Chronicles of a Caped Crusader: Days Yet to Pass: Part Seven

     Chloe mounted the stairs back to the sitting room where she had left Buzz. She opened the door quietly and found Buzz still there. He was sitting across from Kristy, having pulled a chair up to the sofa where she was now seated. She had finally changed out of the ridiculous costume she had been wearing, and was now attired in denim jeans and a sweater that was nearly identical to her favorite green-blue sweater of her own time. The familiar clothes only highlighted to her how much her mother had changed in the time since then. The emptiness in her eyes, the lines in her face, the loss of curl in her hair. Even after all she had seen and heard, she still couldn't imagine all of what everyone must have been through in the last decade.

     Buzz was holding Kristy's hands talking in voices so low that Chloe couldn't make out what they were saying. Judging by the look on Kristy's face, she assumed it was about her. Chloe hated to know that what came next was likely to be worse than anything yet.

     She knocked on the doorframe to let them know she was there and they glanced over at her.

     “Talking about me?” she asked, unable to think of anything else to say.

     “Yeah,” Kristy said, tossing her head the way she always did when she was admitting to something she didn't really want to admit to.

     “Can I know about what?”

     “Chloe, you can't save the world,” Kristy said, looking away from her and out the window.

     “I won't say that things have been turned around from worse than this; I know things have never been as bad as this, but you don't know that it can't be turned around and Iniquitous overthrown. If we can get the various branches of the Resistance to cooperate, perhaps we can mount a full scale attack on Iniquitous' base and cut off the problem at the source? Maybe we can finally somehow make contact with the Faeries and convince them to return and help us. I know I haven't lived out the last ten years and seen the world fall apart, so I might be too optimistic, but maybe you've all become too pessimistic?” Chloe cut in.

     Kristy rose, shaking her head. “Chloe, that's not the point. Even if you go back to the Resistance and fight Iniquitous, you cannot save this world. It died a long time ago; the world has just been so distracted they haven't realized it yet. The Faeries are gone. They left the planet several years ago; that's why no one has been successful in making contact in all that time. When they left, their magic left with them. The only reason the wraiths didn't run rampant again is because Iniquitous was ready for that and was able to harness them into a power source for his factories and robots. This has caused a grave imbalance in the world. Recently, chasms have been opening in the earth. The Resistance assumed that it was from testing of a new super weapon created by Iniquitous, but that's not correct. It's the first signs of the end. In fifty years, there won't be a Neopia. There is nothing that can be done to restore the balance at this point. Maybe if we could find the Faeries in the next few months, and convince them to return and help us, it could be delayed a few generations, but we've gone past the point of no return. The world is ending; the apocalypse is at our door.”

     Chloe turned to look at Buzz, and he nodded sadly. “I've not shared this information with the Resistance,” he admitted. “But, what she says is true. Given that there is no way to stop this from happening, it didn't seem right to alert them to it yet. There is a small mercy in letting them think there is hope somewhere and somehow for a future. The truth will become obvious soon enough.”

     Chloe leaned against the wall, feeling weak. “So, there was no point to everything? All their efforts to try to bring a savior from the past, to fight back, their never ending squabbles with each other, and they don't know it yet?”

     Kristy nodded.

     “I can't do nothing, though,” Chloe said. “I can't live here like this, Kristy. Under the thumb of Iniquitous, doing nothing to fight an old foe. At least, if we fight back against him, we'll have a chance to see a brief time of freedom before the end. I need to fight.”

     Kristy sighed and leaned back in her chair. “That's what we were talking about. We knew you wouldn't be able to just stay here with me and live the years we have left with your sisters. But, Chloe, Iniquitous won't let you live if he finds out you have returned. All his efforts will be focused on destroying you to prove a point. The Resistance is broken. You will never unite them, and you will have to choose among them. So many have tried to unite them and failed. Buzz and I tried to unite them, and we failed. Do you stand with the Citadel against the Lost Desert? Choose Elise and Bluejay over Princess and Anita? Or do you forsake all of them and follow Buzz to the Space Station? Are you going to choose the older four of your siblings over the three younger? You will never be able to come back here once you make your presence in this world known. This may be your last chance to see them. If you stay here quietly, eventually, we will capture the rest of your siblings and have them brought here. But, never you. I know Iniquitous won't allow that. I'll lose you again.”

