Muted red lights illuminated empty metal halls.

The sharp stink of burnt chemicals filled the air, accompanied by the most intense déjà vu Rolynd had ever felt.

This place… The smell, the sights, the sound of a broken siren, warbling like a smashed toad. It was all frighteningly familiar.

Rolynd remembered that the Bloodstones had meticulously planned every detail of this morning for months, but of course, everything had gone sideways.

Is this real life? Or some kind of dream?

Rolynd pinched himself as hard as he could, but nothing happened. He focused his aegis, drawing metal into intricate patterns, far more detailed and complex than any image in any dream he had dreamt before. He focused on the details, making sure that they stayed put. They did. There was no wavering, no sudden inexplicable changes after he looked away.

If this was a dream, it was very convincing.

“…Remember Rolynd, you have to protect them.” A certain voice said from behind him. It belonged to a girl with icy blue eyes and short, straight hair of a similar shade. Catherine.

She should have been long dead.

Rolynd couldn’t believe his eyes. Instinctively, he reached out and grabbed her wrist with his right hand. Her skin was warm, smooth and soft to the touch. She was very much alive.

The heir glanced down at her left arm where Rolynd held on tightly, then looked back up to Rolynd’s face with a look of detached unsurprise. She wordlessly waited for his response, like an actor waiting for their partner to remember their lines during a rehearsal.

“I know… Listen, Catherine-”

Catherine gripped Rolynd’s arm, her detached eyes seemed to pierce his heart. “You have to do whatever it takes to keep them safe.”

For a moment, Rolynd was taken aback. In his memories, Catherine had not spoken with such fervour. He had just been about to warn Catherine about what fate lay in store for her, and she had reacted like this.

Am I just misremembering? Or did she look into a possible future and learn what I’m experiencing? How far ahead has she seen?

Rolynd was stunned into submission. “Wh-… Whatever it takes, we’ll see you soon,” he reassured her in a steadied voice. Rolynd knew that they would never see each other again. And, he was beginning to have the feeling that Catherine knew that too.

The rest of the bloodstones gave Catherine reassuring looks as if to say, ‘we believe in you!’, and perhaps they genuinely did. After all, Catherine’s visions had never once been incorrect.

Never before, and never again.

Something exploded nearby.

“That’s Sophia’s signal,” Rolynd said.

Catherine was the ideal person to mislead the patrols. Though her Future-Vision would be disabled while the nullifiers were activated, she could still remember what it showed her. With her thorough training at the hands of the Incandestine, she could perfectly predict where she needed to be and at what time.

The others would be racing to place and detonate bombs. They needed to disable the nullifiers and their power sources as they fought their way to the hangar, where they would steal a ship.

As the Chimera Project was based on a moon with little atmosphere, it was in everyone’s best interest that the power wasn’t completely disabled nor the facility utterly destroyed.

The two teams ran through corridors of polished steel lit by red emergency lights. Rolynd, Aleister, Charlie and Effie were together in one group. Sophia was leading the second group with Mars, Phee and Carmen.

Catherine was drawing the guards away with her own supply of explosives, targeting sensitive areas such as the laboratory and server rooms, where irreplaceable data was stored.

Unfortunately, they would still need to fight their way through the maze of steel corridors, as the barracks were between the dorms and the hangar.

Rolynd’s team took the direct route, drawing the most attention to themselves, while Sophia’s team would take a more indirect route, as they lacked the defensive powers of Rolynd’s aegis.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Throughout the escape, the nullifiers that disabled the Bloodstone’s abilities would periodically reactivate before Catherine could disable them. At those times, it was crucial that they be especially careful.

Aleister, the most technologically minded among them, had figured out a way to confuse the biometric locks on the guards’ weapons. With guns and batons taken from their captors, they at least had a hope of defending themselves while their special abilities were nullified.

The rest of the escape went just as Rolynd remembered. The others stuck close to him, and together they managed to make their way through the facility. Although the nullifiers impeded their progress at times, such moments were brief, owing to Catherine’s perfect planning.

A thick blast door was blocking their path. Behind it was the hangar.

There’s an ambush on the other side of this door, Rolynd reminded himself.

“…Where is Effie?” Mars asked.

But the girl had disappeared, just as Rolynd remembered. Even though he knew she would disappear, he didn’t even notice precisely when it happened.

“…Where the? Argh, whatever. She knows where to find us.” Rolynd replied.

He could already picture her face when they would see her next, eyes full of confusion and guilt. Her lips moved without forming words.

