J.J. Norris: Well consider me flattered
Thrintiox: Well, hopefully I will be able to sway you The history you know is not a thing anymore because time has been shatterd. Nox trapped Yugo in a time lock once before, it couldn't stop him completely because he was boosted by the eliacube. As for Grougaloragran, well, since he's in Ememlka, which is essencially outside time at this point, he and chibi don't exist in the timeline as it now stands.
Fanfic Tache: hopefully this chapter will unconfused you.
Fanfiction1: Indeed!
Author's note: I want to assure all of you that I have not abandoned this project, I have just been a little occupied. Sorry I didn't give y'all a heads up regarding my little Hiatus here, but I've been incredibly busy. I work for and its Christmas season so I wasn't really able to spend time updating like I wanted, that and my winter seems to always include a few weeks of a terrible cold in early December and if I'm lucky its gone by christman, if I'm lucky. Also I got this chapter like, lust about done, only had one segment left to write, then my computer randomly decided to restart in the middle of that to "install updates" and didn't bother to save my progress, which blasted me all the way back to about a third of the chapter written, so I've spent the last few day rewriting everything I already wrote…
Chapter 12: A shattered world
"What just happened!?" Rip demanded grabbing Tempus' Cowl and pulling him upward as he tried to sit down and rest.
"he just saved us." A voice confronted the young blonde immortal.
Rip turned his head to face the voice, it belonged to a white haired man who looked a little wizened, he bore clockwork armor and a masked helmet was beneath his arm.
"Xelor?" Rip asked. "What do you mean he saved us?"
"Well, Not in the technical sense I suppose," Xelor replied "Your life would likely be much the same, since you are from outside our dimension and outside our time."
Rip's eyes narrowed and his grip on Tempus tightened, somewhere in the back of his head he knew that the bronze aetherian must have used a lot of power to do whatever he did, there was no other way the man was defenseless enough to be at his mercy. His eyes turned from Xelor to Tempus and back again.
"Not making sense." He said.
"Clearly." Tempus uttered in annoyance.
"Shut up!" Rip said turning to face the timewalker "You're the one who got us into this damn mess! Now where are we?!"
"Emelka." Tempus answered pointing back somewhere behind Rip.
The blonde immortal turned to see Eliatrope and The great dragon standing with Alibert, Chibi, Grougaloragran, Flopin and Elely. Rip grumbled something about children and innocence before letting go of Tempus and allowing the Aetherian to fall to the ground exhausted. He stood straight and crossed his arms in frustration.
"Wh-Where are we?" a new voice sounded.
Rip looked around and saw what appeared to be an eliatrope, no, he realized moments later, this one was a Yugolite, he had seen him before, one of the High Priest's servants.
"Y-You!" The boy said, clearly afraid as he backed up away from Rip Van Winkle.
"C'mon," Rip said, he made a clicking noise with his mouth, "I wasn't even fighting you guys, I was fighting him." He jammed his thumb towards Tempus.
The boy seemed momentarily convinced that Rip would not attack him, but still remained afraid and kept his distance.
"So…" The Great dragon uttered interrupting everyone else "Would you care to expound upon your explaination Xelor? He said in a stern fatherly voice "For the sake of those who were ripped from our own places and brought here?"
Xelor made a gulping sound "I will try father."
"don't." Tempus' voice sounded as the timewalker stood slowly wincing with sareness and pain birthed from immense effort. "I wrought this, I will take responsibility."
The great dragon shifted glanced to look upon the bronze rouge who sat at the center of them all.
"Time has many properties," He began "when viewed from outside it's domain, it has the appearance of water, it moves like a river, an abnormally straight river. Occasionally branches form from the river and lash outward, causing damage and wreaking havoc to the universes beyond. This is why I was here, to put an end to one of the branches."
"So you moved through time." The great dragon asked "You sought to change history?"
"No," Tempus responded "another had already changed it, I sought to put it to rights."
