The leakage was unbearably thick. It swamped every little inch of the View-Monster’s interior. The air had small particles of ice floating far above the Timechasers’ heads. The stench of oil and rust emanating from vaguely Starman-shaped lumps under the leakage was suffocating. Only a couple of feet ahead, Anue made each step very carefully. Ralivil attempted to replicate them, but the leakage’s grasp on his lower tentacles made it hard.

Anue paused in front of what may have been a wall. “Ladder,” they simply told the Timechasers. They then began climbing up the ladder, which was barely visible with all the leakage covering it.

Ralivil followed, wobbling as he ascended. Buzzy Bol and Boson, however, had minimal problems following. They only needed to swat away stray pieces of leakage that floated away from the mass to try and grab hold of them.

Anue hopped off the ladder gracefully, and Ralivil less so. At the other end of the floor, a robot spun about in a horizontal line. It paused as it faced Anue and the Timechasers, then flung itself towards them. Anue blasted the robot with a single purple beam of energy from their hand. The static that had built up in its visor faded away before it fell apart.

As they lowered their hand, Anue murmured to themself, “A shame. I was fond of that little robot.”

They led the Timechasers onwards, through a door on the left side of the floor and into a three-way hall. From the leakage’s hissing, Ralivil could have sworn he heard a whisper that almost seemed like words. His face scrunched up at the sound.

Anue paused, looked over their shoulder at Ralivil, and asked, “You hear the leakage’s whispering too?”

“Whispering? What are talking about? I don’t hear it,” Buzzy Bol said.

“Seriously, bro, you don’t? You kidding?” Boson asked.

“Wait, you can hear it too, Boson?!” Ralivil asked, wide-eyed.

“Of course I can?! It’s really wack; it sounds almost like words!”

Anue sighed. “This is not the time to be discussing what the leakage’s whispering sounds like. If you listen too hard and try to make sense of it, it will be easier for it to infect you.”

Boson squinted at them. “What makes you so sure…?”

“I have observed it happen in other timelines,” Anue simply replied. They then began to walk again, heading up the northern hall.

The hall seemed like it would never end. The leakage was only getting thicker. The knowledge that they were getting closer to the RPG-maker comforted Ralivil, because that meant Anue hadn’t led the Timechasers astray in the View-Monster – but that very same knowledge scared him far more.

After what seemed like an infinite slog through the hall, Anue and the Timechasers finally emerged in a small, round room. Whatever had decorated it had been smothered by the leakage.

“We have arrived in Inp– …my former quarters,” Anue announced.

Sitting at the opposite end of the room was the RPG-maker. Leakage poured out of the entrance and every crevice that had been forced open.

The RPG-maker let out a creak, then a moan. It hissed, creating a cacophony of white noise with its leakage. Ralivil shivered. He glanced wide-eyed at Anue.

Anue made one simple instruction: “Just fight the RPG-maker with everything you have.”

The RPG-maker screeched. The leakage around the room rose into the air, then slammed back down onto the floor. It slid off Anue, Ralivil and Buzzy Bol just fine, though the latter two still panicked and flung attacks around at the leakage. After the initial panic subsided, Buzzy Bol cast PSI Shield Sigma. The leakage then shifted to gather at the doorway. The Timechasers and Anue spun around to face it as it rose into the air and formed a wall in front of the exit. More leakage spilled out of the RPG-maker, and filled the room up again. The leakage hissed. Underneath, it whispered to the adamant souls who had dared to step foot in its domain.

Anue held out a hand toward the RPG-maker, which glowed light yellow for a moment before changing to purple and shooting out a beam. The RPG-maker stood firm. Buzzy Bol shot a barrage of lasers at the RPG-maker, but they didn’t make a scratch. Ralivil fired a PK Freeze Gamma at it, but nothing happened.

Buzzy Bol spun around to look at Boson, who was hovering not too far away from and facing the wall of leakage blocking the exit. “Boson, what are you DOING?! Aren’t you going to help us?”

