As Roun’s situation grew more dire on the inside of the pocket, tensions just outside of the strange spatial phenomenon started to rise. By now, Loki was frantically attempting to contact the large assault vehicle in Zed Cross’ command. Normally, this would have been as simple a task as picking up his comm link and calling his brother. However, for some strange reason he was getting no response. This fact made Harry nervous. After all, he had been the one that convinced the overly accommodating Roun to actually venture into the pocket, so as far as he was concerned, anything that happened to the young man was on him.

As Loki continued to try to contact his brother, Harry turned his attention to Tyler.

“You sure you can’t figure a way through that barrier?” He pressed, but the young woman just shook her head.

“The level of coding behind this thing is beyond me.” She responded. “It’d be the equivalent of cracking the security codes at The Garrison.”

Harry sighed in response, turning his attention back to Loki, who had taken to just spamming his brother’s holographic contact card until the call connected. Finally however, after some waiting, the call finally connected.

“Loki.” Daniel’s voice sounded somewhat fuzzily over the unusually unstable connection as his face faded into view—projected into the air by Loki’s data comm as he put his brother on speaker.

“Daniel!” Loki replied anxiously, skipping any further greetings to his twin before moving straight along to the matter at hand. “Where is Rueben Itami?”

Loki’s tone betrayed a sense of urgency that Daniel seldom heard from the usually calm telepath, causing the team’s analyst to look on curiously as he responded.

“He’s in the main Cabin with the others.” Daniel’s gaze narrowed as he replied.

“Bring him to the bridge immediately… I think this boy has been toying with us.” Loki now commanded, only further fuelling his brother’s curiosity.

“I don’t suppose I can ask what this is all about.” He pressed, but Loki just shook his head.

“We can explain later, but this is a direct order and it comes from Harry.” Loki pressed. “Bring the boy here, now.”

The direct order tipped Daniel’s hand. The Rogue Special Forces was generally a very lax military, and among the faction’s few thousand soldiers, the members of K-Four were the most laid back. Despite their difference in rank, the four acted far more like old friends than an actual unit, so Harry pulling rank on him only made Daniel more intrigued. Luckily for Roun however, he was a soldier first. So with this, Daniel wasted no more time before securely connecting Zed to the call between him and his brother and passing the order along.

“Zed, we’ve been ordered to apprehend Rueben and bring him to the bridge.” Daniel commanded, piquing Zed’s interest as Loki had piqued his before.

“Why not just invite him to the bridge?” She inquired, genuinely confused by the order. “He is cooperating with us after all.”

“Time is of the essence Zed, don’t fight me on this.” Loki snarled over the link, much to Zed’s surprise.

“What’s going on Loki?” She now inquired further.

“Roun’s trapped in the gaea pocket and he’s been engaged by enemy hostiles.” Loki explained abruptly. “Rueben put him there, and I suspect he knew that this would happen.” Zed’s gaze narrowed at the suggestion as she pondered the order briefly, but like Daniel, she would comply.

Still over a thousand miles away from the pocket, hovering over the ocean between Usiles and Merricent, the occupants of Zed’s assault vehicle could feel her energy signature explode. The sudden surge in energy preceded her vanishing from her location, which served to put the occupants of the Zeta Mega Elixer on edge. In fact, the action drew similar responses from her team and Rueben’s, as each of the passengers on the large military hovercraft now assumed that they were under assault—likely from what remained of the routed haima’sa forced.

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None would be more surprised than Rueben however when Zed appeared behind him and put him in a half-nelson. Rueben’s eyebrow tipped upwards at this point, but before he could even react to defend himself he could feel himself being hurled through what he could only assume to be some kind of dimensional warp. The sensation was similar to his own teleportation technique, but far more potent, and as soon as it had started it was already done. It took him a second to realise that he was no longer in the cabin of the vehicle and instead he now stood within the cockpit of the massive vehicle, in front of a screen displaying the faces of Harry, Loki and Tyler.

