Ascension

by C J M Naylor

  She looked down at Ian on the floor, but he was unconscious.

  "Pity," Lucinda muttered. "Someone take care of that and make sure he's brought along. It's time to go."

  Thomas and I were led from the room, following Lucinda into the long corridor beyond. Outside of the prison, Melanie, Headrick, and Aldridge stood waiting for us. As always, Melanie looked identical to me, except for her expression. It was cold, dark, and calculated. She appeared as if she would always be one step ahead of everyone around her.

  We walked along the corridor until we came to the pools of water that represented the Central Headquarter's Time Line. Lucinda stood in front of the water and held her hand out over it. She didn't even require a pocket watch to control her powers.

  "After you," Lucinda said to me, stepping away from the pool of water.

  The guard pushed me forward and together we stepped into the pool of water, leaving the Central Headquarters behind us.

  Dingle, Ireland

  We stood on a beach, the waves crashing against the jagged rocks of the shore. A cliff stood on the side to us. And then Lucinda appeared, followed by everyone else. Ian came last, awake now, and continuing to throw murderous looks at Thomas. A black eye would be developing where Thomas had punched him and a feeling of satisfaction rose in my chest.

  Lucinda brushed past us, walking to the side of the cliff, and pulling a dagger out of her coat. She rolled up her sleeve and made a cut in her arm. And then she smeared her blood onto the rocks of the cliff and an entrance appeared out of nowhere. She turned around and gestured for us all to enter. This was it. This was the original Headquarters. This is where I could fix all of this. This was the end.

  The guard restraining me pushed forward and I followed Melanie and the others. Lucinda entered behind us. And another feeling of satisfaction rose when I realized she wasn't closing the entrance behind her, leaving it open so that Elisabeth would be able to enter as well.

  We descended into a circular room with archways over hallways that led in different directions. In the middle of the room was an altar. It stood on top of a giant clock. As they always were in the Timekeeping world, the hands of the clock were missing. I looked to all of the hallways and wondered which one would take me where I needed to go in order to reverse Time and get us back to where we needed to be.

  Lucinda walked ahead of us and removed her trench coat.

  "Let's not waste any time here," she said. She looked to Aldridge and Headrick. "Place them on the altar."

  Aldridge stepped forward and took me from the guard, guiding me over to the altar and beckoning for me to lie down. Headrick did the same with Melanie.

  I looked around me before lying down. This was happening too fast. Where was she?

  "Who?"

  My body froze at Melanie's voice.

  "What?" I asked.

  "You said, ‘where is she?’"

  I didn't respond. Melanie looked at me suspiciously and then over at Lucinda who was pulling out an old, withered-looking bound book.

  "She's hiding something," Melanie said.

  "It doesn't matter," Lucinda said.

  She was flipping through the pages of the book, trying to find something.

  "But she is."

  Lucinda looked up at Melanie. "Quiet!"

  Melanie looked down in shame and in that moment I felt sorry for her. Regardless of all the horrible things my sister had probably done in her lifetime, I felt sorry for her.

  Lucinda walked over and reached out to grip Melanie's chin.

  "Nothing matters anymore," she said, almost motherly. "Now lie down."

  Melanie did as she was told and Lucinda looked over to me. Taking one last glance at the entrance and everyone around me, I did the same. Whatever would happen would happen. I would wait a moment longer, and then I would fight if I had to. I lied down, waiting for something to happen.

  "This is the end," Lucinda said, reading from her book, "but it is also the beginning. A new age is upon us. And the two of you will lead us into it."

  The only thing going through my mind was please come. Please. Please come.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Lucinda stood over me on the altar, her hands hovering over me. And then the same power Bessie had used that night on the Tower Bridge emitted from her palms. It was the energy of Time but there was a darkness to it. My eyes closed and I began to see all of the terrible things people did to each other throughout Time. War. Destruction. Death. The images flashed before my eyes.

