Sean gasped and opened his eyes only to see blue in all directions. He flailed blindly for a moment, it felt like he was floating like in space, nothing around him but the blue void. Then the next instant everything shifted and he was spat out of the blue rift. Sean shuddered and took a few deep breaths as he rolled over. Emily was lying to his right doing the same as the rift began twisting and swirling inwards like water going down a drain.

A thousand overlayed voices spoke from the rift as it began to swirl inwards, shrinking more moment by moment. Just like how the Shadow had spoken through Luke. The Shadow of the Shadow.

“Unwind the chains.

More of them remain.

Return again.

To see beyond the end.”

With that the blue rift finished compressing to a point and winked out. The world suddenly started warping and twisting around Sean and suddenly everything around him became less vivid, less real. The wind on his face disappeared and the sounds of the world suddenly became muted. He could feel the treadmill below him and the holograms poking him in several spots to form a pale imitation of the rough texture of the stone he had been sitting on before.

Sean reached out and felt at a nearby stone gingerly. It felt like a hologram. Sean pressed inwards hard on the stone and after a few seconds of resistance it disappeared into nothing and Sean’s hands slapped together. The hologram had failed to maintain itself as he put it under pressure. The rock he had just vanished appeared again below where Sean’s hands were, and it fell to the dirt at his feet with the dull thump. There was a faint vibration through the treadmill at Sean’s feet, but nothing close to the real thing.

He looked to the side and saw that Emily had disappeared. Sean quickly made the motions to log out and after a second the world shifted around him to the bright white room of the holodeck. He glanced around. Emily was nowhere to be seen. He opened the door and stepped outside into the ship hallway. He heard footsteps echoing and rapidly fading away by the moment.

“Emily?” He called out, and the footsteps only sped up their pace and began fading faster. In only a few seconds, she was gone. Sean sighed and slid down the wall of the hallway to sit on the floor. He sighed and put his head on his hands. They had failed. He couldn’t even imagine how Sinestra— Emily was feeling right now. Over the years he had gotten to thinking of her as Sinestra sometimes as they observed young Emily with longer or shorter periods in the… Vision? Portal? Was any of it real, or just a way for the Shadow to taunt them?

“I’m sorry…” Sean whispered as he sat there. He had failed. Again.

“Oh! Hey, Sean. Ash and I decided on some of the new robes for her and… Hey, you okay?”

Sean looked up and saw Lira standing there peering down at him in concern, Ash standing right behind her.

“H-How long were we gone?” Sean asked as he put his hand on the wall and leveraged himself to his feet.

“Gone?” Lira said in confusion, “We just saw each other an hour and a half ago. What are you talking about?”

“Oh. That’s a relief,” Sean said numbly.

“Sean, seriously what’s happening? What’s gotten into you?”

“We should go find Roger,” Sean said, “I don’t want to explain twice. Something, well… I’ll explain soon.”

“Okkkay?” Lira said, “I guess…”

She reached up with her hand curled towards her neck. Sean reached out and wrapped his hand over her own. She flinched for a second before she looked down at her raised hand and looked surprised. She twisted her hand around so the two of them had their fingers interlaced with each other.

“Thanks, Sean,” She said, “Didn’t even notice.”

“I know.”

Sean let go and Lira let her hand fall back down to her side.

“Where’s Emily?” Lira asked, “Weren’t you two playing Foundation of All together?”

“She’s… Well, she’s upset. I think she ran off,” Sean said, “Something happened in the game. Well, not the game, it was more… Let’s just get Roger. I have to start at the beginning or it won’t make any sense.”

“This is frustrating,” Ash stated flatly, “Let’s find Roger as quickly as possible so we are not left in suspense.”

“Sure,” Lira said while glancing back, “I saw him three hours ago in the kitchen. He was using an oven, he might still be in there.”

They set off in search of Roger.

Fifteen later they discovered that he had returned to his room. They all went to the entertainment room where they had watched Emily and Asuta’s Sinestra and Queen Violet movies together.

