Shadow of Time

by Jamie Hawke

  “So I’ve heard,” his grandpa replied. “Old age, at least. I’ll take it.”

  Frank nodded. “And you’re here… how?”

  “It was a world much like your own,” his grandpa started. “Only, in that version I’d just returned from the pirate time—so I assume that’s where the split began—and was starting to lose my cool, realizing Rose wasn’t with me.” He spared a moment to look her way, taking her hand. “Well, no sooner had I felt my head spinning, then you came in. Another version of you, explaining everything, telling me all sorts of things that could happen, and how we had to chase down Rick and stop him. What followed was time spent in Temra’s world, a journey to World War II, and then… tracing him back to Ancient Japan. There we trained, and ultimately butted heads with him, ending it there. Only, that’s when we returned to learn about the multiple worlds, to find that Temra’s world had changed and that others were changing, too. The only hope we had was to make our way to this one, where we’d intercept the final Ricks and… you. Only, we didn’t know we’d lose the other version of you in the process.”

  “And this… other version of me?” I asked, trying to process everything he’d just told me.

  My grandpa smiled, wistfully. “The one that Temra loved, and who loved her back.”

  “Loved?” Esmerelda spoke up, standing at Frank’s side and looking down the hallway where Temra had gone. “Well, shit.”

  “We should… I mean, you should at least talk to her,” Keisha said.

  “Just a second,” Frank protested. “I’m still trying to, I mean, this is my grandpa.”

  “We’ll have our time,” his grandpa said. “Plus, I mean—I don’t want to be insensitive here, but… this is the first version of your grandma I’ve been able to connect with. I wouldn’t mind some time to talk.”

  “Talk, huh?” Rose replied with a wink.

  “Gross.” Frank grimaced when they both turned to glare. “Sorry, but… I mean, you are my grandparents after all.”

  They laughed, nodding. Rose pointed to the hallway. “Go. Get some rest. We promise not to fuck, if that makes you happy.”

  “Rose!” Frank’s grandpa stared at her in shock. He lowered his voice, as if Frank wouldn’t be able to hear when he asked, “Really?”

  “No, I’m just trying not to scar the boy,” Rose replied, grabbing his ass.

  Frank moved for the hallway. “Okay, scarring in progress. Grandpa, I look forward to catching up.”

  “Me too,” his grandpa replied, then laughed as Rose smacked his ass. “In the morning.”

  As soon as they were out of the tunnel and through the first door, Esmerelda took Frank, turned him toward her, and pressed her lips to his for a passionate kiss. When she pulled back, he turned to see they were in a large room, several people eating at tables on the far side and glancing over at them with curiosity. Temra was over by the far wall, looking their way as she knelt at a footlocker.

  “What was that for?” Frank asked, dazed. Then Keisha did the same. “And that…?”

  “To get you thinking straight,” Esmerelda said. “And also… so you have us in mind when you go comfort that poor girl.”

  “I don’t think that’s necessary,” he admitted. “But appreciated.”

  “She needs to talk to you,” Keisha said. “Just… help her in that respect, and we’ll be waiting for you with some food.”

  With that, they meandered over to the tables, leaving Frank to address Temra. He wasn’t sure what to make of this, walking over to a woman who he had, supposedly, been in love with. Or not him, but an alternate version of himself… which made it even more confusing.

  9

  Frank stepped up to Temra, very aware of the expectant look she was giving him.

  “I… understand you knew me.” He was uncertain of what to do with his hands in a situation like this. He ended up clasping them behind his back, but then felt like a soldier at parade rest. Instead he folded his arms, realizing then how defensive this made him appear. He frowned before shoving his hands into his pockets.

  Her eyes moved across his, to his hands in his pockets, back to his face, and she offered a humored, if not slightly sorrow-filled smile. “That’s right.”

  “Or a version of me.”

  She nodded. “Imagine being torn from the love of your life, only to be told there’s another version of him out there.”

  “Or multiple versions,” Frank said, shrugging.

  “Not anymore,” she replied. “Didn’t…?”