"And you did this by moving us all into emelka?" Eliatrope asked
"No," Tempus answered again "I moved you all here because I failed." He turned and looked into the distance as he continued "The branch was caused when the eliatrope king and a Pariah of his people fought, the Pariah won, his victory ushered in an age of war, he conquered this world and made the eliatrope the ruling race, but his actions attracted a power beyond him… a great machine god brought his wrath upon the world, and destroyed it. The backlash of the destruction could be felt many dimensions away and ripped the fabric of several realites, I cam here to prevent that backlash."
"But you failed." The great dragon said.
"In a way." Tempus replied "Technically I succeeded, but in doing so I have made a worse problem. I have broken the river."
"How does one break a river?" Alibert said speaking for the fist time since their arrival.
"The pariah was able to 'freeze' the river," Tempus said, furrowing his brow in thought. somehow he made time brittle like ice, I've never seen anything like it. The king was too strong for this tactic however and broke the spell, but in so doing he broke the ice, now the river is naught but many branches."
"So…" Rip said "The timeline is…."
"Broken," Tempus replied "Shattered, trying to repair itself, an ever changing future."
"Then the answer should be obvious." The words came from a most unsuspected source as all looked down upon the small white haired eliatrope that stood beside his foster father Alibert. "The 'king' is Yugo right? I'm sure he didn't mean to break anything, but if it is broken, we need to fix it, we need to make it right again."
Eliatrope looked down at the boy, a mere seven years in age and yet he was already so mature and clear headed. The though made her so proud, she almost blushed. There had been a reason that Chibi had been king before Yugo, and a reason that he had left Yugo the crown, the two had always shared a unique bond.
"Yugo is in trouble right?" Chibi asked "He's trapped… in the broken time?
Even the melancholy Aetherian who had brought them there could not help but let a smile show on his lips. "Yes, young one, your brother is trapped in a shattered time."
"Then lets go save him!" Chibi said enthusiastically.
"It is not that simple." Xelor cut in "Tempus was not able to bring everyone here, only those who would have died without Yugo's influence in their lives. Specifically you children. In this shattered time, Yugo has not found another dofus and Grougaloragran and Chibi have not benn reborn; furthermore Evangalyne and Percedal's children have not been born as the two have not met and the battle with ogrest that spawned all the Yugolites never happened."
"So?" Flopin said "What does all that mean?"
"It means young cra," Xelor said "That should any of you step beyond this sanctuary you would immediately cease to exist."
"Not necessarily," Tempus said "given some time to rest and rejuvenate myself, I can take people with us into the shattered timeline, my power can keep them from ceasing to exist as they do."
"Why would you do that?" Xelor asked, upset
"Because like it or not," Tempus said "We may need their help. Rip, myself, you, and the creator deities there, are the only ones who can walk in and out of the timeline at will, and therefore the only ones who will have their memories unharmed by doing so. That is not many people, and despite our combined powers we cannot be everywhere we need to be in order to put things back together."
"we only need to start at the beginning," Xelor said "And put everything back the way it was."
"No," Tempus replied "If we do that, it will invalidate all that I have done in keeping these people here, we would have to return Emelka and it's people to that." He said this pointing at the maelstrom of destruction that lie outside the shield that currently protected Emelka "And I am unwilling, not when there is another way. We must find where the shattering event exists in this timeline and stop it from occurring."
"And how do we do that?" The Great Dragon asked.
"Well," Tempus replied "We need to start looking, somewhere where both Yugo and N exist in the timeline together…"
N followed the boy through back alleys and markets, the bronze sky making the place look more dull and dreary than the city itself felt, but nonetheless N seemed the only one affected by it in such a way, he supposed everyone else was used to the way it looked, but he remembered blue skies on his world.
"It's just over here." He heard Yugo's voice beckon him, could this happy little boy really be the reincarnation of the eliatrope king? Was it true then, that they lost all the memories of their previous lives when they died?