At first he was confused—and slightly disoriented by Zed’s particular form of translocation, but it didn’t take him long to figure out what was going on. A light chuckle escaped Rueben’s lips as he started to put the pieces together before he decided to hazard a guess as to the reason he had been brought to the cockpit.

“I take it Roun breached the barrier, Harry?” He inquired knowingly.

“What the hell are you playing at Rueben?” Harry opened, dismissing the clearly rhetorical question. “What did you put Roun into?”

“Relax, it’s nothing that he can’t handle.” Rueben replied dismissively. “I’m glad to know that it worked though. Who would have thought that a hundred-year-old story would actually turn out to be useful at a time like this?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Harry’s gaze narrowed as he replied. “Stop jerking me around and tell me what’s going on.” He now growled, prompting Zed’s hold to tighten uncomfortably around Rueben’s neck.

Harry could see as Rueben’s smug look faded, replaced by the discomfort that he expected as a result of Zed’s actions.

“You might want to cooperate, Rueben… this only gets worse from here.” Zed prompted, but Rueben just squirmed instead.

“How about we trade information instead.” He struggled to counter Harry’s demands. “Why don’t you tell me who’s eyes Daniel has stuck in his head, and I’ll tell you how I knew that Roun could make it through the barrier.”

Unfortunately for Rueben, Harry’s patience was wearing then. Further displeasure coloured his face and, as expected, Zed tightened her grip, slowly pulling Rueben’s left shoulder out of position and crushing his neck in the process.

“I can keep going kid. Don’t make me.” Zed replied, sighing lightly as she began to feel Rueben’s white kaigen energy give way to the green flames of veranos.

On the outside of the cockpit, confusion was turning to suspicion. Jorna had already made her way to the entrance to the cockpit, only to find it sealed by a security door that refused to open. She was followed closely by Paco, who by now had an inkling of what was going on behind those sealed doors, and had already begun to prepare for the potential consequences of his Field Commander’s actions.

“Stand down Jorna.” He stated as he reached her location.

“Well that’s not gonna happen.” Jorna replied dismissively. “You care to tell me what the hell is going on behind this door?”

“I don’t know myself, but Tyler’s in command of this operation.” He replied. “If she thought it was necessary to secure Rueben, I’m sure she has a good reason for that.”

“Yeah… that’s not gonna work for me.” Jorna shook her head, her own elemental energies rising as she did, drawing a response in kind from Paco.

Back inside the cockpit, Daniel could feel tensions rising throughout the ship. Energy signatures were rising steadily and he could feel the congregation of all of the personnel outside of the thick, reinforced door that was keeping them out.

“If you keep this up Zed, you’re gonna revert him.” Daniel sounded as Rueben continued to struggle in the Rogue Field Commander’s grip.

His attempts at boosting his energy output so that he could teleport away from Zed had so far proved futile. Her command over atmospheric zeta was far greater than his, and even with his attempts to boost his internal energy, she easily prevented him from ever drawing in enough power to open a portal. Instead, each attempt to resist her simply resulted in the tightening of her grip and the crushing of his trachea. At this point, breathing was completely impossible for Rueben, forcing the young Itami to rely entirely on the zeta that he processed to supplement his basic bodily functions. Unfortunately, with Zed also stifling that, he could slowly feel himself dipping in and out of his powered up state, and with that, consciousness.

Zed smirked as she saw his head dip sharply for the first time, forcing her to relax her grip ever so slightly, allowing some breath into his lungs and blood flow to his brain. In just a couple of minutes, her hold had completely negated the benefits of his braver form, and forced him to rely on the basic biological processes that she now controlled with the subtle twitch of a few muscles.

“Don’t worry babe, that’s not gonna happen.” She dismissed Daniel’s warnings before turning her attention to a rather frazzled looking Rueben. “Now kid, I’ve gifted you breath. Use it wisely.”