  “My grandpa told me, yeah.” He glanced back down the hall, wondering what he was doing here.

  “I get it,” Temra blurted out. “You don’t know me. Yet. But… I hope you’ll give me a chance.”

  “A chance?”

  “I’ll talk to the others.” She glanced in the direction Esmerelda and Keisha had gone. “To… your friends. See if I can train with you all. Fight with you all. Maybe… more.”

  Frank gulped, realizing what she was suggesting. He had no idea how the pirate ladies would feel about her wanting to join the team, although they’d been more than open in this regard in the past.

  “Can I say that’s between you and them?” He took a deep breath. “Not that, I mean—I don’t really know what’s right here.”

  “That makes sense.” She smiled. “Of course. You don’t have to make any commitments. This is new for you, and you only just met me. But, I want you to know what I’m in it for.”

  He licked his lips, trying not to imagine her in the mix. It felt wrong, without the approval first from the rest. And on another level, it felt strange that she was into the idea, having not shared the alternate him, as far as he knew.

  “First,” he said, “I mean, can you tell me who you are? More about you?”

  She nodded, motioning him to join her. They started walking along one of the tunnels. She paused, moving aside some sheet metal, leading to a corridor where the tunnel gave out to vast darkness. He hesitated. For all he knew, this was some ruse to get him alone, then slit his throat.

  “Trust me,” she said, and her eyes showed she needed it.

  He stepped though, giving her a confident smile. When she joined him, she hit a switch next to her. A string of blue lights lit up along the walls, down below too, casting a gentle light upon what looked like an old city.

  “A city beneath Seattle,” she said. “Built in the nineteenth century, they tell me, that used to be at ground level. Not anymore.”

  Frank had heard about this, but never seen it. He stared in awe, able to ignore the musty smell of the place in favor of the cool air and mystical glow those lights gave it.

  “And you?” he asked. “What century are you from?”

  She grinned. “Not this, you figured out?”

  He nodded.

  “Maybe you came across some of the Pirate King’s steam-powered equipment?” Her face contorted, a bit of revulsion and some guilt.

  “That was you?”

  She nodded. “I was a sort of slave of his, but not the version you met. The version that captured me made me create stuff like that, travel to other versions and help him out. He said those creations of mine would instill fear into the enemy, thereby technically saving lives.”

  “I don’t follow that one.”

  “Unfortunately, I did.” She sighed. “He argued that if the people were scared, they wouldn’t fight, so therefore I was saving lives. It was a stretch, and maybe I didn’t really believe it. But he was very convincing when he was holding a blade to my throat, you know?”

  “I see.”

  “And then you came along.”

  “And saved you?”

  She laughed. “Aren’t you mighty full of yourself?”

  “Sorry. So, what happened?”

  Her chuckle was cute, the affection in her eyes welcoming. Frank could see how the other version of him could’ve fallen for her. “You saved me, then I saved you. We saved each other a few more times, which led to…” She turned a
way, likely blushing. “Well, you get the picture.”

  “Oh.” Frank furrowed his brow, trying not to let his mind go to the exact spot he knew she was—imagining the two of them fucking. For her, it was a memory of a shared experience. For him, at the moment, it would be nothing more than lustful desires for a woman who wasn’t part of his group. Since he already had four—Esmerelda and Keisha, along with Milly and Mary back in the seventeen hundreds—that made him feel kind of greedy.

  “I’m not… I mean, when we met, you actually took a while to win me over.” She turned back to him, a hand on his arm, eyes staring into his. “It’s not like I’m easy. But being told you were dead… nothing ever hurt as bad as that moment. It was like my world had shattered, all the pieces of it stabbing into my heart and tearing it to shreds. And then you show up…”

  He nodded, glancing down at her hand.

  She was leaning closer, her wide, red eye staring into his, the other still covered. He was partly curious, partly looking for a distraction.

  “And this steampunk thing you have going on?” he asked.

