TIME TRAVELERS
BY: DANA D. FELLERMAN
(In the year 2008, when I was 12. I wrote this in a notebook before typing it up.)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Life Elsewhere
Chapter 2: Diana von Draco
Chapter 3: The Time Gems
Chapter 4: Dusk Forest
Chapter 5: The Space Gate and Kraux
Chapter 6: A New Time
Chapter 7: Suki
Chapter 8: The Gem in the Falls
Chapter 9: Kraux's Minion
Chapter 10: The Prison
Chapter 11: Zac
Chapter 12: Guns, Riots, Alpha- OH MY GOD
Chapter 13: Alphas Past
Chapter 14: Havens Desert
Chapter 15: Charlie Nightingale
Chapter 16: Haven
Chapter 17: Ruin-ed
Chapter 18: City in the Sky
Chapter 19: Temple of Time Entrance
Chapter 20: Temple of Time
Interlude; Chapter 21: Alphas Decision
Chapter 22: Reverse World
Chapter 23: Meric Strong
Chapter 24: Dark Tower
Chapter 25: Selena Atra
Chapter 26: Dark Tower Peak
Chapter 27: Pits o' Black Fire
Chapter 28: Zastin
Interlude 2; Chapter 29: An Unlikely Meeting
Chapter 30: A Demon in the Clouds
Chapter 31: Elders in a Row
Chapter 32: Trust
Interlude 3: Hot, Hotter; Sexy Hot?
Chapter 33: Pain of the Past
Chapter 34: Inside the…Walls?
Chapter 35: The Sealed Demon-Corvus
Chapter 36: At long last…
Chapter 37: Rise Above
Chapter 38: Nox and Chasm Tower
Chapter 39: The Hidden Land
Chapter 40: The Return
Chapter 41: The Bloody Truth
Chapter 42: The Ship
Chapter 43: The Climb
Chapter 44: The Secret
Chapter 45: Time Restored
Chapter 46: Friend Lost
Chapter 47: Time and Debt; Finally pay off…
Chapter 1: Life Elsewhere
4053. That's what year it is. You may be surprised how life still exists on Earth at that time. Wrong, I am not talking about Earth in this story. I am talking about life elsewhere.
Beyond the cosmos and galaxies is another solar system many light-years away from ours. The solar system is called Hakiba; inhabited by only two planets called Malik and Nox.
Malik is the home of the dark dwellers; they hide in the shadows, hate the light and attack unsuspecting, defenseless prey. These dark dwellers come in many forms. However, they are mostly seen in beast form: four legs, a whip-like tail, sharp flesh ripping teeth and claws, and no eyes (They use sonar like a bat). Each of them is unique though, every one of them has different colors and patterns, and none are alike. These dark dwellers are known as to the people of Nox: The Krawl.
Nox however, is completely different from Malik. Nox is an almost lifeless planet. The whole planet doesn't move: The wind doesn't blow, the water doesn't flow, none of the seasons come, the sun doesn't rise or set, day and night don't come, and there is no color but the beings of Nox and the Krawl. Why you may ask; the answer is simple: the whole planet of Nox is paralyzed.
The main and only standing not ruined city of Nox is Ziba. There were other cities, but were conquered and destroyed by the Krawl overtime. The people of Nox fight for their lives every day. The reason why is that the Krawl come from their plant, by teleportation, to kill the people of Nox for fun, and for food.
You may be thinking, How was the plant paralyzed or Why do the Krawl come to Nox a lot or Why isn't someone doing anything? The answers to those thoughts will be revealed in due time in this story.
Chapter 2: Diana von Draco
"Someone, Anyone, Help me!" pleaded a man cornered by 3 Krawls.
The Krawls slowly kept on moving in closer and closer, drooling to rip off the flesh of their prey and to feast. As the man closed his eyes, waiting for his death to be upon him, a terrible roar came from the middle Krawl. As the roar faded off, it fell to the ground dead with an arrow stuck right in the middle of its neck. As the blood puddle got bigger, the two other Krawls looked at each other, then to the man and finally behind them.
A person was in the distance with a just fired bow in their hand. It was a teen girl about the age of 18 it seemed, with armor that looked so heavy she couldn't move, but it was lighter then it meets the eye, an arrow quiver strapped onto her back, two sheathed swords, one on each side of her hip, a cape that is dark red and tattered, a hood which she wasn't wearing at the time and black like colored gloves.
"Blood will stain the ground like you planned Krawl," she started, then smirked; No one can tell what expression is in her eyes for they were covered in the shadows of her hair, "but it will be your blood on the ground."
She then lunged at the Krawl with both of her swords out and ready to kill. Then at the same time, the Krawl lunged back at her; a battle then ensued. The man in the corner opened his eyes at this point and watched the battle in awe. As the dust cloud from the battle cleared up, the girl was seen standing on a pile made of the 3 slain Krawls looking down at the man. The girl jumped off the pile and walked towards the man.
"You should be more careful, even though you are on the outskirts of the city." The girl said.
"I know, I will now" the man started, "by the way who are you?"
The girl stayed silent for a few seconds then said "I am Diana von Draco."
The man couldn't believe it at all.
"THE Diana von Draco? The Krawl slayer?" the man exclaimed.
Diana said nothing at that point. The man stayed silent too and it was quiet for a solid 15 seconds before Diana turned and walked away.
"Hey, where are you going?" the man questioned.
"I don't usually stay in one place; I am on a mission anyways." Diana said still walking.
"What's your mission though?" the man said a bit louder so Diana can hear.
Diana didn't answer though; instead she kept walking off into the distance to elsewhere.
Chapter 3: The Time Gems
In the same day, Diana walks to her hideout, a cave, and plans her next move.
"No information about the gate, not even from the city." Diana said disappointed.
She paced back and forth a couple of times and sighed. She then walked into her cave over to a large stone table with several maps of many areas of the planet. She took out a dagger and crossed off an area on a map.
"I'm running out of time…" Diana mumbled to herself.
She walked out of the cave and looked up at the colorless, dark sky.
"If I am going to pull this off, I am going to need more people;" Diana started to think, "I'll recruit some more people over time…."
Diana then walked back into the cave with a sigh. She got a book, opened it up, and sat on a rock. She flipped through the pages until she got to a page with the picture of a gem on it with a description under it. The gem on the page was called a Time Gem.
"There are six in total, located in different times and places of the planet." Diana reads to herself.
"Each gem is harder to find then the previous one, and more challenges to face then before as well." Diana continued to read.
Diana closed the book and sighed.
"There are clues though, if only I look close and hard enough, I might find something…" Diana thought.
She then turned her attention to a gem floating in mid-air in a special container of some sort. She got up from her spot and put the book down, then walked over to the Light Blue gem and put her hand on the container.
"I only found one of many…now I have to find more…" Diana mumbled then closed her eyes and started to think.
Chapter 4: Dusk Forest
Diana takes the gem out of its container and puts it in a special pouch just for the gems. She then gets all the supplies she needs (her maps, remaining food and water, weapons and survival gear) and puts it in her bag then throws her bag over her shoulder to carry it. She then puts the gem pouch into an armor pocket just for the gems. She steps outside her cave and looks at it one last time. She then closes her eyes and heads towards a dark forest.
In her mind, something was talking to her. It was like the Time Gem in the pouch was talking to her in her mind. She is lead deeper and deeper into the dark depths of the forest. The Time Gem was telling her to be more cautious up ahead, so she kept her guard. Suddenly, the ground trembled beneath Diana's feet. She turns around only to see a behemoth sized Krawl walking towards her. Diana quickly jumps into the nearby bushes and takes out one of her swords. As soon as the Krawl walked past her; *SLASH, WOOSH, CUT, SLICE!*, with four quick slashes of Diana's sword, the feet of the Krawl are cut off. The Krawl gives a terrible roar in pain and falls to the ground dead. Diana puts her sword away, looks at the Krawl to make sure it's dead, and continues to walk.
As she is lead deeper into the forest, more Krawl started appearing. She had many close calls but managed every battle. After a while, she took out the Time Gem and looked at it.
"This might sound crazy, but…" Diana thought.
"Time Gem, where are you taking me?" Diana asked the Time Gem in her hand.
The Time Gem started to produce an image to show her. It was a picture of the top of a cliff with a portal in the center of it.
"The Space Gate!" Diana exclaimed.
"Thank you Time Gem," she said putting it back into its pouch and continued to let it guide her to the Space Gate.
Chapter 5: The Space Gate and Kraux
As she walked through the forest still, Diana eventually got lead to the base of a cliff. The Time Gem was telling her that the gate is up there but something else is up there too. So Diana nodded to herself and started climbing up the cliff.
While climbing up though, she encountered something she never saw before: A Krawl in the form of a huge flying creature which seemed half dragon and half bird.
"Aw man, the Krawl come in different forms?" Diana thought as she pulled out one of her swords.
Another thought came to her mind as the Krawl continued to circle high in the air. She thought, "Maybe I can ride it up to the top of the cliff instead!"
Diana put her sword away and did everything possible to get its attention. Soon the Krawl noticed her and dive bombed straight to her. At the last second though, Diana jumped into mid-air and landed on the Krawls head. Diana quickly took out rope from her bag and tied it around the Krawls Mouth so she can control it.
"Behave! I am your master now!" Diana said being thrown around like a rag doll trying to control and settle it down.
Soon enough, the Krawl settled down and accepted her as its master.
"This Krawl can be useful….much easier to travel then on foot…I'm going to keep this guy." Diana thought to herself.
She then made the Krawl fly up to the top of the cliff and land. But as soon as she landed, there was someone there waiting for them. The figure was in Pure Black robes, a mask with a mysterious pattern on it covering their whole face, a hood which the figures was wearing, and also wearing the same color as their robes gloves. The figure was the only thing in Diana's way of getting to the blue and yellow swirling portal behind them. After a short moment of silence, Diana gives a short laugh.
"Your Kraux right, Dark ruler AND master of the Krawl." Diana scoffed.
"Hmph, and I suppose you are Diana von Draco, the one trying to fix all of this." Kraux replied.
"Of course; my mission is to gather the Time Gems, go to the time when Chasm Tower was collapsing-" Diana started.
"-put the Time Gems in place and stop the planet of Nox from paralyzing. I Know." Kraux said cutting her off, "I know because I was the one who took the Time Gems, made the tower collapse, plunged Nox into darkness and made the whole planet of it paralyze in the first place. You can try to change the past, but you will fail."
"I will stop you Kraux, no matter what." Diana replied to all of that.
"Not if I kill you first!" Kraux said, charging up a Dark Energy Ball to fire at Diana.
As he launched the huge energy blast at her, Diana made the Krawl fly up at the last second before it hit and made it dive bomb into the portal behind Kraux. Kraux then turned around to look at the portal.
"I missed, and I let her go into the space Gate too." Kraux started.
Kraux then stopped to think then smirked evilly behind his mask.
"No matter, she will still fail; she cannot stop me, even with help. The darkness will spread, the Krawl will invade and make Nox our second home planet, and then I will rule all!" Kraux exclaimed evilly.
Kraux finished his little speech with an evil laugh and then teleported back to Malik for further planning.
Chapter 6: A New Time
Flying through the portal at almost light speed, Diana and her Krawl soar through the portal to an unknown time. As they are traveling, another portal appears next to them and sucks them in. Grabbing hold to her Krawl, she and the Krawl are hurdled to the ground into the new time. Dazed, Diana snaps out of it first.
"Urgh…..where am I?" Diana moaned.
Diana looks around to see herself in a green valley filled with flowers of all kinds of colors all around her. She feels the light breeze across her face for the first time as she gets up. Her Krawl finally wakes up and look around too.
"This….is so beautiful…" Diana said trying not to cry.
The Time Gem starts to tell her in her mind that this was Nox, way before the Krawl first arrived here. It also explains how there was peace, and the planet was not paralyzed.
"Well, in that case-"Diana said then looked at her watch.
She saw that time was moving, actually moving. The watch read: May 15, 2694; 2:19 P.M; and Diana smiled.
The Time Gem said to Diana that it knows how much Diana wants to go explore this new world compared to the future, and says its ok for a side trip for now.
Diana hops onto her Krawl and flies around this new land to her. She sees new sights she never saw before: Actual birds flying besides her, the water of a river actually flow, the nature that she heard all around her, and the most beautiful of all to her, a waterfall crashing down and a rainbow across it.
"This is so pretty…..now I really want to save the future. I don't want these sights to vanish…..ever…" Diana thought to herself.
The Time Gem said to her that it was time to go back to the mission; so the gem told her and said it will lead her to a city named: Seranchii. So Diana got on her Krawl once more, flew up into the air and let the gem lead her to the new city.
Chapter 7: Suki
As Diana and her Krawl land near the outskirts of their destination, they see buildings of many different sizes and colors. Diana tells her Krawl to stay right there in case if she needs it again. As the Krawl goes to lie under the shade of a tree, Diana walks into the town.
As Diana walks through town, the Time Gem guided her through town so she wouldn't get lost. Diana was anxious at times because as she was walking through she saw some interesting things: A pet store with many animals, small markets selling foods of all kinds and people actually smiling and laughing that are having a good time. The Time Gem tells Diana it is time to meet the person who will help her on her mission. Diana nods to herself and lets the gem lead her to this new and mysterious person.
As Diana got lead through a not too thick forest, Diana wonders what this new person joining her will be like. She is lead to the entrance of a clearing in the forest only to see a person practicing martial arts in the middle of the clearing. As Diana walks a bit slowly towards the person, the person just keeps practicing not noticing her.
As Diana went over to say hello to the person, the person punched her face without knowing it and Diana landed on her back with a THUD and her grabbing her throbbing face.
"Oh My Gosh! Are you Ok?" The Person said running over to Diana and knelt beside her.
"Ow…that was a good punch…..and I'm ok…a bit…" Diana moaned.
"Thank you. I didn't see you there…..I'm so sorry; here, I'll take you to my place to put some ice on that." The person said helping Diana up and leading her to their house.
The person led Diana to a house that was in a style that made the house seem old.
"What….kind of style house is this…." Diana mumbled loud enough for the person to hear.
"It's a style known to everyone in Seranchii, it's called Akiba Style." The Person replied opening the door.
Diana walked in with the person behind her closing the door. Diana was lead to a couch and sat on it.
"This is comfy and soft, I like this." Diana thought.
The person came back with ice in one hand and an apple in the other. The person handed Diana the ice to put on her eye then sat down on a chair and bit into the apple.
"So, where are you from?" The person said with a bit of apple in their mouth.
"I am from Ziba, and my name is Diana von Draco. What's yours?" Diana replied.
"I'm Suki, nice to meetcha Diana." Suki said taking another bite of her apple.
Diana looked around with her eye that wasn't covered with ice. The style in her home looked to her as peaceful and relaxing. Diana started to think then looked back at Suki.
"So you like to fight huh, well what else do you do Suki?" Diana said after a small moment of silence.
"Huh, me? I like to do martial arts, acrobats, flying and I LOVE Pulling pranks." Suki said finished with her apple, "What about you Diana?"
"I like to fight too; but I also like to look at maps and go treasure hunting." Diana replied putting the ice down on a table between her and Suki.
"REALLY? Like what kind of treasure?" Suki said interested.
Diana couldn't believe it. Suki looked like a 15 year old and she acts like a kid. Diana just kept that comment to herself.
"I think it's time I told you something; even though we just met." Diana said slowly.
"Uh huh…..ok then what is it?" Suki replied back.
Diana then told Suki the whole story about the future. Of how the planet will be paralyzed, the Krawl will come to invade, the cities will be destroyed and her mission.
"That's crazy and impossible!" Suki exclaimed to Diana after she was done telling her the story.
"But it's true Suki! Those things will happen unless I can stop it." Diana replied.
"So you want ME to join YOU to help stop what is to come?" Suki replied.
"Yes I would, please." Diana said.
"I will if you can prove that those things will happen and that you are actually on a mission then I will join." Suki said crossing her arms.
The Time Gem said to Diana to show it to Suki to prove this was real. Diana took out the pouch from her armor then took out the shining light blue gem. Diana made it float in mid air to show Suki. Suki couldn't believe it; she stared at the gem with awe and disbelief that the future will come to a horrible end if nothing is done. Diana put the gem away few minutes later.
"Alright…..I'll join you in your mission. But; why me?" Suki said uncrossing her arms.
"As I said before, The Time Gem speaks to me in my head. It leads me to where I can get help or the next gem; but I still don't know how it does that." Diana replied.
Diana and Suki hear a noise behind the door in the back of the room.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce you to my pets, come on, I'll show you!" Suki said jumping up from her spot and heading to the door.
Diana followed Suki to the back door and Suki opened it. In Suki's backyard there were 2 caves there. One of the caves near the entrance had a sign that said 'BEWARE OF WOLVES'.
As soon as Suki came out, about 15 wolves came running to Suki barking. Suki laughed as all of them were checking out Diana and as they were running around.
"What are these, are these wolves that she has for pets?" Diana thought to herself.
Everyone heard a roar from the other cave. As everyone turned to look, a giant white dragon came out of the cave and walked over to Diana, Suki and the wolves.
"WHAT IS THAT?" Diana thought as she looked up at the dragon in fear.
Suki went over to the dragon and petted its head as it lowered it to see Diana.
"This is my dragon Luna. She is a very good girl, but a very tough fighter when in a fight." Suki said smiling and still petting Luna.
