For just a second it all felt so real. In the blink of an eye he and all the trillions of life forms across his universe not only felt alive, but had an entire life time's worth of memories behind them. As far as they were aware for just that fraction of time, they were real. Then it all came crumbling down. Their world which had managed through sheer will to manifest itself for only a second, returned to the darkness from which it had come.
Just one creature from that universe however had managed to hold on. A being who, had her reality managed to manifest itself properly would have been known as Algrasa to her people. She would have been a great and noble figure helping them overcome a dark period in their history.
Now however she was simply an echo of a time that would never come. A phantom that might be able to linger on for a few more years in this nightmarish state before evaporating into nothing. She wasn't even sure how much longer she could hold onto her identity and her memories of a life that she had never actually lived.
In the seemingly endless darkness ahead of her however, a strange ball of light began to appear. It soon formed into something, though what she couldn't quite make out. It appeared to be a small building of some sort, that was brightly coloured and in places looked more than a little worse for wear.
In spite of this however the phantom could sense tremendous power coming from the building. Power that for a short while allowed her to be more stable, both mentally and physically. She briefly took on a physical form in the dark endless void, before shifting back into a ghostly apparition. Still she could sense that there was something greater within this strange light in the darkness that could perhaps be the key to her people's salvation.
"What, what's going on." Ashlei said as Carlene helped her up.
"I'm sorry to tell you darling, but it wasn't a dream." Carlene said, as Ashlei got sight of the ruined tent around them. The fountain had completely dried up, the stone walls were cracked. There were even holes in certain parts of the tent.
Suddenly Florence who was working on something at the back noticed Ashlei was awake and ran towards her.
"Finally awake. For a second there I thought, no I had hoped you were." Florence said with anger and revulsion, the likes of which none of the crew had ever seen before.
"Don't you dare." Carlene interrupted, whilst getting in front of Ashlei.
"I'm not about to defend what she did back there to Keptis, but it was a difficult situation. None of us came out of it well." Carlene said.
"She's just a girl. If you want her, you'll have to come through me. All of you will. I made a promise to this young girl" before Carlene could finish, Denika sent her flying with her magic half way across the room.
Florence couldn't help but laugh, but before she could do anything, Denika held her back as well.
"Nobody is going to hurt her." Denika said.
"After what happened however we clearly can't have her stay with us. She needs to go on the next hospitable planet we land on." Denika said to the Circus Master.
"Believe me I want that more than any of you." The Circus Master said.
"I doubt that." Keptis replied bitterly.
"Sadly we have to keep her with us for the time being. The book that Daniel gave me when we rescued the older version of him, mentioned another meeting he had with us, when Ashlei was there. That was why I took her on in the first place remember. If we dump her now, we'd be changing history. For the time being we're stuck."
"Did the book mention anything about me being with the team at that point?" Keptis asked, much to the others, especially Florence's shock.
"I'm sorry but I can't work with her after what she did to me." Keptis said.
"I wouldn't have done it." Ashlei protested.
"I don't care, you could have easily killed me through your own stupidity. I can't trust you, and that's why if she stays. You can dump me on the nearest asteroid for all I care." Keptis replied.
"Don't be such a drama queen." The Circus Master said.
"What she did was awful, but in all fairness we've all done things we regret. Even before I became a Vandal I wasn't the nicest of people, and that's putting it mildly. What really worries me about you Ashlei is that you're clearly not cut out for this kind of life. You couldn't understand back there that sometimes you have to choose between the lesser of two evils. That sacrifices have to be made. Undoubtedly you'll cause more problems for us somewhere down the line."
"Or maybe I'll stop you from making a mistake." Ashlei replied, which caused Denika to have to restrain Florence yet again.
"You don't seem that apologetic" Keptis said.
"She isn't sorry at all." Florence shouted in anger.
"Well like I said, none of us can really throw stones. Right now as crazy as this might sound we have to stick together if we have any chance of getting out of this." The Circus Master said as Denika slowly released Florence.
"Isn't there anything we can do for the Rysteians?" Ashlei asked.
The Circus Master just laughed.
"What's so funny." Carlene said as she got up.
"First things first. We can't help the Rysteians. We can only go where we are needed. I don't pilot this ship to wherever I want, any more than I choose whoever I want to be part of my team Miss McKay! Second of all wherever we've landed, it's.... it's completely new and uncharted territory even for us. Look out of one of several new cracks of the tent."
