As Dawn laid there on the floor of the ship, after she had lost everything; her mind drifted. Her mind drifted past her sorrow, back into her memories, back to a time before she had lost everything. Her mind pushed back, back three years prior to her losing her closest friends; and her brother.

“We got a new mission, and it sounds like it’s gonna be quite some fun!” Dusk said smirking. He walked up to his sister, holding a piece of paper.

“We do now, do we?” Dawn beamed back at her brother; it was always fun to get something new to do. “What’s it this time? Saving a Snipe that can’t fly, from off the top of the Auction House?” Dawn giggled at the memory; they had even taken a picture afterwards in front of the Auction House together with the Snipe.

“Unfortunately not, Spiral HQ just wants us to check some energy anomalies.” Dusk held up the paper. “Wrote down the stuff we need to know right here. Let’s get going, we don’t want to waste anymore time.” Dawn rolled her eyes as she grabbed her Grand Flourish and followed her brother out the door. The second they were out the door, Dawn suddenly felt on onrush of heat. Sure she was in a Skolver Coat, but she didn’t recall it being so hot outside. Why just yesterday, it was perfectly fine.

“You feel that too, Dusk?” Dawn asked curiously, taking her helmet off.

“In fact, I do, but unlike you, I can suck it up. It’s just a little heat, and we both have faced much worse.” Dawn sighed and smiled at Dusk’s reply; it was actually quite nice out today. It was unfortunate they couldn’t spend it doing something fun together, but then she realized that they were. A nice mission down in the depths of the Clockworks, exciting, and it would take them away from the scorching heat.

Stepping into the cooler Arcade, Dawn put her helmet back on, already getting excited. As they stepped on the Elevator, Dawn leaned over to Dusk, peering at the paper in his hands.

“So what exactly are we looking for?” Dawn swiftly swiped the paper from his hands, and snickered. Dusk grunted and activated the Elevator.

“Not sure, we’re just supposed to find out what the cause of the anomalies could be. Knowing the Clockworks, that could be just about anything.” Dusk walked over to the edge, watching silently as they descended. After a moment of silence, he flipped around and whisked the paper from Dawn’s hands. “Gotcha.”

The Elevator clanked to a halt, the two Knights taking a quick inspection of their surroundings.

“So what Stratum is this exactly?” Dawn asked, scanning the area cautiously.

“Another reason why we’re here, they don’t know. I checked the Gate Map couple of times, it kept switching from Fire to Freeze, then to static, and it just sort of repeated that.” Dusk shrugged. “I guess let’s move forward, there’s nothing but a single path.” Dusk gestured meekly to the metal path stretching out ahead of them.

“Okay, not like we really have any other choice.” Dawn smiled. “Race you!” Dusk held up his hand to object, but Dawn was already bounding ahead.

“Wait! We don’t know what kind of enemies there are here!” Dusk scolded a bit angrily, but he eventually smiled, chasing after his sister, who slowed down and paused.

“Hold up, what do you mean you don’t know what kinds of enemies there are? Where exactly are we? A Haunted Passage?” Dawn asked, curiously looking around for a second time, though not much to see, she thought.

“Don’t know that either.” Dusk’s grin vanished. “That’s why we need to keep our guard u-”

An abrupt rumble sounded through the Clockworks; the sound alike to that of an ancient beast, thundering its roar after an eternity’s sleep. Everything shook, the Clockworks trembling like a leaf, gears groaning loudly. Everything seemed to resonate, amplifying the vastness of the Clockworks. The rumbling seemed to resound from every corner of the Clockworks; the sheer immensity of the shaking shook the two siblings to their core, instilling fear deep within them.

“What’s going on?” Dawn cried out, voice filled with uncertainty. Her brother, snapped back to attention, forced out the fear and grabbing his sister tightly. The two stood, Dusk gripping Dawn tightly, as the churning of the Clockworks seemed to persist indefinitely. With much reluctance, the rumbling slowed down and soon subsided, leaving a single echo to reverberate throughout the Clockworks as a haunting reminder of its presence. Dusk loosened his hold on Dawn, backing away.

“That didn’t sound good.” Dusk whispered, an incoming transmition making him pause. “A large energy spike has been detected near our area. Let’s hurry up and see what’s at the end of this thing.”

