Chapter 10 (home)

We come out of the store room and we are welcomed by a snowy scenery. My subconscious turns to me with his eyes narrowed.

"What is this place?" It asks me and I play with my fingers.

"We are in a small town in Europe," I rub my chin with my fingers pretending that I am thinking about something. "I think this is 1756 or 1760, I am not sure but I am certain that this is the 18th century."

It is just so intriguing that I thought of a sparsely populated place in Europe back in the eighteenth century before we disappeared and appeared here and it worked, I was able to bring us here thanks to my awesome powers.

"Are you crazy?" It raises its voice and I nearly burst out in laughter that my living mind is kind of arguing with me.

"Maybe," I reply with a weird grin on my face.

"How are we going to get out of here?" It asks me and I scratch my head.

"The same way we got here," I make gestures with my hands in the air, "it's as easy as that."

My subconscious face palmed itself and shot a glare at me.

"You are tired and you have run out of XO, how then?" It states and it strikes my mind that it's right, if I don't replenish my energy we will be stuck here forever.

"I'll find something to eat and then have a good rest," I say confidently and it rolls its eyes.

"Look around where do think you will see something to eat from?" It raises its hands in the air, "Here is a snow wasteland."

I look around and the whole place is covered with white snow and pine trees. I expected here to have some buildings but nothing was in sight. The air is chill and my body is cold.

Where will I find something to eat?

"If I can't take us back, she'll take us back," I say referring to Skylar who is standing beside me. She has her hands crossed on her chest and she slowly rubs her palms against her snow-white body.

"She can't. You are the only one that can use the Xera Link so you are the only one that can take us out of here," it tells me.

What's the Xera link?

"What's the Xera Link?" I voice my mind. I suspect that it is what I was able to use to get us here and that will likely be what I'll use to get us out of here.

"The Xera link is a pathway that connects the universe and its timeline," it explains and illustrates with its hands. "It's like a web of cosmic chains connecting one timeline to another and one destination to another. You can use this to travel to anywhere in the universe," it pauses, "Only special beings can use it." It points its finger at me. "You are one of them, Jayden."

If I can use this Xera link to travel to the past and any timeline I want, why can't I travel to the origin of Hermedox and end him there? That will be easier to look for a way to stop him from enslaving the whole universe.

"I know what you're thinking," my subconscious whispers weirdly and comes closer to me. It brings its face closer to mine, its eyes are wide and I can see a glint of excitement in them. "You can't just go back to the past and stop Hermedox from coming into existence," it cackles like an old witch. "Everything has rules including the usage of the Xera link."

Shit.

I know that it will not be as easy as I thought...is this universe just designed to make things hard?

"What are the rules?" I ask it. I know that it consumes a lot of XO because I feel my XO almost drained after bringing all of us here.

"The past might not affect the future, so even if you go back to the past and stop Hermedox from coming into existence, it might not change the future. And some somethings are destined to happen, Heremdox taking over the whole galactic realm and you stopping him is one of them." It raises its voice and spreads its hands into the air like a maniac.

"What if I don't want to do this?" I question it, "What if I don't want to save this universe from what is coming?"

I am just 17 and then one morning I am asked to protect the universe from the enslavement of an evil being...I am clueless about what to do, this seems dangerous and ridiculous at the same time. I still hardly believe any of this. I feel like I am still in one of my long unending nightmares waiting for my mom or someone to wake me up.

"Then the Universe suffers," it replies coldly and I begin to walk away. Skylar follows me, and I do nothing about it. Even though I am discussing with my subconscious I am still keenly paying attention to her, I don't trust her and she can attack me so I have to be careful around her.

"The universe has always been in much suffering...earth especially." I stop walking and turn to it. "We will cope, we are humans."

"You know nothing, Jayden, you don't know what is coming, you have to accept this fate it's inevitable!" It tries to convince me but I keep on walking.

"Do you know what will happen if Hermedox gets what he wants? Do you want the Universe--earth to be like Zyron?" It keeps on speaking but I don't pay attention to it.

"Tsk. How annoying could this get," it curses under its breath, "since you are proving stubborn I'll show you."

I stop walking and then a thick black mist envelops me.

"I'll show you everything." My subconscious voice fades out and then I begin to stare around, Skylar is still behind me and she is as confused as I am. I can't see my surroundings everywhere is black, Skylar moves closer to me and I feel her hands wrap around my arm.

I look at where she is holding me...is she scared?

The dark mist slowly fades away and I gradually begin to see what lies in front of me.

My eyes become wide as I see what lies in front of me, people who look like Skylar living in terrible conditions, they lived in ruins. I am touched, I don't know these people but I feel very bad for them.

I presume this is Zyron, I thought it was completely destroyed but I am glad that it isn't and that there are still some people living in it

I turn to Skylar and her eyes are sad.

"Home." She mutters. The