A/N:

So I left you with a meany last chapter, but you didn't have to wait an entire week this time, so that's something at least!

Now, before you go on and read, if any of you are also reading A Royal Duty on STARS, I accidentally deleted that story yesterday when I updated it and it had to be reposted and you now need to put it back on your alert list!

I'm gonna continue putting the disclaimer here just be sure that everyone is aware of where this story originated.

This story isn't 100 % mine. I have transformed it into a story from an interactive story app called Choices (an app I am completely obsessed with atm) and the creators are Pixelberry Studios.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

{Epilogue}

Three years ago...

In the dingy medical ward of a Naval base in Central Asia, a man stirred in a hospital bed, his body wrapped up in thick bandages.

"Ungh … what? Where..."

Next to him, another man stirred in a chair.

"Edward! Is that—"

The man's cigar burned brightly. "Well, look at that. Awake at last," McKenzie said, pleased. "The others figured you'd never make it, but I bet on you. You always were the toughest of us, Whitlock."

Jazz glared at McKenzie with his one good eye. The other one was bandaged over. "You son-of-a-bitch, I'll kill—" He tried to lunge, but excruciating pain shot through his body, and he slumped back in bed, rasping.

McKenzie looked unimpressed. "You're not exactly in the shape to make any threats."

"You … you set us up..." Jazz panted out.

"I wouldn't go pointing fingers. After all, I'm not the treacherous rat planning to betray his commanding officer!" McKenzie raised his brow. "Did you really think I wouldn't know? I run a tight ship, you idiot. I know everything that happens under my roof."

Jazz swallowed. "Edward … is he..."

"Wolf? He's alive. For now." McKenzie narrowed his furious eyes. "He ejected somewhere over Kharzistan. We've got all the squads looking for him. He won't run long, believe me." He leaned forward. "You weren't so lucky. We recovered the cockpit from the Caspian a few days ago." He looked Jazz up and down. "Hate to break it to you, but your body's a mess. Spine broken. Third-degree burns on eighty-seven percent of your body … and I hope you weren't attached to your legs … because they ain't attached to you," he finished with a smirk.

Jazz looked down and saw that his body ended at mid-thigh, and he moaned at the sight.

"Most of the unit, they think I shoulda just let you die. Hell, I could smother you with a pillow right now, and no one would have to know."

Jazz curled his lip in disgust. "Try it, G.I. Schmoe. My legs might be gone, but I can still bite."

McKenzie smiled. "See, Whitlock? That's what I'm talking about. You're as tough as they come. It'd be a waste to just put you down." He walked over across the room to a strange piece of medical equipment, a futuristic helmet, the inside lined with drills.

"What the hell is that?" Jazz asked violently.

"This?" McKenzie smiled wider. "This, my friend, is the future." He tapped the helmet. "My unit … Arachnid Unit … is going to be the greatest fighting force on the planet. A mercenary army that would make global superpowers tremble in fear."

Jazz shook his head with wide eyes, questioning McKenzie's sanity. "You're a lunatic."

"What, did you think this was all about lining my pockets? Think bigger." He stepped closer to the bed. "I'm about to change the face of warfare … starting with yours. But after this, you might need a new callsign."

He walked even closer, carrying the helmet, as Jazz writhed in the bed, trying to get away.

"Wait … McKenzie, listen … please!"

"Buckle up, little mouse." He pushed the helmet closer, the gleaming drills starting to spin. "You're about to change history."

~~{MEJ}~~

Five days ago...

In the tree village of Elyys'tel, a small child sprinted over the bridges, clutching a towering stack of crispy cakes.

"They're mine! The cakes are all mine! The cakes are all m—"

Before he could finish, he rounded a corner and collided with Emilyne. He fell onto his butt, and the cakes scattered everywhere.

"Oh, I'm dying to hear you explain this, Sether," she said and crossed her arms.

"I … took the cakes … because … if I did … then … I would have cakes?" he stammered.

"Uh huh. Pick them up and bring them back to the baker. Now," Emilyne ordered, leaving no room for argument.

"Awww..." Sether bent down to pick up the cakes and Emilyne gently ruffled his hair. "Emilyne?"

"Yes?"

"I miss the Cat-a-lissus."

Emilyne looked north, a distant longing look in her eyes. "Me too."

