✧ Chapter 10 ✧

Styra opened her eyes and sat up to the sound of the satisfying breeze flowing through her hair. She glared over at the bright blue sky, as the sunlight's warmth rose over her body and the smell of lusciously wet grass pervaded her senses. This feeling. It felt like Perenorbius. Upon surveying the area, she saw the chie and Flight laying unconscious beside her. They must've landed on a large hill, she thought to herself. Above the top of the mound, there was a beautiful view consisting of floating islands atop fluffy white clouds. They were majestically massive, with rainbow rivers and waterfalls that flowed down from them into one gorgeous colorful ocean below.

She stretched out her arms, flailing each one as she screamed with joy at the scale of a new adventure awaiting them. Suddenly, a groaning noise could be heard from behind her. It was Flight.

"You're awake. Don't worry, I saved us all from Amethion. He made a deal with me to help him with a quest," she stated happily.

Flight was not pleased about this.

"Styra, that sounds good and all, but why am I here? I need to go back to StarSpace now. Nebules wants me back in his office tomorrow to discuss more important matters."

In the wake of his demands, Styra closed her eyes and used the Eternal Light Of Time to recreate a repaired STS-0 from scratch based on her memory. This shocked Flight as he stared in awe at the magnificent machine that had returned from being destroyed in the recent rampage. He was speechless until he noticed that a purple forcefield surrounded it.

"Uh, why is this energy blocking my path?" he inquired with an annoyed look on his face.

Styra had folded her arms as if she was expecting something from him. This caused Flight to criticize his own actions heavily according to what Styra had talked about before.

"Let me guess. You want me to come help you with your quest. Listen as much as I understand that, there are bigger things at stake here than you and me. Nebules isn't playing around. Not only that, my job is just as important. You already know that, so why are you doing this?"

This reply did not satisfy her at all.

"Really? Of course I know how important it is. The question is do you have any manners?" she debated with a funny smirk.

This lightened Flight's perspective on the situation at hand. Even if he was overstating the obvious, it was good for him to know that it ended up being a small misunderstanding.

"Ah. Yeah, thank you. I thought you were going to–"

Flight noticed that Styra was gesturing at him to stop. Was it something he said? It could have been, but what exactly? It became ten times more strange because right after that, she recreated a time projection of Flight standing next to himself from his recent attempt to exclaim the importance of his job. He nearly froze up because of how sudden it was. Maybe she did have a reason for doing this. The best option was to see where she was going with this. Styra began to explain away her actions.

"I know you're thinking that I'm wasting your time, but there is something I need you to hear me out on. Amethion gave me the power over all of time, so that means I can make almost anything happen as long as it doesn't get out of control. If we plan this out, maybe you and I can work together. Speaking of which, there is a certain relative of mine I need to send back."

She started to use the Eternal Light Of Time again as a means to teleport the chie that was asleep on the hill back inside Perenorbius where it would be on safer terrain.

At this point, Flight was convinced that a lot could be done in a small amount of time. He started to become infatuated with the things that could be done with her power.

"Wait. If you have control over time, doesn't that mean you can bring back your entire family? Not only that, you could save every life that was lost from The Great Invasion. You would be a hero. A living legend loved for generations to come."

As much as she would have liked the thought of doing such good deeds, Styra knew to heed at the discretion of Amethion's warning. It wasn't necessarily obvious to know which choices were right to make in the grand scheme of things. If she made one bad move, everything she had cared about now would be in jeopardy.

"Okay here's what we're going to do. I cannot abuse the power Amethion gave to me. I have a responsibility now so that means we can't just do whatever we want without some acknowledgment of the consequences. Let's start off with rule one. We don't try to bring anything that was dead back to life."

As she was about to continue further, Flight interrupted her.

"Well, I understand the idea of rules associated with your power. How would bringing back life be consequential though? All we are doing is giving back what was wrongfully taken from them. I don't see a problem there."

Styra knew he wasn't entirely wrong. However, doing it felt disruptive. It was the natural way of life for things to die. She had to deal with that fact ever since the asteroid impact. It was tempting to think of a possibility where that could happen. Regardless, abusing the choice between controlling whether someone could live or die was a dangerous boundary to cross. Her final decision was inevitable at this point.

"You are right, but I just feel we need to respect their deaths as is. Now, you said something about that meeting with Mr. Nebules..."

Hearing this made Flight eager to convince her of his affairs back at StarSpace.

"Yes. In regards to that, I am still an aviator of the SAF. They need me as much as that Mr. Amethius guy needs you. We may have to split ways. It is my duty to serve and protect StarSpace at all costs. That is my only career."

Styra stood in complete silence at what she heard. While she didn't want to apprehend Flight's job, he felt like family to her. She didn't have anyone else to talk to that she could trust on this voyage. All of that hidden pain of being left behind caused her to have an emotional outburst.

