"Slava! Are you okay? What's going on?" He heard someone say in a deep yet panicked voice. He, who'd just slammed the closet, took a second to compose himself before turning to face the door.

"I got mad,” he grunted. “I was close to understanding something but I lost my train of thought. What do you want?" he said, twisting his expression.

Now that the door had closed behind his friend, Slava's eyes adjusted to the brightness and the figure in front of him cleared up.

The imposing man stood at least a head taller than him. Tattoos covered most of his darkened skin, and his piercing brown eyes dashed around the room like a predator looking for prey.

"What are you looking at Kolya? Can you stop staring down my shit?" He asked, frowning.

Ignoring his comment, the bulky man walked over, his expression serious. There was no hesitation when he lightly pushed Slava away to open the closet door.

"What's with you?" Said Slava, glaring him down. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he retreated. Kolya's serious expression soon turned into a lighthearted grin.

"Haha, it seems like I was overreacting," he shrugged. "I thought someone was hiding in your closet."

Slava knew Kolya had a keen eye, but he also knew how to trick it.

"What's up with your hand," he suddenly said.

Opening his hand, he noticed scorch marks on the palm of his hand. Was it from when he grabbed Sasha?

"Odd," he said, examining the wound, "I don't remember getting those," coming into contact with Sasha while they were both in that odd state must've triggered something, "something must be wrong with my exosuit, I'll need to check it out." He was surprised, was it just a one-time thing?

"Seems like you're getting too old for the healing ray," Kolya laughed. Suddenly, as his friend finished his words, a disturbing feeling crept down his spine, and almost at the same time, Kolya dropped to the ground, in one swift motion, before Slava had the chance to react, he swept his foot under the bed. When nothing came out, he took the time to scrutinize it carefully.

"How? I could've sworn…" he murmured before being interrupted by someone firmly grasping his shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing?" Said Slava visibly fuming. Awkwardly smiling, Kolya let out a laugh.

"It's not my fault man, the room feels weird, I keep hearing things. Anyways, I gotta get something." Standing up he walked to his side of the room, "where did I put that damn thing again?" Slava could hear him aggressively rummaging around. "By the way, I saw you had a small nap. How'd it go?"

Normally he would've scrutinized and interrogated him, but Slava was just too exhausted.

Sighing, he replied. "Same as always," apart from Sasha, Kolya was the only other person who knew about his nightmares. Not because he had told him, but because he’d witnessed it firsthand. "But it feels like every time I see more and more," he continued. This wasn't the whole truth. The dreams were becoming more and more vivid but it also meant that he was becoming more and more tired.

"Look at you man you're not even surprised by it anymore,” he sighed. “You're treating it like another one of your research projects,” he grunted. Slava could still hear him throwing stuff around. “I can't decide whether that's good or bad for you at this point."

Sometimes Slava wondered if this dear friend of his knew more about him than he knew himself. Yea, sure he was a biologist but he was far from specializing in human behavior. This monster of a man was a crazy battle maniac. He was a very outgoing person, but that didn’t mean his appearance was simply for show. He knew his body like the back of his hand, he would experiment on himself to study the limits of the human condition. Back during their military days, he used to be at the top of his class. While on exercises Slava would be the brain and he would be the brawn. Together they were unstoppable. Although, recently, after they’d been discharged, he’d stayed away from conflict and preferred to take a less active approach to his passion.

“Ah! There it is!” said Kolya, emerging from his side of the room. In his giant hand, he held a canister that he soon moved to his mouth.

“Man, are you ever going to stop this shit?” Slava asked, shaking his head in disbelief. Once he had consumed the contents, Kolya grinned.

“Of course not man, you know I gotta maintain these somehow,” he said, flexing his muscles.

Seeing this, Slava pinched the top of his nose, “I suppose you also still sample your bodily fluids for study.” He still couldn't believe that Kolya was so meticulous about his training that he would sample his own feces. He claimed he wanted to know exactly what came in and out of his body.

