Paradox: Chapter 2B
The next morning when Leo awoke, amidst the nightmare-twisted sheets, he saw a pair of familiar items hanging on the wall. His katana.
He slipped from the bed, wincing as he un-kinked his knee, and went to them. Pulling one down, he slipped it from the sheath, fearing what he'd find. But someone had cleaned them, they nearly glowed in the warm light.
He sighed in relief. Splinter -
Splinter just gave us - gave me these a couple of weeks ago.
He hefted the blade, letting familiar patterns flow through him. The blade moved gracefully through the air. He took a step - and a stab of pain dropped him to his knees.
DAMMIT!
He heard a suppressed giggle. "Why thank you for the bow Leo. It's not often I get that kind of respect."
He looked up to see concern behind her sparkling eyes; she wasn't mocking him. "Uh... You're welcome," he said getting up as gracefully as he could. "Thank you for taking care of my swords."
"No prob. You ready for breakfast? It's been far too dull down there. Maybe we ought to start a food fight or something." She winked at him.
For once he found her mood contagious instead of abrasive. "I should warn you, I've got good-" he choked as a familiar wave of anguish rolled over him, threatening to drown him again.
A hand rested on his shoulder as Renet tried to comfort him. "Let it out Leo! It's been tearing you up, you've got quit holding it in."
He clamped down on his emotions, and slipped the sword back into its sheath. Who do you think you are that I should share my grief with you? he almost spat out at her.
I'm a leaf in a tornado, ripped from the tree before the Fall. I just don't know what to do.
His stomach rumbled then, breaking his mood swing. Guess I should eat.
He hung the sword back on the wall and slipped his mask on. Easier to hide behind. Unsure what to say, he just went wordlessly down the hall. Until I can find a way out of here, I'll just have to go where the wind takes me. Or until it rips me apart.
Renet was at the edge of his vision, looking like a kicked puppy. Why did I hurt her? She only wants to help me. Yesterday, this morning, I was ready to accept her as my friend, now I'm treating her as though I'm their captive.
I'm not myself at all. I've never been so moody. But I just don't know what to do. I don't belong here.
I don't belong anywhere...
He meandered through the kitchen, and as always, numerous eyes followed him until he sat at a far table, by a large potted palm tree. They act like I've got the plague, or like I'm one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or something. Or maybe I'm just being paranoid.
His fingers played with a green frond. Kind of like Miami Vice: palm trees. Wish there was a beach where I could run to. I wonder what the ocean is like there? It's got to be warm, such a nice color...
"Don't mind them," Renet said, sitting down across from him. "It's just that, well, what you represent scares us."
Leo spooned cereal into his mouth. "S'okay. Splinter said the outside world wouldn't understand us."
"Oh yeah. 'Trust no one, keep to the shadows' - Leo! You've got to trust someone sometime! I thought you and me were friends."
"Must have mistaken me for someone else," he smiled sickly.
She looked like he'd stabbed her with his sword. When am I gonna quit acting like Raph?
"I'm sorry Renet," he said as she hastily rose.
She nodded, but fled just the same. Leo finished his breakfast sadly, losing his mind among the interplay of the palm fronds. Highlight and shadow, shades of green. Shapes of crossing leaves, negative space between. Random -
"I've got it!"
Leo bolted upright to stare at Old Sim who was standing on the table before him, eyes dancing with excitement.
"Come with me my dear Turtle, I am ready to present the fruits of my labors," he said as he snatched up Leo's uneaten orange. "Now where did Renet run off too? She really must hear this."
"Uh, I don't know," Leo stammered as Old Sim walked off the edge of the table, using a chair as a step.
Leo followed, confused as always by the contradictory man. At times kindly or fearsome; wise, or seemingly foolish. But always there was a sense of power.
Maybe the act is to keep everyone on their toes.
Anticipation was winding him up. But Sim said nothing more, peeling the orange in a continuous spiral, humming to himself. When they got to the lab, Renet was already there. How did that happen?
