No Turning Back

Chapter Six: A Deal With The Devil

"Samantha, cease zhis at vonce!" The familiar German voice commanded. Samantha scowled at me in frustration before protesting.

"But vhy, fazher? She zhinks she knows it all!" Samantha fulminated like a disobedient child. Her form distorted with static-like interference as it transposed between demonic and human.

"Maxis?" I quietly whispered aloud in confusion as I looked around.

"Jou are correct", the voice immediately replied with a deep, low growl. Maxis was nowhere to be seen yet I could hear his disembodied voice. By now, Samantha had reverted to her normal human form. The damage to the room began to reverse and everything reassembled itself.

"Maybe you can tell me why I'm here then?" I asked Maxis - ignoring Samantha's gowlering glare.

"Samantha, take her to Edward", Maxis asked - this time gently and fatherly. The girl nodded before grinning at me.

"Jou are going to have to come vith me, Daddy says so!" She smiled before lunging towards me as I began to feel numb and blacked out.

When I awoke, Primis sat by my side as he leaned over me to check I was breathing. His face was mere millimetres away from mine when he realised I had opened my eyes. His breath suddenly caught in his throat before he quickly pulled back and began apologising profusely.

"I- uh - I didn't mean to--", he stuttered awkwardly.

"It's okay. You don't need to apologise for checking if I was still alive -- even if we are in some kind of dream where we probably can't really die", I said sarcastically in the hope my dry sense of humour would put him at ease. He never could stop being a doctor.

"Where the heck are we?" I asked, changing the subject as I sat up and looked around. Everything around us was an amorphous amalgam of colours; it was like we were in the heart of a nebula. Well, what one would look like if we could see the cosmic mix of dust and gases as colours with the naked eye.

"It appears ve have travelled into zhe Aether. Vell, not physically at least. Ve sheem to be having some kind of collective dream", Primis explained.

"Hm, so Samantha contacted you in your sleep too then?" I said dryly before Primis nodded in confirmation.

"Ja, she und Maxis said zhey vanted to reach out to us", Primis began. He seemed to indicate that they had engaged in discussion already.

"Maxis convinced Samanzha to contact us again. He vants to help us", Primis added.

"I seem to have been late to the party", I remarked to myself.

"Ve can hear everyzhing, jou know! Even jour zhoughts..." Samantha snarled, as she indicated both she and Maxis were privy to even our internal thoughts. Her voice seemed to have some kind of direction to it this time as Primis and I both instinctively turned around to look at her. We were slightly taken aback by what we saw though as both Samantha and Maxis appeared in their human forms.

"Doctor Maxis!" Primis exclaimed. He treated Richtofen's Maxis much like he did his own - with great warmth and respect.

"I do not hold anyzhing against jou, Edward. Jou are nozhing like him. So please, you can be at ease", Maxis began as he looked at Primis with kindness and reassurance.

"I vant jou both to listen to me. As long as I am trapped in zhe Aether I can still help jou. Kiana, jou know zhat zhis vill change vhen Edward reaches the Moon", Maxis began to explain as he alluded to his knowledge of me and my arrival.