Hi everyone! It's really been a while! I decided to do something different for this story to make things a little more interesting. Enjoy!;)

P.S About the character deaths I had planned, I think it is possible to change them without having to worry about it being confusing...:) (personally I don't like it when characters die so I am a little bit happier now)

P.P.S The plot seems to be getting pretty confusing now (even to me...) so this is basically what is going to happen (in rough) because I recently made some adjustments...:) All of the characters will eventually experience the time machine...but it will make different things happen to different characters (eg. Some characters will have different bodies than they had before and others may enter the future) This will keep it interesting so I can convince myself to update more often...which is a goal that I am always abandoning...:/...Not only that, but that also means characters will also means it will be more interesting for everyone :)...I just have to make sure it doesn't get too crazy...O.o...o.O

Chapter Thirteen: A Sudden Change

Something felt off.

Griffin's eyes slowly transitioned to his bright surroundings, and shook his head, looking around curiously. This place was completely unfamiliar, from the pale yellow walls to the strange, foreign objects organized neatly all around him. The room had a warm atmosphere to it, and although it wasn't home, Griffin really did feel like it was something close to it.

But the first disturbing thought that struck him, made him forget the warmth completely.

Instead of hanging upside down like he always did, he was lying down. On his back.

Griffin stiffened, running his fingers through his hair, a motion done on instinct.

Wait a second.

He never had fingers.

He lifted his wings to find that they had been replaced with arms.

Griffin slowly got up, finding that his short toe claws had been replaced by a pair of long pillars he believed was called legs.

His mind was still blurry so he had to rush to a large rectangle of reflective material to see what he was.

Griffin froze.

He was a Human.

"Griffin! Get over here!"

Although he was still horribly confused, he stumbled along, getting used to his legs.

He opened the door to find he was surrounded by even more rooms and headed to the room where the voice was coming from.

There, was another Human, like himself, but she had golden eyes and a slightly sharp nose.

"Who're you?" He asked, his words clumsily tumbling out of his mouth, like the steps he'd taken to get to her.

"I'm Luna! Can't you see the resemblance?" She asked, looking at him with earnest, pleading eyes.

"W-what happened to us? H-how did we become…?" Griffin asked, hoping that Luna knew the answer.

"I don't know. But maybe-

Griffin groaned, shaking his head, and sat down, sealing his eyes shut.

Maybe if he thinks hard enough he can remember.

His memory is probably just a little wobbly right now, like he was.

"Griffin? What are you...?"

"Be quiet, please, Luna, I'm trying to remember something…"

Griffin bit his lip, clenching his fists, but it was to no avail, it was like someone cut off the connection, all he saw was pitch darkness. It was like something burned a hole into his memory.

"Damn it all, I can't remember anything!"

"Griffin, neither can I-

"Well, then what do we do?! Shade can't see me like this! And Luna, even if you do find your parents, they won't even recognize you! We're done. It's all-

"Will you get a grip?! Okay, it's not my fault that you're always so downright cynical! Can we just try to figure something out here, I'm just as lost as you are but at least I'm not complaining about the way things are! You know, you never seem to be satisfied with the present. There is always something wrong with it."

Griffin was about retort when he saw that there were tears in her eyes, right before she noticed it too and refused to look at him anymore.

"You know, sometimes change isn't so bad. It helps us grow and adapt. We become stronger," Luna muttered through gritted teeth.

"Well, what if I don't-

"Life isn't fair, you know. You can't expect that it will pity you all the time, especially if you keep up that selfish attitude of yours. Sometimes you just have to live with the fact that there are some things that you can't control. Until you accept that, you will never be happy with anything,"

"But how do I do it, Luna? How do I accept the fact that I can never see Shade and Marina ever again? It just isn't fair,"

"You can still see your parents, you know. You just won't be able to be with them,"

"Then what is my purpose in life anymore? I've lost my goal of resurrecting my father and righting all the wrongs that happened in the past. Everything I've been aiming for no longer exists. Is there even a reason to keep on going?"

Luna turned to face him again, her eyes showing a look of pity, but her gaze was firm.

"There is always a reason to keep on going. So what if you can never see your parents again? You must have other means for living,"

"But, what could they be?"

"We don't know yet, but that doesn't mean we can't find out. We might get a little lost along the way, but I know we can find those reasons together,"

Griffin felt rather ashamed that he had gotten so angry at Luna. She was just trying to be helpful, trying to deal with the situation at hand and he had just made it worse for her. Yes, it was the way that he was, always concentrating on the dark side, but maybe he needed to look at the problem at a different angle. Maybe if he looked at it with an alternative approach it might not seem so bad at all.

"But what about your parent, Luna? Don't you want to find out what happened to them?"

She smiled sadly.