Boson said nothing. He didn’t even move.

“Boson!” Buzzy Bol shouted. He flew over to the other UFO’s side and snapped, “Boson, this is no time to be mad at Anue! Ever since that argument on Mars you’ve… you’ve been a real pain, you know that? I didn’t want to say anything because I know it’s easier for you to think about the consequences yourself rather than have them pointed out! But this is the end of the line, Boson! I know you think you’re in the right here, but you’re going to die if you don’t help us out!”

Boson said nothing. He didn’t even move.

“Boson! It’s not FUNNY! EVERYTHING IS ON THE LINE RIGHT NOW!”

A thin tentacle of leakage crept up from the mass and latched onto Boson’s UFO. Buzzy Bol shot at it, and the tentacle was broken. However, the part on Boson’s UFO stretched out towards the mass and reconnected with it. Buzzy Bol inched away as a second tentacle of leakage grabbed a hold of the other side of Boson’s UFO.

“…B… Boson…?”

Ralivil had turned his eyestalks to the scene as more leakage piled onto Boson’s UFO. Soon enough, it was hard to tell he was even there at all. The leakage sunk into the UFO, and only then did Boson turn around…

…to reveal his eyes filled with static.

The bottom of Boson’s eyes lifted in a projected grin. “Inpue Osiris, long time no see!”

Anue flinched, then spun around. “Boson… you…” they murmured.

Boson giggled, then hovered right up to Anue’s face. “I knew you would come back to try destroy me. Your other selves did.”

“Let Boson go!” Buzzy Bol snapped.

Boson glanced at Buzzy Bol and replied, “For what reason? He doesn’t want to help you. You trust Inpue. Boson trusts me.”

“N-No he doesn’t!” Ralivil objected. “He’s been trying to stop you with us all along!”

“If he was, he was doing a poor job.”

“What do you know, you… dumb machine?!”

“Ralivil, this is not the time to be arguing,” Anue told him. He looked back at Boson and told him, “Do not think you will have free dominion over this timeline. We will destroy you.”

Boson snickered, then howled with laughter. Its emptiness rang across the room and bounced off the walls.

“Don’t get cocky!” Ralivil snarled.

Boson laughed again, before telling him through giggles, “That’s not the reason why I’m laughing, you idiot!”

Boson’s metallic arm lowered from his UFO and shot a barrage of lasers at Ralivil. Ralivil screamed as he narrowly stepped out of the way of the first few, only to get hit by the rest.

Anue softly growled. They turned their head to Ralivil and Buzzy Bol and ordered, “Attack the RPG-maker. I will make sure Boson does not disrupt you.”

“But Anue, you’re the strongest!” Ralivil argued. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to attack the RPG-maker while me and Buzzy Bol stop Boson?”

“Now that he is being used by the RPG-maker, there is no way to predict what he may do next. It would be safer if I held him back.”

Ralivil stared at Anue hesitantly, before forcing a determined frown onto his face and nodding. He turned to the RPG-maker, then glanced at Buzzy Bol, who had done the same.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” Buzzy Bol replied.

Buzzy Bol fired as many lasers as he could at the RPG-maker. Boson scoffed behind them as the lasers hit the machine. Ralivil took a deep breath in, then held out his right tentacle. A soft pain came from the Prophet’s Mark, and the air temperature dove down even further. He shut his eyes tight as a burst of psychic energy blasted out of his tentacle. Blue lines and geometric shapes danced around the RPG-maker for a couple of moments. Ralivil opened his eyes to see that the RPG-maker was still without a scratch.

Anue had Boson held tight with a purple aura that surrounded both his UFO and their hand. Boson wriggled and shook within Anue’s PSI grasp, but found little success in breaking free. Boson growled, then withdrew the UFO’s metallic arm. Anue raised an eyebrow underneath their hood.

“You are already giving in so soon?” they asked. “That… does not seem like you.”

