Corius

Much time passed in the Windcurrent Clan.

Exactly how much time was hard to tell, with all the sudden random time travel trips...

But enough time that both he and Timeless had many children, whom each had time to grow and find their own passions.

Enough time, that the terms 'Mistress' and 'Lady' eventually were replaced with 'Darling' and 'Dear'.

Enough time... for him to fall in love.

Even if his cold and calculating database couldn't exactly pull up the word, his organic heart knew exactly what it was.

He loved being with her, seeing her smile, hearing her laugh, seeing the way her eyes sparkled when he talked about the different times he traveled to.

If nothing else, she was the thing he was most determined to try and find a way to control his time jumps for. So he could help her with her time studies, and see the pure joy in her eyes when she made breakthroughs... and so he knew he'd always be able to return to her.

One day, Timeless had a particularly large breakthrough. Rumors of time rifts to the south.

And she was determined to find them herself.

Neither of them knew how long this trip would take her, but Corius was determined to use this downtime to surprise her. To master his time traveling ability.

The Windcurrent Clan didn't see him for weeks. Or, rather, they only saw him for about a single second every few weeks.

Time and time again, he jumped, determined to trigger the time traveling device at HIS will, and not it's own.

He took a few more seconds to collect himself, ready to make his next jump...

But he never got the chance...

He was suddenly ambushed by an unseen attacker.

The attacker pinned him to the ground, and cut open the synthetic flesh at the base of his neck to overload the time traveling device, destroying it.

There was no escape from this assassin, as they then jammed a device into the back of his head, forcing their way into his memory database...

...Another cyborg...?

The assassin ignored any and all desperate pleas from Corius, as they tore mercilessly though his memories, forcefully deleting anything they deemed useless... Until they eventually found what they wanted from him.

The strain was the constant time jumps, as well has having his databanks torn apart and forcefully downloaded was too much.

Corius shut down.

The assassin then dragged his body over the cliffs, and dumped it into The Sea of a Thousand Currents, where it would never be found.

After all, cyborgs sink, not float...

Although most of the machinery was broken down, the still organic parts of Corius continued to fight to stay alive.

But it'd only be a matter of time until they succumbed as well...

...........

The next thing Corius knew, he felt... Cold.

Someone was screaming his name.

It was... Timeless?

He didn't recognize where they were. It didn't look like any land he'd ever seen or heard about...

He heard Timeless, frantic, angry, demanding to know who had hurt him.

But all he could say was "NONONONO- S-STOP- PLEASE- DON'T- STOPSTOP- NO- DARLING- PLEASE- HELP- WHY-"

It was then, when a white and red Tundra walked in, placed a paw on his head, and he once again fell into blackness.

Throughout his days of resting, he overheard the Tundra and Timeless speak. Apparently, Timeless had lead this Tundra, Cerise, into finding out that he was in trouble, and rescuing him. And now they were both working on repairing him back into working order with... some strange ability Cerise had...

One night, Corius awoke to the sight of Timeless, sleeping protectively around him.

Around her were several notebooks, all her research on time travel...

Corius felt his heart sink, when he suddenly realized... His time traveling device was still broken.

He couldn't help his beloved Timeless with her dream of time travel without it...

...Well, he determined, that if this Cerise was able to keep him alive, then surely, they'd be able to fix his time travel device, right?

And so, Corius sought out the Tundra, and asked for his help.

Unfortunately, Cerise told Corius that while he had the ability to convert metal into flesh, and heal the wounds... that didn't make him an engineer...

...But... there was ONE way Cerise could give Corius his time traveling abilities back...

Corius told him he'd do it, and Cerise warned him that there'd be no going back. This would be permanent, and he'd never be able to go back to his clan because of it.

So be it, it wasn't like Corius was going to just go back to his assassin anyway.

And he'd do anything to be able to be helpful to his beloved again.

And so, Cerise once again placed his paw upon Corius' head.

And in that instant, Corius felt pain.

A greater pain then he could have ever imagined pain to even feel.

And then, before he knew it, he was back in the Windcurrent Clan... Only... he wasn't really.

He was only a spectator.

He saw the faces of his old friends and co-workers. They seemed... sad? Were they missing him...?

And then he saw the faces of his and Timeless' beloved children, who's names had been mercilessly removed from his mind by his assassin.

...And then, there he was. Watching his own assassination attack. Completely helpless to stop it.

Over and over again, he kept jumping back to the time of the attack.

Pain, sadness, fear and rage all washed over him. Corius was not used to having all these emotions!

HE JUST WANTED IT TO STOP!!

And then... Just like that, he was back in the unknown place with Cerise.

Corius' body felt weak and overheated, he could hardly even move, but he could see the flying tome that was in front of him.

It looked a lot like the familiar that the Windcurrent Clan's Light Ambassador had... Only...

...Only this book... had several rows of sharp, pointed teeth in it's pages.

From the book's 'jaws', it spat out a... a dead water sprite...

Then, the sprite's body was suddenly engulfed in a black substance, before an entirely new creature crawled out of it.

It... looked like a sprite... but something about it was just... wrong.

Before Corius could think about the meaning of all of this, he suddenly felt that familiar, tingling tug on his body.

He was going to time jump again.

Somehow, some way, he just knew he'd be sent back to the scene of his attack.

He didn't want to see that again!

Nononononono-!

Without even thinking, Corius found himself reaching out, and grabbing the sprite-like creature.

...And just like that, the tingling feeling ebbed away, and his started to feel his body gradually cool off.

He took this time to look in a nearby puddle, and was suddenly shocked to see his once ice-blue eyes, were now a golden color, and his pupils were now the shape of hourglasses.

Corius caught a glimpse of Cerise nearby. The Tundra had a pleased grin on his face.

"Welcome, Avatar of Time." He said.