The Timekeeper | Teen Ink

The Timekeeper

May 25, 2016
By Dr.Weedles, Indianapolis, Indiana
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Dr.Weedles, Indianapolis, Indiana
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Hello, mate. I am John Alger. I am here to tell you my story. If you were hoping to read the story of a man called the Timekeeper, you won’t be disappointed. He is heavily involved. It’s actually a rather smashing story in my opinion. It started with the murder. See, lads, I’m a private detective, or I used to be. I’ll explain, or rather, yeah nevermind. Can we refresh? Sorry, I’m a bit of a shuffle butt. Anyway, so where was I? Oh, right, the murder. My life changed historically, and I mean historically, when I began investigating the murder. The murder was in-
             June 12th, 2:36 p.m., Cophier Bank, London,
            It was in a vault, the body. It lay sprawled on a mountain of gold, blood streaming from bullet wounds around his body. It was really manky, it was. Outside it was raining and cold. 37 degrees. Crowds of protesters were gathered around the bank, angry that they are not allowed inside.
            “I’m sorry but we cannot allow anyone inside a crime scene during an investigation” said an officer to a townsperson. I walked past him and into the bank lobby. It was mostly made of marble and gold. Way fancier than my bank.
            I was led to the crime scene by a female officer. She was pretty. I was nervous. I stuttered when I spoke.
            “So, w-what’s your name?” I tried to ask politely.
            “Julieta” she replied. “You?”
            “I’m detective inspector Alger. John Alger. Pleasure to meet you Julieta” I shook her hand.
“Pleasure” she replied. Juliet pointed me to the vault in the back.
            “Right this way, detective inspector Alger” she teased. I walked in, blushing red as the crimson blood of the victim. I started to walk around, looking at the scene, when I heard a commotion outside of the vault. I looked out. Julieta and another officer were holding back a man. A tall man. He looked about 24. He wore a black trench coat and top hat that cast a shadow over his face. His top hat fell, and I gasped.
            The face looked identical to the victim. They must have been twins. They had the same face, the same brown hair that stuck up in the front.
            “Let him in” I said, “They must be brothers. I can interrogate him.” Juliet gave me a confused look.
            “In here?” she asked, “You’re going to interrogate this bloke in the middle of a crime scene?” I lowered my head, ashamed that I may have made her upset. She rolled her eyes.
            “Fine.” she turned to the man, “You have five minutes.” She and the other officer walked down the hall. The man picked up his cane and top hat that had fallen in the struggle. He stepped inside the vault.
            “Alright, sir” I said, taking out my notepad, “how about we start with a name?” The man walked past me, investigating the body. It was truly identical to him.
            “Dead” he said. “Look at me. I’m here, laying down dead.” He looked at me with a smile. “Bit grotty isn’t it?” He turned back around. He leaned over the body, leaning on his cane. “Six holes. Six bullet wounds. Six shots in one fully loaded revolver. There is an gun shop down the street with a discount on revolver ammo. The killer must’ve been unprepared, and so he or she went and bought some discount ammunition.” He turned to me. “Notice how spread out the bullet wounds are?”
            “He must’ve had wonky aim” I suggested, still kind of lost.
            “Or,” he said, “he could have a twitching hand.” He held out his own hand and watched it.
            “What makes you think that?” I asked. His hand twitched.
            “It runs in the family” he replied. He smiled again and hopped over the body. “Now he died in a bank. I know that I have no business being in a bank, especially this one, so why am I lying dead in one?” I was gobsmacked. He kept on referring to the victim in first person. What was with that?
            “You keep on saying ‘I’. Why?” I asked. He turned at me.
            “Because I am dead right there” he replied, pointing at the body with his cane.
            “But you’re all well right here! How can you be dead here as well?” He leaned down on his cane and stared into my eyes.
            “Because of Time” he said. We stared at eachother until Juliet walked back into the vault.
            “Your five minutes are up” The Timekeeper walked out of the vault. He stopped and looked back at me. He winked, and then walked away. Juliet walked in.
            “What was that all about?” she asked.
            “I dunno.”
            “Well,” she said, “what did he tell you?”
            “I didn’t even get a name.” I went back to my investigations, avoiding Juliet. She seemed confused and a bit angry with me.

 Later I went home. I was tired. The sun was still up, but not for long. I walked into my one bedroom apartment and flipped the light switch. The lights came on, and I screamed, dropping my key and mail that I had grabbed on my way in.
            There was a man sitting in my chair, drinking tea. It was the same man from the bank. He was the crazy man.
            “Hello” he said enthusiastically, “About time you got home. I thought you might have run off with that Juliet and I’d have had to find her address and sneak in. But you came home anyway!”
            “What are you doing in my apartment?” I yelled, panting, picking up my things. The man stood up, placing his now empty cup in the sink.
“Waiting for you” he replied. He cleaned the cup and put it back in the cupboard. “I want to talk to you.”
“That’s great,” I said, “but you could’ve phoned me!” The man plucked a biscuit from a basket.
“Don’t have one,” he said.
“Then email” I replied. He looked at me in disgust.
“Well that’s no fun!” he replied. He ate the biscuit. “Look, John, I’m here, just deal with it.” I thought back to our earlier meeting in the vault. I never introduced myself to him.
“How do you even know my name?” I asked, beginning to get scared.
“Same way I know your address” he said. He looked me in the eye. “Earlier today, I looked intently into your eyes, just like this. I was reading your mind.” I stepped back.
“No” I said. He said it as well, at the same time. “No, no, you can’t be!” We both said in unison. “Stop it!” we yelled. The man stopped reading my mind. I scrambled around, grabbing some aluminum foil from a cabinet and pulling it over the top of my head like a hat.
“No more mind reading” I said sternly, “I have some personal stuff in there.”
“You mean like your fantasies about Juliet” he teased. I blushed redder than Juliet’s hair.
“How are you doing that?” I asked him, still holding the foil on my head. “Can you teach me?” The man laughed.
“Heavens, no” He said, “It’s impossible. You don’t have enough leftover cognitive cells to invade other people’s heads and read their thoughts. Humans have far too little cognitive cells.”
I was confused. He said humans almost like he was not one of them.
“Are you not human?” I asked. I stepped closer to the man. He seemed completely different. Visually, he was the exact same, but the way I saw him changed. I used to think he was simply a nutter. But after that, I wasn’t so sure. The man walked up to me. He stood more than a head taller than me.
“No” he said. My heart skipped a beat. “I’m not human,” he continued. He walked to the window. The apartment in the building across from mine had their window open. The man snapped his fingers and the window snapped shut. Nobody touched it. The man just made it close.
“Who are you?” I demanded. I was terrified. What was he going to do to me? “What are you?” He touched me and I flinched. He tried again and I punched him in the nose.
“Stop it!” he yelled. “I’m trying to let you in my head.”
“Let me in your what?” He held the sides of my head.
“This is going to hurt” he warned.
“What is going to hurt?” I screamed. The man slammed his forehead into mine. With a massive clunk, the entire world shook. Or did it?
