Malik’s eyes twitched as he muttered his conclusion: “…That’s it, basically.”

Ralivil didn’t know what to say. To think Malik had gone through so much, to think he had tried so hard – to think that the Timechasers had brushed him off as an obstacle.

There were many questions Ralivil had swirling in his mind, but the one that slipped out was, “So, uh, why did you put the Prophet’s Mark on my back?”

Malik grunted as he glanced at him. “The blue Mook with the apple, you mean?” He looked back at the ground as he answered, “To track you. You’d blend in otherwise.”

“And why of him? Why not someone else? Or—”

“You won’t be as lucky as him. You’re an inferior version of him. Just like…” He didn’t finish his sentence. Ralivil suspected he couldn’t.

Malik studied the rocky ground in front of him and Ralivil for an amount of time that could not be measured. Ralivil stared up at the stars. The frozen glimmers made him shiver. The darkness of the sky cast a shadow over his thoughts. If the RPG-maker succeeded in destroying the timeline, or even just the solar system, what would happen? Would there be an afterlife to go to, or would the flames of life be snuffed out entirely?

Ralivil was pulled out of his thoughts when Malik spoke again, saying, “Now that time’s dead and gone, I’ve given up trying. The only real option now is to wait for however it is that we all die. It’d be best to put me… me and dying world out of its misery, anyway. There’s more Maliks out there. Despite their… stupid, stupid MISTAKES, they… they haven’t made the same mistakes I have. They still have better lives than I do. While being inferior to them is… is… hard sometimes, I take comfort in knowing they exist, and knowing that is all I can ask for anymore.”

Malik stood up. “I would tell you to stay, but I know you won’t. Foolish horseman. FOOLISH! FOOLISH!”

He fired a burst of PK Fire in front of him, the flame dancing in the air around itself before freezing in place for a few long moments, then disappearing. Malik heaved out a sighed. “I’m going back to the Sigismundo now. Waiting for the end of the world surrounded by frozen idiots beats waiting alone.”

With that, he turned his back to Ralivil and slithered away. Ralivil watched until he was no more but a speck on the horizon. He looked back up to the stars, knowing they wouldn’t have changed but hoping anyway, then stood up and returned to his own ship.

Buzzy Bol and Boson were chatting with Elmadan and Anue was looking out the window when Ralivil climbed up the drop ladder and into the ship. As he set foot on the ship’s cool floor, Anue looked over at him and said, “There you are.”

Ralivil waved.

“What were you doing?” Anue asked, an edge on their voice.

“I was just…” Ralivil paused. “…stargazing.”

“But the stars are frozen.”

A smile flickered on Ralivil’s face. “But they’re still there! Gotta appreciate them while I can.”

Anue hummed to themself, then turned back to the window.

Buzzy Bol hovered over to Ralivil and told him, “While you were outside, that glowing apple orb… thing… that came out of Elmadan made some weird noises and faded away.”

From his spot against the hyberpod, Elmadan added, “And Anue understood every part of it. Still don’t know why that surprised me.”

Buzzy Bol briefly turned to Elmadan and quietly added, “Me too.” He then turned back to Ralivil and added, “Apparently the orb mentioned some guy being the heel they call Achilles’, whatever that means. Anue said not to dwell on it.”

Ralivil cast a glance to Anue as he replied, “That probably means they’ll be the one trying to figure it out.”

Anue told him, “What the Apple said before it died is only my concern. Now that you are back on board, Ralivil, we will head to the View-Monster immediately.”

Anue pressed some buttons on the control pad, and the ship roared to life. It hovered into the air, then turned around and headed back the way everyone had come.

“What’s… the View-Monster? Should I know?” Ralivil asked.

Eyes fixed on the window, Anue replied, “The View-Monster is a ship of my kind’s that is parked not too far away from Saturn. The RPG-maker is aboard it, on the highest floor; the commander’s quarters. Once we are aboard the View-Monster, we will head to that room and destroy the RPG-maker.”

Though he remained silent, Boson narrowed his eyes at Anue.

The journey to the View-Monster was long. Ralivil would have slept through it if he could find it in him to close his eyes. Instead, he sat down for a bit, then got up and paced up and down the ship, looked out the window, then go back to the other end of the ship and sit down again. The times he looked out the window did nothing to elevate his fears, not even for a moment. Usually he would see nothing but frozen stars, but sometimes he would see planets.

Venus was almost entirely gone – there was only a crescent of the RPG-maker’s leakage left gorging on what remained of the planet. Earth and Mars were in similar states to each other – leakage had begun gnawing on the planet itself. Ralivil thought of the Martians as the shipped passed their planet by. Jupiter’s leakage on the planet was patchy, but looked like it would expand into one big cluster sooner rather than later. Saturn… was almost gone as well. The leakage had trickled down from somewhere, leaving a trail, and had most of the planet engulfed. The rings were nowhere to be found.