Meanwhile, in a bunker somewhere on the island, McKenzie, Fiddler, Tetra, and Mouse sat around a table, playing cards.

"Hey, boss-man. Let me ask you a question," Fiddler said.

"Shoot," McKenzie replied without looking up from his cards.

"You really trust this Cullen guy? You sure he won't just sell us out?"

Tetra threw his cards on the table with a frown. "My dad always told me to never trust a man in a nice suit."

McKenzie scoffed. "Your dad was a bum who drove drunk off a pier, Tetra, so he's the last asshole I'd listen to."

Tetra shifted uncomfortably in his seat but remained silent.

"Look. I've been around the block long enough to know that sharks like Cullen are about as loyal as you can throw them," McKenzie told his crew. "Do I trust him? No. Do I think he'll try to pull something on us? Probably. But right now, we're stuck on his island. That means we gotta play his game." He looked at each one of them. "Don't you worry, though. I've got my eye on him. He tries anything … and that nice suit's all that'll be left of him."

Tetra nodded. "Hell yeah."

"We'll burn that bridge when we get there. Right now, focus up. Do your jobs." McKenzie grinned. "We've got ourselves a Wolf to hunt, ain't that right?"

Tetra cheered and Fiddler smiled.

"You'd better believe it," she said.

Mouse didn't say anything and the three of them turned to stare at him.

"I said … ain't that right?" McKenzie pressed and nailed Mouse with his glare.

"Yes … that's right," Mouse replied detached.

"Good. Now someone go get me another beer."

~~{MEJ}~~

Present day...

Up in the mountains, north of the Elysian Lodge, a little, blue fox bounded about and sprayed blasts of ice.

Nearby, a hulking Yeti nodded, letting out a low growl of approval.

Furball bounded over to the Yeti and curled up by its side. It glanced north, toward the island's tip, where a small column of smoke reached up to the sky. Furball whimpered questioningly.

The Yeti leaned down and snuffled and nuzzled Furball with its snout, as it let out a soft, mournful snort.

At the Volcano Observatory, Carlisle Cullen stood by a sophisticated machine and stared at the readings in disbelief.

Inside, a laser scanned the Island's Heart with a low drone.

"My god, Iris. It's incredible. I've never seen anything like it," he said in awe. "The energy levels on this … the sheer power..."

"It's truly impressive, sir."

"All this time … I thought I needed the Endless … but this crystal might just be enough." He turned to Iris. "Do you realize what this means? The Janus Project can begin at last."

Iris's hologram flickered as a less than pleased expression morphed her translucent face. "Yes. It can."

On a remote mountain pass, a man walked to the edge of a cliff and gazed out, seeing a black tendril of smoke reaching into the sky.

He stared at it through his binoculars for a minute then turned and vanished back down the mountainside.

~~{MEJ}~~

The first thing I sensed when I came to was warm lips pressed against mine. My lungs inflated as air was blown in my mouth.

"Come back to me. There you are..."

My eyes fluttered open and the brilliant sunlight above blinded me.

"That's it. Up you go."

"Where...?" I tried but quickly had to roll over as I choked and hacked up the water that had filled my lungs. It splattered out onto a wooden beam. That's when I noticed the floor was moving beneath me. I blinked. "A boat?" I rasped. My vision cleared, and I found myself on a small trimaran rocking in the gentle Caribbean waves. "How did I—" I whipped around to see the owner of the voice and saw Angelique smiling at me.

"Oui, c'est moi. You may call me 'guardian angel' if you wish," she said.

"Angelique … you saved my life," I panted out gratefully.

She winked at me, and I looked around, still dazed. In the distance to the north, a column of smoke rose from the MASADA Complex.

"You were out for a couple of hours after I dragged you from the depths. Do you remember anything?" Angelique asked me.

"I fell," I replied solemnly.

She nodded. "Indeed. Very far, very fast, and very ungracefully."

I turned to her. "How'd you know to be there? It couldn't have been luck."

"I was dispatched to your aid by your red-clad friend," she replied, and I frowned in confusion.

"Who?"

She smiled secretly. "I could not say. But you have someone looking out for you."

I looked around and realized how warm it was. "Hold on, we're back in the tropical part of the island? Where are you heading?" I turned and looked back toward the north. "We need to find the others! They could be hurt!"

