"My friend, we have a problem." Mischief's tone was apprehensive. For the first time, the troublemaker seriously doubted their strategy.

"What is it now?" Mayhem didn't sound worried but annoyed at the whole situation they currently faced.

"The old one might have found the testament," Mischief said with a heavy sigh.

"That's impossible," Mayhem refused to believe it, "She died, and we both saw her die. No one other than her knew. Waheeb is the only one we have been able to connect with since then."

"This universe is tricky. Let's find somewhere else to jump and feed. There are plenty of other worlds to choose from."

"No, we need to eat as soon as possible. It has been two centuries since we last ate. We won't survive another one."

"I know, I know, but remember how she was. She used us." Mischief all but cried.

"Yes, I remember. She was brilliant, though; scary but brilliant. Waheeb is just a human. He can't be like her. How dangerous can he be?" Mayhem said, once again looking down on humans.

"But the humans have been living with the old ones." Mischief pointed out the obvious flaw in his friend's reasoning. "They must have learned, adapted, and evolved. I fear we might lose this time too, and maybe more than our chance of a jump and a meal."

"No, no, we can't lose." Mayhem was certain they couldn't fail. After all, they had been planning and plotting for decades—from the time when Waheeb was only a child.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm quite sure. Humans aren't like the old ones," Mayhem repeated itself. "They're not mentally strong, and they can't figure out the truth. Even she couldn't destroy us. And she died, my friend."

"Yes, oh yes, we will eat soon."

#

Things were stranger than before. For me, it was an eye-opening experience to discover the existence of aliens and other un-named beings. I wondered how humans had lived all this time without any such knowledge. But Fatim told me that many of the old religions were, in fact, proof of alien life forms.

"Who do you think angels are?" she said one day, making me question my core beliefs.

"What are you saying? That angels are aliens, too?" My eyes widened in disbelief.

"You people call them angels. We call them malvareens." She shrugged as if it was no big deal; as if she wasn't turning my world upside down.

"It's unbelievable! What about God?" I probed with curiosity.

"Well, that's a little tricky. I'm not entirely certain why humans are obsessed with him. I guess he must have saved you guys somewhere in the lost history. We don't really care about him much." She smiled, enjoying my reactions.

"You're kidding?" I couldn't tell if she was or not, but I hoped she was because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to trust anything ever again.

"Why would I?" Her smile vanished and she became serious. "Waheeb, you can't begin to imagine some of the things out there. We know so much because we come from a universe, where traveling faster than the speed of light has been possible for many centuries. The earth is another story though. You haven't left this globe and don't understand what exists in outer space, beyond your reach."

"So, are you people ever going to come out of hiding?" I changed the topic because dealing with my ignorance could wait. I would be imagining all kinds of things after this conversation.

"I doubt it. What we have here is perfect. Humans don't need to know about us. And let's face it, you people tend to react badly to things that are different, and you can't get more different than aliens who live long lives. You know, we can live more than a thousand years." She threw another bomb at me; shocking me yet again.

"You're right even with evolution we haven't come that far," I said and then realized what she just told me. "Wait, what! thousand years? Seriously, Fatim, how old are you exactly?"

"I'm not telling you my age. Ask Nate's if you're so curious." She laughed. It was a beautiful sound that I have come to love hearing.

In truth, I was a little sad because Fatim was right about one thing. Our planet wasn't as welcoming as one would hope or expect it to be. Humans did consider themselves as the only intelligent lifeform in the universe. They weren't above mistreating their fellow humans. I wasn't entirely sure how they would take the news that they weren't even as intelligent as they thought. There were far superior lifeforms that existed, and our universe was one of many parallel verses. They would want to experiment on the old ones, use them for their nefarious purposes, or start plotting universe domination. I shuddered at the thought.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Nate said as he entered my office, interrupting my line of thought.

"Oh, nothing important. I'm curious about everything these days." I shrugged. Nate wasn't as forthcoming as Fatim was. Besides, I liked spending time with her. And talking to her was more fun. She told me stories about her exploits, before and after coming to Earth, and I asked questions about everything I didn't know or understand.

"It's okay, Waheeb. The old ones have been in this universe far longer than humans. I'm sure you will catch up to us soon."

"Do you miss your planet?" I asked them.

"Every day, my friend, every day." Nate's answer was instant but Fatim said nothing.

"Are you ever going to go back?" I didn't know if it was even possible for them, but the thought that they could leave made me sad. I'd miss them if they left.

"We can't," Fatim confirmed my suspicion, "Our planet was destroyed. It was no longer habitable. That's why we had to leave in the first place."

"Anyway, what's our plan? How are we dealing with the troublemakers?" Not liking the sadness in her voice, I changed the subject yet again.

"Oh, that reminds me of the purpose of my visit," Nate said. "I have found something really interesting. So, you two found the Old Testament in the fiction section of our very limited physical library. That had me wondering. Why keep such a thing in the fiction section, and why only in physical form? And then I realized it can only be because no one believed it and assumed it to be fiction. What else is out there hiding among fiction sections of the libraries and how many of these fiction stories are actually fiction?"

"Interesting thought but how is it going to help us?"

"I've found a treasure of knowledge, my friends." Nate looked excited as if he had discovered something exceptionally good.

"OK, then tell us." Fatim and I were both impatient. All we wanted to do was to deal with this imminent danger as soon as possible. The thought of losing Earth to something like the Havocs was unimaginable for us.

"I've found a novel among my old books, written centuries ago, and it tells a story about two beings who eat planets. It related to us how their evil plan was thwarted by an old one. But she was unable to kill them. Before she could destroy them completely, they sensed her intentions and broke their connection to this universe. But the epilogue explains how this can be prevented and they can be destroyed completely so that they are no longer able to devour planets and destroy worlds."

"But what if it is fiction and we fail?" Doubt laced Fatim's voice. "Don't you think you're starting to believe in fiction a little more than you should? So, the Keepers made one mistake, and the Old Testament ended up in the fiction section. It doesn't mean that we can believe every fictitious story."

"Have you forgotten our childhood stories, Fatim? Even those weren't fiction, and the troublemakers are real. I'm just keeping an open mind." Nate wasn't ready to give up on his reasoning just yet.

But I wasn't sure about his theory either. "I don't know, Nate. She has a point."

"No, you guys, I think this is it. This is the answer to our troubles. The book I found is too detailed. And it fits perfectly with everything we already know about these monsters. The most interesting thing is that the author's name is the same as the one mentioned in the documents you found earlier. I think she wrote both of them."

"Okay, then let's do this. Let's rid our world of this menace and save the future world while we are at it." Fatim's smile was more confident now that Nate had given us hope.

"That's all well and good, but how do we find them? How do we know where they are hiding?" I asked, feeling anxious about the upcoming confrontation. "We don't have much time left. They could jump any minute now."

"Don't worry, Waheeb because we have a way to track them down," Nate said and showed us a device. "This is a quantum scanner. It can detect the quantum signatures of the troublemakers and pinpoint their location in this universe."