“You know what? Actually, the guys over at the lab helped me design a portable…” Understanding the way this was going, Slava interrupted him.

“Ok, ok. I get it I shouldn’t have asked.” There was just no helping this guy.

Glancing at the bed once more, Kolya hesitatingly asked: "Are you sure there's nothing weird going on?" Kolya’s expression had turned serious. He was frowning and Slava could see him slightly clenching his fists.

"Are you really bringing this up again?" He said, returning his frown, "I told you I got mad because you distracted me, let it go, man." Facing Slava’s frown, Kolya’s expression turned grim.

He knew it, there was no way Kolya hadn’t noticed. He couldn’t involve him in this. It wasn’t that Slava didn’t trust him, on the contrary, he owed him too much already. He knew that if he told him what was going on, Kolya would drop everything to help them, but he just couldn’t get himself to increase his debt any further.

From his first day serving until now, he’d always been there for him. He still remembered how this previously far less imposing man had helped his stubborn and angry self integrate into the platoon. Or how he would always have his back in and out of the simulations. Or how he would trust him wholeheartedly in times of hardship no matter how bad, dumb or nonsensical his thoughts and words might be. The list didn’t end there, but just thinking about it made him nauseous. The whole situation reminded him of his sister and he didn’t like it one bit. He didn’t want to lose someone else. At least not like this.

"Are you just going to stand there forever?" Slava finally said.

Kolya thoughtfully stumbled to his side of the room. When he came back out, he held a small syringe.

"Yea I guess you're right, I'm sorry. If ya need anything or if you see something weird just hit me up alright?" Saying this, he extended his forearm, stabbing himself with the needle. Without changing his expression he continued; "What about you? Did you have an epiphany?" He got some ideas when he witnessed Sasha mess with his work.

"Maybe, I need to work on more of this though," he said sitting down at his desk.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then," he said, throwing the syringe into a specially designed container, "Imma go back to the lab, I just needed to get this." Saying this, he took out the now empty canister, showing him, before ducking his head through the doorway.

"Make sure to get some rest or I'll end up outliving you." Without another word he left and the door closed behind him. Maybe he was right, maybe he would die before him, there was no point in mulling it over.

Taking his eyes off of the door, he shifted his gaze back to his monitor. Once a few minutes had passed, he muttered: "It's alright, you can come out now." When those words left his mouth, the closet behind him swung open.

"Jesus fucking Christ! That was close, if I hadn't…" cutting her off, Slava turned around to face her. "No, he noticed you because you were moving around so much trying to figure out how it worked," he replied slowly dragging his palm across his face. Her expression turned ugly.

"Oh, who cares? We didn't get caught did we?” She grimaced, “did you see? I got it! I can teleport!" Closing her eyes, she tried to replicate what had just happened. Seeing her creasing forehead, Slava laughed.

"I don't think it's that easy," he said, voicing his thoughts. He knew how hard it was to replicate. Every time it had happened to him, it had been by coincidence. To put it bluntly, they were lucky.

"Shut up!" She said, her eyes still closed. Sure, it seemed to be linked to their understanding, but for now, it only seemed to happen in moments of epiphany.

"I think you should leave before he comes back," hearing his words, Sasha snapped out of her focus. She wanted to say something, but when their eyes met, she instantly turned towards the door.

Seeing that she’d understood, Slava focussed back on the monitor. Reaching under the desk, he took out what looked like a pen. With it, he lightly tapped on his desk making the previously dim background sketch come to the forefront. Seeing him, Sasha warmly smiled, softly closing the door behind her.

For the next couple of hours, he would switch between fleshing out the sketch on his desk and playing around with the different formulas and shapes. Sometimes, he would stop and take a break. He would look out of his window pensively spinning his pen between his fingers. In these moments, streaks of white light would be seen dancing around his eyes and fingertips as he stared at the endless city unraveling before him.