Everything changed around me. I stumbled and fell to the floor. But it wasn’t floor. Not my black and white kitchen tile. It was rock. I looked around. I was in some sort of cavern. It was dark, and cold. I couldn’t even see the walls. Just the stalagmites on the ceiling.
“Welcome to my thinking place” said a voice. It was the man. He stepped out of the shadows. Everything seemed to bend around him. “This is a corner of my mind where I usually empty out my thoughts. It was the only place empty enough to let your mind in.” I wandered around.
“Why?” I asked. “Why are you letting me into your head? It’s weird.” The man lifted off of the ground. He spread his arms and words and images began to materialize around. They were retelling parts of his life. They began to swirl around him, causing a massive hurricane of light. Voices whispered at me.
“Time. Magistreyan. Power. Trauma. Shatter. Cheddar cheese. Demons.” I was blown into the air, the hurricane becoming a tornado, flinging me about. It felt like I was flying around uncontrollably for hours. “Years. Seconds. Hours. Time. Keep. Time keep. Keep time.” I was spinning faster and faster. The voices got louder. “Timekeeper. Timekeeper. Timekeeper! Timekeeper! TIMEKEEPER!” Suddenly, everything stopped. I lay on the ground, feeling sick. I looked up and the man stood, towering above me in a menacing way.
“I am the Timekeeper,” he said, his voice echoing around the cavern. “I am a Magistreyan.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Don’t interrupt” he snapped at me. “A Magistreyan is a mystical and superior being that controls certain aspects of the universe. There is a council of Magistreyans on Magistrey. That is where I come from. I am 37 trillion years old. I’m immortal. I travel through time, trying my best to right the wrongs of the universe.” I was stunned at first, but eventually, it made sense. No it didn’t. It made no sense at all. It just felt right. It felt like the truth. Forget science, that was the real deal.
“Why does this feel...right?” I asked. My instincts felt it was correct, but my logic told me otherwise. I still slightly doubted it.
“Because,” said the Timekeeper, “I am easing this information into your subconscious. It’s kinda like cognitive cell UPS delivering information to you. It’s in your subconscious, so your actual consciousness accepts it as fact.”
“Oh” I said, still kinda lost.
“Anyway,” said the Timekeeper, “recently, I’ve decided to look for a murder and investigate it. It took me a long time to find it, but I eventually did.”
“Who’s murder?” I asked him.
“My own” he replied. “So, obviously, through time travel, I got to it. That’s the only way to investigate your own murder. Time travel to it.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, “I understand all of this time travel business. What I don’t get is how you died.”
“Bullet wounds” said the Timekeeper. “Six of them.”
“Not that,” I said. “The thing is, you’re immortal. You can’t die.”
“Is immortality and time travel technically impossible?” asked the Timekeeper.
“Of course” I responded.
“Yet I still achieve it.”
“Yes, but…”
“Mr. Alger,” said the Timekeeper, “It is impossible for me to die. However, I do not doubt that I died. Never doubt the impossible when you are the impossible.”
“Can I go home now?” I asked. “Not that your head isn’t lovely, but it’s your head.”
“Fair enough,” said the Timekeeper. He walked up to me and grabbed the sides of my head. “Brace yourself.” He clunked his forehead into mine and the world shook. I stumbled. I was back in my kitchen. I looked at my watch. I got home less than five minutes ago, but it felt like it had been hours. It took me a while to readjust. I didn’t know what was real or fake.
“Well,” I said panting, “what d’you want to do now?” The Timekeeper grabbed my arm.
“We are going back in tonight!” he said excitedly.
“What?” I asked, “why?”
“I need more information” he said, “you ready?”
“For what?” I said groggily. He snapped his fingers and everything around me shook, blurred, and got all distorted. It all went back to normal and I stumbled to the kitchen floor. I looked out the window. The sun had set. It was pitch black. I looked at my watch and my eyes widened. It was 6 hours later then when I had last looked at it.
“What?” I yelled, scrambling to my feet. “What? What?” I held my head. I had a headache. The Timekeeper grabbed me and shook me.
“We just time traveled!” he shouted.
“Ow!” I responded, holding my head. The Timekeeper grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the apartment. He snapped his fingers as he ran and the door swung shut.

We ran outside of the apartment complex and summoned a taxi. We got in.
“Cophier bank,” said the Timekeeper, “quickly.” The cabbie nodded and drove us to the bank. He stopped. We got out.
“Oi,” he said, “where’s my money?” The Timekeeper gestured to the building.
“It’s a bank, innit? Go get some.” The cabbie looked disgusted.
“You expect me to rob a bank? Look here mister, I’ma have to report you.” The cabbie pulled out his cellphone and began dialing. The Timekeeper rolled his eyes. He held out his hand and flicked it to the side. The cell phone flew out of the cabbie’s hands and out the window. The cabbie pulled out a gun.
“Looks like I’ll have to handle you myself,” he said, aiming the gun out the open door. He fired a bullet and I winced. But the bullet didn’t hit either of us. I opened my eyes. The Timekeeper had his hand held out, and the bullet was in front of it. The bullet was moving, but at the pace of a snail. The air rippled around it.
“What are you doing?” I asked incredulously. The Timekeeper looked at me and grinned.
“Remote Temporary Time Slow. Magistreyan stuff” he said. I laughed. The Timekeeper joined in. The cabbie was terrified.
“Sorcery!” he screamed. He closed the door and stepped on the gas, flying through the streets. We walked away slowly.
“That was amazing,” I said. The Timekeeper snapped his fingers and the bullet resumed at normal pace, blasting into the brick wall. The Timekeeper chuckled. I was laughing hysterically. “I need to keep you with me at all times” I said.
“That won’t last long” he said. He gestured to the bank. I realized that he was doomed to die.
We walked to the front doors. They were locked. The lights inside were all off. The Timekeeper peered into the keyhole and made a gesture with his hand. He twisted it and the door unlocked. He pushed it open slowly. The alarms blared and he jumped. I stumbled in and bumped into the receptionist’s desk, knocking over some pens and papers. The Timekeeper held out his arms and reality rippled. The alarms and lights were frozen. The pens were suspended, frozen in the air.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is a Remote Temporary Time Stop” I said. The Timekeeper nodded his head. He held his arms out and made a circular motion as if he was pulling things in. The pens flew up and back to their spots on the desk. The doors closed and locked.
“Remote Temporary Time Reverse” he said. “We were not affected because I excluded us from the effects.”
“Magistreyan stuff” I said. “So you didn’t shut off the alarms, they are still on.”
“Yes. Therefor we shall know if we have any unwanted visitors.” We walked past the lobby and into the back where the vault was. There was a keypad.
“Can you do your little trick that you did with the door?” I asked. The Timekeeper shook his head.
“That was moving the lock, rotating it. This lock is rigged. If it is moved without the code being inserted, it will sound the alarm.”
“So what do we do?” I asked. He stared at the keypad.
“Let me guess,” I said, “Remote Temporary Stare At A Keypad And It Will Open?”I laughed.
