She was tired. She was hurt. She was still stronger than Agent Torque. And I was going to kill her.

  The determination locked my focus into place. “In the center, there is stability,” I began quietly.

  My Akashic Prism spun. My star, once a bright, stable purple, now flared with sudden bursts of blue and flashes of lashing red, striking out and yanking in on my field and meridians.

  Mantras poured from my lips. The blues and reds shifted, flowing out in streams, my star rotating in reverse, unwinding them from the event horizon.

  They spread out in clouds, taking in the many emotions I was barely able to process. They slowed, fused, separated. The chaos stabilized, no longer forming such an intense tide that I disassociated.

  My focus cleared, my mind ordered for the raging emotions and energy to flow through. And the rage, hate, pain, and simple loss within became all the more tangible–real.

  I would never see her again. Not the real her. I wouldn’t accept some knock-off AI counselor version of her. No memory immersion could compare to just the next day being bothered–and bothering her in new, creative ways.

  No more waking up to my room being inside out. No more snickering as I hid in the walls, charged vision letting me watch her pour the coffee I spiked with Walklock.

  Mudras vibrated Akasha. My hands stretched in, up, and out as I stood. Internal stillness in the midst of movement, every other charge at the edges of my field interlocking into the environment, fusing in a new way with the Akashic field.

  New energy flooded into my field. The charges in my brain and rhythm in my cerebrospinal fluid configured my Akashic Prism in a new way–like it had gained a new structural support; or rather, one that had been weak became complete.

  Mind achieved a Neutron state as the Electron cloud of my field and the Proton of my Soul understood each other, stabilized by the charge of my mind.

  “Within is all I know–Who I am, what I’ve shown, what I’ve seen. All simply parts of the whole I share.”

  This line cut deep through me. I heard the ghost of her voice, chanting the mantra with me. This was always where our fields would synchronize fully, becoming two parts of a whole.

  I felt the echo of her charge stir, faintly forming a resonance with my own. I choked down a sob, tears and blood falling as I glared at the Banshee, which was slowly recovering–taking in the chaotic energies from the clash, Void swallowing them, churning them into her own energy.

  I stared at the creature. I had never heard of something like this. A being who used–who was–Void energy. Void was the most temperamental substance discovered through Akasha. It reduced everything to the most base state possible: Zero Point energy.

  That didn’t matter. Not even a bit. Because the thing was dead. I just needed to tell it that.

  The Akashic field shuddered in time with my cadence. My hands, bloody from digging lines into my palms, from splitting apart from the charge being funneled through me, flicked up, arms spread widely, naturally, palms facing out.

  Around one hand, a negative charge formed. The deep blue had black at its center, yet the space around it glowed furiously as energy was pulled into the event horizon.

  On the other, a deep red pulsed outward, brighter than the sun as it reached dusk. The charges–equal and opposite–swirled around my hands and arms, building up.

  The black mist pouring from the Banshee’s wounds pulled to my left, slowly floating toward the negative charge. The contraction grew so tight it began folding through the Akashic field. First, a hint of silver at its event horizon–then the ring around the hypersphere turned to black as the pitch hole in the orb’s center took in the silver.

  The remnants of silver in the air flared brighter, locking into an orbit around my right hand that expanded and contracted as the positive charge pulsed higher and higher. More silver gathered from the Akashic field.

  “I am pushed. I am pulled. I return to balance.” The raging pulsations of the hyperspheres settled into a steady rhythm, landing on alternating beats, creating a balance between negative and positive between my horizontal poles.

  I skipped the next seven lines of the mantra–visualization and charge balance alone allowing me to complete the harmony and open my meridians fully.

  “I am living Lightning.” The words sparked into Akasha. Flashes formed between the hyperspheres, blue-black and red-silver clashing, leaving mists of indigo and violet.

  “Push from above, pull from below. My nerves carry both charges equally.” The purple energy stabilized, arcs of energy from each hand lashing out in solar flares, gathering into the purple orb forming between my palms.

  The energy cycled outward, flowing with my nerves and consciousness to reach my mind. My Akashic Prism lit up, violet light pouring from my eyes, evaporating blood and tears.

  “Each node matches the frequency. Peace resonates throughout the whole. All folds one.” Another slight twinge ran through me, Alura’s teasing tone encouraging me with its spite-inducing nature.

  I took a deep breath and launched into the fourth mantra. “I maintain resonance, then direct. Flow becomes structure.” My bloody hands formed mudra after mudra, each pose sending waves through the Akashic field.

