“Is she okay?”
“Kindyna?”
“Come on, wake up!”
“Is she asleep? Unconscious?”
“I hope she’s not comatose…”
“I know what will wake her up…”
Kindyna’s eyes flash open as something poked her breast. She sat bolt upright and slapped Verlais across the face.
“What the ever loving fuck is wrong with you, you fucking Vrekan fuckface!”
Verlais grinned. “I’m glad you’re well, Kindyna.”
The Thanatian glanced around, feeling confused. “What… What happened? Last thing I remember, I was…”
“Falling, yes. Arksi caught you. Wish I had telekinisis,” Ct’Era explained. “Monsters are fighting above us. Not sure if we have won.”
Kindyna struggled to her feet, leaning on Verlais and slightly concerned about the idea of a Banikan being able to move things with their mind. After all, they were already powerful tanks made out of meat.
“Um, guys…” Arksi suddenly interrupted, pointing upwards. “We need to move. Now.”
Everyone looked up where Arksi was pointing. Large cracks had formed in the fake, Stasis-made sky, revealing stars and a slither of moon outside. Pieces of the fake sky started to fall, smashing down on the now abandoned golden structure. A particularly pointy shard fell just behind them, shattering into lots of even sharper shards that scattered all over the ground.
“Good idea!” Verlais shouted as more shards started to fall. Ct’Era grabbed Kindyna and threw her over her shoulders, while Arksi created a shield over them and Verlais led the way. The telekinetic shield though seemed to have no effect on the falling debris.
“Run faster!” Kindyna screamed as she and Ct’Era overtook them, dodging and weaving through the black pieces of death that were shattering around them. Kindyna’s screams got louder as the golden structure behind them seemed to be imploding in on itself, causing clouds of dust to zoom out towards them.
Worse than that, there was something else going on. The air was starting to disappear, as if the implosion was sucking it all away.
Realising that they probably weren’t going to make it, Arksi took matters into his own hands. He created a telekinetic shield behind the four beings, then used a combination of it and the clouds of death and destruction to push them. His plan worked better than intended, and they exploded out of the strange, dark space, just in time.
Behind them, Stasis’s prison for the Whenvern collapsed on itself and disappeared into nothing. All that was left was a single shard of black nothingness, lying where the centre of the golden structure once was. Both Stasis and Kairos were gone.
“D-did we do it?” Kindyna finally panted, lying on her side and avoiding moving her leg. “Is it over? Did we win?”
“W-Was there anything to win?” Verlais muttered as he helped Arksi up. “You alright, kid?”
“Don’t call me kid!” Arksi snapped, nursing his wrist, which he had clearly broken in some way. “It can’t be over. Knowing our luck…”
“I fear he’s right,” Ct’Era grumbled. “We survived an epic struggle. There is likely more on its way.”
Verlais sighed, then looked over to where the strange place once was. Standing in the middle of nothing was a somewhat familiar figure. It looked up and spotted the four beings, then started skipping over towards them.
“Hey, guys!” Death grinned from ear to ear, her mouth full of needle-sharp teeth. “Did you have fun?”
Ct’Era shook her head, then stared solemnly at her tail. All her tail spikes had been broken or snapped, leaving bloody stubs in their place. “No. We are all hurting.”
“Would have been more fun if the fate of the universe wasn’t on the line,” Verlais added.
Death continued to grin. “Well, not the entire universe, but definitely a large chunk of it. Thanks to your efforts and the efforts of other Krono-Dessaron teams across the universe, Kairos is now free to, I dunno, make sure time works and stuff like that, I guess.”
“You guess?” Arksi sneered, then realised that he’d just raised his voice at the goddess of dying.
Death though just shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure how Kairos works. Or Stasis. They both do dumb things every few centuries in order to try and win my heart. It’s stupid really. But you four, I’m proud of you guys. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome!” Verlais smiled awkwardly. “Um. Where is our truck?”
Death’s grin dropped. “Oh. Sorry. Couple of Zonta ate it. They eat anything, you know. They only eat the weird stuff when no one’s looking though.” Death suddenly clapped her hands, making the Krono-Dessaron all jump. “Alright! Time for me to do something really, really naughty! Close your eyes, darlings, and count to four!”
The Krono-Dessaron did as they were told, just as everything went all white and blurry…
…
Everything felt fuzzy. Cushions surrounded him. White ones. Wait, no, not cushions. Pillows and sheets. Something beeped. A heart monitor? No. Something else. Insignificant.
