Chapter 3 - This is not a goodbye


I felt all of my remaining strength leave me as I dropped to the floor close to Xyria and Reva.

We tried to reach each other, but they started to drag us away.

Just how could this happen? One moment we were glad but also sad and the next we were forced to fight again. And after that... what? Why can't I remember?

Oh. I've received too much damage to keep everything running. Including short memory banks it seems. Not that it matters anyway with the state I'm in right now it's not going to help. Wait- are they actually saying something? I wish everything I hear wasn't filled with static right now. Oh, it's getting difficult to think now too.

"Do you think they'll-buzz-ble to st-buzz-ding cyc-buzz-ce and for all?" Damn it can't my hearing stay online for just a little longer?

"How can I know? Let's just-buzz-hat they will beca-buzz-n't want to go through this sh-silence-." Great it's completely out.

They dragged us for a few more minutes (or hours? I wish I could tell) and my vision started failing me too by now.

The last thing I was able to see were some oval shaped objects connected to a wall. Just what are they trying to do to us?

My question was answered a moment later when I felt myself get lifted and placed into what felt like... a pod? I don't know if it's just the fact I'm dead tired, but it's rather comfortable.

Or was until I felt something like very thin wires connect to the back of my neck. God, it felt weird.

Wait, why is it accessing my memory files?!

One week erlier

It has been almost half a year since school started and no one suspected a thing.

But seriously, how could people be so stupid to not notice that the four of us are a little bit weird? Take my hair for example. Personally, I think that it's kind of impossible for anyone's hair to grow almost a meter in two months. And when we played baseball I always hit the ball since it appeared to fly so slowly and I ran a bit too fast... my point being that before that crap happened I sucked at baseball... Okay I sucked at almost every sport.

Oh, and you remember how Drunt swore to return right? Well he did, but so far we always managed to beat the scrap out of his minions without receiving fatal damage. The worst we got was a slightly cracked armor, which repaired itself in a matter of minutes. Those robots are really stupid.

Yeah, and today our principal got one of his 'good' ideas and decided to send the whole school to the zoo. Where does he keep getting these ideas from anyway? The only good thing about this so far is the fact that beside the four of us everyone was shivering from the cold in their overly thick coats. I've always wondered what it would be like wearing a T-shirt and shorts in winter and not give a single fuck about it.

"Iris!"

On the other hand, I already hate this trip.

"Iris-chan come sit with us, please!" My left eye twitched.

"No, please sit with us!" I was holding an almost animalistic growl now.

"Hey there, why don't you leave them and come to us hmm? We're holding a place just for you~" That's it, I'm going to kill them! She belongs to Zero you damn idiots!

And with that I stood from my seat next to Iris and with a threatening growl glared at the damn perverts who dared to come close.

They instantly paled and quickly sat the fuck down on their own seats and kept quiet till the teachers came. Why do they even bother trying to hit on her when one of us is with her? Some people are just stupid.

Anyway the ride was so boring that I nearly fell asleep. Iris kept me awake with her babbling which I didn't really listen to. It was about some dress she saw in a store a few days ago.

It could have been a normal boring ride if the biggest bitch in the world didn't decide to open her mouth. It was a bit suspicious that she kept silent for so long.

"Alright then! Since no one bothered to split us into groups, I decided to do it myself!" Oh god I need to shut her up somehow- for the love of are these guys serious?!

"Please, let me be with you!"

"No me, please!"

"Me!"

Okay, since it doesn't look like they're going to stop shouting like idiots let me explain as to why I hate her. And also how I met Xyria...

Flashback

I turned 6 half a year ago and I was old enough for my parents to send me to school.

At first it didn't sound like a bad place until they told me that I can finally make some friends.

'I don't need any friends.' I thought with a frown as my mother led me to my classroom and after I chose a seat turned to me.

"Alright sweetie, I have to go now, but papa's going to pick you up after school. Until then try to make a lot of friends and be nice to everyone okay?" She said with a smile and ruffled my blood red hair. It's funny that besides my hair and eye color we look nothing alike.