“No.” said the Timekeeper. “I’m looking through the Time Vortex and seeing an event that occurred in this same place but in a different time. I am looking at 15 hours ago when the bank manager put in the code to open the vault.” When he was done, the Timekeeper pressed the buttons 1-5-4-6-3-9, and the vault unlocked with a large click.
“We’re in” he said. We pulled the heavy door open and I almost threw up at the sight of the body. It was different earlier when I didn’t know the Timekeeper, but then, since I knew him so well, I almost couldn’t take it.
“So what are we looking for?” I asked. “Fingerprints? DNA?” The Timekeeper shook his head.
“I already know who killed me,” he said, “that’s not important. Not for you, anyway.” I was shocked at what he had said.
“Not important?” I said, “really? That’s rubbish. No way. The killer is the most important aspect in the murder! We need to find it and make it pay!” The Timekeeper whipped around and glared at me. His look scared me a lot.
“So you think you can waltz right up to the bloke who killed me and teach him a lesson?” he laughed. “Don’t be silly. Anyone who can kill me is a problem way beyond anything a human can handle. Do you know how powerful I am?” I nodded at him.
“Certainly,” I said, hesitantly.
“Do you think it is possible for a human to kill me?” he demanded.
“Maybe,” I said, “just maybe, someone could sneak up on you?” The Timekeeper turned around.
“I cannot be snuck up upon. I can see time. I can sense everything that happens in a five foot radius around me up to 10 seconds before it even happens. That’s how I get super quick reflexes. I see everything that happens before it even happens.” I didn’t believe it. I picked up a gold coin and threw it at him. The Timekeeper caught it without even turning his head.
“Therefore,” he said, dropping the coin, “I cannot be killed, at least by a human, so if something does manage to kill me, it is way beyond anything you could ever hope to overcome.” We glared at eachother for a few seconds until I broke the silence.
“Then why are we here?”
“I cannot be killed,” said the Timekeeper. “So when I do get killed, I get particularly interested in how it happened. So we will find out how someone killed a man who cannot be killed.” He looked at the dead body again. A lot of the blood had dried. After a while of thought, the Timekeeper stood up.
“Question one,” he said, “why did my regeneratory systems fail?”
“Regeneratory system?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, “the bodily system that allows my cells to continue regenerating at a sped up process. That’s what keeps me from aging and dying. Clearly, if I am dead, the regenelectrons that power my regenerating have stopped flowing through my body. Regenelectrons are a combination of electrons and time material making a particle that constantly dies and rebirths at a rate of 1 trillion times per second. It gives off a lot of residual regenerative energy that flows into the cells like food and heals them at an accelerated rate, therefore allowing for immortality, a state of constant healing. Something must’ve happened that stopped my regenelectrons. What do you think happened?” I was lost.
“Er,” I said, “Science. Science happened.” The Timekeeper started to think..
“Science, science…” he gasped and his eyes lit up. “The Science Convention! Brilliant! There’s a Science Convention at the local university! They must have a particle splitter.”
“So I helped? Yay! I’m useful!” I was simply astounded that I actually did something helpful. I didn’t even know what the heck a particle splitter is.
“How’d they manage to split the particles of regenelectrons?” the Timekeeper wandered around, tapping his head with his cane. He took off his top hat and started flipping it.
“What is a particle splitter?” I asked. He looked at me. Leaning on his cane, he explained the sciency science behind the science of the scientific particle splitter.
“It’s a tiny microscopic probe that can split any particle into its separate forms, like taking a machine apart. It sends tiny sonic waves that give new orders for each particular piece of a particle that causes them to separate, therefore destroying the substance they make when combined. That is most likely what happened with my regenelectrons. Demolished by a primitive science project.”
“Okay,” I said, “so how could this particle splitter get into your system? Perhaps some sort of injection?”
“It could’ve been” said the Timekeeper, “you know what? Let’s look at the crime and see if we can find anything.” I was excited.
“You mean we can look through the Time Vortex and watch your death? This is going to be entertaining.” The Timekeeper glared at me. “Just so you know, watching this happen will not allow me to sense our surroundings anymore.”
“Okay,” I said, “let’s do it.” The Timekeeper grabbed me and everything went fuzzy. I didn’t get dizzy, I didn’t physically shake, but everything else did. Suddenly we were looking at the interior of the vault 24 hours ago.
“Prepare yourself,” said the Timekeeper in a serious tone, “What you are about to see may change your entire conception of me. Please think of me as I am now, not as what you will see.”
“What d’you mean?” I asked, a bit confused.
“Just watch,” he said. I focused my attention to the vault door. Six beeps came from the keypad on the other side, someone was putting in the code. The lock clicked, and the door was pulled open. Someone was pushed inside, clutching his throat. He had several cuts and bruises, and tape over his mouth. That was the Timekeeper.
Someone else walked in. The person wore a black cloak and a hood that covered his face. The person tied a noose to the top of the entryway. A hanging noose.He grabbed the Timekeeper and punched him in the face repeatedly. He then hoisted him up and inserted his head into the noose. Holding the rest of the Timekeeper’s body, the man tightened the noose and let the rest of the body drop.
The Timekeeper clutched at the noose as he choked. The other man took a knife and stabbed in once in the gut. The Timekeeper kicked the man’s knife out of his hand and caught it in the air. He cut the noose and fell to the floor. He ripped off the duct tape and coughed. He stepped backwards, holding out the knife. He ran and attacked the man.
The two fought in a struggle for a whole 2 minutes. They wrestled to the ground, slipping all over the gold coins. Eventually the Timekeeper got on top of the man and began punching him in the face. He held his fist and blood dripped from his knuckle. He reached for the knife that fell during the fight. It stood upright in the pile of coins. He picked it up and held it above the man's face. Before he could bring it down, a bullet zipped through his stomach.
The man pushed him off and stood up, holding a gun. He ripped off the hood and I gasped. The man was the Timekeeper, blood and bruises across his face. Another version of the Timekeeper, I assumed. His hands trembled.
The injured Timekeeper struggled to his knees, but the other Timekeeper kicked him in the face. He grabbed his hair and yanked him up. He held the gun to his face.
“Timekeeper,” he said, “I win.” The injured Timekeeper lashed out, knocking the evil Timekeeper in the face with his elbow. The good Timekeeper stepped back.
“You’re wrong,” he said, “you’ll destroy the entire universe!” The evil Timekeeper laughed.
“You’re so naive!” he yelled. “You believe every little thing the council tells you, and it’s all rubbish. They are all liars and cheaters. And if you live through this, they’ll stab you in the back.” The evil Timekeeper shot the rest of the rounds in the gun. They were all scattered across the body of the good Timekeeper. He fell backwards into the pile of coins. His blood trickled into a pool of crimson red. The evil Timekeeper started to walk away, until he turned and looked at me and the current Timekeeper. I was terrified. He knew that we were watching, even though it was from a different time. Everything went fuzzy and distorted. The world shook until everything got clear again. We were back in the present.
“So it was you,” I said, stepping away from the Timekeeper. “All this time, we’d been chasing you.” He looked down in shame.
