Among the Stars

Chapter Fifteen

By Roofles

A blindly white light hit Isaac in the face, and he shielded his eyes with an arm. Blinking the afterimages of the light away, Isaac looked before him.

He was in a stunningly white exhibition room. The ground was made of some fine marble or stone similar to it in color. It had streaks of golden strands through it that appeared to be moving as if alive. They glowed and flowed like liquid through the stone floor. Up the walls and even around the metal frame skylight above them. A current of liquid gold that gave a glow to everything it touched.

The sky was blue.

“Sky…?” Isaac had to blink several times seeing that. Seeing a blue sky. He hadn’t seen the sky in months being stuck on a spacecraft in the middle of space. There was no sky. Only stars and the occasional comet. “Why is there sky…?”

He couldn’t recall how he got here. Isaac needing to take a second to collect his thoughts. He was on the ship with… with who? Where was he now? He’d been doing something important and now…? Now he was here.

“Welcome!” A voice said before Isaac could gather his bearings. Looking up, Isaac saw a Silken Cat approaching him with long fluid strides.  

Elegan was tall and slender as ever. Wearing a white suit, the long-bodied feline bowed before him, low enough for their eyes to be on the same level. Elegan had the same blue eyes as the sky above. His fur was silky brown with strands of reddish gold throughout it.  

“You must be the guest of honor! We’ve been expecting you,” Elegan turned to the side, gesturing for Isaac to proceed into the exhibit. “The showcase is starting soon. The artist himself wants to meet you before then.”

“Showcase? Artist?” Isaac held the side of his head. “I… I can’t see out of my left eye.” He suddenly realized. The world before him was split down the middle from his point of view. His left eye wasn’t working and he saw things very differently than they were.

From his right eye, he saw a beautiful exhibit filled with priceless works of art being gawked at and appreciated by the prestigious Celestial Nation crowded in front of them. Birds, dragons and others from various nations gathered here together. They talked with each other, laughing happily together despite their clear differences.

Isaac knew that the Fire Bird nation was not on friendly terms with the Aquatic dragons. By nature, they’re very planets were in conflict with one another. Yet, before him, he saw two talking together with pleasantries. No yelling or fighting. He half expected violence to break out, for one to attack the other. Neither did. They just smiled and laughed, talking about the work before them. Sharing a drink as they looked at the piece of artwork.

“What’s going on?” Isaac asked. “This isn’t… normal.”

From his left eye, he saw the world warped and distorted. The room was old and ugly. Run down by time. The paint was peeling from the walls, the carpeted floor was ripped up and had disturbing dark stains over its surface. It was an entirely different room than what he saw with his right eye. Even if everything was technically in the same place, it was like looking after an afterimage.

Of a future to come or that already had passed.

Of a gorgeous room that had been used to house the works of history itself, decayed and left for ruin. Abandoned long ago. To stagnant like still water. Dust gathered on every surface, and it was hard to breathe when Isaac focused on the room. As if it was old, recycled air in the room instead of fresh vented air like the one in the other had.  

It made him pull away from the grayish world and back to the bright, colorfully happy one. Seeking comfort in it from the cold, harsh reality the other brought.

“He’s waiting,” Elegan patiently said. Isaac nodded at that, proceeding forward as the Silken Cat went about helping other guests. He was so polite and friendly, patient and calm. Nothing like what Isaac had heard about the Silken Cat race, who were known for their aggression and violent tendencies that were a part of their very nature.

“Okay, calm down. Something is going on here. Obviously. That’s all,” Isaac muttered as he looked around the room. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” He turned to look at his side.

No one was there.

He looked around the room.

“Huh,” Isaac said, blinking several times. “I thought…?” He wasn’t sure what he thought. It felt like someone was supposed to be standing there. By his side, as always. Isaac couldn’t recall who that could possibly be.

Isaac didn’t have anyone to rely on or trust. It was just him. Wasn’t it…?

A blue flash of light made him jump, turning to look for it’s source. Before he could find it, someone else drew his attention. Appearing as if to distract him from finding that source.

“Isaac!” A female voice called for him and he turned to see his old crew member there. Kaira ran towards him, waving and calling him out. Loud as ever. Even from the looks the other people gave her, she didn’t care. Wearing a stunning red silk dress, she didn’t stop until she had Isaac in her arms. Giving him a big hug. “Where have you been?”

“I… I don’t know.” Isaac admitted truthfully unaware of what exactly was going on. He returned the hug. She smelled the same. The same warmth and tightness her hugs always had was the same as ever. She was the same, yet he knew that couldn’t be.

Pulling back, Isaac looked her over.

With her braided hair tied up in a stylish bun, Isaac would’ve recognized her anywhere. With dark freckles over her dark skin, Kaira was the same as ever. She looked exactly how she did during the academy. When they all went to school together. Isaac, Kaira, Bai’Tai and Raphael…

“Come on, everyone is waiting for you! Holding us up again.” Kaira laughed, grabbing his arm and pulling Isaac forward. Isaac took a single step before stopping.

“The Academy?” Isaac closed his right eye, holding his head. From the empty socket of his left eye, he could see the dark hallways. The corridors of the academy lined with rooms and lockers. There was the drinking fountain between English Literature and Extraterrestrial studies.

The four of them always called it the E.T. class, joking about it after watching the old movie together in one of their dorm rooms. They had all gotten their late, forcing them to stay up all night to watch the movie after Bai’Tai kept burning the popcorn. It filled Kaira’s dorm room with the stench of burnt popcorn.

Isaac vividly remembered that. The smell, the tiredness he felt the next day forced to go to class still. He couldn’t recall the movie so much as all the laughs the four of them shared together. It had been one of the best days he had at the academy…

“Why does this place look like that? Why am I thinking of the academy right now? The exhibit room there, the showcase… I… I…?” Isaac winced, feeling a stinging pain in the side of his head. “This has already happened, hasn’t it?” A memory? It wasn’t possible to go back into the past.

Then why was Isaac having such an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia for all this? It couldn’t be possible, yet, Isaac couldn’t deny the familiar feeling of it all.

