by A. K. DuBoff
“We just stick it in there?” Maris asked.
“I guess so.” I looked between the shard in the palm of my hand and the orb.
Worry filled Kaiden’s eyes. “How will it know when to reset to? If it only goes back five minutes, we’re still dead.”
“The cybernetic link!” I hovered my hands side-by-side two centimeters above the crystal. The shard felt tingly and warm in my palm so close to the sphere. “Maybe if we all think about where we want to reset to, it’ll do that.”
“I don’t know what else to suggest,” Toran said.
“It needs to be sometime when we were all together and we weren’t about to die,” Kaiden said, his brow knit.
“What about right after we sealed the Archive?” I suggested.
“Yeah, that could work.” He nodded.
“Why not go back before that?” Maris said. “If we could see into the Archive for clues.”
“Going back to an older reset point might not un-seal it,” I said. “In fact, the point was made that the Archive exists outside of our reality.”
“Wouldn’t it be worth trying?” she insisted.
“For that matter, go back to before the Darkness appeared,” Toran said.
“But we weren’t in our new bodies yet,” I protested. “It needs to be after we met.”
A shudder wracked the ship.
“There’s no time to argue!” I continued. “We’ll go with right after we sealed the Archive.”
“Okay,” the others agreed.
With thoughts of the significant moments from the past two weeks still drifting through my head, I prepared to merge the shard. My friends each held their hands above the crystal’s surface like mine.
I looked each of them in the eyes. “See you on the other side.” I pressed my hands against the sphere, and the shard held against my palm was absorbed into the orb.
The crystal was warm against my hands, radiating not only heat but also an aura of power I couldn’t fully comprehend. All I knew was that the sphere was my connection to both past and future. I needed it to save me and my friends while there was still any hope.
I pictured the moment we finished sealing the Archive—the elation and relief I felt having accomplished a task that had seemed impossible. I tried to envision the cavern with the seemingly endless rows of crystals. In that moment, I was thankful for my family, my new body, the artifacts, and the skills that had enabled me to accomplish those things. I had been born anew, and that moment was affirmation that I had become my full self.
Blackness closed in around me. I held the images in my head as best I could, trying to trust in the crystalline network—that it would detect our good intentions and aid us in accomplishing our goal. I floated in nothingness in the way I had after the reset on Erusan before I awoke on the Evangiel. As much as I wanted to remain confident, part of me wondered if this time I wouldn’t wake up, that I might be trapped in the darkness forever.
15
The moment stretched on. I sensed myself drifting away, pieces fading into the surroundings.
Just when I was worried there might not be anything of myself left, light crept in at the edges of my vision. I pulled myself toward the bright point in the distance.
At last, I sensed air in my lungs and my vision cleared. I was standing in front of a meter-tall crystal column, and a small crystal shard was in my hand. The crystal was at the center of a ten-meter-wide platform inside a giant cavern covered in millions of crystals. I was overcome with a sense of joy as I took it in.
“We did it!” I said. “We sealed the Archive.” There was something else nagging at the back of my mind, like I’d forgotten something.
“We should get back to the Evangiel and give Colren our report,” Kaiden said.
Colren… there was something I was supposed to tell him. I looked at the crystal shard in my hand. It had something to do with that.
Toran led the way back to our shuttle while I tried to remember whatever it was I had forgotten.
“You okay, Elle?” Maris asked me.
I looked around at the eerily familiar surroundings. “Have we been here before?”
“Well, yeah, on the way in,” she replied.
Kaiden placed his hand on my back. “You sure you’re feeling all right?” His touch was familiar, setting me at ease in a way I didn’t expect.
“Yeah, just worn out, I guess,” I replied.
We exited the Archive, pausing only to clean the monument we’d defaced earlier in our quest. As we stepped outside into the diffused purple light of Crystallis, I was overcome again with the feeling that I’d been in that place before. The towering crystals scattered throughout the two-kilometer-wide valley were alien to my eye, yet I couldn’t shake the impression that I’d stood in that exact place admiring the view. I shook my head slowly, hoping the déjà vu would pass.
“It’s a magnificent sight, isn’t it?” Toran commented.
“Yeah. Don’t think I could ever get tired of it,” I replied.
He nodded. “All the same, I hope we never have to come back here.”
“With you there.” I followed him down the scree slope toward the shuttle.
We entered the craft and got situated on the bridge. My friends were visibly relaxed compared to the tension we’d been under for the past week, and it warmed me to see genuine smiles on their faces.
Kaiden, in particular, had a lightness about him I had only witnessed in the briefest moments during our time together. As he secured his flight harness, his gaze caught mine. “I can’t believe we actually pulled that off.”
I smiled back. “Never thought I would slay a dragon.”
“First time for everything.” His gaze lingered on me for a moment longer, then he turned his attention to the flight controls.
Jovial small talk continued during the flight back to the Evangiel. By the time we entered the hangar, I had convinced myself that the odd feeling of familiarity was just the adrenaline from the days’ events coloring memories of the other missions with my team. So much had happened in such a short time, it was no wonder that the experiences had started to blur together.
