"Wake up, Cole."

I felt like I had been awoken from a long sleep, not knowing where I was or even who I was. Pain was all I remembered, a flash and the pain of thousands weighing on my shoulders. The essence of thousands of people all over the world, being torn out of them as forcefully as one would tear off an arm. God, did I do that?

"Wake up, Cole." My thoughts were interrupted when the voice spoke again, this time louder, with more force. It seemed close, and yet far off at the same time, like a yelling in my ear, and yet a great distant echo, laying over itself again and again. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was driving me mad, so I forced it to the back of my mind and focused. With great strength I forced open my eyes as best I could. I was lying down on my stomach, my head laying on its left side so that I looked to my right, outward at an endless world of never ending white. It seemed to have no floor and no ceiling, no walls, no boundaries, and nothing at all. Even though it appeared to have no floor, somehow one existed and I was laying on it. My head was spinning trying to understand this place. The sound, the weird echo in here, the invisible floor. I felt like I was gonna hurl. I slammed my eyes shut and fought against the pain, raising my right hand to rub my head for a minute. Pulling myself together, I decided it perhaps wasn't such a good idea to look down. Opening my eyes, I stood up, resisting the pain which fought to keep me down and making sure not to look down at all. All it took was one look at the man standing before me for everything to come back. The blast, Zeke, the reapers, Sasha, Alden, Trish, John, New Marais, Kuo, Nix, Wolfe, the cores, the RFI, all of it. The man who caused it all, the one who created so much pain, the man I had hoped to never see again was there. Kessler. Every emotion I had ever felt came flooding back into me, with rage at its forefront. Every atom of my body was prepared to leap out and rip him to shreds, to make him feel what he did to Trish and I a million times over, yet something held me back. I was reminded of what it was for, what he had trained me for and warned me of. Still, rage boiled at the surface and I itched to wrap my hands around his neck. Sure, I understood he did what he had to do, but that didn't make it any easier to see him again.

"Good, you remember", Kessler said, noticing the look in my eyes, "but before you do anything rash, allow me to explain our current... predicament." I relaxed a bit visibly but on the inside I was perfectly ready to fight. I noticed a familiar weight was missing from my back. A quick glance over my shoulder told me the amp was gone, along with my pack, from its proper place on my back.

"As you could probably guess already, we are dead." He told me. I Let out a slight choking laugh, thinking it was some form of joke, until I noticed he was still perfectly serious. Straightening up, I said my first words in seven years.

"If we're dead, how are we talking." I inquired. It was a genuine question, yet I couldn't help but feel it was a silly one.

"This place is a mystery to me, Cole. I cannot leave it, and I cannot manipulate it either, I'm lucky I can still interact with the real world in any way. I suspect I will be bound here until something happens. When and how that will happen, I have no clue." He explained.

"That still doesn't answer my question." I grunted.

"I wasn't finished. Now shut up, we haven't much time and I hate to be interrupted. How we are talking is simple, in the moment of your death I took your soul and forced it to lay dormant until I awakened it. You see, in my final moments, we each saw a different vision. You saw the beast, but I saw you, returning to the world of the living. From that moment on, I was waiting for you so that I could fulfill this purpose." He told. I merely nodded my head as I tried comprehending what he had said to me.

"I have enough power left for you to come back to life with all your power intact. You are needed down there, I can feel it. When you fired off the RFI, you didn't kill all the conduits as it was suspected you had, just the ones near by. Well, relatively speaking. Conduits in the world now are called Bio-terrorists and are hunted down by a militarized force of conduits with the same power, much like the ice men you fought in New Marais, called the Department of Unified Protection, or DUP for short. They are bound in a special way so that they can't use their powers and are sent to be put behind bars in a special prison called Curdan Cay station. The leader of this group was a conduit woman named Brooke Augustine, who has control over concrete. Her power is shared throughout all DUP soldiers. I say she was the leader because she was taken down six months ago by a group of three prime conduits in Seattle, who defeated her and exposed her corruption and treason to everyone. Their names are Delsin Rowe, Abigail "Fetch" Walker, and Eugene Simmons. Fetch has power over neon, Eugene had power over video, and Delsin could absorb people's powers by touching them. Recently she escaped prison and is once again at large. Oddly enough, the government is not hunting her, despite having formally arrested her and held her in prison." He explained.

