After everything that had happened, the sight of the device's portal growing across the sky was one that seemed to be almost impossible to comprehend. It was so confusing, so unexpected, it had become a sight that terrified them all. Harumi scooped up their wristbands from the ground and clung to them as the device, having completed the part that even needed them, continued to open the portal to drag the Twins into this world.
Mage and Over still lay unconscious on the ground, both of them seemingly down for the count. Ophiod clung to Skales, the symbol all over Skales' body seemingly making him barely able to cling to anything as his breath continued to come in sporadic, hard gasps. Oni stood firm with the mask that had caused all of this still firmly gripped in his hand. Invictus, wounded from the battle, simply stood up and watched as the portal grew in size, further, further, and further still.
"W-We need to move…" Harumi, seeing the portal still growing in size in the sky, quickly began to shake her head, "Whatever is coming through that thing is, it's huge!"
With the present state of the ground, Lulloyd simply unfurled his mechdragon again and scoped up his two fallen comrades in the jaws, letting Monty, Lloyd and Harumi leap onto its back and fly off. Ophiod, sensing the danger, slowly picked up Skales and the staff, the latter with a hand that trembled like fire itself, and slowly began to slither away. Prime took the initiative and picked up both Oni and the two snakes in one hand of the mech and blasted away, soaring past Lulloyd's dragon and further out of the valley itself.
It wasn't until the entire assembled group had completely cleared the entire valley of the Summit that the portal began to stop growing in size. That size, however, was still larger than any of them could have fully anticipated. The Summit had once been the size of a small arena, perhaps a few hundred feet in diameter of its circular three story structure. The portal above it made that building be little more than the eye of the storm above it. The portal continued to grow until it seemed to be almost a quarter mile, perhaps even a third, wide. And with it, the entire gray skies that they had seen, the beast that Over had transformed into, were seemingly dwarfed by the sight that they were seeing.
"W-What…?" Lloyd blinked, "The portals we open, aren't they…?"
"Small," Monty frowned, holding the still broken SoS in his hands. In his other hand, he held the shard he'd scoped up with wind before they'd retreated.
"Then, how big is that thing…?" Lulloyd asked.
There was a massive crackle of energy, one that sounded almost deafening. Invictus landed behind the group, with each of them there barely reaching the top of its foot, and the mechdragon barely up past the ankle. But the crackle of energy generated a blast of wind that nearly knocked even the mech down from its perch. Ophiod and Oni moved into the cockpit of the mech, cowering from the wind as they all watched the sight in front of them.
The portal began to swirl around itself and stretch up into the sky, as though it was some sort of inverted tornado. The winds around it continued to whip and smash around the thing, up until it felt ready to rip all of them away from their perch. Lulloyd dug the mechdragon into the ground, and the others all hid behind it. Then, with a hard crash, the wind faded away all at once. All of them looked up, watching as the portal above them continued to swirl and crackle, but the winds were gone. It was as though the world itself had stopped.
There was a flash of blue light, one that all of them, including those inside of Invictus, covered their eyes from. The flash seemed to burn past all of their arms and eyelids, making Lloyd and Harumi drop to the ground to try to bury away the light before their vision was burned away. Even Monty looked away from it. Prime blasted his mech's power up again to try to shield out the light from burning through them all. A moment after the light, however, the entire world thundered with an earthquake. Prime spun one of the swords in Invictus around to dig in, holding on as the three were thrown about inside the cockpit. The mechdragon was toppled onto its side. Harumi and Lloyd rocked across the ground, even as they lay down on it. Monty had to grip the SoS harder so as not to lose the thing. It seemed to last for a time beyond what was normal, what was expected of it. It was not a natural quake.
And, finally, the group slowly began to stand up. As they opened their eyes, at first it seemed as though they had all gone blind from the flash of light. Lloyd waved his hands in front of his face, at first his breath picking up in fear as to what might have happened. With a charge of green, however, his eyes were able to painfully adjust back to reality. When he looked up, he realized that they were standing in the middle of a shadow. A shadow that was cast, all the way to where they were, hundreds of feet away from the Summit grounds. Invictus slowly stood up, letting Prime shake his head and clear the red dots burning in his sight to try to see forward as to what was there. What had just emerged for them.
