“Into… my belly button?” he asked, still in disbelief.

“Correct. Into your belly button.”

He expected them to say more. They did not, so he took their claims as incomplete and accordingly met them with silence to encourage their extrapolation of the subject. Not hearing them say anything else, he asked, “Why?!” finally.

“This is how the crystal works. Although this substance might appear inert, it is actually an organism.”

“WHAT?!” Zan shouted. “Like a parasite?!”

“Incorrect. The crystal is more akin to what your people would call ‘yeast.’ It is alive. It has motion. Sentience. But no will of its own.”

Instantly, he shook his head. Some of his panic died down. "Yeast? Like bread?"

Holding the crystal in his hand and resisting the tingly tickle of the gem-man’s smoothly chilling touch, he considered placing the crystal to his belly button: Do I really want to do this? It sounds scary as shet... but I did already say I wanted to... can I really go back on my word? Can I afford to go back on my word?

“What’s the matter? Afraid?” a voice called to him.

He turned to see a figure stride through the door. It was Jiehong!

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same question. And I would have more weight: you vanished. I thought you were dead, Zan. I searched the wreckage outside for your body!” Jiehong said, emotion welling up inside of him.

“Oh… I didn’t know… realize. I’m sorry, Jie. I was running on pure instinct. I rushed back to protect the little girl, then I saw the final way stone. Things just happened so fast…”

“Water under the bridge! I’m happy you’re okay, though. But now I am interested in what all of this is… who are these strange fellows?” Jiehong asked.

“I am called Sigma-Prime,” the machine-man said, jogging his memory.

“And I am Screen Master Simulacrum,” the giant face on the wall said.

“Nice to meet you two,” his brother said. “My name is Jiehong. My buddy here seemed to help you guys out, yeah? What is happening with these crystals? And more to the point, can I have one, too?”

“They don’t just give these crystals out all willy-nilly, Jiehong. You have to earn them! Err… right?” he said, strangely defensive now that the possibility of people other than him could receive the power, whatever this 'power' turned out to be.

“You entered the command center. As such, you were judged worthy of the Center to enter the inner sanctum,” the Screen Master said. “Yes, you may have a crystal as well. Your heroism displayed itself on the battlefield and clearly had been observed by the gods. Sigma-Prime, do so, please.”

Jiehong deserved to be awarded one of these crystals alongside him. Yet He knew this, yet still felt a chill; it was not a chill from the cold of the place — and the underground structure was, indeed, on the chilly side — but from discovering his best friend and brother would also partake in this strange society. Truly, there was no one who would be a better fit, he thought, thinking how, for once, he could've been the special one.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Pulling himself away from these negative emotions, he refused to linger on his all too human aspects. Both he and Jie had survived the harsh trial of the invasion to get where they were. There would be no point in groaning about being ‘special,’ as though Jiehong wouldn’t make a great 'Anything' in life, no matter what he chose to do.

He pushed the crystal into his belly button while Sigma-Prime retrieved another power crystal for Jiehong.

Instantly, he regretted his action. Though the crystal’s adhesion and absorption into him was not painful, per se, it felt uncomfortable. And more than anything, weird.

A powerful stomachache rocked his world before he broke into a sweat. He felt the crystal sink -- so painfully, so slowly -- into his body. The sensations of the crystal seeping into him felt not unlike that of an insect as it rustled into his skin, biting, tearing away at his flesh.

“Oh, gods… I am right there with you, buddy,” Jiehong said. “This feels strange as crap! and not so fun anymore.”

‘At least he feels the same as me!’ he thought as he saw his brother clutch his sides, then stomach, then sides again, as his own crystal sank deeper into his body. Stepping over to Jiehong, Zan grabbed hold of his shoulders and told him, “We’ll get through this together!”

Jiehong smiled, then hiccupped — and burped? ‘Must be a side effect of the crystal,’ he thought — and as the crystals worked their respective bodies, they at least could count on each other to get through this less-than-ideal moment.

“You will feel well again momentarily. Aye-aye!” Sigma-something said. “The crystals take only twenty-five minutes to fully absorb!”

Twenty-five minutes?! He felt sharp pains stab his abdomen. At best, they were only a quarter of the way through its absorption. If the pain worsened, he considered, both he and Jiehong would be keeled over in agony by the time the crystals had their way with them both.

Oh, Zan, what have you gotten yourself into? He asked himself. Lamentation aside, it was too late for anything else. They would have to rough it out. No more, no less.

Once the full twenty-five minutes eloped, he and Jiehong were on the ground.

Foam surged from their mouths. Neither of the boys knew what happened to them. Pain, pain, then sudden bodily jerks. Falling to the ground in a fit, what further limited their confidence in surviving the ordeal was Sigma-Prime rushing all over, taking their vitals, asking the Screen Master if they would be alright.

“Yes, Sigma, they will be fine. Some humans have more violent reactions than others. But this is a good thing. The more they thrash, the stronger their powers will be!” he said.

Stronger? If that was the case, he thought, then by the end of this, he should be indomitable!

Admittedly, it was hard to think of these things when one’s body felt too hot for comfort and when one couldn’t tell if the moisture in one’s pants was because of sweat, water on the floor, or urine. Throughout the final several minutes of the process, he could do nothing else except accept his misery. He endured the pain because he had to; the hardest part was the spike, when it felt like his life had been nothing but hardship because of this one moment of agony. Once the spike passed, and he simply had the aftershocks to deal with, life seemed better by contrast, especially as his eyes met his brother's and they regarded one another's sacrifice.

When the process finally ended, he and Jiehong remained motionless on the floor. Foam, spittle, snot, tears, blood. All could be seen near their bodies.

He wanted to ask, ‘is it over?’ Words refused to come. To speak would have meant for the possibility of his body feeling normal. Of being happy. Could such a pain-free existence be possible after the nerve-frying despair he had experienced?

He was too tired to speak, anyway. Spit, foam, blood, vomit -- everything which could come from him, had come from him. He felt gross.

He felt a rumble in his gut which set off a pang of anxiety. Oh gods! He mentally shouted. It isn’t over! Why isn’t it over?!

The rumble traveled up his throat. His lips parted. A slight expulsion of gas.

Only a burp.

The false alert told him an important fact: although he was unsure of moving his body, least the crystal still had business with him, and he trigger unnecessarily more pain, the burp made itself clear. The absorption was done.

Looking over to Jiehong, he blinked. Unfalteringly. He had survived. Good! I can’t imagine doing any of this without him, he considered. Although he had been (maybe) jealous when Jiehong came along and nabbed a crystal of his own, he was anything but jealous now. Now, he couldn’t imagine being jealous. He had a partner, a battle-buddy, a fellow Ranger-Knight to protect his back! It was no more 'he against the world, against the Expanse.' It was 'he and his brother against the world.'