I was sitting there doing nothing until a girl with grey eyes and dyed purple hair came to me. What kind of parent lets their kinds dye their hair at the age of 6?

"Hi!" She said with a smile which looked just a bit too much forced for my taste. Oh well mom told me to be nice.

"Hello." My tone was indifferent as I observed her carefully.

"I'm Nicolle! Would you like to be my friend?"

"Why?" She looked slightly surprised at my question. Oh, and I see a bit of annoyance there too.

"Because everyone else in this class is!" Well, she's clearly not used to people disagreeing with whatever she says.

"No thank you. I'll be fine." A look of shock replaced the confusion which soon changed into anger. A spoiled kid alright.

"Well, it's not like I need you or anything! You can stay alone forever for all I care!" She screeched and I had to cover my ears. Ouch. After that, she adopted an insulted look and stomped away to her desk. All of her 'friends' instantly came to her and started asking her what happened. All except one.

Yellow met aqua blue and I couldn't help but stare for a moment. The girl in question stared back at me and looked to be just about to come closer but the teacher came in.

It was an old lady around 60 and appeared to be very nice. She kind of reminded me of my grandmother.

So after telling us all we should need while going to school, asked us to stand up and introduce ourselves. When it was Nicolle's turn I frowned and covered my ears.

"Hello everyone! My name is Nicolle but my parents like to call me princess! I like drawing, dancing, watching films, going shopping-" she talks way too much "- Also, I hope we can all be friends!" At that moment her eyes landed in my direction and if it wasn't for that overly sickly sweet smile it might have looked like a glare. Basically, she doesn't like me and I don't like her. Good.

She finally sat down and I wasn't really paying attention to their introductions until it came to the girl who was staring at me earlier.

"Hello there. My name is Xyria and I came from England. I don't have any siblings, but I always wished to have a sister. I like drawing, swimming, chocolate, color blue, red and green. I'm looking forward to going here!" She had a bright angelic smile and for a moment I felt like I could tell her anything. She just looked way too nice.

I frowned at that and shook my head while waiting for my turn.

"Alright then we're almost done besides that girl with pretty red hair. Could you please tell us something about yourself?" The lady was just so nice that I couldn't bring myself to protest. I stood from my seat while taking a deep breath.

"I'm Gaelle and I used to live in Japan for 4 years until we moved here. I like strawberries and reading. That's all." The teacher looked surprised but continued the lesson.

When it was time for us to go home I packed my backpack and left.

"Wait!" I stopped in the middle of the corridor and looked behind me to see Xyria.

I looked at her with confusion and waited until she caught up to me.

"Do you need something?" There she did that smile again.

"Not really, I just wanted to know if I can sit with you tomorrow. It's too noisy in the back and nothing they talk about interests me." I wanted to tell her that I only sit alone, but my mom has a way of knowing things and would most likely make me regret saying it.

"I don't see why not, but please be quiet and don't take too much space." I wasn't expecting what happened next.

"Oh, thank you!" She beamed and hugged me... HUGGED ME!

'What in the world?!' I though unable to move in shock. Soon she let me go and with one last wave ran to her mother.

'What's wrong with this girl?' I wasn't very happy about the hug, but I didn't want to admit that it was mostly from me not being used to being touched by foreign people.

I sighed.

'This is going to be a fun year.' Ran through my mind as I met my dad at the entrance.

Two years later

I was sitting with Xyria in our last class. Boy was it boring!

"I think I'm going to fall asleep..."

"Go ahead, you know once Miss Smith starts talking, she never bothers to turn around and her sight is bad anyway. I'll wake you up later."

"Thanks." And with nothing holding me back now my head literally fell on the desk and after not even 10 seconds I left the reality.

Dream

When I opened my eyes, I couldn't quite believe what I saw.

I was inside some kind of a laboratory laying in a pod.

Everything around me was so dark I could barely see my own hand and being only 8 years old I started to shake in fear which I somehow swallowed down and started walking around to look for an exit. Or anything that could light the room for that matter.

I swear I was never so much scared before in my life at that moment.

"What are you doing here?" I jumped and turned around to see softly glowing blue eyes. I couldn't see the person much, but I could tell it was definitely a male by the voice.