Whatever they had just summoned had almost filled the entire valley. At the first glance, it appeared to be an Iron Doom. Something akin to it, in both its shape and its motion. Lloyd, however, found that his eyes were drawn to where the head of the Iron Doom should have been. And for some reason, whatever the thing was didn't stop there. A cold feeling of dread overcame Lloyd as he realized this, as he realized the size, the scope, the weight of what they had summoned. And as he backed up, backed away just to have to crane his head up, he knew this had been a mistake.
The massive machine that the group had summoned was no longer a large building. Now, it was an utter mountain. Just from a cursory glance, it seemed the machine was at least a hundred floors tall, taller than even Borg Tower itself. But for each foot of height that the machine had grown form the Iron Doom, it did so equally in its width. The breadth of the shoulders of the giant stretched across the sky, and seemed to cover the entire horizon. Hundreds of feet stretched from the end of one of its arms to the other. The machine was so tall that it blotted out the very sun itself, and the cloud layer actually seemed to be kissing the very top of its head. The shadows that it cast from blotting out the sun made it hard to at first ascertain what the machine was. Even now, with the sheer height and power of Invictus, the machine barely even rose to the mech's shin, making the mech that had driven them into fighting so violently look like a toy.
As the group studied it more in the minutes that passed in seemingly frozen time, it became clear that the machine really was akin to the Iron Doom. The machine was clearly a massive mech, with the same snake-like bottom portion. The tail was wrapped around the bottom of the mech's torso, the massive bladed tip easily as long as the Bounty. The machine was entirely red, with only metal accents to show that it was indeed some sort of mech. It was almost an inverse of the Iron Doom, with this machine being red with metal on the inside for the skeleton. The entire bottom portion was armored with plate metal the size of streets, wrapped around in ridges that had wicked spikes that rose up to the middle of the machine. Large metal had then been fashioned into a battle-skirt of sorts, protecting the waist of the machine. The tail was made of large circular sections of red metal that had been slotted together in a gradually shortening radius, ending in a single massive blade.
Further up the waist of the machine, the most striking difference became apparent: there was no massive Time Matrix clock dial. Instead, there was a massive painted chunk of metal that showed the symbol of the Hands of Time, large enough to be a monument in it of itself. The rest of the torso simply had metal that sloped upwards towards the thing's massive broad shoulders. Instead of the two arms of the Iron Doom, however, this mech had four, with two sets connecting to the same joint on both sides. Each arm was colored blue, green, red and orange, with massive bladed replicas of the Time Blades being held in them for weapons. It currently held all four arms down by its sides. The sheer size of the weapons would be enough to destroy the mechdragon in a single clean hit.
And finally, the group brought their attention to the top of the mech, to the massive head that lay there. Unlike the machine-like imitation of the Iron Doom, this head was fashioned akin to a Vermillion helmet, with the slants moving in towards the chin in the triangular fashion. Behind it, the head was entirely black with red paint that sloped up to eyes that glowed a deep, imposing yellow. Massive struts the size of cars lined the mech's neck, just to hold up the sheer weight of it. There was no mouth to the machine, but it did not need one to impose itself on the group.
Suddenly, the machine hissed, a noise that sounded like a thunderclap. The massive painted symbol of the Time Twins split down the middle in an L shape like the hands of a clock, folding down into the massive maw of the machine. As it opened up, it showed a massive cockpit, one that was settled within a massive cavern of red swirling mass and metal. For a moment, it was hard to see what was piloting it. That was, however, until the semi-circular control panel folded back, and let something slither forward.
The pilot of this machine was none other than the Iron Doom. The machine was undoubtedly the one that the group had seen leaving Over's world, as even from that distance the glowing crack in the dial on its front was there. But as the group looked on, it was clear that this machine had been scaled so the Iron Doom was akin to the Twins piloting the actual machine. The Iron Doom itself was now the operator of this machine.
The Iron Doom twisted its head, as though attempting to figure out where it was. There was a confusion in its movements, much like they had intended for the Twins to have when they arrived. But this time, they had no courage to try to face the machine in front of them. Compared to the Iron Doom, they were now grains of sand compared to what they saw in front of them. The Iron Doom, not satisfied with its assessment of the scenery, descended back into the machine. The massive dial slowly folded back up, sealing it back inside of its cockpit.
