Chapter 148

– 00:01:57:27 –

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“Sage!” I cried out, “You’re… By Apex! What happened to your face!?!”

“He’s gone… He’s gone… He’s gone.”

Sage was babbling, she looked completely distraught which was an unfamiliar and terrifying look on her. We’d probably never be friends, too much bad blood between us, but I admired her confidence, her tenacity. All of that was gone at the moment.

I stepped forward and gave her a shake, “Snap out of it Sage! We don’t have time!”

I tried to keep the edge out of my voice, but I couldn’t get the countdown out of my mind, we had less than a minute to get onto the ship.

“Shaela?” Sage asked, focus finally returning to her eyes, “How much time?”

I pointed to the monitor that was still displaying the timer, one minute and forty-five seconds was all that was left, but we had only forty-five.

“We have a problem,” I stated as I handed her my busted transportation cube.

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Shaela passed me her cube. Upon visual inspection, it looked beyond repair but I gave it a quick scan to make sure.

“It’s useless!” I spat as I threw it on the ground.

 

“Only one of us can go back now, right?”

“Yeah,” and I’m the one with the only working cube.

I banished that thought as soon as it appeared, but it threatened to overwhelm me as it continued to whisper in my mind to use the cube and leave Shaela stranded here.

“Sage?”

 

I looked down at the cube, why shouldn’t I use it? I wasn’t the one that let their cube get destroyed… just let her friend get destroyed instead…

Yet she wasn’t my friend… she could be…

 

“Sage!?!”

 

In this universe, it is everyone for themselves… but it doesn’t have to be, you can change, you have changed…

 

My hand hovered over the button, and instinctively I knew that my tail was keeping Shaela at a distance… you don’t need to keep people at a distance, let them in…

 

I let someone in before, and they broke my heart… that was over two thousand years ago, let it go…

 

My finger touched the button, and I looked up at Shaela… don’t do this, you’re better than you give yourself credit for…

 

“What are you waiting for? GO!” Shaela shouted, breaking me out of my reverie.

 

In that instant, I knew what I had to do. I tossed the cube at Shaela.

“No, you go.”

The look of shock on her face was worth dying for.