by P. S. Power
She wasn’t old, but looked to be in her late twenties or so, which was almost elderly for the room they were in. Dareg thought about what she said, and smiled at her.
“That sounds to serve her right then. I’m Dareg. We’ve met? Everyone can call me Dare? Just to… Get the relationships right… Did I pronounce that one right? Relationships? It sounds really soft to me.”
Jake got it first and nodded at him.
“Relationships. There’s a hard sound on the second syllable.”
Dareg nodded and smiled.
“Yes. To get the relationships right for this place. Tor is my father, and Merry is my mother. Timon, my Uncle. Debbie and Tiera are my Aunts. Jake, Doug, Ben and myself are the neat and cool people, making the rest of you hot, but obviously untidy?” It wasn’t true, since everyone was quite well-presented there, but about half of them laughed at his attempt at humor.
The one that didn’t was Tiera, and even she managed to cover a small smile, working out that everyone else figured he was going for humor.
At the far end, one of the others, who looked more like Tor, but was small and not as attractive, started to speak.
“Hello, everyone. I think this is all that will be coming today. I’m Zack Hartley. Now, I think that… Dareg? You called us together today?”
The man bowed toward him, so he stood and did it back, wanting to be polite.
“Not really. Still, I think that we… Worked out a few things, and I wanted to check on them. Most of the attacks coming in… At first I thought that they were aimed at me, but that isn’t really the case. They’re directed at people near Tor. Since that won’t functionally weaken him, my guess is that it’s about either scaring him, or making him angry, so that he will do something.”
Zack, who was a bit too thin to be healthy, nodded then, his expression strange and a bit loopy. Like he’d had too much to drink, or had taken other drugs. His words were sharp however, and came out faster than the others were able to pick up.
Dareg got it all however.
“I’ve had that happen. The Darkness, the Adversaries, pushing at me, trying to get me to make a mistake and build a bridge to them. I don’t think that it will work on me anymore. I’m… Functionally I’m older than this universe is now. It was experiential time, but that still counts. I won’t be pushed easily that way. So you think that they’re shifting to the others?”
Dareg looked at the man, getting that no one else would understand them. Not talking at those speeds.
“Yes. At least it seems to be what is happening here. I can’t speak for the other worlds. I… Do you know, is that, the thing with everyone living forever, to the end of everything, real?” It made a lot of difference as to what he thought about things, after all.
Zack Hartley nodded.
“I haven’t met any of them, but so far it seems to be what is going on. I have some information that it truly is, but that comes from Riley, the Trickster. They’ll say anything to get the right conclusion for the universe. Past that, I don’t really know, to be honest. I’ve lived for a very long time, and while I’m clearly insane from it, I don’t want to end your chance at life to relieve my suffering. Then, I was never alone. Oh, for tens of thousands of years, but I always knew my friends were nearby, which is different than just being the only thing that will ever be again, I bet.”
They were still speaking fast, which had to be no more than a wavering hum or buzz to the others.
Dare nodded a few times then.
“If it is true, then we… Shouldn’t we end everything?” It was dangerous, saying something like that in front of these people, who were well and truly on the side of life and saving them all, but strangely enough the other man smiled at him.
“Most likely. Still, we have all the time in the world to come to that end, and there might be a way around things. Even if there isn’t, I can’t see any reason not to let you, and Tor, and Doug down there, have good and fulfilled lives. Even if it has to all be undone later. The one thing we know for certain is that people exist here, and now. So I’m operating from that premise for the time being. How about you?”
It wasn’t that far off of his own thoughts, so he nodded.
“Agreed. So… We should prevent people for coming at Tor too hard? Or…”
The other man did something then, and slowed down a lot, speaking normally, and forcing the conversation back into a snail’s pace, so that the others could hear and understand them.
“Dare here was just suggesting that we let Tor know not to open up a pathway for the Most Elder, so they can’t use him to destroy everything. You can’t do it by accident. It might mean letting everyone you know and love die, but there’s a lot you can do before that point. The same goes for Brian and Gwen.”
It was Tiera that spoke then, her voice calm enough, though her shoulders were a little stiff.
“Not Timon? Or Dareg? They’re as powerful as Tor is, as far as magic goes.”
Tor shook his head a bit then, but it was Ben, the green haired man, who spoke first.
“Nope. You’re powerful enough, and I might be, along with those others. It isn’t about power. It’s about mental instability. The rest of us are sane. Well, not me, but the way that happened isn’t really insanity, as much as seeing things differently. My guess is that Glenda, Zack, Brian, Tor and Gwen here are all bugnuts in the head. Gone enough that they could actually open a rift to the end of everything, and bring one of those things through. Then, boom. The two states can’t exist at one time in the same universe, so everything would be gone.”
There was a strange set of reactions then. Tiera looked ready to attack Ben, who seemed to get that it could really happen, while all the people listed off nodded.
Merry and Debbie sat in the center, both of them looking back and forth. Finally, Dare’s mother spoke, her voice soft.
“That… Sounds correct. It would take a badly damaged being of great skill and power to be able to even see what is needed. Which is a thing that isn’t simple to describe. If it was, then the masters would have already won and we wouldn’t be here to talk about removing them as a threat.”
