I was supposed to put this in the synopsis but I forgot when I wrote it. This chapter IS NOT the first chapter to the story, nor is it the prologue. If you've read my Twitter, you already know, but this is just a preview to one of the arcs that contains massive spoilers so read this at your own discretion. Reason being, I haven't been able to post anything as far as Sanctuary and Innocent go, so this is just a little something to give you a bit of a feel for the new style. The prologue is in the works currently and I'll remain in touch with its progress.

A Moment In Time

"For the sake of my wish, I promised Her three. One: I would find God Ah. Two: I would fight against fate itself to save the hero. Three: I would do everything in my power to grant his wish, no matter what ending he chooses." (Suuba)

The duo quietly trekked through the damp cave, TJ uneasily stealing glances at the surrounding area and glaring at the bats that rested upon the ceilings.

"You know," TJ began, "I'm all for secrets and whatnot…" He paused. "Scratch that. I don't like secrets at all, especially if they have something to do with me. But I'd like to know where we're going. If we have to travel through a dark cave I get the feeling it can't be anywhere good."

"Just shut up and stay close. I'm not hauling your corpse out of here if you get lost." Su replied. "I've got way better things to do." She climbed up onto a small ledge and proceeded onwards with him in tow. "You better watch your step here, it's pretty-" Before she finished her sentence he ran towards her to stay close and slipped.

"Whoa-" Completely losing his balance, TJ fell backwards and slid down an unforeseen slope towards an open pit. "Su! Help!" He cried out as he neared the fissure and quickly fell inside.

"Idiot!" She ran towards him and slid down the slope, quickly diving down it after him. "Activate the Frequency stupid! Do it or die!"

"Fine just get me out of here!" He shouted as his rapid descent continued.

"Did you expect any less?" Su responded. "Frequency!" A blue glow surrounded the two as their eyes flickered to a shade of the same colour.

He reached his hand out to her and held the other out as he continued with an incantation. "Abide by the contract and give me the strength to become the hope of this world! To me, Memorius Sanctum!" The beautiful gilded tome appeared in his free hand and immediately opened, flicking through the pages and stopping at one with a series of lit characters. As it did the aura he emitted grew brighter as his hair turned snow white and a matching pair of wings emerged from his back, as the same happened with her.

"Hang on tight! It's gonna be a hell of a bumpy ride!" He grabbed her hand as her wings spread further out and she leapt in mid-air from their descent towards one of the walls. As she approached she formed an icicle and thrusted it into the wall, cracking the rock and only proving that it was not enough to pierce through. The two continued their descent and she desperately took another swing at the wall, successfully lodging it within; the pair narrowly avoiding the death trap beneath them.

TJ desperately raised his legs as close to his body as he could so he was not impaled by the spikes that awaited him. "For God Ah's sake, this place is gonna be the death of me!"

"That's why I told you to stay close idiot. The entire place is rigged."

"I wasn't that far. But why would someone put a bunch of traps in here? What's inside of it that they have to hide?"

"It's not what's inside of it that we're looking for. It's what's outside. I know this place like the back of my hand; I've been here once, and I knew it wouldn't be the last time I came through here. Now get ready to move, 'cause if you fall again I won't be coming down here to get you back out." She held her hand out as she began to mutter an incantation and a series of spheres of water began to appear in a spiral fashion, surrounding the walls of the fissure up towards the ground floor of the cave. As she completed it, they connected with the wall and extended out towards the center forming a set of stairs. "Let's go! Get up there, you're heavy!"

"I'm goin' I'm goin'…" He muttered as the book disappeared and he climbed her back towards the first step. The moment he set his foot on it he could hear the sound of it cracking, and immediately he dashed upwards towards the top while Su stayed in close proximity. As they made their way up, the stairs shattered and fell to the ground leaving them no time to spare.

Nearly taking another fall into the fissure the two escaped and their hair and eyes returned to their normal colour.

