Star Bearers

by dragonridley

Universe 1 and 2. In one Universe, two beings are taken from their fated paths onto new roads, rallying people to their causes as they venture through the Universe whilst in another, a band of people follow the shadows of a past to make their future.

1. U1: The End

"Yeul…Caius…Noel. We made it…the last, eight of us, on the Wheelworld. It's me, Avatar, Daxter, Guybrush, Gilius, Jason, Snorglat and Billy. None of the others made it…"

Yeul, the once well known Seeress, who resided in Universe 1...the now dead, Universe 1, sat there, in her small bedroom, hiding away from the horrors of her world, listening to the words of companions she held so close, so dear to her...

"They were either killed during our battle against the military, or because we had no choice but, but to minimize the shield range…to only the generator core, the output, and our room…everywhere else here, wasn't protected. Avatar is heavily wounded, he tried to save Dupre, his gotten shot up. The others are fine, and they've taken Avatar with them to look around."

The voice on the recording device she was listening, was of a man known as Boris Verne. A person she knew since she was no more than five years of age...a man who had constantly rescued her and protected her from several villains of his universe, and hers alike.

"As for me?…I'm not in good shape either. Several bullets found their way into me. I'm sitting myself up against the generator core…I think I'm going to go first. I told them to focus on themselves, and leave me to die. Try to contact them. Please. Give them hope…"

The recordings of his voice were still as clear as ever. It felt like to her, he was in the very room she was in, leaning next to her bed...bleeding...dying...

"I'm so sorry Yeul. After having to kill my beloved Silphinaa, I don't deserve to see beyond our cycle…To see the eight bright stars I saw in my last brief vision, as the wave hit…eight stars…ten people…"

She felt the tears begin to escape her once again, holding the recording device close. "You were our saviour, our light. If only I could turn back time...I could have saved you...I could have saved so many more of you..."

Outside her home, there was wall several meters tall, inscribed with the words of the Leviathan tongue. On top of that wall, was Durnehviir, watching a dead settlement, beneath a blood red sky.

It was never so grim, so lost before. Once the sky was blue, life struggled yet survived, there was hope of a brighter future. But soon it had been casted over, destroyed, by the god of creation himself, to start it all afresh, and left behind, is the ghostly mark of 5 Universes that had fought their own battles, their own wars.

---

"I dream of a dark shadow, shaped like a dragon, looming before me, reaching up to grim purple skies, around it, millions of red eyes…my hands are not my own. In one of them, I have a golden baton, strangely shaped. Behind me, I see, shadows…that felt lost, afraid, but the very moment I raised that baton, they gave off courage, and as I point it to the great shadow before me, I see above it…eight stars…then I wake up."

"Pfft, sounds like a rubbish dream to me Boris. You should cut back on the energy drinks, they seem to be doing something to that squishy head of yours."

The first voice belongs to a man who had just hit 26 years of age, with short brown hair, a fair skin complexion, brown eyes, wearing a dull blue jacket and trousers, with a purple shirt underneath, and a strange computer wrist device. This man was known as Boris Verne.

The other voice belonged to a rather large alien being, humanoid in shape, but his head was square like, with small, black eyes, pale green skin, wearing a dirty white vest and baggy black leather made trousers, holding in his three-fingered hand a green can called 'Blast-o Energy' sipping it after speaking. This rather appealing alien was known as Snorglat.

Both were sitting in a dimly lit transport vehicle, sitting opposite of eachother with a red light covering them…as well as others with them.

"Well I'm sure the wizards at the Unseen University could figure it out for you. Just don't ask them to go into details, unless you plan on staying around for a whole week." That was the voice of a man next to Boris, who was called Rincewind, the wizzard. Yes with two 'z's, as it is stitched on his red wizard hat. From the world known as Discworld.

"Probably…" Boris then sighed, having his arms crossed over his chest. "I should ask Yeul once this is all over too. She might understand it."

Rincewind nodded. "Yea, well, after we save her from the Guardian and the Imperialus army of course…you really think this will be the last time Boris? The last stand of theirs?"

"Yep. Lord British has predicted it. Their forces have broken apart, surrendering left right and center. All we have to contend with is the Guardians most loyal forces….and from what I heard before we moved out, the battle is going well for our side. I, feel like I knew this was coming, that this will be the last."

"Didn't you say the last time you encountered the Guardian he seemed like he had sobered up and was talking of the something called the end?" Snorglat pointed out.

"Uh huh. He knew his time was running out. He knew the reign of the Imperialus was ending…At least I think that's what he was talking about."

Then, over a speaker system, a male voice was heard. "Boris Verne, we're approaching the battlefield, ETA 5 minutes. Attack escort is away and engaging any threats to us."

"How goes the battle now?" Boris called out, speaking sure the pilot heard him.

"Majority of Imperialus ships appear to be crippled sir. Fleet is now in range of the Guardians flagship. We should be able to get through to board the vessel."

Snorglat looked over to Boris, smirking. "Well now, time to be the big hero one final time huh?"

"Hopefully...it'll be the last. Ten years is a long time, afterall."

---

It was the year 2221 on the Pararela calendar. Universe 1, for the past 120 years has suffered from a reign of total tyranny. One that often attempted to reach out beyond to other Universes, latching it's claws onto the innocent, and bringing rightful law down on its knees.

This was the Imperialus. A once known military force that was brought into action to subjugate numerous rebellions from the civilisations of the empire Pararela. The economy had broken down, and lack of police enforcement led to its sorry state, and requiring to mass recruit and build a military force after it disbanded the previous one.

All the Imperialus was to do was to take control of the empire for a time untill peace could be found. That there was a way to bounce back from the crisis.

But the leader of the force, Neiamises chose instead to keep control, and somehow, gained godlike powers, crushing the once council of Pararela, and quickly expanding his influence, dominating a vast amount of the Universe.

He gave himself machine enhancements, and became almost immortal. For 110 of these years, it felt like nothing could stop him and his dark reign.

But then a lad aged 16 from a planet called Earth arrived. Boris Verne. This Earth was a humble planet, which was not even fully prepared for space travel, when Boris' uncle created a quantum device, that allowed him, and then his nephew, to be flung away from their planet, into the depths of the Imperialus.

There, on a desolate outback planet, he met the girl he would marry, the daughter of a man who led the Pararela forces to try and take back what it lost, Silphinaa. From that world, he travelled across star systems, bumping into what would become his greatest friend, Snorglat, a junk collector who didn't like humans much.

They ventured together to the main capital station of Pararela, the home of the council, Wheel World, a gigantic station that matched the size of a large gas planet, shaped like a ring, the number of people living on it was in the billions.

From there, they went from world to world, helping others in need, gaining allies and earning enemies, eventually, they encountered Neiamises, and with their friends, they managed to bring him down...only to find out he was a mere puppet. The true enemy was a being that was called, The Guardian.

The Guardian was a giant red humanoid who was in charge of protecting the universal gateways, the devices that allowed people to go from one Universe to the next...he had planned for the Imperialus, as he wanted to conquer everything he could for his own twisted ends.

This led Boris onto an adventure that lasted for 10 years of his life. Going from galaxy to galaxy, he became a hero known far and wide for his actions against the ever threatening Imperialus and 'Dark Four' that worked directly under the Guardian.

Baron Kaleev, an officer who was pretty much the first person Boris encountered that worked for the Imperialus, something who now forever tries to stop the lad and his companions from endangering the Guardian. Lord Blackthorn, a man who hailed from a world named Sosaria, which later became Britannia after three thirds of the known continents of that world were destroyed by Blackthorns actions, and all that remained is the land known as Britannia.

The Dark Queen, a lady of beauty who had got so far as to conquering Boris' homeworld, Earth at one point, capturing his entire family by order of the Guardian. She was defeated there, but remained a threat, often trying to do things by herself against Boris and those around him. It's believed she actually has feelings for the lad, as she has allowed him to escape on several occasions.

Finally of the four there was Death Adder, a giant man from the world of Yuria. He had been the most common enemy out of the four to Boris and his allies, and often would be the one who led other villains working for the Imperialus. He has been the only one who has been killed in these last remaining days, by a warrior named Ax Battler, who threw himself and Death Adder into the lava of a volcano.

With them against him, Boris had gathered many types of heroes from across the Universe, including a group called the Power Rangers, another named the Battletoads, the Autobots, heroes named Daxter Ace, Guybrush Threepwood, Avatar, He Man, Gilius Thunderhead and his allies Ax Battler and Tyris Flare, and of course, Rincewind the Wizard, all to name a few.

There are also three other noticeable ones. One who had an unusual power, one that the Guardian constantly hounded after. They were Noel Kreiss, Caius Ballad and Pulse Nsu-Yeul, Yeul to those that know her well enough. She was the one who the Guardian sought after, as she was a Seeress, uniquely able to see the future. The Guardian had captured all of the others and eventually let them die away due to making them constantly see the future. He intended to do the same to Yeul, and ever since she was 5 years of age when Boris was first introduced to her, she's been his target.

Now she was 15, and caught yet again, at least for the 29th time, and was the reason Boris was heading the mission to meet the Guardian once again.

She was now hanging far above the black marble flooring of the Guardians throne room, trapped in the same cell she always finds herself in, noticing her old drawings still being present. Nearby was a window showing the space battle going on outside, showing that the flagship of the Imperialus was burning in several places, becoming crippled and unable to fight back, the battle still going on all around it, the forces of Pararela were on the verge of total victory.

There was the sound of combat beneath her...but she didn't need to look, sitting at the bars of her cage, looking at the roughly etched drawings on the floor.

She knew what was going to happen. She had foreseen it in the last ever vision the Guardian demanded to see, expecting either finally the signs of victory, or another complex vision that confused him untill Boris figured it out and defeats him.

What he got changed his tune. He disbanded much of the Imperialus himself. He had allowed the Dark Queen to surrender to Pararela, and killed both Baron and Blackthorn as they refused to believe what Yeul saw and tried to harm her.

She heard a blade strike the flesh of its target. It was done.

Down below, stood Boris Verne, carrying a weapon named Flame Fossil, a metal weapon which looked like two red flames with a sword in-between, which was actually two swords. It was unique in that it can be either divided into two blades, or combined into a powerful lance. Boris right now, held it as two swords, the smaller, yellow-tinted one was right now embedded into his long time foe. He had dropped the larger segment of the weapon, and placed both hands on the hilt of this part, the blade had struck dead center into the chest of the giant red man, whose skin appeared to be scaly, bald, and had red pupils with the whites of his eyes being yellow. He was naked, refusing the need of armor, and had nothing personal to display. He was on one knee right now, leaning back a little, his eyes squinting, as he groaned out, looking at the wound.

"Well...done Boris." The Guardian slowly moved one of his hands onto the blade that was inside him. "To finally get close to me, to avoid my powerful magic...to strike me down...You should, be proud of yourself."

Boris was bleeding from his mouth, his brown hair looked ruffled and matted, his clothing torn and damaged from the constant assault of the Guardians vast magic. He had chosen to come to the throne room alone, while his companions held off the enemy. He yanked the weapon out, and the Guardian fell back to the ground, black blood oozing constantly from his wound as he rolled himself over, and forced himself up to his feet. "You deserved it you monster. After so long, I've finally managed to catch you." Boris had to admit though...this didn't feel like a real victory. The Imperialus, so easy to beat now...

The Guardian placed one of his hands over the wound, and walked past his red and black stone throne, stepping up to one of the windows, looking out to space. "I'm glad this is how it ends. I don't, have to watch now."

"Watch? Watch what?" Boris was worried by that.

"The true...end." He was looking at the boy through the reflection on the window. "Yeul has seen it Boris. A burning light which will consume everything...I am not to live though, to face that. She saw my flag burn away, and the Pararela flag, fly high...for but a short time, before it's gone. You're living in an era that will be the last...and I shall laugh at you...when, the end, is here...ugh..." The Guardian seemed to fall down onto his side, and soon, after one last raspy breath, there was no more movement from him.

Boris watched, and waited, just to make sure. Then when he was certain this was the end of their feud, he walked over to the segment of his blade on the floor, picked it up and placed the smaller blade back inside it's sheath, before placing the weapon on his back. He walked over to a steel lever on a wall nearby and pulled it down.

Slowly the cage was lowered on a metal chain, and as it landed on the ground, the cage door unlocked, and Yeul stood up and stepped out. "A little later than normal, aren't we Boris."

Boris chuckled at that, and walked over to her. "Well the council of Pararela needed a moment to arrange this assault little lady." He bent down to her level. "Did he give you the normal treatment?"

"Like a prized treasure? Of course...though, after I showed him this latest-"

"We'll talk about it later. I want to know what he saw."

Yeul nodded in agreement to that.

"...So, does the fair lady want her normal treatment from me as well?"

"Of course. The lack of proper food has made me tired over the time it took for you to get here." Yeul moved herself around to the back of Boris, and after a little difficulty, there stood Boris, with Yeul sitting on his shoulders, putting her hands on his head.

"You knew Yeul, one day your gonna be too big for this...I'm already struggling as it is." Boris looked to the doorway leading out, and begun moving that way.

"If you're even trying to hint that I have gained weight recently-"

"Nonono. Nothing like that. I just mean naturally, as you get older. I mean this was easy when I rescued you at the age of 5 after a tough battle...now though? Shoulders are aching a little."

"Have Caius and Noel come here?"

"Yep. Both should be nearby. Probably working with Tommy and Avatar again, three of them killing bad guys and acting like it's just another plain day for them, and Noel mentally taking notes while catching the odd trooper out."

"How is Noel doing with his weapon training?" Yeul tugged a little on Boris' hair, as she felt herself unbalance for a moment, before getting herself positioned correctly.

"He's a quick learner. Caius should be proud of him. His worthy of being your guardian you know. Still can't pick his weapon though. Saw him with a laser sword, he looked unsure...I think I should let him try my weapon out again."

"He hurt himself last time."

"He was 15 when he nicked it off me."

