Voidspeaker walked back over to Aurora Legion, unhindered by Nemesis now that the job was done. Chronolock grabbed him in a tight hug with teary eyes, which he returned with a wry smile. Wonder Knight and Pink Star just released their breaths and relaxed.

Icy Rose was glaring at Arvid with a frown and her arms crossed, the temperature dropping in the air around her. The man was waving his hands around and sweating as he tried to explain what had happened and why they had done it that way.

Ultimately, no one felt in the mood for a fight.

Well, they did have some orders from Director Green.. She was enroute with reinforcements so they were to apprehend Bob if they could or trail him if they couldn’t, but Bob wasn’t making any move to leave at the moment, so they didn’t feel the need to interrupt him just yet.

Unfortunately, they were not the only people that had noticed the events happening here.

There was a flash of golden light, forcing everyone present to shield their eyes.

When the light receded, a man appeared floating in the air above them. He had a perfectly symmetric face, more like a gorgeous work of sculpted marble and shimmering gold than flesh and skin. He had golden hourglass pupils in his eyes. He wore robes of white and gold. Behind his head was something like a golden metal wheel, only with the hands of a clock spinning around it. In his hand he held a golden staff, tipped with two curved horns. Suspended in the air in between them was an hourglass that rotated on its own.

The man pointed his staff forward and a wave of golden light surged across the area. Every person present found themselves frozen, unable to move a single muscle, though they could still hear and see everything going on.

The man looked down upon Bob...and the Chrono-Shifter still active in his armor.

“So you are the one who has broken the laws of time. You have made a mockery of the sanctity of time for naught but selfish ambition and vain pride, with no concern for others. And your actions have threatened the very fabric of reality, in your mad scramble for power you have attempted to destroy the entire universe.”

He pointed his staff down at Bob. Bob lifted into the air, held up by shackles of golden light.

“I, the Temporal Arbiter, have come to judge you. For your crimes against the universe, I hereby banish you from time!”

A golden beam of light shot from the staff, striking Bob.

He faded…

And then vanished entirely.

Just then white cracks rippled through the air and white vortex appeared with the sound of glass shattering. Xiong Huang sped out of the vortex and slammed her fist into the Temporal Arbiter. A second vortex appeared behind him and he vanished into it.

The members of Nemesis and Aurora Legion gasped and stumbled as they could move once more.

“Stupid time girl, freeze this area! Now! The rest of you idiots help her in any way you can!”

Xiong Huang flickered over to the metal casket and picked Elise up, staring her in the eye.

“Bob’s not dead, though he no longer exists in this reality. All of reality is about to be reset as a result. You are going to find a way to bring him back.”

“Confused Query: Mistress Xiong Huang is not coming with us?”

“That haughty jerk won’t like you all not getting reset with his ‘judgment’. So someone needs to distract him and all of you are too weak to even draw his attention.”

She gripped her fist so hard it bled.

“And I owe him one beating until the end of time. And then some.”

She gripped Elise’s shoulder hard and looked into her eyes.

“You better save Bob. I will destroy you if you don’t.”

Elise frowned, speaking with two voices once again. This time, her organic voice was firm and unwavering.

“I will not fail.”

Xiong Huang held her gaze for a moment longer and then nodded. She turned and leapt through the vortex.

She came out into the void of space, where the Temporal Arbiter stood.

“You would defy my judgment, mortal? Cease your striving, time is about to heal.”

Xiong Huang narrowed her eyes. She flickered in front of him, slamming her fist into his face.

“I’m no mortal, I’m the one who defied the heavens! You better believe I’m defying you, you just took everything from me!”

Her fist burned bright as a star. She swung it forward, a mighty blast of light and fire surging across space. It covered the Temporal Arbiter, continuing on to slam into a stray planet in the way.

The planet shattered and the blast continued on its way.

Then the Temporal Arbiter reappeared, completely unharmed.

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And a bruise appeared on Xiong Huang’s cheek, as if it had been there already.

“You cannot defy me, mortal. I am the one who oversees all of time. Your blows in the present mean nothing to me, your defenses irrelevant to me, who can move through time at will.”

Xiong Huang appeared in front of him and swung her fist.

“SCREW YOU!”

She struck nothing. She felt her side ache.

He appeared behind her. She swung her foot back.

She hit nothing.

And then a mighty surge of light flooded the area. The Temporal Arbiter appeared once more.

“It has begun. The timeline has been reset to its proper course.”

And then his eyes widened as a fist approached his face.

“DIE!”

He barely had time to escape as Xiong Huang thrust her fist forward. The light tore at her, parts of her body starting to fade before flashes of qi restored them. The Temporal Arbiter reappeared, eyes wide.

“You…how is this possible?”

“I’m the one who decides who I am! You think a mere thing like time is enough to erase my existence, my love?! I won’t forget Bob, even if the entire universe tries to make me!”

And so Xiong Huang chased after the Temporal Arbiter once more. Time and time again she swung her fists. Time and time again he escaped into the past or future, blows appearing on Xiong Huang as he struck her in the past.

And time itself was against her.

She had put on a brave front but she knew. This was not a good scenario to take on the toughest opponent she had ever faced. The universe itself was tearing at her cultivation, trying to reset her in accordance with the new timeline. She could not resist it forever.

Or rather, would not.

Perhaps, if Bob was behind her, if she arrived before he was taken, if she were fighting to protect him, maybe she might have found a way.

But now?

Her heart just wasn’t in it.

