"Well, I'm from the future. Sounds tetnoid, doesn't it?" She smiled.
"Tetnoid?" I said, confused. Naka walked over to the frozen-in-time body of Stone Julie.
"Oh, right, I really can't be using slang. Tetnoid means cliche. Anyways, I'm from the future, about 522 years from now. The future I come from is a constant struggle, because of you know who." She tilted her head in the direction of Stone Julie. "It strange seeing her now, still in human form. She ends up unleashing hell upon earth, killing most people, but leaving a few. Thank god they sent a good portion out into space before the Great Day in 2046."
I couldn't really believe what she was saying, but after all that was going on, I still kept an open mind. Besides, she seemed to be here to help me, so I couldn't argue with that. She sensed the disbelief in my face and sighed.
"Yea, I'm getting a bit off track. I'll just say it real simple. Ixios ends up destroying most of the life on earth. In 2044, most of the worlds population was sent out into space, set in orbit just beyond the moon. Me, and many others were left behind. Because of advances in science and biotechnology, we could achieve the ability to alter perception of reality, which is all reality is, anways. With this ability, we achieved great power and finally..."
"Ixios? Great power? What kind of great power?" I butted in.
"Ixios is what we call your 'Stone Julie' and, well, this kind of great power..." Naka closed her eyes and seemed to go into a trance state for a moment. Everything around me faded to clouds, cascaded in pink sunlight. The blue sky broke in through passing holes in the clouds, casting shadows everywhere. It was like I was in a beautiful painting. Naka still stood before me.
"See? It feels, sounds, smells and looks like we're in a cloud oasis of sorts, but we're not. We're simply in the mind. This is just the beginning of what we achieve." She smiled her coy smile again (which was really attractive) and before I could say a word, we were back in my backyard.
"Holy shit, that was crazy!" I said, not hiding my astonishment at all.
"Anyways," Naka continued, "After achieveing these powers, a single human harnessed them to their full ability and destroyed Ixios. Her name was Aomi. Now, you're thinking why I'm here if Ixios has been destroyed and the future is all fine and dandy. Well, its not. Ixios has destroyed earth, making it almost unlivable. We can't really rebuild if there's nothing to rebuild with. We need to destroy her before she can gain any real power."
"Any real power? She seems pretty strong already! And why don't you just come back here with Aomi, or whatever, and destroy her?! Why come to me?" I was starting to get frustrated. It seemed like Naka had the power of kill Stone Julie right there, but she kept avoiding the main question: Why was she here?
Naka walked up to me, suddenly very serious.
"I'll answer that as best I can." She walked over to an oak tree that sat in my backyard and put her hand up to it. She pushed against it, her hand disappearing into the wood.
"As a precaution to alter the future while time traveling, we can't physically interact with whats going on. I am a mere image, not actually existing here. All this is being percieved mentally. I couldn't very well fight Ixios if I couldn't touch her. Next, Aomi died in her final battle with Ixios. She gave her life for the better of all. We can't bring anyone who has died back to life. However, in this time, although she hasn't been born, Aomi has not yet died. Enter you."
"I have so many questions to ask, its unbelievable. Your all blue hair is definatly on the list, too." I said, trying to ease the situation. It seemed to have worked, cause I saw her break a shy smile.
"Aomi's spirit is still alive in this time. The reason we need you is very important and you must listen very carefully to what I have to say. We need you to become Aomi. To gain her mental abilities so you can have the power to kill Ixios. Its not coincidence that you happened to be tied to the creation of Ixios and that you are being chosen to destroy Ixios. I'll explain more in time. Will you help?" Naka looked at me with pleading eyes. "Aomi...Aomi was my little sister, I feel like its a personal responsibility to see her fight another day. Please?"
I wasn't quite sure what was going on, nor did much of what Naka said really compute in my brain, but I made my decision almost instantly...
