"You fought well, boy. Very well indeed."
The shrill voice invaded my mind.
A voice that I knew... too well.
"Even in the afterlife will you tease me?"
I opened my eyes and the scenery was the same.
The sea of blood still stretched around me, undulating under a sky that did not know light.
The wind was still hot, the smell of brimstone still burning my nostrils, and the black moon, lonely, hovered like an eternal omen.
"The afterlife? You're not dead, boy."
I stared at Aloinem, confused. Of course I had died.
How else can I explain my situation in that place?
"Am I not dead yet? I find this delay very disrespectful..."
I tried to disguise the nervousness with a joke, but the voice failed in the middle of the sentence. Not even my mood escaped intact from there.
"Calm down, boy. You are alive."
I got up quickly. The sky thundered, and the sea began to shake, echoing the turbulence within me.
"No... not possible. How? I have collapsed. My organs were destroyed. Move without making the situation worse already bordering on the impossible. I tried to communicate... and nothing. I was alone."
Aloinem, the being who never shut his mouth...
was mute.
"Come on. Say something."
The silence remained.
"Let's go! TALK! ANYTHING!"
A bolt of lightning tore the sky between us and, as in a magic command, the roaring sea calmed down.
Then he finally said:
"I don't know. Just be thankful you're still alive. Don't ask how... or why. Many would give everything to know that they are still breathing after facing death face to face."
"Too many"...? He just needed to say that he wanted to be in my place.
"... I am sorry."
Aloinem rose from his throne a gesture that meant only one thing... to fight.
"All right. Now let's correct your mistakes. The first blood technique was perfect, but the others... no.
The Blood Storm was
too fast. The Blood Line, too slow.
You're still out of balance."
I put the blade in front of my body as a reflection.
Instinct was faster than my mind now.
"You talk too much."
He uttered a short laugh and positioned himself as well.
"Welcome back, Xavier."
SHHHHIIIII—
The high-pitched sound of the opening capsule cut through the silence like a razor.
I woke up.
For the first time, after leaving the capsule countless times recovered, I felt pain.
Every muscle hurt as if it had been torn and sewn back into place.
It was not like the pain after a hard workout. It was different.
It was the kind of pain that reminds you that you almost died.
The capsule could not fully recover me?
No... she had already done more than necessary.
She kept me alive.
I stood up with difficulty, feeling the bones creak.
The environment was immersed in darkness.
Only the medical ward had light the rest of the base was in full pitch.
That's when I realized.
My friends... were there.
Scattered on the floor of the ward.
Some leaning against the walls, others sitting next to the capsules, and those left sleeping on the cold floor.
As if they had spent days waiting for me to wake up... without moving my foot.
How long have I been sleeping?
"What's that noise...?" I heard a faint voice.
Victor.
He moved, still sleepy, his eyes half closed.
Looked in my direction... blinked.
He moved away a little, scratched his eyes
... And then looked at me again, as if I did not believe what I saw.
The tears came immediately.
No sound, no warning.
They flowed silently from his face.
He took a hesitant step.
Then another.
And then ran.
The impact of the hug almost knocked me down, but I stuck.
He wrapped me with force, shuddering shoulders.
Victor sobbed without being able to say a single word.
He just cried.
He wept as someone who saw death up close.
As someone who was afraid of never seeing his friend back.
What about me? didn't know how to react.
"I... we thought we had lost you."
The voice of Victor came out gripped, muffled by the grip of the embrace.
He held me as if he wanted to make sure that I would not disappear again.
As if me release could make everything back to the worst moment.
But something hammered inside my mind a doubt, an absence of memory that made me uneasy.
What happened after I blacked out?
And more importantly...
Why this despair in his face?
"Victor... what happened?"
He walked away a little, just long enough to face me.
Eyes still wet, breathing irregular.
He wiped the tears with his forearm, took a deep breath and tried to speak.
"When we arrived... there was blood. Lots of blood. A huge trail leading to the infirmary."
His voice trembled. He tried to control the hiccups, but the words escaped fast, nervous, as if trying to get rid of their weight.
"Everything in there was bloody. Z... she was completely out of it, trying to stabilize you. The capsule had become a kind of surgical table. Damn... it makes me crave just to remember."
He paused, swallowing dry.
"You were... open. Literally. Her organs being reconstructed in real time while the Z screamed at herself, reprocessing the commands, crazed. The scene... was horrible."
I felt my stomach stir, and for a moment I was sure that I didn't want to hear the rest. But Victor needed to talk. And I... needed to know.
"We stayed outside. Esperando. For hours."
"Until... the Z came out. She was relieved. Fell on her knees in front of us, smiled as if she had saved the world... and then, she just hung up. The UFO fell to the ground without power, without light, like an empty shell."
The image formed in my mind more clearly with each word. I saw everything by his voice.
"She used everything she had to save you."
" And when we got in... you were in a coma. The hologram floating above you showed: 15% chance of survival."
Victor paused.
That percentage still seemed to echo in his mind like a nightmare.
"We stayed there... waiting for you to wake up. One day, two... a week. No one wanted to leave. And no one could sleep properly. But we stayed. Because... you had to come back."
He ended with a low voice, almost whispering, as if confessing a secret.
I didn't know what to say.
You shouldn't even say anything.
I just knew he was alive.
And that they... did not leave me alone.
Perhaps, in the end, that was what really saved me.
"Pear... a week?"
I blinked, trying to process the information.
"A week? How is the city? The base without power... and the Z off?"
Before Victor could answer, a familiar voice came from behind.
"This is the weirdest."
I turned my face and saw Neto approaching. He looked tired, but whole. His eyes, however, carried days without proper sleep.
"Nothing has happened."
He stood beside me, crossing his arms and sighing.
