Chapter 5

Ruby rose kept thinking of Seahorse and how quickly she COULD have been killed. But she had to stop thinking about it, since they had a Dragon who definitely didn't look as she said. Secret keeper couldn't be what she says she is, especially if she was from the future... something was definitely wrong. They were questioning her, calmly, in a nearby den.

" So... how did you get here? " Lilly said.

" I found a time bracelet in his castle. I was the only person to grab it. If I didn't grab it, Brainstorm would come to kill you himself. " "Secret keeper" said.

" Did he change you? " Ruby rose said.

" Yeah... I was this close to being controlled. I only got the scale change. " secret keeper looked down at herself and then at Lilly. " Look, my name isn't Secret keeper... That was the first name I could think of that wouldn't mess up the timeline. " She shifted her scales and revealed herself as a mostly pink, with purple stripes running diagonally on her wings and side, and blue spots on her face and side, with the same spots that seemed to look like drops on the tops of her wings.

" My name is Karisma. I'm a Rain and Silk hybrid. I don't know how everything happened, but it seemed to happen so quickly. Brainstorm came from a large balcony, that was covered in vines. At this point, we all thought Brainstorm was a hero since he was seen taking down Deca-brids... well... most people. It seemed too strange that about ten years of evolution was jumped ahead and that they are all evil... for some reason. Anyway, we all sat by his balcony as he said he was going to give a speech that day. He came out with a strange dragon by his side... a deca-brid if ever I saw it. He put a tube down and sprayed most of us. I was camped in a nearby tree when I saw another dragon run for his life. He was then caught and executed by the deca-brid. I had to stay hidden, but I was then caught in the blast. I woke up, on the ground, with the entire colony of hybrids, tri-brids, and quad-brids all looking exactly the same. No one seemed unique, and they all looked like they were controlled by the breath of evil that my ancestors left behind. I stood exactly like everyone else until I heard Brainstorm talk about his plan to kill his own daughter. He said you were a Deca-brid before we were made the same. Now he seemed to speak to them in their mind. It was time for me to get out of here, but something inside decided to go into the balcony window and see what he was planning. I flew through the window, almost out of sight, and discovered the time bracelets. He found me and was planning to kill me. In a moment, I teleported far into the past. I found myself in the old Pantalian colony with Beetlewings. I realized that, once I teleported, I also went back in time. I had to travel for three days with almost no food to Phyrriha. I then found that, inside the bracelet, was a message on how to kill everyone... I had to do something to stop it. I never thought that the plan involved Darkstalker himself. "

They did seem surprised. They raised their eyes and jaws and began to speak.

" Well, we're fine so far. " Ruby rose then turned to Lilly. " Look, how can we trust her? She 'said' she just passed by Brainstorm. No one just whizzes past a powerful scientist and pretends nothing happened. "

" But something did happen. I have a feeling this extra Darkstalker business is because of Karisma... look, she may be our way home. First, we bring down the army of Darkstalkers, then return home. Once we're home, we stop Brainstorm's plan of world domination. " Lilly said.

" We could use that against him " Karisma says " I remember him saying that Darkstalker blocked all paths to Phyrriha.... now that he's gone, looking for me, he could be King of two continents... which seems like a lot of work. I don't think everyone will agree with you. "

They both turned to see Karisma standing right beside them.

" Oh... I guess you heard us then... " Ruby rose said, a little startled.

" Eh, don't worry. I promise you I'm not a threat. I can't get you home, since the time bracelet broke and hit a tree on my way down onto Pantala. But, as with my new abilities, I can only see one way to get us home. "

" We need to put things right again. " Lilly responded before Karisma could even think it.

" Yeah... that. "

" Where do we find him now? " Ruby rose asked.

" At the old Nightwing kingdom. "

Ruby rose used to tell Seahorse all about the old Nightwing kingdom. In the future (their present) Seahorse always thought the animatronics were the most interesting, and would also mess with them without the park employees knowing. One time, in fact, the last time, they both helped each other one was to make a very large Darkstalker animatronic, which looked nothing liked what was described in the book of history, and make it seem Darkstalker possessed it. The machine was about as big as the two cousins on top of each other. The eyes seemed soulless at the time and were only lit with a bit of flame. The eyes of every animatronic had a piece of colored plastic, that would slowly melt and always had to be replaced. The outer plating was hand-painted to look like Darkstalker's scales... but it would usually be repainted during the summer heat. (No one would go during the summer, so it was usually a good time to avoid the crowds during the summer.) The plating was really spaced out and was able to have almost a full dragon to place their hand inside the machine. They took everything out of the machine, then climbed inside. Seahorse was the front, and Seahorse was the back. There were some "adjustments "they had to make. They had to make sure the legs moved when they moved, so they had to create a spinning system, made by Ruby rose. They scared the entire staff and any other tourist. It could have worked, if Ruby rose didn't get her tail jammed into the tail-wagger. They had to step out of the machine and had to get a worker to help them out. They were never let in after that.

It took only a few hours to get to the old Nightwing kingdom, and they found it full of Nightwings. The good news, they had all the Darkstalkers in their sight. Bad news, they had Turtle in their grasp... well, more like the future Darkstalker had Turtle.

" You caused me so much trouble in OUR future, now we'll make yours even worse. "

They threw Turtle against the wall, like an old grain bag, and they thought they heard a snap from his spine. Turtle tried to get up, but it seemed he couldn't.

" Please... I can't... I can't live like this... " Turtle began to tear. Ruby Rose was about to jump at the Darkstalkers, but the others had to bring her down, where they couldn't see the Darkstalkers.

" Calm down, Ruby rose. We'll get them soon, in the meantime, we have to find everyone else. " Lilly whispered.

They looked back up to see that the Darkstalkers were gone, and Turtle was still twitching. They slowly walked over to Turtle to make sure Darkstalker wasn't watching them... but once they got there, Turtle didn't have a head.