Souls in Teyvat

2 days passed, in which they started preparing for their last operation with Stelle, and now the final touches were being discussed.

"So the plan is to infiltrate Herta's Space Station, make Stelle's new body 'activate', and leave her there for the Astral Express to pick her up" summarized Keith, looking at the small table in front of him, where all the plans were carefully detailed.

They were being forced to live in a pretty rundown and abandoned world in an area where Aeon's connection to what was inside got weakened.

Elio hadn't gone into detail, but he said something about a Void Space, or something like 'IX Domain', which sounded too scary for Keith to pay attention to.

Honestly, IX seemed like the scariest Aeon of them all, and the less he needed to hear about it, the better.

"Yes" said Elio, who had somehow followed them even here, making Keith wonder if he had a body to start with. "Silverwolf will hack the Space Station, while Kafka and Keith put Stelle into the communications room. A black-haired man wielding a spear and a pink-haired girl with blue eyes will find her."

"I wonder how can you know that much" said Kafka with a small smile that hid her thoughts. "I would say Keith can't be more involved in this."

"I am telling you what the original plan had been before Keith arrived" explained Elio. "This is also the reason why I'm not telling you all the details, like the minutes you can take in each step, with Keith's presence that will change."

"Well, I have no problem with this plan" said Silverwolf, creating a bubble with her gum.

PAH!

And like all bubbles, it exploded

"I can hack the Space Station alone for a few minutes" declared Silverwolf with confidence.

"But we need to be fast if the Anti-Matter Legion will arrive" pointed out Kafka looking at the timeline with a gloved hand on her chin.

"No problem, we can leave before everything starts if we don't waste time" replied Silverwolf with confidence.

"I will go too"

Everyone looked wryly at Ruan Mei, whose eyes were fixed on Keith.

"No, you don't" denied Kafka with authority. "You are not a combatant, and all you do is play your lute. You already messed up in our previous missions, where you faced that 5-meter-tall crocodile and played a song in his face expecting that to do something."

"Ruan Mei, just stay here, I will be back after letting Stelle meet Himeko" sighed Keith, knowing Ruan Mei's attitude had turned for the worse with the latest revelations.

"Keith, take this" said Blade, handing Keith a bracelet with a small black stone. "It will hamper the signal Yao Shi will receive, but has an electronic device we can use to locate you."

"Hmm, sounds useful" muttered Keith, quickly wearing it. It was a small and thin one, so he could hide it under his sleeves. "But I think we should think about putting my soul inside another body without all this Abundance in it."

"Impossible" replied Ruan Mei instantly. "If your soul has truly awakened with the power of an Aeon, the moment your soul leaves your body you will act as a beacon for everybody else to notice, and Emanators will be the weakest beings to appear."

"Ohh, I have an idea" exclaimed Keith, hitting his palm with a fist. "If we are in a fucked up situation, I can die a little, and call a nuke on my position. Aeons will appear, and reduce everyone to cinders."

"Including you" commented Firefly with a worried look.

"But" continued Keith with a nod to himself. "As long as that Aeon chasing me wants me alive, I might be able to survive, while my enemies for sure won't."

Tactic; Scorched Earth.

Everything burned to ashes, but he would reassemble his body.

Hopefully, as things had gotten strange lately.

"He has a point" admitted Silverwolf. "Just make sure we are far away from you, I like my reality to keep being as logical as it is, without the interference of Aeons."

"Just tell me before you do it" intervened Blade with his usual emotionless voice. "So I can rush to where you are."

"And maybe you can also insult the Aeons a bit" added Keith looking at Blade. "You know, to make sure the space you are in collapses."

"A sound plan" nodded Blade, agreeing with the plan with a wry smile. "I don't know about the rest, but I have a few things to shout at Yao Shi."

"Children, focus please" said Kafka with a small sigh. "Elio, anything else we need to be mindful of?"

"Herta will fight back, so you only have a few minutes to put Stelle in place before she traps you all inside the station" repeated Elio, everyone already used to his admittedly strange voice.

"We will leave now then" declared Kafka, who left the room with her velvet coat swaying behind her.

Everyone looked at Kafka leave, until Blade looked at Keith.

"Are you sure?" asked the black-haired man, his red eyes fixed on Keith.

"I wouldn't have proposed it otherwise" replied Keith, absent-mindedly touching the bracelet firmly fixed on his wrist.

"You are going to mess things up again" said Silverwolf with a lollipop in her mouth, as always.

"You know, I don't feel the respect I should be getting" replied Keith looking at the small girl. "I am, was, or came from an Aeon. Don't you think-"

"I don't" replied Silverwolf rolling her eyes. "All respect that word carried was lost the moment it was associated with you."

"Teacher, defend your faithful student!" demanded Keith looking at the strongest person around.

