1.2

Content warnings: references to torture, suicidal ideation (detail below; skip if you prefer surprises)

• Torture is referenced but not described.

• A reference is made to the torture victims losing the will to live.

~.~

It wasn’t much of a choice. Even Lian knew that. Apparently, everyone else came to the same conclusion, because eventually, all eight of them followed Haku through the rift. As soon as the last person was through, the rift closed behind them.

On the other side was a space that resembled a foyer. There was a dusty welcome mat right up front and a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, if you could even call it that—the walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of a semi-solid, rainbow-colored glass behind which swirled an endless sea of fog. The rainbow seemed… dull, almost, and the colors flickered in and out like dying flames. Lian stepped experimentally forward, then smiled as their foot didn’t go straight through the floor. It was as if they were standing in an ethereal space carved out between fiction and reality.

“This is so cool,” Lian murmured. “Where are we?”

“A different dimension.” Lian suddenly snapped to attention. Haku was standing in front of the only hallway, Ilia slung over one shoulder. They turned to leave. “This way.”

“No.” Morgan stepped forward, still holding her handgun firmly in both hands. “I want answers, and I want them now. You want us to break your friends out of prison? Well, why the hell should we help you, aside from the ridiculous amounts of blackmail you’ve shoved in our faces?”

"Oh, was the blackmail not enough?” Haku said lightly, looking over their shoulder. “I'm not asking you to help without reward. If there's anything you want in this world, I'm sure a group of nine immortals could easily get it for you. Once we're free, of course."

“What if all I want is your glasses? Can I have them?" Peter asked, a sly smile on their face. Haku gave Peter a withering look. Then, they took off their glasses and tossed them to Peter.

Morgan seemed unamused. They pointed the gun at Haku.

“Okay, fine,” Haku said thinly. “If you kill me, you’ll be ending the world as you know it.”

That got Morgan to bring the gun down, but just barely.

“Keep talking,” she said cautiously.

“Inside,” Haku said dismissively. They turned and walked down the hallway, not waiting for anyone to respond. Karyme and Rae were the first to follow, and then the others kind of awkwardly shuffled into the hallway after that.

The hall opened up into a wider space with what looked to be the living room on the right and the kitchen on the left. The living room was cozy, with three couches arranged in a semicircle around a coffee table. The fireplace was flanked by two tall bookshelves, and a TV hung on the wall over the mantle. On the left was the kitchen—a large space with empty countertops, a gas stove (how did that even work in here?), and a sink. The two rooms were separated only by the hallway and a kitchen counter.

Haku led the group into the kitchen, to the dining table. The round , wooden table had just enough seats for everyone.

“Wait here,” Haku grunted. “I’m going to put Ilia in the infirmary.” They disappeared down the hallway without another word.

“Oh. Oh, they’re just going to leave us here,” Lian said with a frown. “Um, okay.” Lian took the closest seat. “I know that we all kind of know each other, but maybe we should do real introductions? Since, you know, we’ll be working together.”

“What is this, a tea party?” Joshua scoffed. He elected to keep standing, leaning against the wall with a scowl. “We all know each other’s names anyway.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, nodding sagely. “For example—” He gestured to Joshua. “That’s Angry Pigeon Man!” Joshua’s eyes widened in anger.

“Say that again, you little gremlin,” Joshua growled. He took a threatening step forward, fists at the ready, but Peter seemed completely unfazed as they swung into the seat next to Lian.

“So!” Peter said with a grin. “How’s everyone’s day going?”

“Cut that shit out, Peter,” Dani snapped, taking a seat as far away from Peter as possible. “You already know the answer.”

There was an awkward silence as everyone (except for Joshua) took their seats at the table. No one seemed to know what to talk about, or how to address the elephant in the room—the dreams, the fact that they all knew more about each other than they should. Karyme cleared her throat.

“So,” she ventured. “I am assuming none of you know who Haku really is.”

“Of course not,” Dani grumbled, leaning back in her chair. “Why would we?”

