The world spun around Levin as gravity carried him away from Azaadi and into the entangling vegetation below. He struck the ground hard, a sharp crack splitting the air along with the thud of the impact. Levin gasped for breath, blindly hauling himself forward, failing to notice the liquid dripping down his right arm as he desperately forced his body to move.

A moment later, a second impact shook the ground behind Levin. Already off-balance, Levin stumbled forward, catching himself on the trunk of a tree as he whirled around to see what came down after him. There, directly over the matted underbrush Levin landed in, stood Azaadi.

Andrew’s killer. The Gate Beacon’s destroyer.

Levin’s cheeks flushed as his heartbeat quickened, pulsing through his body in a mad cacophony that filled his ears. He was still shrouded from view thanks to Andrew’s final gift, invisible to the eyes of this hunter standing just a few feet away – close enough to attack. Levin wanted desperately to move, to charge, to avenge, but his body froze, paralyzed seemingly beyond his control.

He could only watch in terror as Azaadi, robes still fluttering about from the sudden descent, launched another metallic streak from his hand to the ground, hitting the only trail Levin had left in the forest. Standing to the side, back pressed against a tree, Levin held his hands to his mouth to quiet the sound of his breathing, thoughts so frantic he still didn’t notice the liquid gushing down his arm.

But Azaadi appeared unperturbed. He brought both hands together, closing his eyes as he concentrated. He held the pose for less than a second before throwing his hands wide, creating a dome of semi-transparent white film that expanded rapidly in all directions. Levin squeezed his eyes shut as the wave passed over him in an instant, far faster than any living being could run. He expected pain but none came, and as Levin opened his eyes again, the dome had disappeared and it seemed nothing had happened.

“What’s going on?” Levin thought to himself. “Ever since we came here, how has any of this been possible…?”

But to Azaadi, something had clearly happened. He frowned, looking around the area in confusion. “There’s not even any Pulse…” he said under his breath, but Levin was close enough to hear.

Then Azaadi fell still once more, frozen as he stared out behind their immediate surroundings. He stayed that way for several seconds, unmoving, looking at something Levin couldn’t see. Levin held his breath for what felt like an eternity as he stared at the robed man before him, too frightened to wonder what Azaadi was looking towards.

“Surging Tide,” Azaadi suddenly chanted, throwing his entire body forward as his words washed over Levin like a wave of pure energy.

But if the energy in his words were a wave, what followed was a tsunami. Liquid silver bubbled out of the dirt floor of the forest, pooling beneath Azaadi’s feet in a reflective pool for a moment before bursting upward and outward, with Azaadi crouched on top, braced for the motion as the surge of silver carried away.

In a flash he was gone, carried away by the rush of power. Levin collapsed to the ground, legs turning to jelly as he blankly stared at the sky beyond the treetops. His breath came fast and hard, shallow and ragged and without enough oxygen. Levin’s vision swam as his head knocked back against the tree behind him, body limp.

He closed his eyes, opening up the artificial connection to his Y-Link subconsciously, with the same natural fluidity as retrieving a regular memory. There in his mind, preserved in crystal-clear quality, he gazed upon Earth, a blue marble flying through space. He looked at Saturn, a sight from just the day before, now lost to him.

Levin wept, squeezing his eyes shut as tears leaked out. There was no comfort to be found in pictures of home. He wanted to scream and lash out, anything to release the tumultuous whirlpool of emotions spinning within. But fear continued to paralyze Levin, an understanding that any noise too loud could bring back the assailants spewing death from their palms.

But where could he go? He wrestled with himself, trying to think, to find a way forward. Anything to do other than collapse into a sniveling heap. And then, as he calmed down just a hint, Levin finally noticed the liquid running down his arm.

Something cold.

“Cold?” Levin thought, shocked back to his senses by the surprising realization that his own blood was not the source of the sensation.

