Ben ran upstairs and reached the battlefield. X was dead and Coelestin sat quietly beside his dead body, his face was red with blood. Evelyn, Slaine and Clanthido stood beside him. He slowly walked towards them over the rubble and the squishy dead bodies. Clanthido looked at him, "...Xelveyni? ikt at ar?" (Tn//Is that you?) Clanthido asked.
"Hello Clanthido, just call me Ben," Ben replied.

"God, I never thought I'd ever see you again," Clanthido said and hugged him tightly.
"You took your sweet time to get here," Slaine said while Evelyn just stared at the blood on his clothes.
"Yes, I was a bit busy," Ben said.
"You've got an unnatural pulse, what's the matter?" Clanthido's purple eyes looked at Ben.
"Can you sense something?" Ben said. Clanthido's eyes began glowing.

"...Yeah, I can hear something...The time machine?"

. . .

Axel opened the control panel and smoke and steam covered the chamber. He coughed, "FUCK! It's burning!" He yelled, "How do I stop this?"

. . .

"...I have a feeling something bad is about to happen," Clanthido said as he clutched his opposite elbows with his hands, "I sense an energy imbalance,"
Ben turned towards the hills, "Evelyn,"
"Yes?"
"You got your powers yet?"

"Yes, I did,"
"Could you take me somewhere?"
Evelyn nodded and water rose from the ground. Ben got on top of it while holding Evelyn's hand. "Come with me," He said.
Clanthido flew with them towards the hills.

They reached the bushes where he found Asselyum. He had dismantled her and now her parts were lying on the grass. Ben jumped down from the wave and picked up a part, "Clanthido,"
"Yes?"
"Could you join me and this robot together? Like an armour around my body,"
"Of course, but what are you planning?" He asked.

"It's not a plan. It's an experiment,"
"...Ben," Clanthido's faith wavered, "You're not planning on doing something rash, are you? We've lost you once, we can't lose you again,"
"Just trust me, okay? I won't leave you. I will always be with you. I know I can do it and so can you," Ben stood on the grass with Asselyum's parts surrounding him. Clanthido's eyes glowed purple, and so did Asselyum's metallic parts. Ben glowed green and purple and the hot metallic parts melted and slowly stuck on his skin, giving a porcelain white coat on his red burning skin. Ben's body was shining like porcelain plastic. He looked at him and then at Clanthido.

"Evelyn," Ben smiled.
"Yes?" Evelyn looked at him. He got down on his knees and looked into Evelyn's eyes.
"Humans are a fragile species. The more you try to emotionally involve yourself with them, the more you hurt yourself and when you hurt yourself, you end up hurting them. Their life span is tiny. One moment they are with you, in the other they are gone forever, and no matter what you do, you can never bring them back. All you can do is suffer for the rest of your life, missing them. You can't get attached to them, Evelyn, because when they leave, it will completely destroy you. And that pain of destruction will make you do something horrible, something irreversible. And after that, no matter what you do to fix it, it'll just keep getting worse and worse. You'll end up hurting more and more people." Ben's eyes were wet, but he was smiling, "Four hundred years on Earth, and I'm still alone. You know why? It's because now I'm afraid of people. Because the very person I loved, left me. And I could not bear it, so, to revive him from his DNA, I made monsters that ate everyone, to fix that, I helped Axel make war robots who destroyed half the world, heck one of them even ended a country because I asked him to. I'm always messing things up. So please, Evelyn," He pressed his hands over his head,

"If it comes; let it. If it goes; let it.
What's yours will find you.
Everything in time,"

Evelyn nodded and then Ben turned towards Clanthido. Clanthido's eyes glowed purple and he grabbed Ben's hand. Both of them flew in the air towards the time machine.

Axel sat on a chair in front of the control panel, with his hands joined in prayer as the time machine burned and red hot flames covered the control panel. White smoke covered his body and suddenly the machine felt a strong jolt. He fell off of the chair and looked down through the glass windows. He saw Ben pushing the time machine up, Clanthido held it from the other side. They were moving towards the sky, out of Earth's atmosphere.

