The Mess was where everyone ate. What the twelve Guardians ate was different, each being would eat according to their own specific diets, but the squeaky clean hall complete with benches and magically refilling buffets, complete with magical glasses that never needed filling up. And then, when everyone was done, everything would be magically cleaned away. How? No one was really sure. Magic, the twelve Guardians all assumed.
Today, only a handful of the Guardians were present. Their ship, the Kiniseon One, was stationed just off a lavish paradise, a Life Oasis, where Life Goddesses roamed, but their boss Kinisis had only allowed herself to be accompanied by one of her guards. Everyone else was just relaxing, waiting for Kinisis to return.
“How comes Queen Kinisis only ever takes Phovos with her?” Tahnahos asked as he got himself a third bowl of ice cream. “Normally she picks you and Phovos to stand by her side, but every time we come to a Life Oasis like this, she only takes Phovos!”
Akah grunted, not really having much of a response. He pushed his own food across his plate, two metal spikes tucked between his almost mechanical fingers. “There is a lot we do not understand about Kinisis.”
“What, like everything?” Tahnahos tutted.
“Nearly everything…”
Both Tahnahos and Akah glanced up as Teekay entered the room, holding a sheet of paper and being closely followed by Relkir. Teekay immediately sat down next to Tahnahos, rolling out the paper and pulling a pen from his belt.
“Alright so I’ve been trying to plot out a timeline of what happened. Because this is bothering me. And it’s keeping me from relaxing and I need to talk about this with someone who isn’t Relkir.”
“What is wrong with Relkir?” Akah asked. Relkir just awkwardly shrugged.
“He has bigger memory gaps than any of us have…” Teekay tutted. “So, I’ve written down what we all definitely know happened. Here at the end, we have today. We have the three trips we’ve made to this Life Oasis. We’ve got the trip to those three universes. And the first trip to the Bubble Place where we met the Serpent, the Whale and the Dragon. Over on this other end, we have what Kinisis tells us is the end of our universe…”
“What about that line there?” Tahnahos interrupted. “The line before the end of the universe?”
Teekay grunted. “These are memories I have. Memories of living through a military coup of some sort. Living with someone else. Being mortal. Things I am certain happened before the universe ended, but come to me as fuzzy thoughts. Relkir said he had strange thoughts too, something about being some sort of exiled figure. You’ve all had memories like that too, right?”
Tahnahos nodded, something clicking in his mind. “I thought they were dreams at first, but I specifically remember being shape-shifted as something else and, weirdly, being red-skinned rather than blue. But there were things that happened on this timeline that you haven’t added. Us waking up from our pods. The orientation meeting.”
“Because… I find all that stuff particularly fuzzy…” Teekay frowned. “There’s gaps. I KNOW we had the orientation meeting, the whole waking up thing, stuff like that. I ALSO KNOW this stuff happened before we woke up here on this ship, that I had a partner who I was in love with. But…” Teekay took a deep breath, realizing he was getting nowhere. “Maybe I should just… shut up and accept it… They are gone. Everything we know is gone…”
“Everyone…” Akah had gone incredibly quiet, listening to Teekay’s rant, and had only now begun to speak. “Literally everyone… I had a child. A small miracle, considering Lanex birth problems. That child is gone now. They all are.”
“I have a feeling we really need to sit down and discuss this with Kinisis…” Teekay grunted. “Because I mentioned this to Vexer, Fragiir and Lissandra… and they all said similar things…”
“When is Kinisis coming back?” Tahnahos asked.
“I’m unsure. Could be ages.”
Tahnahos got up out of his seat, pushing his bowl of ice cream to one side. “I’m going to gather the other Guardians, call a meeting. We need some damn clarity around here…”