Much as I had expected, the remaining Primes, Gabriel included, entered the Great Hall before my hour deadline. With Katye's natural charm and Kane's diplomacy skills, they easily reached an accord to destroy the Mind-Drive technology in exchange for a few days' worth of work from Katye and I to help build up their city. Neither side mentioned any sort of trade agreement, making it clear that this would be a one-time interaction between the two parties, not that any of us were complaining.
Sanctum had less than a thousand people, though they still had a few hundred embryos to help bolster their numbers over the following years. With all of our practice building Eden and our current level of strength, it was actually a simple matter to create the five hundred buildings that were agreed upon since we did not have to worry about plumbing or electricity. Raven and Katye estimated that it would only take us five days at a leisurely pace and, in that time, both of them would confirm that the Mind-Drives had been destroyed.
I stood on the balcony of our temporary house, looking up at the night sky. Alpha was not a true planet since it orbited a large gas giant which created a truly breath-taking view. The gas giant took on shades of violet as it reflected the sun's light and there was a thin, silvery set of rings that sparkled like jewels in the sky. Too bad that the moon had a long list of other problems, or I would have loved to live here for the view alone.
"The show hardly did it justice," Katye remarked as she walked up behind me.
"Meh... it's hard to capture the true beauty of something with CGI," I chuckled. "Didn't you want to sleep with Raven and Echo?"
"You aren't," she retorted.
"I got enough sleep after Go-Sci."
"Rebecca..." Katye sighed.
"I haven't 'slept' in well over a year at this point," I replied honestly. "While the three of you were up on the space station, I started having strange dreams... I can never remember them, but they always had me waking up with a scream and I would be on edge until I meditated for a few hours."
Katye sighed again and leaned on the banister. "Does the name, Dystina, sound familiar?"
Although I did not know the name myself, whatever was inside of me seemed to, as I felt my Soul Realm tremble. Now it was my turn to sigh, and I sat on the banister while I looked at Katye. There had always been questions in my mind as to why we were placed together and what made us so valuable that Tori had gone to all of this trouble to raise us. He literally created multiple worlds, thousands of people, and brought a show to life just to let us do as we pleased and trained ourselves.
"So... what have you been keeping from me?" I asked.
"Not as much as you would think, but if you have given up sleep because of dreams that you can't even remember, it's too much of a coincidence," Katye sighed. "While I was up in space, I started having dreams myself, but I actually remember them. They are about us, but far, far stronger than we are now... We are pulled into a war that took place in space with hundreds of thousands of warriors that are, again, far stronger than our current level, but compared to the two of us in the dream, they were like ants. We did not take part in the first part of the conflict because we were waiting for our old enemies to act, who were the only ones that could match our power... or so we thought. Our enemies had made more preparations than we had expected. Our healer took a heavy injury that she could not heal, so before she could die, another of our group sacrificed her life to awaken you from an enemy that had clouded your mind with hatred. I was drawn into the fight as well, but they had with them someone who could negate all of my magical power. Without it, I was practically helpless against the person and... I was fatally wounded. You were able to easily kill my murderer, but that just left me to die in your arms since the damage was too great."
For the first time in a very long time, flames appeared on my arms and shoulders, but they were gray in color instead of black, which had been the only way they had formed without my intention behind them. I did not even notice them at first since I was overwhelmed by a mournful roar that came from my Soul Realm. I closed my eyes, which allowed a tear to escape, and tried to quiet my other side. There was no question in my mind about whether or not she was telling me the truth since I could feel it deep within me.
"I guess that's why I always felt drawn to you and even jealousy towards Echo before we all became intertwined," I sighed.
"You think it really happened?" she asked, surprised.
"My Soul Realm reacted to your words which has never happened before... If it didn't happen in the past, then it means that it's our future, but my guess is that it's the past since it feels like a forgotten memory. It would also make a lot more sense as to why Tori wants us if we were ancient superpowers," I replied.
Katye sighed and leaned into me. I wrapped an arm around her waist while I ran my fingers through her hair with my other hand. There was always something that drew us to each other, so having a Past Life together was an easy explanation for it.
