Chapter 102

The Calm Before The Storm

There are a lot of things I can do. A lot of things I need to do. I should check in on Jess, to make sure she is okay. I should check in with Prime to see if anything has happened with the rebooted timeline.

But what do I do? Well, I check in on my ex, because yeah, that never ended poorly for anyone.

Poof.

I appear next to Goldhammer, an old grizzled Dwenvarian with a long silver beard. Seeing him, not her, causes me to pause for a moment. I wanted to say something, but my voice got caught up in my throat.

“What the hell are you doin’ ‘ere? Just who the hell are ya anyways?” Godlhammer asks with a clearly drunken lilt to his voice. They are already rising from their seat, though there is a clear wobble to the strain that their legs are having to adjust to.

“Nothing.” I say, though I feel, well, I don’t quite know how I feel, at the moment. I decide to leave before the drunken Dwarf thinks of me as a resting place for his battle axe.

Total Recall.

Poof.

I once again teleport away, but I am so lost. I had all the time in the universe to check in on Goldie, to see how she was doing. But now that the opportunity is denied from me, now is when I choose to feel empty?

I really hate myself sometimes.

Honestly, I don’t even know what caused me to want to check up on Goldie but doing so was clearly one of the worst things I could have done at the time.

“It’s okay father. I should have told you.” Prime states.

This conversation too takes me a minute. “How are you able to converse with me all the way out here?” I ask.

I am on the human world. Again, why my flustered mind chose to be here, as an immediate extraction point, I don’t know. Looking around, I see that I am at the hill where I have had so many memories in this lifetime. This was the hill where I played for Mel. This was also the same hill where I teleported after defeating my first Herald in this universe. The same hill where my mechanoid space suit was reduced to sludge.

So many moments have all come here.

Then I realize one thing. I am technically AWOL, a deserter. Worse I am a deserter, one who joined open conflict against the First Fleet, and am now on the very base that I was assigned to. Yeah, not exactly a master criminal.

Total Recall.

Poof.

I leave before I have a chance to be captured. Not that it will matter here shortly. Soon the universe will end, and I will have to sacrifice Jess to avert the universe destroying Behemoth.

Everything I do, have done, and seemingly will do. They are all so pointless.

“Father. You need to calm down.”

Now, I am going to tell you one thing. Regardless of whether it is true or not. Telling someone that they need to calm down, is never a way to defuse a situation.

“Stop. Just give me a second.” I say.

Then after I say those words, I realize that same second will just be taken away.

“Are you okay?” Jess asks over my headset.

I want to yell at her, to tell her obviously I am not okay. But I don’t know. I am tired. Oh, so tired. This universe, these time restarts. Ones where everyone and everything changes, then gets unchanged in new and crazy ways. It is too much.

First, I had been avoiding Goldie because I didn’t want to deal with the complications of being a possible father.

“You already were.”

“Can it!” I state.

Then there is the fact that my entire life is one lie. I look back into my mind and see the golden wedge of information that has been pushed into my brain. I remember being so angry at first, when I first got out of the Temple, but that was likely just a symptom of having something so massive crammed into my mind.

Then there is the question of who or how that got there. It is Celestial in origin, meaning one of the four remaining Celestials likely crammed it in there. But why? What was the purpose?

Then I realize, it was always about me. Making me into the hero of this story. I was always meant to be the side character, the one who didn’t matter. The one who would be sacrificed in the end.

Breathing.

I can hear Jess breathing on the headset, a subtle reminder that she is there, waiting for my response.

“Yeah,” I begin, but instantly I feel terrible for lying to her. “No,” then I realize I am half relieved that my one-time encounter with Goldie wasn’t an issue.

Then another question hit me.

“Wait, how is Goldie, or Goldhammer back to being male?” I ask.

“I think I know. If you will let me answer, father?” Prime states.

With that I pause.

“Yeah, and sorry for being so abrupt with you.” I respond back to my rebel tree.

“Apology accepted. I can tell that you are feeling lost right now.” The tree starts, but quickly begins to get to the point. “While you were gone. The Herald that kills all first-born children used their power. That was a devastating attack, likely one meant to weaken the universe of its protectors. During that one strike, several heroes were all taken out. Rayquel - the Iron Butterfly, and Goldie were both killed in that one strike.”

Hearing this, I remember a dream where Goldie was held tied up to a tree. Then a Dwenvarian snapped their fingers and killed Goldie.

“Yes, father. That is the same even that your vision warned you about. Well, the only problem was, by killing the mother, the child was also killed. Today countless women are awaking to find that they are still alive but the child they carried has died. Unfortunately, since knowledge of the time loops is limited. Very few people can realize just what happened.” Prime begins.

“Who knows what really happened?” I ask.

“Sadly, I think it is left to just us, the two Jessicas, and now General Fellina thanks to my telling her. Everyone else, well they are just dealing with the aftermath.” Prime states.

Hearing that, I sigh.

“So, Goldie turned back into Goldhammer once her child was gone?” I ask.

“Yes. It appears that whatever magic the Celestial Mel used, forced an evolutionary change on Goldhammer. Thus, when the final anchor of that magic was removed. Goldie was able to revert to Goldhammer, if only temporarily.”

I shake my head.

