Eight years ago...
Young Dave and his friends were excited, it was time for their annual adventure trip, and this year, their destination was Saudi Arabia. They had just arrived.
A city once reduced to the ground, it was different, with high buildings and a renewed sense of life. They had nearly removed all the war remnants, but one remained: the huge, colossal alien ship that fell after being defeated and the reason for the trip.
Though the place is restricted, there is a famous museum for the great Brave Blave, the Izigan hero who took down the ship alone.
They all checked into a local hotel close by, after a long trip from Washington, D.C.
Each of them settled into their respective rooms for the night.
Dave, being an Izigan, was particularly well-liked, which wasn't surprising since Izigans were known and loved for their remarkable skills and abilities.
Though at this time, at just six years old, he hadn't been able to use his powers yet.
Dave admired Brave Blave deeply. The thought of seeing his museum thrilled him. He couldn't wait, though it was nighttime, he wished he could skip ahead and begin the real fun the next day.
However, as the night drew near, the atmosphere shifted, and things began to take a strange turn.
In the dead of night, Dave was jolted awake in his room. He rubbed his eyes, still groggy with sleep.
He noticed the room was nearly empty, the last of his friends sleepwalking out the door.
He initially thought they were being called out, until he saw the way they moved.
They were all barefoot, moving sluggishly, some hitting the wall close to the door, heads bent either forward or sideways.
The view alone made him freeze in fear, but he bought some courage and spoke.
"What's happening? Are they calling us yet? What's going on?"
Dave muttered to himself while climbing out of bed. He adjusted his pajamas and stood once more, still confused. He was now certain something was off.
Following his friends out, Dave was shocked to find that all the kids from the hotel were marching outside in a trance-like state, all heading to the exit of the hotel. Dave looked around in shock. It really was everyone.
"What.... What the?"
The hotel staff was nowhere to be seen; it was as if they were the only souls left in the building.
"Guys? Where are you all going? Are you guys okay?" Dave called out, reaching to tap one of them on the shoulder. The boy didn't respond, his eyes fixed forward, completely unresponsive.
Growing more frightened by the moment, Dave's confusion escalated into fear when he began to hear a faint voice.
"Help, help me,"
It whispered, sounding as if it were inside his head, he jotted instantly the voice made his skin crawl.
He turned left and right, fear creeping into his mind, making him feel like he was losing his mind.
This wasn't a joke anymore. He ignored the strange voice and barged into the rooms where their guardians should have been, but to his surprise, no one was there.
"Help me."
The voice came again, this time more desperate. It carried so much pain in it, Dave thought for a moment and decided to seek out himself, now there's no one to call out to.
He stepped outside, but the surroundings were different. The alien ship was nowhere in sight. It was supposed to be the first thing he saw, towering in the sky but now, the sky was eerily clear.
To make things worse, all the streetlights were also off, creating a dark and unsettling scene.
The hypnotized children, including his friends, marched determinedly towards the alien ship, seemingly controlled by an unseen force.
As Dave continued to follow, he discovered that the road bizarrely veered down as if leading to the edge of a flat Earth. Those controlled under the unseen force walked this path, defying gravity as they reached the edge and then miraculously regained their balance, continuing their journey on the suspended road.
He didn't want to take any chances. He was already standing at the edge of it. He bent to look, but once he did, it was like something wanted to pick him up. He could feel the invisible force having some weight on his head. He quickly removed it.
"I'm gonna fall, what the hell?"
He watched till he saw one of the sleeping kids walk past him, stepping up to the edge and returning to the other side like he was held by a rope.
"They're not falling."
Gulp
Dave raised one leg from the edge, ready to move forward.
"Here goes nothing."
As Dave stepped off the edge, an invisible force gripped him, flipping his body mid-air. Gravity twisted unnaturally, and within seconds, his feet landed gently on the underside of the road. Balanced and upright, he turned backwards from where he was. He turned back. The other side now hung straight below him.
It was like he was on the edge of a dice, staring downwards.
His eyes widened, but he knew the real task lay ahead. Something was terribly wrong.