“Wait, I don’t think that’s a good idea. First this whole place shakes like a squished slime, and then we receive a large energy spike?” Dawn stepped in front of her brother.

“Well what else are we going to do? We have to keep moving forward; that’s the important thing.” Dusk stated sternly, moving past his sister. Pulling his Boltbrand out, he added, “But there’s always room for precaution.” Dawn sighed and followed her brother, wielding her Grand Flourish.

It didn’t take long for things to go downhill.

A rush of air whipped past them, Dusk pulling up his shield to block the onrush, Dawn mimicking his move. They unshielded and turned to each other, their questioning looks obscured by their helmets.

“Did it... just get colder?” Dawn said, forcing a shiver. If her head were exposed, she swore she would have seen her breath. Dusk shook his head.

“Is that what you’re worried about?” He put his hand to his head as if disappointed, but he did have to admit, the temperature had dropped. An ominous sound from farther up the path abruptly grabbed the two’s attention. The sound seemed sharp and crisp, only being able to be described as a popping and cracking sound. Dusk stared up the path, Boltbrand clenched in his fist, but he couldn’t see anything. His view was beginning to be filled with a strange mist. “You can hear and see that too, right?”

“Those sounds? Yes. That fog thing? Yup.” Dawn slowly walked ahead, the mist cloud becoming larger and more opaque, the sound growing louder and clearer. “It’s definitely getting colder.” She said, swiping her Grand Flourish around. The mist swept to the side, parted by her swinging, allowing her to see it. “Woah!” Dawn stumbled back, Dusk catching her as she fell.

“What is it?” He asked frantically, helping her back to her feet and holding out his Boltbrand.

“It’s frost! And it’s moving!” Dawn started moving away, but Dusk just looked at her, dumbfounded.

“You’re afraid of frost?” Dusk moved forward, sweeping the mist out of his way, revealing what he would have called pretty - if not for the situation - intricate ice crystals. They covered the entire pathway, and they were creeping forward, towards them. “It’s just frost.” Dusk said, moving away. However, he knew that Dawn was right to be afraid, despite his Snarbolax Coat, he felt quite chilled. He turned back to Dawn. “Okay, you win. This doesn’t look good.” Before he could move, he whipped around to find that the frost was now crawling up his Boltbrand, pops of electricity bouncing off of it as the ice began to freeze it. Dashing backwards, Dusk looked over to Dawn, who had already moved a few paces back. “Okay, I take that back, this looks bad.” And with that, he began running, back to the Elevator.

“What happened back there?” Dawn asked, keeping pace with her brother.

“The entire place back there is completely freezing over! And I feel like the cold is slowing us down.” Dusk explained, inspecting the tip of his Boltbrand, the ice crystals still slowly covering it. They both knew what was coming next, but they pushed it out of their minds until they reached it. Leaping onto the Elevator, Dawn turned around to see that the cloud of mist was now gone, for it had gotten too cold for the mist to form, thus allowing her to see the frost. It was no longer crawling, but rapidly engulfing the pathway.

“I knew I should have gotten a Flamberge.” Dawn groaned, glanced at her brother, who was looking around for some way to get out. “What now?” Dusk tapped his helmet, his hand dropping quickly.

“I can’t get a hold of HQ.” He looked back to find the ice was almost at the Elevator. They were trapped. Dusk watched agonizingly as the freezing air came closer and closer, the temperature around them dropping. Taking another look at his Boltbrand revealed that half the blade was frozen.

“It’s almost here!” Dawn stepped towards Dusk and gave him a squeezing hug. “Maybe if we keep warm, we’ll be okay?” Dusk didn’t answer, this was it, what could they do? The crinkling and cracking sound of the frost seeping into the metal pathway seemed louder than possible. Dusk let the blade of his sword fall downwards, the cold was weakening him. The clang of the two metals sprung an idea in his head. Pushing Dawn away gently, he said,

“Hold on tight.”

Dawn didn’t want to question Dusk. Bending down, she adapted a more stable stance, and awaited whatever Dusk was planning. As the frost reached the Elevator, Dusk pulled up his Boltbrand and thrust it downward with all his strength. The piercing ring of the Elevator’s bottom grating being punctured rang out impossibly loud. Almost immediately, an electrifying zap and flash of blue followed, the Elevator lurching high into the air, though the guard railings failed to jump into place.

