from Agent Three and Infinity. She visualized the door warping, twisting, its very structure bending to her will. To her surprise, the door began to wobble, change and shrink, just as she had imagined.

"What are you doing?" Zee Captain hissed from behind her.

"Experimenting," Alexa replied with a smirk, not taking her eyes off the door. "Wizard stuff, and whatnot. Liminality reacts to expectations, right? I'm just expecting this door to be smaller than the frame, that's all."

Agent Three suddenly grabbed the door handle from the other side, causing it to resize and to solidify back into dark steel. Her brief moment of control over the liminal space vanished.

"Nice try, wizardling," Three's muffled voice came through the door. "Afraid that I cannot allow that."

Alexa gritted her teeth. "Oh yeah? Then why don't you come out here and prove it?"

"Alexa," Zee Captain warned from behind her. "Don't provoke him."

"Why not?" Alexa shot back. "He's just hiding behind a door. Some all-powerful entity he is."

Three's unnaturally wide smile seemed to stretch even further. "I don't need to prove anything to you, child. Your petty provocations are beneath me."

"Petty?" Alexa scoffed. "I'll show you petty." She turned to Cottie. "Hey bestie, think you can blast this door open with your railgun?"

Cottie hesitated, glancing between Alexa and the door. "I... I'm not sure that's a good idea, Alexa."

"Oh come on," Alexa groaned. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Right next to my sense of self-preservation," Cottie muttered. "I..."

"You're what?" Alexa demanded.

"I'm afraid of what he is," Cottie confessed. "There's something... awful about Three. As much as I support and love you, I don't think that I can protect you against him."

Alexa rolled her eyes and turned back to the door. "Fine, I'll do it myself." She pulled out her conceptual raygun and aimed it at the door.

"Stop," Zee Captain said spinning the wheel of the lighter to ignite the flame.

Alexa felt her body freeze in place, her finger hovering just over the trigger of her conceptual raygun. She could see Cottie similarly immobilized beside her. Sasha seemed to be frozen too.

"There," Zee Captain said, plucking the raygun from Alexa's rigid fingers. "I'm saving you from yourself, young lady. You have no idea what you're dealing with here."

Alexa wanted to scream, to lash out, to do anything but stand there like a statue. But her body refused to obey her commands.

Zee Captain stepped between Alexa and the door, addressing Agent Three. "My apologies for this... incident. She is still learning control."

"Indeed," Agent Three's muffled voice came through the door. "Perhaps you should keep a tighter leash on your charge, Wizard."

"Perhaps," Zee agreed, tucking Alexa's raygun into a pocket of her coat. "We'll be on our way now."

As Zee turned back to Alexa and Cottie, the supervillain girl saw a flicker of something in the System Wizard's posture - was it fear? Uncertainty? Whatever it was, it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"Now," Zee said, his voice low. "I'm going to unfreeze you. When I do, you will calmly walk away from this door. No arguments, no sudden moves. Understood?"

Alexa felt the invisible hold on her body release as Zee Captain extinguished the flame. She stumbled slightly, catching herself against the wall of the train corridor. Her mind raced with anger, frustration, and a burning curiosity about the woman behind that door.

"Give me back my gun," Alexa demanded, holding out her hand to Zee Captain.

The System Wizard shook their head. "Not until we're well away from here and you've calmed down."

Alexa's eyes narrowed. "You can't just take my stuff. That's theft!"

"It's confiscation," Zee corrected. "For your own safety and the safety of everyone on this train."

Alexa grumbled. She glanced back at the door, where Agent Three's unsettling smile was still visible through the window. "Fine. Let's go. But this conversation isn't over."

As they walked away, Alexa's mind whirled with questions and half-formed plans. She needed to figure out a way to talk to that woman, to find out why she looked so much like Infinity.

"So," Alexa said as they made their way back to their compartment, "are you going to explain what that was all about? Who is that woman? Why does she look like my so-called mom? And why is Agent Three guarding her?"

Zee Captain sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping as if carrying an invisible weight. She turned to face Alexa, the violet lenses of their mask seeming to flicker with an unreadable emotion.

"Very well," Zee said. "I suppose you deserve to know the truth as harsh as it might be."

"Aw come on, it would be more fun if we let her figure it out herself," Sasha purred.

"Find what out?" Alexa blinked. "Huh?"

"Who do you think the System would nominate to stop you?" Sasha asked cryptically, blue eyes shimmering with devious mirth. "Think about it long and hard, darling."