Chapter 21
Ecco! You must go now, into the past! Destroy me, and end this tragedy!
"A moment, Asterite, and I shall," he answered once he was lowered back into the water. His friends, everyone he has ever known, swam up to him.
"My son. I never would have thought that you could grow to be such a hero. I am most proud of you," his mother lamented gently. Ecco smiled and nuzzled her softly.
Kitnee swam up next. "No matter what happens up there Ecco, you will always be my best friend."
"Thank you, Kitnee. I'll always remember the Orca who helped me."
Finally, Tara swam up to him. The others parted as she came through, and Ecco's gaze softened as it met hers.
"Ecco," she sighed softly, "I really...I really don't know what to say to this moment. This is to be your last mission...what if..."
"Tara," he interrupted quietly, "I promise, all will be put right again. I have never been wrong before. After all we have been through, you know enough to trust me."
"I know, I know," she looked away. "But if you don't return, I may never get a chance to say...well..."
"You don't have to, Tara," Ecco smiled and nuzzled her, "I knew. And I love you too."
The words gave Tara a new sense of pride for her podmate. Her long time friend has grown on her.
She laughed in her usual arrogant way for the last time. "Go get 'em, Ecco."
He winked. "That's the plan."
With a final farewell song to all Singers that could hear him, Ecco ascended into the time stream for the last time, and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Just then, the giant Glyph seemed to touch the heavens. A great and powerful vortex opened up, seemingly about to swallow everything whole. The vortex not only swallowed Ecco, but also scattered the scars of time throughout the cosmos. The mysterious Shadow Ecco was swept up in one of them, destined to discover a dimension of his own...
Trellia's gentle singing finally awakened Tiderider. "Ugh...where am I? What happened?" he glanced around, dazed.
Trellia chuckled. "You're home, silly Tideslider."
To her great relief, he sent her one of his usual joking leers. "The name is Tiderider. And what's all this?"
A glowing humanoid figure in front of him nodded a greeting. It is I, the Asterite. And I am relieved to see you alive.
The Glyph Caller nodded solemnly as well. "I am your ancestor from ancient Atlantis. And I am here to help you awaken your power."
"My power?" Tiderider echoed, "What power?"
"The power this darkness wanted all along. With the aid of the Caller's Song, with my descendant, you will help us seal time for good."
Tiderider had a skeptic look in his eyes, until he laid his glance upon the sky. The heavens were literally swallowed with darkness. And just as his eyes scanned slowly across where the stars used to lie, his expression turned serious as his memory floated back to him.
"Teach me then." He simply said.
Ecco arrived in the past, quicker than he had ever done using the Asterite's help or with the Atlantean time machine.
When he landed, Kii and the others had already finished their song, and were standing amidst the tide with a curious look in their eyes. The Asterite floated nearby.
Ecco. I bid you farewell now. If there is anything you wish to have performed, anything at all, name it now.
Ecco, already lining his sonar up to deliver the destructive blow to the Asterite, uttered a simple wish. "Take my immortality from me."
His heart was weighing heavily. The Asterite became his friend...he had helped him retrieve his family from the evil Vortex. And now he had to kill him, to save the entire timeline from falling apart once more.
"Goodbye," Ecco whispered, and released the great blast of song...
At the exact same time, the giant Glyph blocked the vortex in the sky and stopped it instantly. To the sight of thousands of cetaceans, and probably to all other life forms on the planet, powerful lances of energy similar to lightning attempted to seal the holes in time for good.
Tiderider learned the Caller's Song, the song of his ancestors. With one last glow, the Asterite sank back without a word of farewell, disappearing slowly into the shadows. The demon that tried to control him appeared in the form of a giant black Sky Singer with crimson red eyes, spouting threads of blood red lightning.
Then everything, everywhere, froze.
Every Singer in all three times, past, present, and future, carefully and anxiously watched the sky. The giant Glyph's power spread throughout the cosmos. A great ball of light appeared in the center of the heavens, where the constellation Delphineus stood. In the epicenter of the light was the image of a dolphin, his body showing an ethereal white. Stars adorned his side, and his eyes were black with white pinpoints like stars, as if the entire galaxy fell beneath his gaze.
"Delphineus..." the dolphins chanted.
"Apollo..." the whales sang.
"The Great One," the porpoises chattered.
"Quisheri," the mesyonichids sang.