He gave her an apologetic smile, ashamed for his earlier rudeness, and sat next to her. Other Time Lords entered as Sim hopped up on the end of the table, munching the orange. He waited with obvious impatience until most had taken seats. Suddenly starting, with no opening words, the room hushed instantly; Sim's voice filling it, holding everyone's attention.
"I began my investigations with the Sceptre's refusal to heal Leonardo. But one has to understand that function first to see where it lead me.
"The Sceptre heals by registering information from all time lines on an individual, then restores the ideal current pattern. However, two identical persons in the same time frame will 'resonate' and magnify temporal aberrations."
Sim looked directly at Leo. "The Sceptre wouldn't heal you here to ensure there are not two identical Leonardos."
A brief pause followed as Sim chomped on an orange section, letting the information settle with everyone. After the muttering stilled, he continued. "Two Leonardos? Well this led me further to find Renet's Sceptre wasn't the first, or the only one that the beings on the Other side had attempted to send through. There was one major failed attempt in 1908, Siberia. The unexplained Tunguska Event, when a large part of the landscape was mysteriously devastated. Inter-dimensional physics are dangerous, and something went very wrong there.
"Supposedly the event wasn't investigated until 1921, but a small and undocumented investigative team did visit the site earlier. And a greedy and unscrupulous member of the expedition found an unusual artefact at the center of the destruction. The cad in question didn't connect the Sceptre he found with the destructive event, but hid it away as an obviously ancient and probably valuable archaeological discovery.
"The object was smuggled across Europe, and was on its way to America, when the smuggler missed the boat when the Titanic sailed. So it went on another ship to early 20th century New York.
"Those possessing the Sceptre had come to believe there was a curse associated with it, and it passed through a succession of hands and a couple of World Wars before someone eventually recognized it was killing its owners with emanations of lethal radiation, not magic. So the damaged Sceptre was encased in lead and stored for future study among the belongings of the old man who possessed it at that point."
Sim paused to finish the last slice of orange and wipe his hands clean on a handkerchief. Allowing another brief pause for his story to sink in.
"A decade or two later, the damaged Sceptre came to the attention of a scientist who just knew it had to be valuable because of its unusual properties. Evidence, he believed, of Extraterrestrial Origin. But before going public, he decided to study it. Having access to equipment and laboratories at a New York university, he subjected it to secretive but intense study. He wanted to know what the glowing sands inside the crystal were, and to find out, he tried to open it by drilling a hole with a laser beam.
"And that was his Big Mistake. Once the crystal was breached, it was equivalent to setting off a nuclear bomb. The safety valve between dimensions had been breached, just like Tunguska."
Leo's stomach dropped. I was right! Someone did nuke New York!
"Thus we have a history that didn't happen. A Paradox." Sim paused and his eyes bored into Leo. "And you are the keystone Leonardo, you are the Nexus!"
All eyes riveted to him. Leo panicked at the focused attention. But a rising anger dominated it. Hands gripping the table tightly, Leo fought to control his emotions. He lost. "So you're saying this is my fault. That because of me, I'm stuck here and everyone I care about is dead." Rage seized him and squeezed hard. Trapped! Need space! Need air!
Leo stood up, roughly shoving the chair back with his foot. "I am sick of playing your games. I didn't kill everyone and bring myself here!"
"Leo! That's not -"
"Leave me alone! How can there be two of me? I'm not helping you with this madness anymore!" he angrily stared them all down, and left, vowing to not speak to any of them. I want my family! I want my HOME! I want MY LIFE BACK!
~o~
Leo returned to his room, shut the door and dropped into a chair. When a gentle knocking sounded, he threw himself into a noisy, whirling double-bladed workout, leg be damned.
But soon the rage covering his condition wore away, the swords slipped from his fingers and clanged against the floor. He dropped exhausted onto the bed. "Nexus. That's a Dan Fogelberg song," he cried inanely, the words returning to him as he fell into sleep.
