Katherine woke with a start as a cold splash of water hit her face. She opened her eyes, only to find her surroundings completely dark. She tried to move her hands and legs, but they seemed to be bound together as well.

‘Well… that could have gone better. I suppose testing their abilities to see if they were the real people was a bad idea. Well… it probably wouldn’t have gone so poorly if I had said something beforehand.’

Regardless of the outcome, Katherine needed to speak to them, and pronto. At least they hadn’t killed her on sight, which was a blessing in disguise. “Either you blinded me with one of your attacks, or you put a piece of cloth on my face. Care to tell a maiden which one it is?”

Instead of an answer, she received a slap to the face. She didn’t register what had happened for a moment, and forced her pounding heart to calm down, taking a deep breath. “Well, I assume my initial introduction could have gone better. My name is-”

Another blow, this time to her stomach. She doubled over, coughing, and when her face hit the floor, she confirmed that she wasn’t bound to any structure. Nervous, but too stubborn to give up, she tried reaching out to the surroundings with her photons, only for the same power Leo used on her to stop them dead, and a foot to step on the back of her head, grinding her cheek into the floor.

“Try that again, and I will break your legs.” An unfamiliar feminine voice said in Japanese. Katherine could undertand it, thanks to her lessons at the academy, but couldn’t recognize it from the recordings she had heard of Leo and Vanessa Kumo’s conversations, so it must have been the third, dark skinned girl who she had seen with the two of them before the fight.

Which was bad for Katherine, because she didn’t have any knowledge that would benefit this woman at all. Although, she did prove herself to be a Tracker, morphing into a massive blade for Leo.

Perhaps she did know of happenings on Earth, or was even dragged into this world by some force herself. “Sorry… um… Miss. I don’t know your name, but would you mind if I spoke with Leo or Vanessa?” She asked fluently in Japanese.

Unfortunately for Katherine, her question was replied to with a kick to the leg. It took all she had not to cry out, so she bit her lower lip as a distraction. “They’ve told me plenty about you and your people. Don’t worry, they’re going to destroy your little leader’s plans. I’m going to interrogate you for them. Believe me when I say it, the pain you experienced from our little scuffle earlier won’t hold a candle to what I’m about to do to you.”

The gravelly undertones in the woman’s surprisingly deep voice sent shivers down Katherine’s spine, as she realized that there had been a grave miscommunication.

“Waitwaitwait!” The words all blended together as Katherine rushed them out of her mouth. “You’re misunderstanding something here! I don’t work for the Supreme General!”

The pressure on the back of Katherine’s head increased dangerously, before it vanished, and someone pulled her back up into a sitting position. “Elaborate.” The woman spoke again.

“It’s been ten years since Leo and Vanessa disappeared from Earth!” Katherine shouted, unsure if she and the other woman were the only people in the room. “General Christian Armando spent his time with no rivals, and no one to contest his power after he harnessed the Dimension Eaters. The world powers slowly caved in fright that their entire civilization: their history, and their culture, would be wiped off the face of the Earth.”

She paused, half expecting some sort of audio cue that her interrogator was still listening, or that Leo and Vanessa were indeed in the room, but she had no such luck. Instead, she continued to plead her case.

“I was sent here by a certain organization to search for them and bring them back to fight his machinations. The two of them are a symbol of rebellion in our world, as they are the only ones to escape the Supreme General’s clutches.”

“Was she lying?” Another feminine voice, this time Katherine recognized it as Vanessa Kumo’s.

“No, the magic didn’t activate and make her hallucinate.” The other woman replied. “Either she is telling the truth, or she truly believes that she was sent here for some higher purpose than to kill you.”

Magic? Was that what she saw during the first fight yesterday? She assumed any world that Vanessa and Leo escaped to would be rich in technology, but apparently she was mistaken.

A tired sigh came from directly behind her, and Leo’s voice said, “Take off her blindfold, but leave the cuffs on. Even as skilled as she is in wielding photons, she can’t do anything while I’m suppressing her.”

Katherine almost cried from the first ray of sunlight she saw since regaining consciousness. She was in a small room, which seemed to be made from dark red bricks. Light filtered in through small barred windows, lighting up the faces of her captors.

Vanessa Kumo looked exactly as she had the day she disappeared from society. Her face and skin appeared to not have aged a day.

Standing next to her was an abnormally tall woman, with bronze skin and long, silver hair. Her forearms appeared to have… bark growing from them. That was curious in itself, but what truly drew Katherine’s attention was the two long, pointed ears that she sported.

“Elf…” She whispered to herself. She then turned to look back at Leo, only to be stopped in her tracks by a blade pressed against the back of her neck.

“Don’t. It’ll be less trouble for all of us if you just keep looking straight ahead.” Leo’s tone was dangerous, and Katherine nodded slowly. “Good. Now, answer the questions you are asked, and maybe, just maybe, I can start to treat you as a minor threat, instead of a major one.”

Another nod later, and Leo asked his first question. “Who are you, and why are you so invested in finding us that you’d risk your life doing interdimensional travel?”

“My name is Katherine Taylor.” The woman responded, and a smile grew on her face. “My brother was in your care before shit hit the fan, and, funny enough, he was the one who let you escape from your prison in the Supreme General’s base.”

Katherine felt the knife on the back of her neck retreat, and she turned to look Leo in the eyes. A smile formed on her face, and she began to cry when she saw tears form in his own eyes. “Thanks for taking care of Rob, Leo!”