Trigger warning for this chapter- mainly because I'm covering the squid thing. Contains mild descriptions of genocide. Key word: MILD. This isn't DOOM.
Old Underworld, Taris
06:32
Bruce had never understood Mandalorians. In the short time he'd spent on Krownest, returning Ursa Wren to the rest of the clan, he'd become somewhat familiar with their customs and general attitude. He wasn't impressed. The moment the door opened, they drew their weapons and nearly shot him down with Ursa just a few feet away. Their weapons were remarkable, that much was clear, as was their fighting technique, but it was rare to find anything unique about it.
The detective had realized that each one of them had learned on of the various forms of combat that they were taught by their mentors, and they stuck to it closely. Unlike his own form of fighting, it was unusual to see one of the Mandalorians blend together two forms in a sparring session- which were the ones Bruce had learned to respect the most- and in each case, they were much more successful in combat against Bruce than their comrades.
He'd voiced as much to Sabine, who had asked him what he thought of their fighting. She found his concerns hilarious, and told him off with both an obscene gesture and the offer to try to teach them. He knew that wasn't meant to be taking seriously- convincing a Mandalorian that they were doing something wrong, in most cases, was like trying to get Damian to do his chores. That was a level of difficulty even the world's greatest detective wished to avoid.
Ursa Wren was absolutely aware of the clan's predictability, but was also aware that it worked against all of their enemies. She had briefly sparred with Bruce, but the fight ended after the countess managed to pin Bruce by tripping him with one of the brooms at the side of the room. It was unconventional tactics such as that that a few of the Mandalorians displayed that would carry them to great heights. Even making them more formidable than Jedi.
Unfortunately, the other thing he'd noticed was that they didn't particularly like him. That was why he was less than thrilled to see yet another one of them standing just outside the shattered hull of the Endar Spire. The warrior wore perfectly chrome armor, shining in what limited sunlight the vines and buildings allowed in. Sabine rolled her mechanized wheel-chair up to him, with Sabine's colorful armor plates contrasting the other Mando's.
"Hey, shiny," Sabine said, smirking slightly as the words left her mouth, "Been a while." Shiny- a nickname, Bruce guessed- tilted his head in what was probably confusion. It made sense, whenever he last would've seen her, she would've been standing on her own two feet, and not hooked up to a bacta-tube that was slowly healing her shattered spine. Bruce clenched his fist tightly at the thought of the man who caused it.
Shiny realigned his head with his neck, "Nice wheels." He spoke in a slightly gravely voice.
Despite the look of dismay on Captain Syndulla's face, Sabine snorted with amusement, "Thanks," She said, reaching up and shaking Shiny's hand, "Oh, and these are my friends." The artist introduced each of her crew mates, followed by Bo Katan- who Shiny expressed pleasure to meet- and finally, the man dressed like a bat. Batman narrowed his eyes as Shiny let his gaze linger on him for a few moments. It slightly irked the detective that he couldn't see the Mando's expression, due to the design of the helmet, his detective vision couldn't penetrate it- though he wasn't entirely sure if lead even existed in this universe.
"So..." Shiny began after a moment, "You wouldn't mind telling me what you're looking for in this place?" He was curious. Understandable. That ship had been forgotten for millennia, and suddenly the ruler of Mandalore was standing in front of it? It was expected that there'd be questions.
"Would it surprise you that we're not exactly sure?" Sabine asked.
Shiny laughed, or at least something close to it, "No."
"Then good."
The Upside Down
Eleven could be thrown off by a lot of things. Due to her delayed education, she still was unsure of how to form complete sentences, let alone comprehend advanced understandings of time and space. The topics had been brought up on occasion by Mike or Dustin or Lucas, but none of them were things Eleven could get through her head- the blue man before her had no such reservations.
Unrelenting, Jon was spouting out words that Eleven had never heard in her life before- constantly bringing up the mysteries of black holes and quantum physics. Aimlessly, the girl kicked in the black waters around her feet, watching the droplets make soft impacts with the rest of the endless pool, "Oh... apologies, Jane," Jon abruptly said, drawing her attention, "It appears I've had my timelines mixed up again... would you have happen to remember what I was saying?"
Jane raked through her memory, drawing out what little details she could, "Something about... confusion... a hotel..." She'd been listening to what he was saying, but the moment she'd been asked to retain it, it all left her, "Wait, why don't you remember?"
The moment the words slipped out of her, mouth she'd wanted to take them back, "No, no I cannot," Jon replied, returning his blank gaze to her eyes, "But I believe it is quite some time from now." Jane decided not to press the subject any longer, but since she had his attention, she'd might as well return to the topic that actually concerned her.
"Well then... what were you saying about me?" She nervously asked, again regretting the tone she'd used to do so. He continued to stare at her for a moment, which would've been creepy if he hadn't already done so a hundred times prior. Beginning to tap her foot in irritation, Eleven wondered why he was so obsessed with time, space, reality, and her. Why her? What did she have to do with the most daunting, frightening, and confusing things in the universe? Other than being a smaller-than-small cog in their machinery? Her mind briefly crossed over the fact that he was walking around naked, but she forced it out of her mind before it honed in on it.
"You fascinate me," Jon suddenly spoke, making Eleven noticeably jump, "In more ways than one," Okay, that was a little weird. Instinctively, she took a small step back- small enough to go unnoticed, but large enough to make her feel safer, "For instance, you didn't need to be placed inside an intrinsic field generator to gain your power over time or matter," Hold on, what? "You also never received any physical changes as I had with my blue skin," Among other things, Eleven thought, "And furthermore..." He paused before continuing, "You were born on midnight, November 1st, 1985 in my universe."
