Chapter Two: The End of the World
She had no idea how long she'd tumbled through the endless sandy tunnel. But it ended with being spat out of the other side. Thankfully there was another side, she'd began to fear she might end up stuck in the sand vortex forever.
She'd had enough practice falling to make her landing much more graceful than if she'd travelled by floo. This time as soon as she saw the sands parting she bent herself into a forward's roll. So, her landing from the outside perspective probably looked cooler than it actually was. Rolling onto her feet she took an unsteady step forwards and promptly tumbled to the floor. Deciding to let her body rest she instead took note of her new environment.
It was unlike any room she'd ever been in before. Cream panels covered the walls and floors. It was brightly lit from an unseeable light source. There was a huge window on one wall and platform steps leading towards it. There was a door with no doorknob but an electric sort of panel beside it.
The sight outside the window caught her attention. Mostly because she'd been clutching a replica just moments before. Gaping at the Earth right in front of her eyes, she couldn't help but notice how bloody gigantic the sun looked right behind it. "Bloody hell, this is the end of the world isn't it?" She huffed from her seat on the floor. She looked around and noticed that the sands of time were no longer clinging to her. "My words were not meant to be taken literally!" She yelled out into the void of the room. She leaned backwards and lied down on the floor staring up at the ceiling.
She had no idea what to do. She had no idea where she was. Because there was proof enough outside the window that she was no longer on Earth. And judging by the size of the sun and the fact she'd been kidnapped by the sands of time, that also meant she had no idea when she was. Just her luck.
"I thought the adventures were over…" She sighed. Surely the amount of trouble that had plagued her in school meant that she was meant to have a really boring life afterwards? Or did the universe think otherwise?
Well it wasn't like she'd been settling down anyway back home. After the war she'd done her final year of schooling, turned down jobs at the Ministry and instead decided that she wanted to see the world. And she hadn't done it alone. Her friends had come along for the ride. Hermione being the most vocal about exploring and learning about different Magical communities. Ron hadn't wanted to stay at home or let them leave by themselves. Luna had joined them saying she wanted to become a Magizoologist. Neville had said he wanted to learn about the Herbology in different areas of the world.
Ginny had been the only one who hadn't joined them. She ended up scouted by the Holyhead Harpies and joined them as soon as she'd finished school. Also, it had felt rather awkward between the two of them after having broken up. She hadn't felt the same after awakening in the forest. She couldn't go back to the girl that was the one before. She was no longer her. She'd felt more alive than ever after springing out of Hagrid's arms. Ginny just couldn't fit the changes into her past perception of her.
They'd ended up travelling around the world for almost two years, with sporadic trips back home. It had been the best time of her life. No responsibilities, no Voldemort after her head, no one demanding anything of her. She was relaxed for the first time in her life. And then reality had seeped in. She'd gone back to living at 12 Grimmauld Place, she regularly visited Andromeda and Teddy. Kreacher and Winky had managed to clean up Grimmauld Place finally, she'd been able to visit her parent's graves again and even gone through their Godric's Hollow house and retrieved all her parent's belongings.
And then she began to get bored. She was used to excitement and danger around any corner. Every moment started to stretch out to reach a lifetime.
And then the letters started flying in. Potter was back in Britain! What will she do next? Reporters started plaguing her steps, invites to parties and dates came every day. It was too much, she constantly received owls asking things of her. She wanted to escape again, perhaps live somewhere else entirely. Maybe somewhere that didn't know her name.
At that moment Minister Kingsley had sent her a letter. Apparently, the Department of Mysteries wanted to find out how she killed Voldemort. They wanted to see if the prophecy really had been completed. She didn't really want to satisfy their craving for knowledge, but she wanted to reassure herself that the prophecy was complete. She didn't want the nightmare of another horcrux lurking around somewhere for someone to stumble upon a wreak havoc.
And look where that got her! Time travel and the end of the world. On top of that she didn't even get to confirm the bloody prophecy! Damn her luck.
Right now, all she could focus on was her present circumstance. Sighing she sat up and took another look around the empty room. "Right, first things first. Find a way out." She sniffed and an odd scent hit her. Sniffing again her made her way up the stairs and found the smell appeared in one spot of the room. It smelled like the time tunnel had. Wrinkling her nose, she looked at the empty space in puzzlement. "Okay…"
Leaving that weird moment behind, she made her way over to what looked to be the door and stared at the panel beside it for a moment. Her eyes ran over it looking for any sort of clue about what to press, not wanting to chance her magic on electronics. Deciding on the most obvious, the biggest button, she pressed that one. The door quietly slid into the wall and a corridor was revealed.