“You alright?” Kaira asked. Isaac looked up at her. Looking at her freckled face, her big smile and the concern in her eyes.

“I.. No. Nothing. I’m fine. Just a little bit of a headache, is all.” Isaac lied. He wanted so much to believe this was real, even knowing it was impossible. He wanted to believe all that stuff had just been a dream and this was reality.

It was hard to think that when all his vision from his left eye was ugly and gray. Of a place long since abandoned. The leftovers of something someone else had found and commandeered from the abandoned vessel.

“Let’s go see everyone. It’s been so long.” Isaac smiled, and he genuinely felt it. The longing. The nostalgia of it all. This is what he had always wanted, right? To be able to return to the past? To get a second chance. “I can’t wait to tell everyone.”

“Tell us what?” Kaira asked, taking his hand and pulling him through the crowd of people in their way. She never minded pushing through the crowd. Forcing her way through so they could make it to their class on time.

Isaac always admired that about her. Kaira never let anything keep her down.

“Typhon.” Isaac said. “I can’t wait for all of you to meet him.”

“Meet who?” Kaira was the one confused now. “Who’s Typhon?”

“I… I don’t know.” Isaac blinked, coming up blank. “I’m not sure why I said that.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Kaira giggled, keeping her voice low. Isaac had been in the closet back then, that’s right. Not wanting his parents or family to find out about his preferences. If the teachers had found out they’d have reported it to his father. They thought Kaira and him were together. If only they knew the truth.

“Like I’d have a boyfriend,” Isaac blushed, scratching at his cheek with a finger as he tried to keep up with Kaira’s quick pace. She still hadn’t let go of his hand yet. “If I did, you’d be the first to know!”

“Good.” Kaira beamed at that. “I’d beat you black and blue if you tried to hide something like that from me! From your parents? Well, I understand that.” She laughed and Isaac felt a pain in his heart from that sound.

She was here, wasn’t she? Why was Isaac feeling so lonely as he tightened his grip on her hand. It was warm. It felt the same. The same size, the same texture. Slender, yet strong. Kaira was exactly the same as she’d been in his memories.

“Back at the academy.” Isaac stopped at that. Kaira came to a halt as well, looking back at him.

“What are you doing? We need to hurry! We have to get good seats for the showcase.” Kaira tugged on his arm. Isaac didn’t budge.

“Hey, Kaira? What’s todays date?” He asked her. She stopped at that, looking at him. Her face split in a nervous smile, a laugh bubbled up from her throat but never reached her lips. Her eyes flickering side to side as if looking for an answer.

“W-what do you mean? Come on. Enough of this. We’re going to be late.” Kaira turned away from him. Isaac didn’t let go of her hand.

“We were late back then as well.” Isaac said and Kaira’s shoulders stiffened. “That day Raphael was going to present his showcase at the Academy? We were running late… it was raining that day. We were worried that we’d show up late for Raphael’s performance. He was going to unveil something he uncovered during one of his expeditions. He and Bai’Tai left…”

Isaac took a second, blinking as his memories became fuzzy and unclear. Taking a moment, he took a breath.

“Fuck, I can’t focus or think…” He cursed.

“The gate was locked.” Kaira suddenly said, catching Isaac’s attention. She stood there, looking upwards slightly as if looking into the past. “We missed his showcase. Raphael was so disappointed in us. He really wanted to show us. His only friends back then…”

“That’s right. The gate was locked and when we tried to scale the wall, I ended up twisting my ankle and the guards caught us.” Isaac laughed softly. “You refused to abandon me. You tried to fight them off before they dragged us both to the principles office.”

“Your dad was so pissed. My parents didn’t even bother answering the call…” Kaira shoulders slumped. “We never did get to see his showcase. Raphael and Bai’Tai never really got along, but, well… they did on this. This was the one thing they could cooperate on. It was going to change the world! Or at least, that’s what they said.”

“They did. Didn’t they…? Just not for the reasons they thought.” Isaac swallowed, feeling anxious suddenly. “Kaira…”

“It’s too late to stop them,” she looked back at him and half her face was burned. Isaac jumped at that, pulling back and letting her hand go. “There was a terrible fire…? Wasn’t there? I can still smell the smoke. Something… something happened during the showcase, didn’t it? A fire broke out… so much screaming. Something went wrong.”

“You. No, no. You did get burned but we got you treated! Y-you, you got a skin graft. It wasn’t the same shade as your natural skin color was, but it was… wasn’t it?” Isaac felt the sweat trickle down his neck as the light bore down on them. Hotter and hotter it grew from above.

Like a massive sun staring down at them.

“Isaac,” Kaira looked at him and, in a blink of an eye, they weren’t there. A flash of light and they were moved, transported, to the next room where they should’ve been going with everyone else.

Standing there, Isaac had jumped ahead as if teleported. Appearing in a large room past the central exhibit and to a private reveal where the Motha was located at. Up on stage, Raphael stood there nervously. On one side of the stage was Raphael with two hands in front and two hands behind his back. A nervous stance he always took when he was worked up but trying not to show it.

On the other side was Bai’Tai. His face was warped, and Isaac couldn’t see it properly as if he were looking at him through dirty glass. His memories failing him.

“Wha-,” Isaac opened his mouth. Kaira shushed him.

“It’s about to start.” She smiled. It seemed forced and strained as if she were trying to keep up the pretense of it all.  

“Thank you all for coming out here today!” Raphael’s voice echoed out from the microphone taped to his shirt, amplifying his voice. “As you are all aware or might be aware of, I am a senior in the exchange program. I was brought in originally to help Terran’s adapt to foreigners, uh, aliens.” Raphael nervously corrected. “Like my associate here.” Raphael motioned to Bai’Tai. “Together we are pleased to present to you a piece of our excavation.”

The Motha’s voice was being translated as he spoke so those in the room could understand him. Isaac, along with every other recruit, learned Galactic Common. Some species, like the Motha, couldn’t use the same vocal cords to speak the language however and required to wear specialized-

“Collars,” Isaac said, interrupting his own thoughts on the matter. Touching his neck, he didn’t feel his collar. A much smaller one that he originally had gotten and had altered to fit underneath his outfit. “My translation collar is missing.”

