Chapter 262 Time.

(General P.O.V)

Sai couldn't sleep. He looked around and noticed the darkness of dawn. His entire night had involved a lot of tossing and turning. Something nagged at him on the back of his mind.

He considered waking up Vor but decided against it. Maybe he just needed to take a walk? Or fly around the island, flying was fun. Or he could go visit the Bloom birds. They came out in the morning infact! Or...he could do all of the above. He just had to make sure that big brother Yaotl didn't catch him.

Now armed with what he thought to be a solid plan, The young boy got off his bed and flew out towards the beach. The sun was just peeking out from the horizon, the first rays hitting the gentle water and bringing about this untainted beauty that seemed almost magical.

He was dressed in thin PJ's and while that would have made anyone else shiver in cold, Sai wasn't just anyone. He was the spirit of rebirth. He was fire incarnate. He sank his toes on the wet sand and giggled, feeling the ticklish effect the grains had on the underside of his feet.

A few minutes of this, with most of his surroundings now visible, he floated up and gently started flying around the island just admiring his home. He loved his dad, his mom, his sisters and brothers and his home. If anyone tried to take any of that away from him, they would have to deal with his dragon breath.

Sai imagined he was powerful like his dad. Ready to fight for what he loved and believed in. Ready to save people and protect him and their family. That's why he and Vor had begun to secretly train more. They needed to be strong enough for when their dad needed them.

His flight path took him past the small cluster of GRANGO trees behind their house. He obviously dove down and grabbed a few before leisurely continuing on with his journey. He was just a short distance away from the Bloom Birds Orchid. A sort of plant-animal hybrid. The flowers bloomed in the morning in the shape of six winged petal-wings birds and took off, leaving a green stalk waving in the air.

To stop any predators from getting too close, the plants emitted a sweet smelling scent that caused hallucinations and increased paranoia to anyone. The most special thing about the flowers was how they seemed to appear out of nowhere. Ash and his siblings had found this place by chance and the instant when the Bloom Birds decided to ascend and take off was a sight to behold.

He made it to the top of the hill overlooking the Bloom Birds and...frowned. instead of the ascension of the pink, red and yellow flower birds, there was a dense groove of trees surrounding a pulsing cocoon with something vaguely humanoid inside.

Sai blinked and flew closer, losing the frown on his face. Instead, an intrigued look came over it. He finally knew what was causing him to lose sleep. It was this thing. The closer he got the more his abilities reacted to the presence of the pulsing object. Or rather what was inside it.

Before he could get too close, vines from the forest started slithering through the ground forming up into something. Ash stopped right where he was as he went on guard. There was little chance of anything, animal or not hurting Sai. This was his dad's realm after all, so he was not too worried.

The vines formed up into a huge monstrous plant being with red eyes.

"Favored child, do not take another step, or you will risk destabilizing the mistress's rebirth."

A deep but gentle voice rumbled out of the plant creature.

"Mistress? Rebirth?"

Ash shook his head.

Interesting but not as much as the question burning him up from the inside.

"What happened to the Bloom Birds?!"

He said pointing at the edges of the new strange forest, where the stalks of the Bloom Birds were left looking shrunken and missing the flowers.

Swamp Thing blinked, wondering how it was going to tell the disappointed child that the Bloom Birds were merely energy gathering agents that the mistress had needed to complete her evolution. Think of solar panels but instead of solar energy, they travelled to places with high density of Aether and absorbed it to bring back to the cocoon.

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They had not noticed the cocoon before because it was hidden underground but now that she was close to awakening, the Bloom Birds were no longer needed.

Swamp Thing was aware that explaining it like that would not earn him any favors, so it wisely kept quiet. The child started nagging him soon after and he ended up regretting his decision to stay silent.

(Elsewhere)

Holly was finally going to get her answers. No more making wild guesses that did not even come close to the real truth.

Somehow, someway, Dove had been chosen. Remade into a god. She was dazzlingly beautiful. Incredibly powerful; Holly could remember her standing infront of the massive attack that had shaken the world and taken over her entire vision. Dove had swatted it away as of it was a nuisance.