"So you want me to go down there and put her back in prison? Seems like a waste of both of our powers." I said.

"Of sorts, but I fear that may not be the only thing you are required to do. The world is changing, and I don't know if it's entirely for the better. All I know is that if something bad were to happen, it would be best for you to already be alive and ready to fight. Besides, think of this as a bit of an apology for all the harm I've done you." A sullen and forlorn look grew on his face momentarily before it switched back to its normal stern expression.

"Now, I have given you every power you could have once had. You will keep your and Kuo's powers but will also gain Nix's and those you lost in Empire City. I have tried to seal their whole power within you, however that is tied directly to them, so all I could do was amplify them so that you could perform the moves you could previously only perform through the combination of your powers. You have also received a special power, one I cannot give or take away. You see, when you detonated the RFI, it sealed its energy in you, meaning you can use its power whenever you need to." He told me.

"So what you're telling me is, I'm a ticking time bomb and if I'm not too careful there'll be another RFI blast, or I could trigger one at will?" I asked, the anger building within me again.

"That is one of your powers, but as far as I can tell, you have two other powers, with the possibility of others. You can also fire a single shot that temporarily takes away a conduits power and a lasting laser beam that will knock a conduit out for about six hours and, if exposed long enough, will kill them. And don't worry, this power is easier to control than any you've felt before, and much more stable too, so there won't be any accidental RFI blast at any point in the future. Once you reach Seattle, I would recommend that you be wary of Delsin Rowe. He is greedy for power. Not so much that he would go out of his way to get it, but he will still try to get your powers the second he learns you are a conduit. If he manages to grab your hand, he will start absorbing power uncontrollably. You cannot break out of this hold unless you fire your RFI shot into his hands. If you don't, he will absorb your, Nix, and Kuo's powers." He told me.

"I see, thanks for the advice, but couldn't you just show me this through a vision like you showed me the beast?" I asked him.

"No, you see much of the power I had in my physical form is gone here. I am a spirit now, and it is of no use to me. Besides, I have other powers that suit me better now. I do wish you well on your journey Cole. You may step into the elevator when you are ready." I heard the words he had spoken, yet it took me a moment before I fully comprehended his statement. I felt my eyebrows furrow together and my eyes squint in a distrusting way out of instinct. Glancing around, I felt as though he was mocking me.

"What elevat- oh, that elevator." I murmured to myself as I turned around and saw the opened elevator door and the classic elevator interior style I had grown so accustomed to in Empire, complete with cheesy elevator music and everything. Walking toward it I heard call me once more.

"Oh, and Cole", turning around, I noticed a mischievous and yet almost... happy look about him, "I've prepared a surprise for you." Turning around and heading into the elevator I couldn't help but wonder what on earth he could surprise me with.

Well, there's no telling what that could be. Any number of things most likely. Oh well, just add it to my new list of things to worry about. Inside, the elevator contained a small wooden railing, a plaster depiction of the Empire city skyline at the bottom, and various art woven out of fabric running from the railing to the top of the elevator, where it met the metal ceilings. On my right, a set of four buttons which had abbreviated letter names next to it, consisting from top to bottom of HV, P, M, and HL with "P" being lit up. I could tell what they meant. Trusting my instinct, I pressed the "M" button and felt the elevator lurch to life. I glanced up once again and locked eyes with the man I knew as Kessler, his long coat and hood giving him an eerie yet cool vibe. The doors began to close, and just as they were about to obscure his figure from my view, he winked at me. Not any over the top wink or any sort of wink between friends, it was a knowing wink, encouraging me, yet it was as nonchalant as if he were simply out on a stroll and saw me. And then he was gone. The never ending white world of echoes was gone. It felt final, like he would never see it again, and in a way he felt sad, yet in a way he also felt glad to be getting away from it. That place made his skin crawl and his head swirl. Then he was in free fall. He felt his heart beat abruptly, something he hadn't noticed was missing in the room before. He felt adrenaline spike through him, his blood felt electric. He felt as though he had all the power in the world, like he could do anything. It's call was seductive, but Cole knew what he needed to do, and he ignored the voice telling him to accept it. Then all at once, it exploded.