Author's notes: I just had to get this out. I adore POP, Kaileena rocks da socks and I haven't seen a story like this yet. And no, I don't own POP or any of the characters.

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Ripples of water softly washed over my feet. The sand was soft and shifted beneath my weight, leaving small footprints that would be washed away very soon. I stood on the shore of an island, my destination, so far away from the places I knew during my childhood. It wasn't the wilderness and its beauty or the peacefulness of this place that had attracted me. It was the distance, the separation from the rest of the world. I needed nothing else, no one else.

It was perfect. My sanctuary for the rest of eternity. A safe haven. Even as I looked at the cliffs and forests, I envisioned what I could and would build here. Sand beneath my feet. Crouching, I took a handful of it and let it pour back through my fingers. Yes, I thought. Beautiful, perfection.

The last grain of sand fell from my fingers, and I remembered why I had come here in the first place. It was desperation that drove me away from the peacefulness of the world after I had left my home of Aresura, where I had lived in peace. Yet I had lived there alone. All my siblings, my friends and my companions had already left it for the known world, scattering into the world. And eventually, after centuries, I couldn't handle the loneliness anymore, and I entered the world.

This world I had chosen to enter was welcoming, everything I had imagined. The cultures of men had not yet realized their full potential, but I had heard of the great cities of Uruk, Ur, Babylon… the world was a wonder that I chose to explore carefully. Yet never did I encounter my own kind, my lost people, and my loneliness and my separation continued. I am not human. And now I was among humans, lost among them, yet still alone.

I traveled alone, seemingly a lone woman that was able to defend herself. I had no weapons as humans called them, but put my powers with the sand to full use. The more primitive attackers grew frightened and ran at the mere sight of the effects of my talents, and I was worshipped as a goddess, I discovered during my travels among the villages of the East.

The Empress of Time, they called me. But I was no Empress – I had no empire, and Time was no one's empire. I was simply Kaileena, the Daeva, Kaileena, the woman whose name no one knew. The villagers would say that my skin shone like ivory, my hair had never been cut and grew long for eternity and that my eyes shone like stones they called emeralds, those that had captured the color of the sunlit jungle. But I, in the days of my innocence, didn't care for such things.

There came one night when I had been forced to seek shelter in a temple, for I didn't want to sleep outside and a village was near. I had been a wanderer, one of many, and once I paid empty respects to the "god" of the temple, I was allowed to stay, like any traveler, in a wonderful room. This night, however, the temple had been empty. Before I could fall asleep, as soon as my head touched the bed, I knew that dreams wouldn't come that night. I often dream, but there is a difference between what I foresee of the future and real dreams. I felt drained, somehow, as if I were to fall apart into grains of sand at any moment.

The world swirled around me, and I knew that the Timeline, part of which was within me, wanted me to see something. I allowed it to take over my body, this shiver. Like a possessed creature, I had collapsed and saw images with my eyes open, images that only the Timeline can choose to reveal.

Sands pouring down an hourglass. Bejeweled. But the sands shone far brighter. They were the Timeline as I was the timeline, they were… they were I. The Sands and I were one. And three objects, like the Trimurti itself, belonged to it. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The creator, the healer and the destroyer. The staff, the amulet and the dagger.

A woman clad in blood sitting on a throne of stone, surrounded by Sand Creatures. Her mind was troubled, despite her power. And then, a man. I have never been in love or even interested in males beyond the recognition of their kind. As a spiritual being, I have never given myself to anyone I have not loved, and I have not loved anyone who I could give myself to. Yet this man, this human, I realized, was beautiful to me. Perhaps not physically – he was scarred and dark, with the appearance of a fugitive, an escaped prisoner whose pursuers were not far behind him. But his mind was beautiful, his soul, his heart. He was so determined, so focused, and yet, despite the danger all around him, despite the despair and hopelessness, he had hope. He believed he could outrun Destiny and cheat Fate.

All of my life, I had known that the Timeline is an unchangeable dogma, sacred, and I, being part of it, had to respect its wishes. But this creature knew nothing of the sacredness of the Timeline and thought that there must be a way to cheat it. Yet I didn't laugh at him. The images continued.

The pale woman had sent her creatures to stop him, but the dark stranger didn't fall prey to them. He had eluded all dangers, defeated his adversaries. And he stood before the red-clad woman, fearlessly, and he plunged a sword into her heart. Blood rushed out, darkening her dress. And she was dead. The stranger felt no remorse, no will, no triumph. It simply had to be done.

I awoke with a shriek, almost as if the blade had really gone through my heart. Yet as I looked down, I saw that the brown tunic I had been wearing was dirty, but undamaged, with no sign of red anywhere, no blood, no color. Yet I knew that I had just witnessed no dream, but a vision, and even as I fled the temple, I kept looking over my shoulder at all times, panicky that the dark man that would slay me was on his way towards me now.

I had stopped only once I was at the seashore. On my knees, I wept. Death was intended for me? I was supposed to die? But what, by the powers of the universe, had I done to deserve it? I, a spirit, a deity, was to die at the hands of a mortal! For hours I wept, knowing that there was no way to prevent what the Timeline commands. Yet despair filled me. As I had admired the man before, I now feared him.

