by Melanie Ray
we were out of our minds
but then one day soon came
where green was divine.
He heard a small click from inside and grinned ear to ear. "That's it, it's the anthem. Damn, I'm good." He chuckled as he entered in the second part with continued success and another loud click came from the wall. The panel was now glowing on and off. But on the third verse...
Our sparkly green savior,
we worship thee here,
you are the leader,
of each-
As soon as he added the R for Ring the glowing completely disappeared. Damn. That's right, Grammy Happy had warned him that the song changed after the war. There would be different words. He typed every verse over again, and then flipped Ring to warno and continued. He heard one more click. "Damn Yed, you need to take a chill pill. An entire anthem to open this thing up? Is it that important?" Of course his other self didn't answer. Probably off in a corner of his mind protecting something. Heh heh. He continued with the next verse and found success. Yep, Yed the prick put in an entire anthem. That was the last of his good luck, though. The other verses were put in after the war and they were different words. Only X would know those dang words too, and he wasn't about to grovel to someone who thought he was dead. He could backtrack and wake up someone again. Why was this so important, why wasn't he going back to bed and seeking out the answer tomorrow with everyone?
He closed his eyes, a chill coming over him again. He couldn't go back, he needed to remember himself.
With rings of all colors.
About time, Wye thought as he put in the code. "Red, purple and green." He smiled, he remembered that part somehow. "Blues...no, orange, blue, and white and black inbetween. Got it." He laughed in triumph, one more click in the wall and he was confident he remembered the rest.
We play and we love
we will not fight
one thing to be sure of
that war is not right
Forever and a da-ay
we'll continue on
our spirit remains
from dusk into dawn
our spirit remains
from dusk into dawn.
With the last N typed in, Wye scooted back as the wall moved. Splitting into two like a fancy gate, the wall opened to reveal another side. Not full of wilderness, but a house. A decent sized house that would hold at least two hundred people. Oh yeah, bingo. Wye headed to the house and went up to the door. He looked into the window. Television, computer, bookshelves, coffee table? It was almost identical to Earth. Spooky. He went back to the door and placed his hand on it. Yeah, definitely locked. "Key,key, key, key..." He looked around for a set of keys on the property, but there was no extras in sight. "Figures." He looked up at the big house. "This obviously cost some money. I could get used to living in a place like this."
Wye felt around himself. I wouldn't have keys without knowing. Still, he found himself continuing to do it anyway. Wye felt something and pulled it out of his pocket.
It was the yellow yo-yo. Broken, old, but always ticking away in his mind. In fact, he watched as it faded from his hand. It was only a memory. Before Aryu, he had always kept it on him, a sense of comfort he didn't understand came from holding it.
"Stop right there." A key was no longer important Wye realized as someone had been kind of enough to open the door and shove a weapon in his face. "Oops." He held his hands up, and his eyes trailed up to the owner of the weapon. A long face and serious eyes that began to soften. Familiar guy even had a ring colored tail like him.
The guy did a double take before he relaxed his gun to the side. "Y-yed?" His eyes and smile became bright as he said, "Protector Yeducavich?"
Wye pointed at him in an offhand manner, "hey...you."
The guy tucked the weapon away and grabbed his hand. "Oh wow, I cannot believe this." He stuck one of his hands behind his head. "The Protector back after all this time. Where have you been?"
"Different world." Wye continued to stare at the familiar guy. "What are you doing here?"
"Safest place on Pagnia," The familiar guy had a deeper but calm voice. "Sorry it didn't all work out for you." He gestured around the house. "It's really good to see you finally made it here."
"Uh, thanks." Wye didn't know what to do. Should he tell the guy he had no clue who he was, or would getting treated like his old self help him understand more?
"Wait here," the guy said, "be right back." Wye watched him leave up some stairs. He looked around at the walls, covered in homey beige and dark brown colors. The ground had wooden panels, and on the right, there was even a fireplace. This house was clearly made to become a home sweet home. But for who and why? As the familiar guy came down from the stairs, he tossed something at Wye. "Here you go. Everything's still here, I never moved a thing out."