He had been walking in darkness, stopping when he felt the dirt change to wet beneath his feet. Water! It was coming from somewhere! A light began to glow, revealing Michelangelo, shell hideously cracked, insides spilled out. He'd almost stepped on - him! But dark water blissfully covered the sight, and kept rising. He could not move, and panicked as the wet blackness covered his head. Drowning! Can't breathe!
Leo woke with a scream, straining against the sheet tightly twisted around him. "Nexus..."
But how could it have been my fault?
Tying to break the agonizing mental spiral, he looked at the clock, a delicate work of art from an unknown place.
It's dinner time!
I slept the day away!
But I still feel tired. Worn thin...
Deciding not to think about the implications of hiding in sleep, he sneaked into the kitchen, grabbed food and fled to his room. Sunk deep within himself, he said nothing, met no one's gaze, acknowledged no one. So successful was he, he couldn't recall if he had even passed Old Sim or Renet.
He ate, picking up a book he had been reading. But the words just passed through him. He wished he had a television. He would have enjoyed the mindless fun of an A-Team episode, or Magnum P.I. Having nothing else to entertain himself with, he returned to the book, staving off the things he wanted to avoid thinking about.
Hours later, he'd finished it. It was late, but he still couldn't fall asleep. Earlier that's all he had done. How ironic.
Every night was either the nightmares or his churning mind unable to find sleep. With the new implications, it made it even worse now.
He slipped off the bed to settle himself into a meditative pose on the floor. But it didn't work. It only brought Splinter even more to mind. He quickly banished his sorrow, turned it toward anger. All those insane things the Time Folk had tried to sell him. "Yeah right. Like I'm some Nexus. My brothers and my sensei are dead. These loonies tell me they they've seen me. That I've seen them. That I've been to the past, been back to the blasted dinosaurs. Time travel paradoxes - that's not possible. There is only me! I know what I have been through! They say I'm not insane, it's not amnesia. So what is it?!"
Leo stopped in surprise. He was wandering the hallways! At what point had he started roaming? Now he was before the door to the Sacred Chamber.
This is nuts. It's late and I should go back to bed.
His fingers touched the carved wood, warm and inviting. He opened the door, entering like some animal pulled along on its migratory route.
Other than the soft glow of the Sceptre, it was dark, a comforting dark. Like Splinter's meditation chamber...
A dream-memory returned. Splinter stood before him. "My son, is not death to be accepted?" And before Leo could say anything, the Rat shrivelled down to a horrific mass of hair and bone.
Leo choked at the memory of the corruption. You're saying I should accept it and go on. But I can't! This place - this place is some Hell of Time Twisted. Old Sim makes it sound like it's my fault! Like it's some damned destiny thing! What did I do? What do I do?!
He sat on the floor with his head in his hands. Tears slipped through his fingers. He was too young, not ready for this weight. More of Splinter's words returned to him. Goading him to do something. Fear. Inaction kills.
Leo hopped up, shaking with tension. He stalked up to the Sceptre, the source of his doubt and frustration. "They're lying to me. I'm really a prisoner in some research lab, and they're studying me. Watching my reactions. Well I have had enough!" He reached out and grabbed The Thing before his rational side could make him hesitate. "This one's for you Raph," he smiled bitterly, raising the cursed object. He would smash it on the floor, breaking it, to prove that all of this was a hoax.
The Sceptre started downward. A slender hand latched onto his arm.
"No Leo. Don't," Renet said softly.
He turned away, but her hand had closed above his on the Sceptre. Jerking the Sceptre, he twisted, but she jumped with it, hanging on.
A pleasant tingling sensation swept up his arm, his vision blurred.
Time -
slowed...
Neither of them would let go of the Sceptre. Renet gracefully swung around to face him, and then he was between, looking at their struggle time-stretched in the slowing. Caught in the swirl, his speeding mind outstripped his body. The colors blurred, blended. Dissolved into bright motes of an Impressionist painting. He felt someone else with him. Within him. Images not of his own flashed by. And yet, impossibly, they were his...
