Cigarette smoke hung heavy and black in the small Vancouver apartment, with the night sky outside not holding too much of a contrast. The windows were thrown wide in an attempt to combat the stifling summer heat, but it did little good. The activities taking place within the apartment created a heat of their own.

Blake Medea laid with her head pressed into the pillows, an attempt to stifle the screaming moans that ripped forth from her throat.

There, behind her, performing acts that would drive any man or woman crazy, was Emma. The girl she'd met so long ago, returning once again.

Her and Emmaline had never been stable; they'd broken up too many times to count, Blake had gotten with others, Emma had gotten with others, both had cried, scratched, attacked, fucked, and repeated the cycle over, and over, and over again. Frankly, the two of them being in the room together and not screaming, in one way or another, would be a miracle.

They'd had a rocky relationship, and what they had at that point in time wasn't even a relationship, but they still loved the pleasure they brought each other. And oh, they were both very good at that.

Their pleasure was interrupted, however, when the phone began to ring. With a passing glance towards the television, which was blaring some old episode of a show nobody watched, Blake glimpsed a name in the top right corner of the caller ID.

A name that made her heart stop in her chest.

She pulled away from Emma, all to the woman's anger. She tried to pull Blake back down, but if Willow was calling… Something wasn't right. Blake hadn't spoken to her old best friend in a few years, after their whole predicament with… Well, she tried to forget that part of her life.

But she'd never forgotten what she and Willow had gone through together.

Therefore, she pulled away from a very angry Emma, picked up the phone, and clicked the green button.

"Willow? Hello?"

"Hi." A tiny voice chirped from on the other side of the call. "Do you know my mom?"

… What?

Aisling Grace held her mom's cell phone in one hand, and was sitting in the closet of her room with her cat. Her hair was a mess of orange curls, and she wore a black headband to push her bangs back and out of her face. Her hair was seldom brushed (because she didn't like her mom brushing it, as she always tugged a little too hard), and she looked like a wild-child. Her hands were usually covered in dirt from playing outside at the neighborhood playground, and her smile was missing a tooth since her first one had fallen out a week or two ago. Her skin was pale like her mother's, and dotted with dozens of freckles.

But none of that stood out when one got a good look at her.

Because Aisling Grace had her father's eyes, the most brilliant purple a person could ever see.

It was a shame her father's personality didn't live up to how beautiful his eyes were.

She reached out with one tiny hand to pat her cat's head, the Bengal meowing and rubbing against her legs. "You're, um… Blake, right?" Her brows furrowed nervously. "My mama's name is Willow."

Blake's heart jumped to her throat.

Willow had birthed a child?

The two hadn't spoken, and that was mostly Blake's fault, but she still would have expected Willow to contact her with news that big. Blake supposed that it meant she hadn't completed Nych, and… Had taken someone else.

Eventually, she remembered that she was on the phone.

"Christ, uh… Hey, sweetie. Where did you get this number? Is your mother okay?"

If something had happened to Willow… Blake would have to go find out.

That was her best friend. She couldn't let anything happen to her.

"I'm on my mom's phone!" Aisling smiled slightly, but kept her voice soft. She heard a thump somewhere off in their house, and shrunk back into the closet a little more as she remembered the real reason why she was calling this number. "… My mama told me lots about you." She reached over, pulling her cat into her lap and wrapping one small arm around it. She was smaller than most kids her age.

"She said that you used to protect her and stuff." Aisling frowned, lowering her voice even more. "Do you think you could come protect her again?"

Oh no.

"My daddy's really mean sometimes." She whispered into the phone. "And he hurts my mama and me, and I don't want him to anymore."

Christ.

Of course, Blake wasn't all that surprised. Willow had always been one for the party crowd, but never truly had the party in her. She probably met a guy she thought she could handle, who eventually broke her down.

"Uh… Sure, sweetie. I will be there in a little bit, okay? Do you know your address? All the big girls know their address, do you think you could text me yours?"

Blake had already started dressing herself, and eventually, she looked up at Emma.

There was a scowl on her face.

"So you're just going to leave again, huh?"

Dammit. Blake really didn't have time for this. She covered the speaker so the girl wouldn't hear, and said, "Willow's being abused. You know the redhead from all those years ago? The one with the cancer boyfriend? Yeah, I need to go help her."

"Of course you do. It's always you, Blake, isn't it? You're the only one who can help. I can tell you that if you leave that door, I won't be here when you get back. Ever again."