After being greeted by a joyous maintenance crew, we took the central lift to the command deck. As we passed by the ancillary pod room across from the weapons vault in the corridor, Kaiden caught my eye and nodded toward the door to the pod room. “Elle, hang back a minute.”
Toran glanced over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow.
“We’ll be right there,” Kaiden replied to the silent query.
My heart skipped a beat as we waited for the others to go ahead, and I followed Kaiden inside the pod room.
When the door had closed behind us, Kaiden took a step closer to me. “You were amazing today, with the dragon and everything. I’d say that in front of them, too, but there’s something else that’s more… private.”
“What’s that?” I stared into his sky-blue eyes.
“When I was lying there on the floor of that cavern, thinking it was all over, all I could think about was that we’d left things at a ‘maybe someday’. But we have no idea what’s coming tomorrow or a minute from now, so what’s the point in waiting?”
Those same thoughts ignited in my own mind. Or, they felt like my thoughts. Somehow, it was almost more like a memory. “There will always be another reason to wait.”
“Exactly. And I don’t want to miss the chance to see what we could have.” Kaiden stepped toward me until we were almost touching. Gently, he brushed the fingertips of his right hand along my shoulder and then cupped the side of my face in the palm of his hand.
“I don’t, either.” A tingle of desire surged through me as I stared into his eyes. I slid my left hand behind his head and locked him in a passionate kiss.
We melted into each other, the stress and uncertainty of the previous week fading into the background. I was eager to lose myself in him and forget what we had been thr
ough. In that moment, it was only us, and I’d want it no other way.
Even though we’d never done more than hug or hold hands before, I somehow felt like I knew him—how to touch, how to move. As I followed my instincts, I could feel him respond how I sensed he would, and he somehow knew exactly how to caress me even though I didn’t consciously know myself what I wanted.
Eventually, we separated, breathless.
Kaiden’s lips parted in a stunned smile. “Wow.”
I grinned. “Good wow?”
“Definitely.” He paused. “That didn’t feel like a first kiss.”
“It really didn’t.” While I didn’t have much experience on the matter, my friends back on Erusan had talked about enough awkward encounters for me to know that instant physical sync was rare, to say the least. There should have been some level of awkwardness or uncertainty. Either we were soul mates, or… I gnawed on my lower lip. “Was it our first?”
He chuckled. “Considering we were interrupted by Maris the last time we almost did—”
“No, not then.” I shook my head. “Never mind.”
Kaiden cocked his head. “You can’t start a statement like that and not finish.”
I sighed. “I dunno, ever since we left the Archive I just can’t shake the feeling that we’ve done all of this before.”
“Yeah, I remember what you said earlier.”
“I know it sounds crazy.”
He swallowed. “It would, except being with you just now, I couldn’t help thinking the same thing.”
I took an unsteady breath. “How would that be possible?”
“The only thing that comes to mind is a reset.”
“But we remember those.”
“We’re supposed to remember them.”
I tugged on the end of my braid. “I wonder if Toran or Maris have had any of these same feelings?”
“Only way to find out is to ask,” Kaiden replied. “And they’re probably wondering where we are.”
“Oh, right! Colren.” I glanced toward the door. “Should we say something?”
“About a potential reset or what we were doing in here?”
“Both.”
He linked his fingers with mine. “Regarding this, I think we can drop a few subtle hints and they’ll figure it out. As for the other thing, let’s give it a little bit and see if anything else unusual sticks out.”
“Works for me.”
Still holding hands, we exited the pod room and continued down the corridor to Central Command. When we entered, we found that Toran and Maris were already with Commander Colren in the conference room. Kaiden and I rushed to join them, dropping our hands to our sides as we entered.
“Nice of you to join us,” Colren stated, his gaze fixed on us as we found our seats.
“Sorry, Commander.” My cheeks flushed.
Maris smirked. “We were just getting to the part about the rock titan outside the Archive.”
“Yes, that.” I nodded.
Kaiden and I interjected bits about our battles with the rock titan, spirit elemental, and dark dragon while Toran took the lead on the explanation. When Toran finished the description of the Master Archive and our talk with the mysterious voice, Colren leaned back in his chair.
“That explains so much,” the commander said, shaking his head with amazement.
“Unfortunately, the information doesn’t help us know how to stop the Darkness and whatever beings are behind it,” Toran said. “All we can say is the records are safe.”
Colren nodded. “That’s what we hoped to achieve. Also, now we know this assault on our worlds was a first wave and ships may be coming next. That’s more information than we had before.”
Maris crossed her arms. “Even after all of that, we still don’t have any other hints about what to do next? For a place that was supposed to hold all the answers, we didn’t get many.”
“There was nothing else?” Colren asked.
I snapped to attention. “Well, there was one other thing.” I pulled the crystal shard from my pocket. It tingled in my palm, almost like it was resonating with the magical energy inside of me.
