The Checkerboard Room

Xena gasped—snapping her arms around him just as he began to collapse. She landed on her knees, holding him and cradling his head, gazing down at him with shock and concern.

“Oh my God… dammit , Amory!” Xena cried, adjusting her grasp on him and giving him a light smack on the cheek. “Wake up! Dammit, he told you to stop…!”

Aravali hunched on the other side, he and Xena both gazing down at him worriedly.

Amory lay crookedly in Xena’s arms, dazed and utterly disoriented, still feeling horribly queasy—but his eyes fluttered, just barely easing open again, his tired gaze wandering up to Zyon, who was now standing by the bedside just before him.

At the blurry sight of the angel, Amory cracked an exhausted smirk, slumping his head back and cackling breathlessly.

Zyon sighed and shook his head down at him, huffing out a breath. “You just can’t do anything the patient way, can you?”

Amory’s smile seemed to grow. “No.”

Xena glared down at him, her eyes filling with tears again, and Aravali glanced at the angel, standing fully and facing him.

“I have to ask,” the doctor said. “What exactly are the limitations with both of your power? Because it always seems fairly unclear.”

“The power itself has no great limitations,” Zyon replied. “It is the power of The Lord, and that power is divine. What brings limitations is the health of the human body, and the toxicity and the inner defiance that is caused by Devil’s Venom. Amory is in good health as of now… but Devil’s Venom is not just an ordinary toxin that can be removed or medicated away. It is a sentient evil, and it does resist anything that attempts to remove it. That seems to be the case in my experience with it.”

“Well… that explains why it’s taking so long for you to heal,” Aravali remarked.

“That is also why Amory must do this slowly and cautiously ,” Zyon said pointedly, giving Amory a look. “The poison is demonic, and anything demonic will affect him in a very negative way. The longer he is interacting directly with it, the more it will fight him.”

“Oh… it fought me, all right,” Amory moaned, blinking several times and rubbing one of his eyes. “It made me feel sick to my stomach…”

“Yes… I know. I know the feeling quite well,” Zyon said grimly. “It does that to me every time I manage to use my power… and then I fall ill for a long while again thereafter. Using my power seems to be what agitates it and makes it fight against everything that is going on inside me.”

“Well… how do you feel now?” Amory wondered, sitting up on the floor, Xena’s arm still around him. “Do you feel like it has less of a chokehold on you?”

Zyon nodded. “Oh yes. It is still there… but I do feel quite a bit… lighter. It shouldn’t hinder me so much now.”

“Okay… good,” Amory said, planting a hand on the floor and pushing himself upright, Xena and Aravali grabbing either of his arms as he stood. “So when do we do it again?”

Zyon narrowed his eyes at him.

Xena and Aravali gave him looks of disbelief.

Amory glanced between all of them and laughed. “What? I don’t feel drained, you guys… I just feel sick. I can handle feeling sick. C’mon, let’s do it again.”

“Amory,” Zyon said seriously. “That sick feeling comes from you making direct contact with the very essence of your natural and spiritual enemy… and it was trying to infect you the whole time you were trying to destroy it.”

Amory’s smile wavered. “What…?”

“I told you, it was fighting back. And how does anything demonic do that?” Zyon continued. “Through possession. Think of what Valek did to Vincent. Imagine having holy power and demonic power both waging absolute war inside you. Think of the state he was in when you found him like that. If the Devil’s Venom actually succeeds in infecting and possessing you—then that very same thing would happen to you, Amory.”

Amory stared at him, now looking and feeling disturbed.

“Is that, um…” Aravali muttered, waving a finger between Amory and Zyon. “Is that what almost just happened here…?”

“Yes. That is why I removed his hand from me,” Zyon affirmed. “A moment longer… and something truly catastrophic might have happened.”

“Well… couldn’t you just heal me if that happened?” Amory wondered. “I managed to heal Vincent from it…”

“Yes… but you aren’t hindered by Devil’s Venom, and I am,” Zyon said intensely. “I’m not certain that I can heal something so vicious and complicated while that evil still lives inside me.”

“Okay… so you can’t risk it. Like… at all,” Xena determined, turning to Amory and glaring sharply at him. “Which means… the next time he tells you to stop… then freaking stop .”

