✧ Chapter 33 ✧

From the inside looking out, Styra and Eternika found the knights having a hard time breaking past the entrance of the castle. Meanwhile, most of the princess’s subjects were trapped including Kamitase who was stuck hanging in the middle of the kingdom’s main doorway. He was getting extremely irritated after looking at the guardsmen because of the attention they usually received from Princess Fidaliath in comparison to an “esteemed messenger” like himself. To him, everyone except Princess Fidaliath and her counsel (for right now) was below his standard. He enjoyed bullying them around when he got the chance to assert dominance. The same was true in his childhood. He imagined the day when he would become the all-powerful ruler over Madara itself. Spitting on those who told him what to do.

That was, until this happened.

“You scumbags! Get me out of this contraption…. Now!” he shouted with vile anger.

The guardsmen themselves found it pretty funny seeing Kamitase say something so ironic that they couldn’t care less of what happened to him. At this point, they were more concerned with keeping the townspeople safe over someone churning out insults out of his own deep-seated envy and biases.

Still, with their ruler kept captive, the demands from Fidaliath’s civilians for a new governing body spread around like a fierce wildfire. Riots erupted as mobs headed towards the huge gates which had been closed after Kamitase ran in to warn the princess. Styra knew they couldn’t just leave the people in chaos. She saw the results of widespread destruction on many planets before when trying to collect The Eternal Lights. There had to be a way to help them.

The weapon, hearing her thoughts, came up with an idea in mind to show that they could earn their trust.

“I noticed something about that man in the middle of the door… You know how he is acting extremely conceited and self-centered?”

“Yeah?”

“He seems desperate. Why not give him what he deserves?”

Styra snickered at the sarcastic proposal. She lived for a bit of spice every now and then. On a more serious note, it dawned on her that the people probably needed a place to stay. Madara itself didn’t look taken care of. There was only one way to go about this. A part of her felt nervous based on what the crowds of Fidaliathians might say. Pacing around in self-doubt, Eternika glided gently in front of her for encouragement.

“Do not worry about what the others may say, Judgment Warrior. Their choice is not ours to dictate. Rather, we will offer them the opportunity to give them a new home by joining our side. If they do not accept, we go back while the kingdom is returned to its normal state before your friend ever came to Madara. Does that sound alright?”

Out of compassion for the people, Styra silently nodded in agreement. Starting to take charge of her fears, she hoped that this wouldn’t cause more chaos than it already did. She never spoke in front of thousands upon thousands of angry people before. There was only one chance to make things right as they were. No screwing around with time. No fighting. No broken promises. This had to be resolved.

However, this was where she started to feel wrong. What The Lucid Light had said about The New Guardian’s lore was going to line up if they made a choice like this. Switching to option two was a safer approach. It was best to leave them all alone and not create any more potential problems. What right did she have to tell them how to live? The people already had a ruler. Whether she liked it or not, this was their home. Styra wasn’t going to try and dictate someone else’s civilization. If she did, The Lucid Light’s words would come to pass. There was no telling what sort of scheme was being decided upon if they did. It was restricting enough to know that she had other responsibilities to take care of.

Upon deciding to release the entire kingdom from the Kra Force’s hold, Princess Fidaliath and all of her subjects had fallen clumsily to the floor out of their soundproof cells. They tried to make a comeback against Styra, Eternika, and Compass. Unfortunately for them, the group had already left. No one except the mobs and knights watched them teleport out of Madara.

Princess Fidaliath was not stupid enough to be left hanging. Everyone seemed to be equally confused until she sat on the throne and pounded her fist to bring order to the scattered conversations occurring.

“I declare war on these strangers that have broken into our fortresses! They think this is the last? We may not have word of where their location is, but knowing whatever power they hold means they have outdone our abilities to dismantle that secret. In that case, I will reward one billion fidaleces to whoever of my bravest knights captures them. We will outplay those outlaws and travel worlds across to destroy them!” she yelled.

Every chant coming from her army became louder as they began to prepare for a new siege. Amongst the thousands of people, Kamitase stood with angst seeing that only the knights could participate for such a prize. It annoyed him to no end

“Oh, and one more thing…”

The room became quite as everyone’s undivided attention remained focused on the princess’s next request as she had this smug look of genuine hatred.

