And when he was gone, Natasha went to a room that never existed before she bought this castle, and drew back a thick ruby curtain. Behind it, a sculpture of a woman stood waiting. This clay woman was ordinary, though not without charm, smaller than Natasha herself, in a neutral pose. Natasha picked up a molding tool and finished a few more small arcane marks pressed into the clay, some on the woman's inner wrist, some on her lower back, a tiny emblem behind her ear.
And then she was ready.
The Lady Natasha Grey leaned in and whispered in the statue's ear.
"Lady Dreamless, Queen of the Dreamless Lands, your vessel is ready," Natasha said. "My debt is paid. You are welcome here."
The clay woman opened her eyes, her skin warming from gray to pale, pale white.
And she smiled.
Epilogue:
It fell from the stars
Jane, Billy, and Emily sat on the roof of the Tower, watching the sun set over the City; clouds drifted by lazily. Emily, as always, let her feet dangle over the edge. Billy was half-tempted to nudge her off just to watch her freak out for the half-second she always forgot she could fly.
These are the moments I wonder why I chose you, Dude said.
Come on, Billy thought. I'm the best partner you've ever had.
There is so much more time to find an improvement, Dude said.
"Anybody else feeling really not indestructible right now?" Emily said. "I mean, I feel so destructible I'm thinking about petitioning for a name change."
"We made it home, Em," Jane said. "That's all that matters."
Billy noticed Jane had been quieter than ever since they had returned and hadn't known quite how to behave around her. Nothing felt appropriate. "I don't think it's all that matters," Billy said.
"I know," Jane said. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that we have to try to remember that this is our world. This is where we belong."
"Have you talked to Broadstreet since we got back?" Billy said.
She sighed heavily. "Yeah, that was more than a little bit awkward," Jane said.
"Did you tell him what happened?" Billy asked.
"Absolutely not," she said. "Look at how it's affected the three of us! And we're used to confronting this weird stuff. I wouldn't put that burden on a regular person."
"Were you at least a little bit nicer to him?" Emily said.
"I was," Jane said. "It's pretty hard to be mean to someone who you know was a hero in a different timeline."
"Yeah, about that," Billy said. "Winter recruited Bohr for the Department."
"Can't kill him for what he did in a different timeline," Jane said.
"It worked in the Terminator," Emily said.
"It did not work in the Terminator," Billy said. "That's why there were about twenty five sequels. It kept not working!"
"Anyway," Jane said. "It's a way to keep an eye on him. Maybe help him do better this time around."
They sat in silence for a few minutes. The sun crept toward the horizon, turning the sky from gold to violet.
Emily pretended to spit over the edge of the Tower—sound effects and all.
Jane nudged her to cut it out.
Emily rolled her eyes.
"You know, I wish we just traveled to outer space instead," Emily said. "That would have been so much less depressing than a horrible post-apocalyptic future."
"You say these things," Billy said. "But it's not like something absolutely horrible can't like, attack the Earth or whatever this very moment."
"I'm just saying, in the overall scheme of things, space adventures fun, time travel adventures depressing," Emily said. "A time honored tradition."
"I'm going to push you off the edge again," Billy said.
"Try it, Glow Worm," Emily said.
Jane jumped to her feet.
Billy did the same, automatically, with absolutely no idea why.
Emily stayed sitting. "What?" she said.
"What's that?" Jane said pointing in the distance.
Just above the horizon, a bright streak of blue-white light fell from the sky, flaring as it burned through the atmosphere.
"I don't have a clue," Billy said.
Go, Dude said.
"What?" Billy said.
"I didn't say anything," Emily said.
Go to it. Find where it lands. Now, Dude said.
Billy launched into the air. "We gotta get there," he said.
"I'm coming," Jane said.
"I can't keep up!" Emily yelled.
"Meet us," Billy said. "We need to get there now!"
He thrust both arms forward, rocketing across the evening sky. Jane kept pace, though not as easily as she once had prior to Billy getting his unexpected power-boost during their trip to the future. The two lanced through the air, a streak of blue-white and one of red-gold, following the trajectory of the falling star. They watched the impact, saw a flash of light and heard a sonic boom. The duo flew faster. They located the crash site a few miles outside the City, a crater in the middle of a national park, just a few feet away from a small lake. The ground inside the hole was burned a grizzled black.
And a living creature lay in there on its back.
Shaped like a human, it had two arms, two legs, and a head. The similarities to the human species started to diverge there, with the appearance of large, luminous green eyes, a slit-like mouth, and reptilian skin. The creature wore a uniform of sorts, dark blue with white piping, though much of it was burned or ripped away. Raw wounds, some almost healed, marred the being's scaled skin. Then it started to speak in a language neither of them understood.
"Dude, can you translate?"
I know this language, Dude said. Let him talk.
Emily arrived then, cursing loudly, complaining about the inequities of second-rate travel.
"Every time," she said. "You have the warp drives and I'm puttering behind you like a 1920's biplane. I'm tired of it."
