CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

HEAR ME, AND RESONATE

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Dang sat upright to find that he was in a room filled with mirrors. The mirrors seemed to stretch on and expand upward into infinity. He frowned as he tried hard to remember what had happened, how he’d gotten here.

“Explosion,” he murmured, the memory returning to him, his head throbbing as a result. The Waymaker had gone poof.

Wait, did it kill me? He thought to himself. He hurried to his feet and patted himself down. He thought things seemed fine, but also not quite. There was something weird about how he felt here. But the weird sensation had somewhat of a familiarity to it.

He turned around, examining the mirrors around him. In all of the mirrors, he saw himself. But they weren’t all the same him. Something was different in all of his reflections. Different hair, different clothes, different eyes. But when he moved, all his reflections moved. When he waved, they waved too.

“This isn’t real,” he said to himself, slowly realizing what this was. It’d happened before, the first time he’d met Daedalus when he’d somehow projected himself to Daedalus’ world. But where had he projected himself to this time? This didn’t look like another universe.

“They’re coming, Dang,” a soft voice spoke to him. He froze.

It was the same voice he’d been hearing since his battle with Arkanis except this time, it sounded clearer. Before, it’d sounded slightly muffled, mixed in with some static. But now, it was clear, almost like whoever was talking to him was standing right in front of him.

But there was no one else there, no one except him.

“Who’s coming?” he asked, taking a step forward. “Who are you? Where am I?”

“Where are you?” the voice repeated. The Stranger chuckled gently. “Well, I suppose you could call this the ‘Reflection Point.’ But don’t worry, it’s not a real place. It’s a construct of sorts. I just needed to be able to speak to you.”

“And who–,”

“I can’t tell you who I am, Dang,” the Stranger said. There was some familiarity in the way he said Dang’s name, as though he’d known him his entire life. “It would alter far too much if I told you who I was. In fact, we shouldn’t even be having this conversation right now.”

“Then why are we?” Dang demanded. “Why have you been in my head?”

“You let me in,” the Stranger answered. “During your fight, you resonated on a level that was…I don’t know the word to use here, but it pulled me toward you. I saw you. And I was glad, because I’ve been trying to find you.”

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“Why?”

“The battle always involves you,” the voice responded, although it seemed a little distant now, somewhat muffled.

“What?”

“It’s coming, Dang,” the Stranger went on. “…Bellum…malevolent…stronger…” the voice appeared to be getting incoherent, almost like this was some sort of phone call with horrible reception. “I had to warn you…but I’m out of time.”

The reflections in the mirrors started to move, even without Dang moving. He watched as the reflections seemed to pass between mirrors, swapping places. After a moment, he realized they were circling him.

Dang scowled. “You came to warn me about Bellum? I already know about him; I know what’s coming.”

“No,” the Stranger’s voice warbled, barely audible now. “…stronger…coming…the cosmic threads can’t be undone. The war…it’ll take everything.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Go back,” the Stranger said softly. “Wake up. Go to your friends. Tell them what I have told you. Ready yourselves. It’s about to begin.”

The entire room tremored and cracks spread through all of the mirrors.

“Wait!” Dang yelled. “I have questions!”

“Don’t we all?” the Stranger replied.

The floor at Dang’s feet cracked. And then it gave way.

Yelling at the top of his lungs, he plummeted, falling straight into the void.

***

He woke with a yell, bolting upright, drenched in sweat. For a few seconds, his vision was hazy. But he could still make out a few shapes huddled around him. He heard whispers be exchanged, and a familiar voice ask: “Are you good?”

He blinked hard, trying to force his vision back into focus. Slowly, it cleared up, until he could make out all the people around him. Daniel, Dante, Daedalus, Megan. They all looked deeply panicked.

“What the–,” he glanced around. This wasn’t the observatory. “Where am–,”

“You’ve been out a few days,” Daniel reviewed. “We couldn’t wake you. Or, I should say, they couldn’t wake you.” He nodded at Dante and Daedalus. “Megan and I couldn’t even try.”

“We thought you were gone,” Dante said. “What happened?”

“What did you see?” Daedalus asked, his expression stern. “And don’t even think about lying to any of us this time.”

“I don’t know what I saw,” Dang admitted. “But I think we’re in trouble,” he added. When the others looked confused, he did his best to explain everything he’d seen which wasn’t a lot. At the same time, they told him about how the observatory was gone and that they’d moved to the abandoned high school where Daedalus had first encountered Daniel and Megan. It hurt a little to hear that the observatory was gone but he had more pressing matters to think about.

Once they were done recounting events, everyone in the room had grim expressions on their faces.

“So, this Bellum guy,” Daniel began, “He’s on his way right now?”

“Why?” Dante asked with concern. “I mean, it’s strange for him to turn up so quickly, right?” he looked at Daedalus as though he was supposed to be their resident expert in all things Bellum.

“Maybe there’s something different this time,” Daedalus murmured. “Something that’s making him move faster.”

“And this voice,” Daniel folded his hands. “Did it happen to give you like a precise date on when Bellum will get here?”

Dang shook his head and shrugged. “He just said it was about to begin.”

“What do you reckon that means?” Megan asked.

Dang glanced at Daedalus and their eyes met. It was evident that the two of them were thinking the same thing and judging from the expressions the others had, they were perhaps thinking it too, only just trying to ignore it, to pretend like that wasn’t the case.

But Dang wasn’t interested in pretense. They’d been given a warning and there was no point trying to ignore it.

“I think,” he began, “that it means the danger’s already here.”

“Here?” Daniel repeated. “In our world?”

“Yes,” Dang nodded.

“Shit,” Daniel cursed.

“What do we do now?” Dante asked, folding his arms.

“Only thing we can do,” Dang said, rising to his feet. “We fight.”