text: [Themes: modern, villain protagonist, anti-hero, grimdark]
  
  As I stood in the cockpit, seeing the plane slowly rise higher into the sky, I wondered how much she would have enjoyed this. Rosa, the little girl who stuck her head out of the window to feel the morning breeze. If I could have brought this moment with me, I certainly would have. I could imagine Rosaline serenely watching the clouds, asking me what each of them looked like.
  
  "Dad," she would say, "That one looks just like the cake you and mum had on your wedding day." Or perhaps she would comment on how blue the sky looked from up here.
  
  "As blue as your eyes," my wife would have said. "Although not nearly as deep."
  
  In that moment, I would have hugged them both, showering them with soft kisses on their heads. I would not have needed to say any words except contently watch them gaze at the sky.
  
  "So, you want to go... up?" the copilot snapped me out of my daydreams. "Just... up?"
  
  "Yes. I had gotten rid of the pilot because of how incompetent he was. So do as I say, and no one would get killed. Just up, and when I disappear, you can take the plane back down to resume your initial flight."
  
  "And what if you don't disappear?"
  
  I scowled. "Then just keep heading upwards. Don't stop 'til I say so."
  
  We went up. The sky became a whole lot darker and several more flight attendants began knocking on the locked door of the cockpit. "We just want to know if you're okay!"
  
  "Shut up so I can concentrate," the copilot yelled back. His mood was certainly a lot more sour now the original fear had left him.
  
  I closed my eyes, remembering the words I had to say. The plane moved a lot more shakily, slightly groaning from how much it had to resist gravity. If I had used a spaceship, I would have gone past the skyworld and landed in space instead. Not ideal at all. The copilot turned back and said, "You'd better say those magic words soon or we would reach the ozone layer and explode.
  
  "Fine, fine." I took a deep breath and recited the words.
  
  > Skyworld resero
  I opened my eyes to a whole new world. My first thought was to wonder if I had died. The place I was in shone brighter than anything on Earth, and each colour was a lot more vivid.
  
  "Am I... am I in heaven?"
  
  "Hey guys, I think we got a saint here!" A flock of seagulls came over and squawked in what sounded like laughter. "I'm guessing this is your first visit to the skyworld?"
  
  "I... yeah, it is. What is this place? Why's it so... bright?"
  
  "Oh, the fog. Get him the fog, one of you lazy parrots!"
  
  "One of you lazy parrots. Ugh, I can't wait for the day when this curse is over." A parrot with exceptionally bright coloured feathers pecked a bit of cloud out and carried it in its beak. When the cloud was passed to a pink, glittery flamingo, it shaped it into a pair of sunglasses.
  
  I put in on, and everything looked normal again. Well, the colours went back to normal and I could see more than what was directly in front of me. The whole scene was still surreal, with many birds flying all around, as well as a few humans, gnomes, fairies, and other creatures only depicted in fantasy stories.
  
  "Over there, you would see the queue for newcomers. It's particularly long at the moment since we had a lot of returning members who lost their passes and needed to fill out registration forms again. There was an attack, you see, and besides the 'real' world, skyworld has the worst defense line."
  
  "I couldn't care less about that. Just let me in. I'm not going to wait for hours just queuing up-"
  
  The main seagull tugged at my white hair with his beak. "Follow me. Woodpecker's line is always the fastest. She's a real efficient bird. Just don't ever take peacock's queue - she enjoys chatting far too much."
  
  It was less than a few minutes later when I walked up to the registration counter, newly equipped with headphones made of clouds to muffle the sound of the loud conversations all around me.
  
  "Name, world, and business."
  
  "My name is Arnold Cyzila. I'm from the 'real' world, and I'm here to see my daughter."
  
  "Is she a resident of the skyworld?"
  
  "No. She got taken by the dreamworld, and I heard of a portal from this world to that world. I'm going to rescue her."
  
  Woodpecker stuck her head out of the booth. "Why, I've never heard that one before. Not that I'm to judge, no, not me. Where do you plan to find this portal, Mr. Cyzila?"
  
  "If my memory serves me well, I am to go through a 'dark-sky phenomenon', and there's also something called the 'Fall to hopelessness'. Could I get a guide too?"
  
  Now, the woodpecker's beak was open wide. She tilted her head slightly and asked, "You're going... there? But it's a certified death-zone. It means that there is no way of making it out yet, although scientists have been working on it for some time. Why would you-"
  
  "For my daughter. Rosaline Cyzila. Heard of her?"
  