Nearly thirty seconds later, the bottom of the machine. What was once the flap to deploy Vermillion to the field was now used to let the Iron Doom itself slither out across the ground. From the massive size of the machine's footprint along, the Iron Doom seemed barely far away from the assembled group alone. The dimensional travelers leapt up to their feet, backing away as the Iron Doom slithered towards them, almost as though it had spawned from the machine in front of them.
"Don't think we don't see you!" Acronix's voice shot out from the Iron Doom's speakers, freezing all of them in their tracks. Lloyd looked up as the Iron Doom slithered up until it had put them at nearly waist height with the hill they all stood on. The machine bent down towards them, the once imposing sight nothing compared to the massive sight that dwarfed it in the background.
"Prime!" Krux's voice boomed out from the Iron Doom, "What is the meaning of this?!"
"K-Krux," Prime bowed his head, causing Invictus to do the same, "I… I don't know. These, these six, they created some sort of device, it appears that… that it was able to activate before we were able to stop them."
"Oh?" Acronix asked, "They… summoned us, then?"
Lloyd, feeling a small rush of emotion, raised his sword up towards the Iron Doom. As soon as he did, the Iron Doom pointed one finger towards him. The massive machine in the air far, far above them then raised one of its four arms, pointing it down towards them. Between the prongs of its scaled up time blade weapons, energy began to arc and pout between them. The sight of it reminded him of staring down the old rifle of Invictus.
"Ah-ah-ah!" Acronix shouted, "Don't even think about it! I don't think you need to be told what would happen if you tried to fight that thing, do you?" Lloyd, seeming the massive weapon hundreds of feet in the air charged up to attack them, froze.
Slowly, the viewport of the Iron Doom itself began to fold open. Inside, the group watched as Krux and Acronix stepped forward. The two had traded their armor they long since worn for something that looked almost like a dark knight of sorts. Both of them had jet black armor on, filled with massive spikes and brutal edges like the Iron Doom. Acronix had blue and green painted on the shoulder pads of his own, while Krux had orange and red. Both of them had their heads unbecombered, allowing them to see their faces. Acronix raised up his gauntlet, showing it had a control panel on it that appeared to control the projection of their voices.
"After all of this time, all that we've done to show you how powerless you are, you still attempt to find us…" Krux scowled, "If anything, I will for once admire your tenacity. It takes a will almost able to hold a candle to our own to pursue us."
"Prime…" Acronix looked over towards Invictus in front of them, "You look a little… beat up, don't you? Why don't you leave us?"
"I…" Prime slowly gulped, his voice projected to them, "...Yes, that might be for the best. We… we have taken quite a beating from all of this."
"What of the snake and the hybrid?" Krux asked.
"I am fine," Oni responded through the projection.
"It… It…" Ophiod's voice projected through, "I-It appears that Skales was, injured, in the conflict. I-I must, I must take him-"
"Then what are you waiting around for?!" Acronix cut him off, "Go, take him to safety! You've done your job. In fact, you've done it exceptionally well. We'll call on you when we're ready."
"I-I… t-thank you!" Ophiod shouted, "G-Go, take us home at once!"
Prime nodded to Ophiod, activating the core of the mech. Slowly, the mech began to crackle open a portal akin to that which the others had used. Lloyd felt a strong pull inside of him to protest, to try to stop them before they got away, but he could not move. Not with the thing in the sky itself holding him hostage to his spot. He was only able to watch as the mech simply disappeared from the world, disappeared off and left them alone with nothing but themselves, their fear, and the Twins staring them down.
"Hmmph, I thought we told them to keep them off our backs, brother…" Krux spat, "In what way have they 'done exceptionally well' as you claim?"
"In the way that they have gone and delivered everything we wanted!" Acronix gestured his hand forward, "After all… we did plan to show off the Iron Demise, did we not?"
"The Iron… Demise?" Lloyd asked in a voice barely able to be heard. Krux, picking up on what he was saying, just looked down to Lloyd and gave a hard laugh.
"Why yes, boy, behold the fruits of our labor!" Krux raised his arms behind him, "The culmination of our will, our might, and our power! Behold… the Iron Demise!"
The newly christened Iron Demise raised its four arms just as Krux did, stretching its shadows even further across the ground. The sheer sound of its body moving was enough to drown out all of Lloyd's thoughts for a moment. When it finally stopped, i allowed them to process what they were seeing, all Lloyd could do was stare at it, stare at the machine above him… and see what it was that the Twins had finally wrought.