“Yes. Limited contact with this evil is what needs to be enforced,” Zyon confirmed. “It will get done, Amory… but we need to do it patiently and correctly.”

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Amory sighed. “I didn’t know all that…”

“We will address it more later,” Zyon said. “We do have other things to attend to now.”

“Oh… right. Um… we actually do have a bit of a problem that I didn’t think of until just now,” Aravali said, raising a finger and making a wincing sort of face. “Didn’t Mikey have a couple of friends staying over when all of this happened? Ahm… what exactly are we supposed to tell them? And… how are they supposed to get back home?”

All of them exchanged faces.

“I will transport those two boys home,” Zyon decided. “And I will calm their spirits and put their minds at ease before I do. They will wake up in their own beds, none the wiser.”

He moved to walk toward the door.

“Wait… do you… do you know where they live and everything?” Xena asked.

“I will look into their minds and know,” Zyon replied without stopping. “Won’t be long.”

The angel then marched out of the bedroom.

Amory, Xena, and Aravali all turned to each other.

“Well… then… I suppose everything’s been pretty much dealt with for now,” Aravali said. “All except for… the obvious.”

Amory nodded. “Yeah. I think it’s time.”

“Yeah?” Aravali asked. “You’re ready for it right now?”

Amory smirked. “Oh yeah. I’d love an adventure right now.”

“Well… I’m not sure how ready Raven and Crowe are,” Aravali muttered, scratching along his cheek. “But I suppose we can go and find out…”

They all walked out of the bedroom and made their way down the stairs. When they entered the main room, Aravali waved at Crowe and Raven, motioning for them to join—and the five of them headed into the checkerboard room together, standing in the center between the four different doorways through time.

“All right… we have some things to figure out, here,” Aravali started. “First of all… we need to figure out precisely when you three plan to go through these doors. Secondly… we need to determine exactly what your plans are when you get there, because looking for strangers in different time periods is probably going to take a bit of time and effort. I would imagine that you may have to make more than one trip. You might have to come and go from here until you actually find who you’re looking for on the other side. And you.”

He pointed at Crowe.

“ You will have to behave ,” Aravali said flatly.

Crowe shot him a look. “Whaddid I do?!”

“Nothing yet… but I have a feeling you’d want to go on a joyride throughout the 1990s,” Aravali explained. “And it’s important you remember why you’re going there, and the consequences attached to making any waves there.”

“What’re you worried about? I thought you were coming with me, Mr. Mom,” Crowe snarked.

“Oh… I am,” Aravali affirmed. “I just can’t ever seem to warn you and supervise you enough.”

“What about you?” Xena asked, turning to Raven. “You’re going all by yourself. Are you nervous at all?”

Raven shook her head. “Nah… it sounds fun.”

Mikey poked his head into the room.

“Well… just remember, you’ll have to dress and act a certain way in the 50s,” Xena informed. “And it’ll probably get on your nerves, especially if you’re going there to look for people and do some investigative stuff. I have a feeling that people in the 50s might not wanna take a girl very seriously when she’s there asking questions…”

“Yeah… and… we have to keep this in mind, too,” Amory commented, raising a finger. “We have no way of knowing what side the children of time will be on.”

Everyone turned and stared at him, Mikey inching into the room slightly more.

“What do you mean, what side?” Aravali inquired.

“Between good and evil,” Amory replied, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Some of the people at Canterbury accepted divine protection from Zyon… but some of them didn’t, and they let the demons in instead. We have no way of knowing which children of time have good power, and which ones have evil power. We have to be ready to deal with either one.”

“Right… and we have to try to convince the good ones to come back here for their own protection,” Crowe added. “And the evil ones, we’ll just have to… deal with… somehow.”

“They will be Legion,” someone said from right behind Crowe—making him jump and stagger away with a hand clasped to his chest.

“ God —fuckin’—blind me,” Crowe stammered, wheeling around and seeing that Zyon had appeared in front of the back windows out of nowhere. “Where’d you come from?!”

