— Rafaela —
She opened her eyes, but the darkness stuck to them like tar. Cold energy pumped into her veins coming from her right hand, while the whole left side of her body seemed to burn. Rafa took in a deep breath, sucking as much air as she could, but not even that was enough to ward her from the breathlessness growing in her chest.
Connected to her hand, she felt long, sweaty, freezing fingers that latched on to hers like an unwelcome old friend. Her heartbeat picked up, and she placed her left hand, warm and swollen, on top of those frozen fingers. She tried to push them away, but couldn't. Instead, her skin glued to them.
The coldness threatened to spread to her left hand as a wave of anxiety washed over her. There were pins and needles sprouting along her arms, an ache deep in her stomach, and an invisible force closing around her neck. It was so difficult to breathe now, her body was losing strength.
What the hell was happening here?
The words came as if whispered from the other side of a big, empty room.
Your hand.
Rafaela winced, the coldness spreading and crackling as a thin layer of ice formed around her arm.
Remove your hand!
Right. Okay. She could do it. Rafaela focused as well as she could and peeled off her warm hand bit by bit, like dried duct tape. Her skin stretched, stuck to the cold fingers as they would be to a block of ice. Tears welled up in her eyes.
Calm down. Breathe. You're doing good, Rafa.
As her heartbeat slowed and the burning subsided, her memory came back. Rafa was standing on the edge of Caidara's pocket dimension looking for the gems that, according to Pipo, could help them get their powers back. She had helped Léon climb the platform; he dropped an amethyst, she took it, and everything was fine.
Things got fuzzy after that. As she held the amethyst, she could almost hear someone talking to her. It wasn't a voice, and it didn't use words, but somehow she knew the rock in her hands belonged to Léon. She knew she should give it back to him, and she knew she had to close her fingers around his when he touched it.
And then... what?
She shut her eyes and shook her head as if the gesture could make the confusion go away. In a way it worked, for clarity dawned on her thoughts.
She was holding Léon's hand and the amethyst was pressed between their palms.
"Léon," she called. "Can you hear me?"
Instead of an answer, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze, and his reaction sent a warm ripple across her right warm. The coldness of his touch felt tenderer.
"Do you know what's happening? Are you doing this?"
She looked around. A thin pink line crossed the darkness, fast as a falling star. Rafa looked up, and several child-like white stars looked back at her. "By the Goddess, we're in...!"
Finally, he said, "Yes. In my undimension."
Rafa looked down and there he was, a few centimeters shorter than her. With a free hand, Léon dried the tears in his eyes and adjusted the collar of his polo shirt. His hair was disheveled, his lips trembly, and the dark circles under his eyes were even darker.
He looked so frail and so scared at that moment, Rafa almost offered him a hug.
Léon swallowed hard. "What's happening here?" His hand slid from his collar to his arm, rubbing it up and down. "How come you're inside my undimension? I don't even remember stepping inside it."
She shrugged. With a tentative tug, she pulled her hand away from his and looked around. Rafa expected the stars to fall from the sky, and the ground to crumble under their feet, but nothing happened. She sighed.
"Well, at least we know that has nothing to do with us holding hands." Rafa wiped her hands on the coarse fabric of her pants—she could still feel the wet coldness in her fingers—and took off her jacket. "Here. You... seem cold, is all."
Léon's eyebrows quirked up and down, his hands not certain of what to do. Before his hesitance, Rafa shook her head and slid her jacket around his shoulders.
"I just don't want you to catch an interdimensional cold or something. Only Goddess knows what would happen."
"I..." His surprise was replaced by a smile curling the ends of his lips. "Thanks, Rafa."
She brushed the thought away. "You can thank me by helping me find a way out of this place."
"I think I have an idea." Léon took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. "A toothy and furry one, I hope you won't mind."
Rafa half-crossed her arms, one of her thumbs resting on her smirk. It was interesting, she thought, how easily this man could slip in and out of seriousness. Maybe this was what had drawn Beto in, so long ago. It was fun to be around Léon and see those perky comments oozing through the cracks of his serious-boy mask.
She smiled and crossed her arms. As scary as it felt at first, being here was... good. She felt comfortable in this undimension—comfortable and welcome, almost as if she was in her own purlieus. Rafa closed her eyes and almost felt the cosmic energy tracing her surroundings again.
She missed it. She missed it so much.
"All right." Léon looked up at Rafa. "Here she comes."
The stale air around them moved with a warm gale. The stars in the sky seemed to glimmer when a shape took form at Léon's back. It was a tigress. His tigress.
Rafa had already seen Bonee outside of the undimension, so she smiled at first. Then, she swallowed the thick, stomach-twisting lump in her throat. In Léon's undimension, Rafa could see with a sharp clarity she didn't have outside.
