Chapter 65
- Kaysi -
Becky flew backward with a cry—not a scream, just a sharp, broken sound that was ripped away by the roar of the portal. She was weightless for a second, arms flailing—and then she vanished, swallowed whole by the shimmering light.
"BECKY!" Josh's voice cracked, raw with panic.
He surged forward without a second thought, his eyes wide with disbelief—no, with fury.
"You SON OF A—" Josh didn't get to finish.
Columbus turned with that warped smirk and flung his hand out like a whip.
A pulse of temporal energy exploded from his palm—blue and sickly gold. It hit Josh in the chest like a train.
The force launched him off the ground, slammed him into the far cavern wall with a thunderous crack, and he collapsed in a heap. His body didn't move.
I tried to scream, but I couldn't breathe. Evan shouted his name and sprinted toward him, ducking under a crackling arc of portal energy.
Josh wasn't breathing.
I couldn't hear him breathing.
"Josh!" Evan dropped beside him, checking for a pulse. His hands trembled. "He's alive—barely. Dammit, he's bleeding from the head—he hit that wall hard."
Columbus chuckled, his voice fracturing between tones. "You get in my way—you get erased."
Josh was slumped against the far wall. Evan knelt beside him, blood matting the side of his head, shaking him by the shoulders. "Josh, c'mon—stay with me, bro. Stay with me!"
Duke was on one knee near the shattered edge of the cavern, shielding his face from the dust and screaming wind. He was shouting something, but the distortion bent his voice, swallowing it in echoes that didn't belong in this time.
I wanted to move. I needed to move. But my legs buckled beneath me as another tremor tore through the floor, lifting me into the air before slamming me hard into the ground. Pain screamed through my bandaged ankle. I bit down on a cry.
The oxygen around us grew thin. The wind howled, screeching through the cracked stones like an aeolian sound. My ears rang. My chest heaved, struggling and desperate for the air that didn't feel poisoned.
The portal was a cyclone now—an open wound in space. The edges frayed, lightning arcing around like angry vines ripping through the soil. From its mouth, Columbus looked more glitching than that man. His body flickered from young to old, bull horn half-formed and steaming, skin shifting between solid and invisible.
"You thought sealing the gateway would stop me?" His voice fractured, layered in overlapping, echoing tones—both young and old. Beast, human. "This is my resurrection."
Columbus raises one hand and points at Evan.
"Your brother jumps to die for her, and you? You stepped up to me alone, trying to take the lead. So let's see how strong the others are without their muscle protector, which is shattered.
Evan is still next to Josh, trying to help Duke hold off the blood from Josh bleeding out.
I screamed, I tried to crawl, my ankle was still twisted, and I was unable to walk towards them. "No—Evan, MOVE!"
It was too late.
A pulse burst from his outstretched fingers—something between magic and time stretching the force. It struck Evan in the chest, launching him off his feet. He hit the cavern wall and, with a sickening crack, fell limp next to Josh.
I couldn't think straight. I could make a sound. Even if I could hear the sounds and energy of the distortions, it ripped my lungs apart.
Blood, so much blood, my mind is so numb.
Columbus laughed. "I am all of your failed futures. Your timeline ends here!"
The portal began sucking us in slowly, like a black hole ready to devour. Rocks and debris slowly pulled into it.
He took another step forward—and then, the portal behind him convulsed.
A low buzzing hum shook through the earth like a cold shiver. The air froze. The loud wind was finally silenced.
Everything stopped.
Literally.
The torches froze mid-flicker. Once falling stones and debris halted in the air, suspended like puppets on invisible broken strings.
Even Columbus paused; his body flickered to a stop. He stood confused.
The light pouring from the portal shifter—from a blue-green chaos to something light, chilling blue, and golden sparkles. Steady, serene, and warm.
A figure slowly emerged.
Becky!?
But no, the Becky I recognized was no longer the same.
She stepped out as if reborn from the storm, her hair's windless curls kissed with white frosted tips. Her eyes sparkled like ice, and her skin seemed paler than usual. Even her lips bore a purplish tint, as if frozen in sleep. The entire room held its breath. Her body shimmered faintly at the edges like a frozen aura. She seemed unreal in this moment, as if she were standing in all moments at once.
I gasped when I got a better look at her eyes. Her eyes—familiar—glowed like golden molten glass and ice.
Becky didn't stumble. She didn't hesitate. Though the silence now made time feel like it stretched.
Each step she took bent time around her to her own will. The stones shattered earlier; now they knitted themselves back together as she passed. Even her footprints in the sand, dust, and stone ground rewound the moment after they were made.
Columbus turned.
"You." His mouth dropped.
His voice cracked unconfidently without mockery, but with fear.
Becky tilted her head. Her voice, calm, echoed a resonance as if she were speaking from another time, like Columbus.
"You shouldn't be here, Columbus snarled, backing up. "You were lost—erased!"
Columbus raised his fist to strike—
With no evidence, Becky was gone in the blink of an eye. Vanished!
She reappeared behind him.
Then in front of him. Then beside me.
Mocking him with every swing.
She reappeared in front of Columbus again.
He swung again; his claws tore through the empty air. They moved through Becky like she was made of light or shadows, just an illusion of the mind. She was untouchable with this new power of hers.
"You're phasing between time," Duke whispered from the floor, still beside Josh and Evan. "She's learned to control it somehow."
"I can feel and see everything, she whispered back. "Every second of time we have lived on this earth. Every second we could have from the present to the future. I know how to change this."
Columbus screamed and lunged forward.
Becky still did not waver and stood her ground once more.
Instead, she raised one hand and snapped her fingers.
Reality shattered.
Time unraveled.
The cavern around us blurred and rewound. Columbus froze mid-leap, then rewound in jerky motion, pulled backward until he stood where he had been ten minutes ago.
Then he fast-forwarded—rapid aging overtook his face—then rewound again.
He screamed chaotically as his body twisted between ages and states, unable to stabilize.
Becky walked toward him, each footfall echoing like a bell tolling in a quiet universe.
"You used time to hurt people," she said softly. "To manipulate fate. You tried to destroy our futures."
She stopped inches from his glitching form, face-to-face.
"And now—I'm going to erase you."
She raised her hand and pressed two fingers to his forehead.
There was a flash of golden light—silent, brilliant, clean.
And Columbus disappeared, shooting back into the portal as it collapsed.
No explosion. No scream.
Just—absence.
Becky walked over to me as I struggled to get to my feet. She stretched her hand, and my leg was fully healed, so there was no pain or any past signs of damage to the ripped pants leg or blood.
Becky walked over, stood over Evan and Josh, glowing like a star.
"I can't lose them," she said quietly. "Not again." She healed Josh and then healed Evan next. As soon as she placed her hands on them, they were healed in a second. Reversing time itself.
She raised both hands, and a pulse of golden light radiated out.
The color returned.
The noise.
And Josh gasped.
Evan coughed.
Becky fell backward, sobbing.
"They're okay," she cried. "They're okay…"
I fell to my knees, tears burning down my cheeks. Duke let out a sound between a laugh and a sob of relief.
Evan groaned, eyes fluttering open. "Did… someone just hit rewind?" He said, looking around at everyone safe and healed.
Josh sat up, blinking. "That was the weirdest nap I've ever taken."
Becky turned to us, trembling, smiling through tears.
"I think… I can control time now?"
I reached out and touched her arm. "You just saved our asses and timelines."
"No," she said, looking around at the team now slowly recovering, the room still bathed in soft golden afterglow.
"I just saved my family."