WIND SHEAR

In the morning, Evander woke Zev up, helped him out of bed to take him back to the training area. Leaving the room they saw Luna sneak down the hallway, thinking no one had seen her, after Milo left the next room.

"What?" He questioned.

"Did you sleep together?" Zev asked, waking up fully.

"What do you care about?" He pushed him gently and walked towards the showers.

Evander rolled his eyes and grabbed Zev's shoulder to guide him, also complaining loudly being sarcastic.

"Leave that girl alone," he looked at him, "Oh, I hadn't noticed you were here."

Zev grimaced at that comment, believing that Milo had every right to approach Luna if he was interested. Leaving that topic aside, they arrived at the training area, Barret and Ronda were there.

"And Ayden?" Evander asked.

"He went to, you know," he paused when he saw Zev, "he's taking a shower."

"And Ocean?" Zev asked.

Neither Barret nor Ronda responded, however, Evander did.

"She's in my bed, sleeping," he murmured in his ear.

"It's just that I dreamed about her," Zev answered, pretending he didn't care about her anymore.

"Really?" Ronda questioned, remembering that Zev was traveling through his dreams, "What did you dream?"

"I dreamed that she was in a cafeteria talking to someone but it wasn't the Ocean from my dimension, but the one from here," he looked at them, "well, it doesn't matter, maybe the ground loop affected me."

Ronda gave him comfortable clothes so he could change into while she and Barrett went out to cover the doors.

Finally the two rivals were together, Evander and Zev, ready for the next test.

"Don't kill me dear, otherwise she won't come back," Zev said, confusing Evander but he reacted well, he was aware of everything.

"What the fuck are you saying, Zev?"

"I don't know, I think I read it in a book," he laughed as he stretched his body.

"You don't have the face of reading many books, you have the face of writing with bad spelling and you're also ugly," Evander began to criticize him according to what he had in front of him.

"Hey!" He spread his arms shrugging his shoulders, "is this already part of the loop?"

Evander laughed sticking out his tongue, he had enjoyed badmouthing him to his face. Then he turned serious and stood in front of Zev. The difference in height was striking, however, the black-haired man didn't look up, but saw as far as he could, part of Evander's clavicle, first dead rather than looking at him from below. In turn, the blond didn't look down either, but looked straight ahead.

"Okay, enjoy it."

He wanted to see it in action, he longed to watch Evander activate his loop but unlike the others, he didn't put his fingers to his forehead but instead his body turned into a blizzard that gradually engulfed Zev, the feeling was like being in the eye of the tornado until he heard his voice.

"Infinite air loop…"

His words were carried away by the wind because he barely finished listening to the prayer. The aggressive blizzard ended up turning into something worse, Zev was in a place that he could describe as spherical, with a grayish tone similar to a cloudy sky about to rain. He was cold, the air became wind, so strong and tearing that he felt a liquid gush from his extremities.

He covered himself in a hug with his own arms and in his hands, the wet blood produced by the cuts of the wind, wet his fingertips, staining red.

The cold air prevented him from moving easily, so he remained like a statue inside that windy sphere, he had no idea what to do, he never underestimated Evander's power, however, he did not prevent that it would be difficult.

"The cold is mental," he thought to feel better and he repeated it over and over again.

The more he thought about how to act, the wind hit his face so abruptly that he began to suffocate, he related it to those times when one sticks his head out of the car window while it is moving at high speed, that feeling of lack of oxygen when receiving the air suddenly.

Suddenly, due to the wind in his face, a feeling of nausea came over him but he remained firm and as rigid as his body, which was floating in the middle of nowhere.

He knew that concentrating on his breathing wouldn't help because it was almost impossible, so he needed to maybe hold it back a bit.

The less he breathed, his body gained mobility again, allowing him to take his hands off his arms, but when he breathed again, that little energy vanished.

"It's going to be so difficult to move," he thought, "the exit must be in another way."

He focused his gaze on each of the perceptible stripes that formed the blizzard, if he located a pattern he could go against the wind even if that sounded too cliche.

Wanting to go against the current of wind, he was advancing too slowly but even so, the road was not easy, he felt how each part of his body was detached from it by the cuts, he was afraid of being cut into pieces before getting out, everything became difficult .

He kept focusing his eyes on the lines and found a point where they joined to form a barrier, now that was his objective, to get there to take refuge. He used a metaphor to refer to the loop, a tornado ripping through the city, the stripes, the roof of a heavily built subway, since there was nothing, he had to play with the element, plus he was aware that sooner or later he would be back in the loop. eye of the hurricane and perhaps there was a way out.

