Everything was black. I tried to light a fire but failed. I was alone. I thought I might be in space on Earth where there was zero gravity. I bounced around and around without trying to. How long this continued, I had no idea. It could have been an hour, maybe days, even years, but that did't matter.
Was I dead? No. I saw light in the distance. It was faint, only the size of a human postage stamp, but it was there. I floated toward it, and when it was large enough for me to squeeze through, I did. I immediately had the sensation of falling and slowed my fall with my flames and found myself on the roof of a very large building. I walked to the edge of the roof and looked out.
The sight was unbelievable. I wasn't just on the roof of a building, I was on the roof of a tower. The tower was in the shape of a pentagonal prism that was at least fifty meters wide and perhaps three hundred meters off the ground. Below the tower was a courtyard with a stone base.
Suddenly, I sensed movement coming from above me. Looking up, I saw the portal expand, emptying out onto the roof of this tower. A figure was falling through, and two seconds later, Demetrio got to his feet in front of me.
"Aden," he said in surprise.
"Demetrio," I said. "Are the others coming?"
"I think they are. Where are we?"
"I'm pretty sure that we're on the new dimension."
"So Vadrak's plan worked?" Demetrio asked.
I didn't have time to answer as Hearst fell from the portal right on top of Demetrio's. I helped the two of to their feet, and we looked at one another.
"Has anyone else arrived?" Hearst asked.
"No, but I don't think it should take long," I said.
"What do we do once the other seven are here?" Demetrio asked.
"We might want to look around and see if we can find a way to get out of here," I suggested.
"Okay, that sounds like a good idea," Demetrio agreed.
"I agree as well," Hearst put in.
Backing up, I said, "The two of you might want to watch out. Someone else is about to come through the portal."
By now I recognized the way that the portal swelled up to the size of an elephant. They stepped back just as both Timur and Irvin fell through the portal. They got to their feet and brushed the dirt off of their clothes.
"Welcome to the new dimension," I said.
"Have Aurelia, Izumi, Tamara, Vesta, and Gina, arrived yet?" Timur asked.
"Not yet," Hearst replied.
Irvin cocked his head to the side when Timur mentioned our friends.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I'm not sure exactly, but I have a feeling that Izumi, Tamara, Vesta, Gina, and Aurelia did not come through the portal when we did."
"But they fell in with us, I'm sure of it," Demetrio said.
"They did, but there must have been a fork in the road. They went one way, and we went the other."
"Why do you say this?" Hearst asked.
"I can't say, I just know that I'm right."
"Is it possible that they came through before us?" Timur asked. "Maybe we just have to find them."
"It's possible, but unlikely," Irvin said.
"Here's an idea," Demetrio proposed. "We wait here until someone else comes through the portal, whether it's one or all of our friends or another hecapsycheir. If it's another hecapsycheir, we ask if he's seen our friends. If not, we look for them in this dimension."
"I think that's a good idea," I said.
Irvin, Timur, and Hearst agreed as well. We looked off the roof at the landscape beyond.
Imagine a five-pointed star. That star is made up of a pentagon and five separate triangles. Each triangle was a section of the dimension, and each section corresponded to each and every element. On each side of the pentagon was a protective wall of each element. The protective wall of fire was adjacent to the fire section, the wall of earth was adjacent to the earth section and so on.
On the other side of the wall of fire was a long and symmetrical mansion. It was a trapezoid so that it could line up neatly next to two other mansions. Each mansion was on the other side of each protective wall. Every mansion was in the shape of a trapezoid with the longest edge on the outside of the pentagon. On the outside of the mansion was the courtyard I mentioned before Demetrio fell from the sky. It was not fancy in any way, but I don't think that it was supposed to be there for recreational purposes. If you're still having trouble visualizing this structure, I drew a quick sketch for you below.
My brothers and I waited for an hour for another hecapsycheir to show up. When one finally did, it was not one of our friends. It was Troy.
He got to his feet just as we reached him. I thought that it was rather suspicious, showing up with no one else, randomly. I gave him a menacing look and wondered if he was the reason that our friends had yet to arrive.
"Welcome sons of Sergius. I hope you've become acquainted with your surroundings," Troy said.
"Why aren't Vesta, Gina, Aurelia, Izumi, and Tamara here?" I demanded.
"What do you mean?" Troy asked. "They should be here by now."