I was shaking again and backed away slowly while trying not to trip. The person made a surprised sound when he saw me and appeared to be confused by my fearful reaction.

He started walking towards me and I quickened my pace until I felt my back hit the wall. There was no visible exit and with my inability to see in the dark there was no way for me to escape.

That's when I noticed that with each step he made strange sounds. Metallic to be more exact. And those eyes, I just couldn't tear my gaze away from them.

He was almost before me now and I somehow came to a realisation that there was no way for him to be a human. And it only scared me more. Not only was I closed in a seemingly abandoned creepy and completely dark laboratory with some strange creature, but also without a way of escape.

'I'm going to die, I just know it.' Fear soon seeped into every cell in my body at that thought. I closed my eyes and hoped for the worst to end quickly.

However, as soon as the metallic steps went silent something completely different happened.

Instead of getting hurt, I was lifted gently off of the ground and carried somewhere. And I was surprised to find out I felt safe.

"You should be still sleeping and not walking around like that, you know." My eyes shot open and I looked at him to see that... he's carrying me bridal style back to the pod?

"Wait, what?" And guess what? He was chuckling!

"Care to share what's so funny?" I said with a deadpan stare. He actually stopped and looked down at me.

"Nothing, it's just-One moment you look like a small, scared kitten and the next you look at me like... this!" This time he started laughing! Which caused me to glare at him, but being only a little kid, it was more adorable than scary.

"Who are you anyway?" He stopped laughing and looked at me with surprise, but then smiled and set me down into the pod. That's when I also noticed the long mane of golden blond hair trailing behind him. And his strange armor of the same color as my hair.

"I'm-"

"WAKE UP ALREADY!"

I got up so quickly I tripped and ended up with my face glued to the floor. And as if it wasn't enough Xyria was just having the time of her life laughing at me.

End of flashback

I couldn't help but smile at that memory since that day I learned the hard way what my mother once told me about friendship.

A good friend helps you if something bad happens. A best friend will first laugh at you and then help you.

And that thing with Nicolle was only a start. Ever since that day she did her best to make my life a living hell. And I pretty much returned the favor.

However, above all of those I gained a friend which I know I'm never going to lose.

"What are you thinking about?" Ah, speak of the devil. Just the person who has been the cause of my sour mood since this morning.

"I'm still angry at you." Xyria's mouth formed an o at that.

"... why?" Said person only blinked innocently.

"Living without water is impossible. You can't make coffee without water and without coffee, I'll kill you all!" Some people jumped at my sudden outburst and the boys who were previously bothering Iris looked at me with fright as if they did something wrong. Well, they did, but not something I could get away with killing them. Dammit.

And so without another accident on the way we reached the zoo.

"Alright kids please form as many groups as necessary of minimally 4 people. You are free to go anywhere in the zoo as long as something doesn't try to eat you. We're going to meet exactly at 4PM before the exit. Any questions? No? Well, in that case, don't let me keep you here any longer and go explore." Wow. They never actually let us do whatever we want, but I'm not gonna complain. Wait, no-I take it back!

"Why meeeeeee?" Whined Reva as the 3 of us were dragged around by a very enthusiastic Iris. I guess she has never been to a zoo before either. What in the world did she do in her free time? Watch as the training reploids beat the shit out of each other? I certainly would.

"Oh, and could the four of you come here for a moment?" didn't he just say that we're free to go?

"Is something the matter?"

"No, but um... aren't you... cold?" We looked at each other and blinked. Is there something wrong with wearing a dress, T-shirts and shorts if you're practically immune to cold? Not that they obviously know that. Not to mention we had our bodysuits on.

Somehow the more often we fought the more we got so used to the feeling we wore them under clothes regular by now.

"No, we're completely fine, but thank you for worrying- Oh my god! A white tiger! Come on come on come on!" We all sweat dropped as Iris started dragging us again.

Anyway by the time she was done dragging us around it was already 3PM and I couldn't help but remember the time when we took Iris out to buy her some clothes. Since that day I despise shopping more than ever.