"That was close." He sighed with relief.

"Use your head for once, moron." Su hissed.

The two continued on through the cave for a spell without falling into any further traps, little noise was made between the two aside from the noise of their own footsteps. The sonance of voices caught TJ's attention, the sounds they made very familiar to those of goblin kind. After what they had recently been through, the possibility of goblins being inside the cave was not something he would rule out. The Temple of Pluton was only a few hours away from where they were now; the Bogles they had seen likely meant there were other treasures nearby. He stole a glance at Su and the serious expression she made. He could only imagine how difficult it was for her to return to this place, but his curiosity on what she was searching for begged him to ask her about the matter. Though he wanted to, he decided he would not and looked away to catch a glimpse of a series of holes in the walls surrounding them. His attention immediately switched to where his foot was as the ground beneath him sunk slightly by his step.

"Good one jackass." Su muttered without looking back. A multitude of arrows emerged from every hole in the wall and shot out towards the two. Su stomped her foot and the ground surrounding them shattered and rose to create a small barrier of earth to protect them. The reverberating of the arrows colliding against it caused TJ to shudder though he knew they were safe inside.

"N-nice save." He chuckled uneasily.

"It's not over yet." Su said. Unknown objects collided against their barrier and seemingly fell to the ground shortly after. Once they finally came to a halt Su broke the barrier and the two found themselves surrounded by a series of rocks and broken arrows. "Whoever designed this place was clever enough to know that if the arrows failed, an attack from above would catch any targets stupid enough to crouch."

"It's a good thing I have you with me then."

"You're damn right it is. Now let's get going. She picked up a couple of rocks from the debris and pressed on.

After a brief trek they come across another wall with a wooden door upon it. As they approached it Su stopped in front of it and blocked TJ from opening it.

"Listen to me." She said to which he nodded. "The second we step in there we'll set off the trap. We have to run as fast as we can until we can get to the vines hanging from the roof. You give me a lift up there and jump up yourself since you're taller. Once the boulder rolls past we'll find the shortcut and take that to get out of this shithole."

He knit his eyebrows. "Why don't we just use magic? It's gotten us out of some pretty bad situations already. It'll cut down the amount of effort we need too."

She glared at him. "Do you know how much magic we've used already? Not only did we need to use the Frequency, you had to transform and summon Memorius Sanctum. That wasn't even all of it. If we keep it up we'll use up all of our mana before we even get there! Whatever's waiting for us there, I know we'll need all the mana we can get to make it through. So let's not be stupid about this."

"Risking my hide for traps isn't my favourite past time, but if wherever we're going has something that has you scared you might just be right."

"I'm not scared. I'm just not stupid." She turned back to the door. "You ready?" He nodded. She opened the door and immediately broke into a sprint. As she did he followed suit and the second Su entered the room a massive magic circle emerged from the floor followed by the sound of a boulder emerging from the place they once stood. The two dashed down the tiled tan room towards what they hoped to be a safe destination.

"I don't wanna get crushed!" TJ cried.

"Then stay right behind me!" Su shouted back to him as she held her hand out in front of her and fired a thin beam of ice freezing the ground in front of them. She began to slide across it and he uneasily followed in her footsteps, the two narrowly managing to hold their lead and their lives. "We're almost there! Clasp your hands together and get ready!" He put one hand atop the other and Su turned around while still creating a stream of ice for them to ride. "Now TJ!" She leapt from where she stood into his hands and he flung her towards the low ceiling. She grabbed hold and raised her legs so they were not hit as the boulder approached.

TJ found himself at the end of the ice trail and began running on foot with the boulder quickly closing in on him. "No, no no!" He shouted as he uneasily stole a glance at his incoming end. He leapt for the vines but to no avail. "I'm not tall enough!"

"Use the wall!"

