Ben opened his eyes and found himself wafting in a cylindrical liquid chamber. It seemed like water but was much more vicious. He was naked and could not see the outside world clearly. He had a thin pipe passing down his throat, into his stomach. It went up towards the top of the chamber and came out to an open end. A few wires were clipped to his spine and all of them joined at the base of the cylinder. His skin had scales all over it and his eyes shone pink.

"Siren, he is up," Loan said and the man with black hair turned towards him. He still had a masquerade on his face.
"Let us meet Evelyn Benjamin, shall we?"

The blonde girl beside him walked by his side. They stepped on a huge hoverboard which took them to the last floor of the building. The security software recognised his eyes and let him in.

He walked towards the liquid chamber and looked at Ben. Ben looked into his eyes. He wanted to speak but he couldn't—Thanks to that pipe sailing down his throat.
"Hello Ben," He smiled, "You can call me X. This is my escort, Veronique"
The blonde girl, Veronique, looked into Ben's eyes.

"He's got pretty eyes," Veronique said.
"After we are done with him, you can take his eyes and add them to your assortment," X smiled at her and turned towards Loan, "Loan, pull out the nutrition cord, we need to talk to our guest,"

Loan pressed a button and the thin, plastic tube pulled out of his throat. Ben gaged and coughed. X touched the glass wall and looked at Ben, "Are you in pain?"

"What do you want from me?" Ben asked.
"I want you," X smiled, "As you know, Ben, our world has run out of energy resources. We don't have electricity or any fossil fuels, no water or nuclear power houses. The world is slowly coming to a halt,"

Ben looked at him and Veronique looked at Ben.

"Now imagine, what if someone suddenly gets substantial amount of all these resources? How much do you think would the royal government pay him and what leverage would he have over the entire world,"

Ben glared at him, "You are not that someone. No human can suddenly produce energy,"
He smirked, "You are right, no human can produce energy. Only a Kastrian can."

Ben was surprised he knew that name but he decided to keep his calm,
"What do you mean?"
"You hold an energy source at your core, don't you? That energy is transmitted to your brain and heart by your spinal cord, which you guys call soul thread. What we can do is insert metal clips throughout your soul thread and suck out the energy your core has been producing,"

Ben seemed shocked.
"...But...But I can't last you forever,"
"Of course you can't, we can use your energy for the time being to recover from the economic depression that you brought. As per for an enduring energy source, we will be using the time machine to leap into the universe and reach Kelgester.

You know that name, right? It's your planet afterall. Kelgester has a huge mountain called Luipi Monte, and it's valley, Gusterian holds a strong energy source called Gustus that keeps your planet alive. It gives you your elemental abilities. What I plan is to go there, get the Gustus here on Earth."

Ben looked at him,

"How do you know about Kelgester and all of this..." He whispered.
X smirked as his blue eyes shone through his masquerade, "I know many things I shouldn't, Ben,"

Ben was too aghast to say anything and was just processing everything in his head. Did someone else get hold of those volumes he prepared for Slaine? He specifically told him to burn those then why didn't he? He began panicking.

"No!" Ben shouted, "Kelgester needs that energy source. If you take it away, our children will die! They need time to absorb that energy within them, they can't breathe without it. You're gonna wipe off my species!"

X looked at Ben and smirked, "You nearly wiped out our species, do you still think we care? Your people will suffer because of your mistakes,"
Ben punched the glass, "YOU MONSTER!"

X walked out of the laboratory with Veronique and Loan. That morning, they welcomed Prince Coelestin of Switzerland, who travelled all the way to New York to meet X.

"Greetings, your highness," X shook hands with the fifteen year old and sat in front of him at a small, round black dinner table. Veronique sat beside him. The room was dark, lit up by candlelight and X had his masquerade on his face.

"I have exactly two hours with me. I guess that's all the time you need to explain me why I am here, Mr X," Coelestin said.
"Certainly, yours excellency. You see, I have a plan that could save your receding kingdom," He pressed a wine glass before him. Coelestin sat with his legs crossed over the other, "I would love to hear what you have to say,"

Loan poured the drink for them,
"I have my hands over a great resource that can provide energy to the entire world for the next fifty years," X said. Veronique looked at him and then at the prince.

"That's quite a bold claim,"
"It is also true, your majesty," He looked into the young prince's eyes with smile, "Have you heard of the time machine?"

"Yes, I have. However, I have never seen it,"
"Yes, that is because we cannot move it in the sky from place to place without any energy. It needs a lot of energy to function, enough to light an entire town," X said.
"So, I suppose we can't use it anytime soon,"

"Not if you try it alone. However," The blinds behind X opened and the time machine could be seen as a huge platform floating in the air, among the clouds, that's how high into the skyscarpers they were, "With me, you can see how truly amazing time can be,"

Coelestin looked at the time machine, "Can you run it?"
"Of course I can,"
Loan pressed certain buttons on the time machine and pulled a lever. Ben felt electricity running throughout his body, as if his blood was on fire. They were using his energy to start that huge machine. And it worked, the machine did start but they didn't know how to operate it. Loan pressed a red, blinking button and it sent signals to the other half of the time machine, parked in Libia, which was used last by Valorie and was set up in the same time.

It lightened up and threw a beam of light on the desert, onto the trucks that were carrying Lucifer and the other in them. All the trucks and the camels disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a lonely desert.

The time machine in New York got signals from it and started glowing blue. X turned towards the prince, "Yours Excellency,"

Coelestin got up and went towards it. They all got on it and it took them in the past, when X-DROIDs were not born yet. They didn't travel any parallel world, they they shifted back in the same timeline.

As they travelled through the time tunnel, Coelestin looked at memories of his childhood reflected on those rainbow walls. They were fast, extremely fast. He could hear voice of the engine of the time machine, grinding the tracks of the time tunnel with it's huge iron wheels, crushing every other parallel universe they could land into because its destination was fixed.

Slowly, the interiors of the machine lit blue and all of them began glowing golden. All the windows of the time machine lit up white. Suddenly, the floor beneath them disappeared and they fell. It was a long tunnel, with all of their memories on the walls.

They reached a mirror and passed through it. A bright yellow light covered them and they landed on the ground with a loud noise as if lightening fell in with them. They got up and looked around, it was a dark, wet and stinky.

"Where are we?" Coelestin asked.
"Twenty first century, four hundred years in the past," X walked towards the busy footpath.
"Why are we here? Ugh, it stinks!" Coelestin complained as he covered his nose with his sleeve.

"This is where everything started,"

-To be continued

Prince Coelestin
5500 Rebellion