The second Abigail opened the door, Harriet was hit with a gust of frigid air. It swept around her, before rushing back inside. She kept a tighter grip on the brass knuckles.

"Come in, come in." A television switched off somewhere in the apartment, and a set of footsteps made their way to the door. "I don't bite, I promise."

Abigail stepped in to the room, and smiled. "Hey, Andrew."

Harriet followed her in. It was what you'd expect of a low cost apartment, patchy paint and grimy flooring. A light bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a dim glow onto their faces. Standing in the doorway, there was a paunch bellied man with a balding head and a beer. He narrowed his small eyes when he saw Katroina.

"You."

She grinned, looking more like she was baring her teeth than anything else. "Me. Get over it, alchemist."

Alchemist? Alchemists were rare, rare and powerful. They were born to sorcerers, but that was all she knew. They were mostly shrouded in mystery. Except this one looked like a middle aged porn addict.

Abigail placed a hand on Katroina's wrist, but she pulled it away, holding her hands behind her back. The dark mage nodded and stepped away from the other girl. Katroina looked away from her, and Mina cleared her throat.

"By the way, can you put your weapons on the table?" He asked, looking pointedly at Harriet.

Shit.

How did he know?

She looked warily at him and drew the brass knuckles from her pocket, placing them on the coffee table. Katroina and Caleb followed suit, placing what seemed like an army's worth of knives on the table.

"You too, Chosen One."

Kadriq looked slightly shocked, but walked over and dropped a BC-41 onto the table. He had good taste.

Andrew then clenched his fist, and it was like the air was pulled out of the room. She doubled over, and gripped onto Caleb's arm for support. He just looked confused. Of course. Magic.

The alchemist kept clenching his fist, and she saw red spots dance across her vision. The edges were black. She couldn't breathe. Something was pressing down on her chest. Faintly, she could hear someone shouting, probably Katroina. And then the pressure released, and she could see again. She gulped down breaths of air, trying to fill her lungs again. She didn't know it could physically affect her.

Katroina had grabbed the man by his collar, and she towered above him, standing about five inches taller. The dark mage was leaning against the wall, her eyes closed. Mina was holding Kadriq up, and let go of his shoulders once she was sure he could stand properly. Then she turned on Andrew.

"Wha' the fuck was that?"

He shrugged, pushing Katroina away. "An experiment, dearie." In one fluid movement, he pulled a notebook from the bookshelf and jotted something down, before throwing it onto the couch. Harriet got the impression that he was much smarter than he looked.

Katroina nodded towards Abigail. "You owe her something."

"Yeah, he does." The dark mage spoke, her voice unusually rough. Harriet's own mouth felt like it was made of sandpaper, and she was still gripping on to Caleb. He let out a hiss, and she realised that her knuckles had gone white. She loosened her hand a bit, and he nodded his thanks.

"So what'll it be?"

"Information." Her voice had smoothed out, and Katroina looked relieved. She seemed to notice Harriet staring and gave her a cool glance. Harriet looked away, and cleared her throat.

"What do you wanna know?"

"Xavier's location."

Harriet frowned. She had assumed they knew where the rebels were, but apparently not. She'd actually assumed most of what she 'knew' about the girls. Stupid. She trusted them. She was so stupid.

"That's a hard one, dearie."

"Just answer." Katroina said, through gritted teeth.

"Like I said, it's hard." Andrew gestured for them to sit down, and moved the notebook from the sagging couch before flopping down himself. When no one moved, he just shook his head and took another sip of his beer.

Abigail sighed and moved away from the wall, shakily walking over and sitting down. Katroina looked slightly concerned, but made no move to help her. Kadriq, Mina and Harriet sat down, too, leaving Caleb to perch on the armrest and Katroina to lean on the back of the couch.

Andrew gave them a once over, and Harriet wanted to tell him to hurry up. But considering what he did with the magic levels in the room, she decided angering him wouldn't be the best thing. She never thought a 5'4 middle aged man would scare her. Now she knew what Abigail had said about not wanting to get on his bad side.

Andrew had his eyes closed and looked like he was meditating. She could feel the magic of the room rise, and it was like veins were going through the air, pulsing with invisible power. Power, and something else.

His eyes flew open, and now they were white. Completely white. Andrew stood up, and fixed his gaze on Katroina, walking over and grabbing her chin. The dark mage stiffened slightly, and bit her lip. Katroina didn't do anything, looking as cold as ever. Everyone in the room was tense. She could sense it.

The alchemist finally let go of her and sat down, closing his eyes once more. About two minutes later, he opened his eyes again and they were his usual watered down blue.

"Dundee."

One word.

Home.

Dundee was the place she had been born, and the place she had lived until she was eight. When she was taken by Darian. Even though it had almost been a decade since she was there, she could still feel the cold air pinching her cheeks as she sat on a bench in front of the Tay Firth, waiting for her parents to come back. Tara and Michael Curtis had left their seven year old daughter on the streets once they had found out about her magic. She could see the fear in their faces when her eyes turned blue, and she could hear her father telling her to wait in front of the river. It had been eight hours and twenty-six minutes until she realized they weren't coming back.

It took her too long to realize that Kadriq was tugging on her hand.

Harriet?

She gave her head a shake.

Yeah?

We're leaving.

"Shit." She muttered, and scrambled to her feet. Kadriq dropped her hand and she followed him to the door. She was almost to the staircase when she heard Andrew.

"Take care, dearie. Living in the past is a dangerous thing."