While Eleven didn't know her exact birth date, she certainly wasn't born in 1985, "We are in 1985... right now," She said cautiously, knowing all too well that Jon would somehow throw her logic out a metaphorically window, "And I'm fourteen."
Jon nodded, "You are," He responded, waving his hand at something off in the distance, "But time works very differently across universe, and your birthday coincided with an event in my own universe- an event caused by a man named Adrian Veidt that changed everything forever." His expression deepened as the blackness around them again began to fade, and instead surrounding them in an oasis of white light- until that, too, faded away. And what she saw was horrifying.
Illinois
October 14th, 1985
7:32 AM
It was another two hours before they finally reached Chicago. Adrian had managed to keep himself busy by studying Archie's systems- almost wanting to find something broken for him to fix. Dan was busy at the wheel, scrambling military radars and redirecting police patrols looking for the Owl-Ship. Steve was in the storage room sleeping- the boy was still young, and needed rest. Unfortunately, that was also where all of Dan's reading material had been kept, and Bubasteis was also resting quietly inside the storage room.
That eliminated the reading option, so Adrian was forced to spend hours upon hours examining the ship, making note of design flaws and setting mental reminders to ask Dan about them at a later date. It was nearly 7:35 in the morning when something interesting happened. Steve had stormed through the doors to the storage room, followed by the sound of a giant lynx being startled awake, as the teen started shouting obscenities that Adrian had to consciously make an effort to register, "-three million people!" Oh, good lord. Adrian thought, knowing- based off of the first words he heard- exactly what Steve had found in the stacks of books.
As Steve continued on a tirade, Adrian shot Dan an irritated look, as if to say: you brought his journal? Dan responded with his typical idiotic face that Ozymandias could get zero read off of whatsoever. It was almost amusing- Dan was the most mysterious when he was trying to convey something, and the most transparent when he was actually trying to be conspicuous.
"-it's not just that journal, either!" Steve shouted, waving his hands around as Adrian looked at Dan again: Wasn't it? "I've seen the blueprints, the schematics, the test results!" Dan shrugged his shoulders and returned to piloting the ship, "And you kept it a secret?" Adrian couldn't be surprised. He had no right to be. Their teen companion would've found out the truth sooner or later- if not from them, then Jon, assuming they found him.
"Steve..." Adrian finally said, after finding a moment to get his voice over Steve's, "I believe I owe you an explanation." The boy grunted, and allowed Adrian to lead him back into the storage room, where they could speak in private, "What you read in that journal were the words of a lunatic," Adrian spoke, sitting down on the shelf adjacent to where Bubasteis sat peacefully, "But they are, sadly, true. However, you must understand the situation we were in-"
The Upside Down
It was less than five seconds before Eleven was leaning against a mailbox and emptying her stomach onto the black pavement. She couldn't take it. Around her were the sights of countless corpses of men, women, and children- each one of their eyes leaking blood, and their expressions littered with complete and utter fear. They were piled on top of one another, some had even been impaled by glass or fallen metal from buildings. The street was one of Manhattan Island. She had come to know New York almost as well as she knew Hawkins, but it wasn't her New York. This one was far, far different.
Madison Square Garden loomed large in the distance, on it was an advertisement for something called Millennium. In the center of the street, there lay on old man who seemed to be attempting to shield a young boy- who kind of looked like Lucas- from something. Jane had unwillingly managed to memorize the sight before she began hacking up her lunch, with Jon standing silently beside her. Gripping the side of the black mail box like her life depended on it, she forced herself to stand, despite her legs shaking and threatening to collapse beneath her.
There had to be hundreds of bodies on this street alone- and above her head were countless more leaning lifelessly out of the shattered windows of skyscrapers, almost staring down at her in fear; like she was the one who caused this. "Midnight. November 1st, 1985," He was still utterly toneless, and seemed unconcerned with the scraps of what were once human beings falling out skyscraper windows, "In cosmic time, this was the event that corresponded the with the exact moment you were born." Jane was already having a hard time with science, she didn't need science and massacre to distract her.
However, for all the things about life she didn't understand- she knew a coincidence when she saw one, and, from what Jon was saying, this certainly wasn't that. "What happened here?" Jane breathed out, trying not to look into the eyes of the accumulated piles of death around her, "Was it me?" She wasn't sure why she asked that question, because the answer seemed like a fore-gone conclusion, but there was something that seemed familiar about the scene before her. It was almost like she'd been there before.
"No," Jon answered, glancing behind them and pointing at something, "It was that." Eleven turned behind her and let out an ear-shattering cry, tripping over herself as she fell backwards in terror. There, impaled and as dead as everything else in the city, was a massive, hulking beast with an eye the size of a school bus. It's head was a massive brain that had various tentacles stemming from it's lower body- each one crushing buildings under it's weight, "And that," said Jon as Jane's breathing began to calm itself, "Was created by a man by the name of Adrian Veidt."
It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people
that is the measure of right and wrong.
-John Stuart Mill
Well, I suppose I'm not very good at keeping promises, am I? Sorry for the wait (again), but this time it wasn't my fault; you all know why I've been so late on this. My usual routine was thrown out the window after school got cancelled, so I've been quite late on this. I don't know how often I'll be updating, but I WILL be continuing this story, so keep checking in for more every so often. Now, to everybody who has been following this story from the very beginning: STAY. HOME. Do not leave your house except to do the most necessary of errands! We'll get out of this, but until we do, stay safe and be careful! Thanks again!
-MB