Sean felt a twinge as he thought about it. He remembered Emily giving that speech about what Sinestra meant to her younger self. How it meant giving their all to be herself even when no one else understood her and Queen Violet. Emily and Asuta. Was it a loop? Had Emily chosen Sinestra as her name in the film because of her older self? Or was it just a coincidence? Sean’s head hurt as he tried to wrap his mind around the implications that their influence might have been engrained in the timeline the whole time.

Lira, Roger, and Ash sat down in the entertainment room on the couches and chairs and they stared expectantly at him waiting for an explanation. Sean opened his mouth to begin only to suddenly stiffen as a sudden thought struck him like lightning. The thought started rattling around his head, and he couldn’t think of anything else as it bounced around his head. There was no hope for them from the start.

“There is no change, it can only be…” Sean whispered to himself. That’s what the Shadow had told them both times it spoke, “It was fixed. Nothing we did would have changed what would have happened. We were always there from the beginning…”

It all started coming together in Sean’s head. “Constructed fate, fixed by me and my gaze…” He muttered.

The Shadow knew. Nothing they had done had changed the past, because they had always been there. It was a closed loop, with every action they had taken in the past already carved in stone. “Constructed fate…” The Shadow... It had already known what they were going to do. Now, and in the past. Everything had played out exactly the same as when Emily had been on Earth. Everything. Sean and her older self had always been there following her.

“There is no change, it can only be…” Sean said in defeat. He was sure he was right. That’s why the Shadow had apologized. At least partially. It couldn’t change what happened even as powerful as it was.

“What’s happening? What are you muttering, Sean?” Roger suddenly said.

Sean looked up at his expectant audience, remembering he was supposed to explain to them. He opened his mouth and started speaking and explaining from the beginning. The whole time he kept thinking on the Shadow’s words.

He didn’t know what half of them meant. But he knew one thing… One line kept ringing though his mind when he had some time to think. Thinking as his friends paused to absorb some information or asked him more questions about what had happened on Earth. One line that told him that Emily had been wrong, they could have never have changed what happened.

There is no change, it can only be.

— — —

Sean’s friends had a lot of questions about his story. They were skeptical for the first few minutes, but after Sean provided more and more details on what happened they seemed to accept that it was too detailed for him to possibly be making things up.

Sean was about to reach the portion where he started yelling at young Emily in that movie theater. He hesitated, unsure of what to say about it. He felt a strange sort of relief as he heard something in the distance. He looked away and looked at the door to the room.

“Did you guys hear that…” Sean managed to say before the door burst open wide. Asuta lowered her leg from her kick and stormed in, looking furious as she scanned the room. She raised a finger and pointed directly at Sean when she spotted him.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“You! What did you do to my poor sweet Emily! She’s sobbing up a storm in our room right now, can barely even talk. What. Did. You. DO! YOU were the last one with her. What happened?!”

She stormed over so she was looming over him and poked her finger into Sean’s chest, lifting it and jabbing him again with each word at the end.

“I didn’t do anything,” Sean protested, “I was just explaining that…”

“Then WHY is your name the only thing she managed to say before crying again and telling me to go away?”

Asuta demanded, grabbing him from the collar and dragging him up from the chair to his feet and started shaking him.

“Why, why, why! What happened?!” Asuta was angry, but Sean could see the look of worry in her eyes even as she shook Sean roughly back and forth.

“Vision of the past,” Sean managed to get out as he tried to push Asuta back. But her arms were like steel and she absolutely manhandled him and brushed off his feeble attempts to escape, “Earth.”

“Sensei! Let him talk!” Roger said. Asuta’s rage died down somewhat into confusion and she paused in her assault and looked around. Sean noticed that his friends were all standing, looking wary but not moving forward towards the two of them.

Asuta’s face flashed between a variety of expressions as she looked around while keeping a tight grip on Sean’s collar. “Sensei… Right,” She said before taking a shaky breath, “Sensei. Sorry. Overreacted… Explain what happened. Now.”

She released Sean and took an abrupt step back and sat in a nearby chair. She stared at him and looked ready to leap up at any moment as he stood there hesitating.

