2. After Time

I slowly ran my hand through Sydney's hair, waiting for her to wake up. She had a pulse. That had to be good, right?

What was happening? I took a deep breath and cleared my thoughts. I just had to think this through. Sydney was screaming and her scar was glowing green. The scar she had gotten from her brother almost eight years ago. Kerk, could he have something to do with this? No one had seen him since Sydney's epic fight with him.

Before I could think much more, the doorbell rang. Skyler must be here. Before I could even answer the door. He ran into the house.

"Sorry. I should have waited, but with what's going on I don't want to waste any time. Where's Syd?" He was panting and his eyes were wide. He was clearly freaking out as much as I was.

"She passed out after the… whatever it was. I can't get her to wake up."

"Joe?"

I spun on my heel and saw Sydney leaning in the doorway. I just barely managed to catch her before she collapsed. Her skin was still cold and she was so pale. I could feel her trembling in my arms as she leaned into me for support.

"What happened?" She groaned. "Sky? Why are you here? Ah!" She clutched her forehead and would have dropped to the floor if I wasn't holding on to her.

I quickly carried her to the sofa and set her down. "We were hoping you could tell us." I examined her scar. It had stopped glowing, but when I touched it, it burned my fingers. I hissed in pain.

"What?" She blinked at me. She was still out of it and I had to keep her from falling over. "What are you talking about?"

"You woke up screaming and the scar from your brother was glowing. Right before you passed out, you said Jade and Anna's names."

"And now they're missing." Skyler joined us on the sofa. "Do you remember any of this?"

"I-" Her face scrunched up in agony and she clenched her teeth. "I was hoping it was just a nightmare."

My fingers slipped through her hair in an attempt to sooth her suffering. Seeing her like this gave me a nasty feeling in my chest. I wanted to help her heal and let her take her time, but I knew we didn't have time to waste. "Is there anything you can tell us?"

She took in a shaky breath. "He took them to After Time."

"Who? What time?" I was lost.

Skyler was not apparently. "After Time? They can't survive there! We have to rescue them!" He jumped up.

"I am very well aware of what After Time is, Sky. Of course we're going to rescue them." Sydney rubbed her scar and winced.

"What's After Time?" They looked at me like I had grown a second head. "Sorry, not all of us grew up at a magical time traveler's school."

"We don't have time to explain it all now. But After Time is prison, a very dangerous prison. It was," Sydney winced again, "is my brother's domain."

"Kerk? Are you saying..?"

She looked up at me, fear and sadness on her face. "Kerk's back. And he wants his revenge."

"Have you found it yet?"

I shuffled through yet another box. "Not yet."

It had to be here somewhere. That stupid thing was never around when you needed it. Yet whenever you were happily hanging out in your present time period, it decided to show up and take you back to ancient China, Greece, or even Egypt. It had a mind of its own.

"Found it!" I glanced behind me and saw Sydney triumphantly holding up The Book. "I think we hid it a little too well."

We had decided to hide The Book once Jade was born. We kept it in a pile of boxes in our small storage room on the third floor in Sydney and Skyler's dance studio. We didn't want Jade stumbling upon it and warping her little four-year-old self back to who knows when. She had this strange fascination with books and we knew the moment she saw it, she'd grab it so that someone could read it to her.

Sydney was already flipping through the pages. "Come on. There has to be something in here."

I took it out of her hands before she accidentally ripped a page out of it and eliminated a hundred years of history. "Let me. It's called After Time, right?"

"Yes. The Book has to be able to take us there." She nervously started to scratch at her wrists, an old habit of hers.

I grabbed her hand before it got worse and she made herself bleed. "Stop it. It's okay. We'll have Jade and Anna back before you know it."

She smiled, but I could see that it was forced. She wasn't handling this well. Her scar was obviously still hurting her, but she was going through great lengths not to show it.

"You need to calm down. All this stress is not good for the baby." I calmly reminded her that she was three months pregnant and placed my hand on her stomach. "Why don't we all go sit down and look through The Book to see if we can find anything?"

Sydney's shoulders drooped. "Fine."

"Did you try opening and closing it?" Skyler suggested.

"It's not a computer. You can't just reset it." Sydney sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Maybe The Book can't take us there." I didn't think this thing had any limits, but maybe it did.

"Yes, it can. The only ways to get to After Time are by having a time god warp you or through The Book. It's just being difficult." Sydney slid it over in front of her. "Come on you stupid thing. I want my daughter back."

"Yelling at it won't help."

"Well it's your book. Get it to work!" Sydney pushed it back over to me.

"You know I never could figure it out. No matter how hard I tried. It never worked for me." I heaved a heavy sigh. "Anna could always get it to work."