He ran towards the wall and leapt towards it, off of it and grabbed hold of the vines, raising his legs towards the ceiling while narrowly avoiding having them and possibility the rest of his bones being broken by the boulder. With a sigh of relief he let go and landed against the ground and turned to his companion. "That was close. Who the hell uses giant boulders for traps?"

"This place is older than everyone in Yggdrasil combined. Though I have to admit, they were pretty clever with their use of the Arcane Arts. I could learn something from them." She climbed down with a scowl. "I know I said I wouldn't use magic again, but I did. How the hell did I make it through there the first time without water spells?" TJ shrugged in response. "Whatever. We'll manage." She took a small canteen filled with water from her bag and drank some, closing it back and throwing it at her partner. "It's not the most effective way, but at least we can restore a bit of mana and stamina through this."

While he took a drink from the bottle Su walked past him and occasionally threw a rock at the ceiling.

"What are you up to Su?" He asked as she pressed on.

"Somewhere around here there's a fake set of tiles. That'll lead us to the tunnel which'll get us outside."

He felt a growing uneasiness inside of him. "Su, are you sure what you're looking for is here? Seems like you're really risking your life for this. I know it's a tad late to be saying that but…if there are more traps and nothing waiting for you at the end of the journey…maybe it's just better to turn back-"

"Hell no!" She said turning to him with a fierce glare. "I did not come all this way just to get turn around when I'm this close to getting what I came for! If I'm gonna have to get plugged full of arrows or crushed by boulders to get to where it is that I wanna be, then I'll fucking do it! This shit is nothing compared to the shit that we've been through!" Her voice began to sound calmer but her glare was just as intense. "I don't know what you've seen, but you don't know what I have either. So if you're gonna turn your back on me now and break your promises, don't bother looking for me again. I have my own goals in mind too."

He took a deep breath. "Y-You're right. Sorry. We're in this together, and just as you've stuck with me through it all I'll do the same."

Her lips curled into a thin smile. "Hmph. You better." She tossed another rock towards the ceiling and a hollow sound echoed back. "That's the spot." She stomped the ground and an even larger rock emerged, levitating before her. She pointed towards the hollow tiles and it shot up towards them, colliding with and shattering them. "Well? What are you waiting for? Let's get a move on." She grabbed a hold of a vine hanging down to the ground and climbed up into the hole.

"By the end of this journey I'm gonna be claustrophobic." TJ muttered climbing up after her.

The pair quickly crawled down the narrow shaft towards the destination only known to Su herself. TJ silently followed behind her, keeping a close watch on her in case she disappeared into the darkness that surrounded them. Though he had dedicated himself to seeing her through this endeavour, he still felt reluctant because he only knew a fraction of the danger that they could be in. He began to recall the aftermath of the battle in Elfa and he shuddered. The amount of secrecy between himself and his friends only made him more uneasy; the possibility that he would lose Su again worried him even more than not knowing what the two would face next.

"Hey." He began.

"What?" She responded.

"You….you're not gonna die on me right?" She stopped in her tracks and turned her head towards him with an icy stare. He grinned in turn. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks."

"You're a real idiot you know."

"Yep and I'm damn proud of it." She sighed and he chuckled quietly.

After crawling for a brief period longer the two came to a small slope in the tunnel allowing them to slide down towards an exit. Su somersaulted down the shaft and TJ tumbled down after, landing face first in the grass as she stepped aside.

"I give that landing a ten out of ten." Su sneered.

"I aim to impress." He replied dusting off his clothes and rubbing his face gently. As he rose to his feet he carefully examined the surrounding area.

The duo found themselves in a thin passage between tall walls of rock; a small grassy path led them to a small doorway with two tall pillars inviting them into what seemed to be the opening of a temple. Though what really caught TJ's attention was the shape that it was in; the pillars were broken and crumbled, and pieces of the temple's entrance had fallen and partially blocked the doorway. Some of the magnificence of the location was lost in time.

"What…is this place? What happened to it?" He asked.