“Well, yeah, we don’t need one. Only aliens do.” Kaira snorted, laughing about it.

“Right…” Isaac knew that was the case. Those outside the system were legally required to wear the collars in order to interact and work with the government and any police officials they ran into. Not wearing a collar was, in itself, an illegal offense. “Bai’Tai and Raphael were transfer students here… because this is a Terran Flight Academy within Terran space. The solar system… I’m back home.”

“Are you feeling okay?” Kaira asked, looking at him nervously.

“I… I’m fine.” Isaac forced a smile onto his face, playing along with it. A part of him, despite himself, wanted to see Raphael’s and Bai’Tai’s showcase. He had missed it back then. Both he and Kaira had. Now they were here.

A second chance?

Was that even possible?

If Isaac had the opportunity, would he fix all the mistakes he made in life? Would he go back and right the wrongs? Even if that was paradoxical in nature. He wouldn’t be able to fix the mistakes if he went back and fixed them. Without knowing about them to begin with, there was no reason he would go back.

Would he still try and go back, or would he learn to accept what had happened…?

“Isaac?” Kaira touched his arm. He couldn’t look at her with his left eye. The image he saw was horrifying and he closed it, pretending to live in this delusion if only a little longer.

“Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night. Don’t mind me.” Isaac touched his left arm. He could feel it. His left arm was there. Not a mechanical one. Was that true about his left eye, then? Was it there? Was Kaira and the others here seeing him… whole?

Was Isaac not broken any longer? Defective? Unnatural? Would people finally accept him now that he wasn’t damaged goods?

“I understand. I was up all night as well,” Kaira began to whisper-say, trying to keep her voice low as Raphael continued. “Couldn’t get to sleep. I was so… nervous.” Isaac looked over at her as she said that. “As if I knew something wasn’t right. That this wasn’t going to go well. Not because of Raphael! But… but… why was I so bothered by this?” She fidgeted, gripping the sides of her dress.  

“Kaira…” Isaac began but Raphael was already in full swing of things now.

“…with the funding given to us by your academy, we were able to fund a joint run, with Mr. Bai’Tai’s help of course,” The Motha gestured to Bai’Tai who lifted up one of his arms to wave at the crowd. Isaac forgot that Raphael back then used to call Bai’Tai Mr. for some inexplicit reason none of them understood. “A joint run to one of the world’s that had gone dark! A mysterious place where all contact with the outside was cut off. This was a very big deal, of course. We all know how the government treats such places. Calling them forbidden zones, or out of bounds, or if you go there we’ll kill you.” The Motha laughed.

Bai’Tai laughed uncomfortably at that, clearly not telling Raphael something about this. With a motion, he told Raphael to shut up about that part and Isaac suspected that Bai’Tai hadn’t exactly gotten permission to go to such a dangerous area.

“My point is! While we were on the planet, we discovered something. There was no life to speak of. It was like someone had come in and swept away all the fauna and flora from the planet, leaving nothing but an empty husk behind… but there! In the middle of a ruined civilizations, was this!”

The Motha stepped aside and showed off his find from the expedition. His life’s work. Finally able to bring back a piece of history from an ancient civilization to showcase for everyone to see. The velvet red curtains parted and there, on a simple wooden stand, was a black obelisk. A single upright metallic structure shaped like a pillar.

“It was a monument to it’s people, I’ve deduced. They would go there to pray to or worship by it. I’m, uh, still unsure about the specifics…” Raphael laughed nervously. “There were a lot of darkened outlines of where the people had been before… well… before…” Pulling out his note cards, he fumbled with them, and they went everywhere as everyone stared at the unnaturally smooth metallic structure.

Every one of its sides were reflective, yet nothing was reflected in them. They were like black mirrors that should’ve reflected light, but instead devoured it. The longer Isaac looked at it, the more uncomfortable he became. If he continued to stare, maybe he’d see his reflection. Something look back at him, from the other side of the black mirror. Something that looked like him but wasn’t him.

Next to him, Kaira was hyperventilating.

“T-that’s the thing I saw.” Kaira muttered, wide eyed as she covered her face with a hand, fingers splayed open.

“You saw this before?” Isaac asked, tearing his eyes away from it. It hurt to look at. It hurt even more to look away from it. If his concern for Kaira wasn’t greater than the pain, Isaac would’ve never looked away from such a thing.

It was unnatural and cold. The very material it was made out of was alien.

“No. Yes. I don’t know! It was-,” Kaira voice became static for a second. “Then last night. I saw it in the window. It wasn’t on the other side! It was IN the window, Isaac. Inside it! The reflection of the glass…” Kaira was breathing heavier and heavier, and Isaac went to her side. “That thing is dangerous. It wants to be seen but we shouldn’t see it.”

“What do you mean?” Isaac wanted to look back at it, but Kaira stopped him.

“We need to leave. Now!” Kaira said, pulling him towards the door.

“Kaira, what about the showcase?” Isaac looked at her. Kaira didn’t care as she pulled him with her towards the exit. Elegan was there. The Silken Cat stepping in front of them, blocking their escape.

At first the Silken Cat seemed charming. Now, with him leaning over the two, he was far more intimidating than Isaac had expected someone so lean and thin to be.

“Where are we going?” Elegan asked. “The showcase is just starting.” He smiled with needle sharp teeth. “It would be rude to leave before the good stuff start. It’d be a shame if you missed it, again, Isaac…”

“Move-,” Isaac began but Raphael’s voice picked up behind them.

“I would never start it, of course! I don’t even know how. What a silly question to ask. This is just a piece of history we can study and work with. N-not something for us to attempt to use. We barely can scratch the surface of what is within the dark zones. This is the first piece ever knowingly brought out!” The Motha nervously explained, trying to answer questions being asked about the alien structure. “It’s not a weapon. O-or, I don’t think? Why would you ask that? We aren’t planning to use this.”