Arksi slowly opened his eyes. He was in a hospital bed. His arm was in a sling. Of course.
“Arksi?”
A familiar voice cleared his senses. Arksi awkwardly sat up to see who was talking to him. It was Verlais, holding a bunch of flowers. He delicately placed the flowers by Arksi’s side.
“They’re, uh, from your husband,” Verlais explained. “They gave us a good night’s sleep here before they let anyone see us.”
“Who?” Arksi blinked.
“The medics who found us. Apparently we’re famous now for saving a shuttle full of people.”
Arksi still seemed confused. “W-what about all that Whenvern stuff?”
Verlais shrugged. “I remember it. Ct’Era remembers it. You do too. Kindyna’s not awake yet but I bet she remembers too. No one has any idea. Only being who believed me was some Rethan named Tenuk, said it all happened in the future. I think he’s right.”
“Why?”
Verlais hinted towards Arksi’s wristbands, which were sitting on a bedside table next to him. “Medics said we’d been gone for two hours. The time on your wrist band suggested we were gone for twelve hours. My watch says the same. I… know it’s rather… graspy, but this all couldn’t have been a dream, could it?”
The Rethavok nodded in agreement. “It was real. I remember all of it. But… how did we get here?”
“Dunno. I think Death… teleported us. Back in time, perhaps. Said they found us at the wreckage of the shuttle we were on. Everyone was cheering though, because we’d also somehow found fifty Thraki who had disappeared the same time our shuttle did…” Verlais paused, having confused himself. “You know what? I don’t mean to sound like Kindyna, but I don’t fucking know what happened…”
A knock on the door behind them interrupted the conversation. It was Ct’Era. She was covered in what looked like confetti.
“I have never been considered a hero before!” the Banikan grinned, filled with excitement. Her tail was wrapped up in bandages but she otherwise looked great. Arksi smiled and climbed out of bed, careful of his arm, before picking up the bunch of flowers and following Verlais and Ct’Era out into the next room.
…
Kindyna growled happily as a young Rethan nurse massaged her back. Her leg may have been in a sling, but she wasn’t going to let that get in the way of her newfound glory.
Of course, someone had to interrupt it.
“What do you w-OH!”
“Hi, Kindyna,” Arksi smiled. “You alright?”
“I am. Can’t wait to get out of here, after this massage of course. How about you lot?”
Verlais shrugged. “I’m okay. I admit, I am getting anxious to go back to work.”
Ct’Era’s mood though had changed. “Are we… splitting up?”
Everyone looked at Ct’Era, the realisation quickly hitting them.
“Well… do you not want to split up?” Verlais asked.
“I do not. You three are my friends. Friends among Banikans are far and few between. I do not wish to let that go away.”
Kindyna nodded for the Rethan nurse to leave and give them a moment, then turned back to Ct’Era. “You want us to stay together? Like other… Dessaron teams do?”
The Banikan sighed loudly. “It does not have to be like that. But Verlais will go back to being a member of the Myst. Arksi will go back to being a Ksa. Kindyna, I do not know what you will go back to. If we part ways, we may never come back.”
None of them really knew what to say. Now that Ct’Era had brought it up, they couldn’t deny that they felt the same way.
With a small smile, Verlais put his hand on Ct’Era’s shoulder. Following suit, Arksi held Kindyna’s hand and Kindyna placed hers on Ct’Era’s back.
“Ct’Era, Arksi, Kindyna, the four of us, we’re bound together,” Verlais whispered. “We have a bond that no being, mortal or Deitic can break. I swear to you, I may wander, we may go our different ways and live our different lives, but we’ll always come back together. I promise.”
“I also promise,” Arksi added. “If you ever need me, you call me. You’re all family now.”
“What he said,” Kindyna grinned. “That being said though, I really wanna spend a few days resting. Because holy fucking fuck that was a weird adventure.”
Verlais pulled something out from a pouch on his belt, and handed out several pieces of paper. “Hehe. Alright, Kindyna, we’ll leave you to it. Here’s our numbers, call us whenever, right?”
“Mhm.”
Ct’Era wagged her tail happily. “I am glad.”
“Good,” Verlais’s smile turned into a grin. “So, um, I’m going to head off now. I have some emails to send and some calls to make.”
“My husband is waiting for me,” Arksi smiled. “I can’t keep him waiting for much longer.”
“And I have some adoring crowds waiting for me!” Ct’Era leaped up in excitement.
“So, see you guys next week?” Kindyna waved.
“Sure!”