Axel waited for his doom as he stood inside the machine. But suddenly, the windows broke down and someone grabbed Axel between his arms, passed through the other glass window, and jumped down the time machine. He landed back on the Earth creating a crater.
"What the fuck was that?" Axel coughed. Slaine looked down the huge hole. As the dust cleared, his eyes widened.

"R- RILEY, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"
"Yo!" Riley said, "What did I miss?"
Slaine slapped his back, "You're pretty late,"
"C'mon, you know it takes time to look this good every day," Riley smacked his fringes, "Anyways, hey Axel, wassup? I see life has been ploughing you well,"
"...Wait, I'm not dead?" Axel seemed disappointed.

"LMAO, you wanted to die?" Riley laughed.
"Where have to been?"
"Hiding from the government. If they'd find out I'm an X-DROID, I was as good as dead,"

Meanwhile, Ben left the machine and moved towards Clanthido, "It feels lighter now," Clanthido said.
"Zero gravity," Ben said, "Clanthido,"

"Yeah?"
By that time they had reached the vacuum of space. Sound does not travel at all in space. However, Clanthido read his lips,

"Take care of Ameradite,"

"What-"
Ben's eyes glowed green and at full speed, he took the time machine farther into space, speeding up towards the sun.
"NO! XELVEYNI!" He shouted but his voice didn't come out in the vacuum. Ben reached the sun and the time machine burst open. It destroyed everything surrounding it—All the small meteorites and the planet Mercury. Everyone looked at it from Earth. The strong impact could be felt till the ocean floors of Earth.

Jimmy and Lupin heard the loud noise outside and the laboratory shook, "An earthquake?! Quick! Into the trashcan!" Jimmy jumped inside the trashcan and Lupin ran out of the laboratory. He looked up and saw a huge spacecraft covering the sky, "Veronique..."

Clanthido landed on the ground and fell on his knees. Ameradite was up in the sky with the spacecraft, "Clanthido, we are almost out of fuel. Grab Xelveyni and let's leave already,"
He turned towards Evelyn, "You are going to come?"
Evelyn turned and looked at Slaine,

"Do you want me to go?" Evelyn asked.
"I want you to do what makes you happy," Slaine said.
"You make me happy. You make me feel safe,"
Slaine smiled, "Of course. A ship in harbour is safe...But that is not what ships are meant for,"

Evelyn held Slaine's fingers with his little hands and looked up into his blue eyes, "I love you,"
"I love you too," Slaine smiled.
"Clanthido! Hurry up!" Ameradite shouted.

Evelyn left Slaine's hand and ran towards Clanthido. He grabbed Clanthido's hand and they flew towards the spacecraft. Lupin had been running all that time towards them, "WAIT! VERONIQUE! I WANT TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!"

. . .

But the spacecraft left, "VERONIQUE!" Lupin shouted at the top of his lungs. Veronique looked outside the window while resting her hands on her stomach, "I need to carry this child for a person who doesn't even love me for the next two years," She whispered, "A woman's previlidge, huh,"

Ameradite looked at Evelyn, "Where is Xelveyni?" She asked Clanthido.
"It is him," Clanthido said.
"No, the older one,"
Clanthido looked at the floor, "Look Ameradite...

I'm sorry. I couldn't save him,"

Ameradite looked back at the controls as they passed through the Asteroid belt.
"He died in that explosion," Clanthido said.
She closed her eyes and took a deep sigh, "All of this for nothing?" She looked at Evelyn and smiled, "Wait...What am I saying? He is right here,"
"Then..." He looked at the tears in her eyes, "Why are you crying?"

. . .

Coelestin was crowned the day after. The rehabilitation of the city had already restarted. They had started preparing graves for all the soldiers who died during the war and Coelestin built a special memorial of the war. He personally visited the graves of all the soldiers to pay his respects. A new garden of purple lavenders was being laid down in Lucifer's memory. The castle was being renovated and the broken parts, rebuilt. A month had passed since the war, Slaine and the boys were still in the future.