Ben scoffed at the words, which got a glare from Merry, and a hard look from both Debbie and Tor. He shook his gem green head quickly.
“Nothing like that. I don’t hold anything against you for giving in to threats like that. If it were my family, and I could save them… Well, when it was my turn I failed. I didn’t even know to try. Anyway, it’s got to be clear that we can’t really win. All we can do is stop them for now. Eventually, if we can’t work out some other way to resolve this, and possibly even if we can, one of them, the others, has to get lucky and drive some insane sop to the breaking point at the right time.” He glanced at Gwen and waved a hand at her, then winked. “No offense. It’s just clear that out of this group, the main threat is you. Tor, Gwen and Brian. Glenda… Well, you’re too sane, at a guess, plus don’t have the skills needed. In our world that person seemed to be me, but… I don’t really fit the bill. At least I don’t think so. That doesn’t mean they won’t come for me, or you, Dareg, but they probably can’t force us to do the wrong thing. We couldn’t really do it, even if we wanted to destroy everything. Not these versions of us.”
Karina did her own scoffing then, and rolled her eyes at the man who’d been talking.
“Right. What you can do is push those that have such power into doing it.” She spoke in standard, but Sara had been whispering to her the whole time, and repeated what she’d just said in English for the others.
Dareg shook his head then.
“No. No one will be able to now. That doesn’t mean we won’t all die, or be tortured forever, but all it will take is for these four to be hit, since even if they can’t be forced in any obvious way, some version of him will probably be hit that way, since, infinite. It… Can we win? I mean, I’m half on the wall about which is the best plan already. I don’t want anyone to be hurt, but in the end, that’s what se
ems to happen if we do nothing. Zack has the right plan there, I mean. We should live now, and help others, but… Even if we beat them here and now, won’t other realities just split off, where we do other things?”
It was Gwen that nodded at him, smiling.
“Yup. Though, doesn’t the fact that we’re alive now mean that we can win? If the others had, then we’d have never existed. It probably means that we’re really in some kind of strange limbo. Then, if that’s how it works, we always have been, right?” She glanced around, but no one said, or did anything at all.
Dareg half shrugged at her, and smiled. Hopefully it was charming, rather than smarmy.
“So… In the here and now, we can only really try to protect our people from harm, and keep the ones that can do the damage from being allowed to. I’m not really willing to kill them though. I mean, Gwen seems nice at any rate. Zack isn’t exactly screaming at me either, so we should start there.”
He was being flip, and out of place, but the whole world seemed uneven for him at the moment. Glancing up the table, he saw Tor nod at him. It was a bit dismal, but there was a slow smile with it as well. Timon made a face, and no one else spoke, leaving the youthful looking fellow to do the speaking.
“What’s the real threat? What can we expect to be coming at us? Attacks on family and friends? People being killed or kidnapped and replaced?”
At the head of the table, clearly acting as the leader, Zack narrowed his eyes a bit. It wasn’t a huge movement, but when he looked around at the others things seemed to be clicking into place. Inside of him.
“My guess, and this may be wrong, is that we’ll see an escalation of force being used. Targeting us and those around us. On the good side, if that’s the way of it, then we can protect the innocent who are far away from our locations. Not that some won’t be at risk anyway. Grabbing a family member, or one of my wives would get me to come running, regardless of where I went.”
Dareg nodded, his face feeling tight. Looking at his mother gave him an idea however.
“So, we steal the people they need to use against us, and kill the others. Merry and Debbie’s people need to be saved. Their families are being kept, to use against them. I’m not certain if they’re from different worlds or not…”
Ben waved.
“Oh… They’re from different places. The worlds are similar, but Debbie is from a place that’s really rural, and Merry here is… Her reality is more advanced. Like mine, nearly. I have to look through the rifts to find those, so I could be off, but it should be close.”
Debbie agreed it seemed.
“Copperton is a mining village, near the Canad border, up north.”
Merry looked over at her sister and smiled.
“Or, on the Canadian border. Still up north a good way. That means our families might still be alive? That Darren might not be a serial killer? You said that…”
Ben interjected again, having answers faster than the rest of them somehow. He read minds, but it was different than just field reading, Dare thought.
More powerful, and complete. Which was probably why he was insane.
“I can’t see that. Not from here. We can go and look though? I think that if we work up a team, we can do it. Zack… Brian, myself and Dareg to go and get Merry’s people? You need to stay here, or your masters will know you left. Gwen, Doug and Tim can go in for Debbie’s folks. Sara as well. You can go in using one of your neat space ships. Timon can get it there. Gwen should be in charge on the ground though. She’s good at that kind of thing. It should be nearly as simple as finding them, and picking them up, then bringing them back here. For the second team.”
Tiera looked at the green haired man, and it was really clear she didn’t like him much. Since he was nice enough and basically him, Dareg couldn’t help to feel it was about something else really.
“I see. The rest of us should just sit and sing a song or two while you all go forth and save the day?”
Ben shook his head.