Angelique nodded. "Mais oui. They could be, but La Mer will guide them where they need to go."

I frowned angrily. "I need to find them, Angelique."

"As you said, you owe me your life. I gave you help, and now I am in need of yours."

I exhaled in defeat. "So where are you taking me then?"

Angelique beached her boat on the shore and alighted onto the warm sand. She drew her cutlass and pointed up at the smoking peak of Mount Suerte. "There."

After a long hike, we finally emerged from the dense jungle at the foot of the volcano.

"This is it," Angelique said. "C'est impressionnant, non?" She gestured ahead at the colossal stone temple carved into the volcanic base.

I instantly recognized the structure. It was the same temple in which I had buried my friends in the vision I got when I touched my own idol. The vision in which I'd been wearing Edward's dog tags.

Edward.

His name caused my stomach to ache. I hoped he was alright, wherever he was now.

I cleared my throat. "I've seen it before. What is it?" I asked my companion.

"Welcome to the Threshold."

"The Threshold? The threshold of what?"

Angelique winked. "We shall find out together." She clasped shut an antique compass, the one I saw her take from the chest in the Jeweled Cave.

"That compass … is that how you found this place?" I asked.

"A keen eye, you have." She nodded. "Indeed it is. In a manner of speaking, I died to steal it … Janvier made me walk the plank for my thievery, though I still hold that it is he who stole it from me. But when I came here, I encountered that red-clad demon. It told me I needed your help."

I startled. "My help?"

"You and your compagnons. But as you may be the last surviving one … I must settle for you." She led me into the dark mouth of the temple.

"It's pitch-black in here," I pointed out.

"Never fear. There is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Make sure to stay near me, mon amour. It is easy to get lost in these tunnels. You could wind up wandering down here forever..."

Gradually, the world took shape as light trickled down from deep within the volcano, until at last, I found myself in a large ceremonial chamber lined with lava spouts. A hunched figure in the center startled at our arrival.

Angelique drew her cutlass. "It appears we have an intruder. Surrender, fiend!"

I stepped in front of her as I recognized Harrvel. "It's fine," I said. "I know him."

"Bella?! Blessings of Kaanu, it is you!" the old Kaarii exclaimed and hobbled forward to embrace me.

"Good to see you, Harrvel," I said and hugged him back.

Angelique looked bewildered. "You are friends? After these people imprisoned you for life?"

I shrugged as it was a very long story. "We ended up having some common interests. Harrvel, this is Angelique. She's how we escaped Sharktooth Isle."

He nodded in recognition. "Ah, the boat thief. A pleasure to meet you."

Angelique looked offended. "Pardonnez-moi, but I steal much more than just boats."

"Of course. But, Bella, I had heard such terrible news, of foreign warriors coming to slay you," Harrvel said, once again turning to me. "Some of our scouts returned from the battle at the chasm and feared you dead!"

I quickly filled Harrvel in on everything that transpired after that first battle. "I'm so sorry, Harrvel. Cullen, he … he was the Heart."

The Shaman's brow creased, and he turned away and stared into the lava's glow. "This is most terrible. The Hydra with such incredible power … We must ask the Endless what to do."

Angelique shook her head. "I do not know half the things of which you speak, and I care for even less. But if we are all here to see the same person, then we can work together, non?"

"So how do we talk to the Endless, Harrvel?" I asked.

"The Catalyst Idols were the keys the Endless bestowed unto us," he replied. "When we could unite all twelve, that meant that we as a people were ready to learn its secrets." He gestured around to the twelve pedestals surrounding the bridge of stone. "But our people were not worthy. We lost the Idols in the Three Tribes' War. This is why I sought them. This is why I sought the Catalysts. Each of you has a special connection to your idol. I needed your help to commune with the Endless and learn the truth behind stopping Raan'losti." He looked at me with despair. "But if what you say is true, and Raan'losti has already come … I know not what we can do."

I nodded in understanding. "Okay, so we put all twelve Catalyst Idols on these pedestals, and then we get to learn the truth behind the Endless? And it's beyond this lava moat here?"

"So claim the legends. Did you manage to find the idols on your journey?"

I grinned and was so happy that I miraculously still had my bag. "Every last one."

