The Ancient One was extremely weary, but there was a place he just had to be. He entered a crypt he had been in exactly fifty years before, made himself comfortable on a ledge, and waited. He knew who he was waiting for would come before sunset, while there was still light. And sure enough, he was not disappointed. About noon time he heard the voices of an older man and a young child. "Why are we going out here, grandfather?" the child was saying. "I don't like it out here."
"There's nothing to be afraid of," the old man assured him. "I'm going to show you something very, very special...a secret kept by our family, that no one else knows."
"Really?" the little boy giggled.
"Really!" his grandfather answered. They entered the tomb and The Ancient One dematerialized. He wasn't quite ready for them to know he was there.
The old man went to one of the crypts in the middle of the tomb and with a pry bar slowly pushed the top back, until it reached a pivot point, and lifted up. He then fumbled with the latches of the coffin inside until its lid finally rose. The old man stopped for a moment, and smiled at the body inside the casket, then began to feel around the edge of the coffin until there was a click, and part of the back swung open. He began to feel inside the opening. The smile that had been on his face slowly faded. He looked bewildered, picked up the lamp he had been carrying, and tried to maneuver it so he could see the space.
The Ancient One materialized. "It's not there!" he remarked, "It's been gone for quite a while."
The old man turned around frowning. "Oh!" he snorted, "You again! Don't you ever give up?"
"NO!" The Ancient One answered, "Never do. Most people say I'm the most persistent, irritating being they've ever come acrossed!"
"Who's that, grandfather?" the little boy asked. "No one that's of any importance," his grandfather answered. "It looks like your special surprise is going to have to wait until later. Why don't you go play, go back to the house. Grandfather will be along in a little while." The child said "Yes sir," and hurried off.
The Ancient One watched him go. "Real nice to them, aren't you," he remarked, "'til you use the module to steal their young bodies and give them your old one. Of course they only live a few hours afterwards, and never go to tell anyone of the special thing that grandfather showed them. Five thousand years sacrificing your own descendants to prolong your perverted existence."
The old man sighed. "Oh, let's NOT have a lecture in morals," he began. "I'm really NOT in the mood." He stretched out his hand and began to slowly circle it around the room. The Ancient One grinned, mischievously. The old man looked more and more bewildered. "I can't FIND it!" he muttered. "I can't feel the module. What have you done with it? Where is it? It's indestructible! Nothing in this puny world could have destroyed it. It's MINE! You have no right to interfere! They're MY descendants, MY seed! Now where is my module?"
The Ancient One grinned again. "Where you can never reach it," he answered, "where NO ONE can ever reach it. On a space craft called Voyager 1, which is now leaving the solar system, and will never return. I put it on board YEARS ago. You're stuck in that body. You can never transfer into another child again. You will have to stay in that body and DIE!" "NO!" the old man screamed as The Ancient One got up to leave. "NO! You had no right to interfere. No right to steal my immortality. Why? Why did you do it?"
The Ancient One looked back. "Because children," he answered "aren't something to merely use to sustain your own perverted existence. They are something to love and cherish."
"NO!" The old man screamed, "NO! You have friends that can get the module back. Have them get it back! YOU CAN'T LET ME DIE!"
The Ancient One smiled one more time, as he spread his wings and rose skyward. "Yes, I can," he answered as he soared away, "Yes, I can!"