This one is gonna be told through storytelling bc yes, you'll find out what the AU is about as you read :)

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[Sabre's POV]

Holding up the enchanted sundial in my room, sitting on my bed, I stare at the tick for what I've been both dreading and waiting so very, very long for. In five days, it'll happen. Usually, I'm very excited for this strange yet joyful event, but this time I'm not the only inhabitant of this world. It's going to happen, just as it always had, but how will I explain it to everyone else? Am I able to hide it somehow? No, that's stupid, it's an interuniversal portal. There's no hiding it from anyone, it opens where it wants.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts by someone, presumably Time, knocking at my door. I quickly slide the sundial back under my bed and try to act natural.

"Sabre, are you okay?" Time asks through the door. "You don't usually stay in your room this long."

"Yeah, I'm good." I answer. "You can come in, if you want."

Time opens the door and looks at me, as I stand next to my desk. Meanwhile, I'm panicking. Does he suspect anything? Is the sundial glowing? If it's glowing, of course it had to be now. Did I remember to cover it with the sheet after I slid it back under my bed? Did I slide it too far and Time sees it? Can Time tell I'm panicking?

"...You good?" Time says. 

He probably can tell something's off, he's good at that. Unlike everyone else, who just overlooks it if they think something's off about me. That's probably why I became a terrible liar while I was here.

"Yep, yep I'm good." I say, giving a thumbs-up. "Everything's A-OK here."

Time gives me that look. The one that's like, "You suck at lying, you just made me think something's off even more". Crap.

"Alright, what is it?" Time says, crossing his arms.

"Uhh... what's what?" I ask.

"What's bothering you? I can tell something is clearly off about you."

Silence. I'm trying to decide if I should just jump out the window or something. Then, Time points to his left.

"Also, I can see the glowing thing under your bed."

"Alright, alright, fine." I say, throwing my hands up. "Ya got me."

Time walks closer to me while I pull the sundial back out from under the bed. Yep, it's glowing, of course it had to be now. As I sit back down on the bed with it in my hands, Time sits down with me, a look of awe showing through the mask.

"A sundial...?" He says.

"You can probably tell it's not any old sundial, either." I say.

"Well duh, it's glowing and has the standard galactic alphabet written all over it." Time says.

"You know what that is?" I ask, surprised at his knowledge of one of the many languages I use.

"One, it's an ancient language in this world, not really known by anyone currently alive. I don't know it myself, actually, I just know what it looks like." Time says. "Two, it's the standard galactic alphabet."

"Oh, yeah, that make sense." I say.

"So, what does it do?" Time asks me, hovering his hand over the sundial.

I instinctively clasp my hands further around it and bring it a little closer to myself. Time seems confused, but I explain.

"Sorry, I do trust you and all that, it's just... I've never actually let anyone touch it, because it's really, really important to me. I kinda did that on reflex."

"Oh, that's okay." Time says. "I can understand."

Thank goodness, he didn't take that the wrong way. I slowly lessen my grip on the sundial, and bring it back out from myself so Time can see it.

"Again, what's it do?" Time asks. "It's clearly enchanted in some way."

"Bingo, you guessed it." I say. "It is enchanted. Instead of using the sunlight to tell the time, it's set to be on a countdown."

"A countdown?" Time says.

"Don't worry, it's nothing bad." I say.

I look at the four sections of the sundial. Should I... can he keep my secret?

"What is the countdown for?" Time asks, visibly wondering how this thing works.

"Well... I'm gonna sound crazy." I say.

"Sabre, you have been to the World Below and fought literal demons, reset a timeline, and met Origin." Time says, looking at me. "If it's crazier than any of that, I'll be more surprised than anything else."

"Okay, okay."

I point at the sections on the sundial, hoping he takes this well.

"The sundial is on a countdown for 1,000 years. Each section represents 250 years, and a quarter of the countdown. With each quarter, a gem on the bottom of the sundial lights up, indicating that the countdown is coming closer to its end. I dunno why there's numbers written in standard galactic alphabet, I think it's just because it's a sundial."

Time looks at me, visibly confused. Pointing at me, he sounds like he's trying to make sense of this.

"1,000 years? How do you know that's how it works... How do you know it's that long? I mean, you're not even that old. You look like you're only, what, 25?" He says.

Welp. Here comes a verbal bomb to drop... and probably a little yelling as fallout.

"Uhhh... ha haaaa... about that..." I say.

"No way." Time says, shocked.

"Uh... yep." I say.

"Dude, how old actually ARE you?" Time asks.

"You won't believe me." I answer, preparing myself.

"Tell me, or I will check myself."

"...I'm 54,726 years old."

Silence. Time has an expression that looks like he just got slapped in the face. I'm starting to wonder if I broke him.

"BISH WHAT?!" Time says, finally saying something. "You're- HUH???"

"Told you." I say.

"That shouldn't even be realistically possible!"

"I know, but... well, I'm still here, what's life gonna do about it?"

Time places his face into his palm, and sighs.

"Okay, okay... I'll just move on from that for now."

Time looks back at me.

"So, what happens when the countdown ends?"

"Well, in order for it to make sense, I'd have to tell you how all this happened... and it's a long story." I say.

"We have all day." Time says.