He looked down, and immediately wished he was bleeding. Amidst the silence that had fallen in Azaadi’s departure, the slow and quiet plip of the liquid onto the ground sounded like gunshots to Levin’s ear. A clear bluish liquid spilled from the metal bracelet of Andrew’s Invisibility Cloak onto his arm, and it now fell to the ground in slow, long drops like honey.

Levin cursed, springing back to his feet as a keen sense of danger enveloped him. Remaining silent in place wasn’t an option anymore, not when he had anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes of concealment left before Andrew’s life-saving gift would expire. He stumbled away into the forest, using his free hand to try and stymie the flow. But Levin could immediately tell it was a futile effort – a long crack ran through the entire device, broken by Levin’s tumble from far above.

As he pushed forward through the forest, alongside the base of the mountain, the wind suddenly changed, carrying with it the sounds of combat from close by. And unlike the sounds of horrifying slaughter he had listened to minutes prior, this one sounded like war being waged against the mountain itself.

“Mei!” Levin thought, hurrying in the direction of the noise.

As he pushed forward, trying not to spill any more of the precious invisibility liquid, Levin noticed the terrain suddenly change. Where once there had been trees and underbrush there were now only craters and churned dirt and stone. Levin gaped as he looked at the destruction, dashing over the upturned earth, searching for the monstrosities that had caused the devastation.

They were not hard to track, between the continuing sounds of battle and the warpath left to follow. But just as Levin thought he was getting close, the pair of duelists suddenly went quiet, plunging the mountain into an eerie and uncomfortable silence. Levin dashed forward, willing his Invisibility Cloak to hold out for at least another minute.

As he pushed his way past fallen trees, Levin saw why the two had quieted. Mei had caught her opponent, Tulimak, trapping him in a chokehold, his sword out of reach. He was clearly strong, with enough raw power to ravage the landscape, but Mei was simply titanic in comparison. With an extra head of height and a few hundred pounds on Tulimak, it seemed to Levin that there would be no way he could escape, struggle as he might.

But more impossible things had happened today, Levin realized in dismay. Tulimak himself had already healed from a fatal wound right before Levin’s eyes, and must have recovered from several more in the course of dueling Mei. Was it even possible to kill him? Mei already looked worse for wear, decorated head to toe with cuts and gashes from Tulimak’s blade.

Levin watched on, undetected by either combatants. He scanned the area, looking and listening for any signs of Azaadi or other robed warriors who might be approaching. If Mei couldn’t win soon, they were quickly going to find themselves surrounded and outmatched. And that would be the end of the line.

“Should I run now and leave her behind?” Levin thought to himself, but immediately discarded the idea. Without Mei, he would be on the run against superior enemies, in an unfamiliar land, lost and alone in a wilderness… He shuddered at the idea.

Crack

The noise split the air like a thunderbolt, breaking the stalemate. Mei slumped over, releasing the tension in her arms. Levin snapped back to focus, anxiously looking on.

And from Mei’s arms, Tulimak slid to the ground, lifeless. Mei relaxed, breathing heavily but with a tired smile on her face, and she dusted herself off casually while pushing Tulimak’s corpse away.

Levin nearly passed out from the relief, rejoicing yet in disbelief – it was possible to win against these monsters and their unnatural abilities.

“As long as you’re a monster yourself,” Levin thought, looking at Mei’s hulking figure pick itself up from the ground.

Levin lunged out from the perimeter of the battle towards Mei, fumbling with the Invisibility Cloak to deactivate it. As he revealed himself, Mei jumped in surprise as she locked onto him.

“You!” Mei exclaimed.

Levin opened his mouth, but no words came out. What in the world was he supposed to say in a situation like this?

Mei didn’t seem to think there was anything to say, as she dashed forward at lightning speed towards Levin. Before he could react, the sky and the earth had switched places for Levin as Mei slung him onto her shoulders.

Then she took off. Levin’s speed atop Francis had been exhilarating, but Mei’s speed now far eclipsed anything he or Andrew could have mustered. They flew along the forest floor, passing beyond the area they had previously explored in a matter of seconds as Mei sprinted at full tilt away.

