The world seemed to stop for a moment.

“What’s with that reaction, old friend? It’s like you’re not even happy to see me!”

A drop of sweat rolled down his forehead, hitting the bed below with a thud.

“Impossible,” John whispered, just loud enough for himself to hear.

“Ohhh it’s not.” It let the words linger in the air, and John could feel the sweat on his body rapidly dry up. “Your sweat is just as disgusting as always. Seems like some things don’t change just because you gained a brand-new body, huh?”

John closed his eyes, calming his breathing, lest he accidentally woke Logan up. There was no time to deal with that brat’s shit. “I’ve got more questions for you than you could possibly imagine, you bastard.”

“I know.”

“Why am I here? Is this still the same universe? How did you bring me to this place? Does aether play a role in this? Was it you who erased all memories of my original name-“

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? First of all, you are here because I want you to be. I brought you here because I wanted to. No, this isn’t the same universe. Yes, aether did play a role in all of this.”

“Why would you do that? I can’t imagine my … reincarnation or whatever it is that I experienced being something you could do anytime you wished.”

“Because I have plans for us. Big. Plans. We’re going to accomplish great things together, John.”

John stilled. He had heard these exact words before, many years ago. “You don’t believe I’m going to go along with your plans just like that, do you? I’m not a child anymore. You’re going to have to pay the price if you want me to do to your bidding.”

“You’ve got no choice if you want to continue surviving. This world is rejecting us, pal. We have to work together.”

Rolling out of the bed, John stood up and walked towards the window. He opened it, letting the cool air from outside calm him down.

Something wasn’t right here. The world was rejecting them?

“More like rejecting you, asshat. I wouldn’t even be here without your influence. Not to mention that I’ve yet to feel any particular rejection from the world so far.”

“Certainly, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re a team now, does it? For better or worse, we’re bound to each other. If one of us dies, the other will perish too.”

John grit his teeth. “What can you do for me?”

“I’m still recuperating, so my abilities are somewhat limited. However, I can purify aether from the world around us and give you whatever remains after healing my wounds. Your growth will shoot through the roof.”

“Why not give me your aether directly?”

“If you want to go crazy, be my guest.”

He started tapping the wooden windowsill. “Then what’s your goal? What do you hope to accomplish with all this?”

In a rare moment of hesitation, what used to be the voice of the marble chose not to say anything for a moment. “I want to live.”

“You see, we are bound to each other now. I can’t free myself from you just as much as you can’t separate yourself from me. However, the lifespan of humans is very, very limited, and if you die, I will have to follow you into the grave.”

“Then why bind yourself to me in the first place?”

“You think I would have done so if I had any other choice? I was already falling apart when I met you, and I need a soul to stabilize me. Unfortunately, most souls…cannot be connected to mine for extended periods of time without collapsing. But you came at just the right time. The rest is, as you probably already know, literally galactic history.”

When he finished processing these words, John couldn’t help but stare blankly. Should he believe it? How much of what it had said was true, how much false? It would certainly explain a lot of things, but at the same time it didn’t make too much sense, either.

Just as he was about to get lost in his thoughts, a pillow hit the back of his head. “Would you fucking shut the fucking window? You might like sleeping in the cold, but I sure as hell don’t!” Logan shouted from the bed.

John simply flipped the bird at him, but chose to close it in the end when he noticed that the perfectly warm temperature from before was gone now. It was to both their benefit, after all. And the blanket was far from big enough to fit both their needs.

Now staring outside the window again, he thought about the implications of what might happen now that the damned marble had returned. “Wait, that means you don’t have a physical body, right? So you’re just some sort of soul connected to mine?”

“You could call it that way.”

Rolling his eyes at the attempt to be cryptic now that it had come clean, John returned to his line of thought. No matter what it really wanted, or which devious plans it probably had in mind, the only thing that mattered at the moment was that it could help him improve tremendously. And if it did speak the truth, then they were indeed working on the same goal. Having an extra source of aether didn’t sound too bad, after all. And who knows, it could perhaps help him when he least expected it.

“Pfffft,” he burst out when he finished that thought. Yeah, sure. Helping without a condition? Perhaps in the sweetest of dreams. But who cares as long as their goals match?

“Okay, you got me. I also want to live. But I think that’s the only thing we can agree on at the moment. Is there anything else I should be aware of? Some cosmic force chasing you around, perhaps?”

“Those who couldn’t bear to live in the same infinite void with me are all dead. However, I would beware the ground under your feet, for it might just turn against you.”

