She used all her force, all of her training, and most importantly all of her experience to focus her attention on pulling that crack in space towards her.
The power of the entity surged up, jumping over every centimeter of her flesh and deep into her body.
It was a risk drawing the crack in space towards herself. There was no other way though.
She just knew that if she stopped the entity from leaving her, the crack could never form in full, stopping the damage to Vex’s timeline from ever occurring.
She just knew this could work.
And she would give her all to make it happen.
If her classmates were here, they’d decry her plan. What kind of idiotic cadet thought they could fix a timeline by sucking a great big crack in space towards herself?
Well, Nida was a terrible cadet, that was for sure.
But Sharpe was right, so was Carson—she was just the person to fix this.
As the crack was sucked towards her, the entity within became stronger. Relying on it, forcing it to use its power, kept it locked within her, and locked into this space time.
Violent strikes of lightning started to erupt from the crack, discharging up into space.
It was categorically the most frightening thing she’d ever seen. Yet she didn’t stumble back, grab Carson and try to run.
There was nowhere to run to.
The only thing left to do was open up to the entity, and hope this most desperate of plans would work.
More lightning discharged from the crack, illuminating the sky in bursts of vibrant, shocking white and yellow.
Something was happening.
The crack started to shift. Vibrate violently as if it were succumbing to harmonic resonance, getting ready to crack like a glass subjected to a high pitch.
She kept pushing herself into the entity, kept telling it this was the only way.
If she could anchor it here, time would heal itself.
A thunderous roar wrought the air. She couldn’t hear anything but this deafening, moaning boom.
Without the entity surging within her, she’d be dead. Pulverized by the pressure and burnt to a cinder.
Carson’s armor was still protecting him, but it couldn’t last.
She had to end this.
She closed her eyes.
She shut out everything.
Everything.
Every memory, every doubt, every last voice in her head that told her she couldn’t do this. She was the worst recruit in 1000 years, and she was unfit for this task.
She eliminated every distraction, retaining only enough focus to believe in herself.
And she pulled the crack forwards.
Right into her.
Except, it did not reach her body. It did not play across her skin, ripping through her flesh and rendering her as nothing but torn blood and bone drifting on the wind.
It disappeared.
As the entity within her returned to its full power, it displaced the crack forming in place.
It could not be in two places at once.
As the crack receded, for the first time, Nida felt the entity’s true power. She couldn’t help it. For the force welled within her, flowing into every cell, membrane, and tissue.
In a dance or power, it owned every part of her.
The crack disappeared.
The line in space, the cut in time, vanished.
The dark that had once blotted out the stars, lifted. The thunderous roar of power petered out.
Yet Nida remained.
As did the entity.
She stood, it stood with her.
All around her, within her, through her.
It had done it. It had saved Vex.
With her help, it had prevented the damage to the timeline from every occurring.
It was over.
Vex was fixed.
Chapter 23
Cade Nida Harper
It took her a long time to realize what had just happened.
She’d won.
Somehow, she’d done the impossible.
It wasn’t over though.
She was still in the past.
As that realization dawned on her, two things happened. Carson started to stir, and the entity moved within her.
She was still standing in a completely trashed meadow, the once tall grain nothing more than dust at her feet.
‘Nida?’ Carson moaned from behind her.
She didn’t turn; she couldn’t. The entity captured her full attention.
It was . . . overjoyed. What it felt went beyond normal happiness. It was such a pure feeling, Nida couldn’t begin to comprehend it.
For countless, countless eons, it had tried but failed to fix the Vex timeline.
Now its endless task was finally complete.
It flowed through her, all its power, all its joy.
Though it was incredible to feel it, Nida didn’t let the entity’s elation touch her too deeply.
She couldn’t forget what it had done—all those countless races it had sacrificed in its desperate quest to fix Vex.
The entity had committed great evil. And yet, at the same time, she could appreciate how hard it had worked to fix its mistake.
She couldn’t forgive, but she could understand.
‘Nida?’ Carson questioned again, and with a creak of his armored joints, she heard him shift to his knees.
The scene around them was one of total destruction, and yet beyond, the forests still stood, the meadows reached out to a beautiful green pastureland. In other words, the rest of Vex remained. And it would continue to stand, for it was free.
Though Carson said her name once more, she took a while to turn. Instead she closed her eyes, curled a hand around her modified TI, and sought out the entity within.
It was shifting about, moving quicker and quicker.
‘Nida?’ Carson now made it to his feet, and with a shaky step, he reached her. Just as he did, blue light escaped her palm. It didn’t shoot forth and send Carson spinning backwards, nor did it send every single grain of dust swirling around Nida in a deadly vortex.
Instead the entity simply left her. She could feel it. It pulled up from her bones, from the depths of her, and simply left.
As it did, it took with it its power. Every last drop.
Cadet Nida Harper returned to normal.