“You did it!” Dawn congratulated. However, quite quickly, the Elevator seemed to slow down from the original burst of energy, clanking wearily. “Wait, we’re slowing down.” The disinclined Elevator was beginning to dramatically slow, smoke wafting off the bottom from the exertion of being forced to activate. Dusk was still tightly gripping his blade as he watched the split blade act as a spark gap, except upside down, electric current zipping from the hilt down into the Elevator. He relaxed, letting go of his blade and turning to Dawn. “We’re slowing down, Dusk!” She repeated. Dusk took a deep breath as he calmed down.

“As long as that cloud of frozen air doesn’t reach us, we’ll be good.” Dusk peered over the edge of the Elevator, and to his dismay, the frost was climbing up the rails in cold pursuit. The Knights could do nothing but watch anxiously as the freezing air blew closer and closer, as they crept upwards.

“The Elevator’s starting to freeze over!” Dawn cried out frantically, pointing at the frost that was now forming on the edge of the Elevator. Dawn poked at it with her Grand Flourish, attempting to scrape it off, only to have the tip begin to freeze. “Dangit! The freezing air has almost reached us!” Looking farther down, they saw that the freezing rails were indeed closer, but something about them seemed to be different.

“It’s thinning.” Dusk whispered in awe, but the cold air made his words sharp and clear. “Woah!” He cried out as the Elevator screeched to a halt, making him topple over onto his sister. Before they could react, a cold breeze whisked past them, but left them unharmed. Pushing himself back up, Dusk peered over the slightly frozen edge of the Elevator to find that the frost had indeed thinned and had completely stopped one metre short of the Elevator. “We made it.” He turned to his sister, and hugged her tightly.

“I can’t believe we got far enough away!” Dawn said smiling gratefully. Though she loved it when her brother hugged her, she pulled back. “But now what? We’re sort of stuck here, and we haven’t figured out what happened.” Dusk sighed, Dawn was right, they had to do something.

“We need to get down there as quick as we can, before something else happens.” Dusk stepped back to his Boltbrand and forced it out, flashes of electricity connecting from the blade to the Elevator. “Looks like my blade thawed.” Dusk said, examining the blade that was now completely free of ice.

“The Elevator actually looks like it’s stuck.” He pointed out the way the Elevator was awkwardly angled. Dawn followed his gaze, and stared at the point where the Elevator connected with the rails.

“You're right." Dawn agreed, scrutinizing the gear system. After a bit, she lifted her Flourish, "Let’s try this.” She started jabbing her Grand Flourish between the gears. A sudden jolt from the Elevator made her pause as she lost her balance, the Elevator falling slightly. “So these Elevators do have safety measures.” Her prodding had loosened the Elevator’s emergency locking mechanism, which had faultily deployed from the improper usage. She reeled back and whipped the gears one more time, forcing them to unlock and release the Elevator from its position.

"Waaahhhhh!!!!" Dawn screamed as they plummeted downwards, clasping tightly to the edges of the Elevator. Dusk looked over at Dawn to make sure she was safe, hands tightly wrapped around the Elevator as well.

“Good move Dawn!” He called out. Though he doubted she could hear him over her own screaming, the roar of the wind and the ear-splitting squeel of the Elevator moving on it’s rail at unintended speeds. As they approached the ground, Dusk looked over to Dawn, who had ceased her screaming, and nodded, saying, “Roll!” Dawn nodded in response, and as the ground was less than 3 metres away, they both planted their feet and leapt off, the Elevator slamming with a thick bang as the two rolled onto the ground to break their fall. “We made it.”

“We sure, did, but that was intense.” Dawn agreed, looking back. The Elevator had almost broken through, leaving the platform where the Elevator was supposed to stop looking like a mini crater, cracks strewn through the metal, most likely weakened from being frozen. “Now let’s go.” Together, they dashed down the frozen path, feet cracking the glistening white ice as they went. “You know, this place is kinda beautiful, if it wasn’t about to flash freeze us worse than a Glacius charge.” Dawn giggled.

“Right.” Dusk replied, rolling his eyes. Though he had to admit that the way the frost seemed to glitter as they ran was quite admirable.

After a while, they finally could see the end of the path.

“This is it!” Dusk announced, and as they approached it, they saw that the path split exactly horizontal, one path stretching to the left and the other to the right. Strangely, there was nothing blocking the path in between the two paths.

