✧ Chapter 8 ✧

Flight had landed next to the backend of an alleyway, hiding to avoid another deadly confrontation. At this rate, he could do nothing but watch. Otherwise, any attempt to tranquilize the invasion by himself would risk his life. It was taking the reinforcements that were mentioned too long to appear, so he figured contacting them for an update would be the best choice in the wake of a crisis. Meanwhile, an ongoing battle proceeded to happen between Styra and Amethion. A pursuit began to develop against one another as they were traveling across different parts of StarSpace City. Some of which were not entirely evacuated, caused madness within the downtown area. In trying to actively shake Amethion off of her, she began to feel more hyperactive which helped her take on more challenging risks across the busy city. Leaping over the Sphirvos with extreme effort created air jumps that were high enough for her to react to. This covered over fifty-six feet in length every second. The chaotic chase ensued long until Styra improvised her ability to dodge the incoming objects at such a high speed, increasing that velocity to the point where a white light trail flowed from behind herself.

Amethion was teleporting excessively to keep up with this mysterious girl who for the first time matched and somewhat opposed his ability to control all of time. It was unbelievable to him. The more he attempted to use foresight to tackle her down, it became somewhat inevitable that he would miss those attacks. His level of power had never been pushed this hard before. The irritation filled his void mind, as every time he strategized an aggressive move to catch her off-guard, she avoided them all in quick succession.

"You cannot avoid your fate! Destruction will come swiftly when you least expect it!" he bellowed with rage, as to intimidate her into fear.

Rather than concern herself with his threats, Styra stayed silent and serious. Even though this was the case, there was no way she could just run forever. The fatigue of this chase was starting to get to her. Something had to give in order for Amethion to stop and listen to her.

While thinking on this, Amethion suddenly caught up and grabbed Styra, violently throwing her into an area of the city's most infamous attraction. The Ulunar Shopping Center. She immediately crashed through right when it was coming close to closing time. Seventeen large shelves were knocked over like dominos, while Styra stumbled and fell wearily to the ground. She mustered up a great amount of strength to try and fight the pain but within mere seconds, Amethion reappeared with a terrible cross punch that sent her bursting headfirst into a huge fountain which was at the center of a spacious part of the mall.

She couldn't move. All of the pressure of being under this cold pool of water though made her senses tingle. Amethion lifted Styra out with his mind to keep her in a floating state.

"You tried to evade my warning, but as always the chaos you were foretold to create would eventually find a way to silence your actions. Submit or face the wrath of time itself," said Amethion with pure hatred.

As he was about to send Styra into the Paralysis Portal once more, he began to sense a large presence hiding somewhere. He immediately froze them all in time before they could even make any moves. Upon observing what was targeting him, fifty flying SAF drones were surrounding the fountain with their weapons loaded and ready.

Back in the alleyway, Flight had contacted the SAF to send drones to as many different populated areas as possible, so they would have a tactical advantage on the situation rather than using troops. At that moment, he was watching live footage of the machines entering the place. Hopefully this would work, he thought to himself. It was already risky to try and stop this situation by himself earlier. Unfortunately, Amethion already had enough of what was occurring around him. He began to summon his most signature weapon yet: The Time Axe.

Standing at six feet tall, it was a heavy double-edged blade with marks on its handle that were engraved with the ability to amplify his control over time within the entirety of the Omniverse. With the blade of the axe, he struck through the ground and sent a shockwave into the core of StarSpace. This stopped the time of everywhere and everything in that world, even causing the planet itself to freeze in its orbit. That was until something landed on the floor that barely made a single sound. Amethion could feel the presence lurking behind him. It was Styra.

"There is no way I'm giving in that easily. Let me guess. You know how I got these powers too, don't you?" she replied with tired sarcasm.

Amethion looked at Styra with dismay and fascination by the way she had escaped his stasis.

"You outdid one of my most powerful attacks, stopping time across a planet. That along with the fact that you were paralyzed before then. How? There is no way you should have survived. It would have affected you anyway because you were well within its range."

Styra could understand what he was saying had a condescending tone to it, but it also became clear that she was going to get something out of talking it through anyway.

"That's the thing Amethion. I wasn't born on Perenorbius. If I am being honest, I don't exactly know where I really came from."