“The countryside. The two young boys have been taken back to their respective homes,” Zyon reported. “And it is important you all remember—any of the children of time who are afflicted by demonic possession cannot be expected to be operating alone. They always try to corrupt others and grow their Legion more—and they are a deep, intricate part of Valek’s hivemind. Not to mention, you will be traveling through decades of time that are all a part of the century-long fracture, which makes the rifts of Mapleview even more open and vulnerable. It will be fairly easy for any demon-possessed humans to summon even more demons to their aid. All things evil will be working together against you now.”

“Plus we have to account for the fact that Valek can time-travel now, too,” Crowe mumbled gravely. “He might pop up anywhere we go…”

“And he might be recruiting all new numbers into his Legion,” Zyon said darkly. “Just because he’s lost most of his numbers from Canterbury does not mean we can expect him to be in that same state when we see him again. He is a master at manipulation and deceit, and he will recruit others into possession and demonic loyalty, just as he’s always done.”

“Man… I wish we would’ve had the chance to make that anti-Canterbury organization like Vincent wanted,” Amory sighed. “Now I see why he wanted to do that…”

“To combat Valek’s ability to recruit large amounts of evil ones to his side… yes,” Zyon nodded. “But you will come to find that it is not yet impossible to accomplish that.”

“Mikey,” Xena uttered, only just spotting her nephew in the room. “What’re you doing in here?”

Everybody stopped and turned to the boy, staring at him expectantly.

“Are you guys really planning on doing this right now?” Mikey questioned, his eyes shifting from person to person.

“Well… yeah,” Amory replied. “We kinda have to get this done as soon as possible.”

“It is important,” Zyon stated, turning to the blue doorway.

The angel sighed, raising a finger and making a slow, careful writing motion in the air with it.

Then—a small, thin carving began to appear above the blue door, reading 1988 .

Everybody watched as Zyon faced every door individually, aiming his finger at them and carving a date above each one—the light green one labeled 1955 , the dark red one 1998 , and the yellow one marked 1925 .

Elaine entered the room just behind Mikey, and Zyon then turned back to face the others.

“This room will be everyone’s gateway to every time period we must traverse,” Zyon announced. “I will be standing guard for the manor, but I am well enough now to come and intervene through time if it becomes absolutely necessary. Each doorway should let out very close to the children of time, but it will be up to you to seek them out and pinpoint them. Amory, Raven, and Crowe—you must all use great discernment, and you must listen to The Lord’s guidance inside you. You will be able to feel when you are in the presence of a holy one—and you will be able to feel when you are in the presence of a demonic one, if only you pay very close attention.”

The trio all nodded at him.

“The final battle between us and Valek’s Legion is not far away now,” Zyon said severely. “He wants to eliminate those affected by me, and further recruit those affected by him. This is the final stretch before he comes for us.”

“You also need to be fully healed before anything like that can happen,” Amory told him.

Zyon met his eyes and sighed. “Well… we can come back to that issue when you return.”

“Wait. Wait a minute… wait,” Mikey interrupted, raising a hand and shaking his head. “You seriously can’t go right now. This is stupid.”

Once more, everyone stared at him.

“Well— look at you guys,” Mikey explained, swatting at the misfits three. “Amory—your hair’s long, and you’re constantly wearing bellbottoms. Raven—you look badass—but like—you can’t go to the 50s dressed like that, or else everybody’s gonna think you’re some psycho devil-worshipper. And Crowe—I mean, you look fine for going to the 90s—but have any of you even bothered to pack money or anything? Has anybody eaten breakfast? Listen—you have to be dressed the right way, you have to be fed and hydrated, and you have to have everything that you could possibly need on you. You seriously can’t just go right now.”

The room fell momentarily silent.

“He’s absolutely right,” Elaine agreed, folding her arms. “You all need to be prepared before you even think about going.”

“Well… I was gonna give Raven a makeover,” Xena remarked. “But I don’t have any outfits that look like they’re from the mid-20th century…”

“Oh. Wait,” Raven mumbled. “Some of Mom’s old outfits are in my closet. Maybe they’ll work. Ugh… but they’re so bland… and girly…”

“OH!” Crowe bellowed, whipping around and rapidly jabbing a finger at Amory and Aravali. “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh—I still have that outfit from the King’s Place!”

Aravali stared blankly at him. “The Smooth Criminal one? The one that got saturated in blood?”