Levin clung on for dear life as the world around him turned into a greenish-brown blur, the wind stinging his face and forcing him to shut his eyes. His stomach lurched incessantly as Mei vaulted up and down the mountainous landscape with wild abandon, crossing miles and miles in mere minutes.

“Slow down!” Levin shouted frantically, his face near Mei’s ear.

“Huh?” Mei said, continuing to shoot along at top speed.

“I can’t take this speed!”

This time Mei slowed down, and the disappearance of the harsh whistle of the wind in their ears finally brought a sense of relief to Levin. He gasped for breath, gulping in air as he released the panicked tension of his muscles.

“What did you say?” Mei said, going along at a slow pace similar to Andrew’s.

Levin gathered himself for a moment before replying. “That was too fast for me.”

Mei scowled, coming to a stop. She dumped Levin off her shoulder unceremoniously, and he hit the ground with a grunt. She then reached into her left ear, digging around for a moment before pulling out the translator earbud within.

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At least, what was left of the earbud. She repeated the motion on the other side, coming out with two mangled earbud corpses. Cocking her head sideways and banging against her temple, Mei shook out several more small pieces of the fractured device from both ears, as well as a few drops of blood. She dropped her broken translators onto a rock in the ground, stomping on them with a sharp splintering noise as the remaining pieces disintegrated under her foot.

Then she cursed. Unleashing a stream of vulgarity the likes of which Levin couldn’t replicate in his native tongue, Mei briefly turned into the visage of an ancient sailor as she sulked off, leaving Levin behind in a dazed heap on the ground.

He quickly scrambled up, chasing after her. “Wait,” Levin gasped out, engaging his Y-Link and translating his speech into Mei’s own tongue.

“This is bullshit!” she shouted, the trees around her shaking from the force.

“What do we do?” Levin said, trailing behind.

“Do? What do we do?” Mei said, punctuating it with a harsh laugh. “There’s only ever one thing to do. Survive.”

“The village of people I found is southwest of here,” Levin said, looking through Cho back in that direction. He recalled Andrew trying to convince him to flee there. “We could seek shelter there and – “

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mei said. “The first group of people we find slaughter us, and now you want to cozy up to the second?”

Levin froze. Mei had a point – they knew nothing of this world and its inhabitants. Diving into the unknown had just cost them everything. Levin sank as a wave of exhaustion swept over him, squatting low to the forest floor with his head hung.

Mei glanced at him, frowning. “You better not slow me down. That Tulimak had enough power to push me hard, and for all we know the rest are just as dangerous. Even in our entire galaxy there weren’t many who could do that. I intend to take my time dealing with them.”

“I wasn’t even sure you’d run away with me. You looked like you were having fun,” Levin said, trying to focus on one thought at a time.

“He was a good opponent,” Mei said. “But I’m not interested in throwing myself headlong into an army.”

Levin had no reply as Mei hauled him back up onto her shoulders, launching off once more in a random direction – at least, random to Levin.

But he didn’t object.

***

The last embers of daylight were slowly fading as Levin sat alone within a small clearing amongst the trees, tending to a small campfire. He stared numbly into the blaze, barely feeling the heat against the backdrop of a warm summer night.

“I hope the seasons here aren’t as insane as everything else,” Levin thought to himself, letting out a bitter chuckle.

The robotic bird circling above his head was the only one there to hear him. Levin could only hope that Mei would keep her word about returning with food, and not leave him behind. She certainly had no reason to look after him like the stray puppy he felt like. But even the intrusive thoughts about losing his best hope in surviving this wilderness barely registered to Levin, thoroughly numbed inside and out. It wouldn’t matter either way, not anymore.

A low whistle broke the air, a signal from Mei. Moments later she appeared in the clearing, casting a long shadow in the fading light. For once, Levin’s eyes weren’t drawn to her eye-catching, imposing figure, but to the dinner she carried on her shoulders, in the form of a freshly killed elk.