Yugo approached a tower in the middle of a market like clearing in the city, it looked like it was once a building of prominence and pomp, someplace fit for a governor or a representative of state, though it was clearly run down now, there was a ruby cap to the building, probably only still there because few people could simply fly up there and remove it.
"Ush says that this used be an important place," Yugo said. "but now it's lonely and sad. So we live here and keep it company."
N gawked, this was his king? This little child that believed in a story like that, he was so… so… innocent, so impressionable, he had heard a lot about the kindness of their king, but he had not realized the man had ever been so naïve.
"You okay?" Yugo asked for the second time that day.
"I-" N began to respond "I need some time, I think, I'll be okay eventually." His brais hurt taking in theis world shattering reality, how had all this happened? "Who is Ush?" he asked.
"He's the kid I stay here with," Yugo said "He's older than me, and he's a little weird, he talks like a grown-up sometimes, but he's okay."
"You stay here with a friend?" N said "He is… kind?"
"I wouldn't say that," Yugo said "He's nice to me, but I'll have to let him know you're okay, or he might scratch ya."
"Scratch me?" N said as he grabbed onto a ladder and followed Yugo upward towards what looked like a door in the side of the building.
"Yeah, he's got nasty claws," Yugo said "Like really long sharp ones, longer than most ecaflips."
"Ecaflips?" N was confused what was all this? Was an ecaflip some kind of animal, were these animals? A guard dog of some kind? But how would it know about the building? Was it sentient?
"Yeah, they're sorta cat like people." Yugo said "Have you never met one? They're all over the city just like all the other races."
Races? There were multiple races, different species of sentient creatures on this world, the only sentient being around on vili were the eliatropes, at least until… Orgonax.
Yugo swung the door open and climbed inside "Hey Ush," he called "I brought a friend." He said as he ran towards a rope hanging from the ceiling and used it's momentum to swing across a nearly destroyed floor to the other side. He stuck the landing and put his hands on his hips as N moved into his previous spot.
"Oh," Yugo said "you have to run and jump and swing on the rope."
N flashed a sideways grin "Or I could do this." He said summoning a potal beneath his feet and another on the floor next to Yugo, he disappeared and reappeared next to Yugo startling the boy and making him fall flat on his bum.
"Woah!" Yugo said as his hat slipped back and revealed one of his cranial wings.
"So you are an eliatrope!" N said with a smile "I knew it!"
"Who is this?" A new voice said with some anger in it "Yugo you should not bring every stranger you meet here, they will take this place from us!" the voice was owned y a black cat like figure who wore a pair of white baggy pants and no shirt. His left had held an open book and his right had was held in a neutral position, though claws were visible at the tips of his fingers, they didn't seem all that long.
"But he's nice!" Yugo said, pulling his hat back into place on his head, his face was a little red with embarrassment at Ush's outburst as well as the fact that his wing had been seen.
"He didn't even judge me when he saw my wings just now," Yugo said "He said I was an Elia – Eli – Ele-."
Ush's eyes narrowed "an Eliatrope?" he asked darkly, though Yugo didn't seem to notice the dark undertone of his voice, but it was all to clear to N
"Yeah that!" Yugo said with a smile.
"I think I want to talk with your 'friend' for a moment." Ush said "What is your name boy?"
"I am called N," N replied
"A strange name, but perhaps normal for your people," Ush said "Come N, we are going to talk."
"Okay," N replied following the cat person up the stairs nearby and into a room full of dusty books.
"I hate it when he does this." N overheard Yugo say, "Now I have to go somewhere else for awhile." The boy walked away and rode the rope downward towards the ground.
"What's so – "
N was cut off when Ush's right hand swung back, his claws extending to long sharp instruments of death, he placed his hand in a position in front of N's neck where the tips of the claws pushed uncomfortably against his skin, he stopped moving, but summoned a portal under Ush's feet and another on the wall behind him the surprised ecaflip fell away from N and flew from the wall with all the force of gravity behind him, before gravity could reassert itself N twisted and threw a punch slaming his fist into the ecaflip's back forcing him downward towards the ground. Ush landed with a harsh thud that left him momentarily breathless. He placed his hands under his body and pushed upward only to have N's shoe force him immediately back down.