Diana smiled as the dragon went over to her and licked her face.
"I think I should bring mine in here too." Diana thought.
Diana soon made a screeching call that made Suki cover her ears and closed her eyes tight. As soon as Diana stopped Suki said "What was that for?"
"You'll see in a minute Suki." Diana said smiling.
As soon as Diana finished that sentence, her Krawl came flying overhead then landed next to her.
"That's a Krawl?" Suki exclaimed, "It's so HUGE!"
"He is my pet though, and he is a good one too." Diana replied stroking her Krawls feathers.
"What's his name then?" Suki questioned.
Diana stayed silent on that one. She never thought of a name to give her Krawl. Diana thought for a moment and thought up of a name.
"His name is Zeron." Diana finally answered.
Suki smiled and resumed petting Luna. Diana thought for a moment.
"Do you know where the Time Gem in this city is?" Diana said.
"The elders here told me it's in a place where the waterfalls meet. I know where the place is. Follow me." Suki said.
Suki ran in to her house first to get something. Diana saw Suki run back out with a bow and a quiver of arrows, and twin blades. Suki then hopped onto Luna and looked down at her wolves.
"Okuroo, come on boy, you can come." Suki said to the wolves below her.
One of the fifteen wolves jumped up and landed next to and sat behind Suki. Diana got up onto Zeron and followed Suki as she led her to where the next Time Gem is.
Chapter 8: The Gem in The Falls
The skies were clear and perfect for flying at that time. Diana and Suki soared through the clear blue sky letting the Time Gem guide them to the falls.
"There they are." Suki said pointing to a big lake with waterfalls crashing from all sides of it.
Diana and Suki made Luna and Zeron fly down for a clear landing near the lake. As soon as they landed a mist started to appear as they walked closer to the lake and waterfalls.
"Well, we're here, but I don't see a gem." Suki said disappointingly.
The Time Gem was telling Diana there was a secret here; that the next Time Gem was in a cave behind the biggest waterfall. After the Gem told Diana, Diana told Suki. They both looked for the biggest waterfall there, and were successful.
"The cave is too small though for Luna and Zeron, they will have to stay out here." Diana noticed.
So Diana and Suki told both of them to stay behind and guard. Okuroo though, follow them in because he was small enough. With high hopes, they entered the cave.
The sounds of their feet squishing on the soft floor echoed through the cave as they wandered. Diana held a torch as they went through because it was dark in the cave.
"You think anything lives in here?" Suki said a bit worried.
"I don't know Suki. I've never been in here like you." Diana replied.
They soon both heard many screeching noises after the small talk they had. Suki and Diana looked around then suddenly; WOOSH! A swarm of bats came out of a cave hole in the wall and swarm past Suki, Diana, and Okuroo. Swarming through though, the wind made the torch blow out. Okuroo keep trying to catch one but only barked at the bats. After the bats were gone, Suki and Diana caught their breath.
"Huff…Huff… That was unexpected." Diana said relighting the torch.
"Ya, that was...glad that is over though," Suki replied standing up.
Both of them kept on going but with more caution. They both made sure that they were nowhere near any holes in the walls from their last experience.
Later though, they all experienced something they haven't seen yet: A small army worth of Krawl in their way.
"Impossible…or maybe Kraux sent them here to stop us. Heh; he can try but we will win." Diana told Suki.
Suki suddenly started to glow a faint blue and white, pulled out her twin blades and lunged at the Krawl. Diana lunged at them after Suki did with her sword out, too. As soon as the Krawl noticed them, it was too late. Suki and Diana were hacking and slashing their way through the army. Okuroo fought too by biting the Krawls necks after they were down to ensure they were dead.
"That was fun; but we need to find the gem now." Diana said to Suki both putting their weapons away.
They all continued through the cave and finally reached the end. At the end of the cave there was a shrine of some sort that looked like it was just made but wasn't. In the middle of the shrine there was a pedestal with the next Time Gem floating in mid-air on it. As they all walked to it slowly, they all heard a voice and stopped. The voice got a bit louder, and then a flash of light appeared and disappeared. A soul of a person it looked like was floating in front of all of them.
"I am Faron… guardian of this Time Gem… I've been expecting you two…" Faron said.
Suki and Diana looked at each other confused then faced back to Faron.
"I know why you two have come…to get the Time Gem and save the future…" Faron continued.
Diana then explained everything that happened so far to Faron. Faron listened to it all and kept nodding his head.
"I will give you the gem…save the future…good luck…May you find the third gem in time…" Faron said before disappearing.
Diana walked over to the pedestal and grabbed the gem. After putting the gem in her gem pouch, they all heard a rumbling sound/
"What's going on?" Suki said to Diana.
Okuroo started to whine as Diana ran back to Suki and him. Suddenly; BAM! CRASH! CRUMBLE! An army of about 300 Krawl crash through the back wall of the shrine.
"HOLY SHI-"Diana screamed in fear.
"RUN!" Suki said turning around and ran cutting Diana off.
Diana, Suki and Okuroo ran as fast as they can from the army as they we're chased. They both saw a light grow bigger and bigger in front of them as they got to the entrance of the cave. They all dashed through the waterfall over to Luna and Zeron. They got onto them as quickly as possible and flew up into the sky where the Krawl below them couldn't get them.
"Come on! I know where the Space Gate is!" Diana shouted over to Suki.
Diana and Suki flew high and proud until they got to the Space Gate. Still on their ride, they all flew into the Space Gate and let fate lead them where they had to go next.
Chapter 9: Krauxs Minion
Back at Malik, Kraux sees all that has happened so far. Sitting on his throne, he watches it all happen through a portal floating next to him. As soon as he saw Diana and Suki fly through the Space Gate, He banged his fist on the arm of his throne.
"Impossible! My Krawl army should have gotten them both and should have taken both gems away!" Kraux complained angrily.
Kraux got up from his throne and started pacing back and forth still ranting on about how lucky Diana and Suki were.
"They were just lucky! My Krawl should have got them, they would have got them! They were just dam lucky!" Kraux shouted.
As Kraux kept pacing and complaining, one of his higher Krawl Minions came in and saw him.
"What is wrong my lord, what is troubling you?" The Krawl asked him.
Kraux stopped walking and said, "It's just that Diana and her new member of her crew got the next gem and my Krawl army didn't get them. I mean, I planned that attack so well! They were just lucky that time!"
They both stayed silent after Kraux said that. There was a very uncomfortable silence, and then Krawl broke it.
"My lord, if I may, I will go after them in their next destination." The Krawl suggested.
Kraux looked at the Krawl with uncertainty. It was silent again as Kraux thought about that. Kraux sighed and then finally nodded.
"Alpha Major, my dear Krawl; do not fail me." Kraux said to Alpha Major.
Alpha nodded and smirked then said, "I will not fail you my lord, I won't fail you in your time of need."
Kraux opened up a portal for Alpha to go in. Alpha went into the swirling black and red portal, as soon as Alpha did the portal closed behind him. Kraux laughed a bit.
"You may have gotten the second one Diana, but that is all you will EVER get. My minion will make sure of that…You will fail Diana!" Kraux said and ended his small speech with a long evil laugh.
Kraux walked back to and sat back in his throne. He looked through the portal that was near his throne to see what Diana and Suki were up to next.
Chapter 10: The Prison
The Space gate and the Time Gem both lead them to the middle of a landfill. As soon as they got out, they met an awful smell. They got out as quickly as they can hold their breath for as long as they can. As soon as they all got out the started breathing in and out a lot.
"Aw….now my outfit stinks!" Suki complained with a disgusted face on.
"Never mind about the stink; I got Garbage in my armor!" Diana complained back as she took out rotten banana peels out of her hood.
Everyone looked around and wondered where they were. They wandered around till Diana noticed something in the distance.
"Hey, there's a city over there!" Diana pointed to it in the distance.
Everyone flew over to the city in the distance; as they got closer the city became clearer. As soon as they got there, they were at the city gates.
"This isn't a city…It's a prison!" Diana exclaimed in disbelief, "This is Zekrion City prison!"
Diana and Suki looked at each other with worried faces. They both knew what was going to happen in there. Diana and Suki told Okuroo, Luna, and Zeron to stay here and try not to get caught. They both jumped onto the gates and climbed up it. They got to the top and hopped the fence to the other side in the prison.
"I just hope that your Time Gem of yours knows what it is doing Diana…" Suki said nervous.
"I hope so too…I hope so too…" Diana replied feeling the same way.
Chapter 11: Zac
As Diana and Suki made their way through the prison without being detected, Diana wonder in what way is the Time Gem thinking of letting a criminal join their team. The second Time Gem tells Diana that the person's name is Zac and he is in cell block 32B.
"I think I know a better and safer way to get to this new persons cell," Suki told Diana softly, "follow me."
Diana followed through the hallways of cells still trying not to be detected. They had many close calls but were still not caught. They soon enough arrived at a small office like lobby with people in it.
"You handle this; I don't know what to do anymore." Suki confessed to Diana quietly.
They both walked over to the empty front desk where there was a officer there behind the desk doing cases.
"Hello. How may I help you two young ladies today?" The Officer said putting down his pencil and looking up at them.
"Hi; um, I need to see a person in here today. It's really important sir." Diana told him.
"Alright then; what's this person's name and cell block number." He replied.
"His name is Zac and he is in cell block 32B." Diana said promptly.
The officer looked at Diana then Suki suspiciously. He shrugged then opened the door that lead to the cells. Diana and Suki followed the officer till they reach the door to cell 32B. The officer slammed the door open.
"Zac; you got company. Some friends of yours are to speak with you." The officer said in a serious tone.
The fiery red haired, green eyed tan guy sitting on his bed in a classic orange prison outfit looked up and at the officer then sighed. The officer let Diana and Suki into the cell then closed the door behind them and locked it then stood outside it. Diana and Suki walked over to Zac and stood in front of him.
"So, what did you do to get yourself in here?" Diana asked Zac.
Zac stayed silent though; his face read nervous, upset and uncertain at the same time.
"Why do you care, I don't know you people anyways." Zac finally said.
"We want to help you, that's why Zac. We just want some info from you first." Diana said back, "My name is Diana von Draco and this is Suki."
Zac widened his eyes then looked at the both with surprise.
"You…you two…I remember this from a dream… a strange floating gem in my dreams told me that my time will come when I see you two…" Zac stated slowly.
Diana and Suki looked at each other then back at Zac still staring at them intently.
"I am in here for a murder, but I was falsely accused. The real murderer left the scene and I was the only one there next to the dead body; so the police thought it was me and arrested me." Zac confessed.
The room stayed silent for a bit, but Diana broke the silence in seconds.
"About the Gem you were talking about…that was a Time Gem…do you know where it is?" Diana asked him.
"Who ARE you people?" Zac questioned them both.
Diana explained to Zac everything that happened so far and how they want to stop the future from happening the way it will be.
"Alright…the officers were talking and I overheard them saying something about a gem in the safe vault on the top floor in the second building." Zac said.
Diana and Suki smirked at each other then Zac smirked too getting up from his bed. Diana got out her sword and busted down the cell door. The door was heavy and crushed the officer with its weight killing him. After the small dust cloud wore down, they all walked out of the cell.
"Wait-"Zac said, "I need to get something."
Zac ran back into his cell and grabbed something from under the bed: A colt revolver and a sharp pocket knife.
"Where did you get those?" Diana asked Zac as he walked back out.
"They were here when I got put into this cell." Zac replied.
Diana nodded then looked at Zac then Suki.
"Ok, let's go." Diana said to both of them, "Zac, lead the way."
Zac lead Diana and Suki down the halls to the safe where the third Time Gem is.
Chapter 12: Riots, Guns, Alpha-OH MY GOD
Zac continued to lead Diana and Suki down countless halls being undetected for a while. Suddenly, they all reached a big room filled with prisoners that were taking some free time. Diana looked around and saw officers standing guard at all the doors.
"We need a distraction…" Diana mumbled to Zac.
Zac already had an idea. He walked over to a prisoner and talked to him. Diana and Suki assumed that it was friend of his he made in here. The prisoner started shouting some things and got all the other prisoners riled up; then a riot started.
The officers guarding all the doors went flying into the crowd to stop them from going any further. As the doors were unattended, Zac lead Diana and Suki to the door that leads them upstairs. From upstairs though, they heard several gunshots from the riot, and a lot of screaming and yelling. As they moved even faster than before upstairs, the alarm went off.
"Crap! We've been noticed!" Zac complained.
Zac continued to lead Diana and Suki to the second building with officers on their tails. They had to though avoid bullets being fired at them. Zac made a quick right turn and said "Quick! Over here!"
Diana and Suki made a quick right turn to see a bridge leading to another building in front of them. They all hurried over the bridge; but for what cause now. They were surrounded: officers in front of them and officers behind them. All with advanced weapons and battle armor that seemed like nothing can penetrate it.
"Well, it was nice knowing you all." Zac said quietly trying not to shed a tear.
Diana thought differently though. She got out a grappling hook gun and said "Hang on!"
Diana grabbed Suki and Zac, then shot the grappling hook gun and it launched all the way and landed on the roof of the second building. The gun pulled them in making them fly over to the top of the building. After landing Diana put the gun away and looked at Zac.
Zac lead them down the stairs of the second building to the vault.
"There it is; the vault." Zac said.
As they walked closer to the vault, a voice behind them said "You aren't walking any further to that vault."
They all turned around to see a person behind them.
"You;" Diana shouted pointing at him, "Your Alpha, one of Krauxs minions!"
"Glad I know I can skip introductions." Alpha said, "It gives me more time to kill you."
Alpha lunged at Diana with his tainted arm ready to kill. At that moment though, Suki came around and kicked Alpha in the gut sending him flying backwards.
"Zac; try to find out the code for the vault! We will handle Alpha!" Diana shouted to him taking her sword out.
Zac ran over to the vault and started trying to decode the vault. In the meantime, Diana and Suki were fighting Alpha, giving Zac time. Suki started to glow that faint blue and white again; then she launched energy balls at Alpha from her fists. Alpha countered by whipping Suki with his Bone Tail across the face. Suki went flying into Diana and they both fell to the ground.
"Goodbye forever you two!" Alpha said charging up a dark energy beam to fire at them.
The beam was launched at it hit them. As Alpha laughed evilly, Zac was still trying to get the code. Alpha stopped laughing though, when the cloud of dust cleared up to reveal Diana and Suki standing there still alive.
"Impossible!" Alpha said with his eyes widened.
Diana looked at Suki and smiled, Suki did the same back. Both of them got out their swords and lunged at Alpha. With a couple a quick slashes, Alpha got sent flying through the wall, hit the ground and made a crater.
"Mas…Master…I…have failed you…" Alpha began slowly then smirked; "For now…"
Alpha then vanished into dark smoke back to where he came from.
Diana and Suki went back to Zac who has already figured out the code. Zac opened the vault to show them the 3rd Time Gem floating in the vault. Diana grabbed the Time Gem and put it into the special pouch with the others.
"Lets go." Diana said to both of them.
They jumped down from the hole in the wall and went back to Zeron, Luna, and Okuroo. Suki got on Luna with Okuroo while Diana and Zac got on Zeron. They all flew back to the landfill and went through the Space Gate to find the 4th Time Gem.
Chapter 13: Alphas Past
Alpha limped his way down the path far away from the prison to get to the area where the portal back to Malik was. Shedding tears, Alpha was mumbling under his breath of how Kraux would treat him after failing him. He stuttered slightly and tripped on a branch in the path. Face meeting the ground, Alpha didn't get up, he only wept. Alpha got up and looked around grabbing his shoulder. He limped over to the shade of a nearby tree and laid near the base of the tree.
"I…can't go back there…He will…kill me…" Alpha started.
He let his head limp a bit to put it against the trunk of the tree. He closed his eyes slowly and let his mind wander as far as it wanted to.
"I remember…before all this happened…the first strike…" Alpha thought.
Alpha went to sleep and started to have a dream about the past: The past before all this happened.
His vision was dark at first, but it cleared out to be somewhere: Malik. It was different in the past; it was thriving with life and wasn't shrouded by darkness like it was in the future. A voice came out of nowhere in his mind saying "Alpha! Alpha come on! We aren't going to wait for you much longer!"
The scene goes close up to a town on Malik: Secron. A man comes out of his home to a few others standing outside.
"Sorry I'm late you guys." The man near the door said.
"No time for sorry Alpha, you have work to do." A man said from the group handing him a sword.
Alpha reaches over and takes the sword from the man's hands and walks out into a forest. Alpha continues into the depths of the forest till he sees a really strange monster (Krawl).
"Huh….never seen a monster like this before…looks dangerous…better slay it." Alpha said to himself.
He snuck up behind the Krawl to sneak attack it but before he can have the chance, the Krawl whipped him with its tail, making Alpha hit a rock. As Alpha got up the Krawl already ran away. Alpha looked around and heard a commotion back at his town. Alpha ran back to town but fell after his first step. He looked at his leg to see it was broken. He got back up and limped back to his town. As he was getting closer and closer, there were roars, screams and smoke coming from the town. Alpha hurried only to find this: his whole town, everything, was on fire.
