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Zedaph made his life better, of this Tango was sure. Tango loved him enough to withstand the end of the world. Some days, he felt like life would be better if Earth simply faded. Returned to Death, or Time, or Fate’s gentle but wanting arms. And then he’d look over and see Zedaph smiling, his beautiful face glowing from the blaze’s flames. The way the wind ruffled his blonde curls, and the way the protestors faltered when they saw Tango but Zedaph only reached for his hand, well- that made life worth living.
Some life it was. Tango couldn’t go outside anymore without feeling frightened. Where once was bright, shining sunlight, now was the dim gloom created by a fading sun. Earthquakes were common, almost as if the Earth itself was succumbing to Death too.
Another thing the blaze noticed was Zedaph was always on the phone. He frequently took calls, whispering in hushed conversations that cut off when Tango walked into the room. He looked troubled sometimes and during these moments, the way he looked at Tango was deeply unsettling. His expression was intense but contemplative. Almost as if he was weighing Tango’s worth.
But he couldn’t be. Tango knew the sheep loved him, as surely as he knew the Watchers were gone. These were things he felt deep into his bones, his beating heart, the touch of Zedaph’s fingers running through his hair. And yet, he was still anxious.
He tried to bring it up hesitantly, at first. Just a mention, enough so Zedaph knew he was curious, but that he wasn’t going to push. Zedaph smiled in amusement.
“Nothing important, Tango. I’d tell you if it was. Soulmates, right?”
He was lying. Tango’s heart leapt to his throat and his stomach fell to the floor and his hands shook when Zedaph reached for them. The sheep’s eyes flicked to Tango’s hair, where he was sure his flames were flaring and bright yellow.
“Yeah,” he croaked. “Soulmates.”
Zedaph sighed and his eyes closed. Tango stared until he opened them again, just to see what he was thinking. He wasn’t disappointed. There was conflict in his purple eyes, and his sheep ears twitched guiltily.
“Ask me again tomorrow, yeah?”
Tango wanted to ambush Zedaph as soon as tomorrow came. Sitting around made him feel useless and the blaze liked to think he was at least a little bit smart. If Zedaph was trying to fix things, Tango could help. But his Zedaph didn’t trust him.
Once Tango released him from his crushing hug, Zedaph kissed his forehead.
“Honesty,” he said slowly. “I know you won’t repeat this anywhere, Tango, and it wasn’t a matter of trust. Please believe me on this.”
Tango fidgeted. He ran his claws over and over on each other, until the sharp edges caught his skin and broke it. The sting of the cuts grounded him, but his breath was still shaky.
“There’s a group of us, in a lab. The world is ending and soon the sun won’t be enough to support life on Earth. We can’t trust the gods to help us, we don’t want Death to claim us, and leaving everyone to Fate is a recipe for disaster. All that’s left is Time.”
Tango breathed in sharply. His bright red eyes widened. “No,” he breathed.
Zedaph smiled wryly. “Yes. I’ve been trying to convince them to let you in for a while. I admire your brain and I know you could solve this.”
“You’re trying to invent time travel? And you think I, Tango, could help?” he said in disbelief.
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Tango.”
“But seriously? Actual time travel?” The blaze’s voice took on an excited edge. This was the biggest challenge of his life and if he could do this…
“Our thought is this: we travel back far enough, to when the Watchers are still here, and find them,” Zedaph started, and his voice took on a feral edge. “We destroy them. Make them give up control and obliterate them before they kill us.”
“But they can see! They probably already know about this now,” Tango said, breathless. He felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin, energized with the need to work on this now. “How does your math look? This is insane!”
“They’ve always underestimated us,” the sheep smiled mischievously. “A sheep hybrid can’t truly stand against the Watchers and win, can he?”
Tango laughed.
Later, in the lab, Zedaph shared his notes with Tango.
“The Watchers have their own kind of magic that allows them to move between universes and places at will. The idea is they’ve abandoned every universe, not just ours, but where did that power go? They’ve unraveled themselves from the code of the world, but that magic didn’t just fade away.”
“Wouldn’t they have just taken it back in themselves? They’re gods, no power is too much,” Tango replied. This is where he thrived and sharing this with Zedaph was better than he ever could’ve imagined.
“Yes,” Zedaph said. “But if they had taken it all at once, we think Earth would have ceased to exist instantaneously. They’ve chosen to slowly withdraw.”
“But what if they just wanted us to suffer? They’ve never been kind, or benevolent, not like the children’s stories,” Tango replied. He thought he could see where this was going and if his conclusion was correct, he was going to explode.
“We considered that. But Cub figured out how to hack into the world code. The Watchers were the admin’s while they were here, but there always has to be an admin. When they left, it randomly defaulted to one of us.”
“A human or hybrid was admin? You found them, didn’t you?” Tango said excitedly. His brain sifted through ideas faster than he could keep up with. Zedaph smiled at him sweetly, a fond look on his face.
“We did,” he said, and laughed at the expression on Tango’s face. “Believe it or not, it was a strange butterfly hybrid. We tracked him through the code to in the city. Out of the whole world, he was right by us!”
Tango bounced in his seat. “A butterfly hybrid! And he agreed to give it up?”
Zedaph pulled out his phone and swiped up a picture of the hybrid. His wings were a beautiful combination of black and green and he had antennae nestled in his brown and green hair.
“We did. His name was Joel, and I’ve never met such a strange person before. He did the command the second we knocked at his door. He said ‘good riddance.’ So fascinating,” the sheep was deep in thought for a moment before he shook himself back.
“The world code was interesting,” the sheep hybrid continued. “After digging through the numbers for days, we found hints that the magic never belonged to the Watchers at first. It was gifted to them, and by leaving the universe, they went against the deal they made.”
“They had to do it slowly and subtly so whoever gifted it to them wouldn’t notice,” Tango concluded.
“Exactly,” Zedaph beamed at him.
Tango took a moment to breathe. His mind raced with new information, and he had already started planning where to go from there.
“Okay,” he exhaled. “When do I start?”