by Aditya Kumar
She realized how much she used to be full of love... how much she wanted to save this world. Despite of all the hatred and pain she got, but still she loved the world. She now able to realize that how much important Mark is for her. She maybe wanted to punish him for not coming back in those years and also wanted to punish Emily for being a believer of good thing. In her mind, she transformed into Veronica, but Emily had to return to give Mark a hope to fight back against the threat that has already entered.
As soon as she remembered herself, she came to Mark flying. Mark got free of that prison... and Emily came straight to Mark and hugged him like she was saying that he can't leave her now... ever.
"Wow... you can fly now..." Mark said.
"Yeah... you made me to..." suddenly they heard some sound, and then they realized that they were in inside the shield of Coramus, where those inter-dimensional threat found a weakness in space-time continuum and took advantage of that. They made Sofrant disappear to make a portal... they made a hidden pathway to travel between two universes. Now it's easier for them to come and go from their universe to this universe... but who are they? What they want? Mark still have to find the answer of those questions.
"Where are we," Mark asked.
"On the place, where Sofrant used to be," Emily said realizing her mistake.
"So... who are they... what are these threats... do you know them..." Mark tried to ask but started stammering and couldn't able to frame a question.
"I don't know actually, but they are very dangerous. I know some of their powers... they can manipulate space-time at their own will without any technologies. I have heard that they can control matter... manipulate it to provide it any form. They can increase their molecular distance and also decrease the molecular distance to expand and contract. There are also some other powers that I still haven't heard off," Emily said, "However that all powers are rumor, but I am afraid that might be true. "
"But how did you end up working for them," Mark asked.
Emily replied, "I was alone. After I got powers... I was happy, but I lost you. I waited for you... for very long time, but you didn't come back. But I had to live. Initially, I thought that I will die in at most 70-80 years like other Earthlings, but later I realized that my DNA structure has been completely changed. So, I had to find a purpose to live. At that point, I was tired of goodness... I was angry... and I chose wrong side. But once I chose, there was no turning back. I have done many things that I am not... I am not..." she started sobbing, "I am not proud of, but this had become my life. I feel guilty for all that thing."
"Listen... I can understand, but you still can help us. These threats are bigger than anything else... anything that you did. People will always remember you like this... the one who enlighten the world again," Mark said, "First, we need to figure out a way to come out of this."
"We can't... we can't go out knowing that they would be waiting for us. We can't outrun them... they are too much powerful. I can't fight with them and you are still injured from my attack. You need time to heal," Emily said.
"So... you are saying that we should wait here until they go," Mark asked.
Emily replied, "This is also not possible... in meantime, they will find us... we can't hide here."
"But... there must be some way," Mark asked.
Emily said, "Actually, there is one thing we can do."
Then Emily revealed her plan and then Mark's reaction is, "What... are you crazy. We are trying to go away from them... and you are suggesting to go in their universe through this hole in space-time continuum."
Emily said, "Yes, my idea was same," and then she said sarcastically, "Isn't this nice that our thoughts matches."
"No, it doesn't. I am not saying to go in their universe. Going into this hole would be a suicidal mission. Here, we are not able to fight with them... and you want us to go there and face them in their world," Mark is a little scared, "You said that they call that dark universe. There must be reason behind it.
Emily said, "Yesterday, you came to me to fight... actually to get killed. I saw you didn't try to defend yourself... and I could have easily killed you. Tell me, how this mission is any different?"
Mark answered, "Because then I hadn't you... I was fighting to achieve you. But now, I have you and I am scared of losing you again."
Emily said, "I understand the meaning of being at your own. I survived for around five hundred years without you... and I just got you. How can I even think of losing you, right now. "
"Then why are you saying to go to their universe," Mark asked.
Emily answered, "Because being together and thinking about each-other safety is not weakness... being together is strength. We can save each-other in their worst time," then being serious, she said, "Listen Mark... in those time, when I was alone... I did many things that I never wanted to... I have become the true face of evil for every outsider. No one knows me what I used to be... everyone knows what I am now," she added, "Maybe today we can outrun them... can reach to our home and celebrate this, but what about tomorrow... when they will come in our home... where we will run? We should face them... and destroy them... before they could rise. I know their strength, but not their weakness... and to find that we need to go to their home."
"Yeah... you are right," Mark said, "Let's make this mission memorable with togetherness and victory."
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CHAPTER 23
To the Randomness
There is something in life that you never plan. That can be some sort of action, circumstances or mindset. They are sudden and quick... and you got to do that. Your heart may feel something different, and your mind can think something else. Both maybe good or both may be terrible, but you got to listen to one... you got to understand to one. Never ignore other, but when time will give you choice to choose between two terrible choices, you need to be ready to pick one.