“Yes!” Crowe grinned. “Miss Morgan cleaned it up ages ago! She actually got all the bloody stains out! Oh—Miss Morgan, you are amazing , y’know that?!”

Elaine flashed a smile. “You’re welcome.”

“Um. Why would you need to wear that?” Amory asked.

“I don’t—but you do,” Crowe smirked, smacking him on the arm. “The Smooth Criminal outfit is a 1930s thing. It’s perfect for you to use. All you’ve gotta do is tie your hair back just like MJ did in the music video! It’s brilliant!”

“I’m going to the 20s, not the 30s,” Amory muttered.

“Close enough!” Crowe proclaimed. “It’ll be fine, trust me.”

“All right—if we’re actually prepping to do this now, then let’s go,” Xena announced, clapping twice and stepping toward the exit, motioning for all of them to follow her. “Let’s get everything prepared. Starting with a makeover!”

Raven groaned and rolled her eyes before trailing after her, and everyone else followed them out of the checkerboard room as well, all of them finally ready to prepare for their long-anticipated manhunts through time.

As of now—it seemed that everyone in Evervale Manor was quite eager to seek out their next adventures, as it provided a fantastic new distraction from the disturbing memories of everything that had transpired the night before.

Quick to leave those thoughts behind—everyone broke into small groups of two or three throughout the manor in order to prepare for their journeys.

Amory rushed into his own bedroom, whipping out a large chunk of cash from his closet and scattering it carelessly across his floor. Then, he began raising his hand and removing specific bundles of bills from the pile, making them hover over to his bed, separating them from the rest. He stared down and scanned the mountain of money intently, his eyes landing on all of the bundles with the oldest bills, and he plucked them out of the pile to set aside, hoping to hand them out to the others later. He and his friends all might need money for their travels, after all—and he didn’t want to send any of them off with money that had the wrong dates printed on it.

Xena brought the old stolen Smooth Criminal outfit into his room, pausing and laughing at the pile of money that now consumed half of his bedroom floor.

Meanwhile—Crowe and Aravali emerged in Crowe’s bedroom, and immediately, he began packing. The doctor watched for a moment while Crowe stuffed a few articles of clothing into a large rolling travel bag, scoffing out a laugh.

“How long do you expect us to be gone?” Aravali chuckled.

“I dunno. Fairly long… ish,” Crowe shrugged, plopping the big open bag onto his bed and placing his accessories in it. “I mean… think about it. We don’t have the kids’ names. We don’t even have a description. We’re just looking for two super-powered children with virtually nothing else to go on. I imagine it’ll take a bit of time.”

“Fair point… but Zyon did say that the doorways should let out at the right times and places for them,” Aravali replied. “So… at least we know we’ll be nearby them when we show up…”

“Right… but lemme give you some advice about winging it on the streets, Ari,” Crowe said, turning and wagging a finger at him. “We’re gonna have to make some friends and flash some money if we wanna have a place to stay, and we can’t do it in any way that needs a paper trail, because we won’t have one in the 90s any more than we do here. So… best just… let me do the talking when we get to that part. Yeah?”

Aravali’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying … we can’t properly rent anything there,” Crowe clarified. “So… let me talk some people up and make some friends there, and then maybe we can at least get a wonderfully cheap motel room or something. All right? Trust me. Making friends when you’re wandering the town with nowhere to live is the best thing you could ever do.”

Then, he resumed his packing, and Aravali continued to stare at him for a moment.

“You’ve done this a lot, haven’t you?” the doctor suspected.

“Well… duuuh ,” Crowe laughed, tossing a dark red flannel jacket into his bag. “How do ya’ think I lived out in the town before I ever checked into Moonvale? I lived outside of the lab a lot , mate… and the reason I was able to do that was because I had mates in town.”

Aravali hesitated for a second, then shrugged and nodded. “All right… fair enough…”

Upstairs on the top floor—Raven was seated on a chair in her bedroom, facing her makeup desk and her tall, shapely mirror, frowning and tossing her head back while Xena dug through her closet for her.

Moments later—she whirled around from the closet with an ear-to-ear smile, holding up a faint vanilla dress with cute red flowers decorated up and down it.

