Darkness. Pure Darkness. Something few people ever see. Even absence of light cannot compare to the utter darkness in front of Jake's eyes. He had been dead now for about 3 weeks. He wished tat this wasn't the case as the coffin was cramped and he was rather annoyed to discover the church had lied to him all these years – There wasn't an afterlife. No heaven, no hell, just complete darkness. He was tired of not living. His soul had drifted aimlessly amongst the gravestones for sometime, waiting for Jake's Conscience to make its mind up about what to do. Jake had decided. He opened his eyes. An impressive feat seeing as they had dissolved into liquid some days previously, but, nonetheless there in front of him was the coffin lid. He took a breath. Fetid and dead. The air was stale. No oxygen. Nothing at all for that matter. He tried to move but found himself bound to the coffin floor.

Shifting what was left of his body around he tried to move and break the bonds, but felt weak, lacking in energy. He gave up, closed his eyes, and slept. [Remember me?]
He woke with a start, screaming through a ripped throat. He sat up suddenly, breaking the weak [Weak?] bonds. His head greeted the solid oak top with a nasty squelching noise. He passed out.
[You can't run from me]
"Vikki!" He awoke with a start, feeling life flood through his body like lava. Feeling that name enter his thoughts was stunning. He HAD to get out of here! Realising the bonds were broken, [Broken?] he bunched his fist and punched upwards. His hand met rotten wood and split the lid clean in two. "How long have I been in here?" he shouted. Earth fell in to the coffin, silencing his confusion.

The graveyard was empty. Not just of people but of anything. A cold morning mist hung over the pallid scene, chilling the stranger to the bone. He stood, motionless, waiting for something. He saw it.

Jake forced his hand through the sodden earth above him. His fingers felt the clean air and he was filled with a sense of relief as he pulled himself out of the cold grave.

The stranger glanced at Jake and imperceptibly nodded to himself before turning and sprinting across the graveyard, almost as if the hounds of hell were on his case. Jake took a breath. The chilled air hit his ragged lungs with the force of blowtorch, and he fell to his knees gasping and ploughed into the dirt face first. The air was fresh, too fresh perhaps. [What are you doing?] He shakily stood, feeling groggily around, trying to grasp for some kind of sane thought, emotion anything. Confusion, betrayal and loss all floated across his mind. He groped trying to keep one of them down, looking for some reason for not staying dead [Vikki needs you]. "Why can't I rest in peace?" Jake sobbed. "Why am I alive again? What have I done to deserve this?" He shambled around, looking for some answers. "You seek answers, correct?" The sudden arrival of this voice took Jake by surprise. "Who said that?" Jake blurted, twisting his head this way and that. "A friend. I can't reveal who I am yet I'm afraid, but I can help you." "How can you help me? You don't even know about me!" Jake screamed, and started backing away from the source of the voice. "I know more than you will ever know. There are parts of you locked away deep inside your psyche." "For good reason most probably." "Jake was getting panicky now [LISTEN! Vikki NEEDS you] "You need to unlock them to be able to answer the questions you ask." Jake stood his ground. "Answer me this, fiend. Why am I alive again? Why wasn't I allowed to rest in peace?" "Your services are needed, my friend." "Don't call me "Friend". I'm not your friend and I never will be." Jake hastily turned once more, sensing movement to his left. The sight of more desolate landscape greeted him. "You see this destruction? This barren wasteland that was once the neighbourhood you grew up in? This is what the world is now. You think you've been dead for three weeks, correct? It's more like three centuries." "Then Why in God's name am I here?" Jake sat cross-legged on the floor resigned to the fact that he couldn't do anything to change his current situation. "As I have said, your services are needed" Jake deliriously shouted "But WHY?" "The earth has changed a considerable amount since you left this mortal coil. In the beginning of the second millennium, the entire planet fell into a Third World War. "Times had changed. The UN couldn't hold together the fragmented peace between the USA and the Middle East. Oil prices rose along with tempers. Then, one day, a man arose from the confusion with a plan of succession. This war lead to a depletion of the planets entire nuclear weapons stocks. Ironically enough, none of the missiles hit their targets as, some years earlier; a new propulsion system was designed to be able to increase the power of the nuclear missiles.