Burying his face in his hands, John groaned. “Yeah, great. Let’s just make sure that doesn’t affect our lifespan, alright? No provoking the planet, or moons, or the sun, or, I don’t know, the next black hole we come across! Alright?”

“Sure thing, buddy. May we live long and prosperously.”

The rain was still pattering at the barrier outside, flowing down in rivulets that congregated into small streams flowing into the far distance. Was this the fate that the old man had spoken of?

John snorted. ‘No need to get delusional.”

The next week went by in a rain-filled blur of endless walking, walking and walking. By the time their destination was in sight, John and the rest of the children were already at their mental breaking points. The sheer boredom that enveloped them in the past few days was unimaginable, for even the bubbliest of children ran out of topics to talk about once they passed the one-week mark.

Thankfully, the process of entering Camp Verdant, which was the name of their destination, went without a hitch. They were welcomed by a small delegation of fully armoured soldiers who, after confirming their identities and checking their future work stations, led them to the small two-storey house that would become their temporary residence.

The soldiers then proceeded to hand each of them a sheet of paper with a number on it. Before they could question anything, the old man stepped up. “Okay, team up with the people who have the same number as you. They will be your partners in the two weeks to come, as well as your roommates. You’ll get ten minutes to find your partners and familiarize yourselves with your new rooms. Use it well, because work starts as soon as your break ends.”

The children scrambled to find their partners, and, after an agonizing minute of searching, John’s turned out to be Ronnie and Jessica. Rubbing his eyes when he realized that the fiery little devil would be on his team, John suppressed the internal groans rising up from his subconsciousness.

“Aren’t you forgetting something here? Like sleeping in the same room as a girl~,” the marble’s voice said in a way that managed to unnerve John even after all the decades they spent together.

“We’re just kids you asshat,” John retorted. “The worst that could happen is that we punch each other unconscious.” He glanced at the already quarrelling Ronnie and Jessica, but blended them out when they started discussing how many times they had beaten each other in a swordfight.

“Guys, how about we look at our room first? You can continue in there,” John said when he realized that they didn’t have much of their break left.

Reluctantly backing off when they realized the same, the three went into the building that seemed to consist of only bedrooms and bathrooms, walking up the stairs and stopping in front of room 5. It was spartan to say the least, with only three thin beds barely big enough to fit an adult man and just as many drawers. The window showing the bustling streets of Camp Verdant was the perhaps only good point about it.

Before they could even discuss the distribution of beds, however, they were dragged out by their teacher and sent on the way with a duo of soldiers.

Looking around as they walked across the broad streets of the military base, John attempted multiple times to strike up a conversation with the two tin cans leading the way. They didn’t deign to respond, which left him alone with a pair of quarrelling children.

Fortunately, it seemed like the day was slowly beginning to catch up to them, eventually leaving the group in a comfortable silence.

The group of five trudged through lush avenues to their goal, with the seemingly endless barrier of water above and stomped earth below. Somewhere beyond the thick layer of clouds, the sun seemed to be setting, dyeing the entire area in an increasingly gloomy grey.

“I can’t believe that we’ve been assigned to the field hospital,” Jessica stated after a few blissful minutes in silence. “I mean, Logan will be stationed in the headquarters! Bullhead Logan! The probably most muscleheaded idiot in our entire class will get to enjoy a luxurious life with the nobles whilst I’m stuck as an assistant for shit.” She kicked a pebble into the distance. “I really don’t know what Teacher was thinking when he made the list.”

Ronnie switched his gaze from the ground to the back of the glimmering golden breastplate the tallest of their escorts wore. “Our most handsome and intelligent teacher must have had his reasons. He’s a teacher after all. They don’t make mistakes. Now stop complaining and let’s get this over with. Look, our destination’s already in sight.”

John, who could already feel a headache coming on from trying to fade out the marble’s constant remarks and attempts to persuade him into doing something stupid, snapped back into reality. He gave the building in front of them a good look before attempting to remember just how he dealt with that annoying voice in his head before.

The field hospital was an expansive stone building, stretching out for what must have been a hundred meters on either side. One could barely make out a few silhouettes through the regularly placed windows. Two large statues of a wrinkled old man with a caduceus in one hand and an opened book in the other flanked the open set of doors that led into the insides of this massive complex.

“Well, here we are kids. Your new superiors will arrive to pick you up shortly, so don’t cause trouble and stay put, alright?” the largest tin can that turned out to be a woman said after stopping in front of the entrance.

Once again the group was enveloped in an awkward silence. Fortunately, it didn’t take long until their superiors, a group middle aged men and women who, if the bags under their eyes were any indication, needed more than just two hours of sleep per day, turned up and released the soldiers from their duties.

