by James Riley
Cyrus sighed. “Humanity isn’t destroyed or anything. You’re all living below the ground, serving the Dracsi, like the dwarfs.” He shook his head. “And you’re all happy, thanks to my sister, Q’baos. As far as any human knows, you’ve always worshipped my kind, and you’d do anything for us.”
“You used Spirit magic on everyone?” Rachel shouted, holding Excalibur up again. “I’d take you down just for that, even if I didn’t have to!”
Cyrus gave her a pitying look. “Except you couldn’t. I’ve been going easy on all of you, because as much as it pains me, I’ve grown fond of you over the last months. Something like pets, I imagine.” He looked over at Ember. “You must understand that now, huh, Fort?”
Ember hissed angrily, but Fort motioned for her to back down, which she did, though she didn’t look thrilled about it.
“Anyway,” Cyrus continued, sounding almost as devastated as Fort felt for some reason. “Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. Like I said, this future is already done. There’s no way to stop it. I sent Sierra and Damian to get the last books, telling them that Damian was the only one who could defeat the Old Ones. And of course, being Damian, he believed it.” He cringed. “Turns out one dragon doesn’t do very well against my family.”
As much as he hated Damian, Fort winced at that. “Then we’ll go back and stop Damian before he brings the Old Ones back,” he said. “There’s nothing you could have done that we can’t undo, right?”
Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “Nice attempt, Fort. What, you think I’m just going to tell you my whole plan? Do you have any idea how many centuries I’ve been working on this? How many problems I’ve had to fix, because you humans could never just do what I wanted you to do? And you’ve been the biggest problem, Fort! You’re not even supposed to be here. Merlin and I agreed that you’d be spared, kept from this fight. It was in the rules!”
That explained a few things to Fort, though why Cyrus would care about him when he’d been lying this whole time was another mystery. “I wish you weren’t here either, Cyrus,” Fort said quietly. “I really do. I thought we were friends.”
Cyrus growled softly, then looked away. “Humans and an Old One, friends? Like I said, at best, I saw you as pets.” He still didn’t look at them. “But if it helps… I did make sure you and your family are treated well, here in the future. You’re not serving us in the underground. I got you out before that. A weakness in myself, I suppose.”
“Oh, isn’t that sweet?” Rachel said. “And what about the rest of us, Cyrus? What’d you do to me and Jia?”
“I would have helped you too, but you wouldn’t accept it,” Cyrus said, turning back now in anger. “You and Jia insisted on fighting, until there was nothing else I could do. Even now, hearing that, you’re still going to insist on stopping me. And you can’t! But why would that change the great Rachel’s mind? You just had to take the sword, didn’t you? All you needed to do was get the book of Spirit magic from the faerie queen, but instead you volunteered to be her final hero.”
“And I’d do it again,” Rachel said.
“You might have had a chance, too, if we’d done this when you were older,” Cyrus said with a shrug. “That sword is far more powerful than you even know. It could kill one of my kind. Which is why I can’t let you use it.”
Before Rachel could move, three versions of Cyrus appeared out of nowhere, one of them holding a huge, glowing hammer. Two of them struck Rachel at the same time, sending Excalibur flying from her hand. The third, standing right where the sword landed, lifted his glowing hammer and brought it down hard on the blade.
The resulting explosion knocked them all from their feet. When the ground stopped spinning, Fort pushed himself back up and gasped.
Excalibur now lay broken in two, flames sputtering on the broken blade before gradually fading out.
“There,” Cyrus said, as the other Cyruses disappeared. “Now it’s completely over, and you’ve lost. Do you want to give up now? Here.” He gestured, and Jia reversed in time back over to them. “See? I’ll even give you Jia back.”
Jia gave Rachel and Fort a sad look. “Well, this isn’t going so great, huh?”
“We’re not done,” Fort told them, turning back to his former friend.
“Actually you are, if you’d just listen,” Cyrus said. “I will once again offer you all the chance that no other human is going to get: Stand down and stop fighting, and I’ll make sure you and your families are all okay. But keep this up, and you’ll all be sent to the underground with the rest of humanity.”
