by Claire Davon
“It’s time,” Rogald said, looking at her and then he chuckled. “You would have made a great Liberator.”
She frowned, realizing that she was doing what the Liberators said that they stood for. She was changing things for the better. The difference was, they wanted to shift things that had already occurred, and alter their impact, whereas she was just fixing something. She hoped.
“Let’s do this.”
She focused, gathering her strength. Time felt sticky, rubbery, and the going was slow. It was far easier to freeze time than it was to slow it down.
Fiona felt the power build within her and she directed it even as it resisted. It was a wild beast, but she forced it into the channel she wanted, bending it to her will.
“Now, Fiona.”
She nodded and reached out with her hands, willing time not to stop, but to slow. The power seemed to resist and then everything became hushed as sound stopped. The leaves, which had been moving in a moderate breeze, now moved with quarter speed. She turned to Rogald. His hand was poised over his belt activation device and he was turning his head to her. She saw the awareness in his eyes as they widened agonizingly slowly. Around her people were moving as if they were going through molasses. The buggy wheels no longer clattered over the cobblestones; she could see each individual axle as it touched the pavement.
Fiona looked up. The streak continued through the sky in normal time, still feeling too close to this city. Would it be enough? She didn’t think she could slow down New York anymore and wasn’t sure if freezing time would also cause the meteor to freeze. She couldn’t take the risk that she would be like that episode of Twilight Zone where the man stopped time right before the bombs rained down on the Earth. It would do her no good if the meteor froze with the city.
Increase the speed on the meteor. We will help.
She frowned. The Voice had been quiet and she had thought it had left her, but she was grateful for its presence.
Increase the speed of the meteor? Move it forward in time? Could she do that?
There was no time to wonder. Concentrating, she split her abilities so one was focused on the city and with the other she reached out, time pushing the meteor and hoping she was doing it right. It felt weird, awkward, like she was a child shoving sand in a sandbox. She felt it surge ahead and wanted to cry out in triumph. Still she clung to her focus, uncertain of when it would be enough and if she would know when to let go. She couldn’t hold this for long. Already people were starting to speed up.
Release them. Now. Then go.
She dropped both time holds and grabbed for Rogald. He came out of it, his hand finishing the arc it had started when she froze time.
She felt a rubber something, an elasticity that told her she was reaching the same time that she had jumped to Tunguska with Sonder. The Voice was right. Time to go.
They faded to the black as Fiona saw the very satisfying sight of the meteor far off, heading to its proper destination of Russia.
Chapter 9
Fiona had hoped that Rogald and Illiria would leave after the New York incident. She had wanted to spend some time alone with Sonder, and pry out what was wrong.
But, they were there, and they appeared to be staying for the duration. They had shown no signs of leaving. Fiona knew she was being childish. Rogald and Illiria were there to help, and not just the fate of one city but the entire blue ball of rock they called home. She would have to deal with Sonder directly. She wasn’t good at being straightforward, but she was going to learn.
“Now what?” she asked. They were back at the Hawaii location, rain sleeting down around them.
Sonder and Illiria shared a glance and Fiona wanted to reach across the table and rip the other woman’s hair out of her head. She was capable and Sonder respected her. Had he told her what was bothering him?
“There’s only one thing left to be done,” Sonder said. “We have to try and stop the Event.”
It was the answer she expected, but Fiona let out a sigh.
“How, though? We still don’t know what caused it, or how to get there, if we can get there at all for more than a minute. Rogald and I were there. If we hadn’t have been pulled back to my time we wouldn’t have lasted long.”
Again, Sonder looked at Illiria. It was irritating, this shared familiarity between them, understanding Fiona didn’t have. She saw Rogald look at Illiria quickly, his brows furrowing.
She gritted her teeth, trying to control her anger, knowing it bubbled up from something other than her higher self.
“Would someone please tell me what’s going on? Sonder, you haven’t told us everything about what happened when you followed the Commander, have you? What have you left out?”
Rogald, too, was looking murderous and Fiona was secretly glad that they hadn’t told him either. At least it wasn’t just a new girl thing.
The rain beat a steady drum on the tin roof of their modest house. She could see the shadows of the palm trees swaying and the lights flickered. Fiona braced herself, wondering if this was some other disaster heading their way. After a moment, she relaxed. Nothing about this storm set her time senses on edge. It was just a summer squall in Hawaii, not a tragic event. She’d spent too much time chasing calamities lately.
“You’re right, my darling. We wanted to be sure you could change things and make them right before we moved forward with this.”
Rogald spun around. “Illy, what are you keeping from me?”
Sonder shook his head. “I kept it from all of you.”
Rogald arched an eyebrow and Fiona felt a cold stab of fear.
“What is it?” Rogald asked and Fiona saw command in him, something fierce that belied the good-humored exterior. She saw below that to a man who commanded others, as Illiria directed her force. She saw why they might make a good match. Their methods were different, but in both cases, they got it done.
Sonder pulled out his phone. “Sometimes I jumped in right as the Commander was leaving, and I still saw the shimmer of his jump. I’ve never timed anything so tightly. If he knew I was there he would have waited for me in one of his jumps and taken me out as I came in.”