Carlene looked out of one of the cracks near to where Denika had thrown her. All she could see was an endless darkness. Not even a star.
"It's just empty space?" Carlene said.
"No it isn't" Denika replied.
"Space is still something. Particles, natural laws, even magic makes up supposedly empty space in our or any universe. Out there is literally nothing. I, nor any of the few magical devices on board can detect anything."
"Look at the fountain." The Circus Master continued.
"There should be something there. The Tent isn't that badly damaged, incredibly enough. Not like it was with the Hylexans. Yet the fountain is empty, the fountain that is connected to the vortex itself. That can only mean one thing. That there is no vortex outside. There's no space, no time either, and certainly no worlds or life forms. We've landed in the middle of quite literally. Nowhere." The Circus Master said to his entire team, who apart from Denika were just as much in the dark as Carlene and Ashlei.
"What are you talking about?" Ashlei asked.
"To be honest. I have no idea." The Circus Master replied.
"I only know what I can see with my own two eyes and according to everything here, and what I can see out there. We are nowhere."
"How is that even possible?" Keptis asked.
"I don't know. I do know that in order to escape that Kardon's grasp we had to push this vessel to a far greater extent than ever before. To be honest we were lucky we didn't just burn up. Just how far it took us after however? Maybe we went back to before the beginning of the universe, or just after the end of all things? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, we're a long way from home. All we can do is use the magic we have to try and latch onto something. Anything, any tiny little light out there in the darkness. There has to be something. It can't just be a void."
Carlene meanwhile had continued to stare out into the darkness ahead. She couldn't believe that there was absolute nothing out there either. At this stage she would even welcome the appearance of a Kardon just to know that they weren't completely lost.
Keptis meanwhile went into the kitchen below. He certainly wasn't hungry, he just couldn't stand to look at Ashlei anymore. Florence soon followed him.
Ashlei at first wanted to follow too, hoping she could maybe try and reason with the Martian, but Carlene held her back.
"I agree with the vampire." Denika said.
"If you really want to try and make it up, help me."
The others were shocked to hear her say that. Normally Denika in her arrogance was reluctant to let anyone even near her work. Even the Circus Master, despite his vast knowledge of magics, she was terrified would mess things up.
"Yes well that's how desperate the situation is. If we have any hope of finding any bit of light out there." Denika said to her crewmates.
In the Kitchen below meanwhile Keptis simply sat at the table.
"I get that you're angry with her, but is now really the time to go off in a tantrum." Florence asked.
"It's not just the girl, it's. I can't explain Florence. I don't want too. Let's just say that the old Vandal is right. Sometimes you have to do bad things to stop a greater evil, and the fact that she can't get that."
"Look believe me I can barely look at the brat either. Remember she actually shot me, but if this is just more of your hang ups about Mars."
"My hang ups? About my entire race dying!"
"I didn't mean it like that, it's just well, you can't have it both ways Keptis."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you still haven't told us what happened on your planet. We know that the Vampires overran it, but that's it. How are we supposed to help you, if you won't tell us. There's clearly more. Something you're not telling us."
"What? Do you need to me to share all the horrible, gory details? Do you need me to run through the 100 million dead bodies. They turned my planet into a wasteland, that's all you need to know."
"Is it though?"
Keptis almost stormed off until he remembered there wasn't anywhere for him to go.
"I'm sorry it's just that Ashlei's betrayal, it, it really stung. Let's just forget about it for now. Like you said. Bigger picture." Keptis, said, though Florence wasn't buying it. She knew there was something else, but for now at least. She knew it would be better not to push it.
Suddenly Keptis froze and stopped Florence from moving forward.
"What is it?" Can't you see there's someone there. At the foot of the stair case."
At first Florence couldn't see anything, and wondered if the Martian hadn't snapped, but as she looked more closely she could see a strange humanoid figure appear briefly and then appear to fade out again. She didn't get a good look at it, but it appeared to be a large, very powerfully built warrior. Humanoid in appearance overall.
Up above meanwhile, Denika had done nothing but scream at the Circus Master, Ashlei and Carlene. They were all following her instructions for the most part, but any time they made even the slightest mistake she couldn't take it. To be fair it was extremely delicate work they were doing, but still her teaching left a lot to be desired.
"No, no Carlene move it just a milimeter to the left. I told you."