Jia snorted, then raised her hammer-hands. “I always knew there was something off about you, Cyrus. I liked you, but something wasn’t right.”
Cyrus rolled his eyes. “Rachel? Do I even need to ask?”
Rachel bent down and ran her hand over the ground, infusing it with her magic. Seconds later, she picked up a steel sword, formed from what was left of the earth below them. “Nope, you can guess my answer.”
Cyrus nodded, then turned to Fort, giving him an almost pleading look. “You don’t have to go along with them, Fort. You were never one of them. Neither of us were. Do what’s best for yourself and your family. I can give you the life you always wanted. And all you have to do is surrender, here and now. This can all be over for you!”
Fort just stared at Cyrus, not knowing what to say.
“Can’t decide?” Cyrus said. “Really? Well, maybe you need more incentive.” He gestured, and a glowing black window opened, showing Fort a cozy little living room with a mother, father, and son all watching television. And to Fort’s horror, he recognized all three: One was himself, one was his father… and one was someone he’d only seen in pictures.
“I can give you more,” Cyrus continued as Fort stared in disbelief. “Your mother didn’t need to die when you were born. I can fix that, Fort! All you need to do is stand down, and you can have everything you ever wanted!”
Fort moved toward the window, his mouth dropping open. He slowly put a hand up to it, not able to believe his eyes. “Mom?” he said quietly, staring at the woman in the living room.
“Fort,” Rachel said. “Listen to me. Look around you. This is the world she’d be living in—”
“It’s the world you’ll all be living in, and nothing can change that!” Cyrus shouted, his face turning red with anger as the black Time window disappeared. “Now, Fort, tell me your answer, or pick up a weapon and fight. Either way, this is going to end once and for all.”
His mother. Cyrus had shown him his mother. So many emotions filled Fort’s head it felt like a riot going on, and he could barely think, let alone deal with this.
But if there was one thing he had learned by now, it was not to make deals with strange creatures.
Fort wiped his arm over his face, then nodded. “Okay, Cyrus,” he said, then walked over to where the broken blade of Excalibur lay. He leaned over and picked up the hilt, just a bit of the blade still attached, and looked at Rachel. “You’re going to need this still,” he said, and handed it to her. She took it, dissolving the sword she’d made.
She took it, staring at him. “You’re doing what he says?”
Fort looked at her, then at Cyrus. “No. But I don’t have the power to stop him, not with magic. He’s too strong.”
“Wise boy,” Cyrus said, nodding. “Now step aside so I can finish this.”
“We can’t give up, Fort,” Jia said softly.
“I know,” Fort said. “And I’m not.” And with that, he moved between the Old One and his friends, then turned to Cyrus and beckoned the boy to come at him. “Ready, Timeless One? Let’s do this.”
- FORTY -
CYRUS STARED AT HIM IN shock. “You would stand against me, still? After everything I’ve offered you?”
“I’ve never met… my mother,” Fort said, trying to sound confident in spite of his voice cracking with sorrow, “but I… I have a feeling she’d ground me for years if I ever joined you.”
“You ha
ve lost! ” Cyrus shouted, his anger now combined with something else, something Fort almost thought sounded like regret. “I destroyed Excalibur and brought my family home. What more do I have to do to show you?”
Fort just smiled sadly. “I guess you’ll have to take me down, Cyrus. If you can.”
Rage flooded over Cyrus’s face, and he floated up into the air once more. “Maybe you’ll change your mind when you see what happens to Rachel and Jia.” His hands glowed with black Time magic, and he aimed them at Fort’s friends.
But Fort just spread his arms out, putting himself between the Timeless One and the others. “If you want them, you’ll have to go through me first, Cyrus,” he said.
Cyrus’s eyes widened, and he blipped out in a burst of black light, appearing right in front of Fort. The Timeless One grabbed Fort by his shirt and lifted him into the air as if he weighed next to nothing. “Why are you making me do this?” Cyrus shouted, sounding almost uncertain. “I don’t want to hurt you!”