“You shouldn’t. That wasn’t an accusation,” Karyme said quickly. “But as an archivist, I do know, so I thought I’d share.” She took a deep breath.

“Apparently, before the Soul Stealers became so powerful, there was a small resistance against them, led by a group of nine immortals—and Haku was one of them. They called themselves the Ennead, and they had a wide range of powers. No one knows where they came from, but the records imply that they’ve been around in one form or another for most of human history. For a while, they were able to prevent the Soul Stealers from expanding. But then… the records on them just vanish.”

Lian wasn’t sure what to make of that. They’d never heard of any immortals, but maybe—

“There’s a reason for that.” Lian turned around. Now that they were seeing Haku in proper lighting, it was clear exactly how injured the immortal was. Dried blood ran down the side of their face and into their hairline, their arms were dotted with burns and bruises., and dark circles ringed their eyes. The bullet wounds from earlier had healed, but there were so many more that just… hadn’t.

“Let’s get down to business,” Haku said, their voice clinical. They took a seat at the head of the table. “I figure if I’m going to blackmail you into helping me, the least I can do is explain why.”

“No shit,” Juli muttered. Haku ignored them and kept talking.

“The Soul Stealers may be a multinational criminal organization now, but at its inception, the organization had one goal: steal the souls of the Ennead, and use those souls to gain absolute power over humankind,” Haku explained. “That is why we were captured and held for fifty years.”

“And yet your souls haven’t been stolen,” Rae said wryly. “Curious.” Haku winced. Their form seemed to flicker for a second.

“No,” Haku said quietly. “They haven’t. But they will be if we don’t act in the next two days, and then you can kiss any semblance of freedom you had goodbye.”

“What does that even mean?” Peter asked, leaning forward eagerly in his seat. His eyes sparkled with curiosity. “Stealing a soul? How does that work?”

“Most souls cannot be stolen,” Haku replied. “For mortals, the minute their soul is ripped from their body, they die. The same is not true for an immortal.”

“Because you can’t die,” Lian supplied. “Right?”

“Something like that.” Haku swallowed. “In any case, once an immortal soul is stolen, it becomes raw energy—raw power to be used at will. With that kind of power… there is no telling what The Necromancer could do.”

“Okay great.” Morgan slammed both hands on the table. “What’s the fucking plan? I don’t want to agree to something that’s going to get me killed.”

Haku extended a hand, and a small holographic model of the prison appeared in the middle of the table. The prison was unlike any Lian had ever seen; nine gigantic crystals jutted out of a large hovering platform, each glowing a different color. Vaporous shadows rolled off of the crystals and coalesced beneath the platform.

“The prison changes location every day, but with Rae’s power, we should have no problem locating it,” Haku explained.

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” Rae said quickly. “I can’t just locate anything. I can only locate people I’m attuned to.”

“Yes, but I can attune you to one of the prisoners relatively easily—with your permission, of course. Which brings me to our next order of business.” Haku held out a hand. Cupped in their palm were eight small orange crystals, each about the size of an earring. “These are for you. They will allow you to teleport and communicate telepathically with each other, which will be key inside the prison.”

“You keep speaking like you know what’s going to happen,” Juli grumbled, taking a crystal.

“Because I do,” Haku said simply. “I can read the myriad of possibilities the future holds, though I cannot tell you which will come true.”

“So you can read the future. Great,” Joshua said through gritted teeth. He snatched a crystal from Haku, though reluctantly so.

“Is there a future where I shoot you?” Morgan asked, taking a crystal. “Please say there’s a future where I shoot you.” Haku gave Morgan a withering look.

“No.” They handed out the rest of the crystals. “Now then. The prison is at an altitude of around 50,000 feet, but we can get there rather simply if Ilia teleports us there. From that point, there is a hatch on top of the orange crystal that we can use to enter the prison.”

