Zoe was motionless in a cross-legged seated position; her posture was perfectly straight, her breathing was flawlessly rhythmic, and her eyes were closed.
Colson plopped down next to Zoe in the grass, breathing hard. Zoe stayed undisturbed, not reacting to a single sound around her. She registered Colson existed, but at that moment, it was as if he was a leaf slowly falling from a tree—totally oblivious.
Images floated from the subconscious to the forefront of her mind. Embarrassing moments and events that she'd spent months trying to forget. The harder she tried to push against her thoughts more memories flooded in. That feeling she felt from Jashin's energy, Ivy telling her what happened earlier that day. The bar. Her stomach felt like it was twisting into knots and her airways closing. The sound like a hammer hitting a watermelon, the way the man's body went limp…She opened her eyes, sniffling, her cheeks wet. She glanced away and wiped her eyes when she saw Colon watching her, eyebrows raised with surprise.
"You good?"
"Yes," she sighed.
"Alright," Colson shrugged.
"I just don't get it. Doing this is like trying to solve an unsolvable math problem."
Colson thought for a moment, "I could try doing what Jashin did. Just shoot my energy at you and see if that helps."
"No, I'll figure something out. Plus, I don't want to be any more brain-dead than I already am."
"Oh yea, I forgot about that," Colson said, staring wistfully into the afternoon sun. "Well, if you need anything…Do you think that both you and Ivy can figure it out in the next day or so? Cause I think it's almost been a week, right?"
Zoe nodded, "Tomorrow will be seven days, but I think they said they could get us two weeks at most. It's just…Ugh!" She let herself fall backward. Colson looked over, seeing she had placed both hands over her eyes.
"Umm."
"I don't know why I'm here, Colson! Okay? I knew this whole thing was dumb. You guys are always so far ahead of me, and I can barely focus for two minutes without thinking of that guy's head exploding!"
Colson looked ahead silently, not sure of what to say. Zoe's voice was shaky.
"What am I supposed to do against any of those three? I don't care about this mission! I don't want to die for some place I barely knew existed! I don't care if I'm being selfish, but I just don't wanna die for this!"
"You know…" Colson said after a long silence.
"What?" Zoe mumbled, her hands still covering her eyes.
Colson got to his feet, "Here, get up," he said, leaning over her and extending his hand. She removed one hand from her face and begrudgingly grabbed onto his, getting to her feet, stretching as she did so.
"Now what?"
"I'm just saying, if a dumbass like Reiza can do it, you should too. Probably due to teacher error," he said, smiling to himself.
"I don't know. I'll figure it out, though," Zoe thought for a moment. "Idea: so what you were saying earlier about what Jashin did; what if we do that again, but different."
"Different how?"
She sat back down in a meditative position, "Just use like a small bit, maybe."
Colson glanced warily at his hands, "I mean, I can try. I don't really know how to do that. I know I suggested it, but I'm not actually sure how to do that yet."
Zoe twirled her white-blonde hair in her fingers, thinking back to the theory notes Cahya had her read. "See if you can 'push' your energy at me."
"Um, alright," Colson closed his eyes; his body was surrounded by the aura a few seconds later. He shoved his right hand forward, inches away from Zoe's face. His aura stayed steady, not moving. He tried again, this time yelling, "PUSH!" Still, nothing happened. "Well, I tried," he shrugged.
"I feel like I'm on to something here," she got to her feet, copying the stance Jashin had been in when she first saw him manifest the aura around him. Squeezing her eyes shut, she extended her arms forward, her palms facing the sky, telling Colson to have his hands hover slightly above hers. Slightly grimacing at the feeling, "It feels like thorns are pricking me all over my hands." Her hands were in contact with his thin aura, "Alright, now let's see if this works," completely emptying her lungs, waiting several seconds, inhaling through her nose, then exhaling through her mouth—making an almost silent humming sound as she did so, repeating the process over and over.
Her world went dark—totally silent.
"Zoe?" a voice sounded as if it were underwater. Not sure who it was exactly, but knowing it was familiar.
As if all function in her body ceased, her brain, lungs, heart. Her own self felt weightless. Pillars slowly erected themselves in the surrounding darkness. Behind them, proud buildings—each window illuminated by light from inside. Feeling the urge to walk, Zoe glanced around at the nothingness around her before moving to nowhere in particular. Every thought she had appeared in the surrounding void—some loud, some nigh invisible.
She walked until the buildings and pillars disappeared, replaced by black street lamps, each one alternating between a dark blue and a blood-red glow, casting colored shadows on her face as she glided past. Noticing each luminary cast an odd outline on the ground. A heart, a spade, a club, and a diamond.
Not being sure how long or how far she had walked, a few blocks? Several miles? Crossing the distance of a small country? Seconds could have passed or months. She may have fallen asleep a few times; she couldn't remember.
The vast black expanse continued forever, now surrounded by a forest of dead scraggly trees, the same shade as everything else around her.
Sensing something was flying at her, Zoe threw herself to the ground as a small black shape whizzed overhead.
"A memory?"
A younger Reiza ran to her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to her feet. The muffled voice of Colson behind her. Turning, she saw him block an incoming strike and kick the person away.
"Run! Go!" Reiza yelled, shoving her forward, "You got this!" she grinned, "Just keep going!" Taking a large dagger from her shirt, she stood next to Colson, ready to stop anyone who dared approach. The black forest loomed before them. Evil eyes seemed to peer out at them from behind the trunks. The skyline of Crater's city, its buildings jutting into the sky, like it painted on a large canvas placed behind the forest.