Boson gave Anue as close to a smirk as his UFO would allow. Leakage directly below him crept up from the floor, latching onto the PSI holding him in place. It hissed and crackled as it met its opponent, but after a few moments, it slunk back into the mass. The aura surrounding both Boson’s UFO and Anue’s hand was gone.

The metallic arm inside Boson’s UFO emerged again. He dove straight for Anue, frantically waving the arm around. Anue jumped out of the way, then outstretched a hand and fired a purple beam of energy. Boson simply flew above it, then dove down at Anue, arm outstretched. Anue grabbed the arm with both hands, then slammed Boson down onto the floor.

Meanwhile, Ralivil and Buzzy Bol had moved onto a different tactic. Buzzy Bol had his metallic arm out as well, pounding against one side of the RPG-maker. Ralivil slapped and jabbed the opposite side frantically. Despite the efforts, they hadn’t made a single dent. He paused for a moment to catch his breath.

“Hey Buzzy Bol,” Ralivil called out, “what if I attacked from the inside?”

Buzzy Bol frowned. “It may have worked on that monster back on Mars, but with all the leakage coming out of it, I’d be surprised if you could get in at all.”

“Isn’t it worth a shot, though?”

Buzzy Bol tilted his metallic arm’s hand left and right in a ‘maybe’ gesture. “I wouldn’t try it, but if you want to…”

Ralivil stepped into the thick river of leakage pouring out of the RPG-maker’s entrance. He could barely take two steps without the leakage working against him. He counted five steps before he was pushed out and fell onto his back.

Despite Anue’s best attempts, Boson kept getting back up. He kept dodging their PSI attacks, and the physical attacks that landed only made him laugh at most. They looked over at the RPG-maker at the same time Ralivil glanced over to them.

“Anue!” Ralivil called out, “I have an idea! Could you try attacking the inside of the RPG-maker? One of those weird beams could get through the leakage, right?”

Anue nodded, then jumped over to the RPG-maker’s entrance. They held out a hand, which was soon lit up by a light yellow light surrounding it. The light changed in hue to purple before a beam burst from their hand. The beam cut right through the leakage, but whether or not it hit anything was anyone’s guess.

From behind them, Boson cackled. “You idiots! Did you really expect that to WORK?!”

“…We cannot beat you through brute force?” Anue asked.

“Why would you be able to?”

A thunderous CRACK echoed throughout the room. It was followed by an ear piercing cacophony of hissing and the floor below them shaking. Of everyone’s in the room, Boson’s eyes shrunk the most.

“No! NO! This wasn’t supposed to happen! I was supposed to destroy this timeline!” he wailed.

Ralivil’s eyes went wide. “Wait, it wasn’t the RPG-maker that…?”

Anue turned to Ralivil and Buzzy Bol. Over the hissing, they ordered, “Move away from the RPG-maker.”

Ralivil and Buzzy Bol wasted no time in doing what they were told. They scrambled in front of Anue.

“I do not have much time before this timeline is destroyed, but I wanted to apologise. I only wanted to save this timeline, but I fear I may have unintentionally played a hand in its destruction. Now please, stand still.”

Anue held their hands together, and underneath their hood, they closed their eyes. They began muttering alien words, and a silvery blue glow began to surround their body. They held out their hands, thumbs side by side, and the outline of a square formed in front of them. The square travelled towards Ralivil and Buzzy Bol, and once it was only a couple of centimeters away, it extended into a cube around them. There was a flash, and once the light faded, they had disappeared. In their places were two floating orbs of light: “ralivil” and “bbol”. Anue picked up the two orbs and let them hover above their left hand and they held out their right. They began muttering more alien words, and a white light began to glow above their hand. There was a flash before the light faded. A picture of the Timechasers – all four – now floated above their right hand.

Anue muttered yet more alien words – these ones of a different tongue – and a portal to a silvery cliff appeared before them. They put their hands into the portal and let the two orbs and the photo drift away. As soon as Anue pulled their hands out, the portal blinked shut.

“Goodbye… and… thank you for staying with me…”

There was a splitting CRACK from somewhere outside.