"What was that!?" N asked angrily "Is that how you treat guests in this world?" he said applying more pressure to the cat person's back.
"Had to be sure.." Ush forced out of his mouth.
N released some of the pressure "Sure of what?"
Ush used his newfound wiggle room to grab N's foot and twist his body forcing the eliatrope to the ground with him, but the moment he let go of him N fell through another portal and came out of the wall with another punch slamming his fist into Ush's face.
"Sure of what!?" N asked. He picked the ecaflip up and threw him into a chair "I have had enough lies and torment to last a lifetime, if you have an issue with me, just say so, I'll leave, I'm only here cuz Yugo wanted to bring me here, no other reason." He said angrily "If I'm not welcome here I'll find somewhere else," he said then he muttered more quietly "Even if I don' know where."
N turned to exit the room "Wait." Ush's voice called out "You aren't unwelcome." He said with sadness in his voice.
"Great job making it look that way," N said "now can I go, or are you gonna insist on keeping me here the hard way too?"
"Yugo is special." Ush said "You wouldn't know, you're not like me, I guess I'm kinda special too." The ecaflip hadn't moved from his pitiful position on the chair in the room of books.
N stopped and looked at him "Then he is the king of the eliatropes?" N asked, though it was more of a statement of realization than a question.
"Heh," Ush laughed, immediately followed by a rough cough as he stood up, holding his head where N had knocked it. "I guess maybe you do understand, he is the reincarnation of that man." Ush explained "And though he bears the same name, and the same genetics, he is not the same person, he can be changed from who he was, but… I don't want that, he has a destiny, which is rare for people of this world."
"How do you know all of this?" N said "It's not like we eliatropes share our knowledge from our prison outside time."
"I am a reincarnation as well," Ush said "Same name, same genetics, just like him, but I kept some of the memories, my predecessor's mother was the goddess ecaflip."
"Goddess," N said "What goddess? The only goddess I am aware of is Eliatrope herself."
Ush seemed to visibly relax and he sat back down in the chair.
"You must be outside of your time," Ush said with a sigh "Our legends of the Eliatropes are vauge at best, but hint that they lived long before the twelve races came into being."
"Twelve races?" N asked confused "I think there are many things I should learn about this world. But the fact that you have legends of the Eliatropes means that this may be vili after all, just a long time after we left it."
"I apologize for my earlier behavior," Ush said "I am rather protective of the boy, too many people seek to take advantage of his kind heart and pure will. But if you will enlighten me about your people, then I will teach you of this world, hopefully that will be enough to piece together why you are here now, and what it means for Yugo."
"I'm here because I left Emrub." N said "Emrub is a timeless dimension where we eliatrope children live, never aging or feeling the effects of time."
"I see." Ush said "Then that explains why you are here after so many centuries… I will speak with Yugo later, until then, please make yourself at home."
Ush stood again, and this time he moved into another room, it appeared to be a bedroom of sorts with a bed and a rug."
N sat down cross legged and tried to work through his confusion, he had indeed left emrub, he was now in what may be Vili in a distant future, there were now other goddeses and other races occupying the home they had made their own. This would be a problem, he doubted that Belthazar was aware of the changes that had ocured, meaning that he still believed the children meant to return here at some undefined point, but without adults to guide them and with people covering the once open world tentions would rise quickly, and the man to be their king was now… just a child. N wanted his friends to join him here, but perhaps now was not the best time after all, or maybe Belthazar had been aware of the changes, and he had kept the information about Vili secret by allowing everyone to forget it existed so that such things would not happen, maybe Belthazar didn't know what to do… maybe he shouldn't have judged the dragon so harshly. Despite this revelation he still felt spite towards the old dragon, he could've at least admitted these thigs to N, instead of insisting he was "a danger to emrub's existence" and ostracizing him from society.