"The system broke the light barrier, the first propulsion system to ever achieve this feat. The downside was that it meant the rockets flew into space before realigning and diving down onto the planet with enough force to cause craters bigger than that in Mexico" Jake blanched at this thought. "This thought upsets your delicate digestive system? You'll be happy to know that none of these missiles reached their target. The amount of debris in orbit around our planet had a horrible tendency of knocking the missiles off target. They'd fall through the atmosphere at such an angle that they would literally burn up. A shaky peace system was decided and it stood the test of time." Jake stood. "If you wouldn't be offended, I would like to rest a while before continuing." The voice sounded slightly shocked. "Oh, of course! Feel Free." Jake lay on the floor and slept and dreamed… [He was Cold. But it was a cold that no amount of heat could warm. He felt like a block of ice personified. Laughter filtered through the ice. "Oh Jake you silly Billy! How could you let this happen?" More laughter, tinkling akin to crystals reached his ears. "Vikki? Is that you?" Jake was confused, he needed to get to Vikki. Something bad was going to happen…] Jake awoke with a scream. Delusional, he stood and ran around in the dirt for sometime. Trying to shake of the images that plagued him. "Jake? What are you doing?" Jake stopped and turned. "What?"
"Why are you running around like that?"
"My dream. Horrible. Cold! So Cold! VIKKI!" Jake fell on the floor and started pounding the earth with his fists. "How could I let that happen to her? She was right." Jake broke down in tears, the salty fluid stinging his cracked lips. "Calm down Jake." Jake stood once more. "I would if I knew who the hell you were!" "You really want to know don't you? Fine, but I won't be held responsible for what happens." Through the mist an incredibly tall man strode towards him. Wings rested upon his shoulder blades and a white "cloud" drifted around him. "My name is Melzorad. I am the last Seraphim. The last angel. The sole remnant of the Choir of Nine. I have held and drunk of the grail, and have known what it is like to be feared.
"Now look at what has become of me. Protector of a wasteland deader than you. It makes you sick. 4000 bloody years wasted just to be told by the God himself that my methods were too extreme. Too Extreme! This coming from a deity who drowned the whole bloody world!"
Jake was dumbfounded. "You're an ANGEL?!?"
Melzorad sighed. "Yes, I am an angel. Cast out of heaven. Doomed to wander for all eternity on this earthen husk. But you! You can help me attain my former glory once more." Jake was confused. "How can I, a dead, rotting man help you, an angel? I can't change what's already happened!" "Ah but you can! Allow me to elaborate. "The Third World War sparked a lot of emotions in people. One man however was affected more than others. His name was Mordekai Kaeldihar. He held strong beliefs that Humanity was nothing better than a disease and the earth needed to be cleansed." A look of regret flashed across his features. "I…I helped him." Jake looked disgusted. "You. You helped destroy humanity?" [A scream! Vikki's screams, Jake, Vikki's screams] "He was the leader of a cult known as The Ministry Of Pain. His following grew daily, and he eventually put his plan into practice with my help. I supplied power to him beyond his wildest dreams, and weaponry for his followers. The population of Great Britain was exterminated overnight, with such speed and brutal efficiency that no one dared lift a finger to stop him." Jake raised his hands in surrender. "Please, no more! I have heard [your putting of the inevitable – SAVE VIKKI!] enough to turn what remains of my stomach for the rest of my unlife!" "I am aware of that, but I need to tell you this so that you understand." Melzorad paused, as if choosing its words carefully. "Great Britain became their base of operations. A united front was suddenly presented by what remained of the superpowers, as they realised the threat that Mordekai posed to the world. The UN was reformed, but involving the entire planet this time. "With my help, he morphed the terrain of Great Britain in to a twisted hell of pain, suffering and torture." Sarcasm dripped from his voice like oil. "A nice chap. someone to take home to your mother, I think not. He was the cruellest man the world has ever seen, and is ever likely to see." Jake cut in. "This is all very interesting but none of it tells me why I can help!" "Let me finish, Damn you! As the time passed, he culled great swathes of humanity. In the space of a decade, he completely wiped out every last human except himself. He even killed his fellow cultists, and went mad. He eventually killed himself, proving that he was mad enough to finish his plans. "I need you to stop him before he starts. Kill him. Lock him up. ANYTHING. Just stop him before he kills anymore. I can grant you the power to journey through time and reform your shattered body so you are strong once more." Jake looked Melzorad up and down. "Are you sure your not just some mad man in a dress with stick on wings?" "Very sure. Observe." Melzorad inscribed a strange shape in the dirt at his feet and started chanting. "Eloheem, nahasan saen! Nemostros manaha llocketrosto!" He gestured from the symbol to Jake and stood back. Pure white light flowed from the sigils on the floor into Jakes body. He gasped as its energy flowed through his body, fixing broken bone, sealing rotten blood vessels and closing the open wounds. Jake screamed as he felt his heart beat again, and the first flow of blood blasted through his dry arteries. He passed out… [He lay on a bed, a heater blowing warm air into the room. So Hot! A face drifted across his vision. Vikki's face! He tried to reach for it, to touch, but found himself bound. The scene shifted. He was once more in his coffin, bound with those leather straps. Still hot. He strained and looked down, viewing with horror the flames that licked up the inside of the wooden box. Screaming, he thrashed around…] Melzorad looked down on the prone figure of Jake. I hope that you are capable of dealing with this, for your sake. Melzorad was tired and wanted to go home. I need him to be successful. He watched him twitch as he dreamt. "If he can't cope with the truth, then we're all doomed…" Jake awoke with a start. For a moment his thoughts were clouded with the horrible thought that he was dead. He looked down across his body. He relaxed when he saw himself in one piece.
"I see my power fixed you up well then."
Jake searched for Melzorad. "Yes it appears that it did. I thank you sir for your help in restoring me to life." Melzorad looked disappointed. "I did it not for you, but so you would help me!" "And indeed I shall help you. It's just that I can't think of a way of changing the past." The angel continued frowning. "I have already told you, I can grant you the power to journey through time." "Go on then" Melzorad straightened up. "In the name of Lethos, I beseech thee to come forth! Come forth slaves and servants of the master of time. The power of Temporis shall be granted unto this mortal, making him as a god. No one shall challenge this man, this traveller of the ages." He stopped, and drew more indecipherable shapes in the dirt. "Come forth all ye who control the pathways of time, let this one man be allowed to journey through thee. In the name of Lethos, Melzorad, Lestat and Listich, I beg thee. The fate of this world hangs in the balance, and The One True God, YHVH, needs this servant. LET HIM JOURNEY THROUGH THE PASSAGES OF TIME AND THE SECRETS OF TEMPORIS BE HIS!" Jake looked unimpressed. "Have you quite finished?"

Jake could here himself talking to Melzorad. He stood there, practicing focusing his energies. "I wonder what would happen if I focused on my legs?" Drawing internal force away from his diaphragm, he directed its flow towards his legs and walked. He reached a distant mud bank in seconds. Turning, he ran back, reaching his starting point even quicker. "Incredible! A focused form of Celerity! This power will aid me in the coming fight for sure!" Jake stopped and sat, resting, waiting.