“I’m not making you do anything,” Fort said, not resisting. “I’m not fighting you, but I won’t stand aside, either. You’re going to have to take me out if you want them.”
Cyrus screamed in frustration and tossed Fort aside, but Fort quickly opened a teleportation circle and reappeared right in front of his friends.
“That’s not going to do it,” Fort said, realizing he might regret taunting his former friend. But this was the one chance they had. There had to be a reason both Merlin and Cyrus wanted Fort kept out, a reason why Cyrus kept offering him things to make sure Fort wasn’t hurt. And Fort suspected he knew what it was.
Merlin had said that a friendship with humans had turned him around on his own family. If that were true, it meant that maybe the Cyrus whom Fort had known in the Oppenheimer School wasn’t entirely an act.
There was no way to know for sure, but this was the only power Fort had now. Even with all the magical spells in the world at his fingertips, he still couldn’t match Cyrus’s power, not without years of practice.
But maybe he didn’t need to, not if the Cyrus he’d known was even partly real. And he had to believe that at least a bit of the boy he’d known existed in the Old One. Fort had seen too much of that Cyrus to buy that it was all manipulation.
Even so, it was still a huge risk, betting the future of humanity and his world on Cyrus’s friendship. It was also his only chance.
Cyrus’s eyes turned black with magic, and he screamed again, the land around them shaking as the rest of his family grew closer, their magic getting brighter. “If this is your decision, then let it be on you!” he shouted, and sent magic streaming at Fort.
The spell struck Fort in the chest and knocked him to his knees. Agony erupted through his body as he stared down at his hands in horror, the skin wrinkling, his fingers gnarling painfully, as his body weakened all around. Hair grew over Fort’s eyes, white hair, and he struggled just to hold his head up.
But in spite of the pain running through his limbs and chest, he managed to look Cyrus in the eye. “Is this… what you want?” he asked, his voice shaking with age.
Cyrus stared down at him, almost in shock. “No!” he shouted. “I didn’t want… I tried to protect you, Fort. I’ve been doing that since the start! Since I couldn’t bring my family back directly, I needed you to wake Sierra, which would lead to Damian coming back as well. That’s why I had Dr. Opps bring you to the school!” He cringed. “But I knew we’d be friends, and I never wanted you to be hurt.” He looked away as Fort fell back to the ground, too weak to stand. “But you just wouldn’t listen. You weren’t meant to find your father, or go rescue him. There was never supposed to be a second dragon. None of that was according to my plan, and I should have removed you then, when I realized you weren’t controllable. But I couldn’t! Because I understood, Fort. I knew why you couldn’t stop trying to save your dad, just like I’ve never given up on my own family! We’re the same, you and I, and for that reason, I couldn’t raise a hand against you.”
“Well… you’ve done it… now,” Fort said, laying his head against the dusty ground. “I hope… you did… the right thing.”
A moment passed, then black magic flooded over Fort once more, and instantly he felt his strength return. “I hate you for forcing this on me!” Cyrus shouted, floating right in front of Fort now. “I tried scaring you, I tried bribing you… what will it take?”
Fort stood up straight, marveling at how his muscles all worked again. Then he looked at Cyrus and smiled. “You can’t do it, can you?”
Cyrus roared, his hands still glowing. “What I can do is remove you from time! If you won’t listen to reason, then maybe a few thousand years in the future you’ll see things differently!”
Fort shrugged, hoping this was going to work. “You do what you have to do, Cyrus. I understand what it feels like to want your family back so much you’d do anything. But I learned the hard way that hurting other people to get what you want is never worth it.”
Something flashed, almost too quick to see, and for a moment, Fort worried that Cyrus had noticed it. But the other boy seemed too angry to have caught it, and Fort let out a huge breath, then moved one step to the right as quietly as he could.
“Then you learned the wrong lesson,” Cyrus said. “Because I would do anything for my family. Maybe you’ll agree when you’ve missed yours as long as I have. Good-bye, Fort. I’ll check in on you in a few thousand years.”
