Selene, standing with the pup Atriuum beneath her, grinned at her last statement. She had pulled Vaclon’s one weak string… information about Ilex. The person he would’ve… HE HAD… traveled the universe for. Whether she was lying or not he wouldn’t know but it was worth a shot.

Oracle stepped forward next to me. “Do yo-”
He shook his head and stopped her from moving forward anymore. “Not yet…” He gulped and looked at Selene with inquisitive eyes. “Tell me, Selene…”
Selene’s eyes emptily gazed out, as if recalling a memory from long ago. “Oooh the tales she could tell yo-”
“JUST tell me she’s safe, Selene…”
“For what seemed I an eternity I was trapped there… waiting… watching… I went back to her estate in our universe… to watch her grow up… I’m surprised you didn’t do the sa-” Vaclon, knowing Selene wouldn’t give him the answer he wanted, yelled to Oracle.
“Now Oracle!” Vaclon yelled then ducked down to his knees as Oracle’s anthro mode stood over me.

Oracle shot out bolts of yellow energy towards Selene. The illuminated rays of energy came within meters of Selene before her eyes lit up in a neon green hue as she erected a shield around herself to protect her, causing the rays to explode leaving a mist of dust in their wake. Selene used her telekinetic powers to swirl the dust away and disperse it. Gallagher fired off his revolver at Selene who simple furrowed her brow at the bullet and watched it crumple into pieces. Noccy leapt towards Selene who simply telekinetically threw her aside. She turned her sights on Seyna and Vaclon moved in the way, throwing the explosive disk at her as she was distracted. The disk was caught in mid-air by Selene who threw it back at Vaclon. The chest hit Vaclon’s chest and threw him back, hitting the wall just as the disk exploded. The hot searing gases burn Vaclon’s fur and flesh and left a large gaping wound that was oozing his neon green acidic blood from it. Oracle took the opportunity granted by the shock of the explosion to lift Atriuum up with her telekinesis and bring the child into her arms as she shielded it from any further harm.

“Vaclon!” Amada yelled as she began to run next to the purple and red canine. “Vaclon can you hear me?!”
Noccy bent down, looking into Vaclon’s wide eyes as he lay there belly-up breathing heavily from the wound, bleeding out onto the floor, his blood causing it to corrode instantly. “Vaclon, Vaclon stay with me. Vaclon, look at me. Look right at me.”
Selene stood in shock at the other end of the room, in disbelief at what had happened. “Is he…?”
Within seconds it seemed as if everyone but Gallagher and Alex who were defending the others had crowded around Vaclon. “Stay with me buddy. Come on, don’t quit on me now.”
Oracle’s eyes narrowed and she pushed through the crowd and kneeled down next to Vaclon. “Let me…”

She gently touched her forefinger and thumb onto Vaclon’s forehead. Vaclon’s body slowly stopped jostling about, the blood slowing down as it dripped from the side of his mouth, snaking down reaching for the ground below. His green eyes slowly beginning to get larger and larger, dilating as his breathing began heavy and slow. His fur began to de-saturate and turn a pale gray. Vaclon found himself in a empty room, no walls, no ceiling, not even a visible floor, just darkness.

