Reality swam in and out of reach.

Mina groaned, her eyelids heavy like thick syrup. Her view was fuzzy, fluctuating from spatters of colours to blurred outlines. Peaceful beeps punctuated the background whirring of machines. Her limbs were heavy like lead. Was she in hospital again? She'd never been hospitalised as a patient except for her yearly blood tests and examinations, but had visited Ari multiple times, often falling asleep at her bedside, and the Healers let her stay. The sheets were quite luxurious, soft and silky, and the Healers often popped their heads in to check Ari's recovery. Even when Mina was put to sleep for her annual body scan and medications, she always awoke in rooms as fancy as Ari's had been those few times, with a Healer checking her observations every few hours until they sent her away home. Ari always sent a pod car to pick her up.

The surroundings came into focus at snail pace. Steel machines beeped with different colours flashing on their surfaces. Broken monitors decorated the walls, cobwebs and rust hanging over their edges. Metal-enforced straps trapped Mina to her bed. With a nauseating realisation, everything came back to her. The secret underground society, the kidnapping of high achievers and stripping of their powers, the unnatural transplantation into low-achievers like her.

And how everyone's prime target was Ari.

Swallowing bile, Mina forced herself to sit up as much as she could muster. The straps weighed heavy on her body, too packed in its structure for her to phase through. The vial of glowing liquid Vexi had attached to her was empty. Another wave of nausea washed over Mina. Was that it? Had she missed her sister's capture and now Ari's ability had transplanted into Mina?

She wasn't sure how she expected to feel post-transplant. She flexed her fingers, trying to feel energy. How did Ari do it – with such ease?

"Oh, I just do it," she said, one lazy spring evening. Ari picked at a loosened bit on her cardigan, dangling her legs off the reclined sofa. Mina clutched the cardboard she was instructed to phase through as homework, one arm stuck through its middle when she'd lost concentration – thanks to Ari – when she was almost through.

"But how?"

"Just... I don't know. Empty your brain and focus on the one thing only. But that's just the way I do it. That way I can gauge the energy. Hine always flips at me 'cos I never hear him and he thinks I do it on purpose."

Empty your brain to the point where nothing else penetrates... Mina closed her eyes, raising her wrists by a tiny fraction so that the material pressed against her skin. Its density pressed back. She breathed in and out, focusing on nothing but the texture and weight of the material. Leather – but thicker than the leather from when she'd first been brought in. Steel fibres wove in and out of the leather, adding weight and stiffness. Some kind of dense carbon compound encompassed the spaces between the two materials.

She strained against it, willing passage with all her might, or some spark to melt the straps. Something. Anything.

When her brain was about to burst, she let out the breath she didn't realise she was holding, and flopped back onto the cold bed, a thumping headache ramming against her skull. She was so weak. Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes; she blinked them away and steadied the tremble on her lips. She was the sister of the Transformer and she couldn't phase through some straps. How pathetic was she?

She caught herself before she fell into the typical cycle of self-loathing and depression. Ari was always there to pull her out of that pitiful shell, although being dense she never realised saying 'Being weak isn't a big deal' and 'It's okay to suck so bad' weren't exactly helpful.

Mina raised her arms, studying the material again. It was heavy, but nothing was too dense to phase through. Every material had space in their atomic makeup, and Mina's atoms could move through them if she tried hard enough. Atomic physics classes taught her that. She closed her eyes and visualised the dense molecules, tightly jammed together but not actually in full contact. She imagined those of her flesh pressing against them, the repulsion between those miniscule electrical fields. Normal matter couldn't pass through, but Mina's were no normal matter.

She eased her breath in and out at a steady pace, willing her body to obey. Her mind carefully blank, she pressed on – then held her breath. The straps tightened against her wrists. She thrust the panic and the sounds of the beeping machines into the back of her mind.

To her glee, her arms moved beyond the straps – ever so slowly. She cast aside that feeling, too, stilling her mind.

Her arms slid free.

Her stomach jumped to her throat. It took several more minutes' of absolute concentration before she freed the rest of her body, and by the end of it her mind spun and her mouth was dry. She slid off the bed, collapsing onto her knees, and clutched the metal ends, feeling like she was about to black out.

When Mina felt she could be steady on her feet again, she stood up and tore the needle out of the back of the hand, averting her eyes from the sight of blood. At least she wasn't in a flimsy hospital gown like the last time she was strapped to a table. The room was lit in a dim light. It still used lightbulbs overhead, which flickered, on the brink of burning out. The machines that weren't broken or rusted didn't seem to be doing anything. The vial that contained glowing liquid before Mina was anaesthetised stood empty. She wondered what was in that.

Her eyes darted up to the old-fashioned CCTV sitting in the top corner, collecting dust and cobwebs. She picked up an old keyboard and threw it at the camera. It hit the wall and bounced off. On hitting the ground, it exploded in a mix of shards and loosened keys. Making a frustrated noise, Mina climbed onto the nearest table and grabbed a rather heavy and old-fashioned solid monitor. She swung it over her head, her arms aching already, and swung it onto the CCTV. The first hit dislodged it. The second cracked its lens and the third knocked it off its perch. With a crack, it joined the smithereens on the ground. Mina dropped the monitor onto the pieces for good measure, feeling oddly giddy and rebellious.

She hopped back down again, her heart beating. The exhilaration gave her an extra boost of energy.

