Helios Fighter

Chapter Fifteen

Disturbed

Initially, I was glad that I didn't go to the interview. It gave me a chance finish reading. It wasn't long before I figured out why there was so much fuss the first time I saw Ladasha. Placing myself in her partner's shoes, I found more connections between myself, and the character Kai. We both had, sort of, the same kind of fire-based energy, we were usually alone most of the time, and (and this gave me a new perspective on my entire reason for being here) no one ever truly needed us until things got rough. In Kai's case, specifically, he never particularly showed up unless the situation called for it. I realized that I might've been on the same path. Sure, people relied on me, but only when they had to, which was very discouraging in the grand scheme of things. Even Ladasha, who I'd promised to get back to her own dimension, probably didn't see me as anything more than her ticket home. As someone who was just embracing the whole "only Solenoid on record" thing, that was a real turnoff.

I'd reached chapter eighteen before I realized what time it was. Auroras was pushed through my door, and Jax and Gally were behind her, laughing. "Helios," Gally said. "You missed out, big​ ​ time!"

"What?" I asked.

"Your friend thinks that someone lives inside​​ the sun!"

"And," Jax added, "that that 'thing' is supposed to 'rise and obliterate all.'" Given my take on the severity of the situation, the expression on Auroras's face, and what I'd just read, I was in no way amused, nor did I find humor in such a belief. "Anyway, dinner's in an hour. Apollo wants to talk about what you found on your trip."

"Uh... Okay," I saw warily. Jax and Gally left, still laughing, and I was left alone with Auroras,​ who had a face of absolute terror. "This is real, isn't it?"

"I do not know why they will not listen," Auroras said. "Do they not care for this world?"

"I can make as many inferences as I want, but that doesn't mean that I can speak definitively on that matter. I will say that I'm all ears."

"For... what?"

"You. Look, I know that a lot of people don't necessarily take you seriously. The fact of the matter is that I'm not like those people, especially during a time like this." Auroras became silent again. It was so prolonged that I found myself reading again.

"What is that?" she asked finally.

"Just a book," I sighed. "Part of the reason I was up on the sun was try to see if I could get any leads on fixing an interdimensional crisis."

"Of what sort?"

"My friend, Ladasha, that Archetype, was lost in luminal transit, and somehow ended up in our dimension. The dimension she came​​ from had her partner in it. That guy we saw on our way here, who she calls Pax, was her partner. When she saw me, she thought I was her partner, and that I was there to take her home." I watched Auroras's face as I told her this. She was empathetic, but her reaction to the details told me that she didn't like a word of what she was hearing. I told her about the dream I had, and she sighed with pure exasperation and frustration.

"It is him," she said, after I finished.

"Who?"

"What is the title of that book you were reading?" I handed it to her. The light seemed to dim from her eyes. "I warned them it was a premonition."

"What is?"

"Why would no one listen?"

"Hey!" Auroras turned to me, startled. "What's going on?"

"Something horrendous."

"Like what?"

"Something–someone​ ​– who plans to jeopardize the entirety of existence itself."

"Who? Who does?" I was becoming genuinely afraid. Auroras was getting really cryptic, now. That signaled one of two things. Either Auroras knew something that I was complete oblivious to, or she was repeating something like a prophecy that may have been happening. The latter seemed strange, and the former was unnerving. "Auroras? What's gonna happen?"

"Call your friend."

"What?"

"If you want to help her get home, I'm riding everything​ on the hope that she​, unlike the other two, will listen to me." She wasn't wrong. Ladasha might as well be aware of how she can get home if possible.

"Vaio."

"Yes, Helios?​​" came Vaio's voice.

"Call Ladasha."

"Stand by...​​" A moment later, the holographic figure of Ladasha was projected from my glasses.

"What's wrong now? she asked.

"I need you in here," I answered. "Now​ ​."

"Uhhh..."

"I need you to understand me clearly​​ when I say this: there's a chance for you to get home, but you need to listen to what Auroras has to say." There was a pause.

"I'll be over in a second, but any particular reason why we can't talk about it like this?" I gave her my best trust me​​ glance. "Okay, okay. I'll be there, just hold on." Her image disappeared.

"I hope you're right about all this," I said

"As do I, human Helios."