To One Side

The collision had been fatal, spewing glass and wreckage across the road in front of the governmental building. Already, emergency vehicles, R-Class members, had gathered around, trying to pull the survivors out of the rubble, trying to work out what was going on. But they were not alone, K-Class military were assisting as well. It soon became clear what had happened. The driver of a delivery vehicle had passed out at the wheel, plowing into oncoming traffic, before coming to a halt inside a cafe across the road.

Up above, in the tall, glass-layered skyscraper that served as the governmental hub for this city, three Skyavok stood on the balcony, observing it all.

“You could have stopped all this…” Kayel, the All-Ksa, sighed glancing at the two beautiful Skyans standing beside him. “This could have all been avoided. No one should have died here today.”

The two Skyans both sighed. One of them was shimmering silver and blue. Ice-grey skin with armour that glittered in the light and eyes that glowed like beautiful blue gems. The other was simpler, with black skin, darker than the void, complemented by bright yellow natural plating.

“Honestly? No. We couldn’t have stopped this…” Arkay sighed, looking down at the mess below. “This was going to happen.”

“REALLY?” Kayel shouted. “I don’t know how many poor fuckers died down there but this is now a thing! Imagine how big a thing it is to me, knowing THERE ARE TWO DEITIES STANDING HERE THAT COULD PREVENT IT ALL?”

Arkay, the Thantophor, shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“WHY NOT?”

“The paths all led to this, so many little threads…” Kairos, the Dragon God of Time, grunted. “There are so many things tied together and intertwined. To the point that things become entangled and insseperable.”

“To the point that this couldn’t have been avoided?” Kayel hissed. “How many are dead down there?”

“Four. Everyone else is just injured…” Arkay immediately answered. “One more will die on the way to the hospital. Everyone else will survive.”

“So five dead? And you can’t save the one DYING NOW?”

Arkay rolled his eyes. “Their spine was broken. They are barely alive…”

“But you two aren’t stopping it!” Kayel threw his arms down in defeat. “I don’t understand you stupid gods. What is the point of existing if you can’t make everything right?”

“We…” Kairos paused. He wasn’t used to dealing directly with mortals that questioned him. “It’s not our duty to, uh, make things good.”

“We exist so you can exist!” Arkay tutted. “We make sure that time moves forward and matter gets recycled so you can exist! If we didn’t do our jobs, you wouldn’t be here talking to us.”

“Yeah but…” Kayel couldn’t understand. “Why did they have to die. Why did that all happen down there?”

The Thantophor shook his head. “You know why all that happened? Because transportation companies petitioned to lax minimum hour laws under N-Class rule and you L-Class never reinstated those laws. The being behind the wheel lost consciousness from exhaustion and stress, causing him to crash. Had this not happened today, it would have happened some point in the near future!”

Kayel blinked. “Did you… just… blame me?”

“Nooo!” Kairos tried to calm the situation down. “What Arkay is saying is that everything leads into everything else, it’s all tied together and tumbles together. Those bad things all culminated into a tragedy, but these tragedies culminate into a better future that you build yourselves! Arkay can’t see it as well as I can, he’s tied to endings while I am tied to beginnings, but trust me, these threads can lead to so many places.”

“Yeah but…” Kayel’s anger faded. “What about today?”

“You mourn today and you fix things tomorrow…” Arkay sighed. “It always seems worse now. You feel hopeless now. But you can make it better.”

Kayel fell silent. He was briefly lost in thought, but quickly snapped back to reality. “Yeah… I can make it better. Now I know where to start…”