"I admit, we had planned to roll this thing out in a bit more… fun manner, but this works too," Acronix smirked, "After all, just seeing it seems to have done the trick!"
"...W-What…" Harumi slowly summoned her courage, "Is this… is this what Operation Red Dawn was all about?!"
For a moment, the two looked completely taken aback with how they said the name. It was as though they hadn't anticipated anything like that being known. But after a moment, Acronix just sighed and cocked his hips a bit before waving his now armored hand.
"So, you did know about that, eh?" Acronix chortled, "I'm really starting to wonder how much you all really got up to when we weren't around. Maybe we should go doing a little digging of our own, eh, brother?"
"Do not let your arrogance get the best of you right now, brother…" Krux frowned, "We have yet to even show what it is the Iron Demise is now capable of. And what we will do to them for their insolence in fighting us for as long as they have."
Slowly, the Twins took a step back into the Iron Doom, causing the viewport to fold up to its normal shape. Seats rose up from the floor for them to sit in as they slithered away. Monty twitched in trying to raise the SoS to see something, only for the glow in the blade to show a blast of white from the sky that left nothing behind afterwards. The others looked to Monty, who gave them the look that moving would result in their end.
"The true purpose of this machine is one that you may have already figured out," Krux's voice emanated from the Iron Doom, "It is, after all, the solution to a problem we've had ever since we first re-acquired our machine."
Problem? Lloyd had to think. What was the problem? What was the thing that they had done? He thought back to everything, anything and everything that he had known. And in doing so, he began to form something in his head. But the thought was one that festered, and left him unable to voice it. The thought of it alone felt ready to eat out of his chest and leap forward into the air.
"You all should know, it would be simple to destroy you right now… but if we did, we'd be unable to make certain you saw everything that we have done!" Acronix laughed, "Shall I tell them now, brother?"
"You're such an impatient child," Krux sighed, "But yes, you may tell them in a moment."
The Iron Demise opened back up, allowing the Iron Doom to once more slide inside of the massive, massive machine. And then, once more, some system delivered the Iron Doom far up into the air to pilot the Iron Demise once more. All the while, Lloyd was waiting. Waiting for the moment that they could run, or attack. But as though to ensure they didn't get any ideas, another of the four arms of the Iron Demise lowered its weapon and charged it with power, ensuring that they would be blasted to bits the moment they moved.
Once the Iron Doom was at the controls of the Iron Demise, which itself was being piloted by the Twins, the Iron Demise began to move. The massive tail unfurled and slashed across the air. A nearby hill was sliced apart by the end of the sword's tail, destroying it completely. The sound of the rocks inside of it being crumbled and blasted apart took all Lloyd had not to flinch at. And all of them continued to watch as the Iron Demise moved, with them unable to do a single thing.
"We had planned for this to be a little surprise for you to find out, but… well, this time you'll get to see it first hand!" Acronix laughed, this time his voice being projected from the Iron Demise itself. It was as though listening to a thunderous crack of lightning with each syllable he uttered through the sky, "This machine isn't that far off from the Iron Doom. In fact, we used the Iron Doom to somewhat construct it. And thanks to the technology we got from Prime's little scientist, we found a way to extrapolate as much energy from the Time Blades as we could. Even put it on an ever sustaining loop!"
"And it just so happens we have an ever sustaining fuel source on this machine, one that replenishes itself faster than we can ever hope to contain now," Krux smirked, his voice far more of a rumbling roar compared to his twin, "I bet you could figure out what that is!" Lloyd already knew. It was the Vermillion. However many millions of snakes were in that machine were breeding, writhing, eating each other and most likely continuing themselves in an ever perpetuating cycle.
"That little problem we had, was finding a way to make absolutely certain that you never did come after us again… and after a bit, we found it!" Acronix laughed, "But you all were oh so good at finding ways to interrupt our plans. And so, we found those two in order to help slow you down. And it seems they bought us just enough time to complete our plan."
"We are the Time Twins, and for once, it seems we have a chance to show it… by showing what happens when we hold Ninjago's history in our grasp," Krux continued. The sounds of the Iron Demise moving were growing louder. The machine was starting to slither forward across the ground. Ground that looked ready to crack under its sheer weight.
"But oh, that was a bit of a problem, since while that was possible to sustain in your world, other worlds proved… tricky," Acronix continued, "We had a few attempts before we realized we'd need something that could truly contain our power, and sustain us."