Alpha ran through town looking at the buildings on fire. He looked farther back in the town to see monsters (Krawl) chasing after and killing the people who lived in the town. Alpha rushed in but tripped because of his broken leg. As he got up, he met face to face with a person (Kraux). The person grabbed Alpha by the neck and lifted him up into the air making alpha drop his sword. The person throws Alpha far enough to almost go into a fire but in mid air the person lunges at Alpha and tries to slash him but misses and cuts his hand off. Alpha hits a house and the wall gives in, giving in and falling on his right eye destroying it for good. As alpha winches a screams in pain, the person walks over to Alpha.
"You. My Krawl I sent out to scout reported a man in the woods that seemed stronger than all the rest here. You seem like that person…" the person started.
Alpha tries to get up but Kraux puts a foot on his chest and puts him down. The person goes a bit closer to Alphas face and says, "I'll let you live. But, you will become my minion."
Alpha tried to say something but the pain was too much for him. He slowly closed his eyes and all the screaming and roaring faded as he passed out. Even though unconscious, he felt like he was being dragged across the ground, which he was. The Person was dragging him by his hair to their new dark lair/castle on Malik to prepare him to become his Minion.
"I think I'll call you….Alpha Major…" The person said and laughed evilly softly and continued to walk to their castle.
Soon Alphas dream became dark and he was in deep sleep still under the shade of the tree. Alpha soon though of something: Should he stay with Kraux…or…..join Diana's group and stop him?
Chapter 14: Havens Desert
A heat blast met the faces of everyone as they stepped out of the Space Gate. Diana put her arm up so she can shield her vision from the blazing sun; and everyone else did much the same. Okuroo, being a wolf, stayed under the shade of Luna's wing.
"Where are we anyways...It's too dam hot out here!" Suki complained.
The Time Gem told Diana this was the city of Haven, known for its portal to the upper and under world. As Diana looks around sweating, she looked at everyone else and saw them sweating. Diana turned her attention to an oasis with a cave next to it.
"Hey guys…I found something…" Diana said walking over to it trying not to pass out from the heat.
After walking over to the oasis and the cave, Zac, Suki and the animals went over to get a drink from the oasis. Diana, however, walked into the cave for a moment without letting anyone see her. She made sure nobody can see her and took off the heavy, hot armor and changed into cooler more agile armor. She, although, made sure she put the Time Gem pouch in one of her pockets. She came out of the cave and put the armor in a bag that was strapped on Zeron; which he really doesn't mind at all, took out a sword and sheathed it.
"Hey what happened to you?" Zac asked Diana as Diana walked over to the oasis and took a drink.
"I changed, does it matter?" Diana said licking her lips and getting the last few drops of water off her mouth.
"Alright, well what is the plan then Diana?" Suki asked Diana rummaging through the food bag trying to find apples.
"Well the plan is-"Diana started.
"AUGH! WE'RE OUT OF APPLES!" Suki cried out.
Suki went on her knees and started to cry. Diana and Zac just looked at each other then at Suki.
"The plan was to get to the-"Diana said again.
"No apples…." Suki began to sob more.
Diana grabbed her forehead and moaned then looked back at Suki then Zac.
"The plan was to go to the city and-" Diana started the third time.
"NO MORE APPLES!" Suki went on.
As Diana was about to do something, Zac beat her to the punch. Zac grabbed Suki's shoulders and made her stand up then Zac said: "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF AND LET DIANA SPEAK!"
Suki just stared at Zac and nodded her head fast.
"Thank you. AS I WAS SAYING, the plan is to go to the city of Haven to find the next person and Time Gem. Once in the city, I will also go to the store and get more apples!" Diana said glaring slightly at Suki.
"Yes!" Suki said to herself in a soft excited voice.
Zac let go of Suki and they both turned to Diana; who was already on Zeron. Zac jumped up onto Zeron and sat behind Diana while Suki got on Luna with Okuroo. They launched upwards and soared with their hearts filled of hope (and Suki's filled of the thought of more apples) and headed to the city of Haven.
Chapter 15: Charlie Nightingale
As the group flew to Haven, they started to argue and complain it was too hot.
"Are we there yet?" Suki kept whining to Diana.
"No we're not there yet!" Diana replied finally after the 10th time she said that.
Diana looked down at Zeron and saw that he was actually starting to pant and sweat a bit. Diana turned and saw Luna also doing the same thing.
"I better find a place to rest….or some shade somewhere." Diana thought looking at them.
Diana looked around as they we're flying and saw something in the distance.
"A house?" Diana thought as they flew closer to it and she got a better view.
The Time Gem was telling her to land at the house, for the next person to join their group was in there. So Diana let Zeron and Luna land near the house a couple of feet away from it. There was an oasis there so they let Okuroo, Luna and Zeron stay there in the shade and let them drink.
"Why are we here? I have a bad feeling about this Diana…" Zac said nervously to Diana as they walked to the house.
Diana said nothing and knocked on the door but after the first knock the door opened by itself. Diana walked in and said "Come on guys, let's check this house out."
There was no reply.
"Guys? Where are you?" Diana said turning around.
Zac and Suki were still standing outside in front of the door.
"I'm not going in there, even if you make me." Zac told Diana.
"Same here." Suki added.
Diana sighed and said "Fine, stay with Luna, Zeron and Okuroo then."
As they turned back and ran to the oasis, Diana turned back so she was facing forward and thought "Why am I the brave one now?..."
Diana wandered through the dark house slowly and looked around with her hand on her sword ready to strike if anything came out. Diana soon enough found stairs to a second floor, so she went up them with caution.
She found herself yet again in another dark room but with some small beams of light coming in through the holes. She let her hand drop to her side as she wandered through the room. By the small holes of light she knew that the room she was in was a bedroom. As she walked to the other side of the room she hears a small breaking sound under her feet, like glass shattering. She looked and saw a picture frame under her foot so she picked her foot up then picked up the frame. She went over to a small beam of light and looked at what the picture was: A group of people in a group photo. It looked like to her a small family; a woman, a man, an older woman, and a girl who looked as old as 14. Diana stared at it for a short amount of time then felt her away around and put the frame on a dusty table.
As Diana walked back to the stairs she thought "This house…its abandoned now. Why would someone still live here?"
The Time Gem told Diana someone else was in here so she had to stay cautious.
Diana put her hand on her sword so she can sheath it if there was trouble. As soon as she got halfway down the stairs, she heard something like a gunshot so she took out her sword. As soon as she did and put it near her face, she heard a clink sound. She looked at the ground and saw a bullet near her foot. She looked up and in the darkness she saw eyes in front of her a few feet away with a just fired gun in their hand.
"Hmph. So this house isn't abandoned like the Time Gem told me." Diana thought to herself as she took out her other sword.
The figure fired another bullet and Diana slid to the right as the bullet made a whistle sound past her ear, then the figure fired a double shot and Diana did a back flip over the second bullet. Diana ran at the figure but had to duck after five bullets being shot at her. Diana slid under the person's legs and pushes them to the ground and put a foot on their chest.
"Who are you?" Diana asked the person.
The person didn't reply and Diana had to jump back and was almost shot in the leg. As Diana grabbed the person by the collar the figure reached over to something and it made a click. The lights went on in the house so they can see everything. Diana looked at the person who she was holding: A woman that looked the age of 26.
Diana let go of the person and put her swords away.
"I'm so sorry. I thought you were someone else." The woman said.
Diana looked at the woman and helped her up.
"I'm sorry too; names Diana." Diana said to the woman.
"My name is-"the woman started.
"Emily Roberts." Diana cut her off, "Your fake name though is Charlie Nightingale."
Emily sat down on a nearby couch with disbelief. She looked at Diana shocked that she actually knew her real name. Diana sat on a chair that was in front of her.
"How-How do you know my real name." Emily said.
Diana explained everything to Emily from how the future was from up till now. As Diana was telling Emily the story, Emily was either nodding or saying to herself "Oh my god…."
As Diana was finished, Emily sighed and said "Now it's my turn to tell my story."
Diana nodded and listened to Emily's whole story: of how her father was shipped off to battle when she was seven, and came back home only to be deployed two years later. At the age seventeen her mother was killed by a 'door to door salesman' so she had to live with her aunt here for a year. At twenty three her aunt was killed by a bomb by a suicide bomber, by the same door to door salesman. After two years of hatred her father came home when she was twenty five but was killed a week later. Also of how she changes her looks everyday to stay undetected and also of how she is found too much at the bar.
After Emily told Diana everything about her life, they heard a barking noise. Diana put her hand on the sword hilt but Emily stopped her.
"It's ok; it's just my dog Lucy." Emily told Diana.
A white poodle walks into the room and walks over to Emily. The dog jumps up onto the couch, lies next to Emily and yawns.
"What…is that?" Diana said in a curious voice, "I've never seen anything like that in the future."
Emily looked at Diana with a surprised look and continued to pet the dog.
"These are called dogs. They are pets to people; I guess they were before the future happened, dogs are known as to us 'man's best friend'. They are friendly mostly, and they are here to keep their owner company and to guard them." Emily explained to Diana as she kept petting Lucy.
"Can…I pet it?" Diana asked holding out her hand slightly.
"Sure; Lucy is a girl by the way, and she's only one year old." Emily said back.
Diana petted Lucy and she seemed to like it so she wagged her tail as Diana petted her. Diana smiled as she kept petting Lucy and had another reason to save the future. As Diana stopped petting Lucy she looked up and at Emily.
"So, do you know where the next Time Gem is?" Diana asked Emily.
"This could probably be a rumor, but I heard it was up in the heavens….." Emily said to Diana unsure.
Diana pondered on that for a few minutes. Diana got up and paced back and forth as Emily just kept petting Lucy.
"I think this might not be a rumor…I heard of such thing of there being a city in the sky. There is only one way to it and that is this ancient teleportation device called the 'Arnogons Breath'." Diana said finally.
Emily looked up at Diana as Lucy jumped down from the couch. Emily started to wonder too then had an idea.
"I heard of ruins in the city of Haven, maybe that can help?" Emily told Diana.
Diana looked at Emily and nodded. Diana smiled at Emily and said "That's a start."
"Get your things and let's go, we've got a gem to go get." Diana said grabbing her stuff.
Emily ran upstairs for a moment and came back down with a bag full of different clothes and her weapons: A magnum revolver, a desert eagle and an ak47. Emily whistled to Lucy and she followed.
"Let's go-" Diana started.
"Wait, I need to get something important." Emily said running back up the stairs.
Emily ran upstairs and grabbed the picture frame with the family photo in it with her. She put it in her bag and ran back downstairs.
"Now we can go." Emily said.
They all walked out of the house and walked over to Suki and Zac. Diana did introductions and a short story of what happened. Diana took Emily's bag and put it around Zeron's neck along with her bag.
Emily got on Zeron and Lucy hopped into her lap and held on tight. Zeron and Luna jumped up and flew to Haven, where the ruins of Arnogon were.
Chapter 16: Haven
As the gang set off for Haven, they experience smooth sailing…except for a sandstorm here and there. They managed good time and finally made it to the outskirts of Haven.
"Alright, all the pets have to stay here, luckily there is a spring here for them and shade." Diana said hopping off of Zeron.
As the others got off, Zeron, Luna, Okuroo, and Lucy went over to the shade and laid down to nap. Diana and her friends walked into Haven and started to look around.
"Alright, we might wanna get some info about this town first so we will split up. Everyone on their own and we will meet by where our rides are resting." Diana said.
Everyone nodded and walked off in their separate ways to get info.
Diana head off to the North side of town where all the destroyed buildings were. She asked locals of how the buildings were destroyed but they only said when they got here and first built the city, they were already there.
"Maybe I should go deeper into this mystery…" Diana thought to herself.
Diana walked deeper into the ruined part of the city to see more and more ruins. At one point, when she was deep enough, she saw a strange ancient looking machine. She walked over to it and started looking all around it.
"Could this be the Arnogons Breath that we were talking about?" Diana said to herself quietly dusting off a part of the machine.
She saw some ancient writing that she could understand and started to read to herself.
Emily wandered through the town with Zac looking at the stores talking about how Diana found them. Emily caught eye of a bar soon enough and ran in.
"I'll be in here for a while, so tell Diana if I'm late, I'm in here." Emily said to Zac.
Zac nodded his head and then Emily closed the door behind her. Zac continued to walk down the street and caught eye of a clothes store.
"Well...all I have is my prison outfit…this will make me stand out…might as well go and get new threads." Zac thought to himself.
Zac clutched the money he 'borrowed' from someone in his pocket and walked into the store with blending in with the crowd in his head and not to be an outsider to this world.
Suki walked through town with her casual cheery self. She clutched her stomach and mumbled "Need…apples…now…"
Suki stopped and sniffed the air. She looked up and saw a food store that had whole baskets of fruits and vegetables being sold. What caught her eye though, was five whole baskets of apples being sold.
Suki walked over to the store but stopped halfway. She checked her pockets and had no money on her at the time.
"Gah…no money…but I NEED apples!" Suki thought.
Suki stood there and pondered for a moment thinking of a plan. She looked up with a smile on her face with a brilliant plan in her head. Suki strolled over to the market asking for ten apples.
"That will be twenty gizja." The merchant told Suki.
"How about this, give me the apple and no one gets hurt." Suki said to the man.
Suki looked at the man and just noticed two guards in the area that heard that. The guards confronted Suki- but it was too late. With a few quick energy punches she knocked both guards and the merchant out.
"I love me." Suki said sitting down on the roof of the shop with all five baskets of apples munching down like no one's business.
Not realizing though…all four of them…were being watched…
Chapter 17: Ruin-ed
As the sun went to high noon, everyone went back to the meet up place. Zac came back in his new outfit: A black with a red design tee with a short black jacket with the left sleeve torn off; blackish blue jeans, and black and a hint of red sneakers. They all explained how their free time went and when it was over, Diana made a head count.
"Ok so everyone is here-" Diana started to say then looked around.
"Where's Emily?" Diana continued.
"She said she was at the ba-" Zac started but was cut off by footsteps.
Emily walked over to the group with her jacket glistening with fresh blood on it here and there. She stopped next to Diana and wiped her mouth off from the blood.
"Should I ask, and are you ok?" Zac asked Emily slowly.
"Some beasts were at the bar, they had no eyes and razor like heads. I managed to beat them all but they might come back." Emily told them all.
Everyone's eyes widened but Emily just blinked a few times with a confused look. Diana explained to Emily that they weren't normal beasts, but they were the Krawl coming after them and trying to kill them.
"I found out the way to the city in the sky. I found the teleporter, lets hurry over to the ruins before the Krawl catch us." Diana suggested to them.
Everyone nodded in agreement and ran over to their pets. Diana and Zac hopped back onto Zeron while Suki, Emily, Okuroo and Lucy hopped onto Luna. They took off and headed to the ruins.
As they came into view of the ruins, Diana pointed down where to land. As they landed, Zac had a bad feeling about the place they were in.
"Guys…I feel like we are being watched…" Zac said to them all nervously getting off of Zeron.
Diana ignored Zac for now and walked over to the huge teleporter with everyone following behind her looking around.
"So that's the Arnogons Breath? A giant ruins dragon head with a big open mouth?" Suki asked Diana.
Diana turned around to them and replied "Yes, yes it is."
They all blinked a few times and continued to walk. Diana pointed to where they had to stand, so everyone but Diana stood on the spot. Diana walked away and over to the side of the dragon head.
"Hey what are you doing?" Emily asked Diana getting onto Luna with Lucy in her arms.
"Programming to launch, I'll be there in a minute." Diana said while she was typing in something.
Diana looked at the patterns on the dragons head and saw them glowing. Diana rushed over to the others and hopped onto Zeron.
"Hold on tight!" Diana said gripping onto Zeron.
"How are we suppose to get to the city with this?" Suki shouted out to Diana.
"Just watch and learn Suki!" Diana shouted back.
The Dragon head inhaled a bit without sucking in anyone; but when it exhaled, it made a really powerful wind blast sending all of them flying up to the heavens.
"Oh so that's how we get to the city!" Suki shouted over the wind.
"Don't think it's so easy! We got company!" Diana shouted back looking behind her glaring.
Behind them, an army of Krawl that look like Zeron but in different colors came soaring after them screeching and roaring.
"What do we do?" Emily shouted to Diana over the wind too.
Diana didn't respond; only acted. She jumped off of Zeron and pulled out her swords and landed on a Krawl and cut its neck. She jumped off that Krawl and jumped from one Krawl to another killing them. But even as she killed them, more came.
"I can't just leave her like this!" Suki thought to herself.
Suki jumped off of Luna and landed on a Krawl and fired a energy blast from her fists and the blast went all the way through the Krawl splitting it in half killing it. Suki jumped off last second and kept doing what she was doing till she was surrounded.
"Alright I'm not having any one of my friends blood stained on the earth today!" Zac said to himself.
Zac looked at Emily and she had the same feeling. They both jumped off of Luna and Zeron and landed on two separate Krawls. Luna and Zeron stayed floating in mid air with Okuroo and Lucy as best as they could over the wind.
"There's too many!" Diana thought to herself punching a Krawl in the face knocking it out.
Diana looked around and saw Suki, Zac and Emily fighting beside her. Diana smiled and thought "But that's not a problem for all four of us!"
Diana slashed down at one of the Krawl but another Krawl came out of nowhere and clamped down onto her arm with its teeth. She screamed in pain and Suki caught ear of it.
"Diana!" Suki shouted trying to get over there as fast as possible.
