75 Might - Part 3

"I would like to thank you all for the part you will be playing. It's times like these, that I can really enjoy myself. I mean it's a good thing to enjoy ones' hobby." Drahyun was currently sitting on the Captain's floating chair inside the airlock chamber in front of the nineteen humans and one elf. "Did you know I found a toy? The AI brought her attention to me. Got to give credit where it is due. Her name is Lera and she is such an interesting woman. From what we found out, she is a genetically pure human. A completely rare find if I'm being honest… Quiet now, I'm telling a story."

Byyuan took two smacks to the face. Blood pooled in his mouth, but they had gagged him, so he swallowed it. They put metal cuffs on both his hands and legs. Forced into a kneeling position based on how the metal was looped around the anchors on the ground. He couldn't even see either now as the people going around were covering his eyes along with the others around him. He could see Jev to the left, but not Ayanni or Paroppe from where he was.

"She's just like a child, but in her twenties. Just like those high and mighty corporate children who don't really know anything about the way life works. Not that attention grabbing, but here is where it gets interesting. What the AI first noticed about her was that her habits were just not right. That was how it answered me, but I have to agree. When she sleeps, instead of slowly falling asleep, she just randomly sleeps at random moments, but always wakes up on time no matter how little or much she sleeps. We thought about cybernetics, but she is completely human. No gene mods either. It's the same with food and what not." His voice went through a range of emotions. Bored to elation to curiosity to a nonchalant attitude, but overall joyful. His voice made Byyuan sick.

"Anyway, she's a really nice woman. So like any toy, you need to break them to get any real enjoyment out of them. So she will be the ones to eject all of you into the vacuum of space. Aren't you all excited? I am."

---

Paroppe listened to him leave with the guards. She struggled against her bindings. To at least free herself and find her brother, Byyuan and get Lera away from that monster. She was going to beat his head in.

As much as she tried to bend her head towards her hands, to at least remove the coverings, she found it was on too tight. It wouldn't be coming off that easily. As this was an emergency, she attempted to cast the little magic she knew to go something. An ice spell that could freeze these metal bindings and shatter them. With her time, she attempted to freeze it, but it never broke.

Something Ayanni had mentioned a few times came to her. It was about how the people of this universe developed technology. An advanced version from the other world where Lera had been living. But for it to advance the degree it had here, the structures needed to be sturdier. So they developed better metals to support what they needed to build. To be resistant to heat from reactors and prevent it becoming brittle from the coldness of space. So her spell was worthless.

---

Jev couldn't see anyone by the time he awoke. He went to bed like normal after seeing off Lera, then woke up here bound and listening to the disgusting individual of Drahyun. He cursed in his head as he tried to force his way out of these shackles.

For a moment, he wanted to blame Lera. To push all the fault to her. This vacation was planned by her. That Drahyun guy was after her and because of that he, his sister and best friend were caught along with him. Byyuan too.

But he knew that to be false. It wasn't her fault, not at all. So he pushed all his anger towards Drahyun.

If he found Lera to be some toy, Jev was more than willing to make Drahyun his. He was sure that Paroppe was thinking the same thing from how she treated Lera.

---

Ayanni thought about what he could do. He had already tried to free himself in different ways. Then he remembers seeing something he learned while looking up how the military functioned in Hapho. Well that country where Hapho was located. There he learned about dislocating his thumb to allow himself to make his hand smaller, to the size of his wrist, to break out of the bindings.

He hadn't really been in this type of situation before, so it was just something he read in passing. But the reason he knew it worked there, was because if you were cuffing someone, you would want them alive. From what he understood about Drahyun and how he acted, they weren't expected to live through 'this part they are all playing'. The cuffs were on too tight and when he tried his idea, he still couldn't get them off. He might lose his hands if the blood is cut off for too long.

He could only hope Paroppe was alive in the meantime. The memories of her flooded his mind.