  “My charge balances. Each node resonates, raising frequency. I ascend through total balance. A higher state to see higher view. I am the Cycle, flowing through.” The words echoed through me, and once more, I felt Alura’s gentle, teasing laugh–her stern pokes to my side, nudging and guiding my charge flow.

  The hyperspheres collapsed, black-blue and red-silver flowing in thick rivers from my fingertips, feet, and each dancing node in my meridian. My Akashic Prism folded in and out, the meridians of my bioelectric field and internal body weaving through 4D folds, the center revolving in non-Euclidean patterns.

  Violet and indigo energy covered my body, except for the edges of my field, still swirling with the components. Occasionally, a collision between all three would occur, resulting in a plume of purple that erupted into prismatic lights before fading.

  “Charge transfers through my field. Even. Structured. Steady. My field is pushed and pulled. I keep the balance at my center.” The pulsing at my field’s edge stabilized and fused into black. Indigo began to shine, bursting spontaneously into silver. The purple balanced the two, filling my bioelectric field.

  “I am the stillness at my center. I am the movement at my edges. I am the rhythm, the beat. One sharp note among the symphony.” The words came naturally, like never before. A glimpse of Kaleidoscope taught me what the last two lines meant: I am one shard within the ever-shifting panes, a fragment of myself, of all my selves, of all things.

  Yet, without my piece–this shape, this song–would not be complete, unwhole. The Banshee finished reforming. It was now only six or seven feet tall. It was weakened. I was stronger than ever, and more motivated to rip, dismantle, unmake something than ever before. My body, mind, and soul hummed. My eyes leaked multicolored charge.

  “Do you comprehend?” I asked the only other thing here.

  The Banshee inhaled. Guess that answered my question. Simply a mindless entity that only takes. I had met other Akashic beings—even befriended some, like the Nikola Teslastein that had taught me physics and charge flow.

  But this was simply a being of entropy. It needed no mind, for its function and purpose were simple: reduce charge and complexity, create instability in Spacetime’s structured chaos, and order chaotic Reality into stillness.

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  The Akashic field contracted in on the Banshee, space folding into a compressed point within it–a point of endless, abyssal black that cried an agonizing melody in Akasha, like a song in reverse still carrying a rhythm, just alien.

  My left hand twirled counterclockwise, index and middle fingers lightly extended, the others gently curled, until I held two fingers up, palm facing me. At the same time, my right hand cut a straight line down before tracing out a half-circle clockwise.

  Streams of Meminisse and Kaleidoscope trailed each movement and knuckle, forming into prismatic sprays as they spread into waves through the Akashic field.

  My hands rotated in toward me, clenching into fists, before revolving down and out, where I then shoved downward harshly.

  A wave of violet and prismatic flickers washed out as the Banshee screamed. Wavering arcs of black lined the translucent distortions in space, sloshing toward me. The slashes sucked in space, meaning, charge–everything–folding it away in a manner beyond any dimensional shape I had studied.

  My own charge, twisted by the Kaleidoscope matrix, gathered into a crushing tide sweeping out from me. Not so much moving through Akasha as replacing it–pushing and pulling it out of the way as purple shards flew, their edges flashing in unsteady prismatic flares.

  The two charges clashed, and it wasn’t even a contest.

  Violet and prismatic lights burst through the Void, too complex, too intense for the weakened Void Banshee to order into Void. The shards folded together in waves and tides, becoming the space they occupied–overwriting what was there with what could be, what I intended to be.

  Each shard that landed on the Banshee fixed to part of her form, the fractal patterns clinging to her in prismatic bursts and violet fragments–Kaleidoscope’s self-referencing patterns introducing complexity to the Void Banshee’s field and internal energy.

  Once more, a wail of pain was torn from the Banshee’s lips. This time it fizzled, white and blue wisps becoming caught in fragments of the seals formed through the barely functional Kaleidoscope matrix within me. Black strips were pulled from her wounds, absorbed as wavelengths, and collapsed into more shards of Spacetime.

  I clenched my hands. The last of my spell covered the Banshee, her entire form now caught in a constantly rotating, folding, shifting mirror made of purple, jagged fragments. Cracks let out prismatic flickers. The mirror was both flat and endlessly deep, splitting the Banshee’s form across its many faces and shards.

  The Banshee howled against the seal, but no sound came through the endless Spacetime she now occupied. Each rotation was another layer–on top of, under, or within Reality, the Akashic field, and the material realm.

  I stared at it. This thing had taken my sister. This thing was something that, as far as I knew, was undocumented. So, likely covered up.