"In any world we have touched, we become part of its history… and to alter any of that history would create a paradox of our very existence," Krux explained, "And therefore, if our plan was to involve altering history, to sustain that paradox would be vital."
"And now, we have it!" Acronix laughed, "A machine that can sustain any paradox that we create. A machine that can carry us into any universe, and conquer it before anyone could ever raise a sword in its defense. This baby here carries enough Vermillion to make a sea out of it, and still move this thing around!"
"And with all of that so," Krux's voice turned sinister, "Perhaps it is now time for us to demonstrate the power that we hold!"
Slowly, the Iron Demise began to move. It was as though watching a titan beginning to stir from a slumber. Lloyd felt every ounce of his body screaming to attack, to run, to do something. To stay rooted to this spot was utterly horrifying. But he couldn't do anything else. Harumi looked to be in the same boat, rooted to the ground out of fear. Lulloyd was still atop the mechdragon, and hadn't twitched a stud since. Monty held the broken SoS just in his sight to see if they needed to move, but even he too was silent.
"Now, which of you are we going to test it on?" Acronix's voice boomed out, "Hrmmm… well let's decide the fun way!" Slowly, the arm charging a beam at them began to shift back and forth.
"Eenie!" The arm pointed at Monty, "Meenie!" It shifted to Lulloyd, "Minie!" He pointed at Lloyd, "Mo!" The arm shifted to Mage's body on the ground, "Catch a serpent by his toe!" HE shifted it to Harumi, "If he slithers, let him go…" It began to shift back and forth, so high up none of them knew where it was going, "And my brood told me to pick the very best one! And you! Are! IT!"
The arm landed firmly on Harumi. The others looked at her as Harumi's eyes widened until they seemed ready to break out of their sockets. Her breath froze in her throat as she tried to put together what that meant, what it was that they were saying. She opened her mouth to try to speak, but no sound came out. The overwhelming force in front of her had bereft her of that luxury.
"W...What's it?!" Lulloyd was the one to shout, looking up towards the titan in the sky, "What, what are you doing to do?!"
The titan did not respond. Instead, the Iron Demise raised its four arms up into the sky. From each of the blades, a beam charged up and shot into the sky. When it touched what seemed like the heavens itself, the four beams began to slowly twist around. They carved through the air and slowly began to form a quarter of a circle. When the beams had twisted around to form the full circle, a portal once more opened in the sky. The torrential winds began to crack through the air again, leaving them all to hunker back down before they were blown from the hill, even from a portal so high in the sky.
"Let this be your final warning, your last chance at redemption in our eyes!" Krux's voice shouted out, "If we are to see you again, you will be destroyed! You will never see us again if you are able to understand what true power is! Do not think of us anymore as your enemies. It is by our grace we allow you to live! And let that be forever carved into your souls as a fact that is immutable! Indelible! Inevitable!"
The portal crackled. The blue lines that formed around the Iron Demise were unlike any that they had seen before. They appeared to almost be like ropes dragging the thing up into the sky. They couldn't dare hope to move and try to stop it. Even if they did more, there was nothing they could do. The Iron Demise smashed its tail into the ground, carving a small ravine just from the force of it. And with it, the machine rose up into the air. The sheer force required to do that would be more than any of them could imagine. And with it, one last line from the Twins.
"Bye bye for the last time!" Acronix laughed, "Hope to see you again… NEVER!"
Then, with another flash of blinding light, the machine was gone. It was drawn up into the portal, and with it, the Twins. The moment that it vanished, the entire world went silent. An eerie, harsh silence that was unlike anything that they had heard before. The winds stopped. The sun was back. The entire world had gone back to what it was. Everything was back to normal.
Lloyd fell forward onto his hands and knees. He shook his head, feeling his fear bubbling through him and gripping his throat with icy claws. He could barely even feel his own body. That, that wasn't anything like they had thought of. That wasn't the Iron Doom. That was what he had once thought the Iron Doom was. But that thing, that Iron Demise, it was something that none of them could ever have truly anticipated. It was a machine that was truly built for destruction, for terror and chaos… it was something that they couldn't dare hope to stand up to.
"...So," Monty slowly inhaled, "...That's a bit bigger than I expected."
