Chapter Ten
A few years later...
Pulling her a bit roughly to the next column of text, Nikola grinned excitedly. "Look at this, Gwen! All these years, and these are still in decent shape." He commented as his mind speed-read the vampire script. He had no idea what it said, but his eidetic memory would store each symbol away in perfect clarity until he could jot it all down to try to better understand its meaning.
After the war, Nikola (and Gwen) had made a clean break from the others, utterly disappearing without a trace; taking Helen's advice in keeping a low profile while the world thought he had died. Well, the catacombs of Bhalasaam were pretty low, and isolated. And they were quite extensive; it would take Nikola many expeditions to this place to puzzle out all its secrets.
He had already made great strides to figure out the vampiric alphabet. There were similarities to many Asian languages, implying that this script could have been the predecessor of most Asian and even European languages. It had a close likeness to Sumerian script, which was the primary language Tesla used to try to determine the meanings of the symbols they found.
Of course, Gwen could read most of it, but doing so with Nikola by her side would raise many questions that she could not answer. She'd learned ancient Sumerian from her travels into Hollow Earth, among other things. But finding evidence of her ancestor's existence was becoming futile; the city of Praxis held a plethora of archives and databases, and Gwen had no idea where to start. She hoped a vacation, and an adventure with Nikola would help bring some perspective.
But unfortunately, there was almost as much information in these catacombs as in Praxis; relatively speaking.
It wasn't long until she felt the tug she associated with the timeline nudging her into doing something she really didn't want to do.
This time, there was no good bye. Not even a note.
Just a key that would help Nikola decrypt the vampire script... once he learned how to use it.
She simply left Nikola to his explorations and discoveries; going back to the world under the earth's crust to find her own answers once again.
~.
1960
When his wife finally left his bed to tend to a few things in the kitchen, Nigel shifted slightly. He didn't have much strength left and had said most of his goodbyes. He hoped that his last living wish would be fulfilled before he let go.
He felt a slight breeze even though the window and door were both closed. Nigel looked over with a smile. "Only one of us can go invisible, luv. And you took long enough." He commented softly, a lung wracking cough taking him over.
Gwen rushed over to his side and helped ease his discomfort. "I'm sorry... I couldn't get away till now." She told him with a sincere smile.
"Where have you been?" he asked weakly. "Why haven't I gotten a visit until now?"
"Because..." she smoothed back the elderly mans thin silver hair. "You've never had need of me." She smirked. "You're power and wits have served you well in your many extra years."
Nigel sighed. "I wish I had more." He grunted. "'Ave you seen Magnus and Tesla? They don' look like they've changed since taking the bloody serum." He gripped, suppressing another fit. "Are you here to give me a proper send off? Be my guardian angel as it were?"
Chuckling, Gwen shook her head. "I'm here to give you a choice."
"Whot choice would tha' be? Die now in peace or later full of pain?" he asked, wishing he was joking.
"I'd prefer if you did neither." Gwen stated, shifting on the bed. When he gave her a puzzled look, she elaborated. "Gregory and I have found a place with technology centuries ahead of even my time." She held up what looked like a gold telescope. "They have a way to bring back the dead, even reverse the aging process. I have come to see if you'd be interested." She told him with a smile.
Nigel cleared his throat. "Whot's the catch?"
Gwen pursed her lips. "I'll have to put you in stasis. For some time so that the timeline can run its course. You'll fall asleep here... and you'll wake up in my time."
The two of them stared at each other for a long while before Nigel turned away. "You're telling the truth, aren't you?"
Gwen nodded.
With another sigh, Nigel looked back at the girl who had been such a great friend so long ago. Even so, he'd never forgotten her face... her voice. "Can I have some time ta think about it?"
A grimace told him not. "I'm afraid not, Nigel. You need to decide now." She held up the telescope up again. "When I inject this, it will replicate death like symptoms, but the functions of your body will just be reduced to the most minimal setting. To the rest of the world, you'll have died."
Nigel nodded. "I see..." he commented softly, lying back on his pillow. "But I'll wake up in your time?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued, "Wha' about Anna? My wife?"
"They will live out their lives as they normally would." Gwen looked down at her hands. "I don't have permission to give them the same choice. I'm sorry, Nigel."
He took in a shaky breath in and an equally shaky breath out. "I lose 'em either way." He whispered.