However, despite all the things she did to tick me I couldn't bring myself to really get angry at her. She's like an adorable little sister. Not like the one that pulled on my hair and even called me names. That little brat. Why didn't mother, listen to me when I told her that spoiling her would be a bad idea?

Wait. No, don't go there. Just thinking about my younger sister Sarah can give me a headache. Which is something I though I couldn't get since I have an electronic brain and all. Apparently I was wrong. And Drunt wasn't helping it-WHAT THE FUCK DOES HE WANT NOW?!

"Burihihihihihih! Surprised aren't you? I already told you I won't stop till I get those crystals back!"

"Will you just shut the fuck up you m********ing son of all the ****** of the universe?!" As pissed as I may be I'm still glad my mother isn't there to hear that.

And the stupid m********ing son of all the ****** of the universe's ugly face grew so red it was even darker than my armor. And that's saying something.

"How dare you! How can such a failure like you dare to insult me! As soon as I'm done with you I'll-!"

I didn't bother listening to the rest of his speech since it's always the same thing and after finding an empty place summoned my armor.

I was soon followed by my friends and without tearing my gaze from Drunt spoke to them.

"Alright, it doesn't matter what he's prepared this time. We have only a one stupid hour to deal with this so let's split up and meet here as soon as we're finished. There are 3 entrances in this zoo-"

"G?" I looked behind me.

"What is it Iris?"

"Why are all the animals suddenly made out of metal?" I finally bothered to look around me.

Crap, she's right. Another thing to worsen my mood today.

"Hey, I think I just heard Nicolle screaming and running from a lion." Xyria had that mischievous smile which looked creepy to anyone not used to it, but the thought of Nicolle getting eaten by a lion isn't all that bad-

"Help me! Somebody help me! That overgrown cat wants to eat me! I'm way too beautiful to die here!"

"... I say we let her get eaten."

"Agreed."

"Finally peace~"

However, it was a pity Iris didn't share our enthusiasm and kept nagging us for full five minutes until we promised to save Nicolle too. I naively though there could be fun for once...

Anyway, we split up according to our abilities. Rho's (Reva) going to fight the birds and everything that can fly, Xi's (Xyria) going to fight everything that belongs in the water and I'm... going to demolish everything that walks since I can't fly and I sure as hell can't keep up with a shark underwater. Now I just feel useless since they can help me and I can't... Crap I'm spacing out again.

And Iris? She wants to try and prevent some stupid people from coming close to something that will definitely make a snack out of them. No need to worry since I highly doubt that a mere claw and fangs can even hurt us. From living animals that is.

With Iris

"Miss you can't just pet a baby tiger! His mom will hurt you!"

"Young lady zebra is a beautiful animal, but it isn't used to people coming so close to it!"

"Don't touch that snake, it's highly poisonous and there aren't any doctors nearby!"

"Get away from that rhino and stop touching his horn! The same goes for that hippo! What if he'll close his mouth with your hand still inside?!"

'They were right. The people of this world really are stupid...' Iris through with a sweatdrop as she quickly pulled a little girl from the water just before a crocodile jumped out of. By doing this she saved her life for sure, but it came with a rather not so pleasant result.

The crocodile had her hand in his mouth and tried in vain to get through the rather overly tough yet soft white bodysuit.

Iris stared at him blankly since it didn't hurt and it was rather annoying, but the lizard soon lets go as soon as he realised there was no way to bite through and with a whine disappeared into rather murky water.

No, wait. There's something wrong with him.

Soon, he came out of the water again and- Oh.

He just lost about half of his fangs. Poor guy.

Ignoring him, Iris turned back to the stupid people and almost facepalmed.

Screw that. She facepalmed herself so hard that she even winced.

"Miss, why are slapping yourself?" She was reminded of the little girl which she still held and gave her a smile while setting her down.

"No reason. I just thought I was seeing things."

But on the inside she kind of wished she did.

And that day Iris lost almost all of the hope she held for humanity. The end... NO!

With Xi

Not having to breathe and being a water type at the same time had something to it and Xi soon experienced it on her own.