     Chloe groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “I wish there was a way to compromise. A way we could all somehow be together and fighting Iniquitous.”

     “There is actually.”

     They all turned to look. Yanli was in the doorway, pushing Veronica in her wheelchair. They entered the room and Yanli began to grin.

     “We can fix this,” she announced. “There may actually be a way to save the world.”

     Chloe looked back at Kristy and Buzz and then back to her sister. They looked just as dumbfounded. In a previous time, Chloe would have thought Yanli was just being her usual enthusiastic self, but considering that she had created a machine capable of pulling her through time, she was ready to listen and hope that Yanli might actually have a workable plan.

     “Okay, butterfly,” Kristy said, leaning forward in her seat. “Tell me how.”

     “I'll let Veronica do that. You know I get distracted and go off on tangents,” Yanli said, nodding at her.

     “Long story short, Yanli and I believe we can adapt the machine that brought Chloe here to send her back to the moments before she was brought here. Her time there will be brief, but it should be long enough to affect changes that can prevent the destruction of the Defenders. If the Defenders survive that attack, or if the attack never happens, everything that has happened in the last ten years should no longer come to pass,” Veronica explained quickly.

     Chloe exchanged glances with Buzz and Kristy again.

     “So, you're going to need the machine for this, aren't you?” Buzz asked slowly.

     “Yes, of course,” Veronica replied. “The sooner the better. I'm sure they are already tampering with it, trying to figure out why it didn't bring the person they wanted. The more they tamper with it, the less likely it'll be that we can adapt it to our needs.”

     Buzz looked grim. “I don't know how we are going to accomplish that. They will never let me near the machine, and Chloe is going to be under constant surveillance if she returns. She'd never be able to smuggle the machine out. I highly doubt telling the truth at this stage would yield any results.”

     “Girls, how certain are you that you can make this work?” Kristy asked.

     Veronica looked to Yanli who gave Kristy a huge grin. “With Veronica's help, I don't think I can fail. I'd have had that machine done a long time ago if I had had another two weeks before I was captured. If I get it back unchanged from however it was when they brought Chloe here, we can have it ready to send Chloe back in a matter of days. I'm absolutely certain of that.”

     Kristy rose, her face grim, but determined. “Chloe, I'm afraid you're not going to be able to go back to the Citadel. It's time for it to fall.”

     Chloe felt her stomach turn icy. “Kristy, you don't mean...”

     “I've known where the Citadel is moment by moment since I left. I'm hardly a fool enough not to have left myself a backdoor into their systems. It'll be an easy thing to tell Iniquitous that I turned a member of the Resistance who gave me the intel. I can be back within thirty-six hours with the machine. If Yanli can accomplish sending you back in time and preventing this future, then the Resistance taking this big a hit won't matter. You need to be absolutely sure though, Yanli,” Kristy explained.

     “I am absolutely certain,” Yanli repeated.

     “I can't be as certain, because I'm not Yanli, and the plans are mostly in her head, but based on what we discussed, I'm fairly confident that Yanli knows what she is doing,” Veronica added.

     “Good enough for me. Buzz, do you need to return to the station before I launch this?” Kristy asked, turning to him.

     “No, if I return without Chloe, they'll know where I went. When the Citadel falls, I'll be the first they suspect of being the traitor. Even the Station won't back me on this one. If the world is going to change, I'll stay here to help how I can. If nothing else, I can look after your girls while you are acquiring the machine,” Buzz said.

     “Thank you, Buzz. That would mean a lot to me,” Kristy said, laying a hand on his arm. “Well, time to get back into costume. I have a kingdom to topple.”

     Chloe cringed as Kristy delivered those words. She watched her walk out, her walk filled with grim purpose. All she could do now was hope that Yanli was right, and everything went according to plan.

     To be continued…