The Time Capsule

Chapter 9: Gold in Battle

Chapter 9: Gold in Battle 

The chemistry room was Jillian's favorite place to be, infinitely small particles were mixed and brewed into infinitely larger equations and the simmering liquids that could turn explosive at any moment if they weren't tended to carefully with a watchful eye. It created a sense of urgency, a need to get all the answers and exact measurements right. If there was so much of a creak of a disturbance, Jillian would lose her train of thought, which was extremely dangerous for someone in her field. 

She poured the blue liquid from one beaker into a huge bowl, about to move it to boil for a few minutes when a cup nearby shattered and she gave a short scream as glass shattered to the floor. A flutter of brown feathers sounded nearby as a huge seet of brown wings closed themselves and Nightwing perched herself right on the edge of a desk next to a Bunsen burner, her wings dangerously close to the fire, but she didn't seem to care. She was glaring at Jillian and holding the box from before. 

"You can't just break into my chemistry lab!" Jillian burst out as she dropped the beaker she was holding, spilling the liquid on the floor. "It's the dead of night, there's security cameras everywhere! This is very sensitive equipment!" 

"Is that the best you've got?" Nightwing rolled her eyes as she ran a brush through her tangled hair. "Besides, it's not *your* lab. The school lets you use it. I'm almost...disappointed. In fact, I am. Very disappointed. Because of what you and Levi have done. What you never told me. This box, it was here all along? Your efforts were for nothing?" 

"They weren't for nothing, if you'd give me a chance!" Jillian snapped, fishing around in her lab coat until she finally yanked out a golden key with six sides to fit the lock of the box. "We got the key. We just didn't know the box was here. Morgan failed to mention that part." 

"He failed because he didn't know what was inside," Nightwing turned the box over in her hands and it glowed a mysterious blue color. "Give me the key, now." 

Jillian hesitated, but sighed after a second and closed her eyes as she reluctantly handed the key she had worked so hard to get for her former boss. Nightwing's eyes lit up as she felt the gold metal tracing the hexagonal shaped end until she finally inserted it into the lock of the top of the box. It churned and clinked hundreds of times and then stopped for a brief moment of silence, as if feeling a thousand years relief. 

"All those years...it was here all along," Nightwing breathed a sigh of wonder, her hands trembling as she slowly opened the lid. "I wonder...if it could have been what James Sparrow was so keen to protect. 

What she saw made her gasp in surprise. Once the dust and blue gleams died down, it wan't empty like Jillian expected it would be. Instead, ancient and dusty objects sat at the bottom, undisturbed since they had been placed in at random, most likely in a hurry. Nightwing suspected it was from a distorted placement. If they had time, the objects would have been treated with great care. Jillian reached out a hand to touch one, but Nightwing slapped it away. 

"Best not," she ordered as she reached in, a blue electric field bouncing her hand back. "This magic is powerful, even for me." 

Her gloved hand curled around an ancient and dusty scroll, which was in danger of falling apart as she held it. She slowly unrolled it to see it was filled with ruins lost to time. Nightwing pulled off her crown to translate them, but even the translation magic didn't work on this, whatever it was. Nightwing shakily placed it on the table. 

"What *are* these?" Jillian finally asked, breaking the silence. "They're so old...I would almost say-" 

"Since the dawn of time," Nightwing nodded. 

She pulled out a rusting sand dollar necklace with a pink, glowing gem trapped inside, a beautiful, multicolored dream catcher that couldn't decide if it wanted to be purple or blue, or even pink if the light caught the right way. Jillian noticed Nightwing's eyes were also glowing, but it was a deep orange. Her hands were gripping the swirls as if a message was being transmitted through it.

"Nightwing?" Jillian crept closer. "Nightwing? Are you alright? What's happening?" 

"The knight who didn't come for war," Nightwing sounded possessed, her throat scratchy, her words not her own. "The siren who didn't come to drown, the girl with the magic box and the woman with the catcher of dreams." 

"The knight, the siren, the girl and the woman?" Jillian asked. "What does that mean? Who are these people?" 

She snapped her fingers in front of Nightwing's face, trying to wake her up, and finally Nightwing moved her hands from the box and looked up, confused. She held her head with wide eyes. 

"Jillian, what happened?" she asked. "You didn't touch the box, did you?" 

"No, of course not," Jillian replied quickly. "But you said something strange...a knight, a sire, a girl and a woman. As if they own these objects, but that's impossible, right. Right?" 

Nightwing looked at the objects and then at Jillian, her golden eyes dark as she decided what to do. Her hands soon glowed with the same orange and yellow swirls that Levi's hands had in the forest. The items slowly levitated off the table but the box stayed still. They twisted and floated in the air, Nightwing looking of them very carefully.

"Do you know what these items are for, Jillian?" Nightwing asked. "They hold the universe together. I was only an apprentice when these were made. These items bind space time, the very fabric of reality. They all had to be placed at different sanctions around the universe...and around time. Otherwise, it would collapse. They aren't safe here with the unum tenebris infestation. Something else is coming if they stay here. And this would spell disaster for the town." 

"If they stay...Nightwing, don't you dare, we have everything we need right now, don' throw it all away like last time!" Jillian almost screamed in her face. 

But Nightwing sighed, closing her eyes as she moved her hands in complex patterns that Jillian couldn't even attempt to master, the items disappearing behind blue clouds until they all vanished with a snap of her fingers. Jillian looked shocked, frozen still. 

"What the hell did you do that for!?" Jillian burst out, storming over to her. "Angelica needs that box, this is the bloody sanctum it was made for!" 

"No," Nightwing said. "I've been observing her progress. She's not ready. Perhaps she never will be. But I have hope; you didn't see the way she fought in the forest. She's a warrior." 

She waved her hand before Jillian could reach out to grab the box, which glowed one more time, almost mockingly, as it, too, vanished. Jillian looked at Nightwing, at a loss for words as her former master lowered her head. Seething in anger, panting and clenching her teeth, Jillian gave a scream as she hurled a beaker to the wall, breaking it in a shatter of glass. Their quest, the blood, sweat and tears. The trial and captures of Morgan that Jillian had suffered, the disowning of apprenticeship. Nightwing had just thrown it all away, as if it meant nothing. She shoved past Nightwing on her way out, slamming the door behind her, not caring if this creature ever got caught again.

.....