“Listen, John-” he began, but I interrupted.
“No, you listen!” I shouted. “You think you are able to just kill yourself and then pick up any old bloke that happens to be waltzing about and take them on a ‘life changing’ journey? No freaking way will that work out for you. We aren’t stupid, you know. We can figure things out. The human race is smarter than you think!”
“Yet you were perfectly nice with me until I showed you the murder!” shouted the Timekeeper. “You look here, John-”
“Shut it!” I snapped.
“Let me SPEAK!” the Timekeeper yelled. “Lord have mercy, you humans are so effing pathetic! I’ll have you know that I was also the victim of the murder. The killer was another version of me. I don’t know whether it’s me from the past or future. To be quite honest, I’m just as terrified of myself as you are.” I slapped him across the face.
“You think I’m scared of you?” I jeered. I punched him in the gut. “I am not scared of you, Timekeeper, I’m bloody angry! I am gobsmacked by the way you think of us. We are not idiots.” I tried to hit him again, but he grabbed my fist.
“Well,” he said, “you say that, yet you’re stupid enough to fight with me.” I yanked his hand off of my fist. I walked out of the vault and slammed the door shut behind me. It locked automatically. I was almost out the door when I heard a huge bang, and the alarms went off.

The vault door was blasted off of the hinges. The Timekeeper stormed out. A wave of destruction followed him as he walked in a menacing manner. It seemed that the walls and ceiling just decided to destroy themselves as he passed by. I gulped. I thought he was coming for me.
“John,” he said, “get behind me. NOW!” I stepped behind him. When I turned, I jumped. The evil Timekeeper was standing just in front of the doors.
“What is he?” I asked, trembling.
“Think of the worst possible version of yourself,” said the Timekeeper,”the most terrible being you could be.” I saw me doing some pretty bad things in my imagination.
“What about it?” I asked. The Timekeeper continued.
“That demonic version of you, it exists. You control most of it, most people don’t even know they have one. But when you suddenly get those urges to do something bad, that’s your demon speaking.”
“So we all have demons,” I said, “Is that what he is?”
“Close enough,” said the evil Timekeeper.
“Over time,” the Timekeeper explained, “your demon might grow stronger inside of you. You can fight it all you want, but sometimes the demon takes over, even the most purest and kindest of people can become their demons at any moment. Interior conflict is what that is. Anyway, at some point of my life -be it past or future, I have no clue- my demon took over. Now I’m a remarkable person. I’m also very powerful and dangerous.”
“No kidding,” I said.
“So imagine if someone evil like Hitler had my kind of power. They’d be unstoppable. I’m unstoppable. So the worst possible version of me is pretty bad.” The evil Timekeeper stepped forward. He flicked his hand and I was thrown into a wall like a rag doll.
“Now that your fat gob has stopped talking” he jeered, “we can get to some big boy things.” The evil Timekeeper raised his arm and a broken metal bar raised up. He thrust it toward me, but a sphere appeared around me. The bar hit the sphere and disintegrated. The good Timekeeper raised both arms and I was lifted inside of the sphere up into the air, away from the two of them. I had a bird's eye view of the fight.
The two Timekeepers charged at each other at a speed beyond anything possible. It looked like a video that was put in fast forward. They threw chunks of debris at each other, flew around, acrobatically dodged attacks and bludgeoned each other with their fists. After a while, the entire bank building had exploded, chunks of the building flew everywhere. I dunno who caused it, they were both moving too fast.
I could not sit there and watch as the two Timekeepers killed each other. I had to do something. I thought back to the crime scene I watched. I was able to watch it. That must have required some form of time travel. Clearly. I held out my hands. I closed my eyes. I snapped my fingers and the sphere disappeared. I fell down, screaming. I snapped my fingers again, and the sphere reappeared. I panted.
I was terrified, yet amazed. I knew how to do it. I knew how to do something that only the Timekeeper could do. I suspected that the reason I knew how is because the Timekeeper must have implanted some instructions in my subconscious. I need to know if there is something else I can do. I thought hard and looked at a car down the street. I lifted my hand and the car lifted too. I moved the car to the fight and trying my best to time it right, I slammed it into the evil Timekeeper.
The good Timekeeper looked at me in huge surprise. I saw him mouth something. It looked like “holy ship,” but I suspected it was something close, but different. I needed to get down to the ground. I held out my arms and focused on moving my body. I took a deep breath and snapped my fingers. The sphere disappeared, but I didn’t fall. I was flying. I lowered myself slowly until I was a few feet off of the ground.
“Bet you can’t do that, mate” I said mockingly. The Timekeeper spread out his arms and levitated to my height.
“I can do it,” he said, wide eyed. “I’m actually the only one who can.”
“Well,” I said, laughing, “not anymore!” He looked at me with a serious face.
“I’m serious,” he said, “most of the other Magistreyans can’t do that!” The evil Timekeeper pushed the car off of him. His crushed body was stitching itself together and inflating. When he was all healed again, he sneered at us. The good Timekeeper and I both simultaneously thrust out our arms and a blast of wind hit the evil Timekeeper. It hit him and he stopped, suspended in a time stop. The good Timekeeper looked at me.
“What are you?” he asked. I looked at him, and trying not to laugh, I said a joke.
“I’m the Timekeeper,” I said. His jaw dropped. I looked him in the eye.
“I’m not actually the Timekeeper,” I said, realizing he didn’t understand it was a joke, “I told you a joke!”
“No no,” he said, “I think you might be... you might be me.”
“What?”
“Only I can do those things,” he said. “You might be a really young version of me.” I thought he was going crazy.
“I look nothing like you!” I said.
“When I get older,” said the Timekeeper, “I don’t age. My body simply changes. Over time, I will just change my entire appearance and barely recognize it.” After that, my jaw dropped.
“So it’s actually possible,” I said, “that I am you?”
“A younger version of me,” he said, “yes. In fact, I think that is the only option.” I started to digest the information, but a thought hit me suddenly.
“That evil version of us, he looks like you, like, a lot” I said. The Timekeeper looked at the evil Timekeeper.
“Yes,” he replied, “that means that I will become him very soon.”
“So what do we do?” I asked. The Timekeeper began to walk away.
“We prepare,” he said, “for the battle. Our battle.” He gestured at the evil Timekeeper in the time stop. “It’s not over yet, and for you it has barely even begun.”
“How do I get more powerful?” I asked him. “I mean, you are clearly stronger with time than I am.” He laughed.
“Meditate,” he said, “you have my mind, you may find answers there. And look for the council of Magistrey. Find them and join them. They will teach you.”
“Before you go,” I said, “how much time do you have before you-”
“Before I become him?” he asked, gesturing at the evil Timekeeper. “I honestly don’t know. I have to do my best to fix as much of myself as I can. I may be able to stop me from becoming evil. You, however, you have a lot of time to prepare. Remember, I’m over 37 trillion years old, and you are about 20. I would say goodbye, but how does one say farewell to themselves?” He walked away and snapped his fingers. The wind around him began to spin, faster and faster, creating a cyclone around him. All of a sudden, it stopped, and the Timekeeper was gone. Except he wasn’t. He was me.