Su walked over to one of the pillars and gently brushed it with her hand. "This is my home; this is the shrine that was dedicated to my ancestor, and the first God's Governor of Earth Terramane. It's been passed down through my bloodline to each new Governor, and now it belongs to me." Her expression turned sour and slightly enraged. I had only been here once and those bastards found out." She slammed her fist against the pillar and grit her teeth. "Agasuras or humans…I dunno which but they came through and trashed the place. They must have taken the artifacts within it too. When I find who did this I'll tear them a new asshole!"

He furrowed his brows as he examined the rubble. "I'm sure if you could've stopped them, you would've. But after being away from your home for so long and being forced to work under the Dark Moon, it was just out of your power. Being halfway across the world can complicate things."

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but there's no excuse for shit like this. A God's Governor is responsible for their people; I wasn't able to protect my family, my friends, or anyone else in Hanamah. I couldn't even stop them from looting my own shrine. You only know a little of the attack on Hanamah. It's time you heard the full story, 'cause you're a part of this too. If the entire place isn't in shambles; they shouldn't have been able to enter the inner sanctuary. Let's go." Su climbed over the rubble and lead him further in.

The two descended a long set of stairs and came into a corridor; the turquoise walls and the sound of their own footsteps were the only welcome they received. The surrounding area was filled with more rubble and what seemed to be broken pedestals. What had been placed upon them was lost in Su's absence, and every step they took he could feel the tension from her regret building up. They finally came to the end of the hallway which appeared to be a dead end, though two crumbling statues awaited them. Su took a deep breath and placed both her hands to the wall between them, and a magic circle opened up before them. The wall split down the center almost naturally and she pushed the doors open, leading him inside.

The room was wide and circular with a high roof, a series of six pillars surrounded a small basin; at the opposite side of the room a massive stone statue rested watching over the entire place. As he walked inside he could feel a wave of mana wash over him; the entire room basking in it, and there were incredible amounts emanating from the body of water.

"You know, you're the first person to come in here that wasn't a God's Governor…or…Her." She grinned devilishly. "You shouldn't stare so much when you come into a girl's room."

He knit his eyebrows. The comment she made prior to the joke caught his attention, but he did not press the matter. "You need to spice this place up."

"This is the way it was made and this is the way it'll stay. I'll make sure of that." She stopped walking as they neared the pool and she turned to him. "We've come a long way on this journey, and there isn't much left for us to do. You've gathered nearly all of your memories and you've defeated most of the worst of the Agasuras. Not bad." She raised her eyebrows. "Anyway. I brought you here for a reason. Mostly. This is mainly for me but you're here so it's high time I tell you."

"You're killing me with this suspense. What's this big secret you've been hiding? I've been waiting for it since we came here!" TJ complained.

She chuckled. "Just wanted to enjoy it a little more." She took a deep breath. "Three years ago I had stumbled upon those ruins while I was exploring the forest. Went inside and nearly got myself killed for it." She smiled as she reminisced about the fact. "Eventually I came across this place; this was before it was destroyed and robbed. It was also before the Dark Moon attacked Hanamah." Her expression began to look rather sullen. "When I had come in here I saw someone in the fountain; I had never seen anyone so beautiful in my life." She smiled slightly. "And that's coming from me, so you know this lady was something. She had long white hair, piercing blue eyes…" Su shuddered. "They were actually kinda scary, but that's not important. She told me that she was looking for me specifically, and that she had been calling out to me for days hoping that I would come…and I did."

"Why was she looking for you specifically? Was it because you were a God's Governor?"

Su shook her head. "No…well, kinda. She had been signalling the other three also, but none of them could hear her calls. Do you remember what Peorth told you about the Frequency Link?" TJ nodded rapidly. "She used that. I had learned about it sometime after I got to Hanamah, but I couldn't use it because no one else knew how, so I thought it didn't work. Turns out she was reaching out to me in my dreams and was calling me to my shrine; it was the only place she could manifest."