"Take that!" She yelled while sending a wave of sharp ice at the strange now metallic water animals.

Almost all of them went down instantly. All but one shark with glowing red eyes which quickly turned around and tried to get away.

'Must be the leader.' Xi thought as she quickly went after him with graceful movements and started charging energy into her trident.

While the shark was fast Xi was even faster and soon she was close enough and without hesitation attacked.

"Glacial cut!" Was the last thing the shark heard before it felt a large hole in its body soon followed by an ice so cold it froze even it's insides supposedly resistant to such a threat.

Meanwhile Xi stood at the bottom of the huge water tank and with last few scans made sure that was the last of them.

A moment later the serious expression was replaced by her usual cheerful one and with a smile headed back to the land.

"I should go help G. I know she can handle it, but there's just too many animals that walk on land to make it in time."

With Rho

Unlike the first time she was forced to fly Rho now whizzed through the hordes of robots at high speed while cutting them to pieces with her short dual sabers.

Not even 10 minutes later all of the enemies were destroyed. All but one.

Rho looked at it carefully.

So far it has managed to dodge all of her attacks and even succeeded in landing a hit on her right shoulder, which at first bled more than she would have liked.

Getting ready without looking away from her opponent, she took off faster than she ever had to.

Only for the hawk-like robot to dodge once again and without waiting for her to recover shot a laser from its beak hitting her on the back and barely missing the wings.

It took a lot for Rho to not scream in pain, but she managed to keep her mouth closed. Then she turned back to the hawk and glared daggers at it which it returned with a simple empty gaze as it waited for her next action.

'Fine if you want to play so badly...'

She didn't want to do it as she didn't like using it, but the current situation didn't exactly give her a choice.

Suddenly, the air around them started to swirl, but the hawk didn't seem to notice or maybe it just didn't care.

With a look of determination Rho reached her opponent in not even 2 seconds and this time when the hawk dodged and prepared its talons to tear her to pieces.

Only that it never got the chance.

Its movements ceased completely and only a while later it fell into pieces and exploded.

Rho was after that kneeling on the ground and kept taking deep, calming breaths until she stood up and headed Gamma's way.

With Gamma

'I hate them.' Three bears were slashed in half.

'I hate them so much.' Another few joined them.

The cause of my bad mood? Let's just say that after we split up I realised that with only me dealing with enemies on land I'll have to save Nicolle.

My life sucks so much right now and it's not even January!

"Heeeelp meeeee!"

"Oh will just shut up already?!" I wanted to yell if I wasn't so busy with demolishing everything that moved in my path.

Unfortunately for me in my mad rush I destroyed them a bit too quickly.

which left me with only the stupid lion chasing Nicolle... Oh boy and do I wish she doesn't recognise me.

And just when I turned she tripped and the lion seeing the opportunity jumped.

"Kyaaaaaaa!"

THUD

"... huh?" When nothing happened, Nicolle cracked one eye open and at that moment I wanted nothing more than to be able to die.

Before I could as much as turn around, she was all over me. Literally.

And as if that wasn't enough, there was that dreamy look in her eyes as if she just found her knight in shining armor.

"Oh, thank you! I just know the right way to repay you~" She stood on her tip toes and started leaning closer towards my face.

'No. NO! NOOOOOO! I'm way too straight for this kind of crap dammit!'

"Random appearance for the win bitch!"

BAM

When I dared to finally open my eyes, I was met with the most hilarious scene in my life.

Nicolle was lying on the ground unconscious. With stars flying around her head and weird spirals for eyes.

The best part about it being that Xyria and Reva were the ones to knock her out.

And then he had to ruin it again...

"Did you really think that was all? You must be even more naive than you look. Muhahaha-cough-cough- dammit!"

"Give me that. Now." Reva gulped and after exchanging a look with Xyria handed me a strange silver and black card.

Remember the day Drunt showed up first? While I was distracting the octopus and Drunt as well the girls quickly sneaked behind him and took few things. One of them is an access card that can get me anywhere on the ship.

I'm so going to kill him for sure this time.

