The Chronicles of Earth and Time

Chapter 20

When Terra opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by a blinding light that slowly faded revealing a big, white empty room. "Hello?" She called into the empty space. She did not understand what she did wrong. Terra was just in front of the Tree of Life with the elves and Aevum and now she was trapped here. "I knew it! I messed up the ceremony!" Terra blurted into the white space as she buried her face into her hands. Suddenly, Terra felt a comforting hand gently squeeze her shoulder. Terra turned expecting to see Aevum, but jumped at the sight before her. Gaia was standing there with a smile etched upon her face. "Mother?" Terra questioned as she stared wide eyed at the scene playing before her.

"Terra, I'm so proud of you." Gaia began as she looked at her daughter in pride. "I'm sorry that I couldn't train you the way you were meant to be trained. I want you know that I had been planning on choosing you to be the next Mother Nature. That's why my powers automatically passed on to you."

"But Mother Nature is usually created not picked from the elementals." Terra countered as she eyed Gaia suspiciously.

"I know, but you were exhibiting many qualities of a Mother Nature. You will be a wonderful Mother Nature who will do amazing things that no other Mother Nature has ever succeeded in." Gaia explained knowingly.

"How do you know that?" Terra asked with concern filling her eyes.

"Aion foresaw it." Gaia answered with a smile.

"But even if he foresaw it, I still failed Aqua and Aura. I couldn't save them and now I don't even know if I told Aura the truth." She looked up at Gaia as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "I told her she would be with Aqua, but how am I supposed to know that?" Gaia's eyes softened as she slowly moved over revealing Aqua and Aura standing behind her.

"You didn't lie, Terra." Aqua pointed out as Terra gasped at the sight of her sisters.

"Yup, Aqua is right here!" Aura added with a laugh as Terra ran up to both of them hugging them and tightly as she could. They hugged her back as Gaia waited from afar knowing how responsible Terra felt about their deaths. She knew Terra blamed herself for not be able to save them and could not avenge their deaths by destroying Ustrina.

"I'm so happy to see you two, but why are you here?" Terra asked as she released her sisters from her arms.

"We are here to help with your passing of powers ceremony!" Aura exclaimed as if Terra should have known the reason already.

"Yes, you need us to help you release the elements back to the Earth because you've only controlled water and air during the battle while we have controlled them our entire life." Aqua explained coolly in her usual laid back tone.

"Plus, we just really wanted to help!" Aura added cheerfully as she grabbed Terra's arm with wide eyes. "You'll let us help, right?"

"Of course!" Terra answered with a smile as she realized that this might be the last time she sees her sisters for a long time.

"Terra," Gaia interrupted suddenly as Terra, Aqua, and Aura stood in a circle preparing to begin the power passing process. "I want to let you know that Aevum was right." Terra looked at her in shock as Terra's mind traveled back to the conversation her and Aevum had earlier that day about the secret room. She opened her mouth to ask Gaia where the hidden room was, but before she could get a word out, Gaia suddenly vanished without a trace.

"What was that about?" Aqua asked in confusion as Terra turned to face her sisters once again.

"Oh, nothing," Terra fibbed for she did not want to ruin this reunion with even more worry.

"Wait, are you and Aevum together now?" Aura questioned excitedly with a jump.

"Actually, yes." Terra answered seeing no point in fibbing about that. "He is Father Time now and I am Mother Nature."

"Yes!" Aura cheered. "I'm so glad that you are together now!"

"About time too," Aqua agreed with a smirk as she watched Aura hop up and down with joy.

"Aqua, you'll look after Aura after this right?" Terra whispered as Aura continued to celebrate not knowing that she was being discussed.

"Of course," Aqua replied quietly as she leaned over to whisper to Terra once more. "Where we are going you have nothing to worry about."

"Hey, are we going to do this or not?" Aura suddenly voiced interrupting the conversation going on between Terra and Aqua.

"Alright, let's begin." Aqua concluded as both Terra and her straightened to take their positions. They held hands once again and closed their eyes allowing the elemental magic of earth, air, and water flow through each of them. "Now we must choose a place to send our elemental stone." Terra, Aura, and Aqua each visualized the place they had in mind to send their stones. When Terra opened her eyes, she found she was no longer in the white room with her sisters, but at the ceremony once again. She quickly looked up to find that the dark storm clouds were gone and the sun was shining brightly in the sky. The stones that had been levitating in the air were now traveling quickly through the sky to the places Aqua, Aura, and Terra had chosen for them.

Aevum walked up beside Terra noticing that her whole demeanor had changed. She was now relaxed, confident, and was even smiling more than she had in the last month. "Hey, what happened during the passing of powers process?" Aevum asked wondering what happened to her during the spell.

"I saw Gaia and my sisters." Terra replied with as she grinned at him and linked her arm with his. Aevum smiled back as they made their way toward the glowing thrones. The elves looked on hopefully as they were not the ones who would be crowning Terra and Aevum. Once they sat on those thrones, it was up to the Earth to crown them as the rulers of Nature and Time. Aevum and Terra paused in front of the thrones that were now glowing even brighter than before. Terra pressed forward until she noticed that Aevum had not moved with her. "Aevum, come on." Terra urged as the elves waited in suspense.

"Sorry, I'm just really nervous." Aevum sighed as Terra held out an encouraging hand. Aevum took a deep breath as he grasped it then they both sat upon the glowing thrones.