Wye caught what he tossed and stared. The Protector shirt and vest. He looked at the symbol on the front. It was the exact same shirt he had worn in the old picture. The exact same shirt he always saw in the flashbacks. The dark green vest. He felt the tough fabric of it, so familiar to his fingers.
"This is where I've been hanging out ever since," the guy began. "After the separation, I only knew one safe place to go." He sighed, almost in pain. "I never found you or Xiam or...Muinela." He looked down. "Cooey and Zar. Never saw them once."
From the way he was acting. Oh no. "Right." Wye couldn't believe it, was this seriously the guy? From the way he spoke about Cooey and Zar he decided to take a stab at it. "Sorry, Zaria."
"But hey, at least you're okay," Zaria said. "I went undercover for awhile in the Pink Kingdom and found Ezra and Iri."
"Ezra?" Wye knew that name well by now.
"Yeah, her and her kid are all fine right now," Zaria chuckled.
Wye didn't understand it. He'd never even met this Ezra, but he had to grab at his heart as Zaria said that. What's up? Am I having some kind of heart attack?
"Whoa," Zaria patted Wye's back. "Hey, calm down. Geez, I thought you of all guys would have known about her by now. Ezra is named Becca and she lives with Shimmer, AKA Iridescent, and they are guardians of one child. Look, she hardly dates and works at a library. No biological kids, no hubby, no nothing, so there’s nothing to worry about."
As Zaria said that, the pain in Wye's heart started to submerge, and he took a deep breath. What in the world was that?
"Better?" Zaria asked as he stopped patting his old friend's back. "You okay now?"
Wye nodded his head. "Fine." He looked around the house. "So you've been shacking up in this comfy place, huh?"
"Yes, but I have been going out to investigate the other kingdom," Zaria said. "Upstairs I've got a bunch of blue prints of the castle I stole from there. I even managed to get a list of all the Rings and Furries that were turned to Pinks." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not a Protector though, and I've never known what to do with it." He smiled at Wye and headed up the stairs. "But you are, so come on up and check it out."
"I, uuhhh..." Wye gestured toward the door. "I kind of left some folks behind. I need to head back, I only wanted to check the place out."
"Huh?" Zaria seemed a bit confused, then hope appeared on his face. "Yed! Do you mean, Muinela?"
Finding M-Win's long lost husband out in the wilderness wasn't exactly what Wye wanted. "Kind of. Look, things have really changed though, fella."
"I've looked forever for her," Zaria ran down the stairs midway before jumping off, landing right in front of Wye. "Are you absolutely serious?"
"Yeah, she's fine," Wye said, "so are your kids."
"Cooey and Zar?" Zaria seemed to look at Wye cautiously. "I've looked for them for years on end."
"Well, they always covered their tails and lived with their Grammy Fornot, some distance away." Wye informed him, "They've been fine. We lost them, don't know if-"
"Don't know is a better answer than dead," Zaria said as he held himself steady against the stairs. "Muinela's okay and our babies. No, they'd be kids by now, wouldn't t
hey?"
Wye didn't know what to do as Zaria suddenly grabbed him and shook him unexpectedly. "What-are-you-do-o-ing?"
"There is still a chance," Zaria laughed and gave Wye a great big bear hug. "This is the best news ever!" He spinned away and did cartwheels.
Wye started to step back. This guy is weird.
"Wow. I just, they're okay?" Zaria finally calmed down. "After all this time, they're still okay. Nothing could be more perfect." Then, his smiled changed toward Wye. "I mean, it could but..." He sighed. "Sorry."
"Sorry what?" Wye asked.
"About Tigeravich and Carressela," Zaria said. "Did you ever see get a chance to see them before it was too late?"
"Oh," Wye nodded. "Yeah, a few days ago."
"You mean, they're alive too?" Zaria said. "So you did get to raise them?"
"Not a lot, we just found them," Wye informed him, "and the other two."
"Oh," Zaria shrugged his shoulders. "At least you found them. Don't worry, with your help now, we're going to get Ezra out too. Then, it'll be the best ending we could have asked for." He chuckled. "Well, under the circumstances of course." He rubbed his hands together. "So, where is my Muiny? Do you have her location?"