As she ran, she felt something heavy in her grasp, a large metal pole with a green rag on the end.
Sprinting for some time, the landscape faded and bled away into another. The flag had melted in her hands, turning to nothing.
'Petrvs eqves crvcis Christi. In festo sacti venceslai martyris anno domini.'
A memory from years in the past. From the sky, a massive luminary swayed. Thinking at first, it was this twisted world's version of the sun, but as she walked closer, she recognized the chandelier.
Zoe sat in her parent's living room, reading a passage from a book over one hundred years old in their original language.
As she trudged forward, a light orange orb appeared in the distance, its radiance catching Zoe's eye. She ran towards it; the closer she came, the slower she felt.
Within one hundred feet of the orange sphere, she began to hear whispers around her. Humanlike shadows appeared. It looked like she was wading through a crowd surrounding the orb. It was elevated on a dark stage. Some voices she knew, others she didn't. The silhouettes didn't move; they stood in their place, quaking and shivering, their hushed tones sounding like feverish ramblings. The figures closer to the orange light were more defined, almost like statues of black smoke than blobs of shadow. Zoe noticed a particular one, a mean sneer etched on its face; long wavy hair in a wolf cut going the length of its shoulder blades and long and styled nails.
Trudging past the last row of 'people,' she walked up the stage, glancing back to see the sea of swaying shapes. They whispered expectantly as if they were waiting for her to start performing. Usually, with this many eyes on her, she'd wish to be only an inch tall. But as she stood, her eyes danced over the crowd, and a sudden calmness washed over her. As if a weight came from her shoulders.
She realized the ball of light was held by two figures, a boy and a girl. She grabbed the orb, taking it from their hands, a familiar feeling. It gave off the same warmth as her mom's cookies after she took them from the oven—a similar smell, too. As she held it, the ball warped and melted in her hands, wrapping around her until it encompassed her whole body.
Zoe gasped, her eyes shot open.
"Yo! What the…" Colson took a quick step back.
Zoe looked around, noticing she wasn't in the same spot as before. The clearing had morphed into dense woodland; the already setting sun mixed with the canopy of leaves overhead would've made it hard to see, bar the orange light that emanated from around her.
"W-where? What happened? Where am I?" She asked, looking around in circles.
"You did it…that's amazing," Colson's eyes were wide with awe, holding his hand out, touching her aura.
Zoe looked down for the first time, her eyes widened with surprise, "I did it! I really did it!" She slowly waved her hands in front of her face, then pinched herself, ensuring she wasn't dreaming. "This feeling is so weird. It's different than before with Jashin tho, almost mechanical," she muttered.
"Mechanical?"
"Yea, I can't really describe it more than tha—Where am I?"
"I dunno," Colson shrugged, looking around, not seeing any landmarks in the nearby area.
"What do you mean? Didn't you carry me here?"
"Nah, after you told me to do that thing, you almost like fell asleep in some kind of trance, then after a few minutes, you just turned around and walked into the treeline. I tried to stop you, but you didn't say anything; you just kept marching, so I followed. After a while, you stopped and asked what happened, and now we're here."
"Alright," Zoe said, sticking her hands in her pockets, taking out her deck of cards, "So then Ivy is the last one of us who needs energy. Huh," a small smile crossed her lips.
"What's so funny?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing," Zoe said quickly. "I can actually be of some use now. I can help her do something for a change."
Using their energy to illuminate their way through the dense part of the forest, they broke through the tree line and made their way back to the center of Cassius and into Jashin and Cahya's home. The house was pitch black from the outside.
Inside, Ivy sat cross-legged on the table, holding a spoon in one hand and a box of ice cream with the word 'Cassius' on the side. Her hair was still matted and wet from her earlier swim. Cahya was standing on that same table barefoot, an ice cream scooper in one hand and one of Ivy's knuckle dusters in the other—spinning it around on her index finger.
The room was dim, only illuminated by several candles scattered haphazardly around the floor.
"The hell've you been?" Cahya asked through a mouthful of ice cream, turning to Colson and Zoe as they entered the front door.
"In the forest," Colson said, tossing his shoes to the side.
"Hey Ivy!" Zoe said excitedly. "I got something to show you!"
"Oh, what?" Ivy mumbled through bites. Zoe crawled onto the table and stood next to her, closing her eyes, and concentrating on the feeling she had felt before.
"Hey!" Cahya snapped. "If you're gonna be on the table, take your shoes off!"
Zoe didn't seem to hear her over the low drone that filled the room, an orange glow splashing against the walls, her wavy energy pattern making the shadows of the room dance. Cahya and Ivy's eyes widened with surprise and glee.
"So you've all done it," she had a proud smile across her face. "What'd I tell y'all? Am I a good teacher or what?"
"All?" Colson asked, then glanced to Ivy, who was still staring at Zoe.
"Your energy is so cool looking," Ivy said in awe.
"I just figured this out a few minutes ago. I figured out a technical way to do it, so I can teach you, and you won't end up accidentally killing yourself."
"I already unlocked it a few hours ago," Ivy beamed proudly, getting to her feet, staring forwards, clenching her fists. Small white bits of energy bubbled from her skin, creating a glowing white aura.
"Oh." Zoe said, sounding disappointed.
"I gotta get in on this," Colson said, hopping up on the table. After a few seconds, his own green energy surrounded him. All of them stood, their energies making a kaleidoscope effect around the room.
An odd feeling of dread washed over Cahya as she looked on. 'I should feel good right now, but why don't I feel happy? We may now have a real chance to do something; to save Cassius. I might've just led them to their deaths too….'