Luna Mermous awoke in the backseat of her father’s car when she heard the trunk slam shut behind her. The light of early dawn was peeking in through the windows, a light she had trained herself to wholeheartedly ignore. After all, only old people woke up early, and she enjoyed curling up in the warmth of her blankets for as long as possible.

Therefore, she had almost gone back to sleep before the happenings of the night before struck her into wakefulness. The fear and dread she felt only hours previously slowly crept it’s way under her warm blankets, chilling her to the bone.

She hoped that it was only a nightmare, one that would stay away even if she returned to sleep. But the memories were all too clear, and the back of her head dully ached as if bruised. She had fallen backwards when the quaking grew too intense, away from her father as the night sky turned black.

But now she was wrapped in a blanket, safely stowed away in the back seat of their car. The juxtaposition forced a discomfort that she needed to amend. Dad would know what happened, she thought to herself.

If she was here, then that meant her father brought her here. Maybe what happened last night was explainable? She wasn’t sure if such a thing as a stellar eclipse ever happened, but she remembered the solar eclipse that her dad took her to see a couple of years ago.

After a short battle between her ingrained desire for more rest and the need to know what happened, Luna finally sat up. She held her breath before she looked out the windows of the car.

Would the forest have fallen down in the earthquake like she did? Or maybe the sky was still dark somehow? She wasn’t sure what she expected when she looked out the passenger side window, but a totally normal forest probably wasn’t it.

And yet, that’s what greeted her.

A totally normal forest, full of totally normal trees followed by the totally normal dirt road they had driven down to get to the stargazing location. Then she saw her totally normal father walking away from the car. He was talking to himself now as he often did, only this time louder as if emboldened by their forest solitude.

Yep, she thought to herself, normal.

She only started to worry when he started yelling like a madman, stopping for a moment to point back towards the car, and then diving back into his decidedly not normal one-sided argument.

Had her father hit his head harder than her?

✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

It had all started when Tim, John’s ever more annoying companion, told him he was better off leaving the telescope where it was. John had just finished swearing profusely as the alcohol burned away any bacteria from his brutalized palm, along with a solid portion of his current sanity.

Why would he do that, he wondered angrily. Even if he was injured, he could carry it back just as he had carried it in. The thing broke into two parts after all. He would need to make a third begrudging trip, but it was better than just leaving the thing out there.

When he had said as much while gingerly wrapping his hand in gauze, his luminescent friend had gone silent and John assumed he had convinced him. It was thus in relative silence that the two made the trek there and back again— twice.

Tim had thankfully answered any questions thrown at him rather demurely, and John was starting to feel good about his situation for the first time since the whole fiasco began.

From their conversation, John learned three crucially important things. Firstly was that yes, they were still on Earth. As Tim explained it, the reintegration process only moved the Earth into a different space.

A multiverse inclusive space that included untold numbers of universes and galaxies and solar systems and tiny planets like Earth with intelligent life forms on them.

He wasn’t keen on believing him, but John recognized he wasn’t really in a position to question a being made of solid light that spoke without a mouth. Astronomy was only a hobby of his, and he could admit that he wasn’t smart enough to challenge whatever his companion was.

That and the night sky looked very different from anything he had seen from Earth.

Secondly was that their reintegration into this ‘multiverse’ would become very dangerous very quickly, even if it was for now relatively safe. Those who survived the reintegration process, which John learned included all forms of life, would begin learning how to utilize the strange energies that now permeated their world.

This meant that very soon, he would have to start dealing with monstrous animals and potentially man-eating plants that grew larger and more voracious due to their new ambient powers.

That was the third thing John learned about their newfound circumstances while he made repeated trips between the field and his car. Everything either now had superpowers or would have them soon.

As a matter of safety, John decided to take it without a grain of salt. According to Tim, there were two primal forces of multiverse. The first was what apparently seared, blasted, lacerated, and/or infiltrated his hand: origin energy.

Origin energy existed within all things, but barring extreme circumstance, one only ever interacted with it during when their universe was reintegrated into the multiverse. From then on, origin energy existed as a mostly inert resource that enabled other energies to be.

That meant that John’s current condition would remain unknown in his immediate future. Tim did, however, assure him that while such cases were highly unlikely, they were probably more likely than never.

All in relative terms to the scale of the multiverse, of course.

The second primal energy was called divine energy, and existed as the base form for all other energies. Everything from basic elements such as fire and ice to more esoteric forces such as gravity and even time were theoretically derivative of divine energy.

Time being part of the equation made sure that John’s headache was alive and well. Ironically though, Tim said that the only implication there was that time existed as the only non-relative force in the multiverse, meaning it persisted in all places at equal rates.

Movie logic be damned.

