Summary: Two thousand, one hundred, and thirty-nine times, the Endless has traveled through time on the island to save her friends, only to see them died over and over again. A few times, she encounters another (and in few cases, younger) versions of herself who is struggling as well, both physically and emotionally. One time, she contemplated suicide, feeling that there was no point in fighting anymore. But the moment the cycle has finally broken, something builds inside her that she hasn’t felt for a long time. Hope.
The Endless remembered all the hardships she had to face the first time she stepped into La Huerta and trying to surviving the craziness. The moment all her friends died on this cursed island, all the kindred spirit she had inside her has been replaced with despair. The light in her forest green eyes faded and became dead with hollow as she stared at the mounds of graves containing their corpses. She gripped the hilt of the shovel as she hung her head down with tears finally escaping her eyes.
“Why? Why? Out of all the people who survived, why did it have to be me?”
Moments later, she was out of the cave, covered in dirt and blood, and aimlessly wandered around the jungle in the unbearable heat. She didn’t even care if she’s going to have heatstroke, nonetheless, the fact that she was going to pass out in the wilderness waiting for a certain sabertooth tiger or blue-skinned warriors to appear and kill her.
It wasn’t until then that the Endless discovered the time loop in this mysterious island and that she can traveled through time, even for thousand years to the past. Maybe, she thought, just maybe, she could use this time loop to her advantage in order to prevent her friends’ deaths.
But that was proven easier said than done. The law of time still applies to the universe, including La Huerta itself. Creating a drastic change, such as killing Rourke for example, would end up creating a disastrous results for herself and her friends. So the Endless had to adjust her methods to help her friends, changing as little as possible in each timeline so she wouldn’t create disastrous butterfly effects. Also, time travel for thousand years back and forth had caused her to age abnormally, looking old enough to be anyone’s grandmother. But she didn’t care. As long as it meant saving her friends, she’s willing to risk anything. Unfortunately for her, the more she tried to change and travel through time, the more she had to see her friends died over and over again.
Within those timelines, the Endless had also sometimes witness her younger self died as well, in few cases, earlier before her friends did. Few of times were when she ended up sacrificing herself to save the others, her best friend, Diego, included. Other times were natural disasters or when the Arachnids attempted to capture her for Rourke’s interests in her ability. One time, one of the most sorrowful one in the Endless’s opinion, her younger self was pregnant with the child (though she wasn’t surprised there weren’t any protections used since there weren’t any on the island) and she didn’t make it through labor despite Michelle’s expertise in the medical field. The baby didn’t make it, either. The Endless literally has to stepped away from that scene and reset the cycle to prevent anymore heartbreaks for herself.
There were couple of times when the Endless encountered her younger self face to face. The first time, they were dangerously close to each other to the point where both of them can disappeared in the timelines and cease to exist so the Endless had to run away before that could happened. The second time, the Endless built a red-clad spacesuit, mainly to protect herself from disappearing in case she encounter her younger self again. The moment she did, she saw her younger self wandering through the harsh snow storm, perhaps sometime after she pushed Aleister through the window towards his deaths, and collapsed out of exhaustion waiting for death to take her. As light faded in her dark green eyes, her younger self managed to glanced up at the Endless and croaked weakly, “Who are you?”
The Endless didn’t answer. She did, however, knelt down to pushed the strand of her long hair away from her pale face. That action had caused the younger woman to widened her eyes in realization and jerk a little bit, as if she was hit by lighting or possibly by some sort of vision. “Y-You’re…!”
The Endless didn’t get to hear her finished her sentence for that someone was coming towards their away, and the former have to escape once again leaving her younger self for death. Once she’s back on the volcanic mountains, she started to think that all her efforts were futile and decides to end it here. What’s the point of living if the ones she loves are not here with her?
Before she can stripped herself off her spacesuit and stepped off to the crater of lava, she felt the ground shook beneath her, causing her to nearly tripped backwards. There was a strange tension in the air, and out of confusion and curiosity, she looked up to the starry night. Something has changed in this island. But what?
It was only until she found out that another one of her younger self, the one in the 2,139th timeline, had finally broken the cycle with all her eleven friends alive. How in the world she did it, she does not know completely. But for the Endless, the miracle was brought forward and she realized that there is hope after all. Mostly for the younger self, but for her as well.
The Endless took her chance to meet her other self at the dragon cave and told her what she needed to do before the the lava enters their pathway.
“Listen to me. You’re the miracle I’ve waited for. You’re the only one who could keep everyone safe. I need you to recover the Island’s Heart from Rourke. With it, we can preserve La Huerta and protect our friends.”
With that, the Endless disappeared from her sight through the tsunami of lavas. There’s still so much that needed to be done, but at the very least, there’s still a chance that everyone can be saved. Hope have ignited in her once again.
Time had pass since the gang was back together, manages to get away from another one of Rourke’s facility, and then deal with the time travel from where the wedding first took place on the island. As everyone else is preparing for battle against Cetus to get the second half of the Island’s Heart, Yurika Hoshina stood by the dockside of Dorado, looking out at the sea lost in thoughts.
After her second encounter with the Endless, the college girl can’t help but wonder how much her older self had to deal with after experiencing the gang dying over two thousand times. Moreover, she was still bothered by her methods of manipulating the time events and the Vaanti to keep everyone else alive, even though it was for good intentions. Not to mention, it caused a lot of pain for the Vaanti. Mainly Uqzhaal. He’s still pissed at Yurika (or rather her older self) to the point where he attempts to kill her with the liquid time crystals. She may have to deal with him later.
Just then, Yurika felt something cold and fluffy nudging against her leg, causing her to look down and smile face to face with the blue snow fox. By the time she allowed Furball to climb up on her shoulder, she saw Diego walking towards her and stood beside her.
“Thinking about that Endless again, Rika?
She nodded in response, “I still can’t handle the fact of all the things she did to keep all of us alive as much as possible, even though she had good intentions,” The young woman glanced at her best friend worriedly, “Doesn’t it bother you that the Endless is…y’know, technically me?”
Diego puts his hand on her shoulder, looking at her right through the eye, “Yurika, you’re practically my best friend here. None of that is going to make me think less of you. Besides, you’re different from her. You’re not going to take drastic measures like setting Varryn’s people up to help us out, even though it did bring us closer together. Plus, you still have us. We’re with you all the way, no matter what.”
Yurika smirked at the last comment, “Sounds a bit cheesy there, Diego.”
“…Okay, it does sounds cheesy,” he agreed before putting an arm around her shoulder, “But that’s because it’s actually true! We’ll handle the other stuff later, Rika. I promise. Right now, we have other problems to deal with.”
The leader of the gang smiled and leaned her head against her best friend shoulder, “You’re right. We have to focus on what we have to do now. And that’s getting the Heart back from Cetus.”
Too much betrayals and mistrusts had already been made. Not to mention, there was much more to be done once they got the second half of the Island’s Heart. She still wasn’t happy with the ways the Endless handle the situations, but if there’s anything that Yurika learned from her, it’s to have faith that everything will be okay for her and her friends.