  She pecked at the keyboard for some time, then said, "Nope. She's not on the skyworld system so we cannot locate her. In the marketplace, you should be able to find a map to the lab where scientists are investigating the 'dark-sky phenomenon', and they can send you there. After that, and I hope you are prepared, you would take the theoretical journey known as 'Fall to hopelessness'."
  
  "Sounds good."
  
  I walked into the small scanner, and instantly, it felt as if a part of my personality and consciousness was absorbed by the machine.
  
  "Just a precautionary measure. Anytime you're in the skyworld, if you are found to be a threat to our world and society, we would be able to bring you back here and hold you captive."
  
  Upon hearing that, I realized that if this world had the weakest defense line, just how powerful were the other worlds?
  
  How powerful was the dreamworld?
  
  > The Marketplace
  It was a lively, bustling marketplace that first greeted me upon entry to the skyworld. It was not too different from the markets back home, except that mythical creatures replaced the humans. Along the way, I got multiple offers to buy a translation pill which would enable me to speak and understand any language for two minutes, a mirror said to be from Fairytale world and the Beauty & the Beast story, as well as a flying dreampower. What would I even do with any of these items anyway? Not that I had any of their currency - they used starstones.
  
  "Come ye, come ye! Buy all the weapons you would ever need to help you on perilous journeys!"
  
  "Purchase your very own Flighticorn now for only 5 starstones!"
  
  "I have the blood of Time, a celestial being! Get a vial in exchange for ten death-stars... no, it's not illegal! Don't bring me to prison! I can kill you, I can kill you..."
  
  Those items seemed to be rather useful, but if I were to be on my way, I needed more than a few supplies from this marketplace. I also had to get a ride to this lab, a map to lead the way, and... what was that about weapons? My gun seemed to be running out of bullets after all the events to get to this world.
  
  "You seem lost, old man. Need a hand?" The masked lady who approached had an evil look on her face, seeming like the kind of woman who would not hesitate to kill you.
  
  "Get away, you pesky seller." I shoved her into a store.
  
  "You would regret crossing me. Why, you see, I have a plan for you humans once I complete one more experiment. After that, get ready for me to conquer your silly race."
  
  I lunged forward but she disappeared in a purple mist. However, she left behind a note.
  
  'Want some starstones? I would give you 14 if you kill the old man by the flower store and allow me to capture his son. The son's a seer, so he might know you are about to attack."
  
  "Huh, easy." I reloaded the gun and went over to the flower store. The old man welcomed me in.
  
  "We have the lavenroses, great for healing. It is a special variety grown in our cloud gardens. Or are you interested in the murkenstein, the signature plant of the seaworld? You can transform into a mermaid for five days after eating one of its leaves."
  
  A hollow laugh echoed from my throat. "Do I seem like the kind of man who wants to turn into a mermaid?"
  
  "I guess not." His laugh was one of cheerfulness. "It is just a popular specimen nowadays as travel between worlds is becoming more and more prevalent. There was also a rise of accidental trips to other worlds, although it is not a very common issue. What are you here to get?"
  
  "I would like..." My voice caught as I saw a blooming, slender rose. One of the most heated arguments between my wife and I was about Rosaline's name - I refused to let her name our daughter after a flower. We decided to keep the name and allow Rosaline to change it if she ever did, but Rosa said she related with the name more than anything.
  
  "Ah, this is called a rose. It was exported from the 'real' world, as that is the only environment this pretty flower can grow in. Here, it is still able to live. Just not truly grow. It is almost as if the rose is stuck in time, its beauty not fading, but it is not 'living' either."
  
  "Just like Rosa." I felt a little sickened by it all. Here, the flower was trapped, simply existing. And Rosaline, wasn't that the state she was in too? She could not be out of her world; it was not natural whatsoever.
  
  This rose shouldn't be in a different world either.
  
  The gun made its way to my hand, and I shot.
  
  "Papa!" The old man was pushed out of the way and a younger man glared at me. "Stop hunting my kind! Are you here to kill him and take me too?"
  
  "He's not. I am."
  
  The woman from earlier. She attacked, and not wanting my reward to go to waste when the old man was going to die anyway, I shot him. His son was frozen in shock. The lady covered him with a long cloak, then the both of them disappeared.
  
  Did I just get cheated? I angrily scanned my surroundings. "Where's my money?"
  
  "We call it starstones here. There you go. I've also made sure everyone in a mile's radius was distracted from our kill, and no one has noticed it. Pleasure doing business with you, Mr..."
  
  "Mr. Horwad." For some reason, I felt the need to disguise my name. "How about you?"
  
  "You can call me... The Skeleton." With a wave, she vanished once more.
  