"Bonee." Léon crouched before the creature and hugged her.
And the tigress looked terrible. She seemed famished and tired, the bones in her back and sides showing against her thinning, matted fur. Her fangs looked dry and yellowish, cracked from tip to root, and there were wet clumps of something red—blood, perhaps—in the corners of her eyes. Her snout was dry, her legs trembly, her irides whitening. As Léon caressed her, tufts of her fur fell on the black ground.
She was sick and Léon didn't seem to have noticed.
Bonee looked up and licked her human's cheek, making him chuckle. "What is it, Leo?" she asked. Even her voice sounded coarse and weak. "Something wrong? Do you need my help?"
"No," Rafa said. Her tone was stronger and louder than she intended, but it felt right to be furious with something like... this. "First rule if you want me to teach you anything about your powers: avoid calling Bonee at all costs until she's fully healed."
Bonee raised her chin and sat at Léon's side. Considering the uncertain way the tigress looked from Rafa to Léon, she hadn't expected to hear that. The quiet dignity and the strength her posture emanated silenced Rafa.
"What are you talking about, Rafa?" Léon mumbled.
"She knows nothing," Bonee said. "Don't worry. I'm as strong as I ever was." Her hard stare was almost like a challenge.
Léon looked from Rafa to Bonee as a crease formed between his eyebrows. He was a smart man, it seemed, because it didn't take long for him to understand what was happening. Instead of the fury Rafa expected to see, Léon circled an arm around his tigress and pulled her face towards him, forcing her to look into his eyes.
"What are you hiding from me, Bobo?"
The tigress averted her gaze. Rafa couldn't be quiet, not in a situation like this.
"Léon, she's—"
"Don't you dare!" Bonee growled.
Rafa steeled her words. "She's sick."
Bonee roared, droplets of saliva escaping her gaping mouth. She prepared to pounce, long claws ready for shredding, but the speed with which she got up left her dizzy. Bonee leaned to the side and lost balance, tumbling back on the floor.
Léon watched the scene with detached shock, kilometers away from where he stood.
Was he trying to ignore what was happening?
Rafa balled her hands at her sides. "Look, I know you have two tigers. Rob told me what happened in our—in your fight against The Mayor. I know Toni stole part of your powers; I know he severed your connection with your other tiger." Her lips opened and closed, and she licked them as if the dryness was to blame for her silence.
Tell him, Rafa. He needs to know!
"They are your companions, Léon. They're made of cosmic trace, you know."
"Of course I know that."
"Then you must know they help us use and control our powers. They're not an after-product of our connection to the cosmic trace; they are our connection to it. Lose that, Léon, and you will lose your connection with the cosmic trace outside and inside you." Bitterness spread on her tongue. That conversation brought up memories she'd rather forget. "You'll become a dead battery—empty inside, like... like me." She lowered her eyes.
Léon shook his head and sneered, even more distant than before. His fingers closed against Bonee's fur. "Nonsense. You don't know what you're talking about."
She scoffed and licked her lips again. There was a coppery taste to them. "Listen, mate." Rafa massaged her forehead and let her shoulders sink. Hopefully, that would be enough to shield her from the incoming headache. "You're clearly trying to avoid this." Rafa stared at him. She could tell Léon just how much she knew about the situation he was in, but she shook her head instead. "We can talk more about this once you're ready."
As Rafa got up, a handful of Bonee's fur got stuck between Léon's fingers and came off like dried leaves in a tree. His eyes widened and moved towards Bonee as if seeing her for the first time. He stood there in silence. Frozen.
Finally, Bonee huffed. She got up and took a few confident steps forward, trembly paws and all that. She seemed to be just as headstrong as her human. "C'mon, Leo. It can't get worse than this while I'm in here. I might as well show you to the exit."
Still, he was the sad picture of a dejected man. Eyes still set on his balled hand, he knelt on the floor, his expression hard and unreadable. Léon opened his hand, and Bonee's hairs, the ones stuck in his fingers, were enveloped by a purple shimmer that drifted skyward and disappeared in the darkness above. Back to being cosmic energy, Rafa thought.
"Up, Léon," Bonee said. "There's nothing you can do from here."
He looked up at her, and his face scrunched up in a grimace. One that Bonee seemed to ignore, casting her gaze on Rafa.
"You, woman. Follow me and bring my Léon. Considering you two came in together, I think we just need to find the place your undimensions meet."
Rafa scratched the back of her neck. Léon's shoulders sunk even more while he leaned forward as if he was getting ready to lie down. Rafa held his arm, stopping him.