---

Once Boris, Yeul and all those they knew returned to their transport ships, Boris had informed the now fully restored council on the Wheelworld that the Guardian was dead.

This was the end of the Imperialus. Whatever was left, gave up and accepted imprisonment for their crimes. This was a great moment for all the people of Pararela. A dark curtain had finally been lifted, and peace for them was restored.

Boris and all of his companions were brought before the council, and were given praise and cheer for their constant struggle and eventual victory against such a force. Boris was told to give a speech to the people, let them truly know this is all done.

He told him he faced the Guardian, and struck him down. His friends helped paved the way, and he had wanted to end this in the name of his uncle, who had perished by the very hand of the Guardian when he tried to protect his nephew years ago, and in the name of his family, who were killed when the prisoner ship that held them was terminated by Death Adder, for Ax Battler, who gave his life, and for all those who died suffering in fear of the Imperialus across the Multiverse.

He wondered if the cheering and calls of his name and others would ever end, as in the back of his mind, he kept repeating the last moments of the Guardian...of his words about the end.

Then he was informed there would be a celebration party. Like every other major victory against the Imperialus. He doesn't like them much. He did at first, but as the years roll on, it's just a routine now.

The council, his companions, a few posh guests, 'pleasant chatting' and 'fine dining'...he was always glad when Snorglat was around in those sort of parties. His dirty demeanour always brought some amusing reactions from the posh, high-class guests. Snorglat didn't care. If they don't like being pushed aside because they're in the way of the buffet and bar, and hate watching him chew with his mouth open, they should keep away from him.

Boris soon found himself at the party, fully cleaned up, and in a blue gold-lined robe now, as was the custom for men to wear to these parties, while ladies often got to wear whatever the heck they wanted. He didn't mind, a little eye candy and all for him while his wife wasn't looking.

He had been speaking to Gilius Thunderhead, asking him how things were after the loss of Ax, when three of the guests had come over to speak to him. Caius, who was of course wearing the robe, but had his purple cloth headband around his head, Noel, who looked really uncomfortable in his robe...probably because it looked too large on him, and the Seeress Yeul.

"Thank you again for saving Yeul." Caius put his hand out to Boris, who sighed, and shook it.

"You know you don't have to be so formal with me Caius, we've known eachother for years. Put a little smile on will ya? You're off duty now. She doesn't need protecting at the moment."

Caius did give a little smirk, before he folded his arms and glanced around at the crowd. Boris turned his attention to Noel, as Gilius decided to try and get Caius' attention for a little chat. "So, how did you feel with the laser sword?"

"I didn't feel comfortable with it. Swords seem to work best for me, but...I dunno."

"Well how about we try something new? What about my type of weapon?"

"That strange contraption? I dunno, I remember the sharp bits getting my arm last time."

Boris laughed. "Yeah well you've learnt how to hold weapons now. I think I can let you burrow it...so long as Caius watches over it and you."

"But won't you need it at some point?"

"I doubt it, unless Dark Queen wants another fight. Probably won't though. Got a little message from her earlier, she said about being made an ambassador for meetings with Universe 2 by the council just now. Wants to see me for a 'little moment, together at last'. I told her another time."

Noel now smiled, knowing the chance he was getting with the weapon. "Thank you. I'll train with it as much as possible! If I get good with it, maybe I can have my own!"

Boris shook his head. "That's gonna be hard you know. It's kind of a one off...maybe we can forge a copy, never tried so...why not?"

Then, they heard classical, slow music being played, and the crowd seemed to begin dancing in pairs, slowly waltzing around. Except Snorglat, he was sitting at the bar, belching away. Silphinaa, her fair long brown hair, peachy skin and beautiful brown eyes, wearing a silky white dress, walked over to Boris. "Mind if we dance, my love?"

Boris was about to say yes, but noticed Yeul looking at him expectedly. "...In a moment sweetheart. But I must complete the tradition that we've always held."

Silphinaa soon noticed that Yeul was watching and knew what he meant, smiling sweetly at her. "Oh, of course. I'll wait for my turn."

Boris focused on the Seeress and bent down to her level. "Well now, would the fair lady like to dance with her saviour?" He put his hand out to her.

"If you please." She responded with, putting her hand in his.

"Does her guardian mind if I burrow the Seeress for a dance?" Boris said in a pleasant, posh manner while looking up to Caius.

"Go on." Was all he answered with, before Boris stood up, and led Yeul into the crowd. "Now, as you were saying Gilius..."

Soon Yeul and Boris found themselves deep within the crowd, with no one really noticing or caring for their arrival, as Boris takes her other hand, and begins a slow movement, taking it step by step. "I think you know how this dance goes, right?"

"It's the one where I must spin around at least twice at the middle of the song, correct?"

"No that's the one that's a little more upbeat. This is the one where you lean on your partner mid-way and move together at the same time…our escape song."

Yeul gave a little laugh. "To the balcony soon then?"

He gave her a wink. "You know it. Should get a great view of the stars tonight I'm guessing. And…well, we need to talk anyway."

Yeul nodded. "Yeah, we do."

Soon we find both sitting on stylish metal chairs on a steel balcony, that was one of many on this huge tower that belonged to the council. Ahead of Boris and Yeul…were the vast stars of space, above them, the other end of the Wheelworld.

Boris and her were both leaning on the balcony, with Yeul resting her head and arms on it, and Boris with just his arms. "So…what did you actually see that made the Guardian, change?"

Yeul seemed to think carefully for a while, before sighing. "I saw the Imperialus flag burn down, I saw the Pararela flag rise up…and then I first thought I was seeing sunlight over in the horizon. But it wasn't, it was a shockwave of energy. I, I heard screams of terror, of forgiveness…and as it got closer and closer, the voices became more and more silent. As it hit the flag, it vanished, and when it struck me…I saw the Guardian on the floor of his throne room on that ship, dead…then, the energy of the Lifestream poured out of him, his soul divided…then, I saw a blood red sky, and when I looked behind me…a demonic, undead creature was flying down towards me, Caius and Noel…as it roared out, I found myself in on this wonderful green field, with rocky cliffs, and a clear blue sky…then before me, two people, one was a tanned man with dark brown hair in dirty clothing, carrying a golden staff and wearing some kind of breathing mask whilst the other looked human but, his skin was hardened, a dull golden colour, wearing a red silken garb across his shoulder and chest, having white hair, carrying a sword that had a skull on it and the blade was, wavy. Both swung their weapons and clashed whilst a light surrounded them both…and that was it. That's what I saw."

"Well that, does sound disturbing. I admit. But it's probably more of a danger we can actually stop…or it'll damage Pararela to a point of total collapse again, then we fix it, probably something to do with those two guys you saw. Settling their conflict or something. Hopefully it won't cost me another 10 years." Boris looked down the tower for a moment, watching the flying cars come and go.

Yeul turned her attention to him. "Boris. They had the same light as you have surrounding you in each of my visions…this time, I didn't see you, in this vision." That was deeply concerning her.

"So, I'll still be around. There can be numerous 'lights' you know, in the darkness. Heck maybe they'll lighten the load for me. Get it? Light? Lighten the load?"

She always called him their 'light', their hope for the future. "Boris, this is serious. What if something is going to happen to you?"

"If? Yeul you've known me since you were 5 years old, your first vision of me was falling down the mountainside and breaking my leg just to try and get to your village. And lo and behold, I did. Things always happen to me. We'll be fine. Your saviour is still gonna be hanging around, waiting for you to be kidnapped, and to ride in on his horse…well transport ship, and save you once again. Though, I admit one day, when you start looking for a boyfriend, he'll have to do my job."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I was actively dating girls when I was 15…kept getting dumped but I was trying to find love, that's all I'm saying. Your boyfriend wouldn't like it if he doesn't get the chance to fight hordes of monsters to save you."

"I don't need one." Yeul turned her head away from him.

"You'll be thinking about it when you hit the age and other girls of your age are doing the same. Maybe if you see Noel start dating it might make you think about it. Just be ready…Now, there is something I want to talk to you about."

"Hm?"

"My…I had a dream, beyond my normal ones, very clear…" He explained it to her, his dream of the giant shadow before him, the shadows behind him, and the eight stars above.

All of it had her complete attention. "I…have seen those stars before. Far in the sky, brighter than any others. Their important, but I don't know why…What you saw though, the giant dragon, those shadows…It's odd, but I recall a vision just like that, but I was watching from afar, and it was you standing there, between them, with your hands outstretched to the shadowy beast."

"…Could I have had a vision through my dreams of the future then? Another part to this…end of Pararela?"

"It's entirely possible."

Boris chuckled a little at that thought. "Huh, I could start reading people's palms and call myself a seer or something. Hey do you think Caius might want to switch to me and be my guardian when you have a boyfriend?"

"Will you stop with that?"

Boris patted her head. "There there Yeul. I'll still be your knight in shining armor for now, okay?"

"I'm going back inside." Yeul was frowning at him for doing that, and begun walking away, but soon stopped. "Oh, and we must arrange a time for you to come to my world to stargaze again."

"Next month?"

"That would be nice." With that, she ventured back inside.

Boris stopped smiling, looking back over the balcony, at the stars…he was now really worried, especially with her vision. She was right, he was always in them…and if he isn't now… "Is something going to happen to me? Am I going to…die, after battling the Guardian? Is that my fate? Is Pararela going to collapse…maybe for the best, a force trying to extend itself into the Multiverse is making itself too thin, it might need to be broken to teach the council that it needs to stop acting so confident with these matters…"

He returned inside himself. The party came and went, and during Yeul's stay, due to the celebrations going on with the end of the Imperialus, which was going to last for about a week, Boris took her, Caius, Noel, and several of his friends out and around the Wheelworld.

Yeul loved this place, filled with life that was surrounded by strange yet interesting machines…They even visited Snorglat's giant vessel, which was a garbage collector, now remade into a portable base of operations for Boris and his companions. Her most favourite thing to enjoy though, was Boris' sleek dark blue, open top flying car. He always allowed her to have the seat next to him at the front.

It had been six whole days of constant goings out, playing games, experiencing riding around across space near the Wheelworld and on the station itself, going to fair grounds here…Yeul, Caius and Noel were finally allowed to return back home. After giving them a fond farewell though, and as all of his companions left him in the giant lounge set up for the passengers for the starship that goes to the galactic gateways…The question of the possible future coming returned to his mind…

He knew who he could turn to now. A being that was in direct line with Azrael, a being who led him on a few of his adventures to save Pararela. He walked over to the massive windows, looking out at the stars. "Castiel. You said All I needed to do was call your name, and you will come. So, I am. I'm calling for you Castiel. I hope you can hear me."

"I'm already here." Castiel, a deity of Azraels, was in the reflection of the glass, standing right behind the man, and made Boris spin around to look at him, shocked.

"That was damn fast Castiel. Don't you deities have work or something?"

Castiel replied with, in a slight dull tone "Mortals are our 'work'. What is it you want Boris?"

"Castiel. Yeul has had a disturbing vision of the future. It made the Guardian allow himself to be exposed and killed, and she fears it may be the end of something. Is anything booked on your end? Is the mighty god got anything planned for Pararela?"

"No." Castiel answered.

"Oh…well thank the creator for—"

"He plans to move to the next cycle. This one is going to end."

Boris paused at that. Castiel once mentioned that this Multiverse was a 'cycle' before when Boris wanted to know more about how things worked. Especially after the incident of Universe 5. "…End?"

"Yes. The Great Erasure is going to be sent across the Multiverse, ending the cycle."

"We're all…going to die?"

"You're energy will be carried over to the next cycle and remade anew. Your bodies will die and you won't remember this cycle."

So yeah, they were going to die. "After everything I've been through, are you serious!?"

"Yes."

Boris angrily turned away. "Azrael made me a hero, only to end it all now!? I won't be allowed to settle down!?"

"This cycle will end in one year. You have time. I'm sorry."

"SORRY!?" Boris turned back to the deity, ready to yell at him.

But Castiel had already vanished. No matter how many times Boris called out for him, he never again replied.

…He knew he had to break this to the others.

---

"Yeul, I know you Caius and Noel have already returned home, and I didn't say anything much before you left. I hoped you guys could visit us again. Anyway, about what you saw…ugh, Silphinaa doesn't want to believe it. Hell, I don't either, but Castiel confirmed it, it's going to end, as you foresaw. We might not be able to stop it. But none of us want it happen. We have to find a way to survive. Please tell me you seen us doing that."

"End message recording and send to predetermined data device. Damnit, should I tellher about how the council has reacted?" Boris stood there, with a data pad in his hand, in a very clean, neat looking living room, with a huge TV, white furniture, and blue wallpaper, with white lights. This was his apartment. He didn't like the idea of living big, and chose to live somewhere small and 'in the crowd', close to the council tower, as he could see from his bay windows. With him was Guybrush the pirate, Avatar, the hero of Britannia, Snorglat, and Daxter Ace, a guy known for his galactic exploits before Boris blew them out of the water, and chose to befriend him instead of being fame rivals.

Avatar had a blue bottle of alcoholic liquid in his hand. "Do it. She needs to know. They all do. We might be able to come up with a way out of this if we all think about it. Someone must be able to conjure up a plan."

Boris agreed, and looked back on his data pad. "Computer, new message, send to previous person. Begin recording."

"Yeul, there's more to it. I didn't want to say to make you seriously concerned yet but…it's going to happen within this year. Doomsday within this year. Everyone on the Wheelworld has gone into a blind panic. The council don't know how to handle it. Avatar tried to get Lord British to speak some sense into them, but even he seems completely disturbed by the prospect of the end coming. Harkon is no better, he just kept trying to dismiss the claim that the whole Multiverse is going to be reset. We all need to think and maybe stop this. If we figure out a way to avert this, I'll let you know."

Blind panic wasn't the word for it. Total chaos was more correct.

The council, despite one of them refusing the idea of the end of everything, decided the best course of action was to tell everyone pretty much that after 120 years of tyranny and now a little freedom…they were all gonna die in a year, ordered by god.