“It looks like there used to be a path here, but it just kinda disappeared, weird.” Dawn said. As they paused to take a breath, she asked, “Okay, so which way we headed? Left, or right?” Taking a gander of the paths, there was really no separate distinction between the two. Another peculiar thing that they noticed, was that the gears and axles of the Clockworks were extremely close, almost touching the path, but it did obscure their vision of what could be down at either end, even standing and looking down the path yielded no clue.

“I think, we should take the ‘right’ path.” Dusk joked, a rare occurrence. “But yeah, I think we should just head right.” Dawn laughed, patting her brother on the back.

“Well look who’s loosened up, even with the chance of being instantly frozen again, you attempt to crack a joke.” Dawn began heading down the right path.

“You should keep in mind that if that does happen again, it’ll probably be faster than before, and we have no means of escape.” Dusk reminded with a dark tone. He joined his sister, who had stopped laughing, for Dusk was once again right, and they quickly made their way down another long path.

Luckily, they arrived at a change of scenery much faster than expected. The path gave way to what appeared to be a giant metal structure, covered with tall crystals of ice. The structure had no roof, exposing the many rotating gears churning above it, and what appeared to be shiny blue-ish white tips. As they entered, the siblings gasped in awe. On the outside, it looked like some sort of frozen metal building, inside, the walls were literally made with Valestone. The walls were cracked and jagged, with frost embroidering it like decoration. Enormous pillars of translucent blue ice, tapering to a sharp point, towered above the top of the building, explaining what they had seen outside. The pillars were engraved with an intricate pattern made of the most pure and vivid Valestone the two had ever seen. They almost looked like a bunch of little pathways, a bunch of them leading from the top of the pillar down to the base, where they conjoined to form a pathway forward.

“This place is like an ice palace!” Dawn breathed, walking over to a wall, she gently touched it, but pulled back instantly. “The walls are freezing!” Despite her freeze resistant Skolver Coat, the walls were incredibly cold. “And these pillars! The Valestone kinda looks like... Those pipes we see in the Clockworks!” Dawn guessed.

“What on Cradle is this place?” Dusk said, walking down the path where all the little Valestone continued on.

“This whole place is gorgeous! Look at how the walls reflect the light around, and how the frost seems to glow as you walk by! And the pillars; the way you can see straight through them, but they also reflect everything around them, it’s like we’re in a hall of mirrors, except 100 times more breathtaking!” Dawn said, engorged by the beauty of her surroundings.

“I get that this place is pretty, but we aren’t here to for sightseeing, this place is obviously not natural.” Dusk stopped, then added, “Not that anything in these CLockworks are natural.” Dawn sighed heavily, but continued moving. A wispy sound blows past them, but aside from slowing down and shivering, they don’t stop. Reaching the end, they once again have their breaths taken away. All the trails of Valestone from the pillars lining the path to this point joined up with a massive Valestone crystal that was split like a blooming flower, a thin icy cylinder in its centre. Ice seemed to form around it, growing slightly, then retracting back into the ground at a rhythmic pace, almost like the thing was alive and breathing. In the back of their minds, they could almost hear it breathing, like the wind whispering to them, except the sound almost seemed to originate from behind them...

“Great Isora, this is amazing!” Dawn gaped at the beautiful verdant monument.

“What’s that?” Dusk peered at the thin icy cylinder. “I can’t really see through it, it’s covered in fr- AAaarrggh!” Dusk cried out loudly, collapsing to the ground.

“DUSK!” Dawn yelled, grabbing her brother. A bunch of ice was coming from his back, a silvery mist wafting from them. “What? What’s going on? What happened?”

“Urg, my b-back is so c-cold!” He stuttered, forcing himself onto his feet, he looked back. Wispy forms of glistening white mist had formed, two deep cerulean glows staring at them like eyes. “I bet it w-was that thing!” Dusk whipped out his Boltbrand. “I’ll be okay.” He affirmed, pushing Dawn away and charging his sword. Dawn nodded, assured that her brother was okay, and lunged at the form, which seemed to float away from the reach of her Flourish.

“No one hurts my brother - except me - without getting sliced to pieces! Er, not that you aren’t already in pieces.” Dawn cried out charging at the thing, she dashed to her left, and the form seemed to move like the wind, reappearing in her face, only to be hit by a blast of electrical energy. Dawn nodded at her brother, but to their horror, the form re-materialized and more did as well.

