The traveler

Now you see me

"Ugh!"
Where am I? What happened? Oh no, not this again. I hate it when I forget everything and wake up in a completely unknown place. Then again, who doesn't?
"Isaac?"
I think I nearly jumped up into the stratosphere when I heard that. Who is that? Hang on, I know that voice.
"You're awake!" Zarchi screamed.
"Have I been unconscious again?"
"Yes, but only for five days!"
Think. Does that mean anything?
"Not the usual six!" he exclaimed.
And I think that guy now is flying in the stratosphere with me, seeing how shocked and happy he is.
"That means you're freeeeeeeeee..."
Okay, this isn't normal.
"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."
This guy is either very stressed and wants to let it go, or very happy that I was 'only' unconscious for five days.
"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."
On second thoughts, maybe both.
"...eeeeeeeee!" He takes a breath. "Sorry, couldn't keep it up any longer."
"No problem," I say sarcastically.
Then I remember.
It's been only five days!
"I'm freeeeeeeeeeeee..."
If I would still be in the time loop I would have been unconscious for six days. But Keymard got me out of it. Well, technically that was me. And technically it wasn't me. Man, even now it's still very confusing.
"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

Zarchi and Isaac were happily walking through the tunnels of the former base of the Forbidden Name. They were looking for the InstaCaust, but they didn't have much trouble finding it because of Rechra's plan. Pierce (or Isaac or Keymard, if you prefer) had in fact managed to hide the InstaCaust in a place where nobody would go look for it: underneath the wooden sitting bench on the throne in the throne room. And sure enough, it didn't take Zarchi and Isaac too long to get there.
"It's still there," Isaac gasped.
"Let's go check for the InstaCaust," Zarchi said with a normal voice.
They slowly stepped to the throne. It almost seemed like slow-motion to Isaac. This was by far the tensest moment of his entire life, even after everything he'd been through.
For Zarchi on the other hand, this was another day at work.
When they reached the throne, Zarchi stopped for a while.
"You know what's wierd, Isaac?" he said.
"What?"
"Do you remember going on that mission in the Drant ship, as Keymard?"
"You mean the failed expedition for the InstaCaust?"
"Yes, that one. Where I found it shielded by a potential motion barrier."
Isaac nodded.
"I wonder how it got there."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if it's right here in this throne room... how could it have ended up in that ship?"
"Are you saying it isn't here?"
"Let's just find out."
They slowly started to lift the wooden plank, for which they summoned all their strength. Which was quite hilarious for a third man to see: the plank wasn't heavy at all, and it just flew straight off into the gallery above them.
There it was.
"That's strange," Zarchi said.
"But fortunate, right?"
"Perhaps."
"Now what do you mean by that?" Isaac asked, a little irritated.
"This is a dangerous object, Isaac."
"I know."
"And we have to decide what to do with it."
They were both silent for a while.
"That's a great burden."
"What if we just destroy it, right here, right now?" Isaac said. "Maybe nobody has to find out."
"That just doesn't sound right. We should at least inform my superiors about this."
"But..."
"No buts. I've sworn an oath that I would bring it to him whenever I would find it. Besides, he'll know what to do with it."
Isaac sighed. "I guess."

Isaac felt strange. The throne room with the InstaCaust didn't seem to be the tensest moment of his entire life anymore, because now this was. He decided he probably just went through a lot of tense moments lately. But this was still the tensest; at least, until now. He was walking alongside Zarchi, slowly approaching the Council of Kaunsill (which is a planet in orbit around Wega, before you think the name is complete irony – it only sounds weird in the English translation of this story anyway). They were not the absolute rulers of the Galaxy, but they were pretty close at being so. It was still a big deal for both Zarchi and Isaac.
"So we heard you have the InstaCaust?" one of the Council members asked.
"We do," Zarchi proudly said. Isaac was seemingly frozen solid.
"Interesting. We have it as well," was the reply.
That made two frozen solid people.
"You see, we have recently figured out it has been ripped apart in at least two pieces, seeing as we have managed to retrieve the piece the Drants stole."
"We haven't been able to make it work in any way or been able to read it, for that matter, so we figured it had to be incomplete," someone else from the Council added.
Zarchi slowly pulled himself together. "Well, I got a part here now, we could try to put it together again..." He paused for a while. "Where is the second part?"
"Emperor Penguin has it," someone replied.
Isaac nearly laughed out loud, but then realized it was only the translation machine in his ear made it sound funny. Penguin was probably a meaningless name in every single other language.
"He's been studying it since he has it, so he'll be very happy with the second half as well."
"I'll go hand it over to him then," Zarchi said.
Since nobody protested, he left.
"Do you still have anything to say?"
Isaac suddenly noticed he was being talked to.
"Uh," he said.
Then he uttered some random sounds which were not able to be translated.
"I..."
He decided to just leave.
"What a nice, completely stressed-out person," one of the council members said after he left.