Avatar called it right on how everyone would turn into headless chickens with that kind've announcement, and even asked one of the council members, his leader Lord British, did they even expect any other kind of response from the people.

All Lord British said was that he wasn't entirely sure.

Snorglat had just gulped down his fifth bottle of beer. "Boris, why don't we just make an energy barrier around Wheelworld? Won't that work?"

"If it was that easy, we'd have survivors, or at least know of them, from the previous cycle. The Power Rangers are looking back on history for us anyway, see if there is anything at all that's been mentioned before on this…Great Erasure wave. Zordon claims he has no information though…and if he doesn't I doubt we'll find anything. There is one other person I hope will know something though-"

"There's no history record on such an energy force Boris, because no one survived it before."

All of those in the apartment turned their attention to who just said that, as the being had just stepped in, through the automatic rising front door.

Shadow the Hedgehog, with a brown, damaged cloak around his body, and a massive scar down the left side of his face which started above his eye, an eye that had glossed over white. A seemingly immortal mobian from Universe 2…the lone survivor of the 'Treaty of Eternity.'

The treaty occurred 400 years prior to now, when Pararela was still growing. In a another Universe there was a threat from beyond in the places known as the Farside…a species named the Oni. They had threatened the end of mankind, and advanced across star systems, seemingly unstoppable at one point.

But one group, led by a lady known as Lacus Clyne, decided to rally up and bring together as many of the other species and dividing forces of man into one united force to drive the Oni away, to save their worlds in Universe 2. Shadow was a member of her group, and was on their flagship, the Eternal, when it was nominated to go to the meeting location of all the ambassadors from the factions across that Universe to sign up a unity agreement.

To bring about a such a momentous act, they only agreed to meet in a neutral location. And had a light escort, with the Eternal being the most powerful ship. But, they were ambushed, a wave of Oni warships had surrounded them, and destroyed the escort, leaving the Eternal and the ship that carried all of the ambassadors.

The Eternal stood alone, drawing the enemy fire to itself, making sure the peace carrying ship escaped with as little damage as possible.

Lacus' sacrifice was not in vain though. Despite her and her entire crew being killed bar just one, the Eternal destroyed, the peace ship got away, and the treaty was agreed upon.

Shadow was found in the debris, having been shielded by the explosions of the ship being taken out, and having the ability to survive in space. The only wound he had was over his eye, which became blinded. But it was that debris, the remains of the ship, which later brought up some confusing questions.

The Eternal that was known prior to its final journey was a peaceful vessel, with really only enough firepower and shields to hold off at least no more than two rival warships. Yet the amount of weaponry salvaged, the armour plating, the shield calculations that were found in the damaged databanks were far beyond what the Eternal could ever do…the Eternal they pictured now was a war machine, designed for massive uneven odds against it.

The personal information was mostly corrupted, but some was collected…and some of the logs said about a war that has not even existed before…that the Oni were on the verge of victory, and there was a force known as the Terran Empire…the war they said of has been going on for hundreds of years, whereas this war with the Oni had only been about 5 years running before the idea of a treaty was brought up.

And their Captain was a man named Alan Cortez, not Lacus Clyne. She was second in command.

Shadow had never answered these questions in public. The only thing he ever mentioned was that a vortex had opened during the battle…and it changed things. For some, it was for the better.

For him though, as he once said to Boris, it was for the worse.

"The Erasure wave has wiped everything clean each time. At least it seems it has. I've looked into my own Universes records. As far back as they could go. I even asked someone I know if he knew of such...and he is a deity. There is no one. Nothing survives the end."

"So...that's it? We're finished?" Guybrush looked over at Boris.

Boris walked over to his window, looking out to the metropolis of Wheelworld. "Shadow, I need you to stay. Everyone, go and get some rest. I'll work with him tonight and see if we can find any other leads besides just our two Universes. We still got three more to go remember?"

There was a reluctance to move from all those in the apartment, but eventually, one by one, they departed, leaving the mobian and Boris alone, as Shadow walked into the kitchen area, and grabbed himself a glass bottle of bright purple liquid, which warned on its casing of being very potent and easily intoxicating. Shadow just takes a swig of it, as he returns to the living room. "You want to promise them false hope now Boris? That deity I mentioned is looking elsewhere, but even he did not give me hope."

"There's hope out there Shadow. There always is. We can't just give up." Boris soon slumped himself on his couch. "It's proving hard, but maybe..."

"No. This has to all end. I know that well enough. Hope rests in the next cycle...and it can be a fickle mistress. She can easily abandon people. I learnt that."

"You survived a ship being taken out Shadow. You made it out of a situation that was hopeless."

"Luck. It is not the same thing.." He took another gulp of the drink. "Anyway, shall we begin our research? You know the Wheelworld database won't have much information on the other Universes."

"If it comes up with nothing, we'll look ourselves, going into each Universe if we goddamn have to."

The clock showed it was 6:30PM when they decided to buckle down and focus.

It was now 3:32AM.

Shadow was sitting on the single chair, looking at a green holographic screen being emitted from the table, while Boris was laying there on the couch, looking at it as well, having just drank his ninth cup of coffee. All the lights were off, leaving them in the glow of the screen.

"...Universe 4. All information done. Nothing." Shadow grumbled, sitting back and looking away from the screen for a moment. "One to go Boris."

The man sighed. "Look, is this really all the information we have? Isn't there any we don't have access to that's on the Wheelworld?"

"Boris we've been given the highest clearance known, the council itself. There is nothing hidden away."

Boris closed his eyes for a moment, annoyed with all this right now and taking a moment to try and calm down.

Shadow continued on, looking at the information of the next Universe, 5.

...The mobian then sighed. "I wondered if you'd show up sooner or later. You deities really can't let go of the element of shock and surprise to us lower lifeforms, can you?"

Boris shoot open his eyes and sat up, noticing now there was a figure standing behind where Shadow was sitting.

It was humanoid, but had dull blue skin, at least seven foot tall, with huge black angel like wings coming out of its back, its hands were three finger talons, as was its feet, with jet black hair, yellow eyes, and visible fangs within its mouth. It was wearing black leather trousers, a belt holding them in place, no shoes, and over its torso and shoulders, a white sleeveless coat had extended all the way down to his shins.

Boris recognized him straight away. "Janos...Janos Audron..."

The deity looked over at him, and smiled, speaking with kind, polite manner. "Boris Verne. It's been a few years since we last held council together."

Janos Audron was known as the one of the higher ranked deities in the Universe. He encountered Boris when the lad was trying to fight through a world called Pagan, knowing that his lesser deities would be unable to assist 'such an important man of destiny', and gave Boris the powers of a summoner, to kill the demons that tortured the population there and gave the Guardian his first proper defeat.

Shadow knew him due to Zuo Ci. The deity was Janos' more trusted allies, and when Shadow wanted answers, Janos himself came forward to talk with him, as Shadow seemed to have surprising in-depth knowledge of their kind.

"So, I take it you've come because you know something?" Shadow didn't even bother looking at Janos; he was still focused on the hologram screen.

"I've come to inform you that after asking all of my people, none of them know of any survivors of the previous cycle."

Shadow sighed. "As expected really…damnit this information on Universe 5 is hardly worth checking. It's like the council here hasn't bothered to talk to the people that survive there. Like they've hardly taken information from Universe 4."

"A pity, because Universe 4 holds something not from the previous cycle…but the next cycle."

Shadow and Boris fell into silence.

Eventually, Shadow stood up, and turned to face Janos. "Are you sure on this?"

"It matches the feelings I gain off you. I quickly went there as Cervus showed me where it was. Extraordinary machine, a massive organic harvester of some kind. It's been out of commission for a long time, probably heavily damaged on impact with the planet."

"Hold on hold on! 'the feelings I gain off you'!?" Boris was now standing, completely shocked by that. "No way! Shadow? Does that mean you, you're from—"

Shadow rolled his eyes, before shaking his head and giving off a deep sigh. "Janos, you are as bad as your workers…I wouldn't tell anyone of that, would I."

Janos looked a little apologetic, and bowed to Shadow. "Forgive me, but with Boris being who he is, I thought you would've informed him."

Shadow turned to face Boris. Knowing he may as well tell the truth. "You can't tell anyone else. Do you understand? Yes, I am from the next cycle. I got trapped here."

"That means you know if anyone survived right!? Why are we even bothering with all this if you know!?"

"Because I don't Boris. I've lived two lifetimes in one. One was quite calm, adventurous…and I gained many friends. The other it was all about war, constant fighting, on a losing side. I was fighting to bring the first one back, and as I came into this cycle to complete my duty, I got trapped here. There would've been others too, but they got the merciful way out, they were killed on the Eternal. I never had the time to look back on other cycles or survivors. Billions of years have passed in that timeline by the time I came to existence. If anyone does make it, they'll be dead by the time I meet them, alright?"

"What is it like? Is anything that different? Does anyone I know of exist there as new, thems? Do—"

Shadow was quickly getting annoyed. "Boris, you must promise you will never speak to this to anyone, alright? I don't need to be hounded by people hoping I'm a saviour to this cycle…because I won't be. I'll be joining you lot when it all ends."

Boris felt crestfallen by that, but begun to understand. Shadow never wanted to be here. He is just one being and can't be the answer to everything. "…Alright Shadow. At least tell me about what you do know, before we go and visit this thing Janos has found."

And thus Shadow did. He told Boris of things that he only ever told Janos before, of a time that has yet to come, and once he was finished, Janos informed them both of what he actually discovered.

---

"H-hey, this thing working? I'm never gonna get used to this tech, haven't got much time to either, a shame but I can't do much about that. You know the arch-chancellor is surprised you didn't come and visit us on the Discworld. I heard you, Noel and Caius went to the Wheelworld, but you couldn't make time for me? I've been trying a new spell out that lets me create a small fire on my thumb. It's great for lighting things, though the librarian once smacked me right on the head for trying to test it out in the library. So, I take it you were talking to Boris about the 'Corruption controller' him and the others are trying to construct? He hasn't asked me about it yet, personally I think it's just another energy generator. I mean I'm no technician, but even Billy agreed when I had a personal chat to him that, beyond it being a fancy, alien made machine, it's just gonna power a million light bulbs. Anyway, despite the end coming, the old folks around the Unseen University are still continuing classes, and I'm due for one in a few minutes, say hi to Noel and Caius for me. I hope we can talk face to face before the end!...now how do you turn this thing off…"

The Corruption Controller. Named after what it's supposed to do, according to the records around it.

It was mostly extracted from the wreckage Janos had led Boris and Shadow to, being remade to be adjusted for the power output on Wheelworld, being connected directly onto one of the shield generators for the station. It took a over a month to finish. It's dark blue, sleek, shining metal form compared to the bulky steel grey standard on the Wheelworld, made it look very alien.

And it got people worked up. As if they weren't already with the whole cycle ending business. They were watching from afar, reporting to the council that they were sure there was strange, unnatural things going on, and that Boris and his companions must've been going rogue with their 'unusual, unbroken focus on constructing this weapon'.

It weren't just them being uncertain about it though. Even those Boris was close friends with weren't comfortable with the idea. Zordon, the leader of the Power Rangers has admitted the design of it is not something his seen before, and it feels unwelcoming. Yeul kept her distance from it, as the metal was giving off a feeling of death. Millions of deaths. Even Shadow had to agree it felt uneasy being around it, and the wreckage itself, all of it felt like that.

The wreckage in question was of a ship that he had never seen before. It looked like it was suppose to be a creature, like a squid, with five limbs at the bottom of the vessel, but completely machine made. It insides were twisted and certainly not made for people to venture through, but deep within, they found this machine, this energy generator, and the garbled messages they found in the ships last few, undamaged logs was about Negative energy and an experiment to control it with a stone of some sort that can 'confound even the being known as Azrael'. The other messages was the sudden alert of impacting onto a planet after creating a small tear in space-time, then repeating distress calls for thousands of years, before falling silent. It sounded like all of this was noted down by the ships computer AI.

If it was even a ship. Shadow had to question that… Janos believed it to be an organic harvester due to the amount of little machines inside that seemed…unusually intrusive, and had residue of organic flesh on them.

The Mobian was soon glad they could leave the damn thing behind.

Boris was pinning all his hopes on this, especially when the garbled message said about this thing confounding Azrael. He hoped that meant even the energy wave that will soon come for them. He was clutching on very, VERY thin straws, he knew that, but this was something for him to put his hopes on. A chance to escape their doom.

But they soon came to a complete halt. A major problem had arisen.

As they placed it all together and checked inside the strange energy creator that everything as prepared...one key element was gone.

All the wires, all the connections, led to one point...an empty sphere alcove, which appeared to have very tiny stone fragments left...of something.

Now Boris, Janos and Shadow had gone to Gaia I, to the Power Ranger base, to listen through the remains of the message logs from the strange ship. Hoping that Zordon, with the aid of his helper Alpha 5. The rangers themselves, Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Kimberly Hart, Trini Kwan, Billy Cranston and Tommy Oliver, were all sent to clean up a minor issue with an Imperialus remnant base.

"Unknown energy- unable to compensate. Impact with unknown planet in- Negative controller has ceased functioning-"

"That is all we can retrieve from this log entry." Zordons voice echoed in the main chamber of the Ranger command center.

"Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi! These records are just too damaged, we'll never be able to find anything at this rate!" Alpha 5 was waving his arms around, panicking that they just couldn't find what Boris was looking for, before focusing once more on the computers to try and access the next log.

"It would appear that if there was any information on the sphere we are looking for, has long been lost to time. We know beyond that message, they are all a repeating distress signal.." Janos placed his hand over his face, turning away, disappointed.

"...Don't dismiss them. Not this time. Zordon, Alpha, go through the distress messages, if there is any difference in the message, play it." Boris suggested.

All the sound they heard, was the hums of the machines, as the two were going through each of the million so distress calls, one by one.

Twenty minutes passed, and Shadow turned to Boris, looking frustrated. "Let's just leave it. They won't find-"

"Possible matching energy signature detected to Molag Bal- Playback secondary distress sign-"

Shadow quickly focused his attention to the computer, as did everyone else.