Zac and Emily were too bust saving each other to notice so Suki was the only one to notice. As Suki ran over to Diana, it was almost already too late: Two Krawl were clamped onto both Diana's arms ready to tear them both off.
As Diana screamed in pain Suki finally managed to get to them and energy blast both Krawl off. Suki grabbed Diana and jumped onto Zeron.
"Diana are you gonna be ok?" Suki said looking at both of Diana's arms.
Diana said nothing but moans and groans of pain. Suki hoped back onto Luna and went over to Emily and Zac, Zeron followed behind. After Zac and Emily killed off the last few Krawl, they both hopped back onto Luna and Zeron, then the continued to fly to the city in the heavens.
"Is Diana going to be ok?" Zac asked Suki worried.
"I don't know…she's taken quite a blow in both arms…" Suki said looking at Diana then back at Zac.
"I'm going to be fine…just look away for a moment…" Diana thought to herself.
Emily asked Suki the same question and they all looked away from Diana to answer that question. Without wasting a single second; Diana healed both of her arms by herself.
"Like I said before she has taken a blow in both ar-" Suki said turning back around.
They all stared at Diana in awe: both of her arms were fully healed.
"How did you?" Suki asked Diana slowly.
"I don't know." Diana replied back.
"That's a lie, I know how I did…" Diana thought to herself.
Everyone just shrugged and continued to fly to the city; letting the wind stream carry them on their own. Unknowingly…they were being followed…
Chapter 18: City in the Sky
As they flew up, they were high above the clouds; the ground was no longer seeable. They continued to fly as far as they can, without rest. Soon enough, they caught sight of buildings below them in the clouds.
"They city in the sky…" Diana said to herself flying overhead.
They kept flying further not only for a place to land, but to see the city: Buildings made of stone actually floating on clouds of all shapes and sizes. They flew through and saw a huge temple away from the city.
"You think that's where the time gem is?" Zac asked Diana.
"Well…according to this: A temple away from a city somewhat in ruins and the Time Gem saying it's in there. Yes it is in there." Diana replied back.
As they landed near the city, everyone was figuring out how the city stays up so high without falling.
"These clouds hold weight I guess…" Emily said to all of them.
"These clouds are so fluffy! But there's no way all this can be held up by just a few clouds!" Suki said trying to pick up some of the cloud with her hands.
"Whatever it is, we'll find out later. For now, we are gonna find the fourth gem." Diana said turning to face the city.
Diana and Suki told Zeron and Luna to take Okuroo and Lucy with them to meet them at the temple. Zeron and Luna flew up and to the temple with ease.
"Now let's go." Diana said nudging her head in a motion for them to follow.
They walked through town with ease: They actually blended right in. All the people wore armor like clothing and gear, so they all just looked the same really.
Chapter 19: Temple of Time Entrance
As the crew walked to the temple, they get a strange feeling in their guts.
"What's…this feeling in me….It's like I…..I feel all tingly inside…" Diana thought to herself.
They walked up to the huge from door of the temple, and looked up to see all the ancient designs on the door.
"This door is huge…we will all have to push it open." Emily said to the others.
They all nodded and put their hands on the door. They pushed it, but slowly, and it finally opened enough to go in.
"Let's go." Diana said to them, they all nodded, and walked in.
As they walked in, a small flight of stairs going down was in front of them. They walked down the stairs and saw two statues equally away from each other, holding scepters.
"I'm getting a strange feeling about this place already Diana…" Suki hold her walking around slowly looking around the room.
"Don't worry Suki, if anything happens, we will be prepared." Diana reassured her.
As they walked past the statues, they saw something in the room in front of them. As they ran over to check it out, it was a pedestal in the middle of the room on an elevated circle that had a small slot in it.
"Whatever the slot was, it must have been for a sword." Diana said investigating it.
Getting up, she caught glimpse of a huge window art in front of her, way above almost touching the ceiling. As she walked to it, out of nothingness, stairs appeared in front of her up to the window.
"Wow, how did you do that?" Zac questioned Diana.
Diana shrugged and looked back up at the window. She thought for a moment then took a step so her foot was on the first stair, then the next, then the next, then the next.
She walked halfway up the stairs though, and the window disappeared, revealing a small room with a door in the back of it.
"Hey guys, there's a door up here. Come on." Diana said turning her head back a bit, and then continued walking up the stairs.
The others followed and caught up to Diana, who was already at the door. Diana looked behind her to make sure everyone was with her, and then opened the door.
Chapter 20: Temple of Time
As they stepped into the temple, they found themselves in a huge room. They walked in slowly and looked around the giant room they were in.
"How much u wanna bet that we are going to get lost in a place like this." Zac asked them.
"We won't, the Time Gem I have will tell me where to go, and you will follow. It's that simple." Diana replied calmly.
Zac just blinked his eyes and shrugged. As Diana got to the center of the room, something caught her eye: A small glowing spot under the table.
"Hey Diana, what did you find?" Suki asked as Diana walked over to the table.
Diana looked under the table and saw a small key. She picked it up, got up, and looked at it.
"It's a key." Diana said examining it, "I'm going to keep it, just in case if we need it."
With that she put the key in her pocket and ran over to the others. They walked down one of the many halls of the temple and looked around.
"The Time Gem is telling me the 4th gem is deeper in the temple, stay on guard too, It's telling me we aren't the only ones here…" Diana said to them.
They nodded to her and looked around with a hand on their weapon, ready to sheath when needed. As they made it to the end of the first hallway, they saw a door. Zac walked over and tried to open it.
"Hmph. It's locked." Zac said turning to the others.
Diana though for a moment and got an idea. She pulled out the key she found earlier, walked over to the door, and put the key in the slot. She turned the key, and a small click was heard. Diana pulled the key out and opened the door.
"That was simple. Let's go." Diana said walking through the door.
As they walked through the door though, they ended up in a giant room filled with monsters.
"Krawl…" Diana muttered under her breath.
"I've never seen Krawl like those though Diana, what do you think they are?" Suki asked Diana quietly.
"They look like…um…what are they again…" Diana started.
"They look like wolves." Suki said.
Diana nodded and turned back to look at the Krawl. At most, she counted there were 15 in the room.
"The Time Gem is telling me that the 4th Gem is in the room after this." Diana told them quietly, "Looks like we are gonna have to fight our way through to get it."
With that everyone sheathed their weapon and charged at the Krawl. As soon as the Krawl turned to look, it was too late. Already Diana and the others were hacking and slashing their way through the Krawl.
The Krawl, despite how wounded some were, fought back; hard. One of the Krawl hid itself in the shadows so no one can see it. Zac back flipped away from another Krawl and landed right in front of the Krawl that was in the shadow. The Krawl jumped out of the shadows and pinned Zac to the ground. Zac let out a scream and Diana looked back and saw him.
"Zac!" Diana said letting go of the Krawl she had in her hand ready to kill and ran over to them.
About to tear him to bits, the Krawl opened his mouth and was about to bite his face off. Diana jumped in mid air though, and kicked the Krawl off of Zac, then helped him up.
"Thanks." Zac said dusting himself off.
"Don't thank me yet!" Diana said slashing the Krawl she took off of Zac in the face.
Zac got out his pistol and shot the Krawl in the forehead, and then it fell to the ground dead.
As Zac and Diana got back to the group, they heard Suki scream and used her energy blasts in a fury killing all the Krawl surrounding her. Diana, Zac and Emily just stood where they were looking at Suki. Suki dusted her hands off and looked at everyone with a smile on her face.
"What? What did I do?" Suki asked.
They said nothing but shook their heads to snap out of the feeling and kept looking at Suki.
"Let's go then!" Suki said happily skipping off to the door in the back of the room.
"I never saw her like that…" Emily said.
"Me neither…" Diana replied back walking over to Suki with Emily and Zac.
As they got to the door, Suki was already waiting for them with the door open. They walked into another hallway and looked around.
"I have a bad feeling about the next room…" Suki said.
"I got the same feeling," Emily replied to that.
"Same here," Zac added shivering a bit.
Diana stayed quiet though, even though she was feeling a bit scared herself, and kept walking to the huge door at the end of the hallway. They looked at the door and saw no knob.
"So what do we do?" Zac asked Diana.
Diana thought for a moment, and then the Time Gem told her something.
"We all have to push it up." Diana finally said.
With that they all put their hands on the door and pushed upwards. The door shook a bit, and then it went up by itself.
"Let's go, the Time Gem is in the next room." Diana said.
With that, they all walked into the next room slowly.
They entered the huge room and looked around. The ceiling was cracked but it still held.
"What do you think is in here?" Emily asked.
After that question, the door closed behind them. They turned around in surprise. They tried pushing it up again but it wouldn't open.
"We're locked in, great." Zac complained.
They moved away from the door and thought of a way to get out. Before anyone could say anything though, they heard movement in the room. They turned around slowly and saw nothing.
"What was that…?" Suki asked nervously.
Before anyone can answer, they saw some rocks fall from the ceiling. They all looked up and covered their mouths to prevent screaming: A ginormous spider on the ceiling with a huge red eye on its back was staring at them.
"Holy Fu-"Emily started to say.
Before she could finish, everyone jumped out of the way from the huge laser the eye shot at them.
"Looks like it's my time to shine!" Suki said pulling out her bow and arrows.
She put an arrow on her bow and fired it at the eye. The spider winched in pain, but nothing more. Again, it fired a laser at Suki. Suki ran out of the way but the laser followed her. She kept running till the laser stopped, and put another arrow on the bow. As she was about to fire, the Spider roared and everyone had to cover their ears.
"I'm guessing that's a bad thing!" Emily shouted.
She was right: it was a bad thing. Spiders the size of wolves came from out of nowhere and headed towards us.
"You keep firing at the eye! We'll hold the smaller spiders off!" Diana said sheathing her sword out.
Suki nodded and put an arrow on her bow again while Diana, Zac and Emily fought off the smaller spiders. Suki aimed for the eye again and fired.
This time, once the arrow hit its eye, the spider roared in pain and got really, really mad. The spider climbed down from the ceiling and onto the floor.
After Diana and the others finished off the last of the smaller spiders, they turned and saw the really huge one.
"Great! Now what?" Diana thought.
The huge spider turned to Suki and started running to her. Suki ran as fast as she could from the spider, but it kept chasing her.
"GET THIS THING AWAY FROM ME!" Suki shouted to the others.
Diana tried to think of something in split second but nothing came in mind. She looked at the bow and arrows Suki had, and thought of her flexibility. In a minute; she thought of a plan.
"Zac and Emily, distract the Spider. Make it so it's not paying attention to Suki." Diana shouted to them.
Emily and Zac nodded and ran to the spider. They started shouting at the spider and soon got its attention. As soon as it started walking towards Zac and Emily, Diana ran over to Suki.
"I have a plan, listen carefully…" Diana said to Suki whispering in her ear.
Suki nodded through the whole plan Diana had to say to her, and at the end Suki said ok and took out her bow and an arrow that had black aura around it.
As soon as Diana and Suki were talking though, the spider cornered Zac and Emily.
"WE CAN USE YOUR HELP NOW DIANA!" Emily shouted to them.
Diana leaned down and put her hands together. Suki stepped into her hands and put an arm on her shoulder. Diana threw Suki up and forward. Suki flipped through the air with her bow and arrow ready to fire. She flipped over the huge Spider and aimed at the eye, fired, and landed in front of the spider.
The Spider started to roar in pain and started spazzing out and started to hit into walls. After a while, the spider stopped running and fell over dead; then exploded into black smoke. Diana walked over to where the spider was defeated and saw a small light blue sparkling gem. She picked it up and held it up into the air.
Zac, Suki, and Emily walked over to Diana and smiled.
"That makes four gems." Diana said putting the gem away.
"So, where's the 5th?" Suki asked eagerly.
Diana closed her eyes and thought for a moment. She concentrated and focused on what the gem was telling her. After a few moments of silence, she opened her eyes.
"The reverse world," Diana said quietly.
As they walked out of the room to outside of the temple and see their pets. Diana and Zac get on Zeron, and Emily and Suki get on Luna.
"Take us back to the portal guys." Diana said to Zeron and Luna.
They both nodded and flew up into the air, and descended down from the heavens, back to the ground.
Interlude; Chapter 21: Alphas Decision
"I created you, so I can uncreate you too!" Kraux said pointing his sword at a figure half kneeling in front of him.
The figure said nothing and was kneeling in front of Kraux in pain: all bloody and beaten up. Kraux kicked the figure in the chin sending him up in the air and then grabbed his collar and held him in mid air with his sword near the figures face.
"M…Maste- Kraux. I refuse to serve you anymore…" the figure mumbled to him.
"Alpha, you were one of my greatest creations, and now you turn on your own creator?" Kraux shouted at him angrily.
Alpha said nothing and let his head hang a bit. Alpha knew Kraux was right, Kraux spared him and made him into the form he was in. he knew his power though, was equal to his masters.
"I refuse to serve you anymore…I'm going to Diana and help her stop you…" Alpha spoke.
Kraux growled and raises his sword, ready to cut Alphas head off. Before the sword met with Alpha, he vanished from his grasp.
"You created me from your own power, we end up as in a tie, or we kill each other." Alphas voice came out of nowhere and echoed the room.
"I'm more powerful then you will ever be Alpha, nothing can kill me!" Kraux shouted back.
It was silence as Alpha thought for a moment, then, he thought of how he can be beaten.
"I'm going to help Diana, and I will let her and her group, including myself, to kill you when the time is right." Alpha said, "I'm taking my leave, but first…"
Kraux looked around and tried to find where Alpha was, but couldn't find him. He turned around completely and met face to face with a huge dark energy blast and sent him into a wall. Alpha appeared in front of Kraux fully healed from the beat down and looked down at him on the floor in a pile of crumbled wall.
"That's for the beat down." Alpha said, and then vanished from the planet completely.
Kraux tried to stop him, but he couldn't move, and he fainted on the spot. Not long, his other guards saw him and tried to wake him up.
Chapter 22: Reverse World
Flying through the portal, the group ended up at their destination: The Reverse World. Everything was distorted; the walls, the ground, the sky was eerie and all different colors, and gravity itself.
"Um…Diana…" Suki started to ask Diana.
"If you're going to ask why we are flying upside down, it's because this is the reverse world. Almost anything is possible in here." Diana said.
Suki stayed silent after that. The group looked around and saw the sky many shades of many colors, as well as buildings floating in mid air, walls and sidewalks on their sides, and there was no real ground under them: They were basically in a void.
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this…" Zac said.
After Zac said, that the group had a gravity change and were flying on the left over a road, then encountered a waterfall: crashing upwards.
"Told you guys anything is possible in this world," Diana told the gang.
They flew near the waterfall, and gravity there pulled them upwards, and landed on the ground where the waterfall was crashing.
"I wonder how the people here can handle this." Emily said.
"Who knows, this place might be deserted anyways." Diana replied.
As the group turned the corner, the saw ruins of an old city that was once here.
"I'm guessing there WERE people here before…" Diana said in amazement.
They flew over to the ruins and landed. Looking around, they saw ruins of all sorts of buildings.
"Hey, what's that over there?" Suki asked pointing all the way to the back of the ruins.
Everyone turned to their attention to the back of the ruins. They saw a lot of blackish purple jagged crystals all in one huge group coming out of the ground.
"Let's go check it out." Diana said running over to it.
As the crew ran over there, the crystals came into better view. As they got closer, they saw something in the crystals.
"Is that…a body?" Emily asked Diana as they stopped in front of the crystals.
They looked at it closer and it was true: A figure well preserved in the crystals.
"Let's leave it there." Zac said.
"No, the time gem is telling me that this figure will help us find the next gem. We got to get him out of there." Diana replied.
She looked at Zeron, and he was already on the job. He was firing an energy blast at the crystals, trying to destroy them. Moments later, the beam broke through and all the crystals shattered. Smoke covered the area, making it hard to see.
As the smoke cleared up, the crew saw the figure that was in the crystals standing up.
"Who…is he…" Diana mumbled under her breath so no one could hear her.
The figure was a tall man with silver hair, a extremely demonic corrupted right arm, no shirt, a blood red torn coat wrapped around his waist, and armor from his waist down.
As the crew started mumbling about the figure: The figures eyes opened.
Chapter 23: Meric Strong
The figures yellow and black eyes stared straight at Diana and the group. Red aura came around his left hand and a huge black spiked sword came appeared in his hand. The red aura wrapped around the blade like a snake around a branch.
"Diana…I'm scared…" Suki said hiding behind her.
Diana said nothing as she stared right back at the figure. The figure turned his attention to Emily, and started at her. Emily blushed then turned away from the figure. The figure gave out a small laugh and walked over to Diana and the others.
"You, you're the group trying to save the future are you?" The figure said still walking towards Diana.
"Yes, we are. A floating gem told you about us in your preserved mind; right?" Diana replied back walking forwards to the figure.
The figure and Diana stopped about a foot away from each other, looking at each other in the eye.
"Yes, a gem did tell me about this day. My name is Meric Strong. I am the banished one for my power. My parents are both dead, so now I don't trust anyone anymore; but in this case, I will help you." Meric said to Diana.
"Interesting, well, welcome to the group Meric." Diana said turning to everyone, "Every one, this is Meric. He is joining the group now."
Everyone smiled and introduced themselves to the new member of the group. When Emily met Meric, though, she reacted differently to him. Meric started right into her eyes as Emily did back to him.
"What's wrong with those two?" Diana asked the others.
