Echoes of future past, part 28

Dylan's jaw dropped, "What the hell?" Sara looked at him coyly, "Come now Dylan, I know it's been a while, but you must recognise the woman you where going to marry?" Dylan shook his head, "No, this is some kind of sick joke: Sara Riley died on Tarazed almost 300-years ago." Sara smiled, "Did I? Did any of them there tell you what happened to me? No? They didn't tell you about my plan to keep Tarazed safe by striking a deal with the Magog, that I took the Starry Wisdom to find the World Ship?" Dylan shook his head, "No, you're just making this up to try and trick me into doing what you want!"

Trance took a step forwards, "Your mind games wonk work on him, he's too strong for you." Sara turned and looked down her nose at Trance, "Oh, it's one of 'you' is it. I thought I'd killed you all?" Trance shook her head, "There are still some of us out there, working against you." Sara laughed, "Is that what you call it? Pretending to be gods so that other races will do what you say." She turned back to Dylan, "Honestly, you used to have better taste in friends: Rhade may have helped topple the Commonwealth, but at lest you know WHAT he was!" She turned back to back to Trance, "Have you even told him the truth? Where I really come from? What you really are?"

Dylan took a slight stop back, "She told me that you attacked her galaxy, and that her people created the Spirit of Light, me, to try and stop you." Sara smiled, "'Always planet a lie inside the truth, it makes it easer to swallow.' Ok, I admit, I'm not Sara Riley, but at lest I'm willing to admit to my lie." She turned to point at Trance, "Your friend the General here isn't so forthcoming." Dylan looked at Trances, expecting to receive a counter to Sara's words, but instead he saw the undeniable look of someone caught-out. He looked at her, "Trance, what haven't you told me?" Trance looked back at him, her eyes pleading, "There are something I could never tell you Dylan, but you have to believe me when I say that I would never do anything to hurt you or the others!" Dylan took another step back, "Just what the hell is going on here!"

Sara smiled, "Well let me see. There was a war, unlike any you have ever heard of: entire galaxies where in flame as two warring factions attempted to gain power. Entire worlds where wiped from existence, species after species where exterminated as the two sides waged unlimited warfare against each other." She turned to look at Trance, "Then one side got the upper hand, and started to push the oppression back, world-by-world, galaxy-by- galaxy, until they where at the point of victory. In a last desperate act, the other side created a weapon designed to save their Homeworld from destruction."

She turned to Dylan and smiled, "That weapon was I." The duplicates image rippled, returning to the familiar 'human lava-lamp' look as Harper had once called it. "I was created to try and force a stalemate. But I broke free of their control, and set out to destroy those who had threatened my creators." The words entered Dylan mind without bothering to go through his ears. Trance looked up, "You murdered Billions! You destroyed entire galaxies!" The Spirit nodded, "Yes, and it was no more than your people did, under your command as war-leader: You ordered entire systems vaporised in order to try and stop me, but you never could. My harbingers, the Magog, overwhelmed you allies, and I stood on the brink of victory."

It turned back to face Dylan, "Then they created you, the 'Spirit of Light', to try and stop me. But I managed to get there first, and destroyed their Homeworld. I thought that I had won, but then my spies told me that the 'Spirit of Light' had been sent to a far-off Galaxy in a different galactic cluster. I have spend thousands of you years hunting you down, and now I will kill you once and for all."

Ribbons of fire shot from the Spirit of the Abyss' hands and slammed into Dylan.

TBC