This Isn't Your World

Chapter 4

A week ago.

"You will not get away with this!" Bora-ra screeched, lunging at Solar in the black abyss. The black hole was more stable than he thought, at least the interior of it is. This may not be the black hole at all. This could be another world for all he knew. Somewhere that was eternally dark, the only illumination coming from him.

Solar dodged, gravity non-existent. He noticed that his wounds had been healed, his energy replenished, as if his condition had been reversed. A red arm band floated by him, and he recognized that it was Bora-ra's controller. Grabbing it into his hands, he propelled himself with his beams as far as possible.

With him serving as walking glow stick, he was easy to target. Bora-ra? Not so much.

He scanned the area. It was dark with no means of escaping. There was nothing but blackness.

Was he going to die here?

His fingertips burned gold. He wanted to live. He wanted to live to see Tanah, to see Petir, Daun, and maybe even that troublemaker Api as well.

The golden light formed a crack in the blackness behind him. Like porcelain, part of the void shattered, revealing the city he was so familiar with.

Before Bora-ra could catch up to him, he dived out to his reality, the crack resealing as Bora-ra failed to catch up to him, a permanent resident of the abyss.

* * *

The first thing Cahaya noticed when he descended was that everything had changed. It wasn't some alien attacking or an alternate dimension, but it was like everything had aged in his temporary absence. Calendars were three years in the future. The new boba tea shop seemed like it's been there for quite some time. The park's trees withered, grown out or there were new additions.

He was here, in a whole new world, yet it was where he had lived for so long. The only thing that seemed to be in the same calibre with him was this stupid controller.

Controller... Solar recalled the battle against Halilintar.

Didn't he use this to control her?

Eyes widening, he tracked Petir's location down and bolted to the hospital where she was kept.

* * *

Cahaya tried to hide himself. He'd hacked into the databases previously and there were official reports of his supposed death.

It's been three years.

How? He'd only been in that black hole for minutes. Maximum time spent in that paradox was three. Did time pass differently?

Where were his friends now?

He made it to the hospital where Petir was. He used his powers to get to her undetected, and her condition scared him. Not exactly scared, but when everyone looked different, she looked exactly like three years ago, just like him.

He skimmed through the controls. It detected a new owner and adjusted to his wrist size, stuck firmly on his left wrist.

Cahaya took in a deep breath.

"Petir, wake up."

Like a robot responding to commands, her eyes opened. Sitting up, she looked around, expression confused. Her eyes fell on the light manipulator.

"Where am I?" she asked.

Cahaya patted her shoulder. "You're in a hospital. How are you feeling?"

Her brows furrowed. "I—" Her mind hit a dead end. "Wasn't I put in a coma at Bora-ra's lab?"

"How long ago?"

"A few minutes, I think," Petir murmured, staring at her sheets. "What did I—what did Halilintar do?"

Her body trembled in fear. Cahaya sat himself by her bed, clasping his hand over her shaking one.

"It's been three years," he said.

She stared at him. "You look the same."

"I know." He sighed. "I don't know what happened either."

He explained everything that happened to her, excluding the part where Tanah had gone rogue in the process of her controlling.

Petir stared at the window. She didn't remember any of it, but the shame certainly followed. Black veins originated from her watch and stretched up to her elbow.

She didn't remember that either.

* * *

They had to contact Tanah.

Cahaya and Petir escaped the hospital, which she was a master at. They had no idea what to do around this place. They were trapped in time, after all.

Cahaya tried to call his mobile. The number was cancelled. When they returned to Petir's old home, it had been sold to another family. Their belongings were still in the government's custody, because they had been declared dead after the plane crash.

The only thing that didn't change was the school. Even so, they can't just waltz around. Petir was home-schooled. Cahaya was supposed to be dead. Walking around campus might give his former fans a heart attack.

"Do you think Api and the others will have Tanah's contact?" Cahaya asked, leaning on the park bench.

"Assuming they don't get a heart attack." Petir folded her arms on her chest. Turning her attention to the nearest billboard, she noticed a familiar tournament that she was supposed to participate three years ago, just before her coma.

* * *

Air was definitely alive.

They'd seen her in action from afar. The frozen shop and cars weren't just abnormal weather activity.

Why were she using her powers in broad daylight? Granted that the area was evacuated, but still... they didn't use their abilities as freely to such an extent.

What actually happened in these three years they missed?

They can't blow their cover. They didn't want to cause a riot yet.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Cahaya asked.

Petir dialled the breakdancing tournament committee. "I'm sure."