"Statesman isn't dead!" Lady LoveDie said without preamble.
"Mmmmm." Sakiya replied, noncommittally, appearing to look around the dirty, dingy cavern in which Lady Lovedie has chosen to meet.
Sakiya, with what remained of her eyes wrapped behind bandages could not "see" in the traditional sense but she could perceive, through a combination of telepathy and connection to the world around her, to a degree of clarity that those who still possessed vision could not.
As such she was wholly unimpressed with the fact that the filthy water trapped in the cave by the rising tide was staining the bottom of her new pants.
"Statesman is not dead, he is trapped in his own past by Lord Recluse." Lady LoveDie, an odd looking woman with pure white hair and skin and glowing eyes, stressed to her friend.
"I know. I got the same mission briefing from Mender Silos." Sakiya said, waiting patiently for Lady LoveDie to get to the point of this clandestine meeting.
"Don't you think that is a little...odd?" Lady LoveDie asked, a pointed look on her bleach white features "Hundreds, possibly thousands of Incarnate level Operatives all traversing the time stream at once in order to retrieve the same man on the orders of someone who is has set himself up as something of a Guardian of the time stream?"
Sakiya agreed. She had her own thoughts on the matter but it was not in her nature to volunteer information. She also knew her friend well enough to know that if she just waited long Lady LoveDie would continue and, more likely than not, Lady LoveDie's thoughts on the issue would coincide with Sakiya's own.
Mender Silos had explained the need to rescue Marcus Cole multiple times by multiple people but the excuse has seemed far to convenient to both Sakiya and Lady LoveDie.
Supposedly, due to being abducted at the point of death, traveling through time whilst dead to be revived in the past has established Statesman being imprisoned in his own past as the Status Quo.
Time itself would resist any attempts to change that.
Like a rubber band stretching only to snap back when the rescuer attempted to return to the future. Time would revert itself to the Status Quo. To save Statesman they would have to stretch that metaphorical rubber band so many times that it eventually weakened and broke, leaving Statesman in the present day.
It all sounded perfectly plausible and no doubt many a Hero, pure of heart and full of do gooder tendencies would swallow the explanation without hesitation.
To a pair of Rogues such as Sakiya and Lady LoveDie, who were skilled manipulators themselves, it sounded entirely too contrived. It did not help that neither woman trusted Mender Silos at all.
Now Sakiya understood why Lady LoveDie had wanted to meet in a dirty, cramped cave that, thanks to the rising of the tide, was only accessible for a few hours of the day. Not only that but the cave itself was located on the shoreline of Cimorea, a place that only those with Midnighter Club membership could access.
Lady LoveDie had wanted, and attained, absolute privacy for their conversation.
Feeling that her words had had their desired effect and that she had Sakiya's full attention Lady LoveDie continued, sweeping some pure white fringe from her glowing eyes.
The tide had raised the water level in the cave from the tops of her feet to above her ankles but it went unnoticed.
"What if it isn't multiple people rescuing the same Statesman but multiple Coles being plucked from multiple dimensions and being brought to Ouroborus?"
Sakiya had had similar thoughts to the question her friend posed. Perhaps that was why the women who were far more likely to betray one another as hardened Rogues had developed such a lasting friendship.
They were both as half crazy as each other.
"The thought occurred to me also that if Mender Silos really wanted to save Marcus Cole so that the Mighty Statesmen could help fight the Coming Storm why would Silos want Cole brought before him when Cole is weakened from revival and quite possibly beaten, tortured and staved by Arachnos Troops. If Mender Silos' end game was simply Cole being alive at the time the Storm hits there are easier ways of going about that that does not involve a vulnerable Statesman being brought before a future version of Lord Nemesis." Sakiya nodded.
"Exactly." Lady LoveDie nodded, the glow of her eyes, a product of the bio energy stored in her body, brightened enough to start to illuminate the inside of the cave. "I thought, at first, that Nemesis just wanted the satisfaction of finishing Statesman off once and for all but then I got to thinking."
"Was this thinking aided by 3 or 4 vodka's?" Sakiya asked, voice full of rich humor as she knew her friend well.
"Quite possibly." Lady LoveDie returned, undaunted. "Have you ever seen a Cimorean version of Nemesis? Or a Praetorian one, for that matter? There seems to be a plethora of other dimensional versions of the super heroes and villains we've clashed with but only one Nemesis. How do we know he doesn't become Silos in the future by adsorbing alternate versions of himself."
Sakiya started and even with the bandages across her friends' eyes Lady LoveDie could read the surprise on Sakiya's grey features.
"That would make sense." Sakiya began slowly, turning her friends' words over in her mind. "A disturbing level of sense, actually. Nemesis is so prideful he would only accept the best for himself and he thinks no one better than himself!"
"If he has been alive for thousands of years it is possible he has run out of versions of himself to harvest. His next logical choice would be Statesman!" Lady LoveDie added.
"Then Recluse... oh no...then us! We cannot be the only people to have thought of this. Surely anyone who knows that Silos and Nemesis are one and the same..."
"Maybe." Lady LoveDie cut her friend off. "Maybe they dismissed such thoughts as craziness. Maybe, just maybe, you and I are the only ones who are just crazy enough to logic and reason in the same way a madman like Silos does."
"But we're sane enough not to attempt World Domination." Sakiya quipped before growing serious. "What is your plan?
"To go back in time and rescue Cole, this Cole, Primal Earth Cole, without Silos knowing. I'll bring him to the now...then wing it" Lady LoveDie shrugged.
"Wing it?!" Sakiya tone was both incredulous and indignant. "What sort of plan is that?!"
"No plan. Plans can be interrupted, stolen, interpreted. If even I don't know what my next move is neither can anyone else."
There was a long, pregnant silence before Sakiya spoke again.
"That is absolutely idiotic but insane enough to work. I have to wonder, though, for what purpose? If Silos is adsorbing multiple Statesmen from multiple dimensions denying him just 1 isn't going to make much difference in terms over power levels."
Lady Lovedie considered this for a moment, the rising sea water now almost to her knees.
"If we're wrong, if Silos' motivations are noble then I've fulfilled the necessary task to weather the Coming Storm. Marcus Cole is rescued from the past and the Universe is saved. If we're right, even partially, and this is all a Nemesis Plot then I've bought us...I don't know... a roll of the dice, a gambit we didn't have before. As a Rogue you know as well as I do how sometimes an insignificant detail that someone else overlooked can turn the tide of a disaster."
"True... where will you take him? The Menders can see through out time. Silos will wonder why an Incarnate failed such a simple task."
"I never signed up for the task." Lady LoveDie revealed with a brazen smile "I was able to learn the detail from others. There is nothing like 7 vodkas and flashing ones cleavage to get tongues loosened."
Sakiya gave a bark of laughter. Despite not being able to see her Sakiya knew her friend would be clad in something tight and skin baring.
"The Dream Doctor warded the Midnight Club against Ouroborian spies, although taking Statesman there runs the risk of someone recognizing him. There is only 1 place I can think of where Silos would never think, not even in a millennium, to look for Statesman." Lady LoveDie continued.
"Ouroborus itself... you are, without a doubt, completely and utterly insane, you know that?" Sakiya pronounced but Lady LoveDie merely smirked, flashing small, well formed fangs.