Drunt smirked as soon as he saw me and started rambling about his 'best creation ever' he has ever made which was supposed to be a... turtle? Really?

So for about a minute or two I just stared at the 'best creation ever' as it crawled over to me slowly... painfully slowly.

Which didn't change the fact that I'm still pissed and without giving it a chance to do something funny stabbed my sword right into its head.

Drunt appeared to be at a loss for words, but before he could flee like the times before I grabbed him and he teleported both of us back to his ship.

I used the fact that I'm almost twice as tall as him and grabbed the tentacles that served him as legs and let him hang upside down.

"What do you think you're doing?! Let me go you useless piece of junk!" Jeez, can't he stay still for a moment? His struggling is pretty annoying.

And thanks to that idiot for a planting the map of the whole ship in my head, I easily found the room I was looking for.

I paused for a moment and looked at the strange rainbow and black colored substance which kept twisting into different shapes every second.

"Hmm, I do wonder what this is."

"It's the generator powered by the suliperium. What is it to you anyway." Okay, I sure as hell don't know what suliperium or whatever he called it is but it isn't really hard to say that it could be painful to fall into.

A demonic smile made its way to my face and just like expected, Drunt became very scared for his life.

"Ready?" I said as I started swinging him from side to side until all I could hear was his shouting and without much of an effort hurled him right into the weird stuff bellow.

I watched slowly as he disappeared into nothing upon touching it and made my way to the console on the other side of the room... and set the ship to self destruct in exactly 10 minutes.

I literally skipped on the way back to the teleport not bothered by the alarm and a voice saying something in an alien language at all.

So soon I returned and during those remaining 6 minutes got popcorn to watch the show. With the girls by my side, of course.

"What did you do to him anyway?" Iris gave me that adorable innocent look with her head tilted to the side.

Crap. I forgot about Iris.

Let's just say that more than once I had to kill something living (no human included) and to put it simply Iris wasn't very happy about it. How she's able to change from adorable to scary, I'll never know. And I don't want to.

"Well.." What am I supposed to say? Think, dammit! "... I was chasing him around the ship and it got to the point where he was just not looking where he was running and fell down to a weird black and rainbow colored stuff." Oh god please, Iris believe it!

"Oh, I see!" Phew.

And just then, there was a huge explosion and oddly enough, I found it rather relaxing knowing that no one's going to bug us for a while.

After that we changed back to our regular clothes and headed to meet with the rest of our class.

Two days later

With Drunt gone you surely thought there will be peace now right?

"Whaaaa? That's just terrible!"

That is if Iris wasn't around.

"How can people be so cruel-"

"God damn it! Shut up X!" Came from Xyria's room. She's probably playing Megaman X (not sure which one).

But if I just close my eyes and ignore them a little I can finally eat my delicious cake-

"Gaelle! Xyria! Can you please come down to the lab for a moment?"

"Can I come too?"

"No, sorry Iris. This is something I'd like to tell them in private."

"Buuuuuuut-" She stopped and looked at the plate with blueberry cream cake now in front of her.

Without a word she took it and started eating happily while I and Xyria went towards the elevator. My poor cake...

Once we were all in the lab Reva turned to us with pure excitement.

"I think I found out how to send Iris back."

Three days later

We were so happy about it that we forgot to tell Iris. So, when we did none of us expected for her to become disappointed.

"What's wrong Iris? I thought you'll be happy." Xyria was sitting next to her in the living room. At Xyria's question she turned to face her.

"I thought that too, but now... I just don't know." We looked at each other with worry. This is the first time Iris got seriously depressed since she appeared in our world.

"... when I first woke up here I wanted nothing more than to go home, but after meeting you I just... slowly got used to being with you. I'm not really sure if I want to go back now." She hung her head sadly and not even a second later tear was steaming down her cheek which was soon followed by sobbing.

"Iris, do you-"

"No, I-I'm fine. I just need t-to think for a bit." After that she quickly ran up to her room.

Silence ruled after that for almost an entire hour.

"So what are we going to do? We're fully prepared, but the question is what is going to be her decision."

"I've already run all the tests I could to make sure it's safe."

