"Hey, dude; wake up." Satoru slapped Larkin's face to try and get him to wake up, but the man stubbornly remained unconscious. The same was true for Tanya, but Satoru slapped her too, just in case. A quick look with Six-Eyes told him that an incredibly powerful burst of Cursed Energy had overpowered their True Negative Cursed Energy and left them in their current vegetative states. They'd wake up eventually though; their brains were still intact and unharmed, and whatever physical damage they sustained was minor, at worst, most likely sustained when all three of them were struck with something and Larkin and Tanya were both sent falling and tumbling to the ground. "Ah, shit."

Satoru shook his head and applied a small, but immediate burst of Reverse Cursed Energy all throughout his body, healing all the little wounds and tears and bruises that'd suddenly appeared all over him. He gritted his teeth, though he still grinned, somehow, at the fact that – whatever it was that'd struck all three of them – was able to penetrate the endless space of Infinity. Unsurprising, of course, given that Infinity was not at all infallible, as Satoru learned the hard way.

But... this time, he wasn't even sure just what the heck actually happened. Were they attacked or was this simply the side effect of them doing this... Warp Jump thing? Space was a funny thing, Satoru knew. And breaching the speed of light was bound to have a lot of consequences. Still, he wouldn't know until Larkin woke up and explained everything to him, because there were many things – variables and other shit – that he still didn't know about. His head throbbed and his Cursed Energies fluctuated wildly. Satoru frowned. Infinity was still active, just as it was supposed to be; but using one of his other Cursed Techniques would take up quite a bit of effort.

Not good. But, at least, they were still inside the ship and – judging from the silence – were still outer space. The only thing he could see through the viewing ports was an endless expanse of black and not at all that hellish place he'd seen with the...

Satoru's eyes narrowed.

Huh...

The second possibility was those hellish entities may have answered his challenge by swatting him away in mild amusement, the same reaction Satoru would have had if a housefly flew right up to him in his own home and started getting snarky and pissy. Fair enough. Satoru was very strong, but he wasn't the strongest; Sukuna was – maybe – stronger than him. But those things, those entities, they were on an entirely different level of power. At the very least, they were still alive. A housefly definitely wouldn't survive if it started acting tough and talked shit in front of him.

Breathing in and shaking his head, Satoru walked towards the nearest viewing port. From where he stood, close to Larkin's and Tanya's unconscious forms, his Six-Eyes couldn't see anything more than the infinite dark of space. The closer he moved to the 'windows', the more he was able to perceive the space beyond the their vessel Infinity unraveled before his eyes, an endless sea of blinking celestials and blazing suns. It was beautiful, definitely. And, soothing in the literal sense; without a million variables and objects to process all at once, his Six-Eyes could actually somewhat relax.

Awesome.

Well, there were definitely a lot of stars here, Satoru mused. But he wasn't here for sightseeing, no matter how fun that might actually be, given where he was at the moment. Still, almost immediately, he realized that they were no longer anywhere near the world they'd departed, because he didn't recognize any of the stars here. Not that he was intimately familiar with the constellations there, to be entirely fair, but Satoru never forgot anything he saw once – or, at the very least, he didn't forget easily. "I guess... we succeeded?"

The plan was to get away from the planet, somewhere the Astartes couldn't follow them. Well, who in the bloody fuck was going to follow them all the way out here, in the middle of fucking nowhere? The only problem now was that Satoru couldn't see a single planet anywhere near them – or anywhere at all, actually. The ship had somehow disappeared and reappeared in dead space, completely empty.

This was bad.

"It seems you've found yourself in quite the pickle, Satoru." A fell and familiar voice echoed in his ears. Satoru's eyes widened. Kairos' presence flooded the entirety of the vessel, the mark upon his heart erupting in a blaze of azure flames "Surprised? Did you think I'd – we'd– have no means of contacting you once you left the planet? Everything you've done has been gone according to our – my– plan from the beginning... until now."

Hmm that sounded just about right.

"Oh, good." Satoru said, forcing his heart to still and calm. He succeeded, but only barely. The rush of excitement and wonder and fear that filled him was almost too much to hold back. He glanced down at his mark. And there he felt the big blue fucking bird's presence, it's massive presence, a tiny sliver of which was physically warping the very air within the vessel. The only place that Satoru found unaffected were his immediate surroundings, specifically due to the presence of both Larkin and Tanya, their True Negative Cursed Energies halting the advance of Kairos' Neutral Cursed Energy. "That means you have a way to get us out of here, right?"

"You've caught my – our - master's attention." Kairos said and Satoru felt a shiver running down his spine. Kairos had a master? Well, Satoru had already expected something of that nature. The only beings he could think of that towered over something as powerful as Kairos were those four entities he'd shouted at back then. Kairos' master must've been one of them. Holy shit. "I – we – must say, even we – I – find such a thing to be a... an unpleasant surprise. And now we – I – are – am – forced to expend one of my – our – tasks."

"Oof, sucks to be you, big boy." Satoru shrugged. But, his Six-Eyes narrowed. It didn't take a genius to figure out, merely through the ebb and flow of its Cursed Energies, that Kairos was more than a little annoyed and possibly very angry – the sort of anger and annoyance that came with being cornered. And that meant Kairos couldn't say no to whoever its master was. Interesting. "Don't know what to tell you there, buddy. Don't you just hate it when upper management digs their nose where they shouldn't? So, what does the boss man from upstairs want with little old me?"

