Chapter 3: Cruel Fate.


The tall man stood deadly still in the marketplatz. His bright green eyes were open with shock, his long blonde hair falling across his forehead. If front of him was a young woman dressed in a red crop top and black jeans. Her face was furrowed into a frown, her mid-brown eyes blazing with anger.

"Margarete? Is she all you can think about! It's not just her life that's been messed up! Homunculus stole twenty years of my life! My mother and father think I'm dead, and all you can think about is if Margarete finds out who she is!" Dana Brum had long since gone past screaming. Eike flinched, she'd been going on for at least ten minutes since she had caught up to him at the marketplazt, staring at the tree where he'd found the Philosophers Stone. Dana paused briefly to take a deep breath, her face the colour of a tomato.

"Dana...I'm really sorry. I swear that I had no idea that Homunculus had switched you and Margarete. I told Homunculus that I didn't like it. She offered to switch you back, but not until after I cheated my fate....All I was doing was trying to stay alive. I didn't want to die," Eike said, softly. Dana paused, her face softening. Eike's anguish was twisting her heart. After all she did love him. She had loved him for four long years, but that was a only a second to him...the time traveller.


"But now...Homunculus is gone," Dana noted thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Eike said. Dana tilted her head down slightly.

"You said....Margarete was happy in that time right? Even though she didn't know anyone?" Dana inquired. Eike just nodded. "Then perhaps it better that she doesn't know, I mean my...her family...are all...'Cept maybe Hugo and who knows where..." Dana's eyes were full of pain. "I always wondered, always worried about why I didn't...why I didn't love my family. I cared for them, wouldn't have wanted anything to happen to them...but when I really thought about it, I never loved them like a real family. But still they took care of me all these years and now they...

"Dana. It's all right. I know how you feel," Eike said soothingly. Dana sniffed and stepped closer to him, her lovely eyes full of tears.

"I know you do," Dana said, her voice reminding Eike of a soft breeze.


For a second that felt like an eternity they just stared into each others eyes. They moved closer and closer to each other and...something fell to ground from the sky between them, they both jumped and moved apart.

"How did you find out?" Eike said, all too aware that his face was red. He knew would have happened.

"I sneaked into Eck...my fathers office and found him looking at the comb you gave after he tried to kill you. He knew it was his daughters and I remembered what you said to me," Dana replied.

"What I said?" Eike asked, baffled.

"You said that I guess you could say you finally came home,"

"Yeah. Before she died Homunculus said that fate would always correct itself in the end." Eike said.

"Eike...Isn't there any way I can tell my father who I really am? He misses Dana...me so much," Dana pleaded.

"I can't think of any way he would believe you...anyway it would just lead to complications," Eike said

"I don't believe you! All you can think about is 'complications'! Do you even care about other people's feelings other than your own? Sometimes I wonder why I even fell in lo..." Dana trailed off

"Fell in what," Eike's voice had a slight hint of anger in it. He felt so guilty over the sacrifices people had made so he could live...to give the Philosophers Stone to Dr Wagner, and these people hadn't even had the option of their sacrifices and that guilt just rushed up when Dana said that, but the guilt turned to anger. Dana looked shocked. She, like most people had never seen Eike Kusch even the slightest bit angry, not even when he had confronted Hugo.


To give himself time to cool down Eike glanced at the ground where some mysterious object had fallen to the ground, thinking that it was just something that fallen out of his pocket. It wasn't. It was something that looked horribly like...

"The Digipad," Eike muttered.

"No way...it can't be... she's dead," Dana whispered.


A sudden gust of freezing cold wind made both Eike and Dana spin round to face the tree. There they saw a portal, almost identical the ones Eike disappeared into when he went to a different time. In the middle of it was Margarete, almost transparent, like a ghost. Her blonde hair was sticking out all over the place, her blue eyes were wide with sheer terror, and the right side of her face was covered in blood, emerging from under her hair. Her image flickered urgently.

"Margarete?" said Eike before he could stop himself. If she could hear...he didn't want her to find out who she really was.

"Eike...please.." Margarete faded with the portal.

"MARGARETE!" yelled Eike. The Digipad glowed green, just the way it had before Eike had to go to a different time.


Inwardly Eike sighed. Not again he thought. He bent down and picked up the Digipad and froze as he did. Memories of being stabbed, poisoned and run over by a car ran through his mind, being dead, over and over again. Dimly above him he heard Dana calling him, urgently. His vision swam and blurred. Am I going to die again. Eike wondered crazily. Slowly he felt his consciousness slip away, felt himself falling.


Dana watched with horror. As she saw Eike's eyes closing, as he started to fall forward, Dana didn't hesitate, didn't think of the consequences as she lunged forward and grabbed the Digipad.


As soon as the Dana grabbed the Digipad, Eike's view cleared, the images of the darkness of death fled back into the deepest darkest corner of Eike mind where he kept those memories. He straightened up, still swaying somewhat.