“Oracle!” Vaclon jolted left to right, looking for someone to help him as he was overcome with fear and utter terror. “Oracle! Atriuum! Amada! Sergei! Someone, help, please help! Oh god! Where am I!? What is this place?!” Vaclon’s hysterical comments slowly grew more and more worried as he felt something slithering by his feet. “What is that?! I… help! Plea-”
Suddenly he turned around, seeing the white anthro with a yellow aura around her and was suddenly calmed down slightly. “Vaclon. Stay calm.”
“What happened to me, where am I?!”
“You’re dead.”
“Dead? DEAD?! I don’t want to be dead! Why am I dead?!”
Oracle sighed and kneeled down to Vaclon’s quad-mode height, stroking his fur to try and calm him down and keep him from hyperventilating. “I don’t have enough time… you need to listen. It’s not your time.”
“Not—Not my time?! What’s that supposed to mean? You know when I’m going to di-” Oracle stopped Vaclon before he could finish his question.
“I’m here to tell you what you need to do… When you get back home, to your life as it was before all this happened, you need to go to Earth: 1450… there you’ll find somebody named Cortaud, you need to let him come with you… for a while at least. You need to bring him to Rome. Find a man called Nero, he has something that can save you. After that you need to find Rune Banes… he’s the final step…” In Oracle’s eyes Vaclon could see immense sympathy, as if she’d seem something she didn’t want to and was forced to tell him now.
“Why are you telling me this?” Vaclon asked between gasps.
“Because I KNOW what happens after this… too many lives depend on your survival for you to just die. You’re going to be brought back but I can't control it. You’re going to be brought back forever… at least until your appointed time comes…”
“What are you saying?”
Oracle narrowed her eyes and embraced Vaclon, noting that his body was cold as ice and very hard to move. “I’m bringing you back…”

Vaclon jostled on the tiled floor of the large room, his eyes opening, his pupils beginning to get smaller. He was able to move, he was able to expand his lungs and take in air, he could think… but as he touched the tile floor he realized he couldn’t feel it under his paws, he couldn’t feel the pain of the shrapnel still in his chest, he looked down and saw a long four-inch shard of metal sticking out of his torso.

“WOAH!” Vaclon yelled. “That’s going to hurt tommarrow!”
“Oh my god!” Seyna nearly leapt backwards in fear as she saw Vaclon’s body moving again.

Oracle moved her hand back and stood up, Atriuum still in her hands like she was cradling a baby. Searah, amazed by the act, went by Vaclon to give him a hug but as she touched his fur she felt a icy coolness of his skin. In a mix of shock and intrigue she touched his neck to feel his pulse…

“Oh dear…” Oracle rolled her eyes, knowing the shock that would insue.
Searah’s eyes grew wide. “There… there’s no pulse. He shouldn’t be moving, he shouldn’t be alive.”
Vaclon grinned at Searah and patted her on the shoulder, overjoyed despite his condition. “But I’m back!”
Suddenly Vaclon, still lying on the floor with his face turned up at the ceiling, heard a whooshing sound pass by him but saw nothing. “Now this miracle is all very touching but…” Selene was suddenly stopped as she felt a hand touch her shoulder. “What?!” She turned around and saw a transparent darkened image of a humanoid with wings that looked like twinkling stars in the night sky.
“Selene Exodissia…” The somewhat deep voice somehow seemed to almost sound familiar to Selene.
“No…” Her eyes grew wide as she turned around, stumbling as she walked backwards to walk away from the humanoid shape.
“You know what I’m going to say…” The entity softly stated.
“NO! I’m not going back there!”
“Selene Exodissia… Under order of the five gate guardians you are hereby placed under temporal arrest… to be held indefinitely without trial.”
“No, not back in the Void!” Vaclon almost felt sorry for Selene as she backed away towards the group.
Suddenly Selene froze as the entity lifted his hand towards her. “Not aga-”
The shadow turned to the group and outstretched its hand as Vaclon stepped forward to speak. “Now for you…” It spoke. “You all shall be returned to your proper places in time…” Out of the corner of Vaclon’s eye he saw the Myriagon II re-materializing in the corner of the room, next to the alien sphere with writing on it.
“What happens to Selene?” Vaclon asked in a sympathetic manner.
“That’s for the Guardians to decide… not a…” The entity took a long hard look at Vaclon, unsure of what to call him. “Whatever you are…”
Drool rolled her eyes behind her hair and scoffed. “Look whose talking…”
The entity began to fade, bringing Selene with him back to wherever he’d come from… “Farewell… until our paths cross again, child…”
Vaclon rolled his eyes just like Drool. “Always with the ‘kid-jokes’…”

The inside of the ship grew noisy with all the added passengers… most of them in the mess hall eating. I had set the holographic projectors to make it look like the stereotypical Christmas dinner… hardwood floors, a fireplace in the background and nearby a frosted over window with four panes of glass arranged in a square pattern. In the center of the room was a long chestnut table with seating for everyone. I stood at the entrance to the room watching Sergei bother Oracle and Ceri continue talking about her superiority to Alex.