"Or better... there was peace. A strange silence, you know? The longest time we've ever spent without an attack."
I tried to say something, but the voice failed me for a moment. Before any word could come out, Neto took another step... and pulled me into a firm embrace.
He walked away just enough to look at me closely, his eyes swollen.
And then, with a crooked smile, he muttered:
"We had a deal, remember?"
"Whoever goes first... waits for the other."
His hand clenched a soft punch against my chest.
"but don't go so soon, you bastard."
Leaving the capsule completely after a week was more difficult than I expected. My steps were hesitant, as if my body had forgotten how to move. Each muscle hurt, as if it had been reassembled in a hurry which, in some way, was true.
"Go to sleep. And take the others to the dormitory."
My voice sounded firm, but laden with fatigue.
"What are you going to do?" asked Neto, already with one of the boys leaning on his shoulders.
"Isn't it obvious?" I gave a slight smile.
" I'll work on that basis. When you wake up, everything will be as before. Trust in me."
They laughed, half relieved, half worried.
"Just won't kill yourself in the process, okay?"
" No, no... not now." I winked.
While they carried the sleepy ones to the dorm, I looked at myself. The clothes were still the same of that day - torn, soaked in dried blood, a cloth rag and souvenir. I asked Victor to throw some clean clothes, and soon a set flew from the dorm entrance towards me. I dressed quickly. I had a lot to do... and needed help.
Knew exactly who could help me: Z.
She was carrying my life on her back for a whole week. Now it was my turn to give back. I just needed to turn it on - and had an idea of how.
I went to the center of the base, to the wall where the central computer was. I touched the panel. He moved out with a slight hiss, revealing his internal compartments... but did not care. I got closer, opened one of the hidden covers on the side, and there it was: the Traxian core.
Or, at least, what was left of it.
"Damn..."
He was also off.
But I still had a card up my sleeve: my bracelet.
"claw mode."
The claws extended from the device with a metallic click. I took a deep breath, channeled all the energy I could, and then stuck my claw into the core with force. At the same instant, the system responded. A glow lit up and ran along the line that formed between the claw and the core - a living connection of pure energy.
I felt the electricity running through my body. Hurt. It was not unbearable, but it made me tremble. Each step after that was heavy, but I continued, dragging myself to the center of the base.
With an effort that took my breath, I raised my hand.
"Mode sword..."
The blade appeared with an intense shine. A flash of light cut through the base's darkness. Firmed my feet, raised the sword above his head... and planted it with everything on the metal floor.
The impact echoed through the structure - and the base came back to life.
The lights were rekindled, systems restarted, panels blinked with data. The energy is flowing again. And my theory was right: the core was only supporting Z.
Speaking of her...
I heard a mechanical noise coming from one side. A socket being broken, a structure moving. Something... or someone... flying.
"... idiot... are you?"
The voice sounded robotic and slightly irritated and unmistakable.
I came back, smiling despite exhaustion.
"Isn't it obvious? Or do you believe in ghosts?"
Z hovered in the air, still adjusting, but his light was on.
"Did you think you'd get rid of me so easily?"
Z still seemed to process everything, as if reviewing thousands of reports at once. His digital eyes flickered, blinking at an irregular pace. It was as if his mind was trying to reconcile logic with emotion and failing beautifully.
Then, suddenly, as if something had finally fitted, she reacted.
With a quick movement, he came to me and grabbed me by the collar. Surprised, I felt my feet come out of the ground, being lifted easily by her.
"I... I saw you fighting," his voice trembled, almost failing, "and could not speak anything. I saw everything, but you did not listen to me. I was... so Helpless."
She shook me slightly, as if she needed that to believe I was right there.
"You were the worst of them all," he continued, his eyes shining brightly. "The injuries began to appear in real time on the computer. I saw the data every organ compromised, every beat failing. The system even declared that... you were already practically dead. And then, only silence remained."
The last word came out as a broken whisper. And that's when she pulled me into a hug.
She pulled me against her chest and hugged me. Strong. So strong, but... I did not have the courage to ask you to stop. His arms, cold and metallic, enveloped me with a force that began to hurt... but I didn't care. At that moment, I could not even breathe straight not because of the force, but because of the knot in my throat.
"When you appeared on the stairs..." she whispered by my shoulder, "I was so desperate."
My mind recorded something strange at that moment.
"Wait..." I moved away a little, forcing her to let me go. "Didn't you send someone to save me?"
Z hesitated. For the first time, his hologram seemed... lost. She blinked several times, as if she was looking for something among thousands of files.
"No. The interference blocked me completely. I could do nothing but watch. Your screen has darkened. After a while... I heard the sound of the staircase being activated, and someone putting you there."
She looked away, biting the lower lip of her holographic avatar, her body slightly shaking.
"I... thought it was one of the Rangers," she said, almost in a tone of doubt. " But they came soon after, shouting, asking what had happened..."
"You just... ignored it?" I asked, confused.
Z turned slowly to face me. His hologram trembled, as if he was on the verge of an emotional breakdown.
"Did you want me to do what?" she exploded. "Stop to investigate an anomaly while you were... dying?!"
His voice echoed through the base.
"I had to prioritize you. Keep you alive. Every second counted. I couldn't... lose anyone else."
The silence that followed was heavy. Our breaths or in her case, the sound of the warming UFO seemed to echo. I approached again, this time putting my hand on his shoulder. Cold. But stable.
"Thank you," I whispered. "For saving me. Again."
She looked at me, digital eyes shining with an almost sad glow.
"Don't thank me for something I almost couldn't do."
I tried to focus on her, on what I was saying, but I couldn't. There was something hammering in the back of my mind, a question as obvious as inevitable, that grew every second, drowning out everything else.
Who the hell saved me?