His brothers! Splinter! Alive!
Places he had never seen. Things he had never done. People he had never met...
And this other image of himself knew them all.
Renet knew them all.
That IS me! A bigger me!... And my brothers!
I'm on a rooftop?! Splinter would shell us for this!
And that woman- it's Renet, only younger- she's changed! Ha! What a klutz! Tripping on her cape.
Hello - who's that? A glowing head?! I called him "chrome dome"?!
Whoa! That's - that's what happened when I was saved from drowning?! That's what it looked like?...
What's this place?
A forest... warriors - medieval warriors! And we are fighting them?
A horned man? Savanti Romero? What is this nonsense?
Now - we're sneaking into a castle. More fighting. Wow, we're awesome!
No! Savanti's using the Sceptre! He's blinded us - he's going to kill us -
The Head - it's - it's Old Sim! Ha! Savanti can't mess with him!
"Butthead?" But Sim's not. He's really - he's sending us back! To -
An apartment? What're we doing here? There's Renet again. But who's the other woman? We act as though we know her.
Uh oh! Here we go again!
Now where? Dinosaurs! Gah! These things are REAL!
Savanti again! He's got the Sceptre! And he's taken Renet captive!
I'm climbing a tower of bones? We're fighting a bone-armored Savanti! This is crazy! I'm cutting Renet free - climbing a thin construct? And Savanti is coming for me! I - jump away? He grabs the Sceptre - he's blasted! And the construct is falling!
Camping in pre-history? Cooking a huge fish. We're goofing off, us and Renet -
NO! THIS CAN'T BE REAL!
They are dead! I yelled for Raph to wake up. Threw pebbles at - but Raph was... gone. Mike... Mike, was - was broken open! Don was buried alive. And Splinter was crushed. I was alone. Trapped and alone. No one would be looking for me. No one would be coming to help me...
THAT is the reality! I should have died too!
Leo shrunk within himself. But something had found him, someone had helped him. And now she tore him apart. "Liar!" he screamed, fighting the urge to cry. "Quit tormenting me!"
This is all mirrors reflecting mirrors. All illusions of me!
"Stop this! Why couldn't I be with them? Why was I the only one to survive? To have no one to -"
Turn to...turn around. What if this is the reality...?
Beyond Renet he sensed a vast Presence. It was everywhere, the same one he had felt when he'd been drowning. If Renet showed him the truth, and deep down there was something that resonated with what he saw, knew he saw himself truly.
Leonardo opened his eyes to meet Renet's, to find his sorrows reflected, refracted. Dissolved. She had shown him the Truth. So, he thought then, so that means -
I am Paradox: the Nexus.
"The Sceptre wouldn't heal you here, in order to ensure that there are not two identical beings called Leonardo..." Renet said softly.
Leo blinked. and blinked again following that line of logic and led him to -
But that means - I can save them! Raph, Splinter, Don and Mike. They are supposed to be alive! What happened was a mistake!
Wild hope swept him up with the possibility and he cast off his days of lightless gloom.
He spoke aloud, but the excited words passed in lockstep mind to mind through the Sceptre. "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it IS a matter of choice! I can fix the timeline and we will be togeth-"
A jolting shock, a sensation of punishment from the Presence ran through him, breaking their contact with purposeful, unmistakable intent. Reflexively, Leo let go of the Sceptre. He stepped back, resenting the smackdown, rubbing at his hand, but inside he was pure defiance. He had a goal now, a direction to focus on. One way or another, I will find it, he vowed. I will!
After one last glaring look at the Sceptre, he spun, turning his back on it and left the Chamber of the Sacred Sands of Time.
~o~
Renet was left alone holding the Sceptre, a tear slipping down her cheek for the utter depth of loneliness and heart-sickness she had perceived in the exchange. As Leo had learned her Truth, she had learned his. The conflict between the two made her dizzy. Only now did she truly understand this Leonardo.