Blake hesitated. She let out a long, drawn-out sigh, and pulled on the rest of her clothes.

"Pack your shit, then."

She grabbed her keys, her wallet, and walked out the door on a very angry Emma.

"Alright, honey. Send me that address."

"Okay." Aisling nodded, putting the phone on speaker as she migrated over to the text messages. After a second or two, Blake's phone dinged. "There you go!" Aisling chirped, taking the phone off of speaker again and holding it back up to her ear. "I sent it to you. I think they're arguing right now."

"Alright, sweetheart." Willow's address was about fifteen minutes from the apartment, and when Blake got into her car, she put it into her GPS. She also connected her phone to the Bluetooth in the car so that she could talk while having her hands on the wheel.

She didn't want the girl to hang up. She wanted to know if something happened.

"So… What's your name, sweetheart?" She asked, putting the car into reverse and backing out of her parking spot.

She just wanted to keep her talking.

"My name is Aisling." She reached a hand out and gently rubbed beneath her cat's chin. "I have my cat here too. Her name is Mitzy." Luckily, she seemed like a chipper and quite talkative little thing.

"My mama said you guys went to college together." She tilted her head to lightly rest against one wall of the closet. "And she talked about a guy named Nych, but she also said that Nych died, and she gets really sad when she talks about him so she didn't tell me very much."

Blake cursed under her breath. She'd told the poor thing about Nych? Why in the hell did she go and do that, when she'd already decided to be with someone else? She would never understand that woman as long as she lived.

But Blake pressed on, going ten over the limit in hopes to get there before anything escalated.

"Has your dad ever made you or your mom go to the hospital, Aisling?" She asked coolly, hoping the answer was no.

She knew Willow. She knew how fiery she was. Hopefully the asshole she was with hadn't taken any of her words to mean something they shouldn't.

"Uh. No." Aisling shook her head, thinking quietly. "Whenever he's really mean Uncle Terry picks me up and I have a sleepover with Dean." Terry… That was a name Blake hadn’t heard in a while. Willow didn’t typically talk much about her brother.

There were another couple thumps, and Aisling looked to her closet door nervously.

"… Could you hurry maybe?" She asked after a second. "I think they're fighting."

Blake cursed, this time audibly. "I'm coming, sweetie. Hold on."

Four minutes more passed in complete silence, before she pulled up in front of a rather large house. She wasn't surprised; Willow was a genius, and therefore could likely afford a big house.

Right now, however, the sound of shouting could be heard, even from the driveway.

Blake pulled out a pocket knife that she kept in her glove box and moved towards the house, eventually throwing open the door.

"Back. Off."

"You talk to me like that again and I-" From the entryway, Blake could see into the living room. It was a big house, nicely furnished, and certainly up to par for a woman of Willow's caliber. The coffee table had been overturned, spilling a can of beer across the beautiful hardwood floor.

And there was Willow.

Being held up against the wall by a man with sandy blond hair and brilliant purple eyes.

Marcus, as was his name, looked to Blake with drunken, angry eyes. His lips curled into a snarl, and he gave Willow's collar a tug. "You called her, didn't you?!" He snapped, and Willow looked towards him with a venomous sort of anger as she reached up to grip his wrist and try to push him back. "You stupid bitch!" He snarled, giving the poor redhead a bit of a shake.

"I did no such thing!" Willow snapped back at him. "You get your drunken hands off of me, Marcus!"

Marcus stared at her with an unknown expression, and Willow receded somewhat nervously. He released her collar, but before the woman could sufficiently back away he lunged forwards, punching her in the face and sending the woman to the ground.

Blake's mind immediately went dark.

Quick as a snake, and just as slimy, Blake darted in between them and slammed Marcus against the wall, holding the blade of her knife against his cheek while pushing her other arm into his throat.

"What kind of man hits the woman he has children with?" She spat in his face, the blade quivering slightly against his cheek. It was dangerously close to his eye.

"What has she done to you, huh, buddy boy? Has she ever struck you first without reason? Or what, is it just because she speaks her mind?"

Blake's mind was racing with violent thoughts, but she calmed them. She couldn't get sent back to jail.

"You aren't a man. You're a boy who never learned how to grow up. And you'd better watch your tongue with me, or I promise you that I will cut it out."