"Molag Bal-this is-Unable to use Negative controller due to- Sigil Stone destroyed on impact. Relay call to Harbi- require repair, unable to function-"

"Sigil Stone? That must be it!" Boris was thrilled, quickly looking at Zordon. "Zordon, do we know of anything of the kind? Is there one we could possibly get to use for the Corruption controller!?"

"It is not a thing I have heard of before."

"Janos?" Boris then looked to the lord deity.

He shook his head. "No. There is no such thing."

"...Shadow?" Boris focused on the mobian, his last little bit of hope before his forced back to square one of looking through the archives again.

Shadow knew why he asked him, due to where he really came from. "No. I'm sorry Boris. I don't know it either."

Boris dropped his head in defeat...He had to force himself to think on the positive side of things though...At least they have a name for what they need.

And while he was about to go back and begin hunting for a possible location of one, a member of the council, who had denied the end of the cycle, had begun to feel concern that it may actually come true. He couldn't be sure though...but knew who to ask, to get information out of.

This would lead Boris and the others to what they want.

---

In Universe 1, there was once a beautiful and bright, earth-like world named Pulse. It had a machine moon named cocoon once, a low orbiting space station, mostly used for those that travelled to and from the planet and beyond, a open-market space station, a place of wonder...

It fell.

No one ever knew the reasons why, no one on that place managed to call for help, nothing was ever found in the small fragments that remained. Whatever happened, it had forced the moon to descend down, fire spewing out of it, alarms blaring everywhere.

It brought the entire planet on its knees. Fire lit up the sky, fragments of earth and metal spreading across the entire globe, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, acidic rain...

After a few years, it begun to settle...but life changed for the handful of survivors.

Despite their once connection to worlds beyond, their loss of the station, the great effect it had on the planet, put people off from ever returning that didn't come from that world in the first place. The outsiders assumed nothing survived.

Thousands returned to their world, to former settlements, to cities left in utter ruins...they found survivors, both human and monsters alike. There was no more beautiful forests, no more green fields...a wasteland was made from the ashes.

That was 700 years ago.

The world remained beneath a dull green sky, the land was mostly sand covered, long dead trees and barely struggling to survive plant life littered all the continents. Several locations were the sea had rescinded away, the sheer heat emitting from the stations impact turning nearly all of it into vapour, some of it jettisoned out of orbit, was now covered with dried out coral and plateaus.

There were settlements of humans though, despite the amount that eventually left the planet once again, giving up on what was left.

One of them was in a valley of mountains, where water flowed down into a lake from the rare spouts of rain, where there was a few living plants, and an area easily defendable from the monsters that roamed this planet. It was a decent sized settlement, and it was named Paddra.

It was the home of Pulse Nsu-Yeul. Her last name, Pulse, was once Paddra, and in translation, it fully meant 'Yeul of the Nsu Clan, from the settlement of Paddra.'

But that had changed once she became a universally known figure. To those of Pararela, and what she eventually kept with, she was from the planet Pulse. Thus her name now stood for 'Yeul of the Nsu Clan, from the planet Pulse.'

She lived in a tribal like home on top of a hill, with flowers growing nearby it. Caius was currently standing outside it, watching Noel attacking a wooden figure with the blades Boris had given him.

Yeul herself, was out of the settlement, sitting by the lake that they got their water from. Watching the two small waterfalls that poured into it. There was no monsters at this time of day, so she required little protection.

As she sat at the edge of the lake though, she spotted a transport ship flying overhead, bearing the mark of Pararela, which was pretty much a blue flag, with a black circle that had a P in the middle. It seemed to go by where she was, but land within the valley, only a hundred meters from her settlement.

She chose to ignore it. Her tribe could deal with it, and it obviously wouldn't be the Imperialus, so there was no need for concern. She closed her eyes, and listened to the flowing water.

But then she could hear footsteps coming her way. And a male voice speak to her, a deep, polite and calm sounding voice. "Ah, Yeul. You look as beautiful as ever. I will admit, I expected you to be heavily guarded, being the last known Seer and all...perhaps your value has declined since the end of our time has been announced."

She quickly opened her eyes and looked over to her left, noticing a man wearing a uniform that had blackened steel armor on the torso and shoulder pads, but in other places was woven with blood red silk, with a short red and black cape attached to the back. He had a goatee, hair that was of medium length, tied back into a ponytail, all black, and appeared to be in his 40's. Attached to his waist, was a steel katana, with a blood red hilt.

Harkon Volkihar. A member of the council and the known emperor to a planet in called Nirn. He was known for his constant switching of sides during the conflict between Pararela and Imperialus, Often aiding Boris at times, only to then abandon him later. He only chose to stick to Pararelas side once he was offered a position in the council, who only accepted those who were of known royalty on a world.

Harkon was needed though, as during the time, The Guardian had promoted him to the head of an assault fleet that was posed to take back the Wheelworld...being given a position in the council led him to lead the assault force against a secondary fleet set up by the Imperialus, claiming them to be defectors, completely throwing the force into confusion.

He was not liked by Yeul. He had killed many of the Seers that tried to evade capture by order of the Guardian across Universe 1, and when Yeul's own mother tried to hide away with her daughter, he lent his forces for the hunt for them. He showed no remorse for his actions once he remained on Pararelas side, even after he met the little girl herself and was told though his men did not do it, the hunt led to her mother being taken away...and dying while enslaved to the Guardian.

"Nirn Volkihar-Harkon."

Harkon smiled sweetly at her, as he was now standing right next to her. "Please Yeul, call me Harkon. The days of formality, even your worlds rather backwards one, are running short."

She stood up, facing him, a little concerned as to why he was here. "What brings you to my world then? Has Boris sent you for some reason?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "No no. That annoying lad is not the reason why I'm here...I want to ask of your service. Your ability to see beyond."

"Why?"

"Because I want to know if it's really true. I want to know if it's really going to all end. All I ask is that you show me, and that is all. I shall take my leave of you."

"Is Boris' word not enough? Is the council's decision to accept it not enough?"

"No child. It isn't. I want to be sure that I need to make my amends to those around me before I do so...that includes you."

Normally her wisdom would demand that he leave, and refuse the notion of letting him see such. But the idea of breaking the man who wanted to kill off those gifted like her, the brief idea of him breaking down and asking for her forgiveness about her mother, about her?

Even she can fall to temptation.

"Very well. Harkon. Come."

She led him back to her settlement, to her house, alerting Caius to Harkon's presence, but she said he was allowed entry to her home, which he reluctantly allowed, keeping his orange fleshy giant sword with its single eye looking straight at Harkon, close to him. The Soul Edge, a weapon he managed to tame, taken from one of Death Adder's allies known as Nightmare. Normally it made those who held it go mad…but seven years of complete focus and dominating will can silence even the most vicious of weapons.

Inside, the house was neat and tidy, with several bookshelves, filled with books, ornaments, pottery, all gifts from those living in the settlement, and in the middle of the room, was the item that could show visions to others. A decagon metallic device, with several green jewels embedded into it. It was known an Oracle Drive.

Yeul sat down one side of it, and Harkon sat on the other, a little uncomfortable with the fact he had to cross his legs and sit on a dirty red cushion.

The Seeress relaxed, focusing her mind, before slowly leaning forward, and placing her hands on the oracle drive. "Harkon, I shall show you what I have seen…behold."

The machine activated, lighting up, and above it, made the very vision Yeul had witnessed, play out before them both. Harkon's annoyed look slowly turned into one of actual shock. Seeing the flag of Pararela vanish, to see the strange beast, the grassland…and then the two men conflicting. As it played out, Yeul spoke. "Witness the end, the vision that made the Guardian realize all was now hopeless. The fall of this cycle will happen, Nirn Volkihar-Harkon."

"It…it can't be…" Was all he managed to stutter out.

It give her a small smile, hearing that. That then, as the vision came to an end that was stored in the oracle drive, Yeul felt it, a new one, quickly coming to her, her eyes lit up, a glowing glyph covered over her pupils, bright yellow, as she held onto the oracle drive.

A new vision had formed, but the new information, as it was going into the machine, was not yet being shown, but Yeul soon hinted to it. "A power to save us. You will find it at a cost. A way beyond this cycle, for you and us of this world. Darkness and corruption. The opposite to the daughter of the Positive. The daughter of the Negative."

The glyphs in her eyes were gone, and she let go of the oracle drive, sitting back, shocked that she saw Harkon in her vision.

"Yeul, the future you saw…You say I found a way beyond this cycle, we both do?"

"Y…yes, Somehow." Yeul was still trying to place it all together, visions were not clear right away, even to her. It's like a rapid slideshow. "I'll need time to look at the oracle drive, to focus my mind to decipher it properly."

"Tell me, now. I need to know." Harkon was not going to wait. The agitation in his voice proved that.

"I can't just fumble around. I need time. If I tell you the wrong thing—"

"Annoying child! Tell me!" He had got himself up, and stormed over to where she was sitting, making her quickly jump up and move back.

"I can't! It's against my duty as a Seer!"

"Forget your worthless duty you piece of filth! TELL ME!" He was quickly closing the gap between him and her, and despite her moving away, she soon found her back to the wall, and he was towering over her.

"I can't! Please leave me alone!"

He grabbed her arms roughly, forcing her to look right at him. He was hurting her. "I don't have time! We don't have time! Do you not understand you little bitch!? This cycle will end soon, and if I found a way to escape I need to KNOW!"

That was the last thing he said to Yeul, before he found his ponytail being grabbed, his head snapping back, and finding a hand on his back, before being flung across the room, smashing into one of the pottery ornaments and landing on the floor.

He was trying to get himself up, grabbing the hilt of his katana to teach whoever dared touch him that was a stupid mistake.

But whoever it was, was already on him, punching him across the face, dazing him, before grabbing him by the throat, lifting him up, and slamming him into the wall, making him look at his attacker.

Caius Ballad.

"You harmed Yeul. That was a mistake. Fortunately for you, I'm a little tired from my hunting earlier today." Caius was furious, his face clearly showing it while his voice was trying to keep it's calm demeanour, as he held Harkon around the neck quite tightly.

Harkon wasn't allowed a chance to respond, before Caius continued. "Unfortunately, I have a gift from a group of people off of a rather unique world."

With his spare hand, he brought out a small glass tube of green liquid, and as he removed the small cork that held the liquid in, and swallowed it, Harkon realized what it was.

The 'magic potion', known to several as the omega elixir. Created on a rather primitive looking world, from a group of people known as Gauls, it was known to fully heal, revitalise, and even enhance a person's fitness and strength well beyond that of a normal human for a limited time. Caius and Boris were given several small samples of it after Yeul was once captured and taken to that world to be held by a man named Julius Caesar, and they worked with the Gauls, led by two men, Asterix and Obelix. The Gauls were now seen as members of Pararela, and now and then send more small tubes of the stuff to Boris and Caius, as they had not only beat Caesar, but made him surrender entirely, ending the Gauls war with him.

Soon Harkon found that his Katana had been thrown aside, he was being pummelled with uppercuts, powerful swings of Caius' fists and his boots meeting Harkons stomach, before he had been slung into the door of the house…smashing through it, and rolling across the ground, coming to a stop a good dozen meters away.

Caius wasn't done, he quickly stood over Harkon, grabbed him, and allowed him to enjoy the journey back down the hill that led to Yeuls house, by flinging him, and letting him roll his way down, getting completely covered in dirt, and eventually hitting one of the man-made stone walls with a satisfying crunch, as Harkon cried out in agony, his right arm met the wall first…and the bones inside it were now shattered as were a fair few of his ribs on that side.

And this was all without even touching his sword. "If I see you again going close to Yeul, I shall make sure it will be the last thing you do." Caius called out, before showing he had Harkon's Katana, and tossed it down to the miserable pile of a man, still lying there in agony, gritting his teeth and completely pissed off at what has happened to him.

He soon recovered enough to stand, ignoring the eyes of the people in the settlement, especially Noels, has he had watched the moment Harkon came flying out of Yeuls house. The member of the council stumbled his way out of the settlement, and returned to his transport, first to get to a medical centre to recover and heal the broken bones up, then to report this back to someone else he knew was trying to escape this fate of the cycle.

He knew, in order to get more of that vision now, he had to worm his way around.

And it led him, a week later, to… "Boris, the Seeress has seen a way to escape our grim fate. I had visited her and she saw it!"

"Why did you…look, lord Harkon, If there was one, Yeul would've told me."

"Boris, the Seeress cannot be wrong. We have a way! I will not lose to this 'end' we are about to face! She knows and needs to tell us!"

Boris was in his apartment, looking at the holographic screen being emitted from the table, showing Harkon, who looked desperate, and had been, for the last ten minutes, explaining to Boris he would gladly back this operation to escape the end, and was sincere about it, before dropping this bomb about Yeul.

Silphinaa was sitting with Boris, listening to their conversation quietly, but was showing concern in her face.

Boris finally caved in. "I, I'll talk to her, alright? I'll get her to come to the Wheelworld and show us the vision, if there really is one. But if this is something more than just a vision Harkon, that you intend to do something to her…"

"I swear, as an honorary member of the council of Pararela, I have no other desire then to help in your mission so we can all survive."

Boris nodded to that, then cut off the transmission, sighing, before getting up and walking over to the window. "Damnit Yeul, what have you seen now? Why did Harkon get wind of it, of all people…"

He heard his wife stand up, and soon felt her hands on his shoulders, resting her head on his back. "My love…shouldn't we just accept what the creator wants?"

"I don't want to. I don't want our victory over the Imperialus to be, just it. I want to see beyond that. I want to see us have kids, I want to see Rincewind become a proper wizard, I want to see Snorglat finally get his own junk collecting company like his always wanted, I want to see Yeul grow up and get hitched herself, to stop having to be a Seeress, I want to see this next cycle in, without losing anyone."

"…You believe we can do it without losing anyone?"