Mei gave a small nod to Levin as she walked by, plopping her catch down on the ground beside them and beginning to peel away the skin. There was no need for a hunting knife, as Mei’s sheer strength let her pick at the deer as though she were peeling a banana.

Levin barely registered the gut-wrenching scene as he poked at the fire, startled slightly when Mei forcefully jabbed some branches into the ground as a makeshift spit. But even as the savory aroma of cooked meat wafted into the air around them, not a single pang of hunger came over Levin. And as Mei began stuffing barely-cooked strips of flesh down her gullet, Levin continued to sit and stare.

“You should eat,” Mei said.

“I’m not hungry,” Levin replied.

Mei responded by plucking a fresh piece of meat from her barbeque, and leaning over the fire with it dangling tantalizingly from her hand in front of Levin’s eyes. Then she slapped him across the face with it.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed, raising his hands to his stinging cheek as juice from the meat trickled down the side of his face.

“I was just checking that you’re still alive,” Mei said, taking a big bite out of the steak that had just adorned Levin’s face. “To live is to eat.”

Levin stared at the strips still cooking on the fire, truly registering the smell for the first time now that the stench sat on his very face. And like a dam breaking, hunger stabbed into his gut as his dry mouth flushed with a little saliva. Reaching out, Levin gingerly picked a smaller piece from amidst the crackling fire, holding it to his lips for a moment before biting in.

It was rough and chewy, but his palate didn’t reject it. As the first food he had eaten since leaving hit Levin’s tongue, tears began to stream from his eyes as he wept for the second time that day. Mei returned to her feast, ignoring Levin as he ate his one piece slowly.

Finally, Levin broke the silence, wiping his tears before he spoke in a choked voice.

“Where are you from?” he asked quietly.

“Pandorium,” Mei answered as she continued eating.

Levin looked up in surprise. “I’ve never heard of it. How come I don’t have any info on it?”

“Not surprised,” Mei said. “It’s way out in the Veranium sector, and that place is already a shithole. Pandorium is even worse – it doesn’t get regular space travel, since it’s not on the galactic star map. It takes a miracle to escape those sands. But I was a lucky kid."

Levin fell quiet, taking another bite. “I wish I could have seen it,” he said after a while.

Mei scoffed. “There’s nothing to see but sand and trash.”

“You said the same thing about this place, but I’ve never seen anything like it. I wish I could have seen more of our galaxy’s planets before leaving it behind,” Levin said.

“Then just go back.”

Levin looked up at her, incredulousness on his face. “Do you even know what that would take!”

“Well, no. But Andrew told me about your abilities. He said you’ve got the blueprints for most any technology, including the Gate. Can’t you build one yourself?”

Levin laughed, his dry throat tinged with anger and madness.

“Build one? The device that our galaxy’s wealthiest, smartest man sunk his entire fortune into? While being hunted by fire-breathing, lightning-wielding homicidal maniacs? With just the two of us?”

“Well, what else are you going to do? Give up?”

Levin fell silent, slumping onto his back as he tossed his half-eaten strip of venison away, the flavor lost. The night sky glittered in his eyes, countless stars illuminating the dark night with their faint light, a sight Levin had always loved.

Entire generations of humans living on earth had been raised devoid of this wondrous sight, rampant light pollution keeping man’s sight firmly downward. But not Levin – with direct access to the starry sky itself, now mankind could leave behind the worlds of artificial light and gaze upon the majesty of the sky freely.

And yet, before him now was a foreign sky. There was no Big Dipper, no Orion, no dazzling arm of the Milky Way painting the sky with a brilliant silver river. Instead, two moons hung in the sky before a set of stars that looked like a meaningless mass to Levin. Beautiful as it may be, this was not Levin’s night sky. This was not his home.

But what could he do? Even if he could make a new Gate, a project built atop the rarest resources scattered through their entire galaxy, there was no guarantee he could find his way home. The Gate pierced the dimensional wall at random, relying on the construction of Beacons to locate dimensions with precision, making it impossible to freely travel with their current technology. It also meant there would be no rescue mission coming for them.