“So we’re standing there! and john asks: Where are we? And I say: We’re in Germany right?” Alex continued his story at the table. “And he sa-”
“I could’ve figured that out.”
“Yeah but you weren’t there…”
Across the table Seyna and Nocturia seemed to be engaged in serious conversation… for once. “What do you think we should do?” Nocturia whispered to Seyna.
“It’s your choice…” Seyna shrugged.
“We should leave… quickly…”
“But what abou-” Nocturia interrupted Seyna’s interjection.
“He said the doors are set to our timelines. We can leave at any time... I don’t want to have to confront him about it…”
Seyna stayed quiet for a moment. “Oh… okay… I thought he was nice.”
“It’s not a matter of that, we’re talking about our friend… I’m not going to stay here with he-” Nocturia stopped her statement as Vaclon began to walk towards them with a cloak over his wounds. “Noccy, Seyna. What’d I tell you! We got out of that okay.”
“Listen, kid we real-”Nocturia was cut off by Vaclon resuming what he was saying.
“So I did a scan and turns out there’s no cellular decay… I’m not going to age. There’s a bonus. Makes up for being de-”
“KID!” Nocturia stated in a loud voice that quieted down the rest of the table. “We need to leave, Seyna…”
Vaclon walked after Nocturia and Seyna as they made their way down the white hallways of the ship towards the back hatch. “You’ve stopped flirting with me, haven’t you.”
“YES.” She stated bluntly as she walked quickly towards the exit.
“Is it still necrophilia if I’m moving?” She turned around as she reached the exit and raised her paw to his face, pointing at Vaclon. “I didn’t realize we were suddenly on such bad terms…”
Nocturia’s face was dead serious… for once she wasn’t being silly with Vaclon. “Well I didn’t realize you were stalking Ilex.”
Vaclon felt a jolt run up his spine, causing his head to jolt back slightly. “What? How do you know Ilex?”
“That’s what I was about to ask.”
“She was a friend of mine… we knew each other a long time ago…” Vaclon’s voice went to a more solemn tone as he spoke of Ilex.
“You stay away from her…” Nocturia commanded. “She’s been through enough without you hounding her…You, you’re just wrong… you shouldn’t even exist, you died!… normally I’d say to get some help but…” She looked down at Vaclon’s shrapnel wounds on his chest still oozing some corrosive blood. “…But I don’t think even that would help… and besides…” The next few words quite literally made Vaclon nauseous… “Even if she was still single…” Noccy stated. “You’re not her type... come on, Seyna…” The hatch behind Nocturia opened, revealing a large open field with wheat covering as far as the eye could see, occasionally broken by a ancient stone fence that used to mark land barriers.
Vaclon closed his eyes and gulped, turning to Seyna as Noccy walked out the door. “Do you think I’m too obsessed?…” He asked.
Seyna looked down at her paws and waited for what seemed like an eternity to Vaclon for her to answer. “I don’t think I can judge you Vaclon… I think maybe you should back off a little bit… I think…” Seyna turned away, looking at Noccy outside. “I think I should go…”
Seyna began to walk out of the ship before Vaclon beckoned to her once more. “If something happens to her…” He began. “You’ll tell me… right?”
Seyna took a long breath and nodded. “If I can find you… of course.”

