Panic was written all over her once an emotionless face. "No! I won't go inside. I-", she tried to talk straight, but he interrupted her clearly with a command in his voice. "It was him, who ordered us to bring you to his office."

"But how will i face him?!". She struggled.

He remained silent as if he had no more warmth left to respond to her with. The door opened to a gigantic office with polished sandalwood furnished interior. Yeah! It had to scream power, if not this room, then which will in the whole of the building? As it belonged to the ruler. The glass slab on the desk stated 'C.I.F. DEREK PARKER'.

She didn't realize when her eyes started to water up while looking at his back. Was it the longing for a father figure? Or rather guilt, after what she did to his daughter?

"Out."Came a stern voice from the man standing in front of her. As expected, all the armed corps took their leave within a millisecond. "Did you ever consider us your family, Elly?", a cold yet a voice with authority filled the space, demanding the answers of its own. He turned to look at her with an emotionless look in the eye, which for a second screamed at her 'traitor'.

All the hate she was feeling now was doubling up on herself. His steely gaze was fixed on Eloise. She could feel the weight of his disappointment, a silent judgment that cut through her soul. But she squared her shoulders, refusing to cower in the face of her mistakes. And this was the moment she decided to speak up, neither to give an answer, nor for an excuse but her voice struggling not to tremble just for a chance.

"I'll do it.", was all she said. While both men were looking at her with nothing more than a discretely confused look, yet keeping it to themselves. Derek raised and eyebrow at her, demanding for a clear explanation. "I'll do it right. I'll bring Cate and the others back.....And this time I won't bring anyone with me to the trapped time. I'll do it just the way that father did." She finally said what she had been wanting to...definitely seeking for a chance they don't know of. A scoff left Ethan's mouth, as if he was too tired to remain silent now.Whereas, Derek was still unaffected. "My oh so powerful Eloise thinks she is more than a time bender. Or is she even more powerful than her father used to be? Speak about her being sane." He grits out. Ethan was never so sarcastic around her to be real. To be precise, his real self was the calm one at that. "What brings you to think like that? Your conscience or your...guilt?" Derek asked with an unfaltering expression. One would definitely be this calm in this situation, if he had to run a whole country.

"I would be a selfish woman, bad daughter, terrible lover, hateful person.....but i would rather not be inhuman. These hands, once stained with selfishness, now cradle the fragile hope of healing." She said sternly, this time looking straight in his eyes. "And what makes you think you will be able to save them and not get trapped there? Yourself?"

Derek was now playing more of a QnA game of his own. "My sole focus is to rescue them from whatever trapped them. After i find them and unite them, they are quite brilliant enough so we will plan the escape together."

"Looks like you have chosen a whole new path for yourself....which isn't safe at all." Derek amused. "Guards keep her in custody....we'll think of it, Elly.." Her breath hitched at his last words. Eloise couldn't quite believe what she heard just now. Was she really being given a chance that she wanted so bad? She exited the room with he armed guards escorting her to the custody.

"Sir. Are you really sure about the conversation that took place right now?" Ethan asked, some what baffled. He decided to continue when his question words were met by silence. "Our one of the most brilliant team of time handlers is dimension trapped...We don't even know, if they are even trapped in real time or a mystery delver? All that she's gonna get herself into is trouble, father." Derek chuckles at his son's troubled state. "We've lost Cate, father. Can we not lose even more?" Ethan asks with concern laced in his voice. Derek turns serious at his son's concern and moves his gaze outside the window, somewhere distant, as if analyzing the situation.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"With all our powerful handlers trapped. If they weren't able to get out until now, then definitely. They aren't trapped in real time." Derek breaks the silence.

"That's what i'm on about. It has to be time delver, Dad! And come to think of it there are just to of the time delvers recognized yet. The older one's location isn't known and one rules a subcontinent at that. If it turns out to be a scheme for a power struggle and for expansion of his ruling land, then the search is doomed and even the future."

Ethan was right. In this world, there were special powers hidden along time. And with no democracy (it was all long gone), the powers were definitely at some point mishandled and that's what was scary! The military rule across the globe proved to be rather bloodthirsty, but this was what it was.

To keep it brief there were four types of people in this world. First, The Commoners (with no powers), the majority. Second, The Time Benders; they had the power to manipulate the time to force stop or fasten around them, but the source of their power had to be their body's energy, that's why it could be only used once or twice in a while and the rest time to recuperate from the energy loss like Eloise. They were thousands in number across the globe from the total world population of billions. So they were the most common type of Time Handlers but still a rarity among the commoners. Third had to be the Time Harvesters; they were the second most powerful Time Handlers of the three types. They could jump to a different dimension or time but not from where they originate. And there comes another small and handy power that slow-mo's or speeds up things a little. They could not harvest to one dimension they already came to with others again, that means one dimension and only one time change. That would also mean, a particular dimension could be traveled once in a lifetime. They were just in hundreds of numbers, quite a rarity, like Ethan and Catherine. The last were the most mysterious type. The Time Delvers. As mentioned earlier, there were just two of them recognized. And that's quite also a reason why not much was known about the Time Delvers. The only study gained from an already dead time delver, was that, they had the ability to create their own dimensions and manipulate the time and materialize the worlds accordingly. They were supposedly the most powerful time handlers. They can benefit the people from their powers, but if the powers are misused, the destruction's evident. The only man known to possess these powers is the military ruler of a significantly large subcontinent, with not much to be revealed. He goes by Cedric L. Valentine.

"Then don't you think Ethan, if a delver is potentially a cause of all this, then for the combined future of all the territories, we should bring back our professional team back and halt this potentially dangerous situation from affecting us?" Derek straightly asked Ethan.

"But sir, this mission needs to be carried out by someone ready enough to face a delver and definitely not someone like her." Ethan reasoned. "Then i do think Ethan, that she has a lot knowledge gathered for a 'not so trained person', who was also once trained by us. She's the best for us right now." Derek clearly had something going on his mind that Ethan wasn't able to understand at all.

"She might have the information, but what about powers...for whatever she's going up against?!" Ethan impatiently stands, with a slight increase in his calm voice. It was obviously impossible for a time bender like her to stand against a time delver, let alone his own dimension.

"Then you can become her power."

Derek's words kept repeating themselves in Ethan's mind like a tape on loop as the silence envelops the room. And then a smirk appears on Ethan's lips.

"You already planned all this out. Didn't you?" He definitely knew it all.

"....if it's for Catherine and the others, then let's do it your way." Ethan said and stormed out of the room, without saying anything else.

A knowing smile appeared on Derek's lips and he heaved a sigh.

"Yeah yeah for Catherine that is.." He mutters-