Rising Shards

My footsteps crunched the sand at my feet and my shoes clanged on the metal parts. I didn’t want to think about if the wastelands were some kind of graveyard for Exumi, but seeing the parts of their joints and armor around, I had to wonder.

I reached a fork in the road. I held the Kathron sword up and thoughtlessly swatted it around as I debated which path to take. I noticed the sword’s glow grow and fade depending on the swing. After a few tries, I realized it was glowing brighter when I held it pointed in certain directions.

“Are you…trying to tell me which way to go?” I asked.

The sword glowed brighter when I held it to the left path.

“Arctus, if this is you, blink twice,” I said.

The sword stayed glowing.

“OK, if this is just the Kathron sword…blink twice.”

I thought the sword glowed a smidge brighter, but I couldn’t tell.

“I’m gonna go left, so I hope this is the right way.” I said.

I wasn’t sure right away, but after a few turns in the pathway between giant piles of metal wreckage I saw a sight confirming I’d gone the right way.

A green wall greeted me with about thirty spheres embedded into it. They had a strange glow, and as I stepped closer my stomach dropped when I saw bodies inside of them. It was the rest of my friends and classmates, sleeping. Not sleeping peacefully; they looked like they were all in the midst of terrible nightmares. I rushed through them, trying to find Oka. I sighed when I saw hers was on the bottom row. I didn’t want to think about how to get the others down that were in the rows above.

“I’ll get you all out, I promise!” I said, holding the Kathron sword to Oka’s pod. “But the girlfriend comes first!”

I prepared to carefully cut the bubbly sphere, using surgical precision to free Oka. But as soon as the blade touched the surface, the bubble popped and Oka fell out in a rush of liquid. I caught her and cradled her as she began crying, speaking in her sleep.

“I can’t go back there…” Oka wailed. “Don’t take her…”

“Oka, it’s me!” I said. “You’re safe!”

She blinked as she woke up and came to.

“Zeta…?” She asked softly. I kissed her forehead, not caring that it was a bit slimy from whatever was in the pod. It was probably Elka. I wiped my lips, not wanting to eat any more Elka than I probably did by swimming through the lake of it. I remembered I was covered in Elka too, so I didn’t want to think about how slimy this hug was all around.

“Now you saved me,” Oka said.

We held each other for a few minutes, taking a moment just to recharge with each other. Once she was fully recovered, she reminded me our adaptive gear could shake off Elka, and we got ourselves at least with the worst of the Elka shaken off and us dried off.

“How are we going to get the rest out?” I asked.

“I’ll get Lillia, we’ll figure out the rest after.” Oka said.

I nodded. “I’ll look for Kalei.”

Luckily, both were close by. Oka’s bloodsaber worked the same as the Kathron blade, and we got Lillia and Kalei out of their pod prisons. After a few minutes of recovery, we inspected the scene.

“We should probably get the rest out as soon as possible, right?” I asked.

“Wait, Zeta, how’d you get me out? Did you break out of yours?” Oka asked.

I explained what had happened with my brief encounter with Jeans and the Elka lake.

As I finished my story, after everything I had been through, I just burst into tears seeing Oka, Kalei, and Lillia all safe. I suddenly hugged the three of them.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Oka shushed me. She sat beside me and rubbed my back for comfort. With her, Kalei and Lillia nearby, I felt a lot better. Still crying from all the Jeans stuff, but better.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Oka said.

“I could have stopped her,” I said. “I was too weak to…”

“You’re not weak,” Kalei said. “You still faced her after everything she did to you.”

“I was so scared as soon as I saw her, too,” Oka said. “I didn’t stop her either.” She hugged me tighter. "I can’t lose you.”

“Yeah, we need you Zeta,” Kalei said, her voice breaking at the end. “We’re gonna get us all the hell out of here. And then get everyone that Kitty took back.”

"Right." I said.

Oka thought about it for a second.

“That’s still weird you weren’t in one of the pods,” Oka said. “What do you think, Lillia?”

Not one for extended group hugs, Lillia had broken off about halfway through and was busy peering into her pod, holding her wristband out to it.

“What is it?” Oka asked. “Can our wristbands scan things in the void?”

“Could they do this the whole time and I didn’t know?” I asked.

“Well, yours probably wouldn’t work,” Kalei said.

“I don’t think they normally can, but…” Lillia said. Her wristband glowed red in the pod. “The pods seem to be connected to our wristbands.”

“So this is a Wildfire Hearts thing?” Kalei asked.

“It’s very likely,” Lillia said.

Oka turned to me. “Do you think your wristband didn’t connect or something, maybe? It’s always crashing…”

“Zeta’s busted glitchy wristband OS saved our asses here?” Kalei asked.

“Apparently,” Lillia said.

“I guess you are good for one thing.” I said to my wristband.

We got back to the pods the others were stuck in.

“This will take too long,” Lillia said. “I’ll get the rest. You three go for the mask.”

We nodded and headed off, knowing we didn’t have any time to argue.

A few minutes of silent wandering passed. I wasn’t sure if someone would jump out at us, so I just focused on following the glow of the sword. It blinked once and I looked ahead. We all saw it at the same time, resting on a pedestal.

“That’s the mask,” Oka said in a low voice.

“The Starlight Despair.” I said.

If we could break that thing, it would finally be over. I could finally leave and end this void trip. We ran for it, each of us probably hoping to get a quick slash at it before anyone noticed, but this couldn’t be that easy. Jeans stepped out of the shadows behind the mask. She had her horrible, Elka infected sword out, and it dripped on the ground. I took out the Kathron bloodsaber.

“Hello, Zeta.” Jeans said.

Kalei rushed her, but Jeans blasted her quickly, knocking her past us and backwards deep into a pile of parts. I tried to charge with the Kathron blade as well, but Jeans grabbed my hands and ripped the sword from me, shoving me backwards. She threw the sword and it landed with its blade down in the dirt, too far for me to run for.

Before I could react to that, Jeans suddenly swung her sword towards Oka, and I screamed. She moved so fast. I just saw a rush of blood come from the slash as Oka crumpled to the ground.