Vaclon watched as Seyna exited the door… he wanted so bad to go out with them but he knew if he did he would just end up in the time vortex outside… the computer had keyed into Seyna’s and Nocturia’s temporal signatures… only they could go back to where they belonged… Vaclon was persona non grata to the computer system keeping the bridge to their universe active… nothing could change that. Vaclon slowly walked back to the doorway of the mess hall. Amada came running over to Vaclon, chased playfully by Sergei who was a little bit tipsy from the eggnog. Sergei held a strand of mistletoe over Vaclon’s head as Amada stood next to him waiting for her kiss. Vaclon rolled his eyes and turned towards the group, seeing Sergei also waiting for a kiss. Vaclon pushed Sergei out of the way and silently walked towards the table, where everyone was beginning to pack up and get ready to leave.

“Vaclon!” Gallagher yelled. “I can't say it was something I want to do again… but it was an adventure…” He chuckled as he rustled my hair with his paw as he walked out of the mess hall.
Warcry came walking by and stood before Vaclon with a smiling face. “You did good, Vaclon… I could not have done any better myself… and I thank you. Hopefully when I get home things will be better between me and Lurid.”
“You think so?” Vaclon stated in a dry chuckle.
“Not really… but you never stop trying for them do you.”
Vaclon grinned. “I know what you mean… take care of yourself, crescent-face.” Vaclon joked.
“You too, kid.”
Searah lowered her head in front of Vaclon then shyly looked up at him. “Well, uh… I hope everything goes well for you, Vac…”
Vaclon smiled at her. “Oh, come here.” He put his paws around her and held her tightly against him. “You stay safe, alright? Don’t get yourself into too much trouble… and if you’re ever in trouble… or need me for anything… just try and find me… I’ll be there.”
She smiled as she pulled away, blushing a bit at Vaclon. “I will… and you keep safe too. Hope I see you again soon.” Searah walked away as Vaclon stood looking at her longingly, catching the eye of Amada who was looking at her with jealousy.
Vaclon turned to Alex and patted him on the shoulder. “Hey by the way… I got something for you…” Vaclon reached into his cloak and pulled out a small pistol-sized firearm from his pocket. “It’s sort of a leftover… Calico weapon factories…”
“But that blew up didn’t it?”
“Yes. Replaced with a garden. With a bunch of pretty flowers in it, kinda justifies what I did there.”
Alex went wide-eyed. “You blew it u-”
Vaclon patted Alex on the chest. “Hope you find what you’re looking for my friend… the best of luck to you.” Vaclon turned to Stealth. “Stealth…”
“Vaclon…”
“It was a pleasure…”
“…” She stayed silent and made a slow sigh. “…Likewise…”
Stealth began to walk off before Vaclon turned to her. “Oh and…” Stealth turned around as Vaclon began to speak. “You were brilliant out there…” He smiled as Stealth made a small smirk and walked out of the ship. “Now the-” Vaclon found that if he needed to breath anymore from his recent pseudo-resurrection he would’ve been suffocated from the glomping he’d received from Balti. “Alright, I know who this is, Balti…”
Balti got off Vaclon and gently embraced him, accidentally scratching his back with her long claws. “Balti loves you, ok? Always.”
“As I do you, Balti… Keep out of trou—oh what’s it matter… you’ll just go bumbling into trouble again… that’s what I love about you…” Vaclon smiled at her and nodded as she began to walk out of the mess hall and into her world. “RAVEN!” Vaclon yelled “and Pandomonia.” He smiled at the two of them. “Pandomonia you did a spectacular job… if you got paid for being pack leader you’d be the best of them… and I really can't thank you enough for everything you’ve done…”
“It’s no problem, Vaclon… it was… fun, despite the dangers and stuff but that’s what makes life grand, isn’t it?”
“And Raven… thanks for keeping Amada safe for me.”
Raven grinned and in her loud voice responded. “She did a good job doing the same thing for me. You’re very lucky to have her with you, kid.”
Vaclon chuckled… it was all he could do in the somewhat awkward position until Drool came over. “Vaclon. I think you’re lucky too.”
“Cause with my ugly mug I-”
“No because Amada’s the only chick freaky enough to get go necrophile with you right now.” Drool laughed before calming down and sticking her tongue out at me playfully. “But… Honestly I hope everything goes well for you.”
“What do I do now?” He asked, not expecting much of an answer from Drool but feeling comfortable enough with her to ask.
“Just… take a bit off… chill.” For once she sounded sympathetic to what Vaclon was talking about.
“Drool…” Vaclon chuckled in the strange irony of the comment. “…I’m dead… I’m permanently chilled…”
Drool lowered her head, almost like she recognized that Vaclon wasn’t entirely in the mood for silliness. “Well I hope things get better for you…”