"I know it would be easier to follow what they tell you to do. However, there is no way I can hide this anymore. I've been alone for too long, losing everything I cared about at the detriment of not knowing enough about myself. I can't stop you from pursuing your passion, but having this kind of unlimited power isn't always going to solve everything. There are outcomes that will hold me accountable for my actions. If this is how it ends between us, I will still keep traveling the cosmos if I have to."

Flight remained stunned at her persevering attitude. Not only that, she reminded him of when he was younger. More willing to take risks to do whatever he needed to succeed in times of peril.

Was it really worth it to go back to StarSpace? His current job held that passion he desired for so long to fulfill. He had earned that position and it took him far, but something was missing. Every time he went to do his job there wasn't as much freedom to do what he felt was right. The impending routine made it far harder for him to expand his knowledge and breathe a bit in his area of expertise. He actually wanted to show them more than what they expected of him. This confidentiality was what trapped his sense of growth to begin with. He enjoyed a challenge every once in a while. It was how he saw himself improving as an individual.

"I am not going back to StarSpace. What I've always wanted to do was right in front of me. From the moment I met you, something was different. Damn. You didn't have to do this," said Flight.

The entire environment around them stood still at that moment. Those words. They broke Styra into tears. She gave him a tight hug by the side along with a cute smile that couldn't break away from losing Flight for what he had done for her.

"There is a struggle I feel in losing what I care for the most, including now. That is the only way I'm going to find out who I am. I have to face that guilt and make up for it," she said.

Flight could understand where she was coming from. That deep feeling of regret was never easy to expose. To admit his faults was like trying to swallow a thorn into his throat willfully. Sure. It may have been easier to knock out a sense of entitlement to being blamed for something but, when he had to pay for his actions, there was no escaping it. This made him think of another idea to add to Styra's list of rules for her new powers.

"Okay. So I think while we're on that topic, we can start by making sure that the power you have is used only for this quest that you've been talking about. That would be a good rule to add," suggested Flight. Styra nodded her head in agreement. She began to see that rather than just deciding on one rule on her own terms, both of them were invested in the prospect of adhering to their new rules.

"Alright then, here's what we need to do. There are these things called Eternal Lights. Each one controls a part of everything that exists from what I've been told. This is what they look like."

She recreated a time projection of the Eternal Light Of Time in her hand. Flight had to shade his eyes from the intense brightness that came from it. After he got a glimpse of the power, he nodded to affirm that he understood. She quickly dissipated it from her hand and began to further explain the quest.

"There are nine more we have to get. Amethion says once I do that, I will have the ability to find out about my origins and then change reality for the better as The New Guardian. We also have to make sure someone named Prism doesn't get them because they want to destroy me."

Upon hearing that, Flight felt the urgency to help Styra start their new mission by calling DIVA for assistance through his watch to track the planet they had landed on. As it turned out, their location was unidentified in the database. This meant the world they were on wasn't recorded in the mapping system of the GN-z15 galaxy. In fact, it seemed like they had traveled to a completely different galaxy.

"DIVA has no idea where we are. From the looks of it, we are far away from StarSpace's navigational tracking sphere so that means we don't have to worry about the SAF discovering us here. However, I am curious to know where exactly we are supposed to go to find these Eternal Lights," said Flight.

"Let me see if we can teleport in front of RainbowFall Arena. That is where the Eternal Light Of Time told me the next one may be at," suggested Styra.

She began to use her power which transported them in front of a gargantuan open gate of the arena that was towering over a massive underground society. There, they could see green furry humanoid creatures that were ten feet tall walking in and out of the place. They wore giant leaves around their necks, chests, and waists. Styra decided to see if she could communicate with whatever their foreign language was. This, of course, proved to be difficult.

In order to remedy the situation at play, Flight tapped her on the shoulder with‌ ‌an‌ ‌idea.

"I'm not sure if I'm right but, you could just use your power to understand their language. Right?" he whispered inquisitively.

Ah. Why didn't she think of that? This bothered her, but at least now it would be possible to do more if there were certain things she couldn't figure out for herself. Within her subconscious mind, she commanded to know the current dialect of these creatures. The star on her chest glowed brighter than before, bestowing her with the knowledge she asked for. Although this was going to be a positive advantage on their end, there was also a problem. While Styra was trying to take in all of the information she had just received, Flight was beginning to notice that they weren't welcomed here.

"Uh, Styra? I think that light of yours attracted some unwanted visitors," he warned. When she opened her eyes, the creatures from earlier were now surrounding them. In an instant, Styra froze the giants with her new powers so the both of them could pass through their legs like open doorways. Then out of nowhere, an audible condescending laughter could be heard in the distance. A pink armored giant with some sort of similar design to Amethion was approaching their direction. To this gigantic guardian, these intruders were small ants that she could step on. This clearly wasn't any ordinary type of enemy. She was much more intimidating than they were even bargaining for.

"Such frivolous pursuits. Only to be blinded by your own subjective fears. Deplorable," said the mysterious guardian.