Strangely, Kairos chuckled with genuine amusement – or whatever passed as genuine for such an entity. Kairos' Cursed Energy was weird. It shifted and writhed endlessly, but... Satoru caught the faint feeling that it was all an act... that there was something else hidden right underneath the feathers. But... nah, that wasn't any of his business. If Kairos was secretly gay, then who was he to judge?

"The Architect of Fate has heard your challenge, sorcerer." Kairos said. And the blaze of blue flames from the mark over Satoru's heart receded. "Tzeentch is most amused with you, Satoru. And, to thank you for the entertainment you've provided, the Changer of Ways has seen fit to grant you passage through the Realm of Chaos and into a habitable place – of sorts. This vessel of yours is, as we – I - speak, drifting towards an Aeldari Craftworld, a leviathan construct that houses the remains of a dying race. At the center of this Craftworld is something known as an Infinity Circuit – do not touch it. The Aeldari maintain an artifact known as a Shard of Khaine, held within a ritualistic chamber. Steal it. The method you choose is yours, Satoru. Be warned, the Aeldari will give their lives to stop you."

Oh, that sounded like a lot of fun.

"Well, tell the boss I'm really grateful for this opportunity." Satoru smiled. Huh, he was going to have to fight a bunch of aliens, wasn't he? Well, if nothing else, that should be a novel experience. He'd never seen an alien before. Satoru always wanted to. What sort of dork lied and said they didn't want to meet an alien? Holy shit. But, well, Kairos was kind of like an alien, kind of. An alien Cursed Spirit, perhaps. But these would be living creatures. Actual freaking aliens. It was a nerd's dream come true, except that nerd was hot and strong. "I've always wanted to go on a heist and steal shit from an alien race. This is a dream come true for me."

On a more serious notes, Kairos had dropped a bunch of details that warranted some level of extrapolation on his part. First of all, the alien culture that he'd be going up against was known to Kairos as Aeldari, which really didn't quite roll off the tongue so well, but that was to be expected with them being alien and all that jazz. The second bit of information was the name of their apparent vessel, a Craftworld. There were two possibilities here: the name was literal or it wasn't. Either way, anything that was referred to as a Craftworld couldn't possibly be small. Gojo Satoru, by himself, going up against an entire world of aliens sounded like a synopsis for the best novel ever written.

Or the best movie ever made.

Either way, it was going to be the best, simply because it'd be starring him, Gojo Satoru, the most handsome creature to ever exist in the cosmos.

"Ha! I – we - knew you'd be up for the task, sorcerer." Kairos chuckled. Really, paying attention to Kairos' words was difficult, when its Cursed Energies were about a thousand times more interesting than anything it could say. Though their connection was faint, Satoru was able to, however faintly, peer right into the hellish realm of Cursed Energy, where Kairos was. And he took that moment to study as much of it as he could, to learn and learn and learn and discern more of its secrets. The most likely outcome, Satoru admitted, was that he'd understand nothing new; it'd be disappointing, but also unsurprising. And, if nothing else, witnessing such... chaos unfold before him was... strangely beautiful – in an eerie sort of way. "Be warned, Satoru. If you fail, I – we - will have your soul. But, if you succeed, you will be... rewarded quite richly."

"Yeah, yeah, that's always gonna be the deal with you guys, isn't it? Hurr durr you must do dis or else we will eat your soul hurr durr." Satoru shrugged and crossed his arms behind his head as he sat down on a nearby chair and leaned back against the back rest, turning his gaze to the ceiling. "Did that sound about right?"

He did not miss the spark of amusement that bled right into his connection with Kairos. Well, it was nice to know that the big blue bird liked him, after all. Satoru couldn't quite say that the feeling as mutual, but it definitely was an interesting relationship, if nothing else.

"It did." Kairos chuckled. "But we – I – are not all mustache-twirling villains. You've not know true torment your whole life; it is clear to see. You've not suffered, never felt pain, never descended into madness and agony. My – our – threat is not idle, Satoru; fail and you shall find yourself longing for something as sweet as pain."

"Man, shut the fuck up and get to the point. Your big blue ass is trying way too hard to be dramatic." This time, Satoru closed his eyes. If he was, indeed, gonna be fighting an entire world, then... yeah, he was gonna need all the strength he could muster. Oh, he was strong and he'll always be strong. But, ironically, even Gojo Satoru had his limits. He knew nothing about his enemies, aside from the fact that there might be millions of them and that they were willing to fight to their deaths, which meant fuck all in the grand scheme of things. He was gonna have to go in there, guns blazing and ass kicking. Or he could brush up his sneak skills and hope for the best. "I get what you're trying to say; it's just that you're kind of repeating yourself here and, well, it's getting stale. So, let me summarize it for you; I go in, steal shit, and then hope to our boss that there's a way for me to get out."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Kairos' voice echoed across the vessel, twisting the very air, warping metal, and causing some portions of the wall and floor to turn liquid. Freaky. "Worry not for how you'll depart, Satoru. Do not fail."

"You got it, boss." Satoru gave a mock salute. "I won't let down the super boss."

Kairos chuckled for a moment, before its presence winked out.

Satoru sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Oh boy."

AN: (Pat)reon is up to Chapter 16!