The light of day was fading, along with one’s hope, but all would be changed come morning. Caution lights cut through the thick smog and lit up the streets, lined with signs of ‘a new beginning’. One such featuring a photo of the local lab, windows boarded with metal plates. The sound of feathers upon the paper, curious eyes scanning each and every word. 

“Don’t see how that’s very comforting... Maybe he should reconsider this whole thing.”

Though their mind said quite the opposite. The possibility of time travel? That’s not far off from entirely new dimensions! Reaching up to adjust their glasses, Juno gestured a nod off toward another sign, one featuring the town’s scientist, Morrow, right in the middle. His tail swayed against the worn ground, acknowledging the way air struggled to fill his lungs before turning, homeward bound.

The next day came, the sun’s light barely past the horizon, the streets an outrage. The citizens of the town rushed to crowd the lab, tufts of fur and feathers scattered about. Juno tucked away his notes within his satchel, barely avoiding conversations as others rushed to them.

“You! You’re that scientist’s kid!”

“I… I’m sorry ma’am but you’ve got the wrong person!” They sputtered out, moving off the path and taking one of the more hazardous alleyways.

They could feel the desperate hands of pursuers on their path, footsteps barreling behind. Letting out an impatient sigh, the young apprentice swept his tail off to the side, knocking off the balance of not only himself, but to the others. Juno stumbled for a moment before righting themselves, shaking his head off and making a final turn into the gate. A sigh of relief was let past his lips as he made his way through the entrance, tapping his ID onto the scanner. 

“You’re late, Juno.” A stern, almost unforgiving voice bellowed from behind.

Their pointed ears seemed to droop, “My apologies sir, you see I… well the streets were flooded and people saw me-” 

“You let them stop you. A scientist doesn’t allow others to delay their goals.”

“...Yes sir.” 

Tension filled the air between the two, Juno fidgeting with a pen within his hands. They approached a sealed room, once more lit with caution lights, a whiteboard scribbled with some messy equations spanned across one wall. The townspeople have been waiting for this day, a breakthrough in time travel, a way to finally fix their lives. Their little town was a hotspot to unstable weather, the Summer known to wipe out many across the country. The whirring of a machine sounded from behind the doors, attracting the attention of the two. That shouldn’t be active yet? Juno’s eyes darted to his mentor, who was frantically searching his pockets. Upon finding nothing, he abandoned Juno in their state of confusion, rushing through the doors to reach the control panel. Command after command the scientist put into the device, his face in red lights.

“Sir?” Juno had shoved the doors open, forcing his way inside as the noise grew louder. 

Morrow was hopeless, turning to face his apprentice. Mouthing a quick, “leave,”. All attention was brought back to the panel, sirens blaring around the two. He grew urgent, moving faster and faster to type in various codes. Juno didn’t recognize any of them. Why? In the matter of seconds, he felt himself running. Grabbing hold of Morrow by the shoulders before he could even think twice, throwing his mentor away from the panel. Faster and faster the sounds seemed to go, a voice sounded from behind him, a warning. 

Light, that was all he could see, his vision taken over. The room is filled with bands of color, broken shards of the once stable timeline floating amongst them. When their eyes finally adjusted, they weren’t in the lab anymore. They were looking through a window, a shard. Juno kicked the air, no longer on solid ground, their hands laced with what could only be stardust. Mind racing, he attempted to piece together just what had happened.

“So the machine malfunctioned… that explains the noises. Morrow was worried? I’ve never seen him like that before, it’s almost like the machine was alive.”

His hands drifted along the edge, admiring the way the image seemed to shift along his touch. Juno’s world, his home, all at his fingertips.

“These shards are… Earth? So then where am I?”

He’d turned slowly, surprised by the lack of void. Walls, are they even walls? Lined with filmstrips, aged books floating left and right. Some were burning, some were torn, and yet some remained perfectly intact. Juno pushed off the surrounding air, moving towards one of them, realizing the pages had been blank. One by one, he examined them, and each one was the same, blank, and yet so full of potential. 

“If the shards allow me to see home, that must mean…”

“Who might you be, little one?” An echo, beyond one’s perception.

Juno’s head whipped backwards, meeting the voice face to..? The being’s face was only an eye, blinking down upon the traveler. Two hands loomed over their back, connected with strings, tangled and broken. They could barely believe the sight, in front of them stood something they’ve questioned for years. A higher being, whose sight was set in stars.

Gazing upon the being he’d encountered, he was barely able to form words, wings tucked around himself, “Juno. You can call me Juno, this isn’t my home anymore, is it?” 

“Juno. I’m unsure of what you have done, surely you must be. You humans, tampering with the very universe.” Their body shifted in every which way, a haunting silhouette making up their form.