Except maybe Elio.

And SAM, that armour was a cheat.

And yet...Blade didn't reply.

"Little sunshine of the base, your turn" said Keith looking at Firefly.

"Forget it" interjected Silverwolf with a shrug. "It's not like you care about the place you popped from."

"Why wouldn't I?" asked Keith with a shrug. "Honestly, I can't do anything special, and I don't feel different. Why should I expect something when I didn't change?"

And saying that, Keith also left the room in order to prepare for the mission.

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"How is it going?" asked Keith, with the same mask he always wore when he needed to work with the Stellaron Hunters.

He still hoped to see Himeko again, and he didn't want to do it as a criminal, even if he was one.

A completely blank mask, as he hadn't wanted to put any emotion or thoughts into choosing a motif, with only 2 holes for his eyes.

"Chill" muttered Silverwolf, manipulating a screen floating in front of her expertly, making her fingers move so fast they seemed to blur. "I will get access soon. This Space Station is one of the most advanced ones, only behind the IPC. You should instead praise me."

"Yes, yes, I will make you a few dishes of fried pork when we get back" replied Keith, looking at the Space Station in front of them.

But instead of making Silverwolf hurry up to secure her promised reward, the silver-haired woman only scowled.

"You better" she muttered with a scowl.

PIPIP

"I'm in" declared Silverwolf with a hint of smugness in her voice.

CHAK

And a small hatch opened just in front of the 3 waiting people.

"Just in time" nodded Kafka, entering through the hatch with an agility born out of years of training.

"Do you have the packet?" asked Keith, following the pink-eyed woman.

"Heh, Stelle will make sure to make you taste her bat when she hears that" snickered Silverwolf, still manipulating the screen, and furiously tapping.

"Hopefully, she will forget how to use her bat too" replied Keith, his voice muffled by the mask.

"I don't think the existence we know as Stelle will ever forget that" replied Kafka, looking at her new surroundings. Elio's plans were always infallible so things like checking for enemies he hadn't mentioned were unneeded, but with Keith by her side, chaos would ensue for sure.

"Right...it's probably engraved into her very being" muttered Keith. "Still, do you have her?"

"Are you that nervous?" inquired Kafka without looking at the 2 people following her, navigating through the maze-like corridors as if she had already been here a few dozen times. "Something to hide?"

"In fact, yes" admitted Keith, grabbing Silverwolf's small shoulder. "My confession was only a way to make my true love, the silver-haired loli, jealous abou-"

"Bleeergh!"

"Hey, even I will be hurt by that" muttered Keith, looking at the puking Silverwolf.

And yet, for a single second, Silverwolf had stopped tapping.

A red light illuminated the whole corridor, and a deafening high-pitched noise made the 3 of them grimace as the alarm activated.

"I forgot how chaotic missions with you were" commented Kafka with a raised eyebrow. "Silverwolf, we don't have any leeway now to play around."

"And I don't have the will to play around" said a disgusted Silverwolf. "Not after hearing that."

But Keith, receiving Silverwolf's accusatory glare, only shrugged.

"Hey, Elio recruited me exactly because of this" pointed out Keith. "Now, silver loli, get moving."

"For the last time, I'm 19!" shouted Silverwolf, but started fiddling with her screen again. "And I'm not a loli!"

And yet, Keith's scoff showed what he thought about that.

'If it looks like a kid, it is a kid.'

Or is knowing the kid is in fact a vampire 3000 years old any better?

Not, it didn't, thus, what looks like a kid is a kid.

"Focus" said Kafka with a soft voice. "We have visit."

Space itself seemed to contort around them, and black humanoid figures appeared in front of them.

The Anti-matter Legion, the forces of the Aeon of Destruction, who sought to destroy up to the last molecule in the universe.

"Do I need to fight?" asked Keith, taking out a simple sword on his back.

He had improved a lot, and he could deal with these simple mobs, but he also knew that Kafka would be able to take care of everything twice as fast.

The room was hidden by a flash of white, and Kafka lowered her still smoking guns, with the Anti-matter Legion presenting holes in what Keith could only call their 'heads'.

"Let's hurry up" said Kafka, stowing her guns. "We are still far from the place the Vessel needs to be placed."

Kakfa ran first, with Keith and Silverwolf following her, until the silver-haired woman spoke.

"I will go this way" said Silerverwolf. "I need to find an access point."

So soon, only 2 people were running through the hallways, now stemming with monsters that did little to hinder their movements.

A single swing of a sword, or a single shot was all that Keith and Kafka needed to eliminate the hostile presences.

"We are here" informed Kafka, looking at the empty room they found themselves in.

"Silverwolf?" asked Keith, knowing that they needed the hacker's help.

.....

"Here." After a few seconds, a voice sounded in the room. "I found some monsters in the way."