Wye gestured to the back of him. "Yeah, but like I said, things have genuinely changed. Number one," he pointed to himself. "I remember dang little about this planet and so does M-Win. I mean, your Muin." That sounded weird to say. "Me, X and her somehow took off to another planet and we don't remember much of anything. Well, except X." He growled. "I don't know what is truth or not from him anymore."
"Oh. You're still not getting along?" Zaria questioned. "That's rough. You two were pretty close."
"Yeah, but-" Wye pointed at Zaria. "You don't seem mad and you knew the old me. So tell me, what was it I did that made X-I mean Xiam- so mad? I mean, he wasn't really telling the truth about his sister, was he?"
"Huh?" Zaria looked at him curiously. "What do you mean? He's mad 'cause you knocked up his sister in a one night stand."
Wye's mouth fell open. "You mean, he wasn't lying? No love, no nothing. I just-" He grabbed at his head. "Oh damn, he'll never forgive me."
Zaria just waved it off. "Don't worry so much. Yed, I know there was more to it than that, and so did Ezra, and I think Muin knew too. You're too decent of a guy and you had treason over your head. I'm sure everyone sensed it, including Xiam. He was more focused upon his sister's misfortune that was because of you," he chuckled. "He didn't like it when he saw you two getting close. Even before the secret came out."
"That treason thing," Wye nodded his head. "That probably does have something to do with it." He looked around the big house again. "There's a lot of room in this place."
"Should be. It's a lot of wiggles," Zaria said. He looked at Wye again. "I still don't get it though, if you don't remember, how did you get here?"
"Oh. Well, I get sensations," Wye admitted as he looked down at the old shirt and vest in his hands. "Things I kind of sense I should do." He looked up. "So my clothes were here, huh?"
"Not only that," Zaria said, "I didn't move a thing. Come on." He gestured for him to come up the stairs. As they went up the stairs, Zaria turned him left. "Fully furnished by your secret decorators. Anything coming back yet?"
"Not really, I-"
Yed stood and stared at the room. He walked over to a crib and looked down. One day soon... He smiled as he gently laid the stuffed tiger toy on the inside. ...I'll have a real family again. He may have escaped the wrath Ezra had dealt with, but his family would still get caught, only two years later. His baby sister and his mother were taken while his father tried to get away with him.
Why was he dwelling so much on the past now? Was it because he would soon have his own family as well?
Yed looked around the room and saw the fake pink flowers running across the room with the blue. Half the room was decorated in lovely shades of pink and red, while the other half was decorated in two different shades of blue. He wandered over to the other crib and laid down the small stuffed pony. "I can't believe this is actually happening. I'm gonna have a family again." He looked around the place one more time. I'll be back real soon.
"...I didn't make it back so soon." Wye looked at the cribs and saw the same stuffed tiger and pony. The same decorations. Everything was the same...
"I left everything how you left it," Zaria said. "I don't know why. I guess I thought if you ever came back, maybe it'd be a better way to say goodbye."
Wye couldn't help it as his throat became dry and he started to choke.
"Just remember. I love you and so does your mom and sister," his father replied, "but we've got to part ways now. Goodbye Yed."
Yed watched nervously as his dad started to leave. "Dad? D-daddy?" He started to run after him. "Don't leave me behind, daddy!"
“54145.” YED SPOKE. “IT’S the only one I know, I overheard it once. It’s ummm...” What was that planet? “Earth.”
“Earf?” Muin asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“Earth.” Yed corrected her. “It’s isolated, they don’t have aliens.”
“Great, we’ll be science experiments,” Xiam moaned.
“No.” Yed waved his tail. “They have two arms, two legs, even hair on their head. They’re big, like six feet, but I think we could blend in.” He looked at his tail. “With one exception.”
“C-cut off our tails?” Muin asked weakly. “No, I can’t do this. I can’t leave the kids, I can’t go to a planet without inhibitors and I can’t cut off my own tail. All of it’s too much!”