Marcus snarled at her, tilting his head back into the wall to try and get away from Blake's knife. "I'll call the cops." He said, narrowing his eyes. His breath, not to mention the rest of him, reeked of alcohol. The beer spilled across the floor didn’t help his case.

"No you won't." Willow propped herself up, turning away from them as she lifted a hand to her face. "I'll have them arrest you, Marcus."

"Excuse me?!" His gaze turned towards Willow, and he resisted the urge to try and lunge for her. "You don't-"

"I've…" She saw the chance, and she took it. "I've been building a case against you for months. Every time you left a mark on me or Aisling, I photographed it." She looked down at the blood on her hand, and pressed her eyes shut. "So Blake is going to let you go, and if you don't leave this house right now and never come back, I'm calling the cops and having you arrested and put in jail for years."

For a moment, a brief flicker of panic crossed his face. "So that's it then?" It quickly morphed back to anger. "You're going to kick me out onto the streets? You know very fucking well I don't have any family left to go to you bitch-"

"That's a good fucking thing, then," Blake said, still not relenting in her grip. "Because if you had another family, there's no way I would let you out of this house unless you were in handcuffs. What happened to your mother, beat her to death too?"

She’d pat herself on the back for that one later.

"So you're going to walk out of this house, and I guess I'll let you hold onto your manhood. But…" She looked him up and down, wagering on what bit of his body he wouldn't need.

Eventually, she looked him directly in the face and hit him in the mouth with her elbow. The audible crack of a few teeth could be heard as Blake leaned in and whispered in his ear.

"That's for hurting my best friend."

She then threw him to the ground and kicked him hard in the chest.

"And that's for getting me dumped. Now get out of here, you piss-poor excuse of a human being."

Willow sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before she walked over to the door and locked it. She turned back into the house, and cast a glance to Blake. "… Aisling?" She called into the house, and let out a heavy sigh. She looked… Exhausted. Like the weight of the world had been placed on her shoulders.

"… Yeah?" Aisling called out after a moment, sounding somewhat shaken.

Blake tossed her knife up into the air, caught it, and slid it down into her black combat boot.

When Aisling emerged from her room, she was quickly scooped into Willow's arms as the woman hugged her daughter close. She sighed, walking over to the couch to sit down and comfort the scared girl. "… He's not coming back, Aisling." She said softly after a moment, combing a hand through the girl’s messy hair.

"… He isn't?" The little girl hugged her mother back tightly, frowning. "Are you okay?"

She didn't seem to care very much for her father.

"Yes, I'm fine." Willow nodded, despite the fact that her face was bleeding. "Don't worry about me, okay? It's not going to happen again."

"Damn right it isn't." Blake said aloud, sitting down, uninvited, in the chair across from Willow and Aisling. She shed her black leather jacket, revealing a blue tank top that was stained slightly with sweat. Holding a man hostage like that could really work someone up.

"Jesus… God dammit, Willow." Blake began, putting her head in her hands.

Eventually, she looked back up at her, with sadness etched into her features.

"What the hell happened?"

Willow glanced towards her with sad eyes, and then perked up slightly when she looked back down at her daughter. "You hungry?" She asked after a moment, and a smile crossed her face. "You can go make cookie ice cream sandwiches if you want, I'm going to go and get myself cleaned up and then I'll come make one too. Sound good?" She raised an eyebrow, and couldn't help but grin when her daughter's face lit up and she ran off to the kitchen to go make the delicious-sounding treat.

She watched her disappear into the kitchen, and then sighed and wiped blood from her face again. "… I can't do it."

What?

She buried her face in her hands. "Marcus helped pay the bills." Her shoulders started to shake with silent sobs. "And I'm not smart enough to fucking finish him. I don't- I don't have the tech. It's impossible." She was talking about Nych. He was still plaguing her, more than ten years later. "How the hell did you even show up here?"

Blake's eyes were solemn and unreadable as she stared at Willow, gauging what to respond to first.

"And I bet it's been years since you even tried, right?" She asked, looking to Willow with sadness finally evident. "You just gave up one day, threw in the towel, said fuck it to your promise?"

Ouch. That truth stung.

"Listen up, Willow. I know what you felt for Nych. I know that every waking day for a year after, you barely wanted to move. I saw that, and eventually, I pushed you away. Yeah, I regret that now, considering this."

She gestured to Willow's face, her disdain evident.