I fooled you, didn’t I? So yes, I am the Timekeeper. I went through a lot, I did. The story I just told you was the beginning of my adventures. Eventually I mastered time travel and began jumping back and forth throughout the universe. I found the council, joined it, became a Magistreyan and lived for a while. The story I’m about to tell you is not one that I have experienced yet. This is what the older version of me experienced shortly after we went our separate ways.

The Timekeeper stumbled, gasping and clutching  his heart where he had been stabbed, or where he thought he had been stabbed. The pain was gone. He was alone. He had traveled somewhere new. He looked around. It was cold and dark. All he saw was the rough stone floor and the tall cavern ceiling, littered with stalagmites that threatened to fall at any moment. Everything else was consumed by shadows. The air felt stagnant and stuffy, like how you feel when you have a cold. There was thick, grey fog floating around the area. It smelled like decaying bodies.
            “Hello?” he called out. His voice echoed, suggesting that this cavern he was in was large. A spine-chilling breeze blew past him, giving him goosebumps. He suspected it was a form of response. “Oi!” he called again. “It’s the Timekeeper! Surely you’ve heard of me?” Another breeze. “Where am I?” A final wind blew past him, this one stronger and colder. It carried a voice with it.
            “Tick-tock. The gears click in the clock.
            Time holds the universe together.
            Tick-tock. The hands spin on the clock.
            The universe is in danger.
            Tick-tock. The glass breaks off the clock.
            The timeline shall shatter.
            Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock-CRASH!
            This shall happen because of the death of the Timekeeper.”
             The Timekeeper shivered. The song was very sinister and chilling. At the end of the song, fires erupted from torches. They were on large columns that rose to the ceiling. The whole of the room was illuminated. He could see the walls, with words like death and kill etched on the stone walls. He could see the decaying corpses littered on the ground.
He heard a sound behind him like metal grinding on metal. He turned and saw a large mirror floating in the air. He soon noticed that this was no mirror. The figure in the mirror did not match his movements. Yet it looked just like him.
            “What are you?” muttered the Timekeeper curiously. Strangely enough, the man responded.
            “I am you, an alternate version of you. Your recent memory had been erased by the Magistreyans, forcing you to forget everything that happened. I am a version of you that did not forget. I kept the memories.”
            “What memories? How are we communicating?” asked the Timekeeper.
            “You are dead.” said the Timekeeper in the mirror. “But instead of sending your consciousness to Heaven, you came here. It is a separate dimension. Technically, you are dreaming, but what I am about to show you is real, and while it may be hard to believe, you need to understand the treachery and evil of the Magistreyan council.”
            “Fine. Assuming I actually am dead, what memories were taken from me before I died? Why?”
 

 “I’ll show you.” He clapped his hands and the Timekeeper was suddenly somewhere else. It was an area surrounded by castle walls. The sun beamed from a blue sky. In the middle of a courtyard was a hanging platform. A crowd had gathered around it. “Story time. You started off in 1536. London. You were sent to capture an outlaw Draptfa that had escaped from Magistrey. In the investigation you hit a speed bump.” The Timekeeper saw someone being dragged to the hanging platform. The person had a bag over his head. He was pushed onto the platform and the bag was yanked off of his head
            The Timekeeper was not at all surprised to see that the man under the bag was him. This was exactly the type of shenanigans that he’d get caught up in. The executioner pulled out a scroll of parchment and began to read.
            “Mr. Wilfred,” he read, “the king has sentenced you to death after you were caught snogging the queen. Do you have any last words?”
            “Yes,” said the younger Timekeeper, “I do. I came here to catch an outlaw from my home land. The incident with her majesty, the Queen, was not my fault. She was simply interested in me, and I had nothing to do with her behavior.” The crowd protested. The executioner tied the hanging noose to his neck and held the lever. The Timekeeper held his breath as the lever was pulled and the platform fell beneath him. He hung on the noose, struggling as he choked to death. After a while, he finally went limp, his body swaying lightly in the wind.
The executioner pulled the body off of the noose and carried him away. But the dead Timekeeper opened his eyes. The crowd screamed and began to run in all directions.  The executioner stopped, staring at the supposedly dead body.
            “Hey, sexy,” said the Timekeeper. He snogged the executioner, leaped out of his arms, and used this distraction to run away. Castle guards and some civilians chased the Timekeeper, holding swords and stones while shouting war cries.
            The Timekeeper ran, waving his arms in the air and shouting. He left the castle grounds and into the town, dashing up and down the streets with the angry mob right behind him. He leaped onto the back of a carriage in motion and pushed off the passengers, shouting “Sorry about this, lads!”
            He rode the horse and carriage out of town until he lost sight of the mob. He drove the horse to a river. The horse bent down and drank some water, and the Timekeeper lay down under a tree. He turned and his heart skipped a beat. Downstream, a Draptfa lay dead next to the river. A Draptfa is a 15 foot tall lizard with thick scales and sharp teeth. Someone had murdered it.
            The Timekeeper leaped to his feet and ran toward the fallen beast. There was a hole in the Draptfa’s chest; the edges of the cut were glistening with a small ring of flame. This had to be done by a Magistreyan, thought the Timekeeper. The cut had to be done with a plasma edged blade. That’s a Magistreyan design.
            “Who did this to you?” he muttered, investigating the dead body. He heard footsteps behind him and whipped around. There was a hooded man in a black cloak. The man held a Magistreyan sword.
            “You murdered this Draptfa,” said the Timekeeper. “That’s treason. I order you to drop your weapon and surrender so I can take you to the council of Magistrey for a trial.” The hooded man stepped to the Timekeeper, lifting his sword.
            “I come on behalf of the council of Magistrey. I was sent to hunt this beast. The Draptfa race is now extinct.”
            The Timekeeper was shocked. “That is not true. There are hundreds of them in Magistrey!”
            The hooded man wiped his sword. “Not anymore there aren’t. Now, there are no monsters in Magistrey. It’s all humans and Magistreyans.”
            The Timekeeper was angry. A lot of the charm of Magistrey was all of its fantastic creatures. But they are all dead. “The council would never see to this!” argued the Timekeeper, “It’s slaughter!”
            “Slaughter that pay’s very well,” corrected the hooded man. He rolled up his sleeve and revealed a Temporal Transporter, a time traveling device. The Timekeeper could timetravel on his own, but the temporal transporter makes it a bit easier. It's safer. The man activated it and wind began to spin around him, creating a cyclone, then a crack formed in reality and he slipped through. The wind stopped and the man was gone. The Timekeeper had the same device on his own arm. He used this to travel back to Magistrey.

 Back in the cavern, the Timekeeper was shocked. He turned to the Timekeeper in the mirror.
            “So Magistrey ordered to have all of these creatures slaughtered?” he asked in disbelief. The Timekeeper in the mirror nodded.
            “The council believed that these creatures somehow posed a threat to their plan” he said.
