The more he spoke the more confused I was becoming. “But O said we were mistakes.”
He sighed. “That girl thinks she knows everything being ancient and all.” I blinked in surprise but he moved on quickly. “Yes. You are essentially mistakes, but so are we. But then maybe it was Fate’s plan all along.”
“So now fate is a real thing?” I exclaimed loudly. Fate or fate? Was fate a Fate now - a thing? Was this confirmation? I looked up and realised heads were turned from their horses and towards us and I blushed. Nothing to see here, lads.
“There is a lot you don’t know but I hope you find your answers,” Jamie replied.
Seriously?
“Or you could give them to me!”
“No. I can’t. We don’t know every answer. Did you listen to a word I just said?” he laughed breathlessly. “We just believe in this stuff. Just as these men believe you’re an angel as a way of explaining things hard to understand. We believe in Fate to explain why we exist and what we know about the future.”
Oh. I suppose that kind of made sense. But still! There was something that told me he knew more, but it was clear his lips were sealed. Besides, I think the ‘I hope you find your answers’ part was a hint that I would eventually find out. So I just had to trust him - trust Fate.
CHAPTER 38
Time: 30th September 1661
Location: Bottom of the hill
Overall the men were lovely, they weren’t your average evil group of bandits. They were more of the Robin Hood kind of guys stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Well, that’s what I assumed they did, I had no idea what kind of business they were all in. Either way, I knew it was against the law. Clearly.
My health was deteriorating faster than it had been over the past few months. Thankfully before I started to believe in my hallucinations, the men surrounding me helped me realise I wasn’t stuck in WW2 - I wasn’t in a 1920s bar and I definitely wasn’t at a Britney Spears concert.
However, it had dawned on me that I had no cure. Unless Vix could help in record time - Jack wasn’t there to give me the cure he’d promised he could get his people to give.
I was wondering how the Rebellion even knew how to make a cure? How they did it and why?
It all added to the long list of answers I didn’t have. But the simple answer was that Jack had lied or had been told lies. I didn’t care about either answer because I’d finally accepted I was probably going to go insane once I got home anyway and I’d be taken in like Ace. At this rate, I was only going home because nothing was preventing me anymore and because I was in desperate need of a warm shower and brushing my teeth.
That made me think of Ace and all the cursing I’d done towards him in this life. Maybe he did remember a strange girl named Marion in a former life but he couldn’t get to me because he didn’t have his Totem back. Either way, I was going to slap him once I got home.
For the past hour, I’d been hunched over in extreme pain. It had taken us longer to get back to where it all went down than it had when I left with the Redcoats.
When it finally stopped and the horses began to get spooked I cried for them to stop and climbed down. We were at it from a different angle but there it was; a dark hill surrounded by dark clouds and rain. Time to go home.
This time I didn’t sit around and wait at the bottom of the hill. I didn’t stall at all. I turned to the men with a smile. “Give me a shout if any Redcoats give us a surprise attack.”
However, by the time I’d turned to face them fully they were already down. The small group of men were down on one knee with their heads bowed.
I faltered, looking at them shocked and wishing they would just get up.
“We’ll wait till nightfall and we’ll leave.” Red-Beard smiled at me. I returned it with wide eyes as they all rose. The small man whose name I’d learned to be James came forward bending on his tiptoes and turning his head to the side, I kissed it laughing. The other men: Joseph, Fred, Hans and Jacob all beamed at me.
They really believed I was an angel. I smothered my scoff. At least I looked like one.
“You guys realise I’ll be back. I won’t remember you, but I’m coming back down this hill. Not me specifically - but it will also... be me...”
They looked at me puzzled, dusting their knees off and grinning goofily. They didn’t understand but they didn’t care to understand, they just believed.
I hugged each of them before turning to Jamie. He extended his arm. “The rope gentlemen?”
