Chapter Twenty Four: temporal Rebellion.

('time tuners' one shot-tie in)

"Fabrications by those in power fall apart by the determination of a strong willed seeker of truth. Even if the majority doesn’t hate you, it doesn’t change what has been done. Conscience will punish you with guilt."

-emperorwolf on the subject of corruption and justice.

(WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN)

(we'll be taking a detour into virlan's timeline for this chapter, but chapter 25 will resume with the 'present' timeline)

some time in the future...

Ciril lay on the floor of the damp cavern that the resistance called home, thinking.
his flourescent orange fur was matted from his conditions.
"we lost him... we lost Kenziel..." he lifted his spectacles and covered his eyes "why...?"
a winged yellow feline approached "Ciril, you have a visitor."
the depressed fox-cat sat up "who is it?" he asked his cousin.
in walked a middle aged white wolf, his fur turning grey in some places, he bowed respectfully "it's me."
ciril adjusted his glasses "Sir Collin?! we heard you were..."
the wolf stood straight and shook his head "Ciril, i was once an aspiring Shinobi, i know how to fake my own death"
the winged feline sighed "guess we've still got some of the members of the pack around."
the aging collin turned to the winged one "velian... i'm sorry to say, but without your father... i'm the last of the pack."
velian bowed his head "oh... right..."
Ciril rubbed his eyes "we're losing the fight, Virlan's... Virlan's too strong..."
velian clicked his fingers, conjouring angelfire on his clawtips. "i know he's my cousin... but... i still hate him."
ciril stood up "we'd better go eat, or we'll get nothing."
collin raised an eyebrow "doesn't the leader of the resistance set himself aside food?"
ciril shook his head "too low, can't spare any for myself, velian and i eat the rationed amount with the rest"

ciril, velian, and collin sat in a circle, around them hundreds of other resistance fighters- giants and non-giants, sat in the same format, eating whatever meagre food they'd been able to collect.
ciril picked at a blob of grey gruel.
"i'm so sick of this. all of it."
collin ate nothing, he simply sat, looking at the beaten and broken yellow eyemask in his paws. "agreed, i wish there was some way to have averted all this. maybe there was something i could have done..."
velian's wings were folded, and he sat cross-legged, his spoon hung out of his mouth.
"maybe... but there's nothing we can do about the past..."
ciril looked around, seeing every fighter's face as sad and empty as his own
"maybe not... but there might be something I can do..."
they looked at him "how?"
he closed his eyes "Verlan's my twin, maybe i can talk to him..."
everyone around him stopped and stared.
velian glared at him "Ciril you can't be serious! if you go, we're HANDING OVER the leader of the resistance!"
ciril's ears splayed "but... i just want this to end..."
collin opened his mouth to speak, but ciril stood "no, stop, don't. i'm going. velian, i'm leaving you in charge."
ciril walked off, saying one last thing before leaving the cavern.
"i'm Tired of this godforsaken place, this damn world."

he exited out into the dead forest, a red sky hung over him.
the twisted, burnt black trees were a constant reminder of his brother's actions.
bowing his head, he kept walking.
after about an hour he reached the edge of a cliff.
a distant cathederal stood on the horison.
he raised his muzzle to the sky and let out a high pitched whistle, one that was nearly silent to normal hearing.

the air rippled in front of him, and his brother materialised, standing a short distance from the edge.
he smiled "hey bro!"
ciril sighed depressively "hello... virlan"
his brother's smile faded "problem?"
ciril said nothing
"oh, right..." virlan rubbed the back of his head "...the whole 'Tyrant' thing..."
"look, why can't we just end this? you go, and everyone's happy... i go, and they all lose everything..."
virlan's purple, gold and red eyes lidded "guess so... by the way, remember mother's old story?"
"about meeting us before we were born?"
he nodded "it HAPPENED! i saw her!!"
ciril stepped back "that's impossible... mother always said she met the both of us, at the same time, in a wonderous paradise... not a hellish wasteland..."

"correct."

the brothers turned, and saw a man in a ragged black trenchcoat.
they both glared "Harbinger."
"correct, again."
an idea came to ciril "wait... could things have changed... because i never teamed up with you?" he asked his twin.
virlan gasped "right... in the story, we would team up to protect mother from some terrible creature... using the powers we gained from defeating our shadows..."
harbinger chuckled evilly "and did you notice a missing body this morning, virlan?"
virlan gasped again, and looked over to his cathedral, his vision going telescopic, and he saw draco's body missing from it's crucifix.