Before he could speak, this ‘being’ waved one of the two superficial limbs, motioning to the aged collection of books. They had explained that this place was the Library of Knowledge. The pages had gone blank, as if the ink was consumed by oneself. Along with this, the once dome of life displaying various timelines had shattered, Juno’s world being one of them. The ‘window’ that he’d seen was instead a small piece from his very reality, as they sat along the edge of a broken dimension.

“Morrow caused… this? Your library, our reality, it’s all falling to pieces because of him?” 

“It can be fixed, young blood. That is where you come in. I’m trusting you with Syzygy, a caretaker amongst these paths. She will show you the way.”

On cue, a spirit-like creature approached Juno, her eyes were blank, while the same stardust flowed throughout her limbs. She waved a string of stars briefly, inviting Juno through a strange path. Wisps of life swirled around him, attracted to his unfamiliar presence. Syzygy gently caught one of the wisps, watching it shift into a filmstrip, filled with many blank photos. She returned her gaze back up to Juno, holding it up to him. 

“Am I… supposed to fill this in?” Carefully, he took the object between his hands, touching one of the many blank images. 

It lit up beneath his touch, revealing a recreation of the current moment, down to Syzygy at his side. Juno took a quick glance around, looking for anything that could be watching him. A small snapping of his companion’s fingers brought him back to the moment, and within a few more touches, the photos soon filled in vital moments of his life. From the lab disaster with Morrow, to his birth, with his parents. 

“...This is my memory? I’ve never met them though..? They can’t be my parents, right?” 

“It is. The fates could never forget you, Juno.” Her voice was soft, barely a whisper, laced with the sound of howling winds.

The two continued, Syzygy returned the completed memory back up to its book in the library, retrieving a second piece. This time, it featured some finished photos, some damaged, and some gone entirely. When met with Juno’s questioning eyes, she quickly gathered a few lone shards that had laid beside it. Similar to those he had looked through previously into his home world on a much smaller scale.

“Syz… Syzygy right? I know these people! That’s my mentor, Morrow.” He pointed excitedly upon one of the damaged photos, the scientist’s face in half, “And that’s his lab, and his son!” 

Piece by piece he grabbed the shards, sliding them into the images til they were complete, restoring the lineup of memories. Only a few of them remained empty, and Juno returned it to the small companion. She asked him if he’d remembered any of it, and began restoring a space in between when given a few details, such as the age of his son. Syzygy returned it as well to its slot in the books, taking Juno by the hand to lead them onward. The two sorted the shards as if puzzle pieces, splitting up to find their owners among the star ridden library. It was going seamlessly, Juno gently lifting another from the floor, only to pause, staring upon it.

“Juno, we must hurry.” 

“This is my mother, Syzygy, is she alive? Is she… here?” He sounded unsure, yet hopeful, turning it to show the other.

She looked horrified, curious as to how Juno hadn’t noticed the lack of facial features on his ‘mother’. Instead, there were faint white freckles not far from the stars surrounding them. Syzygy reached up, ever so gently removing it from their hands, and setting it upon a shelf before taking hold of his hands once more. 

“We need to go back, Juno. This isn’t safe for you anymore.” 

“Not safe? What do you mean it isn’t safe? Syzygy!”

Without the ability to say otherwise, she transported them both back to the presence of the higher one. The panicked tone of her voice gave away what had happened, they’d worried about this possibility. The limbs floated toward Juno, their strings weaving around his limbs and holding him in place. 

“Perhaps, young one, you’ve caught onto where you are. Who we are. We are creation itself, and you, Juno, are our creation.” The being reached a hand towards him.

 It shifted and conformed to the shape of a human hand, feathers upon the wrist as the two continued. Syzygy stepped in front of him next, this time in the form of his mother, face missing just like the photos. 

“I’m sorry, Juno. The two of us, we’ve created everything you know. The land, the sky, the people, you. Sending you back would prove to be a vital mistake.”

“We’ve avoided this for so long, we wanted you to believe you could be normal, like the others, not like us. Yet here we are.” He looked down upon Juno, glancing at Syzygy. 

He didn’t fight back upon the grasp of the strings, standing in silence as they contorted to his skin. He merely listened as his fate was set in front of his very eyes. Home was out of reach, figuratively, and now, the painful truth. Yet Juno wasn’t scared, he was honored to finally be seen by his parents, to know them for who they are. 

“From now on, you’ll be one of us. You’ll watch over the timeline we’ve created for you. Morrow would be proud of you, Juno. We can promise you that, if anything at all.”

His father’s touch, lighter than air against his face. His mother, smiling warmly at the last moments of her very existence. All faded around him, until he was the only thing left. Stars weaved through his feathers, the galaxy’s message foretold on his being. Tears flowed down Juno’s face, but they weren’t of regret. Within his hands sat a shard, a final picture of the 3 of them, at the edge of a universe. 

“I must be going now, Morrow. I’ll fix everything, I promise.”