---

Byyuan could hear one of the audio of the Captain talking about a group of people attempting to destroy this ship. Which he assumed Drahyun had framed them to take over the ship. But he remembered that Drahyun sat in the Captain's chair when talking about Lera.

Then the laugh came from the Captain. Even if the voice sounded different, like the Captain's, Byyuan could hear that disgusting laugh come from Drahyun.

As he mentioned Lera, Byyuan felt his blood boil. No one was ever going to harm his children. He might be a boy, a young man, but at heart he was a mother, a grandmother. He would take care of his family at the cost of his life.

Drahyun asked Lera why she was hesitating. Clearly Lera was confused by the situation as Byyuan could barely hear her voice, but he noticed it shake in uncertainty. Eventually she gave in and agreed.

That was when he heard an alarm going off and started to squirm around. Doing whatever he could to break free. The air in the room was starting to be sucked out. As he found it hard to breath, his movements started to slow. Then he heard the door open, before nothing.

There was no sound around and he could breathe again. His bindings soon came off and he looked around. Lera was panicking and crying. He wrapped his arms around her telling her it would be alright.

He looked around to see Paroppe, Jev, and Ayanni walk closer. Clearly angry, not at Lera, but at the one who put them in this position.

---

Paroppe watched as Lera cried in Byyuan's arms. She kept blaming herself for this, for what happened to them and this whole trip was just a mistake. Byyuan kept speaking calming words to Lera.

"It's fine, we're fine. It's going to be alright" She heard him say. Actually Byyuan reminded Paroppe of her mother. It was strange.

She knelt down on the ground next to Lera and gave her a hug.

"Thank you for saving us Lera." But that didn't help the situation. Lera just broke down further.

"It's all my fault!" Lera was hysterical.

Then she watched as Lera tried to catch her breath. Something was wrong, but she didn't know what to do.

Then she saw a strange color tint to Lera's veins traveling up her neck towards her brain. Drahyun must have done something to her.

"Lera heal yourself. Please!"

Lera must have understood what was happening as Lera calmed down and slowed her breathing. In an instant that strange discoloration to her veins vanished.

While Lera was no longer in danger, she was more of a husk of herself. Staring off into the distance, with her eyes barely open.

"We should get her out of here."

The others must have known what she was talking about. Before they left Lera put an app on their tech pads that would allow them to travel back to Lera's place, the Void Home as she called it, and their homes. Since the SPINE's functioned as their tech pads here, they all teleported out of there.

---

In Lera's home, Ayanni watched as Byyuan took Lera to the couch down the hallway into the main living area. He carefully tucked Lera in and stayed next to her until her eyes closed.

'I'll stay with her.' Byyuan mouthed towards them.

Ayanni followed Paroppe and Jev into Paroppe's room.

"I want to rip Drahyun's face off. Seriously!" As Paroppe screamed that, he was glad that the rooms were sound proof.

"He needs to die. I'm sure everyone there was just as innocent as us." Jev stated.

While Ayanni felt the same way as them, there wouldn't be much they could do.

"Without Lera, we're stuck. She didn't undo this 'time stop' effect. The doors are electrical and won't open without it going forward. I know we can break them down given enough time, but our SPINES were disabled there too."

"I didn't think about that." Paroppe commented. She was still fuming, but calmed down to think of a plan.

"Again, Lera would need to make them function using her powers. We used them like they belonged in that world. Now the tech pads can work anywhere. If I have enough time, I could figure something out, but again we should focus on Lera. Because what if she breaks down like before or worse…" He left the rest unsaid as Paroppe was staring him down at that.

"You're right." Jev agreed with him. That seemed to calm Paroppe down. "She's our main priority. No matter how much I would like to help you, " Jev said as he looked at Paroppe, "rip his face off, we need to get time flowing again. If we think about it, do we even need to go back?"

While he was right, he already knew how Jev felt about that. Just like his sister, Jev was already committed at getting back at Drahyun. Ayanni also felt that way. Just to get away from there and never go back. They had no reason to. But then again they hurt and to kill Paroppe. He wouldn't let Drahyun and his goons go.

