It was chaos. Kingston saw the winds around him fade from vision. Butterfly flaps of futures winked in and out of existence as lives were snuffed out one by one by the unspawns. His class had just formed a perimeter around the two courts. They were holding back the attacking unspawn horde when Consort Rubi scrambled towards them, a scarlet rapier in her right hand and a jade coloured buckler in her left.

One of the translucent creatures turned its attention to the coming head of state. Before Kingston could warn her of the oncoming danger, he heard the voice in his head telling him things would be fine. It was the instinct that came with being what he was.

Rubi halted after seeing the attacking monster. With a twirl on her feet, she sidestepped a whip-like tail that slammed down where she stood just seconds before that cracked the land beneath it. Coming out of her spin and using the momentum, she thrust her blade into the appendage of the unspawn.

The creature scrambled and pulled its tail back, but a single ember of flame had already been embedded in its translucent body. The flicker of fire spread, growing like a tree taking roots in the earth. The beast squirmed, desperately doing its utmost to scratch the fire away but to no avail. Within seconds, it was completely engulfed in flames, finally fading away as the minute closed.

The consort continued her rush over to the class, asking aloud, “ Does anyone have any enhancing knowledge?”

Lua raised her hand. “I know some theory.”

“That's all I need. Come with me and help me connect this machine to the crystals.” She gestured to the hard-light hologram crystals which still glowed with expectant power. From her pocket, Rubi took out a tiny, matte black box and a bundle of cryst wires.

Kingston saw a green wind leading from him to the box. A good omen to heed. He made a gesture to Pempe to close his ranks before leaving his position to help. The green wind connected to Shichi and he tapped his friend by the shoulder for attention to follow.

The two boys approached the two ladies and Kingston asked, “Is something wrong?”

Lua held up the black box. “The Consort wants to wire this...” She looked to Ruby for guidance.

“Radio,” the lady replied.

“...radio to the crystal for a boosted charge. I've got the wires attached correctly, I think. But it's not receiving the power it needs.”

Kingston leaned over. The back of the box had been opened and within the contraption was a otherworldly mess of green, silver, and gold boards and soldering that reminded him of the outlining of magic circuits and the crystal enhancing process. But amongst all of the foreign matter was a familiar gleam.

“That,” Kingston pointed. “Looks like a cryst resistor. My dad taught me about them. It's probably dampening the power to prevent an overload.”

“What does that mean?” Shichi ask.

“It means that there is probably the limit to the machine. Even if we get enough energy in, it might destroy the thing,” Kingston explained. “I'll have to remove the resistor to even try.”

Ruby replied, “That's fine. We just need to get the word out and aid will come. Right now, something's dampening our ability to communicate. Messengers I've sent out are turned around by the forest, as if space itself is confused.”

“I...” Lua began. “I don't understand.”

“There's no need to at this time. We just need this machine to work.” Ruby looked to Kingston. “How do we do that?”

Kingston reached over their hands and grabbed the radio. He took some of Ruby's spare cryst wires and instructed Lua, “Disconnect the crystal. Reconnect them when I tell you to.”

Lua then took the wires in her hands off the projection crystal as instructed. From under his coat, he took out a small utility knife and proceeded to cut the resistor free. Around their focused project, the battle waged on. Only a trickle of minor unspawns remained being hunted down by the combined forces. Some threw their bodies at the wall set up be Class C, only to be disintegrated by their fortified strength. Others paced around, as if searching for an openning to pounce.

“Shichi,” Kingston called. “Give me your hand.”

“What?” Shichi exclaimed, a tone of worry in his voice. “Why? What are your intentions?”

“Don't be whining,” Kingston derided. “Just give me your hand.”

Reluctantly, the former handed over his appendage. Kingston took it and guided the index finger over the now incomplete part of the circuit where the resistor was.

Kingston began explaining, “When Lua reconnects the crystal there will be a surge of electricity. Shichi, you'll need to block that energy and I cannot stress this enough, slowly increase the flow of power through your fingers.”

Ruby looked to Kingston quizzically and voiced, “How did you–”

“I have good instincts,” he replied.

