Chapter 17: The Truth

Teebs and Shards made their way to the ship and sailed to the island with the Old World bunker. Teebs went to the village to stock up on food and Shards was looking through the books on the ship. She found one with a faded, green cover that seemed like it hadn’t been opened in years. Looking over her shoulder to see if he had come back, she opened it.

‘Zenith’s History,’ she thought, reading the title, Seems interesting…

Grabbing a seat, she flipped to the first page and started reading.

‘Zenith was created out of the ashes of the End. Before that, Old World Zenith was separated into three countries, each with different laws. The center, now called ‘Central Zenith,’ seemed to had a lot of power, judging by the few books that survived. It is thought that it was the cause of the End, but there is no evidence to support that. Zenith was founded by…,’ she read, stopping at an oddly familiar name, ‘Timothy Grant Baroquely, better known as TG2000.’

She looked out to the deck again to see if Teebs had come back. He was still gone.

‘TG2000 directed people into rebuilding, giving hope for somewhat of a future and vowed to never let war destroy them again. He later died from a stroke when he was 73. His children, Rodney Sonny 2000 and Laura Nelm 2000 continued helping Zenith rebuild,’ she read.

She put the book back on the shelf, remembering the words in it.

Could Teebs be related to Timothy? She thought, walking out on deck.

Teebs was carrying a wooden crate full of supplies towards the ship. Whistling something, he put the crate on the ground and raised his hand. The ground under the crate started to rise, carrying it onto the ship. He untied the ship from the harbor and climbed the rope to the deck.

“Hey Shards,” He said, dragging the crate below deck.

“Hi. Do you think that’s enough?” She replied.

“Yeah. Surprisingly, they can pack a whole bunch into a crate like this,” He said, pushing it into a corner.

Walking back up the stairs, he noticed Shards giving him an odd look.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“Nothing really. Just a small question,” she said.

“Okay,” he replied, checking the sails.

“Are you somehow related to Timothy Grant Baroquely?” she asked.

Teebs stopped in his tracks, seemingly paralyzed. Then a smile started to spread across his face.

“Yes, in fact I am related to the Founder of Zenith,” he said happily.

“So that would explain why you didn’t take the Old World weapon?” she asked.

“It’s exactly why I didn’t take it. The promise my great grandfather made hasn’t been broken since the day Zenith was made,” he answered, grabbing a chair.

“Okay. But that doesn’t explain why he changed his name,” she said.

“Oh… that’s a story for another time,” he said, pointing to the sails.

The wind flew into them, moving the ship away from the harbor. Shards leaned on the railing and thought about what Teebs meant by ‘another time.’ It wasn’t long until they were out on the open sea. Shards had gone to the cabin and was looking at the map on the wall. Teebs was reading the book about dreams. He was now on a page that dealt with how dreams may be able to predict the future and how in the Before people used to see them as warnings.

Then the ship started to rock side to side, as if something had hit it. Teebs ran to the side of the ship to see what had hit them. A few minutes later, they were hit again, this time he saw what it was; a cannon ball.

“Shards! We’re under attack!” Teebs yelled, running to the cabin.

“What?! Which ship is it?” she asked, looking out the window.

Teebs grabbed a telescope and looked at the other ship’s flag. It had a black background with two swords intersecting in the middle with a crown behind them.

“It’s an Apran ship!” he said, putting the telescope away.

Shards went below deck to get a cannon ready.

“Where is it?” she yelled from below deck.

“It’s directly beside us. Just shoot straight and you should be okay,” he replied, “Just add something to it.”

Shards armed the cannon and whispered something that made it glow a subtle shade of purple. Then she shot straight forward and hit the other ship. It exploded into what looked like purple tentacles flailing around as it sunk, bringing down any evidence on its existence with it.

“Did you hit it?” Teebs asked.

“I think so. Hard to see from this distance,” Shards said, walking to the upper deck.

Teebs looked through the telescope and saw the purple arms flinging themselves around. Then he handed it to Shards. She looked through it and saw the wreckage.

“Hmm…. Hopefully I didn’t kill anyone,” she said almost sarcastically.

Teebs chuckled and grabbed a hammer, heading below deck to repair the ship. Luckily enough, the holes weren’t too big.

What were those Apran’s thinking? Teebs thought as he nailed boards into place, didn’t they see the flag? Maybe they were still kind of bent about the ‘trespassing’ thing…

The flag on his ship was a warning, changed from being the Zenithen flag to being four separate squares, each one showing one of the four elements. The Zenithen flag was much like their coin; a yellow circle with three black triangles pointed to the center. It was changed after they had agreed to abide by any laws that a country has.