Gwen shrugged. "Unless you believe in heaven, then you may see them on the other side when they die." She said lightly.
"Do you believe in heaven?" Nigel asked, turning his head towards her.
"I believe in a version of an afterlife." She paused. "It's called Summerland. I hear it is supposed to be a paradise for souls. A place to rest and look back on their lives before moving on with the next... or becoming something... more." Gwen shrugged. "That is what I believe in... but I also believe that everyone has their own version based on what they believe."
Nigel chuckled. "You could never get out of that grey area, even at Oxford."
Gwen smiled.
After a stretch of silence, he spoke again. "I don' think I believe in any o' that." He mused aloud. "I'm not sure why, even with everything I've seen in this long life." Nigel sighed. "But I don' feel done. No' yet." He shook his head, lightly chuckling at his own words.
"I know that feeling. ... so... What's your answer?" she whispered gently.
Nigel grinned. "Give this ol' man a farewell kiss and I'll give you my answer."
Gwen laughed. He could always bring levity to a serious situation. Even now she could feel his organs slowly shutting down. So she leaned over and gave her old friend a kiss. After, she pulled back, but only slightly. "Well?" she prompted with a smile.
With his eyes still closed, he nodded.
The gold injection device was pressed against his jugular. Just before pressing the button on the other end, Gwen cupped Nigel's cheek. "See you in the twenty first century." She whispered; pressed the button and heard the hiss of the contraption injecting his system with the elixir. As he fell asleep, Gwen kissed him on the forehead before shifting off of the bed. She had to wipe the silly tears that welled up at her eyes as his breathing became virtually nonexistent. Unfortunately she had to wait until they'd buried him before retrieving his body. Fortunately, she'd already made the necessary alterations to his will.
~.
2007/2008:
Dr. James Watson was entombed in the Old City Sanctuary tombs until the casket could be properly taken to London. They couldn't even embalm him; none of them had the strength to send his body away. So he was frozen and his body put in a block of stone. Not to be forgotten, but to be preserved. Unfortunately, the rest of the group had other pressing problems to deal with before they could give their friend the respectable memorial he deserved. But just before each of the remaining Immortal Five left the tomb to get on with their duties, they each said a silent farewell to him. It didn't seem that the three of them would allow themselves to break down. There was still a virus to make a cure for and Ashley to find.
Tears could wait.
All but for one. Who had to wait until Tesla, Druitt and finally Magnus to leave before going up to the cold tomb to pay her own respects. But that was not all she was here for.
"Hey James... long time no see." Gwen muttered, placing a hand on the block of stone covering the grave. She took a deep breath. "I thought I had more time." She whispered, blinking back sudden tears. "It's funny, in a way. There is never enough time... even for an immortal." Gwen mused. With a sigh she put both hands on the side of the slab and gave a great heave. The slab slid off the crypt as if it were merely a plastic top and dropped heavily to the other side. It made a loud noise, but Gwen wasn't worried. There was no one around to hear it.
Inside was James's casket, waiting to be taken out later to be transported to London. It would go there, but James would not.
Leaning over the corpse carefully, Gwen took out another of those gold telescope looking contraptions. She injected the elixir into his carotid artery before laying a hand on his chest to send a bolt of energy through him, enough to get the elixir where it needed to go. "Let's go, old boy. The games afoot!" she said as she teleported herself and his body away to a location very few knew of. There, she put him in a futuristic cryo chamber with IV's plugged into him so that other elixirs could do their work. When she was done, she patted the coffin like case affectionately. "You owe me." She whispered before leaving the room, giving another similar cryo chamber an affectionate pat as well.
She just hoped her next plan would work just as smoothly.
~.
2009:
Will rushed to try to beat Worth to the Praxian transportation pod. He caught up just as Worth was putting his cases, one of them with the Cilorum device, into the pod. "Adam!" he shouted, confronting the madman.
Adam looked up at the sound of his name and grinned. "The concubine who couldn't leave well enough alone."
"It's over man." Will told him, aiming his weapon at Adam, but not firing.
Unfortunately, Adam was desperate and had a schedule to keep. "You and Helen... you're cut from the same cloth. Always threatening, never acting!" and with that, he shot the palm stunner at Will.
As Will collapsed, Helen rushed into the pods waiting station and immediately raised her gun and fired her weapon, shooting Adam in the chest.
