When everything is over, I turn and look at her ruffled hair spreading on the ground. She looks breathtaking. I comb her hair with my fingers and sit against one of those overgrown trees. This whole planet is weird. The sky is black like it’s covered by a veil of soot.

I don’t want this moment to end. Everything’s so quiet and lukewarm. Yes, that’s the word. Neither warm nor cold, everything’s lukewarm and gray. The only thing that matters is for her to stay alive and happy. I keep telling myself that my mission is to crack the code of that damned cube, but I’m not sure that is my mind I keep talking to.

You’re right about that. It’s not.

I hear my voice reply to me in a sudden moment of perfect clarity. It’s like I said something to myself years ago and it came to haunt me now. Either way, all this fucking and adventuring must be getting in my head. There’s no way I would talk to myself in the second person. This is all an illusion.

“Hey, Eladia.” She snaps; she looks lost. “Don’t keep your hair up anymore. You look better like that,” I say to her. Her face brightens, and I’m sure I glimpse the start of a smile in the edge of her mouth.

“It’s not practical, but I’ll try. Imagine running to get away from the next disaster and your hair getting in the way,” she says, over-explaining her thought.

She’s so cute when she does that.

I shake my head trying to empty it from all those infatuations. She makes my head light.

She’s not yours. Don’t even think about it.

What the fuck? Here it goes again. I get on my feet as quick as I can and get dressed. Something is going wrong with me, I can feel it deep in my bones.

“What? What’s wrong?” she asks me immediately.

I’m going crazy, that what’s wrong. I talk to myself in the second person.

“I think it would be better if we reunited with the rest of the crew. Do you have a way to find your robot? I’m sure she and that hairy man will be together. I don’t have a good feeling about this planet,” I say.

She seems to bite the bait. Eladia gets on her feet I get one last glimpse of her beautiful body. She looks perfect naked as well, but I’m not in the mood to fuck her anymore. God...me, Jasih of the Esuh, a Prime Officer and one of the First Kind I’m not in the mood for more fucking?

I feel the hair on the back of my neck prickle. Something's coming, something dangerous and overwhelming.

“Eladia, get behind me. If anything happens to me, you run. Run as fast as you can. I will cover you,” I say to her but the words are not my own.

I hear twigs snapping, leaves rustling, the sounds getting louder and louder by the moment until suddenly a figure appears out of nowhere. I roar after I see a yellow haired human with big, expressive, blue eyes. I’m ready to attack him when Eladia shouts:

“Jay, no! He’s my friend!”

I stop, not because she asked me to, but because there is something there, in the back of my mind, like an itching you can’t scratch.

The blond human is trembling in front of me, making him a target unworthy of my wrath. However, my instincts are still on alert, and I await eagerly for the true danger to reveal itself.

Close behind him, Silver and Zan appear, the second on his fours holding a pointy stick, probably made like that by him to use as a weapon. It’s useless in my opinion, but thoughtful. He could act as the first line of defense if anything happens.

I turn and watch Eladia hurry to their side, hugging every last one of them, even that blonde man.

“Isn’t anyone going to introduce me to this man?”

Doctor Dale Cross; friend.

“What the hell?” I yell.

This time, I’m sure. Something is wrong with me. Someone else is inside me.

Jasih of the Esuh, you’re not alone. I’m your other half, the light of your soul, your brother. Follow me.

The voice commands me to run deeper into the woods, away from the people I care about. I don’t want to do it, but it doesn’t seem like I have a choice.

Before I turn and leave, my eyes fall on Eladia. Something tells me that it’s going to be some time before I see her again. So, even though I’m not sure my actions are my own anymore, I move to her side. She’s talking to her friends about something, mostly technical and science stuff. I smile at her enthusiasm and her loose hair. For the first time, she doesn’t use her hands to tighten her ponytail even more.

I lay closer to her and whisper something in her ear. The weird thing is even I don’t hear what I say. There’s only a warm feeling coming from the tips of my fingers and toes as I turn and run away.

“Jay stop!” I hear her say but I can’t.

I want to…

but there’s something I have to do.