CHAPTER 11

Heading to New York City from Arizona would have normally taken at least a day by car, but thanks to Divona’s ability to manipulate objects at a molecular level, she made modifications to get them there much sooner. Like some sort of magician, she made the whole thing fly through the air at supersonic speed, faster and higher than an ordinary commercial airliner. They went so high they broke through the clouds and saw the curve in the earth in the horizon. Neither of them had ever been to the edge of space, and it was both beautiful and daunting at the same time.

Michael and Audrea were in complete awe of the view. Divona, in comparison, remained calm in the front driver’s seat acting as if none of this was strange at all. She sat calmly with her hands on her lap, sitting upright, her gaze forward looking more like an expressionless test dummy than an actual driver. She was incredibly sombre in her rest state, almost inhumanly so.

As amazing as the moment was, Michael’s mind drifted back to the grey being, which at face value looked eerily similar to the ‘grey aliens’ that was standardised by pop culture. From the colour of the skin, to the thinness of its body, all the way to its large black eyes, it was the stuff of nightmares.

“…That grey creature,” Audrea said with a hint of humility. “My government has no record of anything like that, at least, not that i’ve seen. But then again, there are none of mysterious blue haired aliens either.”



Divona took her sweet time to respond, a sign that made them think they weren’t going to like the answer very much at all.

“It was from the future, a descendent of your species.” 

“I think there must be a translation error…” Michael said.

”No, Michael. In the four thousandth century, Humanity will spread throughout most of the galaxy, forming colonies that are separated by hundreds of light years. Over time, and due to the vast distances, communication will become impractical and, and after millennia, each colony will eventually evolve into separate species.”

“…I don’t understand what you’re even talking about. This is relevant how exactly?”

“She’s talking about evolution…in the future….”

”My faction believed strongly in the concept of the traditional human being. The mind. The body. The idea that we can all be different and yet the same. We rejected the singularity and its eventually termination of individuality itself, but some of the other colonies did not. In the seven thousandth century, a great war will erupt between all the hundreds of different factions that will stain the milky way galaxy itself. This war will last for thousands of years, but in the end, there can only be one survivor. On my timeline, my faction ultimately defeats the others, but on this one, it would seem things are different.”

“Are you saying, humanity loses the war?” 

“That is likely.” 

“But if you’ll never exist…how did you travel back in time in the first place?…wait…is this some sort of like a parallel universe situation? Because that would be so awesome on the record.” 

“Both are parallel to each other. The past, present and the future are but an illusion, Michael. We are all but a stream of consciousness, and higher dimensional forces.”

“If you two will stop bickering about time travel and consciousness, i’d like to know what the fuck these creatures want? is the planet is any imminent danger?” 

“The planet is in no imminent danger. According to the data I have deciphered from the grey being, there are other time travellers here besides me. They are located in New York City.”

“More time travellers? How many of you guys are there? Audrea said.

“Four including myself. They are from my time but I can not be certain if they will be hostile or not.”

“Why would they be hostile? is there something you’re not telling us? what are you some sort of a criminal from the future?” Audrea said.

“…I do not know.”

“Divona, Are you sure its best to confront them now? Maybe you should focus on finding more energy so you can get stronger.” Michael said.

”I am aware of your concerns, Michael. I am also aware that you are afraid for you mother. But you must not worry, there is no current threat against her.” Divona said assertively.

“Well that’s a relief…its just you said those drones may go after her….”

“I will protect her. I love your mother.” Divona said.

From the backseat, Audrea popped her head in front. “Love her? how can you say that? she’s Michael’s mother, not yours, And how are you supposed to protect her when you’re so far away, huh?”

“It’s fine, Audrea… ” 

“No, it’s not ‘fine’. You need to make her explain to you exactly what she means, Michael! How will she protect them?” Audrea said, then setting her sights to the blue haired girl. “Are you just telling us what we want to hear? I know you put me to sleep earlier with your magical powers. You get to do all these shady things to us, some of which we’ll likely never know about because you’re from the fucking future.”

