(Elizabeth's POV)

It had been a couple of months since I met Zeel, I have to admit that I did fall hard for him and very fast at that. He had something that attracted me like nobody else, I think it was the extent to which he is broken.

Well, the more plausible reason would be because our Lorien Legacies resonated with each other the instant we met. This was a rare occurrence that only took place whenever Loric Soulmates were near each other.

Our resonance, and resulting soulmate connection, was pretty weak, but I attribute that to the fact that he was neither human nor Lorien. I felt more connected to Alice, we were more in synch and could understand each other much better through our connection with Zeel.

The moment I saw Zeel I knew; I just knew the extent of how damaged he was. I could see it within his ruby-red eyes, the damage he suffered and how much he wanted the world to suffer for that.

Even if Zeel himself couldn't understand that seething rage as yet, I was all too familiar with it – because I also had it bubbling deep within the pits of my heart.

I am not a boastful person, but I think I am hot as far as beautiful girls go. At first, I only wanted to seduce him enough to wrap him around my fingers, and I knew he would appreciate me. He is the type of guy that likes the purity of girls whether physical or emotional. I could tell from the way he looked at me for a single moment, he craved emotional connections – the purer the better.

Falling in love with him was never a part of the plan, and the worst thing is – he could see through my intentions from the beginning. I could tell he didn't really mind, as if it was only natural for me to want something from him.

I felt disgusted with myself and angry at him for seeing me as such a person. Guess it was a case of reverse psychology, huh? Alice knew more or less my intentions, and instead of pushing me away, she just treated me better and better.

Did she want me to hate myself even more? No, I think in this relationship between the three of us, she is the one who truly loves me the most.

Zeel, of course, doesn't love me, but he does like me and has come to care for me somewhat. Alice however, is another story – the way she treats me and kisses me when we make love. It is not hard to tell that she is bisexual – I think getting me involved with Zeel was more for her than it was for him.

And now I can tell why falling in love with Zeel is a double-edged sword, - the more you love him the more it hurts you.

Because you can feel his intentions through the nanites, look at his memories as if they were your own. At first, I was apprehensive about allowing him inside my mind, but I should have been more apprehensive about seeing what is inside his.

I could feel what he felt when I experienced a certain memory, imagine my surprise to find out nothing – yes nothing, that meant he felt nothing other than the accompanying pain of the experiments.

Some memories were not visible to me, but from what I could tell – his parents were monsters and angels at the same time. Sometimes life would be the best thing in the world for him, and other times his parents would be the devil to bring about his doom. Because some memories were blocked out, I couldn't piece together an accurate timeline of his life, not that I wanted to in the first place.

The more we fell deeper into each other, the better the three of us got along – almost inseparable. Well, I am inseparable from Alice, who is inseparable from Zeel, hence we are all inseparable. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

As we sat in the conference room, Zeel began explaining the ins and outs of his ability – why now of all times? If there is one thing guaranteed about Zeel is the fact, he has a reason for everything he does. But he is not omnipotent, I guess that's why Alice and I are necessary – to pick up the extra slack he leaves behind.

While everyone else is discussing the bet we made previously, I dive into his mind to look at a couple more memories, but if I am honest with myself – I hate going into his mind. Remember what I said? You can experience his memories as if you were him? Being Zeel is the hardest thing in the world.

Muscle always tense and ready to fight, toes at a certain angle to the ground to jump at any given moment, always evaluating the threat level of everything in the room, calculations running in the brain for projects I can't even begin to understand, and at the center of it all is a cube.

He said this is the only technology of his world he was able to replicate in Alice's Universe. But I don't buy that explanation for one bit, why can't he just make another?

Why doesn't he make one for Alice or me? He allows us to play with it knowing we'll never be able to use it.

Why does he allow us to play with it in the first place? Alice noticed too, he allows us to check it out at specific times every week – trying to break the code and peek at what is inside. The technology is too advanced to have been created in any other Universe besides Zeel's own.

And there is also the factor of calibration. How would you even go about calibrating such a device to every Universe? Or is it an artifact? These questions and more bubbled in my mind every single time I looked at the glowing mysterious, silver cube.

He often says that if he isn't around the cube will answer to one of us, but we know that is bullshit. If Zeel dies then we not only lose our ability to Mjump, we also die! The nanites will set off a chain reaction killing Alice and myself, after all, everything Zeel designs are made to go BOOM at some point or another.

Still, on the topic of the bet, I decided to add my part so nobody would think I am overly supportive of Zeel.

"I didn't bet since I kinda knew the answer with some of your memories being accessible to me and all," I say after which I saw Zeel's mouth twitching slightly. 'Cool, I finally managed to annoy him' I think internally giving myself a mental thumbs up. Alice also had a strange reaction to that statement so I shot her a questioning look.

Alice satiated my curiosity with a proper explanation "Those memories are deeper in his subconscious meaning that very deep feelings are required to trigger the response system that links nanites together, meaning the deeper you fall in love the more you see,"

It was at that moment I realized that I was majorly fucked – knowing I am in love with Zeel and having quantifiable proof that I am in love with him are two different things. That automatically places me at a disadvantage in all future scenarios.