Thoughts of the Past, Dreams of the Future

Eden

"Ready for take-off, m'lady?" He asks. She smirks.

"I was born ready." She fastens her seatbelt.

Five...

"Leaving anything behind?" She hesitates.

Four...

"No. Are you?"

Three...

"Nothing."

Two...

"What'd you reckon we'll find, wherever it is we're going?"

One...

"Salvation, I would hope." He laughs.

Liftoff!

They fly for a long time, it would seem, a year entire. Yet they will soon learn - a year is nothing, not in comparison to eternity.

He and She land at their destination. A goldilocks planet, somewhere in a solar system on the other side of a wormhole, just past Saturn. A planet that has a twin, orbiting it alongside its two moons, and a young star, one that won't explode quite as soon as their own. They disembark from their ship.

"I know this place..." She says, confused.

"I know where you're coming from, it seems very similar to Earth. Eerily similar, actually." He looks around himself, apprehensive.

"No, that's not what I meant," She shakes her head violently. "I've been here before. I remember this place, somehow."

"That's impossible, m'lady."

"I know, I know. It's weird though, like the strongest case of deja vu you've ever seen." She chuckles nervously.

"Hello there, children." A voice she recognises says, causing the two to jump of surprise. "I apologise for startling you, We simply weren't expecting you here yet." The voice repeats, identifying itself as a Figure that walks out from behind a tree. She recognises the Figure, as though a friend from preschool, vaguely similar, vaguely familiar, vaguely present. As though she always knew the Figure, as though the Figure knew her too.

"What do you mean, yet? Were you watching us? Who are you?" He starts getting more and more alarmed. The Figure calmly stirs some sugar into a mug that they didn't seem to be holding before. She knew the Figure would do that before they did it. She knows them.

"Relax child, We weren't watching you." The Figure speaks calmly. "Or rather, We always were. But so were You. We and You are connected, intertwined. Forever bound together." A cat brushes its tail against the Figure.

"How do I know this place? And you?" She asks. The Figure smiles.

"Your soul remembers Us. Lovely to know." The Figure takes a sip of their tea. "You used to live here, you know, before you lived on Gaia, your current planet. You all did." The Figure looks at Him, really looks. It seems as though one look from them can see through you entirely, see all your past, see your future, see your bones, your emotions, your thoughts. "You do not remember," They say. "Yet. You are not yet ready to remember. You still hold You close to your soul. You cannot let them go, can you?" He is paralysed by fear. He does not feel safe here. "You must return, if thus is so. You and Her. Go back, see what has become, and return, for to Us, one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day." The Figure walks away. She turns to Him.

"Are you ok?" Concern fills her eyes.

"I'm fine." He hesitates. "We should return, though. This was supposed to be a scout mission, and we have enough data to relate back to central." She nods, apprehensive to leave a place that feels so much like home, but willing to do anything for Him. They return back as they came.

They land on rocks. Rocks everywhere, for thousands of kilometres. They return to poisonous waters, melted glaciers, burning trees, and unimaginable heat.

"I don't understand." He says, tears rolling down his face. "We were supposed to *save* them, not abandon them. How did this even happen? It's all wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong..." She hugs him tightly. She knows why this happened. How this happened. One day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The world ended. And they missed it.

"Let's go, Adam." She says. "We have to go back there."

"What is that place, Eve? What is there about it that terrifies me, and compells you? Why, if our souls are of the same fabric?"

"I don't know, love. I don't know a lot of things. But I do know what it has the potential to become, for you and me."

"And what is that, m'lady?"

"Eden."