Lupin stood at a balcony in the castle, smoking some tobacco wrapped in a cigarette, looking at all the machines working in the garden, watering the flowers and trimming the grass.
"The time machine is gone, no one knows the whereabouts of the spare time machine and without it, we just cannot go back home, to the past," Axel said as he stood behind him.
"Can't you like...Remake it? You said Ben told you that you made the time machine,"
"Yeah, but I don't remember how I did it. It's been years, bro," Axel said.

Lupin walked out of the room, "Lupin, where are you going?" Jimmy asked.
"Taking a walk," He got on a hoverboard and cruised outside the castle. He looked around at the rebuilt roads and the trees. Robots roaming around the markets, shopping malls and huge skyscrapers, with miniature forests surrounding them. He threw the cigarette aside and the city cleaning robot discs immediately picked it up. He reached Ben's old laboratory and looked at it. Riley didn't need to hide from the government anymore, but he was kept under surveillance by the cops.

Coelestin was a great leader. He gave powerful speeches, he was a good orator, an honest politician and a strong fighter.
"I'm sorry we're being a burden, your highness," Lupin said as he sat before him on a marble table in the lavender garden.

"It is fine, doctor. You saved my balls, this is the least I can do," Coelestin smiled.
Lupin laughed, "What the hell!"
"I'm not wrong, am I?" Coelestin took a sip of his coffee and choked, "Shit! It's too hot!"

"What in the world are you doing?" He heard a familiar voice and turned aside. He dropped the cup as he looked at those blue eyes, black wings, purple shirt, white jeans.

"..Lu- Luci...fer," He said.
Lucifer stood with a pipe in his stomach which ran down his jeans and joined to a small machine that resembled a suitcase, "Fuck you, you killed me," He furrowed his eyebrows. Coelestin ran towards him and gently touched his cheek, "...You're real.."

"No shit. My body is still a bit fucked though—"
Coelestin hugged him tightly, "You're alive!"
"Och ouch ouch ouch! Bitch!"
"Sorry!" Coelestin moved away from him, "It's just hard to control myself, I'm so happy," Coelestin covered his mouth, "Oh my God, I never thought I'd see you again, oh my God," He started crying.

"What a fucking crybaby! Jesus," Lucifer said.
"Shut up!" Coelestin covered his face and turned back. Lucifer smiled, "Crybaby,"
"I said shut up!"
"LUCIFER?! Wait—I thought you died?" Slaine walked towards them.
"Yeah well, as you can see, that didn't stick for a long time,"

"Lupin saved him!" Jimmy said, "He's like a God at this moment,"
Coelestin looked at Lupin, "It just happened," Lupin said.
"Doctor," Coelestin grabbed Lupin's arm and wiped his tears.
"Y-Yeah?" Lupin looked at him.
"I'm not letting you go," He said.
"O-Okay?"

"NO! BITCH FIGHT ME!" Jimmy hugged Lupin and glared at Coelestin.
"Bruh," Slaine looked at Jimmy.
"You won't leave me alone, right, mommy?" Jimmy looked at Lupin.
"What's this sudden display of affection?" Lupin looked at him.
"You don't like it?"
"I never said that,"

"You are mommy! Since you take care of everyone,"
"I prefer being called 'doctor'"
"I don't care! Slaine is the daddy!"
"Alright, goodbye," Slaine turned to leave. Lupin laughed, "He doesn't like that,"

"He only likes it if Evelyn calls him that," Jimmy said.
"Alright stop. That turned super weird," Slaine said.
"Dad!" Jimmy mimicked Evelyn.
"Stop it,"
"Dad!!"
"I said stop it!"
Lupin looked at them. He was there but he also wasn't there. He seemed to be standing in some other world. Inside a hollow, left staring at a sky, longing to meet someone who he might never see again.

He walked down dust-covered stairs of the castle, into an old, empty room, lit up by the sunlight passing through the white curtains. He reached an old piano and sat before it, looking at the keys shine,

"Veronique...Was that baby mine?"

https://youtu.be/nAlp9uA2H1k

End of volume II