“C’mon!” Asuta said, “What happened? What vision, how did you see it? What upset her so much?”

Sean took a deep breath and after a glance at his friends started from the top again. Asuta asked Sean all sorts of questions, nearly interrupting herself several times as her questions nearly overlapped with each other. Sean answered with his friends who had already heard much of the story chiming in occasionally to clarify or explain something if Sean forgot something.

Sean finished the story, Asuta looking like she was going to hit him a few times as he explained his own actions against the younger Emily. But after he concluded the full thing, including the last words of the Shadow and his thoughts on them not being able to change the past, Asuta took a single second to process the information before popping to her feet again.

“Well, first off. Fuck you, Sean. You should have listened to Emily first. It was her past,” Asuta said, “But I still overreacted before. I thought that… Well, it doesn’t matter now. Sorry. But I have a girlfriend to go comfort now. Bye.”

With that, Asuta ran out of the room again at a full sprint, leaving the doors to the room swinging behind her with a loud bang as she slammed them open and disappeared around the corner.

“You experienced all of that since I’ve last seen you?” Roger asked in disbelief.

Sean shrugged helplessly, “It’s time travel. I guess we just came back the second we left. I thought all of you would be worried about where we disappeared off to for so long…”

“Well, uhm. On another note. We talked about it like four hours ago,” Lira said, “But we’ve picked some new options for Ash’s new wardrobe. Ash, you want to go and show them off? The boys can say what they think of what we chose.”

Roger and Sean shared an understanding look. Sean could already feel the stress trying to think up on the fly the kind of intelligent comments and compliments he was sure Lira and Ash would want from him. Roger opened his mouth, “Actually…”

“That sounds like an excellent idea, Lira,” Ash said, before turning his head to Roger, “Oh. Apologies, I interrupted you Roger. What were you going to say?”

Roger closed his mouth. “Yes, that does sound like an excellent idea, Lira,” He parroted a second later, managing to almost completely suppress the tone of defeat in his voice.

“Great!” Lira said, “Let’s go. Lead the way, Ash.”

Ash stood and started walking off and Roger quickly followed. Lira trailed behind and held out her hand, which Sean grabbed after blinking in surprise. They walked forward with Ash and Roger walking ahead, hand in hand.

“Hey,” Lira said as she squeezed his hand slightly, “It’s okay, Sean. None of it was your fault. You said it yourself. Not what happened just now or me getting trapped on Immortus Station. Right?”

Sean looked at her as they walked. She looked a little tense and her free hand started creeping up her side. He looked pointedly at it and Lira looked confused for a moment before her hand stilled and she got an awkward expression on her face.

“Right,” He said, “It only matters that you’re safe now. That Emily is. It doesn’t matter if I’m the one who does it or not. Just that you’re safe.”

“Yeah,” Lira said, “We’re all safe. That’s what’s important. So how about we just go talk about Ash’s wardrobe, relax a bit? You can twist your thoughts into a tangled ball of yarn later after you aren’t so stressed from what just happened. And can actually manage to untangle a little bit of it without making things worse for yourself. I know what that’s like…”

“Okay…”

— — —

“Hey…”

“Go away, Asuta,” Emily said from beneath the covers, “I don’t want to talk about it…”

Asuta didn’t speak, but walked around the bed and slipped under the covers behind her.

“Sean told me everything that happened,” Asuta whispered as she came from behind as she shifted towards Emily from under the sheets, “It wasn’t your fault.”

Emily kept facing away, curled into a ball and not replying.

“Queen Violet needs you, minion,” Asuta said softly as she cuddled up on Emily from behind and wrapped her hands around her waist.

“I hate Sinestra,” Emily said, “It was her, my, fault that it all happened. If I had done something different, just not wasted my last chance to change things…”

Asuta pinched Emily in the side hard and she yelped. She rolled over and glared at Asuta angrily.

“Hey,” Asuta said calmly, “There is no change, it can only be. The Shadow said that, right?”

