"Would you care to explain why you didn't do your homework David?" Asked the teacher.
The angel girl flushed. She knew there was a compulsion to tell the truth but... there was no way she could! "I- was distracted miss," She said meekly. "Some.. personal things," It was true. of course. She wasn't sure about this aspect of their transformation. She suspected they 'could' lie with enough practice, if they worked out just how it all worked out. After all, if they were actors on a stage and played a character telling a lie, that was still possible to do...
It seemed this aspect was more focused on the 'big' lies then the small ones... but it was hard to gauge what constituted a big one.
The teacher shook her head and placed a mark on her record. "I'll give you another day to finish the assignment."
David nodded. "Thank you miss..."
Two skunk-creatures and a human travelled through the woods. A place that time seemed to forget,
This place was... strange. Sam had been in the woods before and had never seen anything quite like what he was seeing now. Plants that seemed just a little larger then they should be. Trees so old it was humbling to be in their presence. The sounds of this place felt just a little off...
Nikki stopped suddenly. She glanced down seeing a curious blue flower, that seemed to hold a significance to her.
"Hold on to the trees," Said the little skunk-child as she glanced up at the sky.
"Huh?" Erica looked about but didn't see anything odd- well other then where they were. Her fur felt like it had acquired a static charge. She glanced to Samuel, who had static arcs flowing across his clothes and his hands.
"Hold on to the trees!" Nikki repeated.
Following her instructions they held on, just as a huge 'hole' opened above their heads. It was like strange swirling vortex of energy and it looked like it was trying to pull them up. Nikki held onto the tree, though Erica was almost loosing her footing. Samuel quickly held her down, having the stronger grip. Erica in turn held Nikki who was almost flying upwards by the small miniature storm.
Suddenly it stopped and closed, as if it were never there. The trio fell to the ground, panting in shock at the strange and surreal event.
"What in the bleedin' hells was that!" said Samuel dusting his hat. That was... insane!
Nikki bit her lip. "It- well- it's hard to explain. Time travel ain't really like the books and the Digi-movies- er movies." She kicked herself slightly in her head at that slip. "Time doesn't want us here. It knows that, and it's going to send us back."
"You make it sound like time is alive?" Asked Samuel.
"Its not really like that. Its hard to explain," Said Nikki. "Its like we are glitches in a computer."
"What's a computer?" Asked Samuel even more confused.
Nikki bit her lip. She loved her father to bits, but why did he have to come from such a primitive age? It would change in time but right now...
Erica was even more confused but not for the analogy of her daughter. "But that's a good thing right?" Asked the black and white furred teenager. That meant they could easily go home! If time itself was correcting things... everything must work out!
Nikki shook her head. "N-No. We can't use it. We have to fight it. Cause if history corrects itself... dad... an' me..." She glanced to Samuel then to Erica...
"You mean... you cease to exist?" Asked Erica softly.
"Uh- huh," said the child meekly. "You get to go to your own time though. But- dad will be dead cause you never came here. And I won't be born cause you won't have met him."
Erica was having a lot of trouble keeping track of all these paradoxes. Apparently time could also work 'retrospectively'. An act now could affect the past, and it seems time used this as some kind of paradox protection mechanism. She didn't really understand any of it.
"Think of it like a story. Someone realised a book has some errors in it. So they have to re-print all the books, every single one."
Samuel had his eyes lit a little understanding that. "I think I get it," said the cowboy. "So at this moment in time, Erica is the one keepin' our personal history together?"
Nikki Nodded. "Erica belongs to the present. Where the book is being written. She's the heart of the paradox. We can only react to changes, she can make em. that's how we exist in the first place." She and Keith that is...
The skunk girl was rubbing her head. She hoped that a portal would just take them all back to their own times! But they had to resolve the paradox in some way to keep everyone alive. She had to take Samuel into the future in a way that won't erase him. She also had to get Nikki back to her own time.
"How are we going to do all this?" Erica asked softly. "How do I keep you all alive..."
Nikki looked like she was having a lot of trouble trying to explain so she took out the letter and read it. "People that belong into the past can't go to the new age- where the new sun is normally. But Dad is an exception cause he is supposed to be dead. He doesn't belong in this time any more either."