  I was now able to purchase a few items for my trip. The map was something I certainly needed, yet other than that, I could collect items to aid me in my quest.
  
  [You have 14 starstones to start off with, spend them wisely]
  
  > The supplies store
  An enormous sparrow was perched on a tree of wispy clouds. She beckoned me in with a wave of her tail feathers.
  
  "Chirp, chirp... I'm just messing with you. We all speak the tongues of the 'real' world here - the languages only really start to vary when you go to the deeper parts of our world. Nice to meet you, I'm Mademoiselle Sparrow. Not to be confused with Madame Sparrow, my niece who got the 'dream director of the month' recently. What would you like to buy today?"
  
  "I'm going for a long trip. Do you happen to know anything about the 'dark-sky phenomenon'?"
  
  "Eh, never heard of it."
  
  "How about the 'Fall to hopelessness?"
  
  "Is that a book?"
  
  So she was utterly useless. I chose instead to go around the store and look at ordinary supplies.
  
  "It says here that these lavenrose flower bandage can heal you completely once, and for the same price, each lavenrose pill in there can heal you a quarter's way. And there are four of those pills, so..."
  
  "Right, I guess I should explain. In some parts of the skyworld, where the risk of dying is unusually high, you would be able to see your health numbered. The highest is 20 points. If you go below zero, you die."
  
  "I really cannot tell if you're making a fool of me. Anyhow, either I get my points back to 20 all at once, or slowly regenerate it by five points with each pill."
  
  "Yes. However, the pills have a catch - you cannot use them once your health is below 5 points. They simply lose their effectiveness."
  
  "Okay... which do you recommend I buy?"
  
  She chirped, flew off for a few seconds, and returned. "Sorry, I had to do an air delivery. It's honestly up to you and the type of person you are. Each are 4 starstones only. You could also buy both or more than one, although if you are on a budget and the trip would be long, you may choose to buy other products too. The pills can be bought separately too, each for two starstones so the set is a lot more worth it."
  
  > leave and go to the weapons store
  A ferocious dragon with rubies and emeralds on every scale blew a trail of smoke my way. "Come in. Buy a weapon to help you in this dangerous world."
  
  She directed me to the various sections, pointing out the items she believed were the best deals.
  
  "Here, you have the Midnight Bow and Arrow set. You can have four shots, each damaging your opponent by 5 health points. The tip of the arrow is designed to track heat and follow it, with the exception of the heat from the one who's holding the bow. No prior knowledge of archery is even needed here. Because it is a newly released item, it only costs 7 starstones."
  
  I nodded, certainly interested in purchasing such an advanced product. How many years was the skyworld ahead of the 'real' world in terms of technology?
  
  "We also have a gun right here, which looks very similar to yours. The only difference is that it has bullets, while yours doesn't anymore. Each bullet is coated in stardust, thus sails smoothly in air while retaining its explosive properties. You get eight bullets, each removing three points off your opponents. It is called 'Shooting Star'."
  
  "I'm guessing it's more expensive."
  
  "Yes. 9 starstones."
  
  I pondered the decision for a while. "Any cheaper options?"
  
  "The cheapest is the Cloud-Grenade orbs. Each damages your opponent by 2 points, and costs only 1 starstone."
  
  As I went around, weighing each weapon in my hand, the dragon came a little too close for comfort. "You do not seem like the customers I normally get."
  
  "What, not many old men come here?"
  
  She snorted, and a little flame danced on the tip of her... nose? "I wasn't exactly talking about your age. I was referring to your heart."
  
  It was my turn to snort in laughter. "My heart? What of it can you possibly know?"
  
  She blinked, letting her golden eyes fix on mine. "We dragons can sense the hearts of others except our own kind. I would ask you a question, and I hope you'll entertain me with an answer. When do you feel killing can be justified? As self defense, as a last resort... when?"
  
  The answer came easily to me. "My morals are different from most humans. I kill when it's most convenient to, or when it is the most... logical. The world should see murder as another option to take, and when weighing the pros and cons, this option might be the one they decide on. After all, isn't this the same world which prides itself on prioritizing logic while concealing all emotions?"
  
  The dragon nodded. "That's intriguing. And despite that, logic isn't the only foundation of your motivations, is it?"
  
  "Yes. My darling, Rosaline. Love for my family precedes all else in my mind."
  
  I was getting choked up by my own feelings, and kindly, the dragon said, "I'll leave you to it."
  
  > leave and go to the store of random items
  In this store where none of the items really matched the other, the seller was none other than a translucent wind pixie.
  
