Everyone grew quiet, ready to listen intently to what the hologram of Dreko had to say.
In the hologram, Dreko looked a bit sad but with a hint of joy. He seemed to be reminiscing.
"Seeing you guys reminded me of my own days when I was Guardian. Deitos and I... we went on so many adventures, met so many people, fell in love and were heartbroken time and time again."
He paused for a second, clearly holding back tears.
"Yet it was so much fun. Rowlo... you remind me of that, and I know you'll do great. You have a good heart."
He smiled slightly.
"You see, Rowlo... I actually know the future you, and was... and still am... good friends with him."
Rowlo was taken aback, shocked at what he was hearing.
"...Wait... Dreko knew me?!"
Peter contemplated for a bit upon hearing it.
"You know... it honestly makes so much sense."
"When I had to... kill my best friend..."
Dreko paused for a moment.
"I ran away to the future. A future far, far removed from anything I was involved in... And I never returned."
He paced around slowly in the recording.
"I learned of the consequences of this in the future and then met you, the next Guardian who would come after me. Your spirit and heart made you perfect to be the next Guardian."
Rowlo looked down slightly, dejected and even more confused.
"But why leave... I don't understand."
"You're probably wondering why I left though, which is fair."
Dreko sighed.
"The reason is simple. The longer one spends in the past, the more in flux the future becomes."
He looked down for a brief moment.
"The future I come from is a good place though. We have issues of our own... but people are happy there."
"This is crazy..." Jaylia muttered.
"Every time someone travels to the past, the future is effectively erased for a while. What lies ahead stays in flux, though to some extent things always tend back to the same."
Dreko folded his arms.
"I fear the future I come from may have changed as well, as many things are different from the stories you told me."
Peter's head seemed to be spinning. He was completely lost.
"...So the future is like this... then the past. Ah man, this is so confusing," he muttered under his breath.
"Of course there are Time Rangers, but they only protect the integrity of the timeline, keeping it logical and consistent with all the time travelers. But the future will always remain in flux."
Dreko began to have a rather hopeful look on his face.
"The version of you I met in the future... will now become the you listening to this message."
A grin slowly formed across his face.
"And honestly... I can't wait to see you again."
He paused for a moment.
"I failed in my role as Guardian when I abandoned my time period... but if you stay true to yourself always, you'll even surpass me."
Rowlo began to tear up slightly hearing all of this.
"So... you're really not coming back, huh Dreko..."
The hologram continued.
"I've been running for a very long time, Rowlo."
Dreko let out a quiet laugh.
"But let's meet again when you've become great. When you've become the legendary Guardian."
"Under this device you'll find some capsules, the same ones that can alter your brain. They will teach you guys how to use my vessel which I left behind and the time core that we all built together."
Dreko rubbed his head and chuckled a little.
"I may have taken my time core back though... sorry. The time core we made is not as powerful, but it should allow you to jump back home and to within about 500 years forward or back or so from its creation."
He shrugged slightly.
"I'm sure you can make a better one though."
Dreko clasped his hands together.
"Anyways, it's been fun. I'll leave you guys to it."
Dreko grinned widely, more than he had ever in all the time he had spent with them.
"Take care guys. Be safe. Until next time..."
With that, the hologram turned itself off, completing its message.
Rowlo was holding back tears now and rubbed his eyes with his arm. He let out a brief sniffle.
"Dreko... I promise we'll meet again!" he said with determination.
Jaylia walked toward the device, bending down and picking it up. She flipped it over where there were 2 sets of 3 capsules.
One was marked spaceship navigation and the other timeline navigation.
Jaylia looked at the capsules with a slightly somber expression.
"So we're really on our own huh..."
"Yeah... it seems so," Rowlo continued.
Jaylia broke the seal and took one of each capsule. Rowlo and Peter followed soon after.
Almost instantly, information flooded through their minds.
For a brief moment, Rowlo could see unfamiliar controls, star maps, and strange symbols flashing through his thoughts.