“You aren’t.” Bai’Tai stepped forward. The movement caught everyone’s attention. “I, on the other paw, am.” Bai’Tai said slipping a glove on one hand. “I’ve been waiting for this ever since I got to this forsaken galaxy. Why else would I agree to transfer here?”

“Bai’Tai, what are you talking about? Don’t be foolish,” Raphael said, yet it sounded far grandeur with the sound of bells as his voice rose. “You cannot comprehend what this is. A mortals life, even long lived, is still fleeting in the grand scheme of things.” It tried to explain. Dio Lux tried to tell Bai’Tai, talking to him still as if he were his parent and Bai’Tai was a small child.

“Enough! You… you always looked down on us! Even father said so. He hated you. Hated your guts.” Bai’Tai spat the words out. Vicious and personal as if he’d been there. The stage distorted from wood to that of a marble balcony. The two talking to each other somewhere else, effecting the hallucination they all were under. “You never let us know the truth. The truth of the universe! The truth behind the dark zones. I? I will accomplish what you are too afraid to do!”

“Bai’Tai!” Raphael reached out for the Tigeron who placed that gloved hand on the monolith’s surface. The strange fabric and wiring within the glove reacted to the smooth, glossy surface and there was a energy that sparked from it’s surface. The electricity was void of all color, a black empty spark that made goosebumps form on Isaac’s arm.

There was a flash of blue, a flash of white as the black light emitted from the monolith. It consumed everything it touched. The gravity in the room shifted and Isaac found himself tossed upwards against the ceiling with Kaira still at his side.

“Don’t let go of my hand!” Isaac yelled over the screams that filled the room as chaos broke out.

Something was knocked over and the smell of smoke began to fill the room. With the gravity shifted, Isaac was able to slip past Elegan who stood there, seemingly unaffected. Standing there as he watched as madness spread throughout the crowd.

With a deep breath, Elegan breathed it all in. The smell of fear and panic making the Silken Cat grin from ear to ear, showing all his sharp teeth.  

From the private display room, Isaac exited into a corridor. A corridor he recognized all too well. It was lined with lockers and doors, there was the same drinking fountain. Even a decade later, Isaac would recognize the hallways of his old academy.

“How are we?” Kaira asked. Isaac shook his head.

“No time to begin to try and explain. Void BS. That’s all I can guess,” Isaac held onto her hand as he ran through the hallway, on the ceiling. Needing to walk upside down or crawl to get past the floating lights that got in their way.

Despite having gravity reversed, everything else seemed to stay the same. It only seemed to effect Isaac and Kaira who glanced back.

“Isaac!” Kaira yelled and Isaac turned to see something crawling after them.

With countless arms, it crawled on the ceiling like a spider. It had no discernable head or body. It was just arms made of black sludge that moved forward one after another like a rolling wave. Pulling and dragging itself forward, leaving a black film of filth behind in its wake.

“W-what is that?” Kaira asked.

Isaac already knew as this had happened before. “Hadn’t it?” This was all repeating. A memory he was reliving. From a dreamlike state to the harsh reality that had happened.

The day the Academy went dark. Isaac had known Bai’Tai had been responsible for it. He just didn’t know how. Now that he did? That Bai’Tai had brought back a forbidden artifact from a dark zone? It changed nothing.

Even knowing the truth, changed nothing. The Academy still went dark and Isaac had…

“No, not again.” Isaac cursed, trying not to think about it as he gripped his chest. “Fuck. Fuck!”

From a pleasant world of hopes and dreams, they’d been cast into a nightmare. The light’s flickered on and off. They were being chased. Gravity itself was fighting against them as Isaac felt, rather than saw, the hallway before them tilt onto its side.

Lockers were thrown open. The lights swung. Glass shattered and something broke. There was a hiss from one of the pipes and Isaac covered his mouth.

“Isaac!” Kaira shouted as one of the hanging lights swung towards them.

Isaac tried to catch it with his left hand but ended up with a nasty cut for his efforts. Cursing, he pulled back and clung to the wall as the light crashed into the nearby lockers.

“Fuck, forgot my arm isn’t mechanical.” Isaac winced, holding the bleeding cut on his arm. Pulling his hand away, his blood was black.

“What?” Kaira was utterly confused at this point.

“Long story,” Isaac didn’t bother explaining as he rushed forward. “The gravitational well of the island has shifted. Or the gravity plates damaged. The entire academy is leaning on it’s side!”

“You know,” Kaira laughed uncomfortably. “I sometimes forget the Academy is floating on a chunk of dirt.”

“Thank the founders for that. They wanted to create a place they could brag about to the other Nations.” Isaac rolled his eyes at that as he helped Kaira through one of the open doorways within the hall. The metal doors kept slapping against the wall. Isaac had to use his body to block it for her. She held it open as he followed after.

“Here!” She shouted and Isaac followed her example. The two grabbed a nearby mop that had spilled out of it’s bucket and used it to jam the door shut with. “Hopefully that slows down whatever that creepy crawler thing was!”

“Good thinking,” Isaac bumped wrists with her before moving further into the hall. In no time, they heard a loud bang from behind as the Creepy Crawler smacked straight into the door. Unable to seemingly see, it walked right into it.

Still pursuing them despite the obstruction in its path.

“No eyes!” Kaira laughed gleefully, clapping her hands together. “It must use some other sensory organ to see with. Maybe thermal or electromagnetic?” She thought it over. Isaac was already ahead of her. “Hey!”

“What? You seemed so deep in thought, be rude to snap you out of it.” Isaac winked as he slipped into the next hallway. Kaira flipped him off. “Follow me. I’m remembering this place… and how this goes.”

“How what goes?” Kaira asked. Isaac wasn’t sure what to say to that as he moved through the tilted hallways. Isaac didn’t have the heart to tell her.

“I think this has all happened before,” Isaac took a second. “This was the day that we escaped from the academy. There was an accident. On the day Raphael was supposed to reveal what he’d brought back for his final project? There was an incident. A fire broke out and you got burned. We escaped, leaving everyone else behind…” Isaac didn’t explain everything. Afraid of admitting what actually had happened. “Or at least, you did. You managed to escape.”