What for Evander was two hours, for Zev could be a whole day, time didn't advance within the loop, just like his snail's steps, plus his thin body didn't help him balance his weight and beat the wind.

While they were doing their thing, Ayden was showering with his clothes on, he scrubbed his body gently so as not to further damage the scars. Someone else was granted the right to take a bath, so the waterboy, upon hearing the door open, closed his eyes to hide it.

"Why are you crying, little girl?" asked Maeko, who was guarded by a nurse.

"I'm sorry young man, I thought the showers were empty, we'll go to others," she said quickly when he saw Ayden.

"No, it's okay," he looked at them.

"I want to take a bath, can I do it now?" Maeko asked, looking at the nurse, annoyed.

"She's like my little sister, I'll keep an eye on her."

The nurse did not agree because she had orders to escort her even during the showers, but she also did not know what to do since Ayden was a reinforcement and they had more authority than the heads of each station.

"Okay, I'll keep an eye on her," interrupted Ronda, who was the commander's right-hand soldier.

The nurse left, remaining calm that Ronda could replace her, so she wouldn't have any problems.

"So, why are you crying, baby?" She asked again.

"I'm not crying," Ayden responded with a broken voice.

"It must be because they ruined your attractive face, right?" She laughed as she turned on the faucet.

"Now Maeko, don't bother him," Ronda said with a serious tone.

Ayden felt sensitive, he was the most emotional one so he used to conflict with his feelings very often, that whole mother ether situation overwhelmed him a lot but he decided to stay strong even with Maeko's heavy teasing.

On the other hand, Zev was still hidden in the opening of the wind, he waited a little longer until it calmed down, silence reigned within that loop. Soon he decided to move carefully, he saw the sun rise behind the clouds, which meant only one thing, the eye.

He looked everywhere looking for a door, a clone of Evander or a clue that would tell him when to escape but there was none of that nearby. He took advantage of the calm to move quickly and find another hiding place, but as he moved forward, something strange completely changed the scene.

A lament that the wind sang, a sad and gloomy phonetic at the same time. That cry was from someone he knew, Evander.

Thinking about using that as a clue, he followed the melody of his voice until he reached a cabin inside the eye of the hurricane. There was a boy with his back turned playing with a lighter.

"....," he tried to speak but he had no words.

The boy sobbed silently as the fire from the lighter touched his hand.

"You're going to burn!" Zev exclaimed.

The boy turned around, he was wearing a black gas mask and was blindfolded.

"The fire doesn't hurt me," the little boy responded as he pressed the lighter switch.

Zev remained silent, reviewing those words, somehow the elements of air and fire got along well, they could even create quite dangerous natural disasters if they joined forces.

"What happens if you breathe smoke from the fire?" he asked.

The boy stood up, lit the fire, took off his mask, and used the lighter as an inhaler. After a few seconds he began to cough and expel green smoke from his body. Zev stepped back suddenly. No one had explained where Evander's virogenesis came from, but seeing it for himself he had no doubt that Ocean's fire had something to do with it.

"You shouldn't do that, it can be dangerous," he scolded as if he were his older brother.

"I do it because it keeps me close to her."

The boy's face saddened, that scene was not normal, Zev had never seen Evander cry or feel sad, although if it was Ocean then it was a possibility.

"Is she far away or in danger?" he asked.

However, he got no response, rather, the little boy put on the gas mask and warned Zev that he should run.

The cabin became dark as clouds of debris covered the sky, the eye of the hurricane having ended.

"Something's not right," Zev thought.

He deduced that Ocean was in trouble or at least that something bad was happening around her.

"Hey Nix," he said to his conscience.

She did not respond but he saw the strands of hair so characteristic of Mother Ether fall on his shoulders.

"Is something wrong with Ocean?"

Although the woman did not say anything with words, her thoughts sounded within Zev and through the wind he could interpret several sentences. In Zev's dimension there is a popular saying that words are carried by the wind, so taking advantage of the infinite air loop, he was able to figure out the way out.

A strong wind accompanied by green smoke was coming towards him at high speed, it smelled of death and a bad feeling, however, he was not the only one who felt it, Evander outside the loop had that same feeling.

Soon a new tornado enveloped Zev but before he let himself be defeated he screamed with all his might.

"I know where she is! Show me the way out and I'll guide you."