An inhuman scream reverberated through the jungle canopy, sending up a storm of fleeing birds. Krone seized the opportunity to surprise his doppelgänger, spun around, grabbed the gravity rifle pressed to the back of his neck, and yanked it forward. His captor fought to maintain control, overcompensated, lost his grip, and landed hard on his ass like a discarded sack of potatoes.
Krone stood up, turned the weapon on his attacker, touched the barrel to the tip of his pallid nose, and grinned. "Suck ass. I should tunnel your skull."
His upended captor did not grab the weapon or try to get away. Instead, he stood up, glaring over the barrel as if daring Krone to fire. The glare turned into a taunting grin.
Krone's blood boiled. His chest thudded. He wanted to pull the trigger, but the thought that he would only blow his own brains out, gave him a moment of pause. Would killing his doppelgänger be a death sentence for both of them? The two men stared at one another.
"Gutless piece of shit. You're nothing without a gun, are you?"
"You'd know better than anyone," the commander answered, sneering at Krone as if looking at a nasty turd smeared on the bottom of his boot heel. "Why don't you put it down? It's not like you have the balls to kill me. Remember. Kill me; kill you. Come on, just put it down. We can finish this like civilized men."
"Now I know why everyone wants to punch our faces in." Krone said, tossing the rifle to the Commander and waiting to see how the day would play out.
The commander turned the weapon on Krone, thumbed the safety off, and shook his head in disbelief. "Apparently, you're nothing, with a gun. You should have killed me. But no, you were afraid of what might happen to you. Typical. We always think of ourselves first, don't we? Your complexion has changed. Your scars have faded, but you're the same old me. Everything is always about you." When Krone said nothing, the commander continued, "Did you actually believe I'd fight fair? I don't need to kill you to win. I just need to slow you do. I can just take off a foot or two."
"If you'd been paying attention, you'd already know I believe you're predictable. In fact, I counted on it. We always enjoy having the upper hand. It's who we are, isn't it?" Krone flashed a toothy grin that soured the commander's blustering good humor. He held out the weapon's power pack, and the commander squinted at it. The commander made a grab for it, and Krone jerked it out of his reach. "Sorry, partner. Shit's about to hit the fan and I'm pretty sure neither one of us can afford a foot injury right now. Do me a favor and think of someone else for once. I don't want to die." The commander grabbed at the pack again, and Krone lobbed it into the dense underbrush. Gone for good. "I never realized how we can be slow on the uptake. Try to get this through your melon. I. Do not. Want. To. Die. Hence, we're keeping my feet. Both of us."
"Fuck," the commander blared, peering from the underbrush to the all but useless club in his hands. He glared at it, weapon vibrating in his white knuckle grip, eyelids twitching and teeth grinding. "Why did you do that? It's useless now. You idiot."
"Oh, come on, little buckaroo. It'll be okay. Your rat bastard master will show up any minute to protect you. But hey, look at the silver lining. Even if he doesn't, at least one of us can say he isn't a bootlicker. Sadly, that isn't you."
Krone's mirror image hauled the dead rifle back over his shoulder, preparing to drive it into his face and caught the tip of an armored boot in the groin for his effort. The commander froze like a paused video, eyes bugging out, oh shit expression plastered across his ugly mug. The rifle slipped from his grip, stuck barrel first into the ground. His trembling hands slid down to his crotch. He slumped to his knees and wretched as if his testicles were about to explode out his slobbering mouth. Snot poured from his nose, ran down his chin and dripped onto his upper legs.
Krone leaned over, quite pleased with himself, stifling the agonizing pain that threatened to contort his face. He had two broken toes, but he wouldn't give his doppelgänger the satisfaction of knowing that. Besides, the dent in his adversary's titanium cod plate made it all better. "It's about time somebody did that to one of us," Krone said. "Lord knows we've had it coming for years."
