The image above was made using Episode, the Limelight collection
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Rosalinda Violetta knew of the consequences of time travel when she was taken away from her foster home at the age of 8, forced into the academy where she learnt of their role and purpose in the universe. Rose was a lonely time agent from a planet not named Earth which had the orange hued sky and purple seas. She was a professional at getting away from scary aliens who tried to conquer vulnerable planets that denied the notion of the existence of extraterrestrials; the human race was categorized under this group of ignorant beings. Rosalinda, being a time agent who was 1126 years old, did not need to be reminded of the dangers of paradoxes and changes in a fixed point of time.
However, it would seem, due to the idiocy of her new companion, she was currently facing an aberration which was a major disturbance in the space time continuum. Although the blond man tried to keep it discreet and quiet, a time agent’s nose wasn’t something one could fool easily.
Her nose twitched in discomfort as air filled her lungs, yet she could feel something big, something troublesome and chaotic punch her right in the stomach; but of course, this wasn’t physical. Her eyes snapped open, rage overflowing her sapphires as she spun to face her human companion. And there he was, standing by her ship’s console, looking innocent as ever; but she knew better than to trust a man with dirty blond hair.
“What have you done?” her voice was strict and firm, much like her stance as she readied herself to pounce on him. She watched as he flinched in panic, strawberry once in his fingers now abandoned on the tray. “Gregory Harold Smith” she taunted, knowing that his full name had a jaw breaking effect on him.
He instantly moved away from her, towards the console with a strained smile that was just screaming at her to lunge.
“W-Who? Me? W-Why would you imply something like that?” his nervous stutters masked with his filthy American accent made her want to punch him and his perfect teeth. Her left eye twitched, matching the erratic tapping of her finger against the counter. He gulped, feeling rather tense about the whole ordeal. “Well, I, um, sort of, met someone”
Rose didn’t have to ask any further, for she knew what he had done to threaten the balance of the universe. After he uttered that pathetic excuse of a sentence, she flung a screwdriver at his face. Fortunately for him, he was gifted with quick reflexes. Rose rushed to the console, shoving him off the controls and began setting their destination. “When and where, Greg?”
He got up to his feet, still startled by her attack. “U-Um, 1942, some place in the Southeast” as she processed his words, she felt herself stiffen in shock. 1942? And a Southeastern country? Her eyes widened as her historical facts reminded her how special that day had been. “Um, Malaya-or something?”
She was going to shove his head on a pike.
“Let me get this straight” she paused at the controls, anger still flowing through her system, “you went and messed up the timeline in 1942?” he coughed, reminding her that he was a blond idiot from the states who had no idea how much trouble he had caused her and the entire universe to face. “Who did you punch this time?”
He narrowed his eyes at her, clearly offended with her accusation. “I didn’t put anyone in the hospital, I can assure you of that!” she sent him a threatening glare, refreshing him of his memory of how that didn’t change the fact that he was still the one at fault. “I met someone, and I brought her there, is all!” Rose gave him her infamous Violette slap to the face, kicking him into an unconscious state. His slumped form was now on the tiles of her time ship as she busied herself to look for the coordinates he had set when he messed up the timelines.
Gregory Smith was a stupid human who was extremely jeopardy-friendly. He would just somehow mess up and bring in more danger than she asked for. Rose wasn’t adventurous, in fact, she just did this to ensure the universe stayed in balance. She was one of those responsible Time Agents who knew better than to mess with time. She righted the wrong choices made at fixed points in time, and annihilated any threat to the balance of the universe. Although Greg was indeed extremely annoying at times, when she first met him, she knew that he would suffice as her companion. He was like a rare diamond, something so exquisite that even she couldn’t hold back a gasp when he smiled. He just needed a little cutting, is all. He was a good man, and that was enough.
When Greg was pulled away from his slumber, he first took note of how comfortable his position had been although on the floor. He sniffed, quite miffed to feel the scent of lavender fill his respiratory organs. His eyelids parted, making him aware of the dim lighting. He wasn’t on the tiled floor of Rose’s time machine anymore. Instead, he was under his velvet covers, in his bedroom. He stifled a yawn, sitting up when he winced at the sudden stinging on his left cheek. The last thing he remembered was… oh, right, Rose had given him a real smack to the face.
Getting himself ready, he left his bedroom and entered the console room, only to find Rose changing into a coat that made her look like she was in a dress, when actually she had a pair of cargo pants underneath. Greg usually insisted her wear a dress, or a skirt, or something that made her look feminine. Yet, the latter would merely say that they usually would need to run away from aliens, and such, thus a dress would slow her down. “You’re going undercover?”
