Boog tensed and raised his fists, ready for a fight. Ivory held her axe at the ready, her eyes narrowed and her jaw set. Aragol already had Dragon's End gripped at his side. To his left he saw Elmar putting aside his search for buttons and gripping a staff in two hands, his eyes set on the figure before them. There was more to him that he let off, Aragol noticed, and made sure to remember.

The dark and shadowy figure descended slowly, its eyes of white light turning to each person in turn, studying them intently. It said nothing and made no threatening motions. It could be a danger but it could also be their only way back to their respective homes therefore all everyone did was watch. Celestia hid behind one of Boog's tree trunk-like legs, her eyes wide with fear.

The figure finally set foot on land and eyed them all as they stood before it.

"You can put away your weapons," the shadowy figure said in a voice that consisted of all tones and pitches at once. "They are useless against me anyhow. I urge you to listen."

"Who are you?" Aragol asked, his grip on Dragon's End still firm.

The black face turned his way, the eyes of white light staring right through him. "I am the nether, the void, the emptiness of space, the blackness of night and I am nothing. I have brought you all here for a reason of utmost importance." The figure set its gaze on everyone else. "I have traveled the multiverses and I have noticed a corruption, a sickness, spreading throughout them all. If it is not remedied they will all be swallowed into the void and existence itself will cease. I need you to stop it."

Victoria took a step back, her head shaking wildly, causing her black hair to flip about everywhere. "This sounds way over my head, man. Seriously. This is like some super hero movie or something. I'm no hero. Can you just get me home? Seriously?"

The clouds of smoke swirling around the shadowy form receded and the figure materialized into a middle-aged man wearing a heavy black cloak. His face was shrouded within the deep hood but his defined, square jaw was noticeable and his thin lips were straight. In a deep and clear voice he said, "You all have a task to fulfill. You are here because I personally sought you out and there is no one else I deem capable of completing this task before you."

Boog crossed his huge arms over his chest and frowned at the cloaked man. "You mean to tell us that you want us to beat this sickness? Are you goddamned insane? Not everyone here is a fighter! I sure as hell am and no doubt the strongest one here but Victoria has no skills and Celestia is just a teenager with the mind of a child. She could be handicapped for all I know. You want someone like that saving the universe?"

The man raised a hand and with a flick of one finger tossed Boog to the side. He didn't fall but stumbled away a short distance, shocked and angry at being handled so unceremoniously. Celestia was now in full view and trembled, her body frozen in utter fear. The cloaked man snapped his fingers and tossed something toward her. A cloud of bright sparkling light flew through the air and cascaded over Celestia's head. She shook it and whimpered. After a few moments she patted her hands across her body, searching for injuries, and appeared to find none. She looked about, setting her eyes on everyone gathered around the cloaked figure.

"My head hurts," she said, placing a hand on her forehead. "but otherwise I feel fine. I...I don't know why I acted so childish. And I know I'm not the strongest one here by far and probably the youngest but...I didn't mean to act so foolishly. I'm...I'm really not handicapped or anything..."

"What did you do?" asked Boog defensively, his hands curling into fists.

"I cleared her mind," the cloaked man replied. "These mushrooms release a mind-altering spore that can affect certain people more than others. It is what caused Aragol to attack Ivory and because of Celestia's second nature it affected her more so than anyone else."

"Second nature?" Elmar asked, deeply interested.

"Yes. It is not my place to tell you and it is not important. Karmen has a second nature as well, of a different kind, but you may discuss this another time. You need to listen to what I have to tell you. There is a limited amount of time."

Everyone's gazes fell on Celestia and Karmen for a few moments and silent judgement and speculation was made before everyone's attention returned to the cloaked man.

"This darkness is not a phenomenon caused by nature," the man went on. "It is a being, an entity if you will. It consumes all existence and will not stop until every form of life is devoured. It alters reality and time and can consume some universes faster than others. The life forms on these universes will notice nothing. Their reality will transform around them into something completely unlike what it once was but their minds will transform as well, adjusting to the new reality and believing it to be real. They never realize what danger they are in until it is too late and the entity has consumed them completely."

"So if we can't notice this entity, how are we supposed to defeat it?" asked Karmen ponderously. She had been too preoccupied reflecting on the words the man has spoken to take any notice of the stares people tossed her way. Even now she did not notice them, her mind focused on making sense of what the cloaked man was saying.

"You will notice it," he replied, the deep hood aimed her way. "The entity comes from somewhere and I have brought you there. This world is where the darkness was created, where it was born. In this world you may find examples of other timelines and locations but these are the anchors I have secured to keep the entity locked to this world. Without them it could find a new origin and settle in an entirely different dimension, making it all that more difficult to stop it. The anchors will not hold forever and the entity must be stopped before they are released."