"Keep up human. My objectives do not contain understanding why you are walking slower than a snail. Ha Ha Ha."

The drone that was leading her to a Teleport Hub stated. She looked away to hide her mocking smile. It's attempts at copying human behavior were laughable.

The drone was the first testing sample of a new concept Gaea had. Drones that could mimick human speech and mannerisms to help the wider population during special circumstances. Holly remembered the advertisement that had played on the sky and on the fast developing Aethernet. So far she wasn't impressed by the 'EmphathoDrone'

It looked funny too. Having the upper portion of C-3PO, a robot from a popular franchise back on earth called Star Wars. The lower portion ended in a dome like shape with hover tech which was how it could fly. The robot had extra limbs woven from strong but highly flexible material to enable it to accomplish different tasks. The limbs were inside it's chassis.

Holly's thoughts drifted back to Dove. The world had changed, so she guessed having a sister who had superpowers was not too surprising. Still...she wondered if Dove was still the same Dove. The way she had looked at her that one time...it was like Holly was a distant acquittance of hers.

Holly reached the Teleport Hub quickly, managing to grab a glimpse of the newly constructed Spiritual School. The fact that people could get abilities was a subject that was met with a lot of excitement as everyone wanted to be special. Holly too.

"We have arrived human."

The drone informed her in an annoyed tone. Holly stopped before entering the teleport hub.

"Okay first of all, if you want to seem more approachable, ditch the word 'human'. I know I am you don't need to keep reminding me. Secondly watch your tone, 'droid'"

Then she entered with a snort. The coordinates were already entered and in a sudden wash of color, Holly disappeared.

(Elsewhere)

The earth had been destroyed.

The three legionnaires were the only surviving thing from the planet that had housed billions. They had been in New Genesis, following after Lor-Zod's trail, when it had happened and had laid witness to the god of evil Darkseid's death, something that would have only happened two years into the future in the original timeline.

The fight had been a spectacle to watch and it reminded all of them why Aden was who he was.

So they had failed their mission. The objective given had been to protect Superion as he would have become a central figure in the future, but now there wasn't even an earth. They could not also use the time sphere to go back and try to change it either. Why? The three of them could not agree on the right course of action to take.

Chameleon was proposing that anything that hadn't been directly caused by Lor-Zod was not something that they should have changed but rather the result of the changes that they had already made. He thought that going back to the past to change a new shift in time would strain the time continuum and have further detrimental effects in the future.

Saturn Girl and Phantom girl argued that it wouldn't matter what changes they made because if the desired result was not met then they had failed the mission and had to try again. The argument was almost over, with Chameleon agreeing with them when something happened.

One instant they were inside their time sphere, when the next, it was being jerked away towards a certain direction. The pull had lessened as the environmental shielding programs activated.

"What's going on?"

Phantom girl had asked with Saturn girl's fingers flew over the keyboard.

"I don't know. Something pulled us out of..."

She trailed off once she managed to activate the Time Sphere's transparent mode, revealing the scene on the outside. They were not expecting what they saw.

A man floating in outer space while staring at them. The time sphere had been warped from its location in a maintenance station on mars to outer space.

With wide eyes Chameleon boy askedthe other two.

"Is that his Majesty?"

Before they could answer,

"Indeed it is. But I told you not to call me that."

A new voice spoke up from the middle of the time sphere. The three Legionnaires were spooked and turned to stare at the new arrival.

"Your majesty!"

They all bowed down. The prince had light green hair, red eyes and was standing at 6,8 feet. He was wearing a martial robe constructed from the toughest material that the 30th century could afford and underneath the orange robe was a white combat body suit.

A very familiar symbol of the Avatar was imprinted on the robe, just below the shoulder.

"Prince Sai, Sir..." Saturn Girl raised up her head.

"What are you doing here, in the past?"

She wondered out loud.

The aforementioned Prince Sai smiled,

"To bring you home of course."