  I wanted this thing to hurt. But it couldn’t. The Void did not feel pain. Its wails were simply an expression of charge–not a recognition of pain. This thing wasn’t even animalistic. It just was what it was, did what it did.

  I tilted my head. If I wanted it to hurt, I could change that.

  I stared at the Banshee. Its futile screams annoyed me. Its awful face pissed me off. And what it had done pushed me to the ends of humanity. I had never been a cruel person, but everyone had their reverse scale. This wretch would become a great tool in high-end experiments.

  I raised a hand, fingers splayed, and began making a fist. The Kaleidoscopic sealing spell pulled inward. I started muttering runes and formulae, glyphs floating from my lips in silver wisps into the endlessly interchanging spaces of the seal. I gestured swiftly, mudras forming and falling.

  After each space was saturated with self-iterating runes and equations, I sat down, meditating. I stabilized my charge, keeping an elevated state as I further sealed the Banshee.

  I could feel it trying to eat away at the seal, but the ever-changing and growing nature prevented it. Each time it managed to gather energy, a prismatic spray would strike it.

  Absorbing it damaged the Banshee due to the high energy, forcing it to expand Void to heal itself. The Void energy it used simply collapsed into more seals–Kaleidoscope enveloping it with negentropic forces.

  Eventually, the seal formed into a handheld mirror with no frame, every shifting fragment of purple refracting numbers and symbols in looping, spiraling patterns.

  I scanned it, making sure there was no chance of collapse among the Spacetime shards. Once satisfied, I collapsed. My head lolled left and came face to face with the remains of Agent Torque.

  I weakly kicked the left leg, one of the last pieces of his body. “Looks like they sent you to die too, dumbfuck.”

  I kicked Torque’s body again for good measure, the rebound rolling me onto my back. I let out a deep sigh and calmed my shaking field as best I could. Channeling so much energy so suddenly, tapping into the Kaleidoscope like that, had drained everything I had.

  I wasn’t sure how I had managed to contain that much energy within the charge valence. It should have shredded me apart–dispersed my matter back into energy and information.

  I centered myself, running through the five mantras and visualizations of Stellar Alignment and–my eyes shot open in shock. I had already crossed through to Materia.

  I could see charge, feel its flow naturally. My bioelectric field stayed in its natural resonance, gradually increasing my charge one thaum at a time.

  I wished I could have been happy about it. I wished Alura would make some cutting comment about how she did it before me.

  My head rolled to the other side, and my heart stopped. In the air, vague distortions remained, and within them, I could sense echoes–charge residues.

  My body, hollowed of any significant charge besides the trickle from my Materia resonance, spasmed over, my neck stretching out to slam my chin and jaw into the dissipating floor, dragging me toward the distortions.

  ‘Faster. Faster. Faster.’ My thoughts repeated, the charge residues growing fainter, absorbed by the Akashic field.

  What little charge I had began stretching toward the high-frequency state where Alura and I would sync.

  My field weakly wobbled around me as I crawled through the destabilizing echoes. I felt a hint of resonance–the faintest laugh from my right. I rolled over barrel-style three times before I felt the resonance lock Alura and I had formed before stepping through the portal shudder. A cloud of Akashic energy—almost completely gone.

  Gently, I formed a bubble around it to shield it from external ones and softly rotated it through my field before it reached my feet, folding into the Kaleidoscope matrix in my Akashic Prism like a warm breeze sifting through a window screen.

  The soothing warmth revitalized me. Her nagging tone–one that promised suffering and utter embarrassment should I not comply. “Don’t just sit there! Take your own advice, and get it together if you want to live!” I didn’t hear it so much as simply knew that was her last message for me, in her charge.

  I grasped at the faint wavers of charge with a negative pull in my hand, curling into a ball, gathering it to me and holding it tight against my chest. The tears came back, quietly streaming down my face as I rocked back and forth–just like I was comforting her after a nightmare. Something once annoying now needed so deeply that the impossibility of it made me start laughing.

  Was that my laugh I had heard when she died? I turned my head and stared into the endless stars and nebulae above me. The Akashic field was the most wonderful place I had seen. All of this–beautiful, complex, and useless–if she died. Why did she give the Kaleidoscope matrix to me and burn herself instead of burning me? I gave it to her, folded it into her field to support her work.

  “Damnit, Alura! I told you! I told you!” I banged my hand against the fading floor. The anger left, replaced by exhaustion–deeper than the Void I had just faced.