It's tough for Mark to decide whether he should go for it or not... but he chose to follow his heart. He thought to go where Emily wants him to go. She is the flow of his blood... and for a moment his heart got so much overpowered that it made his mind to think that his heart is right. His mind allowed him to follow his heart... and then there was no stopping. He decided to go for it. His mind was agreed that he needs their weakness.
"Are you sure that we should do this," Mark asked Emily last time... just to confirm.
"I think we are doing the right thing..." Emily said and nothing remained left to say.
Both are ready to go there where they can find some clue. They are terrified that what they may find there, yet they are willing to take the risk. They are ready to do one more favor on this universe... and thinking of that, they came close to that hole.
The hole that used to look smaller from distance and difficult to identify... it looked clear when they came closer to it. This seemed to be of infinite length, but darkness is trying to not reveal any more mystery. If more thing they wanted to know, they had to jump in it... and so they did. After jumping, they heard a strange sound, but they didn't look back. A new universe was waiting for them. They are in that passage.
"Be with me... I will not let you lose in this dark," Mark said.
Emily said, "I can take care of myself... however thanks for this."
As they went far, they saw some images flashing in front of them. Some looked familiar... however others are unknown. "Can you see some mysterious images," Mark asked to Emily.
"No, I can't see anything except different streak of light ray having different colors which appears for a moment and then disappears in dark," Emily replied.
"So... you can't see any images," Mark asked and Emily said, "No."
"At first when you took me closer to the hole, these pictures started to appear in front of my eye. I can recall some of them from my past, but some are unfamiliar to me. I don't know what they are," Mark said.
Emily asked, "What you can see in those pictures?"
Mark said, "These pictures ar
e terrifying. In those pictures, in some of them I see everything in fire. Some tells me that these all are just a path that lead to something else... I can't understand what are these things, but I can see a specific stone that is in every picture. I can't see that stone clearly. I can feel like someone is trying to contact me."
Scene: Canyon Cave
"Xoguar... I need to talk to you... Mark knows that he was asleep for five hundred year. I saw his desperate face to meet her..." Aleina added, "Can you imagine what will he feel, when he will come to know that the person who made him asleep for five hundred year is none other than you?"
"I know this... and I am ready to face the consequences, but you know something is more important..." Xoguar said.
"You better be right... otherwise your every action will lead everyone to the worse future..." Aleina suggested him.
Xoguar said, "I know... wait, you said Mark knows that he was asleep... then where he is right now?"
"I don't know... he was angry, and he left," Aleina said.
"And you couldn't stop him... where he is right now..." Xoguar screamed.
After thinking a bit, Aleina said, "He must have gone to find Emily."
"Are you kidding me... he will kill himself... He must be devastated," Xoguar said.
"Stop screaming and find him then," Aleina said, "I implanted the device in Mark as you told, so you can trace him as long as he is in this universe."
"Ok... now let me do my job now..." Xoguar is frustrated.
After some trial, "I can't find him," Xoguar said.
"What do you mean... you can't find him. You said that you can operate that device from anywhere in this universe," Aleina curiously asked.
"Yes, it should work... but only if he is in our universe..."
"No way... Don't tell me that he is in dark universe..." Aleina said.
"I am afraid so..." Xoguar said. There was terror on both of theirs face.
Aleina is scared. She started saying out of terror, "You know... our only aim was to avoid this circumstance and we failed again. You made him asleep to change the thing... but it didn't. There Mark will die... and with that our hope will die too."
"No... there is something different this time. I changed something. This time Mark is not alone there... Emily is with him. I know they will find a way. I can understand their determination... I trust on him that he is the one. He will change everyone's destiny... he will survive this," Xoguar said.
"So... what we should do now," Aleina asked.
Xoguar replied, "Well, we can't sit here... doing nothing. We will have to help him..."
"How," Aleina asked.
"I checked one more thing," Xoguar said, "When Mark and Emily entered into their universe that passage got closed... I guess that passage was unstable or only one-way passage. We will need to open that passage, so that Mark can return."
"How can we do that," Aleina asked curiously.
"I guess you heard about the book 'Knowledge'. There must be some solution there," Xoguar said.
"How can you be so sure about this," Aleina is still curious.
"Because our organization... 'Vast Horcune' has opened that portal many time..." Xoguar was telling, but Aleina interrupted in middle, "What... why..." She couldn't believe.
Xoguar said, "To know about them... to find their weakness... To kill them..."
"So that's how, the person came before Mark used to go there... and used to get killed there. So, that's how this all thing operate," Aleina asked.
"Sometime... this happened. However, after initial failures they stopped opening wormhole, but they didn't erase the process from that book," Xoguar said.