  "Buy what you want! Buy it all! I'll gladly say bye, bye to it all!"
  
  I walked up to the obnoxiously loud wind creature. "Do you have a map of this whole place?"
  
  "Wind pixies specialize in maps!" This was shouted in a shrill voice, directly into my ear. Even the cloud headphones did no good to block the sound out. "Here's one of not the whole place, but this area! It zooms in, zooms out, and allows you to see the world in real time!"
  
  "Answer this question, creature, and answer it softly or I'll leave. How much does it cost?"
  
  Without paying heed to my second request, he screeched, "2 starstones! Only two starstones for this sparkly, shiny map! It's made of the bones of miserable merfairies, moisturized by their tears. Highest quality! None other than the saddest, the most melancholy, the dreadfully tearstained-"
  
  "Okay, I get the idea, you brat. Shut your rowdy mouth." I snatched it from his hands.
  
  "Pay! Pay for that!"
  
  "Yes, I would pay once I decide whether or not I'll buy it. Stop being so darn noisy."
  
  I went deeper into the store where the sunlight was no longer so bright, the boisterous crowds not as loud. There were several interesting items I would have bought if I had more of the starstones. A bright ruby caught my eye and I remembered a conversation with the lady who captured my heart.
  
  "Or- or how about Ruby? If you're so determined to name her after a red object, that is. It also begins with R."
  
  "Ruby, huh? Hmm... perhaps it could work. You did get me that stunning ruby for Christmas last year."
  
  "To me, nothing can be more stunning than you."
  
  She giggled. "A real prince Charming, aren't you? But why are you so against our daughter being called Rosaline? Did you have a bad experience with roses?"
  
  "Do you remember the first time we met? Well, technically you didn't notice me then. I had prepared a note for you to meet me at that fancy diner's, but you thought I was Zerna. Because... because he happened to have a bouquet of roses. And he just played along, so everything I had planned became his."
  
  I remember how thoughtful she looked when she heard this. She spoke once more, her voice soft and breathy. "I've loved roses ever since then. And do you know why? Because I remember seeing you there that night, after you tried to sneak out. It was then I fell in love with you. Even though I never had proof, I knew it was you who planned it all. It was simply your style."
  
  From that moment on, Rosaline's name was set in stone.
  
  The moment felt so real that I expected to reach out and touch the roses in our little vase. When I turned back to the stones, the sapphire shone. A memory surfaced from my head, then when I looked to the next stone, another memory appeared.
  
  Only then did I see the label: 'Memory stones. Only test once'.
  
  > relive a memory of Rosaline
  She came running up to me on a day which seemed just like any other. Worriedly, she told me a boy in her class said that he loved her.
  
  "Dad?" Her little face turned pale. "What does that word mean? Love."
  
  I shook my head, putting a protective arm around my little girl. "He doesn't love you, darling. It's simply not possible. You've only known him for what, a week now?"
  
  "Not really. He was absent to class those first few days, so less than a week."
  
  Taking her tiny hand in mine, I began to teach her a valuable lesson. "Darling Rosa, when you truly love someone, their happiness becomes your main concern. Everything else is secondary. Loving someone means knowing that without a second thought, you would drop everything to come to their aid."
  
  "Like you and mum?"
  
  "Yes, sweetie. Like your mum and I. Because I love her, I would rather give myself up to death, suffer through my worst nightmares, and endure torture upon torture than to see her unhappy. Do you see that boy doing the same for you?"
  
  She laughed and shook her head. "No way. Even if he says he loves me, I certainly don't love him. Not when love means... all that."
  
  I pulled her into a long hug, but after some time, her face scrunched up in confusion.
  
  "Didn't you say you'd rather suffer than to watch mum be upset? But wouldn't your suffering make her sad too? Then it'll be... what's that word? Counter provective?"
  
  "Counterproductive." I smiled at my wise little girl, astonished at how quickly she learnt about the world around her.
  
  Someone cleared their throat behind me. The wind pixie.
  
  "Are you going to buy that?"
  
  "Nope, just browsing." I winced from how loud his voice sounded,
  
  "Then why are you wasting my time? Get out of here unless you're going to buy something!"
  
  > leave and get a ride to the lab
  There were winged horses flapping around the puffy white clouds, and I went up to them first. "Can one of you give me a ride?"
  
  "This insolent fool believes we wild beasts can be tamed? Heeheehaw! Like the free-floating clouds, we're not to be tied down." They took off into the sky, snorting at my ignorance when it came to skyworld culture.
  
  Guess I had to try one of the carriages instead. They were pulled by a flock of doves, making for a majestic ride.
  
