-+-+-The Present Passes the Past-+-+-
The young Drifter looked down at her feet briefly and then tilted her head back to gaze at the darkened ceiling.
"I am ready."
The darkness that surrounded her undulated and then calmed.
Is It nervous?
"Who do you wish to fight, first?"
It took all of a second for her to respond.
"I want to fight my past self."
"So it shall be!"
The darkness closed in on her and suddenly she heard breathing behind her.
"You don't know what you're doing, I'm innocent!" whispered the voice against her neck. Virginia whirled around and found herself face to face with her doppelganger.
"You're not innocent; you became a tyrant the moment you decided to take "justice" into your own hands. You hurt everyone because you were selfish!" snapped the present Virginia to her past self. The past dipped her head, tears welling up in her eyes.
You were selfish…
The woman of the present glared down at the past. Was she truly that weak?
I was selfish.
"Don't feign ignorance with me, you idiot! I know what your motives were, I was you at some point, you know?"
The echo of the past glared up at her more knowledgeable self and cleared her throat.
"I was doing it all for the right reasons!"
I did it because I wanted to find the answers for all the wrong reasons.
"Don't pull that with me, you little brat!" The older Virginia spat, winding her hand back, ready to backhand the foolish bitch that stood before her. The past Virginia's tears dried up and she narrowed her eyes.
"So you're going to pull that now, are you? You're going to slap the past when you could very easily slap yourself. This is your fault as well as mine! You were me, you know?"
Virginia lowered her hand, the past had a point.
Those that don't learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
"Okay, I see what you mean. Why don't we settle this like adults and talk things over?"
Her past gave her future her back, trying to hide the fact that she was scared.
What should I do?
She glanced over her shoulder and then back at the darkness that throbbed before her.
Fighting her would be pointless; she knows all that do and then some…
The Virginia of the past did an about face and faced her future with a smile.
"Okay, let's talk things out!"
Let's talk things out.
"First of all, I want to know I got here; one moment I was talking to Jet about how his ARM held the memory of the planet… Okay, okay, so we were arguing about it, but still! I want to know this; being warped from somewhere else is rather… disconcerting? Yeah, that was the word I was looking for. So, yes, spill the beans!"
Memories…
"Well, you see, the ocean of time brought its vessel from another world to here. That's as simple as I can put it. Also…"
Virginia smiled sheepishly at her other self.
"I'm sorry that I ripped you from your reality."
Weren't memories the reason I started this journey, anyway?
The other Virginia laughed and smacked her more knowledgeable self on the shoulder.
"Hey, no problem; now that I know how I got here, things will be a lot simpler. Now, my next question would be "Where am I?" As clichéd as it sounds, it's a fair question, don't you think?"
The star clad Virginia rocked a bit but her smile remained.
"That's a bit harder to answer. Well, you see, you are in the not so distant future. You are, in all honesty, a wrong that I must right. You're not the mistake per se, it's just the actions you took were mistakes. I'm sure that you're already painfully aware of that." Her smile drooped into a frown.
"Well, anyway, you killed everyone in an attempt to rectify the position you put your teammates in, came here, and was subsequently the victor of a galactic battle. Pretty soon you will become me and we will face our future self together." The present Virginia offered her hand to the near future.
"Are you ready to face the future that we've created?"
The other Virginia smiled and took her mirror's hand.
"I am ready."
In a flash of bright light, the two became one and the one was about to face what she'd become.