Raven turned her head and spotted the dress, her mouth drifting agape, staring at it almost in horror.

Xena set the light-colored dress aside for Raven to change into, then located a few more of Candice Evervale’s oldest dressed and began to pack them into a small black backpack. Next, she moved over to the desk and stood behind Raven, lifting a hairbrush and working to style her hair best she could.

During the time when everyone else was packing their belongings, and when Raven was enduring the torture of a 50s makeover—Amory now stood alone in his room, being the only one of the group who felt no need to pack anything for his trip. After all, he wouldn’t be sleeping anywhere in 1925; he had the option of simply teleporting himself back home whenever he needed a break from his adventure in time.

So, instead of packing, Amory chose to focus on his attire—and he stood before the full-body mirror in his room, adjusting the white suit, placing the hat atop his head, and repeatedly reaching to the back of his neck, grasping around the wavy black ponytail that now lie over the top of his back, something he wasn’t accustomed to at all.

“I can’t help but feel like this is… overdoing it,” Amory murmured to himself, fidgeting with the white tie that hung above the dark blue undershirt. “There’s no way people in the 20s and 30s actually looked like this…”

He adjusted the hat again, its wide, tilted brim seeming to tent well over his face and eyes.

Amory smirked at his reflection. “It does look cool, though.”

He paused for a moment, staring deeper into his mirrored self, and the longer he did, the more he began to realize something.

This suit—which was merely a 1930s-styled outfit created for pop star’s music video—looked oddly similar in style to some of the suits and hats that Amory had seen Vincent wearing on and off throughout his lifetime, with the shapely hat brims, the high-quality fabric, and the neat little front pocket that they all seemingly had. Now that he really thought about it—Vincent’s style was very reminiscent of the early 20th century.

Amory sighed deeply, shaking his head and removing Vincent from his mind.

“Oooooy! We’re all packed up and ready!” Crowe hollered from the hallway, shoving Amory’s bedroom doors open and sauntering inside. “Ooo—and lookit you , Mr. Pop Star. Do the moonwalk! Do it!”

Amory turned to him and laughed. “Shut up…”

Crowe swaggered halfway past the bed, then stopped and stared down at it, spotting two separate piles of money bundles sitting atop the comforters.

“That one is for you and Ari,” Amory explained, pointing to the money bundles nearest the edge of the bed. “And the other ones are for Raven. They’re the only bills I could find in that mess that are from the 40s and 50s… and your pile is all 80s and 90s bills. You guys should be fine spending those.”

“Oh, sweet,” Crowe said, instantly grabbing the money bundles and shoving them into his overcoat pockets, just before giving Amory a questioning look. “What, you’re not gonna separate any money for yourself?”

“I can’t find any bills that old in there,” Amory sniggered, swatting over at his open closet full of cash. “Besides, I don’t need to take any money. I can always just zap back here whenever I need to eat or sleep.”

“Oh. Good point,” Crowe muttered. “Well’p… c’mon, if you’re ready. Me and Ari are.”

“What about Raven?” Amory asked.

Then, as if on cue—Xena crept into the room with a beaming smile, her hands planted atop Raven’s shoulders as she gently guided her into the bedroom.

“I present to you… Raven Evervale,” Xena said proudly, giving Raven’s shoulders a shake. “1950s edition.”

Amory and Crowe both stared at the made-over girl, momentarily stunned to speechlessness.

Raven, looking quite nervous and uncomfortable, suddenly looked like an entirely different girl; her makeup was soft and subtle, her hair was let down and wavy, beautiful and smooth, left to drape just over her shoulders, and she wore a nice vanilla sundress with small red flowers decorated up and down it. She swallowed and fidgeted with her fingers, glimpsing between the boys and the floor.

“Awww,” Amory grinned. “You look so cute …!”

“Yeah… you look good.” Crowe uttered, clearing his throat and glancing away.

Raven stared, not knowing how she could possibly reply and feeling bizarrely frustrated.

“This makes me… want… to kill myself,” she growled through gritted teeth.

“Well… don’t do that,” Crowe advised. “Suicide leads to Hell, and I’ve heard nothing good about Hell.”