"I had a dream that I was in a dark tunnel, chasing after a white light in the distance that seemed to move farther away, the closer I drew to it. I knew it was a lost cause, it was no use in chasing after something I could never catch up to, but for some reason I just couldn't give up, it was like there was an invisible string connecting me to that light and I could twist out of its grasp. Suddenly the light shattered, swallowing me whole and I was blinded for a few seconds,"

Luna paused before continuing on.

"When I opened my eyes, I was in a place I had never seen before. I felt like I was everywhere at once and nowhere at all. It wasn't familiar to me, but a greater power within me whispered that I knew where I was. I saw my mother and father. Their wings had never been so white, so pure before and their eyes never sparkled with such life, such happiness. Their bodies glowed in golden light as they flew towards me, embracing me. I had never felt such warmth and bliss flooding into me, so fast. I whispered to them where we were and they simply replied that it wasn't important. They also told me to stop searching for them. I pleaded that they would never let me go and they held me in their tender embrace, until everything faded to black and I found myself back in the tunnel, but the white light no longer appeared so the tunnel faded into blankness, not white, just empty. And then I woke up,"

Though she didn't notice it herself, Griffin saw that Luna was crying. Slowly, he went over, and put arm around her, like she had when he first met her. Unlike walking, the motion didn't feel strange at all.

"It's okay," She whispered. "-at least I know where they are now,"

"Would you rather have not found out?" He asked his voice suddenly quiet.

"No. I'm glad they told me. It would have been wasted time if I kept on searching blindly for them,"

"Hey, that's only because you found out what happened to them. If you didn't find out and I pointed out that you could be wasting time looking for them, you'd just get mad or not believe me," He muttered.

Luna rolled her eyes.

"Could you, like, not be smart for once? It's a little annoying,"

"Oh. Sorry,"

She smiled at him and chuckled, ruffling her fingers through his hair.

"Just kidding. It's nice to have someone who knows me so well,"

Griffin felt a strange feeling inside of him when her fingers grazed his hair. The tenderness of her touch was soothing and yet it made him shiver at the same time, but not necessarily from the cold.

"Hey. Earth to Griffin. Come on; let's go for a walk,"

"Huh? Oh, sure," He mumbled, his words stumbling over themselves again.

He took her hand and together they walked out of the strange place and into the outside world.

The sharp bitterness of the cold breeze hit Griffin so suddenly it made his eyes snap open completely, but he didn't mention the temperature, wanting to concentrate on other things, the way the dwellings of the Humans were so neatly organized in lines, all looking exactly the same, how the grass was tended so nicely on some while others were overflowing with strange creeping growths that even took over half of the walls, how the warmth of Luna's hand suddenly made it feel like it wasn't so cold anymore. Heck, maybe the reason he had been freezing was because he'd been sweating bullets earlier and the dampness of his back was what gave him chills.

"Doesn't it feel so nice, to be walking around and not having to worry if some predator suddenly pounces on you, and eats you whole?"

"Well, it kind of defeats the thrill of winter; the edge that danger gives you is quite satisfying if you think about. It keeps your blood pumping, the adrenaline running,"

She laughed, playfully punching his shoulder.

"Hey, you were Mr. Safety First just a while ago and now suddenly you crave danger? See, this is what I'm saying, you're never happy with the present,"

But she was still smiling, so it didn't matter.

"Okay, so maybe I lied a little…It's actually real cool that I don't have to always watch my back in case something jumps on me and kills me. You know, I've never felt this calm for such a long period of time. This must be how the Humans feel, never having to worry about anything. Always being at the top…"

"Hey, I just realized something. What about food?"

"What do you mean? We're Humans, Luna. We can run into the forest with our poisonous sweet gas tanks and knock out as many bugs as the eye can see,"

She gave him a weird look and he quickly added whatever she ate too.

Now Luna was really laughing, shaking her head like she couldn't believe it.

"I don't know, Griffin. Suddenly rodents don't interest me as much as they used to…Hey, what's this stuff…"

Luna dug into a pocket in her jacket, finding some strange looking metal pieces, circular, all in different sizes; some were silver, some bronze and some both.

"Hey, I've seen those before. Humans always seem to be exchanging them for things,"

"You think we can exchange them for something to eat? I'm hungry,"

"Sure, why not? I see some buildings over there that have large pictures of Human food. Maybe they've got stuff,"

Luna nodded, but then when they got there, there was another problem.

"Now…which one do we choose from?"

"Hmmm…how about Tim Hortons?"

"Tim Hortons? That doesn't sound very appetizing to me…But then again, I've never tried a Tim Hortons before, so I guess there's a first time for everything,"

When they walked in, Griffin breathed in a sigh of relief, as it was warm and the atmosphere seemed pretty friendly too.

Luna decided to be brave and be the one to ask.