"God, Willow… You need to get back on your feet. I had to come down here because your daughter called me out of the blue, and told me her dad was hurting you."

Willow looked up at her, tears in her eyes before she eventually looked away with shame. "… You think I wanted this?" She said softly, wiping tears away from her eyes. Her hair was more organized, straightened and pulled back into a bun. Her face was somewhat slimmer and more elegant, with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline. She sniffled quietly, casting a glance towards the kitchen to make sure Aisling wasn't listening.

"I tried everything I could think of." Willow murmured. "I just… I can't figure out how to get his brain properly hooked up to the machinery, and…"

She stopped herself, and after a second stood up. "I'm going to clean myself up and call Terry." Terry was her brother. "I'm going to get him to help me change the locks."

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Blake sighed, standing. "Well, young lady, you've cared for yourself for long enough." She took Willow by the arm and led her around the house, presumably searching for a bathroom without having the gall to ask where to find one, before she found it and closed both of them inside.

"Sit down." She said, pointing at the side of the tub while she took a cloth down from the top of the medicine cabinet.

"I'm going to help you, and if you try to resist, I'll tell Aisling that her mommy wouldn't let me give her a makeover."

That was a low blow.

Willow stared at her for a moment or two, before she sighed and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. She wasn't in the mood for any more arguing, and honestly, she was just tired. Tired and worried about Marcus coming back for revenge before she could put proper precautions into place. She tucked her hair behind her ears, and stared vacantly down at the floor as she waited for Blake to get everything she needed.

… She wasn't used to being cared for like this.

"… Why are you doing this?" She asked after a moment. "You haven't seen me in years."

Blake looked at her with a sad smile as she continued getting down all the stuff she needed; peroxide, makeup, towels, alcohol. Everything she'd need to make Aisling laugh, and Willow roll her eyes.

"Willow, honey. I think you've forgotten what love actually is."

With that, she set to work, using almost everything in the bathroom on Willow's face, a small smile on her lips as she worked.

Blake was always a wizard with makeup, but then again… Her and Willow had very different styles.

So when Willow looked in the mirror to find her wounds perfectly concealed, she would have been perfectly happy.

… Had she not looked like a gothic screamo band member from circa 2007.

Willow stared at herself in the mirror, and after a moment a slight smile broke through the emotional fog that had been clouding her mind. She shook her head, looking down at the counter before looking up at herself again. "I hope you know that I'm not wearing this out of this bathroom." She raised an eyebrow, looking towards Blake and gesturing to the makeup that was covering her face and the wounds it bore.

It took her back to her heavy metal and rebellious phase, and she mulled over the thought of those times fondly.

Things had been so much nicer back then.

"Oh, I think you'll find that you will be." She said, opening the door. Without warning, she wrapped her arms around Willow’s waist, lifting her into the air and carrying her out of the bathroom.

"Aisling!" Blake called, the name strange and foreign in her mouth. The fact that Willow had a child… It was almost absurd. They had such vastly different lifestyles, considering Blake was still living in a dreary, dark apartment.

Willow had a house. A little girl.

An ex-lover.

"Come see your gorgeous mother!"

"Blake!" Willow squeaked, struggling slightly to get out of her grasp so she could try and save her dignity before Aisling saw her.

But it was too late, as the child came wandering out of the kitchen, an ice cream sandwich in hand and a Bengal cat following behind her. "What is it?" She frowned slightly, and then looked up at her mother who looked down at her like a deer in the headlights.

And then she started to giggle.

She laughed, looking up at her mother as her eyes crinkled in amusement. "You look so silly!" She grinned, and Willow relaxed with a smile. She might've looked ridiculous, but she was glad to see Aisling happy.

Blake smiled, setting Willow down before she looked at both of them in silence.

"You have a beautiful daughter, Willow." Blake said softly, a bit of a sad note in her voice. By this point, Emma would be gone, having taken all of her things from Blake's apartment and going off somewhere.

For good this time.

Even through all the fighting, Blake had truly felt something for Emma. She'd been kind, sweet, and usually forgiving.

The sadness must have worked its way onto her face, because she turned, hiding her features from the two of them.

"Well. You should call Terry. I won't be leaving until he gets here."

Willow heard the tone in her voice, and after a moment reached out and took Blake's hand. "I don't think you can leave just yet." Her eyes held the same mischievous twinkle they had so long ago, and she gave Blake's hand a squeeze.