"Well they're not. You were in on the plan to move everyone to the new dimension, now tell me why they aren't here," I said forcefully.
"What? No," Troy protested. "Look, I'll tell you what I know. After Vadrak had his warriors threw you into the portal, he announced to the audience that the first hecapsycheires that came to the stage would be the next to view the new dimension. He said that the new dimension was going to lead our species to a golden age. He was tired of fighting against us so he might as well fight with us by helping us restore peace and harmony."
"Restore peace and harmony? When was there peace and harmony in the first place? Never mind, continue," Demetrio said.
"Despite what Vadrak said, no one volunteered to go through the portal. Vadrak sent me a telepathic message telling me to volunteer. I didn't want to, but the next thing I knew, I was falling through the portal. That's all I know."
I wasn't sure why Troy's character had changed so much, but I was afraid to let my guard down. I suspected that Troy was trying to fool us and make us an easier target for Vadrak.
"You didn't tell us anything about our friends. Where are they?" Irvin asked.
"I-I can't say."
"Why? You're afraid you're afraid Vadrak will kill you, is that it?" I asked scathingly.
"No, it's just something I overheard. I'm not sure if it's valid or not because I wasn't supposed to hear it."
"What did you hear?"
"I saw and heard it, I was working with the security cameras. One was in the conference room, and I sort of tuned in."
"What do you mean 'tuned in'?" Timur asked.
"The cameras record images as well as sound, but I have to tune in to hear what anyone says. It's sort of like a radio station. If you tune to a certain frequency, you'll hear the station that is broadcasting with that frequency. I can tune in to the conversation, but I have to tune to the code of the camera instead of a frequency. Each camera in Vadrak's system has a seven digit code, but the cameras in the Elders system have ten digits. That's how you tell the difference.
"It was just an idea that someone had. He suggested that the male hecapsycheires be separated from the female hecapsycheires. He thought that there should be two identical levels on the dimension. He believed that transportation between the two different levels should be made impossible if it really were built. That's what I overheard, but I don't think that it was built that way. I think that your friends are somewhere else. I swear on my life that I don't know where. I've told you all I know."
"Do you think that Vadrak implemented the idea?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"Could Aurelia, Izumi, Tamara, Vesta, and Gina have come here through the portal before we did?" Timur asked.
"Yes, it's possible. The time difference shouldn't be huge, but there could be up to three hours difference."
"Perhaps our friends went looking for us when we didn't show up, couldn't that have happened?" Hearst asked.
"Possibly," Troy murmured.
I walked to the edge of the tower roof away from my brothers and Troy. I pulled out my crystal and concentrated hard on Vesta. My crystal flickered and then extinguished all of its light. It didn't seem that Vesta was anywhere near.
"Irvin," I called out. "How far can the crystal sense Vesta's presence?"
"I would guess that you have to be within 1000 miles of Vesta before it glowed at all," Irvin replied.
"My crystal is not lighting up. I think that we should look for the others," I suggested.
"But splitting up is a bad idea," Timur pointed out.
I wasn't sure how we were going to get off the roof unless we teleported, but Troy walked to the center of the tower, placed his hand on one of the stones, stepped back, and the stones separated making a wide enough space for a spiral staircase. Troy looked at us and waved for us to follow. He led us down the spiral staircase to the ground floor. There were tunnels that branched off of the staircase before we got to the ground floor, but I never got the chance to see more detail.
On the ground floor, Troy moved behind a reception desk and pulled out the computer. I'm not sure what he did exactly, but the result was an image of the stadium back on Dimension A.
"I've hacked into the computer that controls the cameras in the stadium," Troy explained to us. "I can now move the cameras to angles so that I can see everything that's going on."
We peered over Troy's shoulder as he typed in a command so that no one would know that he had hacked into the computer.
"Right, as you can see, Vadrak and The Master of the Elements are both on the stage still, but I don't see any sign of Vesta and the rest of your friends."
I wondered why Troy had changed from the traitor serving Vadrak to a helpful hecapsycheir willing to help us find our friends. Perhaps it was his connection with Vesta and her father, but I doubted it. Maybe he was afraid of us. I hoped not. I didn't want to rule over him by fear. That was Vadrak's job. I'm pretty sure that that that was how Vadrak had controlled him, but I didn't know what else controlled him.
"There are cameras that are set up in every section and they record everything, so I can look through them and see if Vesta or anyone else has gone through them."