"Thanks Dana," Eike said with heartfelt relief. "For a second there, I thought I was going to..."

"Are you okay? What happened!?" Dana cut in.

"I really don't know. When I touched the Digipad I just remembered everything...dying...being dead." Eike replied.


Dana's hands started to shake incontrollbly. Her eyes glazed over, and suddenly she was in a snowy day looking up as a young pretty woman, who was smiling down at her lovingly. Miriam Brum, Dana's mother, when she was much younger, wrapped in white furs, walked, almost ran down at snowy street carrying Dana, when a gun shot rang through the air, Miriam was knocked to the ground by a flash of green, black and yellow. Dana went flying into the snow and was picked up by...Homunculus. Homunculus walked a little further down the road where another baby, one who had just started to grow blonde hair and had light blue eyes lay in the snow. Homunculus was gasping for breath. She seemed exhausted. She smiled at the baby on the ground.

"Farewell, Margarete." Homunculus said. She vanished with Dana.


Dana and Homunculus flew through a black void in a tunnel shaped passage way of dark-blue and purple light into the middle ages into the Alchemists house. In what used to be Helena's and Wagners bedroom, lay a cot. Gently Homunculus laid Dana on the cot and, without another word, disappeared.


Eike stood, motionless staring at Dana as her eyes glazed over. Cautiously he reached an arm out to Dana, as though afraid he might explode into flames if he touched her. Dana suddenly came to, her brown eyes open with shock.

"It's okay. You're safe now," Eike told her. He took the Digipad from Dana and swiftly turned and walked back towards the tree fighting the images attacking his mind.

"Eike! Where are you going?" Dana called.

"I have to help Margarete. She's in trouble," Eike said

"I'm coming with you!" Dana said determinedly. Eike started, his eyes widening.

"Dana..." Eike began.

"You just think about Margarete, but it's not just her life that's been messed up. This is my life. I've spent twenty years of my life in the past. And I just know that I have to come with you....back to the past." Eike was thinking about how to stop her from coming, but he couldn't. Dana was right. Hers was just another life that Homunculus had messed up, so she could be created. He took the Philosophers stone he had found at the tree and looked at it, carefully. Hating himself for endangering Dana yet again, he nodded.


Dana stepped right up to him. Breathing harder than normal, Eike began to press the buttons that would move him to another time. Just has he had expected the Middle Ages appeared, two weeks after Homunculus had been made.


Eike and Dana vanished and reappeared in the Middle Ages marketplatz, just outside a silent circle of people, their heads bowed in prayer. Two people seemed to have a stronger presence in the circle than the others. Dana gasped.

"That's the squire!" she said, pointing to one of the men in the circle. Dana suddenly looked herself up and down. "Eike...look at what I'm wearing!"

"That's okay. Nobody ever said anything to me," Eike replied absently.


The prayer had obviously come to an end. The people were wondering off. The man Dana had pointed out to be the squire bore a strong resemblance to Alfred Brum, laid his hand on the other man who seemed to have stronger presence than the other people.

"I am sorry Rick. We shall never forget Margarete, but she shall live on in our hearts forever." the Squire said. Rick merely nodded. Eike rushed forward.

"Excuse me, could you tell me about Margarete please." Eike asked politely. The Squire frowned.

"Margarete was a chamber maid in my service. On the thirteenth of this month, after her a session at the Ateliers, she just vanished. I have been assured by the gate-keepers that Margarete did not leave the city after this time. Therefore we are forced assume the worst. Excuse me but I do not think we have met before?" The Squire spoke in a stern tone.

"Are you sure Margarete isn't in the city somewhere?" Eike said, completely ignoring the Squire. Next to the Squire the man named Rick sighed heavily.

"Indeed, I hoped so. I searched for her endlessly, day after day, night after night. We were to be married, you know and I couldn't believe that Margarete would just leave me like that. I was on business at the time of her disappearance and she was waiting for me, but I could find no trace of Margarete. Two days ago I gave up. Margarete could not have left the city, and no one has seen her, so the only thing I could think of is that she had starved to death." Rick said, heavily.

"You can't say that! You haven't found a body yet!" Dana protested.


Rick lowered his head and stared at the ground. The Squire patted his shoulder.

"I must ask you to leave. This is a very upsetting time," The Squire said "Margarete is certainly dead, there is no question about that. Now please leave,"

"You don't mean..." Eike whispered, horrified. The Squire frowned, and Dana pulled Eike along with her.

"Margarete..." muttered Eike.

"Eike, think about this. Margarete can't be dead. We saw her, right?" Dana said, in the same quiet tone as Eike's


"So sad..when one so young passes from our midst," a man just appeared out of nowhere to walk beside Eike and Dana. Eike recognised the man, it was Karl Franssen, his favourite artist. "I was the last person to see her alive you know," Karl said. "Ah yes. But she was a mysterious girl,"

"What do you mean?" Dana asked.