Red-Beard chucked it to him and followed Jamie and me up the hill. I was assuming once I fell down the well Marion would wake up down there. She wouldn’t just disappear into oblivion. Well, I hoped she didn’t. She deserved a better life after I’d gotten so involved in it.
The rain wasn’t as heavy but it was colder than when Jack and I climbed the hill. I shivered in the dress, climbing with what little energy I had left and once we got to the top I released a tired sigh of relief.
“How does this work?” Red-Beard asked. Both hands were on his knees and he was taking deep breaths. His arm was shielding his eyes from the wind and rain but he was already soaked to the core. Jamie also looked faintly like a drowned rat.
“Well,” I replied, looking around at the top of the hill. It felt different being here, like an old place I never thought I’d see again. I’d kissed Jack in this spot. I hadn’t wanted to leave just yet and so ultimately I was the one who sent him to his death.
He was dead because I didn’t want him to leave. He was dead because I was too scared of missing him.
Red-Beard called me. “Marion?”
I jolted slightly, I’d lost track of time. How the hell was I going to have the energy to get myself back to the present time even with my Totem?
Well, let’s hope the well worked first. I didn’t just want to jump into a ton of water, sink to the bottom and get nowhere. That would be humiliating.
“You just drop it in and dive in,” Jamie instructed me.
I took my eyes off of the well and the scorched tree above it and faced the two men, holding up my hand where the blue sapphire glistened.
“When you hear me start splashing, throw the rope and say you’re here to help. I’m guessing she won’t remember anything so you’ll have to come up with some excuse. Introduce yourselves and ask for her name. Tell her she’s on the run and has amnesia – if people know what that is yet.” I grimaced. “Then do me a favour and help her.”
“Shall we take you - her home?” Red-Beard asked. I shook my head.
“Stay away from the south, get her as far North as you can. Or at least point her in the right direction.”
Jamie nodded determined. “Of course.”
“And, if it’s me who comes back out, then let’s forget it ever happened,” I laughed nervously.
“It works.” Jamie grinned, clasping my shoulders and shaking them lightly, he reminded me a lot of Jack but there was a clear divide between them. Jamie was more free-spirited whereas Jack was more serious - although he certainly knew how to have fun.
I looked down at the torn part of Jack’s beloved maroon cloak - it was frayed at the edges and covered in dirt and blood but I still brought it to my face and clenched it tightly, my fingers trembling as I turned to Jamie and held it for him.
“It was-”
“Take it with you,” he said softly.
I shook my head. “But-” I stopped my words, noticing something in his eyes - a look that told me to trust him. Hesitantly I retreated my hand and kept the fabric in my grip with a thousand questions floating in my head.
I had so much to ask Jamie - so much I wanted to know about Time Bending and Reincarnations. But there wasn’t time.
It was time to fall down the rabbit hole and into wonderland.
I stood over the well cautiously before slipping off the wedding ring.
“Wait!” Red-Beard finally called, stepping forward. “Sorry. I uh, sorry for thinking you were a boy.”
> I smiled. “It’s fine.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Jamie called with a grin.
I sighed, wishing he’d be able to tell me more and echoed Jack’s words. “Someday.”
I dropped the ring into the water, hearing its plop accompany the dribble of rain. I wondered if Jack’s feather was somewhere down there too, waiting for him to fall into.
There wasn’t much point in it but I took the dress off anyway so Marion or me would have something warm to wear once we climbed out.
“Adios gentlemen.” I saluted them, shedding a little light on the situation. Red-Beard looked at me puzzled whilst trying to avoid looking down at my body with rosy cheeks. I climbed over a pile of rocks to the opening of the well.
So I was supposed to just jump in?
I looked down into a dark abyss. I couldn’t see the water but the rain splashing and echoing up the walls of the well assured me I wouldn’t jump to my death.
I let go of the side of the well, holding my breath as I stepped forward, the fabric of Jack’s cloak tight in my grip as I fell.
