The Train Waits for No One

The light rail track was one of the few things left standing after the earthquake from the guardian's tunneling. Its flexible nature made it resist the pull of the shaking and remained towering over the rubble below.

And on the rail, a train was heading toward the chaos.

Using her abilities, Noble scanned the cars. 'No one is on there.'

'No one is on where?' A voice answered.

'Don't worry about it,' the professor responded. She hadn't meant to send the communication to the Captain. 'Are you ready?'

'We are in place,' Styss's voice was full of resolve.

'Good. On my mark.'

Bee examined where the humans were positioned and then scanned the train a second time. It was indeed empty.

Most likely, all of the people had been evacuated at the last stop and the train had continued automatically without a driver.

The professor breathed a sigh of relief. She did not have time to make a rescue and complete her task. Thankfully she would not have to choose.

With only a few seconds left to plan, Noble positioned herself close to, but out of reach of, the spinning gate guardian. She found it much easier to bring things toward her than to aim them away, and this would be a happy medium between the two.

The aim didn't need to be perfect. Noble's goal was simply to annoy the creature into looking their way.

"You can do this." Beads of sweat formed on her brow as she pushed away the doubt.

Other than correcting the train car months before, she had never tried to lift anything so large.

'You aren't lifting it. You are guiding it...' Noble shielded her thoughts from the captain as she steadied her nerves. The train would go flying when it hit the top of the ramp anyway. She would merely be giving it a little lift and push in the most helpful direction.

'Get ready. Three, Two, One. Incoming!'

Unmanned and unbridled, the light rail came careening down the tracks even faster than expected. Noble's eyes swirled as she used the last of her essence to boost the train and send it flying toward the growing monster.

"Over here!" she screamed, adding to the noise of the groaning train.

The green eye spun to glare at the attack. Mundane metal could not harm it, no matter how fast it was going.

'Keep looking at it just a little longer.'

From the ground, projectiles of all shapes and sizes aimed toward the sinister green glare.

But it was a fiery arrow that landed the punch. The glass of the eye shattered, revealing the furnace inside.

As soon as they were able to douse the flames, the creature would likely be vanquished. The end was in sight.

'We are so close!' Just one more minute and Noble was certain they would finish the battle once and for all.

But the Guardian was not through.

While spinning, it reached out with one of its orb-like hands and melded around the train.

The arm suddenly extended the other shortening in equal measure.

The single longer limb gripped the light rail, swinging the train like a whip through the air.

'Queen Bee, look out!' Styss blasted the warning into her mind.

Noble had placed herself out of the reach of the monster, but she had not anticipated the creature was able to lengthen one arm by adjusting the other.

By the time she realized what was happening, it was too late. The ball crashed into her body, pushing her armor to its limit. The impact would have disintegrated a mundane human but somehow her body held together.

The massive arm continued to push her through the air, forcing her toward the last place she wanted to go.

The Gate.

'I'm going to hit it!'

Whether or not Noble would be able to avoid being sandwiched between the gate and the fist did not matter. 

For every Awakened knew what happened when they came in contact with a gate. It was like hitting an electrified wall.

She would feel pain. Immeasurable pain. 

There was no way to remain cognizant with that kind of agony. Either Noble would perish from the shock, or she would be rendered unconscious.

If the latter, then her flaw would take over, forcing her into the sky until either lack of oxygen or the extreme cold finished her off…

…or a rogue nightmare creature ate her.

Crippling fear gripped her. 'I'm about to die.'

All she could do was brace herself and hope the death was mercifully brief.

The gate neared. Noble closed her eyes. This was it.

But then…

Nothing.

No, that wasn't exactly true.

Her skin began to tingle as something very warm pressed against her torso.

When she opened her eyes, something was glowing darkly through her breastplate.

'The key!'

Noble had stowed the [Portcullis Key] inside her armor when she had made the daring train rescue. She now realized that she had never actually dismissed it.

The professor spun around, astonished at the scene. The massive arm had hit against the gate, but somehow she had passed through. The rift was now framing the waking world like a window.

'Fear!' Her fear had triggered the ball into permeating the barrier. Noble had done the impossible. 

All she needed to do now was exit the gate like the Nightmare Creatures and reenter the battle. 'Although from the look of things, the creature is already dead.'

Indeed, the fiery light was extinguished from its eye. 

'We won?' Noble did not dare believe it. Anxiety welled up inside her as she longed to confirm that it was true. 

Except the professor couldn't stop moving away from the gate. An invisible tether seemed tied to her waist as the ball glowed more intensely. 

The waking world faded until the darkness fully enveloped her. 

[Awakened! Prepare for your second trial...]

'What?!' Noble had fallen into a gate, not entered a seed!

Just how many barriers had the Portcullis Key breached?!

[One lone challenger...Welcome to the Nightmare!]

'No, no, no, no...' The word reverberated in Noble's head a thousand times. 

This couldn't be happening. This had to be a bad dream. 

Not a Nightmare!

She had to get home. To have dinner with her family. They were expecting her to walk through the door any moment. 

Noble didn't have time to conquer a Nightmare. Not that she even could alone.

She wasn't Lady Changing Star. She was an Academy Professor for Spell's sake! 

She had survived a collision with the gate only to face an even more harrowing end. 

Noble thought of her husband. They were supposed to grow old together. A commendation for bravery from the Chancellor would be poor compensation for Fort's broken heart. 

She thought of her boys. Brock needed help with math homework this evening. His grades would suffer. And Blaze had been telling her about a girl he thought was cute. Noble had meant to follow up on that lead. 

The professor thought of her messy home, her classroom, and even her place in Ender's Deep. She had finally found a way to hang the colorful glass teardrop in a way that made her room sparkle. Now she would never get to enjoy the fruit of her labor. 

Noble longed to be in any of those places. Anywhere but here. 

Her mind jumped to her daughter. Noble had promised the girl that she would come clean tonight about everything. 

Another promise she would break. Guilt filled her as a muffled sob escaped her lips. Noble called out to her daughter, so desperate for her to hear that she used the name that the girl was given at birth. 

"I'm sorry, Rain. I'm so sorry." 

That was all she could manage before the darkness faded. 

The world opened up before Noble. 

Slowly, time moved backward. 

Her Nightmare began.