Thus, when John finally slammed closed the trunk with the second piece of telescope safely nested inside, he felt like he was in school again. Only this time, he was majoring in magical sci-fi physics and his professor was a fraction of his age.

He couldn’t imagine attempting to figure these things out on his own, and thanked the progenitors aloud for kindly bestowing his floating trove of information.

John thought it was a shame that Tim would be ‘expiring’ soon, but he had been assured that to expire after having been an exemplary guide was programmed to be his greatest desire.

He personally questioned that such a useful tool left behind by someone as great as Archaeon would be lost so easily, but he didn’t see any way to pursue the topic. Tim was rather adamant after all, and he nevertheless proved very useful in their current circumstances.

Thus, John was content to let him do as he pleased so long as they both benefitted. He was about to thank Tim, too, when the floating orb of light— which was apparently an Artificial Elemental Intelligence, decided to finally tell him the news.

“You do know that you’ll have to leave this ‘car’ of yours here, right human?” Tim’s voice rang out from his place floating about twenty feet off the ground. Birds, he advised, were a likely candidate for the first to turn violent due to their predatory nature and larger numbers, and thus he kept an eye out.

John was suddenly vexed that the Artificial Elemental Intelligence— or ‘damn space fairy’ as he decisively chose to abbreviate the mouthful to, was far beyond his grasp.

“I’ll have to what?” His immediate reaction was to be angry, for his last hour and a half of toiling up and down the forest trail was presupposed upon the idea of driving out of here with the telescope.

His temper cooled marginally when he recognized that he probably would have done it at some point anyway if his car was well and truly stuck here.

Marginally.

“Leave it, human. I tried to tell you it was useless to transport your telescope here, but you seemed rather convinced of your own logic. You were correct, anyway, as you certainly did bring it back in two trips. Bravo!” Tim seemed to almost gloat when saying so, as if to chide him for going against his suggestions.

John’s abated anger returned in full force when it became clear that the devious little orb left him out of the loop on purpose.

“That still doesn’t explain why we have to leave the car here,” John stated through gritted teeth. “What’s it going to do, explode?”

“That is a possible outcome, yes. It is unlikely that a vehicle running on your universe’s laws of thermodynamics would operate the same in the multiverse.” Tim bounced up and down in the air, still gloating in the limelight of his thoughtless prank.

John was incredulous.

“You’re telling me that my car,” John gestured back towards his vehicle wildly, “could have turned into a fucking old-world bomb?” He suddenly blanched as realization dawned on him. “What the hell is wrong with you? You let me leave my daughter in there!” Just as John turned around, he heard the door click open.

Pulling herself out of the car, his now awakened daughter looked at him with eyes full of worry. Oh, the poor thing! His daughter was out cold for hours and her first concern was for his well being.

“Luna! Get away from there, the car is dangerous!” He couldn’t help but run to her when he saw the look on the girl’s face. So full of care! Her expression seemed to twist more in his eyes at his words.

“What? Are you okay, Dad? Did you hit your head?” Luna’s tone gave way to her apprehension, but John didn’t take notice of it. Instead, he began plotting how exactly he would get the most out of the little demon that threatened his daughter.

“Nevermind me sweetie.” John said as he grabbed her by the arm and started walking her away from the car. “Tim, you have five seconds to tell me why I should trust you ever again, starting now.”

“Who’s Tim?” Luna looked up at her father’s face and saw the expression he had when he was writing a particularly inspired part of his book. Though that was really the only time he actually wrote anything.

This time however, she was vaguely worried that her father had well and truly lost it.

“Four.” John’s countdown continued unabated, a technique he had honed over years of practice. To be quick and decisive in the process was paramount.

Even if it didn’t work on his daughter anymore, he was certain he had perfected the tone of each number to inspire some panic in the several hour old fairy. Even if it didn’t work on Tim, it wasn’t like he lost anything by showing an ineffective card.

“Ooo, is this the countdown thing humans do when they’re mad? I saw this in my research!” When Tim did respond, his voice sounded no different from normal. Still goading and subtly insulting his humanity.

Luna, however, was now very surprised.

“Who said that?” What was once a minor concern for her father’s mental sanctity was now a very real concern for the voice that seemed to float in the air around her.

“Three.” John pressed on irrespective of Tim’s words. If one thing was certain in the art of counting down, it was important to not give an inch to the offending party.

“Dad, what’s going on?” His daughter was growing more confused by the second as her presuppositions were upended by the second bodiless voice in half as many days.

“Just excising a demon, Lulu.” John didn’t know if there were demons in the old multiverse, but he knew that Tim had consumed enough of human intelligence through the internet to understand the reference.

“Two,” he continued with a building tone of smoldering passion.

“A demon?” His daughter’s vaguely trembling voice resounded in the absence of Tim’s answer. Her head swiveled back and forth looking for something, but Tim still refused to make an appearance.