“What did you find?”
He pulled up an image on his phone. To her disappointment, all that was on the screen was that same giant bunker they had seen before, nothing but graffiti walls and concrete, dim and dusty, showing clear signs of decades of disuse.
“The bunker again. Why?” Illiria said after they had all peered at the small screen.
Sonder looked grim. “Why do we see the Golden Gate Bridge in the only picture we have of the Event? I wondered that but never made sense out of it. I never connected the two until now.” He zoomed in the picture and they saw hallways and a large facility.
“I don’t get it,” Fiona admitted.
“Nor did I,” he said. “The Commander jumped here more than once, so I thought it had to be important. These are underground bunkers, sealed off from the public.” He paused. “They used to be military bases, back in the Cold War. They’ve been sealed up for decades. They’re solid, meant to withstand direct bomb hits.”
Fiona swallowed.
“They’re in San Francisco,” Rogald said, and nodded. “Of course. It makes sense.”
“Yes. They go for quite some time.”
Illiria gestured to the picture. “What do you think it means?”
Fiona could tell that Illiria had an opinion, but was deferring to the man who had found it. Fiona looked at Sonder, who looked more solemn than she had ever seen him.
He shut off the phone and the picture winked out.
“It is not a coincidence. He is jumping there over and over again. There can only be one reason he’s so interested in the bunkers. There’s something there, either today or in the future, that is important. Illiria, we need to find out what we can about his family. Do we have the resources?”
She nodded. “We already have it.”
“Of course.” He looked at Fiona an
d gestured her over. She had a brief, mutinous thought of refusing, but then went to him. He put his arm around her. This was Sonder. This was her reality.
“I investigated the bunkers. People used to use them all the time, even though they were sealed to the public, until a TV show in Fiona’s time made the military seal them off. There are ways in, but they are harder.” He tightened his grip around Fiona. “These will stand, even through the apocalypse. They are buried far underground for that specific purpose.”
Fiona let out a gasp as his meaning sank in. These would survive the Event and were likely there in the aftermath of the destruction of all civilization, under the detritus from leveling the world. Her mind whirled with possibilities.
“Good work, Major.” Illiria said, and the approval in her voice was palpable.
Sonder nodded, and the screen faded.
“What do we know about the Commander?”
Illiria looked at Rogald and Fiona realized she was weighing what to tell with him in the room. She had a brief moment of sympathy. They may be lovers, but they were on the opposite side of the two groups, at the end of the day.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Illy. We’re in this together, Guardian and Liberator cooperation. We agreed.” He looked angry, and a little sad.
“Right.” She motioned to the living room and they all followed her there.
“We sent messages up through time and were able to find out that the Commander had three children before he died and became a Guardian. He’s from a little before your time, Fiona.” She considered. “A few decades.”
“Not so little,” Fiona remarked but Illiria continued.
“There was no reason to keep up with the timeline of his family after he joined us, but when we looked into it they weren’t hard to trace. It is his daughter’s great grandchild we are interested in. He is a brilliant scientist, from what we got back from future Guardians, but a little bit eccentric. He went to Cal Polytech, which still exists in that time frame, and then began working for a small company specializing in odd experiments. He was, or will be, fascinated by time. Our information starts to fade as we get closer to the Event, but it seems that there is a strong possibility that this man was at least partially responsible for it. We don’t know how, obviously. It explains the Commander’s interest. He seems to be clinging to the idea that it is Fiona, and not his descendant, who causes the rupture.” She looked at Fiona. “We are all aware of paradoxes, and if he thinks that you cause, rather than stop, the Event that gives him the rationale he needs to try and eliminate you. Perhaps he’s found a way to communicate with his descendant, I don’t know. We don’t have that information.”
“What if he’s right?” Rogald asked.
She spared him a brief look. “We considered that possibility, remember? We took Fiona out of the equation and all it does is make the Event happen sooner.”
“How come you can’t run a simulation to find out how I stop it?”
Illiria sighed at the familiar topic. “We’ve discussed that. Besides what we already talked about, you’re the Traveler, Fiona. You are a wild card, your movements unpredictable. It’s what makes you useful. We don’t know your powers so we can’t find out how to predict what you could do.” She gestured to the sky. “What you did with the meteor is not something any of us can do. We only have the power to move through time, and fix certain things.”
She said it grudgingly, but Fiona heard respect in Illiria’s voice. She may not like Fiona any more than Fiona liked her, but, like Fiona’s old boss had once said, they were finding a way to work together.
Fiona felt Sonder’s arm tighten. He still seemed upset, distressed, and off kilter.
“Then we have to get to San Francisco,” Fiona said. “We have to be in that time frame.”
“I agree, but it’s too far for us. It’s out of reach for all of us, except her.” Rogald glanced at Fiona. “You can get us there but I’m not sure for how long.”
Sonder nodded. “It would hold, but you are right, Liberator. It may be too much for her.”