"Anna is why we need to get this thing to work. We can't leave them in After Time. The longer they're there, the worse it will get," Skyler said.

I looked back and forth between Sydney and Skyler. "What exactly is this place?"

Sydney bit her lip. "It's the end of the world."

"What?" I sat back.

Sydney sighed. "Everyone knows the world is supposed to end at some time, right? Whether it's the sun exploding, a nuclear apocalypse, or some other crazy thing, it has to end at some point. After Time is the moment right after the world has ended. Time is frozen there and it can be a highly dangerous place even for gods."

"What?" I repeated. I was having trouble taking this all in. "What happened to the world? When will this all happen?"

Sydney gave me a sad smile. "It's one of those top secret things I'm not allowed to talk about, partly because I don't know. I've only ever been a few times and I was never given much history on the place, just taught how to protect myself in it."

"Oh." I looked down. "What exactly are Anna and Jade facing right now?"

"Kerk probably has them locked away somewhere in the main prison area. I doubt he wants them harmed before we get there."

"You think he's expecting us?"

"Of course he is. He only took Anna and Jade as bait, but I'm sure he'll kill all of us if given the opportunity."

"Hey! Look!" Skyler held up The Book for us to see. The page he had open was blank. I peered closer and saw that it had faint green text and images slowly fading in. "It started doing it when you started talking about After Time. Try saying more stuff!"

"Um," Sydney paused, clearly not expecting this turn of events, "well, like I said, time is frozen there. Which is why it's dangerous for even gods to go. There isn't enough time energy to keep them alive and they'd be practically powerless. Kerk was the only one who ever seemed to be fine there. Fitting, given his dark heart and how dark of a place it is. That's how he became god of After Time. He was basically our prison warden."

"It's working!" Skyler grinned as The Book's page slowly filled up more and more. It had even started glowing that familiar green. "Keep going. Just a little more should do it."

Sydney stopped to think of more things to say. "After Time is where they send anyone who becomes exiled. It's the only place suitable enough for the demented crimes they commit. While the whole landscape is technically the prison, there is a large building filled with cells where people could be locked up if need be, but there's never really been a reason to. It's located in the far east of After Time. That's probably where Kerk is keeping them hostage."

She paused to study The Book to see how far along it was. The page had filled in and I could see facts and pictures of what I assumed was After Time. We had been surrounded by the bright green mist and I could feel it getting ready to pull us in.

"And though The Book can take us there. It won't be able to bring us home."

"What?!" And that was the last thing I said before I was sent away to prison by a magical green mist.

Kerk shoved me into the cell and locked the door. I immediately ran up to the bars and tried to push them open with no luck.

"You won't get away with this," I growled. I knew in my gut that Joe, Sydney, and Skyler were already on their way to rescue me. I'd be out of here in no time.

Kerk sneered down at me. "We'll see about that, now won't we?" Without saying another word, he turned around and walked off. I watched him disappear into the darkness with a glare on my face.

"Aunty Anna?" A frightened voice spoke up from behind me.

I froze. Oh no. He didn't take her too. Did he? I slowly turned around. "Jade." I ran up to her and hugged her. Poor thing, she was probably terrified. I held her close.

I might be able to handle living in a cell like a hostage for a few days, but Jade definitely wouldn't. She would want her mom and dad and need to be taken care of. Who knew how long it would take Sydney and Joe to get here and get us out.

"Aunty Anna, I'm scared. Where are we? Where's mommy and daddy?" I looked into her wide, terrified eyes. She was nervously staring around the dimly lit cell.

"I don't know Jade, but we'll be okay. I promise. You're mommy and daddy will be here to rescue you before you know it." I soothingly caressed her hair.

"I miss them." Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"I'm sure they miss you too. They're on their way here right now to get you back though. You'll be back with your family soon enough, don't you worry."

"What about them?" She pointed to a dark figure in the corner of the cell. They were curled up and hidden out of the light's reach. I had no idea who it was or why Kerk would take someone else. It was probably one of his followers here to watch us and keep us in line.

I shuddered and pulled Jade away. We sat down together on the opposite side of the cell as the dark figure.

She curled up next to me. I sensed her shaking and heard an occasional sniffle. I hugged her again. She was so small and helpless. Why would Kerk take her? Was he really that cruel?

Even as I asked the question, I already knew the answer: to get Sydney and Joe to come here and be prisoners too. We were just the bait. It was all part of his sick plan for revenge.

A/N - Unfortunately, this will probably be the only chapter I upload this weekend. Sorry, but I've got Valentine's day plans. Anyway, sorry this chapter was more info-filled than action-filled, but I needed to get some info about After Time out there. You'll learn more about it in the next chapter.

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