"If they're not there, how do we know that they didn't take a path that wouldn't keep them in the view of the cameras?" Hearst asked.
"In each section, there is a main office that is the entrance to every part of the section. In order to get to any of the apartments, one has to go through the main office. There is no other way to get to the apartments, no secret entrance or anything. Same thing for all of the other buildings, you always have to go through an office. Every main office has cameras covering every angle with no blind spots."
"How do you know this?" Demetrio asked.
"I saw the final plans for building the dimension, and I'm sure that this is how it was built. There's only one fault to this. No camera covers the outside. If they went inside anywhere, then I'll see them, but if they stayed outside, I won't be able to find them."
"Right now your cameras are still on the stadium, can you get into the cameras for all the main offices?" I asked.
"Yes, that's a simple process," Troy said, and he typed in a flurry of commands.
"How do we know that we can trust Troy?" Demetrio asked all of us telepathically.
"I have a feeling that he can be trustworthy in this instance," Irvin replied in the same way. "Even though, according to your story, Aden, he betrayed Vesta's father, he still loved Vesta's family. I sense a taste of regret in his emotions. I believe that there's a chance that we could pull him back to our side. He could be very useful. No one is better than he at anything technical."
Troy bent over and pulled out a drawer. Inside the drawer were many devices that looked like small, portable radios. He handed one to each of us and took the largest one for himself.
"These are called handheld transceivers," Troy started. "They were developed during the battle that was disguised by the second human world war. Our people modified them to fit our uses. These handheld transceivers are part of a single set and are linked together. I am holding the master transceiver. You can contact each other privately and individually, but my receiver allows me to talk to you all at once.
"Each of you has a number on your transceiver. Each set of transceivers has five regular transceivers and one master transceiver. Right now, Aden, you have number one; Demetrio, you have number two; Timur, you have three; Irvin, you have four; Hearst, yours is number five, and I have the master. In order to contact one another, press the number of the person you want to contact. If you want to contact me, hit the button that says 'M' which stands for 'master.' Once you have hit the button, press the button on the side so that you can talk to the other person. Then you should be able to have a conversation. You can turn the volume down to silent if you're in trouble and don't want anyone else to hear, but the handheld transceiver will vibrate when someone is trying to talk to you. The volume controls are on the right side of the transceiver.
"I can look through all of this camera footage to see if they went into a building, but it will take me at least a half hour to go through each section. As I said before, the time difference shouldn't be more than three hours, but just to be safe, I'll start looking at footage from four hours ago."
"Do you need our help to look for them?" Hearst asked.
"I could always use an extra set of eyes, but some of you should go back up to the roof in case they do come through. Don't leave this tower, not yet, not until we know that it's safe."
"How do we know that we can trust you?" Demetrio asked.
"Technically you don't, but I'm not going to work for Vadrak. Not anymore. There was more to the story about what he did to me. He didn't just force me to volunteer to go through the portal. I don't know you well enough to tell you, not yet. Perhaps one day, we can be friends, though I'm not sure Vesta could ever forgive me after the terrible thing that I did. I swear on my life, my honor, and everything that is important to me, that I will not betray you."
I was quite surprised that Troy swore on his honor, if he had any left. I was still suspicious, but when Irvin nodded his head to the rest of us, I blocked the thoughts from my mind. I trusted Irvin even if I didn't trust Troy. Irvin indicated that we should go to the roof while he stayed behind to help Troy look through the camera footage. I led the way and walked up the spiral staircase as my brothers followed. It was faintly lit, and I wasn't watching what was above my head which resulted in my smacking my head on the stones that made the floor of the roof of the tower.
I looked up and touched the stone that emitted a faint glow. Once I touched the stone, they separated allowing me to step onto the roof as my brothers followed. As soon as Demetrio had pulled his back foot from the stairs, they closed in the same way that they had opened.
We stood on the roof in silence, but five minutes after we got there, our handheld transceivers started beeping. I pulled mine out, and on its little screen were the words, "incoming call from master controller." I hit the accept button and listened to what Troy had to say.
"Everyone, I thought of something. If Vesta and your friends left the tower, they should have come through the main office. However, not everyone knows about the brick that I touched revealing the spiral staircase. If they didn't know how to get off the roof, they might have teleported to the courtyard below," Troy paused, and I heard a beeping in the background. "My program just figured out a way to look for them on the outside too. It works, but that means it will take longer. I need your help if we're to have a chance of doing any of this before everyone else arrives."