I didn’t know how to describe the feeling. At first, it felt like I was falling forever. My mind went blank as I fell through nothing. It almost felt as though there was a lack of gravity and my hair was floating but I was still falling. With a gasp, I was being dragged under by a swarm of hands and as soon as I hit the water it felt as though my veins were on fire. I sank lower, paralysed with pain until I hit the bottom of the well. All at once, I was dragged from my body - forcibly split from Marion and I fell through the bottom layer of the well. Still, my fist was wrapped tightly around the fabric, protecting it.
Then I was no longer cold. I was dry and could breathe and when I opened my eyes, instead of darkness there was light. Blue light everywhere, surrounding me and warming my veins until the light became hot - it consumed me, splitting my chest right down the middle and I screamed in agony.
All at once, the pain was gone and gradually the light became smaller until it was just a ball of blue tendrils in front of me. She was back. As I moved my body towards it I felt the smooth strands of darkness slip over my body and I searched - finding the timeline.
I was overwhelmed with emotion, so much so that I didn’t think I’d have the energy to get out of the timeline and go all the way to present time without bending the timeline with my own. My Totem thankfully did the hard work for me - seeming to know the dangers of bending. It taunted me - dragging me through a web of sparkling, bright timelines until I saw my timeline.
I was almost undone with emotion and relief. I was exhausted but I was here. I was home. My Totem finally stopped and beckoned me closer, wrapping itself around me until I became the blue light, it pulled me back into my body and for a moment I felt myself slip from the darkness before I was pulled back by a muffled frantic voice moving around me.
I gasped as hot electricity shot through my body and I jolted like a pulsating heart. My eyes opened to bright blue everywhere and a dull thud spread throughout my body.
I awoke.
CHAPTER 39
Time: Present
Location: Prospect
I was floating in a large tank of blue, gel-like liquid and I was naked. As I looked out the window I saw Vix staring at me through the glass before another person came forward and there was the muffled sound of a loud smash.
I slumped forward, instantly hit by a blast of cold air. I curled into myself, the goo enveloping me. I felt as though I’d been reborn - exited the womb of my mother and now everything was cold and loud. I gasped for breath and the cocoon of goo finally broke around my mouth. I gulped in air - choking on it.
“Quick! Damn, get her out of it. Be careful not to step in it,” I heard Vix exclaim.
There were loud footsteps around me. “That’s quite impossible!” I heard someone shout before two arms scooped my naked body up. I began shivering instantly as I was placed on a white table. I dripped all over it and slowly I felt my body be stretched out on the table and a towel rub me down. The voices all seemed to fade out as I began to feel my body being prodded in different areas. I struggled to move my hands and my legs but eventually, I could tilt my head either side.
Vix was the one attaching wires to me and frantically jabbing things into my body. Halo stood by the door both hands on her mouth and one hand on a slightly raised stomach... pregnant? I gasped when I felt a needle go into my arm.
Aeron was standing behind Vix’s shoulder slightly pale and dodging out the way every time Vix started moving frantically. Fynn was standing by a monitor that had just been attached to me, his brown eyes reading the screen urgently before flicking back to meet mine concerned.
The door slid open and Cedrix stepped in with wide eyes. “I heard the scream.”
Halo latched onto his arm and he looked over me from a distance. I wish I could smile. I wish I could do anything.
I let out a moan of discomfort as Vix pulled on my leg. A soothing voice came from behind me, someone stroked my gooey mess of hair and I looked up curious. Only to meet with very bright blue eyes, dark hair and slim face - a lack of wrinkles and facial hair.
Panic raced through my body like a bird trying to break free and the heart monitor began beeping wildly. My body jolted free of its cage and I let out a hoarse scream. I sat up boldly with what little adrenaline I had and Ace let go of me panicked. I scrambled in a slippery mess and ripped free of the cords and propelled my hands to his throat.
A wicked smirk and red uniform met my gaze as his lips parted. His eyes narrowed and both his hands grasped my wrist with a snarl - Tobias.
