A week had passed and finally some news about what's going to happen to me broke out.

Aderyn was with me like usual, educating me on the ways of the supernatural, the history of it, and so on and so forth, when Xavier strolled into the room.

I stared ahead as he entered the room; Aderyn looked behind her shoulder to face him, since of course his entrance was accompanied by the sound of the door opening, which caught her attention.

"I've got great news," he told me as he halted next to her. "We are going to resume your surgery."

Aderyn gasped with glee. "When?"

He faced her. "In a few minutes; we want to get this underway as soon as possible." He looked back up at me. "Don't fret, don't worry, you'll not feel a thing." He waved his hand across in front of him. "We're gonna start prepping immediately." He then turned around on his heels and sauntered out of the room.

Aderyn gazed up at me with a smile. "You're gonna get your other half back now!"

It's about time, I thought to myself. "Good," was all I said.

Then there was awkward silence in the room.

"It was good knowing about you..." She nodded her head a bit.

"What's gonna happen to me after this though?" I asked. "I'm a year behind."

"Well, I guess you could go back to Russia," she suggested with a shrugged. "Whatever you're up to after."

"But...am I gonna get my memory back after this?" I knitted my eyebrows with concern.

"Um..." She snapped her eyes down to the ground. "Yeah." She landed her eyes back on me. "You are."

Suddenly, Xavier busted back into the room, this time with three people dressed in white scrubs and masks following him. He walked over to the right side of me and pressed a button that was apparently on the side of the slate that was holding me up.

The slate began lowering itself gradually, pulling me down with it as well. The slate stopped moving when I was parallel to the ground, like as if I was laying on a table. I gazed in front of me, spotting the faces of the people in masks and scrubs hovering over my vision.
I then felt thin, smooth tabs being placed on my temples, chest, and arms. I had a hint of trepidation, afraid of what was going to happen next. What if the surgery doesn't go well? What if I wake up in the middle of it? What if nothing gets done? What if I miss another year or more? What if I don't make it? What if I never wake up? Well, that'll be the same thing as not making it, but still.

"Calm down, Soldatov, you'll be good in no time," Xavier told me in a placid tone while he hovered over my sight. He backed away from my vision, letting me see the ceiling and white, shining lights.

Suddenly after hearing a high-pitched, whirring sound, everything went dark: pitch black with no thoughts.

«««««»»»»»

Aderyn's POV

I couldn't tear my eyes away from him.

Such a beauty even though he has no bottom half.

I had my hands stuffed underneath my taupe-coloured hair, which had a brown hue to it. I had a feeling that the surgery was going to have an unexpected outcome, but I shoved that sensation with my own thoughts: Oh dear Lord, please let this surgery go well...I don't want him gone, no, no, no...

I followed the wires that were connected to the tabs that were stuck on Alek's body with my eyes, seeing where they were connected to. Tucked in a corner that was behind him was a machine, one that I did recognize, but did not know its purpose.

Yes, I have been around many types of machines for most of my life since they were all over Xavier's home, but I couldn't keep track of which machine does what: Does it measures the power flow? Check if one has powers? Knock one out? Make one time travel? Remove powers? Find those with powers that are on the face of the earth?

I then spotted the Forskares, the people dressed in scrubs and masks, exiting the room. That just left Alek, Xavier, and me in the room.

"Where're they going?" I questioned Xavier as I walked up to him; I had a confused look on my face.

"They did their job, Aderyn," he informed me with a small frown and raised eyebrows.

"But--" I extended my hand toward the 'sleeping' Russian. "--Alek still looks the same."

"You thought I was going to resume the surgery? After all the difficulties we went through and the results of the Machine Of The World being destroyed?" He had a grave expression on his face.

"Wh-what do you mean? The Machine Of The World was destroyed a year ago, I thought we were able to cope with the results!" I stared at him with wide, puzzled eyes.

"The events are just going to worsen, Aderyn," Xavier remarked sternly. "Don't you remember from what you have been seeing lately? You gotta listen to the signs you're getting, not ignore them. Take advantage of what your powers are giving you."

I turned my face away from my caretaker with furrowed eyebrows and a frown.

It is true, I had been receiving visions of Lanston and the world drowning in destruction with specials being swept up into the arms of death. I hate those images though, they hurt; I don't want what I'm envisioning to happen and what I envision is what's going to happen in the near future. "Project Fading," I muttered under my breath, repeating the two words I that would keep repeating in my vision. The odd thing was that the voice that says those two words is a voice I recognized, but I couldn't put my finger on who the voice belongs to.

I gazed back up at Xavier. "So if Alek doesn't go through this surgery, then what I'm seeing won't happen?"

"Not necessarily: we can't avoid the event since it's not our doing, it's another person's doing from what you told me, right?"

I nodded my head slowly.

"So, with the direction we're gonna take with this, it'll bump our chances of surviving the event...and maybe even obtaining victory over it."

"What are we gonna do to him though?" I crossed my arms. "If there's no surgery, then what?"

Xavier raised his eyebrows with a small smile. "Time travel." He then began strolling toward the machine that was connected to Alek.

"Time travel?" Filled with curiosity, I followed my guardian over to the machine. "We're gonna send him back in time?" I halted by the foot of the slate Alek was laying on.

"Yes." He had his back faced toward me since he was doing some things with the machine. "We're gonna give him and HEROES another chance to defeat McCoy and not destroy that machine." He straightened up and gazed at me with his hands clasped behind his back. "Fortunately, when Soldatov goes back a year, he will recognize that time is repeating, just like a déjà vu, except the 'déjà vu' would last much, much longer."

"But what if the Machine of the World gets destroyed again? Will Alek know not to destroy it?"

"That's the one thought from the future that's going to travel with him back to the past: to not destory nor open the Machine of the World. With that, he'll avoid making the selfsame errors that brought him back here." Xavier shot me a smirk as he placed his hand on a button that was located on the right-hand top corner of the machine. "Any other questions..., Aderyn?"

"Will we remember this? Will we time travel back as well? Will we remember what's happening right now?" The questions I thought of actually freaked me out; just the thought of what I'm experiencing right now would be erased any second and I wouldn't even know it gave me the creeps.

"No." He shook his head slowly. "No one here will know about the time travel. Not even Alek, he'll think of it as a déjà vu with the thought of not destroying nor opening the Machine of the World." He paused for a moment. "Now are you all free from any other questions?"

I nodded my head slowly, casting my sight to the right side. "Yeah." My eyes then landed back on Alek's body. I hope to see you again, I began thinking, like as if I was talking to him. It was good knowing about you...I hope to see you again in the past. That sounds funny. But see you soon. I love you...good-bye. I then gazed at Xavier. "I'm ready...ready to time travel."

Xavier gave me one, firm nod and slammed his hand against the button.