After the absolute failure that was asking the Ævum for help, Amneris and Xix took it upon themselves to check things out. Since the Terpolite Monitor Station was the first place any form of evidence had come from, that's where they went.

The place was completely trashed! Part of the roof had caved in, crashing down on all the monitors, and an entire wall was missing! There was evidence of a fight everywhere, burn marks from energy blasts all over the station. Even gouge marks from Terpolite blades marked the floor. The far wall—still intact—looked like something massive had been thrown into it. One of the piles of roof had teeth marks on it.

Amneris tossed aside a brick and muttered, "This will take forever to fix."

Xix, however, had her attention on the missing wall. More specifically, what was in its place. Where there should've been open space, there was just . . . nothing. It was unsettling. How could there be nothing? That was impossible. Xix reached forward, wanting to know what it felt like, if there was any form there—

Amneris grabbed her wrist. "Bad idea."

Right. If that was the Void, the last thing they needed was to fall into it.

Xix shivered. "I thought these tears closed once the Beast returned."

"Hmm. It's more a time limit thing than anything else, though that is known to happen." Amneris crossed her arms, looking over it. "You got sent those readings not even a day ago. It's not that surprising it's still open."

"But we should find a way to close it?"

"Oh, definitely. Don't need someone else trying to touch it." A pointed look.

"Yes, yes. I get it."

Amneris pulled a small pouch from her belt, digging around. As she did, Xix took the opportunity to see if any machinery was still working. She thought it would be hopeless, everything was too badly wreaked, but under a pile of rubble was a light. With some effort, Xix shifted it out of the way. She pulled out the broken computer – a laptop. It was one of the older models, something she hadn't seen in years.

Xix sat on the pile of rubble, resting the laptop on her knees. Having no idea what to do, she began pressing random buttons. The screen flickered to life. It wasn't password protected. How convenient! A screen was already loaded, showing an image of the Station in current time. A security feed! Looking around the room, Xix found a camera in the corner closest to her. She hadn't noticed it before. The red light told her it was still active.

After finding the correct button—totally not an accident—Xix was able to rewind back to before the Station was destroyed. "Hey," she called to Amneris, who was placing stones at strategic points around the tear. "Come look at this."

The two women watched the video.

* * * * * * * *

The three watched the computer, the two men leaning over Ali's shoulders. Spikes were appearing on her screen at regular intervals, the three unable to do anything but stare. Another spike—

The Station shattered, blowing in a wall and throwing the three across the room. The dust settled; the Station was in pieces. Tentacles slithered through the wreckage as the Void Beast pulled itself into Creation from the Void.

"By the Gods . . ."

"That's not possible. There's no way . . ."

"But how . . ."

The Void Beast stared at its target. The three activated their powers, casting what remained of the Station into multiple colours of light. The Void Beast roared and leapt forward. The three jumped out of the way.

Ali was first to attack. With a roar, she charged, armed with a sword made of orange energy. She sliced the creature's tentacles. They dropped to the ground, causing everything they touched to disintegrate. Ali swore and moved away. There was no effect on the Void Beast. Unconcerned, it flicked its injured tentacles. They reformed.

Finn yelled, "Move!"

Ali flipped over the tentacles that swiped at her, pushing off her hands to flip back further until she was beside her workmates. "Can you even beat a Void Beast?"

"It's only one," Xen said. "If we can overpower it, give it too much matter to handle, that might stop it."

"Sounds good enough to me!"

The three rushed forward. Faced with multiple targets, the Void Beast went all out. It lashed this way and that with its tentacles, trying to chase the three around the room. Its jaws widened as Finn waved his arms near a pile of rubble. He dove out of the way at the last second, one of the Void Beast's teeth breaking off the rubble and dropping to the ground, causing a small hole.

Across the room, Ali raised her fingers to her lips and let out a loud whistle. The Void Beast's head whipped around, all of its eyes on her. As it rushed at her, she rushed at it, the blade of her new energy sword dragging along the ground as she ran. With a cry, she raised her sword—and leapt over the beast. It rammed into the wall.

Xen had reached his bag and pulled a pistol, firing bursts of bright red energy at the creature. It went straight through, burning the walls and floor as he tried to land a hit. The Void Beast climbed across the wall, slithering this way and that as the group fired their power in energy bolts at it, accomplishing nothing but damaging the wall. Burn marks were everywhere.

"It's not working," Finn said.

"I am open to suggestions!" Xen snapped.