"That's true, but I don't think her reaction was caused by fear or anything like that." We looked at Xyria curiously. Having our full attention she continues.

"Unlike you two I'm naturally a social butterfly and I can tell when someone get's attached enough to go even against what they think is their main core of happiness. In this case Iris misses her brother and the rest of Repliforce dearly. We all saw that. However the longer she stayed with us the more our friendship grew stronger. Especially with you Gaelle." She smiled at my baffled look I sent her way. Reva even chuckled!

"No way, you really haven't noticed how she acts around you? With us she's all happy and cheerful, but with you it's like she's showing a part of herself other people won't ever see. In my opinion, she sees you as a kind of an older sister. No matter what she does to you to make you angry, you never yell at her! And don't try to lie please." I was at a loss of words. They were right.

"I..." I stared at the ground for a moment before meeting their gazes again. "... I never realized that she acted that much different. Come to think of it-"

"G? What is it?" I was staring at the mirror with widened eyes as the realization hit me.

"Girls, I think I found a way to solve this problem." They looked at me in question and I couldn't help but grin.

In the morning

Iris hasn't left her room since we told her of a way to get her back. But that was fine since we were free to work all night on solving said problem. It was about 7 AM by the time we were ready and now stood before her door.

"Iris? Can we please talk to you?" I said after knocking. I heard her get out of bed and walk to open the door. The sight that met me, surely broke something in me.

She was fine and all until you looked at her red eyes with some tears still present.

I reached for her face and gently wiped the tears until there were none left. I couldn't help but smile.

"There. Isn't that much better?" I was only met with silence as Iris stared at me in surprise.

"Look, I know that you're probably overthinking what to do, but... I think this problem might be solved." She blinked at me and without a word we have moved to the living room this time sitting on the big black couch.

"What is it you wanted to tell me?" I had to resist the urge to grimace at how raspy her voice sounded.

"Well, when you left yesterday we started thinking and we came with an idea. I know you definitely miss your home and people you consider a family, but at the same time you don't want to leave us because you got so used to being with us, right?" Iris looked at the ground for a moment then back to me and nodded.

"What if I told you there is a way for us to visit you?" Her eyes widened instantly at that.

"Really? You can do that?" We were all smiling now.

"Of course. It's true that you make me angry sometimes but I just can't be mean to you. You're like our little sister." There was a flash of surprise in her eyes, but soon her face broke into a big smile and without waiting for us to react hugged us.

"Thank you thank you thank you! You have no idea how much it means to me." We stayed like that for a moment before I remembered something.

"Yeah, and Iris?"

"Hmm?"

"There's something we didn't get to tell you yesterday. You remember the way you got there right? It seems like the same portal is going to appear tomorrow at midnight." She looked way too surprised to say anything besides a small "Oh."

"We've already prepared everything and ran all possible tests to make sure it's safe. You should be able to pass without a scratch with this body since it is much more durable. As for the visiting part... it will take us about a year before we can make a portal ourselves. Is that okay with you?" She kept silent for a moment, but soon smiled at us.

"That sounds okay. I can't wait to tell brother when I get back. I'll definitely wait for you until you come." And with this solved, we all laughed and spend our remaining time together.

The next day - 10 minutes before midnight

"So, this is the place?"

"Yes. The radar pointed to the same place as before. I wonder if it's going to happen some more times?" We shrugged at Reva's question.

We waited for 8 minutes in complete silence with Iris standing next to me and carrying some of her things.

And then the same portal appeared out of nowhere.

"So this is it, huh?" I looked at Iris, who looked to be on the verge of tears again. I sighed and wiped them away.

"Come on now you promised us not to cry. Besides, this is not a goodbye. We promised to see each other again right?" She smiled and we hugged for the last time that day.

"I guess. Well then, see you later?"

"Yeah. See you later." We smiled and waved until Iris disappeared into the portal which closed afterwards.

We stood there in silence praying for her safety and turned to go home a while later.

Present

When the images suddenly stopped, I felt so dizzy I thought I was gonna throw up even though it was impossible.

With the last bit of my strength gone, I slowly but surely fell into a deep sleep.