In the streets of Melusarej, the five who traveled back in time awaken to find the Scientist, the catalyst for everything they seek to prevent, walk into an alleyway amongst the thick fog of the eerie morning.

Xander walks forward so he has a line of sight, he teleports behind the Scientist and covers his mouth.

“Don’t make any sudden moves, we are here to help you,” Xander whispers in his ear.

“I remember your voice young man, I know exactly who you are. And you aren’t exactly a person who would seek to help me,” the Scientist reasons, knowing who Xander is and what he did to him.

Kayde walks up into the Scientist’s view through the haze, “Yo master, it’s okay, you can trust this guy. We have something to show you that will prevent the creation of the Black Sun Empire”.

The Scientist’s eyes grow wide at the mere mention of the Black Sun Empire, “How do you two know about that?”

Xander pulls out the three journals from his bag, “These are all yours, the first two you should recognize seeing as how you have already written them, but the third one you will come to write after it is already too late”.

The Scientist takes the journal and reads it. He recognizes his own handwriting and knows they are telling him the truth.

“This… this how… no it makes sense, it is hard to believe, but I do believe you,” the Scientist tells them, Drakthar, Jorge, and Gwendolyn now in view as well.

He approaches Kayde and puts a hand on his cheek, “Kayde, it is good to see you again”.

“Yeah, it’s been a while,” Kayde smiles back at the man who created him.

“It makes me happy to see that you have found yourself some friends,” The Scientist states, looking at the others.

He walks over to Xander, “I am sorry for what I did to you, I really am. I never meant for you to get involved, but I did not see another way. I needed a distraction to escape from there. I hope you can find it within yourself to forgive me”.

Xander can tell the Scientist’s apology is sincere, and in the end, they have the same enemy.

“I un…” his acceptance of the Scientist’s apology is cut off by Gwendolyn walking up the Scientist. The Scientist looks at her unassumingly as she raises her fist and brings it to the left side of his face. The Scientist crumbles to the ground, a bruise likely to develop on his cheek in the next couple hours.

Xander, having seen the events in front of him, comments quietly to Drakthar, “That was hot”.

“I probably deserved that,” the Scientist picks himself back off the ground as Drakthar chuckles.

“I believe you guys, about everything that is going to happen... but I cannot just run from the Cult of Chaos, they will hunt me down and bring me back,” The Scientist warns, a mix of terror and helplessness present in his voice.

“I can hide you, I am the leader of a group called the Silent Brotherhood. We can have you hidden in one of our many safe houses across the desert,” Gwendolyn offers him, in order to give him a sanctuary away from the Cult of Chaos.

The Scientist looks hesitant, but agrees, “Okay, but if I do not return the Cult of Chaos will certainly cause trouble for the city”.

“Don’t worry about the Cult of Chaos stuff, we’ve got that handled,” Kayde assures him, wanting him to get to safety.

The Scientist leaves with Gwendolyn and the two of them go to talk to her contacts within the city. While they do that, the others head towards the tavern, to figure out exactly when they are.

On their way there they see a curious sight. Xander, Kayde, and Drakthar see themselves walking towards the same tavern. Once they notice them, they start to fade away as if they were swept into another life by the wind.

“That was weird,” Kayde comments having witnessed their past lives disappearance.

“I guess there cannot be two versions of us in the same world, it looks like our past selves are gone,” Xander reasons after seeing what happened.

They continue on to the tavern and find the city guards: Sarge, Sharn, Lydia, Gorl and Eric, sitting at their regular table in the corner. They are alive, the events of the sewers yet to come.

“It’s you, lads, why don’t you join us,” Sarge suggests when he sees them. The four of them sit down.

“I haven’t seen you before,” Sarge notes, eyeing Jorge as he casually sits down with them.

“I’m friends of these lads just like ya, if ya would rather me leave I can,” Jorge offers, not wanting to stay if he isn’t welcome.

“No, it’s fine, friend. I’ve no problem with another friend at the drinking table,” Sarge, jovial as always, urges him to stay.

“So are you lads ready to venture into the sewers tomorrow?” Sarge asks them over a round of beers. Kayde, Xander, and Drakthar all look at each other.

“Yes,” Kayde responds shakily, not immediately able to pick up when this is.

“You know, you three seem different,” Gorl points out, staring at the three of them.

“You seem more intimidating than you did yesterday, well I guess Drakthar and Kayde do, Xander actually seems less intimidating,” he explains the difference in presence.

Kayde and Drakthar laugh a little, agreeing internally with Gorl that Xander has softened from meeting Gwendolyn.

“Nah dude, we’re the same as we were yesterday,” Kayde deflects suspicion after composing himself.

“Anyway, have you guys seen Alcaeus?” Kayde asks eagerly, looking to find the previous version of the one who sacrificed himself for them.