Lloyd turned his head towards Monty. He wanted to say something to that, to snap or reprimand him from making a joke in a time like this. But instead he found his breath was completely gone. He didn't know why, but he didn't want to say anything. The fact that Monty was still acting like himself, was somewhat comforting in a way. Somehow.
"...W-What did they mean…?" Lulloyd asked, "What did they mean by…?" His own voice died in his throat.
Suddenly, there was a noise behind them. Immediately, all of that tension and fear that they felt were translated into that jump. Lloyd charged up power in his hands and threw it towards the source, Monty blasted wind from his broken sword, Lulloyd twisted the mechdragon and armed his missiles, and Harumi fired off Rhotatae after Rhotatae at the noise. They didn't stop for a long while, hurling everything until they all had worked out their immediate fear.
All of their attacks made the beast that had appeared behind them simply groan. The Firstbourne stood there, her massive red and balck body taking each of their attacks and shattering against her majestic scales. It wasn't until she saw him that Lloyd realized he hadn't seen her ever since the cloud of smoke had appeared. She was somewhat panting, her wings vibrating to show just how hard she'd been flying. From the noise she made, it seemed as though she'd flown nonstop somewhere. Somewhere far away.
"Mage!" A voice that was twinged with fear came from the back of the beast. The group looked up to see two faces that, right now, they would have begged themselves not to see again. Acronix' and Krux', the two true twins from the Time Tribe, were there. Acronix' had his new short-sword drawn, and Krux' his massive gauntlets that sparked with time energy.
"...Is that, is that them?" Lulloyd asked, unable to stop himself.
Ignoring their words, the two twins leapt down from the beast. From the way their bodies were shaped, moved and twitched, it was clear it was none other than the two from the Time Tribe. Acronix' raced forward, sheathing his new sword and dropping down to his knees beside Mage's limp body on the ground. Both he and Over had remained there on the ground the entire time, neither of them having woken up yet. The red wound that was on his chest remained there, still slightly bleeding and only slowed in its progression by Mage's latent power.
"Brother!" Acronix' shouted, "He's almost gone!"
"I'm on it," Krux' nodded, quickly racing over. Lloyd felt an urge to stop him, simply because of the look that the two shared to those that had just gotten away. And immediately following, a burning shame that he wanted to immediately admonish himself for feeling.
Once Krux' was overtop of Mage's body, he raised up his left gauntlet, the symbols on it glowing a deep orange. He took a few deep breaths, then he suddenly slammed the thing right down into Mage's chest. The impact sounded hard enough to snap apart bones. Monty immediately pointed the SoS at him, and Harumi charged up Rhotatae at him. Instead of Mage crying out, though, instead all of the orange power in the gauntlet shot straight down into Mage's body, wrapping around him in a thin glow. When Krux' raised his gauntlet back up, the energy saturated him and sunk down into his body. The wound on Mage's body slowly began to close up… or rather, reversed in time until it was no longer there.
Then, a noise that came as a relief that none of them had truly realized they needed: Mage gasped. His eyes shot open as he threw himself upright, trying to leap to his feet. Instead, Mage fell forward onto his face, clinging to Aevum as he feebily tried to plant the sword down into the ground. Krux' backed up slowly, watching him as he tried to sit up.
"...I-I'm… alive…" Mage gasped out, "...Did… did we…?"
"...Mage…" Acronix' raced forward, throwing his arms around Mage and hugging him firmly, "You… you're alive! Thank… thank the dragons!"
"You're welcome," Krux' smirked out playfully. Acronix' gave his brother a look, but slowly moved to help stand up. Mage trembled on his feet, looking around at the world around him. As he laid his eyes down on the valley, to the now completely flattened ruins of the Summit, to the large ravine that had been cracked open by the tail of the Iron Demise, he blinked in confusion. The others looked at Mage as though he was some sort of dead man walking.
"...Where did you two come from?" Monty asked the question he knew all of them were thinking.
"My brother and I were attending to our tribe when Firstbourne crashed down in the middle of town," Krux' answered, "She demanded that we go with her. She flew us here faster than I've ever seen her fly before."
"She must have flown off the moment that thing broke Ophiod's barrier…" Lulloyd posited, "I, lost track of her after the smoke happened. I guess she was in the air, then? She, made it all the way to the Time Tribe and back so fast..."