"You can do it," she said to herself under her breath. She eyed the door, locked shut with the electric swipe system. She pressed against the door. Even with the utmost focus, the solidity remained. The molecules were so dense Mina couldn't even gauge how thick it was. She could phase through it. She must. Closing her eyes and regulating her breathing, she pressed against the smooth surface. She held her breath. Her throat tickled. The surface remained solid as ever beneath the palm of her hand.

Mina dropped her hand, frustrated, her heart weighing heavy upon her chest. She fought back tears threatening the edge of her eyes once more. She cast an eye over the rest of the room. No, there was no escape route, no vent, nothing. Just the heavy door that was sealed against her.

The sound of footsteps reached her ears. Fris! It must be time for Fris to check on how she was doing. Mina flicked the light switch off, dropping the room into almost complete window-less blackness save for the odd flashes of tiny LEDs accompanying the bleeping machine noises. She knelt by the door, focusing on her breathing. Fris's footsteps approached. Mina flexed and relaxed her fingers, keeping her head carefully blank. Her muscles softened.

The door slid open.

Mina threw herself through the opening. There was a nauseating sensation like being plunged head-first into viscous slime that washed over her body. She burst out the other end, sucking in the new air, and sprinted, fighting against instincts to retch. Behind her, Fris let out a gasp as a similar sensation must have overcome her when Mina phased through her body. She called out to Mina, but her voice was drowned in Mina's running feet.

She's not weak, Mina told herself. The air was stagnant and still, but a gentle breeze coursing over her sweaty skin gave some relief. She followed the path Vexi had forced her down earlier, but in the opposite direction, hoping against hope she wouldn't bump into the two-faced 'friend' she had made.

Finding a recognisable crossroad, she sighed a breath of relief. Nobody passed her. Everyone must still be hiding in the dorms. Her racing heart eased somewhat as she neared familiar surroundings. Indiscernible whispers seeped through the cracks in the door. When she pushed the creaky wooden doors open, the hushed conversation between the Users died at the sight of her.

"Mina!" said the closest girl, Plea, whose large round eyes were filled with anxiety. She hopped up from her bed. The other Users varied between perching on beds, lounging on seats, and stepping up and down repeatedly. "What's happened? Nobody's told us anything in hours... we should be safe here, but we don't know what's going on!"

"What?" Mina stared. "How do you mean?"

"Everyone who's gone out to scout hasn't come back."

Mina's heart skipped a beat as she fought to regain her breath. Nobody came back? What was going on out there?

"I... I don't know," she said, still breathless. "I haven't met anyone outside. What have you seen?"

"Nothing!" Plea wrung her hands in agitation. "We don't dare to go – most of us are too weak, and we don't want to get in the Transformer's way or she'll kill us."

"Ari wouldn't do that!" said Mina, stung. "She's just here to rescue me – all of us! It's not safe here!"

"She killed Hine," growled someone at the back. Mina craned her neck. It was Urio, one of the boys who stood next to Hine when he welcomed them to the rebellion. He cracked his knuckles, scowling. "She's probably here to kill all of us. I say we try to get her first."

"She's not like that!" Desperation cracked Mina's voice.

"Urio's right, Mina. She's not one of us. She won't understand. Even if she didn't kill us, she'll turn all of us over – including you – to Area Ten. We might as well be dead when that happens." Xera, another transplanted User, gave her a pitying look and then shook her head. "Vexi is out there. If we find her and we all combine our powers, we stand a chance."

Mina thought she would suffocate at the sound of those words.

"Wh-wh-why are you doing this?" she cried, balling her fists. "That's not why we're here! We're here to make the world a better place, not to destroy it!"

"To rebuild, one must destroy. Equivalent exchange, atom for atom, remember?" said Xera. She jerked her head at the rest of the twenty or so anxiously waiting Users. "Come on, guys. Let's go. Those who have new powers, be sure to protect those who haven't yet. Let's show the Transformer she's messing with the wrong group."

"No—"

"If you're not going to join us, Mina, then stay out of our way, or you'll get hurt."

Mina flinched. Urio's sharp tone cut deep. They'd never been bosom buddies as he was sixteen and so much older, but he had given her a curt nod and a smile back when Mina gave her impassioned group speech.

"Plea, I beg you—" As the others brushed past her, Mina grabbed Plea, who was eleven, just one year younger than her, and had very little power, just like her. "—don't do this. It's a big mistake."

Plea gave a small smile and pried Mina's fingers off her elbow.

"It's okay. It's something I want to do. We can't let others do stuff for us forever. For the first time in my life, there's something I can do for myself, Mina." She gave a small smile and ran after the others. Mina took several running steps forward and stopped. The last few disappeared round the corner. Her stomach weighed heavy, her heart palpitated. She'd never felt so torn in her life.

More footsteps came from the corridor behind her, accompanied by heavy breathing.

"Thank goodness!"

Mina whipped around.

"Ilia?"

The poor girl looked a wreck. Her messy dark hair was like an explosion and her light blue eyes were bloodshot.

"Are you okay? What happened? Oh my god." Mina fought back a shudder, seeing the open, weeping wounds on Ilia's left hand. "We need to take you to the infirmary. We have some antiseptic sprays there, and some wound sealant."

"No, it's okay." It seemed anything but okay. Ilia looked as if she were about to keel over.

"You have to get out of here!"

"So do you! I've found the way out. Come with me."

Ilia turned and almost stumbled had Mina not caught her. She was only a tiny bit older than Mina and the same size. Mina took Ilia's arm over her shoulders and hoisted her up a little, taking some weight. Ilia gave a grateful, trembling smile, and pointed with her scorched hand in the direction of the abandoned exam dome, through which the grated stairs to the outside world awaited.

"That way."

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