He wasn't too sure if this creature even knew what she was talking about, but it intrigued him to understand what she meant by not knowing anything about herself.

"I already knew of what you said. So this means that you weren't lying when you said you were really unaware of your powers and the lore connected to them. Interesting. Whatever happened then was of outside consequence as to affect the future of our existence. You were being forced to become a symbol of destruction, when you never permitted such. Perhaps in this case, there was no reason to see you as an enemy if that was not your desired intention. Tell me. Is there at least one evidential memory that can help me see you as an ally?"

This was a lot to take in, but she began to see what Amethion was trying to say. The two visions that she saw before fumbled through her mind more than anything else. She had to ask something that bothered her the most.

"Amethion, please call me Styra. I know you aren't bad deep down, but neither am I. How do you know I am this New Guardian? I don't know who I am at all. The only thing I remember is that I was probably born from a bright light."

A serene calmness came before Amethion as he finally started to accept that perhaps Prism had misguided them. In spite of this, he decided to make one last attempt at confirming these conspiracies.

"Creature, we guardians have had our suspicions regarding this myth for phases on end. I sensed a rare disconnect in time throughout The Omniverse that led to you. One I could not entirely figure out before then. The moment I told the others of this, they were curious to find out where the space-time irregularity was coming from too. My Master made the ultimate conclusion that it was The New Guardian and that they must be destroyed or the Omniverse would face destruction itself. With that, I have been searching in each universe for centuries to achieve that mission because of how kinetic it was."

Astounding. So that is why she never aged and had all of these strange recurring memories. Everything on Perenorbius had died long before she could have. If this was true, she was still young and alive enough to witness everything for so many years. In consideration of this newfound knowledge she was taking in, Amethion continued to investigate further on a more personal level.

"While you are as good as you claim, there is still much you have to learn. My question to you is, do you believe you are the New Guardian? Deep down if you do not feel what you are becoming is you, there is no reason to force that upon yourself."

This was a tough question. She was a protector of Perenorbius, but having abandoned that world to figure out her origins did mentally scar her in some ways. It wasn't the loneliness though. Instead, it was the fact that her family met an unexpected death and she couldn't do anything about it back then. Her feelings did grow for the plant life that she held dear all that time, but it did not heal her thoughts from the traumatic effects of the extinction itself. She didn't know she would survive something like this. The devastation brought back a certain sadness, the same one she had sought to answer. Was she really that strong enough to fight for something this big if she couldn't find that within herself to begin with? All of that guilt and regret was not easy to let go of. After all, burying and leaving it behind would only bring back more memories that were contagious enough to destroy her motivation. The traumatizing experience didn't encourage her to see the possibility of becoming greater than everything else. She didn't find much satisfaction in living with everything on Perenorbius again because of what happened. The least that could be done was to find a way to keep them alive while searching for what went missing all of that time.

Suddenly, Amethion pointed his axe at Styra from a distance with a daring proposition. "I give you one choice. It will either start with your peaceful ventures or end with the force of my blade. Do you seek to see your past again and live with that forever? Or conversely, would you prefer to stay on this planet and find the answers to your memories there?"

To Styra, it made sense that Amethion could in fact send her back to the past when they were alive. The problem was she didn't want to lose who she also had become. She had just met Flight. At the risk of her own desire to fill in the possibility that she could live one life forever, it wouldn't necessarily prove to be satisfactory. Especially knowing that the light started it all. In fact, it seemed selfish. Just by changing one event like this, it was possible that everyone around her might face some form of chaos unimaginable. As for staying on StarSpace, that was another huge risk. She still didn't trust Mr. Nebules and that crazy time limit was already over her scheduled point to even be there. All she wanted was to leave here to return to her world without causing any massive disturbances. Or at least that was what she had thought. Ever since Flight came to her world everything did in fact change. Styra chose to come to StarSpace because she wondered about who she really was.

On Perenorbius, this started to become the same reasoning for her stay. Styra wanted to belong and feel understood. Not that she wanted it that fast either but, she knew a genuine connection was needed for her to know what she was before the light had sent her out. Was she even born from that light, to begin with? In an anxious tone, Styra approached Amethion and looked up at him. She paused a few feet from him with serious anticipation.

"Amethion. Perenorbius has to be safe at all costs, but I also do not want to stay on StarSpace any longer. Can you send me to the time before I was born from the light?"