Bob no longer existed in this reality, though her cultivation whispered that he was not gone for good. So until she knew where he was, until she knew how to bring him back, she could not close off any possibility. And there was, in fact, a significant possibility that this self-proclaimed Arbiter before her was the key. So she could not bring herself to end him, not truly. That was why she had prepared an alternative. Charged it to the person who loved Bob…second most.

She wouldn’t concede that.

So that meant the way forward was to lose this fight. A complete humiliation in exchange for naught but a small, tiny chance. A fool’s hope. One that the old Xiong Huang would never have considered.

The current Xiong Huang, though?

The current Xiong Huang had to take a chance on whatever hope she had, no matter how small or foolish it might be. No matter if she must grit her teeth and accept insult directly to her face.

But still, rage and hate still represented a major part of her cultivation.

So even if she couldn’t end him…

She would make him bleed.

The surge of light came to an end. The view of space returned. The shattered planet was made whole once more.

And Xiong Huang started to fade. With the rest of the timeline fully reset, the whole universe itself could now focus all its attention on her, the last thing that needed to be reset. She could barely even move anymore.

No, it wasn’t just that.

This was a universe where Bob didn’t exist. Never existed.

It was a universe Xiong Huang herself did not want to be a part of. Did not want to see.

Her heart and her cultivation was rejecting this reality as much as it was rejecting her.

The Temporal Arbiter appeared before her.

“It…is done. Time has healed, things have been set right. Evil has been punished.”

A vein bulged on Xiong Huang’s forehead.

He dared?!

She gathered all of her hate, a raging inferno swelling up within her as she grit her teeth.

She gathered all of her love, her desire for Bob. And to punish any who had laid hands upon him as her heart pounded.

She gathered all her sorrow. Every person she had lost, some very recently, as tears streamed down her face.

She gathered all her cultivation. All her existence. All her memories. Everything that made her Xiong Huang. She focused in into a single point, the raging torrent within her meridians shrinking down into a tiny but incredibly bright ball of light within her core. Her extremities began to fade immediately as the qi ceased to protect her body.

She moved that ball of light to her hand.

She swung her fist.

It was not a blow swung in time. It was not a mere blow of matter or energy.

It was a blow that represented all that she is.

And so…

It struck through time itself.

The Temporal Arbiter vanished, escaping through time. But once he reappeared, he gasped as a fist planted into the side of his torso. He crouched over clutching his stomach, blood dripping from his mouth.

She simply smirked at him.

The Arbiter who claims to ‘oversee all of time’ hadn’t noticed those brats after all.

Which meant she had won. And managed to wipe that smile off his face in the end too.

She spoke one last time as she faded away.

As well as making a rude gesture.

“Screw you, jerk!”

----------------------------------------

Back on Earth, as Xiong Huang leapt through the vortex, Elise turned to the rest, who were just staring and glancing around.

“Urgent Commands: Chronolock, freeze the area around Aurora Legion and Nemesis. Voidspeaker, surround the area with the strongest void barrier you have. Saydaa should prepare a mind spell, Pink Star should prepare a PSI Omega clone and both of you should assist Chronolock with mental strain. Everyone else should gather and make physical contact with me.”

Everyone was still glancing around, processing what was happening, but they leapt into action at Elise’s specific orders. Voidspeaker began chanting, a dark barrier forming around the group. Saydaa formed her magic circle and Pink Star made a clone of PSI Omega, the girls taking up positions to Chronolock’s sides.

Elise stood behind Chronolock and placed a hand on her back. The rest of Aurora Legion and Nemesis gathered behind Elise, placing hands on her shoulders.

“Profile Loaded: Xiong Huang.”

Qi swirled and grew visible around Elise, the replication far stronger and more accurate than before.

Through the power of the Blazing Dragon Flower Elise had gained a cultivation of her own, her organic side now contributing much more than just creative thinking. And her Mass-Energy Manipulation Array had been upgraded with Vophae tech and the lessons learned from Bob’s suit and its cultivation engine. Her powers were much greater than before, and now significantly closer in nature to Xiong Huang’s.

Elise then used Xiong Huang’s cultivation to link the supers, channeling their power and her own into Chronolock. She also activated a new addition to her implants, a now fully accurate mini-Mental Unifier, to link the trio with the rest, so that all the supers present could share the mental burden.

Chronolock took a deep breath and thrust her hands forward, grunting as she froze the area within Voidspeaker’s barrier. The others grunted as well.

Wonder Knight frowned.

“This…is what you were dealing with every time, Chrono?”

And then…

It hit them.

The world shook around them. Light streamed into the area as it ripped holes in Voidspeaker’s barrier. The supers started to scream as searing heat scorched their minds, enormous pressure assaulting every inch of their bodies. As if the entire universe was trying to rip them apart down to their base atoms, and they were trying to hold themselves together by naught but the strength of their wills.

Which was, in fact, exactly what was happening.

But these were the supers. Aurora Legion, the heroes who had faced the end of the world time and time again and came out on top. Nemesis, who had faced trial and tribulation all their life and yet stood firm, even when the whole world turned against them.

They pit their wills against the universe.

And their wills came out on top.

Chronolock shifted them out of time, and the universe moved on with the reset.

As quickly as it came, the light, the pressure, and the pain all suddenly vanished. The supers collapsed to the ground clutching their heads, save for Elise.

One by one, as they panted for breath, they started to look around.

And gasped at what they saw.

They were surrounded by towering, imposing, and most of all, undamaged mountains. The Himalayas, in all their original glory. Dark clouds hung overhead, dimming the light of the sun.

Voidspeaker, having not participated in the mental union, was the first to come to his senses.

“What the heck?! Where did all these mountains come from?! Where the heck are we?!”

Elise simply stared ahead.

“...Ominous Response: A world without Commander Bob.”