“Well, at least their timing is perfect,” the oldest amongst them mumbled whilst ushering them through the broad corridors made of polished wood and tasteful vegetation. Along the way, he lazily explained the various functions of different sections and greeted any colleague with a meaningful stare. Eventually, their group became smaller and smaller as one doctor after another split off, wandering off into one of the many branching corridors of this maze-like building

After five minutes of monologue, the quartet that only consisted of the talkative doctor and the children stopped in front of a door that had a broom and a mop painted on it.

“HAHAHAHAHA, what grandiose and indispensable services you will be providing!”

Fighting against the sinking feeling in his stomach, John breathed in deeply. Their teacher had told them that he would show them the cruel realities of war more than once. He wasn’t an expert on the matter, but cleaning didn’t really count as an incredible cruelty to him.

“And this, children, is where you will get your supplies for your work. Brooms, mops, hot and cold water as well as soap. Everything you need in order to clean the wards of our injured returnees.”

The trio exchanged confused looks.

“Mister, is that going to be the entirety of our tasks?” Ronnie finally asked after a moment of hesitation.

“Ohhh, you don’t look satisfied?” The man smiled in a way that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Cleaning is quite an important task, too, you know? LIVES are depending on it. It is not a disgrace to dedicate your time to improving the lives of people who can’t help themselves,” he spat. “Now get whatever you need and follow me. A new wave of returnees is going to arrive tomorrow, and we need to prepare a hall for them.”

Swallowing the retorts brewing on the tip of his tongue, John joined Ronnie and Jessica in preparing their cleaning utensils. The cluttered chamber was barely big enough to fit them all, but at least it contained well-maintained tools.

The perhaps most surprising thing was what looked like a big wooden tub separated into two sections. A pipe was installed above each one, letting cold and hot water respectively run into them.

He was about to grab a broom when Jessica interrupted him with a tap on his shoulder. “John, I’m gonna take the broom. You take whatever else we need.”

Glancing over his shoulder, he stared at her for a moment. Then, recalling some rumours he heard, he rolled his eyes. “Listen Jessica, you’re closer to the mops anyway. Why not take them and let Ronnie carry the water bucket?”

“Yeah Jessica. Don’t make this more complicated than necessary,” Ronnie threw in from the side whilst filling up a bucket with hot water.

Her fiery hair swirling, Jessica turned around to face the two, both hands stemmed upon her hips. “I’m NOT taking a mop into my hands. You know that I hate these icky dirty things. Who knows just what kind of stuff they’ve been in contact with?”

Ronnie facepalmed. “Jessica, get over it. Yo-“

“You’re just making me do this because I beat your ass!”

“What? No, that’s got nothing to do with this. You’re just being unreasonable here! Just because your muscles are the biggest in this round doesn’t mean that you can decide who does what? We’ll just share the tasks equally, okay?”

Jessica crossed her arms in front of her chest and said, “How about I take care of all the sweeping? You and John can share the rest.”

“…”

John and Ronnie gave her their best meaningful stares.

She averted her eyes. “Okay, maybe I could, I dunno, take care of switching buckets if they get too dirty? I just don’t want to touch these filthy mops.”

John sighed. “Okay,” he said slowly, watching Ronnie through his peripheral vision. This was probably the best they would get without arguing a whole lot longer. “We can do that. But don’t you dare complain later.”

“I am a woman of my word! How dar-“

A series of knocks came from the door. “Hurry up in there, we don’t have all day!” came the voice of their supervisor. “Every second we waste here is one neither of us gets to sleep!”

“Wait, when do we have to wake up tomorrow?” John shouted back.

“If you hurry the hell up, perhaps in four hours? Good enough for you?”

The trio cursed simultaneously. They each scrambled to get their stuff ready, with John taking the mobs and soap and Ronnie two buckets of clean hot water. Jessica grabbed a bunch of brooms and a dustpan.

Once they were ready, they stormed through the door and followed the sleep-deprived doctor to the dirty ward. They cleaned and scrubbed, moved objects and swept with all the strength and speed their aether- enhanced bodies could muster. But the doctor was relentless and uncompromising in his quality control. By the time he finally let them go, there were only two hours of sleep left.

Dragging their tired bodies to whatever bed they managed to reach first, the trio collapsed into their beds. The fatigue quickly made short work of the remaining adrenaline in their bodies, and it didn’t take them long until they nodded off into slumberland.

In the end, it felt like barely a second had passed when thunderous gongs ripped them out of their dreams.