I had many questions going through my head, such as, "How many is 'everyone else'?" and "How can we have eyes on the entire dimension?" I got my answers soon enough once we had descended the stairs and rejoined Troy.
"Vadrak is going to send hordes of hecapsycheires through that portal. Once they get here and move throughout the land, there will be no way to look for Vesta and your friends. There are five more monitors, but I can only access one of them, each of you must use your powers to get to each of the others. I have the main computer in front of me, and like the handheld transceivers, they come in sets. I can control all of the other computers from mine, but I can allow you to work on yours. In each of those offices," Troy said and pointed to several offices around us, "is a computer, a desk, a closet, and whatever else you need to work. I'll place the footage on each of your computers in each section. You can look for your friends in that way."
"What if they didn't split up?" I asked. "They're all smart; they would know that splitting up would be a bad idea unless they knew enough about the dimension."
"Remember that they have the crystals," Irvin said telepathically. "They might have thought that they could reunite using them."
"You're right, they're smart, but they may have gone somewhere together," Troy said. "The outside footage also includes the courtyard outside here as well as the mansions for the Elders."
"Wait, is this tower the only place that they could have come out?" Irvin asked.
"Yes, why?"
"If there are cameras on the roof then all we have to do is look through that footage."
"You're right. There are usually hidden cameras, I'll write a quick program that will look for cameras on the roof," Troy said, and he typed in many commands that made no sense to me at all. "I've found one, it should have recorded everything. We can look through it on this master computer."
We hovered over his shoulder and watched, in only one hour, footage that had taken place over the period of five hours in only one hour. We saw ourselves fall out of the portal, and then Troy. We watched as Demetrio, Timur, Hearst, and I returned to the roof, but no Vesta, nor anyone else.
"The cameras do not lie," Troy said. "Vesta and your friends never came through here."
We were staring at the image of the roof when we were startled by a big thump on the roof.
"What was that?" Hearst asked.
"The first batch of hecapsycheires has arrived. They have a leader who will lead each hecapsycheir to his destination. I think we should hide, but we should also be able to stay in contact. Here are five radio phones," Troy said, and he held out the phones. "We can contact each other by typing what we want to say, we wouldn't be able to type on the old transceivers. They're coming, hide in the offices, go!"
I hurried into the fire office and hid on the top shelf of a closet. I still had my crystal and my handheld transceiver, but I was only going to use the radio phone. A radio phone is the hecapsycheir equivalent to a human cell phone, but we don't use them as often as humans do.
"What exactly are the leaders going to do?" Timur posted for us to read.
"They're supposed to lead each hecapsycheir to his destination," Troy returned. "Each is supposed to go to his corresponding section, water hecapsycheires go to the water section and the same thing for each hecapsycheir of the other elements. Every hecapsycheir is assigned an apartment, and each apartment has a place for them to gather strength. I said before that I saw the final plans for building the dimension, I'm almost positive that this is what is happening."
I sat on my shelf in the office for what felt like forever. I think that a day had passed when I was wakened by screams. I looked on the screen of my radio phone and saw a blinking message from Troy.
"GET OUT. Meet me behind the desk of the main computer."
I clambered down from the shelf and ran out of the office to find Troy and my brothers together. I hurried over to them and asked, "What's going on?"
"It's the Master of the Elements. He's killing everyone. I think that he malfunctioned somehow. I'm going to try to stop him," Troy said quickly. "Listen, the last group of hecapsycheires is coming soon. As soon as a large group of hecapsycheires lands, the portal tries to suck hecapsycheires back. Use your powers to get close to the portal so that it can take you back. There's no time for arguing, go!"
My brothers and I ran through the crowd of hecapsycheires trying to get away from the Master of the Elements. We ran up the stairs as Troy ran outside to try to stop The Master. Timur was in the lead, and he smacked the stone that let us up onto the roof. We hurried out and used our powers to elevate ourselves ten feet off the floor of the roof as the portal expanded to drop off the next group of hecapsycheires. I looked below and saw The Master blast hecapsycheires with the same deadly rays Vadrak had used to kill the former Elders. Troy somehow managed to break into the control center of The Master, but The Master of the Elements soon learned that Troy was trying to control him. He headed for Troy and I saw Troy blasted to pieces just as the portal sucked as back through time and space.