"She saw the mortal wound that had been inflicted on Mage, and knew that my brother was the only one able to heal it before it claimed him," Acronix' informed them, standing up slowly and looking over the destruction, "...She brought us back just in time to see that… that thing."
The momentary respite from the hopelessness faded as soon as the counterpart mentioned the Iron Demise. Lloyd reached his hand up, realizing he could still hear his own heartbeat. Lulloyd finally dismounted his mechdragon, turning it into a brick to plant into the ground. Monty walked forward towards Mage, looking him up and down and slowly frowning.
"What do you remember?" Monty asked Mage bluntly.
"Huh?" Mage blinked, "I… uhm, I remember fighting Oni, and the smoke started clearing and then… then I saw Ophiod's face. And after that, I don't remember anything."
"...So you didn't see Over, did you?" Harumi asked, "Not, anything?"
"No…?" Mage blinked, "What happened?"
The entire group was completely silent. None of them wanted to tell him what they saw. Slowly, Mage looked around. He saw Over's still unconscious body laying on the ground. The looks of horror that were on his friends faces. The silence that none of them were going to break. He frowned deeply, slowly sheathing his sword as he looked to each of them.
"What… what happened?" Mage frowned, 'Tell me!" None of them would.
With a long growl, Mage walked forward and grabbed hold of Lloyd's hand. Before Lloyd could realize what was happening, Mage's eyes opened a deep purple. A hard probe shot into Lloyd's mind before he could stop it. Mage drove all of those memories into his head, watching everything that had transpired. And when he finally let go, he backed away from Lloyd. He took a deep breath, then he began to tremble. He turned to look at Over. Then towards the valley in front of him. And soon, everything had become clear in his mind.
"...That… he did that…" Mage gripped his arms, "He did all of that, didn't he? Everything… he… he made sure that he…" Mage shook his head, "N-No. No that couldn't be it, I… I couldn't have…"
"Mage…" Lloyd began. He wanted to say more, but that was when he saw Harumi take a step forward towards Mage.
"Mage, it wasn't your f...fa…." Harumi began. Her body wobbled. Her her hands came to gently wrap around herself. And then, she collapsed.
"Harumi?!" Lloyd gasped out, racing over towards her and picking her up. When he did, Harumi's body felt cold. Harumi opened her lips, gasping out for air. As she did, she began to gasp out and writhe in Lloyd's arms. The sheer force of it was enough to smack Lloyd firmly away from her as she fell down. Her lips opened in a wordless cry as she continued to panic, to shake… much like she had when Over's shadows had consumed her.
"What's going on?!" Lulloyd gasped out. He reached down to try to grab hold of her, but a hard smack of her hand pushed him backwards.
Harumi continued to gasp out on the ground, as though she was in some sort of pain, some force was clinging onto her. For a moment, she seemed to sense something was wrong. She moved one hand in front of her face, trying to hold back from it. It was in that moment she saw something horrifying: her hand was slowly disappearing. And then the writhing took her again, making her flop back down.
"...Something is…" Acronix' blinked in terror, then he raced forward, "Something is very wrong with her!"
"Yeah, of course it is!" Monty snapped at him, "And what is it?!"
"I don't… I can't believe it…" Acronix' suddenly gained a harsh and demanding gaze, "Mage! Brother! Get over here right now! Focus all of your energy into her! ALL OF IT! RIGHT NOW!"
There was a harshness, a fierceness, and panic in the voice that Acronix' used that neither of the two he requested could be made to argue with him. As Harumi's arm began to disappear, Mage and Krux' raced over and got down on their knees in front of her. Acronix formed his Time Matrix on his right hand and wrapped his fingers firmly around Harumi's forehead. As he did, the hands turned until it glowed a deep green. When he looked up, he yanked Mage and Krux' to put their hand and gauntlet respectively on her stomach.
"NOW!" Acronix' shouted. Without waiting for explanation, Mage formed his Time Matrix, the thing flashing several colors before a beam of rainbow colored energy poured straight down into Harumi. Krux' pressed both of his gauntlets against her and poured all of the power inside of them into her. Acronix' focused hard, taking deep breaths before he gripped his fingers even harder. Harumi's eyes opened wide and began to flash first blue, then green, and finally settled on a deep red. All of Harumi's body then pulsed as though struck with electricity, and finally, she collapsed onto the ground. Her arm slowly reappeared on her body, and with it, Harumi's entire form was left to lay there.