They were both hurting, and Willow didn't plan on letting her go.

"I think there are some ice cream sandwiches in the kitchen that need eating." She raised an eyebrow, casting a glance to Aisling who grinned and nodded her head eagerly. The child ran over, taking Blake's free hand with her own, and started dragging her towards the kitchen.

"They're Neapolitan!" She grinned, looking back at Blake. "And mom makes really good cookies too!"

Blake was going to argue, but eventually she gave in. If Willow humored her with a makeover, she would humor her with an ice cream sandwich.

God knows how long it had been since she'd had anything sweet. She didn't have the money to afford much more than ramen and a few delicacies, such as boxes of cereal.

So she'd indulge.

"Did you make them yourself?" She asked Aisling, a whisper of a smile playing at her lips.

"I did!" Aisling nodded, looking up at her with a chubby-cheeked smile and gesturing to the messy ice cream sandwiches sitting on the island of the kitchen. "They're really good! You can have two, since you're a guest."

Willow pulled out her phone, texting someone Blake hoped was Terry.

Mitzy, Aisling's cat, weaved between Blake's feet and then jumped up onto the table. At the very least, Willow had gotten the cat she had always wanted, even though it was more her daughter's cat than anything.

Blake smiled, resting a hand lightly on the cat's head as she took one of the sandwiches. Blake hadn't had anything so sugary in a long time, but… It was good. Aisling had managed to get every flavor of Neapolitan into the small frame of the cookie, which was an accomplishment.

She smiled as she finished it off, lifting the cat and sitting down with it in her lap.

"So I see you don't do much partying anymore." She said to Willow, glancing around the house.

It was very… Adult.

Blake didn't like it.

"I don't really have time for it anymore." Willow took one of the sandwiches, letting Aisling have the rest as she sat down in one of the chairs. "I work full-time at the hospital, aside from taking care of her," she tilted her head towards her daughter, "-and the robots that me and Nych worked on are almost ready for full testing." She smiled sweetly, but it faded after a second. She might have given up trying to repair him herself…

But she certainly kept his legacy alive.

"She makes robots!" Aisling smiled. "They're really cool!"

Blake twitched.

"You can make robots." She said quietly, letting the cat down as she stood. "But you give up on the one that you promised to make?"

For some reason, hearing the words from Willow's own mouth made it worse. She had already known that her best friend built robots, but hearing her say it, after hearing her say that she had given up on Nych…

It made her angry.

"This is what's going to happen, Willow." Blake said, in a voice that Willow recognized. It was a voice that always meant there was no changing the woman’s mind. "You're going to finish Nych, no matter what it takes. Even if your fingers bleed from the work, and you pull hundred-hour weeks. You'll finish him."

She put a hand on Willow's shoulder. "And you'll be happier for doing it."

"Robots with simple AI like those are much easier than… Well, letting someone live through the body of a robot." Willow sighed, looking away. She didn't mind Aisling hearing about this. There was not much she hid from her daughter, but the things she did hide…

She was very good at keeping those things secret.

Willow sighed again, running her fingers through her hair. "I don't even know if we have the tech available for it. Everything else is done. I mean it." She looked up at Blake, brows furrowed in a look between desperation and hopelessness. "He looks… Well, just like he did. The mechanical body alone is a technological marvel. It can do literally everything a human body can. It's fully designed and ready to hook up to his mind."

"My mama is super smart!" Aisling smiled, nodding along like she fully understood everything that was being said.

"Uh huh." Willow glanced towards her daughter with a fond smile, and then back towards Blake. "I'm just… Stuck. I don't know what to do. I don't know if it's even possible. I-"

It was at that moment that a very telltale event occurred. One that would change… Everything.

The windows shattered, the electronics in the house went out, and a very loud crack reverberated through the air.

This was followed by the boom of thunder, which made it evident what had just happened. Lightning had just struck… Directly in front of the house.

"What the fuck?" Blake exclaimed, covering Aisling's head and bringing her down to the floor. It hadn't even been cloudy when she'd gotten there… Had it really started to storm without them noticing?

Aisling screamed, and in an instant Willow lunged across the table and scooped her daughter into her arms. The poor child sobbed into her mother's shoulder, and clung to her desperately. Nobody could blame her; a lightning strike that close was terrifying.

Willow stood up, holding the whimpering Aisling in her arms as she walked towards the front of her house to peer out of the living room window and assess the damage.