“Don’t be scared. Culture wise, they are pretty close to us. Not much magic, like us. Their laws are a little different, but you could learn and function easier than on other planets. Earth will be good,” Yed said and he tried to smile at her. “I think it’ll be a slow process too, you won’t automatically be insane. Slow and steady, losing the inhibitor’s power. You might not even notice it.” He breathed a shaky sigh. “There is a chance, one day, that your minds will realign correctly too, Scentella’s right.” He waved his tail. “When you get to Earth, you’ve got to cut them off though.”
“It’s a lot of pain for nothing, they will grow back,” Muin reminded him.
“Not without the inhibitor’s power,” Yed reminded her. “You’ll stay tail-less and look like humans.”
“You too.” Scentella urged Yed again. “You’ve got to protect them, Yed. They can’t fight, what if they end up in trouble? It’ll be up to you to get them out. We’ve already lost Ezra, Iri, Io and Zaria! Please, don’t lose the others?”
Muin, Xiam and Scentella couldn't fight. If they landed in trouble, it would be up to Yed to get them out.
Yed continued to rock his twins, knowing what he had to do. "Hand me the bag," he choked.
Yed reach into the bag Xiam brought for some paper and a writing utensil. Yed tried not to let his expression surface as he held the twins and wrote. He grabbed his Chronicle from the bag and shoved the paper in.
He tossed his Chronicle on the floor in front of Scentella. "Take care of it. When they get old enough, give it to them."
Scentella nodded and picked it up. "I'll send it with the Ancients I promise."
Xiam reached in and pulled out his Chronicle. "You better watch out for all of them then."
Scentella nodded. "When you return you'll get them back, I promise."
Muin shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't matter. Zaria was holding ours."
Scentella nodded sadly. "I'm sure the Ancients will tell them all about you. They know you so well, especially your Grammy Fornotia."
Xiam pulled out the covetall. There was no turning back now.
Muin grabbed Cooey first and watched her squirm as spray was put on her. It was easier said than done. Scentella and Xiam helped hold her and Zaria down as the spray was shellacked all over the hair on their heads and their tails. After Muin was done she handed it to Yed. She continued to hold Cooey while Xiam held Zaria so they couldn
't smear the spray.
Yed meanwhile was trying to put the covetall on Tigeravich's tail but he was wriggling like a wildcat. "Come on, Tiger, I know covetall's not pleasant but you have to put it on." Finally, the spray got placed on Tiger. He wriggled and started to cry, wanting to rub it off. Scentella came over and helped hold him as the poor baby screamed.
Yed continued to hold him as Scentella had to do Carressella by herself. It was harder but the babies couldn't be allowed to move and rub the spray off until it set.
The babies all screamed, but eventually they were dry enough they couldn't rub anything off.
Yed felt sick as he saw the colors on his twins. Their magnificent tails of red and blue, were now covered in the musky black.
What a sight.
They all helped put the infants back in the crib. With time running out and the babies now taken care of, there was nothing in the way.
Xiam was the first to jump in.
Muin looked at her babies one more time before she crawled in. "I am coming back. I am definitely coming back," she said stubbornly. "I don't care how old this hunk of junk is, it's bringing me back."
Yed was the last one to get in.
"Old models have a crank inside," Scentella warned them. "Look around, there should be a place to screw it in."
"This thing runs by a crank?" Muin said in disbelief. "Oh I don't feel so good."
Xiam found the crank on the ground though and spotted the hole. As he cranked it, the transporter started to make sounds.
"The button on the left. Put in your numbers," Scentella said. "Maybe someday we could come get you? Push the button that says travel on it and good luck." Scentella waved at them.
Xiam looked at the button. This was the last thing they had to do. After that, their fate was unknown. Who knew what would happen when they left for a planet without inhibitors?
Muin looked one more time at the crib and waved at her twins. "Mommy's coming back, I promise!"
Yed stared at his twins in the crib. Just survive and somehow I will get back to you. I swear it you too! I swear it...
"I swore it!" Yed screamed as he dropped to his knees. He had covered his eyes, too overcome with emotion.