Fiona tried to do the math, but it was moving too fast. She couldn’t calculate how many descendants and their years and she couldn’t determine how close the others could get. She realized she didn’t know what time frame Illiria came from, although she knew it couldn’t be too far removed from her own. She hadn’t jumped back to the 1950s when Rogald the younger was stranded there.
“I’m the most limited,” Rogald said. “I can only get to the early 2100s. Illy and Sonder can go beyond that.” He nodded to the others.
“I, we, can get close to 2200,” Sonder said, and gave Fiona a look. “It’s another fifty years from there to the Event.”
She considered. “We need to do this so that the Commander doesn’t know we’ve discovered his secret.”
“Why do you think we’re off line right now?” Illiria said. “It is difficult to keep things from our former Commander when he can jump in and out of time. There are some who aren’t aware that he’s a threat, but we manage. We know about the complexity, Fiona.”
“That’s enough, Illiria,” Sonder said and his voice was jagged and raw, like glass shards under bare feet. “Stop treating her like a schoolgirl.” He tightened his grip on Fiona. “Without her we wouldn’t have a chance.”
To her surprise, Illiria nodded, her face losing color. “Point taken, Sonder. My apologies, Fiona. I agree with you,” Illiria continued, as if the words hadn’t been spoken. “We should have our belts set to an automatic retreat location if we start to fade. Agreed?”
The men nodded.
“Then what?” Rogald said. “Do we have a plan?”
“Nope, but we’ll figure it out once we get there.”
Fiona started turning over ideas in her head. She would use the bunkers somehow. She didn’t know how much use the time travelers were going to be or what affect being out of their time would have on them, but it was a chance they were going to have to take. She couldn’t do this alone.
“Take what you can,” Illiria said, indicating Rogald. “My base is ready and will provide the best we have.” She looked at Sonder. “You’re still a member of the Guardians.”
“My place is wherever Fiona is. My life is with her.” He said it with a defeated undertone, something undefinable moving across his face.
Fiona snapped, her brittle emotions shattering, spilling out in anguish across her face. The others looked at her sharply, but her eyes stayed on Sonder. “Love, what is wrong? You’ve been so moody since you got back. What’s going on?”
He pulled back from her and looked at her for a long time. He opened his mouth to speak and then shut it. Fiona waited, heart pounding, afraid of his answer. She wished she hadn’t asked in front of Rogald and Illiria.
Sonder shook his head. “You’re too perceptive. You deserve to know. The Commander wants us all dead. He thinks that it is worth the sacrifice if the world survives.”
“He has a point,” Illiria said.
Sonder nodded. “I saw him run some simulations and it dawned on me what was missing.”
“What was?” Fiona asked, wanting to smooth her hand over Sonder’s forehead to rid him of the terrible look in his eyes.
Sonder’s eyes closed for a moment but when he looked at her, they were grave. “I was. You, Rogald and Illiria were there, but I wasn’t. No matter which one he ran, it was only you three. Therefore…”
Illiria gave him a pitying look. “You aren’t there.”
“I am not there,” he affirmed. “Fiona, I will not survive this.”
She gasped, and shook her head. “No. Not true. This is what has been bothering you?”
He nodded.
“Well, screw that,” she said, her voice shaking. “There can be lots of other reasons. That isn’t one of them. Listen,” she said, and turned the trio. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but that’s not it. I’ll do what I can to fix things, but not if it means he dies. I’d rather do nothing than risk that
. You two,” she said, her finger shaking when she pointed to Rogald and Illiria. “You two have to promise me that you’ll save him.”
“If we are meant to,” Illiria said.
Fiona shuddered at that thought. Losing Sonder was something she hadn’t contemplated in this whirlwind madness but it was a possibility. A far too real chance.
“I thought you said killing Sonder only made it worse,” Fiona interjected, looking at Illiria.
The other woman cleared her throat. “I said killing a younger Sonder made it worse. We haven’t looked at today, because those events are happening right now.”
Once again, Fiona’s mind spun. They were happening right now for them, but for others, those from the future, the events would have already occurred. Or had they? Were they just possibilities until they passed for her? She thought the answer to that had to be yes, and she had just proven that they could either be altered, or corrected. The time stream may not like change, but it could happen.
She looked at the man who had become so important to her. She couldn’t lose him. That was unthinkable.
“Fiona, it may be my fate. I can take care of myself.” Sonder sounded more resigned than she had ever heard him. “You have to stop the Event.”
She had changed her fate by shifting away from the subway car – unless that was to be her fate all along. This could not be his destiny. It hadn’t happened, and it wasn’t certain.
“Promise,” she said, and set her jaw. She crossed her arms and glared at all of them.
Illiria sighed, but Rogald almost smiled.
“Yes. Promise,” he said. “It’s the least I can do, for the boyfriend of the woman who made me what I am.”
Illiria nodded. “If I can.”
For a moment Fiona wanted to grab Sonder and run, flee to some point in time where they would never be found. She almost summoned her power. Then she shook her head. That wasn’t the right way to do things.
“You will. I insist,” she warned. “Let’s get started. We have a world to fix.”
THE END