"I'm going to Lera's side." Paroppe said as she started walking away.

Before she left, Ayanni had an idea. "I'll get our weapons, armor and food. We don't know how long this is going to last, so I'll start on preparations." Thankfully they could travel to Suul and Hapho for any supplies they might need. He also needs to look in Lera's fridge too.

"I'll go with you." Jev said.

---

Paroppe went out of her room and towards Lera. She had been so worried and scared that Lera wasn't going to get any better. Tears were starting to form in her eyes as she approached Byyuan and Lera.

Lera was sleeping, she could tell by her breathing. It was funny, when Lera stayed awake beside her with her eyes closed pretending to be asleep, she always wanted to force her to sleep. Like with Lera's powers. It seemed so unnatural to not be able to sleep, but it didn't seem to bother or affect Lera.

At least she had fallen asleep.

"How is she?" Paroppe whispered to Byyuan. She didn't think he had any answers, but needed to ask anyway.

"She's going to need time. If we push her too much, we might never get her back." Byyuan sighed. "I don't know much about this stuff. I only know, from what my parents watch on tv, is that she needs professional help. Giving her space and time… You know what I mean."

Paroppe was nervous. She really didn't want anything to happen to her sister and wanted to help in any way possible, but just like Byyuan, neither really knew what to do in a situation like this.

In the meantime, she whispered to Byyuan what Jev and Ayanni were doing.

"That's good. We really should be thinking about how to handle this situation." He was holding the bridge of his nose. "Okay, she needs help. Hemmy, yes… We need to get her… we can't."

"Lera's therapist?"

"Yes, she could help… How much do you know about this? If we were to find her and bring her here, would she still be frozen?"

"I don't know. I think so. I'm certain I've only seen Lera unfreeze people."

"Alright then. Ayanni might know more. In the meantime I will use my tech pad to do some research… I don't need something to tell me how to take care of my child." Even if Byyuan mumbled out that last part, Paroppe still heard him.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess I should tell you. I've only told Lera this, but with how things are right now, we could use a distraction while she rests."

Paroppe listened to Byyuan talk about his past. How he used to be Sarussi before he died of old age on the same world that Paroppe was from. He even mentioned Heryan, which took Paroppe a moment to connect who that was, was his great-granddaughter. He mentioned while referred Lera as 'her child.'

"When I met Lera she was just this young woman who was a dishwasher. How she acted around others, nervous and took care to make them like her without talking to them, she seemed more like a child. That made me think of my children… and well I just started talking to her. You might not have noticed before, as you didn't know the real me, but I tend to talk a lot. Eventually she started to open up to me and it took off from there. Then once I heard her mention Suul, I told her the truth. We became even closer because of that."

Eventually after his story finished, Paroppe asked an important question.

"Do you think that it's strange that you end up reborn in a world that Lera… uh Kear, had considered close to her home world or whatever? Also Lera met Heryan, your great-granddaughter."

"I thought about that, yes. After she told me everything she knew, I think Kear connected both worlds, intentionally or not, and that led to me being there."

"What about Heryan?"

"Who knows…" Byyuan gave a shrug.

"Should I still call you Byyuan or Sarussi?"

"While it's nice to hear my old name again, I found a new life in that world and this body. Byyuan works for me. Sarussi died a long time ago."

"Can I ask… What is it like?"

"A different body?" Paroppe nodded. Byyuan gave a complicated smile. "I won't lie, it was strange at first. Actually I even rejected the whole thing. It's obviously different than my old body, but I got used to it. It grew on me." A wide smirk appeared. "It isn't all that different, but I'm much more comfortable than I had been previously. I can't say I ever thought about it as Sarussi, but now that I am a man, I can't ever imagine going back. It just feels like the real me now. Not like I plan to go back or ask Lera to change my body either… she could do that couldn't she?" He mumbled out that last part. With the room being as quiet as it was, Paroppe could hear that like the last one.

"Yeah… Anything really."