Everything was black again. I couldn't feel the presence of my brothers, but I really hoped that we wouldn't be separated as we had been from Vesta, Gina, Aurelia, Izumi, and Tamara. The ride between dimensions had been much quicker this time. My brothers and I fell out of the portal and tumbled to the ground.
"This doesn't look like any part of Dimension A I've ever seen," Hearst said. "Where are we?"
We looked at one another, and I saw a very sorrowful expression on Irvin's face.
"I am almost positive that we are now on yet another dimension," he told us.
"What? Did Troy lie to us?" Demetrio asked.
"No, he told us what he knew. I'm sure of that. We have always been told that travel between dimensions is dangerous. That might have been why the Master of the Elements malfunctioned. I think that one of the effects of travel between dimensions is this, we have landed in the unintended dimension. There's more to Troy's story that I think you should know, especially you should know it, Aden."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"He opened up to me, I'm not sure why, but he told me his story. While he told it to me, I also saw everything behind it too. Troy's parents were cruel to him. His father used humans to kill his mother and then they killed him. Troy hates humans because he blames them for his parents' deaths. Troy was already good friends with Julius, but after his parents' deaths, he ran away. Vesta's paternal grandparents tried to help raise him, but they didn't know what it was like to have been beaten by their fathers or lose both their parents to humans.
"Troy met Vadrak, and Vadrak understood what Troy was feeling. I told you before, the story about how King Giad beat whomever was around when he was angry, Vadrak had many similarities to Troy. Vadrak raised Troy as if Troy were his own son, but behind the emotion, Vadrak was plotting to use Troy because of his technological skills. Troy was still friends with Julius, but he was raised differently.
"Troy told you that Vadrak made him volunteer to jump into the portal. That wasn't all. Vadrak insulted Troy in some of the worst ways imaginable. I felt his pain when Vadrak spoke of Troy's mother. Vadrak told Troy that he never did anything right away. Vadrak always had to force him to do things. Force Troy to find and give him Vesta's father, force Troy to jump into the portal. There were many other parts of the conversation that I'd rather not mention. Before Troy jumped in the portal, Vadrak smacked him across the face. He had never hit Troy before because he knew what it was like to be beaten by a parent, but that reminded Troy of the beatings his father had gave him. Troy tried to attack Vadrak, but not before Vadrak telepathically forced Troy to jump into the portal. Troy doesn't remember exactly what happened, but I saw it all, the way it really happened. Troy died a hero. He died trying to stop the Master of the Elements from killing everyone."
"I wish I could tell Vesta this," I said.
"There's more you should tell her," Irvin said. "Troy sent me a telepathic message just before we split up. He said the following words: 'Tell Vesta, if you see her again, tell her that I'm sorry. Tell her that she never has to forgive me. Just ask her to try and understand what I went through. Let your brother Aden tell her; she seemed closest to him.' That was what he said to me, and I'd like to follow that request."
I hung my head as emotions flew through me. I felt sorry for Troy, despite what he had done to Vesta's father. I wasn't sure how or when to tell her, but I knew I would. I had to find her, if I didn't - no - I would find her. I missed her already. I loved her as the closest friend I had ever had.
She was there for me after I left the human world. I needed someone to make me remember what it was like to be a hecapsycheir. I never turned into a human, my personality never changed to fit that of an average human. Vesta was the one who did me the unrepayable favor of pulling me out of the human world. I know that she didn't do it intentionally, but when she first called me handsome, that triggered a thought in my mind. "Handsome" means well-prepared for anything, I'm not sure what it meant to humans.
My brothers and I looked around at the new dimension. We found a good place for shelter and multiple places that were good enough to be a power house. I didn't know what to do exactly, but I used some sturdy material that I found and began to write everything down, from the adventures I had had in the human world with Jessica up to this point now. I once told Jessica's parents that I'd like to major in English and write creative non-fiction, but what I was writing, it wasn't creative non-fiction. This was the truth.
I thought that we should be spending time finding Vesta and our friends but Irvin thought we needed rest and a clear head to look for them. Because the Master of the Elements was killing everyone on the male hecapsycheir level, I was afraid he would move to the female level and kill Vesta. I didn't know what would happen next, but Irvin's response to Demetrio's question left chills running up and down my spine.
"So now what?" Demetrio had asked.
"Now, as far as we know, there are only five of us left."