{Ecco, the Chosen One, has fulfilled the ancient prophecy of the waters,} the voice boomed, both physically and mentally, and also touching the emotions of every Singer it could hear, {Now, time's stream is returned to its rightful place. I knew that someday a descendant of mine, who bore my signature upon his brow, would be the one. And I congratulate the Glyph Caller and his blood for redeeming this cause. I will now seal the strands of time. And none shall remember.}
In a blinding flash of light, the world trembled under the might of the dolphin god. The Glyphs returned to their places in time, scattered by the Atlanteans. And finally, the seas were left undisturbed once again. Ecco, however, was left off track...
Months after...
Tara leaped from the waves, whistling and chattering happily with the rest of the pod. Radero, now a young adult, raced after her. "Hey, not fair, you cheated! I want a rematch!"
Tara laughed. "Not a chance, calf. I win."
"I'm NOT a calf, for the millionth time!" Radero shouted. The glittering, silvery torpedo bodies of the dolphins happily swam the bay, using the sea like one does a trampoline. They owned the sea; it was their toy.
When Kitnee came in sight, Tara swam towards him. "Hey, what's the news?"
Kitnee laughed. "Not much. My pod was passing by and I wanted to say hello." He hung his head in sadness. "I'm sorry about...you know."
Tara smiled. "It was expected, I suppose. Ecco has always surprised us, in his own way. I guess it was fate that he should disappear into the Tides of Time once again."
"Yeah...I wonder why this time...so, how are things on your end, Tara?"
The young Singer sighed happily. "Wonderful, Kitnee, simply wonderful. I am to have a calf soon."
"Truly?" Kitnee's eyes widened. "Congratulations. I am sure Ecco would be proud of the news."
"I'm sure he would..." Tara's eyes gained a slightly glazed look, as if she were remembering a long forgotten memory. What she remembered was Ecco, her good friend and mate, and how he always made her smile with his golden heart and loving gaze.
"You promised me, Ecco. I await your proof."
As she said this, her eyes wandered to the remnants of the giant Glyph, a crystal holding more power than one could imagine.
Trellia floated slowly through her home skies, which were just as beautiful as they had always been. Her nightmares had disappeared, and she has grown into a beautiful leader of the Sky Singers of Trella Bay. Teo's old pod still guarded the Cape of Archeo, only this time, each of them could sing, just as Teo wished.
Tiderider leaped from the water and soared next to Trellia. "Hey, what're you thinking about?"
"I'm just thinking, that's all. Tiderider...I'm just so relieved...I almost lost you."
He chuckled and gave her a reassuring nuzzle. "Worry not, now, I'm here with you now."
"By the way..." Trellia inquired, "Where is your ancestor, the Glyph Caller?"
"I accompanied him back to Atlantis Bay. He wished to be sealed once again, for his body to be preserved and the Glyphs to be powered. I acknowledged his wishes. He now rests peacefully."
"That is good to hear. Thank you, Tiderider."
"No problem at all, my darling Trellia." He winked. "Are you going to join me in our usual swim?"
"In a moment. I wish to swim alone for a few more minutes." She smiled.
"You know where to find me, then." He floated away to the nearest sky tube, his silvery body racing faster than any dolphin. Trellia sighed, for a new piece of life was going to weigh her down soon enough...
Thoughtful but satisfied, Trellia swam alone back to her own corner of the bay, where the Asterite was living only many months before. The Asterite is erased from time now, she thought, and dismissed all ways he could have existed. In this new time strand, he was merely a prehistoric legend.
But soon enough, so too would she be. She, and Ecco, and all Singers before and after them, found their own ways among the gods. And someday, they would find, all still goes well in the Tides of Time.
After all, it is Ecco that keeps it that way...at least for awhile.
Kii's song was becoming more pronounced, just as powerful as any cetacean song. Long later into thousands of years, his descendants will claim their power in the magnificent seas of the eternally beautiful Earth. Everyone knew he was stranded in the time stream of the past forever, but at least he could secure the future of the Singers.
After his lesson, the young Mesyonichid tilted his head at Ecco. "Is the singer from the water depressed?"
Ecco chuckled. "No, Kii. It's just...the others are going to miss me quite so."
"Can you not go back?"
The young dolphin sighed, fluke churning in the water as he paced with thought. "I believe I know a way how. But I'm not going just yet. The present can do without me. At least..." he paused while his five forehead stars shone brightly, as if sensing a new ominous event. "I hope they can."
And so it passed, the songs reply
The Tides of Time our songs rely
The Caller's notes, the power of time
Our own notes, the power of rhyme
We shall sing forever, forever that we shall live
In the eyes of the great Delphineus, night should stride
And yet once more, balance is restored,
Will the Tides of Time you ride?
--Theme of the Sky Singers, "Tides of Time."
THE END