I awoke to the sweet cries of a child.

I opened my eyes and lightly gasped upon seeing that seated on our bed, in our cabin, bathed beautifully by morning sunlight was Yna who cradled in her arms a child. The two were wrapped in a white silky blanket.

I frowned since I could not see the child’s face. Not because it was covered. I just couldn’t make out any of its features.

My heart began racing as Yna hummed a song that brought tears to my eyes.

I reached out toward the two but pulled my scarred hand backwards as Yna gently hugged the child.

My vision darkened but the last thing I saw, before everything went black, was her face as she turned to smile at me.

.

..

I cried.

I cried for so long and so frequently that it was all I did when I was awake.

Kenos would take over sometimes and do things in the waking world, but I didn’t want to do anything, so I slept.

I had died, meaning we couldn’t get a conventional job so we spend most of our time in an old motel.

[Morning.] Kenos greeted and I groaned in response.

[Tsk. If you’re gonna mope, at least do it inside. Let me take over.] Kenos sighed.

I nodded and like that, we had switched.

I, Kenos, sat up and loudly stretched.

My hooves kicked over several bottles, causing them to loudly fall onto the floor.

I groaned as I crawled onto my wheelchair before wrapping my legs in a dark blanket.

I then cleaned up the room and gathered all the leftover food containers and bottles in a large bag which I took out.

My eyes didn’t have to do much adjusting since the dingy motel I had spent the past week in was beneath a highway alongside many other buildings.

I yawned before wheeling myself over to the large trashcan where I threw away the trash bag.

I was about to go back inside but my phone rang and I instantly knew who it was because only one person had my number. Well, apart from the motel employee.

I took a single deep breath before answering the call and placing the phone by my ear while tapping my wheelchair’s armrest.

“Hello.”

[Why didn’t you pick up last night? I called so many times.] Zuri said.

“Four words: Katsíki, booze, French fries.”

[Oh…]

“Yep,” I said while looking my scarred arm over.

People on earth had since discovered healing magic but it was rarely ever used because of the moral implications of absorbing life from one being to heal another.

This meant my scar would remain seemingly indefinitely.

[How… no- never mind. Oh, the numbers just keep going up. According to the E.T.R.T’s global count, thousands, if not tens of thousands of people were transferred this time.]

“Shit.”

[Yes, and the same thing probably happened in Edenton. I cannot imagine how many people were brought here.]

Silence followed as I dreaded the possibility that people from Coh had been transferred.

[Kenos?] Zuri called.

“Err… yeah. That’s terrible but there’s not much we can do.”

[True. Oh- has he tried going again?] Zuri asked.

“No, and I couldn’t be any more relieved but enough about that idiot. How are you doing?”

[I am fine. Mr. Quinn is still desperately looking for Adia and since he has a lot of employees at the house, I do not have as much work to do anymore.]

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh? Cool. Be sure to tell me if any of them mess with ya so that I can… handle them.” I said with comically narrowed eyes.

[That will not be necessary. Everyone is rather nice.] Zuri giggled before sighing.

[A lot of them lost family members during both collisions, so everyone is working hard with Mr. Quinn to track down missing persons cases and help whomever they can.] She explained.

“Good. Anyway, bye. I’m gonna get some actual food.”

[Alright, but do not forget that you are welcome to-]

I ended the call before making my way back to our room.

I winced upon looking at my scarred hands again.

Katsíki would sometimes hijack our body and go on drinking sprees and since we’re hosts, the effects of alcohol were… lessened.

I laughed internally before raising my hand and looking at the mostly healed blisters that lined it.

Blisters which we had gotten from Katsíki’s crazed attempts at returning to Edenton.

One time, he created a “spaceship” and launched it into the sky, but since he and I are not engineers in any sense of the word, the shuttle was far too hostile to keep us alive in space and so we fell and crashed.

Zuri kept in touch even weeks after we parted ways.

It was… nice talking to her.

Katsíki was mostly unresponsive and so, most of the time, it was just me.

I grabbed a jacket, slipped into it and made my way to a nearby convenience store where I grabbed some microwaveable meals.

I paid for them with the money I had… procured from a group of thugs.

I glanced up at the monitor behind the cashier and saw a new report about all the missing people.

Zuri wasn’t kidding.

Tens of thousands had gone missing.

So many faces were shown that I couldn’t help but wince in pain.

“Did you lose someone as well?” The cashier asked prompting me to look into his weary eyes.