  Her advance halted, the corner of her lip turning up. “He called it that, too. Other you, I mean.” She moved the part away from her eye, to reveal that both eyes were indeed red. Almost purple in this light. “The eyepiece was made with the help of the stones. It lets me trace timelines, sort of. We developed it together, with my know-how and your use of the compass and knowledge of how it worked. So,” she flicked down the red lens again, “this one lets me see people from different timelines, in a sense. I wear it now because… because it reminds me you’re not my Frank, exactly.”

  “Oh.” He stood there, not sure what to do with that. It was good, but clearly not completely working in that sense. “And the other colors?”

  “Combinations work in different ways. Blue helps track down weapons parts or ammo for crafting, when applicable, and green—”

  “Lets you see my stats?” Frank asked.

  She smiled but shook her head. “That’s what we thought it would do. But it actually helps me with what I do. With green, I can follow the steam and see where breaks are in the necessary parts to work the gears. Similarly, if something is close to breaking, it shows me a percentage bar of where it’s at. And that part doesn’t only apply to the steam-powered equipment. It applies to future items as well, which I’ve been trying to learn.”

  “And the other stuff?” Frank’s eyes moved to her shoulder, where a large metal piece clearly stood out.

  “An injury,” she said, looking away. “Without this, my arm…”

  “Don’t be ashamed. I think it’s amazing.”

  She glanced back up at him, then away. “It’s kind of… I mean, I feel like a freak at times. He called me his little robot.”

  “That’s awful…” he started, but at seeing her cringe, said, “awfully awesome! Robots are only the most badass kind of people possible. And you’re a steampunk robot, so that makes you doubly awesome.”

  She smiled, then chuckled. “He thought so. Had a couple of scares though, where we thought it might explode on us.”

  “Oh.”

  She shrugged. “Not yet, at least.”

  Frank looked her over, amazed at this woman. He guessed by her eyes and pale skin that she had some aspect at least of being albino, although her hair had that copper effect that made it seem less so. Could be dye, he supposed. What really amazed him though was this steampunk concept—it didn’t actually exist in his time, not really as anything more than in fiction. In her world, which was only another version of this one, it did.

  What other worlds might exist out there, he wondered, if hers now did?

  “One thing I don’t understand,” he admitted, looking back out at the glow of this underground city. Even here he saw remnants of another culture, one he was pretty sure his Seattle didn’t have. “The Nordic influence?”

  “It wasn’t in my world either,” she admitted. “My understanding is that it’s how one version of him pushed back what you did in the seventeen hundreds. He couldn’t go there and make the change, as crazy as that is, but he could go to the earlier time and set them up to win, therefore creating an environment where pirates of other time periods could easily flourish.”

  Pain shot through Frank’s head and he scrunched his nose, trying to process that. She reached out and beeped his nose with her pointer finger on the tip of it. She laughed, then held her hand over her mouth.

  “Shit, sorry. Something I used to do to my Frank when he made that face.”

  He didn’t mind. But before he could address it, a thought hit his mind.

  “Holy shit.” He took a step back toward the way they’d come, then paused. “We need to speak with the others. I mean, all this talk of others, all this traveling and other worlds…”

  She sighed. “You’re going to say, ‘we don’t need to get the compass from our Rick, or Pirate King,’ aren’t you?” When he nodded, she pursed her lips.

  “Something we’ve already tried?” he guessed.

  “Tried and… it’s harder than it sounds. He travels, right? He’s been able to set all this up. Why risk it? He’ll leave this one alone, because this one doesn’t have the ability to travel—not without the red stone. Meanwhile, he can build up his empire across space and time.”

  “Space?”

  Her face went pale. “I really shouldn’t…”

  “Temra…?”

  Eyes flooding with emotion, she turned and went to the entryway, pausing there, and then shut off the lights. “You’ll see soon enough, when your grandpa is ready to show you. But don’t ask me to do things I shouldn’t.”

  With that, she started walking back, leaving him with no choice but to follow.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” he protested.

  “It’s okay. Forget about it.”

  They entered the main room and Frank meandered over to the tables, even more confused now than ever. Some answers were coming together but fuck if this didn’t go against all of his understanding of how time travel should work. Parts of it clicked, others made gaping chasms in his brain that seemed to flood with confusion and ice-cold water.