Harrvel gasped. "Incredible."

"You did?! Oh, you are truly incomparable, mon amour!" Angelique grabbed my face and smooched both of my cheeks.

"So, where do I put them? In what order?"

Harrvel just shrugged, and I put the idols down randomly on the pedestals. The moment I placed the last idol, the chamber rumbled, and the rings around the pedestals' sides began to rotate to new positions.

"The gears are turning," Harrvel cheered.

I gaped. "I can't believe it worked in a random order! I thought it'd be some crazy, complicated—" As the words left my mouth, one of the stone walls slid aside to reveal a huge painting full of symbols. "Ah, yeah. I was waiting for this part."

"Oh, and look!" Angelique exclaimed. "Above us!"

I looked up to see a circle in the ceiling opening up to reveal a second painting of symbols.

"What are we supposed to do with these?" she asked.

"It's some kind of puzzle," I mused.

Harrvel nodded. "A trial of the Endless to prove our worth! We shall solve it in no time at all!"

I hoped he was right in his confidence of riddle solving because as I looked at the wall again, it didn't make much sense to me.

It wasn't that the symbols themselves were indecipherable. I could clearly see some of them resembling what looked like a dagger, a hand, a skull, a bow and arrow, and a fish, while others were a bit more tricky to interpret.

The ones almost a the bottom confused me the most. They looked like a cluster of two versus one simple wavy lines with a little blob on top of it.

Angelique looked between the wall and the ceiling. "It appears that some of the, uh, runes on the wall are the same as the ones on the ceiling," she mused.

I looked up at the ceiling and there were three rows of runes there. If I squinted, it looked like it could be four words starting with an eight-lettered, then two four-lettered, and lastly a ten-lettered.

I hummed in agreement. "What are these runes anyway? An ancient alphabet?" I asked, my thoughts spinning from the theory that it was words and each symbol stood for a letter.

"Perhaps early Kaarii … or perhaps something pre-dating us all," Harrvel suggested, none the wiser.

"It's clear the runes are spelling out words," I told my companions. "The question is, what words?"

"We need to learn what letters the runes stand for," Angelique said, pointing out the obvious, and I silently rolled my eyes when she was turned away from me.

"Could it be names, perhaps?" Harrvel suggested.

"Everything's possible at this point," I said and looked around. My eyes landed on the idols. They were the trigger for the wall and the ceiling, so obviously they had something to do with it.

I walked up to the one closest to me, Kate's peacock Idol, and touched it. The second I did, I got to see a glimpse of the vision I had the first time I touched it.

Pelted by rain, Kate climbed into a rusted sailboat.

"You're going to get yourself killed, you idiot!" Rosalie yelled.

"No, I'm going! None of you want me here! You never did!"

Edward ran after her but it was too late. "No! Kate, that thing's still out there!"

As her sailboat shrunk in the distance, I saw a massive shadow slithering beneath the waves.

I gasped and stepped away from it. I'd thought that both of us had to touch it for me to see, but maybe the power inside the temple allowed me to do so without Kate here.

I looked back at the wall, even more determined to decipher the message. "These sigils on the wall seem special," I said, pointing out the dagger, the skull, and the wavy lines.

"Do you recognize them from anywhere?" Angelique asked.

I shook my head disappointedly, and touched Garrett's Idol, the eagle-headed man on a throne, in hope to get more clues from the visions. They had to mean something, or I wouldn't have seen them.

"Don't worry about me. Run! I can handle it!"

The sabertooth pounced, pinning Garrett to the dirt right by the precipice.

"Don't do it, man!" Peter called.

"...I've got this." With that, Garrett rolled over the edge of the cliff, taking the tiger with him. They both vanished out of sight.

I came back from the vision, and Angelique was still focusing on the sigils. "These large sigils on the wall … all of them suggest death."

All of them suggested death. Just like the visions. They all ended in death.

I reached out and touched Benjamin's Idol, the kneeling dog.

"Benjamin, go! Your whole life is ahead of you … Go and live it!" Jacorel cried out from the table.

"I tried that. Before. Life means nothing without people to care about," Benjamin said with feeling, refusing to leave.

"Deploying weapons."

The guns opened fire, and Benjamin and Jacorel spasmed helplessly as they were struck by a hail of bullets.