"Would that make us star-crossed lovers then?" I asked teasingly.
She chuckled, "If the dreams really are to be believed, we were together for far too long to be called star-crossed lovers. We had nearly two hundred children, and I still don't know how that's possible."
"Well, you wanted to discover the limits of what these powers can do, and we still haven't figured out half of the different energies in space, so why not add another thing to figure out?"
"We need to not be 'world hopping' before we consider anything like that," she retorted, giving a playful jab to my stomach.
"While we're on the subject of disclosing things, I wanted to know how the portal from the Anomaly Stone made you feel?"
Katye rested her forehead against my chest, giving a wry chuckle, and complained, "You certainly have a way with words."
"Several people have said similar things," I chuckled.
She sighed as she pulled out of my embrace and moved to lean on the banister. "I don't know... It was beautiful. There were layers upon layers of different types of energy, working together in perfect harmony. I had the urge to analyze and deconstruct the spell because I just... needed to know how it worked. What's up?"
"My reaction to the portal was similar to yours with the temporal anomaly. It's like the anomaly is calling me... even from this distance, I can still hear it, feel it. It's not like I want to go through it, but I just want to be closer to it," I explained then chuckled, "I want to understand it, to know it... Sound familiar?"
"Let's think of everything we know so far... We were placed here together despite never meeting in our known former lives, but there is also this connection of our past lives which could explain that. Tori has gone to great lengths to 'raise' us and has adjusted the 'world' to suit us, pushing us to our limit yet still in our means of success as long as we fully commit ourselves. The labyrinth was designed for our skills and to bring out our specialties," Katye said.
"Two spells, for lack of a better term, that accomplish the same goals of moving us between planets, yet we both have opposite feelings towards them, similar to our specialties," I added.
"One of them called you the 'Seven-Clawed Chaos Storm Dragon' and we've already discovered your affinity with Storms... so, what if the anomaly is Chaos? It certainly caused numerous problems for the Sanctumites and Children of Gabriel throughout the course of events."
I snorted at the mention of 'Seven-Clawed' by instinct and my own insecurities of losing two of my fingers, which only served to fuel our theory. "Fine, I won't deny that I'm slightly chaotic, especially my emotions, but what does that make you?"
"From Chaos comes Order and Order will dissolve into Chaos," Katye replied with a smirk, but then something happened.
Her body released a ripple of power, and I could see the surprise in her eyes. Her aura was expanding yet changing at the same time. The coldness seemed to melt away and turn into an intelligent, analytical feeling while the elusiveness turned more playful and teasing. Streaks of violet slowly appeared in her hair as her aura stabilized once again.
I chuckled, playing with a bit of her violet hair, and said, "I guess you should be the one to get the final power-up before the final boss battle; you were the one that brought us here, after all."
"Does that mean you won't fight me on being the one to go through the anomaly?" Katye asked with a teasing smile.
"You can go alone over my dead body," I retorted, crossing my arms.
She chuckled, "I love you too."
"I mean it, Katye. I'm not letting you go into the heart of the Disciple's compound alone."
"We only have one suit."
"I survived being thrown into space with my Dusa form, so it's obviously stronger than we think, and even if it doesn't protect my memories, I would still be drawn to you, so I would listen to you even if I was left like an empty slate," I retorted.
Katye sighed, "What about Luna?"
"We've already left her alone and seen how these situations play out before. Tori's goal is to test us, so if we do our part and face the problem, the challenge will meet us head on. Trying to avoid it is why I got my spacewalk," I replied, since the lesson had been beaten into my head after so many mistakes.
"Fine... That's probably a good enough theory that could convince Echo and Raven, begrudgingly. I'm just not ready for this to be over; I don't want to leave them," Katye said with a heavy sigh.
"Me neither."
The two of us talked for a short time more before we headed back to bed where Echo and Raven were sleeping. In the morning before we started improving Sanctum, the four of us talked about Katye's and my theory on the dreams. It turned out that I was the last one to know about them since the other two had talked about it several times while they were in space. Neither of them liked my plan, but like Katye believed, it was enough that they could see the logic of it and had to agree that it was the best chance.