“Kill. That. Girl.”

∗ ∗ ∗

When Styra, Eternika, and Compass arrived at Wisteliah, a part of the world that they landed in was filled with turquoise blue grass covering most of the surrounding hillsides. Stretched out periwinkle-colored clouds hovered high above the night sky. Standing around the smell of sweet hyacinth flowers, their gazes met these weeping wisteria trees whose gleaming cerulean leaves fluttered towards the ground gracefully.

“Okay Compass, you can stay here. Eternika and I are going to make sure everyone’s doing alright,” said Styra as she turned her attention towards Stormstrike Zero to see how her new friends were doing. While strolling over there, she couldn’t help but marvel at the ever expanding landscape.

Inside the ship, Flight was occupying his aircraft lavatory which was located to the left side. He had been cutting and grooming his hair a bit since it got really dirty from staying too long in an environment like Madara’s. Chelbie and Hisa had cleaned up after themselves before he arrived. They still looked quite the same with a few minor changes to their looks.

When Styra entered the cockpit, she found Hisa resting comfortably to the left of her. In the other seat, Chelbie seemed to be spending her time upgrading an interesting miniature vehicle.

“Hi Chelbie. What’s that you’re making?” asked Styra who was genuinely excited just to talk to her again.

“Howdsie Styra! I’m upgrading one of my latest inventions yet…The Blazetrekker! It’s a portable and durable toy buggy that can fit inside any pocket without being crushed.”

“Woah, really?”

“Yup! In strength capacity, this little guy can withstand up tah a ton! In my auto shop, I would do multiple tests when I had the spare time. There’s so many things it can do like release these tiny tracking devices. For right now it can only take in a storage of twenty.

“Ooh… Sneaky are we?”

“What can I say? If there’s one thing I’ve mastered well, it’s the art of stealth! Takes a lot of inspiration from my Stealthsteel Trike. You’d be surprised how many metal detectors and radar systems it can pass through. I also have this pair of fingerless gloves which double as a wireless remote that can manipulate its mobility across any terrain!”

Eternika, overhearing their conversation, hovered near Styra as a way to remind her about what they were here for. She nodded to affirm their agreement.

“I’ll be looking forward to seeing it in action soon. Catch ya later!”

“Ah… Alright then. Bye Styra,” replied Chelbie as she started to sink back into her project with a hidden pinch of loneliness dwelling inside.

Flight, who was done cleaning himself up, opened the door only to find Styra and Eternika waiting in front of his path. He greeted them with genuine satisfaction at seeing that they returned safely without any issues.

“Oh hey Styra. Happy to see you and Omnikra are alright.”

“Actually, you may call me Eternika now. The reason is because we met my supposed creator, The Lucid Light. It has an obsession with fulfilling my fate as The New Guardian. Since Styra and I don’t want any part of that, I changed my name,” answered the weapon.

Clearing his throat, Flight decided to address correcting himself.

“Oh okay. Eternika. That’s a good name. You made it yourself?”

“We both partook in contributing to its inception. For the most part however, yes. That is a part of what we wanted to talk to you about though…”

A sudden drop in engagement left Styra’s emotions in a state of crisis. She wanted to do this. To clear everything up. The problem was that she was scared to see how Flight would react. What if he said no? The uncertainty raised bigger concerns about how to proceed. She couldn’t just time travel and change the situation. She was already experiencing a spacetime disconnect. That meant any action being done by her wasn’t a planned part of any timeline Prism had intended on creating. Styra didn’t know where her future was headed. The Lucid Light only mentioned Eternika’s future. Was she just going to be thrown away? Disposed of in the grand scheme of The Omniverse? It didn’t entirely bother her, but what about Flight, Hisa, and Chelbie? Were their futures gone too because she had interacted with them?

Conflicted with these thoughts, Eternika could tell Styra wasn’t ready to hand over The Surreality Shard to Prism. She didn’t want any of her friends to die because of her carelessness. This pent up indecisiveness caused her to cave in to the pressure and teleport next to a random wisteria tree that was extremely far away from the STS-0. She began to feel something that was less than insatiable to stop.