"Hm…sensing the aura around them…they are in love." Suki said.
"Love...What is 'love?'" Diana said confused.
Everyone but Emily and Meric looked at Diana. Diana looked at everyone and then shrinked into her collar.
"What did I say?..." Diana asked softly.
"You don't know what love is Diana?" Zac asked in astonishment.
Diana nodded her head yes, and Zac just shaked his head in disbelief. They looked back at Emily and Meric and they were both in arms of each other.
"Aw…they're hugging." Suki said and smiled.
Diana said nothing and just looked at Suki, then back at Emily and Meric.
"Alright, introductions are over with. We have to find the next gem, any clues where to look?" Diana told them.
As the crew thought of where to go next, Meric already came up with an idea.
"There is a place called the Dark Towers, a huge ruined tower, gravity here made it go in all ways. It is ruled by the forbidden dragon, the only living thing here besides me." Meric said.
Everyone looked at him, and he pointed to the huge dark tower with red lightning clouds swirling above it.
"Alright, let's go then." Diana said hopping onto Zeron.
Everyone got up into their spots, Meric sitting behind Suki and in front of Emily, and flew up and to the tower; where the next gem was waiting for them.
Chapter 24: Dark Tower
Flying through the void, the group finally reached the base of the Dark tower. As they landed, the ground shook and a roar was heard, knocking the group to the ground.
"The forbidden Dragon must know we are coming." Meric said standing back up.
"It better, because soon enough, it won't know what hit it," Diana said getting back up as well.
The group looked up at the tower: a distorted looking place. Pieces of the tower were torn from the original tower from the gravity of the void; it looked like it was unstable.
"Let's go," Diana said motioning the group forward and walking through the opening.
The group went into the tower with their guard up, even though there was nothing living in the tower besides the dragon, based on Merics knowledge.
"You sure we're alone Meric? I feel like something else is here besides us…" Diana asked him softly.
Meric said nothing as he continued walking. Diana just shrugged her shoulders and kept walking as well. Out of the corner of his eye, Meric slashed the air behind him. Turning around, everyone saw what he slashed at: A Krawl in the form of a Dragon.
"They're following us even here too…This is bad…" Diana thought to herself.
As everyone heard roaring in front of them, Diana snapped out of her though and looked in front of her: An army of the Dragon Krawl.
"Alright…this is what we do, I'll take the ones on th-" Diana said but was cut off as a figure zoomed past by her.
Diana looked in front of her and saw Meric already killing off the Krawl. He used his demonic strength to punch the Krawl out of the way and used his sword to finish them off. At one point, a Krawl bit his neck and stayed there, latched on to him. Meric took the Krawl by the neck and threw it off of him like it was nothing and kicked another Krawl to the wall.
"Meric!" Emily shouted and started to run to him, but was stopped by Diana.
"Let Meric handle this one Emily, he'll be fine. I promise." Diana said then turned back and watched the fight.
Meric didn't seem to care about his wounds and kept fighting. One by one, he killed off the all the Krawl in the room. Making his sword vanish into a puff of black smoke, he turned back and faced the group. His body was covered with black blood, which soon the wounds have been healed by themselves but the blood still remained.
"Meric…." Emily said trying not to cry.
Diana rolled her eyes and let Emily go. Emily ran over to Meric asking him things like Are you ok? and Do you need any help? Meric said nothing to those questions but just looked at Emily, who was still about to cry.
"I'm fine Emily, thank you for your concern." Meric finally said then walked back over to the group.
Meric made himself glow a faint dark blue and all the excess blood covering him was cleaned off. He cracked his neck and knuckles then said "Let's keep moving."
As the crew kept moving, gravity changed with them. At one point they were all walking in mid air.
"Diana…I'm going to be gravity sick…" Suki moaned.
"If you're going to puke, I don't know where it will land, so hold it in." Diana said.
As the gravity went back to normal and they were on the original ground, something zoomed past them. Meric slashed at it but it was too fast for him.
"What was that?" Zac asked looking around.
The figure zoomed by them again, but it wasn't the only thing it did. Emily screamed in pain and went onto her knees holding her hand. Meric was the first to reach her and saw what happened: Emily was bitten, and badly.
"Vampire bite, we're not alone in here after all." Meric said tending Emily's wound.
Meric focused on Emily while the others focused on the vampire. It zoomed past them again and punched Zac in the face which sent him flying into a gravity well, making him fall upwards and not downwards.
"Alright, time to show yourself vampire…" Diana shouted looking around.
Diana tried to pinpoint the location of the vampire, but she had no luck. The vampire gave out a laugh that seemed like…
"It's not a vampire," Diana stated; "It's a Vampiress!"
"A girl vampire you say….interesting…" Zac said coming back down from the gravity well.
Diana looked around at the zooming figure and had an idea. The figure zoomed past her, but Diana moved her leg so it was out and tripped the figure and it hit the wall.
"OW!" The figure said then hit the floor.
Meric finished healing Emily's wound and helped her up. They walked over to the figure with the rest of the group. Diana was right: It is a girl vampire.
Chapter 25: Selena Atra
"Who are you, and why are you in the Reverse world." Meric said pointing his sword at the vampiress.
The vampiress said nothing still rubbing her head and looking around at all of us. She lowered her hand and said "I'm here because I'm here, do I need a reason for everything?"
She moved the black hair out of her eyes. Even though it was dark, Diana saw the vampiress's blood red eyes. Zac went over to the vampiress and helped her up. After he did, the vampiress's eyes went from red to silver.
"Thank you. My name is Selena Atra; as you can see I am a vampire. I really don't know why I am here. One moment I was at my house the next moment, I woke and found myself here." She said dusting herself off.
Diana closed her eyes and thought of something.
"Time Gem, should she be in our group?" She thought.
The Time Gem told her to let Selena join the group; because she would be great use for the group. Diana opened her eyes and looked at Selena.
"Alright, the gems say that Selena can join the group if she wants." Diana told them.
Selena didn't know what was going on, so Diana had to explain to her how she was from the future and how her and her group are trying to save the future before it happens.
"I…I don't know…" Selena said looking down at the ground.
Zac went over to Selena's ear and whispered "Join, you would be of great help. Besides, you're pretty good; plus you're hot."
Zac and Selena just blinked and they both blushed. Zac just walked away next to Suki and hid his face from embarrassment.
"Um…I think I'll join…" Selena said slowly.
After Selena said that, Diana nodded and did introductions for Selena.
"Alright, so the next Time Gem is at the top of the tower according to Mer- where did he go?" Diana said looking around.
Everyone looked around; Emily and Meric weren't there with them. Shouting their names, they had no results. After a few minutes, they came out from the corner and Meric was bloody again.
"Where the heck were you two?" Diana asked them in a stern voice.
"I was with Emily." Meric said wiping the blood off his face, then leaned down next to Emily and whispered "I told you we shouldn't have left."
"Well you could have said no to it Meric. You didn't need to sneak off with me and make out for a bit before being attacked by Krawl and then-"Emily said but was cut off by Meric covering her mouth.
Diana and the rest of the group just shook their heads.
"Whatever, lets continue to the top. We're wasting time standing here." Diana said walking down the hall.
As they continued, though, Selena and Zac were holding hands talking and getting to know each other more. Suki behind them was just shaking her head thinking "Thank god I'm single."
Chapter 26: Dark Tower Peak
As the top of the tower came clearer and clearer into view, there were very few signs of Krawl.
"Maybe the Krawl are scared of the dragon?" Emily asked Diana.
"Maybe, I have no idea whatsoever too." She replied.
The group finally reached the peak within minutes. The sky lit up as lightning struck the ground in front of them.
"We're here." Meric said walking ahead to the center of the area, "No sign of the dragon."
Diana and the others looked around as Meric stared straight off into the distance, as if he was looking for something more.
"It's coming, it knows we're here, and we're here to fight." Meric finally said.
Everyone turned around where they were to look at Meric. A roar came from the distance and the tower shook slightly. From out of nowhere, a black dragon with wings from its shoulders down to the start of its tail, a head made for ramming and a spiked fin from its neck, down its back and to the tip of its tail flew up in front and past Meric, circled around us three times then landed in front of him; staring at him with its yellow eyes.
"I wanted to do this for a long time…"Meric mumbled to himself charging up his aura around his sword.
"Wait, Meric, there's something wrong with the dragon." Diana said walking up next to him.
There was something wrong; the time gem wasn't there. The Time Gem had that feeling to Diana, it wasn't happening.
"Then where is the Time Gem?" Meric shouted at the dragon.
The dragon said nothing nor roared back at him. Instead, the dragon lowered his head to reveal someone standing on its head.
"Kr-Kraux?" Diana said astonished.
Kraux jumped down from the dragons head and landed on his feet. The dragon raised its head and flew off to somewhere in the void.
"Surprised to see me?" Kraux sneered.
"Diana, is this the one you're talking about who wants to stop us?" Suki asked.
Diana said nothing but just nodded her head yes.
"He's powerful beyond belief, do not attack him now." Diana ordered everyone softly.
"Ugh, fine…" Meric said sheathing his sword.
Kraux laughed and then looked at everyone then back at Diana.
"If you want the next Time Gem, you're going to have to find it again. I hid it somewhere else in the void besides here." Kraux said then summoned the dragon back.
The dragon did not come back right away. Kraux summoned it again, still no sign of it.
"Where did the forbidden dragon go?" Kraux asked himself trying to summon it over and over again.
The dragon came back after the fifteenth try; with the Time Gem in its hand.
"Impossible! Your suppose to obey me dragon, not betray me!" Kraux shouted at it.
The dragon roared at Kraux and spoke in dragonese (which Diana can understand but told no one about this yet) "You should be the one to obey me, not the other way around. No one deserves my respect nor my treasure."
Diana looked up at the dragon and said in dragonese back " So you mean, o' forbidden one, you would not help us?"
Everyone, including Kraux, looked at Diana like she was crazy. The dragon, however, flew down and landed in front of Diana.
"By who are you to talk the language of the dragons." The dragon said.
"My name is Diana von Draco, I seek the protection of the future by the help of these gems; such as the one you are holding." Diana replied pointing at the gem in the dragon's hand.
The dragon looked at the gem in its hand then back at Diana, and smirked, showing off some of its thousands of tiny sharp teeth.
"Very well, but how do you expect me to hand it over to you, Diana." The dragon said.
"By trade." Diana replied.
While the dragon and Diana talked for minutes, everyone just looked at them both like they were crazy cause none of them could understand what was going on.
"Deal," The dragon said holding out the gem.
Diana pulled out a diamond from her pouch, something you don't see a lot in the reverse world, and exchanged it for the time gem.
"You have gotten my treasure, treat it well." The dragon said before taking off.
Diana turned back to the group and smiled, clutching the Time gem in her hand. Everyone ran over to her and asked her what was happening and all. Diana made up a lie that it was an ancient language she studied in case of times like this. The group turned around to find Kraux wasn't there.
"Maybe he got the feeling he would lose this one." Diana thought to herself.
"So where to next?"Selena asked Diana.
Diana closed her eyes and let the time gem speak to her in her head. Minutes gone by, and finally Diana opened her eyes with a pleased look on her face.
"We're heading to the realm of darkness and light; or to say in this case; the realm of the Angels and Demons." Diana told them.
They all ran back down to the base of the tower, got onto their ride, flew through the void and through the Space Gate to the Final Time Gem.
Chapter 27: Pit's o' Black Fire
The Space gate led the group to a cavern where black flames covered about more than one half of the ground.
"Man it's hot in here." Suki said getting off of Luna, then using her hand to breeze herself off.
"I'm just going to guess that we are in the pits of the demon realm." Zac said hopping off of Zeron.
Everyone looked around to see that they were indeed underground; in other words no way out but the space gate.
"There's really no one here, but let's press on to see if there is a sign of life here." Diana said walking forwards.
The group followed her cautiously, Luna, Zeron and Okuroo stayed behind near the space gate. Diana looked around at the black flames; they seemed to look back at her…as if they were alive.
"I feel like we are being watched Dia-"Emily started before being interrupted.
A blast of black flame zoomed past everyone's head, and hit the wall behind them. Diana was the first to get up and looked back at the direction of where the flame came from. There was no one there, but flames as usual.
"I wonder who threw that." Suki said getting up and dusting herself off.
"I don't know, but the Time Gem is telling me someone is here, and we have to convince them to join us; but it's not going to be easy…" Diana said.
The group pressed on, guard up in case of any more flames came blasting at them. Diana was the first to reach a cliff in front of them.
"Holy…" Diana said in awe motioning for the group to come over to her.
Everyone came over to Diana and looked at what she saw: A Kingdom of Darkness and Flames that towered above everything else around it.
"So…is there someone living there," Meric asked Diana "because that is a dam nice kingdom."
"I don't know; it looks abandoned but the Time gem is telling me someone lives in it still, and they are in it right now." Diana replied looking back at the kingdom.
The group jumped down cliff by cliff and ran to the kingdom avoiding the flames as they ran to the front door. As they got there, Diana walked up to the front door and knocked it but the door just opened up by itself.
"Let's go in I guess." Diana said pushing the door open even more and entered.
The others followed behind her into a huge foyer decorated, or was decorated, with banners and all sorts of furniture. The banners were tattered and the furniture was thrown all over the place. Black flames were in the area too, as well as scratch marks all over the walls.
"I don't like the feeling of this Diana…" Suki said quietly hunkering down a tiny bit into her collar.
Diana and the others looked around the room a bit more and noticed a throne in the back of the room. They ran back to the throne to see if there was anyone there; which there wasn't.
"So, what now Diana?" Zac asked her looking at her; Diana shrugged.
"You dare enter my kingdom without letting me know?" A demonic voice said behind the group.
Everyone turned around with surprise to see who it was. It was an older teenage boy, the age of about 18, standing behind them. He wore a long black coat, which was buttoned and covered his mouth, the bottom of the coat is torn up a bit; the coat had a hood on it, which he didn't wear at the time; a Black T-shirt with a Red demon skull design on it, black cargo pants and black shoes with red laces. His black spiked hair was slicked back a bit, and he stared at everyone with his deep blood red eyes.
"I'm going to ask again;" He said turning to Diana, "Tell me who the hell are you people and why you are here."
Chapter 28: Zastin
The group was paralyzed in fear; all except Diana. She tried to speak but nothing came out.
"I'm going to ask you one last time…" He said taking out a Silver katana with a black hilt, red diamond patterns on it and a demon head with red eyes on it at the bottom, "Tell me why you are all here and who you are before I kill you all!"
Diana got out her sword and said slowly "We mean you no harm, we just want to-"
It was too late because before Diana could finish; the boy lashed out at her and she managed to somehow see the blade and jump back out of the way. Diana ran and slid under the boy and grabbed his neck from behind. The boy spun his sword around and missed Diana's face by inches, but cut some of her hair off. Diana back flipped away from him and growled.
"You're good, very good." Diana admitted.
The boy smirked enough for Diana to see it. He sheathed his sword and took out something from each side of his coat, spun them around, and pointed them at Diana. He fired multiple energy blasts at her at once; but were no use because Diana matrixed them and got back up.
"You're good too." The boy said putting his guns away and cracked his knuckles.
Diana smirked and put her sword away and then cracked her knuckles as well. The two lunged at each other but Diana disappeared before they hit each other.
"Where did you go girly." The boy said looking around.
Diana appeared behind the boy and tackled him, pinned him and restrained him to the ground. Diana looked at the boy eye to eye and said "I'm going to say this again to YOU, we mean no harm, and I wish to talk to you. My name is Diana von Draco by the way, NOT girly."
"Alright, my name is Zastin, nice to meet you." He replied.
It stayed silent for a moment and they both stayed on the ground looking at each other eye to eye.
"You look hot by the way." Zastin whispered to Diana.
Diana blushed and laughed a tiny bit then got up and helped him up.
"So why are you here, though?" Zastin asked Diana.
Diana explained everything from start to finish and gave out introductions along the way.
"So you need one more gem you say, it might be in the heavens." Zastin told them, "but why did you come here then?"
"For you, we need everyone that is strong and is worthy enough to take on this mission." Diana replied.
Zastin unbuttoned his coat and smiled at Diana, which made Diana smile back and blush.
"Let's go then, onwards to the heavens." Diana declared.
The group, and new member Zastin, ran out of the door of the kingdom back to the Space gate, got on their rides (Zastin made Zac move in order to sit behind Diana) and flew through the Space gate; to the heavens and beyond.
Interlude 2; Chapter 29: An Unlikely Meeting
The crew and Diana soar through the space-time continuum at the speed of light. Portals to other places zoom past them as they fly through to reach the portal to the heavens.
"Diana, how much farther?" Suki shouts to Diana as loud as she can.
"I don't know Suki! I really don't know but I think its close by!" Diana shouts back.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a portal way ahead opens up. The crew flies by it and suddenly they get sucked into it. Screaming and yelling at each other to try and get out of the current, the crew is no match for the suction and gets sucked into the portal. They group all lands on a rock pillar in the middle of a void.
"Where are we; and how did that portal open up?" Emily asked being helped up by Meric.
"You're in the void of nothingness and I opened up the portal." A voice said in front of the group.
Everyone looked up to see it was Alpha; smiling down at them and lending a helping hand to help Diana up. Diana smacks the hand out of the way and gets up.