The next few days, I spent most of my time building the new houses for the members of Sanctum with Echo at my side. Katye and Raven worked with Gabriel to ensure that all of the technology related to the Mind-Drives was deleted and dismantled, but that had some effects which we did not expect though we should have. Several of the Primes had attempted to hide some of the important pieces, but since Gabriel had been one of the creators of the method, he naturally realized that things were missing. Although we were able to locate the equipment, it became quite clear that Gabriel would not be able to stay in Sanctum. Just like in the show, doing the right thing had turned him against the Primes, but this time, he had a place to go.
With our work done and the Mind-Drives unable to be utilized for a time, at least, the six of us made our way back to the cave with the Anomaly Stone. Since Josephine knew about it, I sealed off the main entrance to the cave system and then the cavern which housed the stone in case there was another way in that we did not use. Although Kane and Gabriel talked on the walk over, it was easy to sense his sadness about leaving his home. His relationship with Josephine had also ended with his decision to help us, but considering her personality, I personally thought it was a favor to him.
"Rebecca, can you go first?" Katye asked as she started tapping on the Anomaly Stone's symbols.
"Yeah, yeah... Just don't try anything funny while I'm gone, or you'll never live it down," I grumbled, shifting into my Dusa form in case the warriors guarding Earth's side shot first and asked questions later.
The portal opened up and I walked through without any hesitation. The cavern housing the Anomaly Stone on Earth had been changed to have nearly a hundred window slits for rifles from all different angles, but otherwise, the cavern was still the same. Outside of the cavern, there were numerous tunnels that wrapped around the slightly spheric chamber. Thankfully, no one opened fire when I walked through, but I could sense people standing guard with my Earth Domain, so I was not too concerned. Indra and Roan walked out a moment later and I shifted back into my human form.
"Have things been quiet over here?" I asked with the green, fiery portal open behind me.
"Other than your appearance," Indra replied.
"Good. Our business in Sanctum is done, but Gabriel was forced to leave because of helping us. Make sure he isn't treated badly," I said.
"Are you not staying?"
"Katye and I are going to go to Bardo together. Keep Luna safe," I replied.
Indra nodded and Roan sighed, but also nodded his head with understanding. I gave them a slight smile then walked back through the portal. Upon my return, Kane and Gabriel gave their goodbyes and stepped through the portal, causing it to collapse behind them. I looked at Katye with confusion since I had thought that Raven and Echo were also going to return to Earth.
"Don't look so surprised; did you really think that Echo and I would let the two of you go alone?" Raven asked with a smirk.
"I thought we agreed, Katye," I complained.
"Raven memorized the code to get back to Sanctum, so they would get stuck on Skyring if we tried to leave them behind," Katye replied.
Raven smirked as I gave her a hard look, but I did not doubt for a second that she, and Echo, would try to come after us. Shaking my head, I did not bother to argue and instead, opened a path straight to the surface. Raven chuckled, walking up behind me, and wrapped her arms around my waist.
"It's not the first impossible mission that we've followed you on and your record has only improved," she teased.
"Thanks," I replied, sarcastically.
"We have told you before that we are going to see this through to the end," Echo added.
"So, what's your solution for the memory issues when we leave Skyring?" I asked.
"Hope that there is some solution on Skyring or that it is not as bad as it was on the show," Katye replied with a shrug. "Worst comes to worst, I can put the three of you in cuffs and we'll see where we are after we travel. Octavia still knew Bellamy when she escaped to Sanctum, if I remember correctly, so maybe we'll get lucky."
"You really know how to boost my confidence," I retorted.
"Oh, shut it," Raven chuckled, kissing my cheek. "You're always so fussy when you don't get your way."
Katye smirked and headed up the path I had created with Echo at her side. Raven let me go and started after them, but I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back into my arms. I cupped her cheek and kissed her.
"I'm glad you're with me," I said.
"I always will be... even after you leave here," Raven replied with a gentle smile, placing her hand over my heart.
A/N: I would like to ask for those of you who are enjoying the story to leave a review on the story if you haven't already since we are getting near the end goal of 100 chapters!
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