The Sceptre's warning was still buzzing in her mind. Tampering with the past for personal reasons went against all the dearly held tenets of the Time Folk. It was not allowed, no matter the sorrow or pain involved.
She willed the Sceptre back to its place and went to her rooms. That old rebelliousness was rising again. The same disobedient urges that had made her take the Sceptre, and landed her in... New York. 1986.
But Leo had shown her a different New York, and even if it had only been the sewers, it was enough. That vision of Raphael's corpse haunted her, and the smashed shell that had been Michelangelo -
Shivering, she pushed the images from her mind. This Leo was not her Leo. Not from her past. Not from his past. Paradox.
So why had the Sceptre brought back Leonardo? Why not someone, anyone else? She thought about what had occurred when both of them touched the Sceptre...
Of course! It was obvious now!
Leo was an Adept! Maybe not the most gifted, and definitely not trained; but it was his own natural talent that had summoned the Sceptre to draw him here. It made him the manifestation of the Paradox: the Nexus. Someone that -
Someone that she could recognize as such...
No matter that Leonardo's reasons were wrong; the timeline had to be fixed. Otherwise, her life was a lie. Built on moments that never happened. And beyond her, beyond Leo, Raph and the others - just how many other lives were affected?
She hopped off her bed, her fists clenched. "I may have made mistakes. And sure there's things I'd have done differently. But dammit! That's my past. Overall I happen to like it a lot. And I'd like to keep it! It's time to shake up this place..."
Renet burst into Sim's lab full of righteous fury. Sim looked up from a book. "Ah, Renet," he smiled.
"Sim! We have to talk."
"Of course we do."
His calm presence made her angrier. She trembled with the intensity of her emotions, at the audacity of what she was doing. "Sim - " she began -
"We really should find Leonardo and get the two of you straightened out before you do something else that's equally rash." He winked at her.
Renet blew up. "You know, damn you!"
"Yes. Parents always know," he sighed, standing as he placed a marker on the page titled 'Siberian space disaster'. "I have a theory I think it's time to share."
"Forget theories and laws! We have to fix this! What I Saw - can't be! He can't be -" She towered over the Time Lord, but felt far more like a little child there before him. "Leo's an Adept, Sim..." her voice trailed off in near tears.
"I know. It was his call the Sceptre heard. Oh, Leo doesn't realize that he was the one who summoned it. But - I'm delaying. Come, and I will tell you what I've found. I think it will get this whole null void back in line. And it's going to get the two of you out of my hair."
"Hair?"
Sim shook his finger at her. "Young lady," he warned and strolled out. But despite his affectionate-father tone, his eyes had been deadly serious.
Before she followed him, Renet spared another glance at the book, murmured the title aloud. 'Siberian space disaster'. And she shivered.
"Guess I got what I wanted," she said to the empty room.
So why am I so apprehensive?
~o~
Leonardo sat deep in meditation, the naked sword before him gleaming in the candlelight. He was weighing his options on escape.
He hadn't seen any doors that led "Outside". Maybe they were hidden, or from some room he hadn't been in yet. The ceiling? The floor? He walked through "this place" in his mind.
What if there are no doors Out, no normal Exits? What if this really is another dimension?
And the Sceptre is real. I can't deny what happened with it and Renet. Or else I'm admitting I'm insane.
It brought me here, it can take me home. But to get it, I'm gonna have to steal it.
Stealing is wrong. But I'm captured, and I need it to escape. These people are the enemy. I have to get back to my family. I can make it right. But -?
"You are wondering what it is you have to do to fix the timeline."
It was a voice of power that interrupted him. "Splinter?" Leo called out with his mind. Hope beyond hope, the spirit of his Sensei!
"No, Leonardo, just Old Lord Simultaneous." The old man's voice was tinged with sorrow, and it brought Leo blinking back from his mediation to see Sim sitting across from him. Renet stood behind the Lord.
Leo leaned back in panic.
"Relax, son, I'm not here to stop you. I have the answers you seek."