"I'm hoping we can. Because that's all I have right now…Hope."

---

Soon, Yeul, Caius and Noel had returned to the Wheelworld. They were greeted at the space dock…By Harkon. Caius did not let his eyes off the man for one second, as he escorted them into a nearby terminal, which was sealed off to the normal folk, with only Boris, Shadow, Alpha 5, the power rangers, Guybrush and Avatar waiting for them.

Once they had all gathered around, Yeul explained her vision to them, now having taken the time to think it through.

"I saw Harkon laying on a ruined bed, around him, creatures of pure black, insect like, before they converged on him, covering him...changing him. Bigger fangs, glowing eyes, pale skin. Then when they dispersed, it showed that, in his hand was an orb of pure darkness...He was then standing before Shadow in the rangers command center, holding it out to him, then what was once one orb, became three, with Shadow fading away. In the orbs, were little visions of the green field I saw before, the blue skies...the new cycle. But behind Harkon, as he stood looking at them, was a woman in the shadows, with a white robe, and fair blue skin...all I could see of her face, were her eyes, that glowed the same as Harkons. She will meet him in Chaotic Space. I heard whispers, they told me who this woman was...Andromeda, a child of the creator."

"An orb? Do you think it might be what we need Shadow?"

Shadow nodded. "I think so. It's the best lead we have now. But the problem is, how do we get it? Where is this woman?"

Yeul answered that. "I knew where Harkon rested...Chaotic Space."

There was silence all around after that.

"But pathways to that plane of oblivion are extremely rare to encounter, and nothing has ever come back from it. It's almost a one in a million chance that we even notice a path opening, and it never stays open for long before sealing away for good." Boris was frustrated. It was one show stopper to another.

"I'll find a way myself if I must." Harkon felt content he now had what he was after, and was quickly trying to think of ways himself.

"If you think you have a way to get to Chaotic Space, be our guest." Shadow offered.

The member of the council quickly chose to leave, already having one lead in his mind. 'Fine then, I will...Chaotic Space was once seen as a place that is madness itself. If so, then there is only one person I can turn to for guidance.'

Guybrush and the others watched him leave, before he turned to Shadow. "That was a mistake Shadow, you know he'll stir up trouble trying to look for a way. He might even have contacts left in the Imperialus."

"Good, then we'll find out, get rid of them, and get our own way to Chaotic Space. Let him frail around." Shadow waved his hand in dismissal, before moving away from the group, looking out of the space dock windows to the stars.

"...I'm surprised he isn't worried about what Yeul said about him." Avatar pointed out to Boris.

The lad just shrugged. "Shadow's a little odd. Can never tell what the hell he's thinking...and Yeul?" He was focused on her, and noticed two old bruises on her arms. "Did something happen to you? Are you okay?"

"Nirn Volkihar-Harkon...was a little demanding on the vision when I first experienced it. He grabbed me before Caius dealt with him."

That rang alarm bells in Boris' head. "Why that sonnova- if he even tries to get near you again I'll throttle him!"

Caius gave a smirk, motioning to his blade. "I have that already covered Boris. I warned him if he tries, I'll kill him."

"Good...well, since all of you are here now, wanna go get a bite? Business is still as normal on the Wheelworld. Normal as can be, anyways."

Meanwhile, Harkon had prepared himself a transport ship, and returned to his home planet, Nirn.

There, on that world, was a group of worshippers that followed a god that no one else across the Universe has even ever heard of. All the other gods in the Nirn religion turned out to be deities. This one though...no one ever found out.

He was known as the mad god, and he could only be summoned in the strangest of ways. If you got it wrong, then you were ignored...or have fire covered dogs rain down from the sky, either or.

Zuo Ci was once asked about him, but the deity flatly refused to even acknowledge his existence. Now Harkon, standing atop a flower covered hill, with a marble statue of a man with a walking staff in his hand before him. Harkon had brought his wife and daughter with him to help him carry the items needed to summon Sheogorath. Servants were not a good idea from what he read up on...this mad god liked to torture those.

Harkon carried a large iron pot, filled with human blood, from several of the criminal prisoners he had in the depths of his castle. To his right was his wife, Valerica, who wore the same gear as her husband, her hair black, made into two small ponytails hanging back, with brown eyes and fair skin that had several wrinkles, showing her advancing age. She carried a large wheel of goats cheese.

To his left was his daughter Serana, with long blood red hair that went down her back, sky blue eyes, looking in her young-twenties with the same skin colour as her mother, and wore the same as the rest of her family. She was carrying two whole cabbages. "You know I don't think talking to this one is going to help you on this mission you've put yourself on father."

"I must agree with our daughter. The mad god isn't known to be helpful to anyone. I doubt holding the rank of emperor is going to change his mind." Valerica added.

Harkon ignored them. He put the pot of blood down before the statue, and took a step back, looking to his daughter, who moved forward and put both cabbages in the pot, causing it to spill a little. She moved back, and then Valerica placed the wheel of cheese on top, like a lid, before joining her daughter as Harkon called out, with his hands open, towards the statue.

"Sheogorath! I call to you! I know madness is eternal! I know it cannot die away! Answer me with this sacrifice I offer you! Of blood, cabbage and cheese!"

The sky above them, once blue, slowly turned red, the clouds going black, as thunder was heard echoing in the distance...

"Oh boy, I think we're going to get the dogs." Valerica looked at her husband, annoyed. "If I recall one of the worshippers before pointed this out to be the sign of-"

"ME!"

That came from where the pot, cheese and cabbage once was, as they seem to all have erupted at once, the pot vanishing, the blood splashing everywhere, mixed with lumps of cheese and cabbage...as Sheogorath had appeared, completely clean, holding his staff the wabbajack, looking at them amusingly. "Ya called me, and I answered you! You got my offering right! For that, I'll give you... FIVE minutes of my time!"

Harkon, ignoring the smell now covering him, bowed onto one knee before the deity of the negative Multiverse. "Sheogorath, I must ask you something, as you are the god of madness. There is a realm known here as Chaotic Space. I must ask you, plead to you, of what knowledge you have on it, and if there is a way to it."

Sheogorath was looking even more amused now. "Now that kinda question, just earned you an extra 3 minutes of my time, because that's where I come from! But before we go into that, you know me but I don't know you, a little introduction, if you please."

Harkon nodded. "I am Harkon Volkihar, emperor of Nirn. With me is a my wife and daughter. Valerica Volkihar and Serana Volkihar."

"Oh I know the Volkihars! Farming family! Often hated and bullied by the locals of Skyrim for being nice to the other races of this planet! That was two thousand years ago! Now look at your little gene pool, all up the ladder and earned a place in the big league! Congratulations!"

"Thank you, Sheogorath, now about Chaotic Space..."

"Oh if you want to get there, go through the Nexus." Sheogorath simply told Harkon.

"The...Nexus? You mean the golden distortion, Nexus?"

"That's the one. Maybe if you're lucky, we'll meet on the other side."

Serana quickly warned her father against it. "Boris said about plenty of ships being destroyed in that thing. I don't think it's a good idea."

"Hush child!" Harkon glared at her, before looking back at Sheogorath. "The Nexus shall lead to you? Very well my lord, will I be granted safe passage then?"

Sheogorath shrugged his shoulders. "It'll be up to the Nexus laddie. Ask it if you want. Well if that's all I'm gonna head home before the other gods get angry. Especially Azrael, the party pooper."

"Wait but you have granted us time. I have another question for you-"

"Oh that, well, I often change my mind! Bye! " With that, Sheogorath disappeared in a shower of red taffy laces, which went over Harkon and his family, sticking on them thanks to the blood.

Valerica begun pulling pieces of it off. "Of course he would. We should've expected that. He was probably lying about the Nexus also my love."

But Harkon, as he returned to his feet, was smiling. "The Nexus has the answer. The god of madness claims it to be so, while Yeul claims she saw someone called Andromeda meeting me in Chaotic Space. I believe both are linked, if I demand the Nexus to listen, it will take me to this person. I must prepare transport at once to it!"

Serana and Valerica quickly chased after him to try and put him off, reminding him of the danger and such, but he was firm on his desire, his want to get to Chaotic Space, to the Nexus…to the items that will set him and his people free from god's power.

And while his family then turned to Boris for help, getting on their own transport to Wheelworld, Harkon found the golden anomaly, and vanished into it.

….only for those on Wheelworld to get a call from Zordon, five weeks later.

Harkon had reappeared in the command center.

And he had a 'gift' for them all.

---

The likes of Boris, Shadow, Snorglat, Avatar, Rincewind, Yeul, Noel and Caius arrived, meeting up with the six rangers and Alpha 5…They could see Harkon had changed, as Yeul had foreseen.

"Holy cow what in the devil happened to you?!" Avatar was the first to ask.

Harkon stood there in the command center, looking quite calm and relaxed…with his face more pale, his eyes now glowing yellow in the middle, and the whites orange, and there was noticeable canine teeth now on his upper set compared to before. Zordon was watching from his energy generating tube. "I met Andromeda, and she handed me this gift Avatar, the gift of a god."

He was noticeably focused on Yeul…something that made Caius step in front of her, making sure he was between them, as Harkon continued to speak, addressing those in front of him. "I have been granted a minor portion of her powers, so I can achieve something no one here can…I can open a vortex, to Chaotic Space. With the aid of the very item we require to save our future."

The emperor of Nirn reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small, hand sized orb which appeared to be a very dark purple in colour, reflecting all light away in the same colour. "This is the Sigil Stone. The key element you seek, Boris Verne."

Tommy, the white ranger, quickly put his hand out to Harkon. "Hand it over then! We can finally show everyone and put their fears aside about what we've made on the Wheelworld!"

Harkon chuckled. "What? And only have the one? I have some disappointing news for you…you see, the one orb will not be enough…perhaps just the Wheelworld will make it, but nothing else. What I propose, what I can do, is take us to where there is a few more, give ourselves a greater chance. All of our worlds deserve a chance, correct?"

"And where is this place that holds them then? How will we get there?" Shadow asked.

"Quite simple. Zordon, if you can project an energy beam onto the orb?"

Zordon was showing he was unsure about this, but from the bottom of his containment tube, a white energy beam shot out, and hit the Sigil Stone, causing it to glow, as it was consuming the energy. "As you can see, we don't need the complicated contraption you have salvaged on the Wheelworld. All we need is an energy source, and a commanding mind." Harkon explained, before looking at the stone...and in a flash of white, there before them, feeding off the energy beam now instead of the orb, was a black swirling vortex.

Alpha 5 was alarmed, "It's draining our systems! I don't know how long we can hold this vortex open!"

Shadow meanwhile, felt something familiar, something he hadn't for a long time, a sense of home... "Where does this actually lead to Harkon?"

Harkon smiled. "Why don't you all go in and find out? And while you're there, collect the stones? I must remain here to keep the vortex open."

Boris noticed the hesitation in everyone, and decided to lead the way, heading into the vortex, wanting to save those he cared for.

It was like opening a curtain, once he stepped through, he found himself in a dark, grim cave, that was dimly lit by little white crystals, their weak light reflecting all over the place, and the cave seemed to go quite far. There were gaps in the ceiling, showing purple clouds in the sky above...and a feeling of uneasiness.

He waited for a few seconds...and suddenly appearing behind him from the vortex, was Noel, who just stumbled by Boris, and landed on the ground on his hands and knees, probably had dived in expecting something else. "Whoa!" He was panting, before forcing himself up off the ground. "Okay, I, I wasn't ready for it t be that simple to go through...Hey Boris."

Boris had a little laugh, before motioning Noel to follow him as they begun walking through the cave, which was straight forward at first, but as they progressed, it seemed to twist and turn, with it all being one way. There was other directions the cave broke off to, but any other route seemed to be caved in, which made Boris worry about this. He decided to get his mind off it. "So, Noel...how are things my weapon? You like it?"

Noel had the Flame Fossil on his back. "It's flexible. And it's easy for me to hold. I think I like it the most out of everything I've used."

"Wanna keep it?"

Noel was stunned, stopping for a moment. "Seriously? Y, you mean that?"

"Sure." Boris motioned at the two Nintendo-looking laser zappers around his waist. "I got my energy pistols. I'm fine without it. I kept it around because I wanted to strike the Guardian down with it...now his dead, well...BUT, there is one condition."

"That is?"

Boris was still walking on, as Noel noticed and quickly caught up with him. "Protect Yeul and Caius for me. Keep them safe. Should anything happen to me."

"Boris?"

"I...I've been thinking alot of what Yeul warned me about. I'm not in her visions anymore. I don't want her to be afraid. She and you have grown up with me around. Hah, I remember when you were 7 years old, and she was 5, and I was 16. I didn't feel too attached to you two at first because Yeul had her mother, and Caius seemed capable, and you had your parents...but then along came the Guardian."

"Yeah...I remember my parents denying they knew where the Seeress and her child was...and he killed them...Then you came back to our village, as Caius was beaten down and about to die. You saved us both, letting the Guardian nearly kill you in exchange."

"More like I took the shot meant for you both before Avatar, Snorglat and Daxter got into the fray and made the Guardian fall back."

"But his men still managed to catch the Seeress."

"Yeah. I only stopped them from taking her daughter away..." Boris was the one who stopped this time. "You've both grown up together. I've watched you. I just want you to watch them in return Noel. I know you can do it for me."

"Why Caius too?"

"Someone needs to watch out for him. And remember, I was 16 when I met him and had to put up with his crap." Boris gave Noel a reassuring smile. "Anyways, that's incase things go south. Come on, we need to find those stone orb things."

As they turned the next corner though, they found them. On two pedestals, in the middle of a huge cavern. With holes leading outside above them...a pillar of dark purple energy emitting from both of them, striking the clouds above. Around the walls, on the ceiling...there was blackness. Despite the weak light landing on them, it was like no light could get through whatever it was.

Boris really didn't like this. "...Something isn't right. We were led to here. It feels like a trap."

"Why would Harkon lead us into a trap?" Noel asked, looking around the cavern carefully.