Poking her head out, she looked left and right, finding the place seemingly abandoned. Was she on a spaceship? Or was it some sort of observation deck like in Star Trek? She tried to recall her limited knowledge of it. It was one of the few fantasy or science fiction shows her aunt and uncle allowed Dudley to watch. Perhaps they'd thought space didn't have any kind of link to magi. Well… this showed them.
But why was this place here? It looked like as soon as the Earth was consumed by the sun this station would be next. Just her luck, get chased by the sands of time and then die in the future.
Lovely.
Suddenly a computerised voice filled the corridor. "Earth Death in three minutes. Earth Death in three minutes."
She huffed and rolled her eyes and she strolled out into the corridor, the door closing behind her. "Well that just confirms it."
"Heat levels critical."
Screams flew down the corridor, jolting her as she stepped forwards. Immediately her body ran in that direction, because of course on top of the Earth's death she had managed to find additional trouble.
"Heat levels rising."
She skidded to a stop at a room with an open door as people ran out. She took one blink to realise that none of them looked human and then to disregard that and continue forwards. She skirted around the ones who were escaping the room and found panic inside. It looked like rays of light had managed to get through the huge glass windows and were striking the unlucky few who were either to panicked to move or too slow.
"Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes."
Her wand flew into her hand and her finders twirled it into familiar patterns. Shields sprang up over panicking aliens, and the ones that weren't in shield reach she ended up summoning towards her. The first one that leaped at her looked and felt like a tree. Blinking in bewilderment she summoned the other tree person and pushed them both towards the door. Their wide eyes stared at her in awe as others handing around the doorway dragged their shocked bodies into the corridor.
"Heat levels critical."
A number of voices were calling out in languages to she didn't understand, all she knew was that she could help.
"External temperature five thousand degrees."
It carried on like that, her summoning aliens towards the doorway and getting them to safety until there wasn't anyone else inside the over exposed room.
"Heat levels hazardous." She watched in horror as the observation window began to crack. "Heat levels hazardous." The cracks raced across the glass causing all the aliens in the corridor to get more panicked. "Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction." Rays of deadly glaring light zapped through the cracks burning the insides of the room.
"Planet explodes in ten," Her attention leaving the few dead bodies and the burnt remains of a weird assortment of objects on pedestals, span to look at the sight outside the window.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Four.
Harmful rays of sunlight no longer found their way into the room. The shrieks behind her in alien languages died down and everyone silently waited.
Three.
Two.
One.
Horror filled each trembling limb; her mouth went slack and tears prickled in her eyes. There outside the window were the last remains of Earth being consumed by the sun. it was unlike anything she had ever seen. A sight so terrifying that on unsteady legs she wobbled over to the window and placed a hand on the glass. A sound clawed its way out of her throat.
"Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair." The cracks on the window vanished as her gaze locked onto the fractured remains of her home float around in space. She blinked away the tears that streamed down her face and splattered onto the floor. Just watching the destruction of her home, her planet floated away. "Exoglass repair."
It was all gone.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Emotions overflowed her. Her body racked with sobs as her forehead leaned against the glass. Her planet was gone. Was she now stuck here all alone? Was she the last human in existence? Had there been humans trapped on the planet below, without help just moments before? What were these aliens doing here? Had they been behind this? Had they been watching her home being destroyed? Why was this happening?
Another crackling sound left her throat, she felt her hair lifting upwards, and something electric brushing over the raised hairs on her arms. Something began to wind around her legs, climbing up her body. Her eyes fluttered open to find vines had grown out of the floor and were wrapping themselves gently around her, lily's bloomed and grass began to inch out into a circle around her. It was like her magic was attempting to comfort her with familiar greenery. The lilies instantly reminded her of her mother, and funerals. Well this might as well be a funeral. The funeral of the Earth.
A vine snaked itself up her arm and brushes her cheek, wiping away escaped tears. Geez, she hadn't had a case of accidental magic in a while. And nothing like this. She watched through her tears as a couple of vines crept up the window, like they were trying to reach where the Earth once was. She'd never felt so helpless. She heard a mumbling of voices, but nothing was understandable. Well it wouldn't be with them being aliens from the future.
She blinked in bewilderment when one of them touched her shoulder. She looked towards the hand to see what looked towards the hand to see what looked like tree bark, and travelling upwards she saw that the alien was one of the ones she'd saved earlier. Something else was said in their strange language, the sounds a mixture of clicking and rustling, a deep tone that instantly reminded her of the trees in the forbidden forest.