Slowly, Acronix' removed his hand from Haruim's body, alongside the other two. The moment that he did, he found the broken bit of blade at his throat. Monty slowly moved forward, pointing the jagged edge against Acronix'. The twin slowly raised his hands up.
"I don't know why you're pointing that thing at me, friend, but it looks as though your blade is in need of repair," Acronix' spoke calmly, "Perhaps you should take it to the Fire Tribe, I hear they are quite skilled in weaponry and repairs."
"I'm a bit on edge after seeing that thing in the sky, so forgive me if seeing you suddenly start pumping time juice into her doesn't make me a bit suspicious of you," Monty growled, "Start talking, now."
"Monty!" Mage gasped out, standing up to go to stop him. Instead, his weakness from his now-healed injury, combined with the fact that he had just poured all of his time energy into Harumi, meant he just collapsed back onto his knees. Krux' moved over to help support him.
"...When my brother and I first learned of our powers, Muto, our dragon, told us that we commanded an element that could be used to save others and destroy ourselves simultaneously," Acronix' explained slowly, wary of Monty's blade, "And that if we wished to, we could combine our powers and travel through time. But to do so would put our own existence in jeopardy and create what Muto called a 'paradox.' If a timeline we created existed in which we could never go back to the past to create it, we would be consumed by time itself and cease to exist."
"Just, like with Over, he went back and time and made a world where he didn't exist…" Lulloyd's eyes widened in horrified understanding. Acronix' nodded his head.
"Yes… I think you all are understanding what I am saying," Acronix' shook his head, "Your friend here no longer exists. Her existence has become a living paradox."
"What? That's what that was?" Krux' paused, "I felt a strange energy from her, but, I never expected that was what it was."
"Then… then you're saying that?" Lloyd began.
"Whatever that massive behemoth that our others escaped in, they have done something to her timeline… and she now no longer exists," Acronix' lowered his head, "I have used a technique that Muto taught me, in the event something like this happened. I have frozen every element of her in time, sustained by the raw power of the three of us combined. But that effect is one that is only temporary."
"What do you mean, temporary?" Mage asked nervously.
"I mean that right now, your friend is now living on borrowed time, quite literally," Acronix' frowned deeply, "...And if I were to guess, the power that we have just given her, would last her perhaps a few month's time. After that… she will fade away, and her existence will be erased from this world and all others."
Everything was beginning to make sense. Lloyd knew now why the Twins had done what they had. The Iron Demise was a machine built to allow for them to make a statement. The horrifying reality of what had just happened set in with those last words from Acronix'. The twins had gone back in time in Harumi's world… and made it so that the events that led to her very birth no longer were in place. The Twins had erased Harumi from time itself.
"...This is not a place to discuss such things," Acronix' stood up, "Gather her up on Firstbourne and the strange beast that you fly," Acronix' gestured to Lulloyd as he walked over to help Mage stand, "...I do not know how this is possible, but we must fear now that the worst, has come to pass," Acronix' shook his head, then walked over to Firstbourne. He reached his hand out towards her. The massive dragon allowed him to gently pat her head, and to in turn lower her body so the others could climb up onto her.
Slowly, Lloyd picked up Harumi and carried her over onto the saddle of the Firstbourne. Acronix' and Krux' leapt on after them, sliding into place behind the seat and ensuring she was in place. Mage slowly climbed his way up onto the Firstbourne, who gave a long murmur of relief as he gently hugged her face. She lifted him up into the air and let him slide down her neck until he was in the saddle along with them. Lulloyd used his mechdragon to scoop up Over and let Monty float up into the cockpit with them. With a nod, Mage and Lulloyd had their dragons take off into the sky.
"...Hnngg…" The motion of Firstbourne's powerful wings flapping stirred Harumi upright. Immediately, Lloyd moved down and gently picked her head up, looking down into. As Harumi opened her eyes, it was weakly, and her entire body appeared to be weakened and sickened down to its core.
"Harumi!" Lloyd gasped out, "Don't, don't move. You need to lay down right now. You, you're not well, you should…" Lloyd trailed off as Harumi gripped his arm. She looked up into his eyes for a moment, as though to confirm to him that she was still with them. And slowly, she laid her head back down, passing out atop the beast. The two dragons flew off into the distance, defeated, nervous, and shown the limits of their powers in ways none of them had ever known before.