Michael's+Second+LInk

Michael Costa Period 7/8

Laurella, still in shock, looked back at the entity that was formerly Talon as if she was trying to check that she hadn’t just imagined it; if something like that could be imagined. Petunia was starting to grow impatient by the delay, “Come with us Laurella, we’ll be taking you to the lab now. It would be wise not to resist.” Petunia said in a serious voice that sounded strange with the natural cheerfulness of the fairy’s voice.

Laurella nodded numbly and followed the fairies along a path off the main road that the three had entered the Crystal Forest on. The three walked for almost a half an hour along the path before Laurella started to regain consciousness of her surroundings. Hesitatingly in contrast with her usual boldness Laurella asked “You weren’t serious about using a virus to turn elves into those monsters right?”

Petunia sighed and responded while keeping their walking pace along the path “I suppose there is little point in denying it at this point.”

“I suppose, even if you could somehow escape from the two of us, you would only encounter a fate much worse. Undoubtedly, you would become lost in the Crystal Forest and you would suffer a slow death of starvation.” Begonia stated in agreement to Petunia’s previous statement.

“Humans are a very valuable commodity in our experiments as their body structure is much more resilient than an elf’s. We will be testing the new prototype virus strain on you before administering it to the elves.” Petunia alternated with Begonia. “But, how can you do such things to the elves?” Laurella asked in shock.

“Laurella, to answer that question, ask yourself this, do you apologize to the ants that you step on?” Petunia responded.

After a brief moment of silence Petunia sighed “I see then, I thought you of all people would have understood our sentiments. It matters not. Your fate remains the same; anyways, we have just about arrived at the lab.”

Laurella had been so concerned with the events that had just transpired that day that she had only just then realized that her surroundings had changed. What was once an endless sea of green grass dotted with the occasional flower on both sides of the path was replaced with large feats of architecture that were betrayed by their fairy design. The central building, by far the largest, was their destination as they entered through the large double doors.

After going through several rooms with monsters in them, the three entered a room in the laboratory. Laurella immediately noticed an older appearing fairy dressed in a white lab coat sitting in the back of the room staring into a microscope. Despite his old-looking appearance, the fairy heard the three enter the room and he slowly looked up from his work and turned around on his chair. Petunia addressed the fairy as Dr. Andonuts and reported in that they had brought the human girl, Laurella, with them. Andonut’s countenance only expressed a slight tinge of surprise upon hearing this fact and directed the two with a hand pointing in a direction “Good work Petunia and Begonia, please bring Miss Laurella to room A-076. I will come by later once I finish my work.”

The two fairies saluted and brought Laurella out of the room and through the corridors until reaching a room with several empty cages. Begonia instructed her to get into the cage and told her that Dr. Andonuts would soon visit her to begin the experiment. After making sure everything was in order, the fairies left Laurella alone in the room. After approximately 15 minutes of waiting, Laurella heard the door open. Dr. Andonuts walked in and picked up a notebook on the desk in a corner of the room and began writing things in it. After a minute or two of writing, the fairy looked up, “So you’re Laurella then? I’m Doctor Andonuts, pleased to meet you!” the old fairy said offering his hand through the bars of the cage with a slight grin.

Laurella shook the hand with distrust and just stared at Dr. Andonuts. After a moment of silence, Laurella asked “Why are you doing this?”

Dr. Andonuts laughed “Just because I’ll be experimenting on you doesn’t mean we can’t get to know each other! So, Laurella— “ While the fairy was speaking, an explosion was heard in the distance and a loud blaring siren announced a breach in security. With an unusual composure, Dr. Andonuts said partially to himself and to Laurella “Yes, those two you were with earlier must have been followed, there’s no other explanation for this assault on the lab.” Several seconds later, Laurella heard more sounds of explosions around her and Dr. Andonuts took out a key and opened the door to the cage. The doctor shouted over the noises “If you’d like to survive this, follow me.”

With no other option, Laurella followed the doctor while running to catch up to him. In a panting breath Laurella asked “Why’d you do that? You could have just left me there.”