Raven glared at him, but she couldn’t help cracking a smirk and letting out a giggle. Crowe smiled as well, pleased to see that he got a laugh out of her.

“Okay… here,” Xena said, lifting Raven’s small backpack and strapping it onto her. “Heh… I feel like I’m getting Mikey ready for his first day of school all over again.”

“Oh—and don’t forget money,” Amory said, striding around his bed and grabbing the bundles of 40s and 50s bills, then marching to his sister and stuffing them into her bag. “Don’t forget you have money—and don’t let anybody take it from you. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you, either.”

Raven resisted the urge to roll her eyes for probably the twentieth time today. “Thank you, Dad…”

“I mean it,” Amory said paternally, stepping in front of her and jabbing a finger at her. “You’re gonna have to pay for a place to stay somehow—and whoever gives you the motel or the house or whatever it is—it’s probably gonna be some 1950s wino who’d wanna take advantage of you and make you pay in some way other than cash. Don’t let that happen .”

“Well… thank you so much for telling me that,” Raven chided sarcastically, rolling her neck and giving him a deadpan sort of look. “Because I was definitely just gonna let people walk all over me if you didn’t…”

“Why do you think it’s gonna be a wino? ” Crowe laughed, giving Amory an odd look. “Why would some drunk blowhard be in charge of selling houses and renting out motel rooms?”

“It’s the 50s , Crowe,” Amory reminded him. “My mom told me all about the 50s… and you know what she remembers the most about it? Guys drank. A lot. All the time. And they never even thought it was a problem. They did it at work, and driving, and at home, and… pretty much just everywhere. It was just part of everyday life in the 50s.”

“I lived with a bunch of random New-Yorkers who were constantly just drunk and snorting coke all the time,” Raven griped. “I think I can handle some Joe-blow 50s guy taking a few swigs out of a flask behind his desk.”

Amory paused, staring at her with a glint of surprise in his eyes. “Sheesh… did you really …?”

“Yeah. I’m not weak and helpless, Amory,” Raven stated.

Amory sighed, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t think you are… I really don’t… I just can’t help but be big brother right now, okay? I just worry…”

Raven stared at him for a moment longer, then nodded and huffed out a breath, stepping forward and embracing him.

“I knooow,” she mumbled into him. “Love you…”

“Love you too,” Amory said softly, returning the hug.

“Awww… what a sweet and tender moment,” Xena smiled. “But hey… I have a crazy question. Is anyone gonna bother getting rid of the wall of trees around my entire car before you’re all gone?”

“Zyon can do that for you,” Amory figured. “Just… give it at least a few days before you go anywhere… just to be safe.”

“Well… I think… we’re all ready to go now, right?” Crowe asked, his eyes shifting around the room.

Everybody exchanged glances with one another.

“Yeah,” Amory nodded.

“Guess so,” Raven agreed.

Then, they all walked out of the room and headed down the hall, making their way down the stairways of Evervale Manor.

Everyone gathered together in the checkerboard room—and Zyon stood before them all, pocketing his hands, glimpsing at each of them, and releasing a heavy cloud of breath.

Everyone else stared back at the angel, Crowe and Aravali lingering by the red door with a large blue rolling bag standing beside them. Raven was next to the lime green door, adjusting the straps of her backpack, and Amory stood nearest the yellow one, Xena, Mikey, Iggy, and Elaine all grouped up in the center of the room.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Zyon traded looks with all of them once more, and then, he broke the silence.

“There are very wicked things underway in the town of Mapleview,” he disclosed. “And things must unfold in one of the favorable ways in order for us to effectively manage it. I will not bore you with every possible scenario at hand—and that would frankly take several hours to do—but I will stress to you that this mission is of the utmost importance. And—if any of you need my help while you are away—then call upon The Lord. I will be there.”

Amory, Crowe, Aravali, and Raven all nodded in response.

“Hey… um…” Xena intervened, stepping forward and raising a finger. “If something really bad happens to any of them… like, something really traumatizing… then… you can do that calming thing for them when they get home, right?”

Zyon stared, squinting questioningly at her.

“She means calming the shaken spirit… the whole ‘peace beyond understanding’ thing,” Aravali tried to help explain, raising his brows at the angel. “You know, that… that whole thing you did for me when I first came here? And I believe you did it for her when she first got here, too.”