"I don't know. But I know he isn't entirely okay. I have a feeling whatever gift he was given by a 'god' is probably more dangerous then he even knows."

Boris then made his way carefully over towards the two stones, looking at one, then the other, before going towards just the one, eyeing it up and trying to figure out how his suppose to take it. Noel decided to go over to the other, as Boris came up with an idea. "Alright. Noel? I think we just grab them and pull them away, then we run like hell."

Noel nodded, and they both put their hands on their respective orbs, a voice rang out to them, distracting Noel. "Hey! Couldn't you guys wait for us or something!?" It was Jason, the Red Ranger, and as Noel looked back, he saw the rangers, Avatar, Shadow, Snorglat, Caius and Yeul had arrived.

He didn't noticed the pillars of energy going from their purple state into a bright orange, as the stones seem to shrink down, from the size of human heads, into the size of a tennis ball, the blaring energy that was being emitted for a short time giving off no heat whatsoever...but the sky above was turning from purple, to a blood red.

The sudden light made Noel jump, and let go of the orb, as it rolled off the pedestal, having shrunk down, and hit the ground hard with a cracking sound, before rolling away, making him panic and go after it.

He eventually grabbed it, relieved...before realizing he was now right close to the cavern walls...which were moving. The black substance was moving, and he noticed it had dozens of red glowing eyes looking right at him from the goo, as it all begun to move across the ground.

"NOEL! RUN!" Boris yelled out.

He didn't have to be told twice, he spun round, and ran towards the others, noticing Boris was ahead of him. Thankfully, the black substance was slow moving, and he easily outran it, reaching the group while Shadow, with Chaos energy beams, and Snorglat with a massive energy firing gatling gun, attacked the black substance to slow it down.

It wasn't doing anything. If anything, it might've been pissing it off, as it was moving in. "Let's go people! NOW!" Shadow commanded them, before they started making their way back through the cave, noticing that the light crystals around the cave had dimmed even more, to barely noticeable.

The moment the black substance got out of the cavern and started to give chase...it broke apart, into dozens of Ing, all speeding up, running on their insect like legs to hound the intruders.

This was one of their nesting grounds. It become obvious as the group made their way out, the blocked up pathways were oozing with the black liquid, before transforming into even more Ing, joining up with the others.

Snorglat spun round and fired a fair few rounds, before continuing with the rest. "It ain't slowing them down much! Whatever they are, they aren't happy with us!"

They soon saw the exit, the vortex...which was flickering, seemingly fading now and then. Caius was the first to notice. "Something is happening to the power supply to our exit."

THATS when several dozen Ing had oozed through the ground itself, forming up in front of the vortex, blocking their way out, causing them to stop for a moment.

Tommy, the White Ranger, got his white saber out. "Come on you freaks! Let's go!" He charged at the Ing, and dodged their claws, as he swung his weapon, catching one of the Ing right in its eyes, making it screech in agony, before falling over and dissolving away.

This got the other rangers to join in, as well as Caius, who, with the Soul Edge, sliced down four Ing with relative ease, now knowing their weakness.

But while the group knew now how to handle them, Shadow was at the back with Snorglat...noticing the horde of Ing coming at them from the cave, making them turn around and begin unleashing energy shots and chaos beams at the eyes only. Boris soon joined them, holding the Sigil Stone with one hand, and firing one of his laser guns and Avatar getting out a bow and firing magical arrows...but the Ing were creeping up, slowly but surely despite the amount of deaths incurring with their obvious weak point exposed. Their pure numbers were what always brought them victory.

Eventually the Rangers and Caius cleared the way. "Alright people let's move!" Jason shouted, before he ran through the vortex. Everyone else was following suit, soon leaving the four who were keeping the Ing back. Boris nodded at Avatar, who lowered his weapon and ran to the vortex. "Snorglat! Let's go big guy!"

"Right!" Snorglat then ran for it, leaping through the Vortex.

"Shadow!"

Shadow quickly shook his head, while using both of his hands to unleash red chaos beams at the Ing, wiping out lines of them. "Go Boris! I'll be right behind you!"

Boris lowered his gun and legged it, running right through the vortex as it flickered again.

Shadow then knew it was his turn, moving back a little, firing another wave of chaos energy, before turning and retreating.

To only just be a few inches from the vortex, before it vanished entirely, leading Shadow to almost hit the stone walls of the cave behind it. "What the!?"

He looked around quickly, hoping there was another way, that this was a minor setback, another vortex would open soon...

That's when he heard a voice behind him. "Shadow, the Hedgehog. Universe 2, this cycle, not the one that those others are from...welcome home."

Shadow slowly turned around.

Standing before the Ing, was a woman in white robes, with fair blue skin...an evil smile formed on her lips. "I'm Andromeda...And you'll be my next plaything."

---

"Yeul, it's Tommy. Listen the normal communicators aren't working now for some reason. Boris is heading over to you right now with the Sigil Stones, to pass one of them to you. Unfortunately opening that pathway to Chaotic Space took too much energy out of Zordon and our base…his dead Yeul, and our Ranger power is gone. He passed only a few days ago. We've buried Rincewind now too. No sign of Harkon or the Sigil Stone he had, and no one is allowed to his world of Nirn by order of the council. As for the Sigil Stone business, I don't know how you guys are going to use it, but Boris is planning to insert it into a shield generator to make a barrier to protect us from the Erasure Wave. He put forward the idea when the Council still hated the construction we made before. They've even placed guards around it, claiming they can feel a presence out of it. As for the proposal, the council aren't happy with the idea at all. They want the Sigil Stones destroyed…but they might be our last hope."

When they had returned to the Ranger command center, Alpha 5 was broken into several parts, the lights were flickering as the power is critically low, and Rincewind was found on the floor, dead, drained of all of his blood. Harkon had seemingly vanished, and there was no way to reopen the vortex for Shadow, to Boris' and the others great dismay. Zordons protective tube had opened up, showing the old alien humanoid lying there, slowly dying. He had chosen to focus what he could of the energy here to keep the rangers power going, and the vortex active, for as soon as Harkon fled with the Sigil Stone, the vortex was sucking the place dry of all energy it could, just to be sustained.

Three weeks after, the rangers power suddenly gave way, and despite the council helping as much as they could, Zordon could not be saved.

Boris wanted vengeance, he wanted to smash Harkon's face in for what he has done, but the council, by order of Harkon no less, refused any ships to go to Nirn. Then dropped the bomb that they had locked the corruption controller site down, as Harkon claimed it was a weapon too dangerous to use. This just pissed Boris off even more.

But during these weeks, a man has been looking at the Sigil stones for Boris. Emmett 'Doc' Brown. By testing both stones, his noticed that whatever energy it interacts with, it can emulate it and flow with it. If a shield generator was used and the stone was place within the energy core, the shield would be infused with Sigil energy...a barrier like Boris wants. He and Doc put this forward to the council.

It didn't go down well, as they were now certain these stones that was their salvation were actually pure evil. They didn't give Boris and Doc a proper decision, and said they needed time.

Boris felt that was beginning to run low now. Time. He decided he needed a little break away. He needed to pass one of the Sigil Stones to Yeul and those of her world anyways. He decided they needed a chance, for all they suffered. The others understood, they could easily hide up on the Wheelworld while Yeul and the others were on her world. Granted Yeul and the others could come to the Wheelworld as well, but Boris had an attachment to her planet, Pulse. He liked how they managed to rise up from their ashes...unlike what was left of his homeworld once the Guardian got his hands on it. Total wipeout.

But before he left the Wheelworld space dock, Avatar and Doc Brown had a word with him. The Sigil Stone Noel dropped, had several cracks over the surface of it. It seemed minor, but Doc explained that it struggled to maintain its infusion with other energy sources, and if too much is placed on it, it could shatter...becoming useless.

Avatar put it simply to him. One is guaranteed to save lives, the other is not. Boris has to choose what one he wants to hand over to those of Pulse. The hero reminded him of the population difference, the survival chance of one to the other, and who was on each location. Between the Wheelworld, and Pulse.

It kept repeating in Boris' mind, as he sat on the transport ship, looking at the two cloth covered stones. One damaged, one not. One was a gamble, one was not.

It was a very heavy decision weighed down on him. It firmly reminded him the end of all things was coming.

He arrived at Pulse, landed near the settlement, and Yeul, Caius and Noel greeted him warmly, and even went so far as to prepare him a behemoth feast. A rarity, as the large buggers are hard to take down, but their meat tastes fantastic. Boris has had this kind've welcome before...his had it dozens of times, the people of this world can't stop thanking him for what he did for them. He helped bring new plants to the world, clothing and vital tools, tameable animals for them to make their own wool, get their own milk, meat...He used his connection to the council through Silphinaa and her father as much as possible to avoid making this world have any debts to Pararela.

He sat with them that evening, enjoyed the meal, the music and the company. Making him even forget why he was here.

During the night, he and Yeul left the settlement, and ventured out to the lake. They laid there near the edge of it, close together, looking up at the stars, the sound of the waterfalls gently going through their ears.

"...I remember when you first brought me here. When you said your mother always liked looking at the stars, but you never could understand why. Then here I was, telling you of all kinds of worlds I had already seen, and then you got addicted to looking up."

Yeul smiled, laying on her back, with her arm around Boris'. "Yeah. I never regretted it. I loved leaving this world for others, to realize those stars supplied other planets like mine."

"...You know you've been clinging onto my arm for quite some time. You still worried about me not being in your visions?"

Yeul eventually nodded, looking over at him as she sat up, letting go of his arm. "You're our saviour, the hero of the Multiverse...I don't want you to fade away."

"Well, I've been thinking about that lately..." Boris himself now had got himself up, stretching a little while looking at the lake. "I think you need a boyfriend to get your mind off me."

Yeul straight away sighed in annoyance, frowning as she joined him. "Not this again Boris. I'm being serious here and you keep trying to go around my concerns-"

"Hop on." Boris was smirking at her, as he bent down.

"I'm trying to talk to you-"

"Come on Yeul. Last time for now, okay? You won't get this chance again to see the stars just that little bit closer, on the shoulders of your saviour."

Yeul caved in, and soon enough, she was on his shoulders as he stood up fully, with her hands in his hair, looking up to the stars with him.

They both were sure they saw a shooting star at that moment, watching in awe. "Boris, an actual shooting star. I haven't seen one of those for a few years..."

"Yeul?"

"Huh?" She looked down at him.

"I know your concerned about your visions. So am I. But those guys in them...they had that light around her too, right?"

"Yeah."

"I told Noel he has to do my job for a time, should anything happen to me...If I don't make it. Look out for them Yeul. they'll take my place as saviours, while Noel can handle my job as a protector."

"If you don't make it..."

"It might actually be a sign that they just take my place. I retire or get sidelined. I hope so. Heck, most likely. We do have two..." He stopped.

The Sigil Stone business. His face went grim on the reminder of that.

"Two Sigil stones?" She continued for him.

"Yeah."

"Well then you might be correct. You'll get sidelined..at least you'll have more time to spend with us without fear of an evil force."

Boris was in deep thought, before he spoke again. "Maybe. But this world is important to me. It holds precious memories, precious life...precious friends, that I would sacrifice everything to save."

Without Yeul realizing, he had made a decision. "Boris? What's wrong?"

Boris decided to give her a smile. "Nothing Yeul...let's enjoy the rest of the night alright? I brought those marshmallows again, so we can make a campfire and enjoy those."

"Can Caius and Noel come and join in? I know Caius doesn't often show it, but I'm sure he enjoyed those marshmallows last time."

"If they don't mind sleeping it rough again, I'm game."

The rest of the night passed, with the four gathered around a campfire, chatting away about their adventures together, something Boris really wanted to talk about to them. Yeul felt, a little worried with the way Boris was acting, like it would be the final time they could do this...

By morning, As they ventured away from the lake, Boris said he needed to head back to the Wheelworld, just to keep an eye on things. He gave Yeul a massive affectionate hug, holding her close, with her doing the same to him, before he turned to Noel, and done the same, Noel feeling odd about it, but accepted it, knowing Boris was like family in a way as he grew with them.

Both soon went off ahead of Caius and Boris, going back to the settlement, when Boris turned to Caius, and got out both cloth covered Sigil Stones, passing one of them to Caius. "Here."

Caius moved the cloth aside, and saw the Sigil Stone, perfectly smooth. "Thank you. As I said to you last night, I know a way to create a barrier around this whole planet...Soul Edge can unleash a vast amount of energy with all the souls it has gained over the centuries of existence. The barrier will not last long but it'll function."

"Hopefully it'll be fine with the Sigil Stone and work with it."

"I believe it will...I noticed this is not the damaged one."

Boris sighed. "You saw the busted one after we came back to the ranger base, didn't you?"

"I had noticed it was the one Noel had brought back."

"It's unfortunately unstable. It has a risk around it."

"...So you gave us the one that is bound to work."

"Yeah."

Caius put his hand to Boris, giving him a proper smile. "Then we owe you more than ever before, Boris Verne."

Boris chuckled, and while grabbing Caius' hand, suddenly pulled him close, giving him a small, manly hug, something that bemused Caius before Boris let go of him. "Take care of them, alright Caius?"

"As always."

As Boris began to leave, Caius said something to him. "Isn't it strange though? The feeling I get off these Sigil Stones, the negative energy...it feels familiar, doesn't it? As if it calls out to us."

"...You've noticed too." Boris didn't want to say about that to anyone. Lately, as his been hanging around the stones...he felt that familiarity, that same feeling power that he used to get when he was able to just...know people without even meeting them, to have brief flickers of what was about to happen when he first left his homeworld. It all felt the same.

Even now, as he pocketed the damaged stone, it felt connected to him, like an old friend...

"Maybe it's because we can control them, Boris."

"...Maybe..."

With that, Boris headed for home. All he could do now, was keep appealing to the council, hoping that they'll go along with the idea of the Sigil Stone.

He was not the only one giving his farewells to others though.

