The Beginning from the End
#1 of Chains of Destiny
Chapter 1: The Beginning From the End
A battle between the Protectors of Time and powerful evil force is waged at the End of Time, a place where no present or future exists, only the past exists there.
"This isn't going to end well for any of us!" shouted a voice.
"Not if he is still around it isn't," replied a second voice.
"Look out, he's coming this way!" shouted a third voice.
"I can't look anymore, we're all doomed!" shouted a forth.
"It is all over for you so called heroes," cackled an evil voice, "Dark Time Warp!"
Battles only happen once is what everyone is told, no battle is ever exactly the same as its last or predecessor. But this battle, will happen over and over and over again with no stop and the Protectors of Time keeps repeating this last battle with no recollection of it ever happening before. The Protectors of Time are a group of selected people to ensure that nothing bad happens to the time stream, like, the destruction of time itself. It is their duty and obligation but a repeating cycle makes it an endless obligation, until now.
"Mnguh...what a weird dream I had," said someone sleepy as he opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling above. This guy is Leo Lionheart, an everyday average teenager at the age of 16, procrastinates on assignments, never studies for tests, and the so forth. For being an nonathletic guy in school, his build is athletic but his mind is slow, slower than an athlete's maybe. Someone of his stature, well being a lion, should be strong and courageous but for him, it's completely the opposite, weak and throws caution in the wind or more scared actually.
Leo sat up and looked over at his clock which was sitting on his nightstand next to his bed. It read "5:00 AM/ /4/2008". The empty space was supposed to state the month, but over many strikes right above that number slot, it stopped appearing.
"Looks like I'm up early, again," Leo said as he swung his legs out over the edge of the bed and sat there in thought. "This is the fifth time I've woken up early this week, and it's the same dream to. Four people fighting against some weird guy and then bam, a repeat happens," he said aloud, "Last time I'm sleeping without a shirt on."
He got out of bed in his black shorts and looked into the mirror to check his eyes and hair before he put on his glasses. His eyes were a dark shade of blue mixed in with black. His hair used to be a dark yellow when he was a kid but after an accident when he was 6, his hair became full of streaks of silver and gold. That same accident turned his fur into a dark brown and light yellow, a strange mix of colors for a lion. Though, right now, his hair is a mess.
"Mind as well get ready now, I have a test today that I know I will fail," he said as he left his room.
Leo lived in two story house with his older brother who is going to become some sort of doctor. It wasn't really big but they were lucky to get a cheap home that was two stories high. There was a bathroom directly across from Leo's room which he always used every day while his brother used that one in the room he was sleeping in.
"I shouldn't wake him up, it's a bad thing to do anyways since he stayed up most of the night working," said Leo as he looked down the hall at his brother's door.
Leo walked into the bathroom and quickly brushed his teeth and combed his hair into its usual position, front bent upward, exposing most of the forehead. He quickly looked back over his teeth to realize that his fangs were sharper than before and that there were more razor sharp teeth than he remembered. Even though they were big changes, he didn't pay any further attention to them.
On the way back to his room, he thought about whether the where abouts of the missing people were known or not. If four people he knows goes missing in four days, then something bad is going on.
Inside his room, Leo got changed into pure black baggy jeans that fit around the waist perfectly, a black belt with a dragon emblem as its buckle, and a black dress shirt with its arm sleeves rolled up above the elbow. Chains travel down both sides of his jeans and looped back around to the back pockets. A watch was strapped around his left wrist and an armlet/gauntlet was strapped around his right wrist and half of his fore arm. A necklace of luck was hanging from his neck just in case he might get lucky today on his test.
"Vrrr...vrrr...vrrr" sounded his cell phone. Leo quickly picked up his phone and answered with an immediate "Hello?".
"Hello, I know about your friends' where abouts. If you want to find them, meet me in the park near your school in 15 minutes. Miss this deadline and you'll regret it for the rest of your life," said a mysterious voice and the voice hung up.
"Who was that?" thought Leo as he closed his phone.
Leo gathered up everything he needed for school that day and left the house quickly and without a second thought that the mysterious voice could have been a very dangerous person. His brother exited his room when Leo left the house and smiled.
The air outside the house was cold, but it was only 5:20 when Leo checked his watch. The school was only 15 minutes away and the park was 10 minutes away walking. Rather than walking, Leo sprinted to the park saving him only 3 minutes a large amount of air that he needed to recover from the run.
"This *pant* should be *pant* enough *pant* exercise *pant* for to *pant* day," said Leo heavily as he bent over to try and regain some wind into his lungs.
Looking at his watch, it was only 5:27, 8 minutes away from 5:35, the time he was supposed to be there. A bench was near by and sat down on it and waited for this mysterious person to arrive.
At 5:33, a heavily dressed person walked by and dropped something on the ground. Leo noticed this person walk by and the item that was dropped. It glistened under the light of the street lamp and attracted Leo's attention quite a bit. He picked it up and turned to see that the person was gone. Looking back at the object, it was a silver necklace with a clock with wings hanging from it.