"You bastard." The commander muttered, pulling the dented crotch plate off his armor. He threw it at Krone. It missed by a kilometer.
"Consider that an impromptu experiment. I wanted to see if you got hurt, if I'd feel it, too?"
"Then why aren't you on the ground in agony? Because I know you broke a few toes."
Krone looked in the bushes and sighed. "Should have never thrown that power pack away."
"What are you talking about?"
"Simple," Krone explained. "I can't feel your pain, but you cannot feel mine. I'm not connected to you; but you are to me. So, if I die; you die. But if you die; I live. I can take that rifle and bash your brains out, and smile while I'm doing it. And never have to worry about hurting myself."
The commander tried to roll away, but his heavy armor and lack of adequate protection worked against him. On his second roll, he landed on a broken tree trunk and howled in agony.
Again, Krone felt nothing. Except the excited knowledge, he was free of the Lord Marshal's influence.
"I'm glad we don't go commando." Krone said, staring at the commander's underwear. "Balls out is no way to fight."
"Asshole.'
"I'm confused," Krone said. "What part of this is upsetting you? The boot in the nuts, knowing you can't kill me or the fact that I can end you?"
A whoosh-pop came from behind Krone, giving rise to an icy shiver that raced up his spine. An uncomfortable pressure built in his head and his ears popped as if he were taking off in a plane. He stood upright again, already knowing who was behind him.
"Sounds like your protector's lapdog is here to save your ass."
Krone didn't run. Where could he run to? Where could any of them run to? After all, he was trapped in the center of a dead world, surrounded by monsters and villains. But the only thing that mattered to him was that he was sick of running. He had run his whole life. And where had it got him? Just one more hell in a never ending line of memories he didn't want.
The commander stopped screaming and bitching, peered up sporting a look of dread and groaned, half in pain/ half fearing what was about to happen. He had nowhere to run, either.
"If you two are quite finished fucking around, we need to get to the obelisk before the Dark Athena reaches it."
"What?" Krone blared. "You're supposed to be dead."
"The version I sent to confront Kearyn was not me. He was from a time before all this nonsense began. When Kearyn died, my emissary went back to his own time stream. Nothing transpiring here touched me."
"You can't even die right."
Purifier threw up a finger and said, "I don't care what has happened to you since you arrived. You still work for the Lord Marshal. And you will fall in line. Or I will be the one kicking you in the nuts. Then I'll empty your brain pan out and use you like my bitch fucking puppet."
"Go ahead," Krone said, slapping his hand away. "I fucking dare you. Let's see what the Lord Marshal says about that. I don't work for you. You're nothing but a puppet, just like me."
A second, visceral and violent scream shook the jungle and Purifier said, "Time has run out on this little shit show. It appears as though Kearyn convinced Lilith to create some abomination from hell. And now her only purpose is to kill every human she can get her hands on, including him, me, you and the Lord Marshal."
"He kicked me in the nuts," Commander Krone coughed the words out as if ratting out a sibling.
The Purifier turned to Krone, shaking his head in disbelief. "Is he for real? Did either of you hear anything I just said? Lilith has combined the time streams. She created some twisted super being to seize power for himself."
The commander moaned.
"Get up." The Purifier hollered. "You look ridiculous down there. And for the record. I'm amazed it has taken this long for someone to give you a much needed vasectomy."
"He kicked me in the-"
"They'll heal," the Purifier snapped, cutting the commander off.
"But will his ego?" Krone asked.
The Purifier glared at them, almost lost for words. "I do not know why he keeps you around. But it is becoming quite apparent you are the same pain in the ass as your counterpart here." He threw an angry gesture towards the commander and kicked his foot. "Get up, or I'll leave your sorry ass here forever."
"I vote we leave his ass."
Dahl, Carolyn, and Boron burst into the clearing. "She's coming." Carolyn screamed and rampaged past them.
"Time to go," Purifier said, and vanished with a pop whoosh.