"Why, when she left my my shop just before her disappearance she had the most unusual conversation with a young man just outside my shop. She was talking about time-travel. Time travel! It so inspired me that I painted a picture," Karl spoke dreamily. "And then I saw her go into the blown up Alchemists house, and that was the last anyone saw of her."

"The Alchemist's House!?" Eike and Dana spoke as one.

"Yes, but the place was a wreck, yet Margarete disappeared!" Karl said.

"How do you know that?" Dana asked.

"Well...truth is I was so intrigued by that conversation Margarete had I followed her. But the house was covered in debris! There was no way Margarete could have gone anywhere! And then her body was found, buried near the church. Of course I don't believe for one second that the body was really Margarete's but one would believe me if I told them," Karl replied. He walked off to his shop.


"The Alchemists House...Eike I have a really bad feeling about this." Dana said unhappily.

"So do I," Eike said.


They ran to the Alchemists House. It looked exactly the same as it as the last time Eike had seen it. They went in to find that only basement was accessible. Eike made a move towards it, but Dana didn't move.

"Are you coming?" Eike asked.

"No...Please don't ask me why but I just feel that this is something only you should do, like when I found out who I really am. I'm gonna try to get upstairs."

"Dana, you could break your neck," Eike said, looking at the debris covered stairs.

"I know," Dana said.


Eike turned and went down the stairs, into the basement. The basement still looked the same as it did before the accident, before Homunculus had been created. As Eike looked around at all the equipment the air on a tube of a clear, bubbly liquid began to shimmer and then took on a distinctly red colour.


Homunculus appeared sat on top of the tube, but she didn't look her usual cocky self, in face she appeared confused. Eike looked down and realized that he stood on top of the pentagram shape Homunculus said she didn't like.

"How did you...hmmm. I must be losing my touch in my old age," Homunculus said.

"Homunculus! Where's Margarete! What have you done to her!" shouted Eike.

"Margarete. I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about. Time is such a complicated thing isn't it?" Homunculus had regained her normal self-confidence. "How many years have passed now? How is your memory, Eike. How are you finding eternal life?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! Just tell me where Margarete is," Eike yelled.

"Dear, dear, we are impatient, aren't we? You see, I don't know who Margarete is, so you must be thinking of me in the future Eike. Oh I'm sorry that is your name now isn't it?" Homunculus said, cryptically.

"If you're Homunculus from this time than how do you know who I am?" Eike asked.

"Well..," Homunculus smirked "I may have been trapped for ages in that red stone, but even so, I would be a pretty poor genie if I couldn't remember my last master, don't you think?"

"What are you talking about? Dr Wagner was the one who released you from the Philosopher's Stone." Eike said.

"Hmmm...So you haven't recovered your memory. So then how...Never mind. Long explanations bore me." Homunculus seemed to be thinking out loud.

"What are you going on about!" Eike demanded "I don't have time for this!"

"Well, you completed your mission, and I'm free from the stone, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you, Eike. You're Dr Wagner. How does it feel to know that you are a genius alchemist, Eike?" Homunculus seemed to be enjoying telling Eike.

"That's impossible!"

"Why?" Homunculus asked.

"I'm only twenty-two, I live in the year 2001, so if I was really Dr Wagner, I'd be long dead."

"Oh dear. You just don't get it do you Eike? I'm a genie, and Dr Wagner released me. Haven't you read any Arabian Night stories?" Homunculus said.

"What?" asked Eike, confused.

"Dr Wagner released me, so I had to grant him a wish, any wish, but at the cost of his soul when he died. He told me that he envied a young man's youth, and wished to have his back and to stay that age forever. I granted his wish and changed him from his late forties-early fifties, I can't remember exactly how old he was now, into a twenty-two year old, but unfortunately, Dr Wagner had done his homework. He made a large-scale pentagram drawing on the floor, the one which you are now standing on. The only thing I can not stand. It worked and I was sealed back up, but before I went I had enough time to give you a little present. I wiped your memories, so that you could never remember anything. Of course it didn't work all your life, because you can remember people you've met and events you've seen." Homunculus said.


Eike gasped. Homunculus had no reason to lie. She didn't know that her creation depended on him entirely. He was the reason behind everything. If it hadn't been for him the chain of events that had lead to Hugo trying to kill him would have never started. He had known what Homunculus was before he had released her, as Dr Wagner.


Margarete. Eike thought. She's not my ancestor, she's my daughter. And he was cursed to live an eternal life, until he died, when he would be at Homunculus mercy forever.


"EIKE!" Dana's voice called from upstairs. Eike ignored her, absorbed in his own thoughts.

"Don't bother apologizing for sealing me up just after I had granted your wish, will you," Homunculus sounded sulky.


Eike wasn't paying attention. Fate...it was just so cruel, so cruel.

And now I live my life, as Margarete did in the future. In the wrong time. When I should be dead. Eike thought, sadly.


For me the future will be my past.