Slightly distracted by the escape but still wishing to answer her question, Dr. Andonuts replied “I really never wanted to do this. It’s only because the Fairy King threatened to kill me if I refused to build him an unstoppable army. But you see if I don’t make it out of the lab they’ll just assume I’m dead.”

The two arrived at a strange room with several mechanical devices displayed. Dr. Andonuts stopped in front of a cylindrical shaped device and introduced it “This is the Phase Distorter 2; it is an invention I developed that combines both human technology and fairy magic. It allows one to traverse space and time. We’re going to use it to travel back in time and stop any of this from ever happening.”

“But won’t that cause a time-travel paradox?” Laurella asked.

“Balderdash! The space-time continuum won’t break down from something like this!” the doctor laughed.

The two entered the Phase Distorter 2 through a hatch and Dr. Andonuts operated a panel on a wall. After inputting the information, the mechanisms of the Phase Distorter 2 came to life but just as they reached their zenith, a large crashing noise was heard and the walls of the machine clanged violently. Dr. Andonuts observed the scene quietly, making notes in the back of his head for when he would build the Phase Distorter 3. After half a minute the walls stabilized and the machine droned as it powered down.

With some effort, Dr. Andonuts opened the hatch of the Phase Distorter 2 and exited the machine. Approving of his machine’s success, Dr. Andonuts shouted to Laurella “Come on! You need to stop yourself of the past from ever entering the forest!” Laurella hurried after Dr. Andonuts and followed him outside of the Enchanted Forest near the purple mist. The two had arrived at the time at which Laurella had first met Begonia and Petunia just after Gregory had left to get permission from his parents. Upon seeing her time-travel copy, the Laurella of the past asked in a burst of energy and curiosity “Ooooh, do you come from the Enchanted Forest too? Would you like to be my friend? You know, we look very similar.”

The time-travel Laurella responded “Listen, I’ve come from the future to warn you not to go with those two fairies you just met. They’re trying to trick you!”

Before the Laurella of the past had a chance to process this new information, the space-time entity intervened. The space-time entity existed to ensure a paradox-free universe. Dr. Andonuts had long predicted that a mechanism existed to regulate space-time but he never guessed that an entity controlled it. To the entity, Laurella was a problem as she was indirectly stopping herself from ever time-travelling and thus creating a paradox of an origin-less time traveler.

Usually the entity would have simply made it so that the cause of the paradox never existed. However, the situation made it so that removing Laurella meant creating more paradoxes which was undesirable from the entity’s perspective. The space-time entity, rather than make a large amount of changes, came up with a new scenario. It was far from perfect but the space-time entity was pleased with the result. This was the scenario it came up with:

Laurella always was an adventurous young girl. She often went on adventures with her friend Gregory as part of Club Sunshine. However, there was one problem with Laurella that no one could ever explain. Whenever Laurella journeyed with Gregory to the Enchanted Pond, a strong voice in her head would tell her to go back. Over time, Laurella became scared of this voice and dared not go near the Enchanted Pond. As Laurella grew up, she forgot about it and lived a normal life.

The space-time entity was pleased with this scenario and decided to let it be. However, as the space-time entity was concerned with Laurella, it forgot to wipe Gregory’s memory. Gregory, remembering the purple mist, entered the Enchanted Forest on his own volition. He eventually stumbled upon the laboratory and was captured by the fairies. The laboratory was never attacked and Gregory was experimented on until he became a monstrous beast like the elves before him. However, his body and mind were unexpectedly strong and he was experimented on until the fairies had obtained an ultimate weapon.

The space-time entity at this point became aware of its mistake but it decided intervention wasn’t necessary as the situation did not create any paradoxes. The fairies with their increased military might crushed all opposition in the Enchanted Forest. Dr. Andonuts continued to perform experiments against his own will. Some time later the fairy government judged the elf experiments as unnecessary and unethical and put an end to them. Dr. Andonuts spent the remainder of his life trying to make amends for what he did. The entity that was formerly Gregory however, escaped from the lab and it is said that even to this day it is still trying to find Laurella.