  "Afternoon. Could I have a ride to-"
  
  "You don't seem to be the kind who has three hundred thousand starstones just lying around, do you?" The leading dove raised his chin a little arrogantly.
  
  "That's... that's how much it costs? Do you know where I may find a more affordable way to travel?"
  
  Once again, I was the joke of the day. If I had a starstone for every time I was laughed at by some animal here in the skyworld, I may not be rich, yet it was unusual how often it happened.
  
  "Why not go see the cloud-trodders? You can travel the world for free!"
  
  It was honestly degrading to be looked so lowly upon simply based on how few starstones were in my possession. Surely they would have been impressed if they learnt I made 14 starstones on my first day here without losing anything but a bullet?
  
  A sign by the thickest, heaviest clouds beckoned me over. "Hey! I'm a sign. Wanna read me? Just sign your name here and join the cloud-trodders! See the world from above!"
  
  "The cloud-trodders? Could you tell me more about them?"
  
  "They're on their walkabout now. Return in 2 hours, 43 minutes, and 39 seconds."
  
  My brows furrowed as I said, "So they're some kind of tour group?"
  
  The sign began waving its arms about. "No, no, no. The cloud-trodden traverse upon the paths the mysterious clouds set for them, following the call to adventure and heeding the wise words of the wild."
  
  "I'm betting that you don't even know what that means."
  
  "How should I? I'm just a sign, after all." The sign shrugged, and when I walked off, it began harassing the next person to join the cloud-trodders.
  
  I needed a vehicle rather than a walking team, and from what I knew of the animals in this place, they hated being ridden for less than a thousand starstones. A helpful fairy explained that this was simply the result of the new animal protection law to prevent people from taking advantage of any living creature.
  
  "Sir, would you like to ride a hot air carpet?"
  
  "What in the world is that?"
  
  "Hmm... how could I explain? Ok, there's this thing known as the 'hot air balloon' in the 'real' world. And this carpet is based off that from the fairytale world story - Aladdin. The magic carpet, assuming you've read it. This neat contraption works by following the physics law of how heat causes objects to rise. Only a tiny bit of magic was used in overcoming gravity."
  
  "And how does it work?"
  
  "Oh, you needn't worry about that. I'll drive you."
  
  Wasn't this just a bit too good to be true? I had another question. "How many starstones?"
  
  "Starstones?" He seemed confused for a moment, then realisation lit up his features. "Ah, you're new here, aren't you? The free transportation law followed the animal protection law here, and all you need to know is that we all had free transportation throughout the skyworld except in the darker sky regions because the leaders had to find some way to satisfy the protestors after it got too expensive to ride animals."
  
  It was fine enough for me, and I settled as comfortably as I could onto the carpet.
  
  > tell the driver to go to the lab and allow him to follow his instincts
  "It's been a long time since I've been there, and the instructions are a little messy inside my head. Sit back and enjoy the ride, sir, because I have a feeling it's going to be a long one."
  
  It was indeed a very long ride. My back ached terribly from the uncomfortable position. If it were not for the bumpiness of the journey - apparently, there was a lot of air traffic with confused clouds and the like - I would have dozed off a long time ago. Nothing was worth noting until we arrived at a building that was crumbling apart.
  
  "I must have been mistaken. This looks like the older Phoenix Gate lab. I'm not exactly sure why they moved, or... ah, there's a sign there. I'll ask what happened."
  
  We rolled off the carpet. My limbs were all stiff, so I had to take some time to get up from the ground. There was no way I would accept the driver's help, especially not when he was the one who brought us into this mess. He wasn't to get a glance of sympathy from me.
  
  The sign was as old as the laboratory, maybe even older. Every bit of its wooden stilt cracked and splintered, and it shuffled slowly towards us.
  
  "They abandoned the building. Not safe. Experiment gone wrong... portal to the wrong place opened. Unregistered magic use never goes well."
  
  "It doesn't look too unsafe. We're just going to pop in and send this old man here through a portal of some sort," my driver said.
  
  "Not safe! Not safe."
  
  I had endured the entire ride, and it wasn't all about to go to waste. "I'll decide what's safe and what's not," I replied, heading towards the building. "And don't ever call me old man, young boy ."
  
  A strange, ticking sound reverberated from inside the dilapidated lab, getting quicker with every second. We rushed to the carpet, but my ankle gave way. The cloudy ground became the sky and all I could see was white. Then I felt unbearable, scorching, deadly heat.
  
  "The portal to the sun exploded," was the last words I heard. I now knew better than to not listen to a sign.