15: BEYOND

Jett took several weeks to recover, but he came around eventually. His struggle with Tarus had left him without the powers he had once held, including the ones that bound him to a different time. The rift was gone, as well. It seemed that its essence had disappeared. Perhaps it was for the best, anyway. Time travel had proved to be too much of a burden.

Nerzca underwent a massive repair operation. Many areas of the city had been destroyed, and almost the entire city population volunteered to help in some way or another.

A short almost-three-days later, and it was time for Jett and crew to return home…

“So, I guess this is it, huh?” Rachel looked down at the floor.

“Yeah. After this, there won’t be any coming back.” Trent sighed. “I suppose it’s better that way, though.”

Amy smiled. “It’s been fun, though. This has definitely been a trip for me. I’ve learned more here in a few days than I have my entire life!”

Dodge grinned. “You got to time travel, too. Not too many people can say that.”

Blade laughed. “And I got to do some actual fighting with my axe.”

Rachel looked down at his bandaged leg. “Yeah, and you almost got yourself killed, too.”

“Hey, I’m still here, right?”

Rachel just smiled and shook her head.

Jett looked down. His body had begun to glow. Looking over at Blade’s and Amy’s he could see their bodies shining as well. “Looks like it’s time to be going, then.”

Rachel waved. “Bye! We’ll never forget you!”

“You guys take care of yourselves, you hear?” Trent said.

“I never really was good with words,” said Dodge, “so I’ll just say, ‘see ya’.”

Jett, Blade, and Amy all waved. Jett could feel a warmth overtake his body. He suddenly felt weightless, and the scenery around him turned to white. After about a minute of the float-like sensation, he felt gravity overtake him, and crashed once again back into the real world.

The dig team had abandoned the site after more reports of the strange ghost-sightings. No one knew what they were, but they decided that they didn’t want to stick around to find out. The dig was called off and declared a failure, its records being classified and hidden away.

John Alberts was given a nice funeral. His body was never found. It was assumed that he had been lost in a cave-in at the dig.

Amy Ferris made several impressive scientific discoveries after the dig. When asked what her inspiration was, she just smiled and said, “A little bird told me.”

Blade Soren kept up his weapons training and eventually left the archeology field to join that of law enforcement. He quickly rose in the ranks and was given several honors for his accomplishments in the field.

Jett remained an archeologist for the rest of his life. In a book he later wrote, he said, “Digging up the past is always an exciting and invigorating experience. What we learn from these ancient civilizations is priceless. We learn their social structure, their means of entertainment, their art. But what’s most important is learning from their mistakes. Their downfalls. We can’t bring these people back. We can’t change the past. But we can learn from what they did and vow never to repeat those mistakes. We can always change the future.”