“The prison changes layout every fifteen minutes,” Haku continued, “but that is a trivial concern.” It did not sound like a trivial concern to Lian, but they decided to keep their mouth shut. Instead, they elected to test the telepathy crystal, by broadcasting a song from their favorite musical-movie into everyone’s heads. No one seemed particularly amused.

“There are three types of rooms we’ll encounter inside,” Haku said with an exasperated sigh. “First, the holding cells. These rooms have biometric locks that react negatively to immortal DNA. In those holding cells, the prisoners are being restrained with chains that electrocute them whenever they use their powers.”

“How the fuck did you escape from a place like that?” Dani asked, kicking her feet up onto the table. Irritation flickered in Haku’s eyes for a second.

“I escaped while I was in transit to the torture chambers,” Haku explained. “The torture chambers do not have biometric locks, but there are more personnel manning these locations, and prisoners are transported and held with the same type of handcuffs I described earlier.”

“And then there is the bottom floor—The Soul Extraction Chamber (SEC). This room allows The Necromancer to separate a person’s soul from their body—a process that automatically kills mortals. So, I suggest you stay away from that floor.” Haku looked around the table. “Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Rae said with a frown. “Why do we have to do this in the next two days? Some of us have lives to go back to. And don’t give me some bullshit answer like ‘that’s what the future says’ or whatever.”

"That's probably all the time my friends have left," Haku deadpanned. Lian balked. The music playing in everyone’s heads came to a screeching halt.

“W-wait! Aren’t you all immortal?” they asked.

“To a point.” Haku averted their gaze. “Our souls are immortal. Our bodies are not. And, regeneration aside, there is only so much torture a body can withstand before it fails.”

At the word “torture,” something clicked in Lian’s mind.

For as long as they could remember, they’d been having dreams—no, nightmares—in which they were tortured, held in endless captivity, left to die. The nightmares, like their other dreams, had always been oddly realistic, charged with emotion. In each dream, Lian could feel the misery of having their will to live stripped away, piece by piece.

But those feelings weren’t theirs.

“Those nightmares that I—that we—have been having for the last few years… those nightmares were you,” Lian said quietly. “We haven’t just been dreaming of each other.”

“Correct,” Haku said bitterly. “You’ve been sharing dreams with nine immortals.”

A stunned silence settled over the table.

Lian felt like they’d been splashed with cold water. If they had been reluctant to help Haku before, that feeling had quickly been turned on its head. They didn’t like being blackmailed, and they weren’t sure how useful they’d be in a mission like this, but what was being done to these people was wrong. Every bone in Lian’s body ached to help.

“I’m in,” Lian said, their eyes alight with determination. “When do we leave?”

~.~

Dani was not afraid of heights. She had jumped out of a helicopter before, after all, but back then, at least, she’d had a parachute. Up here, standing atop a gigantic orange crystal at 50,000 feet above sea level, there were no such safety measures. Dani distracted herself by taking in the view. It was dark out, so she couldn’t see much aside from the glow of the crystals around her, and even that was dim, flickering, as if whatever was powering it was running out of steam.

Dani glanced over at Ilia. The girl was a mystery—one of two people here who Dani knew next to nothing about. Ilia had been silent the whole time, but there was an undercurrent of anger and frustration in her expression as she glared at Haku. There was definitely a story there.

Haku knelt near the center of the orange crystal and firmly planted both hands on the floor. After a few seconds, a hatch appeared, and Haku casually popped the hatch open. From her position, Dani could barely make out the beginnings of a ladder descending from the hatch into the inky darkness below.

“I’ll go last,” Haku said calmly. Dani could see the logic in that; if Haku went first, they couldn’t make sure that everyone actually entered the hatch. Not that Dani herself was interested in running away at this point, but…

She chanced a look at Morgan and Joshua. The two had been glaring daggers at each other the whole time. If anyone was going to ditch the mission at this juncture, it would probably be them.