Dave paused, his heart pounding as he took in the scene. The others, still under some spell, were gathered at the base of the ship as well, walking slowly towards it.
The atmosphere was dense, huge metallic pillars scattered around changed the view like a lost battleground. Still, Dave walked the path. For some reason, the children didn't move any further from this area. The ship's entrance was still ahead.
His Intrusive thoughts played the same thing. He could still see himself at the hotel not caring to come out, but at this point there's no turning back. He made the choice; now he must finish it.
"Nahhh, my leg."
His fluffy slippers that matched his pajamas were already soaked and cold against his feet. He squeezed through the twisted-shaped metallic pillars till he saw an opening in the ship, torn open.
He could still hear it. The louder the voice became until it transitioned from a voice in his head to one that filled the air around him. He moved through twisted metal and debris. He finally came to the source of the calls for help.
"What is this?"
What he found was not a human, though its form was strangely similar.
The creature before him had pale skin and wore remnants of what seemed to be dark and broken metal armor.
It was slumped against a metallic wall, its stance one of utter exhaustion and defeat. The creature had huge black eyes, nearly shut. Big they were. Its face told a painful story, his red blood all over, filled with an undeniable pain and sorrow that pierced Dave's heart.
Yet, the entity was unlike anything Dave had ever encountered or learned about.
For a moment, Dave stood frozen, caught between fear and fascination.
He could feel his heartbeat in his mouth.
"Screw this. I have seen enough."
His instinct screamed for him to run, but why now? He felt it was too late to turn back. His bravery ended here.
The creature's gaze met his, a silent plea for understanding or perhaps assistance emanating from its sorrowful eyes.
After a tense pause, Dave's legs began to move. He began to take steps backward. He could no longer stand it. Fear controlled him like a zombie, and he turned to leave.
"Please wait, don't leave,"
Echoed the voice inside Dave's head once again. This time, he paused, turning back to face the creature.
He moved gently, one step at a time before reaching it.
"Are you the one doing that, the voice in my head? You need help, don't you? Who are you?"
"I never expected you to be so young,"
The figure replied, his voice filled with a mixture of surprise and respect.
"Your species, humans, you're usually much younger, a child, but your understanding seemed so mature when I first contacted you.
My name is Uria,"
He coughed out, spilling blood before cleaning his lips,
"and I am the last of my kind, the Arath clan, from a distant planet. If you heard my voice, then you must be the reincarnation of one of our elders. There's much I cannot explain, it's for you to discover. I need your help; the entire universe is at stake, and you are the key in saving it.
Understand, child, nothing is as it seems. I don't have much time left. He will come for me soon. Take this." Uria's weak hand extended, offering a black orb adorned with blue markings.
"I know you don't understand, child. The true purpose of this object is unknown to me. Before my kind was erased…"
He told me that...…..
Suddenly an intense pain flooded his head, and blood began to trickle down his upper lip.
He held his head, screaming from the pain.
"Aaaaaaahh!"
He faced the ground, still clamoring in pain and bleeding.
"Hey! Are you okay?" Dave asked, panic rising in his voice.
"They're stopping me from speaking."
"Who's they?"
"Please, take it,"
He said, stretching the orb toward him.
"It's safe. Hurry, before it's too late. Take it and run; he is already here to stop me," Uria urged, the tension in his voice palpable.
Dave quickly took the orb, his hands trembling as he grasped the mysterious object and ran like he was being chased. He had gone forward from the entrance.
No sooner had he taken it than a figure dropped in front of Uria.
"Where is the Orb of Meston?
Do you think you can play games with me? Oh wait, that sense of calm...…you found who you were looking for. You've made a mistake."
The unknown figure, who also resembled a human, held Uria's head and plunged a pitch-black dagger-like shadow into his throat, killing him on the spot.
"Now, where is my target?"
His body was pitch black, except his eyes, which were glowing white.
Dave, orb in hand, fled the ship, the sounds of Uria's struggle fading behind him.
He ran as fast as he could. He fell multiple times but kept getting up.
He hadn't seen what may be chasing him, but his body told him he could die at any moment.
Whatever he was holding was not ordinary.