_________________________________
"It's time to go," Lilith said, walking up to Moss in her old jet black outfit. He and Lilith had spent the last ten days getting to know each other. "The good times are.at an end."
"Why?" Moss asked, and frowned.
The sudden and somewhat striking change in Lilith's demeanor was more than a little unwanted. An hour earlier, he had never been happier. But now he saw, and heard, the shadow of the old Lilith on the tanned woman he knew and loved. He didn't like what he saw. Not because he didn't love the other Lilith. He did. No. His trepidation resulted from thinking he had been cheating.
In all the time he had been with her, they hadn't talked about how he got there or what was going to happen next. But this new Lilith had that old and all too familiar look on her face. The expression she got when things were about to get complicated. Moss considered turning away from Lilith and walking off down the beach before the last ten days went to shit.
"Go where?" Moss snapped, letting out his anger. The sudden sense of urgency in Lilith's voice brought a lump to his throat.
"Back."
"Back," Moss repeated, looking up at the cliff, he would fall off in the future. He turned away, looking out to sea. He didn't want to think about the future. The future was the last thing he wanted to think about, or the place he wanted to go to. "Why would I ever want to go back there?"
"As much as we want to, we cannot hide here forever."
A dense bank of fog ringed the jungle island on the horizon. Large gulls circled the rim of the volcano, diving in and out of the wispy clouds. A dark feeling touched his heart, and it drew a frigid chill over his sweaty skin. For the past week and a half, he had avoided looking at the cliff he toppled off. He thought he knew where they were. "We're already here, aren't we?"
"It's not where we are, as much as when we are, that matters."
"Okay," he snapped, frustration tainting the word. "When are we?"
"When you fell, I had to pull you here. But to save you, I made certain sacrifices."
"Sacrifice. Nice," he said, glaring at her. "If saving me was a burden, why did you bother?"
"Reasons and science," Lilith said, staring at the island, refusing to look at Moss. She said nothing, but a mixture of sadness and shame transformed her face.
"What is going on?"
"The mission had to come first."
"Of course it did." Moss replied. "You died. I died. Everybody died, and the mission still comes forward."
"You're the only one who died?"
"Is that supposed to be a joke?"
"I don't believe any of my personas have a sense of humor."
"Maybe you could have led with that."
"Where's the fun in that?" Lilith said.
"Now there she is. There's the woman I know and love." Moss said. "Someone has been pretending to be someone she's not."
"The future of humanity depends on what happens on that island." Lilith said, turning to Moss with a pleading look. "No matter how much I love you, we had to- I had to protect the obelisk. I have a responsibility to atone for past sins."
Moss stared at Lilith, the realization that everything was about to explode spreading across his face. He didn't want to hear anymore. He wanted to scream for her to shut up. She was threatening the frail illusion Moss had built up since getting there, dismantling his assumptions: one nail, one board, one lie at a time. She wasn't a new Lilith; she was the same old Lilith. Conniving, calculating, and everything he ever wanted, and nothing he could ever have. Fuck. He hated this place.
"No matter what plan we devised to seize the obelisk, each time we tried, we failed. But we persisted. We endured an eternity of disappointments, failures, and defeats. Until it became clear, my mistake on that cliff was the moment-,the choice that robbed us of the one key component necessary for success. My impulsiveness robbed us of you."
"Lilith," Moss said, moving to her and touching her shoulder. "What happened on that cliff was not your fault. It was mine. I got careless. I needed to get down, I needed to get…"
"To me." Lilith said, finishing his sentence. She feigned a smile. "That's kind. But I was the one who got careless. And you were the one who died."
"I knew better.. Me. Shit happens to all of us. Just let it go. It's over and done. You don't have to feel guilty. I don't blame you. Stop blaming yourself."
"Sometimes shame is not the result of the things we do; sometimes shame is who we become in the wake of dark choices. And my past is marred with so much darkness, I no longer remember what the light looks like anymore."