"history is changing, but for the worse." harbinger sneered.
a purple blur rocketed over from the cathedral.
the emperor landed behind harbinger.
virlan stepped back, eyes wide in fear "you... can't be... you were..."
"yes, i was... but in the past, i conquered my shadow."
"but... you didn't..."
"densro and zedin didn't interfere last time either."
ciril almost fainted "but... how could they have suddenly done it this time?"
"something changed. i do not know what, but something happened differently."
harbinger walked away, before crumbling into dust with an evil laugh.
the emperor looked at the twins "i have no idea how, but two time alterations have occurred."
they looked at him, speechless.
"the first, the life you've always known... the second... everything that's changing about that right now"
ciril turned and looked behind him "come out, there's no point hiding, cuz."
velian emerged from behind a boulder.
"everyone in the base... suddenly... turned... to stone..." he said, panicking.
ciril dropped to his knees "no..."
"and sir collin... he just... evaporated or something... next thing i knew, my light went purple..."
the emperor turned and looked at the sun
"i'd say i've found another difference..."
everyone looked up, and saw the sun's colour had turned blue.
the sky around it was slowly turning a deep, dark black...
"this is wrong. history changed somehow."
he looked at the twins "there's a difference in you two as well... i can sense a great ambiguity in it..."
then, the emperor's eyes snapped open "i know what altered time into what it's currently becoming!"
"WHAT?" the twins yowled
"your father... he died when he was caught in the crossfire during the second ravaging... didn't he?"
they nodded
the emperor held up an old newspaper "look at this!"
they read the article...

"virada's international idol dead... Mr Benson Palmer died today, during an accident on Fira Deralo, while trying to facilitate new relations between giants and non-giants, he was shot down and killed by a bolt of electricity, the bolt is determined to have come from Mr jevannin's new prototype device, the device was intended to allow the fox to regain his lost powers, which vanished after he was taken captive by the criminal Draco Shay, five years ago. the device went haywire when an intruder shot the sensitive equipment with a semi-automatic assault rifle, causing a stray bolt of the machine's energy to leak from the power supply, wherein it struck down Mr Palmer. his wife and children have been grieving ever since. the fox had been assured that his non-giant friends would be safe, but the assailant who damaged the device had proceeded to murder them afterwards. he died crying out these words 'i hope the Bastard who did this burns in the lowest circle of hell, and please... tell my family i'm sorry' Mr Palmer is one of the very few of our world's citizens who went from non-giant, to giant, and his children said this to us 'father was going to surprise mother with himself being smaller for her birthday, that's why he went over there, but now he's gone...' after we asked them how they felt, one of them, the non-giant one, became very angry, and somehow set our car on fire, the other, giant one, apologised, and the fire went out on it's own very quickly, he then told us that 'i hope the person who took father away dies, what right did he have to take him away from us, father was a good person, he didn't deserve to die'
we can all feel for the twin children of Mr Palmer, and understand their responses, one of the friends of Mr Palmer, the head of the international police, chief Ghast, has told us that they will not ever stop looking for the killer.
chief ghast was a close personal friend of Mr Palmer, he had been ever since they met, and says he cannot forgive this needless attack.

the world grieves for it's most trusted idol, Mr Benson Appolo Palmer, who was running for the position as president of Virada before this unfortunate event.
there is no one who can possibly replace him."

velian shook his head "this is all wrong, this even says that ciril's a gia-"

everyone suddenly realised that ciril now dwarfed them in size.
he looked just as scared as they were.
virlan stood with his eyes wide, and his mouth agape.
"how...?"
the emperor growled "this is due to the interference of someone who traveled back, and caused draco to abduct your father too early, this started a chain reaction that lead to our present situation."
"who went back?"
the emperor looked over his shoulder "...it was an AI... an AI called..."
everyone looked at him in suspense.
"Ultimate Supreme Miracle"
"who made it?" Ciril asked in a severely hushed voice, trying to keep from busting everyone's eardrums as much as possibe.
"actually... i did... before i was captured by virlan, when i knew i was going to lose to him, i sent USM back, to try and save myself... it backfired. the AI told one of the shattered light's old members where to find your father... it wanted to screw things up, as well as free me."

"so what do we do?" virlan asked, desperate for an answer.
the emperor withdrew a small green book from his cloak "what we do is send you three back, and try and have you save things. my advice, destroy USM. i'll have to send you back AFTER USM told, but before it helps make things worse. if you can, stop Densro and Harbinger."

the book opened, and it's pages glowed.
ciril knelt beside his brother "if we do this, we might be able to save both mother and father!"
virlan sighed, and his eyes normalised and his irises turned blue "i'm in. it's been too long, bro." he said happily.

velian flew up to ciril's shoulder "i'm definitely going with you! i can help!!"
ciril nodded, and placed his paws on the ground, virlan boarded them quickly.
the wolf's book glowed more, the pages flicking wildly
"make the right choices, boys."

red light flashed...

and they were gone.

(AUTHOR NOTE: okay, this chapter was full of spoilers, if you payed attention. but remember, this is currently subjective, time is being screwed up, so some things may happen, others may not in the end.
please keep reading!)