"If you can anchor it in place why not go ahead and fight the damn thing yourself?" Boog growled. "Why have us risk our lives to stop it? What makes us so special?"

"I am the emptiness of space, Charles. I am the very thing the entity wishes to become. I cannot stop it if I tried. I can only slow it down. The universes need life. They need the greatest natural creation to survive. Without life there are just stars and planets floating in the cosmos."

"We are insignificant in the grand scheme of things," Karmen interjected. "What is a young woman to a supernova? What is a whimpering child to a cloud of cosmic dust? Life could be erased and nature would go on unerringly. Why risk our lives when the universe will simply continue to do what it has done for billions of years?"

"Some things are too complex for a human mind to grasp, young Karmen Ramsey. Nature has a purpose for everything and even the smallest insect holds a place in the great river of time. Your lives are more important than you could ever imagine. I can explain it all to you in great detail but none of you, not even you Karmen, would understand what I say and you would grow old and die before I finished, at least some of you." The hood turned to Boog and Elmar knowingly. "Elmar may be the only one to grasp the purpose of life, if he were greater."

"Elmar?" most of the group asked simultaneously in expressions of disbelief.

The skinny man with brown hair stood straighter, his staph at his side. "We all hold secrets... I am no exception."

Aragol waited for Elmar to continue but he never did. He turned to the cloaked man. "What would you have us do?"

The hooded face stared at the silver-haired man. "The entity knows I keep it in place and knows the location of the anchors. It is attempting to destroy them and find an origin elsewhere. It cannot hide from me but space holds much emptiness and I have many universes to search. It may take me several millennia before I discover the entity's location again.

"I need you nine to journey to each anchor and destroy the corruption that has fallen over them. Once all the anchors are secure you will undoubtedly attract the entity's attention, and wrath, and it will come for you. By then your strengths should be realized and you will need to use all the experience you have gained to stop it. It will be weakened by the renewed and strengthened anchors but it will still pose a great threat. I will do all I can to aid you but if I attack the entity head on I risk becoming it myself. Once that happens there is nothing capable of stopping me thus I will be unable to aid you in that final conflict."

"How do we kill this entity?" Ivory asked, the first words she had spoken since arriving at the clearing. Her eyes were set and her back was straight. She looked ready to do battle with the universe itself if she had to.

The cloaked man waited before speaking. "There is no way to kill it."

"Then what the goddamn hell did you drag us here for?" Boog screamed in anger. "You just said you need us to kill this thing and now you tell us it can't be killed? Explain yourself or I'm about to fill the emptiness of space with my fist!"

"How do you combat emptiness? How do you defeat death and chaos? How do you overcome nonexistence?"

"You give it life," Casandra replied. Her mind had been working hard during the entire conversation and she was beginning to get a clearer picture of their purpose. "You fill what is empty. You revive the dead. You piece together chaos to birth order. You make nonexistence exist."

The cloaked man turned his black hood to Casandra and she thought she saw a smile on his lips, if only for a moment. He turned to the others once more. "You have your task. You know what you must do."

"How do we find the anchors?" Aragol asked. "Do you have a map?"

The man walked forward toward Aragol and put a finger to his forehead. A moment passed, a bright light flashed, and then he stepped away. "It is in your mind now, Aragol Silversheen. You only need to think of your purpose and you will be guided to the nearest anchor."

"What do we have to do to fix the anchors?" Graham asked in a small voice. He had remained quiet through the whole ordeal but had finally worked up the courage to speak. "L-Like Boog said, not all of us are fighters."

"Your combat ability will not be needed for all the challenges you will face," the cloaked man said. "Violence is not always the best solution. You must work together to overcome the obstacles set before you. Only together will you succeed. Only together do the universes have a hope of surviving."

"Yeah, no pressure, eh?" Victoria said, waving her arms in an exaggerated fashion. "Like for Christ's sake, you want us to just walk up to these fuckin' anchor things and give them some pills for their sickness or something? Seriously. Can you be any more cryptic? Why do all these wise old people never just say anything like it's supposed to be instead of making a damn riddle all the time? Only together will you succeed. Give me a break. You sound like my elementary school gym teacher trying to get us to play floor hockey. This whole thing is just Amanda. I swear..." She walked off, mumbling to herself while chewing on a nail with great intensity.

"She's right," Celestia said. "This sounds like too much for us. I can't even skate! As a matter of fact that's what brought me here! I fell through the ice and when I woke up I was here."

"You said you were reading a book and fell asleep," Karmen reminded with narrowed eyes, always judging, always studying.

"I also said Aragol was my husband! My mind was not my own. I was somewhere else. The fact of the matter is that we can't possibly hope to do this. Maybe Boog, Elmar, Ivory or Aragol or even you, Karmen, stand a chance but not me or Victoria. We have no skills that can help." She set her eyes on the cloaked figure. "You made a mistake bringing us here."