Touching his chest, he could still feel the gaping hole left behind.

“Not exactly following, but okay.” Kaira helped Isaac move one of the broken lockers out of the way so they could slip into the chemistry lab. “There’s an emergency exit through here. We can escape. Careful, the floor is leaking.”

Dark ooze bubbled up from the tiles, between the cracks. A black substance that began to fill the room.  

“Right,” Isaac nodded as he closed the door behind them. There was a blue spark from his chest. He held onto it for a second. A flickering light that brought some rational thought back to his senses. “Kaira?” He said without looking at her.

“What? Little busy here,” Kaira said as she moved from a fallen desk to another. Jumping from them as if they were playing a extreme game of the floor is lava. Reaching the other side of the wall, she grabbed hold of the emergency exit. One of the windows that was designed to be knocked open during a fire.  

It’d lead out to a foldout scaffolding where the two could climb down the side and exit. With the entire island tilting in the air, it wouldn’t be any safer than being inside. That wasn’t the issue Isaac was having. He had finally realized where he was.

“I was injured. That’s right,” Isaac could feel the blood dripping between his fingers. He expected it to be warm, it was the coldest thing he’d ever felt before. “I was injured and… and I should’ve died that day, but I didn’t. Something, someone intervened and I… I only remember being on the ship with you after that. There is a hole not just here,” Isaac touched his chest. “But here,” he tapped the left side of his head. Holding the spot. Feeling it with his fingers. Tracing the metallic surface of the plate. “I died this day…”

“What are you talking about? We’re going to get out of here and-,” Kaira began. Isaac interrupted her. Still unable to look at her. For a long second, he closed his eyes.

He wished so badly to return here. To this day. To somehow fix what had broken. He couldn’t. Isaac wasn’t special, he already knew that. It was still hard for face. To face the cruel, harsh reality of their situation. Of what had happened.

You don’t get to go back and fix your mistakes. Only to learn to live with your regrets.

“I miss you.” Isaac said, looking back at her. He never wanted to forget her face. Looking at her now? Isaac realized just how fake this all was. Kaira looked far younger than she would’ve been. She looked like she was back in college. Not a fully grown woman.

As he was a fully grown man.

“I wanted to see you so badly that I… I went along with all this.” Isaac let out a broken laugh, covering his mouth after. “I’m so pathetic. I wanted to see you. To see my mother again… to somehow, go back in time. To a time where we were all together again. In doing so…” Isaac felt a new emptiness inside. “I left someone else behind,” he glanced to his side.

Where Typhon should’ve been.

“In returning to this dream, I ended up leaving something, someone else behind.” Isaac choked back the tears as he clutched his chest. It was weeping. A hole that seeped black ooze that dripped down his front and into the pool of dark waters bubbling up from the cracks. “I wanted so badly to return… I lost someone even more special to me.”

“What’s gotten into you?” She asked, looking between Isaac and the exit.

“This isn’t real though, is it? This has already happened... I still have nightmares about it. This day… poor Raphael must’ve wanted us to see his showcase so badly. Even in a dream, it doesn’t ever seem like we’ll get that chance to view it. All his hard work, gone. Just like that… Just like him. Raphael is gone. The Academy is gone. Everything went dark after today. The entire planet went dark,” Isaac looked at her. “You went dark. Or rather, I did…”  

“What are you talking about?” She asked, but all pretense was gone as she looked at him. Her bright lively expressions going blank as a mask. “Wasn’t I there on the ship with you? We got the same job.”

“Strange isn’t it?” Isaac asked, offering a weak smile. “I hated this place. I knew I needed it, though. I tried so damn hard, Kaira. I tried so damn hard!” He shouted out. “But I was never good enough. Studying? Working out? None of it was enough. I ended up doing this to myself,” Isaac touched his left arm. “I did whatever I could to get my wings. To fly with everyone else… unlike you.

“You might’ve came from a different background, nothing as prestigious as I did. You weren’t cut corners; people didn’t give you leniencies just because your dad was famous. No… You should’ve been the hero of this story,” Isaac laughed, wiping away a stray tear from his cheek. “You and Typhon both. Both of you are so damn incredible and smart and capable! It should’ve been you on that ship with Typhon. The two of you going around the universe. Saving people, defeating empires and finding lost treasure from lost civilizations! Unlike me… Unlike me. I struggle so damn much at the simplest tasks. I have to get a damn AI to help me fly a ship. To have a damn cosmic force of nature like Typhon to save me countless times.” Isaac covered his eyes. “I’m just so damn… pathetic, aren’t I? Even now. Having my own ship and being a captain…? It all feels so… surreal.”

Isaac looked at her.

“What’s your point?” She asked with a voice that wasn’t her own. It sounded more like Isaac’s voice than it did Kaira. 

“Those things? Those achievements? They were given to me, weren’t they? I always suspected something strange was going on. I figured, at first, it must’ve been my dad. Or a teacher trying to suck up to him… I mean, hell, I have my own ship! Me! The loser of the class. How did that even happen? By chance? Coincidences that add and stack up? What bullshit that is!” He shouted out, letting it all out. Not holding back any longer. “It was all orchestrated, wasn’t it?”

“And if it was?” She continued to look at him. “You meeting that Saberwolf? Finding forbidden tech on a ship far more advance than anything should’ve been? If every good thing that happened to you was caused by another? Would you hate them, me, for it?” She opened her arms, looking down at herself. “All of this? We could recreate a better dream than this,” she looked around the room. “Relive our lives back before this. At the academy. All four of us again.”

“What about him?” Isaac clutched his chest. “Everything I have to be thankful for, is thanks to Typhon… isn’t it? Somehow. Somehow he managed to do all this. I don’t… I don’t know how. Even being the cause of it, I wasn’t part of it. That plan. I was left out, on the sidelines again. A secondary character, a side character of my own damn story,” he let out a bitter laugh.

“That aberration has nothing to do with it.” Kaira gritted her teeth.