Instantly someone tore my hands away and I let go weakly. Tobias stepped backwards. Fynn grasped my chin and forced me to face him. I struggled, snarling like a rabid dog and Fynn held my cheeks, keeping his eyes firmly on mine.
“Time: 2143, Location: Prospect,” his voice cracked. “You’re Nova and you’re home.” He repeated this sentence eleven times before I grew limp and began nodding my head, repeating it to myself. It had been a year since I’d left.
Fynn took his eyes away from me and faced Ace who was no longer Tobias. I curled into myself, realising I was completely naked and my friends stood around pale and terrified of me.
“Get her some clothes,” Fynn mumbled, taking hold of a fresh towel and wiping my face free of the blue jelly. Halo stood still for a moment before stepping forward and holding out a dressing gown.
Ace forced his way in front of me and I flinched away with a glare. His eyebrows pulled together and he faced Vix with determination. “What’s wrong? Is there another way we can help her?”
“Just give it to her,” Aeron sighed from behind Vix.
“We can’t be sure we can trust him,” Vix replied, slowly gathering the cords I’d ripped away from me.
“Did you not just see that? What do we have to lose?” Aeron reasoned. Ace snapped his head towards Aeron and glared. I couldn’t bring myself to even look at him. Halo wrapped a towel around my shoulders and helped me down onto the floor, which had been coated in a layer of blue slime.
Slowly we began to make our way out of the room but I managed to catch a part of their conversation. Fynn was arguing alongside Ace against Aeron. “This could just be another way of them trying to kill her...”
Vix sighed. “Let’s just find out what she knows. We need to know everything that happened.”
And then the door slid shut.
We moved slowly down pristine white corridors, everything felt unfamiliar. Everything was too white, too bright and too clean and an eerie silence filled my ears.
Was this real? Was I back?
“Are you pregnant?” I managed to ask - my voice was low from not having used it in so long. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would have been - perhaps the blue goo had something to do with it.
Halo looked at the ground. “I didn’t want to keep it. It’s just pointless and will only cause me pain. But they wouldn’t let me.”
I nodded my
head. I didn’t really know what to say. I understood why she wouldn’t want to keep the baby and I understood that Vix and the others would never allow her to abort a child of ours that could be researched and possibly answer questions we didn’t know the answers to.
They liked to make us think we had free will when really we didn’t. I was surprised by this thought - it hadn’t ever occurred to me before.
Halo and I stood inside the pod and I inhaled sharply as I felt it suddenly move. I clutched at the glass walls as we began to descend even lower into the ground. Halo held onto my arm, leading me into the training room. Instant white light flooded me and I clenched my eyes shut as a headache began to form. I wasn’t used to this. The change from past to present had been too much and I was still ill.
What was the point in me coming back? I was going to die either way. I might as well have saved myself the pain of waking up in a bright, noisy world.
But a shower…
Halo helped me over to the showers in the back of the training room. She waited for me whilst I stood in the shower, cleaning every crevice of my body and soaking my hair in soap. What had happened in a year? We were clearly still alive so it couldn’t mean the Rebellion had done anything.
I stepped out of the shower - wrinkled and clean. I’d been waiting for that moment for months, to feel hot water jet onto my head and soothe my aching muscles but somehow I didn’t feel it. I couldn’t relish in it because I was still numb all over.
I climbed into tracksuit bottoms and a loose t-shirt. I was wearing clothes from the present time. It felt weird to be out of a tight fitted 17th-century dress and into loose fitted Pj’s. I stood in front of the mirror for a moment and took myself in. My body was different too. I was taller and my hair was longer and straighter. I looked stronger than Marion - well I was. I’d been training since I was ten.
Still, the change in height caused me to trip a few times over my strange long legs.
Halo was brushing her hands against a rack of weapons with a forlorn look. I appreciated her waiting. She understood this was a lot for me to take in.
NOVA: The Time Bender Series Book 1 Page 28