  I had never felt like this in my entire life. The feeling was darkness. I felt as if nothing good existed in the world. I saw myself conquering the Timekeepers. I saw myself leading us into a new age where we did not have to hide away protecting the people. We could begin a new reign. One in which we had total control over what happened in the world. We could use Time to our advantage, rather than stand by and let it rip us apart as it showed us what we cannot change. There is no such thing as sacrifice.

  Yes, there is.

  A voice from within me spoke resiliently. It was my own voice. My voice that was being weakened by this darkness. It needed to be conquered. There could be no room in me for love or kindness. There could be only darkness. There is no sacrifice; there is only what we can take from the world. Instead of sacrifice, you must eliminate the threat. We must rid the earth of those who will stand in our way. They will only cause us to lose sight of the true goal. Total control.

  I was still there. But I could feel myself losing. This new me, this darker me, was trying to take over. They say there is evil inside of us all. Is that true? When I think of evil, I think of the darkest parts of the world. I think of Hell. Could there really be something like that in us? I suppose there had to be. Otherwise, why would we sin? Why would we lie and steal? Why would we pretend to be something we're not? I know now there is darkness in us all. But we must choose to live outside of the darkness.

  This love, this peace—it needs to go away. I cannot let it prevail.

  "Mother."

  And it all stops. The thoughts, the images, the darkness—it all leaves me.

  "Mother."

  Lucinda's concentration ceased upon hearing her daughter's voice. It couldn't be. After all this time, why would Eleanor show up here? But when she turned around, she saw it wasn't Eleanor, but Elisabeth along with a number of other Timekeepers following in her wake. She was consumed with rage.

  "You!" she spat.

  "Hello, mother," Elisabeth said, walking into her home as if she had any right to be here. Elisabeth cocked her head to the side as she considered Lucinda. "It seems, for perhaps the first time in your life, you are the one that has been tricked. Eleanor and I switched places that night, but your little servant couldn't be bothered to tell the difference. I suppose that's what you get for sending someone else to do your dirty work. But you've always done that, haven't you mother?"

  A guttural, animalistic sound erupted from within Lucinda and she brought up her palms, throwing her powers at her daughter. The power to freeze a person where they stood, frozen in Time, along with the power to age. She had to destroy Elisabeth once and for all.

  Elisabeth held up own palms, resisting her mother's power and moving closer.

  "It won't," she said, "WORK on me. Did you honestly think I wouldn't spend as much time as possible practicing for this moment? Training myself to be concentrated by power if such a moment ever came about."

  "Lucinda," Headrick called, "what do we do?"

  "Protect the girls," Lucinda shouted.

  "How long can you possibly last, mother?" Elisabeth asked.

  "As long as you can, my dear," Lucinda answered.

  "I wish you could've been better," Elisabeth said. "Didn't you have some humanity at all? At one point in your life?"

  Lucinda looked like she might reveal something, but she held on. "You will not beat me! I am forever. I am the TIMEKEEPER."

  Elisabeth continued to hold, producing the barrier stopping her mo
ther's powers. She knew her mother wouldn't approach her for fear that someone might attempt to kill her. She knew she was safe. And she knew her daughters would be safe if she could only hold on.

  "Enough of this!" Lucinda shouted over the chaos. "You cannot win, Elisabeth."

  Elisabeth ignored her mother's insistence that she would lose and kept holding strong.

  My eyes opened. Whatever Lucinda had been trying to do had stopped completely. Elisabeth—my mother—had come. She had come just as she said she would. I had thought she’d left me again, but it had been for good reason. She needed this moment. This moment where her mother did not have the upper hand. Where we had the upper hand.

  Swinging my legs off of the altar, I leaned down and picked up the dagger Lucinda had dropped. I would end this. She had done what we needed her to do, and now it was up to me to stop this before the prophecy came to fruition.