“Typhon saved me,” Isaac wasn’t sure how that was even possible as he touched the wound on his chest. It was where his artificial heart was. “I don’t recall it... This gaping hole? I know I should, but I don’t. This tin can of a heart? I don’t remember how I got it, Kaira. I met him but didn’t meet him? Does he remember… or is it…” Isaac took a second on that. “No, that would be… but he…?” Biting his lip, Isaac could only come to that conclusion. “He did all this for me, but without me. That must’ve been… so hard for him. To be alone, for so, so very long…”

“This doesn’t change anything. You’re trapped here as much as I am.” Kaira scoffed, shaking her head. “The Guardian of the White Light might’ve started this dream, entrancing you lesser beings with his light. It was that thing, that aberration that continues to ruin everything…”

“Does it matter?” Isaac asked and that seemed to catch her off guard.

“What?”

“You aren’t real, either, are you? You’ve only taken her appearance.” Isaac sighed, shaking his head. “I’ve missed her so much… using that against me? Fuck, that hurts. Because it’s so effective. Using our pasts against us? Our memories? Toying with us…” Isaac wiped a hand down his face, glaring at her. “Who are you??”

“Who am I?” Kaira asked, her voice deepening. “You figured it out far faster than everyone else here had. Or, rather, you still have a reason to go back. Most are happy to believe in this fantasy. This illusion. Each specifically crafted and created for them. Their wildest dreams and fantasies come true! You? You wanted to go back to this day… to fix something that was already broken. I’ll give you credit for that.” She stretched her neck to one side, then the other. A loud cracking noise came from it. “This appearance is so… stiff. Staying in this skin.”

With a hand, she scratched at her cheek. Her nails were gone, and claws scratched and peeled the flesh from her face. Bits and pieces falling like ash to the growing pool of dark liquid beneath them.

“What are you?” Isaac pressed back against the door. He could hear the Creepy Crawler behind him, on the other side of the door. Trying to sniff him out. He rather deal with that thing than whatever this was.

“You should know,” it spoke as it wiped Kaira’s hands over it’s face, pulling them up and over through her hair and threw them out, as if tossing something aside. Her face had changed. Looking exactly like his. A dark reflection of himself peered back at him as if through dark tinted glass. A warped version of someone that Isaac had used to be. “We’ve met before. Many times, in fact. In many scenarios, in many times, in many places we have, we will and are destined to meet again. And again.”

“The monolith?” Isaac tensed recognizing that dark reflection. The dark structure Bai’Tai had brought in, the thing Raphael had found. The thing that had stolen his face. “Your nothing more than a reflection. A horrible copy. Using my image, my face, against me… against the ones I love.”

“A reflection? What is a reflection if not a copy of the original?” It asked, jumping forward. It landed in the middle of the room. The liquid rippled outwards, creating more distorted images and reflections of times and places long passed and yet to come. Pausing, the Isaac copy looked around. “These memories of yours are all jumbled up. Pieces of it are missing.” It reached out to touch a spot on the wall. It broke apart, dissolving away to leave a dark void where it was. Black ooze seeped from the spot. “Another is messing things up. Makes it hard for me to do more than this… Do you still recall what happened that day?”

“During Raphael’s showcase?” Isaac pressed back against the wall, trying to keep his distance from it. From himself.

“That day, the Academy was destroyed. It went dark because of the thing they found. The Monolith. That’s why your memories are all obscured. Your brain is trying to protect you from the truth of what happened that day.” It turned to look at him, tilting it’s head unnaturally to the side. “Of what happened to you.”

“What happened?” Isaac dared to ask.

With a finger, it tapped the side of it’s head. “You don’t want to know the truth.” It smiled. “If you know the truth? The rest of you might break, your mind snapping. There are things the mortal mind aren’t meant to know. You don’t get to know everything, Isaac Mayhew. You aren’t special or different than anyone else. You don’t get all the answers spoon fed to you. You’ll spend what little time you have left wondering what was, what could’ve been, and what really is. Filled with regrets for the choices you did and didn’t take. That is life.” It laughed, a hollow wet sound. “How bittersweet. Beautiful or ugly? It’s the same thing, the same coin. Two faces of the same thing, depending on how you look at it.”

The room began to fill with the black ozone that seeped from the broken wall. Covering the floor and making the desks within the room float on top of it’s dark surface. Isaac climbed onto one of the desks, trying to get out of the substance that poured in.

It clung to his legs. Hands reaching up from the substance. Trying to grab hold of him. To pull him underneath it’s dark surface. Isaac had a horrible realization that every one of these hands were a left hand. His missing left hand.

“What about Kaira? The others?” Isaac struggled to maintain his balance as the dark substance began to move like shifting waves.

“You helped her escape back then. Staying behind to delay the thing that came out of the monolith. Birthed by it. A horrifying reflection that wanted to see what was on this side of that dark glass,” the Isaac copy said. The water rose up over his waistline. He didn’t even bother to move as it continued to rise.

“The emergency exit, right…” Isaac could barely recall. “I stayed behind with a mop,” he almost laughed. “That’s why I thought of a mop to block the doorway with… I had one back then. It was the only thing I had to defend myself from it.”

“What little good that did us.” The doppelganger scoffed. “If it had been me? I’d have ripped it’s head off.”

“Doubt that would’ve killed it.” Isaac looked at him. “You are and aren’t me… are you? You’re really a clone? Or a, uh, reflection? Have you always been with me? Inside me…? Then what was the thing Raiju expelled?”

“You can have more than one passenger, tagging along. Parasites, really. From the void. Clinging to those of this reality. Wanting a taste of it. To be… real again, if only for a second longer.” It shook it’s head. “I am and I am not you. A doppelganger. The clones you are talking about are things created in a lab. I am nothing more than you, or rather, what you were when you looked into the dark mirror. Scanned and copied into it, creating a you that isn’t you in turn.” It said, offering a shrug and a shake of its head. “You were the one to look into the dark mirror of the monolith.”

