Levi and Ace had traveled to the Place That Never Was.

Aelius was waiting for him, and he was excited because he finally returned! They could be together, forever, and maybe he could be brave enough to leave. Maybe the monster that killed Hayri wouldn’t keep stalking him and he could live a normal life again.

“This is not my house,” Ace said.

A giant butterfly landed on a topiary of a giraffe. The flowers seemed to sway in sync like they were dancing to a silent song, and the air smelled sweet. But the sky was pitch black, an empty void.

Levi and Ace were wary of the man who approached them, especially since he reminded them of Tyreceus. He was overly excitable too, and it didn’t help his cause when he tried to explain what was happening and where they were.

“You’re here! You’re finally here,” Aelius shouted.

“I’ve been here before?”

“Kinda. Sorta. Stuff is weird here,” he replied.

“I’m…seeing that…”

A dog-sized caterpillar crawled out of a bush and ran into another, making Levi and Ace stand a little bit closer to each other.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know, but I call it The Place That Never Was! Because it shouldn’t be here!”

“Who are you?”

“I am Aelius.”

“That’s not funny.”

The entire garden froze. The air went still, the flowers stopped swaying, the insects were quiet, and now paradise was lost.

“I am not lying. My name is Aelius.”

“Why would he lie about his name,” Levi asked.

“That’s my son’s name. He’s dead. Been dead. This isn’t a funny joke.”

“But I am him! Grandpa took care of me! Look! I have your eyes! And your ears!”

He moved his long brown hair to the side and Ace bristled when he saw the signature curved Ionadian ears.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Ace replied. “There are plenty of Ionadians.”

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“A what? What’s that? Is that what I am? I’ve always wanted to know,” Aelius said desperately.

Ace shook his head no and had seen enough.

“This watch is playing cruel tricks on us again,” Ace said. “I already lost my family, and now he convinced some guy to fuck with my head.”

“Please don’t leave me! I’m alone. Please stay. It’s horrible outside.”

“Wait…how long have you been in here,” Levi asked.

Aelius shrugged.

“I have everything I need, except friends. Why leave?”

“There is so much more outside of here. No one deserves to be trapped in here.”

“This is not a trap! I’m safe here! The gods can’t hurt me here! I think one of them is following me.”

Levi and Ace glanced at each other and suddenly they were starting to believe the crazy man in a suit who lived in a magical garden that existed between a crack of time and space.

“We should create a god-abuse support group at this point,” Levi said dryly. “I’m starting to get why you’re here.”

“Please stay,” Aelius begged. “It’s safe in here.”

“More lies from another Born Liar,” Inifinti said.

“Who is that,” Aelius screamed hysterically.

He looked around rapidly because he didn't like not knowing things. He knew everything and everyone who passed through eventually in his paradise, and the lack of control had him spinning.

“I told you to never come back, didn’t I, little boy,” Infiniti said. “But you and Acheus are so stubborn. One of the many things you have in common.”

The phrase "never come back" made Aelius relieve the torture of Hayri's multiple deaths. He screamed in terror because he could never escape the monster, he could never escape his lack of control, everything had no escape even in paradise.

“It’s time to go,” Ace said with a nervous laugh.

Ace put his hand on Levi’s shoulder and was going to teleport them back home but Aelius ran right at them, trying to kick them out. He pushed them to the side, trying to make them slip back into where they came from. Simultaneously, Levi tried leaving using the watch, and now there was an error in the script code of the universe.

Something had to give.

Levi panicked and let go of Ace’s hand. Ace fell to the side, but he was dizzy because he didn’t hit the garden’s grass. He fell right through, into the abyss. He saw a spark of lightning, heard screaming in the distance as he fell further away, and soon all he could see was black.

When he came to, he was in his front yard.

He looked at his right hand and felt quite silly because he left his lunch behind before they traveled through time.

Ace stood outside for an hour, waiting for Levi, until he decided to go inside, and met Ronnie when he opened the door.

The same Ronnie that disappeared one evening when he went out for a walk and no one knew what happened to him. Many people disappeared when the Empire invaded Earth again, and Ronnie's disappearance wasn't of any importance to the authorities, and his body was never found.

But here he was, in the flesh, never looking like he had aged a day when Ace opened the door. Inside hope grew that he had hopefully made it back to where he was meant to be, back to his family, before everything was gone. But when he entered the kitchen, took off his shoes, and looked around he knew inside his bones that something was not quite right. It did not matter how similar everything looked. It didn't matter that Ronnie and Fenton were still living, his father was still gone, and the mother and brother he had in this new world were also gone.

Ace traveled through space and time and finally learned that he could not have everything he wanted and that there would be no perfect world.