So, You've Never Been To Earth?

The cultivation of the stars was not an easy task. The human species, far too accustomed to colonizing, took to the matter with aplumb only because of the one who proclaimed leadership: the Majestrix, Hugo Hwang. But after a six year war and, under the guidance of other Majestrix, it seemed time to let things move forward somehow, somewhere. 2093 and the world, caught in its own troubles, was not left behind but broken open: every person able to foster their own form of magic when they needed, brought unto them by will and belief and need, and those that had want to leave were now able to.

Free to roam anywhere in the universe that would take them.

For millenia, humans spread and grew. Not one empire but two — those left on Earth and those of an Origin from Earth. United, together, building forces. Against Solaments, against the darkness, against the chaos that continued to threaten the end of existence that Hugo had rallied against. Unifed under Hope and Possibility, reality twisted to be something better. Language changed, culture, happenstance. And Bayard has thrived from it all since the day he was born in Mritju on a throne and welcomed everywhere where humans, suns and moons can touch.

An Outlaw The Moment You Were Born

Every Oh-Yeo child has been a sigh of relief. Until Bayard, that was true across a dozen universes. Even after the fall of the Great Darkness Underneath, the Oh-Yeo family was known more for the general blessing of sua lives than any lingering scent of abysmal destiny. Se had conquered their darkness and demons ages before Bayard was born and even the worst of sua youth was more like ancient fairytale than smoke stained truth; to even be Earth-Born in 5,998 was like a far off daydream. Earth was the forgotten planet, after all, sunk into darkness that not even the brightest Compass could save from itself. Humanity had changed its homeland and found safety in better. It was only because of those choices that Bayard was not part of fables and myth sov, anyway. It was only from strange old truths that Bayard was the first sigh of worry that Eden Oh-Yeo had in too many centuries to count.

It wasn't that birth was strange or new to Eden, not after near 400 children at the time (now caught at 402). It wasn't even as difficult a truth as Bayard being ill, as no Aelion had ever been born with an illness, only tiny adjustments that differed from others Origined from Earth. It was simply that Bayard Oh-Yeo was not supposed to survive. A return on old damnations, Bayard was the child that was to be born too close to Monroe's own powers and, in most universes, too close to a vessel for sua grandfather and sua endless darkness. In undoing the origin of such colossal power in their bloodline, Bayard had been undone. This would have been a small price to pay for most but to Eden and Monroe, it was not going to happen.

And to Hugo and Reverie, no child was ever right to lose.

Se tangled every possible Bayard that could be born, every universe and timeline that was untouched by anything but the pain of truth, and wrapped se into one: one fine vessel that existed bound all through sov. No other Eden would be pregnant with Bayard. No other Monroe would know that sua nizuo's death had doomed one of sua own actions. One set in all the multiverses, in all the endless possibilities, giving birth to a singular and total child. Bayard Oh-Yeo: the young crest of Aelion power.

Rescue Robots are not known for tact

The truth of the matter is simple: Bayard Oh-Yeo was going to be born sick, or ailing, and die before one year of life. It was the only way to keep the delicate balance that had been met when Monroe Sila-Yeo overthrew his own father and became the sole inheritor of a hellscape. Hugo Hwang and Reverie Sinmir stepped in and changed this. Only one Bayard would ever be concieved — every timeline that might have held the boy was now altered, skipped over, and he would be singular in all of existence. This gave him the gift of not only being an Aelion but a totality unto himself: an apex of power beyond normal rational and reasoning, surpassed only by the Compasses themselves (Hugo, Reverie, etc) and the ancient Paragons. Bayard had access to all of eternity, including the end of all ends, the Omega verse known only as Edesarzm where he saw too much pain and decided to steal the keystone that controlled all endings, known as Fylka. This offset a transition of power and allowances that even Bayard was never supposed to manage, but create the failsafe loophole that eventually allows him to travel back to our present date to try to train Hugo into becoming the Pinaccle of all Power in every multiverse he needs to be.

In the plainest English: Bayard was a troublemaker, and those troubles will be the key to saving all of time.

Bayard was eleven years old when se managed to wake into Edesarzm with any kind of awareness. Before then, the land had always seemed to the young child like a terrible dreamscape more than a reality. Things were different, though, in the spring of 6010. An entity named Apocalypse wandered the universes looking for power and as the Zar'a went to war against the great creator, children like Bayard were sent into their universes of safety. Bayard, without any alternatives, was sent to Edesarzm and saw the constant changing endings that Apocalypse created. Every fallen Zar'a altered the landscape. Every dead tkwii created a new broken heart in the kingdom. Bayard thought things could change. Thought, in the brave and stubborn way children and animals do that only one way seemed absolute: the glowing tower in the center of the kingdom that only Bayard could see. Stardust and fox lights ran through the land, fought against pillars of darkness and pirates of rage and, eventually, overcame all the demons to steal the flower at the center of the end of creation.

New Gardens could sprout, in the same moment Apocalypse left the Zar'a alone and returned from whence se came. After a year of violence and mayhem, Hope flourished again. And every family learned to make the story of the war another tale of history, as se buried the dead and rebuilt the land.

This, the far side of the heart

Life, then, is an oddity. It is something to grab by roots and petals whole and take from. Bayard has done this. Joining the Zar'a at 15, becoming a Khilpua at 16 (the second youngest of all time by a matter of days) and married soon after to the finest, strongest Esker of the generation. It was a series of stolen opportunities. A cascade of choices made hard and fast and deliberate. When the End is in the palm of tua hands, tua tends to make sure everything means more. This caused what trouble it would — arguements, battles, cheating, divorce by 20 — but it was all worth it in the end. To chase after something that made sense. To make sense of something that all others were chasing after for no reason at all... it fit.

Until it didn't.

Mid-battle on Saturn, Bayard felt time itself cease all around. A strike of purple lightning later and se found sov before Hugo — a towering might of power that shrunk, faster and faster, until small at Bayard's side. Small enough to match the soft tone of voice that spoke of terrible things. Earth was gone. Avery had died. And it was because time was collapsing in on itself. Soon, sua universe would no longer exist. The Beginning had been taken, stolen, and Prime belonged somewhere new. There would be a mission now. A safety net. Thousands of years to fix what had been wronged. Maybe, just maybe, enough time to save all the universes whose ends were convering at once. To save sua family. To save hope itself.

It was not another yoink, or a big send off. It was hardly even a boost of power or might. Bayard was strong enough already. Instead, a kiss to each cheek came with one rustle of a hand through Bayard's hair before the falling backwards through time came, all knowledge of everything becoming the forefront, the important, with a million gardens in wait of being born.