I liked my old flag more… he thought, moving to the next hole.

Shards put the telescope away after the other ship was out of sight, it’s remains at the bottom of the ocean.

Poor souls, she thought, looking away.

She started to wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t cursed the cannon ball. Would they still be alive? She shook the feeling, the last thing she needed was regret.

If I just sat around and regretted every bad deed I’ve done, I wouldn’t get anything done,she thought, placing the telescope on a shelf.

Then again, who could blame her for feeling bad about her actions. The used to steal from people who needed help, sometimes even killing them in the process.

I did what I had to do. There shouldn’t be any regret for that, she thought.

“What’s a few lives anyway, right?” Endro said, sitting behind the desk.

“Who are you?” she said, turning to face him.

“I’m Endro. Simon’s ‘outside source,’” he said, looking at a map.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, reaching for her knife.

“Well, first off, I’m not here to kill you, so you can just stop thinking that. Second, I’m here to help you,” he said.

“Teebs is down stairs,” she said, seeming to not care.

“I’m here to help YOU, not him,” he said, looking at her, “I have to tell YOU something.”

“Okay. What is it?” she said, crossing her arms.

“Simon is getting stronger by the day. Whatever you’re doing to him, stop it. You’re running the risk of corrupting him and I think I speak for the both of us when I say that’s not a good thing,” he said.

“Corrupting?” she replied.

“.... Zenithens are prone to corrupt, or ‘glitch out,’ when they have too much power. With Simon being what you guys call a ‘Pendant Spawn,’ he runs somewhat a higher risk of it happening,” he explained, “If he gets corrupted, you two are responsible for taking him out. That’ll be your mess, not mine.”

“How do we tell if someone is corrupted?” she asked.

“First, their actions start to seem more random and violent. Then they start to lose their minds, as if they’re going back to instinct. Then their skin will start to turn purple, starting with their arms and ending with their head. Once that happens, their bodies start to ‘distort’ reality, their image being somewhat clouded by unidentified anomalies. Theses anomalies cause pieces of their body to seem to teleport away for a few seconds at a time,” he explained, “I’ve seen only a few people get corrupted. I’d prefer not to see it again.”

Shards thought it over, trying to see if it was possible for a Pendant Spawn to become corrupt.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

“Because you’re the only one that Teebs actually listens to without his life being threatened in the process,” he said, “So you’re going to tell him what I had just told you. Hopefully he listens, but knowing him, he probably wouldn’t.”

“Wait, how do you know all this?” she asked.

“It’s my job to. Every moment in history is recorded, big and small. Someone has to memorize it, whether they caused it or not. That incident in Apra? Not a good idea,” he said.

“... What are you?” she said, confused.

“I’m basically time itself. Well… it’s my ability to control it at least. It’s hard to explain it,” He said, “Now go tell him. Hopefully he listens to you.”

Endro disappeared, leaving Shards to process what she had learned. It was true, he only listened to her judgement in normal situations like where to go and explanations of things. She made her way to below deck to tell him.

“Hey Teebs?” she said.

“Yeah?” Teebs replied, hammering a plank over a hole.

“Do you think that it’s really worth our time to destroy Simon?” she asked.

“If I recall correctly, it was you who wanted to find him,” he said, giving her a look.

“Yeah… but what’s the point really? We might actually be the cause of him destroying the world,” she said.

Teebs sighed and put the hammer on a nearby shelf and said, “This was your idea. We even found him! If we give up now, that means we wasted 2 years of our lives to just give up.”

Shards was silent.

“If we just did this to just give up, then why did we start it in the first place?” he said.

“I’m not saying that we give up. I’m saying that we don’t need to keep hurting him,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“He might become corrupted if we continue,” she replied.

“Don’t you think I already know that? He HAS to become corrupted for us to even think about killing him,” he said.

“...Why do we have to kill him? He had a normal life before we got to him,” she said.

Teebs went silent, seeming to be biting his tongue. Shards, looked at him in the eye, waiting for an answer.

“If we don’t, then the world is going to suffer greatly. A war with only one enemy. If Simon continues to get stronger, then everything around us, everything on Overworld, will be laid in a grave. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to keep my ancestors promises,” he said, going above deck.

Shards stood there and lowered her head.

Why isn’t he listening? She thought, feeling anger bubble up inside of her.

The ship started to move, the wind being commanded into the sails.