A noise could be heard from below them and N was soon in the presence of the child king again as Yugo climbed the rope expertly and came into the room.
"So he decided he likes you huh?" Yugo said without being prompted.
"How did you…" N began but was interrupted by the eliatrope boy.
"if he didn't like you, you wouldn't be here," Yugo said his smile staying on his face "and you probably wouldn't come back, somehow Ush manages to scare off anyone he doesn't like."
More likely he kills them N thought to himself, just how many people have come here before me? And how many never left?
"Yugo is that you?" Ush's voice came from the bedroom "Can I speak with you please?"
"Ugh." Yugo uttered "That means he wants to talk about something serious." He said with a sigh "I don't like it when he's serious, he won't let me have fun!"
"I can hear you Yugo." Ush said "N was it? Could you perhaps go and find us some food? Or supplies for a bit?"
"If you want privacy you just need to ask." N said "I can tell you want to speak to him alone for now."
The older eliatrope stood and disappeared into a portal waving goodbye to the younger one.
"I thought you liked him." Yugo said
"I do actually," Ush said "I think that it's time I talked to you about something important Yugo." Ush said "I had hoped to wait a couple more years, but with this newcomer here now, it con no longer wait."
"There you go, getting all serious again." Yugo said shaking his head "Lighten up, we should go have fun somewhere."
"We will." Ush assured "But I need to talk with you first." His voice took on a lighter tone now.
"That boy is an Eliatrope," Ush said
"That's what he called me!" Yugo interrupted
"That's because you are also an Eliatrope," Ush said "you know of the twelve races yes?"
"Yeah of coarse!" Yugo said "Cept, I'm not sure wich one I am, non of 'em have wings on their heads like me."
"That boy does." Ush said "Because neither of you are one of the twelve, you are a special thirteenth race one that hasn't lived on this world for several millennia."
"What does that mean?" Yugo asked
"It means you are an eliatrope, that is your race," Ush said "And your race has not existed here for thousands of years."
"Whoa!" Yugo said "Really? Then if I'm understanding correctly he and I are the last of our race?"
"I'm not so sure about that." Ush said "He said something earlier that leads me to believe there are others."
"Can I go see them!" Yugo said "I really want to now!"
"That is a question for N now." Ush said "I do not know how he got here, or how we might get to wherever he came from, he seems conviced it would be difficult to do, but did not tell me details."
"awwwww." Yugo uttered
"Listen Yugo," Ush said "I want to keep him around, if for nothing else than to teach you how to use eliatrope powers."
"Powers!" Yugo said "I have powers!" he started jumping excitedly. "Oooh! Ooh! Can I make those things he makes that let him disappear and reappear like magic!"
"I believe so, but N would know more." Ush said.
"Aw cool!" Yugo said excitedly "I won't have to use the rope anymore!"
"Uh…" Ush uttered "Yes, that will happen…"
"Sooooo cool!"
Tempus stood after many hours of meditation in the center of the town, he had been sitting near a fountain regaining his strength ever since his conversation with Xelor earlier. The time god was not happy with the aetherian's descision, but The Great Dragon had gratefully taken his side, saying "He caused this event to happen Xelor, it is only right we give him the chance to make things right… his way, not our way." Honestly Tempus hadn't expected much of the great purple lizard man, but he seemed reasonable enough.
He approached the Inn, the place at which the three deities and Rip were staying, the half-dieties were there as well, and the diety/immortal status boy and his dragon. The Inn keeper was working on some project to expand the building using what little resources he had left to him with most of the forest having been swallowed by the time break. he was doing this for the Yugolites, the litte pieces of light that the eliatrope king had spawned unintentionally. A noble cause, and one that made them seem a little more comfortable with thman and his makeshift family of gods and immortals.