By now, Rolynd was certain that he knew exactly what was going to happen. He had seen it all before, and the memory of it was forever etched into his mind. Every last detail was the same. Nevertheless, he had to continue, for the sake of everyone. For Catherine.

But the temptation to do something different was so great. So, so great. Was it not possible for them to escape without losing anyone? What would happen if Rolynd chose to deviate from the plan? He could only begin to imagine. Doing nothing now was tantamount to accepting everything that had happened. Countless deaths on both sides of Lucina’s invasion. Al Dherjza’s fall. Carmen’s death. Further abuse of Chimaeras made in other facilities by the Incandestine.

But Rolynd recalled Catherine’s deadly gaze. He had never seen the heir look more serious. As so, though it caused his heart to suffer greatly, Rolynd pressed on, trusting in her decision once more.

It was the right thing to do, He told himself. But the next thought that invaded the future king’s mind shook that conviction. …In a few seconds, Mars will be turned to ash.

Rolynd tried to convince himself that the death of Mars was not blood on his hands, even if he chose to do nothing but watch his friend die. Mars would not die because Rolynd had killed him, but because the enemy did. Because they were not strong enough. Because their enemies showed no mercy, even to children. There was simply nothing Rolynd could do to prevent what was coming. All he could do was the best he could manage, even if it wasn’t enough. No one could blame him for what was to come, could they?

No. These were just comfortable lies Rolynd was telling himself, and Al Dherjza’s King acknowledged that fact. Rolynd knew what was to come. He could very easily warn Mars that the nullifiers would reactivate at the worst possible moment. He could adjust their plans. He could send them all back, contact Sophia, and call off the escape. He could spare their lives, and Apolaphia from a future of war, hostile occupation and potential genocide.

But Rolynd couldn’t allow himself to do that. Better to die fighting for a future worth living in, than to consign oneself to living in one that you’ve given up on. The mantra which Sophia had invented came to mind.

No matter how much he wanted to, Rolynd couldn’t change the past. Even if he were to wish for it, that would just mean consigning himself to becoming a ghost, stuck forever in changing memory. Death was preferable.

Let the dead rest and the living grieve.

This was what Rolynd knew to be ‘correct’ in his own mind. He would accept the result the dice of destiny had rolled; he would accept the future that Catherine had damned them all to, and do whatever he could to turn the chips he had into a righteous winning.

And right now, the others needed him. They trusted him.

So Rolynd gritted his teeth and tried to still his beating heart. Glancing around, he could see the trepidation in his friend’s eyes. They were just children.

All of them.

But was accepting their deaths righteous, when there could be a chance to save them?

“Step outside my Aegis, I’ll start with a plasma burst. You two get charged up as we planned. There’s a reason that Hagley has kept the two of you separate this whole time.”

“Hey, Rolynd… are you sure this is going to work?” Mars asked.

“To be honest, I’m not. But Catherine is, and I trust her.”

“I meant your plasma trick. You’ve never actually done it like this before.”

Rolynd stared into the windows of their soul. He could hardly explain how many times he had done it in the future. “It’ll work. Hurry up and get charging.”

Charlie could generate huge amounts of power. Mars could store and release it as he desired. Together, they were a fearsome pair.

They stepped outside the bounds of Rolynd’s Aegis, standing alongside him. Charlie placed his hands on Mars’ chest, where his Bloodstone Hive was located. Pure white energy flowed from Charlie’s hands into Mars’ chest.

“Hey, that tickles,” Mars said.

“Good. This much is apparently enough to power the entire city of Ludenburg.” Charlie replied.

Mars looked at his partner with great surprise. But he didn’t tell him to stop.

Meanwhile, Rolynd was focusing. Being in a younger body, his powers were slightly different and harder to control than he was used to. But his greater skill and experience allowed him to make the most of them.

Rolynd focused with such great stoicism that he might forget all his worries. Material gathered into his hand. To the keeper of the Aegis, it did not matter what it was; if it had mass, it was useful. Parts of the metal walls, floor and ceiling were sucked into the space just slightly above the palm of his hand. A strong wind roared through the corridors as everything, even air, seemed to be magically sucked into that tiny space, compressed into an infinitesimally small point.

The door on the far side of the hallway creaked. Rivets flew from fixtures, but Rolynd remained in complete control. He compressed everything he could have into a tiny, tiny point.

And finally, a star was born. A ball of pure plasma, a glowing golden sun.