"True forgiveness comes from within."
"When you live as long as I have; you learn some sins can never be rewritten."
"Maybe you should start from the beginning."
"M6-117 is not what it appears. And neither is this system. Both are constructs engineered by my people at the beginning of time. We merged three neighboring systems to create a gravitational nexus in the time/space continuum. And into that nexus we placed a Dyson's sphere. The one you are standing in right now. Within the core of this sphere lies a white dwarf. The power of that star powers the device everyone wants for themselves.'
"The obelisk."
"The AI within it." Lilith said. "Controls this system, M6-117 and every time stream that passes through it. We are in the machine's heart. It this machine that allows us to move through time. It is the source of our power and without it, the time streams would be collapse."
"How's that possible?"
"My people. Your people. Engineered this world- this region of space- to allow them to seed countless words with the building blocks necessary to create life. All life. Including humanity. If they destroy the obelisk, all that goes away. And everything could blink out of existence. So, Kearyn and I devised a plan to protect the timelines, our powers and the obelisk. We wove multiple timelines into a control timeline. A stream we can traverse with no need for the obelisk. One timeline. My timeline. But in doing so, we created a monster."
"If you don't need the damn thing anymore, why go back?"
"Because our efforts only made the streams worse, we created a paradox surrounding the worst version of me. And now, if she survives the battle for the obelisk, this universe will not survive."
"How many times have I warned you about fucking with time?"
"That's the problem with time manipulation. Once you tinker with it, you can never stop."
"Then why go back at all?"
"In the future, you die here." Lilith said, gesturing up at the cliff he had refused to look at since his arrival. "Right up there. But as long as we are in the nexus, we could not bring you back. Those who die here are outside of normal time streams. The only way to save you was to enter the nexus at the beginning and wait until you arrived. Our streams needed to merge naturally."
"Exactly, when are we?"
"We are three and a half billion years in the past. A time when this system and sphere are still in their infancy."
"You've waited here for all this time?"
"It was the only way to save you." Lilith said and turned away from Moss.
"You mean save the obelisk?"
Lilith nodded, but refused to look at him. "The injury that rendered me unable to control my body was my doing, not Dahl's. The accident that took your life directly resulted from that incident. That awful choice. My reckless desire to reach the aim before our opponents culminated in your demise and doomed us to eternal failure."
"I led them down that path. Not you."
"True," she agreed, wiping tears from her eyes. "But if I had remained with you, we would have taken an alternate route. I knew which path was safe. I created the traps that protect the inner sanctum. This world holds no secrets for me because I aided in its creation. This system is part of a much bigger plan. And when it counted most, I let the moment come out as fear and uncertainty."
"I don't understand any of this," Moss said, reaching out and touching her shoulder again. "Why do we have to leave? If we're in the past, let's just stay. To hell with the future. Let the future take care of itself."
"I have never been as ashamed of myself as I am now."
"You didn't save me because you're in love with me, did you?"
"Yes… and no," Lilith said, shaking her head. "We tried to save the obelisk countless times before I realized you were the missing catalyst."
"Me," he said, throwing her a bitter look. "How many times did you watch me die before you… before you pulled me back? A hundred? A thousand? A fucking million? How many?"
She wouldn't look at him.
"All this, nonetheless, is just about completing your mission. It's nothing more than a last meal for the condemned man."
"I believe you are the linchpin for success. Although, I do not know how that may come about. This is the first time you will enter the battle."
"So, I was right. You would let me go back just to die,if it meant completing your damn mission?"
She wouldn't look at him.
"You're lucky I love you."
"I am."
He walked to Lilith, turned her around, hugged her gently, and whispered,"And I'm lucky you love me, too."
"Run away from me while you still can."
Moss smiled, caressed her neck, and kissed her. "The time for that has long since come and gone. For better, but probably worse, my heart is forever yours."
"It's time."
He looked up at the cliff and nodded.