“Nope. You and the rest of your wizards need to fix the implants. The ones that the enemies have? I don’t know how to do that, but stopping the signal, and removing them, before the destruct code can be given is a start. This is a good first operation. Then, after this, we need to figure out where the threat is coming from, find them and make sure they can’t get their plan done.”
Letting himself think about the problem for a moment, Dare got a sense of what would, in the end be needed. It wasn’t that hard to work out, after all.
“The people behind this… They won’t be from the end of times, because those beings can’t affect anything in the here and now, or else we’d have lost and not be around to talk about it… So… My guess is that we’re looking at versions of ourselves. Sane versions of Tor, Gwen, Brian and Zack, who have banded together, along with insane Glenda? The opposite version of what we have here?” It made sense, but Brian shook his head.
“Probably not that simple. Not that such a version is the easy one. No, those beings, the others of us, are going to be the pawns used. I don’t know who’s behind it all. Any idea?” He spoke directly to Debbie and Merry, since they were the ones that might have secret knowledge that way.
His Aunt, who wasn’t that really as it turned out, closed one eye and shook her head.
“I was taken to an education camp, and tortured so that I’d do what I was told. I still have nightmares about it. The pain… Anyway, I only saw the people that did the work on my group. Not even the other people involved. It wasn’t a huge effort, but there were several hundred of us there at the time I was. A lot of them died however. The conditioning, the weak don’t make it.”
His mother seemed to agree on that score, from her own way of looking at it.
“I was taken as well. Walking along in the woods one day. Hiking… I thought it was a healthy form of exercise, but most of us were taken that way. Alone, off in the woods. Then there was the camp. Mine at least was on a different world. The structures were primitive. Like a farm? There was a barn they used, and I remember seeing strange looking Amish people.”
That meant nothing to him, but Ben nodded.
“That one. I’ve seen it before. If they’re working from there, we might be able to find it, and infiltrate. That will take a lot of things we don’t have yet. Anyway, we should get to things here first. Tim, you were going to do that work on Doug? The rest of us should go and get something to eat, if that’s available here? I’m starving.” He tried to look hopeful, as Tim stood and waved for Doug to go with him.
Tiera, strangely enough, did the same with the two women.
“Come with me? I need to look at the implants and have some others do the same. Our two best builders are going to be busy, so I guess you’re stuck with me. Sara?” That got her to stand up as well, but Princess Karina just sat, waiting for a bit.
Probably because she felt a bit helpless when it came to magic. Dareg stood though. There was something he could do, having seen a food unit not too far down the hall. It was built into a wall, but it would be easy enough to take orders from everyone.
“What do you all wish to eat?” The orders came in hard and fast and were all strange to him. Well, some of them were. Which meant that everyone went along with him when the time came and tried to use the food unit themselves. That actually worked, being that these were all smart, highly focused, people. What they had all seemed to be food, but only what Gwen was eating was familiar to him really.
Chips and cheese. She had spicy meat with hers, so he got the woman to make some up for him.
Ben coughed a bit, covering it with a fist.
“Go with the medium version. I like spicy food, but Gwen is actually a bit over the top that way.”
She glared a bit, and smiled at Dare, passing a decently full tray over to him. There was a drink with it, which seemed to be a lemon beverage. He’d had lemon cactus before, so it was kind of familiar. It also reminded him briefly of Kolb. A man killed for no apparent reas
on.
They used the meeting room for the meal space, and the food was hot, but not unpleasantly so. This however, was the in-between version, he was certain. Gwen sat next to him this time, eating delicately as everyone else was quiet for a time. Finally, not looking up, she spoke to him.
“You’re basically my son?”
He shook his head.
“Not really. You look like my Aunt, Patricia. She isn’t a blood relation though. So, really, we could date, if you want? I’m kind of new to that kind of thing, but it would be allowable.” Also cross dimensional. Karina, sitting across from them, with Uni next to her, nodded.
“True. You’re seeing Uni, and… Wendra, wasn’t it? Anyone else yet? That’s a bit light, to be truthful. I’m seeing more people than that, myself. Not that I’m giving all of the names away. That would be less than discreet.” She tried to act like it was a real thing for her, but Tor blushed, and Timon did nothing at all.
There was no wave of panic from his Uncle either, though there was from his father, which wasn’t going to mess with his mind later. Then, Gwen was basically him, so that would serve him right. A girl version, and from a different reality, so it really was fair.
“We should go and do something then, Gwen. Have you ever been to Saturn?” It was more impressive than Jupiter or Mars was, if they were going to take a trip.
Karina chuckled a bit, as Gwen laughed.
“You know, I really haven’t. Also acceptable would be a trip back to my own world. I doubt that anyone will recognize me. I was… Different originally. Crippled and distorted. My face stuck out on the right and was kind of caved in on the left. I was lopsided and attacked a lot for being different.”
Jake stared at her, and then nodded, his face puzzled.
After a while he spoke.
“Gwen… Farris? From Westwood?”
She didn’t have to spin to face him, but did anyway, with a small yelp.
“Yes. Did you… Read my mind?”
Ben practically chortled then and went wide eyed, making strange gestures at the air, like he was moving things around.