"Boys!" They turned to Ali. "Get ready to move!"

The Void Beast roared again, growing more and more frustrated at being unable to grab its victims. They split up, moving around the room, each trying with no success to bring harm to the beast. It was clear the three were growing tired.

The Void Beast swiped at Finn. He tripped, landing with a grunt. Before he could recover, tentacles had wrapped around him and held him at bay. He struggled against the grip but it was too strong!

Seeing their comrade trapped, Ali and Xen charged—only to be grabbed and pulled from their feet. The three fought against their bindings, pushing and attacking with all their might, but they couldn't escape! Ali was using some very colourful language at her continuous failed attempts, the two men cursing almost as bad as her.

The Void Beast, with its victims ensnared, roared and leapt back into the Void.

* * * * * * * *

Amneris and Xix exchanged glances.

"This is not normal Void Beast behaviour," Amneris said, returning to placing her stones. "They don't take hostages. They're beasts. They don't have high enough brain function to plan."

Xix stared at the video, now stopped. "How much do we actually know about Void Beasts?"

"Aside from the whole 'antimatter brutes' thing?" Amneris asked. "Only what we've seen. And no," she said. "There's no record of this happening. Ever."

"If Void Beasts are taking hostages, we will have to be careful." Xix, careful not to turn off the computer, pushed it into her bag. Someone with more knowledge of how to use the thing could see if there was anything else on it once they returned home. "Remember what the Ævum told us."

"'Beware the impending attack. It will take one of you.'" Amneris rolled her eyes. "Yes, I am aware." She stood straight and dusted off her hands. "Okay, that should do it. Come over here, please."

Amneris place her hands on her sister's shoulders, moving her until she stood in a certain spot near the stones. Amneris moved across until they were face to face, beside the tear to the Void. She walked Xix through what to do in detail. There could be no mistakes. It was a very old spell, one Amneris had only remembered and rediscovered because of the current issue. She'd stayed up all night translating the instructions.

The two women raised their hands and begun chanting in the Old Language. The powers of Naiu and Naka flowed through them as the Gods sensed what they were doing and gave them a boost. Red and blue energy flowed like fog, mixing together before the tear. They continued to chant. The tear begun to react. Wherever their power touched the Void, energy zapped across it like lightning in a storm, but the tear refused to work.

Amneris broke the chant. "This should be working."

Xix sighed. "Did you translate it properly?"

"Of course I did." Amneris pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket, scanning over it. "Oh, wait. That should say 'grace' not 'power'." She pulled out a pencil, leaned on the wall and crossed out the error. Amneris laughed sheepishly. "Never translate while sleep deprived."

Xix pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a long breath. "Any other errors you'd like to check?"

Amneris went over the page, slower this time. "Um, no. All good." She handed the page over. "Try again?"

Xix, taking note of the changes to the chant, nodded and handed back the page. "Okay."

Once again, the two women raised their hands and chanted. Like before, their power came out as red and blue fog, mixing together until a deep purple was created. That hadn't happened last time. The fog touched the tear to the Void, once again creating the lightning-like energy. This time, however, it was different. With each zap, the tear became smaller. They continued the chant. The tear grew smaller and smaller until the purple fog overcame it entirely. The tear was gone. The chant was stopped.

"And hopefully that should reinforce it," Amneris said, beginning to pick up the stones and return them to her pouch.

Xix, suddenly tired, found a chair still intact and pulled it upright. "You found a spell to close it but are yet to find a way to open it?" she asked, sitting.

"Yeah, pretty much." Amneris, closing her pouch, sat across from her sister on a large pile of rubble. "Tears to the Void are no new thing. They've been happening for as long as Yenari has existed. Getting to the Void is one thing—the tears are usually so small that no one can fit—but actually repairing the tears are fairly simple. Well, on a small scale."

"Would there be a way to amplify the spell?" Xix crossed her arms and legs. "Think about it, if we could close all the tears at once, that would solve the problem. Temporarily, at least."

"It would buy us more time to figure out what the fuck's happening," Amneris agreed. "But it would also mean all those who are currently trapped in the Void would have an absolute zero chance of ever getting back."

"Ah." Xix slumped. "Yes, that would be bad."

"But it's worth looking into for once we get everyone on the right side!"

"Very true."

Amneris looked around the wreaked Station. "I doubt we'll get any more out of this place. We should head back."

Xix couldn't agree fast enough. Despite the now-repaired tear, the place still gave her a weird feeling. The sooner they left, the better for her sanity.