Peter was the first one down the ladder. Dani followed immediately after—she trusted Peter about as far as she could throw him, and she didn’t want Peter fucking things up before they even started. The shaft was narrow, and it was too dark to see anything, but as Dani descended, he noticed that there was a residual orange glow on the sides of the ladder whenever he moved his hands.

Orange…

Dani tried not to think too hard about that as he reached the end of the ladder. The room at the bottom of the shaft was dimly lit. Lockers, like the kind you’d find in a gym, lined the walls. Along the opposite side of the room was a kitchenette with a mini stovetop, microwave, and fridge, and next to that was a door leading to who knows where. In one corner, nested almost out of sight, was a single teleportation pad—Dani recognized it as such from the lime green insignia emblazoned on its center.

Peter ran over to the teleportation pad like a child opening presents on Christmas day, far too eager for his own good. Juli followed behind, curiosity on their features.

“Where do you think this leads?” Juli asked.

“Ooo, probably somewhere exciting!” Peter said with a devious grin. At that moment, the teleportation pad began to glow—a sign that someone was trying to come through. Dani cursed under their breath. If someone found them here, this whole mission could be compromised before it started.

“Quick, someone send something through the pad—it’ll stop the other person from coming through,” Dani barked.

“Yes ma’am!” Peter said, giving Dani a mock salute. He summoned a lime and lobbed it through the portal. It was only a quick fix, though. The permanent solution would be—

“We have to destroy this teleportation pad,” Juli reasoned. “Otherwise more people will just keep coming through.” Peter bounced up and down with excitement.

“I have an idea!” he exclaimed. Six limes and a can of gasoline popped out of his outstretched hands. “Let’s set these on fire, then send them through!” Juli blinked, bewildered.

“Uhhh, hm.” Juli contemplated for a second. Then, the teleportation pad began to glow again, and a nervous grin crossed Juli’s face. “Okay! Sounds like fun!”

Together, Juli and Peter sent a veritable shower of flaming limes through the teleportation pad, and Peter finished by throwing the can of gasoline through. Dani thought she could hear an explosion on the other side.

Juli raised an eyebrow at Peter. “Why a lime?” Peter shrugged.

“First thing I could think of!”

At some point, the others had joined Dani, Peter, and Juli in the locker room. As soon as Haku’s feet touched the floor, however, the shaft suddenly disappeared, and Haku fell to their knees, breathing heavily.

“Ah,” Haku said weakly. “I see.” Their form flickered wildly in the light, like a candle in the wind. “This is as far as I go, then.”

“The fuck do you mean?” Morgan growled, taking a step towards the dying immortal. Dani had to admire the speed with which Morgan prepped her pistol and pointed the weapon at Haku.

“Go ahead and shoot,” Haku snarked. “It won’t do you any good.” Morgan’s nostrils flared in anger, and without a second thought, she fired. The bullet went straight through Haku, as if Haku were nothing more than a hologram. Orbs of orange light floated away from the space left by the bullet, and as Dani looked closer, he realized that Haku’s entire body was starting to disappear.

“Oh god, oh god,” Lian murmured, running up to Haku. They tried to help Haku up, but their hands phased through Haku’s dying form. “Ohhh, this is not good.”

“You bastard!” Joshua snapped. He cracked his knuckles, as if that would do anything. “What the hell is going on?”

From the back of the room, Ilia snorted. She was leaning casually against a locker, arms crossed, and she seemed unbothered by the combined power of Joshua and Morgan’s glares. In fact, she seemed to be the only one taking this situation in stride—other than Peter, of course, who was absent-mindedly juggling three limes.

“That’s not the real Haku—just a projection of their intentions,” Ilia explained, her voice clear as a bell. “They tricked you.”

Dani gritted her teeth in frustration. Of course. Bastard.

“I get it now.” Rae made a beeline for Haku, xyr eyes narrowed. “When you had me attune to the location of someone in the prison—that was you. You’re still being held captive here. Am I wrong?”

Haku’s bitter laugh echoed through the locker room. And then, their form dissipated in a shower of orange sparks, leaving the nine mortals alone.

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