"I don't think it'll be hard to find where my undimension begins," she told Bonee. Was it a trick of the light or was Léon really melting down? "I think I can see it from here, and... Léon. Get up!"
She tried to hoist him up, but his grief and sadness weighed him down. Rafa stumbled around him and slid her arms under his. She pulled him up again.
"On your feet. At once!" she insisted.
Bonee chuckled. "That's not the first time this happens. The boy has a mania to freeze or melt whenever there's too much for him to process."
Rafa rolled her eyes. "As it happens to everyone." She circled around Léon again and crouched before him. Her hand met his cheek for a few soft pats. "Léon? Hey. Look at me." When Rafa moved her hand away, something was stuck to her fingers—a transparent goo that was slowly covering Léon's features. "Ah, Goddess. Why do I have to deal with people? Why me?"
The tigress let out a sound again—something like a laugh mixed with a purr. "The poor boy never had another human see him in this state. He'll be embarrassed once he wakes up."
"Pfft. Please. You should've seen the state I was in a few years ago. My brother had to break into my undimension and pull me out by force." She clicked her tongue and held Léon's shoulders, narrowing her eyes. "I should probably do the same."
Bonee walked to them and sat down at Rafa's side. The tigress leaned her head against Rafa's arm and sighed. "We did have a few visitors, but this is different. Why does it feel like you belong to this place?"
Rafa didn't know either. She cleaned her hand on her jeans and scratched behind the tigress's ears. "Whatever the reason is, we'll find out soon enough." She leaned forward and held Léon's arm. "I'll carry him—you can tell me more about how to leave this place in the way."
Bonee nodded. She watched as Rafa laced Léon's arms around her neck and pulled his legs around her waist. As if half-asleep, Léon held her for balance—semi-transparent goo oozing from his arms and legs—and supported his chin on her shoulder. She managed to stand; once she did, Léon weighed almost as much as a bag of air.
"Cmon', Bonee. I think we have a long way before us."
***
She wasn't sure for how long they walked. It could've been days or weeks, or an entire decade—but eventually, Rafa and Bonee saw the storms, the dark clouds, the lightning on the horizon, and Rafa knew her undimension was close.
At the end of the path they were following, she found a cliff facing the distant ocean of her undimension. When the smell of rain and salty water reached their noses, Léon shifted at Rafa's back. Peering over her shoulder, she saw him looking around and rubbing his eyes.
Rafa let him down. Once he had found his footing, she slid her hands into her pockets and turned to face the raging ocean. "Ignoring your problems won't make them go away, you know."
And she said that with the note of sadness of someone who had tried that for a very long time.
Léon blinked at her. The goo was gone, and part of the sadness in his gaze seemed dormant again. "Except it will," Léon said. "But only for a few moments."
Rafa scoffed and, after a heartbeat, nodded. She massaged her stiff shoulders and raised her free hands to gesture towards the storm.
"Well... that's my undimension. Bonee thinks we can leave if we find the point where it connects with yours, but..." She gestured towards the cliff. "While I'm glad we don't have to actually get inside it, I don't think it'll be easy to find a junction point. Unless we climb down, that is." She glanced at Léon from the corner of her eyes. "I hope you're ready for some free solo climbing."
If Léon was surprised about Rafa's undimension, he didn't show it. The corners of his lips curled up in a mirthless smile. "Are you sure you can't tie me to your back so I can take another nap?"
Rafa chuckled. There it was. The dry humor oozing through seriousness. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen, mate."
Léon shrugged. His smile felt a tad more genuine this time. "I guess I don't have a choice, then."
"I guess none of us have." The hands in her pockets trembled, cold, against her thighs. The dark coldness ahead looked dangerous and uninviting; it was a place Rafaela promised she never again would spend more than a few seconds in—and she just hoped she could keep the promise for as long as necessary. After all, she still needed to forget the pain throbbing inside her chest.
"Let's go, then?" Léon said.
Rafa nodded and winked. She was a woman of action, not of stupid contemplation. "Race you to it."
***
Hi, dearests! Thank you all for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!
What I like the most about Rafa is how passionate she is about helping people, even when she tries to act all tough and distant. For someone who thinks she's not good with people, I think she has a (very particular) way to be present when her friends need her. xD hehe
Do you like her? Who's your favorite character so far?
I hope to see you all next week ;)
Also, a huge thank you to all these amazing people who voted and commented over the week, yay!
-bebeluv , Luciaaaa00 , adorextini , HolyPaani , PriscaAppiah
And this week, I'm dedicating this chapter to the fabulous hnicjones16 who has been reading and voting in this story since the very beginning! Thank you so, so, so much, I really appreciate your support ♥♥♥