Aurora

[Otto's POV]

"Are you telling me Aurora is Alex's MOTHER?!" Otto shouted completely flabbergasted.

"Why are you talking as if you know her?" Mar asked, confusion written all over his face.

"Aurora, sweetheart, I don't know why you've hidden your presence from them both, but you need to show yourself. NOW!" Otto said. The others were looking at her as if she'd gone mad. Nothing happened.

"I'm waiting!" Otto said sternly again. "You know as well as I do that he's not going to connect that thing until you show him that you're ok."

"Ugh, ok then," a very feminine voice sounded through the speakers. Mar's eyes instantly turned wide as saucers. Then one of the displays changed and a very zoomed in face became visible.

"No, that's too close. Damn it, this projection formula is not what I thought it would be," they heard who they assumed was Aurora say while the image on screen recalculated. And finally showed a petite woman with brilliant white hair and bright blue eyes.

"Hi there, Sunshine," she said once her eyes had found Mar's. His mouth had fallen agape in complete astonishment.

"Aurora?" he finally asked once he'd gotten over his first shock.

"Yes, that's me," she said awkwardly. Then it was quiet for a few heartbeats. "Oh, Mar! Will you say something already? You're driving me crazy! It's difficult enough to show myself as it is!"

When they all looked back at Mar, he had fallen to his knees and tears already streaming down his face.

"You're alive!" he cried. "I've missed you so much! Damn, I hate that I can't hug you right now."

Then the display failed and turned black.

"Aurora?" Mar asked worriedly.

"Don't- ! Don't look at me like that," her voice sounded through the speakers. It sounded awfully static. "I'll overload the system if you make me blush."

Mar laughed. Otto could feel herself smiling too. Good for them.

"I don't want to be a party pooper," Thomas interrupted the happy moment. "But this doesn't fix our Alex-problem at all."

"No, but at least now there are hundreds of possibilities we haven't tried yet." Mar said, radiating with new confidence. It was rather infectious. Otto could feel it, the atmosphere inside of the the quarantine had changed completely from a depressing one to a energetic-hopeful one.

"Might I suggest one in particular?" Aurora asked.

"Sure what did you have in mind?" Mar asked.

"Well, I checked Alex's phone when he got back from the Field of Reeds. Btw, Otto, I have to say. Those pictures of the two of you together are simply adorable," Aurora chattered on happily as she showed the selfies Alex and herself had taken together. Otto felt herself turn bright red and Thomas bumped her against the shoulder.

"If my data is correct, Alex's energy levels only started to grow exponentially like that after he'd taken in this alien energy source," Aurora chattered on hurriedly. "So if we split the two sources of energy again. The exponential growth should stop. This way, we have more time to find a more permanent solution."

"It can't be," Mar gasped. "You're planning on pulling him into the system?! No. It's too risky. What if he gets stuck like you?"

"He won't," Aurora said. "I'll make sure to preserve the link with his body. He's only half-Archaggelos at the moment anyway. So his human body would remain, even if his being would be sucked into the system."

"You're going to suck the soul out of his body?" Otto asked and cringed. "That sounds like an awfully painful affair."

There was a moment of silence as everyone considered her words.

"Honestly, I can't remember. So I guess it will be fine," Aurora's voice broke the silence.

"It's decided then," Mar said. "Then there's just one problem left. How are we going to connect him to anything? We can't reach him without burning to a crisp."

"Didn't Bright inc. design a spacesuit a few years back?" Thomas interjected.

"And we could strip an electrical cord to connect him to the system," Aurora adeed.

Mar considered his words, then walked to the intercom and said: "Can someone grab me the prototype of the spacesuit we designed in 2001 and an electrical cord?"

Otto could just imagine the surprise on the assistant's face.

A few minutes later, (which seemed incredibly fast to Otto for finding something that was created years ago) a thoroughly confused assistant had brought in the suit and an electrical cord. Mar instantly massacred the electrical cord and shaped it to look a little like a stage hook with a power cord attached to it. Then he proceeded to pull off his lab-coat and started climbing into the astronaut pants.

"What do you think you're doing?" Thomas interrupted him.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Yeah, I don't think so. It is not a good idea to enter a room that's almost 400 degrees celcius in a dusty astronaut suite with the severe lack of sleep you've suffered."

Mar stared at him flatly, unable to disprove his argument because of the said lack-of-sleep and finally said: "Why are you here again?"

"You asked me to come!" Thomas yelled incredulously. "On my day off to booth."

"No, that was me," Aurora said cheerily. Thomas grunted in dislike and Otto hid a chuckle in her hand.

"I think it's a bad idea too," Otto said as Mar resumed putting on the suit.

"Me three," Aurora added.

"Ah yes, why don't we? Let's all side with the annoying teenager," Mar grumbled annoyed and threw the helmet towards Thomas. "Well, you do it then!"

"Why me?" he asked. He looked rather terrified.

"Because you're an intern at my company and you have to listen to me," Mar said grouchily.

"Sunshine, you're grumpy-cat is showing," Aurora said, to which Mar blushed fiercely. Otto hadn't even seen Alex blush that much. "Promise me you'll get a good nights sleep once this is all over?"

Mar grumbled something apprehensible in reply. Thomas and Otto shared a glance. Mar was acting rather out of character today. Or perhaps this was his true character, and he'd simply gotten really good at hiding it?

"Pfft, Sunshine," Thomas laughed once he broke eye-contact with Otto, quickly put on the helmet of the spacesuit and acted as if he hadn't laughed. Mar fixed him with an angry glare, which reflected right back at him, because of the shiny helmet and startled. He needed a second to realise what had happened and then scraped his throat embarrassedly.

"I'm ready," Thomas's muffled voice sounded from inside the helmet at he'd finished putting it on completely.

"Ok. Here, take the electrical cord. You'll need to hook it to Alex his body. But make sure the hook the metal part to some part of his body where it can't fall off, ok? Otherwise the connection with his body will be broken," Mar explained, then doubted and added as an afterthought: "Just, … get away from there as quickly as you can once you do."

"No pressure," Thomas's muffled voice sounded from inside the helmet.

Otto felt like dying. The suspense was nearly killing her and she wasn't even entering the dangerous room herself. She watched with a held breath as Thomas enter the quarantine room, took the stage hook, hooked it onto Alex right over his shoulder and into his armpit, and jumped away. He had barely jumped out of the way when an enormous spark jumped over with a huge bang, making all the lights wink out and back on.

"The generator held!" Mar declared proudly as he checked a few displays and tapped a few keys. "Vitals are ok. Temperature is stabilising too. Now it's all up to you Aurora."

But only silence followed.

"Aurora?" Mar asked again and the text on the screen changed.

"Can't talk right now. I need to gather his essence before it scatters."

Otto counted the seconds. It wasn't until she'd counted twelve minutes that they heard a groan over the speakers, which she instantly recognised as Alex.

"Where am I?" he asked and Otto released a breath of relief.