"What happened next?" His eyes were full of curiosity as he awaited her response.

Su's gaze glazed over slightly. "She told me everything. Told me of my lineage, of your existence and of the other God's Governors. But more important than all of that…she told me your future."

He snorted. "You're nuts!"

She frowned. "Don't try me. She told me what would have happened if we didn't prevent it." Her expression was hard. "Trini was going to die to Choen Palm in Atlantis and you would be forced into a contract with her." He looked genuinely appalled by the news. "That's not the end of it. After that the two of you morons would go on a bloody rampage. Cerebians and humans alike were killed mercilessly. I saw a bit of the battle between you and Peorth." She shook her head. "It was bloody and…kind of awesome. Though it didn't surprise me that you killed her."

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "No! I would never raise a weapon to Peorth unless we were sparring!" He clenched his fists. "I wouldn't join Choen Palm either, even if my life depended on it!"

"You nearly did back in the City of Iron." She retorted. "But anyway, that's why I said she forced the contract stupid. With just the two of you, all of Jienda was forced into a war, and after the battle in Atlantis, the Atlantians joined in the war thinking that humanity turned against them. She wanted to stop that at all costs, and She chose me to do it. I was the only one who could understand the Frequency, and one of the few Cerebians who could control that much power."

He knit his eyebrows. "But who is she? Why did she choose you to stop that future from happening, and how did she even see into the future?"

"'She' is the Cerebian goddess Lady Amae."

He stared blankly at her for a brief period in disbelief, and shortly after his expression changed to one that seemed to almost contain a childlike innocence. "…Mama?"

Su frowned. "What?"

He averted his eyes. "N-nothing. Sorry, go on."

She shrugged. "She had told me that the eyes were the key to the soul, and to the future. If you knew jack shit about our race, you'd know that the royal family, including Peorth are clairvoyants. They weren't the only ones, but nowadays they probably are. Lady Amae was one of the first, and she passed it in through her lineage. Every Cerebian believed she had disappeared hundreds of years ago after the Agasuric War, along with God Ah. They were wrong. When Peorth brought you to our world, She woke up from this really long hibernation, and with what little power she had left she looked for the God's Governors. The others were out of her reach and couldn't hear her calls. Aside from that, the fact that she's here is proof that God Ah probably has a physical form too, and that he's out there somewhere."

"So she came to you to warn you of what was going to happen so you could prevent it?"

Su shook her head solemnly. "She came to do this." She turned away from TJ and began to unzip her sweater.

"Hey! Whoa! What are you doing?!" He said in a panicked voice while covering his eyes.

"I'm showing you my proof of her existence." She finished removing her shirt and stole a glance at him. "You can look now stupid."

He removed his hands from his face and saw exactly what she had promised him. Upon her back was a blue magic circle, beautifully adorned with three symbols forming a triad, each surrounded by a small circle. The first depicted the Eye of Providence, the second the common magic circle, and the third the Ouroboros. In the center of it was a larger version of the eye.

TJ silently reached out to the markings and gently brushed his hands against it causing her to shudder.

"What are you doing?!" Su hissed.

"Oh! Sorry! I just kinda…got caught in the moment. What are these markings?"

"They're proof of our contract." He furrowed his brows at the response. "Three years ago, before I met you, I had formed this contract with her. It's true that she did come to warn me of the shitty future that was gonna happen, but she didn't just want me to know. She wanted me to stop it." She grit her teeth. "She also told me of what was going to happen to Hanamah, but by then it was already too late. The Dark Moon had already attacked, and I was too late to save everyone. Lady Amae lent me her strength to protect what little I had left and to protect you, and to do that our contract had to happen. Regardless of whether or not Hanamah was in danger, the contract was necessary. She was too weak to remain in this world. My contract with you was necessary too, and all part of her plan."