Emily was confused and felt her annoyance fade. She nodded in reply. Where was Asuta going with this?

“Sean had a theory… He thinks that it was all predetermined. You were always there, making your changes from the beginning. A closed loop. It wasn’t your fault, nothing you did would have been different than what already happened.”

Emily reached out and pulled Asuta towards her in a hug. “Oh,” She said, “Maybe... But it’s still my fault even if that’s true. I was there, making the mistakes. It… I had so much hope that things would change…”

“And what about me?” Asuta said, “If you saved Earth then who knows if we’d ever be together? I probably wouldn’t even be born at all. You’ve got good things in this time too…”

“I know,” Emily said, “But I really thought I had a chance. To just have it snatched away again, see my family and Luke and forced to watch them die… again… ”

“It was just a vision,” Asuta said, “Why don’t you tell me about your younger self? You’ve forgotten so much of that time. Sean made it sound like you’d become sort of friends with her. Why don’t you tell me what she was like? What your world was like? Whatever you can remember. Now that you’ve seen it again and it's fresh in your mind.”

Emily shifted back and stared into Asuta’s eyes filled with concern and worry for her. She weighed the options seriously as she thought about what she had back then. Would she trade places with her younger self even if the world hadn’t ended? Have never met Asuta to save her home planet?

Her mind cleared as the selfish answer bubbled up in her mind. No. No. She would rather have Asuta, right here caring for her. More than she wished for a third chance and managing to save her home planet in the distant past. It felt like a massive weight lifted off Emily’s shoulders and she tightened her grip on Asuta and let out the tears that she had been holding back ever since Asuta reentered their room.

“I’m sorry, Asuta. I’m so sorry, I’ve been so stupid. I should have never taken you for granted…”

Asuta just lay there and acted like a big stuffed animal, letting Emily babble and cry all over her for a few minutes. Eventually Emily calmed down a bit and fell silent and they lay there and Emily closed her eyes, feeling lighter than she had since… ever really. She didn’t even realize how much her past was hanging over her even now. She chose to be here, in this moment. With Asuta and what other friends she had. Not staying rooted in the past like she had been for so long. Not worrying about what she could have done to save Earth. Asuta and her friends were enough.

Suddenly something wet touched her cheek and moved upwards until it reached her eye where it lifted off of her. Emily opened her eyes and stared at Asuta’s face that was only inches from her own now.

“Feeling better now?” Asuta asked with a mischievous smirk on her face and eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Did you just lick me?” Emily asked, stunned.

“Yeah. Now shut your eyes again. I’m going to lick you clean, like a cat. I heard that they do that when other cats are sad. How does that sound?”

Emily stared at Asuta for a second, before resigning herself to what was about to happen. They had done weirder things before.

“Okay.”

She shut her eyes and Asuta licked her again, running her tongue up Emily’s whole cheek. Then again, and again. It was… relaxing. So strange and definitely embarrassing. But relaxing. Like a face massage. A very strange one.

Eventually Asuta finished and Emily lay there, feeling much more relaxed than before, Asuta’s slobber all over her face.

“You want to do me too?” Asuta asked and Emily opened her eyes to stare at her, “Unless you want to use our tongues another way? I think I know a few fun ways to cheer you back up. If you want.”

Emily considered her options as Asuta began to shift the bed and her clothing band switched off to reveal the skin beneath. Emily soon followed suit. Emily went in for a deep kiss and Asuta puckered her lips in preparation. But at the last moment, Emily diverted course and licked Asuta’s cheek.

“My turn!”

Asuta giggled and shot her an exaggerated scandalous look as Emily started taking her playful revenge. How could she have been looking into the past when Asuta was right here with her? Emily had been so stupid.

The two of them had a lot of fun for the next few days, and Emily was feeling amazing after. Light as air, unburdened by everything that had held her down for so long. Eventually even the insatiable Asuta had had enough and they settled into bed for some actual sleep. Emily drifted off to sleep, Asuta already snoozing softly at her side.

She shouldn't have ever taken Asuta for granted.