"The top sigil is a bloody dagger," Harrvel observed and brought me back to the temple. "Now where might you have seen that?"

A lot of places, I thought, but maybe in one of the visions. I tried Emmett's Idol next, the bucking centaur archer.

A battered and bruised Cullen shambled out of The Ethereal, carrying a harpoon gun. "I've had about enough of your insubordination, Head Chef Emmett."

Furball scampered ahead, then stopped to look back for Emmett.

"Just go! Run, little guy!"

There was a loud blast as Cullen fired the harpoon gun.

"Run for your li—"

"The middle sigil; the skull with the shackles beneath it, what could that be referring to?" Angelique muttered.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Trapped in death?" I looked at the cluster of wavy lines and tried to interpret them as something else. "This bottom sigil could be a bunch of mounds," I thought out loud, and then something occurred to me, and I counted them.

There were eleven of them.

The same number of graves I had dug in my vision. The only vision that didn't end with the main person's death.

What did that mean? Were all of my friends doomed to die? Was I supposed to outlive them all? Was that my inevitable future? To remain alone?

My heart was beating faster in my chest, but I tried to push down my initial fear. It wasn't a certainty. The future wasn't certain. Victoria had died differently than her vision after all. Unless she had somehow survived the rocket blast, but I doubted that.

I looked at the ceiling again. "Some of the runes in the ceiling aren't visible on the wall. How do we know what they mean?"

Angelique narrowed her eyes. "I believe we will have to use le contexte to guess. What words make sense in those spots?"

Then I saw something in the runes on the ceiling. "Look!" I pointed. "On the first row, the second four … they are the exact same combination as the first four runes on the last row."

"Zut!" Angelique exclaimed. "You are correct, mon amour!"

"So the longer word starts with a four-letter word that could also stand on its own..." I mused, and I could feel that we were getting closer to an answer. It was something about death, and the visions I'd had.

Harrvel had asked me where I'd seen the dagger before, and I suddenly remembered that Cullen had killed Rosalie with a dagger in the vision I'd had about her.

I quickly went up to her Idol, the thinking crow, and touched it.

"Five years … and now I'm done. I've ruined you. And now you'll die here. Broken. Beaten. Alone."

"No…" he shook his head and glared at her. "…not alone." In a flash, Cullen whipped his hand up, and a long, curved dagger streaked through the air and plunged up to the hilt in Rosalie's chest.

So why was Rosalie's death a part of the wall runes? Maybe it wasn't her in particular? Maybe it was the reason behind it?

Cullen had killed her because she ruined him and wanted to kill him, and she had ruined him out of revenge for Peter. Rosalie was a person who lived for payback and revenge. That was mostly what motivated her. So did that mean that her thirst for revenge was the reason she got killed?

But what of the skull and shackles, then?

I frowned as I thought about it, and then I gasped, and tears welled in my eyes as I remembered.

Edward.

I strode toward his Idol, and even though I dreaded to see that particular death again, I touched it.

Mouse stepped closer, pistol still raised.

I scrambled back, weak from atrophy. I couldn't escape.

Just as Mouse pulled the trigger, Edward threw himself at him, taking out his legs. They wrestled on the floor until Edward slipped the chain of his wrist shackles around Mouse's neck.

On his back, with Mouse pinned on top of him, Edward pulled back as hard as he could. Finally, the soldier's neck snapped with a brittle crack, and he went limp.

I was next to Edward and pushed the dead soldier off him. I could see the blood spreading on his chest, and he was already looking pale and weak, the life fading from him.

Edward had killed Mouse with his shackles, and it looked very much like the sigil. The shackles chain was placed under the skull where its neck would have been.

Mouse had shot Edward. He was going to shoot me. Edward killed Mouse because he was going to shoot me. He did it to protect me, just as he had run past the chopper in the hangar to get me from the pod. He risked his own escape to save me, and it had cost him his life. Just as he had attacked Jacorel to protect me that night in my hotel suite, and he had died then, too.

But what was the meaning behind that?

I thought even harder about it. What had he said to me on both occasions when he died?

Don't cry over a nobody like me and At least I got to see you … one last time.