"Why didn't you tell me this Su? If you and M-Lady Amae formed a contract, why keep something so important a secret?"

"I kept it a secret because it's important! Our enemies are all around us TJ. If the Agasuras have been able to get past the cities' protection, there's not a single place that we can call safe! The Agasuras want you TJ, and if they get you, they'll take me with you! The Cerebians will be down a God's Governor and their goddess! If they got that the Cerebians wouldn't stand a chance in hell against them!"

He clenched his fists. "You're right…as always. The information we know can't be divulged so easily or we can put everyone in danger. Our identities are more important now than ever before. I won't put everyone in danger like I have in the past."

Su smiled devilishly. "Damn right you won't. Still, this is why we're here." He raised his eyebrows. "This is basically the place the God's Governors were to go to prove themselves; at least, the ones in my family. A God's Governor can't awaken until they pass some tests or something. This is one of them."

"Telling me the truth?"

She laughed. "No." It had been some time since he last heard her laugh. He smiled slightly at the fact. "You're probably gonna get dragged into this since you're here." Her tiny shoulders shrugged. "This is for your sake anyway. With this I'll have the power to protect you." A sharp glare followed her words. "You better not look or I'll gouge your eyes out." She muttered over her shoulder. "Before we can take the test we have to purify our minds and bodies in the sanctuary."

He turned away as the sound of clothes shuffling followed his action. Shortly after he heard something enter the water and Su swear.

"Damn cold…" Su quietly waded through the water and stood in the center of the basin. "I dunno if I remember it." She muttered.

"Remember what? An incantation?"

"No a prayer." She sighed. "Well whatever. If I screw it up he can suck it." Su took a deep breath. "The hands that hold, the power of the earth; I shall take it upon my shoulders and turn the gears of fate with my brethren. Past, present and future shall be mended, the prophecies fulfilled, the worlds merged and the rightful king shall claim his throne. By the unity of the four we will rise, chosen heroes who shall stand ever resolute against the Agasura! Bestow upon me the divine challenge of the servants of His Majesty! Here and now, I shall prove myself a worthy successor to His Majesty's hero of old!"

As Su's prayer came to an end a storm of leaves surged forth from nowhere and surrounded the entire room.

"What's going on?!" TJ cried as he covered his face from the surrounding attack.

"That's just his fancy entrance." Su responded. As he turned to catch a glimpse of who 'he' was, the room they were once in had changed completely. The basin had disappeared and the walls began to look like that of the ruins; covered in moss and vines with a cracked and trodden floor. There in the center the leaves gathered around and dispersed as two magic circles appeared in the center and split apart vertically, revealing an elderly robed man. His short silver hair was met with an earthen mantle; his expression aged and wise, but peaceful. His gaze remained focused on Su.

"It's been a few years old man." Su said with a devilish grin. "I told you I'd be back."

A thin smile spread across his face. "God's Governor Suuba…from a glance I can tell how much you have grown. You have become much wiser, but your personality has not changed at all. That is no way to respect your ancestors." He chuckled quietly as his gaze shifted to TJ. And who might this young lass be?"

"Did he just call me a lass?" He asked in a hushed voice.

"You need to get your eyes checked old man. You should be able to tell by a look." The elder nodded in response as he muttered, 'I see' a couple of times. Su pointed to her companion. "This is TJ. TJ, this is my oldest ancestor, and the first God's Governor of Earth, Terramane."

For those who have found themselves here, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read it, and I honestly hope you enjoyed this little preview to the story. I'm a tad fickle with my works so there might be edits later to the dialogue and whatnot, but nothing major. Truthfully, I'm treading unfamiliar territory with Sanctuary, so I hope you'll bear with me through this process and enjoy the work nonetheless. With that said, if you want to stay updated with my works, give my Twitter a look, check out my blog through my header and let me know what you think of this so far. Every opinion is appreciated! Thanks guys and look forward to more of this story!