The doctor motioned over to Xena.

Zyon eyed Aravali intently, making a small shake of the head.

“I have never bestowed the peace of The Lord onto her,” he told him.

Aravali blinked once, glancing over at Xena, then back. “You… you haven’t? ”

“No,” Zyon affirmed. “The day that she first came here… when Amory was speaking to her in his bedroom… I stood in the hallway, and I did calm a shaken spirit during their conversation. But it was not hers. It was his.”

He gestured over to Amory.

“That… was just after Amory had freshly emerged from precisely the type of frightful trauma that you are referring to,” Zyon added, his eyes landing on Xena. “So… to answer your question… yes. I can calm any shaken spirit here if the need should ever arise again. You needn’t worry.”

“Okay,” Xena sighed.

“Do keep in mind, everyone… the same amount of time passes on this side of the doors as it does on the other sides of the doors,” Zyon told everyone in the room, pointing at the red door, then the green one, then the yellow. “The only ones who are capable of leaping through time beyond the limits of the doorways are Amory and I… and I trust that Amory will not do anything that will result in any paradoxes or disasters.”

Everybody seemed to stare at Amory for a second, prompting him to choke out a laugh.

“What? Of course I won’t,” he snickered. “Sheesh…”

“And be further warned,” Zyon continued, his tone lowering into a darker, more serious one. “The newest ruptures in time are aplenty… and Valek is doing truly reprehensible things to create his own pathways through time… which means he may also be operating in one of the time periods that you are going to. Be vigilant… and pay close attention to every little thing around you. You will know if you are in the presence of someone or something that is of great spiritual power or importance… be them holy… or wicked. And Valek… is not to be taken lightly. He is not a demon of ordinary status. He is precisely the same as Lucifer himself.”

A long, grave silence fell over everyone in the room, many of them trading disturbed looks with one another.

“Hold on, d’you mean…” Crowe uttered, holding up a finger and giving the angel a quizzical stare. “D’you mean he’s actually an… angel? ”

“No,” Zyon replied sharply. “He was a fallen angel… and there is a vast difference between the two. Valek was not always called Valek… and he was not always purely demonic in nature. He was one of the earliest angels sent to watch and guide humanity… before that particular group of angels rebelled against God and taught humans a wide variety of wicked things. There is a reason that he is the only demon on earth who is capable of making himself a human body without the need to possess others. He… like me… can manifest on his own. He can do far more than any ordinary demon… and he is not to be underestimated. Does everyone here understand?”

Everybody in the room nodded again.

“The watchers… were fallen angels… who fell to many temptations… and served Satan instead of The Lord,” Zyon informed. “And they swore to take as much of humanity with them into Hell as they could. That… is why Valek does what he does. That is… truly… all he lives for. The Lord punished the watchers by sealing them in Tartarus until Judgment Day… but… Valek was the only one of them who actually managed to escape that imprisonment. I spent a lot of time looking for him myself, but… that was a… very long time ago now.”

The angel looked away for a moment, seeming to be in thought, then he faced the others again.

“Of all the angels sent to walk upon the earth and do The Lord’s work… I am the only one left who is still fully here ,” Zyon stated. “And of all the watchers… Valek is the only one of them who is still fully here. He and I are the only two remaining of either side of that war… and I have entertained this very tireless manhunt for quite long enough. The time is drawing near… when it will finally come to an end.”

Once more, everyone exchanged faces with one another.

“But… the end must first begin, and it begins here,” Zyon concluded. “With finding the five remaining children of time.”

Raven nodded, turning and reaching for the knob of the lime green door.

“Hey, jus—hey, wait a sec,” Amory said, breaking into a speed-walk toward her.

She turned to him.

Amory paused and sighed, offering her a smile and pulling her into one last hug.

“I love you… be careful… and good luck,” he said.

“I love you too… and you be careful,” Raven replied, leaning back and returning his smile.

Then, she peeked past her brother and shot Crowe a look.

“And you be extra careful,” she ordered. “And don’t break the law every single freaking day you’re gone.”