She strapped her blaster on her thigh before hiding it along with her skin with the flap of her coat. “Correction; we are going undercover. You need to identify the poor girl, get dressed” Greg gave her a firm nod, moving across the console and towards the closet. Rose’s time machine had a mind of its own, like it was a living thing itself. It could drive itself whenever Rose was injured or busy. The closet was another special thing, he opened it to find a navy blue coat that looked to be suitable for the 1900s. Wherever and whenever the time machine landed, it would provide clothing that was suitable for them to wear to blend in with the crowd. As he dressed, Rose looked over at her reflection. “What was her name?”
He shrugged. “Interesting name, actually, a Malay girl in her 20s. Her name was Ayesha, I met her at the university when we were chasing after the Slitheen. She was just so interested in history, and that she just wanted to know what happened, what really happened back then, you know? Her passion in her country’s history, it was something I really just, I couldn’t just ignore it, Rose, and when we had a time machine! I just had to show her” his pleading eyes searched hers for sympathy and understanding, but she had turned her back on him too quickly.
“It doesn’t matter, we need to bring her back to her original time, and that’s in 2041” she picked up her pace, heading towards the door. “Come along, Gregory!”
The two exited the time machine which made itself camouflage with its surroundings to avoid attracting unwanted attention from some stupid apes. Greg adjusted his fedora, comfortable with the fact that they were in the capital city instead of the local villages. Since they were westerners, they could blend in well with the others as they strolled through the town, looking for the girl he had dropped here. “Since she’s a malay, she wouldn’t be working in the town. She would be in the villages, somewhere”
“Yeah, I know” he replied, following her as they crossed the street. She raised a hand, hailing a taxi that would bring them to the nearest village where the girl would reside. “How are you so sure that she’s there? She could be anywhere”
His designated driver smirked haughtily at him before pushing him into the vehicle. She followed after him and closed the door, telling the driver their destination. “It hasn’t been that long, really, just a few months, right?” he nodded, confirming her statement, “Think about it this way, I get that she would go exploring, but she doesn’t really know her way around because this is the past. Plus, she’d want to see the attack front and center. The Japanese are already here, Greg. She’s gone into the villages for hiding, but she still wants to be near to see it actually happening”
Greg whistled lowly, cocking his head to the side in interest as he listened to her explain human psychology, why they would rather this rather than that and such. Her ramblings faded into silence as he stared off in wonder as they passed by the greenery. So much beauty in the earth’s soil, the grass, the scent of nature was just so strong. It was so unbelievable how much had just after a few decades of industry and modernization. He had been to Malaysia, once, with a few friends to see the breathtakingly humongous Petronas Twin Towers. As the car whizzed through the trees, he saw several villagers doing their daily work. Although some looked content with their life, he couldn’t deny that some of those smiles had been faked for the sake of their children. His eyes saddened.
“No need to feel such sympathy for ‘em” Rose told him, patting his shoulder gently. His head turned to her, an eyebrow raised in a questioning glance. “They’ll be free, soon. Independence gained in 1957, happy and free from the Brits. You’ve seen ‘em, haven’t you?” Indeed he had, he’d seen the three races living happily as one, united together as one, and they were happy.
The car came to a halt, and it hadn’t been as smooth as Greg thought it would have been. When his forehead met the driver’s headrest, Rose reminded that cars still had decades to install an Anti-lock Braking System of any sort. She didn’t have any currency that was from 1900s Malaya, but the driver seemed to suffice with the gold coin she gave him. They exited the cab and turned their heads, looking at their surroundings. They were in Johor, a state located in the southern portion of Peninsular Malaysia. They were in one of the villages near Stulang Laut.
However, the moment they stepped out of the car, they’ve already gotten several eyes on them. The villagers didn’t seem all too happy with them around, perhaps they thought that Greg and Rose were tax collectors. He adjusted his fedora again, feeling rather self conscious about how many people were staring at him. The brunette next to him rolled her eyes at how shy he was, she just swerved left and walked towards a local who flinched. “Excuse me, I’m Rosalinda and this is my assistant, Greg” she pulled out a piece of card which he recognized as psychic paper. Another trick about being a time traveler was that they had access to all sorts of technology.
Psychic paper was just a blank piece of card that showed whatever the holder wanted it to say. For example, currently, Rose was using to say that she was a detective. It showed whatever was necessary to make it look legitimate.
The local blinked at her identification. “Oh, has there been an incident?” and the reason as to why the Malay man was suddenly speaking English was that it was translated. Rose’s time ship goes into the travelers’ minds, making them hear English when it was actually a different language. The same went for when Rose and Greg spoke English, the locals would hear it as their own language instead of English.
