Singapore Sci-Fi

Chapter 13 - Axel

The Time Queen made it very clear that she was not happy with us finding the Time Stone.

"The Time Guardian is very angry," she explained, frustrated. "Moving constantly this way and that, disrupting the very fabric of our reality. This is not a sustainable action for the multiverse, you should not have the Time Stone."

"Why don't you just try to take it yourself?" I ask her, offering the stone in an outstretched fan of my feathers. "I have asked you to take it. Really, if you don't think I should have it then so be it."

"It's not my place to ask of the universe what it does not so readily give" said the Queen, waving her fingers at me, as if annoyed.

"Then why have you hired me, Justina? You made it very clear that you did not want me from the get-go."

Everyone gasped at me using the Queen's first name, while Myst had to hold herself back from punching me in the face, biting back the words "He's so fucking annoying."

I turn, wiping tears from my eyes and clearing the words from my mouth, clearing the room.

I passed by all the other time travelers as they are returning from their missions. Some are wearing space suits, others wearing kimonos, and I even saw some dressed as cowboys. Floating bots also passed by, muttering in conversation to themselves about the current vampire attacks floating about throughout the multiverse.

I never understood why the Vampire King was such a threat. A lone picture of him stood on a grey wall in the docking area of the castle where time machines found themselves leaving and returning from, shooting themselves out into space. The words "Warning" and "Extreme Menace to Society." Below those words are a Hispanic looking boy who honestly does not look that bad. He looked nothing more like a thug - a kid that got on the wrong side of tracks, but who did nothing more than petty crime. Really, I couldn't understand why Prince Adam would be someone far worse than Arkethia herself, but perhaps I had been in Emgralore too long to understand nor sympathize with what was going on outside of it.

...

Our world was nothing like the world that Emgralore that Naomi had known. My body had been flown forward in time, far beyond the reaches of my father Prince Theo. Instead, I was raised by the bird people themselves in Aviana, a land that existed high beyond in the clouds. I only was able to look down upon the world without being able to interact with it. We, the Phoenixes, were the Keepers of Knowledge. We knew past, present, and future; as well as the pitfalls and challenges of working with the Guardians.

To be honest with you, I myself had never believed in the Guardians. Stories of them and of the Great Wizards that once saved our world as well as the "Great Sleep" that once overtook them seemed like the stuff of legends to me. Queen Naomi herself was one of stories passed around the fire, with bird kids who would listen to her miraculous escapades. There was also the Great Wizard David and how he was unafraid of any monster - King Owok or otherwise.

I found myself constantly looking down at the world below me. Unlike the other kids in Aviana, I did not have parents, and it was not explained to me why this was so. As far as it went, however, I found myself being abandoned to explore on my own. Looking back, I could tell that this was on purpose and not on accident.

When I finally fell down from one of the great floating rocks, I found myself landing onto the windmills that keep our community powered up. We were told growing up not to go to this place, and I could see very clearly why this was the case. The upward current of the wind was pushing me downward rather than up, and I could see that it was impossible to find my way back upwards. I considered flying to the left and the right in order to find my way back up, but after I had floated down to lower levels, I found that there was no way back up to the top.

So, I did what all adventurers do in a situation like mine, I took the leap.

My tales in Emgralore are ones of fantastic adventures with many situations that brought me out of my shell and made me who I was. I fell in love and lost a beautiful Princess named Claire. I also was friends with Callden, a knight that fought against the evil terror of the great technocrat wizard that threatened to take over our world. Imagine my surprise when I saw Arkethia, that scary bird, decide once and for all to go ahead and burn the world. Imagine the disappointment had when I had found out later that I was one of these "heroes" that were destined to save the planet from its destruction. It was only until after it's death that I figured out the truth.

Having been given the time stone, I woke up feeling the gem seared into my chest, causing me to feel visibly uncomfortable. I woke up to the incinerating furnace that was the spaceship of Arkethia, only able to see the flames that were going up from its surface.

"So you're the one...." she said. "Granted, I thought that my sister would have a child that was more impressive but you? You didn't even know the whole time that I was the one you needed to be fighting off. You could have been saving your world from destruction. Instead, you were picking berries and climbing up mountains."

It does seem childish now. To think of Claire, her judging but playful nature, and the way that we would always crack a joke even when she was feeling bad about herself. Or Callden, the way that he would rush into battle without even considering the consequences that would befallen him should he take the wrong step, strapped into his moral compass. We had been through so much together to save our planet, and now everyone we ever knew was lost to us forever. I, the only survivor, in a universe that was bordering on destruction.

"Why did you do this?" I asked. "Why would you destroy the universe?"

"HA! Destroy the universe? As if I had such a power. No, this is not my universe."

"I don't understand," I muttered, "There's only one universe."

"As if you paid attention to anything nephew," she laughed. "It doesn't matter now. You're under my control, and you will be subjected to my whims as I see fit."

That was when I entered into a dream that was more horrific than my own nightmares. Seeing monsters that sat at the end of timelines, seeing people die over and over again in different ways, watching great empires rise and fall. The feeling of what had taken over me was too much. It was as if Arkethia was trying to connect to me because she hadn't anyone to talk to up until this point. I learned everything - from her attraction to the Guardian Kathair, to how much she hated those wizards she called "Carmen, Naomi, Theo, Bruno, David, Jodie, Antonio, and Jackie." The thoughts of them became so seared into my brain that I myself became convinced too - if I found them, I could learn more about the Guardian Arkethia and eventually stop this destruction from happening.

...

I was alone with myself in the field outside the Time Queen's castle, thinking to myself. It wasn't that I had necessarily planned to call the Time Queen "Justina." It wasn't that I was intentionally trying to be disrespectful, it was just that she was immediately on my mind. Her name so clear, her choice of identity, the way she held herself - so completely removed, so secure in herself. It seemed so refreshing, so natural, that I just wanted to relate to her on her level.

"You like her," said a voice. "You think it's going to get easier, that you can control your thoughts, but it's going to get a lot harder."

I rub my eyes, turning around to see a figure that is staring back at me. She looks just like me, but she is very different - long eyelashes, fingernails, and stares back at me as if she is so much secure than I am.

"I am Axla," she says, shaking my hand.

"Are you my sister?" I ask, rubbing my eyes as if doing so can clear her from my vision.

"HA! No, but I did need to introduce myself to you."

"How did you get here?" I ask.

"The rainbow bridge of course," she says. "Really, that Jackie Juarez left them all over the place. You can get to anywhere from anywhere."

That's when I am able to figure out. Axla is me.