Blake hesitantly crept towards the door, very quickly tapping the doorknob to see if it would shock her.

When it didn't, she threw open the wooden door, to find…

Nothing damaged.

That was the first oddity, of course. It had obviously been a lightning strike, considering how it had happened and the way it struck, plus the thunder that had sounded afterward. But now… Nothing seemed to be burnt to a crisp, as per usual.

The second oddity was a man. A blonde-haired man, with a face unseen, because it was pressed firmly into the pavement of the street.

And he was the one with charred clothing and singed hair.

Willow gasped, her eyes widening. "Take her." She shoved Aisling into Blake's arms and ran out towards the man on the street. She flipped him onto his back, and furrowed her brows as she looked him up and down. "Call an ambulance!" She turned her head to shout at Blake, putting her hands on the man's shoulders and patting them to try and see if he was alert. "Hello?" She frowned.

He needed to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

Miraculously, the man's eyelids started to stagger open, revealing a beautiful turquoise underneath. Those eyes… They seemed to hold something they shouldn't. An intelligence beyond the man's years, considering he only seemed to be around his mid-twenties, perhaps even younger.

"I… I'm sorry to have worried you, ma'dam. You need not fret over me, I'm alright." He said, looking down at his clothes. He chuckled a bit, laying his head back down on the pavement.

"So. I'm somewhere before the Auranis, thank the Gods. This looks like either the US or Canada. And you…"

His eyes suddenly widened, before he laughed giddily.

"By the Gods, you're Willow Grace!"

"… I beg your pardon." Willow stared at him in a mixture of confusion and amazement. This man had just been struck by lightning, and here he was, talking like nothing was wrong. That was incredible in itself, but what concerned her was what he was talking about.

He wasn't making much sense.

"I… I think you should stay there. You look half-charred." She said, looking down at him and checking his pulse anyways to make sure nothing was irregular. "I am Willow Grace, yes. I suppose you probably know of some of my work with prostheses at our local hospitals." She got recognized every so often, and it usually put her in quite a good mood. "It seems you just got struck by lightning, and you seem to be talking nonsense, so I think we should probably get you to a hospital sooner rather than later."

The man shook his head and stood, seemingly without a problem.

"Nonsense. The Gods only send me where they believe I am needed, so apparently I'm needed here. I must know, how is Aisling doing? I have never seen her this young; I've only met her as an older woman. I must make sure she doesn't know my name; that would confuse the timelines."

Yeah. He was talking nonsense.

He seemed to come about himself, and gave her a handsome, endearing smile. "I'm sorry. This must be very confusing to you. I come from a different time, and a different place. Have you been struggling with something, to the point where you may need assistance?"

Willow stared at him blankly, and cast a glance back at Blake who was watching from inside with Aisling.

Luckily, she knew how to deal with people who were talking nonsense, whether it was due to drugs, mental illness, shock, or injury. It was just a part of her job, and though she was somewhat wigged out by the fact that he mentioned her daughter, she would deal with this like she dealt with others like him.

"No, sit down." She took him by the shoulders, sitting him down on the sidewalk and frowning. "You've just been struck by lightning, and you're not thinking straight. Do you remember your name? Perhaps your parents? Where you live?"

Evidently, a woman of science like Willow Grace would not be one to so quickly believe his nonsensical ramblings. He would just have to prove it to her.

The man's gaze darkened with her words, and once she finished, he spoke.

"Ms. Grace, I mean no disrespect, but those questions are dark ones for a man of my time. I bear the name Erile Lathyrin, but of the other two questions, I will provide no information. I can tell you that I was born to people who I have no care for now, and in a place where I am not wanted. Now I travel the seas of time, helping wherever the Gods will me."

He kept speaking of the Gods. Was he just some crazy religious nut?

"I can show you something, if you'd like."

Oh?

He walked over to a bag that had fallen nearly ten feet from him, though how that had happened, Willow couldn't place. He pulled out something that looked suspiciously like a gun, and pointed it at Willow.

And then suddenly, she was floating.

Willow squeaked, looking down at her feet with wide eyes and then looking up at Erile as she tried to wrap her mind around the sheer impossibility of the situation. "I- I-" There was something very frightening about trying to touch the ground, and not being able to. She kicked her feet, stretching a foot out towards the ground before realization finally settled onto her shoulders. And it shook her to her very core.