Anue turned the ship away from Saturn and followed the trail of leakage. Slowly, a tall, rectangular ship came into view. The ship had patches of leakage on it. Ralivil shivered. If that was what it was like on the outside… and he had to go in…

Finally, the ship came to a halt. It was parked inside a small, open-ended room with white tiles covering every inch.

“We’ve arrived in the View-Monster’s airlock,” Anue announced.

Elmadan, who had since laid on top of the hyberpod, lifted his head and asked, “I don’t have to go, do I? ‘Cause judging from that trail of glitchy stuff, this isn’t a great place to be…”

“No,” Anue simply replied.

Elmadan sighed, “Oh thank the stars.”

Ralivil stood up, and Buzzy Bol and Boson hovered into the air. Anue opened up the ship’s hatch, and began to move to it themselves. Then they came to a halt. The only sign they hadn’t been frozen in time was the slow but steady rise and fall of their shoulders.

“Yo. Anue. You gonna move, or…?” Boson questioned.

Anue’s ears twitched. “I… No, it is nothing. Let us be on our way.”

With that, Anue teleported out of the ship in a flash of light yellow light. The Timechasers followed them out into the airlock.

The drop ladder slid back into the ship and the hatch closed behind them as soon as Boson hovered out of the ship.

“I will lead the way to the commander’s quarters. Come along.” Anue began to trot on their tip toes, leaving the Timechasers to follow.

Following Anue out of the airlock and into the halls of the View-Monster, the first thing Ralivil noticed was the disrepair of the halls. Parts had broken off, and many patches of the ground had leakage gnawing on them.

Anue led the Timechasers down a chipped wall. They looked over their shoulder at Ralivil and said, “Your hand.”

Ralivil cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. Anue made a motion for him to hold out his hand, exposing their own in the process. Ralivil did so, and Anue immediately grabbed it. They then teleported onto a chunk of broken floor drifting away. Ralivil stood dazed for a moment, before rubbing his lower eye with his free tentacle.

Anue looked over their shoulder at Buzzy Bol and Boson, raising their voice to tell them, “Follow my lead, you two!”

Anue continued to teleport across the chunks of broken floor, with Buzzy Bol and Boson following. They soon teleported onto an end of a hall, and let go of Ralivil’s hand. Ralivil immediately slithered up to the nearest wall and leaned against it. Buzzy Bol and Boson gave him concerned stares, but said nothing. Anue also joined in.

“I did not realise teleportation would disorient you so much. My apologies,” Anue told Ralivil.

Boson sputtered as he glared at Anue. “How did you NOT think of that?!”

Anue turned their head to Boson. “I simply did not. That is all.”

Ralivil got up and slithered away from the wall, mumbling, “Okay, I think I’m good to go now.”

Anue turned to the path ahead of them. “Wonderful. Let us be on our way.”

Anue led the Timechasers down the empty hall and into a wide room with interconnected floating paths. The leakage was thicker here. Its scent stung. It hissed at him. It nipped at the ends of his lower tentacles. It chilled the already cool air. Now he could understand why Malik didn’t want to remember his own trek up the View-Monster. He wanted nothing more than to leave the ship and go home.

Anue had stopped walking. They stood still, staring at the leakage-riddled floor.

Buzzy Bol glanced at Ralivil for a moment, then looked back at Anue. “Anue? What’s up?” he asked.

Anue took a deep breath in, then warily exhaled. “There are… many things I should have told you by now. You have all done your best up to this point. It would be… wrong of me to not tell you.” They took a couple of steps forward before saying, “I am… not who you think I am.”

They took another few steps forward before stopping again. The Timechasers inched behind them. “I still do not know how many in this solar system know of me, or my kind. Even if it were none, I still donned this hood as a precaution.”

Another few steps. “…One day, while observing Saturn, I spotted a box floating amongst the stars. Intrigued, I brought it into my ship and took out the contents. I assembled them… into the very machine that threatens us, everyone, everything… I used that dreaded machine to look into other timelines, and our own future, and found out about our fate.”

Another few steps. “Arix… surely must have mentioned his commander, Inpue. That Geeg… is who I am. I only took on the name ‘Anue’ to protect myself. ‘Anue’… ‘Anue’ is not real. ‘Anue’ is only the lies I have been telling you.”

A few more steps. They and the Timechasers were at the highest point of the room. “…I met another version of myself whilst using the RPG-maker once. Before they… disappeared, they told me something. They said to not enjoy our timeline's ‘private screening’, for it would be meaningless. I do not understand what those words mean for us, but I wanted to impart them to you three.”

The four of them stood in silence.

“We mustn’t stall any longer on our final mission,” Anue finally said, their eyes peeling away from the floor. “Come along. The top of the View-Monster is close, and the RPG-maker is no doubt waiting for us.”

Anue passed through the doorway that led to the top of the View-Monster. Ralivil wasted no time in following them, and Buzzy Bol drifted close. Boson, meanwhile, glared at the back of Anue’s hood. He momentarily felt something graze the back of his UFO from the hissing leakage behind him and spun around, frowning. He saw nothing. He squinted, then turned back to the doorway and followed the other Timechasers and Anue.