"Why the heck did you summon us here; you want a rematch Alpha?" Diana asked pulling out her sword.
Alpha looked at the sword and backed up a bit. Diana put the sword away, knowing fighting wasn't the case here.
"I summoned you guys here because…" Alpha started then looked at Diana, "…I want to join your group to stop Kraux."
The group looked at Alpha blankly; Why does an enemy want to join us? Diana thought.
"I know you are all wondering why I want to join," Alpha started, "It's because I'm tired of Kraux and I had enough of his orders."
"How can we trust you, after that time we met at the prison?" Zac asked stiffly.
Alpha sighed then looked at everyone.
"I knew you were going to ask that…" Alpha said.
Alpha looked up at everyone with a tear going down his cheek and an upset look on his face. Alpha explained how his town was destroyed and how he was taken into Krauxs forces for his strength; and how his failure made Kraux mad at him and tried to kill him because he was useless in the mission.
Diana and the others listened to the story well; and finally, Diana spoke.
"You must have been through a lot Alpha; Kraux isn't the nicest of people…if he is human." Diana said.
"I beg of you…can I please join your group?" Alpha pleaded.
Diana turned to the group and looked at everyone's expression on their face. It seemed as if they all agree; and Diana smiled at everyone then turned back to Alpha.
"I never thought I say this but; welcome to the group Alpha." Diana stated.
Alpha smiled and ran over to Diana and hugged her. Surprised beyond belief, she hugged back for a moment then let go.
"Sorry about that…" Alpha stated then laughed nervously.
"You have a right to be happy about this, so it's alright." Diana said then turned to look at the group.
Diana saw Zastin mumbling something under his breath; she only caught a slight part of it.
"…..Lucky….I Love her….I want a hug….Mh….." Zastin mumbled.
Diana rolled her eyes, shook her head and smiled all playfully. She went over to Zastin and hugged him. As soon as she did, Zastin blushed a light pink.
"Oh my GAWD Zastin's blushing!" Suki laughed.
Zastin turned away and put his hood over his face. Diana laughed a little bit too then turned back to Alpha.
"So, let's go get the next Time Gem then shall we?" Alpha suggested.
Diana nodded her head then ran over to Zeron and got onto him. The others followed behind and new member Alpha sat on Luna behind Meric. Alpha summoned the portal back to the space-time continuum and the group flew through it; going back to their journey to the heavens.
Chapter 30: A Demon in the Clouds
The crew was flying even faster for the bit of lost time, but soon managed to land in the right place. The crew stops short in front of the Space Gate to see their destination: Heaven's Gate.
"So let me get this straight…" Suki started, "When we die, we go to a gated community?"
"Looks like, who knows;" Zastin started, "Or you could end up in the pits of black flames with yours truly."
Suki gave a, no fu**ing way, look at Zastin and he laughed. Diana turned back to the gates and approached it slowly. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, something swooped down and landed right in front of Diana.
"A guardian angel," Zastin said, "Typical; because I'm here."
"Who are you to enter the heavens whom are not descended from the worlds below?" The angel asked.
"We are the ones to save a world from being in paralysis." Diana said simply.
The angel just blinked a few times at Diana.
"You may have not known, but the ruler here knows me for my actions in the worlds below; for a good thing." Diana added.
The angel stared at Diana at this point, turned around and opened up the gates and flew off.
"How did you do that?" Selena asked walking up to Diana.
"It's called a Dra- I mean a hypnotizing voice. Those who listen will do as they are told or believe what the person says; lie or no lie." Diana stated.
Diana walked through the gates and everyone followed behind her. Looking around, it was a peaceful community filled with angels of all sorts: Animals, People and even Plants.
"This place doesn't look so ba- OH OH HEY LOOK APPLES!" Suki said running over to them.
Everyone turned around to see Suki sitting in an apple tree with a few other little angel kids eating apples. Diana laughed and said "That's our Suki for us."
"She's going to be there for a whil-" Meric started but then was interrupted by Suki suddenly coming back, "Never mind."
Diana laughed again and turned herself to face a huge building in the back of the community.
"That's our destination right now, let's go." Diana said walking to it.
While walking, though, Zastin was the one who staggered behind a bit. He was looking around thinking how everything was peaceful; of how this realm was better than his own…
"You ok Zastin?" Someone said.
Zastin turned around to see Diana in front of him.
"Ya…I'm fine…It's just…I can't believe these angels…they all seem so happy…they don't care if there is a demon in here…" Zastin started.
"Maybe that's because you're a good demon now," Diana started, "Your still as much as a threat, but you can control yourself."
Zastin looked at Diana; She's right…ever since I met her…I've been calmer lately…In fact… I think I'm in love with her…Zastin thought.
Diana took Zastin's hand into hers and smiled at him. Zastin looked up at Diana and smiled back.
"You two coming or what?" Emily shouted to them.
Zastin and Diana ran and caught up with the others in front of the huge building.
"So, the Time gem says it's in here?" Zac asks Diana.
"No, the Time gem says we need to get the permission from the ruler here in order to get to the place where the final Time Gem is." Diana replied.
"And where is the place the last Time Gem is?" Meric asks.
"Back in the Demon realm, back at your kingdom Zastin; but in a different area." Diana says.
"Probably where the Demonic guards and the sealed beast are," Zastin says, "I lost control of both so I sealed them all there and the key was given to the Angel Elder."
Diana nods her head ok then turns to the huge building. She walks up the stairs to the huge front door with the others following behind her, and opens the doors.
Chapter 31: Elders in a Row
The doors led to a common room of some sort; there was a giant gated hole in the middle of the room that looked like a portal to go into the worlds below. Surrounding the portal were houses and greenery as far as the eye could see. There were angels in the area and they noticed the group coming in. A single angel came over to the group.
"Greetings travelers; have you come to speak to our elders?" The angel said.
"Actually yes; we have. We seek something very important." Diana said.
"Well they are just right up those stairs behind the portal." The angel said pointing to them.
"Thank you so much." Diana said smiling and walking over to the stairs with the rest of the group.
Diana went up the stone stair adorned with a red rug coming from up the stairs to down the stairs and was followed by the rest of the group. Finally reaching the top of the stairs, the group saw in front of them five elder angels sitting in a line in the back of the room in chairs that look like high royalty; beyond royalty of a king or queen.
"E-Excuse me? Is this the chamber of the elders?" Diana asked loud enough.
The elders looked to the front of the room and saw the group standing there. The elder in the middle, cloaked in a green robe trimmed with gold, sat back up and looked at the group thoroughly.
"You there; Demon, come forth." The elder said.
Zastin gulped a bit, for the power of the light can burn him severely, and walked over to the elder slowly.
"Why have you come to our realm Demon, what business do you have here? To kill more of our kind, hm?" The elder asked.
Zastin stayed silent and finally said "I have not come to kill…I have come to reason."
"Reason…that doesn't seem like normal to a demon." The elder said; "What is your name."
"My name…is Zastin." Zastin told the elder.
"Zastin…ruler of the Demon world I presume. Why have you come here?" He said.
"The sealed away ruins of my domain; we need it unlocked for something important." Zastin asked.
"Why should we unlock the ruins for you? Haven't you remembered what happened last time we opened it for the likes of demon kind?" The elder replied.
Zastin growled because he knew they wouldn't open it just to prove the point they had.
"I'm so sick of it- you never listen to demons because of the past!" Zastin screamed and it echoed throughout the halls.
Everyone looked at Zastin in the moment of silence that followed. Diana walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. As soon as Zastin turned his head to look at Diana; the front door burst open and broke from the hinges and smoke poured into the building. Suddenly from the smoke; an army of Krawl came running towards Diana and the group. Diana unsheathed her sword and charged at the Krawl with Zastin alone this time.
Chapter 32: Trust
Diana and Zastin launched at the Krawl at the door knocking down their front line. Angel spectators looked at the fight from their hiding places in awe. The smoke cleared up to show the ground stained with blood already as well as Diana and Zastin sheathing their swords back into their sheaths. There was a sudden scream from the air; and Zastin was the first to react to it. He turned around and saw several angels cornered by three krawl.
"Oh no you don't!" Zastin said to himself rushing at the krawl.
Zastin came over to them and uppercutted the nearest krawl into the ceiling then spin kicked it into the wall.
"Should we help them?" Zac asked.
"No; this fight is to determine if the elders will trust Zastin if he protects their own kind." Meric replied turning to him.
Zastin was just about finished with the krawl and kicked the nearest dead krawl body away.
"You're safe now…It's ok…" Zastin said looking at the frightened angels faces.
"Th-Thank you D-Demon." The older angel said.
"Please; call me Zastin." Zastin said and helped the angels up.
Zastin saw the angels run to cover and then heard someone say "Someone help us!"
Zastin turned around and saw all the elder angels caught up in the tentacles in a kraken looking krawl.
"Oh fu-" Zastin started to say but was cut off by getting hit by one of the Krawls tentacles.
The krawl lifted up its tentacle to reveal Zastin wasn't there; but in the ground as far as it looked. Everyone looked down the hole and then back up at the krawl who was about to devour the elders. As the krawl was about to devour its victim; a beam of dark energy came up through the hole cutting off a tentacle making the krawl roar and fall over injured.
"What the hell was that?" Emily practically screamed.
Out of the hole, Zastin floated upwards covered in a sinister looking black pulsing aura that gave the room a pulse of power. He rushed a power of the aura at the krawl in the form of a blade and cut across all the tentacles making them hit the floor.
"We're free!" One of the elders said getting out of the now loosened grip of the tentacles.
The Krawl got back up then glared and roared at Zastin. Zastin just smirked and held out his hand then formed it into a fist and closed it hard. The Krawls eyes widened then stayed open. The Krawl fell over; lifeless and then Zastin simply floated down to the ground and the aura around him vanished.
"Thank you; Zastin was it?" The elder angel said walking up to him.
Zastin said nothing but nodded his head yes. The elder looked down to think of something and looked back at Zastin.
"You are the first of Demon kind to actually save us. I think you deserve a bit more then trust and respect from us now;" The elder started, "I will unlock the ruins for you."
With that the elder reached into his sleeve and took out a black demon-headed key and handed it to Zastin, and then he put it in his pocket.
"Thank you." Zastin said then turned back to the group.
He walked down the short flight of stairs and then before he got to the bottom Diana came running up to him and hugged him.
"You did great Zastin;" Diana whispered into his ear before letting go of him.
Zastin smiled at her then blushed a tiny bit; but not enough for anyone to notice. The group waved at the elders then turned and left the building to Zeron and Luna; got on their rides and flew back to the portal to the Demon realm.
Interlude 3: Hot, Hotter; Sexy Hot?
The group flew over the continuous amount of clouds trying to find the space gate. As night came to set in, Diana looked around and saw everyone was getting a bit tired.
"Alright it's getting late. Let's find a place to land and rest." Diana said looking around at the ground to find a place.
Diana pointed down to a cliff peaking up above the clouds that had a cave on it.
"Well…what a coincidence…" Suki yawned as she guided Luna down.
Luna and Zeron landed then everyone jumped off. Diana walked to the pouch and got everyone's things then handed it to them.
"Alright, get some rest guys. Tomorrow is going to be a big day." Diana said lighting a torch.
Everyone fell asleep; except Zastin and Diana. Zastin was still awake and smiled to himself as he saw Diana move to check something.
"Looks like everyone is asleep…time to go to sleep." Diana said to herself walking over to the cave.
Zastin quietly got out of his sleeping bag and dashed over to the cave quietly without Diana seeing him. Diana stopped in the middle of the cave where it was so dark she couldn't see.
"Whose there?" Diana said unsheathing her sword in response to a small rock falling onto the floor.
There was no reply. Diana looked around and walked around with her guard up. Suddenly; something pinned her to the ground knocking the sword out of her hand. She opened up her eyes and she saw by the moonlight through the crack it was Zastin.
"Z-Zastin?" Diana said softly looking at him.
"Hi babe; and yeah, that's my name, don't wear it out." Zastin smirked a bit.
Diana blinked a few times. What is this feeling; why is my face hot... she thought. Zastin laughed a bit and leaned forward a bit and kissed her lips slightly. Diana blushed a bit more and closed her eyes and kissed back.
"What is this-feeling?" Diana asked Zastin.
"I think it is what people describe as love; when one person cares for another." Zastin replied.
"You…care about me?" Diana asked slowly.
"Ever since we fought back at my kingdom; there was something about you I couldn't help noticing." Zastin replied.
"Which was?" Diana asked; curious for his answer.
"That your presence is just so…attractive…you're like…a demons-this demons; dream come true…" Zastin admitted slowly.
Diana blushed and smiled. She never knew that she could have that effect on anyone. Zastin slid himself up a bit then kissed her again and put his hands on her shoulder then one on her cheek then slid his tongue into her mouth then French kissed her. Diana moved her tongue to his and French kissed back. Zastin reached down to her waist and started to take her pants off slowly. Diana moved her hands to his shirt and took that off while the other one extinguished the torch.
Chapter 33: Pain of the Past
The crew flew through the portal in hour's time and reached back into the demon realm; back to Zastin's Empire.
"The ol' Gittish Empire;" Zastin started, "Good to be back here again."
The crew unmounted and walked cautiously towards the crumbling castle. Zastin walked slower however, looking up at the towers of the towering castle.
"So…you ready to become the next ruler of the Gittish Empire Zastin?" A voice echoed through his head.
He suddenly flashed back, when the Gittish Empire wasn't in ruins, when it was a prosperous empire. The sun shined down upon the gleaming empire and its courtyard.
"Yes father! I will make you proud!" Zastin replied; looking the age of 13.
However…the figure of his father was blurred, for he has forgotten all about the past and never wanted to remember it.
The flashback soon came to be the encounter of his powers- a assault on the kingdom.
"Give up the kingdom- or may all who live in it suffer!" A warlord said pointing his axe at Zastin's father.
Zastin's father was seen standing up in front of his throne with guards holding Zastin captive.
"Father! Don't give up! Don't give it all up; your much better than that and more powerful!" Zastin cried out.
"Shut it kid and let the adults speak!" A guard snapped at Zastin jabbing the spear into his shoulder a bit making it bleed.
"Don't you dare hurt my son!" Zastin's father snapped back at the guards and a gleam of power was in his eyes.
"So what will it be- the kingdom, or the life…of your son." The warlord said.
Zastin's father backed up a bit and looked at him with disbelief. Then he turned to Zastin, and Zastin saw the look on his father's face. He looked like he was scared…scared that they would both die either way…Zastin cried out with tears forming in his eyes.
"This isn't fair!" Zastin cried out and closed his eyes as his body was starting to be slowly consumed in dark aura.
The guards around him backed up and fled and the warlord stepped back in fear.
"Z-Zastin?" His father said in disbelief.
Zastin wasn't listening to anyone, including his father. The aura grew and so did his temper. From his hands claws grew, from his spine a tail extended, from his shoulders wings sprouted, from his face horns came and in his mouth his teeth grew sharper. His eyes turned a bright yellow that could pierce through the thickest night and opened them; then let out a roar.
The flashback went forward, to where Zastin stood alone on a cliff overlooking the kingdom- burning in flames of darkness. In his hand, held the bandanna of his father, all that remained of him from the fray. He clutched it and said to himself "I will rule- even if there is nothing to really be ruled."
The flashback soon enough ended as Diana's voice was heard faintly, saying "Are you ok? Zastin? Are you alright?"
Zastin snapped out of his dazed state and looked at Diana.
"Yeah…I'm fine; let's continue forth." Zastin said as Diana nodded her head and walked away to the others.
Zastin walked forward a bit then stopped again, held up his wrist and looked at the tattered black bandanna with a midnight blue zigzag on it. He shed a tear, only one tear, and lowered his arm and walked to the rest of the group to go into the kingdom.
Chapter 34: Inside the…Walls?
The group pushed past the huge front doors of the ruined kingdom once more into the lobby.
"So where is this 'other section' you speak of Zastin?" Selena asked him.
"Well; it's the back room that leads into the cliff behind here." Zastin replied; "So we have to go quite a ways."
The group went down the long dark halls of Zastin's ruined Kingdom. They looked left and right on the walls with scratch marks and blood stains on them. Zastin merely looked at the ground trying not to flashback yet again.
"Well this IS going to take a while- we're going to get lost here!" Suki said.
The group continued forth to find that the floor gave in; a huge gap blocked their way.
"So what now Zastin; any other ways around?" Diana asked him.
Zastin looked up at her and said "There is one way; follow."
Zastin faced the wall near him and went through it. The rest of the group stood at the wall in disbelief.
Zastin poked his head out of the wall and said "Well? Are you guys coming or what?"
Zastin put his head back through the wall and the rest of the group followed. They walked through the wall as if they were ghosts- able to phase through anything. Zastin finally turned and walked out the wall; the others followed and were soon on the other side of the gap.
The door in front of them, according to Zastin, lead to the sealed zone where the Time Gem is. They looked up at the towering door and only Zastin stepped forth with the key. He took it and put it into the lock and stepped back.
The lock spun and the chains were wrapped around the lock; and fell to the ground and the door moved up to reveal a path into a cavern.
"Well; this is the last Time Gem I presume." Zastin said, "This will be the toughest one to get."
"We can make it, we're going to." Diana said looking at Zastin as she walked over to him.
Zastin nodded and everyone turned to the path. With a step forward, they started the path into the cliff.
