Lastland AU: Lost Memory, Lost Time, Lost in Space

Antechamber (Astro)

The antechamber was a small but unforgettable room, silent, hidden in the shadows of a desolate, forgotten planet, Soluna. Iris crept through the room, purple eyes fixated on the small, round doorway ahead. Beyond the threshold lay a room larger than it seemed, taken up by another ring-like structure, only this one did not seem to be a doorway to anywhere, rather, an arbitrary sculpture in the middle of the room. Iris knew better, however. In laymen's terms, it was a time machine, a portal, the opening gate of a wormhole.

Guess that's why this room's called "the Antechamber"! Iris was delirious and delusional with pride and power. As her quiet reign of terror continued, her mind and body fused with, and separated from, Storm as needed. The couple finally managed to solve the science of time travel, seeking to undo some of the damage they'd done. It was not out of any genuine remorse, though, rather, Iris had lost someone dear to her, and made it her new quest to conquer time just as she'd conquered space. Now, she stood at the gateway, the threshold, the antechamber, the brink, the edge.

All I ever wanted... was to protect the people I care about! Is that really so much to ask for?! Maybe the rest of the universe thought Iris wasn't remorseful. Well, sorry to disappoint (AGAIN) but I AM remorseful! I'd still do anything to protect Storm, but I didn't want THIS!

She cast a forlorn look at the stars through the pale, purple clouds of Soluna. She was infamous not just for the lengths she would go to protect herself and Storm, but for the way she'd fused herself with Storm. They said it was unnatural, taking tolls on body and mind.

It's not wrong to be concerned, but they're overlooking a MUCH bigger part of it! They wouldn't stop attacking her and Storm, forcing them to retaliate, the death toll climbing. That was what led to the final battle with Tempest and Gale. Had they not pushed Iris and Storm so hard, Storm wouldn't have felt the need to protect Iris from a threat, real or imagined. That battle only deepened the divide between "Stormris" and the rest of Solestar Enterprise's four main spaceships (Boreas, Notus, Zephyrus, Eurus).

Being kicked out of Notus was hard, but it still wasn't the worst thing Iris had to endure. In her opinion, it was the rising body count. That was why she sought to unlock the science behind the time machine so voraciously. The worst of all was the day she lost her childhood best friend, Clover. Iris even commanded Storm never to harm Clover, that was how much Iris loved her, but she was slain in another battle, and Iris threw herself into her time travel research as she never had before. There was no line she would not cross. She would defy death!

Now here Iris stood. She was at a great crossroad in life, literally and metaphorically. Did she go forward or back, in space or time? Time travel was ultimately unknowable. Even though Iris knew enough to operate the time machine, it was not enough to know all the potential consequences. Drunk on power, though, Iris decided that she did not care.

The nature of life is to survive! To adapt! We improve ourselves and evolve generation by generation! That is how we persist! And they would do it by any means necessary. Though as superior as Iris may have considered herself, especially as a hybrid, there were entities far more incomprehensible than she could ever even imagine. There were things in the universe that made time travel seem easy and elementary, that even lifeforms of higher intelligence struggled to comprehend.

A loud, ghastly chorus of moaning filled the antechamber as grayish-black, ghost-like creatures warped through the stone walls of the room.

Anti-Matter! Iris' purple eyes flew open in recognition as her hands instinctively flew to her weapons. They were dangerous because of how easily and quickly they could slip in and out of reality, and they were drawn by the ripples of time emanating from the activating time machine. Iris

"Storm!" Iris cried out telepathically for the other woman waiting right outside the door, keeping watch while Iris worked inside. They were aware of the danger of their work, but they failed to consider that some of their enemies might be able to melt right out of a higher dimension.

"RAH!" Storm gave a battle cry as she kicked in the antechamber door. In one hand, she carried an orange Lightning Rifle. In the other, she carried a red and silver Lightning Sword, both of them crackling and sparkling with electricity and charge.

Iris, meanwhile, focused on the old control panel screen embedded in the face of a stone column near the time machine's round, stone gateway. Using spare chargers and battery packs she brought with her, she managed to get the ancient, abandoned technology up, running, glowing, and spiraling again. A vortex opened up in the stone ring structure, the mouth of the wormhole, the portal to the past.

Woah... we did it... For a moment, Iris could only stare into the swirling spacetime, breath-taken. Powerful as she'd become in her short reign over her corner of the galaxy, time travel was still something so far beyond her that the thought that she'd succeeded was overwhelming. But have we succeeded? I mean, we don't know what happens after I go through this wormhole...

From what all the notes said, Iris would be able to "swim" or fly through the portal, and she should be able to identify with her eyes when she was closer to the spot in time that she wanted to be. It was similar to how black holes bent spacetime so severely that one would be able to see the back of their head, and would perhaps see in the past because of how distorted time was around singularities. The time machine was just a controlled and wormhole form of the phenomenon. But that still didn't mean they knew what it would be like to actually do it.

"Iris!" Storm called out to Iris telepathically. The anti-matter monsters were still coming. More concerningly, she could sense a shift in the air, a change in the atmosphere. Iris' constitution was weaker. She was hesitating.

Iris looked at her, shaking her head both to rouse herself and reassure Storm. No worries, I'm fine...! She didn't say it to Storm, by mouth or mind.

Storm narrowed her eyes and began maneuvering her way over to Iris. Iris, at the same time, went back to peering into the portal to the past. Storm felt her heartbeat quicken, but even without the cues from her bond with Iris, she could immediately tell what the girl was planning to do...

"Iris!"Storm called out to Iris again, this time verbally and mentally at the same time. Rather than waste time trying to talk the girl down, or block her path, she simply sheathed her Lightning Sword to free up a hand, and she wrapped an arm around Iris' waist, picking her up.

"No, wait!" Iris pleaded, but Storm spun around, firing off her Lightning Rifle to keep the encroaching monsters at bay. Thinking as fast as her weapons and name, Storm set Iris down, shoved her weapons into Iris' hands, then lunged towards the time machine. "NO, WAIT!"

Iris repeated her cry, more frantic and desperate. Storm, however, couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to, momentum propelling her cleanly through the portal. Her body tore the fabric of spacetime, sealing the wormhole after her. The blast of energy dispelled the anti-matter monsters, and Iris' consciousness.

Prequel Segment: End of the First Timeline: (A)lpha