"More accusations you mean," Leo crossed his arms, defiance in his sneer. I'm not your son.
"Far from it. I know how you got here. And," Sim's finger poked his chest, "I also know how you can fix the damage."
Leo met him eye to eye. It's true! He means it! "Tell me."
"First, can we get off the floor? I have a lot to say, and these old bones don't do well on stone."
Murmuring apologies, Leo and Renet helped him up and into a chair, more out of courtesy than any real need. Sim was really quite nimble.
"Relax," Sim admonished. "We've got a little time yet."
And while Leo tried to comply, to sit less stiffly, he'd heard a bitter-sweet undertone that kept him on edge. What is it? What must I do?
"I have since delved deeper, and found the truth to be worse than I had imagined," Sim began. "There was a time ripple of some sort that caused the smuggler to miss the Titanic. He made it to America on another ship, and so, years later, we get the scientist who drilled the hole that levelled the city. And while the local effects of New York's destruction were minimal when compared to all other things, in truth, at the center of the event, a tiny black hole was created. It fell to the center of the earth's gravity well in accordance with the physical laws of that Dimension. A black hole is not a good thing to have at the core of a planet, and it would eventually destroy the entire Earth." Sim paused, leaning back in the chair, to let that sink in.
"And so - further along that time aberration, the planet wouldn't be there when the Sceptre - our Sceptre was sent through," he said grandly gesturing at Renet. "You can guess what comes next..."
Leo nodded, the end of here, too.
Sim leaned forward, changing to a more serious tone. "Fortunately, we - here in our time protected bubble - can do something about it. But we must act before our own dimension erodes away, leaving the multiple universes subject to all the chaotic interventions they won't be able to prevent without us."
"So what exactly do I do to stop this?" Leo asked, as he unconsciously knelt in the formal position he used with Splinter. There was no doubt he would go. It was bad enough New York had been nuked. But worse, the whole planet was going to be pulled down after it, and everything else -everywhere - after that.
So many things so connected! He spared a quick glance at Renet. She was clearly and deeply dismayed by the consequences Sim had outlined.
"You - must prevent the damaged Sceptre from reaching New York. Failing that, you must retrieve and neutralize it before that curiosity-seeking scientist destroys it in his ignorance."
Leo's cheeks flushed at the focused attention from Sim. Why did Sim seem to ignore Renet? The Sceptre was hers...
"Will there be anyone to help me?" Leo didn't understand completely, but he knew he didn't want to be alone.
"Renet will be going," Sim said matter-of-factly. "And I'll be supplying you with the means to time travel. Renet's Sceptre is still not functioning perfectly, due to the effects of the damaged Sceptre. But we have confiscated other numerous devices from would-be temporal meddlers. And I believe I have one that will serve your needs."
From his robes, Sim produced a three-inch dark metal cube, the carved sides lending it a Star Wars-style appearance. "I have set it to take a roundabout inter-dimensional route to your destination, or destinations if needed, at peak chances for your success. Be aware that your arrival could cause further disturbing ripples, and you will not be able to double back. Your quarry might not be as simple to catch as you hope, but I have faith the two of you can accomplish what you must do."
He handed the cube to Renet, and placing a hand on each their shoulders, nodded to them, "May the Sacred Sands of Time guide you." And then Old Sim left, a teared-gleam at the edge of his eye.
"He's like Splinter in some ways," Leo said in admiration. "He feels like a grandfather to me."
Renet nodded in agreement, rotating the cube with her fingers, the Cube that would take him Home.
~o~
It was two more days before they were ready to travel.
In addition to her own preparations, Renet had wanted Leo to have further time to heal; to settle down before they jumped into danger. Now that the goal was clear, he was changed: happy and outgoing.
Leo had told her he didn't care about being a hero, he just wanted to get back to Splinter and his brothers. Of how he could hardly wait to tell them his adventures. Ah youth, she smiled to herself. The mentally crippling horrors of their deaths were banished for him.