He opened the door and stepped up the stairs to a room where Rip Van Winkle sat on a bed playing with a contraption he had created out of his lightning, it appeared to be some kind of toy car or plane or… something.
"gathered enough then?" The blonde boy said without looking away A grunt was the Tempus's only response. "And I suppose you want me to go with you, on a scout mission of sorts to make sure that we don't inadvertently return someone to the shattered timeline, where we most assuredly would not get them back from, at least not until we fix this mess…"
"You are wise beyond your years boy." Tempus said darkly
"You don't know how old I am," Rip replied "I happen to be well of five hundred years old."
"As I said," Tempus replied as he turned "Wise beyond your years, are you coming or not?"
"You don't want to tell anyone do you?" Rip said "You don't want them to have the slightest clue? You want to get in and out quickly and hope they don't notice you're missing."
"Well that's not going to happen." a new voice spoke from beside the Aetherian. "Though I would like to keep my wife and children out of this for now as well, I will be coming with you." The Great Dragon spoke with authority as he seemed to apparate out of thin air
Tempus frowned "Fine, but lets get going before anyone else finds out about this."
"Coming mother dear." Rip said in a mocking tone. To which Tempus only sighed in exasperation.
The aetherian's hands glowed bronze and soon a bubble formed around them shooting them through the building and into the maelstrom like a rocket, a rocket that simply phased through everything it touched. Then without warning they were standing a new world. A bronze sy reached out as long as the eye could see and a snow white landscape was visible, though upon further inspection, what appeared to be snow was merely white sand on a beach.
"I appears we've landed in Suffolkia," The great Dragon said "But I do not sense the presence of either Yugo or N."
"You there!" A voice said with angry authority "What business have you here in Suffolkia!? Where did you come from!"
A man approached with Orange hair sticking up towards the sky, he led a large group of purple dressed knights, and stood at their head with a familiar short sword.
"Oh, my god!" Rip said "Is that who I think it is?"
"Most likely," Tempus responded "Many people are different in this timeline than what you remember."
"Percedal of Sadlygrove!" Rip said doubling over in laughter "You've got to be kidding me! Are you actually trying to scare me, seriously trying to scare me, you couldn't scare a fly!"
"Hey chump knight," the sword spoke to Percedal "How does this idiot know your name, you know him?"
"Not that I'm aware of" Percedal said in anger "He is mocking me isn't he? Well enough of that!"
The orange haired knight approached as his sword grew in his hand and the he stabbed the blade forward into Rip's gut without hesitation or remorse.
"Mock me at your own risk interlopers." Percedal said, though he took note that no one was moving or upset, in fact it seemed as though the blonde kid's freinds weren't concerned in the slightest.
A hand gripped Rubilax's blade tightly "What?" the blade uttered "What is this?"
"Oh, I should've listened I guess," the blonde boy said "You aren't the Percedal I remember at all." His voice had taken a dark tone, "But for his sake… forgive me for this."
Lightning shot through his hand and up the blade of the demon sword, it shot it's way through Percedal's body and kept him standing there screaming in pain before shooting him backwards.
"I don't really want to fight you all," Rip said with frustration in his voice as the other knights closed in around their leader preparing for battle "But is seems I don't have a choice, good thing I have some steam to blow off." Rip reached out his hand and summoned his hammer with a blast of lighting, it floated befor him for a moment before he gripped it tightly and swung. "Come and get me!"
Author's note: Finally! It is here, the long awaited chapter 12, I was trying to make it at least 6000 words for y'all since you had to wait so damn long for it, I think I manaed to get a little over half that. I don't want to offer excuses, but I do want to let you know that this is not an abandoned project I WILL finish this even if it takes me awhile, though the holiday season is over, btw MERRY CHRISTMAS! So my job is no longer forcing six eleven hour days on me a week so no more of that anyway, I have been super excited about this whole arc and realy hope you guys enjoy it! It's 3AM and I am tired as hell, so see you later!
