The sound of the main door of the house being opened mixed with familiar voices that sounded on the other side.
“How’s it going, brother!” a voice asked while hugging the tall man who had opened the door.
“Here, good!
And you?” he replied cheerfully.
A 7-year-old boy watched his father hugging his uncle, while behind him more family members entered.
After all, it was December and Christmas had arrived.
The sound of plates being served, along with the great smell of roasted turkey, was somehow nostalgic.
“Everyone sit down now!” Zak’s mother ordered.
There was a young woman there with simple clothes, just like everyone else.
Everyone began sitting at the table while Zak’s uncles and father talked animatedly.
On the other hand, his cousins were, as always, arguing over something absurd.
They began serving the turkey and Arab rice on each plate, and that was how the festivity began.
They spent the whole night drinking and chatting animatedly, while the youngest, like Zak, received their gifts.
Finally, when the gathering ended, everyone began getting ready to leave.
“It was a pleasure seeing you once more, Son,” the uncle commented while hugging Zak’s father.
The cousins also began saying goodbye.
“Bye, Zak,” one of them said.
“Any day we play again, okay?” another added.
“Yes, cousins, see you later,” Zak replied.
Everyone left while Zak and his parents looked from the window at the sky snowing, watching his siblings, cousins, and friends.
But…
in that moment, a car crashed into where everyone was walking.
“Brother!” his father shouted as he went out to try to help them.
But he was stopped by the neighbors, who wouldn’t let him go out.
A little Zak was paralyzed, just watching the corpses and the blown-off heads of his cousins and aunts.
Unfortunately, a descent had begun that day and that night.
For Zak’s brother, cousins, and aunts, it was the last.
*** The sound of beeping, along with footsteps in the background, was so intense that Zak woke up sweating, with glassy eyes.
“What?” he murmured, observing his surroundings.
“Ah, right…
We got to a new dimension where we almost died and, luckily, we survived.
Now I’m being treated,” Zak thought.
“I see you’re already awake,” a man in a white coat commented while typing something on his tablet.
“They’re waiting for you at the main entrance.” “Who’s waiting?” he asked.
“Everyone.
Your friends and the commanders.
Your friends healed faster, we treated all their wounds.
Only you were missing,” the man explained.
“Okay, thanks,” Zak thanked as he got up and followed the path the man pointed out to him.
Along the way he noticed how that base, despite not being that big, was very well organized, with technology he didn’t recognize.
After a while he arrived at the main entrance.
“Finally you’re awake!” Mike commented, happy.
Dave had bandages well placed on his injured arm, while Anna remained serious as always.
The six sat at a table that was already prepared and began talking, while in the background the men from that faction moved things around.
“Well, you wanted to know what an AllDither was, right?” Lilith asked.
“Yes,” Anna replied.
“Good.
An AllDither is an ability that lets you travel between dimensions.
Only those who have the potential to be gods or caliber five chosen people have it.” “Hmm, I understand,” Anna murmured.
“Besides, that you’ve been using it until now without killing yourself is very surprising.
What’s your motivation, boy?” Lilith asked Zak.
“I…
I just want to go back home,” Zak replied.
Kragg, who had been listening, finally spoke: “Yes, I already noticed.
You don’t look like the classic travelers who are prepared, you rather look lost.
Especially because the boy and you three are from different dimensions.” “Exactly, we also want to go back home,” Dave and Mike added at the same time.
‘Kragg had realized the situation immediately just by observing…
He’s intelligent,’ Anna thought.
“By the way, how did you say your names were?” Lilith asked.
“I’m Mike.” “I’m Dave.” “Anna.” “My name is Zak.” Right after Zak said his name, there was an uncomfortable silence in the area while the guards and people turned their heads to look at them.
Anna immediately noticed the change in atmosphere, now heavy.
“Can you tell me your full name, Zak?” Lilith asked.
This time, outside her relaxed tone, she had adopted a serious and somewhat irritated one.
Zak, despite the looks, kept talking: “My name is Just…” Before Zak could continue, Anna stopped him while pinching him under the table.
“His name is Just Aguas Zak,” Anna completed with a slight smile.
Lilith and Kragg looked at each other momentarily before looking at them again.
“That’s not right…
Zak?” Anna asked while pinching Zak again.
“Yes!” Zak confirmed, though half doubting why Anna had done that.
Lilith sighed and smiled again, adopting her relaxed tone once more.
“Aguas?
Hahaha, what a pathetic name!” Lilith said.
“Don’t make fun of people’s names, Lilith,” Kragg ordered, while he seemed to have sighed in relief.
The people walking around the area, who had stopped briefly, went back to their things as if nothing had happened.
Anna calmed down seeing that everything was following its natural course, but first she had to tell Zak something.
Zak was still looking at Anna confused, who was watching him out of the corner of her eye.
“Uh, could you give us a moment, please?
I’m taking Zak,” Anna commented.
“Oh, of course!
Go ahead, we’ll stay here talking with Mike and Dave,” Lilith replied.
Both of them went to a dark corner.
“What’s wrong with you, Anna?
Why didn’t you let me say my name and you just said something ugly like Aguas?” Zak asked.
Anna sighed while watching everyone, making sure there was no one nearby.
“Under no circumstances say your real name, okay?
I don’t know why, but I feel that if you say it there will be problems,” Anna ordered.
“And why would there be?” he asked again.
“I don’t know!
Just don’t say it.
From now on you’ll be called Just Aguas Zak.” “Okay…” Without further ado, Anna grabbed Zak by the arm and both returned to the table where the four were still talking.
“We’re back,” Anna announced as they both sat down again.
“Good, well, we were talking about how apparently Zak, having the AllDither, will let us go back to our dimension too.
I mean, it’s not necessary for Zak to come with us, we just need a little bit of that energy,” Lilith explained.
“How so?
Are you planning to dissect him?” Mike asked, clearly distressed.
“What Lilith meant is that AllDither energy can be lent, but since Zak doesn’t have his arm, it will have to be done through a spell that isn’t here,” Kragg clarified.
“And us?
What happens with us?” Anna asked.
“We’ll help you go back too, but since you don’t even know how to use the AllDither, you’ve been moving between dimensions and getting farther away from yours,” Kragg explained.
“I understand…
So you want us to help you first and then you help us, right?” Anna asked.
“Yes.
Zak just has to channel his AllDither energy into this gun,” Lilith replied, pulling out a gun with a transparent empty part.
“I understand…” “Both sides would win: you can go back home and we can go back to our base,” Kragg clarified.
“That seems fine to me,” Zak announced.
“Then it’s settled!” Lilith replied, standing up from the chair abruptly while smiling with determination.
Anna just sighed while thinking that these people, somehow, were strange and had a lot of mysteries.
‘Why did they want to know Zak’s full name?’ Anna thought.
“Well, then tomorrow we’ll leave for the spell zone.
Unfortunately it’s not here,” Kragg explained.
“Don’t tell me it’s outside…” Anna murmured.
“Yes, but relax.
Lilith and I will go personally, so you can be at peace,” Kragg commented, smiling slightly, as if he were a real grandfather.
“Rest, tomorrow will be a long day,” Lilith added while whistling again.
Two women arrived to talk.
“Please, follow us,” one of them asked.
The young people, without asking, followed them, while Anna remained always alert and somewhat irritated because Zak seemed not to realize that something was happening.