This man was not talking nonsense at all.

"I-" Everything Willow had ever been taught or learned was thrown completely out the window. Because she was floating and this man was the cause of it.

Erile chuckled, releasing the trigger on the gun-looking device. Willow slowly floated back down towards the ground, before she touched land without even a sound.

"Usually I would use a less, well… Amazing way of proving my truth, but in all honesty, I was feeling a bit lazy. And the Afflatus decided to make me show up in lightning this time, so I'm a bit ticked as well. My apologies." He put the device back in his bag as if it was an everyday occurrence.

He had just changed Willow's world.

"Now then. Who's the black-haired lady staring at us? I know you, and I know Aisling, but I don't know her."

Interesting.

Willow stared at him with wide eyes, a look of utter amazement on her face.

"… I-" She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. After a moment or two, she shook her head and looked towards him. "How on earth do you know my daughter?" Her brows furrowed, and it was clearly a protective gesture. Given the time period he had just came out in… It was justified.

Erile held his hands up, a kind smile on his face.

"First, ma'am, you must believe me when I say that I have been to many different times, and traveled through many different places. I have met many people who are long dead, and many who have not been born yet. I must tell you… I meet Aisling for the first time when she is just cresting into adulthood."

Little did Willow know, it was under some… Interesting circumstances.

"You raise your daughter well, Willow Grace. She and I become great friends in the future."

Well. That was interesting.

Willow stared at him silently, and after a moment or two of consideration, she decided that this strange man was telling the truth- even if she didn't want to believe it.

"… Why don't you come inside?" She asked quietly after a moment. "I think we have some things we should talk about. And I need to wash this makeup off of my face, because my friend did it for me and it looks ridiculous." With that, she turned and started walking back towards her house, sending a glance back at him to make sure he was following her. She would explain everything to Blake in a moment.

If she even knew how to explain it.

Erile chuckled; the makeup had thrown him off, else he would have recognized Willow immediately. She was famous throughout the Federation of Northern America for her work, but that was another time. Another place.

He followed after her, standing a good few meters behind Willow as she pushed the door all the way open.

"What in the fuck was that?" Blake asked, glaring to the stranger behind Willow. "I sent Aisling to her room before she could see that, but… You fucking floated."

She had her knife in her hand. Erile looked at it with a lazy smile on his face.

"Explain." Willow said to Erile, and then gestured to Blake as she walked off to the bathroom. She wanted to know who exactly this man was, and how the hell he’d traveled through time. Because if he was telling the truth, and she was the first one to have access to that knowledge…

She wanted to make the world a better place.

She came out a couple minutes later, face bare. Her skin was covered in freckles, her lip split, and there was a bruise forming along her nose. She had a notepad in one hand, and studied Erile up and down.

Erile took one look at Willow, and his face lit up with recognition. He turned back to Blake with a sad sort of smile on his face.

"Ah, I know who you are, now. You're Blake Medea. The one who scared off Marcus. On behalf of the entire FNA, I thank you kindly. We wouldn't have gotten the Willow Grace we know and love without you."

Blake balked, then stood up, pressing the knife against Erile's throat.

"Looks like you've got a stalker, Willow." She said coolly.

Willow shook her head. "… No. This is something else." Her gaze was intelligent, calculating. It was strange seeing her so… Young.

After a second, her eyes narrowed.

"How do you know who I am?" She asked. "What's the FNA, and what else do you have in that bag?"

Erile looked at her, a bit of hesitation in his eyes as he looked to Aisling's door. He then looked back to Willow and sighed. "I don't usually like telling children who I am, especially ones that I know I will meet later, because it gives them a sort of expectation. They become lazy, usually just waiting for me to come along and save the day."

Blake had taken her blade from his throat, though she still held it at the ready.

"So if you don't tell any of this to Aisling, I'll explain who I am, where I came from, and what the FNA is. Hell, I'll even give you a bit of info about yourself, Willow."

That… Was interesting.

Willow studied his face for a moment or two, before she nodded. "Okay."

With that, she turned and walked off towards the living room. She groaned when she realized it was still trashed, and took a few moments to set the coffee table upright and wipe up the spilled beer. Erile and Blake stood awkwardly next to each other, one with a knife and the other with a bag almost half as large as he was.

She gestured for them to sit as well, and sighed. "Alright. Speak."