Chapter 35: The Sealed Demon-Corvus
The walls were covered with red glowing vines as the group proceeded on through the tunnels. Soon enough the ground was getting covered in a purple liquid like substance.
"This liquid is poisonous, be careful to not let it get into any open cut or drink it by accident." Zastin said as the purple liquid became more frequent.
The husky smell of blood came through the air as they entered a huge cavern. The group looked around slowly in the huge cavern and saw where the smell was coming from- the mass amounts of fresh corpses lay astrewn across the cavern floor entrance.
"Chances of survival are going down into single digits now…" Zac murmured under his breath.
They heard a rumbling sound behind them followed by a crash. Everyone turned around to see the cavern walls of the entrance gave it and their path was blocked.
"No matter, there's another way out of here-I can see it using my powers." Meric said opening his eyes.
The group pressed on through the cavern room to find a huge red orb with small black patterns floating at the top of what seemed to be the ruins of a pedestal with stairs coming down from it-like a temple.
"This must have been where the last of the sacrifices were-and still more to come for the beast." Emily said.
Lie; thought Zastin. He knew why the air was filled with blood-because the sealed beast must have killed them all recently for the fun of it.
Just as he finished his thought the red orb at the pedestal shattered into thousands of tiny pieces and were scattered all around the room. The group looked up at the recently broken orb to find a creature-that looked like a monster in human structure.
"Corvus…we have some unfinished business to attend to; and it ends today!" Zastin shouted.
The figure jumped from the pedestal and landed in front of the group causing some of the group to lose balance and almost fall.
The dust cleared to show the monster up close- a demon with green leather skin all over with eye patterns, leathery bat wings with the patterns on as well, a long tail with spikes at the end, two huge black horns coming from the side of his head; one on each side, and brown armor embroidered gold on.
Corvus opened up his full golden colored eyes and looked over the whole group.
"You can't beat me, not ever-Zastin." Corvus started, "Not even with you pathetic party."
As soon as the word pathetic came out; Zastin unsheathed his sword as well as Diana and Meric, Zac and Emily their guns, Suki her elemental bow and arrows and Selena her fangs and claws.
Corvus just stood there and smirked. He flapped his wings once making the whole crew go flying back into the wall. Hitting the wall; Diana dropped her sword and fell in pain. She got up slowly but everyone else charged straight at Corvus.
"Death to Intruders!" Corvus shouted as he sliced the air leaving a red cut in the middle of the air.
The cut hit everyone but Diana and sent them do to the ground in an instant. Corvus started charging up a purple beam and the ground shook as he did.
"Zastin; what is he doing?" Diana shouted to him.
"He's going to unleash all his magic on us-we're doomed! I couldn't survive it but I made it out barely alive!" Zastin replied back in panic.
Diana looked at Corvus and saw him glow an even more intense purple. Diana knew what had to be done so she got up and slowly began to run over to him the picked up speed. Everyone saw Diana run to Corvus and at one point one of them shouted "What are you doing?"
Diana jumped and Corvus looked up at her and smirked. He moved his beam up at her and fired-consuming everything in the straight line of aim.
"Diana!" Everyone cried out as they saw her get blasted.
However, to everyone's surprise-even to Corvus, Diana pulled her arms back and the beam was destroyed. There were no wounds or burns on her body anywhere- not even one.
"I-Impossible!" Corvus started, "No one could ever survive my Magic Burst!"
"Well one person can now." Diana said unsheathing her sword and landing, "You just wasted all your power on me. You're finished."
Everyone unsheathed their weapons again as Corvus lunged at them at high speed. Suki aimed her bow and arrow at his forehead and shot a flaming arrow right in his forehead. As Corvus roared and took it out Zac and Emily jumped over Corvus matrix style and shot at his wings-making flying not an option anymore to him. Corvus took a swipe at Emily but missed and was soon counter attacked by Selena by sinking her teeth into his neck and ripping out the back of his neck. He threw her off- and was still alive; but really mad. Finally Diana and Zastin, with sword in hand raced and jumped over Corvus- Diana slashing off both his horns and finally Zastin stuck his sword through Corvus's head.
As Zastin landed, Corvus fell to the ground bleeding to his death. He tried to stay awake but finally the pain got over him and fell over dead.
"We…We did it…" Zastin said to himself panting from the action.
Diana nodded her head yes and walked over to Zastin with a slight limp. Zastin caught her before she fell and the others soon came to them sheathing their weapons. Corvus was dead.
Chapter 36: At long last…
Zastin finally took his sword out of Corvus's head and wiped the blood off of it. As everyone was commenting how well everyone fought, a voice came out of nowhere…
"…My son….Is that….really you?..." The voice echoed through the chamber.
Zastin's eyes soon widened, and only a single word came from his mouth: "Father?"
A blue light appeared once where the red orb was where Corvus slept. The blue light formed into a figure, starting with the feet up. Enveloped in light, the figure stood atop of the pedestal. Zastin walked slowly towards the figure and then picked up pace till he was running up the stairs.
"It's alright my son….I have you…." Zastin's father said as Zastin reached out to him to hug.
"Father…I never meant to kill anyone that day…I…I don't know what happened…" Zastin said softly.
"…It is my fault…I should have told you sooner…" Zastin's father replied.
"Tell me what father?..." Zastin asked looking up at him.
"…You had this power when you were born…the day of when the demons invaded…their power somehow contaminated your being…and gave you this power…" Zastin's father said putting a hand on Zastins shoulder.
Zastin looked at his father's hand then blankly at his face. How come I had this power all along…and couldn't use it before? Zastin thought to himself; I think it was because that one day…I got so angry and upset that I must have finally unlocked it.
"Finally…I can rest in peace now…knowing that you are safe…" His father said floating up.
Zastin backed up a bit and looked at his father in mid air.
"…And for you…Diana…I trust Zastin hasn't been much trouble…" His father said.
"Yeah, he has been much help lately. He helped a LOT." Diana added.
Zastin's father smiled and started to glow a light blue-green. The figure soon vanished and was back to an orb of blue light.
"….I will always be with you Zastin…" His father said before fading away.
Zastin looked down at his feet and closed his eyes. He suddenly felt something in his right hand. Zastin opened his eyes and then looked at what was in his hand- The Last Time Gem; faintly shining the blue-green color then faded away.
"Zastin- what is it?" Diana shouted from the bottom of the stairway.
Zastin turned around and held up the Time Gem. Diana rushed up the stairs to look at it then laughed.
"Well I'll be…at long last!" Diana said taking it, "The last Time Gem."
Diana put it in her pouch with the rest of the Time Gems and looked at everyone.
"You have all done so well- and now it's time to finish this once and for all!" Diana said throwing her fist into the air and leaving it there.
Chapter 37: Rise Above
Diana put her hand down and walked down the stairs with Zastin. The group was ready to face their last test: The Future.
Suddenly, movement comes from behind the group. Everyone turns their attention onto the figure that's getting back up; Corvus.
"Corvus?" Zastin exclaimed, "You're not dead?"
Corvus stumbled on his own feet then finally was able to stand up, with all his injuries. He looked at the group a bit weakly with his still brilliant shining golden eyes.
"You cannot…kill me…I am…the…ultimate demon…" Corvus stuttered over his own words.
Zastin thought of something: He has the power to fight demon against demon…but…
"My form only comes up in crucial moments; otherwise I have no real control over the beast within..." Zastin said to himself softly.
Diana and the group looked at Corvus the whole time- but Diana turned her head and finally noticed Zastin thinking.
"Are you ok Zastin?" Diana asked him softly.
"I can beat Corvus once and for all…but I don't know how to get my true power to be out." Zastin replied back.
Diana thought for a moment- she finally thought of a way she could do that after looking at Corvus.
Diana rushed at Corvus with her blade out and tackled him to the ground from him being weak.
"You're so weak…I can defeat you with my eyes closed." Diana said to him holding the blade to his neck.
"You must have a death wish girl." Corvus said reaching up and grabbing her throat.
Corvus stood up and continued to have Diana in his clutch. Finally, growing tired of seeing her struggle, he flinged Diana to the ground hard and made a crater.
Zastin looked up at the sound of the crash and only saw Corvus and the dust cloud. He looked around and finally realized-
"Where is Diana, Corvus?"Zastin demanded from him.
"She is in her own grave that she…'dug'…herself." Corvus said pointing down at the crater two feet away from him as the dust cloud was gone.
Zastin clenched his teeth together and let out a soft, eerie and strange growl then balled his hands up into fists.
"You son of a…" Zastin growled at Corvus as a black aura slowly enveloped his whole body and a dark purple pattern of some-sort shone faintly on both his shoulders.
His whole body was now completely covered in black aura as he transformed into his demon form- a colossal sized eight legged beast, the first two pair of legs up to reveal that they are used more so as arms with dark purple flames as a mane going down his back as a tail, two large black horns spiraling from the back of his head, giant bat like wings, a pattern of the shapes of spirals, circles and lines of all kinds on his body; and for his head, a giant dark purple gem on his forehead, four gleaming white eyes and two gapping large mouths with millions of teeth in each.
The group below him looked up at him in terror, fear and awe. They scrambled out of the way from his massive step towards Corvus. Corvus; looking up at Zastin in his demon form, knew that he was too weak right now to take on such a beast.
Zastin with one fell swoop of his hand tossed up Corvus into the air and with a small crunch, decapitated Corvus by biting off his head with his lower mouth. Tossing up the body, he then ate the rest with his top mouth- all but a fleshy arm that fell out of his mouth near his gigantic hand. Tossing the arm into the pile of corpses and with a satisfied roar, he turned back into his human state.
Everyone ran over to Zastin, saying things as such Was that you demon form?, but for Meric, all he said was Interesting power.
Zastin heard nothing as all he cared about was Diana. He ran over to the crater, pulled her out and laid her on her back with her head on his leg as he knelt down trying to get her to wake up.
"Diana, speak to me!" Zastin started, "Don't leave us like this; not when we are so close to our main goal!"
Diana shifted in his arms a bit then slowly opened her eyes and commented "I'm not going anywhere…" then leaned up to kiss him but Suki interrupted with-
"Alright before you two get all romantic, let's get out of this place and get to the future." Suki said making a somewhat disgusted face.
Zastin helped Diana get up and they managed to get out of the caverns, back through the castle and the flames; then finally onto their rides to reach: The future.
Chapter 38: Nox and Chasm Tower
The crew finally made it to their goal; the planet Nox. The group took on a hard landing, and managed to keep it together.
"Well, this-" Diana started to say getting off Zeron; "This is and was my home planet; Nox- a few days after the tower crumbled."
The group looked around and was surprised- Diana's description WAS true: The winds didn't blow, the water wasn't moving, there was no sun or sky just clouds, they couldn't tell what time it was cause day and night don't come, and there was no color anywhere but them.
"This…This is horrible…" Emily stated looking around.
"Yeah I know, I had to live with this for years; much was lost, much was killed- survival of the fittest and strongest here." Diana said walking over to Zeron again.
"Woah wait- Where are we going?" Zastin said looking over at Diana.
"The Chasm Tower, that's where we need to place the gems to restore this place." Diana replied getting onto Zeron.
"That's right, Kraux was the one who took them away to make the tower crumble," Alpha started to say, "He told me it was the only way to rule here."
Everyone got back onto their rides and took off. Flying over the colorless land, they saw the main town of Ziba.
"Is this the main town you spoke of to us Diana?" Meric said looking over to her.
"The one and only…literally the only remaining town left operational here…" Diana said closing her eyes slightly.
"No wonder…I see only a few people down there." Zac said looking down from his seat.
They kept flying over the main land, until they started flying over the ocean- the colorless, gray paralyzed ocean.
"How long till we get to this Chasm Tower Diana," Suki asked looking over to her.
"When you start to feel time slow down and when you feel a really bad feeling in your head…" Diana said already clutching her forehead a bit.
From the distance, they saw something on the horizon, floating above the ocean in the sky.
"Is that the tower," Zastin questioned, "because it looks pretty in ruins to me."
"Yes, this is the Chasm Tower everyone." Diana started to say, "We're finally going to set things right."
They soon came closer and closer to the ruined tower suspended in the colorless sky, with the goal in reach, they advanced.
Chapter 39: The Hidden Land
Landing on a solid platform, the group looked over to in front of them- a dense forest.
"Even the forest is gray…wow you were right Diana." Selena said looking over to her.
Diana ignored her, but she did look over to the leaves and saw a drop of water suspended in mid-air. She closed her eyes then turned to everyone and opened them again.
"This is it, whatever has happened in the past, is nothing compared to this moment you are all going to go through;" Diana started to say looking at all of them, "You guys aren't just a team to me, you guys are my friends, I would gladly fight by your side this one last time."
"Woah Woah Woah…last time?" Zastin questioned looking at Diana.
"The last battle will mark the end of my journey, and this will be the time for you all to go home." Diana stated.
Everyone looked at each other and murmured under their breaths. They all turned to her.
"We…we really don't wanna go Diana." Suki said to her first.
"You're a great person, I would like to stay on this new planet with you and everyone here when it's restored." Zastin said after Suki.
Diana looked at them all, and nodded her head in agreement and said "I will not argue with that."
Diana then turned to the entrance of the forest and nodded her head for them to follow. With that they took their first step into the hidden land.
"How much longer Diana?..." Suki started to complain, "My feet are getting tired…"
"We have to reach the Rainbow Ship on the cliff that is supposedly at the exit of this forest." Diana replied still walking.
The crew kept their eyes out for any movements out of the gray. Meric paused.
"Hold it." Meric started to say, "I sense something…right…over…"
Meric spun around and unsheathed his sword cutting a Krawl right in the face. Some of its blood got onto Merics face, but he didn't care and sheathed his sword as the Krawl fell over lifeless.
"Nice sense you got there Meric, and good job." Diana said.
"Thanks, I was born with it." Meric said wiping the blood off finally.
"There must be more to come, knowing Kraux." Alpha started to say, "All I know is that he will probably come here to stop us himself."
With that Meric hid the Krawl's lifeless body into a part of the forest and came back. Pressing on, they finally got to the clearing- the exit. They gazed up at the cliff and noticed a path up the cliff. Taking it, they found themselves walking through ruins.
"What are these pictures?" Zastin said touching one, "They look important."
"They are the pictures of the gods of this world, the opposing gods of land and sea, the gods of time and space, and the creator of life." Diana said putting her hand next to Zastins.
Zastin turned and lightly smiled at Diana. Diana turned and caught sign of it and smiled lightly back then continued the up the path to the others. Upon reached the top, they found a floor of stone in a neat circle on a good section of the cliff and looked like a temple- The Rainbow Ship.
Chapter 40: The Return
"Is this the Rainbow Ship you were talking about Diana?" Emily asked her walking over to it.
"Yes indeed." Diana replied walking over to it as well, "But there must be a clue to as how to activate it."
"You mean like these runes." Meric said leaning down examining an engraved finished stone with runes in it.
Diana walked over to Meric and he pointed to it. Diana leaned down and looked at it.
"I know these runes; I just need a moment to decipher it." Diana replied.
Diana sat down and looked at the runes carefully, not missing a single one.
"Alright, this IS the Rainbow Starship;" Diana said getting up, "I also know how to activate it."
"That's quite enough of that." A voice said out of nowhere.
Everyone looked around surprised, trying to find out where it came from.
"Who said that?" Diana started to say, "Show yourself!"
There was nothing but an eerie silence then a roar as the ground shook. Krawl came up the stairs and up the sides of the cliff surrounding the group.
"The Krawl!" Emily said looking around.
An evil laughter filled the air. Walking up the stairs was a figure; and Diana identified it right away.
"Kraux!" Diana shouted glaring at him, and everyone turned around to see him, "How did you get here?"
"Humph…Quite simply actually," Kraux started to say, "I was spying on you all the time, after all, I knew you would all inevitably come here; waiting here spared us the bother of searching for you."
Diana growled a bit and looked around at all the Krawl surrounding them.
Kraux laughed evilly then looked around at his Krawl, "Unfortunately, you are all coming with me; Krawl, take them to the dimensional hole!"
The Krawl by brute force moved everyone down the stairs and past the ruins. Beyond that was an area surrounded by gray trees, making it impossible to get away. As they came to the center of the area, Diana noticed the dimensional hole (just like a portal) in front of them.
"Krawl! Into the dimensional hole with them!" Kraux ordered.
The Krawl let out a snarl of approval and started to close into them.
"I got this far to go back…I am not giving up!" Diana thought.
Diana nodded to the group and they all unleashed their attacks onto the Krawl making them slide back away from them.
"Well well…You display some feeble resistance, knowing that it is futile?" Kraux said.
"You expected anything less, Kraux?" Diana replied.
"Humph, you leave me no choice." Kraux said solidly.
Kraux walked to in front of the dimensional hole in between two of the Krawl. He then turned and faced the group; mostly on Diana.
"I will just simply defeat you here, then take you with me. It makes no difference to me."
Diana growled again and everyone unsheathed their weapons.
"The odds are overwhelmingly stacked against you, how much resistance can you even serve up?" Kraux said getting into position, "Show me!"
"This ends now!"
Chapter 41: The Bloody Truth
Suki instantly brought around her elemental bows and fired them at the Krawl- right in the forehead.
"Why aren't they dead- someone tell me WHY they aren't dead!" Suki shouted.