Divona looked at Audrea strangely as if she had no idea how to respond. She appeared a little lost for words and didn’t quite know how to interpret what she heard. Michael broke the silence.

“We can't all be everywhere at once.” Michael said.

Audrea sat back against her seat, crossing her arms unhappily. "Knowing her, she probably can be..."

Michael looked at Divona and asked her point blank. ”Divona, you're not omnipotent, right?"

"What is right?" Divona said.

“You’re dodging the question…”

“She totally dodged the question!”

Divona lowered her head as if she were ashamed. The first bit of emotion from her. “That depends on the definition of omnipotence. I squire vision from multiple frames of reference.

Between their feet, Michael and Audrea noticed a strange silver sand coming from the front of the car, forming into a larger mound directly in the middle. The grains in their millions collected together and began to construct the beginnings of feet, going upwards until the legs were formed. They moved aside to make space for the rest of the body that was now being constructed in real time as a fourth passenger. The body seemed like a perfect clone of Divona, wearing the same thin white suit, and when the head was done, it was her. The same face, the same blue hair in a mesh around her. The original Divona still sat in the drivers seat but the second one was looking directly at Michael from next to him, smiling with the same realness.

“This is how I am protecting your mother.”

Michael gulped in confusion. He madly flickered his attention between the two Divonas.

“So you mean, so you have another one of you watching her?”

“Correct.”

“Hold on, so which one is the real you?” Michael said to them both.

The Divona who sat next to him then answered his question, not by saying anything, but showing it. She began to peel the skin off her own arm and reveal below a hollow interior. There was nothing inside her except empty space; her whole body was composed of paper thin strips that folded together to form and look like solid structure. Like an empty Russian nesting doll.

“Fuck me…” Audrea said, eyes wide.

The fake body then disintegrated into sand that fell onto the seat, flowing back to Divona to become on with the whole.

“I can copy myself,” Divona said, “The copy possesses around one percent of my strength, but even so, it has defeated the drone in over ninety nine percent of my simulations. You have nothing to fear. I will protect your mother, Michael.”

“If you could do that the whole time, why am I here with you? You could of had one your clones to protect me.” Audrea said.

“Do you want to leave?” Divona said.

“…No, I do not…”

“Good. I love, you Audrea.”

Audrea flushed. “You are one strange girl.”

At first the car flew at a leisurely pace, merely gliding above the clouds like a cool ice skater, but as their conversation progressed, it gradually increased until they were travelling as supersonic speeds. It only took a few minutes until they flew across the entire continent to reach the far east coast. New York city could be seen in the distance and it was an impressive sight. Phoenix was a city but New York was a state. Now that they arrived, the car began to slow down until it came to a halt in the centre of manhattan, floating just below cloud level.

“Maybe land in central park? i don’t think you’ll find parking anywhere else.”

Divona made the descent down towards the park, slowly like an elevator for a nice comfortable and quiet decent, until the wheels touched down gently in an inconspicuous area that was covered by large trees and bushes. It was still the morning and everything was green and everything was bright. There were joggers doing their exercises across the paths and other people hurrying to work or leisure. The car itself was completely invisible to the eye, so there was no chance anyone would see them.

They exited the car, and as they left it, its invisibility diminished until it returned back to normal. The modifications disassembled and it once again became an ordinary electric car, fresh with a set of keys, and a full tank of gas, or so to speak. They looked around anxiously to see if anyone had noticed them exiting out of nothing but luckily it appeared as if there were no snoopy kids around, no one staring at them, yet.

“I’ve never been to central park, it always looks so beautiful on television.” 

“Let’s hope it stays beautiful by the time we’re done here…” Michael.