  I looked around the room. Mathias, Henry, Perrine, Alma, and Oliver had entered alongside my mother and were attempting to hold off the others with whatever protective powers my mother had given them. It was as if they were being protected by some magical shield that Elisabeth was setting off, but the shield only went so far. It didn’t extend to her and Thomas on the other side of the room. Melanie was still out cold on the table. No one stood in my way. Lucinda was vulnerable.

  Taking my chance, I marched toward Lucinda's back, clutching the dagger in my hand.

  And then I was being pushed to the ground by someone from behind, my head pressed to the concrete, and the dagger was wrestled from my grip.

  "I will not let you hurt her," Melanie hissed in my ear.

  I wasn't going to let her stop me now. Bringing up my knee, I hit her as hard as I could in the stomach. She rolled off me, screaming in pain. I grabbed the dagger and began to stand, but Melanie's hand clutched my ankle, bringing me back down.

  "Let go of me," I screamed, attempting to kick her away from me.

  "I will not," she said, "LET YOU HURT HER."

  I began to worry I might not get her to let go, that I might fail, when Thomas appeared behind Melanie and pulled her off of me.

  "Let go of me,” she shrieked.

  "Abby, go," Thomas said.

  But Thomas didn't have Elisabeth's protection. Melanie quickly took her opportunity and brought her wrist up in the air to use her powers. Thomas bellowed over with pain, falling to the floor, clutching at his chest.

  "Thomas!"

  I began to run toward him, but he held up his hand.

  "Leave me."

  "Are you going to let him die, Abigail? Come on, dear sister of mine? Are you just going to stand there?"

  It was almost as if Lucinda's power had been used on me and I was completely frozen in time. I could save Thomas now, but then what would happen? Would we still make it through? This is what Melanie wanted. I looked at Thomas on the ground, the pain overtaking his face. There were tears building up in his eyes now. Tears from what? From the pain? From the idea of dying?

  "How much longer can you hold on, Elisabeth?" I heard Lucinda shouting from behind me.

  Turning my head, I looked at my mother, in battle with her own mother, and I could see she was weakening. At the end of it all, even after having had the upper hand, Lucinda was stronger. She had been going strong for thousands of years. And she had to be stopped.

  I looked back at Thomas. Melanie still had her hold on him, and she wasn't worried about me. Like my grandmother, she trusted I would make the opposite decision of what I was about to make. The decision I had made once before in my life. The sacrifice I had taken. They didn't understand me, and they never would.

  If I didn't do this now, I was going to lose absolute control and break down. He was the last person I truly had. And Lucinda thought if I lost him, I would go her way. The way of darkness. But she was wrong.

  I shook my head at Thomas.

  "I'm sorry," I said quietly. I knew he could read my lips even if he couldn't hear it.

  "I know," he mouthed back. "It's okay."

  His face tightened even more from the pain. I knew then she was somehow using her power to manipulate his heart. She was killing him from the inside. And it made it even worse as he slowly uttered the next three words.

  "I—love—you. Forever."

  Before the light could leave his eyes for good, I turned on the spot and marched toward Lucinda. Melanie turned her head.

  "NO!" she shouted. "LUCINDA!"

  As soon as I reached her, Lucinda whirled on her feet and was facing me. Her icy blue eyes, eyes that had seen this world change over thousands of years, stared back at me as I plunged the tip of the dagger into her heart.

  She looked down at the dagger and then back up at me. And she smiled. It was the strangest thing. I looked into her eyes and it was almost as if something that hadn't been there, something that had been gone for so many years, returned to them.

  Elisabeth walked up, still somewhat weakened, and stood by my side. She looked at Lucinda.

  "Goodbye, mother."

  Lucinda dropped to her knees, looking up at the ceiling as she died. And as she did, a single tear rolled from her eye.

  "I'm sorry," she said, looking up at the ceiling one last time, and then falling forward on her chest, dead, her eyes still open.

  I had no idea if the words were to me, or to some long-lost part of her humanity that had been forgotten. But it didn't matter. All of the years she had cheated death began to catch up with her. Her smooth, soft skin began to shrivel and wrinkle. The pure gold hair she sported began to grey and then turn a pearly white, before crinkling up and falling out completely. And then my grandmother became bone, and then she became dust. And then it was all over.