He hadn't given a single thought to the risk for his own life. Just as he had tried to stay with Jazz when his eject function jammed, and as he showed over and over again when he taunted McKenzie, or Cullen, or Tetra, or Fiddler, or even Mouse.

He was careless. He didn't care if something happened to him. He didn't think he was worth anything.

Was that why he had died? Because it didn't matter to him if he lived or not? It was true that he had merely existed before he flew us to El Jardín, only caring about the money he'd get to spend on more alcohol.

But he had changed since then. Hadn't he?

Then there were the mounds. The graves. Where all of them would end up unless I changed the outcome of the visions.

But how could I change them?

They had all died because of a personality trait of theirs.

Kate, Victoria, and Tanya because they put too much pressure on themselves to make it on their own, or to not look weak, or to be the best at everything.

Garrett, Benjamin, Emmett, and Edward because they valued others more than themselves.

Rosalie and Leah because of their need for revenge.

Alistair and Peter because they were desperate for someone else to tell them of their worth.

Was that it? Was that the answer to preventing my visions to come true? Was that what the Endless was trying to tell us? Tell me?

"I-I think I know what the message is," I said slowly.

"Tu fais? Well, spit it out!" Angelique encouraged.

I explained my thought process to them both. "There are four words, three of them are four lettered, and the last one starts with the same letters as the second word. It's about death, but not a prophecy for it. More like a warning. That we need to prevent it."

Harrvel nodded along, approving of my interpretation.

"I think the message is 'Save them from themselves.'" The moment I uttered the phrase, the whole room rumbled, and the idols began to glow.

"What … what is happening?" Harrvel stammered out.

"I don't know!" I cried out over the loud rumble.

Each idol grew bright, a hot white light in its center, and then all at once, they dissolved into amber and leaked away down the sides of the pedestals. And left in the basin of each pedestal where the idols had stood was a dark, red liquid.

"Is that blood?" I asked, beginning to freak out.

"Que se passe-t-il?"

Just then, water shot out of a series of sprouts and impacted with the lava with steamy blasts.

"Mon dieu! It worked! You solved it!" Angelique said in complete awe.

Harrvel was gaping. "It is finally happening. After so many generations of waiting…"

The water cooled the bubbling lava, instantly evaporated and filled the room with hot, stinging steam. I shielded my eyes as best as I could until, finally, the lava had solidified, and the steam cleared.

I delicately tested the cooled lava with one foot, and then the other. "It's safe," I told the other two. "We can cross."

"That path … is opened," Harrvel said and pointed forward.

The three of us ventured forth into the darkness beyond the temple chamber, and Angelique huffed.

"After all that … more tunnels."

"Hush!" Harrvel silenced her. "There is someone ahead."

I frowned. "What are you talking about? I don't see any—" My voice stopped in my throat. I could see it … black against black … a figure of shadow. "Who's … who's there?" I called out with a shaky voice. I was beyond freaked out at this point.

"Show yourself, lâche!"

A ball of flame appeared in the dark, illuminating the walls. The flickering glow reflected in a black helmet visor.

"I've waited a very long time for this meeting," the red-clad figure rumbled in a deep, resonant voice.

Harrvel threw himself on the ground in supplication. "Endless One … Please, your faithful servants seek your help!"

"They always say 'at last,' as if they are the first," the Endless replied. "They are never the first. All that matters is if they are last."

I stepped forward and swallowed my fear. "Who are you? What do you want with us? What do you want with the Kaarii?"

The black visor turned my way, and it was uncomfortable that I couldn't see beyond the blackness of it. "Having made it this far, you must already realize what is at stake."

I frowned angrily. "Yeah. The world is gone. Destroyed. We thought we could stop it, but it's already happened." Sadness overcame me. "Can you help us? You seem to have control of time."

"Time is inevitability. I know no inevitability. I will be here until this spinning rock and the sun that lights it are as cold as the void. But it's no longer a matter of what I can do."

I clenched my fists. "I've had it with the games! Tell me now! What is the meaning of all this?! What are the idols? How do I stop those futures from happening to my friends?"

"Futures? The idols do not show the future," The Endless told me, and I startled.

"Wha … what do you mean? I saw those visions. I watched my friends die! How is that not the—" I trailed off as I realized what the Endless meant. "Because they already died."

The Endless looked at me for a long moment in silence. "Yes. Again and again and again. And every time … every time I was there."