“Wait, shouldn’t he still have noticed me? He did have the child for a bit in this timeline, right?”

“Oh, I think that is due to his inebriated state. He likely thinks a lot of humans all look the same.”

“Even with my wings and glowing hair and eyes?” I ask, remembering that I once again need to change my appearance back to be a regular human once more. Speaking of that, while I have the moment, I decide to do just that.

Master Tier Shapeshifting.

Within seconds, I feel the wings dissolve into my body. Then I feel glow of my eyes and hair slowly dwindle until I am normal. Well, I still have different hair and eyes than I began life with, but they are at least normal shades.

Once again, I am in a space suit that has back slits for air to come through and blow on my back.

“…Could be something.”

Only once I am done, do I realize that Prime has been talking the entire time. I am about to ask them to repeat, but I decide to just call it a day. I am exhausted, both physically and mentally.

To me, I fought a space battle. Went to an alternate universe, healed Jess, reverted time. Killed eleven Heralds who were left unprotected. Then ended up back here.

“So, what do we do now?” I ask.

“Not much we can do but sit back and wait for the Behemoth to show.” General Fellina offers.

So, she was also listening in on our conversation the entire time.

I nod.

I have made a lot of teleports in quick succession. I never realized just how taxing they were. Or maybe I just didn’t realize how taxing they were, after I was already near the end of my physical and mental limit. Regardless of the case, I felt hollow.

“Father, part of why you might be feeling hollow now, could also be related to the fact that you had your pair bond broken. Thus, a void filled within your soul for so long, is now missing.”

“Oh yeah, missing part of my soul. Forgot to add that to my list of why I am so tired.” I state. Then I let my body collapse to the ground. I don’t even know where I am, not truly. I just chose a place that was not going to incriminate me as a military deserter.

“You are on my home planet, in the garden. If you turn around, you could see me.” Prime states.

With that, I nod. So that is why her voice seems louder from here.

Magical Resonance.

There is a spell that is opening nearby. I am so tired that only after a few seconds do I realize it is a teleportation spell.

Seeing the spell, I almost groan, wondering if it is the Blundering me from the fourteenth universe coming back to claim I didn’t fix his Jess. Of course, any work I did would have been undone with the reset. Surely the General would have realized that. She just used Wizard me to get me back to their universe. So, I could kill all the heralds during the time loop reset.

I honestly don’t know how to feel about that. It was a brilliant maneuver, to be honest. Gather up your enemies and take them out with one shot. The only problem, it was done under false pretenses. Now both of us feel betrayed.

“Correction father. Now that the pair bonding has been reset. The knowledge that Kyle had of the time loop is gone. He is unaware that he was able to bring you over to his universe.”

“Of course, more time loop BS. Honestly, I don’t know half of what I’ve broken and half of what I’ve fixed by now.” I answer.

“Well, it will be okay, for I am here with you.” My Jess says, sitting down next to me.

“Yeah, don’t worry. We will see this through till the end.” Sexy Alien Jess says, as she sits down on my other side. “Oh, you got rid of your wings?” She says with a slight pout.

“Yeah, I just want to go around for a bit as if I am a normal person.”

“Hah!” My Jess scoffs.

“So, you two remember everything?” I ask turning my head to look from side to side at the two of them.

“Yes.” They say in unison.

I try to pause and understand what made them so unique. “Wait, so you remember because of the necklace?” I ask my Jess.

She strokes the necklace, the one that I apparently can use to kill the Behemoth without letting Jess sacrifice herself, then replies, “yes.”

Then I turn to Alien Jess. “Now, I must ask. How did you retain your memories through the time loop?”

“Because I am a guardian.” She says, as she flaps her wings vigorously.

Thinking about it, this makes sense, as the trees that defy the confines of the time loop will be able to fill in their guardians as needed. Then a question fills my mind. “Wait, why didn’t Rayquel remember the time loop?” I ask.

At that question both Jesses just shake their heads.

“Because she died.”

“Oh yeah.” I say, then I remember I heard that exact statement earlier about the deaths from the first-born killing herald.

With that all worked out, I lean back and let my back rest against the soft alien grass of this planet.

“What do you want to do now?” My Jess asks, staring down at me.

“Me? I just want to lay here and take a nap.” I admit.

With that my Jess and Alien Jess both relax a little and decide to lie down next to me.

It is a perfect moment.

Then, I feel something tickle my back. Something that almost feels like a blade of grass moving. I ignore the sensation. Until I feel a second one, and then a third one.

I lurch up to a sitting position.

“What?” Jess asks, also sitting up.

“Ants.” I say, as I begin trying to reach behind me to brush away the tiny invaders.

I turn to look and sure enough. I chose to lie down on the one ant hill in the garden, apparently. Yeah, that’s my day so far.

Jess helps swat away the offending ants, while Alien Jess just laughs.

I get up and move. Making sure to find another soft patch of grass to lay in. One without any ants or ant hills. Then after finding such a spot, I sit down and relax. The two Jesses also follow me, taking up a spot on both sides of me. Then I just lay back and try to enjoy the moment.

This moment was in a word, perfect.

After a few moments, I found myself nodding off and enjoying a nice afternoon nap.

And that was how I spent my final few hours before the apocalypse truly began.