“Yes, well, we heard a few complaints from the village folk. We headed down here to see if there was any problems” Rose nudged her assistant to take out a notepad to start writing down any detail that was significant. He complied, knowing that it was just a play to make it look like they were professionals. The facade they had on was just necessary for them to blend in.
The local looked rather dumbfounded first, but then later on he nodded, finally understanding what they meant. “Ah, you must be talking about those squirrels that keep showing up, attacking any villager on sight!” Rose blinked once, no, twice, at the man’s face before nodding and telling Greg to keep the notepad. They had no time for a squirrel calamity. As they tried to leave, the man suddenly grabbed Greg’s elbow, still spooked. His eyes seemed almost maddening to the point that Greg was but a millisecond away from yelping in fright. “Those squirrels are evil, I tell you, evil!”
Rose yanked her companion away from the local before giving him thanks. They rushed off, deciding that talking to locals that way wasn’t the best idea. Instead, she asked him if he could draw a picture of her so that the villagers could point out her location. “Why not just use a phone? I’ve got a picture of her”
She glared at him. “Have you forgotten that we are in the 1900s? Camera phones have yet to be invented! We could risk a paradox, and we’ve already gotten an aberration! Who knows what this girl has done to change the timelines!” Greg simply nodded, mentally scolding himself for angering her once more. His stupidity was truly trying to get himself killed. Pulling out his notepad again, he started to sketch her face. Greg was a talented artist, and sketching realistically with detail wasn’t new to him. As he busied himself, silently copying down Ayesha’s features on the notepad, Rose was keeping a lookout. They were standing between two houses, barely in the shadows when her eyes widened in panic. She pushed them back further into the shadows.
“W-Wha–” she slapped a hand onto his mouth before he could make another noise that would blow their cover. Glancing over, his expression was laced in fear. Passing by the houses were the Japanese soldiers on their bicycles, cycling towards the island of Singapore. The battle was approaching, and so was the death. His face paled, remembering as to how many people died that day at Bukit Chandu. Their stern faces showed no fear, and definitely no remorse for the souls that they were about to take away. As they whizzed past the alleyway, the two relaxed only slightly, knowing that the danger was still real and alive. “We have to get to Ayesha before she changes everything. I’m sure she won’t be able to resist the temptation to warn them of the attack”
“Ah, those patriots will definitely do something to change the course of history” she clicked her tongue in annoyance. It wasn’t that she hated people who had overflowing love for their country, it was just troublesome when it came to time travel. They’d just rush everything they could, mess with the past and hope for a better future. But it wasn’t better, it was different. Every small change in the past would cause a major catastrophe in the future. Rose was the only time agent around who could fix these catastrophes, if not, there would be no universe.
“There!” Rose slapped a palm on his lips once more, but followed his index finger which had stuck out to point at a girl rushing past several local passersby. The girl looked like a local, but her red bangs told her a different story. Dressed in traditional clothing and a pair of slippers, her feet side stepped and she almost slipped. It was apparent to both of them that she was running away. Before the question of whom came about, two men in similar clothing as Greg’s chased after her.
“Come on!” Rose took hold of his hand and quickly exited the small alley to chase after them as well. The locals gave curious glances as they went through the crowd with ease. As they bolted through the village, she watched as Ayesha dove under a table and rose up with proficiency, swiftly getting away from the two men who were hot on her tail. The two men slowed down slightly, running around the stall instead; revealing to her that they lacked a physical prowess. Rose and Greg effortlessly leaped over the table and chased after the girl.
“Ayesha!” he called after her. Her pace faltered slightly when she peered over her shoulder to look behind her. And there he was, that blond man with a familiar face, the same man who brought her here. The girl skidded to a halt, feeling rather exhausted once she stopped her sprint. Feeling her cheeks flushed, she panted as she tried to gather oxygen back into her lungs.
The two time travelers finally caught up with her, feeling worn-out themselves. “W-We need to talk” Greg choked out, hands on his knees as he found his breath. Rose recovered quickly, turning around to see the two men who were chasing after Ayesha. She pushed the younger girl behind her and held her ground as they reached them.
“Who are you?” The man spoke with a heavy British accent. “Unhand her this instant!”
The woman raised a brow in amusement. “And why should I do that, sir? What could this young lady possibly have done to anger such distinguished gentlemen such as you two?”
Glaring furiously at Ayesha who stood rather awkwardly behind Rose, the other man replied with a finger pointed at her, “This girl was found in the office, snooping around important and classified documents! We have every right to arrest her for breaking and entering!”
“Good job, sir!” Rose clapped her hands, apparently complimenting them for their brilliant chase. She offered them a remarkable grin, digging her pocket for psychic paper. She flashed it forward to their dumbfounded faces. “I am Rose Violetta, sent by your supervisors to view as to how you employees would react in such a crisis!”