A vision flashed before me. I saw Cullen's office, where Rosalie's body lay on the floor … and now I could see the Endless there too, cloaked in the shadow, watching silently.

"I saw them die. So many times, I saw them die."

I could have imagined it, but for one second, I could swear I heard a hint of sadness in the Endless's voice.

"But it wasn't enough for me to see. You needed to see too. That's why I made the idols."

Another vision took me to the storage facility, and I stared at Edward's cold body lying still on the ground. The Endless hunkered over it and extracted his blood with a long syringe.

I swallowed hard. "You're telling me that … all this time … in the idols we were carrying…"

"A piece of your own mortality. It was necessary to forge the psychic link. To let you see the path."

I swallowed again. "I feel sick..."

Angelique shook her head. "This cannot be true!"

"We don't understand. This has happened before? All of this?" Harrvel asked with a frown.

"2,139 times, to be precise," the Endless replied. "The first time I went back to them, they died before my eyes. So terribly. Some of them didn't even make it a full day. I knew I had to help them. To guide them."

I blinked. "What...?"

"I tried to intervene directly, but I quickly learned that the laws of time can be … unforgiving." The Endless flexed its bionic arm, and I saw the ragged stump. "So I had to be more subtle. To change as little as possible. To influence indirectly. I left clues. Sigils. Symbols to aid their journey. To keep them alive."

I remembered, back in the Ethereal kitchen, Emmett turning to me with a frying pan in his hands.

"I don't know why … but something about that symbol … it really stands out to me."

I looked at the Endless. "All those symbols we found … that was you?"

"Yes. But it wasn't enough. The symbols kept them alive until they met the Kaarii … but that meeting always ended in death."

I saw another vision, this time of the cliffside outside Elyys'tel. A group of Kaarii warriors stood holding bloodied swords and axes, and the bodies of all my friends lay at their feet.

"The Kaarii were too hostile. Too guarded. Every encounter saw the group massacred, no matter what they did. Changing the group wasn't enough. I had to change the Kaarii. So I went back. Further than I'd ever gone. And I shaped them."

I saw a beach at night. Ancient Kaarii, the ancestors of the tribe, huddled in reverent awe. The Endless stood before them, bathed in light, the very vision of a god.

"They will return to you! The Catalysts! They will stop Raan'losti!"

The Kaarii raised their hands in prayer and acceptance.

I rubbed my temples at the overload of information. "So you … made up the idea of the Catalysts … just so that centuries later, the Kaarii would help us? Their entire religion … was just a means to an end?"

Harrvel shook his head in denial. "No … no! It cannot be!"

The Endless remained cold. "I did what I had to do. To protect them."

"Mon dieu..."

I threw my hands out helplessly. I still didn't quite understand. "All this, just to keep us alive? Why didn't you just go back and stop us from ever coming here?"

"My travel is limited to the time bubble surrounding El Jardín. I can never leave this island."

My head throbbed as I tried to process what I'd heard. "This is … this is too much..."

"Don't despair. The next stage of our journey begins here. After 2,139 loops … the cycle is broken."

I frowned sadly. "What do you mean?"

"This temple is a test. A test that could only be passed under certain conditions. All twelve idols, united. All twelve, functional."

"Functional?" But even as I said it, I understood. Visions flooded me of previous timelines, previous times I'd made it to this temple.

"I don't understand. Why aren't Emmett and Kate's idols lighting up?"

"Perhaps it is because they perished in the sea monster attack. The idols may only work if they're alive."

I gasped, both in shock and hope. "So this is the first time? The first time I've made it this far … with everyone still alive?" Everyone was alive then, or we wouldn't have passed the temple test. Indescribable happiness and relief bubbled up inside me.

"Yes. All our friends yet live."

My blood went cold. My legs felt like jelly. "Our friends?"

The Endless reached up and pressed a latch at its neck. I heard a hiss of decompression and watched as it reached up with its hands, one flesh, one iron, and lifted its helmet from its head.

"Oh my god..."

"I had to be sure you were ready, Bella," the older, wrinkled and gray-haired, version of myself said with a smile. "Now our work can begin."

A/N:

Next and final installment of the El Jardín trilogy is called The Mystery of Life!

Until next time,

Stay Awesome!