Soon Isaac caught up with Zarchi.
"So where is this Penguin? On the north pole?" Isaac laughed.
Zarchi looked unamused.
"I thought you were a little smarter than that. Assuming you're talking about the north pole of the Earth, they don't even live there."
Isaac quickly stopped laughing.
"Plus, it wasn't funny. Anyway, he's also on this planet, but nearly on the other side, so we'll have to take a public transport. It won't take long."
"So... do we just address him as Emperor?" Isaac asked.
"No, you can just call him by his first name. He's very personal."
"And what is his first name?"
"Macaroni."
Now Isaac nearly choked of laughter.
"It's a pure coincidence," Zarchi said. "And only funny in your language."
"But..." Isaac tried to say. Then he burst into tears of mirth. "But it's still funny for me, no matter what you say!"
Zarchi sighed and went to buy tickets for the public transport.

About two hours later, they arrived at Emperor Penguin's palace. It was pretty stunning for a Human to see: it wasn't too large in area, but it was amazingly high. Zarchi just entered, so Isaac shrugged and followed him inside.
"Isn't there some sort of security?" Isaac asked.
"Yes," Zarchi said and went on ahead.
"Do you... mind telling me what it is?"
"Yes."
"And... will it react because I'm here?"
"I hope not, for your sake."
"How comforting. Thank you very much."
"You're welcome. Do you want to take the stairs, the elevator or the launcher?"
"Eh...," Isaac slowly said. "What does the launcher do?"
"It gets you up really fast, but it might give you an adrenaline rush. It's far more fun though."
"Let's go with that then," Isaac said, hoping he would not regret it.
Zarchi lead him to a sort of capsule, close the door, pressed a button and it didn't move at all.
"There we are," he said, laughing.
"Hang on," Isaac said. "Are we on the correct floor?"
"Yes we are. It just teleported us. Ah, how fun it is to scare people."
Isaac just thought that if there was one thing he learned from all this, it's that Drachos and Humans have a way different sense of humor.

A few moments later, they stood before Macaroni's chamber.
"You don't have to come along if you don't want to," Zarchi said.
"No, I'm coming with you. I want to be there when this all gets solved."
"Alright, here we go then."
Zarchi opened the door and Macaroni looked around.
"Welcome!" Macaroni said. "How may I help you?"
Isaac became pale.
"We have managed to retrieve the second part of the InstaCaust," Zarchi said, "and we came to give it to you."
Isaac tried to say something, but his throat was seemingly blocked.
"Ah, excellent, excellent," Macaroni said. "I believe I will be able to read what it says, seeing I have studied the language."
As Zarchi stepped forward, Isaac looked at Macaroni, and he smiled back, seemingly in an evil way.
"Zarchi?" Isaac managed to say, but didn't succeed in saying more.
Then Zarchi handed over the second part. Macaroni took the first part out of his pocket, and held them together to read the text.
Zarchi turned around and saw Isaac trembling like a captured Drant on self-destruct mode.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Macaroni finished reading. "Good, excellent," he said.
"That's him," Isaac said.
"Who?" Zarchi asked.
"Their leader," Isaac stumbled. The leader of the CaustHunters."
Zarchi turned around, only to see Macaroni laughing out loud.
"Indeed I am," he said. "And you will make excellent test-subjects."
Then he started chanting the text on the Talisman.
Isaac managed to get out of his mental stationary state, and ran to the door, only to find out it had been locked, probably by guards outside.
"We're done for," he said.
"I'm sorry," Zarchi replied.
Macaroni finished reading.
Then a surge of energy flashed into his face, and he fell down.
"The window, quickly!" Zarchi said.
"How far up are we?" Isaac asked.
"Doesn't matter, there's a portal underneath it, so the Emperor could escape in emergencies! Go, now! I'll deal with him!"
"Ugh..." Macaroni uttered. "Where am I?"
Isaac ignored him, and jumped out.