Emily and Zac spun out their guns and rapidly fired bullets at them all over, and they still weren't down. Selena jumped up and glided down upon a Krawls neck and bit its neck but the skin was too tough so she got thrown off. Meric and Zastin looked at each other and took out their swords. Going to separate Krawls they hacked and hacked but only scratches were made.
"Looks like we are gonna have to fight a lot more and harder than I thought guys!" Zastin said still hacking at the Krawl avoiding its attacks.
The battle, though, was between Alpha and Diana against Kraux. Aside from the Krawl, Diana and Alpha had no luck whatsoever.
"HaHA, I told you- you can't keep this up." Kraux said unsheathing his arm blades.
"What does *cough* that mean Kraux." Diana replied wiping the blood off of her mouth.
"It means…"Kraux started to say, "That I can kill you right here and now!"
Kraux lunged at Diana but Diana side stepped in time for him to go flying into a Krawl killing it from the fore of the arm blades in its side. Kraux made a quick U turn and caught Diana by the collar. He pinned Diana right in front of dimensional portal without letting her touch it, though.
"One touch and your gone Diana," Kraux started to say, "What's it gonna be; hm?"
"I'll give you the answer you bastard." Alpha said wrapping around a scythe head around Krauxs neck from his gauntlet.
Alpha turned making Kraux turn and drop Diana then slammed Kraux into the ground. Alpha helped Diana up as Kraux got up- when he turned though, some of his mask was cracked from the force.
"Won't you just die already?" Alpha said lunging at Kraux.
"I give you power, and yet you defy me?" Kraux said side stepping from Alpha, "So be it, you shall pay for your ingratitude with relentless pain!"
Kraux punched hard into Alpha; right in the chest, cracking his generator- his heart. Alpha tumbled backwards onto the ground and said "I…didn't want these stupid…powers!...I…want…my friends and family back you son of a-!"
Alpha got back up and shot straight towards Kraux grabbing his face with his tainted arm, then slammed him into the ground hard again. Few moments passed, and Alpha was for sure Kraux was either passed out- or dead.
"That's all of them." Zastin said sheathing his red-tinged blood stained sword.
Diana looked at all of them and said, "Go to the Rainbow Ship, we will be right there."
Everyone took off but Alpha and Diana. They heard faint laughter- and looked down.
"Alpha…Diana…is…is this what you really want?...If history is changed…we people of the future will disappear…" Kraux said timely.
Diana's eyes widened.
"It…it won't just be me….both of you…Alpha and Diana alike…since both of you come from a future that will cease to exist…you will both disappear too….is this what you really want?" Kraux said.
Diana looked over at Alpha, whose eyes were closed and his expression was grim.
"…Its true Diana…if we change history…we will disappear…" Alpha said slowly.
"Alpha?..." Diana started to say.
"But that doesn't matter…if it means restoring time…and bringing peace to this world and others…it's what you intended to do and I joined…" Alpha said, "I knew this would happen, but I didn't know if you would know this or forgot…but…we have no choice of matter either way…"
Alpha suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Diana.
"If we don't act, time could never be restored to worlds…in order to have peace…we need to disappear." Alpha started, "Please try to understand Diana."
Diana looked back up the stairs, thinking about all her friends she made and all the things she's done with them. She nodded her head and thought "In order to make their lives and others peaceful, self-sacrifice is what is needed."
Movement was heard; Kraux got up in a jump and shouted as he aimed his punch at Diana then hit her down.
"I…I will never let you change history!..." Kraux said.
Kraux aimed another punch at her, but Alpha got in the way and took the hit for her- and almost broke his generator.
"Alpha!" Diana shouted getting up.
"So you shielded Diana? That has taken a heavy toll on you Alpha!" Kraux started to say, "Very well! You're going down first!"
Alpha pulled himself together, and lunged forward then restrained Krauxs arms and moved forward so they were right at the dimensional hole.
"W-What are you doing?" Kraux demanded.
"Urgh…Kraux!...I'm…I'm taking you with me…back to Malik!" Alpha replied.
"Wha?..." Kraux replied.
"What?" Diana shouted to him.
Alpha turned his head to her and said "Diana!...It's…all up to you and your friends now!"
The group ran down the stairs with them saying "What's going on?" then looked over at Kraux and Alpha and were shocked.
"What are you doing?" Meric shouted to Alpha.
"I'm…taking Kraux with me…and I can never come back!" Alpha started to say then turned his head back to Diana, "Diana…I was lucky to work with you…and though the parting hurts…it is in your hands now…with them!"
"Unhand me this instant Alpha!" Kraux shouted at him.
"Sorry for the hold up Kraux." Alpha said turning to him.
Alpha forced his way through the portal with Kraux and vanished, the portal closing afterwards- they were never seen again.
Chapter 42: The Ship
Diana stood in the same spot, looking at where the dimensional portal once was. No one spoke for a while, but then Zastin walked over to Diana.
"What he meant… though the parting hurts…it is in your hands now…with us…I know how he felt, even though he was just here for a few days." Zastin said putting a hand on her shoulder.
"No…what he meant was me…the parting is going to hurt…when…we reach…the top of that tower…" Diana thought, "This will be my last time and battle with them…I have to make it the best."
Diana turned her head to Zastin then looked over to everyone on the side, then smiled.
"Alright, let's get going- for Alpha! For everyone that perished! For the future!" Diana said throwing a fist in the air.
Everyone let out a cheer in agreement and rushed back up the stairs to the Rainbow Ship.
"Alright- everyone stand on it." Diana said stepping onto the circle.
Everyone did as told, and Diana closed her eyes and inhaled softly.
"De wer haruhe confnic wer edar, de wer ruhahe ixen, myvillion wer suaco vur ilache wer pab; confn jaka ekess fehlim udoka wer idol."*
Diana chanted.
No one understood what she said, but didn't care when they saw the circle under their feet light up. The ground under them shook, and the Rainbow Ship moved up from the ground into the air.
"Woah- you did it Diana!" Zastin told her looking at her.
Diana smiled at him then looked down as the ground grew farther and farther away. The Ship started to take off to the tower in the sky.
"So this is it- everything I…no…we worked for will come to an end." Diana thought looking over at the tower.
"OMG! This thing has a RAINBOW behind it!" Suki said pointing to behind them.
They all turned and saw that she was right, there was a rainbow forming behind the ship.
"I guess that's why they call it the Rainbow Ship." Suki said admiring the rainbow still.
The ship grew closer and closer to the tower, and then when it did, it came to a stop and the rainbow stopped. Everyone got off onto the remaining ground of the ruined tower. They looked up at the swirling red clouds in the sky and they boomed.
"Looks like it knows we are here." Diana said to herself softly.
"Well what are we waiting for- let's go!" Meric said walking ahead, "I love to kill something else besides Krawl."
With that everyone walked into the tower- so it began.
*That was in Draconic, what Diana chanted in English was "From the east comes the earth, from the west fire, north the wind and south the water. Come now to grant us the way."
Chapter 43: The Climb
The lobby of the tower was all ruined rocks, beams and statutes. The group walked in slowly, taking caution to any more crumbling walls or ceiling pieces.
"This was once a great tower, now it stands before everyone in ruins." Diana said proceeding to the still standing cracked stairs.
"What happened to it, to make it crumble?" Meric asked, curious.
"The time stopped here, the balance was destroyed- and so began the crumble of the tower." Diana said, starting to climb the stairs.
The stairs, still up, were in terrible condition. The group proceeded with caution and stepped carefully on solid steps. A roar was heard; the tower shook and the stairs were disturbed. The stairs crumbled under the group's feet- everyone saw that this was it; but not all of them.
"Oh no it doesn't;" Diana said grabbing hold to Zastins hand, "Grab hands all!"
They did as instructed, and Diana with her free hand brought it to her face and whistled. Zeron came flying through under our heroes and caught them all. Still being able to fly, flew up to the top avoiding the falling debris. Suddenly, the group was in a chase with the Krawl- still able to fight on their own; even without Kraux.
Diana, Meric, and Zastin took leave of Zeron and jumped off piece by piece of the falling debris. Unsheathing their swords they slashed at the Krawl and they soon dropped one by one with the help of those still on Zeron. Luna came through with Okuroo on her head and flew next to Zeron. Suki and Selena jumped over onto Luna and flew up higher and faster, into the hole in the ceiling. Another roar was made, thus the debris came raining down again.
"We aren't going to make it!" Zastin shouted up at Diana as they jumped from piece to piece.
"Oh yes we are!" Diana said jumping faster.
She grabbed Zastins hand as well as Merics, jumped solidly making them fly up and landed on Zeron. Zeron with one powerful flap made his attempt to fly through the hole; and he made it before the hole was sealed up.
...
The tower still stood, the inside was in ruins; and now the group had one last challenge to face-
"Tairais Darastrix…" Diana said looking up into the beasts deep blue eyes.
Chapter 44: The Secret
The dark silver dragon flashed its deep blue eyes and turned to look at the group; its deep blue spikes on its neck perked up like it was on defense, its arrow tipped tail curled up then returned to normal.
"This isn't too late guys…" Diana said slowly.
"What do you mean it isn't too late?" Emily asked.
"WHO? Who dares enter my…my…" The Dragon said but could not finish and gave off a roar.
"The time dragon isn't fully consumed in darkness, there isn't a lot of time- but we can still save everyone!" Diana replied looking up at the dragon.
"Why are you here? Why did you come here beings?" The Dragon said.
"The time is collapsing! Can't you see? You were made to protect it, and now it's collapsing!" Diana shouted up to it.
"Time! Time…collapsing…" The Dragon again couldn't finish his sentence and gave off a roar.
"We have no choice! We have to fight it…Look!" Zac said pointing behind the dragon.
A slab was jagged up in the ground, with indentions in it- that looked oddly familiar. Diana looked at the time gems in her hand and looked back at the slab; a thought struck her.
"We have to put the gems in there!" Diana said looking over at the group.
They all heard, but were focused on the dragon. They took open fire on the dragon but the dragon resisted. The dragon with one fell swoop of his tail brought it around- or so they all thought. One fell swoop would have ended them all, but when they opened their eyes, Diana was there holding the tail back.
"YOU? How could you block…me…" The Dragon roared again unable to finish another sentence.
The dragon slammed its tail down and sent Diana through the ground, and into tower. Unconscious, she fell into the depths of the ruined tower.
"Diana!" They all cried out to her and then turned back to the dragon in rage.
She heard her friend's cries from the top- but what could she do? What CAN'T she do?
"I…won't…die…now…" Diana thought to herself clutching her hands into fists as her fingers grew into claws.
Wings sprouted from her shoulders, skin became scales, horns came out jagged from her head and back; a tail shot out from the end of her and her teeth became huge. Opening her eyes she became her secret, she became the secret she hid from all of them- a dragon.
At the top, things looked grim for the group. The dragon has taken damage, but not as much as them. Arrows were scattered, guns were snapped in half as well as several swords- blood stained the tiles.
"Any last words trespassers?..." The Dragon said building up its strength to launch a blast that would consume them all.
A roar was heard under them, and then a crash. They all turned their eyes to the new dragon that entered the fray- Diana. Diana was now a light blue dragon with silver spikes, a mane on her neck and a silver collar around her arrow tipped tail.
The two dragons, both knowing one of them would have to die- stood up and fought like dogs. They lashed out at each other's necks, scales flew everywhere. Flames spewed in every direction and pillars were crushed from the force.
In awe the group hurried themselves together to get out of the way from the fray.
"Whose the other dragon?" Emily practically screamed.
They all thought for a moment then looked at each other with disbelief and all cried out- "Diana!"
The light blue dragon turned to look at her friends, but gave an opportunity attack to the time dragon. The Dragon bit Diana's neck and slammed her down. Roaring, Diana grabbed the time dragons head and slammed it hard into the ground, knocking it out. Diana fell to the ground, back to human in tattered armor and clothes.
The group rushed over to her to help her, but she was more concerned about the sky. The red swirling clouds grew violent; lightning came pouring out of them. Knowing what could happen, they all ran over to the slab and put the gems in…
"…WHY IS NOTHING HAPPENING?" Suki practically screamed at the slab.
Lightning struck the group, making them scatter all around the place near the slab. More lightning came, the area became brighter- it was impossible to see.
Chapter 45: Time Restored
…
….
…..?
The group was still there, still alive…the sky was clear, and the lightning was gone. They all got up, unaware of what happened and looked at the slab. The slab had the gems in it, and the slab face glowed a light bluegreen.
"We…we did it…" Diana said looking at the slab.
"I commend you all, for doing this." A figure said.
They all turned around and saw the dragon fully healed and standing up. It looked different though, the scales were much lighter silver, its eyes were a clear light blue and the spikes were like the color of the sky on a clear day. They took their stances but Diana did not.
"Relax beings, with time back, my rage is over; and the tower is still standing." The Dragon said.
They all went back to normal, and they looked up at the dragon.
"You have all saved time, and I think you should see your work." The Dragon said.
The dragon flashed a bright light and they were all floating in mid air along with the dragon.
"Isn't that?" Diana cried out.
It was the planet Nox, they were looking down at Ziba…fully in color…
The wind was blowing, things were moving, the sky regained its color and the sun was shining.
"This was all because of the brave acts of all of you, even Alpha, who sacrificed his life to save you all." The Dragon said.
They all looked up at the dragon and the dragon made the light end, and so they were back at the tower.
"How will you be able to rebuild the tower?" Zastin asked the dragon.
"As time goes on, the tower will fix. You are all in my debt, I thank you." The dragon said and bowed to them.
The group smiled, and cheered. Their work was finally done, and with that their ride was waiting for them, the Rainbow ship. The group was given a ride to the base of the tower, and the dragon flew back up to the top, and was never seen again.
Chapter 46: Friend Lost
The group headed down the rugged long path to the rainbow ship, all of which they were congratulating one another for everything.
"Yeah we should all stay here with you Diana! I mean Nox looks like a nice place!" Zastin said and laughed.
Everyone shook their head in agreement and continued walking…but Diana started have a hard time walking. She slowed down, like something was weighing upon her.
"Why can't I move?...this is becoming difficult…" Diana thought to herself as looked up at her friends a bit ahead of her.
Just then, she saw a small light glow faintly upon her. She stopped and understood- it was her time to go.
Everyone stopped and looked behind them. They saw Diana standing there and glowing bits of light here and there that rose into the sky and faded.
"D-Diana?" Suki asked as they walked over to her, "What's going on?"
"I thank you all for being with me, for letting me of known there are people like you in this universe." Diana said looking at them.
"W-Where are you going?" Zastin cried out.
"Alpha said that if we changed the future, we people here of the future would disappear." Diana replied to him.
"We can't go on without you I mean, you were like the leader who got us all together!" Zac said.
"You all can, and you must. This is the story of how we stopped the paralysis of the worlds, and a wish of peace." Diana said to all of them tearing up a bit.
The light grew brighter on Diana, and she faded a bit.
"Thank you all, thank you for everything…" Diana said closing her eyes and finally vanished.
With that the lights around her consumed her, and when they lifted, Diana was gone.
Chapter 47: Time and Debt; Finally pay off…
The group pressed on, they did as their friend wished and made it back home.
"The tower is growing smaller…" Zastin said sitting down on the ship looking at the tower, "and moving farther away from Diana…oh Diana…"
"S-Stop it Zastin your just making this worse." Meric said punching his shoulder lightly.
The Rainbow ship landed and they headed through the forest, got back onto Zeron and Luna and headed back to Ziba. They told their tale to all the residents, and they told them all of Dianas wish of peace.
They made home in Ziba and helped rebuild what was destroyed. They were all neighbors, and time went on.
Days grew into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years…but one night…
…
….
…..
"Hey where are you going Zastin?" Suki said as she was hanging upside down from a tree branch.
"I'm going to the cove, suppose to be a good view…going to relax and train there." Zastin said hefting his sword over his shoulder.
"Oh; okay! Have fun!" Suki said biting into the apple in her right hand.
Zastin walked down the small path to the beach that had a cove on it. He walked pass the waves, and saw the sunset.
"This light…looks familiar…" Zastin turned for a moment to look at the sunset and dropped his sword down.
He gazed off into the sunset, and finally it hit him.
"…oh…this was like…the time…we finally saved time here…with…Diana…" Zastin said slowly to himself.
Zastin had major flashbacks over everything they did. He curled his hands into fists, went to his knees on the sand and cried. The others came and saw Zastin crying, the rushed over to him.
"What's wrong now Zastin?" Emily asked him.
"Diana! Diana!" He cried out over them and sobbed.
They all looked at each other and tried to comfort Zastin.
…
….
…..So..
The time dragon looked across the sea to the speck of land where Ziba was.
"Much work has been done, but that one day…you all left here feeling much sadness…for the part of all of you has vanished." The dragon said slowly.
He thought for a moment and finally said "My debt has been paid off, I give you the future! Please accept it!"
The dragon gave out a roar that echoed through the heavens and beyond.
…
….
As the group continued to comfort Zastin, no one noticed the small flash of light behind them. Light continued to gather, and Zac was the first to notice. He nudged them all to turn around and they did. The light continued to form and from the light came a shape…
"Diana?..." They said looking at the figure as the light vanished.
Diana stood there and her eyes finally opened up. She looked over at the group and they all smiled. They scrambled over to her and all got a group hug out of it. Crying, Diana smiled and laughed as she saw her friends once again…and was able to stay with them, forever more.
~The End