---

Janos the deity, was at his personal mountain on the world called Britannia. The mountain had, on top of it, a massive white stone temple, so far up that no one on the planet could reach it without something to supply them with air, and warmth...Janos stood at a rocky edge of the mountain, several meters away from his temple, looking out towards the sun, above the clouds, in the blue sky...

He had summoned his long time close companion of the deities, Zuo Ci, to inform him of some news he had received from Azrael.

Zuo Ci had appeared close to Janos, and bowed while standing behind him. "My lord, what news have you been given?"

"...Our time runs short." Janos slightly, looking at Zuo Ci, then motioning him to come and stand by his side. "But I fear the times ahead. Dark forces are growing, I can feel it."

"I don't understand."

Janos then went back to looking beyond. "Despite the great end coming Zuo Ci, I fear the that there is a darkness lurking behind that. Ingrid has been silent for many years...that alone has been a cause of concern."

"Then...what do we do?"

"You cannot do anything. But I have been tasked by Azrael for a special duty, one that, to my surprise had befallen Whis in the last cycle. Azrael has been pleased with my servitude up to this point, and I must remain 'awake' for the erasure. I am to make sure everything passes on that he wants, and those he wishes to remain behind stay."

Zuo Ci looked away for a moment, something came to mind. "Azrael has been pleased...even when you led Chad and Blue through their conflict with Richard, and had them all killed? When you allowed Primus to die? When you allowed Boris' homeworld to be wiped out, his family to perish? I was there, remember? I had watched it all. I was suppose to protect so many of them, yet I was pulled along with them the whole time."

"I have a feeling you will have a chance to change this in the next cycle, my faithful Zuo Ci." Janos smiled, looking at the aged man. "You will not remember when the time comes, but perhaps your feelings will cross over to the next cycle, and you can change things, for the better or worse."

"Maybe I should just join those on the Wheelworld and survive to the next cycle, then I will recall everything."

Janos placed his hand on Zuo Ci's shoulder, making the mystic looked at him. "They, do not understand their fate. For if they even avoid the Erasure...they are to remain in the shadows, of this cycle. A grim fate that I will soon tell their council of. Perhaps it will save them from being left behind."

"Left behind, master?"

"Azrael sometimes deems souls as 'damaged'. We will leave them in the shadows of the old cycle, as he had left several before from the 6th. What Boris and the others are doing, is committing billions of souls to that fate, compared to the small amount it should be. That is what I am to make sure does not happen."

"...I see. So, what should I do for now?"

Janos moved his hand away. "Fly away, Zuo Ci. Leave for now, rest, be free of duty...we will not meet again in this cycle."

---

"They're denying us entry into the Corruption Generator now. The council, the ministers, even Silphinaa, want us all to accept the end. I don't know how it is on your world. They've stopped all transport vessels coming or going from the Wheelworld for the last five months. Since then I've been holding the Sigil Stone close, keeping an eye on it and making sure no one from the council reaches it. We've only got twenty days left. I can feel it, through the stone…I realize now, my abilities, my strange brief flickers of seeing things a few seconds before they happen, my rapid sudden knowledge of people, it's all from the sigil energy. Caius was right…is this why Azrael wants us to disappear? To start it all again? I can't allow that. I have to try and save these people, even if they refuse to save themselves. I'm going to gather the Power Rangers, Daxter, Tyris, Gilius, whoever else I can. We're going to take back that generator."

The end was about to come.

Janos had told the council the truth of what was to await them, if they survive it.

They had told Boris, but he refused to believe it. He was forced to be trapped in his apartment, under constant watch, even his wife turned on him. Eventually they allowed him visitors, and then, they stopped any transport ships from coming or going, as they noticed the likes of the Power Rangers, Asterix and the Gauls, the wizards of the Unseen University, even the Autobots had come, meaning they were summoned by Boris...and it led to all of them to be constantly watched.

After Boris sent that message to Yeul, he decided to contact them all, along with Snorglat and those that were already on the Wheelworld...to rise up and save the people, by force. He aimed for the what he called the Sigil Generator, once called Negative Controller, to put the Sigil Stone into.

But despite 15 days of constant attacks on the security posted there, the constant assaults from the military belonging to Pararela, Boris and his companions couldn't reach it. The people of Wheelworld were mixed on their feelings about this...ten of thousands joined Boris in his revolt, while many more tried to help the military stop him.

It was costing lives, but Boris forced himself to see the larger picture here. Time was running out fast.

When it was down to those last five days, Boris decided on a mad, desperate plan, as it was obvious the military were just too focused on protecting the Sigil Generator.

Divide everyone up, and all go to separate shield generators spread across the whole of Wheelworld. The Sigil Stone could work with any energy force. He remembered those words after Doc Brown and his friend Marty Mcfly were killed in one of the feuds.

The sudden retreat, and spread of the rebels completely threw the council and it's military off, which was scrambling to defend the shield generators, as they too, recalled what was proposed to them before.

Those close to the Sigil Generator were the easiest for the military to hold out on. Boris though, had led a group of a thousand, to one of the furthest generators he knew of...right on the other side of the Wheelworld.

It took time, as he wanted to make sure they avoided detection at all costs, making the military keep to their slow sweeping tactic to a few generators at a time. As the days passed, he could hear the calls of his allies, their final words each time, as more and more of those who joined him died in their false assaults on other shield generators.

On the fifth day of this plan, Boris and his group made it to where they wanted...to be greeted by over five thousand trained military troops, led by his own wife, who begged, pleaded him to stop this, to just accept it now.

He shot her straight through the chest, and led his group on a suicide charge into the generator.

Several handfuls of them managed to break through, and Boris ran straight to the main energy core room, opening up one of its hatches, and throwing the orb in. The energy was once blue, turned purple, as he activated the shield emitters, creating a barrier around him, his companions, and the military still trying to kill them. Billy, the once Blue Ranger, was with him when he noticed that, shortly after Boris had inserted it, despite the rapidly expanding barrier, the orb was breaking...and the barrier quickly began to shrink again.

This led to his next message, as a feeling of dread swarmed over Boris. He had ducked down, and begun recording.

"Yeul. I can feel it, we're down to mere seconds now-Dupre! Goddamnit no! Everyone stay down! There's no point fighting them! Includes you Avatar! It's about to happen! We just need to hold on a little longer. Wait...is that, oh my god…the light, the wave of light! The Erasure Wave is coming now! Billy, full power to that generator!"

Billy was heard saying something in the background.

"The Sigil Stone is heavily damaged!? The barrier is weakening?! THEN FOCUS ON OUR LOCATION ONLY! WE HAVE TO KEEP IT STABL..-"

As the light was about to hit, Boris had foolishly stood up...one trooper was not distracted despite the great light coming, a took several shots, easily passing through the weakened barrier...

---

"Yeul…Caius…Noel. We made it…the last, eight of us, on the Wheelworld. It's me, Avatar, Daxter, Guybrush, Gilius, Jason, Snorglat and Billy. None of the others made it…they were either killed during our battle against the military, or because we had no choice but, but to minimize the shield range…to only the generator core, the output, and our room…everywhere else here, wasn't protected. Avatar is heavily wounded, he tried to save Dupre, his gotten shot up. The others are fine, and they've taken Avatar with them to look around. As for me?…I'm not in good shape either. Several bullets found their way into me. I'm sitting myself up against the generator core…I think I'm going to go first. I told them to focus on themselves, and leave me to die. Try to contact them. Please. Give them hope…I'm so sorry Yeul. After having to kill my beloved Silphinaa, I don't deserve to see beyond our cycle…To see the eight bright stars I saw in my last brief vision, as the wave hit…eight stars…ten people…"

Boris sat there, in the darkness of the generator's energy core, no computers humming, the steel floor had patches of blood, the sky outside...pitch black. His clothing damaged by the bullets that had embedded them, blood seeping into it. He felt his grip on the data pad give away, dropping it to the floor with it creating a clanging sound as it did, and shutting off.

But as he sat there, the vision of eight stars kept repeating on him. He kept seeing the black giant beast, the shadows behind him, and the stars. Then, it was just the eight stars...they began to take shape...all fated to decide the fate of the Multiverse...

As the final vision appeared, he saw them properly. five male figures, four female figures. Two of the female figures seemed to be sharing a star with a male each, whilst the others appeared to be standing by themselves. Then one of the male figures walked forward a few steps, reaching out to Boris...He recognized the person.

"A...Avatar...?"

Boris suddenly found himself back to where he was dying, coughing up blood violently, and leaning over to his side, wishing it would just end now.

Something gently landed on the ground, something made of glass.

He looked down, and saw, it was a vial, filled with the omega elixir.

Yeul. She had to still be around...The others...

They needed him. He had people to protect, others to even go back to.

Pulse.

He grabbed the vial. Staring down at it, his vision blurring. "No...I have not, come this far, to die now."

Boris consumed its contents being thankful he actually grabbed one of them from his apartment before all this went down south.

Soon, he was back on his feet. His wounds healed

He felt alive again, and looked out the windows on the ceiling.

The Wheelworld...looked dead.

Space, was empty. Void of all stars.

He picked up his data pad, which kept showing 'ERROR' due to him dropping the damn thing, and ventured out, deciding to look for his friends.

But beyond the few puddles of blood, which came to a sudden end...they were nowhere in sight. He decided they must've patched Avatar up and continued to look for a workable vessel to use, or somewhere with food, knowing Snorglat. But, as he continued to wander the streets, he noticed none of the flying cars were functioning, a majority of them seemed to have just...dropped from the sky mid-flight. No lights in the buildings were functioning...and there was no food. Every shop he broke into, there was nothing to eat, nothing to drink. The bottles and containers were there, but there was nothing inside them. Taps he activated, nothing came out.

All he could do was continue on, and arrived at one of the space docks. He thought his luck would change...but as he climbed on one of the ships, he noticed, again, no power whatsoever. He was cursing himself now, and thought of where he should go next.

Home.

It took him some time, constant walking and trying to ignore his thirst and the feeling of constantly being watched...that kept with him all the damn time, but with construction machines, the massive buildings, the streets being all so silent, who wouldn't feel like that? Eventually he found his way back to his apartment.

After climbing up the three dozen levels of stairs as the lifts were not functioning, he forced open his door, moving towards his fridge, suddenly realizing he knew what was coming.

He opened the fridge, and was, pleasantly surprised.

It was active, and inside it, was bottles of fresh, cold water, and a few snacks.

He quickly grabbed one of the bottles, popped the lid open, and gulped the fluid down inside, being thankful to whatever god was watching-

As he finished the bottle, something clicked.

Of all places to function, it would be in his own apartment...

He quickly looked around. That eerie feeling quickly returned. Someone was watching him, he was 100% sure of it now. He made sure his front door was closed, as were his windows, before grabbing what he could from the fridge, and sitting down in his lounge, eating and drinking what he could, trying to make sense of what the hell has happened.

Was this the new Cycle? Was the Wheelworld...somehow knocked off course or something, sent into darkspace, the realm between galaxies?

He tried to just focus on himself right now. "Alright Boris. Wheelworld is broken. Best bet, go and find one of central power systems and turn it back on. Find your friends, find a ship, get the hell out of this place, it's dead in the water now."

"And also thank the lady who put those items in the fridge for you."

Boris shot out of his seat, aiming both of his laser guns at where the voice came from, right behind his couch.

Standing there, slightly leaning on the back of the couch, smiling sweetly at him, was Ronni. "I thought the last living one here deserved a chance to rest... and you look pretty cute."

"Who...are you? And what do you mean by 'the last living one'? " He slowly lowered his weapons.

"Well not entirely. There are others on another world, but I was attracted to here first. I feel you and your remaining companions might be enough to fill my requirements."

"Requirements? Are we in the next cycle?"

Ronni tilted her head a little, side to side. "Yes and no. We're in the middle phase, where Azrael and myself take a break and stop the whole Multiverse for, a while. Gives our deities time to clear out any possible remnants that try to avoid us and get to the new cycle." She smirked at Boris.

Boris was shocked at that. "You and Azrael?"

"My name is Ronni. I'm the goddess of what you call, Chaotic Space. Its answer to Azrael. We were happily married once, but it fell apart quick enough. That's all you need to know about me."

"And this remnant thing? You mean others have evaded the Erasure before?"

"It happened once cycles ago. Since then Azrael has made it a duty to have this time to clear out everything. Well, that's what is happening in cycle 8 anyway. Remember when and I said yes and no?"

Boris was baffled for a second, then clicked on what she meant. She was answered both of his questions. "No? We're not in the next cycle?"

"Precisely. We're in the 7th cycle still."

"What happened? Why the sky…nothing? Why have all the systems failed? The food? Drink?"

Ronni moved off the back of the couch, and walked towards the kitchen. "It's all passed on, your little…odd Negative energy barrier only protected a small fragment of this space station. Everything else that is reusable to Azrael has been taken. There are souls left behind, those he sees as worthless now, but they'll take their time before they reform and realize where they are, to forever wander in misery. You and your other companions weren't spotted by him, as were those on that other world in this Universe."

"Is…there a way out of this cycle?" Boris had to ask.

"Only by my hand, Death or Azrael. Other than that, you are now trapped."

Boris then remembered something. "Wait! The others who survived here! Where are—"

Ronni looked over to him. "Dead."

"Dead!?"

"Why yes. Besides one, I've taken their souls."

Boris glared at her. "Why!? Why, after all the suffering we went through!?"

"Because I always gather souls for the next cycle. Just it's much quicker with a few fresh ones then lots of weak, confused ones. With you as well, with such a fine body to craft it from and such, willpower, my task will be done, and I'll be able to create the next leader of the Unversed."

"Unversed?"

"Don't worry your head over that. Now Boris, let's make this a little quicker…You have a simple choice. Join your friends or I'll move on with them, and go and visit that…Pulse, I think it was called." Ronni was now leaning on the kitchen side, looking over to him, bored.

"I refuse! I didn't come all this way to just stop because of some goddess saying it's all finished!"