“What? Alcaeus? I don’t know anyone named Alcaeus,” Gorl responds confused. He looks to Sarge, and Sarge agrees, “Yeah lads I’ve never heard of him”.

“Weird,” Kayde mutters under his breath, seeing as how they all worked together in the past.

Meanwhile, the Scientist and Gwendolyn walk through the bustling streets of Melusarej, heading towards the Southern part of the city, in order to find Gwendolyn’s contacts.

“So I take it you and that former priest are an item?” The Scientist asks, curiously.

“Yes,” Gwendolyn responds coldly, only hiding him because of the future mistakes he will make if not babysat.

“Oh, I thought maybe you were with Kayde. I would be intrigued to see if he could be capable of having a lasting relationship like that,” the Scientist explains, wishing for his own creation’s evolution.

Gwendolyn ignores his ramblings as they come to the place she was looking for. As they approach, Gwendolyn sees the door open. A version of herself from two years ago walks out, she looks meek and downtrodden, troubled by the events in her life. That girl fades away as the current, confident Gwendolyn watches.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Gwendolyn looks over to the Scientist to see if he noticed, but clearly, as he continues to ramble, he did not. The two go inside and seek the help he needs.

That night they all buy rooms at the same inn, meeting in Kayde’s room to discuss what is happening and their plans going forward.

“Today I saw myself disappear,” Gwendolyn brings up what she saw.

“The same happened for us,” Xander informs her, having the same experience.

“Not for me yet though lads, good old Jorge is probably drinking in the capital,” Jorge mimics what his counterpart is probably doing.

“Next time we are there you can dissolve him,” Kayde assures Jorge.

“Speaking of what we want to do going forward though, I think we should go down into the sewers and help the city guard out. We’re going to know the traps this time so it should be easy,” Kayde points out, not wanting the Cult of Chaos to gain a bigger foothold in Melusarej.

“That room where everyone died last time will still have that weapon in it,” Drakthar points out, not wanting them to be too cocky and fail because of it.

“Actually I have an idea for that, as long as Kayde can shoot the screen, I can switch the man operating it with Kayde and it will be our weapon,” Xander assures them, having spent many sleepless nights thinking about what he could have done differently to save everyone who died that fateful day.

“You two should probably just stay out of it for now. It will look weird if you join us,” Kayde advises Jorge and Gwendolyn.

“That’s no problem for me lad,” Jorge agrees, wanting to spend the day at the tavern anyway after everything they’ve been through.

“I have things here I did last time that I still need to take care of anyway,” Gwendolyn notes, not bothered by being placed on the bench.

The next morning, Kayde, Xander, and Drakthar meet the city guards in front of the tavern.

“Now that everyone is here, let’s go,” Sarge comments, seeing them arrive.

“Wait, what about the Snakes that pledged to join us?” Kayde stops him.

“What are you going on about lad? Snakes wouldn’t help the city guard with anything,” Sarge seems genuinely confused by Kayde’s comment.

It starts to dawn on Xander what is probably going on.

He whispers to the other two, “Who had the contact that got us in touch with the Snakes? It was Alcaeus, so if he is gone maybe that means everything he did is undone as well”.

“That’s a little creepy,” Kayde shudders, wondering what kind of technology they messed with. They stop their huddle and follow the city guard down into the sewers.

Gorl pulls out a torch and starts to take the lead like before, but Kayde takes the torch from him, “Let me go up front”. He winks as he goes on ahead.

They pass by the already activated arrow trap and reach the fork. Kayde immediately turns left without hesitating at all.

“Hold on why left?” Gorl asks, wanting to take a second to determine which path is better.

“I can just feel it,” Kayde responds jokingly, knowing the right is just an acid trap and a dead end.

They reach the door to the Scientist’s old room, but unlike before, they hear no voices inside. Kayde confidently enters, finding the room empty. He immediately goes into the closet and grabs the pillow.

While the others stare at Kayde holding the pillow above his head in triumph, Xander goes over to the desk and pushes the button hidden beneath it, allowing him to open the drawer. Inside is the same journal from before. Just as he slips it into his bag, they hear voices from the other side of the door on the right.

Everyone hugs the wall on the left waiting to ambush whoever might be walking into the room. The door opens and an axe swings down. Two armored men flanking a priest in the purple robe of the Cult of Chaos walk through the doorway.

Kayde, who went invisible slips behind one of the armored men and slits his throat. The other two don’t realize his fate until they hear the thud of his body hitting the floor. Drakthar and Sharn meet them. Drakthar doesn’t hesitate in killing the priest, cutting off his head with his first strike. It slams to the floor blood spraying from the wounds on the head and the now crumbling body.

Sharn however let’s the other armored man live, disarming him and only giving him a bruised right arm.

Xander grabs the man who is now on the ground and asks him, “Is the gang leader of the Wolves still down here?”

“Yes,” the Cult of Chaos knight frantically responds, not even hesitating to give him up.