“I don’t think these things are something we can just beat up! Let’s book it, I bet they need the cold to survive.” Dusk theorized. Dawn nodded, but then an idea came to her.

“Wait Dusk, that pillar thing coming from that giant Valestone Crystal, I bet there’s something special about it!” Dawn ignored the icy wisps and ran for the giant central Valestone. Two forms conjoined together, becoming more opaque, and launched a pure white ball that trailed snow at Dawn, Dusk lunging in the way and slashing at it with his Boltbrand, which instantaneously froze where it hit. Dawn leapt up onto the Valestone, wincing in pain at the cold, but forced herself on, swishing her Flourish at the frosted ice, which shattered delicately, shards of ice raining down on them like diamonds. Just a metre above where the centre of the Valestone crystal, was a single floating gear, the size of her hand, which had been concealed by the ice pillar. Dawn reached out and snatched it up, backflipping off the Valestone, which in turn began to glow immensely at the loss of the gear. “I got it!” Dawn cried triumphantly, landing on the ground.

Dusk turned to her briefly, with his hand in a thumbs up, before returning his attention to the wisps. The area began to shake, but not as much as the first time. And the Valestone Crystal erupted into a calming green light, which began to spread and travel down all the little pathways that connected to the ice pillars, which went from blue to a tranquil aqua, casting a cool glow over the entire area. The wispy forms began to tremble, then burst into a shimmering cloud of snow.

“I’m not exactly sure what just happened, but I think we should go to the other pathway now, and fast!” Dusk said running off. Dawn opened her hand to examine the gear as they ran, the glow from the ice pillars and Valestone making the gear seem to reflect light as if it was a jewel. It had a very fine Valestone design, intricately bejeweled on it, a large circled gem of a deep green Valestone that reminded Dawn of the grass in Haven, in the Gear’s centre. Gently caressing it with her finger, Dawn realized that it actually gave way to her finger. Pressing harder, the Gem pressed all the way in, a click sounding.

To her astonishment, the gear raised up, separated into a bottom and top piece, the latter of which began rotating. The gem began shooting off beams of verdant light, whirring and other mechanical sounds sounding from it. suddenly, a shimmering blade shot out from the gear, shooting outwards from Dawn. It stretched out at least 7 feet, shimmering and reflective like it was made of ice. Two guards with Valestone wrapping around it like a snake, leading to a rounded ball at either end then spun out of the gear. A handle emerging next, with a white snowflake like design on it. The gear rotated again, then closed back, completely sealing it up, a shimmering blue green sword now resting on Dawn’s hand.

“What’s keeping you?” Dusk asked, turning around, but then he just stared.

“I have no idea, but there’s no time to explain, just go, go, go!” Dawn cried out, sprinting ahead of her brother. She sheathed her Grand Flourish and wielded the magnificent blade, it was simply beautiful. They reached the intersection, and were met with another blast of wind. They both shielded again, and as they unshielded, they looked at each other nervously. “Last time that happened, we get ice age, now what?” Dawn’s question was quickly answered. Ahead of them, a wavering and rapidly expanding area began to move closer. The path ahead was sizzling, steam rising off of it, the entire thing turning a shade of crimson red.

“If that place is ice… Oh no.” Dusk turned to Dawn. “We’re going to burn to death!” Dawn’s eyes widened, it made so much sense! But how were they going to get out of this one? Dawn looked around, then clenched her fists in anger, her hands wrapping tightly around the handle of the sword in her hand. Smiling, Dawn held the sword up.

“Ice Sword.” She said, before running towards the oncoming wall of heat. “The wall’s moving faster because more heat means more energy. Stay close behind me.” Dawn explained to and instructed Dusk.

“Where did that thing come from though?” He inquired, reluctantly following closely to his sister.

“There was a gear inside of that icy pillar coming from the Valestone Crystal, I pressed the centre gem on it,” She held out her sword, not turning back, and pointed at the circular Valestone gem. “and wham-o, the gear opens up and this thing magically forms. I’m hoping that it’ll protect us from the heat wave.” Dawn looked once more at the blade, a fine white mist coming off of it. Dusk gulped, hoping? “Here we go!”