Jaylia grabbed her head slightly, trying to process it all.
Peter looked the most mindblown after taking them.
"Damn that's a lot of knowledge."
Rowlo walked toward the vials of refined goro, picking one up. He looked at it, contemplating everything that had happened up to this point.
"Well... let's go home guys."
They all nodded in agreement and picked up vials of goro as well.
As they walked through the Japanese countryside one last time, they couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of 1612 Japan.
They gazed out at the Sakura trees, the rice fields, and the flowing rivers. They saw merchants and samurai pass them along the road. Kids played in the villages as they passed.
Somewhere out there, Musashi and Jinpay were probably continuing their lives like none of this had ever happened.
"I'm gonna miss this place," Peter said, looking out at the countryside.
"Yeah... me too," Rowlo added.
Jaylia admired the countryside alongside them as well and let out a deep sigh.
"Like after this we're just supposed to go back to high school and act like everything's normal, like man."
"Maybe just for a bit, I don't know," Rowlo said with a shrug.
"We have to head to Kudos for sure though. That's where Solomon is."
"Yeah but we need a plan first for sure."
"Let's figure all that out later. I just really want some fast food at this point. I'm super tired of all this ancient Japanese food," Peter cut in.
"Yeah if I see another bowl of miso soup..." Rowlo continued.
Eventually they reached back to where Dreko's ship was. They turned off the invisibility field, opened the entrance and went inside.
The ship was the same as before, but it just felt different. Without Dreko it felt almost nostalgic and a bit sad.
Jaylia looked around.
"Well if this is pretty much our ship now we should probably give it a name, right."
"Yeah and that means we're pretty much a crew so I guess we'll need a captain."
The both of them immediately looked toward Rowlo.
Rowlo began to sweat nervously a bit.
"...Um yeah I guess I'm the captain now. Goodness guys like I don't know the rules."
Jaylia looked at him and smiled.
"So that means the name is up to you huh... captain."
"Aw man..." Rowlo rubbed his head. "Hmm... I guess, I mean we're like eternal now or whatever right."
The others nodded in agreement.
"So why not call this vessel 'Eternia'."
"Hmm... Eternia huh. Yeah that's pretty cool, I like it. Our spaceship the 'Eternia,'" Peter said with subtle excitement.
Jaylia chuckled slightly.
"Sounds good to me!"
"Very well then, the first journey of the Eternia will be to Earth 2026, Solara Ridge. Let's go!"
Everyone immediately scrambled, now knowing exactly what they were supposed to do. They inserted the goro in the fuel compartment, powered up the thrusters, strapped in and took off.
They flew straight up until Japan was nothing more than a distant speck from space.
"Alright then..." Rowlo said as he fired up the time core.
Immediately the ship blasted off, ripping through the time stream. This time their bodies were unaffected as they were already immortals.
Peter laughed out loud.
"You know it's nice not being slammed on the ground by the time stream."
Eventually the ship came to a stop, appearing in the ruins of the lab in Solara Ridge about 2 weeks or so after the Kudonians took Solomon.
Jaylia unbuckled and sat up.
"Ah home sweet home..."
She walked toward the hatch and opened it, but to her surprise it was a lot noisier than she expected.
Helicopter blades thundered overhead.
"What's all the commotion?" Rowlo said as he walked out as well. Peter followed suit.
"GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR!!" a shout could be heard.
Outside, helicopters and government vehicles surrounded the ship. There were countless armed government soldiers in tactical gear pointing assault rifles at the 3 of them, yelling at them to get down and put their hands on their heads.
A man in a suit and dark black shades began to walk toward them. He walked up to them and pulled out a government badge.
"Hello... Rowlo. You are all hereby under arrest for violation of the Kudonian-Human Space Time Treaty. I'm Zimmer, second in command of the Department of Extraterrestrial and Temporal Affairs or DETA. Please come with me..."
"Tch... damn it, what the hell!" Rowlo scoffed.