"Em, hush," Billy said.
He climbed into the crater and lifted the alien gently so that it could sit up.
Dude performed translator duties for both of them.
"They are coming," the creature said. "The enemy. They are coming for your world."
"What enemy?" Billy said. "Who's coming?"
"You need to be ready, you should prepare . . ."
"Prepare for what?" Billy said.
"This sounds as terrible as it could possibly be," Jane said.
"Dude, I need some help here," Billy said.
Remember, when we first met, I told you that you had a nemesis, and you had no idea who it was? Dude said.
Billy felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Oh, boy," he said.
Your nemesis is coming, Dude said. This being is another of us, a Luminae and a host. And they have traveled to warn us. The nemesis is on the way to Earth.
"And they're from outer space?" Billy said.
Unfortunately, Dude said.
"Emily!" Billy yelled. "You had to make that joke about traveling to outer space, didn't you?"
"Let's pretend I didn't," Emily said. "What do we do now?"
"We get ready," Billy said.
A Brief Interview with Author Matthew Phillion
When you write about superheroes, it pretty much goes without saying that you eventually have to address time travel.
Matthew Phillion: Time travel, alternate timelines, and superheroes are inherently linked together. Whether you're talking straight up time travel like "Days of Future Past" or "Elseworlds" style stories like "The Nail" or "Red Son," some of the most powerful and important superhero stories directly talk about other futures, or other presents.
Did you think you'd get there this soon in the Indestructibles series?
MP: I knew the first few story arcs for the Indestructibles before I even sat down to write Book 1, to be honest. I debated quite a bit between time travel and another time-honored superhero story tradition as the follow up for Breakout, but taking the kids into the futur
e just felt right for Book 3.
Did you know exactly how time travel would work in the Indestructibles universe?
MP: There was a balance between needing to make things up as I went along and actual time travel theory (I love that there is legitimate time travel theory out there to read). To tell you the truth I didn't want to make too many hard rules too soon. Time travel is so big, and has the potential to be so complicated, I didn't want to tie my hands for future stories.
You take the team to some dark places in the third book. What was the reasoning behind that?
MP: Any series about young heroes is also about growing up. A story about time travel allows for some really interesting questions to be asked—what if you don't like what you've become as an adult? What if this future version of you has made decisions you don't agree with? And if you don't like the future you see in this grown-up version of yourself, what can you do to build a better future for yourself?
The characters say several times that you can't change the past, you can only make things different. Will the Indestructibles walk away from Book 3 different?
MP: One of the things about Jane, Billy, Titus, Kate, and Emily that I truly love is that they grow and change with each new book in ways I never expected when I set out to create them. The things they experience in this alternate timeline will have a lasting impact on how they view the world, and especially how they view their own actions. They’ve always wanted to make a better world—with The Entropy of Everything, they realize they can also strive to make a better future as well.
Some Other Books By PFP / AJAR Contemporaries
a four-sided bed - Elizabeth Searle
A Russian Requiem - Roland Merullo
Ambassador of the Dead - Askold Melnyczuk
Blind Tongues - Sterling Watson
Celebrities in Disgrace (eBook version only) - Elizabeth Searle
Demons of the Blank Page - Roland Merullo
Fighting Gravity - Peggy Rambach
"Gifted: An Indestructibles Christmas Story" - Matthew Phillion
Girl to Girl: The Real Deal on Being A Girl Today - Anne Driscoll
"Last Call" (eBook "single") - Roland Merullo
Leaving Losapas - Roland Merullo
Lunch with Buddha - Roland Merullo
Make A Wish But Not For Money - Suzanne Strempek Shea
Music In and On the Air - Lloyd Schwartz
My Ground Trilogy - Joseph Torra
Passion for Golf: In Pursuit of the Innermost Game - Roland Merullo
Revere Beach Boulevard - Roland Merullo
Revere Beach Elegy - Roland Merullo
Taking the Kids to Italy - Roland Merullo
Talk Show - Jaime Clarke
Temporary Sojourner - Tony Eprile
the Book of Dreams - Craig Nova
The Calling - Sterling Watson
The Family Business - John DiNatale
The Indestructibles - Matthew Phillion
The Indestructibles: Breakout - Matthew Phillion
The Return - Roland Merullo
The Ten Commandments of Golf Etiquette: How to Make the Game More
Enjoyable for Yourself and for Everyone Else on the Course - Roland Merullo
The Winding Stream: The Carters, the Cashes and the Course
of Country Music - Beth Harrington
"The Young and the Rest of Us" (eBook "single") - Elizabeth Searle
This is Paradise: An Irish Mother's Grief, an African Village's Plight and the Medical Clinic That Brought Fresh Hope to Both - Suzanne Strempek Shea
Tornado Alley - Craig Nova
"What A Father Leaves" (eBook "single" & audio book) - Roland Merullo
What Is Told - Askold Melnyczuk
The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything Page 30