“N-no.” I said as he handed me my change.

He nodded prompting me to nod as well before I left the store.

I then returned to my room where I used the in-house microwave to heat up the rice and Lamb stew that was neatly packaged into a plastic container.

I eventually ate the food of questionable nutritional value before sitting in the silence of the room.

“Katsíki?” I called.

[Yeah?] Katsíki asked.

“Don’t you… think we should check in on them?” I asked with a heart that slowly started to race.

[I… why?]

“Why not?”

[Mmm… fine. But we’ll switch as soon as we get there. Also, I’m technically dead so… what are we gonna say? “Oh, hey, mom, it’s me, Riley, don’t mind my appearance I just reincarnated as a goat and merged souls with a psychopath!] Katsíki yelled.

I didn’t respond.

[What will I say to her?] Katsíki cried.

“We could lie.” I said making him weakly gasp.

“We’ll say that we are a friend of Riley's and… we want to inform her that her son passed away and offer her our condolences,” I said and at this point, tears were falling from my eyes. Tears that weren’t mine.

“We’ll then tell her about the man her son grew to be before leaving.”

A moment passed.

[Fine.]

I nodded before making my way to the bathroom where I quickly showered.

I then changed into a fresh shirt and jacket before wrapping my legs in a dark blanket.

I then left and locked the room up before making my way to the nearest Vectrain station.

My destination was a small town called Hithe, in the eastern rural planes of Ix Chel province.

I made my way across Acan’s many dirty streets and although people stared at me a bit sometimes, no one paid me much attention.

Well, that is until three dirty men dashed out of an alleyway to grab me.

They then pushed my wheelchair into the dark alley and the few people who watched this happen simply walked past.

I didn’t blame them.

Acan was a dangerous province with the highest poverty and crime rates in Unity rates.

One of the dirty men placed a handmade shank on my neck while his companions searched me.

“Make a noise and we kill you, ya hear?” One of them asked and I simply nodded. My face expressionless.

They eventually took my wallet but since this wasn’t the first time this had happened, I had placed my phone on the “Vessel of Hope” in the dark world.

The ruffians eventually pushed me back into the street after taking my jacket and with a sigh, I resumed my journey to the station, although I snuck into the dark world to grab a new jacket.

I reached the station and since the tickets for Vectrain travel were quite expensive, they were used by wealthier individuals.

Those people looked at me with either confusion or disdain as I joined them on the train.

Fortunately for me, the trains were fitted with areas designated for wheelchair users and so I sat.

I gasped a little as the train shot forward but it was a pleasant ride overall.

I looked out of the window as we sped across Acan.

Katsíki- Riley had lived here for years and yet, while I sifted through his memories, he had done almost nothing.

I laughed a little since this was nothing like the Katsíki I knew.

I returned my focus to Acan.

A province filled with industrial zones, ghettos and skyscrapers.

Unity was built to be the hub of all humanity but such advances in technology required manpower to operate, maintain and feed.

That’s what Acan was for. To house the people who would work day in out to ensure that the continent remained afloat.

That being said… rent was relatively cheap so no one ever really complained.

We eventually reached Ix Chel and, unlike Acan, it was mostly green.

It was also the hub for research and medical facilities.

The train stopped at the station and I promptly exited it before getting a taxi to Hithe.

Fortunately for me, the driver was silent throughout the fifty minute trip.

I would have loved to chat with someone, anyone about anything, but this wasn’t the time.

We eventually reached Hithe and I winced upon noticing that the town hadn’t changed much since Katsíki left.

The buildings retained their vintage, two-thousand-and-ten-ish look.

Also, there was only one tall building in town, a hospital. This meant that the evening sky was clearly visible to all who looked up.

The taxi dropped me off right in front of the place Katsíki once called home and I remained frozen as the taxi drove away.

I took several deep breaths before wheeling myself towards the door.

The lights were on and I could hear the sound of laughter from with and so, after taking another few deep breaths, I knocked on the door.

The laughter stopped and my heart started knocking on my chest painfully as I heard approaching footsteps.

The door then opened but I frowned upon seeing a short woman with dark skin and short bleached hair.

She wore a set of casual clothes and a pair of thin glasses.

Standing far behind her, with a little girl in hand, was a tall, muscular, pale man who had a rather long beard which matched his short dark hair.

I returned my gaze to the woman who looked at me with confused eyes but all I could do was part my trembling lips.

“Rina?”