  I crawled back to Torque’s body, shifting through the ash that was all that remained of his upper body from the Meminisse collapse. The one that got Alura killed.

  If Torque had any degree of skill or competence, he could have directed that energy into a piercing structure–or a containing one. Instead, he just threw raw force at the problem. Alura and I, dealing with the collapse raging through the very structure we made to give him such power–disposable.

  I found his Porterm. I put it next to mine, lightning jumping between the two. Screens popped before me, light blue energy and white text making me growl. I quickly changed my system interface to white and black, and then began the connection.

  As a new Materia expert, I could use portal functions on AGI interfaces like this wristband or the terminals. However, my band didn’t have that function for obvious reasons. Since I couldn’t directly use another person’s, I had to get creative.

  The blue floor kept dissipating. I had a feeling that being here when it vanished would not be fun, and my eventual return to wave function would have my remaining spirit beaten into Void by Alura’s. So, I began using minimal charge to create frequencies and Akashic resonances between the two bands.

  My fingers danced swiftly, using resonance to blur who was making the request, and set it to activate a return portal to the last-left destination. The portal once more wavered into being.

  My eyes passed over the recovering realm of Akasha around me. Tears carved trenches in clouds and stars, flashing trails of blue and black that consumed to fill its depths. I sat up some, hugging my knees.

  I could imagine her. What she would say if she were here.

  “Fat fucking lot of good that guy did. He collapsed under the pressure.”

  A chuckle tried to bubble through the clogging tears and choking throat, making a warble in my soft sobs. I rocked softly, calling the last ring of meridians we had connected, radiating her Kaleidoscope into my field.

  “Alura, don’t use vulgar language like that; you’re a kid.” My words cracked and cut out at times. “And don’t make puns when people die. They might come back just to beat you.”

  Fractal tears began mixing into salt, blurring my visions with memories.

  “Elias! Don’t run! I will only shock you some, promise!” Her words came between gasps as she chased after me, her little legs unable to keep up with mine. “That’s still more than I’d like!” I yelled without slowing, dashing between arcing blue bolts.

  I laughed. She had figured out how to use her field to generate electricity and decided she needed a “target with a nervous system to really play with it!” I had to learn charge dispersion quickly after that. My shoulders racked in pain and hysterical, spiteful chuckles.

  “Alura?” I asked. She turned, resting the harp in her hands on her lap. “Yes?”

  I smiled. The pillow she was reclining against came alive, growing fluffy teeth and attacking. She screamed, rolling away. There would be no escape, however, as the pillows from the bed and loveseat descended upon her in tufts of viciousness. I cackled as I climbed the growing mountain, throwing tiny indigo waves at her as she tried to activate her field.

  That event had led to many pillow-related episodes of nonsense. Great fortresses manned by towering golems of tuft, capable of throwing the stuff out and manipulating it. Dinners interrupted by a stealthy cloud of cotton slinking under the table. Mom used to join in when it got too chaotic, soundly trouncing us.

  I slid onto my side, a heaving stab snatching away the power in my muscles. My body shook uncontrollably as more and more moments came by. The first time I met Alura.

  Our Mother held her in the hospital bed. Dad stood next to her, leaning down– an enraptured expression I had never seen from him. Her weird baby face looked at me. I was just about to turn three at the time. She spat a little.

  A laugh and wail mumbled through my body.

  Teaching her how to use hoverboards, mold charge, blend positive and negative thaums. Alura doing the one thing I had never dared in our exploits: pranking Dad. My weeping eyes closed, body splaying out. His face of shock–expanded and enhanced with awful cosmetic surgery–had been one of my greatest sources of joy.

  I already missed her too much to feel my heartbeat. It was like everything inside was gone, staying with Alura, going wherever she went. It was too little time. Alura and I had been each other’s only real friends.

  We studied together, played together, ate together. We wouldn’t have reached these heights without the other egging us on–pushing and prodding, exploiting our weaknesses in the form of pranks. Yes, the pranks were training. Always had been. My hands clenched into death grips.

  Yeah, we were always training.

  Now, I have to train harder. So much harder. I have to learn more. Learn everything. Alura gave her life for me. She died because of politics, money, and laziness. I would find out everything about these Void entities. Who is responsible, how this has happened, and how to find everyone involved and introduce them to the consequences actions can spring in unexpected ways.

  I grabbed the mirror I had sealed the Banshee into, using the last of my charge to stash it in my band’s Aspace. I staggered to my feet, took the three most difficult and painful steps of my life, and promptly fell straight through the portal.