"I should hold onto this, that person might come back for it," thought Leo as he sat back down on the bench.
When the watch hit 5:35, all movement around Leo stopped, though, he didn't seem to notice. In addition, Leo didn't notice that the surroundings behind him were disappearing into nothing. He didn't notice anything until the bench and his stuff disappeared underneath him, leaving only the necklace in his hand and him standing in oblivion or so it seems.
"What the hell just happened?" whispered Leo, "This must be a dream, I know it's a dream...isn't it?"
Suddenly, a flash of lightening streaked across above but it wasn't seen, only heard. Then a voice appeared.
"This isn't going to end well for us," shouted the voice.
"Not if he is still around it isn't," shouted a different voice.
"Look out, he's coming this way!" shouted a voice apart from the first two.
"I can't look anymore, we're all doomed!" shouted a forth voice.
All this was very familiar to Leo, the words and shouts. "Am I in my own dream?" thought Leo as he listened to what was going on, but it was silent. Then, a circle of mirrors began to rise out of the darkness and surround Leo but when the mirrors were completely out, Leo didn't see his reflection, rather, a human reflection of himself in the same exact clothes that he is wearing. Only the mirror in front of him gave that reflection, all the others were blank. Mystified, Leo started to raise his arm when the circle started to move clockwise and the reflection disappeared out the left side of the mirror and appear in the right side of the mirror next to the first. Soon, the circle was moving at such a fast speed that the reflection was right in front of him at all times.
"What is going on?" asked Leo.
"I'll tell you what's going on, your disappearance is what's going on," replied the reflection and it began to reach out at Leo's neck.
"Wait, hold on a moment!" cried Leo out in shock.
"There's no need to wait," stated the reflection but before the hand touched the neck, the reflection and the mirrors vanished.
Leo didn't say anything afterwards but kept staring ahead until something pressed against his back. Slowly turning around, Leo saw two small looking bunnies, one black, one white, with small blue orbs attached to their heads. They both had earrings but the black one had it on its left and the white one on its white. At an attempt to touch them, they, too, disappeared.
After what seems like hours, he saw his friends, but they didn't see him. Leo tried to run after them but he didn't seem to move. He reached out and called their names but they wouldn't respond, instead, they also vanished.
"To see friends disappear in front of you is devastating, isn't it?" asked a voice.
"Ya, for them not to respond is okay...but disappear..." replied Leo.
"What you have seen are small sections of the future except that last section. That section is the past, how your friends disappear one after another," said the voice.
Leo didn't say anything for some time but finally said, "Who are you?"
"You do not need to know my name immediately but I am sometimes known as the Witch of Dimensions," replied the voice.
"Is there a reason to why I'm here to begin with?" asked Leo plainly.
"All is the work hitsuzen, everything is inevitable and is already on a set course for each near future possible," replied the Witch of Dimensions.
"Hitsuzen..." said Leo in deep thought.
Neither of them said anything as Leo thought about hitsuzen. The idea behind hitsuzen is that everything happens for a reason and it has already been planned out before hand, before certain events even happen. The disappearances of his friends during the past week was the works of hitsuzen, including picking up the necklace.
Leo broke the silence by asking, "Was my coming here also hitsuzen?"
"No, this isn't the works of hitsuzen but over time, you will be able to tell what is and what isn't the work of hitsuzen. Until then, your journey is about to begin and so will the future of this world," said the Witch of Dimensions.
"Journey?" questioned Leo but there was no response.
Thinking over what has happened, Leo deduced that something big is going to happen but he isn't sure what IS going to happen. He kept thinking until he heard a song or chant or what ever it was that caught his attention.
"Your journeys about to begin. In a world with many signs of sin. Those who galiently faught for the future, lost all life in the never ending torture. We who have seen it all, are repeating something that will never fall. Should you accept this quest, you might be able to put us all at rest. You yourself can change the future. You yourself can be the future. Help those that are stuck in chains, free those that are lost vain. If you do not do anything now, everything will dis...a...pea...," chanted young voices.
Leo thought about what these voices said. "If I am ever going to find my friends again, I need to take on this journey. This isn't for me...this is for the future of the entire world as well, but no matter what happens, I will take this journey!" shouted Leo and a flash of light blinded him for a moment.
"The wheels have started to turn. Soon, he will arrive here for the things he needs. Like a stone that can roll forever down a hill, he has the power to stop that stone and move it to a new direction," said the Witch of Dimensions.
"Won't he just end up like the others then?" asked a small white rabbit-like thing.
"No Mokona, he won't, something about this boy makes him different from the rest," replied the Witch.
"All we can do now is wait and drink sake!" shouted a small black rabbit-like thing.
Leo woke up in the middle of park with the rest of his things, backpack and the such. Time had continued while he was in that dark void and it was almost 5PM.