"Hmm." She was looking at her nails. "Maybe Yeul might be more easier to take then you…her and Noel, perhaps. I suppose I could actually go further and make a super powerful Unversed leader and take that entire settlement." She glanced over at him. "It's your call sweetie."

"…" he turned towards the window, and was reminded the situation he was in…the black void beyond a dead station.

He passed that working Sigil Stone to them for a reason…he wasn't going to let that reason die off now for his own survival.

Boris faced Ronni again. "Fine. I, I accept. Take me and do as you please."

With a smile on her lips, she suddenly appeared in front of him, her face right close to hers, as she decided to let him know something. "Good choice…it's a shame Yeul and the others are doomed anyway. Over a hundred thousand years without a Lifestream is a long time for a planet, you know." Then she and Boris Verne vanished before he could do or say anything more…the Wheelworld was now entirely silenced. There was nothing left…

Despite all the effort, everything they tried to do to avert the disaster, Boris had lost.

This was the end, of Cycle or as it was officially known to most deities and mortals as the 6th cycle…

---

But not for its survivors.

Harkon had his Sigil Stone, and with it as the end wave was coming, used it along with a hundred filled black soul gems from his world to grant it enough power, to warp him, his castle, and those within to the next cycle, guided by the power of Andromeda, He asked it to take them to a time there is civilised people.

Before he knew it, they had appeared on the new Nirn.

But no longer in the middle of the main continent, like before. There was a minor price paid. They had been thrown into the far north, the castle trapped on an island, which was a chunk of land from the cycle 7 Nirn. Harkon didn't mind, he didn't want to be emperor again. He had his wealth, and his power…and the Sigil Stone.

As for his family, his servants…he turned them into, what he now called it, 'Vampire Lords'.

Whatever his power was that he gained from Andromeda, by his decision, he could spread it via biting, injecting a tiny bit of fluid into people, granted them enhanced eyesight, immortality, no longer aging, enhanced strength, magical prowess and speed. But there was weaknesses. The positive universe sun was a boon, weakening them if they were out in it for too long, they also developed a need for blood, and their strange features made them become feared and alienated from normal mortal beings.

Harkon was not as effected by the weakness of the sun like the others, for he actually carried the blood of the Goddess, unlike those he infects, which are mere imitations.

At first his servants were easily obedient, mindless with their new power and sudden admiration for Harkon…but as hundreds of years passed by, they pretty much returned to normal, being themselves, only not dying.

The ones who especially showed this were Serana and Valerica. They scolded and complained at Harkon for abandoning those of the previous cycle when he could've done more. He tried to ignore them as much as possible, just focusing on the Sigil Stone…and at times, as Valerica soon noticed, he was actually absorbing power from it.

And soon, another item would come into his interests.

Harkon and his people were sent billions of years into the next cycle, as guided by Andromeda, and it just so happened, the deity Castiel, had given a new blade to Zuo Ci, who had made friends with a race on Nirn, by the name of Snow Elves.

The blade was the Dark Wolf. Castiel told Zuo Ci he wanted the blade protected and safe until it's destined owner came to claim it.

Zuo Ci placed it under the watchful care of those who prayed to Azrael, or as they called him Auriel. The leader of the group was called Vyrthur, a man who had lived for hundreds of years, having been saved by Zuo Ci from a group of bears, he now was the most known religious figure to the Snow Elves.

He took the blade, and reminded Zuo Ci he had friends in the Snow Elves, and swore to the deity he will protect the blade with his life.

It came to Harkons attention when the Snow Elves waged war with the Nords of Skyrim, and eventually the other elven race known the Dwemer. A 'Soul Eating Blade' was rumoured to be carried by Vyrthur, being used by him to topple those that tried to duel him during these trying times. It kept being used, and eventually, Harkon felt a strong desire to want such a weapon that can fell anyone that dared to stand before him by eating their souls.

He eventually formulated a plan.

It came to action when it had been hundreds of years after the Snow Elves joined up with the Dwemer due to the Nords becoming too powerful and numerous to contain, as suggested by Zuo Ci no less.

The deity returned to the great temple dedicated to 'Auriel' to check up on matters…only to find the place ransacked. Bodies littered across the ground of Snow Elves, with their pale skin and white hair, some wearing their holy armor, while others wore robes. There was blood everywhere, tables destroyed, windows smashed… It was a disaster area. And the deity was entirely confused as to why. This temple was well hidden, to the point even the Nords nor Dwemer knew it even existed, he had made sure on that.

But someone seemed to have found it…and done this. And another person would provide the answer, as Zuo Ci looked out at the broken windows.

"...Where were you, Zuo Ci?"

The deity turned towards his old friend, noticing Vyrthur walking into the main area of prayer, where Zuo Ci was...He was looking still as pale as anything, but his eyes...his lips, and the bite mark, scarred on his still slightly bleeding neck, as the Snow Elf held his hand near it... "Vyrthur? What has happened to you? Where is the blade?"

The Snow Elf glared at him. "That thing was the reason my temple had been targeted! Something infected one of the initiates who came to be one of our monks, and he bit me before taking the blade with him! The damn fool cried out about 'vampires' and their leader demanding the 'Soul Eating Blade'! After I was rendered unable to fight back, more of these 'vampires' swarmed the temple! My guards and many of those that live in this temple are dead Zuo Ci! If you have failed to notice, we Snow Elves don't have many numbers remaining across Nirn since you last bothered to show up! I called for you, and you never answered!"

"The Falmar. I know many of your kind have become that, but that blade is of importance, we must-"

"They are called the betrayed Zuo Ci! Betrayed by those you 'helped' us forge an alliance with! You've brought a terrible fate on us, and all you care for is the damned weapon! Forget it. We're finished. I'd rather let it go then continue to hear those accursed whispers from it anymore. Feeling it beg to be held once again after my uses of it during the wars..."

Zuo Ci tried to reason with him. "Don't turn against me. I can help you still. There is hope yet."

"Can you cure me, mystical one? Can you even do that?!"

Zuo Ci looked the being up and down...it was an affliction, but yet while it did seem familiar in some ways...no, there was something more to it, something that didn't seem normal, even for this world. "...That I cannot do."

"Then go. Leave me a monster...and I'll find my own way. I promise you one thing though...turning your back on us was a dangerous mistake."

Zuo Ci turned away from his once friend, looking at the carnage, the dead bodies one more time. "Empty threats are not required for me to know when to make an exit. Farewell, old friend. And, I'm sorry."

As the deity vanished though, Vyrthur chuckled, rubbing his neck wound a little, with it giving him a little stinging sensation. "Empty threat...I'll show you an empty threat. We were granted more than just that weapon fool. We were the followers of Auriel…we have something one of his own devotees passed us long before you."

Harkon though, now had the weapon he wanted. The moment he placed his hand on its hilt…a voice came into his mind. It seemed to…clear his thoughts of something, something that clouded his judgement, it felt like. He heard it speak to him, telling him he was of great importance.

For hundreds upon hundreds of years, Harkon became more depraved and uncaring. His focus on the Sigil Stone was entirely gone, almost as if his forgotten its existence. He now only cared for collecting captives, feeding on them, then draining their souls for his new blade, which never left his side, and became the most important item to him…but it brought back one urge he had missed.

An urge for conquest. He wanted Nirn back under his will…enslave it's people, make them all cattle, to feed upon, to consume their souls. But the sun was a major weakness, and the people were weary of the nighttime, making it hard for his servants and thralls to gain any element of surprise.

It just so happened, years on, he heard the rumours that items on this world, the Elder Scrolls, held a prophecy that Harkon and his kind will be able to block out the sun, turning it into one of sigil energy…so that they may roam the world unaffected in the daytime.

He sent his people out across the globe to actively hunt for these Scrolls, becoming his next obsession, and managed to gain two of them, but despite having them, he noticed he could not read or understand them…He thought to now turn to his Sigil Stone, the gift of his goddess, to read and understand the secrets of the Scrolls.

Valerica knew his intention, and didn't want this prophecy to come to pass. She didn't want them, those gifted by Harkon in this cycle and those from the previous to suffer a war with all those on this planet, trapped in some form of eternal night. She wanted no more conflict.

She led Serana away from the castle, to a cave deep in Skyrim, sealing her away with one of the Elder Scrolls, telling her it's the only way to keep her from danger, and that was it, before casting a spell to put her daughter into a deep sleep, placing a spell on a small pedestal above where her daughter now slept.

Only those who carried blood that was beyond this world could release her. A way to stop Harkon, as he had no thralls or servants that were from beyond Nirn.

The she moved back to the castle, and with the Sigil Stone, a black filled soul gem, and channelling her own energy, she opened a massive vortex in her own personal alchemy lab, and passed back into Cycle 7…into the shadow realm state it was now in. Back onto Nirn, it's now empty central city.

She tossed the Sigil Stone aside within this realm, and on her back, was the other Elder Scroll.

All she had left behind back in Cycle 7, was a chunk of the Sigil Stone, shaped like a black soul gem, hidden amongst dozens of them, looking very similar. It was should anyone try to follow her…anyone that isn't Harkon. She knew he wasn't into the alchemy business that much.

She called it right. He only checked her lab once, killed her personal servants and Seranas as none of them truly had any idea where the two went, and then sealed a chunk of the castle off that pretty much led to their rooms to spite them.

He tried for many years after that to simply locate his two family members, and his Elder Scrolls…but there was no luck in that venture. So, he returned to his uncaring ways, continuing to feed on blood and souls, hearing two voices now and again in his mind, one of his goddess, and soon after of the blade. The blade being much more dominating.

---

As for Boris Verne, he knew he was alive. He knew he existed…but he heard six faint, weak other voices trapped with him, much more powerless than his own, Their bodies weren't spared, only fragments of their souls were, but they were a part of him now. Of his mutilated twisted corpse in a shell.

He had to make life now. Life to those who have come over to the Negative Multiverse, who were either small fragments of lost energy, or copies of actual beings due to amount of energy they had unleashed. They come over as small glowing orbs, shadows, even complete forms, scared, confused, not even sure of what they were supposed to be anymore.

He was their guide, their protector…their hero.

He showed them they could live in this other Multiverse, there was hope for them, no matter what. Even if they never were going home, like some of them hoped, they were not alone now. They were under his wings now, they had friends here, who were the same.

And over time, he heard a call of evil, a sign of dark times. Within the mortal souls that resided in this Multiverse, cruel people existed, leading them to war with his people, the poor souls he swore to protect, by order of Ronni.

He gave those who were shadows and orbs many forms, many powers, those that came formless found purpose again. Protectors, fighters, scouts, cultivators. He took over several worlds, made them their homes. Ronni never minded. She allowed him some freedom for his devotion to his duty, going beyond what those in the previous cycles did not.

But then, a new voice called to him, a new Unversed that overpowered him…made him bow, to obey, to allow those he cared for to obey it, to lose contact with Ronni, to lose control.

But by losing contact with her, it also awoke him. It made him feel…himself again. He could control himself, understand what he was before this…the memories returned. At times as he looked at his twisted hands, he saw his old hands again, but as he reached up to his face, he felt the mask Ronni had placed on him, the one that held him away…Some nights he would scream out.

Nowadays, he kept his head low, and led what Unversed he could without the new leader noticing. He remembered the Sigil Stones, with the knowledge he knew now, the fact they came from the Ing…and these poor normal mortals of this Multiverse are dangerously trying to take them, to use their power, not even realizing that many of their attempts to use them have led to their own unfortunate deaths.

He couldn't allow that anymore. He had to protect them as well as the Unversed, save them from themselves…he had to do it right this time.

He was the Symphony Master now. A slave hidden in a mask…

He looked to a city on the world of Beyondard, in Universe 1, beneath a hellish purple sky, protected by a barrier of light. There was a Sigil Stone inside the city, active. One of his Archravens confirmed it.

He tilted his reddish hat a little, adjusting it, and then raised his golden bent baton up, and around him, came dozens and dozens of little Flood unversed, Scrappers, Bruisers, Archravens, Hareraisers and a few Wheel Masters, the last ones designed to help take down the towers that the light barrier was created from, the mortals hope for survival…if they force his hand, he'll do it.

He heard Yeul, in the depths of his mind. His human eyes beneath the mask focused on the city.

"You're our saviour, the hero of the Multiverse...I don't want you to fade away."

He can't let it happen again. He can't let all life die again...He can't picture being alone again. He pointed his baton forward, and the Unversed begun their march.

As they went, he looked up to the clouds…and swore he could just see three glowing stars, pushing through the purple clouds, before he began striding down towards the city.

---

There was one last person though. One last one who was left behind.

Avatar.

As he and the others left the generator where Boris fell, he soon found himself alone.

He told them to leave him behind. The bullet wounds were too much and he was just being a burden to them like Boris would've been. They said they would come back as soon as they got help.

They never returned...but someone else came. As he was slumped against a wall, thinking back to what led up to these last moments of his life, he realized someone was standing before him. Avatar looked up, and through his blood smeared face and vision, he saw Janos looking down at him.

"...Janos?"

The deity slowly bent down to him, and placed his hand on the man's cheek. "You will not remember this, but I know you must continue. You are one of the chosen...I shall carry your soul to the next cycle."

---

Within the time vault, Chronoa, the deity of time, stood there, holding the purple scroll up looking at it, before slowly putting it down and closing it up, sighing. "I never knew what happened to Avatar...but like every other cycle, they try to escape...only to die..."

She sent the scroll away, making it vanish, before heading outside to get some fresh air before continuing her checks.

---

1. Asterix and Obelix, who are both from...Asterix.

2. Harkon, Serana and Valerica are all from Skyrim...for Seranas looks, look up 'Seranaholic'. The only mod I never regretted getting, version 4 the long red haired edition of her.

3. Boris is from a game known as Universe.

4. Avatar is from the Ultima series.

5. Janos Audron. He's from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver series.

6. Rincewind is from Discworld. Guybrush is from Monkey Islands, Daxter is from Space Ace and Caius, Yeul and Noel are from FF13-2.

7. Chronoa is from Dragonball Xenoverse.