  “You look pale,” Esmerelda said, glancing up from a bowl of beef soup.

  “Ask me, he always looks pale,” Keisha said with a grin. “Not that I’d change him in any way, just stating a fact.”

  Frank chuckled at that. “All this stuff about alternate worlds, alternate versions of us… it’s a bit much to swallow.”

  “Oh, he’s asking for jokes now.”

  Esmerelda shot Keisha a chiding glance but had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “Did you really think the world’s first time-travel would conform to your favorite movie?”

  Others were leaning in, listening. Frank didn’t want to be the center of focus, so waved off the question, but Esmerelda persisted. “No, I mean it. It’s insane to think that something should be a certain way because others have theorized about it being that way, when as far as any of them knew it was completely fictional. For fucks sake, there are still some from my time who think the world is flat. Dumb pirates who wouldn’t know how to navigate out of their own arses, but they exist.”

  Frank couldn’t hold back the laugh. “Believe it or not, there’s a resurgence in that way of thinking. Just a small group of eccentric people, but… yeah.”

  She stared, blinked, and then laughed. “There you go. People can believe anything. So, who cares what you thought would happen with this time travel stuff—it’s about what is happening, and how we can make the best out of what we can actually achieve.”

  Frank nodded. He wasn’t debating any of that, but still had a hard time conceptualizing it. He accepted a bowl of soup and was glad to sit and converse with these others, these people who had been training and working with his grandpa. They told him stories of how the man had trained in actual ancient Japan, and in that alternate universe a movie had even been made about him that depicted a white samura
i fighting back against change. It was a hoot, since of course that never could’ve happened in the historical Japan Frank knew from his studies.

  Soon they were ready to call it a night though, because they were all exhausted. Or maybe not so exhausted, as Keisha proved when they had a room to themselves and she started massaging Frank’s inner thighs, looking up at him with seductive eyes.

  “Are you sure you can handle it?” Frank asked, half-joking, almost hoping she’d back down. Of course, he wanted her, he always did. But honestly, he was worried about whether he could get it up, what with the insane day they’d had and his mind reeling with all of this new information.

  “Sugar, I want to taste you.” She started unbuckling his pants with one hand, the other now massaging his package, cupping him, feeling his balls as she moved up to kiss his lips. As her hand slid down and her slightly chilly fingers grasped his base, he had no doubt he’d be up for a good romp.

  Hell, it might even help relax him and his mind.

  When she pulled it out and started to lower herself to it, he pulled her up and turned her around, plopping her on the bed next to Esmerelda.

  “Taking charge,” the latter said, glancing over, and raised an eyebrow. “I was thinking I’d sit this one out, but… that’s hot.”

  Frank nodded in a ‘that’s right’ way, pulling the rest of his clothes off and then straddling Keisha to let her have her desired taste. Her tongue flicked across him once, then she took him in her mouth and moaned.

  He loved getting head. That was for damn sure. But at that moment, he wanted a good ol’-fashioned fuck. Pulling back, he started to strip her, kissing flesh along the way, then motioned for Esmerelda to join in. As he pulled Keisha’s legs apart and moved his cock along her, feeling her wetness against him, he took turns kissing their breasts. Esmerelda still had her panties on, but he reached in while fucking Keisha from the side of the bed, fingering Esmerelda. He wasn’t gentle, and at the moment it was clear neither of the ladies wanted him to be.

  With a moan that told him she was coming, Keisha looked up at him with intense passion, bit her lip, and then clutched his chest as she resisted the urge to scream. She grabbed Esmerelda and thrust her toward Frank as she pulled her pussy back. Getting the message, he and Esmerelda went right into it, barely missing a beat. She pushed him back, riding him. Falling into him with the pleasure of it all, she playfully bit into his neck, then arched her back, giving him a perfect view of her cute little pink nipples. He lunged up, taking one in his mouth as his hands grabbed her ass and lifted, so that they were both somewhat sitting as they continued to fuck.