She also fell to her knees. But Carson was there to grab her and hold her steady.
‘Nida?’ he looked into her eyes questioningly, pressing his fingers across her cheek.
‘I’m fine,’ she managed as she pushed past the fatigue.
Now the entity was gone, it had taken not only its power, but its protection.
She was cold, fiendishly tired, and shaking unsteadily.
But she was still awake, and watched as the entity drifted forward into the sky.
It was a pulsating blue mass, like a condensed storm cloud billowing around itself.
Carson snapped his head towards it warily. ‘What’s happening?’ he asked through clenched teeth.
‘It’s over,’ Nida said. At the exact same moment, the entity spoke too. Its words boomed out, rolling along the meadows and down the pastureland like an explosion.
Carson’s grip around her shoulders tightened. It was clear he was readying for a fight.
And maybe he’d get one.
Granted, she’d fix Vex’s timeline. The entity had finally achieved what it had always sought. But what would it do now?
Leave peacefully? Or continue the fight? It had become so twisted through guilt anything was possible.
And yet she held onto the hope—the slimmest of hopes that it really was over.
Though the seconds ticked on, the entity did not attack. Instead it floated there, as if considering her. Eventually, however, it spoke again, ‘it’s over,’ it affirmed in that same booming voice that could have wrought the heavens in two.
Carson stiffened even more. Though he was still weak, that wouldn
’t matter.
He was Carson Blake; he’d push through.
Before he could jump up and try to bat the entity out of the air, Nida leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.
‘Just wait,’ she said, her tired words barely leaving her lips.
Though he turned his head to her sharply, he didn’t shake it.
Instead they waited.
The entity shifted to and fro, as if checking its environment. As if it couldn’t quite believe what had happened.
‘What now?’ Nida broke the silence.
Would the entity leave?
Would it go back to its dimension?
Now it had left her, Nida could no longer travel through time, which meant she had to face the fact she and Carson were stuck in the past.
There would be no making it back to the Coalition. All they had was Carson’s armor.
No, they’d simply have to live out the rest of their lives in Vex’s past, 5000 years from their own present.
Though that fact tried to demand her full attention, it couldn’t. For the entity still floated there, twitching back and forth as its blue energy illuminated the crushed wheat and flattened ground.
‘What now?’ she asked once more. ‘Will you return to your own dimension?’
The entity appeared to consider her before answering, ‘you assisted where no one else could. Without you, this could not have been achieved.’
Nida didn’t know how to answer. Instead she sat there, her chin angled up as she stared at the entity.
It had brought her so much pain. And yet it had taught her. Without it, she would still be the worst recruit in 1000 years.
Maybe Carson was quickly catching up to the situation, because he didn’t question. He remained there by her side, his hands locked into her shoulders, and hers into his.
‘There is nothing more to do, the Vex are now safe,’ the entity said, its voice ringing out so loud it was a wonder Nida’s ears drums didn’t rupture.
‘You’re going to leave, go back to your own dimension?’ she questioned hopefully.
‘Home, yes, home,’ there was a thoughtful, far-off tone to the entity’s voice.
It reached right inside Nida, resonating powerfully.
Home. If only she could return there. But she couldn’t, and that was the price for having saved the Vex.
It was one she would happily pay.
‘Home,’ the entity said, but as it spoke, something strange occurred. It began to shift backwards, and as it did, Nida felt a strange power emanating from it. A power that broke against her like a wave, yet one that hooked into her arms, drawing her forward.
‘What’s happening?’ she tried not to fall, but the entity’s force kept pulling her forward. ‘What are you doing? I helped you,’ her voice shook with fear, ‘let us live out our lives on Vex, don’t kill us. Please. If you want revenge on someone, take it on me, let Carson live. Please.’
‘Home, we must all return home.’ The entity appeared to ignore her.
Its power grew, until she was lifted into the air, Carson at her side.
He had a hand locked around her wrist, and it would take more force than the entity had to break his grip.
‘Please,’ she begged once more.
‘You cannot stay here, this planet is about to realign. I will return you to your own time. Then I will return home. I will leave you in charge of shepherding the Vex.’
‘What?’
‘Their timeline will realign with your present. The barren world you know as Remus 12 will spring to life. Not with the Vex of the future, but with the Vex of this moment. They are a young race, and you will guide them. I will be gone, you will stand in my place, shepherd them forward, give them the future they have always deserved.’
Nida was speechless.
‘The realignment will begin minutes after I return you to your present. I will leave you then. Forever. And you will shepherd the Vex,’ it commanded.
‘ . . . We’ll look after them,’ Nida managed.
Then it happened. The entity plucked both her and Carson up and it sent them through time once more.
Power swirled around her, breaking against her form, but she never let go of Carson’s hand and he never let go of hers.
Then there was a snap. One that echoed and echoed and echoed, as if it reached out to eternity.