  Elisabeth looked over at me.

  "It's all over," she said. "We beat them. And you were so strong, holding off against her, until I got here."

  I smiled, but then remembered.

  "Thomas," I said, turning and going back to where I had left him to die. As I did, I saw Melanie. She was curled up next to Thomas, hugging her legs to herself, and shaking.

  "I killed him," she was saying, almost as if she had not intended to do just that. "I stopped his heart."

  Henry ran up and knelt down next to his son, putting his hands on his chest and beginning compressions.

  "What's he doing?" I asked, looking at Oliver, who had also appeared.

  "He's trying to resuscitate him," Oliver responded. "To restart his heart. There might be enough time to bring him back. Henry learned it during the war."

  Nodding, I looked back at Thomas' lifeless body on the ground.

  Please, please come back to me. Please God, let him come back to me. Let me have this one person. PLEASE.

  Henry kept doing the compressions, occasionally breathing air into Thomas' mouth. We all stood there, completely silent, watching Henry attempt to revive his only son—his only child. Melanie was still curled up nearby, unable to come to terms with what she had just done, and I assumed, everything she had done before this.

  Henry was almost beating on Thomas now, and tears were running down my face. Finally, Oliver walked over to Henry, fell to his knees next to him, and attepted to pull Henry away from his son.

  "Henry," he said calmly. "He's gone."

  "No," Henry said quietly. And then he shouted again, this time like an animal in agony: loud, guttural, anguished. "NO!"

  He let himself fall into Oliver, who held him.

  And then there was an audible intake of breath. Then a cough. And then Thomas' eyes opened and, even though he was still in pain, he managed to look over at his father and past Henry—to me.

  "Thank you," Henry said, looking up at the ceiling and then falling next to Thomas. "Thank you, God."

  Thomas looked up at his father, a cheeky grin on his face. "'S matter pops? You look like you've seen a ghost."

  Henry laughed and pulled his son into him. Mathias came over to Elisabeth and I and put his arms around us, pulling all thr
ee of us together. Oliver stepped away from Henry and Thomas and embraced Alma.

  A few moments passed, and then Henry let go of his son.

  "Abby?" Thomas asked.

  I broke away from my parents and walked over to him, falling to my knees in front of him.

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  "You needed to do it," he said. "Otherwise, the you I know wouldn't be here. And this world is not worth living in if I can't have that version of you."

  He leaned up and kissed me. After that, we stayed still, our lips barely touching, our foreheads against each other.

  "I love you," I said.

  "And I love you," he said.

  I let myself pull away and look at Melanie. We had to figure out what to do next. Perrine had control of Ian, Alderidge, and Headrick. She had managed to find some rope to tie them up with. They had weakened considerably after their powers had ceased to exist.

  Standing upright, I walked over toward Melanie, Elisabeth rejoining me at my side.

  "The bit of humanity my mother stole from her is returning," Elisabeth said. “I think she is beginning to realize what she has done. What she has been coerced into doing."

  I walked over to Melanie and leaned down in front of her.

  "Melanie?"

  She looked up at me. "Stay away from me."

  "It's okay," I said, reaching out, but she moved further away from me.

  "You don't know the things that I've done," she said. "The things that I've done to people. I can't."

  I heard Elisabeth approaching me and she leaned down as well.

  "Melanie?" she said. "I'm your mother. And I'm so sorry I abandoned you."

  "You didn't have a choice though, did you?" She looked up at Elisabeth. "I know what they put you through."

  And then her eyes lit up as if she remembered something.

  "You have to reverse time," she said, looking from me and then to Elisabeth. "And I know it takes a sacrifice of three. Let me do it. Let me do something right for once."

  "No," Elisabeth said, looking at me and then back at Melanie. "It's your time now, you can't let yourself feel guilty for the things Lucinda made you do."