Vaclon heard the rear hatch close and looked out at Southern Oracle, the only one left. His eyes were like those of a sick man who needed help from a doctor. Oracle’s were those of a good Samaritan unable to help. Vaclon slowly walked up to Oracle, who was back in her quad form. Oracle looked down at Vaclon who was significantly shorter than she was, and nodded.

“… Oracle… thank you…” Vaclon’s words were soft and solemn… even more than when he was talking with Nocturia earlier.
“Don’t thank me… I was just doing what comes naturally…” Oracle closed her eyes, as if trying to shut out a bad memory… or vision… and spoke. “The next three months… are not going to be easy…”
“I know…”
“I just want you to be prepared… because I know what death is…” She took Vaclon’s paw and as he blinked she changed to her anthro mode without him even noticing. “… You need to be brave… it’s out there… howling in the darkness… I can't lie to you and say I’ve foreseen that you’ll pull through what lies ahead but…” She then looked past Vaclon and saw Sergei eyeing her with sadness in his eyes, knowing she had to leave soon. “… You’ve got friends who will be able to help you… I know you wont let them down…” Oracle gently smiled at Vaclon and petted his head as she knelt down.

She rose to her feet and, unlike the others who had left through the hatch; her image began to fade from the ship as she walked towards the doorway. She turned her head to Sergei and knelt down in front of him. She reached for the hem of her toga-like dress and ripped off a small piece of it. She gently took the yellow piece of fabric and set it around Sergei’s neck as a scarf before affectionately taking his snout in her hands and resting her head on his hair, whispering her farewells into his ear as her soft, silky, yellow hair rubbed tenderly against Sergei’s flowing dyed tuft of fur before she faded completely away, leaving Sergei to think about what she had said to him before…

The cockpit was dead silent… Vaclon was curled up in the pilot’s chair with Atriuum, who has just woken up, on the side of his ribs. “Uncle Vaccy…” Atriuum stated in her young voice, breaking the silence. “Why are you so cold now?”
Vaclon closed his eyes and rested his head on the armrest of the chair that was designed for large humanoids instead of quads like himself. “Uncle Vaclon is just…” Amada tried to explain for Atriuum in simple terms. “… Sick right now…” Amada sighed and nuzzled Atriuum from her seat in the co-pilots chair. “He’ll get better soon…”
Vaclon looked up at Atriuum and smiled at her, trying to cheer her up as well as himself. “Hey… you know what’s coming up in two days…”
Atriuum made a happy grin at him before yelling out the answer. “It’s my birthday!”
Vaclon laughed quietly before looking out at the particles of space flying by the Myriagon II. “You’ll be fourteen… shade years at least…you’ll have been with us for seven years now…” Vaclon gulped in a small smirk. “… You’ll be dating soon…you’re gunna leave your old uncle all alone now.” He joked, tickling her stomach with his snout.
“Never, uncle Vaccy… I’m never gunna leave you…” Vaclon sighed, almost hoping she wouldn’t say anything so he could savor those words that came from her lips.
“Yup… I know you wont, dear…” The Myriagon II’s location display blinked with the words of their next destination: ‘Avalon’… “…I know you wont…”