“Oy!” Crowe recoiled, planting a hand over his chest and plastering on a comically offended expression. “Oh, I am hurt—I am offended that you’d think such a thing of me!”

Raven laughed. “Yeah right…”

“You’re gonna knock ‘em dead, girlie pop,” Xena said, patting Raven on the shoulder. “The 50s aren’t ready for you.”

Raven smirked, grasping the door knob and inhaling a deep, bracing breath before she slowly pushed the door open. Everyone watched as she slipped through the lime green doorway and vanished from the checkerboard room, the door gently swinging shut behind her.

Moments after she was gone, Crowe and Aravali faced one another, then turned to the red door, the doctor grabbing the handle of the rolling bag and pulling it upright, preparing to drag it along with them.

“You two,” Elaine said from behind them, stepping closer.

Crowe and Aravali both wheeled around to face her.

“Be safe… please,” Elaine said, sighing and biting her lip.

Then, she jabbed a finger at Crowe, perching her brow intently at Aravali.

“You—keep him calm, sane, and grounded,” Elaine told the doctor, then looked to Crowe and pointed over at Aravali. “And you —keep him safe and unharmed. All right?”

Crowe and Aravali glanced at each other.

“So… pretty much what we always do?” Crowe laughed.

“Business as usual,” Aravali confirmed.

Elaine huffed out a breath, then pulled both of them into a hug, one arm around either of them, stroking them lightly on the backs. They embraced her as well, and Crowe chuckled, shaking his head when he stepped back from her.

“You really do worry too much,” Crowe smirked, patting her once on the arm. “How good of a bodyguard have I been for you two so far? C’mon… give me some credit.”

Elaine gave him a long, unreadable stare, releasing another stressed cloud of breath.

“Zyon can always come to help if anything goes wrong, too,” Amory chimed in, spotting the worrisome look on Elaine’s face. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Elaine glimpsed at him, then nodded and looked down.

“Good luck, boss,” Iggy said to Crowe and Aravali both, giving them a lazy two-fingered salute. “Or boss es …”

“Thank you, Iggy,” Aravali replied, saluting him back.

Then, he and Crowe faced the red door, grabbed the rolling back, and stepped toward it. Aravali pulled the door partially open, and Crowe walked through it, the doctor following closely behind him with the rolling bag thumping over the threshold of the doorway at their heels, the door easing quietly shut after they were both gone.

Amory stared at the red door for a moment longer, then glanced back at the green one before inhaling deeply and facing his own door—the yellow one to 1925.

Then—someone tackled him from behind.

Amory staggered slightly and looked down in surprise—seeing Mikey clamped around his waist, his arms coiled around him, giving him a spine-snapping embrace.

“Don’t die or anything,” the boy mumbled into him.

Amory laughed and hugged him back. “I plan to do as little dying as possible, believe me…”

Mikey sighed and straightened up, stepping away and fixing his glasses. Then—Xena moved past her nephew and yanked Amory into a hug as well, holding tightly onto him with her arms wrapped around his neck.

“And make sure you check back in whenever you can,” Xena murmured. “I know you will…”

“Yeah… I should be able to come back here on and off, yeah,” Amory agreed. “Definitely…”

Xena leaned slightly back, gazing into him, her arms still resting around his shoulders, their faces only inches apart.

“Be,” she said, giving him a shake. “ Careful .”

Amory choked out another laugh, his heart pounding a bit harder now. “I will. I will…”

Xena stared for a moment longer, then finally released him.

“Amory,” Zyon said seriously.

Amory turned to the angel.

Zyon gave him a severe sort of look.

“Be of sound mind… with a listening ear,” he told him. “Because you will have many questions… and the answers will come if you listen. You will have to timewalk… and you will have to manage things even beyond 1925.”

Amory stared blankly at him for a moment.

“Can you… can you ever stop being cryptic?” he stuttered.

Zyon hesitated, then revealed his subtle, flattened smile. “It won’t seem cryptic for long. Godspeed.”

Amory laughed once more.

Then, he turned to the yellow door, adjusted his hat, and let out a massive cloud of breath before turning the knob and pushing the door open—marching into the year 1925 and vanishing from the checkerboard room of Evervale Manor.

And with his departure—the misfits three finally began their search for the lost children of time at last.