“Are you feeling better now?” Litvir asked as Elkay exited a small, white villa.
“Yes, but I do not know how being stabbed in the stomach fixed whatever was wrong with me…” Elkay grunted, then stretched his arms and started walking, towards the edge of the Pink Paradise. Both his telepathy and Litvir’s telepathy were a little wobbly right now, mostly because of a group of visiting Thrastarii from the Alsyrian Sea. While the reptilian beings lacked psionic powers, they did throw off the powers of others. Going to the edge of the oasis would make both Rethans feel more comfortable.
“Did Yisini know what the problem was?”
“She called it Syskeuskediasis, but I have no idea what that means, my internal translation of the word makes no sense and it sounds fake, so I assume she did not know and made something up.”
Litvir snorted. “Makes sense. But you do feel better, yes?”
Elkay glanced around before answering. The only people vaguely nearby were Kayel and Elkay-En, who were chatting and looking off into space the same way Elkay and Litvir were. Elkay noticed that Elkay-En was a lot happier lately.
“I do, yes, but I feel like something awful is about to happen and that is bothering me greatly.”
“Like…” Litvir hesitated. “Like what? Are you mimicking time powers again?”
“Potentially. These days, I have to accept that I can see things happening before they happen for real. Makes it so much harder for Teekay to surprise me.”
“Admittedly, Arkay and I have the same problem…”
Litvir paused, noticing that Elkay had stopped paying attention and was gazing out into the darkness. No. Not at the void, but at a certain glowing spot. A spot that seemed to be getting brighter. And bigger.
All of a sudden, Elkay pushed Litvir over, into a bush, just as something at a very high speed crashed into the ground behind them.
“Was that… the awful thing you predicted to happen?” Litvir hissed as he picked himself up and dusted himself down.
“No, just the start of the awful thing…” Elkay also got up and briefly checked that he and Litvir were fine, but he then swiftly made his way over to whatever had just made a mess.
Lying in the crater were two beings, one was Skyavok-shaped and the other was Rethavok-shaped. The shadowy Skyan had the same colours as Elkay, but the skinny, overly young Rethan, with white and purple plating, had the exact same eyes and fangs Litvir had, and its arms were wrapped protectively around the Skyan.
The Skyan seemed to wake up first, and they nudged the Rethan.
“Kid, come on, wake up, we… we made it to… wherever here is.”
The Skyan suddenly realised that there were other beings around, most notably the two similarly coloured Threanic beings standing over them, but before they could comment, someone far more familiar rushed over.
“Elkay! What the fuck are you doing here?” Kayel shouted. “How the fuck are you outside the universe? Also, who is your Rethan buddy?”
The Skyavok called Elkay rubbed his eyes, then took a deep breath. “Kayel? You have no idea how glad I am to see a friendly face! I wish I had time to chat, but I desperately need to find someone who can control time because Kairos has corrupted himself and is trying to take over the universe!”
No one answered at first. Not until another green-plated Threanic spoke.
“Wow. Three universes later and that dragon is still a cunt…” Elkay-En muttered. “So you require a Time Drake? Sister Sini is a Time Drake.”
“S-sister?” The strange Skyan Elkay exclaimed. “Also, who are you all?”
Kayel smiled as he pointed around. “The big Elkay is Rethavok Elkay, that Elkay is Elkay-En, who is Sini and Epani’s lost older brother, and the tall purple vampire guy is Arkay’s old boyfriend Litvir.”
At the mention of the name Litvir, the young, skinny, fanged Rethan suddenly sat bolt upright and rubbed their head.
“I am sorry, old mama, I went too fast…”
“It’s fine, Litvir…” the Shadow sighed. “Although, somehow, despite the infinite size of the void, we crash landed in front of two people with the darkness-damned names as us.”
“Huh…” the much larger, bulkier Litvir grunted. “You look approximately 16 years old but have only been alive since Arkay and Sini left your universe?”
Litty looked up at Litvir. “You look like me but old and dark and somewhat evil.”
“I mean, that is essentially correct… But we have more important things to discuss, clearly. Like Kairos being corrupted.”
A very large being suddenly loomed over everyone.
“Kairos is corrupted?” Sini whispered. “Again?”
“Yes. By the Nekro-Kinisis strain…” Skyan Elkay sighed, then bowed in the old Allbirther’s presence. “Except, as far as we can tell, he got himself corrupted intentionally. Mistress Sini, blessed Allbirther, the Twelve Anew humbly request that you return home, so you can replace our corrupted Time Drake.”
Sini closed her eyes, not answering immediately. “I… I cannot…”
“W-why?” the Shadow stuttered. Pain was welling up in his throat. Was this plan all for nothing?”
“Because Kairos knows me and can counteract me. He can block my manipulation of time and pass the corrupted Fundamental to me.”
“Ah…” Elkay fell silent. He glanced at Litty, who quickly wrapped Elkay up in their arms.
“I bet Elksia could totally get past Kairos though…” Kayel muttered under his breath. “She’s a bit far away, but, like, our Elkay, he can mimic Elksia’s time powers, right?”
Rethan Elkay shrugged. “I suppose I could block and counteract Kairos until he is removed from the universe, and when Kairos is removed from the universe, Sini can take his place? But I cannot do so alone. I would need to have Kairos distracted while I work.”
“That… that…” the Shadow thought to himself briefly. “That could work. Especially if all us other Elkays distract him. He has a fear of people like us.”
“Elkay-En has ways of capturing and moving corrupted folks!” Kayel beamed some more. “I say we all go in there, kick Kairos out, uncorrupt him and go from there! And Sini can sit outside the universe and give us pointers.”
Sini took a long, deep breath, then relented. “Alright, fine. But for now, I want Litvir to keep an eye on my oasis until this is all over. Adult Litvir. Not baby Litvir. Need to put them back inside the universe before they get any funny ideas.”
The Shadow smiled, feeling slightly more optimistic. “Thank you, holy Sini.”
“Shut it, granny. Save the thank yous until this stupidity is over…”