Editing Melanie Cavill (section)

===Presumed Death===
After stopping the train near the research station, Layton and Alex trek together to the station to find Melanie. Upon arrival, they discover the temperature inside to be -97 degrees and no sign of Melanie. Searching further, they find one of Melanie's batteries still with some power connected to her drives and a heartbroken Alex realizes that her mother is gone. Upset as well over Melanie's loss, Layton realizes that Melanie saved the drives and the important data that they contained and leads Alex back to ''Snowpiercer''. Alex finds a letter that Melanie left for her at the research station revealing that Melanie had used up all of her resources and ate her rats to extinction. Knowing that her batteries could only keep her alive for a few more hours but keep the drives safe for months on a trickle charge, Melanie chose to sacrifice herself to ensure humanity's future, knowing that Alex would come back and continue her work. After writing her letter, Melanie donned her suit and walked into [[the Freeze]] to die.

Back on ''Snowpiercer'', Layton's crew discovers that Melanie had succeeded in finding parts of the planet that are warmer, ensuring that humanity has a future outside of the trains.<ref name="White" />

However, while the pirate train spends six months searching five of the six locations that Melanie's data revealed, they are still too cold for recolonization, although Layton finds [[Asha|a survivor]] in one spot.<ref>''[[The Tortoise and the Hare]]''</ref> Based on a vision he had while near death, Layton becomes convinced that the last location, the Horn of Africa, is inhabitable.<ref>''[[The First Blow]]''</ref>

After encountering three ''[[Big Alice]]'' cars disconnected as part of a culling by Wilford, Alex is haunted by hallucinations of Melanie who encourages her daughter to confront her past and her conflicted feelings over Wilford. With Melanie's encouragement, Alex is able to use the things that Wilford had taught her to solve the problem herself. Simultaneously, Wilford himself hallucinates Melanie and apologizes to her after he realizes that Alex will see the body of her friend Shilo. When [[Sam Roche]] tries to murder him, Wilford begs Melanie for help, but she just stares down at him. Alex hallucinates Melanie one last time as she's visiting a recovering Wilford, telling Melanie that Wilford doesn't seem so powerful in this state. Melanie then disappears.<ref>''[[Bound by One Track]]''</ref>

Wilford later enlists Alex's help with performing some calculations before revealing that he has created a map of the Pirate train's course and ''Big Alice's'' hunt for it. Wilford explains that about three months into the search, he had thought that he'd caught a break, a track switch signal near Marseilles that ''Big Alice'' had followed and found no sign of them. However, Alex points out that the Pirate train was on a different continent at the time which means it wasn't them. While Alex thinks that it could have been a malfunction, Wilford believes that it was Melanie and that she is still alive out there somewhere.<ref>''[[Ouroboros]]''</ref>

By checking out the power of various track switches, Bennett and Alex find a trail leading back to Neckbreaker where Melanie was last seen. The two theorize that Melanie could've reached a hanger on Neckbreaker and taken one of the automated vehicles stored there. However, they can't be sure that she's still alive as the vehicles are bare-bones and not equipped with supplies to support life. ''Snowpiercer'' is diverted to follow the course of Melanie's vehicle and, after passing through a toxic cloud of gas, Bennett and Alex pick up the vehicle's signal nearby.<ref>''[[Setting Itself Right]]''</ref>

Melanie's [[Track Scaler]] is eventually found by ''Snowpiercer'' and brought aboard by Bennett and [[Josie Wellstead]]. Melanie is discovered inside, still alive but unconscious, having used the suspension drug for [[the Drawers]] to keep herself alive for six months as she searched for ''Snowpiercer''. After being rescued, Melanie is rushed to [[Doctor Pelton]]'s clinic for treatment.<ref name="Beacon">''[[A Beacon for Us All]]''</ref>