They followed Divona through the park until they left the soothing field of green and entered upon the busy streets of the metropolis. It was around midday and the traffic was loud and congested. There were even more people everywhere, scurrying down both ways of the sidewalk like ants heading to work. Michael could see some of the people staring at Divona as they walked by, taking notice of her thin white body suit and blue hair. For all intents and purposes, Divona looked like a stunt person for a movie set or someone going to a dress up party. Michael felt a little nervous by it all, and so was Audrea.

They followed Divona down a few busy streets until finally arriving at a bar that was perhaps a little empty considering where it was located. They walked inside and noticed three others sitting across the bar, two men and a woman. The three noticed them walk in and had their eyes on them in an instant. On the far left was a man of a thin build, wearing a clean white tuxedo, black tie, and a flower on the front pocket. His hair was short and messy and bright blue like hers. The eyes too. He had the face of a coward, and looked like the type of guy with that snivelling grin that just wasn’t trustworthy.

Next to him was a bigger man who wore only a tank top over his bulging muscular frame. His face was intense and his eyes searing, with a square jaw and frame of a professional wrestler. He seemed scary enough, but next to him was the water to his fire; a woman with perfect skin and long violet hair that she played with by twirling it around with a finger. She had a large smile across her that seemed almost abnormal in nature, making her seem a bit to overly excited, madly so.

Divona walked up to them and all three turned around in their seats, staring like foxes. They had the same eyes as Divona, like lenses, sharp and intense. Divona and the man in the white suit had the same blue aura, whilst the other man was a red-orange mix and the woman’s was bright violet like her hair.

For a couple seconds neither party said anything. Each was merely gazing at each other as if they were in a staring contest. It was as if time froze and they were instead looking at a photograph.

Audrea looked at Michael, and he at her. Both were confused. She whispered into his ear. “Why aren’t they saying anything?”

“Maybe they’re communicating with their minds. You know, full duplex?” 

“Once again?, I don’t know what you’re talking about. How can you communicate with your mind? That doesn’t make sense.” 

“Many things don’t make sense. Did you forget Divona can walk through walls? ”

“You do have a point there….” 

Divona stared at them for so long, the bartender couldn’t help but notice her standing there.

“Hey, are you old enough to be here?”

“Yes.” Divona said.

“That’s not how it works. I wanna see some ID.”

The woman time traveller leant back across her chair and gently stroked the arm of the bartender, passing him a cheeky wink. “She’s with us, love. Why don’t you go out the back for a little while?”

The bartender nodded nervously and moved away. He seemed to know as if by instinct not to disturb them any longer. The man in the clean white suit and green hair reached for one of the wine glasses across the bar bench. He stirred it in his hand and took a sip while staring at Michael and Audrea who watched idly by from the corner. After he was done drinking, he cleared his throat and then spoke for the first time.

“You know Divona, There’s a saying in this era, ‘when in Rome’… we should do as everyone else does. The homo sapiens deserve to know what’s going on, don’t you think?”

He turned his attention to Audrea and Michael and indicated for them to move forward in a ‘come here’ motion with his finger. He had a charming smile but the face of a snake, someone they just knew was bad.

“You two, come forward.”

Michael felt his feet wobble like wet noodles, but his British acquaintance wasn’t shaken at all. Audrea walked ahead of him with a sense of authority, as if she had eyed men like him a thousand times before. She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a pin of her government service.

“Andrea Lawson, British intelligence,” She said. “I want names. I want you to tell me who you are, and what you’re doing here.”

The man in the suit smirked; “Audrea Lawson? I do believe you’ve been designated to delta four status and currently suspended from active duty. Have you not checked head office?”

Audrea’s poker face took a dent. She looked just a little paler than usual. “Excuse me?”

The woman with fine violet hair winked at Audrea with charmed eyes. “She’s cute, I must have her.”

Divona lost her patience, and it showed on her face. “Stall any longer, and I will destroy the three of you.” She said.

“You know why we’re here, Divona.” The man in the suit said, grimacing and taking another drink. “We’re here for the key, and you brought him right to us.”