Further along in front of them, the path was literally melting, steam rising rapidly. As it approached upon them, Dawn squeezed her eyes shut, and copying what Dusk had done on the Elevator, raised up the sword, blade pointing down, and plunged it into the ground with a piercing clang. Although she didn’t see it, Dawn could feel as the area around them instantly cooled down, wind whipping out from the blade as ice began to encase the ground. At the same moment, the heat wave slammed into them. Like a tornado, the air around them began to howl, spinning around them furiously. Dawn gripped the hilt as hard as she could, Dusk hugging her tightly. Around them, the wind kept raging, two opposing forces colliding. After what seemed like an eternity, the wind abruptly stopped. Dawn forced the blade from the ground, and the two looked around them. The scene that met their eyes was something from an abstract piece of art. The metal pathway was cracked, warped and bent in the most impossible of ways, some areas were white with cold, others red with heat. The whole thing seemed to bewilder the two.

“Well, at least we’re alive.” Dawn said hesitantly, as if something would now pop up and send them to their doom.

“We’re alive!” Dusk cried out randomly. “Okay, let’s go!” His renewed spirit from not being scorched was quite awesome, Dawn thought smugly, but she placed the blade a little bit in front of her, letting it freeze the ground, and they began, once again, to run. As they went down the path, the blade cooled down the molten metal enough for them to safely traverse it. “This is just awesome.” Dusk said giddily.

As expected, they arrived at a similar structure to what they had seen on the right path, except this time, the structure was made with seamless reflective metal. On the inside, as expected, it resembled that of the ‘ice palace’, walls made of Crimsonite, with strips of flawless metal embroidering it, the pattern not too dissimilar to that of the ice counterpart. The pillars were instead made of a refined metal, with fire seemingly burning within it, as it constantly emitted a strong heat, glowing red like it was blushing. And of course, veins of pure Crimsonite snaked around it, leading to the base and forward in a path.

“Wow, how predictable.” Dusk said, looking around. This time, they knew exactly what to do, but as they neared their destination, a crackling sound emanated not from the pillars, but behind them. “Not ignoring that this time!” Dusk called out, turning around to face the expected foes. This time, a dancing flame seemed to hover off the ground, burning crimson eyes locked on the intruders. Dusk pulled out his Boltbrand, but Dawn moved past him.

“I think I can handle this.” She said, posing the Ice Blade out defensively. Dusk opened his mouth, then closed it. Dawn was capable of handling herself, and he had to respect that, stepping back, he said,

“Whoop’em good.”

The Fire Entity launched out a multitude of blazing balls of fire, to which retaliated by Dawn slashing her blade out, each of the burning sphere vaporizing. She quickly lunged forward, blade flying through the flame, which exploded in a crackle of sizzling sparks.

“Move! Before more come!” Dawn commanded, racing down the path after Dusk. Another Fire Entity formed in front of Dusk, but Dawn snapped to attention, flipping over Dusk and slamming the blade down through it, a firework splaying out, as the ground sizzled from the cold blade.

“Seems like this place really heats up with battles!” Dusk mocked, Dawn groaning at Dusk’s second attempt at a joke. Two more Fire Entities crackled to life, Dawn abolishing them as she spun in a circle.

“I’m rubbing off on you, aren’t I?” Dawn asked as they arrived at what they expected, a giant Crimsonite Crystal, with a column of warm fire bursting from its centre. Dawn jumped up, letting her blade touch the Crimsonite first, but there was a flash, and she was knocked back down. “What?”

“I guess you can’t freeze that thing.” Dusk guessed, but then he became more stern. “So be extremely careful not to get burned, actually, I don’t want you to have to make your feet suffer again.” Dusk held out his hand, and Dawn handed him the Ice Blade. Jumping up, Dusk yelped as his feet were scorched by the Crimsonite, but managed to make his way to the top. With a brisk swipe, the column of fire burst out, the flames more like warm touches than burning fire. Dusk snatched the levitating gear and jumped back down, tossing the sword back to Dawn. He looked at it, the gear was made of the most flawless and pure of metals, being so reflective that it seemed to constantly change colour from the surrounding flames. There was a glittering Crimsonite Gem in the centre, a symmetrical flame pattern around the gear. The Crimsonite Crystal suddenly engulfed them with a deep crimson light, shimmering like it was a giant burning inferno. Each pillar began to turn glow a myriad of various red hues, the Crimsonite shining vividly. The Clockworks began, one last time, to rumble, churning and shaking, this time, it wasn’t stopping. “Back to the intersection!” Dusk called out, Dawn on his tail as they made a break for it.

