Ok, here's the conclusion to the first (hopefully not last) story I wrote for Fan fiction. Come on, be a chum and review. Pleeeeease. Lol.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Safe in your own world

"I'm glad you figured it out," Pollukus laughed, "I was beginning to wonder if you ever would"

The squad where still in Candy Chateau, whilst each talked excitedly about Rayman's most recent discovery.

"So you knew then?" Ly looked up at Pollukus who was perched on a small pole made of some kind of sticky substance, and Rayman was a cake cliff just next to it at the same height "why didn't you tell us?"

Pollukus laughed, "I wasn't permitted"

"By who?" Rayman was shocked; he'd always seen Pollukus as the ultimate authority.

Pollukus laughed, "The almighty of course. He created this world, the one we've just seen, when the change was made, I was created by the lums, and assigned to create and look after the new world"

"The great change?" Murphy asked.

"The change from the world we where in before to this"

"When did that happen?" Gumsi questioned.

"And like, how man?" Romeo asked.

Pollukus shrugged "No one knows. No one knows when, why, or how. Could be a year after when we where there, two years, twenty, twenty thousand. Who's to say? Some of the older lums may know but they don't let on"

"So where did the lumsssss come from?" Sssssam slithered up.

"Yeh, Globox didn't see any there" said the blue guy.

"Again, we don't know" Pollukus replied.

"Wait," Rayman stood up "we did see some lums"

"Did we?"

"Yeh," Rayman went on "Sarrago, Yupio, Garento, and the hoodlums"

"I know Rayman," Ly sighed "but they came through the rift with us"

"But not back," Rayman pointed out "they stayed there didn't they, they became the first lums"

Everyone looked at each other "You got it!" Gumsi exclaimed.

"Splendid Rayman," Pollukus laughed, "you've just uncovered one of the world's secrets"

"So what about Barrig?" Rayman asked, "who was he exactly, what was the Emit Amulet?" he looked at the pieces of the Amulet, which he'd brought through with him.

"Basically what the lums told you," Pollukus told him "the Amulet controls the time portals, and when it was created, long before life, Barrig was born to protect time. Unfortunately, he chose to use the Amulet for his own evil. To manipulate ours and his fate, to make it in his own design. So, he was imprisoned in the Amulet and it was cast to a random time, the one where Dark found it. I think you know the rest" the gang nodded.

"So basically," Clark summed up "there was the world, almighty God who ruled it"

Pollukus laughed "Yeh, though strangely enough many of the human's didn't even think he existed"

"Like, weird man" Romeo commented.

"So anyway," Clark continued "the world as it was. We come through and drop off some lums, the lums then, at some point, turn it into this world?"

"Again, we can't be sure if it even was the lums," Pollukus hummed to himself "but chances are it was, they're the only beings that haven't evolved since"

Everyone nodded.

"What about Dark?" Murphy asked, "Where does he come into this?"

Pollukus shook his head "I don't know, I really don't know"

"I do" Rayman stood up.

All eyes where upon him.

"Pollukus," Rayman explained "we're not in our own time, Dark said, before he opened the portal, that we where going to 4142, we're still twenty five years in our past"

"Twenty five years!" Globox exclaimed.

"That's your age Rayman" Ly reminded him.

"No," Rayman corrected her "I'm older than that, that's how long I can remember"

"Pollukus sniffed the air "What month do you think it is?"

"Probably about Sssssramed" Sssssam guessed. (Sramed (or Sssssramed as Sssssam put it) is their world's (or as we now know, the future's name for) July)

Pollukus nodded, then closed his eyes "I sense it" he reported.

"What?" Globox asked.

Pollukus looked up "there was a storm last night," he replied "Rayman, I think you should come with me"

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Rayman sat, next to Pollukus, overlooking a small clearing in Spellbound Forest. There was only one tree in the clearing, a palm tree. It swayed gently in the breeze, the calm damp dew after the summer storm dripping from its branches.

Below it there lay a man, a man like none that this world had seen before. He had long, gingery yellow hair that stuck up like two rabbit ears and matched the colour of his skin, though it was slightly darker. His big eyes where a very dark blue, and sticking out in front of them was a rather large nose that his mouth sort of dropped down from. He was wearing white gloves, a purple top with a white circle on the front, and had yellow and white trainers on his feet. That was him all described, he had no limbs. Each body part just dangled in the air.

As Rayman looked upon his own history, he saw himself wake up and look around. Confused.

Rayman knew what he was thinking Who am I? Where am I?

Rayman!!!

Rayman closed his eyes, as he saw each thought and emotion he had felt on that day appear on his own face. He saw himself close his eyes, as he searched his deepest thoughts, then wince and jerk in pain and memories he would never forget struck him. He returned, his eyes open wide, the hurt showing clearly. Nothing but a name to guide him.

Rayman pitied this man, because he'd been there himself, he knew how painful it was. But as he pitied this man, he pitied himself.

Twenty-five years. And Rayman still remembered every action, every move, and every thought of that first day. He knew what happened next, a blue bird swooped at him, throwing him to the floor, knocking him out.