In fact, time stilled, stopping in an instant.
The entity left.
For a moment that stretched on and on, it appeared to consider her quietly.
Perhaps it regretted all it had put her through. Perhaps it left her with a gift.
But soon it turned.
She could feel it find a crack in the weak space-time around Vex, only for it to disappear and finally return to its home.
It was time for her to return to hers.
. . . .
Chapter 24
Cadet Nida Harper
She bolted awake.
She flung herself forward.
‘Whoa, hold on there, Harper, you lost unconsciousness,’ someone said.
She blinked into the darkness.
Sharpe?
. . . .
What happened?
The entity, the time gate, what happened?
She pressed her fingers into the dust around her and tried to push herself up, but there was a horrible pain slicing into her side. She wheezed and brought her hand to her rib, quickly realizing it was likely broken.
. . . .
How the heck had she broken her rib?
As she surveyed her surroundings desperately, trying to make sense of what had just happened, she saw another form lying in the dust. She inched closer.
It was Carson.
She jolted, practically flinging herself at him. ‘Carson? Carson?’
‘He just lost consciousness,’ Sharpe said in a surprise but still terse tone. ‘And he should be Lieutenant Blake to you, Harper.’
What was happening?
She locked a hand on Carson’s shoulder and shook it gently. He began to rouse.
Groggily, he pushed himself up. Just as he pressed his fingers into his brow, blinking one eye open, he saw her.
There was a moment.
A strange one. It seemed to stretch on forever.
Her mind was finally catching up to her situation. The entity had deposited her back in the present, but not the present where the Chronos had been seconds away from destroying Remus 12, but when this mess had all begun.
Back when she’d first encountered the entity.
The exact moment, in fact, where Carson Blake and Sharpe had come across her in the dark after she’d touched the stone holding the entity.
As she wheezed through another breath, she had all the evidence she needed that her rib was certainly broken.
A horrible possibility suddenly struck: what if . . . somehow, it had all been some crazy dream?
What if she really had tripped in the dark, smacked her noggin, and dreamed the past few crazy months of her life?
Just as that possibility flashed through her consciousness, Carson stared at her.
Then he flung himself forward, wrapping his arms around her middle. ‘Nida,’ he said in a choking voice.
‘Blake?’ Commander Sharpe spluttered. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
Relief surged through her. It owned her. She had never felt such a powerful emotion.
It was over.
They were back.
They’d done it. The impossible. They’d fixed Vex and returned to the present.
Just as Carson hugged her tighter, she gasped. She did have a broken rib after all.
‘What is it?’ he asked in a worried tone.
She shifted back from him, pressing her hand into her side. ‘I kind of broke my rib,’ she managed.
‘Yes, you kind of did, Cadet,’ Sharpe snapped, ‘now what the hell are you two doing? I thought you didn’t know each other?’
Carson now snapped his hea
d towards Sharpe. ‘Commander?’
‘Yes, I’m still here. Now, Lieutenant, do you mind telling me—’ he began.
Carson suddenly pushed himself up. He rocketed to his feet so quickly it was a surprise he didn’t take off and head out into space. ‘This planet is about to realign,’ he spluttered.
Her cheeks paled. She’d almost forgotten about that part.
‘The entity told us we had minutes,’ he said as he leaned down towards her.
‘Entity? Realign? Minutes?’ Sharpe jumped to his own feet. ‘Did you hit your head, Blake?’
‘Ha, I wish it were that simple,’ Carson muttered as he gently reached down and picked Nida up.
There was a moment where their eyes met.
She had to use all of her determination not to kiss him. Not in front of Sharpe. The Commander would kill her.
The look in Carson’s eyes was too much to resist, though.
As he leaned down, she pressed a hand into his cheek and kissed him.
He kissed her back, albeit quickly, as he lifted her up, careful not to bang her rib.
‘Harper?!’ Sharpe practically blew a gasket. ‘What in god’s name are you doing?’
‘No time to explain, Commander,’ Carson said as he started running towards the camp.
‘You know, I can probably walk on my own,’ Nida managed.
‘I’m sure you can; you fixed Vex’s timeline. Cadet Nida Harper, you can do anything,’ Carson said as he nonetheless carried her forward. ‘But we need to hurry; we’re running out of time.’
She couldn’t help but offer a soft laugh at that.
Running out of time?
They weren’t running out of time. They were creating it.
In minutes, Vex would realign. Their stolen history would be reclaimed.
‘What are you two doing?’ Sharpe screamed from behind them.
‘There’s no time to explain, Commander,’ Carson shouted back, ‘something is about to happen to this planet. We need to make it back to the transport and get everybody on board.’
‘Blake?’
‘Trust me,’ Carson thundered back. ‘I sure hope the entity is right,’ he added under his breath.
She placed a hand on his chest and nodded.
The entity was right.
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