"And about 'Knowledge'... I first heard in your audio tape, when Xena told Mark about it. Where do you think, you can find this mysterious book," Aleina asked.
"Ohhh... you know nothing, right... this book is written by our organization... 'Vast Horcune'. They wrote everything there that they learnt through different experiments," Xoguar said.
"But Xena told that he can’t access that book. Why..." Aleina asked.
"Because he was not allowed to..." Xoguar added, "He is not the prime member of 'Vast Horcune'... neither are you, but I am."
"But once you said that he is far more powerful, experienced and capable person. Then why he is not granted that respect," Aleina asked.
Xoguar replied, "Because he refused to tell about his origin. One day he and Xeuca came to us. We welcomed them on seeing their ability, but none of them accepted to tell their story. So, we couldn't grant them the respect of prime member."
Aleina asked, "So, do you know where he is... right now?"
"I tried to search for him, but couldn't able to find," Xoguar said, "I guess, those interdimensional creatures have taken him."
"You mean... he is in dark universe... where Mark is right now," Aleina asked curiously.
"He always lived in fear, but he was my best friend, but I am not sure about this that where he is... because I don't know anything about them who took him," Xoguar said, "And about that I am terrified from then, but wherever he will be... he will definitely come to Mark to help him... to guide him. In the meantime, we need to find the way to open that portal."
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CHAPTER 24
Their Past
Sometime for the sake of goodness, you let the things happen that should not be happened. But hope is a tricky thing. You never know when excess of hope become fantasies... and fantasy ruins your thinking capacity... and until you realize the mistake, it gets too late. But what you can do... losing hope is not the option. You can only check to keep the hope grow only until it would be inside the boundary and would seem realistic... because there is a very fine boundary between hope and greed. When you go on the boundary... and once greed overpowers your mind, it gets lost in fantasy world waiting for just to be sucked by harsh reality.
Whatever Mark did in coming under the words of Emily, is not a wise decision according to the belief and data of Xoguar. He knew that this may happen... and he was there to stop that incident, but he couldn't. Maybe he was a failure... all his path and action lead to nothing, but emptiness, fear and dark. But he hasn't given up yet... and he is ready to find the device that can open the inter-dimensional wormhole again, so that Mark can come back safely. He and Aleina are ready to go for the place where they actually belong.
Once they both were the part of 'Vast Horcune'. However, Xoguar served them from a long time and Aleina is still young. Xoguar had to leave that place for his mission. There were many things on stake to that mission. Aleina had to go the space council to learn things that she was not good at. She literally was on exile because she wasn't able to compete for being a respected member of 'Vast Horcune'. In the eye of their leader, she was neither a fighter nor a knowledgeable person.
Her family belonged to the elite group. Both of her parent was the prime member of that organization who had access to almost all of their resources. So, their leader couldn't have exiled her despite of being completely incapable. So, they sent her on endless mission. She was happy that she can do something now... also she was relieved that she didn't destroyed her parent's reputation. But with passing time she came to understand that the mission on which she was sent on, had no purpose.
Her work was just to see the amount of energy that they could able to harness on that day. She was excited initially, but later she found out that they already had a team for it and she was just appointed as a formality. In a very short time, she understood that they don't trust her... that she doesn't belong there. She appealed for another job and then she was given a job to point out the anomaly in nearby space and find out their source. There also the condition was same, but one day it was something different.
One day she was alone in space. Her team member was busy in doing their job and she was busy in hanging out alone and empty handed across empty space because neither her chief nor her team member trusted on her. She was there just wasting her time. She imag
ined how her life would be. On her father's request, she wasn't exiled from the organization despite of showing drastically incapable performance in her test. Her parent believed on her that one day she would learn the thing and understand her purpose. They were waiting for that day. But she was feeling lost in herself. A part of her started saying that she had given up, but other part refused to believe this fact just by relying on fantasy future. But whatever had to happen... happened one day.
Her team members were enjoying their recent success. However, they invited her, but she refused to go. She wanted alone time to think what she is doing with her life, but then only she heard a sound. She can sense and analyze the sound by feeling the vibration in the fabric of space-time. Like others of them, that was her inherent ability that she found from her parent. On sensing that sound, she followed to her. She wasn't scared this time as she had left caring about herself.
As she reached close to the sound, she saw how a single person took down the hundreds in one instance without any weapon. She realized that a huge fight was going on between two different group of people. She tried to fly away, but she found herself trapped in that fight. There was many of those unorderly shaped and awful looking creature and against whole of them there was very few fighters, but they were confident and winning. She saw that how even being huge in number, those creatures couldn't do any harm to them. But on next moment, one of those creatures attacked on her. But before that creature could reach to her, a magnificent looking person came to her. She saw his attitude when he killed every all of them and saved her. She saw his fearless eye.