“And it looked back…” Isaac couldn’t recall that moment. When he had looked into the monolith’s surface. Those memories seemingly stolen by the very thing. Siphoned out of him and absorbed into it, creating this thing in front of him. “You are a void being…? What do you want?”

“We want what you have? To be on this side of the glass.” Isaac’s clone stood there, motionless. “Pity that it didn’t work out, this time. There is always next. Or the next after that, or that, or that…” It repeated several more times. “Time is meaningless to something such as I. I can only perceive reality with your eye,” it tapped underneath it’s left eye.

The eye Isaac had lost.

“What?” Isaac eyes widened in turn. “You… you stole my body parts?”

“You died.” It said looking to the side, turning to look at the door. “Or you did. Back then. You died. Even if you reset. That death will forever be there. A crack inside, forming from the life lost. A broken piece of time. A hole.” It covered the left side of it’s face with the left arm Isaac didn’t have, over the left eye that Isaac had lost. “Something doomed to repeat endlessly.”

The door behind Isaac was hit by something large and angry. The door began to break, the glass began to crack, and Isaac could see the ooze seeping through.

“Seeping between the cracks.” Isaac face paled as he looked down at his left arm. “Is there any point in fighting this?” He asked, already knowing.

“No.” Isaac’s doppelganger said.

“That’s why you haven’t attacked me yet. Why you haven’t really done anything. You don’t need to. I’m destined, fated to die all over again.” Isaac almost laughed. Easing himself down, he dropped into the dark liquid. The hands clung to his arms and sides. Holding onto him. They didn’t try to pull him under, just clinging to him out of a desperation Isaac didn’t understand.

“You finally willing to accept it?” The doppelganger asked.

“I am. He isn’t,” Isaac motioned with his head towards the door.

“Wha-?” There was another loud bang against the door. The metal bent, wood cracked, glass shattered. “There is no escaping this!”

“Tell him that.” Isaac offered a weak shrug.

“No!” With a cry the doppelganger reached for him. Trying to grab him as the hands had. To take hold of Isaac as the door busted inwards and a flood of dark water poured into the room.

A massive flood of dark tar like substance spilled into the room, filling it to the point the windows on the far wall cracked and shattered. It poured from the cracks it made. The ooze seeping out of the windows as Isaac closed his eyes waiting for it to pass.

The numbing cold had rushed over his face, his body. Threatening to sweep him away. He didn’t need to move as the hands clung to him. Keeping him in place until the waters receded and Isaac could breathe once more.

And there stood Cyclone. Holding Isaac’s doppelganger by the throat. Slammed against the wall, the cyborg Saberwolf pinned the dark reflection.

“You!” It’s voice was like hissing steam. “You do not belong here!” It kicked and thrashed like a wild animal. Cyclone’s grip tightened, threatening to pop it’s head off like a doll.

“Like to see you try and stop me,” Cyclone spat dark ooze from his lips. “The second I pulled the blue guardian’s light from him,” Cyclone glanced over at Isaac. “You try to take hold again. A stubborn infection refusing to die.” Cyclone rolled one shoulder. “Good thing this isn’t my first time dealing with you.”

“You think this will change anything?” It tried to say but Cyclone’s mechanical fingers tightened. With a sickening snap, the reflection’s neck broke.

“To stop it? To change things? No. Only to delay it… if only a little longer. If only a single day longer, it’s worth the effort to try.” Cyclone moved over to one of the open windows and tossed the thing out of it like yesterdays garbage. “No matter how many times I have to repeat this. I just need to get you fuckers out of my way.”

Cyclone slumped forward, needing to hold the wall for support as he breathed heavily. The gears in his chest grinded together as he coughed and spewed more of the black substance from within.

“Cyclone!” Isaac ran over to help.

“Sorry… it took so long… to find you.” He coughed.

“What took you so long?” Isaac tried to tease, to offer some playful banter to this terrifying moment.

Cyclone wiped his muzzle off, offering a sneering smirk at the Terran. “I was trying to be dramatic. Like you. Showing up right when you needed me most.”

“You’re terrible,” Isaac did laugh at that and helped Cyclone down to the floor. Allowing the Saberwolf to sit there. “What happens next?”

“The entire academy will be devoured by the void. Everything will go dark. All the information and memories of this place will be distorted and warped.” Cyclone coughed as Isaac rubbed his back.

“Like looking through dirty glass,” Isaac strangely enough understood. “I’m glad you’re here… I miss you.” He said as he had always wanted to say to Kaira. He knew, though, that she had moved on. Kaira was alive somewhere out there. Having her own grand adventure.

It was hard to let go of the past, to move on. Isaac couldn’t just repeat things. There were no second chances. He’d learn to live with his regrets, knowing that at least with Typhon he had a future to look forward to.

“Isaac-,” Cyclone turned to face him. He didn’t need to say anything more as Isaac closed what little distance there was between them, kissing the Saberwolf on the lips.

His metallic jaw was hard and cold to the touch, while his upper lips were warm and soft. A sharp contrast between the two. Something Isaac would just have to learn to live with.

“Typhon,” Isaac said his name and Cyclone wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Call me Cyclone,” he said. Not feeling comfortable any longer with that name. “I long since abandoned that old name. A name of a foolish Saberwolf that had lost everything because of his own weakness. His stupidity and naivety of the world… of how things really are.”

Isaac rested his forehead against the side of Cyclone’s.

“That doesn’t matter. At least, not to me.” He whispered the words as there was a scuffling sound from the hallway. They weren’t safe here, but a part of Isaac didn’t care.

Not any longer.

“You know why this place was so special to me?” Isaac asked, looking up into Cyclone’s one good eye. “Why I would take a gift, a chance given to me by Raphael to create a perfect fantasy world and use it to recreate something from my past?”

“Why’s that?” Cyclone wheezed out, struggling to breathe.

“Because this is the place, I first met you.” Isaac pet the side of Cyclone’s face.

“Isaac…” The Saberwolf looked at him. “If you stay with me… you’ll end up like this,” he motioned to himself. “I wanted to save you. TO protect you from the shadows. It was so hard, being apart from you. I dreamt of you every night and reached for you every morning. Only to find you weren’t there.”