John didn’t know what he would do if their guide still refused to acknowledge his mistake, but that could only mean that Tim himself was even less aware of the potential outcomes.

“One.” With all the feelings of finality he could muster, John spoke the final part of the countdown. His brows were furrowed deeply, and his face dark like a brooding storm. He only had to stand silent for a moment before a heavy sigh was let out above him.

“Okay, okay, fine. You got me.” Tim made himself known by floating down to eye level, about ten feet away from the two of them. His sudden appearance caused Luna to scream, which only further cemented the creased brows on John’s forehead.

“I just wanted to rile you up a bit to get back at you. While I may have been a little vague about it, the car would have never exploded on its own! You would need to turn it on at least, and then I could stop you. Totally safe.” John’s face remained stoic.

The prideful little thing actually still refused to admit he did anything wrong.

“... Is that the demon?” Luna’s voice sounded much more curious than scared as her previous scream would have implied. She was right to be skeptical, of course, as the floating ball of blueish-white light was pretty far removed from anything demonic.

“I am not a demon! I am—” Tim began to yell in protest, but John cut him off.

“This is Tim, the sometimes dangerous guide who seems utterly content to sabotage us if he gets a kick out of it.” John crossed his arms as he ruthlessly interrupted Tim's protestations.

“Hey! That was the first time!” Tim cried out indignantly, but he was having none of it.

“And I don’t want there to be a next time. I’ll ask again, how can I trust you?” Tim was silent for a moment, so John decided to push him. “You could have made a fool out of me in any number of ways, but you crossed a line. If you want to fulfil your purpose, I’m going to need insurance.”

The ball of light hovered perfectly motionless for a few seconds, before it drooped and dimmed slightly. John heard him mumble something, but he could only make out the word 'contract'.

“What was that?”

“I said there’s a contract! If we both agree, I can no longer lie to you and you get to bring me around after the trial period. But you have to let me die eventually! Please!” In the back of his mind, John was aware that Tim seemed a little too desperate to get back on his good side.

Sure, it was what he ultimately wanted, but weren’t you supposed to aim high and hit low in negotiations? Tim seemed willing to throw in everything immediately, though maybe that was a result of the space fairy’s relative youth?

Regardless, John clicked his tongue thoughtfully. He was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. If it meant he could squeeze more information out of him, John would take the contract in a heartbeat.

Thus, he decided to drop the not entirely facetious expression of anger he had been building.

“Deal! We’ll be working together for a little longer, Tim, so I’d like you to meet my lovely daughter, Luna.” If Tim had a mouth, John was sure it would be hanging open.

“Luna dear, this is Tim, a very helpful guide to our much changed world, and certainly no demon.” By now, John had performed a complete one-eighty from his attitude before, as if he was never angry in the first place.

While he certainly was a little pissed off, he was also rather glad that he was able to secure one of the greatest resources likely left behind by Arcaeon. Mediocre he may be in any number of aspects, but bargaining for household appliances and other items was one of his strong suits.

He could still remember the day he was banned from a farmers market in his youth, which had led him down the road of perfecting the art of bartering. He wouldn’t be suffering that humiliation again.

When Tim learned that he'd been had, his light gained a slightly red tinge and he began to float up and down vigorously.

“You cheapskate! You ruthless unscrupulous dirty human bastard!” Tim’s outburst left John in uproarious laughter. Beside him however, his daughter began to frown.

“Dad, I don’t get what’s going on but,” Luna looked from her chuckling father to the dimly lit orb fluttering about frantically beside them before saying, “that was really mean.”

John’s laughter ended abruptly and his smile froze on his face.

Within the last two hours, he had been able to compartmentalize his stressors of the apocalypse for survival, converse calmly with a sentient ball of light programmed before the beginning of time, and perform first-aid on a wound rare even across billions of universes.

But one look at his daughter’s disappointed face made him feel like all of his accomplishments were nothing.

Meanwhile, Tim began to excitedly hover about Luna, making circles around her again and again. “You get it, don’t you? Finally, a kindred spirit! He’s so cruel, all I want is to die!” When Luna heard that their guide was being bullied, so much so that he wanted to die, she became even more conflicted. When she looked to her father in askance, he felt his throat constrict.

“Luna, listen to me, it’s not as bad as he’s making it sound. Please, he’s a demon! He’s trying to trick you!” John sputtered the last words desperately, but could see conviction dwelling within his daughter’s eyes as she came to her own conclusions.

“I thought you said Mr. Tim wasn’t a demon.” Luna then crossed her arms across her chest with a defiant exhale of troubled breath.

Shit. He did say that, didn’t he. His gaze danced between the jubilant ‘Mr.’ Tim and his skeptical daughter. Maybe, he pondered ruefully, this rebellious phase was more troublesome than he thought.