"Yeah you fucking screamed it in my face when it went wrong the first few times. If there is anyone out there in that fucking void they'll have heard you too! Maybe they can rescue or kill us. Either way it's better than this" Carlene said as she threw the equipment across the room in rage.
Denika was furious, but for once she kept her rage. She didn't want a fight risking any more of the equipment getting damaged.
"Carlene!" The Circus Master interrupted.
"I get that you want to strangle Denika, but please don't damage the equipment. You could blow us all to, well I'm not sure where you'd blow us to now, but don't do it." The Circus Master said.
As he went to pick up the device Carlene had thrown however, suddenly the Vandal was overcome with something. He collapsed to the floor on his knees and clutched his sides in pain.
Denika was the first to run over and help him, but as she tried to help the Vandal up he started babbling to her.
"My love. Maslesia? You're alive!" The Circus Master said as he hugged Denika, much to her shock and horror.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Malesia it's a miracle we've... YOU!" He said whilst pointing at Keptis after the Martian emerged from the kitchen.
"You foul Lerak! You did this! You thought bringing my beloved back could trick me. I'll rid this world of you and your kind once and for all." The Circus Master screamed as he charged at Keptis, only to suddenly stop and carry on as though nothing had happened.
"Like I told you Carlene, this equipment is very delicate at the best of times. We're currently trying to boost the power of this vessel, just like we did to escape the Kardon, only this time we'll have to do it more carefully to avoid either blowing up, or being sent god knows where else. Denika definitely can be a tad arrogant when it comes to magic, no offense Denika, but she is not wrong when she says it can't be a milimeter out." The Circus Master said to the rest of his crew who simply stared in amazement.
"What, what's wrong?" The Circus Master asked sincerely.
"Bow before me mortals!" Keptis shouted. "I am the king of the Leraks! We have already claimed the land of Tasqorouth. If you bow to me I will." He suddenly collapsed.
"Son, you must join me on the battle!" Carlene said to Florence.
"I know you can't bare to look at me after Fesiria's death. I had to do it son. She was possessed. She would have killed you. Besides what is going on out there will signal the death of our entire race if we don't." Carlene continued, though she seemed to gain awareness unlike the others as this madness seemed to wear off.
"What the hell was that." Carlene said, before Denika lifted her a couple of feet into the air with her magic.
"You betrayed us! What makes a man sell out his entire kingdom you pathetic?" Denika said before regaining her senses and dropping Carlene.
"What the fucking hell is going on" Carlene asked as the Circus Master helped her up.
Ashlei meanwhile looked outside and saw that they had seemingly landed in a strange alien environment.
The sky was purple, and filled with other worlds, whilst the leaves and grass were silver and looked metallic. Armies of strange monsters battled with one another in both the sky and the air.
Furthermore the fountain started to act up again, with the Circus Folk seeing images of the battle raging across numerous cities and other strange lands, and even worlds in the fountain.
"For the glory of the Leraks." Several of the monsters shouted.
"The Leraks. A twisted order of monsters who want to conquer this and all of the other worlds in the sky." The Circus Master said as he looked out of the hole.
"You've encountered them before?" Ashlei asked.
"No I haven't. I've never even heard of them before now. How the hell did I know that?" The Circus Master asked.
When he and Ashlei looked outside again, they saw that the landscape had vanished. Once again it was nothing but darkness outside the tent. The fountain was also once again completely dry.
Before the Circus folk could even attempt to figure out what was going on, a mysterious figure started to appear in the middle of the Tent. She had red skin and blue hair, completely yellow eyes and was dressed in a strange, warrior costume.
Florence and Keptis instantly recognised her as the woman they had seen in the Kitchen earlier.
"Who are you? What are you? What" She asked as she held what was presumably a weapon at the Circus Folk.
"We're just as confused as you are." Ashlei said.
The woman then screamed.
"No, no, it's the darkness. It's, it's coming!" She said before fading away again.
Suddenly the entire tent began to rock.
"Help us, please" came the cries of hundreds of Leraks and the soldiers they had been fighting who started to claw against the tent. The world they had been a part of had not returned however. It was still an endless darkness outside, and despite the presence of possibly hundreds of creatures, Denika could only sense the faintest life signs.
One of the monsters, a large creature with rock like skin began to rip its way through one of the holes in the tent. Carlene, Florence and the Circus Master all tried to stop the beast but it easily swatted them away. Even Denika's magic couldn't hold it back as it managed to make its way into the Tent.
"In order for me to live. You must all die!" The creature said.