Kingdoms of the Galaxy: Whispers of the Elements

The Way Back Home

We walk into the Vanessa's secret place for probably the last time and grab all our stuff to put in the ship. I mean, we've barely been here a week and we're already leaving. I have a feeling that when we get home, everything is going to be different.

"Do you guys really have to leave? I don't want to go back to having no friends," Vanessa pleads.

"But we have to, Vanessa," I say, "we have to know if what we did made a difference in our futures."

"Plus," Rex adds, "now that you have a working teleporter, you can get out of your house and meet people whenever you want."

"I guess you're right...," she reluctantly admits.

"This is going to be so weird. Being in our own time, I mean," Ashton exclaims.

"Yeah! I can't wait to just sleep for a week, straight," Taylor says.

"Ditto," Tyler agrees.

"But what if we changed our timelines?" Eli asks.

"Well, I'm thinking that since we were in the ship when we came back in time and nothing bad happened to us, then the opposite should be the same. Even if our timelines change," I answer.

"That just might be true, Val! I thought it was weird when nothing happened to us when we went in, but that explains it. The ship is like a forcefield separating us from the vortex," Eli concludes.

"Wait! We have something important that we have to do!" Rex suddenly exclaims, "We need a team name!"

"What?" Taylor asks.

"You know, something we can call ourselves," he taps his chin.

"What about 'The Elementals'? Tyler suggests.

"That's to obvious. We need something that doesn't seem like a team name," Rex says.

"How about 'The Whispers'? I mean, we went in and out of the mansion without raising any alarms," Vanessa explains.

"That's perfect!" Rex and I say at the same time and he smirks at me.

"The Whispers it is, then. All seven of us are whisperers!" I say.

"Really? Even though I didn't do much?" Vanessa asks, unsure.

"Yup! You helped me when I was in a jam and all of us when we needed your help in your house, I wouldn't really call that 'not doing much'" I smile.

"Thank you!" she runs up to me and envelopes me in a tight hug.

"GROUP HUGS ALL AROUND!!" Ashton screams and everyone has a huge goodbye hug with me and Vanessa.

•••

"You guys are awesome! I really hope we see each other again," Vanessa calls from the bottom of the ramp.

"I do too!" The ramp starts to close as the ship door closes.

'Bye great(x10) grandma!' I mindspeak before the connection is cut by the modern-day ship and see her eyes widen before the door closes completely.

"You guys ready to get back home?" Rex asks enthusiastically before pressing the launch button.

Within a few seconds, we are out of Cairo's atmosphere and are heading into the deep void of space. I look out the windows and see Cairo for probably the last time before we speed away.

"So how, exactly, are we going to find another wormhole?" I ask Eli.

"Well, there's a specific way, and the quick and random way. If we take the specific way, it might take days to find one. But if we take the quick and random way, we can have the ship warp us close to a vortex that's already open and hope we make it in before it closes," he explains.

"Maybe we should take the quick and random way, just to be safe. What do you guys think?" I ask.

Everyone said the quick and random way, so that was an obvious choice. Eli went up to the control panel and looked for a nearby wormhole to warp to an speeded the warp button after finding one.

After the warp, we ended up near another vortex that looked like the one we came through the first time. 'There it is. Our way back home,' I think.

"Let's just hope we can make it in before it closes," Tyler says from the back of the room.

We speed towards it and it starts to flicker. Eli makes the ship fly faster and we barely make it through before it closes.

"That was close," we all sigh in relief.

According to the panel, this should take us forward in time until around the time we went in the first vortex, so it'll be like we never left.

"What's going on?!" Ashton exclaims.

We turn around and see what she's talking about: her hair is getting shorter and brighter, even her clothes were changing. Then I looked at Taylor and Tyler. Their hair was turning white and Tyler's eyes turned to red while Taylor's turned to a tan color.

Next was Rex: his hair turned completely black and his clothes became much darker shades of the colors he was already wearing. Eli's hair turned brown and his outfit became a jacket, t-shirt and black cargo pants. Lastly was me: my hair turned blond at the tips, but slowly spread to the rest of my head and my outfit became bee-themed with all of my clothes becoming black and yellow. I ran up to the Windows to see my reflection and saw that my eyes changed from brown to half purple/half yellow.

"This is bad! Our appearances are changing. That means we did mess up the timeline!" Tyler concludes looking at himself.

We all panic until I see something coming up ahead: the academy! We must not have messed up the future so much if we still meet each other at the academy. Finally, a reason not to panic.

•••

We reach the landing strip within ten minutes and we get out of the ship.

"Finally! We made it back!" Taylor exclaims.

"Oh land, how I have missed you!" Ashton hugs the ground like her life depends on it.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to sleep for a week," I say.

"Same," Rex says.

"But there's something I need to tell you guys first," I tell them.

"What?" Tyler asks.

"You know how we were also looking for Valletta at the same time we were looking for the stones? I know you and Taylor know about this, but Eli and Ashton don't," I pause, "Rex and I found her."

"Really! The girl that went missing three years ago?!" Ashton asks.

"Yeah. How do you know?" I ask.

"You have no idea how much info I can get when I don't want to be seen," she answers.

"Well? Where is she?" Taylor and Tyler say simultaneously.

"Well. The thing is-" Rex interrupts me.

"You're looking at her! Mis Valerie Coraline is none other than Valletta Korrin!" he exclaims.

"What?!" The twins exclaim before I turn into a shadow and hide in the darkness of the landing strip.

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Hey guys! Again. I somehow found time to write this 1100+ word chapter today and thought I would just post it tonight, along with a character design chapter after this.

Don't get mad at me about the design changes because I explain it in the next chapter.

Don't forget to vote and leave any questions you want me to answer in the comments! Don't be a silent reader!!

'Til next time, see ya!