The most the people back home could do was rebuild Professor Al-Abadi’s Gate Beacons anew and activate them. But even if they did this – Levin could see no reason why they would – it would still require Levin to construct a new Gate in this dimension. And he would likely age, die, and wither to dust before he could do that.

“You look pathetic.”

Mei’s incisive voice shocked Levin from his reverie, and he jolted back up, eyes flashing red.

“Well, I’m sorry for being sad that my friend died! And that I’ll never see my parents or my home ever again! Sorry I can’t be heartless like you!” Levin said, raising his voice.

The shout escaping his lips was immediately followed by Levin doubling over, coughing violently on the ground. After a second of involuntary retching, a black pouch landed by Levin’s side, catching his attention – water.

“Drink,” Mei said.

Levin lunged for the pouch, gulping down the liquid without hesitation.

“Andrew thought you were better than this,” Mei said.

Levin set the water aside, glaring at Mei. “What’s wrong with you?”

“That’s what I’m asking you. Andrew thought very highly of you.”

“Quit saying his name!” Levin said, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Andrew is dead, Levin!” Mei said. “And we need to focus more on the danger we’re in, which you can keep us out of if you calm down and focus on your bird.”

Levin frowned, tears streaming from his face as he leapt to his feet, leveling a finger at Mei.

“You were more pissed about your damn earbuds than the deaths of all our companions!”

Mei stayed silent, meeting Levin’s puffy red-eyed glare with the same calm demeanor. After a moment, she shrugged, letting out a small sigh.

“You’re not wrong. I’ve just learned not to get attached to people,” Mei said. “I have a tendency to survive things like this.”

“How can you be so cold?” Levin said, wondering if her monstrous appearance really did reflect what was inside.

“I still mourn them, Levin. Every time. But I don’t let it stop me from keeping myself alive.”

“If you really cared, you wouldn’t have wasted your time fighting when we should have been running! We could have saved them if we worked together!”

Mei’s nostrils flared. “Do you really think someone powerful enough to hurt me would have just let us run by? You can think of me as a villain, but you’re the one blind to reality! I had to fight. You can’t blame me for also enjoying it.”

Levin went quiet, finding no response. She was right – Tulimak was going to attack no matter what. So what could any of them have done? He sank back to the ground, a wave of exhaustion claiming him.

Then, a horrifying realization. There was something he could have done.

“If I had run when Andrew told me to,” Levin said. “He could have used his invisibility to escape, instead of giving it to me. He would still be alive.”

Levin clutched at the broken device on his arm, tears welling in his eyes again. The liquid inside had already been fully drained through a large crack, another mistake Levin had made. Andrew would never have broken one of his tools in such a foolish and clumsy manner.

“You don’t know that,” Mei said, quieter. “You never know.”

“It would have been better if Andrew had survived,” Levin said. “The only reason to save me is for the Gate schematics, but building one is hopeless without Andrew. He wouldn’t be holding you back.”

“Is that all you are? A walking encyclopedia? Andrew and I both know plenty of those, and did he want any of them on the mission? No!”

“I don’t know why Andrew invited me,” Levin said. “We met by accident. I didn’t earn a spot like everyone else.”

“Get some sleep, you fool,” Mei said, standing and turning to leave now that she had finished her meal.

“Where are you going!” Levin cried out.

Mei frowned at him in response. “To keep an eye on things. And when I get tired, I’m going to wake you up and you can keep watch with your bird.”

Levin nodded, exhausted and overwhelmed as he sat on the ground. As Mei dashed off and the embers of their fire flickered dimly in the dark night, Levin curled up on the ground, a ball of anxiety and guilt.

His fears ran wild as he tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable in the cold dirt. And try as he might to suppress it, he continued to weep for Andrew and his lost home. But eventually, Levin’s drained body would succumb to sleep.