Erica bit her lip as she glanced at Samuel. Her presence was the only thing keeping him alive, and history from 'correcting' itself. Fate was.. cruel. If indeed this was some kind of 'fated' death. It made no sense though! Why?
Nikki tried to look confident. "There's one power that can fix everything. The same one that brought us all here... we got to let dad see the light of the new sun first- then he can travel with you to the present..."
Samuel nodded knowing this was probably going to be the price for his continued existence. He was supposed to have died after all... but Erica looked at him with concern. What if he became something... incompatible for Erica? Since they had already conceived Nikki, there was no reason that he wouldn't turn female. The idea made him quite nervous. Nikki never said what he became... and he knew the child would not say.
Nikki pointed towards the moon as it seemed to turn a blood-red colour. "This way..."
Morgana went to her tree. Hidden in one of the holes was the object of her desire. She took a strange air bubble out. She glanced at the young girl snared in the vines near her camp fire. This was going to take a lot of time, but... it was the only way. The only way to fix everything.
She never could give up this power. Merlin said it was time for it to go to a new keeper... but as long as Morgana lived, she was the true owner.
The moon was so big now. To Morgana it was like a rousing eye, watching her. "Sleep... sleep... sleep..." She whispered. How many days would this take! She glanced at the young woman, who seemed quite frightened by everything. All it would take is a single drop of her blood... the smallest, insignificant amount... but by her actions, she guessed she had indeed become the monster of legend.
Oh she knew what they thought of her. The heretic, the haggard, the woman who dared to challenge and make the world in ways the gods themselves could not imagine. How they passed the legend of Morgana the Evil witch.
She was the monster in their eyes... but only because people did not understand that it was all for their own good.
Kimi stared for a moment at Morgana. "What's that?" She asked glancing to the air bubble.
"A fact of existence," She said cryptically. "Power... unlike any you could ever know. The power to make rules in the world... if one understands how."
Kimi took that knowledge carefully. That could mean it was the source of morgana's power? Perhaps if she found some way to destroy it... but then, Morgana had employed magic without using any artefact. Still, it seemed important... "Why do you think humanity will be enslaved without you?" asked the fey-girl. Perhaps if she kept Morgana talking, she could convince her to take some other cause of action. It was clear she didn't want to do this if there was some... alternative. It was a small hope.
"Because gods are cruel dear. They have little heart, and allow all kinds of horrors to go under their watch. All in the name of some 'great plan'. Hogwash, I tell you. My country was destroyed and conquered. My family slain. Purpose? None. They have no more a plan then anyone else. I think we're just some sport to them." she said with a shrug.
"So that's why you put them to sleep?"
Morgana gave a little chuckle to that. "Yes. I don't think they even saw it coming. Humanity was supposed to take magic further then they would allow. We would have been more then gods... our existence would have transcended anything imaginable." she said this quite wistfully. "But Merlin locked magic away. Now we are in a godless, magicless world. I'm surprised humanity is even still around," She said shaking her head.
Kimi had to wonder a bit at all the machinery they had made to now. The power of steam was at their command. Things were looking quite good for humans, despite the ravages of disease that still consumed them. A world with gods might be interesting, though she wasn't sure. "What if you are wrong? What if the gods are actually good and want to help us?"
Morgana scoffed. "Don't believe a word of it. They lie. All gods... lie. By helping us all they do is keep us under their thumb. Ignorant," She said quietly. "I'm a human being that has seen more Truth then anyone." She sat down on the fire, rubbing her hands.
Kimi winced a bit as she felt a bit of a cramp. Oh.. great. Was this really happening?
The witch woman continued to stare at the moon. Suddenly, an eagle flew onto Morgana's tree. It locked it's eyes to dark woman.
Morgana stared back. "Impossible..." she said quietly. "Begone beast..."
The Eagle crowed in a strange tone.
Kimi stared at the Eagle in some disbelief. Somehow... she knew. She knew. She knew who was there in some way, some form of spirit perhaps...
"Dyami," She whispered quietly in awe.