“How many of the Cult of Chaos members are down here?” Xander demands angrily to scare the man. He tries to slip out from his grip, running towards the door, but Drakthar trips him.

Drakthar holds his axe to the man’s neck beckoning him to, “Answer the question”.

“There are only two others down here,” the man responds meekly, scared to death by the hulking desert man glaring down at him.

“How many of you in Melusarej?” Xander continues to question him.

“Thirty or forty,” the man complies still afraid.

“Looks like most of them are still in the Arctic,” Kayde comments nonchalantly, forgetting that the location of their base shouldn’t be common knowledge.

The man’s eyes widen, “How? How do you know about the arctic?”

Xander ties a piece of cloth around his mouth, stopping his questions.

“You are going to tell this man where your friends are in the city,” Xander tells the man as he hands him over to Sharn.

Sharn grabs the man and starts to lead him towards the exit of the sewers. He is surprised that Xander, Kayde, and Drakthar know so much, but doesn’t question it, eliminating the Cult of Chaos’s presence here is a goal he has set for himself.

“What did you say about the arctic lad?” Sarge asks, this being the first time hearing about any relation between the Cult of Chaos and the Arctic.

“The Cult of Chaos’s base is in the Arctic, past a few mountains,” Kayde explains.

“We should probably report that to the higher-ups in the city shouldn’t we then lad?” Sarge realizes, always remembering his duty as a part of the city guard.

They then go through the door on the right the Cult of Chaos members had come through, making it past the hallway full of traps, thanks to the three who’d already experienced this forewarning them.

They eventually come to the door where the squad of Wolves waits inside.

“Get ready for a fight,” Kayde tells the others in the city guard.

Xander looks at Kayde, “Remember the plan?” Kayde nods and pushes open the door.

Inside is the same scene as before, a bunch of Wolves, one of them manning a giant turret in the center of the room surrounded by the rubble of broken pillars. Kayde shoots at the tinted screen around the turret, cracking it so the man inside is visible. Xander, once he can see the man, switches him with Kayde.

Now in the turret, Kayde shoots at the Wolves, taken off guard as their own machine tears their bodies apart, their blood painting the rubble beneath them a dark crimson. Kayde gets out of the turret smirking at the carnage he was able to inflict on the ones who’d killed so many of the city guard before.

“That was brilliant! But how did you do that?” Gorl calls out to Kayde.

"Xander used to be a Sacrosanct priest, he just switched me there once the screen cracked and he could see,” Kayde lets them in on it.

Xander looks over at a scowling Sarge.

“Sacrosanct priests killed Lydia’s parents,” Sarge informs him.

“I hate the Sacrosanct as well, trust me they have no friend in me,” Xander assures Sarge, not wanting to fight with him down here.

The group continues towards the Wolf leader, passing by the arrow and spike traps. They make their way through the corridor where the darkness follows, making sure to run so it doesn’t catch them. The torches pop out like before and land on the floor.

At the end of the hallway, they find the two guards and easily dispatch them, Kayde going invisible and sneaking behind one, and Xander warping behind the other.

All filing inside, they see the Wolves’ leader dead in the corner, his throat slit, blood trickling from the wound on his neck. Standing over the body is the priest they encountered in the warehouse and his knight Julius.

The priest looks over at them, “Kill them, Julius!” He orders without hesitation.

Drakthar steps forward and catches Julius’s sword with his axe. He pushes back causing Julius to lose his grip. With his guard down, Drakthar cleaves off Julius’s head, dropping the bloody mess at the feet of the priest.

Seeing his protector dead causes the priest to panic. He runs towards a back door, but Xander stands in front of it blocking his way. He switches Xander with Lydia and tries to knock down the much lighter target to escape the room. As he expects to run over her, he instead falls to the ground, bouncing off what to him feels like it must be a wall. He looks up in fear to see Drakthar now towering over him, Xander having switched him with Lydia. Drakthar brings his axe down on the cowering priest, sending him to the same place he did Julius.

Gorl spots the gang leader’s corpse in the corner, “Let’s take this thing and get out of here”.

The others nod and they exit the sewers the same way they entered, making sure not to encounter any new traps along the way.

“We can take this guy over to the Lieutenant, you lads can head back to your inn and rest, it has been a long day. Meet us back here in the morning to get your share of the gold, and to figure out which gang leader we take down next,” Sarge grins at them, knowing he has found three useful allies in the fight against the gangs.

The three walk back towards their inn.

“I guess Sarge, Gorl, Lydia, and Eric didn’t have to die this time,” Kayde points out, glad they didn’t repeat the same mistakes a before.

“Speaking of,” Xander notices Lydia stayed behind and is eyeing Kayde.

“Ah, right. I guess I will see you two later then,” Kayde notices her as well, remembering their previous relationship. He bids Xander and Drakthar farewell, wraps an arm around Lydia, and heads off to enjoy the rest of his night.