Her lips hopelessly wobbled as her tears splattered on the ground and caused flowers to spring up. The grass was creeping ever outwards.
"Gaia!" Both of the alien trees knelt down before her, closing their eyes and touching the middle of their foreheads. She blinked recognising the name from mythology. Oh no.
Nope.
Her breath came out in sharp rasps as panic crept inwards. How on Earth was she meant to correct them? She wasn't a flipping goddess! But she didn't speak tree!
"What are ya going to do?" She heard a female English accent travel into the now crowded room. Gobsmacked at the thought of other humans here she stared at the two who entered the room. The two alien trees suddenly ran over and began talking with the male. They were all too far away for her to overhear. Instead her eyes followed the young girl who looked uneasily around the room. "Ya all right?" She asked as the tall male in leather with cropped dark hair left the two morning trees.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She wasn't as surprised to hear the male's English voice. "I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby." He strode over to one of the podiums in the room and smashed what looked to be an egg onto the floor and picking something from the pieces.
The last of her tears fell onto the floor as she watched the two seemingly human people on the other side of the room. Suddenly as the male stood up with the small device he stopped what he was about to say and sniffed the air. He gave the room another whiff with a confused look on his face and slowly turned his head. Blue eyes immediately locked onto hers.
She rose gracefully onto her feet, vines and flowers effortlessly following her form as she walked over to him. The grass seamlessly spread before her, and she noticed flowers appearing where she stepped. Unending sorrow for her home world clung to her.
"Who are you?" The man questioned, curious blue eyes scanning the greenery around her. "You weren't here earlier." The more she looked into his eyes the more she realised just how different he was. He definitely wasn't human like she'd first thought.
"What is she?" The young blonde scrunched her face up in confusion. The London accent threw her off since everyone else here was clearly alien. So, this young girl must be the only human in this place. The trees rustled and clicked in their speech, taking it upon themselves to answer. "Gaea, great goddess of Terra?" The girl repeated. "Where's Terra?" Brown eyes snapped over to the male.
"Bollocks." She muttered, eyeing the trees who looked ready to start kissing the ground she walked on.
"I take it your Gaea?" The male asked sceptically.
"No." She breathed out, locking her grief with legilimency despite the tears still streaming down her cheeks. "My name is Mera." She answered not trusting anyone with her full name. "What happened here?" She turned her head slowly back towards the window that had once held the sight of her home world.
"Ah yes, we were going to watch the end of the Earth." He reached a hand up and scratched the top of his head.
"It's gone." The blonde girl gaped at the window. "We missed it."
She looked away from the girl and over to the man who seemed to have more knowledge of the goings on of this place. "Who caused all this death." She gestured over to the aliens who were tending to themselves, and the others who were watching them with wide eyes.
"Ah yes!" His blue eyes widened and he looked back at the object in his hand. "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then teleportation feed can be reversed."
Suddenly something appeared in the room, just like in Star Trek. "Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces." A voice surprisingly came from the contraption. "Oh." The female sounding voice was understandable despite how odd the words were pronounced.
"The last human."
"What?" She looked at the stretched piece of skin in bewilderment.
"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, err… the human club."
"People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them."
"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter."
"And creak?"
"And what?"
"Creak. You're creaking."
"What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturise me, moisturise me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"
"You raised the temperature."
"Have pity! Moisturise me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything."
"Help her." The blonde girl suddenly spoke up.
"Everything has its time and everything dies."
"What in the name of Merlin is going on?" She looked around herself in utter confusion. Really where and when was she? "Get me out of here." Her eyes were drawn back to 'the last human' otherwise known as the flat piece of skin with a face.
"I'm too young!" The skin screamed before bursting, chunks flew out and scattered around the room. Luckily, she was too far away to get splattered. Bile ran up her throat and she choked putting her hands over her mouth. She dry heaved as she turned away from the sight.
"Now you…" She heard the squeak of heels turning towards her direction. Another sound whooshed past her, at the edge of her line of sight grains of sand raced around her feet and the flowers that ran up her legs.
"Not again!" She threw her head back no longer feeling the vomit threatening to come up.
"What?!" She heard the northern accented male cry out as the vortex of sands swallowed her up and sent her through the floor and away from the space station.
Author Note: Hello… I'm back! Enjoy this chapter and take a guess at where Hemera is going to land next within Earth's timeline!