            “What happened next?” asked the Timekeeper.
            “Nothing in particular, not for a while. It was a night in Manhattan, New York, 2016, that things with the council got worse.” He clapped his hands and the Timekeeper was transported to an office in the Empire State Building. Next to him was a man he recognized.
            It was the Mindstrae, another member of the council of Magistrey. He had his arms raised, green magic swirling around his hands, his eyes glowed green. The Timekeeper immediately recognized this as a form of mind control. He was sending out groups of false cognitive cells to go into the heads of humans and control their thoughts and movements. The Timekeeper peered out the window, leaning on his cane. He gasped.
            The Mindstrae was making the humans kill each other. They just starting murdering anyone they could, turning New York into a giant bloodbath. The Mindstrae was doing this. He was destroying an entire city!
            The Timekeeper heard someone sprinting up the staircase. A younger version of the Timekeeper dashed through the door and ran at the Mindstrae, sending sonic waves with his cane. The glass shattered, and the Mindstrae stumbled and almost fell out.
            The younger Timekeeper pressed the tip of his can to the Mindstrae’s back, threatening to push him. The Timekeeper was furious. His grey trench coat was gone, and his suit was tattered. He had cuts, burns and bruises up and down his body. His teeth were clenched and he had a terrifying scowl.
            “Why are you doing this?” he yelled. “Stop it NOW!” The Mindstrae stood tall.
            “It’s too late,” he said, “The council told me to do this, so I did it.”
            “Well, stop it! It’s genocide!” snarled the Timekeeper. “Stop it or I will kill you. There is a way to kill a Magistreyan, I know there is one.” Looking at the Timekeeper’s face, the Mindstrae believed him.
            “No, Timekeeper, I’m serious!” said the Mindstrae urgently, “I really can’t stop it. Their heads have already been altered. They are all going to fight to the death. The only alternative is death.  There’s no stopping them!”
            The Timekeeper grabbed the Mindstrae’s throat and held him out the window. The Mindstrae clutched his arm but the Timekeeper would not let go.
            “Let. Them. GO!” he demanded. The Mindstrae whimpered. He snapped his fingers and everyone in the city dropped. They had all been killed simultaneously. The mind control killed them long ago. They were just being driven by false cognitive cells. Now the bodies were dead. With a large roar of rage, the Timekeeper jumped out the window and dropped like a stone, dragging the Mindstrae with him. The two slammed on the concrete, but their Magistreyan bodies stayed intact, driving the force into the ground, and not only created a huge crater, but a massive shockwave that caused masses of destruction. Hundreds of buildings toppled over, crashing into others and onto the ground. Other’s caught fire, while a few were left intact.
            The two Magistreyans stood up. The Mindstrae attempted to punch the Timekeeper, but the Timekeeper already saw it coming. Literally. As a master of time and controller of the vortex, he can see an attack executed before it even happens, and counter the attack easily. He grabbed the Mindstrae’s arm and threw him into the air. As the Mindstrae fell back down, the Timekeeper kicked him into the ground.
            The Timekeeper was also capable of temporary super speed by slowing down time, separating himself from the timeline, and then moves at a normal pace while everything else moves at a slowed pace, which would look like him simply being super quick to anyone watching. He did this to grab his cane and strike the Mindstrae with it rapidly and repeatedly. When the Timekeeper stopped, the Mindstrae had a dozen of gashes in his face.
            “I told you they could not be stopped and continue to live,” he said weakly. The Timekeeper punched him in the nose, making him unconscious.
            The Timekeeper looked around him, seething with anger. The council ordered for all of these people to die? Animal slaughter was bad, but they’ve just committed genocide. Why did they need these people dead? Half a million people were slaughtered, and the other half just dropped dead. The city was now a huge graveyard.
            In the distance, another Magistreyan was collecting the bodies. She used a Quantum Enforcer to shrink the bodies and pack them into a tiny storage area. She shot a beam from it at a body, and the beam sucked the body inside while shrinking it to half the size of an ant.
            The Timekeeper ran up to the other Magistreyan. This was a woman, her name was the Herder.
            “Herder!” he demanded, “Why are you doing this?” The Herder looked at him.
            “We need the bodies, Timekeeper.”
            “But why would you have them slaughter each other?” The Herder thought for a moment.
            “Entertainment,” she decided. She continued sucking up bodies. The Timekeeper yelled with rage and used his cane to smack the Quantum Enforcer out of her hand, and then he smashed it to bits.
            “I sense some hostility in you,” she said, stepping up to him. Then she whispered. “Magistrey will squash you like a bug if you put as much as a toe out of line. This is your last warning.”
 

 In the cavern, the Timekeeper sat down, holding his temples. How could Magistrey do that? The Timekeeper in the mirror peered down at him.
            “Are you okay?” the Timekeeper turned and glared at him. The Timekeeper in the mirror sighed. “I wasn’t either.”
            “Why would they need human bodies!” the Timekeeper shouted. The Timekeeper in the mirror was sad. He himself remembered when he felt that way, but seeing him feeling the same way, except more hopeless because he was dead just crushed him. The Timekeeper stood up menacingly.
            “What happens next?” he asked with a snarl. The Timekeeper in the mirror was actually worried now. What would happen if he showed him what happens next?
            “Show me!” he shouted.
            “Fine,” said the Timekeeper in the mirror, “but you won’t like it.” He clapped his hands reluctantly. The Timekeeper was transported to a futuristic factory. It was clean and had advanced machines everywhere. “It’s the year 2134, and this factory is producing the robotic parts for a cyborg.”
            In the center of the factory, was the Creatix. He was another Magistreyan. He was overseeing the production of the robots. The machines assembled half bodies. What was going to be the other half?
            After a few minutes, the first cybernetic half-body was complete. The Creatix ordered everything to stop.
            “It is now time to fully construct the first Cyber-Soldier. Bring in the body!” A worker brought in a crate. He dropped it at the Creatix’s feet. He opened the lid and backed off. The Creatix took what was inside and lifted it up. It was one of the dead human bodies from New York. Another worker carried over the completed cybernetic half-body. The Creatix merged the body with the robot and the two connected. The robot connected life support to the inside of the human. They were unified now. The Creatix pressed a button and the cyborg woke up.
            “Initializing systems. Systems initialized.” The cyborg turned to the Creatix. “Identify.”
            “I am the Creatix, your master. You shall serve as the military of Magistrey.”
            “Creatix Identified. Processing demand. Demand processed. We shall serve as the military of Magistrey.”
            The Creatix was pleased. It was working. “Bring me the next body and cybernetic half-body” A worker carried another crate to the Creatix. “First, put the crates on the conveyor belts, that’d form the cyborgs quicker.” The workers began setting the remaining crates on the conveyor belt. “I’ll do this one by hand,” he said, gesturing to the box at his feet.
            He opened the lid and jumped back in surprise. The person inside stood up tall. It was a younger Timekeeper.
            “Hello!” He stepped out of the box. “Let me tell you, that is not what I call first class shipping.”