"Okay..." I say. "A really long time ago, I had 2 friends, who will live as long as I will. We were close, and their names were Lucas and Ryan. We would do all sorts of things together, heck, we fought dragons for fun. Anyway, we would live our lives doing whatever we wanted in an empty world only we lived in. But, one day, something attacked us and we were separated, and I woke up in a new world with only the sundial. I didn't have it before then, so I looked at it and saw it was enchanted. Then, someone appeared in front of me, and said;

'Never shall three join into one from this point in time onward, forever separated into different worlds. Only when the thousand-year solstice arrives, will the rift open and allow an exception.'

And then he disappeared. I didn't know what that meant, and lived alone in an empty world. However, 1,000 years after, the sundial hit the last tick it had. That midnight, a portal opened where I had left the sundial, and Lucas and Ryan were able to come through. We were happy, for a while. The rift lasted a week, then it closed, and Lucas and Ryan were ripped from the world I was in. After that, the same thing kept happening every thousand years. Until now, I've been in empty worlds. I don't know what I'm going to do when it happens here."

Time stays quiet for a while, taking it all in. Then, he places his hand on my shoulder.

"...I'm so sorry that happened to you. How much longer do you have before the rift opens?"

"Five days." I answer. "On the midnight of the fifth day, the rift will open. I...I don't know what I'm going to do, everyone is going to notice a huge interuniversal rift..."

Suddenly we hear a familiar voice behind us, who definitely wasn't invited inside.

"Well, isn't this interesting!"

Time and I turn around, and Professor Red is standing in the doorway, once again with an eccentric grin. I freeze in place as soon as I see him. How much did he hear?!

"How did you get in our house?!" Time says, raising his voice.

"Simple. I opened the door." The Professor says. "Now, what about thousand-year interuniversal rifts?"

"How much of that did you hear?!" I yell, panicking. Only Time was supposed to hear that!

"Oh, since you said what the sundial did." The Professor answers. "Which, holy cow, you're old (Heh, I finally got to say that to someone else for once)."

"Listen here, you eavesdropping little-" Time starts to say, but is cut off.

"Ooh, you are clearly angry, I'm just gonna gooo..." the Professor says, starting to leave.

"Wait, you-" I start, but the Professor interrupts with something I never wanted to hear.

"Aaand tell M." The Professor finishes, grinning.

I spring up from sitting in the bed and turn to the Professor, running.

"DON'T YOU FRICKEN DARE!" I yell.

"PROFESSOR!" Time joins in, also giving chase.

The Professor runs, down the stairs and out the door, us following behind him. We chase him around for a while in the area near our house, then he teleports. I'm panicking, because I really didn't want anyone else to know. Time knows this, and grabs my shoulder.

"Oh no, he is not doing this." He says. "Brace yourself, we're following him."

I do so, and I feel the lightning surround us as we're teleported into the lab.

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We had been chasing the Professor in his lab for a while. Up the stairs, down the stairs, through various halls, past test chambers, and it starts over again. All the while, the Professor is laughing like a little kid that knows something they shouldn't. Which, he does, and I don't want him telling anyone. Just as Time catches Professor Red by the back of his lab coat, M walks in confused.

"What on earth is happening here?" M asks, gesturing to the three of us.

"This guy broke into our house and eavesdropped on us!" Time says, holding up the Professor, who is still grinning.

"Sabre's been keeping secrets!" The Professor says, pointing at me.

"You shut up!" I say, very ticked off.

"Professor, are you serious right now?!" M yells, "Whatever they were talking about is none of your business, and you broke into their house?!"

M facepalms, then seems to notice something.

"Sabre, why do you have a sundial? And... why is it glowing?" He asks.

I look at my hand, and sure enough, I still have the sundial. I must've held onto it without realizing.

"Ha! Now you have to tell him!" The Professor says.

"Shut up." I growl.

"Tell me what?" M asks.

"What the Professor eavesdropped on..." Time says, facepalming and putting the Professor back down.

M looks at me, and I know that I do, in fact, have to tell him now. M takes us to another room, and I tell him everything. Once I'm done, M looks at me with both awe and sympathy.

"So... you have five days before an interuniversal rift opens, and your friends can go through, and it only opens every thousand years?" He says.

"Yeah, and I don't know what to do." I say. "I didn't want anyone else knowing, because... well, it's a rift to two other universes. I'm pretty sure everyone would freak out a little."

"I mean... yes, they would, but..." M says. "Maybe you could tell the other Leaders-"

"No! No." I panic. "I... I don't..."

"Hey, it's okay." M says. "I'm sure they'll understand, you don't need to worry about that. Besides, in five days, that rift is going to open whether they like it or not. We're gonna have to do something about it." He shrugs.

I think about it. I've kept this secret for so long, and I trust everyone and all, but do I really want to do this? What if they react badly? What if they think the rift and everything is bad? I look to Time, and he's looking at me as well. He gives me a small smile and nods, as if he's saying 'It's going to be okay'. I remember that from when all that drama with the Darkness happened, and... I know. I look back to M.

"...Okay." I say. "I'll tell them."

"Alright then." M says. "Next time we have a meeting, which is tomorrow, I'll bring you with me and we'll tell them. It'll go perfectly fine, I know it will."

"Thank you." I say.

"It's no problem, buddy." M says.

Suddenly the Professor pops his head into the room.

"Hey, you think when the other two of your species come in, I could-"

"If you say anything about experimenting on them, I swear I will slap you." I say. That gets a few laughs from everyone else.

Y'know... maybe this won't turn out so bad.