“No,” Isaac agreed. “But I am now.” He reassured Cyclone as the two waited for the thing from the hallway to find them. “No matter where I went… when I was? You always found me, huh?”

“Knowing what happened previously helped.” Cyclone let out a groaning cough of a laugh, holding his chest after. “It hurts to laugh.”

“I know,” Isaac blushed lightly. “I still love the sound of it. Your laugh. Your voice.” Isaac rested his forehead against the side of Cyclone’s. “I don’t remember everything, but I feel like I do? Like I should? Even without the memories, my feelings for you have never changed. Never will.”

“I forgot how sickeningly sappy you could be.” Cyclone coughed, yet a smile pulled up on the side of his face. “Is this where it ends? For us…?” He asked as one ear flicked. Cyclone could hear the creepy crawler approaching. “I only managed to distract it. That thing? I can’t kill something from the past… or I would’ve taken care of Bai’Tai along with so many others.”

“Not sure how that works,” Isaac gave Cyclone’s cheek a soft peck of a kiss before standing up. “You might not be able to stop it,” Isaac touched his left arm. “But I can. I existed at this time, in this place. So, if I’m following your logic, I can hurt it?”

“Hurt it, not kill it. That thing doesn’t fully exist.” Cyclone coughed, grabbing at his chest now.

“So, I can’t kill it…” Isaac thought that over. “Hey?” He looked at Cyclone who tilted his muzzle up towards him. “I’m already void-touched, right?”

“Right…?” Cyclone quirked an eyebrow.

“You and Raiju purged what was inside me. It’s still there, needing to bubble back up to the surface…” Isaac touched his chest. “It’s not enough.”

“Enough for what?” Cyclone asked. Isaac didn’t answer as he crouched down in front of Cyclone.

“I’m void-touched because I chose this, okay?” Isaac told Cyclone. Before the Saberwolf could ask him what he was doing, Isaac kissed him again.

Leaning over his legs, Isaac pressed against Cyclone. Sealing their lips together the best he could. Because of Cyclone’s mechanical jaw, his lips couldn’t fully seal and because of that. The void ooze was able to spill.

Spill out of Cyclone’s body, a vessel that contained so much of the void sea. The void ooze keeping the parts that was Cyclone left together like glue. Holding him together, as had Isaac. As it would for Isaac. As Isaac let it flow from Cyclone’s lips and into his body.

“I chose this.” Cyclone realized then how Isaac had gotten infected by the void.

Cyclone had been the one to inadvertently do so. Be it this moment or another, in the past, that no longer existed. Cyclone, by breaking the great cosmic cycle of the universe, had infected Isaac with the void.

All so they could be together, if only a single day longer.

“I love you,” Isaac pulled back as the void dripped from his lips. The infectious colder than ice, numbing his throat as it dripped down into his body. “But I need this,” Isaac pulled back and Cyclone’s eyes widened seeing the hourglass Isaac had pick pocketed from him.

“Isaac-!” Cyclone reached for it.

“You did all this to save me. You found me here at the academy. Gave me this,” Isaac touched the silver bangle on his arm. “You saved me…”

“I’ll do it again. And again! Don’t do this, let me take this burden!” Cyclone tried to reach for the hourglass Isaac now held. Trying to take the cursed void artifact away from him.

“Oh, Cyclone… My sweet, sweet, dumb, silly man,” Isaac took a single step back as something horrible and writhing came into the classroom behind him. “You were going to save me.”

Isaac offered one last parting smile for Cyclone as he spun the hourglass around once and let it drop to the floor. Instinctively knowing how to use it as the Creepy Crawler came in from behind with too many arms and no eyes. Reaching for him with left arms that Isaac had lost, long, long ago.

“But then, who will save you?” Isaac asked Cyclone as everything faded away like grains of sand in the wind. “I’ll see you in my next life. I promise.”

Cyclone watched as Isaac faded away in golden grains of sand. Disappearing before his very eyes as he reached for him. Wandering what it would be like, now that he was on the other side. Looking in through the glass.

Watching as the world around him faded away as Isaac slipped through time, resetting things that once was and for everything that is? To vanish and be devoured by the thing living inside the hourglass of time.

A cage, a prison developed for the very thing that gnashed away and ate away at time itself. Devouring everything it could sink it’s countless mouths into. Hungering endlessly and savoring every bite of it.

Of their time together.

“Isaac,” Cyclone closed his eye as he waited for it to devour him too. “So, this is what happens to time when you turn back the clock?” He almost laughed at how ridiculous it was.

The world around him peeled away. Sharp white fangs gnawing on the edges as he sat there in a classroom he’d never been in before. Opening his eye, Cyclone stared at the emptiness in front of him.

“I wonder what it would’ve been like to go to class with you?” He asked no one in particular as Zarvarsh, the ex-time warden and void beast known as the time devourer stood before him. Appearing there in one fleeting shadow as their connection broke, Isaac taking the hourglass from Cyclone and with it the cursed being inside it.

“It’s time.” Zarvarsh said to Cyclone. Cyclone didn’t even look at him, not giving it that final pleasure.

“I would have liked that. To have a simple life. None of this. No ships, no destiny bullshit. Just us. Together. I wonder how the air would smell. Would it be crisper, cleaner with you by my side? I’d like to imagine so…” Cyclone closed his eye, resting back against the crumbling wall as everything that was returned to the void.

“It would’ve been bittersweet.” Zarvarsh laughed as the jaws from it’s stomach opened. The jackal’s body tilted to one side as it opened it’s mouth wide. Leaning forward, Cyclone didn’t even care as drool dripped over his face and shoulders.

“Did you have to go through this every time I reset?” Cyclone wondered then. “Did I only ever bring you pain?” He let out a weak breath, exhaling one last final time. “I’d do it all again, though… if only to see your face.”

Zarvarsh’s jaws snapped shut and, with it, the final piece of this time was devoured and consumed. Eaten away as Isaac was the one to return, to reset and be cursed with the same destiny that Cyclone had chose.