"Was that all just a dream?" questioned Leo as he got up from the floor. "Well, I guess I better get home then, it is getting later after all."
Leo picked up his things and headed home to see his that his brother was entering the house. He picked up his pace and enter the house afterwards.
"It's your turn to make dinner today," said Leo's brother as Leo walked in.
"What! It's supposed to be your turn today!" shouted Leo in anger.
"You didn't make breakfast or lunch today so dinner's on you," replied the brother.
"Oh shut your trap Alex," said Leo in anger.
Alex is Leo's older brother, the one that is going to become some doctor or something like that. Although he's older, Leo's taller than him by a few inches. For such an outstanding student in college, Alex never really took his brother seriously on some matters.
"By the way, some of your friends called me earlier to know where you were. Did you go to school by any chance?" asked Alex.
"NO! I got sucked into a void and next thing I knew, it was 5PM!" snapped Leo.
"After dinner, meet me in my room and pack some food and comfortable clothes to wear,"responded Alex.
"Why?" asked Leo but Alex didn't respond, rather Alex went upstairs and into his room after closing his door.
"Wonder what's his problem," thought Leo as he went straight to the kitchen and placed his stuff in the living room adjoined to the kitchen.
Inside Alex's room, he stood in front of his mirror and said, "I know you're there witch, there's no point in trying to be a fake mirror."
"Oh, you're so sharp, there's absolutely nothing I can really hide from you is there," responded the witch as she appeared in the mirror. A young human with lavender color eyes and a butterfly hair pin in her hair.
"It happened, didn't it?" asked Alex.
"Yes, the time has come for him. Remember what you have to do and it will only work once so don't screw it up even though you're not like my servant I'd prefer that he gets here quickly," replied the Witch of Dimensions, "When is the scheduled time anyways so i can prepare?"
"After dinner, around nine here. If our times are synchronized, then it should be 4 hours from now," responded Alex.
"Good, now it's back to sake for me. Bye bye!" exclaimed the Witch as she disappeared from the mirror.
"I hope you know what you're doing witch," said Alex.
Back in the kitchen, Leo was done with dinner, though it was very simple from what he usually does.
"A dinner of fried fish, steamed veggies, and bad brand of rice, a good meal if I say so myself. Better call my brother now," said Leo as he turned around to see his brother.
"There's no need to call me, I only came down to check on your progress with dinner but it seems like we're eating simply tonight," said Alex looking at the dining table.
They both sat down and started eating the food in silence, both in deep thought about what has occurred that day, Leo with his void and Alex with his order from the witch. They just stayed like that for the next half hour. When the food was done, Alex cleared the table and they both washed the dishes.
"Remember what I told you earlier, go to my room and pack some food and comfortable clothes before you go in. Be sure you have those two and everything you may need. You only have 2 and a half hours left until nine. If you're not in my room, ready, by nine, then I am going to hunt you down," said Alex when they were done and he left the kitchen to go back to his room.
"Wonder what he means by that, but I guess I should do what he says though," said Leo as his brother left the kitchen.
Leo grabbed his stuff from the living room and went upstairs to his room. Once he was inside, he dropped his stuff next to his computer and looked inside his closet for his big duffel bag. When he found it, he looked at the digital clock on his night stand, it read "7:00". Within an hour and a half, Leo stuffed in clothes he can easily wear, food he could eat, and a few books that he can read. Other things he took with him were his specially made Lion and Dragon necklace, an old armband that meant a lot to him like his armlet/gauntlet and his dragon belt.
"That's everything I need, don't think I'll need my toothbrush this time," thought Leo as he made his way to his brother's room. Opening the door, a gust of air forced its way out as Leo walked in.
"I've been waiting Leo. Come and stand in front of me," said Alex.
Leo wasted no time getting to his brother as Alex closed his eyes and placed his index and middle finger together on his left hand. Dragging his hand through the air, Alex began making strange symbols in the air that circled its way around Leo.
"What's going on?!" shouted Leo in fear.
"Don't be afraid, what is going to happen is best for the future," responded Alex as he continued to make the strange symbols.
"Best for the future...?" questioned Leo as he calmed down. At the same time, he heard the chant yet again, but it seemed different.
"Time has corroded and you are the cause. Death to the destroyer, death to us all. You caused all this chaos that we have to endure. Death to the destroyer, death to us all. God will never forgive and neither will your friends. Death to the destroyer, death to us all," chanted angry voices.
Alex finished making the strange symbols and the beginning and end of the chain linked, making a full circle around Leo. At the same moment, a hand came out of the wall and attempted to break the chain but it was too late. As soon as the hand got close, both the circle and Leo disappeared.
"Time has corroded but you can save it. Death to the destroyer or death to us all Leo. Death to us all," said Alex as he looked at the spot where Leo once stood.
Alex looked out the window and said, "The beginning from the end, you will continue where I couldn't. Save us all Leo, if you don't...the beginning will start from the end all over again.