"Um, hi…?" She mumbled to the Human standing next to a strange machine that collected the metal pieces she held in her hand.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to have a Tim Hortons please,"

The Human gave her a weird look.

"Uh, did you run out or something? Oh, than that's okay…um, is there anything else I can have?"

"Well, we have coffee, doughnuts, muffins-

"Oh, coffee sounds great! I'll have a coffee!"

"Alright. Would you like sugar or cream?"

"Uh, what do those do…? Sorry I'm new to this place…" Luna replied sheepishly.

"Well, sugar makes it sweeter and cream makes it…creamier…I guess…"

"Uh…I'll just have a plain one, without all that stuff,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, and I'll also have a dough…dough…what are they called again?"

"A doughnut,"

"I'll have one of those too. Thanks,"

"Alright. That'll be $4.07,"

"Uh, huh?"

"Please, don't tell me you don't know what four dollars and seven cents are…"

"Uh…"

Luna just thrust the metal pieces into the Human's hand.

"Is that enough?"

The Human counted it and nodded.

"That's $4.08, would you like a penny?

"Um, from my memory I only ordered the coffee and the doughnut, so no thank you,"

Luna heard a couple chuckles behind her and so after she took her coffee and doughnut, she quickly went back outside with Griffin following close behind her.

"How do you think I did? Other Humans were laughing at me like I said something dumb,"

Griffin chuckled, putting his arm around her. He didn't know why he did it, it just seemed like the natural thing to do.

"You did fine. I mean, you got the coffee and the doughnut didn't you?"

"Yeah, I'll try the coffee and you can have the doughnut. You know, I don't understand why they named it Tim Hortons if they keep running out of them. It's really confusing. They should name it Coffee and Doughnuts and Muffins and Cream and Sugar. They never run out of those,"

She handed him the strange hoop shaped thing while she drank the dark liquid called coffee.

Griffin almost burst out laughing at the funny expression Luna made when she to a sip.

Luna coughed and spit the liquid onto the ground, tossing the still full cup into the street, hitting a vehicle and causing the Human inside it to scream strange words that she didn't understand. She breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't the only one who hated coffee.

"Was it that bad?" Griffin asked, laughing.

"Oh, it was bad alright, it was disgusting. How is the doughnut?"

"It's very sweet. I don't really like it that much…"

Luna snatched it from his fingers and chucked the whole thing in her mouth, groaning in happiness.

"Oh, this is so good…"

"Hey, maybe we should be heading back now…It's been a long day…"

"No, let's go over there! I see some forests in the distance. It'll feel like home again,"

Griffin as beginning to get rather cold, but he didn't admit it and followed her.

As they entered the path, it felt familiar to them, the echoes of bird song ringing through the air, and the spicy scent of the evergreen trees wafting around them. They neared a frozen lake and before he could stop her she ran onto it, running around like a newborn crazily trying to fly.

"This is so cool! It's like I'm walking on water except it's so slippery! Whoa!"

Luna lost her footing and slipped, falling, onto her bottom. Griffin ran over to help her, but slipped too, crashing into her, just as she was about to get up. They tried helping each other up, but every time one of them helped the other, the opposite would slip and fall back down again. Finally Griffin gave up and took Luna by the arm, dragging her with him as he crawled on his knees, all the way to the edge of the frozen pond.

There, he finally stood up, but when she suddenly took his hand, he panicked as a hot flash of red rushed to his cheeks, and fell face-first into the snow.

Griffin sputtered, shivering, trying to get all the snow off of himself. It felt like he had been electrocuted by power lines or something.

"Can we go home now? He asked, still shaking from the cold.

"Sure," She said smiling.

As they headed back to their dwelling, Griffin asked:

"Do you think we found one of the reasons why I should still keep on going?"

Luna looked at him, smiling warmly.

"Maybe not yet, but I think we're close. I just know it,"

She gave his hand an encouraging squeeze and suddenly Griffin didn't feel so cold.

"You're so warm," Griffin whispered his other hand brushing Luna's cheek.

"Well, you fell into the snow,"

"Hey, you were the one who started dancing on the frozen lake and got us in this mess in the first-

"Whoa!"

Luna slipped on a stray piece of ice on the ground, falling backwards into the snow.

"Luna! You should be more careful where you're going,"

"Hey, at least you're not the only one who's freezing now,"

"Come on, you didn't have to sacrifice your warmth for me,"

Luna shook her head, shivering but still in a good mood.

"You know, I still remember when I first saw you, shivering bitterly on that branch. The look on your face was of such deep loneliness. I realized I never wanted to see you look so sad and lonely ever again,"

Griffin couldn't deny that he felt warmth, and the warmth was within Luna.

He had never felt a feeling so wonderful before.

Suddenly, a spark lit up inside him. Maybe there were reasons to keep going. He just had to look in the right places.