He waited for it to happen, knowing it would happen. But when it happened Rayman realised he'd been mistaken. It wasn't a bird, it was Dark. Dark had now found his hat and cloak; he'd probably bought them from some black market somewhere. There was no telling how long the gang had been knocked out after the portal journey.

Dark swooped at the younger Rayman, the young Rayman didn't have time to duck before Dark swiped at him with his now limbless hand and knocked him down.

"You will pay Rayman" the older Rayman heard him growl before he flew off.

Dark had transformed so quickly from the smart human to what he was now, and Rayman found it hard to believe. Yet he had now seen it happen, and it made sense.

The Dark who had stolen the Great Protoon had already been through the battle in the human world, or past. He had been born as a human, raised, led a normal human life, met Doomand (who had obviously been blasted through time rather than worlds as had been thought), become emperor of the pirates, then the recent events had happened. He was transformed, trapped in this world. Then he fought the younger Rayman when he kidnapped the Great Protoon. He already knew Rayman's future. Rayman meanwhile, when he experienced that future, knew Dark's future, a future Dark didn't yet know, and so on in a loop.

After Dark swiped at him, the young Rayman now lay unconscious, "First of many" his older self laughed from his hiding place. He longed to go to his younger self, tell him that everything would be all right in the end, but he knew he couldn't.

Pollukus looked up at Rayman, "Do you want to stay?" he asked.

"No," Rayman replied, "I'd do something stupid I know, I'd create a paradox. Besides," he grinned, "I've seen it before"

Pollukus laughed, and the two made their way back up a nearby hill to the others.

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What I always thought was a link to the past was a link to the future! This thought lay in Rayman's head, circled his mind, as he and Pollukus rejoined their friends.

"Some things are best forgotten" that was what he'd said to Dark when he refused to learn to why Dark was why he was, little knowing he would learn later.

At times since he had wished he asked more, and now he felt no regret as all he would have learned would have been part of his future.

"Would have ruined the surprise," he joked to himself "no, I was right. The past is unimportant"

Throughout his last adventure Rayman's unstamped on hopes of finding out his past had been risen by Dark's presence but now that what they where playing on had turned out to be nothing they'd slipped and died. Now he had no motive to look for his past again, and concentrate on his future.

"That's right isn't it? Isn't it" one part of him told him it wasn't, but for some reason he didn't listen.

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Pollukus looked at the pieces of the Emit Amulet "They're still connected by a very weak energy source," he reported "if I can extract it, I may be able to create one last portal to get us home"

"You rock Pollukus man," Romeo yelled.

"It'll take a few moments," Pollukus went on "I'll slip over there, a bit of space. You want to come Rayman?"

"No thanks," Rayman replied "I need to be alone for a bit" he stood up and began to make his way over a mountain of cake to the other side.

"Rayman!" Ly shouted after him.

Rayman turned.

"Your past," Ly told him "I just wanted to say, I… we… we'll find it out one day Rayman, I promise"

Rayman laughed, "I'm through with my past, its gone, its happened, its…" he laughed "in the past"

Ly nodded "Ok"

Rayman grinned "give me a shout when we're ready to go"

"I will" Ly replied, Rayman left.

"Y'know Ly," Pollukus approached the fairy "you should tell him how you feel"

Ly looked down at her creator "You think so"

"If anything," Pollukus went on "it may help him understand"

"Understand what?" Murphy asked.

"That if we forget our past, we loose our future…"

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Rayman stared up at the clear sky, the sun shone on the Chateau, the sky was clear and blue, there was nothing to ruin it.

"I'm lucky," Rayman concluded to himself "I'm lucky to be here, with friends, in a world like this" he sighed with happiness.

Sure it had been through much, but it was stronger for it, and so where its inhabitants. Rayman still found it hard to believe that that world, polluted rivers, fumes in the air, and inhabitants who riot and turn on each other when chaos strikes. Yet here it was. Its future, no one knew at what point in its future but it was its future.

And for that world, to now be this world, something must have happened. Something good.

So, as Rayman thought back, whenever things looked bad for the human's they shouldn't be down. They shouldn't be unhappy, angry, or in pain. The human race hadn't died, Rayman could somehow feel that, they had simply evolved, evolved into something new, something good. The Teensies maybe, the lums, the fairies, who knew.

Then Rayman thought of something, a small possibility. Something that may be true may not be. Even if it was true, it didn't explain everything, but it explained half of it.

Who am I?

WHAT am I?

So, whenever the humans where in trouble, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. A light at the end of their evolution.

And that light… was Rayman…

For lack of a better ending. Ok, R&R 'cos I really want to know what you thought. Thanks to everyone who has and will review(ed).

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I thought I'd better put this copyright thing just in case. Better safe than sorry. There's no real point in you reading this bit so I wouldn't.

I don't own Rayman. Rayman and all related characters and icons are trademarks of UBI Soft. New characters created by me for this story include (but are not limited to) General Doomand, Clemont and Barrig. Sarrago, Yupio and Garento where not from the Rayman Games but their race (the lums) where.