He blinked, still perplexed at the situation they were currently involved in. “So, you’re saying that this is a test?”
Nodding in confirmation, she grinned again. “Indeed, sir! This was an examination to observe how quick officials could react to a threat to the British Empire! And may I just say, you two passed this examination with flying colors!”
At this, the two men shared expressions of happiness and joy.
Suddenly, the older man’s face became sour, still not satisfied with the bit of information the time traveler had made up. “But, you’re a woman!”
Rose then gave him a slap, eyes cold as she revealed how hostile she could be to sexist men such as he. “Indeed, I am! And so is the Queen! You’ve a problem with that, sir?”
Shaking his head, he stuttered out an apology before rushing away with his partner. As the two vanished from her sight, Ayesha and Greg shared a few words.
“What are you doing here?” Ayesha demanded, eyes wide in alarm. “I’m not leaving, Greg!” she told him bravely. She still had so much to do, so much to discover and so much to learn from this time. She needed to write it all down and bring it to the future. Her mother would be proud of her, it was like she was a true historian!
“Don’t you see what you’re doing, Ayesha? You’re changing history! If you continue to do this, the future’s gonna change! What happens if you change it to the point Malaya doesn’t become Malaysia?” Greg needed her to see what she was doing was wrong, and that she needed to stop before everything changed. He didn’t want her to be killed like all the others who tried to change history. He knew what happened to those who tried to mess with time and ruin the timelines, if she didn’t stop, Rose would step in.
“What do you mean I’m changing everything? I haven’t done anything wrong here!” As soon as she said that, a huge explosion was heard from nearby, startling them and the locals. Screams of anguish filled the streets, dark smoke rose to the air, airplanes roamed the skies as the earth rumbled, warning those who lived on the surface of the impending danger that was approaching. “W-What? Why? It’s too soon! They shouldn’t have attacked yet, there was supposed to be more time!”
As the girl denied the accusation of her wrongdoings, Rose pushed them back the moment she caught sight of the soldiers and their long rifles. Their merciless eyes screamed at her to run. “No time! We need to move!” the three ran from the bombings, the horror and the blood, the wrath of war.
Ayesha choked on a sob as she heard several shrieks and cries for help. She turned her head to Rose. “We need to help them!”
Her glare almost froze her on the spot if not for the rage of war deafening in their ears. “NO! You have done enough! Because of your visit here, the Japanese are now attacking Johor AND Singapore! If we intervene once more, who knows what might happen!” she yelled at her when another explosion was heard. They continued to dash to the time ship, which had luckily positioned itself in a safe area to avoid the drop of any bombs. Greg rushed into the ship, not worrying about the two other ladies who were outside. “What are you waiting for? Get in!”
Ayesha’s bottom lip quivered as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “I just…” she sniffed as she got emotionally attached to the land again, “I just wanted to help… I didn’t want to cause so much trouble” Rose heaved a sigh, rolling her eyes at the girl as she continued to feel guilty, “I’ve always wanted to serve my country in a special way, you know? Those years of feeling so useless behind my desk, I didn’t think it was enough! I just wanted to help, don’t you know how it feels to feel so useless? And that when you get an opportunity to help, you just gotta trust your gut and go for it?”
The older woman felt defeated by this young girl’s words, knowing that she’s just human. Humanity was just something that no other species in existence had, something so beautiful and powerful. “Yeah, I do” she gave a short reply, “but we can’t do anything about it, we gotta go and live with it. The change may not be major, but doesn’t change the fact that it’ll still be there. Just… be prepared”
Ayesha looked torn between relieved and terrified, but she nodded nevertheless. As she entered the ship, she paused at the doorway and called out to Rose. “What if we never get it?”
“Get what?” Rose asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Independence, you know. Freedom from the British Empire, what if… 1957, it doesn’t happen?” her voice laced in fear as she shook slightly at the possibility of another few decades of being under the rule of the Brits. “What if I messed up big time?” the horror on her face was just so real, that it made Rose almost sympathize with her, but it didn’t, of course.
Sighing, she crossed her arms as she watched the locals run for their lives. “I’m immortal, you know” she said, a melancholic smile playing on her lips. “I can’t ever die, and there was a time when I really wanted to,” she then gestured to them, “then I see this lot, living, surviving, on nothing! Look at them, running for their lives, because they know that their lives are short and drifting away. They don’t have much time, and yet here they are, breathing. And that’s just, fantastic!” their eyes met, sharing an understanding. “If they don’t get it in ‘57, they’ll just get it in a another few years! Who knows, may take a decade, maybe two, but hey, they’re humans; and if there’s one thing I know about you lot,” she chuckled in amusement, “it’s that you never really give up”
THE END
TBC?