The Timekeeper walked up to the cyborg. “Right, so you merged a dead organic body with a robotic life support system and turned into your own slave. Let me tell you, they don’t give good massages,” He chuckled, and then placed the end of his cane on the cyborg. “This will do whatever deed you want it to, no matter if it’s to kill itself are make you a cup of tea.” The Timekeeper addressed the cyborg. “Earl Grey would be nice, with a bit of sugar, no milk.” The Creatix stomped up to the Timekeeper.
            “This is not a laughing matter!” he said. The Timekeeper looked at him, smiling like a lunatic.
            “No, it is not a laughing matter,” he said, “this is very serious.” He pointed the cane at machinery and pressed a button on the cane's shaft. It sent a signal to the equipment, and the machine exploded. “You,” he said this pushing the Creatix with his cane, “are raising an army of a dangerous combination. People you betrayed and weapons of mass destruction. That will all blow up in your face.” The Timekeeper put his arm around the cyborg. “These people still have their cognitive cells. They were shut down when they died, but you brought the bodies back to life. All that’s left to do that will give them their minds and lives back,” he raised his cane, and pressed a button that sent electron signals into all the cyborgs head, “is a wakeup call!”
           The electrons caused the cognitive cells in the cyborg to wake up and regain control of its body. It screamed, feeling the pain of the machine that replaced half of its body. The cyborg fell to its knees, tears streaming down from its human eye. The Timekeeper paced around the cyborg.
            “How pitiful. Not the cyborg, mind, it’s you,” he gestured at the Creatix, “you are an absolute pathetic waste of a being. How could you do this? This was an innocent person who you killed. These are millions of people who died for your cause!” the Timekeeper’s happy mood had extinguished. He began yelling. “You are raising an army for a group of people who literally control the world! Why do the Magistreyans need an army? Huh?”
            “That is not your business,” declared the Creatix. The Timekeeper stormed up to him.
            “Not my business, eh? I am part of the bloody council! All of this is my business!” he leaned on his cane, trying to cool down. “The proclamation of the Council states that murder of 5 or more people for the benefit of the council is strictly restricted.” The Timekeeper walked away, activated his temporal transporter, and disappeared.

 Back in the cavern, the Timekeeper was pacing. He looked at the Timekeeper in the mirror.
            “Why does Magistrey need an army?” he asked. “They are the most powerful beings in the universe. They control everything.”
            “Except for us” added the Timekeeper in the mirror. “There is one more important memory you need. One more puzzle piece.” The Timekeeper spread his arms.
            “I’m ready,” he said. “Where to next?” The Timekeeper in the mirror clapped his hands. They were transported to a mystical place. There were huge skyscrapers made of gold and silver. Chariots zoomed about on a golden brick road. The sky was orange, and the sea was blue. The grass and trees were all sorts of greens, purples, reds, yellows, and anything in between.
            “We are in Magistrey.”
            The largest building was the one in the middle. It was a giant skyscraper that gleamed golden. It was the home of the Council of Magistrey. At the entrance were two large doors. They opened automatically as a man walked toward them. He was tall. He wore silky white robes and golden armor, with a golden cape flowing in the wind behind him. His hair was white, as was his beard. He had a crown atop his head and held a staff. He was the Great Master, the supreme leader of Magistrey and head of the council. There were rows of armored soldiers on either side of him. He strolled proudly into the building.
            In the top floor was a huge room. Around the edge of the room there were stands for people to sit in. They were made of gold. In the middle of the coliseum was a long table with 20 chairs. At the head of the table sat the Great Master and the other council members filled the other seats. Just one chair hadn’t been filled.
            “Where is the Timekeeper?” growled the Mindstrae. The other council members joined in.
            “The bloke has betrayed Magistrey numerous times,” noted the Creatix, “like when he fought in the massacre of New York, 2016.”
            “Cut him some slack,” said the Herder, “he’s just really sentimental about innocent life.”
            “Too sentimental,” said another councilmember. Soon, the Magistreyans were all arguing, shouting to be heard over one another, until the Great Master pounded his staff on the floor and shouted “Silence!” A shockwave blew through the room, forcing everyone to quiet down.
            “The Timekeeper,” said the Great Master, “has indeed betrayed Magistrey numerous times, but he does so in protection of the innocent life we wrongly destroy.”
            “But you ordered us to kill all of those people!” protested the Mindstrae.
            “Indeed, however wrong it was, I have committed genocide.”
            “The Timekeeper is still meddling in things that he shouldn’t” said the Creatix, “like the incident in my factory. The guy knows too much and he won’t do anything good with the knowledge.”
            “Then I have decided we shall take his knowledge away from him” said the Great Master, “I can erase his most recent memories and he will not have to know a thing.” The council agreed. The memories of the Timekeeper shall be erased.
            Footsteps came storming up to the door to the council room. The doors were hit off of the hinges and they fell to the floor with a bang. The Timekeeper ran into the middle of the room, holding a sword. The sword was black, with silver designs and a red ruby in the hilt. The air, the reality seemed to shimmer and bend around it. The Timekeeper held the sword of time, forged from within the time vortex.  The councilmembers all stood up and backed away, fearful of what the Timekeeper might do. The sword of time can erase anyone from time. If it kills someone, their timeline will unravel as they bleed out, and when they die, they were never born. This is worse than death. There is no afterlife.
            “Timekeeper, put the weapon down!” ordered the Great Master. The Timekeeper marched up to him.
            “I am the Timekeeper, and I can wield the sword of time whenever I feel” he said. “I have to ask you all a few questions.” He hopped on top of the table. He fiddled with his temporal transporter and a cyclone appeared next to him. It stopped and a cyborg stood there, the one that was crying. He pointed to it. “Why do you need an army of bloody cyborgs taken from humans that you slaughtered?” He stared at the Great Master, “well, why?” Everyone held their breaths. The way that the Timekeeper spoke to the Great Master was dangerous. The Great Master looked at him.
            “We are going to invade Heaven and kill all of the angels that live there.” The Timekeeper stood there, horrified. The Mindstrae tiptoed behind the Timekeeper, holding a device that looked almost like a helmet. He shoved it on the Timekeeper’s head and pressed a button. The Timekeeper had a mini seizure and he fell down, unconscious. His memories had been erased. The Great Master stood over him, a crazy gleam in his eyes. He picked up the sword of time and stabbed it through the Timekeeper. The Timekeeper’s body glowed and rose up into the air. In a flash, it erupted and was gone. The Timekeeper was dead.

 The Timekeeper paced around the cavern. He felt like he was dying all over again.
            “What is happening?” he asked. “Why is my life not unraveling?” The Timekeeper in the mirror looked down.
            “It’s about to start. Before your life can unravel and never happen, you need to regain all of your memories. Now that you have them, you’re about to plunge backwards into a time vortex made up of your timeline and you’ll fall through, unraveling everything until you hit your birth, making it never happen. You will never exist.” The cavern shook violently, almost like an earthquake.
            “Why is this happening?” called the Timekeeper, trying to keep his balance.
