Week 32.3 – Held

Previously: Twain awoke in a prison cell with Yi Fan saying, “We have to talk.” And now…

“You think?” Twain rubbed at a sore spot on his temple. “Why did he hit me?”

“He doesn’t need a reason,” Yi Fan said. “You’ve made things very tricky for me. Why did you help me?”

“Shouldn’t I have?”

“Nobody helps me,” she said. “Everyone hates me.”

“That can’t be true,” Twain said. “”I mean, surely someone…”

“No one helps me,” she reiterated. “Except you. So now he’s suspicious, which is the last thing we need. I’m risking a lot just coming in here to see you.”

“Do you want me to apologize for helping you, then?” Twain asked.

Yi Fan sat down next to him and put her arms around his neck. “I want you to kiss me.”

Twain didn’t object. She pulled away all too soon and sighed. “Thank you. Now you need to get away.”

“Get away?” Twain asked. “I thought we had a plan.”

“That was when he trusted me,” Yi Fan said. “Now he suspects me, and he’s furious with you.”

“What did I do?” Twain asked. “Other than escaping. But I made up for that with Digger.”

[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”right”]So say I grab that door handle and flip. This body disappears, and most of that door goes with it…[/blockquote]“You can’t just make up for it,” Yi Fan said. “He holds grudges. But it’s worse than that. Something about a crystal you were wearing around your neck. He’s going to torture you to find out where it came from, and trust me, it will be much worse than before. You need to escape.”

“You mean, we need to escape,” Twain said. “If you get me out of here, it won’t be safe for you either.”

“No, I’m not…” Yi Fan paused and shook her head. “I can’t help you. I have to regain the Czar’s trust, so I can use the mask on him and take away his powers.”

“You found the mask?”

“Yes, it’s safe,” Yi Fan said. “But we can never be unless the Czar is no longer the Czar. I have to stop him. Which means you have to escape without my help, the way you did before.”

Now Twain finally got it. He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“The power I have, the changing clothes thing? I don’t just change clothes, I change bodies. When I flip, this body goes away, along with everything I’m wearing and anything I’m holding, to a certain limit.” Twain pointed at the door. “So say I grab that door handle and flip. This body disappears, and most of that door goes with it. But the body I end up with is the body I had before, the one with the darker skin and hair when I was trying to disguise myself as a native. The one that was tied to a chair in your pantry with a bullet in its chest.”

Realization dawned in Yi Fan’s eyes. She put a hand over her mouth. “You mean, if you change back…”

“I’ll still be tied up and bleeding to death,” Twain said. “And in such pain that I might not be able to switch back.”

That doesn’t sound too good. What will Twain and Yi Fan do? And what has happened to Metalord? Don’t miss our next episode!

To read from the beginning, click here…