He trained hard, pushing himself to be ready, to learn to compensate for his leg. And to burn-up energy that quickly would have turned to impatience and frustration when it had become apparent they weren't setting out immediately.
She would have liked to delay a few more days, but there was the danger that if they waited too long, the rippling, erosional damage would make their travel more dangerous. So today it is.
Renet walked into the dining hall for breakfast. As expected, Leo was already there, engaged in animated conversations with some of the younger time folk.
"Leo, we leave as soon as you can be ready."
He bolted upright, his features quivering with anticipation. "I - I'm ready anytime! Just let me get my - "
Renet laughed. "Whoa! Slow down. I need to eat first. Then we can go. Finish up here. Say all of your good-byes." His eyes were bright as he choked up with emotions. He'd made friends fast here. Fear had transformed into curiosity over the Time Folk's mutant guest. Even Old Sim had come to enjoy his company.
Renet laughed as the group cried out against Leo leaving them. "We just got to know you!" "But you were gonna show me-"
I have grown up, she realized with a shock. I'm... mature? She snorted. Never. I'll still stick my tongue out at Old Sim.
"I'll catch you later," Renet laughed as she went to get something to eat. News spreads fast, she noted as the crowd around Leo increased. Others wished her luck or safe journey. A couple gave her a haughty stare.
Like I'm still the snot-nosed brat. But it's the fate of our beloved null void after all. And it's me that's gonna go. Some people just can't handle it.
And I was worried about being too grown-up for my own good?
She'd no sooner sat down when a short figure stopped next to her. "You weren't planning on sneaking out on me were you?"
Eye to eye with the accusing Sim, she stared at him, just letting one eyebrow rise up.
"What?!" he continued testily. "You think I'd chase you through time and space? Just to get a decent good-bye from someone I have treated and cherished as a daughter? That I'd risk - "
She suddenly reached out and hugged him, ignoring his protests about being hugged in public. Then she let him go, laughing as he straightened his ruffled attire.
"You never told him the rest, did you?" she said.
Sim looked surprised a moment. Then recovered. "You mean about being an Adept?... No."
Renet nodded. Must have a reason somewhere. "So do you think we can handle this?"
"Oh, I expect you'll get into trouble. Your Secret Admirer on the Council wanted to see someone else charged with this Great Responsibility, but," Sim shrugged. "The Sceptre Chose."
"And?" Renet prompted.
"I think you both will do fine. See you later, afterwards, Renet, and do be careful about creating any more time ripples... Please?"
"Yes father," she said to his retreating back. "I promise I won't skip any stones across the time-stream."
Sim groaned softly, and Renet turned her attention back to her plate. Before I get so wound-up I can't eat.
~o~
Leo was standing in his room, looking around, trying to imprint every detail in his mind. He imagined himself telling this to Splinter and his brothers. They probably won't believe me!
He tugged slightly at the straps to his sword harness, re-settling into it. He'd gotten used to the open and peaceful environment here. Sure there was political posturing, but no one locked doors or carried weapons.
But it was a place where he didn't have to hide what he was. Where he felt accepted. Going back to the sewers will be...confining after this.
He lifted the small backpack off the floor. It contained a few travel necessities he'd wanted to have on hand. Slipping it over his left shoulder, he walked out and almost ran over Old Lord Simultaneous!
"Sorry," Leo apologized, helping Sim regain his balance.
"It's ok," Sim said. Taking Leo's hand, he clasped it between his own, "Safe journey to you, Leonardo. And don't worry. I'm sure you'll do fine."
"Thank you Sim, for everything. I'm sorry I was so rude to you at first."
Sim shook his head, "Sometimes it's hard to accept the truth. And being a Paradox isn't easy for anyone. Good-bye." He squeezed Leo's hand before letting go, then walked away humming to himself.
Leo stood a moment in shock. I don't believe it! He's crying!
"I'll never forget you!" Leo called to Sim. Then he turned and went the other way.
To the Chamber of the Sacred Sands of Time. Destiny was waiting.
~o~