"I did not," was all he replied with.

"Like hell you didn't!" Victoria cried, returning to the scene, her eyes wide and massive and her hair disheveled. "Ok, so I can ride a quad and I'm half decent at hockey and I can make a tent faster than anyone else in my family and all of my friends but unless those three categories are in some contest that will help us save the universe I don't fucking think I have a reason to be here!! Just send me home! Please!"

"I cannot do that, Victoria White."

She tugged on her hair and groaned. "Oh my god! Why do you have to be so goddamn creepy?! How do you even know all of our names? Is anyone else freaked out by that? Do you fucking watch us take a shit too? So I guess you know I had the runs two weeks ago? How was that? You liked watching that, eh? Bet you had a great fucking time!"

"Victoria," Aragol said gently. "Calm yourself, please. It does seem overwhelming but it is not impossible."

She pointed at Aragol and shook her head rapidly. "No! You're not going to have some pleasant little pep talk with me like you did with Graham. I am not going to fall for that! And what do you mean, it's not impossible? We're fighting emptiness for crying out loud!" She swung her fist in the air. "There! I just punched emptiness in the face! I helped! Now let me go home!"

Aragol walked up to her but she kept backing away. He didn't increase his pace and spoke to her in a calm and quiet voice. Eventually she stopped backing away and broke down, tears streaming down her face and rough sobs rocking her body. Aragol wrapped his arms around her and rested her face against his shoulder, hoping the coldness of his breastplate didn't upset her further. "I am confused and overwhelmed as well, Victoria. Just a few hours ago I was battling up a beach against a powerful enemy and fighting spellcasters, something I had never done before, but I succeeded. My men and I took the beach and claimed victory. The enemy had immense power at its disposal but it was defeated anyway. This is somewhat different but very similar as well. You are not alone in this. We will work together to get this done so we can all go back home."

Victoria pulled away and sniffed loudly before wiping her nose, which had begun to run. She looked miserable but Aragol found her beautiful all the same. "Yeah, but *sniff* Aragol, you have a sword and can fight and all that. I don't have any of that. How *sniff* am I supposed to compete with that?"

"We are a team, Victoria. We do not compete with each other. We complement one another. You may not have a sword but you have something else that will be of great use to us."

Victoria made a little laugh. "Yeah, like what? I can cry pretty well, I guess. Oh, maybe we can fill a bucket full of my fucking tears and fill up this void thing."

"You don't need to be jesting about this. The one who sent us here did so because he had a reason to. Your purpose may not be as evident as the rest of us but you do have a purpose. You have a reason to be here. Don't you want to find out what that is?"

Victoria sniffed away the last of her tears and looked at her feet. She shrugged. "I don't know...I guess..." She looked up and set her dark eyes on Aragol's copper ones. She asked in almost a whisper, "You really think I can help?"

Aragol kept his gaze fixed when he nodded. "I do."

Victoria gulped and blinked her eyes, chasing away any other tears threatening to drip out of them. She took a deep breath to calm herself and nodded slightly. "Ok..." She followed Aragol back to the group and noticed that Celestia had been nearby and had overhead everything. She gave her a small smile and Celestia returned it.

The cloaked man waited until the group was complete once more before saying, "Do not doubt your place here. I have studied you closely and I know that I have chosen wisely. I am confident that you will complete this task. You are the strongest team I have ever put together and I have great faith in you all."

"There were more?" Graham asked, suddenly wondering what had happened to them.

The man nodded. "There were, thousands of millennia ago, when the entity had threatened the multiverses before. As I've said, it cannot be killed but can be defeated. This group of unlikely saviors had defeated the entity at great cost but had fulfilled their purpose. You may catch glimpses of their presence here on this world. Their mark is still evident upon the entity."

"So, even if we succeed, this thing will come back?" Karmen asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Eventually, it will, yes. You will all be dead by then, however. It will fall into the hands of another group to defeat it."

"I say we kill it for good this time," Boog said, slamming a fist into an open palm.

"I agree," Ivory said with a wicked grin.

Dark smoke began to emerge from the cloaked man and his figure gradually darkened once more until all that could be seen were the eyes of white light. The multi-toned voice had returned as well. "I cannot stay any longer. Remember your task. Do not doubt your abilities. Do not fall victim to the entity's lies when you meet it. It will have allies of its own that will seek to stop you. Be ready for them. Be ready for anything. I have faith in all of you." The shadowy figure began to fade and moments later there was nothing left of it. It had vanished into the void.

The nine men and women exchanged glances, wordlessly looking for confidence and hope from one another.

They were only marginally successful.