She stopped inquiring and instead simply nodded understandingly. It would have taken too long for him to explain his situation to her, so he was glad to have her discernment. He could read the wind in the literal sense. Each breeze carried a tone or a colour or an inflection. Each whisper of the wind held stories of the past or future that he could discern. He could read the wind because aeromancy was not the only magic he could perform. He was also a seer.

“Is this safe?” Shichi asked about his finger.

“No idea,” Kingston turned back and grinned. “Good luck!”

He signalled Lua who immediately reconnected the cryst wires to the crystal and Shichi jerked slightly on his feet.

“Woah,” the latter let out. “It feels like someone's running a string through my veins.”

“Keep at it,” Kingston encouraged. “Lady Ruby, could you give the device a try?”

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She did as was suggested and spoke into the radio. “This is Ruby. Can anyone hear me?” A soft grinding noise that reminded Kingston of static electricity reverberated out of the machine. “We need more power.”

He looked to Shichi and instructed, “Slowly.”

His friend nodded and gradually began raising the power he was channelling.

Ruby tried again. “This is Ruby. Can anyone hear me?”

Again, static replied. Slowly, they continued raising the power and Ruby desperately tried to make her voice heard.

After what seemed to be forever with tension rising on them to get things right, the consort yelled, “Hey! Anyone near Rubicum? We've got a tear here and void creatures are pouring out. Class-C is holding, but we're being overrun.”

Almost immediately, a young male voice replied, “Ruby, this is Junior. Shion and I are on our way!”

As soon as the reply came in, the radio sparked and smoked. Kingston dropped the device out of shock. But even without the fall, the device was no longer usable, having been damaged by the surge of energy.

The fighting had died down around them. With most of the unspawns in the area having been eradicated. Elsewhere, the sound of fighting raged from beyond the line of trees. The rest of the class gathered around Consort Ruby.

Lua asked, “Do you think they'll get here in time.”

“Never left!” a loud voice boomed.

They turned. Walking confidently towards them was a messy dark haired man in a white shirt, black vest, and long black pants. Over the clothing was a long grey coat that stretched to his shin. The man walked with a swagger benefiting from a face chiselled but fresh, as if just back from a vacation in a mine.

Behind him was another man, less prominent and simply dressed in a white shirt and thick brown pants stained with mud, a sheathed katana at his side. Siding the latter were two teens, a young girl with half the resemblance to the man and a hume boy with navy hair. They walked armed with a crossbow and two wands respectively, neither older than the members of the class.

Pempe exclaimed, “You!”

Behind him, Joachim pointed similarly at the newcomer in surprise.

Ruby looked to the simply dressed man and asked, “Him?”

“Me!” The coated man greeted. “I'm The Watcher, and I am here to save all you lives. How are you all doing this fine apocalypse?”

Ruby looked to the party involved. “How are all of you here so quickly? I just made the call.”

“Ah,” the man called The Watcher began. “See, I was aiming for this moment in the near future, but when I attempted to close the spatial-time difference, a chronal anomaly offset the gravitational wave of the preceding moment and–”

He stopped. Kingston watched as those around him gave the man a blank stare. Then, his eyes met that of The Watcher and the two gave each other a curt, instinctive nod.

The Watcher continued. “Sorry. I mean, I tried to teleport here and ended up time travelling backwards by about a mon – um... season.” Before anyone could even ask further, he silenced them. “No questions. It'll take too long. Now, end of the world. I'm a little out of the loop so let me do my thing. You kids! Epitaphs. Numbered One to Thirteen, right?”

Jaochim held up his hand in Zero.

“Sorry. Zero to Thirteen. Why?”

Trini answered, “We're... not sure.”

Before she could continue, The Watcher bulldozed through, “Of course you don't. You're not the heroes. You're not the main characters. You're the plot device. Because Zero to Thirteen. Who could figure this out? Certainly not you. Had to be me!” The Watcher thumped his chest proudly as he continued to ramble. “It's not Zero to Thirteen. It's Thirteen to Zero. Zero is a one of a kind number. It's the end. It's the finishing point. You don't count up from zero, but you count down to it. And in a sequential prediction like this, the only thing a zero can be is death...”

The man stopped talking, his eyes staring off wide into space. Everyone looked to him as if he had gone mad. The world almost seemed quiet compared to the loud bellowing of his voice.