And then Cyrus unleashed his magic on the boy standing directly in front of him.
The black light passed directly through Fort, not touching him.
Cyrus floated backward in shock. “What…?”
And then Rachel appeared out of her own illusion and sliced the broken blade of Excalibur over the back of Cyrus’s hand, just enough to cut him. “Sorry, Future Boy,” she said, dropping the rest of her illusions, revealing Fort just to Cyrus’s left. “You really shouldn’t believe everything you see.”
- FORTY-ONE -
CYRUS SCREAMED IN HORRIBLE PAIN as the sword bit into him. He grabbed his hand and clutched it to his chest, then dropped to the ground, writhing there as black Time magic exploded out of him, morphing the land around them into several different eras: One looked like some kind of prehistoric world, while another showed cities and highways, just like home. A third was even more desolate than the land had been one year from the present, and a fourth…
Fort gasped as he stared at the fourth time period, reaching a hand for it.
But then the Time magic disappeared, sending everything back to the postapocalyptic land of the Old Ones.
“My… my magic!” Cyrus cried, reaching up toward the sky. “I can’t feel it. What have you done? What have you done!”
Rachel dropped Excalibur as she stared at Cyrus in silence, shaking her head, and the sword disappeared, as did the rest of the destroyed blade a few yards away.
Jia grabbed Rachel’s shoulder and pulled her around for a hug, and both of them began to shake as if in relief.
Fort bent down over Cyrus, though, as Ember approached, sniffing the silver-haired boy.
“He has lost his power,” she said. “Now may I eat him?”
Cyrus’s eyes widened, and he tried to push himself away from the dragon but was too weak to move.
“No,” Fort told her. “I think we might still need him. He was right, after all… even beating him didn’t stop his family from returning. We need to figure out where Damian and Sierra are and keep them from bringing the Old Ones back.”
“It’ll never work,” Cyrus said quietly, still staring at Ember in fear. “You can’t change the future, Fort, no matter what you do. And believe me, they won’t have any mercy on you like I did. They’ll destroy you and your loved ones, and you’ll deserve it for what you’ve done to me!”
Fort grimaced, as Ember licked her lips. “Please, Father? Just a bite? He annoys me.”
“Keep her away from me!” Cyrus shouted, pointing at the dragon,
only to yank his hand back as Ember nipped at his finger.
“No, Ember,” Fort told her, but he had to think about it for a moment. “At least, not yet.”
And then he stood up to go check on his friends, leaving Cyrus to think about that.
“We need to get out of here,” Fort said to Jia and Rachel, and they released their hug, both with wet eyes. “The other Old Ones won’t hold back now that they’ve seen Cyrus lose.”
“Can you use a Time spell to get us home?” Rachel asked.
“I can try,” Fort said, but before he could, a black glow surrounded them all, and a moment later, the Old Ones’ time had disappeared, replaced by the clearing around Merlin’s cottage.
Only, there was no cottage there now, not even the destroyed remnants of one. Instead, it looked as if no cottage had ever existed there, as the ground was undisturbed.
Rachel separated from Jia and walked over to where the cottage used to be. “One last gift from Merlin, getting us home,” she said, turning around and smiling slightly. “I guess our apprenticeship is over?”
“It looked like the queen took Excalibur back,” Fort said. “So we shouldn’t have to worry about her anymore.”
“You should!” Cyrus shouted, but went quiet as Ember bared her teeth at him.
“So what now?” Fort asked his friends. “What do we do with him?”
“I’m down for throwing him into a volcano,” Rachel said, glaring at the silver-haired boy. “Or letting Ember eat him.”
“Yes, we should do as the heroic girl says!” Ember shouted, and Cyrus winced.
“I think we might still need him, if we’re going to keep Sierra and Damian from bringing the Old Ones back,” Fort told them, not mentioning that he didn’t have the heart to let them hurt Cyrus. Even after everything, it was hard to look at the other boy and not see the version of Cyrus that had been his best friend. But right now, he had to ignore all of that and concentrate on what was to come. “He might not have his magic, but he still knows what’s coming.”