"I guess I will just have to go back in time again," he muttered, attempting to perform a time reversal technique.
He pressed his hands together, with only his index and pinky fingers stretched out and touching.
At the center of his palms, a dark cosmic energy started to gather, forming like a shadowy sphere only to fade away after a few minutes, leaving him disappointed.
To his dismay, the technique failed to activate.
He moved so quickly in one spot that his body seemed to blur, almost like a flickering image, shifting back and forth with incredible speed, trying to slip through reality, but he returned to normal.
"This can't be. I underestimated him,"
He said bitterly, glaring at Uria's lifeless body sprawled on the ground.
"He sealed this reality to be a fixed point in time. How could I have not foreseen that he had the ability to rewrite the laws of time itself?"
As he stepped outside, his gaze fell on the alien ship and the children still under the influence of the alternate dimension technique.
"If my perceptions are correct, the subject is just a child. He wasn't affected by the hypnosis. I should find him in no time."
Approaching the group of children at the base of the ship, he spotted Dave holding an orb. With sudden speed, he ran forward, fist up in his hand, and struck him at the back. Dave fell, but his body faded, revealing he was a fake.
He saw him with the orb again and kept on repeating the process.
Each time he struck down a version of Dave, another appeared holding the same orb. He kept killing duplicates, but none were the real one.
Until a chilling realization dawned on him.
"Something isn't right," he muttered with frustration.
"I am trapped under Uria's construct reality even after his death. I should have cut off his head; his brain is still functioning. I can't believe I fell for that. His merge in reality is using a fourth-dimensional phase. He's moving the boy still in the construct reality, correcting his side while he interrupted mine."
He took a deep breath and observed his surroundings. He studied each child until his eyes locked onto Dave, the original.
The cosmic energy emanating from Dave was unmistakable. From his hands, he created black rods, planting them each time he spotted Dave to trace his path.
It was how the construct reality worked, and he figured it out. Dave was being switched into various locations, and duplicates acted as decoys.
But for Dave, he was still running in a straight line.
The strange man moved with unseen speed, moving in a zigzag motion.
Pursuing the trail of rods, the strange man closed the distance rapidly on Dave. With a black rod gripped tightly in his hand, he prepared to strike Dave from behind.
As he raised his hand, ready to deliver a fatal blow…
Dark cosmic energy converged at the end of the rod. He wanted to make sure Dave didn't survive the strike.
He took the strike, and the ground tore from the impact, still moving and destroying what was in its path—but it was all for nothing. Dave had vanished once more.
"You dare?"
He went rogue, screaming, and gave out an exploding force, a loud explosion that consumed everyone present, including the children from the hotel.
Unbeknownst to the outside world, this devastating event unfolded within a construct reality.
From the moment the children had left the hotel, they had been pulled into an alternate dimension, isolating them from their surroundings.
The explosion and the force that was enough to pull down buildings were all within the construct reality dimension.
The following morning, the site was swarmed by police and onlookers. People didn't know what to make of it all. It was a bizarre scene to picture.
Every child was found reduced to ashes, every child, that is, except for Dave.
Miraculously, he emerged without a single scratch. He was not too far from the scene where he was found; he had passed out running for his life.
Many reporters crowded Dave, trying to get something from him. He stood dazed and worn out. He couldn't find the orb any longer, and he knew what he witnessed should only remain with him.
The guardians of the children froze. They didn't know how to react to the situation. They had to take Dave first, shielding him from the reporters who didn't care about how Dave was, only that they wanted more headlines.
Rumors and suspicion quickly surrounded Dave.
Many speculations arose. Galaxia didn't respond to the issue on time, and when people got to know he was an Izigan, they had their guesses leading to accusations that he was somehow responsible for the tragedy.
What confused people even more was the evidence of a massive explosion, yet no one had heard a thing.
Upon returning to school in Washington, D.C., he faced a changed atmosphere. Whispers and stares followed him through the hallways. He had gone from once loved as being an Izigan to being the target of hate.
He reached his locker In the hallway only to discover the orb inside. He thought it was all a dream. The sight of the orb recreated his memories of Uria.
"Now what will I do with you?"