“As great as it sounds for me to be able to finally decide who I want to be, I have no clue what kind of future I’m headed for. Flight was a high-ranked space pilot. Hisa had the job of a professional interrogator. Chelbie worked as a top notch auto mechanic. Am I the one who is stopping them from reaching their destinies? If that’s true, then what if I am making their lives worse?”

Sitting down with her legs slightly stretched out, she was fixated on watching the sparkling stars twinkle in and out of sight. At that moment, Eternika came from behind. It had teleported her friends and itself next to the tree she chose to sit at. As they began to approach where she was, Flight patted her on the shoulder. He wasn’t wearing his cloak this time around. Instead it looked more like a jumpsuit.

“Got a minute to go stargazing with us?” he asked.

She nodded yes, proceeding to head down the hill with them. They began to lay on the grass while facing up. Eternika was first to admit to what was going on.

“Styra… We have been thinking and our decision rests on letting The Surreality Shard go. Not only that, in fact. We are willing to help you take the four Eternal Lights that have been left reserved within you ever since the quest was initiated. The only way we stop this is simple. We give it back to Strage and from there the Heptarion Force will handle everything else.”

The suspenseful silence that remained there for a while didn’t last long before Chelbie decided to speak her mind out.

“Or… You can just give some of the shard’s powers to me before you take it back.”

Eternika immediately thwarted her suggestion with high precautions.

“No, you are incapable of handling what it offers. A normal human trying to access those powers would die instantaneously. That brings us to the next point of discussion. I am just as confused as to how Flight could possibly wield one. Unless he is like Styra, nothing can really pinpoint why it happened twice now. To add more thought into that list, I even wonder how Styra herself is able to maintain such abilities as well.”

“I would say I know Flight the most, but not entirely everything about the relationship between him and his parents,” mentioned Hisa.

“Yeah… Styra, what everybody is trying to say is that, I am okay with giving up The Surreality Shard. At the end of the day, our safety is far more important. That may mean cutting our losses. I made the mistake of not letting go when we recently got separated,” added Flight.

In what appeared to be a final twist of how she expected it to go, seeing Flight give it away still saddened her. Styra wanted to repay Flight with a gift. It wasn’t just him either. Everyone that was there with her in Wisteliah was because of what she did. She had to make this right. The least she could do was at least give them the freedom to decide on what they always wanted to be.

“Everyone… I want to tell you the truth. I haven’t been feeling like myself lately. After everything that happened when we all first met, I thought I could just approach my problems any kind of way and solve them like that. The thing is, I need to figure out who I want to be. I know what I might be capable of, but I can’t risk your lives at the expense of my ambitions. With that said, I am going to give everyone here a gift of your choice in exchange for helping me. Then we’ll split ways however you choose. Before I send you back, I need to visit Perenorbius one last time and thank them too because… In honesty… I now have the chance to find my real family.”

Flight, Hisa, and Chelbie started to wonder if splitting ways was truly the best option for them all to choose. In a way, they didn’t necessarily know if StarSpace would take kindly to what they did back in the quarantine base.

“Well, alright I guess. I think I am going to get some sleep. I’ll think about it tomorrow. After being in Madara for about two days, it’s been pretty stressful enough,” said Flight as his eyes switched up towards Hisa who smiled in earnest agreement to join him. Chelbie however, had this unmoving desperation to keep them all together.

“Wait… We’re all actually parting ways?! Like do we really have to?! Giant glow stick thingy? You agree with me, right?”

“I won’t be leaving Styra’s side because we have to find Amethion and I don’t want any part in being The New Guardian. Also I am not a giant glow stick thingy. I am Eternika. End of discussion.”

Styra and Eternika flew away to let the group rest while they left to go visit Perenorbius once more. As Flight and Hisa began to hold each other’s hands with their eyes closed, Chelbie walked slowly back to the ship alone to work on the Blazetrekker. Tilting her head back up towards the sky, she didn’t know if she really wanted to go back to StarSpace.

In a frantic rush, she decided to take the few things she had on the ship and run away to adventure off through Wisteliah’s land by herself for a while.