The Watcher jumped on his feet. “Oh! Death! Rena, you beautiful thing! Muah!” He sent an aired kiss into the sky with arms wide. “You kids aren't kings. You're pawns!”

“Hey!” Lua exclaimed in anger. “We're a part of this too.”

“Of course you are!” He replied excitedly. “But not in the way you think. You're not the heroes. You're the tools. The queens and knights are people like me and Jax and Consort Rubi and King Adam. We're suppose to solve this thing and you kids are just the tools that the bad guys are using to get what they want.”

The class looked to him. Kingston could see in his classmates' eyes a disheartening shadow creep in. But for him, a part of him expected the answer and lecturing from The Watcher. In the seasons since receiving their epitaphs, he had not been able to see a path for them to walk towards. It was almost as if they had simply been riding on the coattails of the wind, following a set path wherever it went.

The Watcher continued, “You kids are going to die in sequence. That's your number. From Thirteen to Zero, you are going to die. Whoever is doing this is using your deaths as fixed point in time. But because death is the hardest thing to predict, they must be using an inordinate amount of power to anchor that future here.” His eyes widened as a realization dawned on him. “Which means...”

He threw his arms outwards and Kingston felt a wave of energy wash over him. He stumbled back, looked around, and was surprised no one else had reacted as he did. Around them, the ambient noise of the world disappeared. No longer were there squawks or tweets from birds, nor were there rustling leaves from beyond the city. Above, the clouds stopped moving. And beyond, the sky seemingly stood still with avians hanging in the air. The world outside the urban center was still. But within it, the sound of clashes of fighting raged on. The Watcher had used magic that affected time itself.

Kingston asked, “What did you do?”

The Watcher's hands were still held out wide. “I've trapped the city in a time bubble. Our time is now moving differently from the world outside as long as I have power or hold breath.” The man huffed with beads of sweat running down his face, having obviously exerted a large amount of power.

The simply dressed man named Jax said, “Explain.”

“Think of this world as a cart travelling on a road made of time. Someone threw an anchor onto the road held together by a chain.” He gestured his head towards the class to emphasize the chain of events to be caused by their epitaphs. “Once the chain tauts, the cart snaps in half, pulled back by the anchor. That's what's happening now. We're at the breaking point. I've isolated us. Pulled on the brakes and stopped the cart.”

Shichi stepped forward with an anger in his eyes. “It seems like what you're trying to tell us is to cut the chain, is that it? Cut our losses early and have us kill ourselves out of order or something?”

“What? No! Sure that would do well to end the invasion but that doesn't solve the problem.” The Watcher answered, looking offended. He was still holding up his city wide barrier. “Were you not listening? There are three parts to this. The cart, which represents the world, and you kids are the chain. Then there's the bad guy, the anchor. You destroy the cart or the chain, the anchor gets away. The bad guy gets to try again. Don't you get it? You want to save the world? Stop the source.”

“How?” Four asked.

He sighed, tired at both explaining and exerting his magic. “Listen! Why don't you people listen! This barrier I put up separates the time here and the time outside. The fact that the unspawns are still coming means all three components are still inside the barrier! The bad guy is still in the city! Find the bad guys, stop them, save yourselves, save the world!”

Everyone looked at each other, a moment of uncertainty between them that lasted all but nothing of a second.

“Alright,” Ruby said. “Jax, Junior, and myself will–”

“No,” The Watcher cut in. “You guys are strong. I'll need you to stand guard around me. I'm about to turn into a motherfucking beacon for these monsters and as much as I'd like to, I don't want to die today. Besides, the epitaphs belongs to the kids. They're the ones with the best shot at changing it. That's how this works. They're part of the timeline now.”

Nos stepped forward, arms crossed in annoyance. “That's all easy to say, but didn't you just tell us we're pawns? How are we suppose to find this hay in a needle stack?”

“Isn't it obvious? You have an advantage. You have the element of surprise. You're no more than tools so the enemy won't know as much about what you can do as individuals!” The Watcher seemed to look over to Kingston and winked. “Yes, you're pawns. But that's why chess is my favourite game. Because if you're smart, brave, and willing to stand firm, then sometimes, pawns kill kings.”