But what if he wouldn't be able to find me, to reach me? I thought in desperation. I didn't realize that just as he would once do, I was searching for a way to cheat fate. I couldn't die! I wouldn't!

Before the sun had risen, I had created a plan. I would run, I would hide, and when the time would come and he would arrive, I would kill him. I didn't know his name, or if he even existed yet. The Timeline never lied, however, and it gave me the gift of knowledge as well as the curse of desperation. I would be ready.

I crossed the sea, searching for a remote location. And so I had come across this island. How divine it seemed. And how my eyes saw none of it. Escape was my only thought, and as my hand touched the sands again, I closed my eyes. Rise, my servants, my protectors. I would create you perfectly and you would guard me perfectly, never allowing the man to come, to see me, let alone to touch me.

My thoughts envisioned a warrior that would never disappoint me, a strong one. And as I didn't care for men, it would be a woman. One that would be strong, skillful, seductive to the unwary enemies and deadly. I saw her, dark as my pursuer was, and I created her first, from the sands of the island. Like a sculptor, I created her as I wanted to have her, and then the sands gave her life. I covered her with a modest garment which I knew she would never wish to wear once she would realize she was alive. It didn't matter.

She opened her eyes as I continued in my long process. Perhaps it took days, perhaps seconds, until my armies were assembled. They were creatures of Sand, all of them, loyal and strong, from soldiers to monsters, bestial things, but all with a natural obedience. The woman servant commanded them while I created more, brought me what I needed at all times and bowed to me at all times, like one would to a goddess. And that is what I was to their eyes.

How long it took, I know not. But once I was done, I rose and say that the foundations of what I had envisioned had already been built. My mind was connected to the sand and thus they had gathered what I wanted to build. And they asked in their minds for things they wanted or needed, and I created it for them. Clothes, weapons, fabrics, materials. All made of sand. All with the strength to last millennia. Once the connection was broken temporarily, they realized that I had awoken from my slumber and they rushed to me at once, on their knees, with a respect live mortals never have for their superiors.

And at last came the woman, my protector, clad in an armor that revealed her womanly figure more than enough to make any man with the slightest life within them lose their sanity, and she fell to her knees in front of me, her black eyes cast down, her weapons at her side, her hair falling into her face.

"My lady, my Empress…" she whispered, "You have returned to command us. We have done all as you want it, we obeyed your every wish. And we put our lives, such as they are, into your hands, Our Creator. We serve only you, Empress of Time."

Weakened, but content, I observed her for a moment, feeling safe after a very long time. There was lo lie in her, not the slightest, for she knew that her only purpose was to serve me, that her life belonged to me. And she would give it gladly, for she had no other purpose. Security, superiority spread through my soul. I was the Empress of Time.

"Rise, Shahdee." I commanded, my voice deep as the earth. She did so, her eyes eager as she looked at me. "You have done well. But there is much more to do. Much more I require before we can have peace on this island."

"Allow me to show you all, your servants await. But you are our Empress, you must have the best. The clothes you wear are not suitable for our Empress." she declared, staying humble. She then motioned to several of the creatures, and they brought with them a dress of blood red, with emblems of the Sands, jewels and weapons finer than those of mortal men. Shahdee looked very pleased. "We have crafted these for you, our Empress, you have shown us images of them – they are fit for you, our leader. Accept them as a sign of our unending loyalty."

I nodded in approval and allowed her to rip the brown fabric with a knife and throw it away as she dressed me with a care that was most uncharacteristic for her in the days that would come in the red garments, place the jewels carefully upon my throat and paint my face with the colors of blood. The Empress of Time was thereby born.

"You see your Empress!" Shahdee roared afterwards, and thus allowed the creatures to raise their heads at long last, as they had been looking down, unable to look up without my permission. Thus they had not seen my rebirth from Kaileena to the Empress, from the free woman to the entombed goddess.

"Empress! Forever we serve you, the Lady of the Timeline!" they bellowed, raising their weapons in my honor. "Your command is sacred, your will our law!"

My eyes moved from warrior to warrior, from creature to creature, and I finally looked at the unfinished fortress. A smile found its way to my lips. Not a kind one, however. I was no longer the creature I had been long ago. I was the Empress of Time, and my will was law. I saw the Timeline, I knew all. I would prevail.

My cruel smile was reflected in Shahdee´s dark eyes as they looked upon me eagerly. Even as I saw in my mind once again the image of the stranger meaning to kill me, a cloak wrapped around his muscular figure, his eyes, shining like mine, looking at the horizon as his ship sailed through a storm. We would see, you and I, who was stronger, I thought.

Then his hand reached to his chest, touching a medallion. I had seen it before. I knew it was mine, created by me, one of the artifacts of the Sands. But the time had not yet come. I was still safe... I knew. Even if the Timeline demanded the creation of the Three, it was not now. I had time. And I would be more than ready for him once he would come to me.

Yet even as I observed the building of my grand fortress, seeing him in a mind's eye, the words spoken to me and him at different times came back to mock me, and mock me they would if I tried to challenge them.

You cannot change your fate.