"So did we" commented Keith behind his mask.

"Open" revealed Silverwolf, stepping aside to make way for Kafka and Keith. "Go in quickly, the whole Space Station is alert thanks to that man's disgusting suggestion, and they will try to get the control back."

"Got it" said Kafka in her usual soft voice.

The wall in front of her seemed to turn invisible, and another room was revealed, this one with a floating golden orb.

"Is that the Vessel?" muttered Keith, feeling the energy irradiating from it.

"If it needs to contain a Stellaron, it only means it needs to be as powerful as this" replied Kafka, taking out the purple Stellaron. "Stelle's information is stored inside this Stellaron, the Vessel will be created based on it."

'I swear...I heard something similar to that somewhere' thought Keith inwardly.

But he had no time to investigate where this feeling came from, because Kafka made the Stellaron touch the floating Golden Orb.

A wave of pressurized air pushed everything inside the room away, except for Kafka and Keith, who stood firm in their places.

Slowly, and from the point where the Stellaron had touched the Vessel, a body started to appear.

Grey hair, relatively pale skin, medium stature, and wearing a black coat.

"To think she appeared with her usual outfit" mused Keith. "How did that also get recorded?"

"Who knows" replied Kafka, looking at how Stelle's new body was completed. "Let's go."

"That's it?" asked a surprised Keith. "No last words?"

"Something you want to say?" asked Kafka with a small smile.

"...yes" sighed Keith, knowing that the time had arriv- "Ouch!"

"You know" said a smiling Kafka, taking out a syringe from Keith's neck. "I was aware of your plan to stay here from the beginning."

"W-What is this?" asked Keith looking at his hands, seeing four of them.

"A gift from Ruan Mei" replied Kafka, seeing Keith fall to the ground. "I was the one to buy that bracelet, so don't take it away."

Keith opened his mouth to speak, but his tongue felt like an unmovable rock, even if his eyes still had the energy to look resentfully at the purple-haired woman.

"Your body will eliminate it in a few minutes" added Kafka, who seemed to sense the confusion behind Keith's eyes. "If the Astral Express' crew is going to accept both of you, you can't just say hello, do you?"

Keith felt his eyes slowly close, knowing that Kafka had already prepared for this, and had been for a while, probably since the moment he told Elio about his plan to travel with Stelle.

If Stelle was really the cornerstone the universe turned around, his presence next to the grey-haired girl should be the push they all might need.

"Hmm, but there is still something else to do" Kafka's voice sounded too far to Keith, who felt his consciousness slipping.

But he was still able to feel the mask taken off his face.

"You were still waiting."

And, just before his whole world turned dark, he faintly felt something warm pressing his lips.

'Something' that smelled like lavender, Kafka's favourite lipstick.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"I expected something more" Silverwolf's voice sounded again in the room, while Kafka looked at Stelle, whose eyelids struggled to open. "But now that he is out, kick him in the balls for me."

"I'm afraid I can do that, not now" replied Kafka, donning again her small smile.

"He will recover anyways" complained Silverwolf in a low voice. "Shit. Kafka, hurry up, Herta is starting to fight back, and she still has all the protocols."

"Give me a minute" replied Kafka, crouching on the floor next to the grey-haired girl. "Good morning."

A pair of confused and tired golden eyes looked at Kafka's pink ones.

Stelle had awakened.

"I know you are confused" said Kafka using a gentle voice rarely heard from the cold woman. "And while you might feel I'm familiar, you still can't remember who I am."

Kafka's small smile didn't change, successfully hiding her sadness when Stelle made no gestures of realizing who she was.

She had expected it, but it still hurt.

"But don't worry, you will have new companions soon" continued Kafka, seeing how Stelle was progressively falling asleep again. "Listen."

And Kafka used her ability.

"A pink-haired woman and a dark-haired man will arrive soon. Go with them, and forget about this conversation" ordered Kafka, who briefly glanced to one side. "And.... take care of the purple-haired man. He will be your staunchest ally, and the one who will care about you the most."

"Kafka!"

The violet-haired woman snapped her fingers, and Stelle fell asleep again.

"Going" said Kafka, turning around and leaving the place she had come from, without looking back.

With a white mask firmly strapped to her waist.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Is there where that signal comes from?"

"It should be....look!"

"What's wrong?"

"There are 2 people there. We need to help them!"

2 sets of steps echoed in the otherwise silent room, approaching Stelle and Keith's fallen bodies.

"We need to do CPR."

"You do it then March."

"...or you can be the one to do it."

Clearly, the one who proposed the idea didn't really like it, but before the dark-haired man could crouch, a pair of golden eyes opened.

This was the moment the gears of fate started moving, but this time, there was a foreign object in them.

Which would make Stelle's adventure even more chaotic.