            “It’s your timeline. This place will erupt and you will plunge in.” said the Timekeeper in the mirror, “I have no more use. I am leaving.” The mirror became fog and evaporated. The Timekeeper looked around frantically as the cavern around him collapsed. Huge chunks of rock fell and plummeted to the ground. The area behind the rocks was bright lights, rapidly changing colors. The Timekeeper was doomed. Or maybe he was almost doomed.
            Paradoxes stop time when they are too strong, he thought. If I cause an overwhelming paradox, I can stop my timeline. I am the Timekeeper, I can do this. The Timekeeper closed his eyes and focused. The entire cavern erupted and fell apart, and the Timekeeper plunged down. He watched as his last memories unraveled, happening around him in reverse. He still had a temporal transporter, but it had lost its temporal energy. But the time tunnel was full of temporal energy.
            The Timekeeper slammed the device against the tunnel wall, and the device absorbed energy. After a few seconds, it lit up, overflowing with energy. The Timekeeper quickly fiddled with the Temporal Transporter and changed direction in the time tunnel. He took a turn and looped upside down. He reentered the main tunnel of his timeline a few seconds earlier, and saw himself from a few seconds ago. He followed himself as he went in a loop, traveling backwards repeatedly to the same few seconds. There were 7 Timekeepers now. The Tunnel dimmed and shuttered. The Paradoxes were getting too big. The Timekeepers kept on looping repeatedly until there were over 50 Timekeepers. The time tunnel shook violently and exploded. All 57 of the Timekeepers dove down to a large hole of shimmering white light that had appeared. They fell through the hole of light.

            In Magistrey, on the table in the council room, a white light shimmered from the inside of the Timekeeper’s dead corpse until it expanded, filling the room. Then, it exploded, tearing a hole through reality and the 57 Timekeepers fell through. The air began to be sucked into the hole. Everything flew towards it. Everything was ripped off of the ground and sucked inside of the hole. People held onto whatever was not flying. The walls and ceiling caved in, falling down into the reality hole. Each of the Timekeepers stood up in unison, forming a circle. They had light emitting from their bodies. Their eyes glowed. They all snapped their fingers and the reality hole closed. The chaos stopped.
            The room was demolished. The wood and gold from the walls and ceiling lay in splinters on the floor. The floor had holes in it. Furniture was destroyed. The air was brimming with electricity. The Timekeepers walked and stood around the border of the room. The orange sky gleamed above them all. They addressed the Great Master.
            “We are the masters of time,” they said in unison. “We can never be defeated. As long as time exists, we shall live on. We are infinite. You are not. You call yourself the king of Magistrey and you will stay that way. But Magistrey shall only rule itself. The universe is no longer under your control. You are dismissed.” The Timekeepers clapped their hands and the Great Master fell to the ground. They then addressed the rest of Magistrey.
            “The council of Magistrey has collapsed. A new government to govern this territory may be created from its ashes, but I top its authority. Magistrey will be brought into the actual universe, abandoning the separate dimension it lives in.” The Timekeepers snapped their fingers and a large earthquake shook the city as it was dragged from one dimension into another. The sky changed to a bright blue. The earthquake ended. The Great Master stood up. He shot a look at the Creatix.
            “Call in the army!” he demanded. The Creatix hesitantly took out his remote and pressed a button.  In the distance, a giant spaceship flew out of the sea. It looked like a huge city of its own. The Ship flew over the city and little hatches opened in its hull. Cyborg soldiers dove out of the holes, flying to the city of Magistrey.
            “If I’m going down,” sneered the Great Master, “You’re going down with me.” He yelled and raised his staff, charging toward one of the Timekeepers. The Timekeeper he ran toward stepped out of the circle. The rest of them turned around. They dove off of the building and slammed into the cyborgs. The 56 Timekeepers served as an army, battling the cyborgs. The other Timekeeper held out his hand and the sword of time flew into it. He blocked the attack and sparks flew as the sword and staff slammed into each other. The Timekeeper summoned his temporary super speed and dodged away before the Great Master could make another attack.
            “You don’t need to do this,” he said, panting heavily. “You can still stop this.”
“Never!” roared the Great Master. “You are weak. I’ll break you!” The Timekeeper blocked and countered another attack.
“How am I weak? I just single handedly destroyed your empire.” The Timekeeper kicked the Great Master, knocking him to the ground. He then used the sword to slice the staff in half.
            “It’s over” he said.
The Great Master thrust out his arm and the Timekeeper was thrown backward. The Great Master pulled in his arm and the sword of time flew into it. He leaped to his feet and charged at the Timekeeper. The Timekeeper used the super speed to zip around the room. He ran circles around the Great Master, causing a whirlwind. The Timekeeper then picked up half of the staff and repeatedly jabbed, smacked and dodged the Great Master. After a while, the Timekeeper jumped and kicked the Great Master in the back of the head, stabbed the half-staff through his heart, kicked the sword away, and lifted him by his throat.
            A circle of flame opened beneath the suspended Great Master. A portal opened and he peered in. He began to panic. It led to a very evil place.
            “Timekeeper, please!” he begged, “Please don’t do this. I beg of you. Have mercy!” The Timekeeper tightened his grip, a fire gleaming in his eyes, a sneer on his face. The Great Master choked. The Timekeeper began shaking the Great Master, loosening his grip.
            “No!” pleaded the Great Master, “Don’t! Don’t! Please, don’t!” The Timekeeper smiled, stepped back, and settled the Great Master on the ground.
            “You didn’t think I’d really do that, would you?” he asked playfully. “That’s just dark.” He turned around and found his cane. He addressed the rest of the Timekeepers.
            “Alright everyone, “he called, “it’s time for a wake-up call!” All of the Timekeepers raised their canes and sent electrons into the cyborgs’ heads. Their human minds all took over the bodies. Some screamed in pain, others sat down and cried. Others dealt with the pain and walked around, trying to get better control of their bodies. The rest of the Timekeepers pulled out their Temporal Transporters and traveled back in time to their rightful places in the timeline.
The Timekeeper became the protector of the universe. He made it happy. The Cyborgs became a new subspecies. Magistrey became a planet that followed the Earth’s orbit around the sun. It was a great tourist spot. The Timeline healed itself. A new council of Magistrey was formed from the ruins of the old one, but the Timekeeper kept close eye over it.
All of the previous members of the council were imprisoned in Limbo, a separate dimension with a broken timeline, making everything incredibly impossible to understand. It was essentially an interdimensional torture chamber where events do not happen in any certain order, and the timeline repeatedly reverses within itself. Time constantly slows down, speeds up, goes backward, goes forward and stops, all without warning.
So in the end, the good guy won. And that’s all great and dandy, but know this: people change a lot. The Timekeeper has a dark side, and if that dark side takes over, he can plunge the universe into peril. The Timekeeper needs to face his inner demon before he becomes his inner demon. And he knows this. Everyone has two sides, and in the end, one side must conquer over the other. What happens if the Timekeeper’s demon beats his angel? The greatest hero in the universe may one day become the greatest villain. You have all been warned.



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