Curious, Dusk pressed the gem located at the centre of the gear, and to his own amazement, as Dawn had said, it opened up, rotating whilst the sound of spinning gears came from within it. A blade, who’s steel was equally flawless to that of the gear emerged, it’s edge’s composed of Crimsonite. The two guards then spun out, their appearance identical with the Ice Blade, albeit red. The gear switched directions as the hilt came out, decorated with a flame design.

“Incredible.” He mouthed wordlessly.

Once at the intersection, the two stopped to catch their breath.

“Now what?” Dusk asked. Dawn didn’t know herself, she didn’t even know what she was expecting, so what if they had two magic gears that changed into magical swords? What were they supposed to do. Tired from all the running, she put her hands on her knees, gulping air, head ducked, but then she noticed it, two slits on the ground, right at the point where the path seemed to vanish.

“Right here.” Dawn pointed out the two holes. “I bet something will happen if we,” Dawn held the blade to the hole, where it fit perfectly. “put the swords into these holes.” Dusk shrugged but stood next to his sister. Together, they planted their blades into the holes. Light shot out from the holes, and to their never dwindling surprise, a path began to form, piece by piece, a piece of metal would flash into existence.

“I have a feeling that we’re almost done here.” Dusk said, as they retracted the swords and walked down the path, careful not to walk over the edge. In the distance, they could see a large metal wall, and as the path connected with the platform, they could see that there were lines all over it. “And once again, something really big and mysterious is in our way. Hey wait, look!” Dusk ran over to a point on the metal wall to the left, where there was an indent in it, a single tiny Crimsonite diamond right above the ident.

“That means…” Dawn ran over to the other side, an identical indent with a Valestone stub confirming her suspicions. “There’s one over here too!” she called over to Dusk. “I think I know what we’re supposed to do!” Pressing the circular gem in the centre once more, Dawn watched as the blade retracted, gear spinning as it clicked back to a normal, glistening gear. She held up her hand, showing it to Dusk, who nodded in acknowledgement. Dusk pressed the circular gem, and watched as it reformed to a shiny gear.

Together, they placed them into the indents, where they immediately began to glow, floating just halfway up the indent, an axle shooting from the bottom and top, connecting with the gears. Dawn and Dusk joined back at the centre as the gears began to spin widly, the tiny Mineral stub glowing.

“And now, we wait.” Dawn wrapped her arms around her brother. “That was a great adventure!” She smiled.

“Who said it has to be over?” Dusk replied. Suddenly, the lines on the wall filled with light, red from the Crimsonite gear, and Aquamarine from the Valestone gear. The lines zig zagged all around the wall, before flowing down and lighting up the portion directly in front of the two Knights. It formed a door shape, the red light compromising the left side of the door, and the aquamarine light compromising the right. A split of light shot through the middle, which caused them to slide open. Walking through, they arrived at a large computer terminal with a blank screen. As they approached, it bloomed to life, a message appearing on it, as the computer read it out.

Stabilization Process Initiated.

Protocol 1-62b completed.

Core systems 2.0 at 5% completed stabilization.

Seasonal distribution of mechanical heat derivatives has been properly maintained.

Preparing for next protocol initiation, executable code number as integer 71-2934.

Dawn and Dusk looked at each other, confused.

Running mandatory service evaluation.

Error 4107. Appropriate systematic stabilization has not been engaged. Imminent system failure.

Running emergency protocol . . .

SPI engaged.

Core systems 2.0 at 9.7% completed stabilization.

All mandatory evaluation and protocols have been completed.

Running Seasonal Balancing Auto-Computer Shutdown Script.

And with that, the computer shut off, a metal box ejecting from it, and another set of doors opening.

“Any idea what ANY of that meant?” Dawn asked Dusk, who grabbed the box.

“No clue. Let’s see where this door will take us.” Dusk said stashing the box and heading through the doors. As they walked through, Dawn sighed with relief, it was an Elevator. As they stepped on, Dusk touched his helmet.

“I just got reconnected with HQ, they say that the temperature up there has been going berserk! Fortunately, it has stopped, and they say that the anomaly in this area has vanished off the map.” Dusk turned to Dawn, who was beaming brightly back at her brother.

“Mission accomplished.”