The commander carefully took the crystal from my outstretched hand. “Where did you get this?”
“It’s a piece of a crystal in the Archive,” I replied. “The voice said it would aid us in the trials ahead.”
“Stars!” Colren exclaimed. “Could it be…?” He examined the tiny crystal fragment with awe in his eyes.
“Do you know what it is?” I asked.
Colren cracked a smile. “It appears to be a shard from a Master Crystal. I didn’t think we’d ever get access to one.”
I tilted my head. “What it is, exactly?”
“If there’s any truth to the legends, it’s connected to the Master Archive,” Colren explained. “Such a shard provides a direct hyperdimensional link to allow backups beyond our inhabited worlds.”
Kaiden frowned. “And what does that mean for us?”
The commander’s eyes shined with renewed hope. “This is the tool we needed. It gives us a control point.”
“It would enable a universal reset,” I murmured, meeting Kaiden’s gaze.
“That’s right.” Colren nodded. “With this, you could access the Master Archive from anywhere and use it as the locus of the reset event.”
“Even with the Master Archive sealed?” Kaiden asked.
“With the Master Archive sealed, a shard like this would be the only way to conduct a reset, as I understand it,” Colren replied. “But, as powerful as this tool is, there are so many unknowns that I’m not sure if it’s viable.”
Toran nodded. “A last resort, then.”
Kaiden and I exchanged glanced again. “So, if we did use it, there could be side effects?” he asked.
The commander shrugged. “I couldn’t even begin to predict what might happen. Controlling the timeframe of the reset would be a challenge even with the tools at our disposal. Furthermore, there’s no telling how a reset on an interstellar scale would work.” He stared at the crystal in his palm. “I look at this and see a way to restore the worlds that have already been lost, but it could also mean going back in time before any of us exist. As much as I want to use it, we need to try to find another way.”
I shifted in my seat. “I guess we would have to be pretty desperate if we decided to use it, then.”
Maris smiled. “That’s for our future selves to worry about. For now, I say we should call today a victory.”
“Indeed, it was,” Toran agreed.
I forced a smile. “Yeah, totally.”
“Take the rest of the day to celebrate and rest,” Colren told us. “We’ll regroup in the morning and figure out our next steps.”
“Thank you, Commander. See you then.” Kaiden rose from the table.
The bridge crew offered us thanks and congratulations as we passed through, but I barely heard the words. All I could think about was the potential side effects of a universal reset and wonder if what I was experiencing might be related to that. Based on Kaiden’s intense expression, I suspected he was thinking about the same thing.
“So, how are we going to celebrate?” Maris asked as soon as we were in the corridor outside Central Command.
“Not sure if I’m up for much of a party,” I replied, far too preoccupied with other thoughts.
Maris eyed me, an amused smile playing on her lips. “Just hoping for some alone time with Kaiden?”
“No, that’s not—” He started in response then cut off. “Yeah, we’ve grown close, but there’s something else going on.”
I nodded. “You know earlier what I asked if we’d been in that cavern before? Well, those same feelings of familiarity keep happening.”
“I started noticing things, too,” Kaiden added. “We were talking about it before the meeting. That’s why we were late.”
“Have you experienced anything out of the ordi
nary?” I asked Toran and Maris.
Toran frowned. “Nothing specific.”
“But there’s a feeling, right?” I pressed. “Like we’ve had these conversations before. Not precisely the same, but similar.”
Maris sighed. “Next you’re going to say that this has something to do with that crystal shard thing.”
“It might,” Kaiden replied.
“Colren said there could be side effects after a universal reset,” I continued. “What if there was one and we don’t remember?”
“That would mean something went wrong and our consciousness didn’t reknit correctly,” Toran said.
“We have nothing to go on other than a hunch,” Kaiden continued. “It might be nothing—just a bizarre byproduct of being in the Master Archive. But what if we did do a universal reset? What had happened to make us try something so extreme?”
“Maybe we learned how to control it?” Maris speculated.
Toran inclined his head. “Perhaps. Or, we were so desperate we’d try anything to get another chance.”
I swallowed. “Whatever the circumstances, what we do next will dictate whether we go down that same path or have a different, better outcome.”
Maris’ brows drew together. “How can we have things turn out differently if we don’t remember what we did the first time around?”
“We need to try to remember,” I implored. “Keep track of all of those little things that seem familiar. Assemble the pieces.”
“We should bring this to Colren,” Toran suggested.
“And we will, as soon as there’s anything actionable,” I assured him. “Right now, all we could say is that we think we get into trouble at some point and resort to a universal reset. That sounds more stress-inducing than helpful.”
Maris glared at me. “You don’t say?”
“Elle is right. The commander has enough on his mind right now without piling on an issue this vague,” Kaiden agreed. “The four of us need to figure out what we can so we have something solid to bring him.”
“Very well,” Toran conceded.
Maris sighed. “All right, fine. Where does that leave us with the celebratory party?”