Adam had a surprised look on his face as he stumbled from the impact. "And I was certain history never repeats."
Helen kept her weapon trained on Worth. She was determined not to let him escape this time. It must end. "Don't." She urged as Adam looked about to step back. "I will shoot you again." Of course he didn't listen and moved back. Helen shot him again, just as she said she would, but he just fell back into the pod, laughing manically. The pod closed and zoomed off.
A ways away, in a building nearly half the city length away, the pod opened and Adam staggered to his feet.
Only to see Druitt standing in his way, carrying two of the Creepies; bloody all over from the gruesome fight. John dropped the bodies and stared at Adam menacingly. "You and I have unfinished business, old boy." He stated in his usual soft but threatening voice.
Adam didn't have the strength to run; his wounds were bleeding- one shot had come too close to his heart. "John, wait. Listen to me."
"I think you've said quite enough." He replied, taking a step towards the shorter man.
"You don't understand what this device is capable of." Adam insisted.
"I've given it some thought and it turns out I don't care!" John announced and grabbed Worth by the scruff, pulling Adam roughly to him.
Adam barely struggled, knowing it wouldn't matter. He used the only weapon left to him. "But you do care, John. You care deeply. That's what makes you and I the same."
John smirked, a sinister light glinting in his eyes. "How long will you try to provoke me, so I'll kill you more quickly?"
"I can give you everything. Everything you've ever wanted." Adam insisted. "You kill me now, you lose that chance."
"Oh really?" John asked, part of him finding this man's endless scheming oddly amusing.
Adam tilted his head slightly. "Oh John. We had a deal before, you and I. That one worked out well for ya, right? Didn't it?" he asked, not knowing whether he had convinced this tall malice or not.
John chuckled softly; the blood on his face still wet and made him seem even crueler. "Ah, Adam, this is most entertaining."
"I'm definitely entertained." Came a voice from John's past. A voice he hadn't heard in so long, he nearly dropped Adam in surprise upon hearing it. "John."
He looked over to see Gwen casually strolling up to them in Praxian garb, but a look about her that suggested she was anything but entertained. "Gwen! How lovely it is to see you again." He greeted as if they'd chanced upon each other in a restaurant.
Adam, on the other hand, did not look happy. "Gwen? I was told you had left the city on one of your outings for dear ol' Ranna." He spat angrily, though winced as he pulled at one of the damaged muscles.
Gwen gave Worth a cold smile. "You were misinformed." She told him before turning back to John. "I will tell you right now, John. Any offer he makes you, he can't make good on. He will just use you to get what he needs. The first chance he gets, he will abandon you... like he has so many others."
"Bitch." Adam cursed.
John tightened his grip on Adam for that. "A part of me thought as much." He said softly.
Gwen came up to them both and laid a hand on John's. "I ask that you not kill him. Leave him in the hands of the Praxian authorities. His essence is Praxian property after all. And Helen will make sure he is punished for his crimes."
Adam glared at her. "All this time, you've kept your distance from me... leaving me with just rumours about who you really are and you're dealings with Gregory and Ranna... only to dictate Praxian terms?" Adam growled. His injuries would put him unconscious soon. He took a breath; it wasn't clear who had been talking so far, Adam or Hyde. "Were you telling me the truth when you said you couldn't save my daughter, those years ago?"
With a raised brow, John turned his bloody face towards Gwen to hear her answer.
Sighing, she did. "I had the capacity, yes. But no, I couldn't save your daughter, Adam. Not then... not now."
Using the last of his strength, Adam spat at Gwen's feet and, having used his last reserves of energy, lost consciousness.
In disgust, John tossed him back into the pod just before the door closed, sending Adam and the Cilorum device back to where Helen and the others waited. As it sped away, John turned to look at Gwen. "What now?" he asked, staggering slightly, bracing himself on the pod cradle.
Gwen smiled a smile he hadn't seen directed at him since the days at Oxford. "Now we get you cleaned up and bandaged. You look like you had a run in with a chain saw." She joked. "But now we have time to figure out a way to tame another monster."
~.
With her intervention, the events at Caranten do not happen and Rajesh is not sent to investigate- which would have resulted in his doom.
There is still unrest in Hollow Earth, however, especially in the Outland Tribes who believe as Fallon does. That Praxis has been in control by humans long enough. They want to be free to choose... and would gain that freedom by force if they must.