Erile nodded, following quietly, with Blake tailing him. Eventually, Blake and Willow were sat down on the couch, with Erile sitting in the armchair across from them. The smell of beer hung in the air, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Alright. So, I suppose I should start with the fact that there's a God."

Well… Not the most modest starting point, but a starting point nonetheless.

"Well, actually, there are two, but you only need to worry about the one. The Afflatus. Good ol' Caligo, but he'll smite you if he catches you calling him that. He's… Well, he's the rougher of the two. You drew the short straw by being born here."

"… The Afflatus?" Willow echoed, furrowing her brows. "What do you mean we drew the short straw? Who is the other god?"

This was highly fascinating to her, and she figured that she really had no reason not to believe him. He had made her float, which was a feat that had been rendered impossible by science thus far. So she figured that there was something else at play here.

Perhaps something magical.

Either way, she wanted to be the first to have access to it.

Erile chuckled. "Well you see, the other God, or Goddess per say, is way nicer to the beings of her realm. She actually visits them from time to time, instead of staying who knows where and causing catastrophes when he's bored."

Yeah. Sounded like Earth.

"You live in the Rith; the other God, the Muse, lives in the Ea. The only difference between the two is that in the Ea, beings can use magic. In the Rith, beings cannot. The Gods are the exception to the rule, but the Muse can't access the Rith and the Afflatus can't access the Ea. So they're usually in a turmoil. Ex-lovers, those two. Really need to figure out what they want in each other."

Erile had the confidence of a man who'd come face to face with God and laughed at him.

"Anyway, the gun I pointed at you wasn't anything magical. It's just from really far in the future, where the particle controlling gravity has not only been discovered, but manipulated. Science, not magic."

Willow nodded slowly, copying down tidbits of his ramblings. Honestly, she didn’t even know what to write down; most of what he said was so crazy, it was burned into her memory.

She was quiet for a couple seconds after she stopped writing, and then looked up at him with furrowed brows. "So how do you know who I am, then?"

At the very least, this seemed like a wonderful distraction from what had transpired not even an hour prior.

Erile laughed. "Well, Willow Grace, I can tell you that you become the richest woman in the world."

Woah.

"Alright, maybe not the world, but definitely the FNA. Until Jared Gnames, but you're gone long before he's even a concept yet. Anyway, the FNA, or Federation of Northern America, is the country that forms in the union of Canada and the United States. Sounds unlikely, I know, but a major epidemic called the Auranis sparks it. Me and your daughter actually meet during the Auranis, in fact, but that isn't important."

He looked around the room, a bit of an odd expression on his face.

"Where's Nych?"

Willow was about to ask questions, to push further into this treasure trove of information, but when he asked about Nych…

Her face saddened, and she looked away. The question was reasonable, and she wasn't upset at him for asking it, it just… Saddened her. Nych was gone, and despite probably being the smartest woman in Canada, she couldn't bring him back. She was useless at the only thing she ever wanted to be good at.

"… Nych is dead." She said quietly after a moment. "He's been dead for years."

Something strange happened as she said that.

Erile began to smile.

At first, it was a slight, hopeful thing, like when a parent hints to a child what they've gotten them for Christmas. Then, it grew larger, until it took up his entire face. "So that's what I was sent back to do."

…What?

He jumped up, which caused Blake to raise her knife in alarm, but all he did was begin to pace.

"It makes sense! I knew that you shouldn't have been able to finish him so long before the AI revolution, and I've always wondered how you did it. Now I know that I am supposed to help."

He walked back over to Willow and knelt down in front of her, grinning.

"You have everything, correct? The brain, the robot body, all of it?"

"… I- I do?" Willow stared at him, brows furrowed in confusion as she leaned away from him slightly. After a second or two she relaxed, letting herself sit up straight as she looked him up and down. And for the first time in many, many years… Willow felt the faintest glimmer of hope. That maybe he could help her. That Nych could be rebuilt, that he would live again and together they would make the world a better place.

It was what she had wished for every day for so many years.

"… Why?" She asked after a moment, reaching up to tuck a strand of orange hair behind one ear.

Blake stared at Erile warily before she turned, tucking her knife back into her boot.

"You two can talk about this future crap all you want. I'm going to Aisling's room to see if she's okay. Have fun, you two." With that, Blake walked off, just as Erile was answering Willow's question.

"It's time to bring him back, Willow."

That single sentence was enough to shatter, and rebuild, Willow's entire world.